FicWad

Chapter 19: Bending the Knee

EDRIC

Uncle Renly came to get me from the barracks and brought me to the Throne Room. I was surprised to see an inferius in a cage in the middle of the room. Half the people in the room seemed to think this was a normal thing. The other half, the ones who had been away at war were alarmed by the undead creature.

The Herald announced people as they came forward: “Lady Asha Greyjoy!”

The woman captain I had seen yesterday when I met the giant stepped forward and knelt before the King.

“I, Yara Greyjoy, Lady of the Saltsea Throne do hereby kneel before my liege lord King Robert Baratheon, High King of the Seven Kingdoms. I pledge the fealty of myself and my children and the people of the Iron Islands to you.”

“I accept your fealty and confirm you as Lady of the Iron Isles,” said the King.

“Lord Tyrion Lannister!”

“I, Tyrion Lannister, son of Tywin Lanister, Lord of the Kingdom of the West do hereby kneel before my liege lord King Robert Baratheon, High King of the Seven Kingdoms. I pledge the fealty of myself and my children and the people of the Westlands to you.”

“I accept your fealty and confirm you as Lord of the Westlands and Warden of the West,” said the King.

Several people were honored for their parts in the war before Bran was summoned.

“Ser Jon Stark and his page, Brandon Stark!”

“I hear you fought well in the Iron Islands,” praised the King. “Stanis even recommends you for knighthood. You’d be the youngest knight ever in the Seven Kingdoms. He also says that you are a sorcerer.”

“Yes, your grace,” replied Bran.

“Can you give us an demonstration?” asked the King.

Bran held up his wand and performed a light charm: “Lumenos!”

The tip of his wand lit up, and the court oooed at the sight.

“Very well, said the King, as he came down and took the Sword the Lord Hand had given to him.

“In the Name of the Father, I charge you to be just,” he began, as he tapped Bran on the shoulder with the sword. “In the Name of the Mother I charge you to be merciful-” He continued through all of the Seven. “I dub you Ser Brandon . . . “

The King looked around confused a moment before the Lord Hand chimed in: “Tully”

“Yes, yes, Ser Brandon Tully” finished the King.

Later, I was brought forward: “Prince Renly Baratheon and his page, Edric Storm.

My conversation was similar to Bran. Except when I was outed as wizard to the court and asked to demonstrate, I cast a Patronus, and let it walk around the court for a few moments, so the people could feel the goodness radiating off it, before I banished it. Like Bran, I was knighted: “I dub you Ser Edric . . .”

“Peverel,” I answered, to my father’s surprise.

“Ser Edric Peverel” continued my father, the King. “Well son, you’re a knight now, what are you going to do with yourself?”

“I want to go with Bran to Riverrun. I can be one of his sworn swords . . or wands as the case may be,” I replied.

“I am glad you have found such a good friend, as I did in my youth,” said my father, the King. “I wish you much success in life!”

Many other heroes of the war were honored before the Herald announced: “The Wildings! Tormund Bearsbane, Toreg, Ygrette, and Wun-Wun the giant!”


TORMUND

We stepped forward when called.

“It is customary to kneel before your King, said the brown haired man with the more normal sounding accent, who was standing next to the throne.

“Yeah, we’re not doin’ that, replied Ygrette. “We’re Free Folk. We do not kneel.”

“Then why did you come here below The Wall?” asked the King of the Kneelers.

“To bring you this,” I said, pointing to the Wight. “If you don’t let us South of your Wall, all of the Free Folk are going to turn into that.”

“Your grace, we have sent ravens to the Night’s Watch. Lord Commander Thorne claims that the Wight Walkers are a myth, that the so-called Wights are just sick, but still living men, that have an illness that effects the mind,” said Renly, the Kneeler King’s brother, that I had met before.

“Aw, Come on, Renly. You can’t tell me that that THING is still alive!” shouted the King. “Is there anyway to kill it?”

“Fire,” I replied. “Burning them makes them stop moving.”

“Your Grace, perhaps we should save this for a meeting of the Small Council,” suggested a bald man with a strange voice.

“Your Grace, I have another method of killing them,” spoke a woman. “If we could have this thing moved to the Gods’ Wood I would be happy to demonstrate this tomorrow morning.”

Toreg nudged me and whispered to me: “It’s her! The green woman!”

“Very well. We’ll have the Wight moved into the Gods’ Wood and see what Lady Margeary has in mind tomorrow,” proclaimed the King of the Kneelers.

And with that, we were once again kicked out to fend for ourselves in the City.

As we walked the city streets, often the pubs had strange music coming from them. None of it sounded like that driving beat I had heard in White Harbor. I suppose it makes sense that the people South of The Wall would have different music than us, and that different parts of the Seven Kneeler Kingdoms would have different kinds of Music. It was in the poorest part of town that I heard a bouncy sounding kind of music that was unlike anything I had ever heard before.

