FicWad

Chapter 51: it spreads to King's Landing
JON

I felt it when they arrived. To me it felt like an unspeakable violation of the Force, not as bad as the Army of the Dead felt, but still bad! It was centered on the Red Keep’s Gods’ Wood and I could feel it, even from here. Once it stopped, I felt the presence in the Force of my sister, shining in the Force like a young star. I walked down to greet them and caught them just coming out of the Gods’ Wood. Ghost was already there.

“Mother! How nice to see you! When did you become a Child of the Forrest?” I asked, as I knelt down so I could hug her.

She was holding the hand of my sister, Edmina, who was almost as tall as her.

“You recognize me? Even with this change?” asked Cat.

“Of course I do!” I replied. “I always know you no matter which body your soul is in. And how is my baby sister Edmina?”

“No!” said Edmina, as she tried to get free of Cat’s hand.

I then, turned to greet each of the others:

“Sansa, it looks like you had your baby?” I said, as I hugged her and kissed her on the cheek.

“I named her Minisa,” replied Sansa. “I left her back at Riverrun with Bran and Meera.

“Edric,” I greeted with a handshake.

“I have a lot to report to you as the Lord Hand,” replied Edric.

“Arya! It’s so good to see you again!” I told her as I hugged her.

“Same with you, Trystane,” I told him, as I shook his hand.

“Oh! And your brought Lady, I see!” I said, as I watched her play with Ghost.

“And Lady Tully!” I said, as I kissed her hand. “What brings you here?”

“I wanted to a private audience with the Queen,” replied Margaery.

“I’m certain Shireen will be happy to meet you all!” I told them. “Follow me and we’ll go see her.

Cat was shocked to find out that Shireen and I were married. But it helped that Shireen told her it was her idea. Shireen was very much impressed with my family, especially Lady and Edmina.

“Why didn’t you bring Nymeria?” asked Shireen.

“She’s at Riverrun mating with my other brother’s dire wolf, Summer, your Grace,” said Arya. “We brought Lady here because we want to mate her with Ghost.

“And then she’d have puppies!” squealed Shireen excitedly. “Oh! I want one!”

“We’re breeding them because they are better than horses for riding in the snow,” replied Sansa. “But I will see that one of Lady’s goes to you.”


While Margaery had her private audience with the Queen, I took a spare moment to have a heart to heart talk with the step-mother that raised me.

“I was surprised to see you come here so soon, Mother,” I said. “What brings you here?”

“I’ve come to realize that your father was right when he declared that I had died birthing Edmina,” began Cat. “Margaery may have been able to save me by putting me in a plant duplicate of her body. But it made Bran uncomfortable to see his mother in a copy of his wife’s body. The few times we met, Edmina was constantly mistaking Margaery for me. And since we didn’t tell Rickon because he was too young. He grew up thinking I was a servant and that his mother was dead. And she is. When you sent all the women and children away, I sent Edmina away so she’d be safe, but I stayed, because I thought you and Robb would need my advice. But you didn’t. You two are all grown up. And when the Others almost took Winterfell. I ended up in a new body in Riverrun. This one, the body of a child. I found I fit in at Riverrun even less than I did at Winterfell. Margaery is Lady Tully now, not me. Even the real Children of the Forrest didn’t like me. So I came here with my daughter for a new start. Margaery says that there are more people like me here, Children of the Forrest that were born human. And I brought my daughter, Edmina, with me because she’s not a Stark and because you told me you could train her to use your Force. I want to be a mother to her while she fosters with you. And I want a chance to make up for the kind of mother I was to you when you were younger.”

“Well I’m happy to have you here,” I told her. “I’m sure Shireen is too.”


EDRIC

When I made my report, the Lord hand Jon Stark deemed it vital that the Fidelitus charm be placed on Kings Landing as soon as possible. He told me that the Army of the Dead outside the city numbered in the millions and could make another attack any moment. And so, like at White Harbor, I had to walk the entire length of the city walls casting the ward that would keep sound in. Then I cast a sonorous charm so that Everyone in the City would be able to hear the Queen when she told them the secret. Then I cast the Fidelitus Charm. And after Shireen told everyone in the city the location, I finited the sonorous on the Queen.


JON

The instant Edric finished his spell, I could feel the wights wandering off in every direction. It had worked! For our evening meal, I invited many of the leading subjects for a little dinner party. Food was strictly rationed, so everyone would only be getting their normal amount of food and drink. But we had some musicians play that music that Joffrey wrote before his exile. It was soft and conducive to conversation.

