FicWad

Chapter 37: Winter is Coming
JON

I found Shireen in the Red Keep’s Gods’ Wood. She was wearing pants and a shirt and was doing doing flips and rolls on some tree branches. Some times she would do a split, so she wouldn’t hit hit her legs on a branch, other times she would stick her legs out straight so she could use them to bounce off the limb and twist the other direction.

“Jon!” she called out when she spotted me. To get out of the tree, she swung herself up high and summersaulted three times in the air before landing on her feet.

“Oh, Ser Jon! I’ve missed you!” gushed Shireen, as she hugged me.

“I’ve missed you too,” I replied, as I hugged her back.

As soon as she released me, I bent over, grabbed her cheeks and pulled her into a long, but chaste, kiss.

“But you don’t have to call me ‘Ser’,” I told her, as I leaned my forehead against hers, with my hands still on her cheeks. I could tell that she liked that I was unafraid to touch her scars. “Just ‘Jon’ will do.”

“And you can call me just ‘Shireen’,” she told me.

I brought my hands down to squeeze both of hers for an instant before telling her:

“I saw what you were doing in the tree there,” I said. “You looked pretty good there!”

“You really think so!?!” asked Shireen. “Margaery taught me! She also taught me how to fight with my hands! And Syrio has been teaching me water dancing and I’ve been meditating every day! Just like you taught me! Hey! does your being back mean we’re going to get married now?”

“No. That will still have to wait a few years,” I laughed. “Your uncle Robbert asked me to be Hand of the King. And one of the reasons I accepted is: it means I will get to spend more time with you!”

On hearing that, Shireen hugged me again.


SAM

I was quite pleased to hear my good friend Jon had returned to King’s Landing and had been appointed Hand of the King. Although construction on the Masonic Lodge was not complete, it had come far enough along that we could use Jon’s return as an excuse to open Lodge. At the first meeting there was some debate as to whether or not Children of the Forrest qualified as men. But in the end we decided to settle the issue by opening the membership to all genders. Being of both myself, this gave me some sense of relief. And now that Shae could join in our fellowship, this became something we could do together.

When the King’s Gazette resumed publication, the first edition ran a front page story on the effects of obsidian on wights. And since Prince Stanis was a Lodge brother of ours, I was able to secure an extended interview with him that I could run in the next edition before he returned to Dragonstone to overseen mining operations there. But these two articles do not seem to affect the general public to any great extent. None of the wights were still on public display or even moving. There were rumors that the Citadel had jars full of twitching organs, the remains of dissected wights. But I could not substantiate this claim. The only still active wight was reported to be in Winterfell, in the North. Most people followed the attitude of the King, that The Wall has protected them in the past, and would continue to protect them in the future. It didn’t help that the Night’s Watch continued to deny the existence of wights and Wight Walkers.


TRYSTANE

Something about being married seem to make sex more enjoyable for my new wife, and we didn’t get any sleep on our wedding night. The next morning as I held her, I felt I needed to clear the air about something:

“Look, I know it’s a bit late to be telling you this,” I started. “But I am not a one woman man. In fact, it’s usual for me to have two women at the same time.”

“That’s all right,” agreed Arya. “I don’t want to be a one man woman either. When we’re apart, you can see your whores, and I’ll see mine.”

“You’ll be a great Dornish woman!” I replied as I pulled her into another kiss.


We broke our fast with her family and spent the rest of the morning with them. There was a lot of arguing going on because Rickon wasn’t yet supposed to know that Cat was his mother. And because she told Lord Stark about the first time we met, causing him to be angry with Margaery. Arya just laughed at her family’s antics as she doted on her new baby half-sister. I can tell she’ll be a great mother when she decides it’s time.

The Starks all followed us down to the dock and she said her goodbyes to each of them, and then finally kissed me goodbye before walking up the gangplank. When they saw her sailors start to retrieve the plank, the Starks became alarmed.

“Wait a minute! Aren’t you going with her?” asked Robb Stark.

“No, I’m going to Sunspear by land and she’s going back to her life as a pirate,” I said.

“But she’s your wife!” growled Lord Stark.

“Precisely,” I replied. “She’s my problem now, not yours.”

“But what about heirs?” asked Cat. “You’re a Prince!”

“Oh, we made plans to meet occasionally,” I told the weird uptight plant woman. “And she’s promised to come back to me for a few years to make some babies. But she wants to wait until she’s older. For now, I’m letting her enjoy her freedom.”

“Father, I think we’ve been tricked!” announced Robb.

“We have, indeed,” agreed Lord Stark with a frown, that hid a bit of a grin.