Anyway, after watching the Court of the Kneelers and their King, Ygrette was in the mood to kick Kneeler ass. So we all headed down to the Street of Silk, where she worked. After entering the wrestling rink, Ygrette was having a grand old time kicking kneeler ass, when I saw familiar face get in line to be her next opponent. It was one of those magic boys that had been knighted. Before he could enter the rink, I grabbed him by the arm and warned him:

“No magic! She’s a friend of mine. If I see you using your magic on her, I will make you regret it!” I warned. “You’re still just a boy. Without magic, you don’t stand a chance against her. Are you sure you want to do this?”

The boy nodded.

“I have to try . . . I have a thing for redheads,” he replied with a grin.

As it turned out, he lasted longer than most of the kneelers. Ygrette went easy on him and drug it out before pinning him. She did that because he was obviously too young to fight for her.

Ygrette’s next opponent was that Lady Kneeler Lord that had made a point of kneeling to the King. Ygrette gave her a good fight. When her top fell off, the kneeler Lady got so distracted she almost lost. Same with when Ygrette’s skirt fell off. Ygrette fought well, but lost in the end. After the bout was over, the Ironborn Lady helped Ygrette up, pulled her into a kiss and played with her butt a little before leading her off to finish stealing her in private. This was only the second time Ygrette had ever lost. And this time, she did not take a dive.


MARGEARY

The next day, when we met in the Gods’ Wood, it was not the whole Court. Just the King, his Small Council, Lady Yara, Lord Tyrion and one of the Wildlings. There were also a few guards present, who had already moved the cage with the zombie here. I carefully demonstrated how if you cut one inch sprigs from the tips of the branches of the weirwood tree and planted them in the ground, they would grow. Then, I had the guards move the cage on top of the patch of weirwood sprouts. Finally, I splashed some of my concoction on the ground under the cage and the sprigs instantly grew into respectable saplings about a high as a man. Like the previous time I had done this, some of the saplings had grown through the body of the zombie and it was no longer moving.

“As you can see, the weirwood trees growing through it destroy the creature,” I explained. “Although this is too slow to work in combat, I was thinking we could lay out fields of the weirwood sprigs as a protective measure, sort of like lining a trench with stakes on a battlefield. We could then have soldiers throw delicate glass spheres filled with my super-fertilizer that would break on impact with the ground.”

“Can you make enough of this potion to equip an army?” asked the Lord Hand Stark.

Not me, personally,” I replied. “But I think I can break down the steps enough for the Alchemist Guild to understand. We could have them make large quantities of this instead of wildfire.”

“Couldn’t your potion also work on food crops?” asked Lord Tryion. We could grow food much quicker that way.”
“It does work on other plants,” I admitted. “But the results are not edible.”

“My Lady, could you share your formula with me?” asked Grand Maester Pycel. “I would like to send it to the Citadel. Perhaps we can find a way to turn this into a more potent weapon.”

I nodded my assent.

“My Lords, I think the rest of this discussion should be within the Small Council,” replied the Lord Hand Stark.

As we were leaving the Gods’ Wood, the wildling came up behind me a whispered in my ear: “I know you’re the Green Lady”

I turned to look at him, in shock.

“Can we meet to discuss this?” asked the wilding.

“Midnight. In Fleabottom,” I replied before turning away.


JON

Shireen and I were already waiting in the room, when the rest of the Small Council processed into the room.

“The Others are real,” stated my father.

“The Wall has kept them out for thousands of years,” observed Grand Maester Pycell. “It will continue to do so for a thousand more”

“And that thing Lady Margeary just showed us should help against any that get past The Wall,” added Renly.

“Except, there are very few weirwood trees outside the North,” said my father. “We will need to plant more of them South of the Neck.”

“The Faith will not be pleased with this,” observed Lord Varris.

“That’s their problem,” sneered Stanis. “We’ll need a law against cutting the weirwoods, enforced by hanging.”

“And of the Wildlings?” asked Lord Baelish.

“We’ll need to bring them South of The Wall, like they requested,” observed father.
“But where would we put them?” asked Renly.

“We can’t put them in the Gift or the New Gift,” replied father. “My bannermen would rebel if we tried. And it’s clear from the ravens the Night’s Watch sent us, that they wouldn’t let them through, anyway. There is too much bad blood between the Wildings and the North and The Wall.”

“Nobody in the Seven Kingdoms wants a bunch of savages running around,” added Renly.

“What about the Iron Islands . . . . and the Stepstones,” offered Stanis. “We could could transport them on ships from North of The Wall and dump them on the Iron Islands and the Stepstones, let the Ironborn and the pirates deal with them.”

“Sounds like a good solution,” replied father. “On to other matters. The war we just had has surely brought some expenses. Lord Baelish?”


