Chapter Text
283 A.A.C.
Ned
He walked through the hall and out of the gates, and kept on walking till he reached the ironwood doors of the Stark's last resting place. It all looked the same yet everything was different, for the first time ever the crypts felt unsettling,
The descent was dark and cold, it had always been but it had felt like home, like a safe harbour once upon a time, now the dead were too close, too real, the faces staring back at him were too hard to look at. He avenged them but he gained nothing he wanted, no peace, no closure, just questions and regrets.
He stood before their graves, weathering the storm that was his mind, their memories tortured him.
He was angry, at his father for answering the King's call, at Brandon for being so reckless, so thoughtless, such an idiot, for knowing how mad Aerys was and going to King’s Landing anyway, for leaving them to deal with this mess on their own.
It was easier to forgive him though, he knew what he did and why, as stupid as it was, he just wanted to save their sister. What had she wanted though? To run away from Robert, from them? Did he trick her? Did he lie? Did Rhaegar just lose his mind?
He wished he could face them both one last time, he wished Rhaegar had lived long enough to see what he had caused, he wished she had, he wished he could yell at her, hug her, hate her or forgive her and just be done with it. He wanted to understand, he wanted to stop being angry, he wanted to be angrier still.
It hunted him, the knowledge that he would never truly know what happened, so many pieces of the puzzle were missing, the only person that could answers all his questions was her and she was dead, all he knew for sure was that he hadn’t really known his sister as well as he thought.
But he needed to move pass it, otherwise it would eat him from the inside. He took a deep breath and opened his eyes, not knowing when he closed them.
- I need to let you go – he said, the stone faces couldn’t answer, they weren’t alive, but he was, and he couldn’t stay here with them - Goodbye
He walked back out, towards the light, towards the living.
The North awaited.
……………………………………………
First thing first, he paid all the soldiers, healers and camp followers that hadn’t been paid yet, and just as he suspected the coffers took a big hit but it wasn’t as dreadful as he thought it would be, a good portion of the people, mostly the commoners were more than happy to be paid in food, wool, healing herbs and even permanent housing in Wintertown. It still left them in a bit of a tight situation but the new garden harvest was close enough that they took the risk.
As always, Lord Manderly showed himself to be of great assistance, helping distribute the goods accordingly.
Ned debated with himself for a while but eventually arrived at the conclusion that whatever his Lord Father did, he had to have help from Lord Manderly, it was him, after all, who send their taxes to King’s Landing.
He was careful on his approach, not wanting to offend the man, but he simply laughed and sat him down, along with Ben, Catelyn and Ashara, called for Maester Luwin and patiently explained it to them.
- Well, it started with the oh so Good Queen Alyssane, I’m sure you know the story, she visited the Wall with her dragon, Silverwing, and was so impressed with the Night's Watch she convinced her husband Jaehaerys to double their land, extending it a further twenty-five leagues south. The villages that exist in the New Gift would pay their taxes in goods and labour to the Night's Watch, helping feed and provide food for the brothers. The Starks of Winterfell at the time were angered at being forced to surrender the territory of course, as they believed the Night's Watch would focus their attention beyond the Wall and would neglect the New Gift. Lord Stark's brother sought legal guidance from the Maesters of the Citadel to avoid the forced donation to no avail.
- Our ancestors were right – chimed in Benjen – The Night's Watch had started to fall in decline since the Dragons came and conquer but the New Gift was the last nail in the coffin
- You’re absolutely right my young Lord, the Night's Watch benefited greatly from being a well known neutral party in a Land of several Kingdoms constantly warring with each other, by the time Alyssanne landed in their gates they still had most of their numbers but not the resources, their Lord Commander was eager to receive the new land, thinking it would fix everything, you know how southerners are, they come and they think they know better – He let out a warm chuckle, amused at his own comment - They couldn’t properly protect the settlements in the New Gift so the people abandoned their homes and fled south, which led to the Night's Watch having even fewer resources than before, which led to even more attacks from wildings, which led to more people leaving, it was a never ending cycle.
- What you probably haven’t thought about is that it didn’t just affect the New Gift, all the people living nearby started moving south, that’s how Sea Dragon Point was abandoned in the first place, the only places farther north that remained populated belonged to the Lords that either had some natural protection like the sea or the mountains or were powerful enough to deal with the constant onslaught of attacks, and even they suffered greatly, and the entirety of the North with them, within just two generations the North had lost a third of its territory and population without losing a single war.
