FicWad

Chapter 45: what's happening in the Riverlands
MARGAERY

When I first created the birth blossoms it had been as a failsafe. In case I ever died, my mind would come back in a plant based duplicate of my body. And it worked. It was after I had been reborn in this world and recreated them, that I came up with the idea of using them for transportation. But I had no idea if they would work in reverse. If I died in a plant body, would I return to another body? Or to my human animal body? I had no way of testing it without actually dying. And even though I had originally made them cold resistant because, at the time, I had teamed up with Mister Freeze, there were limits to how much cold the plants could take. Every day I had checked on them and every day I was less sure of the safety of their use. So when I woke up, back in my body, inside the flower at Riverrun, I was both relieved and traumatized.

Unless you have seen it for yourself, you can have no idea how traumatizing it is to fight a battle against tens of thousands of walking corpses! It hurt us so bad that we had to have drunken orgies afterwards to restore some sense of sanity to us. How much worse is it to be literally ripped apart by zombies? Pray that you never find out! I’m not sure how long a stayed curled in a fetal position inside that flower crying.

When I recovered enough to face the world, I straightened my arms and legs so I could slide out of the flower when it bent over. I landed in chest deep snow and let out a shriek! Then I went back to sobbing as the birth blossom tried to straighten back up, but broke off and fell in two, instead.

I could still hear the sound of the Dead attacking the castle and looking around the Gods’ Wood, I could see flashes of light like lightning, except a more yellowish colour. The shovel leaning against the shed was buried so deep only the very tip of the handle stuck above the snow. This body was even less resistant to the cold than my plant bodies were. I needed to get warm and clothed as soon as possible. I began fighting my way through the snow and had made it about half way before Blossom, the ambassador from the Children of the Forrest that I had made into one of my Ladies-in-Waiting came running out the door and across the top of the snow, without sinking into it.

“You are back!” said Blossom, she she stopped just short of me. “You must get inside quickly before the cold gets you. I can not aid you as you would only pull me down with you. Hurry!”

As the seasons changed, she, like me, had turned a leaf brown colour, like winter leaves. It was a different shade of brown than humans ever turn and we could never be mistaken for Summer Islanders.

I fought my way to the door and once I was in, she helped me into my room, not the one I shared with Bran. My plants in the room were mostly dead. She helped me into bed and I pulled her in with me, needing to be comforted. in the past, she had always talked to me as I might to a five-year-old child. Being a centuries old plant person, to her I must seem to her like a small child playing with guns. But she was here for me now, letting me cry in her arms until I had no more tears to shed, then freely giving me all the physical comfort I needed. When we were done, she hopped out of the bed and quickly dressed and told me:

“If you ever need my comfort again, you need only ask,” said Blossom. “Stay here as long as you need to. And when you are ready, you can come join us in the fight.”

I realised that the battle sounds I was hearing were not memories from Winterfell but where actually going on right now! I quickly jumped out of bed and found myself some clothes. Once I was dressed, I shifted my skin colour so I looked more like a Reachlander and less like a dead leaf. Then, I ran through the castle to a stairway that would take me on top of the castle walls.

When I reached the top. I found myself once again in a battle with the wights! There were people holding lit torches and using them to burn every wight that came over the wall. The torches would frequently go out, and there was a burning fire in a metal pot to re-light them. There was also a number of Children of the Forest, including Blossom, throwing objects about the size of an apple that would explode in flames when they landed below. Further down the wall, someone was casting fire spells on them. Like Winterfell, it was night, and blizzard conditions. But the light of the Children’s grenades allowed me to see that many of the plants of my plant ‘mine field’ had died or had limbs broken off. Some of the humans manning the walls were familiar Tully soldiers. Others were unknown to me.

“Who is in charge here?” I demanded.

One of my soldiers pointed to a woman. When I stepped forward she seemed familiar.

“Are you in command?” I asked.

“Yes, Lady Sansa put me in charge of the fighting,” said Osha, pointing at the person casting spells. “I’m Osha.”

“I’m lady Tully!” I explained.

“Oh! I didn’t recognise you!” said Osha.

“Dragon Glass works against them!” I told her. “Have you got any?”

“I don’t think so,” replied Osha.

“Then we’ll have to make do with fire,” I told her, grabbing a torch and lighting it. “Show me where I can do the most good!”

