Chapter Text
Catelyn Stark, the Lady of Winterfell, had made a lot of mistakes in her life. But the one that cost her the most was made unintentionally. The thing is, in this world, it was proven more than once that magic existed. The Wall, the tales of Others, things which are considered a fantasy by many, were real and beyond what a simple man or woman could accomplish. And where there is magic, there would always be forces responsible for it. In the world of Planetos, these forces were the Gods. R'hllor, The Old Gods, The Storm God, The Drowned God, The seven who are one, all of them existed and made things possible as they wished. Even the Gods of Valyria lived, although without any power and influence. The conflicts between them and their followers were unavoidable, but they actively kept it from going too far. It was because of this that the Andal invasion had been stopped at Moat Cailin, R'llors religion never spread in Westeros, Andalos was nearly wiped out, and things like that.
Due to significant events like them, minuscule things were mostly missed by them, despite their Omniscience. Unfortunately for Catelyn Stark, her prayer in the sept the night Jon snow came down with pox, was not one her or her Husband's gods missed. Jon Snow survived the night, the fever breaking the next morning. Things continued as they were, but a moon after that night, Jon snow defeated Catelyn's son, Robb Stark in a spar.
JOn Snow's dinner that night once again was salted. Still internally weak from the pox, his body was working hard to handle that much salt as he was trying to sleep in the room with no warmth. The fireplace had not seen a scrap of wood for a long time, but the pipes carrying the hot spring water in the room were also empty today. With the small body suffering from cold and the internal stress, it wasn't long before its organs started to shut down one by one. Eddard Stark had no idea that the last living part of his sister, whom he hated more than he loved, was dying a few floors below him as he was dealing with the matters of his Realm. When the moon was at its peak that night, Jon snow's heart started the last battle it was going to lose. It started beating hard, pumping more and more blood through the cooling body and restarting the vital parts. The mind fought on along with it at every step, and they might have succeeded if not for Eddard Stark's behavior till that night. If theLord Paramount had shown Jon snow a little attention, enough to feel loved, he would have fought to live. But with only the love of a newborn Arya Stark, Jon snow's will was not strong enough. The mind went out first, and the body felt still. The heart still tried, sprinting like a horse that knew it was on its last run, but it was of no worth. As the energy reserves dried up and blood flow slowed, it started freezing in the veins. Half an hour after his first organ had shut down, Jon snow's heart gave a final lurch before stopping forever.
Now, in some other case, that would have been it. His cousins might have cried a little, his uncle must have felt regret and would have apologized to his sister's grave, and then the life of Stark would have went on as the Gods had planned, modified a little due to Jon Snow's death. But when Jon Snow's heart moved for the last time the wrold stood still as both the Old gods and the Seven noticed. How could they not? They had saved this young soul lad less than a moon ago and didn't like such a waste of their blessing. The fact that the one who prayed to them was responsible for it rankled the Seven a lot. While the Mother and the Maiden were angry for the act, they did not care much about Jon Snow's death. The other four, The Father, The Smith, The Warrior, and The Crone, though wanted to punish Catelyn. A long argument went on between them before the last, The Stranger intervened. Since the boy who died was the child of the followers of Old God and the Gods of Valyria, all of whom had helped save the child earlier, they should have a say too. Not all of them seemed to like that suggestion, but none of them could refute the Stranger.
The Gods met at the Gods eye, the one place that was used for such meetings. Even though it was the Old Gods domain, ancient treaties made it a neutral ground, which ended up a good thing. The representation of the Old God was quite angry at The Seven. It was their follower that had killed the Song of Ice and Fire, disrupting a lot of destinies. As weak as the Gods of Valyria were, even their anger was something to take note of. Being the youngest of all of them, The Seven could do nothing but listen. After another round of arguments and decisions, they agreed to interfere and change things. The proposal of Meraxes, one of the Gods of Valyria, was to be acted upon. A single follower of each of the Gods would be chosen, with each God deciding what to change by themselves. The Old God put forward the name of Jorah Mormont, while the Gods of Valyria chose Aemon Targaryen. The Seven had a long list of names and deliberated quite a lot. In the end, the Warrior's choice was selected. Ser Jaime Lannister would be the Seven's champion. Once an accord was reached, the Gods left the area again, disappearing to visit their champions.