It was no surprise to me that Arya and Trystane ducked out of the party. They didn’t like these sorts of things. Arya had given me a valerian steel bastard sword and she had a valerian sword of her own that she wanted to have melted down and made into a copy of the sword I had given her, Needle.

“I’ve like you to meet my best friend and his wife,” I told Cat. “This is our Master of Laws, Samwell Tarly and his wife Shae Tarly.”

“You’re .. . .You’re like me!” gasped Cat, when she spotted Shae. “Both of you!”

“Sam, Shae, this is the woman who was a mother to me, Caitlyn Stark,” I introduced her.

“Just Cat,” corrected Cat. “Caitlyn Stark was who I was before I became this. I no longer claim the Stark name.”

“It is an honor to meet you Lady Cat,” said Shae, with a curtsey.

“Indeed it is,” said Sam, as he kissed her hand. “You have raised a fine man that has proven to be a great leader through this current crisis.”

“That is a nice, dress Cat, who made it for you?” asked Shae.

“I made it myself,” replied Cat.

“Oh, that’s wonderful!” exclaimed Shae. “I made mine too, but I’m not as skilled a seamstress as you are.”

“We should get together and sew!” offered Cat. “I would be happy to show you a few tricks.”

My mother had obviously found a friend already.


EDRIC

Sansa and I were enjoying the party when a red-haired woman wearing practical clothes for fighting, a leather shirt and pants, walked up with a dwarf, dressed more elegantly.

“I understand that you are the man that hid the city from the Others?” asked the Dwarf.

“Yes I am. Lord Edric Peverel, former Lord of the Twins, and a wizard.” I introduced myself. And this is my lovely wife: Sansa Peverel. She’s a Witch and can do many of the magic things that I can do.”

“I’m Lord Tyrion Lannister, Lord of Casterly Rock and Master of Coin,” he introduced himself. “And this is Ygrette Greyjoy, my late wife’s widow.”

“Oh! The ‘Rock of the Rock’!” exclaimed Sansa. “You were the Rock Wife!”

“That song skips over a lot of detail, like how difficult it was to convince the maester that Yara was not pregnant, so that when she did become so, the child was definitely true-born. Ygrette didn’t have to deal with any of that shit. No one cares whether her son’s are really mine. Anyway, if you can do magic, is it possible for you to do some and help us retrieve our children?”

“I’m sorry, I can only apparate to places I have been to before, the slow way,” I told him. “And I’ve never been to Casterly Rock before.”

“You know nothing, Edric Peverel,” said Ygrette. “They’re not at Casterly Rock, They’re at Pike.”

“Hang on,” I said, before apparating away.

POP!

Once I was back at Pike it wasn’t long before I met a man named Tomen Waters who identified the three children of Tryrion Lannister for me and insisted on going back with me. I made a portkey that was targeted at the ballroom I’d left. Hopefully, Sansa had cleared a space for me to return to. When the portkey stopped spinning, Everyone was looking at us, dumbfounded, especially Tyrion and Ygrette.

“Our Children!” exclaimed Tyrion as he and Ygrette reached to take the children from us. “This is my daughter: Asha Lannister, and my son: Gerion Lannister, and my natural born son: Tyshan Hill! Mister wizard you have our eternal gratitude, anything you ask of us shall be granted and a Lannister always pays his debts!”

“Hill . . . isn’t that a bastard name?” asked Sansa.

Have you got a problem with bastards?” warned Ygrette.

“Not at all,” replied Sansa. “It’s just that we don’t have bastards in the Riverlands anymore. We did away with the whole concept. As far as we’re concerned if you came out of your mother, you’re true-born! Margaery is trying to convince the Queen to make it true for the whole Seven Kingdoms!”

“That sounds like an idea I could get behind,” praised Tyrion.


MARGAERY

Late at night, after the party, we took Lady and Ghost to the Gods’ Wood to mate and Edric cast his spell that would put Lady in heat. The next morning, when we were breaking our fast, Sansa and Jon kept avoiding looking at each other and if their eyes did meet, they would blush and turn away from each other. I can guess who had wolf dreams last night. It was hilarious!


SAM

“My wife, Shae has made the acquaintance the stepmother of my good friend Jon Stark. Like us, she has been transformed into a neo-Child of the Forrest. Cat and Shae instantly became the best of friends.