When she pointed me where to go, I immediately complied. I might be Lady Tully, but the middle of a battle is the wrong time to be changing the command structure. At one point, Lady Sansa fainted. When two men were carrying her past I told them:

“It’s just magical exhaustion,” I told them. “Get some food in her and she will recover.”

I went back to the wall edge to fight the wights. It was several hours before they finally broke off. If this is anything like Winterfell, we might have a few days. When I spotted Meera I pulled her into a searing kiss and then hugged her before asking:

“How are the children?”

“I was just going to check on them!” replied Meera, who didn’t let go of my hand the whole way back to the nursery. The room had a guard posted outside and the room was full of small children, several to a crib attended over by some wet nurses. Once I was certain that my sons were safe, Meera started dragging me towards her room.

POP!

“Margaery!” cried Bran, when he appeared in front of us, all covered in snow.

He pulled me into a hug and squeezed like he was afraid if he let go I might escape. Meera started to move away. But I was still holding her hand and pulled her closely so she could help me hug Bran. When he finally relaxed, Meera and I pulled him into her room to show him just how glad we were to see him again. But his body could not do as his heart wanted. He was suffering from magical exhaustion. After we got some food and wine in him, we went back to our room to try again.

Afterwards, we cuddled and caught each other up on what had happened. It seems Sansa had arrived with as many of the people from the Twins that she could save, just yesterday. The Dead had arrived shortly after and this had been the first battle against them. Once we had shared our stories, Bran wanted to see his sons again, and then his sister. When we found Sansa, she was in bed cuddling her Ladies, Mycella and Rosalyn. After the siblings had their reunion, Bran turned to me and announced:

“I need to go back. If they are not just attacking Winterfell, people need to know!”


EDRIC

Bran and I continued battling the wights for several hours. Bran was freely casting Fiendfyre because with the Wight Walkers countering it, It was no longer a dangerous curse to use. Over and over we were casting spell after spell. The Free Folk wizards had long since stopped casting. Jojen was the next to drop out. Bran had already overextended when Margaery died. I had finally reached my limit and was reduced to only using my spear by the time the wights began to retreat.

“I n- need to g- go check if Margaery is still a- alive,” said a shaky Bran.

“Bran don’t you’ll-”

POP!

“-splinch yourself!” I warned.

But it was too late. He’d already gone and I was in no shape to follow. I was practically sleep walking as I ambled into the Great Hall. I didn’t even bother sitting down, I just wolfed down a couple of pieces of bread, chugged a couple of goblets of wine and on autopilot headed for Bran’s room like I always do after a battle. When I opened the door, Arya and Trystane were already there, halfway through the process of undressing each other. The only light was coming from the hallway torches that were shining into the room.

“Oh! Sorry I forgot they weren’t here,” I said.

“You’re still welcome,” said Trystane, as he grabbed my hand and pulled me into the room. “Come on in!”

Arya shut the door behind me as Trystane drew me into a kiss. I kissed him back hungrily as I was in a place where I needed the touch of a living human. While I kissed her husband, Arya was behind me reaching around to undo my buttons so she could undress me. We quickly fell into the bed as the three of us shared each other. In someways, this was better than when the five of us did this, I could more easily tell who I was touching and being touched by. We had reached a lull and were just cuddling, the three of us, when there was a sudden bright light as Bran burst into the room.

“They’re in the Riverlands!” blurted out Bran.

“What!?!” I gasped.

“Sansa’s at Riverrun! She’s safe!” added Bran. “But they just fought off the Others there!”

All three of us hopped out of bed and started frantically dressing.

“We need to tell Jon this!” I said.

“I’ll do it!” said Bran, as he ran off.


JON

By now, I had long since finished coming back from the Dark Side and done that Jedi meditation to suppress my passions. So now I was in the kitchen ladling out some stew for myself. I gave it a taste. It wasn’t very good, but it was filling. I poured myself some wine to go with it. I would eat in here. I certainly didn’t want to try to eat in the Great Hall while the Wildlings were doing that! Bran came racing in.

“Jon! Jon! The Others are in the Riverlands!” shouted Bran.

“What!” I shouted, in alarm. “Tell me it all from the beginning!”


After Bran updated me on all he knew of the Riverlands, I realized I would need to meet with all the Lords to discuss this. But by now, all of them were too drunk or busy to listen. It would have to wait for morning, Late morning.

