Chapter 41 - The Blood Revealed.
Chapter 41 - The Blood Revealed.
[Chapter Size: 2700 Words.]
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Third Person POV
Winterfell, 101 AC.
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The Stark party did not leave immediately. They had to wait about a week before the other northern lords began arriving at Winterfell.
The most distant were the Karstarks, along with the Umbers and Mormonts. Some members of the mountain clans also arrived. The Flints had also been summoned to represent the mountain clans.
Soon, the area outside Winterfell's walls was filled with tents. It was summer, so snow was not something hindering any of them, and they made use of the vast pastureland surrounding Winterfell and Winter Town.
At the same time, the Glovers, Hornwoods, Cerwyns, Boltons, Holts, the Flints of the eastern coast, and the Tallharts came to Winterfell to begin their journey south from the Stark castle.
Lord Manderly, despite having arranged to meet them farther south on the road, along with the Dustins, Ryswells, Lockes, Reeds, and other nobles from the southern parts of the kingdom, who would be waiting for the Stark party to continue south and join them as well. Lord Manderly alone traveled to Winterfell at Lord Stark's request.
On the same day as his arrival, three people met within the Stark keep: Lord Stark himself, Lord Donnel Manderly, Lord of White Harbor, and Lyarra Stark. There was something they needed to discuss, mainly regarding the king's latest direct letter.
"That is unexpected," Manderly murmured after reading the letter Lord Stark had shown him.
There had been rumors, but that message... What the king demanded was that the boy also come south so that he could see him personally together with his wolf.
"I know why he's doing this," Lyarra replied.
Her words caught her son by surprise for the first time. "What do you mean, mother?" Lord Stark asked her.
Lyarra did not answer immediately; the woman remained looking out the window. "Wait a moment and you'll see," she said after a brief silence.
The two men still did not understand. They still wanted to debate the reason for the king's strange interest in Jon. As much as he had a direwolf, the only one known south of the Wall, it made no sense for the king to demand to see the boy personally.
"Perhaps he already knows everything," Manderly pointed out. "If he was already so interested in the boy, it is obvious he already knows his entire story and experience. After all, rumors that the boy slew a giant bear by himself must have already spread through the south along with a song..."
"I don't like any of this, Lord Manderly. What do they want with the boy?" Lord Stark continued.
Lord Stark liked Jon and had already made it clear that the boy belonged to the North and was a ward of House Stark. He would not like to see him taken away for some unknown reason by the king... It was one thing for him to live in Winterfell, even if some held prejudice against Jon for being of common birth, but the south would be far crueler to the boy.
"You're all overthinking it," Lyarra grumbled near the window.
It was at that moment that they heard the sound of knocking at the door. "Come in," Lyarra simply said before her son could respond, because she already knew who had arrived after seeing her enter the castle with a few guards.
The two men saw a violet-eyed woman enter, looking somewhat tense.
"Isn't that..." Lord Stark murmured.
"Yes, it's Jon's grandmother, Shirley," Lyarra replied. "I called her here."
"My lady, Lord Stark, Lord Manderly..." said the woman, Shirley, recognizing Lord Stark and Lord Manderly. Upon identifying the Manderly sigil as well, she greeted them all.
"Hello, Shirley. It's good that you're here, because we need to have a serious conversation about something involving your grandson."
"Does this concern Jon's journey? He told me yesterday that he was invited and is eager to go south," she replied with a faint smile. She seemed a little tense.
"Yes, he was invited. And I would have taken him regardless. After all, the boy is very intelligent, and I'm certain he will be excellent company for my heir." Lord Stark said this before looking at his mother. She had called that woman there for a reason, and not stating the reason would only delay whatever had prompted his mother to summon Shirley.
"King Jaehaerys I summoned Jon in a letter. Among all the people of the North, he was the only one named directly. Not even I was summoned personally. All the letters said 'House X,' 'House Y,' just as House Stark needed to be represented at the council by someone who could answer for the house, but they did not mention Lord Stark specifically. After all, not every lord could simply travel to a council."
Although it was rare, they could still send a representative, someone they trusted.
"...But Jon was the only one personally demanded," Lord Stark added.
The woman was nearly shocked. "The king wants my grandson personally at this gathering of great lords?"