- What does that have to do with taxes? – inquired Ashara, always impatient to get to the point of things
- I’m getting there my Lady – responded the round Lord, as affable as always – The Dance of Dragons is well known too, I don’t need to remind you, Cregan Stark was hand of the King for a day and put thing to rights, well, since he was already there and in a position to help he decided to alleviate the strain for the North, help it return to what it once was, so he reformed our tax laws, it was a very simple thing, only adding an extra line of writing on the parchment, and only for the North of course, so instead of paying taxes for our overall income, any coin used to build, rebuilt or improve any settlement throughout the North doesn’t need to be counted.
- And Father never stopped building
- Indeed, and I would advise you not to stop either
- How? – argued Catelyn with a worried face - We were left with little funds and trade came almost to a halt because of the war, it would take some time to pick up again, we’ll have to stop at least for a while
- The harvest will come soon, and without an army to feed and peasants to shelter we’ll have more food than we could ever consume, and we just learned that our people are perfectly willing to work for goods instead of money – Answered Luwin in his never ending wisdom
- Not everyone will agree to work for food, it would restrict our options – spoke Catelyn again, but she was thoughtful now, the idea had much merit – Masters of their fields would want to be paid in coin, that leaves out glass gardens, the glassmakers would want silver
- Roads – he said, first like a whisper then again more firmly – Roads! that is what we need, it took 3 fortnights just to get our armies to Winterfell, and it wasn’t even the whole army, the distances are long but lack of proper roads just made it worse, we need new ones but for now we can focus on the old ones that are almost unusable for lack of care
- That would do wonders for trade too – Ashara exclaimed excitedly – we could move goods from coast to inland and back more swiftly
- And if we only focus on the old ones for now, we won’t need a cartographer, just a master builder, maybe two, we can afford that much – finished Ben
It would be good for the North overall, it had to be, the war had set them back almost half the steps that they had moved forward. The population that had been steadily growing for the past 20 years found itself reduced once again, production of goods was relegated to a minor role and trade had been momentarily forgotten. He needed to fix it, his father’s legacy had to endure, Robb would get the North his father had always dreamed of.
They would start with roads and once their coffers filled again, they would build glass gardens in all villages and town throughout the North, and walls to protect them, the North would grow and it would get stronger.
284 A.A.C.
Ashara
The invitation to Robert’s wedding was unavoidable so she planned for it, Ned refused to go back south so Ashara and Benjen would go in his place. She had insisted but not because she wanted to go, Doran had sent her a letter, he wanted a marriage between Stannis and Arianne, Lord Arryn had agreed to take the matter to Robert but Doran suspected the man would advise the king to make a different offer, that would not do, or so the letter said. It was her job now to convince Robert.
She was wary, Doran was often overlooked but he was as much of a snake as Oberyn, there was a chance that all he wanted was to make peace with the new crown and to protect the interests of Dorne, there was also a chance that he wanted revenge.
She was starting to understand her brother Arthur a little bit better now, it was hard to stay loyal when you had more than one person to be loyal to.
They left Winterfell on the beginning of spring and made their way to White Harbour, their welcome was a bit over the top, or what could be considered over the top in the North, but then again, why not? The Manderly’s were quite happy with them now that the position as castellans of Sea Dragon Point was theirs once more.
They took a ship to King’s Landing and the winds were kind enough to make their trip a swift one. She wished it had not been so, she hated that place, now more than ever, and apparently, she wasn’t the only one.
Once upon a time Benjen would have been thrilled at the idea of visiting King’s Landing, now, with the knowledge of his family’s fate, the idea had no real appeal to him, the closer they got to the city the more sombre he became. The last year had made him much more sombre overall.
She considered his lack of excitement a good thing when it turned out that he hated the city, in his own words it was hot, humid and smelled like shit.
- Why does it smell like shit? – he asked truly offended by the odour
-Too many people
-There is a lot of people in White Harbour and it smells nothing like this
- too many disgusting people then – he pouted at her, unsatisfied with the answer, it was cute but she was nice enough not to tell him that – People here just throws their waste on the streets and let it pile up
- If you do that in the North you’ll get arrested. And it’s such a waste, that’s what the brown beds are for.
They arrived at the Red Keep surrounded by Baratheon guards, and were welcomed by Robert himself, loud and exuberant like always, grumbling about the fact that Ned wasn’t with them.
-There is much to do in the North your grace - of course he did not listen, but what else was new? Robert marched at the beat of his own drum, everyone just had to follow.