I stayed up all ‘night’ meditating on this, trying to learn what the Force had to say about this. And It was near time for the ‘noon’ meal by the time I was able to gather all the lords for a meeting on this. I had Bran report all he knew then I summarized it for the lords:

“So there you have it,” I said. “The Twins have fallen and Riverrun has come under attack by the Army of the Dead. We thought the war was only being fought here. But it is clear that Winterfell is just a diversion. I believe they will not stop before they get to Kings’ Landing and will probably continue on past that.”

“Lord Regent, you need to go protect the Queen,” advised my brother, Lord Robb Stark. “This is no longer just a battle for the North. It’s a war for the whole Seven Kingdoms.”

“Lord Robb, if I take my men with me, will you be able to handle things here?” I asked my brother.

“I think we can manage here,” answered Robb. “We’ll have to!”

“Lord Edric, I will need you to make me portkeys to King’s Landing,” I commanded.

“I can handle that,” answered Edric.

What about Harrenhal? asked Ser Roddrick. “Our women and children are there.”

“Right if they’re in the Riverlands, they may be in danger!” I agreed. “Lord Edric, Lord Bran, as soon as I depart, I want you two to go to Harrenhal and make sure our loved ones are safe.”

“What about my OUR women and children?” asked Lord Bracken, a Riverlands Lord. “They are still at our castles in the Riverlands!”

“We don’t know which keeps are still safe in the Riverlands, and which are not,” I told him, as I turned back to Bran and Edric. “After you two have checked on Harrenhal, I would like you to look into the other keeps in the Riverlands, and while you are at it, do this for the North too.”

“I can only apparate to places I have seen before,” answered Edric. “I haven’t been to as many places in the Riverlands as I have in the North. In order to go to other places we will have to travel over land. This weather is too severe for flying.”

“Go to the places you can teleport to before taking any cross country trips,” I commanded.


EDRIC

After I had made enough portkeys to transport all of Jon’s troops, I told him:

“These will take you all to the Gods’ Wood in the Red Keep.”

“Thank you, Lord Edric,” said Jon before turning to his men. “All right listen up! We don’t know what we are going to find when we get there. We might be going straight into battle, or we might not. If there is no one to fight when we get there, I’m going to need to meditate immediately after arriving. If I do that, don’t talk to me! Don’t touch me! Don’t acknowledge me in any way . . . or I’ll kill you!”

Jon left with the first portkey and soon after the rest of them departed. Amongst those that went with them was the Free Folk woman, Ygrette and her baby. Once they were gone, I turned to Bran.

“Ready to go to Harrenhal now?” I asked.

“I’m ready if you are,” answered Bran.


POP!

We re-apeared in the Harrenhal Gods’ Wood. There were no sounds of battle. It looked like someone had cleared a path through the seven foot deep snow from the Heart Tree to the entrance. But the new snow was knee deep already. It was snowing pretty hard and the wind was howling, but it appeared that the tall walls of the castle was blocking much of the wind. After leaving the Gods’ Wood, we quickly found people and everyone seem hale and in good spirits. In trying to find who was in charge, we were soon led to Bran’s brother Rickon, who was trying to be the man in charge while being advised by a woman in very plain clothes. She was obviously of the Wintertown small folk.

“Rickon, the Army of the Dead is in the Riverlands,” announced Bran.

“I’ve seen them!” replied Rickon. “Bunches and bunches of them! They walked past the castle and didn’t even try to get us! I shot a few arrows at them! The ones I hit stopped and looked around, but for some reason couldn’t see me in the castle!”

“This is really good news!” I said. “When I cast the Fidelitus, I was trying to protect our people from other people. I never imagined it would work against wights.”

“So our people are safe,” replied Bran.

“It’s not just that!” I told him. “If the Fidelitus can hide Harrenhal from the Others, it could hide other keeps too!

“We should go back and tell Robb,” said Bran. “If Winterfell were safe we could bring all of them back there.”

“Are you up to apparating so far again so soon?” I asked him.

“Better eat something first,” agreed Bran.

All the Winterfell cooks were here and they served us the best meal we’d had in months!


MARGAERY

It was a few hours after Bran left us again that we heard the hunting horn in the distance. I ran up to the castle wall to try to see what it was. Between the darkness and the blizzard of high winds and snow. I could see no more than twenty feet into the light of our torches. But even over the sound of the howling wind, I could hear the sounds of a large number of galloping horses.

“What should we do m’lady,” asked Osha. “Should we open the gate or not?”