MARGAERY

The temperature was starting to drop and the leaves were starting to turn too. I found that I was actually less cool wearing nothing than I was with just the leaf mini skirt. So a took to walking around the castle that way, not just when I was playing Lady of the Forrest. I’d also stopped hiding my natural skin tone which was turning the same golden yellow that Cat’s had been last time I saw her. But when the word passed that important visitors were approaching, I went ahead and put on a dress and changed my skin to a normal colour.

“Lord and Lady Blackwood, to what do I owe this pleasure?” asked Bran.

“We heard about that new tradition you started and hoped you would allow us to perform it here, Lord Tully,” asked Lord Blackwood.

“Which tradition is that?” asked Bran.

“The new one,” explained Lady Blackwood. “When I Lord and Lady want to be blessed with a child, they make the attempt as a guest in another Lord’s castle, then the next morning, the Lady processes nakedly to the Gods’ Wood to ask the Old Gods to bless her with a child.”

I dug my nail into my other finger trying to cause myself enough pain that I wouldn’t burst out laughing at them.

“Also, we would appreciate it if you could be the Lady of the Forrest that morning and if the Children could be there too,” added Lord Blackwood.

“I think that could be arranged,” I said, still trying not to laugh at the absurdity of it all. “But for now, lets get you some bread and salt!”

It was just as they said, they spent the night in a guest room trying to make a baby. The next morning, I arose early and went to the Gods’ Wood and sat in the Heart Tree. The Children of the Forest were standing in a half circle extending from both sides of me to behind the Heart Tree. When the couple entered, Lord Blackwood was fully dressed and Lady Blackwood was completely undressed. She was smiling and glanced at her husband before approaching me.
My position as Lady of the Forrest was a strange one. I didn’t act as priestess. Different people wanted different things from me. Some wanted to talk to me about their problems. For them I would do my best to give them talk therapy, reflecting back every thing they said. Others just wanted to look at me, or a Child of the Forrest instead of the face on the tree when they prayed. Lady Blackwood wanted to kneel before me and look me in the eyes. I sat there regally for her and stared back for the several minutes she wanted from me. When she bowed and rose to her feet I went to grab my dress and put it on, but she stopped me.

“Oh, no! You don’t have to dress on my account!” said Lady Blackwood. “I’ve heard all about your tradition of displaying yourself to the servants this way to let them know you are expecting before you have started to show. I plan to do the same if this works.”

People KNOW I do this? And they’re imitating me!?!


EDRIC

On his way South, Trystane Martell came through the Twins. When it was reported to me that he was at the brothel in the North village, I invited him to stay in the castle. We stayed up until late into the night, chatting and comparing magic systems. When I was ready for bed, he offered to share his with me, but I politely declined.


JON

As the New Hand, I had re-shuffled the Small council a bit. Renly was back to being Master of Laws and I had appointed Tyrion Lannister as Master of Coin. Stanis was absent, but had sent Ser Davos to be his proxy Master of Ships. Pycel was still Grand Maester and Varys was still Master of Whispers. I had invited Ser Barrrison to sit on the council as the Leader of the King’s guard had in the past.

“So where are we on the royal treasury?” I asked Tyrion.

“The Crown’s debt has risen to six million gold dragons, wiping out the gains made when I forgave the Lannister debt. The good news is that the renovation of the sewers of King’s Landing is almost complete and should be done in another month.”

“I can already smell the difference,” agreed Renly.

“Ser Davos, do you have anything to report?” I asked.

“Not really, M’Lord,” replied Davos. “Prince Stanis still has the Royal Fleet at Dragonstone, ready to evacuate in the event of an incursion. And he’s still focussed on mining the Dragonglass there.”

“Not the damn Others again!” grumbled Renly.

“If he’s right, the North will see them first,” I mused. “Have him ship half of all stone mined to White Harbor. Also, I have a contact here in King’s landing who is interested in the scrap, the tiny bits too small to make anything of.

Grand Maester?”

“I received several raven’s this morning . . . .” mumbled Pycel. “There’s one from Pike for Lord Tryrion. Congratulations, Lord Tryion, your Lady Wife had a boy. There’s an announcement from the North on the marriage of the younger Stark daughter and a Prince of Dorne.”

“So Arya’s been found?” I mused. The Force had told me she was unharmed, but there had been so many things going on, they just hadn’t been time to look for her.

“I was just about to report on that very thing,” announced Lord Varys. “My little birds have sung to me that the previous reports that she has taken over the captaincy of the Silence were, indeed, correct. She sailed into White Harbor in what must have been a preplanned visit as the entire Stark family just happened to be visiting the city. She brought with her: Prince Trystane Martell of Dorne, whom she married that very night. The next morning, she sailed away without him, leaving him to make his way South without her.”

“I see,” I replied.

I would have to send another raven to father to get his side of the story.

“Anything else?” I asked.

