FicWad

Chapter 25: the Red Comet

EDRIC

The astronomy of this world was totally different. I recognised that the first time I saw the Moon, which had a different pattern on its’ face than the one from my world. Even the Planets were different. There were Seven of them, each named after one of the Seven Goddesses and Gods. I had studied a bit of what the maesters knew about them, which was not much. But I would have to re-create from scratch the magical field of Astronomy. So I had not bothered to teach Bran Magical Astronomy. But still, it was nice to lay here on the top of the castle and look up at the night sky. Its’ much easier to do this in a world with no electric lights. People from my previous world just don’t know how much they were missing by not being about to see most of the stars. What’s that?
A comet. I think it’s a comet! But why does it have that strange red colour?


MARGAERY

I awoke first, so I slipped out of bed and used the chamber pot. Last night I had filled it, as I usually do with a special variant of wheat I had developed. So after I peed on the wheat, I took a look at it. . . . it was flowering! This means I am going to have a baby. I hope Bran is ready for Fatherhood! But it also means, I can’t use the birth blossoms until the baby is born.

When we were breaking our fast, I screwed up the courage to tell him.

“Bran, there is something I need to tell you,” I started. “I’m going to birth your heir.”

“Of course you will, someday,” replied Bran. “That’s why Grandfather Tully wanted us to get married.”

“No, Bran. I’m going to have your heir sooon,” I emphasized, rubbing my belly.

Bran started choking on his wine! I patted him on the back until he stopped coughing.

“When!” gasped Bran.

“In about nine months,” I said.

Bran leapt onto me and hugged me before giving me a kiss.


After breaking our fast and telling Jon and Edric the good news, (They both offered to help with child care) Bran held Court so people could bring their grievances and problems to him. I sat on his left hand and Maester Ralf sat on his right hand side. We were there to offer him advice. But Bran was Lord Tully and in the end, his word was Law. There had been several people groups of people from villages who either had their weirwood tree cut down or their Sept burnt down by people from the other village. None of them had proof that the people from the other village had done it. Bran had to once again, remind them that Freedom of Religion was the Law of the Kingdom.

Later a girl and boy came forward. The Boy looked close to Bran’s age. The girl looked a couple of years older. They were both dressed in leather pants and shirts.

“My Lord, I am Meera Reed,” said the girl. “And this is my brother, Jojen Reed, the heir of Greywater Watch.”

“Well met, Heir Jojen and Lady Meera,” replied Bran, formally. “You have the Hospitality of Riverrun.”

Bran gestured and a servant walked up to them with a platter of bread and salt. After they had partaken, Bran continued: “Long have the Reeds been amongst my father’s most loyal bannermen. What brings you to Riverrun?”

“My brother is a greenseer, my lord,” said Meera. “He dreams things that come true.”

“I have had a dream that Seven pairs of ravens killed Seven weirwood trees in a place where two rivers joined,” said Jojen.

“It sounds like you have either the Force or Magic,” said Bran as he stood up, walked around the table and stepped down from the dais, to offer Jojen his wand. “Let’s see which it is. Give it a wave.”

Jojen waved the wand and a stream of sparks came out.

“You’re a wizard! Wonderful!” exclaimed Bran before taking back the wand and giving it to Meera. “Now, you give it a try!”

She waved the wand, but nothing happened.

“I thought you might be a witch, like my sister,” explained Bran. “But at least your brother is! This is great! One of my sworn swords is a better wizard that me. He’s teaching me magic and perhaps he can teach you, heir Jojen, to do magic too! And I can teach you to warg! It will be great to have another wizard in the castle!”

Jojen seemed overwhelmed by my young husband’s enthusiasm and just nodded his head.


JOFFREY

“What do you mean, pregnant!” I asked. “How could this happen? Don’t you take moon-tea?”

“Moon-tea doesn’t always work,” explained Colleen. “Sometimes the Old Gods will give a woman a child, even with moon-tea.”

“Am I the father?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” replied Colleen. “It might be you, or any one else in the band or any one of a number of men I have fucked. I’m a whore!”