In Myr, Ser Jorah Mormont, the disgraced knight of the Bear Island, was sleeping after receiving a proposal from the King of Westeros via The Spider. He would be offered a pardon for his crimes in Westeros, in return for spying at the exiled Targaryens. The Jorah Mormont that woke up the next morning was a very different man than one who had gone to sleep a night ago. In the span of hours, he had learned everything that had happened and everything that might have, and the things that he could and would do. Tearing off the offer from Robert Baratheon, he left for the port to take a ship to Bravos, his first destination in a four-year-long trip that would end at Daenerys Targaryen's wedding.
At the Wall in North, Maester Aemon Targaryen fainted in a meeting with the Lord Commander. He was carried to his room. With the nearest maester of the Order being at the Shadow tower, a brother was dispatched to Mole's Town to bring a healer. Arriving, the Healer checked up on the old Maester before announcing that the older man was just too tired, and should wake up after some rest. Maester Aemon did wake the following morning, but nearly everyone thought that something was different in the man. Along with a large smile on his face, the Maester seemed to be moving with much more vigor. Commander Jeor Mormont saw the two unscheduled Ravens fly but didn't bother to investigate. The maester had served the Order dutifully and longer than any other in recent history and was entitled to his secrets. But a day after the Ravens came back, things started changing for worse. The Watch had deserters regularly, but the two days after the ravens arrived, 47 men dissapread together in the night. While the number was a big issue, the name of the people left was a bigger one. They all were Targaryen sympathizers, sentenced to the Wall 10 years ago. His master of arms Ser Alliser Thorne and one of the senior rangers, Ser Jaremy Rykker, had also left, creating a power vacuum in Castle Black. Entrusting Maester Aemon the job to inform other castles at the Wall, The houses in the North, and the Crown, he got busy in handling the Watch, but his troubles were far from over. The next morning the maester told him that he was leaving for Kingslanding. Jeor wanted to refuse, but it didn't look like the Maester would care. Adding to the fact that the reason given was to help the Watch, he reluctantly agreed. Later on, standing at Castle Black's broken walls and watching the Maester's cart disappear on the eastern horizon, he couldn't help but shiver. Something big was happening, and he had no idea what it was. He had also not received any reply about the mass desertion, unaware that no ravens had been dispatched with that news.
Finally, in Kinglanding, something large happened, shaking people in every corner of the Realm. Ser Barristan Selmy, The Lord Commander of Kingsgaurd, died in his sleep. The Grandmaester informed to a sober King that it had happened due to heart disease. A period of sorrow was declared for the legendary knight, and more than a few people cried at the funeral. The Queen was not one of them. She was happy with the death of who she thought as an overblown knight, glad that her twin and lover, Jaime Lannister, would finally become the Lord Commander. She had no idea how wrong she was about the future. Very few people had noticed that Jaime Lannister had not cried once since learning the news about his Lord Commander's death. Even now, he stood apart from the rest of the Order; his eyes fixed on the horizon instead of the funeral ceremony. The Kingslayer had not been seen much during the previous days, too, instead spending his entire time in the White Sword Tower. A week after the period of sorrow was over, Tywin Lannister rode into the city unannounced. Instead of meeting with her daughter, the Queen, he went to meet the King and the Hand straight away, who both seemed quite annoyed before entering the meeting room. No one knows what happened inside it, but the King was quite happy when he came out. Jon Arryn looked confused but not very bothered. Tywin Lannister, on the other hand, some guards swore, was smiling as he left the room with his Eldest son. Cersei Baratheon waited to meet his father, but nothing happened.
Later that night, when she learned that her father had left back for Westerlands along with Jaime, her tantrum was said to have shaken the foundations of the Red Keep. It was a few days later that people found out the main reason.
Jaime Lannister had been discharged from the Order of Kingsgaurd by Robert Baratheon and had left the city to take his place as the heir of House Lannister.