"Yes. But perhaps it's because Jon is famous in the North, even though he is only a small child... or because of something I believe it truly is... something involving closer blood ties... Or am I wrong?" Lyarra said this time, watching the woman's eyes widen at her words, while the two lords looked confused by the statement.
"Jon is the king's great-grandson, isn't he?" Lyarra promptly added.
The question plunged the entire room into deadly silence. Lord Stark and Lord Manderly's eyes widened.
"!" Jon's grandmother could not help but tremble.
"I recognize those eyes. They are Targaryen eyes, Shirley. There is no reason to hide this from us. You are not among enemies. We only want to understand why your grandson has just been summoned by the king. We need to know exactly what we are dealing with here. We are doing this to protect Jon," Lyarra explained.
The woman pressed her lips together. She had no desire to reveal that secret to anyone. After all, imagine knowing that an elderly woman living an ordinary life in Winter Town was actually the daughter of the current king.
"Yes... my father is Jaehaerys I," Shirley confessed.
She was already around fifty years old, had lived as a widow for fifteen years, and had spent a good part of her life raising her children until they married as well.
"How?" Lord Stark asked, quite surprised by that information. He had never imagined such a thing, and Manderly was sharing the same surprise as his liege lord.
"It was back when the Good Queen visited the Wall. The king came shortly afterward on his dragon, Vermithor. He stopped to rest and came across my mother's farm in the Lake region, intending only to spend a day there before traveling to the Wall. Well... in truth, he didn't stay just one day. He stayed for about six days..."
"You can imagine that he became interested in my mother at the time. They were together. When he left, she was pregnant with me. My mother raised me alone until she died, when I was ten namedays old. After that, my grandparents raised me until I met my late husband. Then we sold the family farm to establish another one farther south and raise our two children. I always kept it a secret, even from my husband. My mother and grandparents said I could be in danger if anyone found out..." She finished her explanation in a low voice.
"That is surprising, but at the same time still very strange. How did Jaehaerys learn that Jon was his relative? He should also be interested in you." Lord Stark murmured...
"It could have been because of her eyes," Manderly said. "If those eyes are Targaryen, then obviously he would make the connection."
Shirley gave a small sad smile. "I was fortunate that my son inherited none of the Valyrian traits and instead took after my late husband. Jon, on the other hand, inherited Rowena's eye color," she added.
"So... Are we saying that the boy carries not only bastard Stark blood, but bastard Targaryen blood as well?" Manderly pondered. 4
"A strange combination indeed. And to think that the first descendant to unite two powerful houses would be someone who combined them in such a completely random way," Lyarra said with a smile. She looked at her son, knowing the hatred he harbored for the Targaryens, yet he did not seem to care that Shirley was the king's daughter and that Jon carried dragon blood as well...
"That makes me wonder about one thing. Among all of Jaehaerys's seeds here in the North, it's still strange that only Jon was summoned as well. After all, he has a brother, his father, his uncle, and even his grandmother standing before us," Lord Stark remarked.
"Well, that's not difficult to understand. Jon has always been special. You know that." Lyarra replied calmly. "He still hides things from us. His visits to the Godswood every morning, his incredible intelligence, his martial skill... And have you noticed how suddenly perceptive he has become in the last few moons? He leaves every child his age behind and even older boys as well."
Lyarra did not explain anything about the dreams with Lord Manderly and Shirley present. Nor would they understand the secrets carried by a boy only ten years old.
"Either way, we have no choice now. Jon is going south with us," Lord Stark said in the end.
"I would like to go as well," Lyarra said.
Lord Stark raised an eyebrow. "Mother, Winterfell will need you."
"It's not as if the ironborn are suddenly going to invade the North. Nor as if a King-Beyond-the-Wall will appear tomorrow to attack our lands. And I certainly don't expect an invasion of pirates from Essos. Winterfell will be fine without me." She crossed her arms, giving her son a stubborn look. "But I would like to go south as well. I don't like the idea of the king taking an interest in Jon. I'll be there to help him..."
That ended any further argument.
"Nothing bad will happen to him, right?" Shirley could not help but show concern for her grandson.
"Don't worry. We'll take good care of him. Jon is a ward of House Stark, one of the great houses of Westeros. If anyone forgets that, we will make sure to remind them. We will remind them because we are the Direwolves," Lyarra replied.
Shirley nodded, and Lord Stark merely sighed. He knew he could not go against his mother now that she had made her decision.
