Chapter 4: Chapter 4
"How angry is he?"
"Jaehaerys? I don't think I have ever seen Jaehaerys grow angry." My uncle, the one that was still alive, Prince Duncan, named after that big-ass Kingsguard by the name of Duncan the Tall rubbed at his chin, "I wouldn't say he is angry...just disappointed I suppose. He's always been a quiet one, able to keep what he feels deep inside. I think your grandsires are the only ones able to tell exactly what he's thinking."
I raised an eyebrow, "Disappointed?" I repeated before snorting. I held out my hand and watched as snow fell into the palm of it and melt against the warmth of my body. This was my first time seeing the famous summer snows of the north. Quite a pretty thing to see in truth, "I suppose he can now understand how grandfather felt."
Prince Duncan was the black sheep of the family. Not literally but figuratively. He had been the only one to inherit grandmother's black hair, but he had inherited the purple eyes of the Targaryens. A similar coloured eyebrow rose up his brow as he looked down to me, "Did you do all this to just spite him? I know you and Rhaella are not fond of each other...but to go this far?" He shook his head, at a loss of words apparently.
My face tightened, "I don't want to marry Rhaella."
"You wanted to marry this Stark girl? I don't even think you knew of her."
I hummed, "What can I say? I dreamed about her."
"Truly?"
"No uncle. If father is going to force me to marry due to the ramblings of some old goat, then I might as well decide who is to be my lady wife on nothing more than a whim."
Prince Duncan laughed some then, "Careful now, nephew. That old goat happens to be not so old and a good friend of my own lady wife."
I held back an instinct that came out of nowhere for me to deny the fact that Jenny of Oldstones was anything but a lady. That she was nothing more than one lucky daughter of a gun that had somehow found herself beguiling a prince of the blood.
My face tightened at the thoughts that had raced through my mind at the mention of my aunt. From Aerys' perspective, he had nothing good to say about her. Apart from the fact that she was pretty, but in a common born way, he genuinely looked down upon her. But he was scared enough of Duncan that he never said anything bad about her.
Well, not in the presence of the former heir to the throne anyway.
"I'm sure that old goat was born to make my life a misery, that is all."
Prince Duncan and a company of thirty men had soon arrived in Winterfell just a few days after me and the others had arrived, but far too late to stop whatever 'idiocy' as my father had put it from happening. I was already wed to Branda and by the laws of the realm, even though I had got myself wed in front of a Heart Tree, that was still as legit as marrying in a sept by a septon.
Still didn't mean that I probably should wed again in a Sept just to keep people of my back.
Me and my good old uncle stood atop one of the walls of Winterfell, facing the wolfswood. The summer snows were not so heavy as to blanket the earth that they fell upon, but it still made for a pretty sight.
I ran a hand through my hair, "So how long did it take?"
"Hm?"
"How long did it take for Rhaella to keep her mouth shut before ratting me out?"
Prince Duncan looked at me strangely, "...Ratting you out? Forgive me nephew, but I don't quite understand what you are trying to say."
I sighed, "How long did she wait before telling on me to father?"
"Oh that?" Prince Duncan sounded almost amused, "When we were having our family breaking of fast, of course. Your father was rather curious as to why you were absent. Rhaella couldn't bare my dear brother's look."
"Traitor." I grumbled underneath my breath, childishly crossing my arms like it was nothing.
Prince Duncan laughed, "Oh don't be like that. Rhaella means well. How can she deny her father such knowledge?"
I didn't particularly care that Rhaella was a daddy's girl. She had still betrayed me in good confidence and here I had been planning for her to get together with Ser Bonnifer to at the very least make her happy. The day that Ser Bonnifer had won that tourney and crowned her the queen of love and beauty, I doubt that Aerys-I-we had never seen such a happy and delighted expression on her face.
An expression that had set off all kinds of jolly little warm feelings rushing through my belly.
"Was that the Wandering Wolf himself, I saw you with?" The prince asked as a howl from a wolf could be heard coming from the direction of the seemingly unending woods of the wolfswood.
Another wolf returned the howl before more and more wolves howled into the early morning sky. I nodded my head, "The one and only." I winced as went to touch my sides, "He gave me a battering."
Apparently, my goodfather wanted to see how good a swordsman I was. I don't think I disappointed, but at the same time, I don't think I impressed. I'm more surprised at the fact that I was actually able to use a sword without making a fool out of myself.