“Open the gate!” I shouted.

The drawbridge came down just in time to let a large group of men on horseback come charging into the castle at full gallop. I ran down to the courtyard to find it jam packed with knights on horseback. There were so many that there wasn’t room for them to move.

“Close the gate! Close the Gate!” yelled a familiar voice coming from one of the knights, wearing the crest of House Tarly.

“Dickon?” I asked. “Dickon Tarly?”

“I am happy to see you well, Lady Margaery,” said Dickon. “I’m afraid I must perform the sad duty of informing you of the death of your father, Lord Tyrell. We are all that remains of the Army of the Reach.”

“What about your father?” I asked.

“Also dead,” replied Dickon.

“My condolences,” I told him, before turning to a servant. “Get bread and salt for the Lord Dickon and his men.”

“There’s no time for that! They’re right behind us!” snarled Dickon, before turning to his men and shouting. “Everyone dismount! We need to defend this castle!”

From atop the castle wall, I could hear the three horn blasts that signified that the Others were on the attack. I raced back up there, Dickon Tarly hot on my heels. Looking over the castle wall, I could see that something was moving out there, but it was hard to see what, until a white spider the size of a hound popped up over the top of the wall! Dickon stabbed at it with his sword. He didn’t seem to hurt it, but he’d outmuscled it and pushed it off the wall. I grabbed a torch and lit it just in time to stick it into the face of another ice spider. It didn’t instantly catch flame like a wight would. But the torch was obviously hurting it, because the heat would melt bits of it away and deform it like melted ice. It also seemed to cause the ice spider pain. All down the length of the wall there were ice spiders coming over it. Sansa had arrived and was blasting them off the wall with balls of fire. It looked at first like they might overwhelm us, but as more and more of us arrived to defend the castle, we began driving them back. I took us hours, but finally the invading ice spiders slowed to a trickle, then stopped.

When I realised it was over I looked around. I NEEDED right now. But Bran wasn’t here. . . Neither was Edric . . . Meera pounced on me and pulled me into a hug. I hugged her back, then kissed her fiercely. She was just as intense with me. When I broke off, I spotted Blossom. I looked at her and told the Child of the Forrest:

“I need you now, I think we both do,”

Meera was nodding along with me and still holding my hand.

“Lets go back to your room,” I told Meera.

As we left the top of the castle, I spotted Sansa hugging Dickon Tarly. But I was not one to judge right now.


SAM

They were all around the city attempting to scale the walls. For the entire length of the city walls, people were defending them with torches, obsidian daggers and muskets. I was leading a platoon on the city wall near the Dragon Gate. My men were arrayed in three lines so the back two lines could reload and a drummer boy made a steady beat so we could do this in a coordinated fashion. We were having good success as every time we fired a volley of obsidian shards at them the surviving wights would retreat for a time, a long enough interval for us to reload and fire the next volley. This was helped in part by the small children and neo-Children of the Forrest armed with obsidian daggers who would stand in front of the line of musketeers and stab the first few wights to attempt to scale over the wall. These children were short enough that The musketeers could fire over their heads. One of them was the Princess Shireen. However, her efforts to aid in the battle were being hampered by her mother, Princess Selyse, who was shouting out a constant stream of pleas for her daughter to remove herself from the thick of the battle.

We had just fired a volley and the lines were switching places, when the wights popped up over the wall more quickly than anticipated. The Princess led the children who were in the front of the front in helping rebel the invaders. But some of them had familiar faces.

“Father!” gasped Shireen as she backed away from the animated body of her late father, Prince Stanis.

He was not the only familiar face. Two of the other wights were obviously the late King Robert and Prince Renley! And another was the former Hand of the King, Lord Stark. Seeing dead men wearing the faces of familiar people shattered the morale of my minute men and we would have fallen in defeat then, if a pair of lightning bolts hadn’t came from behind me to hit both Prince Stanis and Lord Stark!

I turned to spy my good friend Ser Jon Stark, all dressed in black shooting bolts of lighting out of his hands and leading his own troops to re-enforce us. I rallied my men and the battle was resumed as Ser Jon hit the wights with bolt after bolt of blue lightning that instantly de-animated any wight it hit. And his own men were all armed with obsidian tipped pikes that they used to good effect. On seeing her betrothed come to our rescue, the Princess Shireen recovered her courage and gave a good account of herself as she fought on the very front. This went on for hours before the Army of the Dead ceased their attack.