EDRIC

I was surprised that Margeary sought me out after her demonstration in the Gods’ Wood.

“The Wildings know who I am!” hissed Margeary. “I have set up a meeting for midnight in Fleabottom, But I think all of us with powers should be there.”

“I’ll bring Bran and Jon,” I agreed. “Is it true you are going to marry Bran?”

“Possibly,” she admitted. “We are still in negotiation. Whether if works out or not, I need you to do that thing you did with the weirwood stump to bring it back to life.”

“Which one do you need me to do that with?” I asked.

“Every one that you can find,” replied Margeary. “At least, every one of them in the Riverlands.”


TORMUND

Toreg and I walked the streets of Fleabottom looking for the Green Lady, who I now knew was more important that she first appeared. I had left Wun-Wun behind and Ygrette was entertaining that Iron Islands Lady, who apparently knew how to do something with her tongue that Ygrette liked. We were strolling past a tree when the Green Lady dropped down from its’ branches in front of us. Then, a couple of boys appeared out of nowhere, as they stepped out of a cloak that had made them invisible. That was when I noticed the man I hadn’t before. I realized I recognized the man and the boys. I had met them before.

“Ah! Now I seen how you found me out,” said the Green woman, who was not wearing anything except a skirt of leaves and a couple more to cover her top. She seemed to recognize Toreg from when he had worked for her a couple of nights previous.

“So what are you? Some kind of alien?” I asked

“It’s interesting that you would go there as your first guess,” observed the Green Lady. “Is it because you have been to other worlds?”

“In a past life,” I admitted. “But not in this one.”

“We all remember past lives too,” said the Green Lady, “all of us except Bran, there. As you know, I am Lady Margeary Tyrel. Though, I prefer to be called Plant Woman when I am dressed like this. This is Ser Jon Stark, Ser Edric Storm, and Ser Brandon Tully. All of us have powers of a sort, that we brought from our previous lives. Do you have any special powers?”

“You mean, like this?” I asked, as I made The Sword of icy fire appear in my hand.

“Interesting . . .” said Ser Jon as he reached out and touched The Sword with the tip of his finger. It doesn’t hurt, like magic does. In fact, I can’t feel it in the Force at all. Come to think of it, I can’t feel the Force in you either. Are you some kind of droid?”

“No. I’m alive,” I said, as I absorbed The Sword, pulled out my hunting knife and cut my hand to show that I bleed. The cut quickly closed up and healed over. “If you are asking about ‘droids, I am assuming that you mean androids? So you must come from a more advanced world? Is this Force a form of energy? Because I can absorb energy with The Sword.”

“I wonder if that works with magic too?” asked Bran.

“Yes, it does,” I replied.

“You should know that the Small Council had decided to let you Wildlings come South of The Wall,” announced Jon.

“Free Folk,” I corrected. “We call ourselves: Free Folk.”

“Really?” asked Margeary. “Because anything that is wild is by definition, free. You should embrace the name, Wildling. It’s much cooler sounding.”
“Anyway, the Free Folk will be transported on ships down both coasts with those on the East settled on a bunch of pirate infested islands called the Stepstones and those of the West settled on some Islands we just conquered called the Iron Islands.” said Jon

“You mean that YOU, just conquered,” interrupted Edric.

“You won’t get a warm reception either place,” warned Jon. “In fact, the Stepstone Pirates are likely to try to sell you into slavery.”

“My people are not afraid to fight,” I replied, “especially against the living.”


JON

“By why are you leaving me! cried Shireen. “Is it because I’m ugly?”

“Not at all, my princess,” I soothed as a cupped her cheeks in my hands and kissed her forehead. “I’m leaving because my brother, Bran needs me. They made him a knight, but he still has much to learn about how to fight with a sword. Edric is going with us too, so he can continue teaching him magic. When you are older, I will come back to you for our wedding. I still want to be your betrothed. You are still my princess.”

“Promise?” she asked, tilting her head up.

“I promise,” I replied, as I pulled her closer and gave her he first kill on the lips, then kissed her on her good cheek and her scarred cheek.

She gave me a beaming smile as I pulled back.

“In the meantime, keep meditating like I showed you, and training with Syrio,” I said.


EDRIC

Now that word was out that Bran and I could do magic people stared at me all the time. Some of the looked at us with fear, others with fascination. It had gotten so bad that Bran couldn’t leave the Red Keep. There is even a mad priest that called himself the High Sparrow, that was preaching sermons about how evil Bran and I were. It was messing up things with the plans for us to move to Riverrun. Lord Stark and Lord Tully were sending daily ravens to each other about it. And it was making the betrothal of Margeary and Bran more complicated. Fortunately, I was able to turn invisible and hide from all this. Bran was much more important, I could not go missing for long periods.