I guess I was rather lucky in the fact that I had relied entirely on Aerys' body memory when it came to sword fighting. I needed to improve on that so that I relied less on memory and more on my own skill. It was going to be a complete and utter bitch, that I knew.
In other news, a man as lean and lanky as Rodrik Stark should not be able to hit as hard as he did. It was just unfair and ridiculous on so many levels.
I felt eyes peer at me and I turned my head to see my uncle's own purple eyes look down at me. Yes, look down at me. As tall as Aerys was, Prince Duncan was even taller, "I hope you didn't embarrass me. It wouldn't do much good for people to think I didn't teach you much when it came to the art of combat."
I shied away from his gaze, "That was Rodrik Stark. If you know who he is, what honestly makes you think that I stood a chance? I'm lucky he didn't cave my head in."
"And lose himself a goodson? A royal one at that? I think not." Prince Duncan laughed for a brief moment before quieting down, "You are to have a cousin."
I blinked, "A cousin?" My eyes lit up as I went through the gamut of family members that were married and would probably have children, "So Steffon is to have a younger sibling? Huh." The butterflies were flapping...or not.
I couldn't actually remember whether Steffon Baratheon had a younger sibling from cannon. Perhaps he did have a younger sibling that never survived till adulthood or was miscarried or something. The Baratheon's noticeably never had more than two children, well, until Robert and company came along.
"Your aunt Rhaelle isn't the only one that is married, you realise that, do you not?"
"Hm?" I turned towards my uncle before I blinked as more dots connected. I had so completely forgot about Duncan and Jenny. Once again, I had relegated Jenny to a non-entity without the slightest thought, "...Jenny?"
He nodded, a smile tugging at his lips, "We have kept it quiet for now, but hopefully, we will tell the news at a later date. Perhaps during the outing to Summerhall."
"Summerhall...?" Wait, Summerhall was happening? Well, not happening, but we were going to Summerhall? And from the way Duncan had said it, this was apparently a regular thing.
I scrambled through Aerys' memories for some kind of answer before I realised that once every year or sometimes twice, the king would hold court in the Targaryen palace of Summerhall. Maybe hold a couple of balls and masquerades and feasts and a bunch of other things.
My first chance to actively change shit was soon going to be on the horizon. I needed to get myself alone with Egg and tell him that trying to bring the dragons back was stupid and dangerous and had killed more of the family than nearly anything else. That, and the fact that how exactly would we be able to control the dragons if we knew jack shit about them?
That knowledge had been lost for decades now.
Baelor you fucking prick. How you got anywhere near a throne was fucking beyond me.
I shook my head, "Summerhall eh? I suppose Branda would be impressed by the castle. It's a truly beautiful castle."
Prince Duncan nodded, "Highgarden maybe the most beautiful castle in the Seven Kingdoms, but I believe Summerhall give it a close running for it's coin."
"Never been to Highgarden, so I can't really say."
Summerhall.
I wondered exactly how to approach that particular subject with King Egg. To be honest, I'm sure Egg meant well, he probably did mean well, considering everything he saw about how the smallfolk suffered during his travelling with Ser Duncan.
Truthfully, I actually didn't know what were even Egg's reforms that he had been trying to put through. Mind you though, this wasn't of any fault of my own. This was all old Aerys' fault. The bastard couldn't really have cared any less about the troubles and politicking about the kingdom that he was in line to rule.
No wonder people thought Tywin ruled the kingdom during his handship.
I wouldn't blame them for that line of thinking. Aerys had only used his status as a second in line heir to get privileges and favours from lords. Those privileges and favours coming through in the form of their daughters, sisters, grandchildren and somewhat distressingly, wives.
Worryingly...I found myself not knowing how to feel about all this. On one hand, it was utterly despicable to gain sexual favours in the way he did, on the other hand, the lucky son of a bitch. I actually fealty somewhat jealous despite the sheer questionable consent some (majority?) of the women had in this particular thing that Aerys had going on.
I would be surprised if people didn't think he was the second coming of Aegon the Unworthy. Unfortunately, those people would be rather wrong. Aerys' wasn't the second coming of Aegon IV. Nah, the horny little shit would be even worse that Aegon and Maegor combined.
"Have you thought of any names?" I asked my uncle as we made our way back into the depths of Winterfell. There was to be a feast tonight in celebration of Prince Duncan's arrival.