“This is a disaster!” I exclaimed. “Ser Aleister is going to kill me! I’ve broken my vows to the Night’s Watch! And how am I going to support a baby!?! I’m not a Prince any more! I don’t have much money!”

“We’ll support it with the band,” explained Colleen. “As long as you keep writing new songs and performing them with me, I won’t have any problem supporting my child.”

Right then and there, I silently promised myself that I would do everything I could to help support her baby. Already the beginnings of three different new songs were sprouting up in my head.


TORMUND

I was arriving with Stanis’ kneeler fleet from another trip to Hardhome. We were going to take another pirate Island. This one was an old volcano with a lagoon in the middle. The lagoon only had a small entrance to the sea, which was too well guarded by the pirate ships for it to be entered by sea. So we were dropped off outside the volcano and climbed over the top of the mountain to the inner lagoon, while the fleet stayed outside to catch any of the pirate ships that tried to escape. Climbing the mountain was pretty easy compared to The Wall. Most of it was steep enough that we had to walk on all fours. But it wasn’t real climbing for most of it. We rested just below the top, then snuck back down the mountain to the lagoon. There was a small town on the shore of the lagoon and some floating docks held up by empty barrels that the unmanned pirate ships could berth at. We waited until nightfall, then made our way down the mountain and into the town. It was midnight by the time we arrived. The town had a general store, which was closed, a brothel and a pub, both of which were still open. Both buildings had music coming out of them. It was the same sort of music the other pirates had enjoyed that we had beaten before. Much duller than the music we heard in White Harbor and King’s Landing. There were also a scattering of houses that looked to be in pretty good shape. There were enough houses for a few hundred people. My people will have to share them until they can build more. But first, we have to take this town. I sent Karsi with her men and spearwives to take the brothel, while, I led my group to take the pub. The pirates who were awake would be the biggest threat. So we needed to kill them first. I walked into the pub, which had double doors that swung open easily.

“ALL RIGHT YOU MANGY CURS, WE’RE TAKING OVER!” I shouted. “SURRENDER, AND YOU CAN GO TO THE WALL! FIGHT, AND YOU DIE!”

Instantly the music stopped. The old man playing the bagpipes started trying to sneak out the back, while everyone else stood up and drew their weapons. They mostly had small weapons that wouldn’t interfere with sailing: daggers, short swords, hatchets. One of them grabbed a bottle and broke it on the edge of the bar, forming a crude, makeshift glass dagger. One of them near me, picked up his chair and swung it at me. I willed The Sword of Icy Fire to appear in my hand and used it to shatter the chair, then cut the arm off the pirate who had swung it at me. The rest of the Free Folk charged into the room and the fight was on. Another one swung a hatchet at me. I cut the head off the handle, then stuck my sword through his throat. Another had gotten behind me and stabbed me in the kidney. I might be able to heal from this but, fuck that hurts! I spun around and decapitated him. I could feel the wound closing up, but the blood loss was slowing me down. I fell to one knee and cut the leg off the next pirate that came close enough. Everyone except the bartender and the musician fought to the last. Once it was done, I sat down and rested. I needed to give the Power enough time to heal me before we moved on. When I stepped outside, the town was still quiet. Apparently bar-room fights are a common thing. Karsi had secured the brothel. So now we went door to door waking them and forcing their surrender. A few of the sleeping men and women fought to the death. We were able to capture a good number of men.
The next morning, when the pirate ships in the lagoon tried signaling us, but we didn’t know the signals to give back, they realized that something was wrong. One of the ships came to the docks. We were able to quickly board it and kill everyone aboard. After that, the other ships tried to leave, and after a brief naval battle, the pirate ships surrendered to Stanis.

Now that we had taken the Island, we need to organize things. The surviving pirate men would be taken by Stanis to The Wall. We’d drop them off at Eastwatch-by-the-Sea on our way to Hardhome to pick up the next group of Free Folk. The children would all be adopted and raised to be Free Folk. The women would become wives and in some cases, spearwives of the Free Folk. We would also need to build more houses as there were more of us than there were of living in the town before us. There were some farms terraced into the inner slopes of the mountain, our people would have to learn to farm their crops, which were mostly grapes and olives, with a few fig orchards and vegetable gardens.
The pirate ships were added to Stanis’ fleet. Some of the Free Folk had even knelt to him and joined the crew of the ships as junior members of the navy.