"Either way, let's prepare. Soon the houses from the far North will finish arriving, and then we will depart for Harrenhal," Lord Stark said.
"Say what you will about the South," Manderly murmured with a smile. "But this journey will certainly be interesting."
Over the following days, Manderly returned to White Harbor to help organize his retinue, and in Winterfell, more lords continued to arrive, gradually filling the castle. Banquets were held every day. Jon met some acquaintances he had made over the years. Some genuinely liked him, while others were merely interested in getting close to a close friend of Rickon, someone near the heir of Winterfell.
Since they did not care much about him personally, they could only see Jon as a ward of common birth. Even so, everyone expected him to become some kind of guard or trusted man under Lord Stark's command in the future, someone whose friendship would be worth cultivating. Especially after he began defeating anyone under fifteen namedays in the training yard.
Jon could mainly notice this among the older boys. Children generally did not possess that sort of cunning, but many boys of fifteen, sixteen, or eighteen namedays who came to speak with him had exactly those intentions.
Before, Jon might not have noticed such things. But thanks to the tremendous boost his abilities had received, he could now see these situations with much greater clarity.
'I will become far greater than they have ever imagined me to be...' Jon said to himself.
In any case, it was an entire week of training and preparations for the journey south.
Lessons and conversations revolved around the southern kingdoms. Harrenhal was the main focus. House Targaryen was constantly studied in Maester Lorren's lessons, and House Stark itself also assigned people to teach etiquette to the children, preparing them to deal with the presence of the royal family and follow the proper protocols.
Bennard was not happy at all about being left behind. His father, his mother, his grandmother, his older brother, and his sister were all going south. Even Jon was going. To him, none of it made any sense. Jon would be present at an excellent opportunity to forge important connections, yet he had been left behind.
His duty now was to remain in Winterfell. His father's order had been absolute.
Benjen Stark had made that clear when Bennard lost his temper because of Rickon's jokes and teasing. The matter reached Lord Stark's ears, and he simply reprimanded him.
"These decisions have nothing to do with you," he said in the firm tone of a lord. "Winterfell still needs my youngest son here. If anything happens to Rickon and the rest of us, House Stark will still need another Stark."
Bennard did not like hearing that at all, but he had no choice except to obey.
In any case, when all the lords had already arrived about three days earlier, the final great feast was held.
It was then announced that they would depart the following morning.
At last, they would go south.
At last, they would see the family of dragons and even the dragons themselves!
The next morning, the procession began to organize itself.
"Grandma, I hope the South is fun," Rickon sang out beside her.
"Of course it will be," she replied with a smile.
Then they began to march. Horses, wagons, and every kind of banner headed south in an enormous procession.
Jon was riding a horse as well. Beside him, Ghost walked calmly.
The sight of the direwolf impressed anyone who looked at him. Many of the men accompanying the procession had never seen Ghost in person, since they had not been to Winterfell in recent years.
Now, as they followed their lord southward, they saw for the first time the enormous white creature walking beside the boy. And none of them could take their eyes off him.
"Look, I was thinking... The Targaryens may have dragons, but you have a wolf, Jon. Rub it in their faces!" Rickon said.
Jon merely raised an eyebrow. "You can't compare Ghost to a dragon, Rickon..."
He had no idea about the conversation that had taken place with his grandmother in the keep. All he knew was that his grandmother Shirley had come to say goodbye to him and insisted that he be very careful in the South. Strangely, she had also asked him to obey everything Lyarra and Lord Stark ordered him to do.
Jon did not understand why there was so much concern.
He knew nothing about Jaehaerys's letter nor the king's specific demand to see him personally. Even so, he accepted his grandmother's concerns, believing it was simply something normal.
In any case, they continued their journey.
Jon let Ghost run ahead of the procession to stretch his legs. The wolf seemed happy to finally be on the move again.
Meanwhile, the march advanced southward at a much slower pace than Jon was accustomed to.
After all, they were not traveling alone. Hundreds of men, horses, wagons, and supplies accompanied the northern procession. Lords, ladies, and heirs were all part of that great company.
Jon rode beside Rickon, close to Lord Stark. The two talked constantly, as did some of the other heirs and young nobles who were also participating in the journey.
For many of them, it was their first opportunity to leave the North.
For Jon, however, it was something even more special. For the first time in his life, he was finally going to see the world he had so often witnessed in his dreams.
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