Feast and Prayer

298 AC, Winterfell…

The stark children were having a great time on the long table in the feast. When their father's subjects came to visit, they were also having a feast like this but it was not of this calibre as the king brought food and drinks with him for his journey so there were many things they did not taste before.

The Stark children were seated up to the table with other royal children, however, one of them, called the Bastard of the Winterfell, was seated down the table with the common man. Though he was not pouting as his uncle, Benjen Stark, was entertaining him.

However, their conversation was heating up as Jon was insisting on going back with his uncle to the Wall and joining the order and Benjen was insisting on living his life first then joining the order. However, the last straw to break the camel's back came from him saying he should have a few bastards first.

Jon shouted and excused himself from the table and ran outside. The castle was lonely at night. There was only a sentry high in the walls standing guard but looking bored. The sound of the music was still coming from the hall as Jon walked head down to the ground with slow but sad steps.

"Boy," A foreign voice entered into his ear as he turned to look towards where it came.

Jon saw a dwarf standing beside the kennel. From his mismatched eyes and blond hair, he guessed him a Lannister. And it was obvious from his clothes that he was coming from a rich house so he became more certain that he was the rumoured Imp.

"Is that a wolf I'm seeing?" the little man grinned with a glint in his eyes as he tried to touch it but the direwolf backed down with bared fangs and silent snarl.

"Ghost, sit," Jon commanded and patted him on the head as he smiled seeing him listening to his command.

"He is a direwolf, my lord," said Jon with a steady voice.

"A direwolf, you say… I heard all the Stark children had one then you must be one of them." a little man-sized up Jon with a curious look on his eyes, "I am Tyrion Lannister."

"I know," said Jon as it was hard to find a dwarf up in the North. These lands were for hardier people and unlike the South, the people of the North did not take any excuse for these types of things.

"None of the Stark boys have hair like yours… you must be Ned Stark's bastard, ha?"

Jon didn't want to show it outside but the shame instilled on him for being a bastard was already in his bones so to wash his shame away he said, "Lord Eddard Stark is my father."

"Though you have more North in you than your brothers, it doesn't change the fact that you're a bastard." he said, "Never forget what you are bastard, wear it as your armour and never let it be used to hurt you."

Jon was offended and he didn't have anyone's counsel, "What do you know about being a bastard?"

The dwarf smirked with a rueful face and turned around to go back to the hall. He stopped midway and spoke without turning around, "All dwarfs are bastards in their father's eyes, trueborn or not."

While he was going to the hall, another person with white clothes came out. The dwarf looked at him with scorn in his eyes and muttered lowly, "Fucking priest."

The priest raised an eyebrow but did not stop as he looked around. He walked to Jon when he saw him standing beside the kennels and asked, "Greetings, son. Do you happen to know anywhere silent where I can pray?"

Jon looked at the man. His clothes were rich enough to pass him as a lord but the style was not lordly. He heard from the talks in the castle that the septons in the South were wearing clothes like this so he pointed towards the small sept to his left and said, "There is a sept there where you can pray."

The priest smiled kindly, "Now, now, I am not a septon so it would improper of me to intrude into their place, right?"

Jon was confused as only the Seven had religious men but suddenly, he reminisced about the new religion that came from Essos. They also had religious men so he looked at the man once more and indeed, his clothes were different than the man in Lady Catelyn's sept.

Jon looked around and the Broken Tower caught his eyes, "There is a tower, there. Though in shambles, it is sturdy and no one would go there so you can pray in it."

"Oh, thank you, young man, God bless you." The priest turned to walk towards the Broken Tower but as a thought came to his mind, he turned back to Jon, "Would you like to come with me? Of course, you won't have to pray but you can still watch it. After all, learning new things is always good."

Jon was stunned as he did not expect such an offer but he was curious about this man's religion as he didn't know about anything outside of Winterfell and he wanted to ask him about their view of bastards as he wanted to know if every religion thought about them the same way so he thought no harm will come from just watching and nodded his head, "Sure."

Jon walked side by side with the priest as they climbed the stairs of the Broken Tower. The tower was really broken as there were many stone pieces scattered in the room and everywhere the eye could see was dust.

The priest looked out of the hole on the wall towards the distant hill outside the Winterfell and turned towards a certain way and he knelt on the ground despite it being dirty. He brought together his hands as Jon watched from nearby.

"O dear Father, we bow before You to give thanks for the Prophet. He showed us the true way through his suffering and life. Protect us from the lies which offend You. Help us to love You more and give us the courage to stand up before the lies. Help those, from bastards to trueborn, who need Your help. We beg Your mercy for the sins of those who stumbled upon the wrong path. We thank you for Your protection against all evils and we thank You for all the good you have done for us, sinful men. Amen."

The priest stood up after his prayer and turned to Jon with a gentle smile on his face and said, "I see you are confused, you can ask me a few questions but no too much as I have things to do and need to rest for the journey to the Wall."

Jon's confused eyes shone upon hearing the Wall, "The Wall? Are you going to the Wall, is it to join the Night's Watch?"

"No, but we can say that as I will be staying there permanently as I will be Bishop of the Night's Watch."

Jon was surprised as from what he heard their influence was limited to the South, "I thought the new religion was only in the South?"

"That is mostly true but we made a deal with the Night's Watch. They allowed us to build a temple in the Castle Black and in return we will send them supplies from Essos annually for 50 years. As you know, Night's Watch is an honourable order and there are many people in the Seven Kingdoms who have found faith in us so we needed a temple there but a small one would not have been acceptable so we made this deal."

Jon came to an understanding but there still many questions on his mind.