JON

After the battle, I turned to Shireen.

“Why are your eyes all yellow?” asked Shireen.

“It’s a side effect of what I did to myself to make me such a deadly warrior so we could fight this battle,” I explained. “Look, when I’m like this, I’m a danger to everyone. I might even hurt you! I need you to go with your mother, back to the Red Keep where you will be safe. I’m going to the Gods’ Wood to meditate. I need you to leave me alone until I’m done. Can you do that for me?”

“All right,” she said, despondently.

I had to keep myself on constant guard as I escorted her and her mother back to the Red Keep. I was constantly afraid I would lash and at her or someone else. So I said not a word to her and simply walked away from her once we were in the Red Keep. I went to the Gods’ Wood and sat in the snow, under the oak tree that had been the old Heart Tree before Edric revived the weirwood. I could feel the Others out there surrounding the city on all sides, a little further than they would go from Winterfell. The Blackwater bay was frozen and so they were out that way too. On land, I could feel the Wight Walkers raising up more of the millions of dead who had been buried near King’s Landing and adding them to the Army of the Dead. It was even harder than it had been at Winterfell to pull myself back from the Dark side. Oddly enough, feeling a half million people celebrating the victory help me restore the balance in for a time before I started going too far the other way. I switched from the meditation I had invented to pull myself back from the Dark Side, to the Jedi meditation that helped me supress my urges, which were becoming overwhelming. I was still in the midst of this when Shireen walked into the Gods’ Wood, sat down facing me and started her own meditation. I ignored her and finished working on myself until I had restored myself to Balance and was floating in mid-air a few feet above the ground. When I opened my eyes and stepped on the ground, she opened her own and gazed up at me. I knelt down and held out my arms to her. She jumped to her feet and leapt at me so I could pull her into a hug. We hugged for a long time as I stroked her back before I felt her relax and let me go. When she stepped back a little, I put both my hands on her cheeks and looked into her eyes.

“That was a very dangerous thing you did just now,” I warned her. “I told you not to come here, and you came anyway. I might have hurt you!”

I kissed her forehead, and felt her relax in my hands.

“Some of your men say I am the Queen now, Is that true?” asked Shireen.

“Yes I’m afraid it is,” I told her. “With your father and uncle Robbert Dead, you have become Queen. When I was up North I appointed myself your Regent so I could run the war up there. But now that you know, if you’d rather have someone else, like your mother, as Regent, I will understand.”

“I trust you to advise me,” replied Shireen. “So what do you recommend?”

“If you are asking me, I recommend that you keep me as both Hand of the Queen and as your Regent;” I told her. “This will give my the authority I need to lead the war against the Army of the Dead for you.”

“It’s not enough,” countered Shireen. “If I am now Queen, I want you to marry me and become my King. That way, no one will ever question whether you speak in my name.”

“Shireen, now is not the time for you to get married yet,” I told her. “You are still too young.”

We don’t have to consternate,” countered Shireen. “Just want you to be my husband so people will know you’re mine.”

“Consummate. The word is consummate,” I corrected her. “And I won’t do that with you until you become a woman.”

“I’m already a woman!” lied Shireen.

“No. You’re not,” I gently told her, as I held both her hands in mine. “The Force tells me when people say untrue things to my face. You are not yet a woman. Once you become one we can get married.”

I leaned in to kiss her scarred cheek, but she suddenly turned and caught my lips with hers. I squeezed her hands in reassurance and let her have this chaste kiss as long as she wanted. After she broke it off, she smiled at me for a moment before I saw her eyes go hard. She flung my hands away from mine and screamed.

“IF I’M REALLY THE QUEEN THEN YOU HAVE TO OBEY ME! I ORDER YOU TO MARRY ME!”

She then broke down crying and I pulled her into a hug.

“I’m afraid!” she sobbed. “I’m afraid that now that I am Queen other men will want to marry me! Men who don’t love me like you do, but just want to be King! And if you’re away, some man might FORCE me to marry him!”

When she stopped crying, I released her from the hug and looked her in the eye.

“All right,” I said. “I’ll marry you!”

I could have stopped her, but I let her lean forward and give me a chaste kiss. Then I hugged her.

“But there will be NO bedding and NO consummation until you are a woman,” I whispered in her ear.

“Thank you! Thank you!” cried Shireen.