“The Wildings are still loose in the North and continue to pose a low level threat of banditry. The Wildlings in the Iron Islands and the Westlands, on the other hand, are assimilating into Westeros well.
In the Riverlands, a new fad of women displaying themselves nude has appeared. My little birds have traced it back to Lady Tully, who according to their songs displays herself nude nearly constantly.
In the Reach, the silos are full to overflowing, they have enough to feed the whole kingdom through the next winter, already.”

“I’ll write a letter to Lord Stark,” I announced. “We’ll have him build extra silos all over the North and move the Reach’s overflow there. The food in storage in the North will still technically belong to the Reach, and next winter, the Reach will sell it to the North at Summer prices. Also, We’ll need to do the same along the King’s Road.


MARGAERY

One afternoon, Trystane Martell came to Riverrun. It was supposed to be my night to spend with Edric, but he skipped back to the Twins as soon as Bran’s magic lesson was finished. I could understand that he wanted to be discrete. This left me sleeping alone tonight, unless . . .

“Bran, since this is supposed to your night alone with Meera and Edric has already left, how would you feel about me sharing my bed with Trystane?” I asked.

“No.” commanded Bran.

“Why not, I’ve done it before,” I pleaded.

“That was before he married my sister,” explained Bran.

“Alright,”I agreed.

“In fact, I think I’m going spend tonight with you instead to of her;” said Bran.

As it turned out, Trystane did manage to catch me in the hallway and stole a kiss before I could stop him. I suppose it sends the wrong message to parade around naked in front of a man that wants me this much.


As the seasons continued to turn and I focused more on root crops than leafy greens, the golden hue of my natural skin turned a red that matched my hair before It turned brown. And as I started to show, I began to feel less confrontational and started to wear clothes more often, then all the time.


TRYSTANE

I’m hoping I timed this right. I paced my journey South so that I would have time to visit, but was fast enough to make it this way on the appointed day I was supposed to meet her. When I arrived at the harbor, the Silence was just drifting in.

I waited for her to get the ship tied off the gangplank in place the the ship secured for port before calling out to her.

“Captain Arya!” I shouted.

“Prince Trystane!” she answered, as she skipped down the gangplank and into my arms.

We shared a good hug and kiss before she asked: “How was the land?”

“It was interesting,” I said. “I got a chance to see Edric lord over a pack of Wildings at the Twins and then stopped by to see Margaery and Bran on the way here. How was the sea?”

“Profitable, made another run to Bravos, then came here,” answered my wife. “So I hear my brother Jon is Hand now. Let’s go see him!”


JON

I was taking a break from all that paperwork by training in the yard, sparing against five men at a time, when my new squire, Lomy came running up. He was one of the burn victims of Fleabottom who had accepted Margaery’s offer of conversion to become a Child of the Forrest. In spite of his decreased size, the change had given Lomy increased endurance and agility. With training, he might be able to survive a real battle.

“M’lord! M’lord! You have visitors!” exclaimed Lomy, in that high pitched voice of his that got higher when he was excited.

“Who are they?” I asked. Would I need to go get cleaned up before receiving them?

“Prince Trystane Martell and Captain Arya Martell,” answered Lomy.

“Arya? Arya is here? Well bring her here!” I commanded.
“Yes, m’lord,” answered Lomy, before running off.

He returned with my sister that I had not seen in years and a dornishman. I could feel the magic coming off them in waves and Arya’s seemed like a different kind of magic than she had last time I left her. Nymeria was with her too. A dire wolf with only three legs made her even more recognisable. On spotting me, Arya ran into my arms and we shared a good hug before she released me.

“Ugh! You stink!” teased Arya.

“I’ve been training,” I answered. “Not that any of these men can offer me a real fight.”

“Ya wanna to go a few rounds with me?” offered Arya, as she drew the slim sword I had given her.

“Best out of five touches?” I offered, as I raised my practice bastard sword.

“Deal!” replied Arya, as she lunged at me.

I blocked her thrust and we began. She was quite good. She used her small size and nimbleness to good advantage. She didn’t try using any magic against me, so I refrained from using the more flashy forms of the Force like: lightning or pushes. She’d trained with me before so she was well prepared for any acrobatic leaps I might make. In the end she got two out of five touches on me before we called a halt.

“That was very good!” I praised. “You’ve improved a lot since I last saw you. How about you, mister prince? Would you care to try me? You can use your magic if you like.”

“Don’t mind if I do,” replied Arya’s new husband, as he grabbed a practice spear and raised his guard.




TRYSTANE

Watching him spar with Arya, I could see that he was the most skilled fighter I had even seen. But he had never seen anything like me before. This was going to be fun.