SAM

In the most recent edition of my paper, I was able to run a story that had been advanced to me by Lord Varys, the Master of Whispers. It seems that the Pirate ship known as the Silence had appeared in the City of Astapor, far to the East in Essos. It’s captain, Euron Greyjoy had traded a large pile of valerian steel weapons for all the Unsullied in Astapor. Once the deal was made, he then ordered the Unsullied to kill all the Masters. The pirate crew then used the distraction of the revolt to loot all the mansions of the Masters. But in the confusion of the fighting, Euron Greyjoy had been stabbed by his first mate, a young girl. In any case, the crew of the silence were able to make good their escape, with all of the valerian steel and the greatest treasures of the Masters of Astapor. Currently the cities are under the rulership of a man named Gray Worm, who has made no secret of his plans to spread their slave revolt.
I was most grateful to the Master of Whispers for this bit of news, even if the distance involved made the story weeks or months out of date. I would be following the news of this revolution with great interest.

Of late, I have been considering the possibility of spreading our fraternity. Our first Lodge Brother from Dorn seems to have disappeared. But more recently there have been more dornish men join our esteemed ranks and once there were three, they were sent to Sunspear to establish Nymeria Lodge #2. In a similar manner, we have also been able establish Lodges in Old Town and White Harbor.


JON

We’d have two new arrivals to join us in the training yard. Jojen Reed was a wizard, like Edric and Bran. Edric and I had tested both him, and his sister, Meera. The Source of Jojen’s dreams was definitely magic, and not the Force. So Edric had made him a wand and was starting to teach him magic, even though Bran was years ahead of Jojen. As it turned out, Meera was not at all magical. And much to my disappointment, she was not stronger in the Force than any ordinary person. But she was still able to train will us in physical combat. I added her to my fencing students and sometimes I would spar against all four of them at the same time. This was made more challenging because I allowed them to use magic against me. But I also used to Force against them, which equalized things a bit. I’m pretty sure Edric holds back in our spars and I am not certain who would win if we actually tried to kill each other.


In an effort to end the religious conflict, Bran had called all his bannermen to a meeting. He hoped if he could just get them all talking to each other that they could work out their differences. I was more skeptical about this working. In my experience discussing things in committee rarely gets things accomplished. Bran needs to be more of a strong Leader. But he’s Lord of the Riverlands, not me. I just need to let him do things his way and use my abilities to see that it gets done. Still, having this many different Lords roaming the castle was a security nightmare! I could see the leader of the Frey delegation, Black Walder Frey, speaking to one of the other Freys, Lothar, on the other side of the room. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but the Force was telling me that they were up to something. I had been suspicious from the beginning. A lot of the bannermen were not in attendance and the Frey delegation in particular seemed to be flirting with the Dark Side of the Force. Lothar nodded and walked away from Black Walder. I started across the dance floor towards him.

“May I have this dance?” asked Margeary, as she grabbed my hand.

I put my hand on her waist and started dancing with her. The Band was playing “the Gulltown” a jazz song that the late Edmure Tully had written.

“What are you doing?” she asked me, as we danced.

“I think the Freys are up to something,” I explained, still dancing.

“Well you can’t just attack them in the middle of a peace conference,” explained Margeary. “We’ll have to wait for them to make the first-”

Abruptly the music stopped as Lothar Frey began stabbing the members of the band with his sword! I looked up on the bandstand. Frey men with crossbows were swarming onto it! I glanced at Bran. Black Walder was talking with him and had just drawn a dagger!


Notes: "the Gulltown" and the dance that goes with it, is the same song we would associate with "the Charleston". Edmure re-named it when he "wrote" it in Westeros

The Island that Tormund invaded this chapter, is heavily inspired by a similar one in Darth Mars' "Quintessence for a Queen" and by the real life bay in Vis town on the island of Vis.