They moved inside and dispite the fact that she probably knew the place better than he did, he showed them every corner of the castle, happy to have an excuse to avoid anything wedding related.
She took the opportunity to talk about Stannis. The sooner that got settle the least time she had to change her mind about it.
- Jon wants Stannis to marry the Reach – he confessed uninterested
- The Reach can’t oppose you Robert, you have five kingdoms on your side and the Tyrells barely have their own now, they got their position from the Dragons, the dragons are gone, in order to fully get The Reach you would need to make peace with almost every single major family individually. The Martells were as mistreated by the Targaryens as we were, better to just make peace with them and get all of Dorne on your side – she really, really hoped they were planning to be on his side - You already made Stannis Lord of Dragon Stone, name him prince and temporary heir and let him marry Arianne, if the Reach tries anything, they’ll be surrounded on all sides
- fine, whatever, I’d rather not deal with the Reach anyway
And surely that was just too easy, not that she was complaining. Her conscience was though.
They spend the rest of the day drinking in the garden along with ser Barristan, their guard Rickard Castel and some Storm Lords Robert seemed fond of. It wasn’t even close to the first time she saw him drunk but somehow his merry drinking didn’t seem quite so merry anymore. She ignored it though, they had all gone through a lot, they needed time to heal.
They were in the middle of the ninth bottle, with most of Robert’s Lords already gone and Bejen practically unconscious over the table, when Jon Arryn came the fetch the King, and hard as he tried, he could not completely hind his displeasure at the news of Stannis young bride.
- Stannis should marry someone old enough to give him heirs, Renly is almost the same age, more sociable as well, he would be a better match
“True enough” she thought “but he’s second in line, Renly would not be enough”
Luckily Robert was feeling stubborn, and drunk as he was he would not listen to reason.
-I made my wishes clear, the decision is final, there be no discussion about this.
So everything was settle, without a hitch or drama, it was quite the surprise, maybe they could go thru with the wedding in peace.
……………………………………………
And of course she spoke too soon.
King’s Landing had always been a nest of vipers, a new King wasn’t really going to change that. She could hear them all talking about poor crispy Elia, Elia who couldn’t keep a man by her side, despite coming from Dorne 'the land of the whores', about Lyanna the “adducted”, more like the desperate, better a Prince than a Lord. But somehow those were better than the dull, fragile, spineless versions some people seemed to choose for their portrayal.
She wanted to go home.
……………………………………………
The wedding was so magnificent that it almost made up for the fact that Cersei Lannister was even more unpleasant company than before. The obnoxious and petty little girl who used to look down on Elia was now obnoxious, petty and smug. Ashara had half a mind to poison her drink just to wipe that haughty look of her face but in the end reason won over her annoyance and she decided to simply leave the table and dance with Benjen instead.
Not that she had any other options for dancing partners, anyone she danced with would be named her paramour come morning by the gossiping crowds. She almost regretted being so cavalier about her conquests back when she was part of the court. Almost.
Bejen didn’t seem to mind though, or if he did, he was very good at pretending otherwise.
They talked while they danced, apparently Benjen thought Robert looked sad, she thought he looked angry, but it mattered little in the end, he was married now.
-Silence, Silaaaeence the lot of you, I have an announcement to make – came the bellowing voice of their gracious king – Where is my brother? get him over here! Oh! there he is, were you brooding in the corner? – and really, his lack of manners would seem rude on anyone else but Robert was granted the best gift the gods had ever given, pure, irresistible charm.
Stannis was named Prince, temporary heir and Lord of the Narrow Sea, and if his face was any indication, he was truly unhappy with the new titles, as if it had been meant as an insult, he probably thought it was, that man seemed ridiculously petty, honestly, he was probably the most unpleasant man she had ever met, never one to smile or even laugh and naught a kind word ever left his lips throughout the entirety on the day. But his complete an utter lack of charm was the least of his faults, no, it was the gal of him to get offended at absolutely everything everyone did or said all the fucking time when he himself was so difficult to deal with.
She remembered her Ned telling her how much he respected the man. She wondered now if he only talked about respect and nothing else because he didn’t like him either. She was starting to feel horribly guilty about setting him up with Arianne.
- Ned always said he didn’t know how to interact with people – whispered Banjen in her ear – maybe he is thankful but doesn’t know how to show it?
It didn’t matter, they would return home soon, with some luck they would never have to return here again, and with even more luck she wouldn’t come to regret her part in Doran’s machinations.