The Lord Hand’s mother had arrived here with the Lady of the Riverlands, Margaery Tully. Lady Tully has recently spearheaded a series of radical reforms in the Riverlands and the North and has convinced the Queen to adopt these reforms throughout the Seven Kingdoms. Currently, we are debating their merits in her Small Council.

“Well, I’m all for this!” announced Lord Tyrion. “If this becomes Law, Ygrette’s children can be Greyjoys And Yara’s daughter can be my heir.

“Paternal descent had been a cornerstone of this society since the coming of the Andals,” protested Grand Maester Pycel.

“Since I now partake of both natures, this seems a fine idea to me,” I said. But might I suggest, if bastard will now be given family names, why not give everyone a family name? The small folk could take the name of a place or their profession or even make up a new name. It would make the city easier to administer.”

“It don’t make no difference to me which side a the sheets you were born on,” said Ser Davos. “Doin’ away with bastardry seems a fine idea to me.”

“I have personally lived the life of a bastard,” said the Lord Hand Jon Stark. “My childhood would have been a lot easier if I had been assumed to be my mother’s true-born son.

“Thank you, my lords, for your advice,” announced the Queen. “But I am determined to see this become law, if not now, then, when I gain my majority, you can be assured that I will see this through.”

“As Regent, I endorse the Queen’s command,” said Jon Stark. “This is now the Law of the Seven Kingdoms.”


MARGAERY

When I checked the Fleabottom Gods’ Wood, all the birth blossoms were dead. I had preserved the original bodies of the people I had transformed for a nefarious purpose that I hadn’t thought up yet. But it was too late for that. For the people I had done this to, there was no going back.

I also checked in with Big Byrony. She had done well with running my criminal empire and had saved my cut for me. But money is not of much value outside of King’s Landing now that the world has ended. I told her to re-invest it in the business and keep running things as she had been.


TRYSTANE

“Are you excited to find out what your new sword is like?” I asked my wife. “Or is it that Journeyman Blacksmith that has caught your eye?”

“I think I would like to go back for that sword alone,” announced Arya. “I’ve still got moon-tea and Gendry seems like a fun person to need it with.”

“All right. Have fun,” I told her. “I’m going to check to see if the Shadow Cabinet is still active here.”

I kissed her goodbye and danced into the wereworld, fighting my way through the blinding sandstorms as I went from butte to butte. I found that Fleabottom had been burned down and re-built, including an ominous building with the sinister symbol of the Square and Compass on it! I danced through the walls to look around. No one was there, so I started looking through the Secretary’s desk. I found a list of new members and looked through it. It greatly surprised me to see so many female names on the list. I thought this branch of the Shadow Cabinet didn’t admit women? The only familiar name was Lord Varys. So the Master of Whispers is an agent of the Shadow Cabinet? Why am I not surprised? I continued to poke around a little more, but found no signs of anything weird like: six foot talking crows.

I made it back as Arya was walking out of the Street of Steel, a pair of swords on her hip. One was Needle, the other was a shiny new copy of it, made from valerian steel. I shifted into her reality in front of her and both of her swords were at my throat before I could blink.

“I guess you like your new sword?” I asked, as she pulled them away from me.

“It’s great!” gushed Arya. “Even better balanced that Needle! And there was enough left over to make me some more arrowheads.”

“How was your blacksmith?” I asked her.

“Good,” said Arya. “How was your whore?”

“Just good?” I asked.

“There’s not much more to say,” replied Arya. “We fucked. It felt good like fucking always does. He thought I was good enough that he asked me to marry him. I told him I already had a husband and I thought he was good enough that I invited him to be my second husband. But when I explained everything about what we’re like, he passed. How was your whore.”

“I didn’t get a whore, I snuck into the local Shadow Cabinet base,” I told her.

“Find anything interesting?” she asked.

“They’re starting to allow women and they have more members of the Small Council in their ranks now.” I said.

“If they’re letting in women, maybe I should join?” mused Arya. “It’s too bad we’re not staying here.”


JOFFREY

We were all ready to break into that city and kill everyone in there. For weeks the Masters had been raising more of us. And now there were millions of us, all ready to finally take the city!

But then, suddenly we forgot where it was! Why were so many of us gathered in one place? The masters sent us out to take the whole of Westeros! We started spreading out in every direction. My group, started heading south. There were people to kill down that way. And I had my dagger to kill them with!