Chapter 16: The Grey Rats
"Why do these old men need me now? It's already chaotic in the Kingdom due to the North not buying anything from us." A man muttered as he climbed the spiral stairs with an old man. "And whatever it was, couldn't they have just told me by sending a messenger?"
"It is of grave matter, Lord Hightower. We couldn't just send a messenger with the details." The old man wearing a dark robe with five chains on his collar, told the lord.
"What is more grave than the North not buying from us and farming their own food? I don't even know how they can farm corps in that frigid wasteland that they call home." Lord Hightower asked the Maester.
Instead of answering, the Maester opened the door and Lord Hightower entered the room covered in darkness. He didn't have to wait for long for an answer to his question as a voice was heard from the darkness "The new we got is graver than you might have thought, Lord Hightower."
"What is it?" Lord Hightower asked the man who came out of the darkness wearing fourteen link chains on his collar.
The man replied "The North, it's developing at a faster rate through unknown methods to us."
"So? What do you want me to do?" Hightower asked him.
"Request the King to send Maester to the North. We must know about this unknown method, the Citadel is the capital of knowledge." The man..
"Esteemed Seneschal, isn't it the Citadel who declined to send Maesters into the North when the King asked you to send Maesters to all the Kingdoms?" Lord Hightower asked, confused.
"Those were my predecessors. I have no hand in it. But right now, the North is thriving and the knowledge to thrive like that is in the North. We are seekers of knowledge and we want that knowledge in the Citadel." The Seneschal told him.
"Alright. I can request the King to allow you to send Maesters to the North." Lord Hightower said, then he asked the Seneschal "Is that all?"
Nodding at Lord Hightower, theSeneschal told him "You can leave, Lord Hightower."
"Thank you." Thanking Seneschal he went out of the room as the Maester who came with him closed the door.
The Seneschal then went to a room adjacent to the room he met with Lord Hightower and when he entered the room, he saw a few old men sitting around a table. One of the men saw the Seneschal walk in and he asked "Seneschal Rigney, did Lord Hightower agree to our demand?"
"Yes, he said that he will talk to the King." Rigney told him.
Shaking his head one of the men said "We should have sent Maesters long ago."
All of them nodded at what he said, and one of the men who had been silent throughout the conversation of the three people opened his mouth "Archmaester Garth, Archmaester Wills, Archmaester Ains and Seneschal Rigney. You all have to remember that, even if the King of the Reach gave us permission to send Maesters to the North. If the King of the North declines our entry we won't be able to do anything. It's his territory, the North is under the protection of Brandon the Ice Eyes."
"Mhmmmmm." The Archmaesters groaned out as they thought about Brandon Stark, King in the North.
"What Archmaester Gideon said is true. Brandon Stark is King who can see through lies easily." Archmaester Garth said, sighing.
"What should we do if he declines?" Archmaester Wills asked.
Tilting his head, Archmaester Ains said "We could just kill him and ask his son for permission."
The room fell silent in contemplation and Archmaester Gideon asked "How should we do that? We have no access to the North and if he dies while we are there, then it will spark a war between the Reach and the North."
"We could hire an assassin. Like the Faceless Men in Bravos." Archmaester Ains said when he got the attention of others he continued "We will have to give a substantial amount of gold to them as the target is a King."
Nodding their head, they all agreed on it "Agreed. Let's hire an assassin to kil King Stark."
Far away from the Citadel located in the Oldtown, in the North the words of the Archmaesters were recorded in the book that Reagan was holding. When the information was fully recorded, the book glowed for a bit and seeing the glow Reagan commanded his men "Stop!!"
"We will camp here today. Set up your tents and relax for the day, we will ride out at dawn." Ordering them he got off from Fenris and sitting under the shade of a tree he started to read what was recorded and after he read it, anger started to rise in him. Feeling the anger from his bond, Fenrir looked at Reagan then suddenly, he looked South as if knowing the precise location of the ones who had angered his bond.
Closing the book, he thought to himself 'Those fuckers! Those fucking rats! They want to kill my father? Yeah right, like that's ever going to happen under my watch. Since they want to kill my father to get into the North to know about the knowledge of getting high yield and other things. For planning to assassinate my father, some heads will roll. Especially the one who suggested that notion. Now for the rest, death is a mercy, I have to destroy their pride, what was that again? "Citadel is the capital of knowledge." Well I'll make sure that name will not last more than a generation. I was postponing the academy in North, for that reason only I had asked my father not to assign a lord to Dreadfort yet. He had his questions, but after some convincing I was able to make him agree with me.'
He was brought out from his thoughts as Alys and Lyanna sat down at his sides and both of them rested their head on his shoulder at the same time. Looking at them, Reagan asked "What's the matter?"
"You looked upset." Alys said.
"Fenris and Snow were restless." Lyanna told him.
"So we understood that something major had happened to anger you." Alys told her brother.
"And here we are to know what made you get angry, which in turn made your pack restless." Lyanna said as she stroked his arm.
Sighing, he told them the information he got about the assassination plan on his father, the King. Alys stood up from his side and told him "Brother, you carry on with your expedition. I'll go south and deal with them."
Before she could leave, he pulled her by her hand and made her fall on his lap. Looking at Alys, Reagan said "Calm down, my Warrior Princess. You are not going anywhere even if you have your team with you. I have a plan, and I will give you the opportunity to kill the one who ordered the assassination."
"You promise?" She asked him looking dead in his eyes, and he could see cold fury burning in her eye.
Touching her forehead with his, he promised her "I promise. We will have the last laugh." Giving her a kiss on her forehead, he continued "Now go and cool off, we need to ride tomorrow."
"Okay." Saying so she left the couple alone and went to where Snow was resting with Fenrir and Fenris.
As Alys left their side, Lyanna told him "She's a fiery one as you have told me."
"Yeah, the wolf blood is strong in that one." Reagan said as he looked at his sister who was grumpily sitting with the large direwolves.
"So what is your plan for the Citadel and the Rats?" Lyanna asked him.
Smiling at her, he replied with a wicked smile "I'm going to destroy their pride and joy, something much worse than death for a scholar."
"What is it?" Lyanna pressed on.
"I'm going to create an academy in the North that would prioritise knowledge like the Citadel, but I'll be introducing magic with the help of the Children and Giants. They deny magic and tell the whole world that it doesn't exist. With the academy, it will be a blow to them as we will be teaching magic which they have been trying to snuff out of existence." Reagan told her.
"Is it only going to be books and magic?" She asked him.
"No, there will be more, much more. And don't ask what they are, it's a surprise," He told her before she could ask him, shrugging her shoulders she asked "Then what are you going to call it? The Northern Academy?"
Reagan told her the name that he had decided for the academy he had envisioned as "Winterhold. The academy will be known throughout the world as Winterhold."
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