As soon as my wife called out: “Begin”, I danced into the wereworld. I circled around behind him and stepped into the real world long enough to stab him in the back, only to see him parry me behind his back. When he turned to face me, I danced back into the wereworld and he swung his practice blade right through where I had been. The look on his face made me think he was somehow able to perceive me, because he was looking right at me. He let go of his sword with one hand and let it drop to the side, with his other hand he pointed his palm at me a made a pushing motion. It felt like a mack truck hit me as I slammed against the wall! I think what ever he hit me with hurt worse than the wall did when it landed! He changed his hand position so that the fingers were pointing at me. I dodged the lightning bolt that came out of his hand, just in the nick of time! After that a chase began, where he shot bolt after bolt of lighting at me while I dodged and weaved. I could see that not only were these bolts breaking things they hit in the normal world, the were breaking things in the wereworld at the same time! The worse part was, no matter where I went, he kept looking right at me, like he could see me! I was supposed to be invisible to the normal world, dammit! When he finally tagged me with a lighting bolt, I don’t think I had ever felt anything so painful in my life! Shifting into the normal world helped a little, but not much.

“Yield! Yield!” I cried.

“Just a reminder, treat my sister right or there will me be more where that came from,” warned Jon.

“Jon! I don’t need you to protect me!” protested Arya.

“What was that?” I asked.

“Force lightning,” replied Jon. “Magic and the Force are incompatible. Magic causes me pain, which just makes me stronger in the Dark Side of the Force. But the reverse is also true. The Force causes you magic users to feel pain. That was just a little weak bolt of Force lightning, but it felt a lot stronger to you than it would to a normal person.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” I groaned, as I tried to get back on my feet.

“So let’s get cleaned up so I can introduce you to Shireen,” offered Jon.

“We have a room in Fleabottom,” I told Arya. “I rented it before I met you at the docks.”

“Oh, no, no, no, no,” scolded Jon. “You two can’t stay in Fleabottom! I’ll get you rooms in the Tower of the Hand.

It was nice to get a hot bath, especially one I was sharing with my new wife. This was the first we’d seen of each other since the wedding and we had a lot of catching up to do. But when the water started to turn cold, we got out of the tub and dressed ourselves in some clothes provided by the servants. They clearly had been warned about Arya as they had provided not only a dress, but also a shirt and breaches. She surprised me by donning the breeches and the dress, rather than the shirt. Seeing the look I was giving her she said:

“What? . . . . I want to look nice for Jon’s princess, but if we get in a fight, I can just cut the skirt off this and get to work,” explained Arya as she put her sword and dagger on over the dress.

Once we were dressed, a Child of the Forest named: Lomy led us to a room where Jon was waiting, dressed all in black. On his chest was embroidered his sigil, an eight spoked wheel of sorts. There was also a pure White dire wolf and Nymeria padded forward to greet the white wolf before Arya could stop her. Next to Jon was a young girl, dressed in a golden yellow dress with black stags on it. The left side of her face was hideously scarred by greyscale scars. It seems she was one of the lucky few to survive that plague.

“Arya, Prince Trystane, this is my betrothed, Princess Shireen Baratheon, heir to the Iron Thrown,” introduced the Lord Hand. “Shireen, this is my sister, Captain Arya Star- I mean, Martell, of the Silence and her husband, Prince Trystane Martell of Dorne.”

“It is a pleasure to meet you, your grace,” I said, as I knelt before her and gave her hand a kiss when she offered it.

“Nice to meet you, Shireen,” said Arya, as she gave a very clumsy curtsy.

“Why are you wearing breeches under your dress?” asked the princess.

Arya knelt to both show off the pant leg and also become more eye to eye with her.

“It’s so if I need get in a fight, I can just cut the skirt off of me and let the top half of the dress be a shirt, answered Arya. “I don’t normally wear dresses. But I put this one on for you.”

“What I good idea!” exclaimed Shireen. “I should do that too! Or maybe I could make the top half of the dress a separate from the bottom. That way, if a got in a fight, I could just step out of the skirt and keep fighting!”

“You fight?” asked Arya.

“Oh yes!” exclaimed Shireen. “Jon taught me some, before he left and now that he’s back, he’s teaching me more! Also there’s Syrio, who teaches me the Water Dance. And even Margaery teaches me when she’s not busy having babies!”

“Well perhaps I could show you a few things?” offered Arya.

“That would be great!” exclaimed Shireen.

We chatted for a few hours before it was time for dinner, which the King insisted on making into a boring feast. At least I got to dance with my wife again.

We spent several days in the Red Keep. Arya was very patient with the princess in the training yard. She’ll make a great mother someday. But then, it was time that Arya wanted to leave me again. I was greatly saddened by this. But she promised to stop by Sunspear sometime in the next few months. I kissed her goodbye, then watched her sail off into the sunset.