Well, there had been a feast planned for tonight, but my humble uncle decided for a small dinner in Lord Stark's solar rather than a feast. He was more conscious of the fact that the northern houses weren't the richest houses around in the Seven Kingdoms. That, and a royal feast tended to include a lot of food eaten during that particular feast.
Food that might be better served elsewhere. For people who needed it.
My uncle laughed, "I don't even know whether the child shall be a girl or a boy. Why would I be thinking of names as of right now? Perhaps later when Jenny starts growing with child." I made a sound that sounded somewhat like a hum. I think it was a hum, "How about you?" Prince Duncan asked out of the blue, "Have you thought of any names for the child you shall soon borne with the Lady Branda?"
Actually no. It was still too early for that. That and the fact that we only had sex the once and that was during out bedding. Yes, Branda was very shaggable, but I was going to be with the woman for the rest of my life.
At the very least, I wanted to make a go of knowing her better than I already did. Wouldn't want us to grow weary and then despise each other because we realised we weren't all that compatible...which was now a rather silly thought because you know, I was now married to her and surprisingly, unlike the Faith of the Seven, worship of the old gods didn't actually have anything remotely resembling divorce.
Right, just to make things easier to understand, the Faith of the Seven had divorce, but under very certain circumstances and that only the High Septon could grant the divorce through long deliberation, I.e. whatever amount that was sent into his pockets or whatever bribe that was needed to make him grant such a thing.
Along them lines, the divorce was more of an annulment that wasn't exactly an annulment that was more like a divorce...if that made any sort of sense. Problem is, the divorce, separation, annulment, whatever screwed over the wife and whatever children born from the union.
Let's start with the children shall we? Because at the end of the day, it is always the children that suffer. Not that I'm again divorce mind you. Divorce is always good if it means you won't have to deal with a spouse that won't try to think of interest ways to get rid of you.
See, it sort of went like this. If a marriage dissolved, the children from that union immediately lose their name, their last name and essentially, they become bastards. Why? Because their father would more often than not marry someone else and have children from that union.
Essentially, the entire thing was created so that messy succession crisis would be avoided. I think it worked...probably because of the large social stigma that came with the divorce. It's even worse for the woman due to the honour culture of Westeros, she would be shamed like no tomorrow and her name dragged through the mud.
That, and strangely enough, the Defiled Forever thing would be attributed to them, despite not making any sort of sense since widows can remarry but divorced women? No, apparently, that wasn't socially acceptable as Westerosi would see that something was wrong with them for them to get a divorce in the first place.
It was sort of confusing and I guess that was why women just suffered all the abuse that they did quietly and with dignity, like a proper lady.
Back to the main point though, despite it being early days, I had decided that I liked Branda. She was certainly a breath of fresh air compared to some of the more submissive women that I recalled from Aerys' memories.
Truth be told, she just happened to be a more fiercer Queen Betha Blackwood.
...I don't really know what that meant when it came to my subconscious. I really hope I didn't have an inter-generational Oedipus Complex or something like that.
"The same answer as you uncle. I doubt our one little tumble would be enough to get her with child."
A lone dark eyebrow was pushed up his brow in curiosity, "One?"
"Just the once, uncle."
I left him at that and stew and ponder as to what I meant.
This wasn't my first meal in Winterfell. Having already stayed for the better part of a week, I was already accustomed to the flavours and desirable traits of northern cooking. To be compared with southern foods, it was a bit...lacking to say the least, but that was out of more than practicality than anything else.
The climate of the north didn't particularly lend to it suitable environment for seasonings to be grown. And anyway, the average attitude to food in the north was that if it could cooked and eaten, then that was good enough. Seasoning? Bah, the only seasoning one needs is a pinch of salt or vinegar or wine or whatever is at hand.
The typical northern diet consisted of vegetables, roots most of the time and meat. Nothing exotic as seen from the south. Just enough food to keep someone healthy and not at all sick. It sort of reminded me of British food. Nothing like the French or Spanish or Italian crap. This was proper food for proper people.
Of course, my taste buds had been raised among exotic foods and such, it took me a while to get used to the northern foods that was being placed on my plate and in front of me. If Prince Duncan felt the same when it came to the food in front of us, then he was making a good show of not showing it.
He was the picture of princely charm and I wondered how the Seven Kingdoms would have been like if he had gone onto inherit the Iron Throne. Hopefully, it would have ended being not the disaster that was Aerys' rule...hopefully.
Mind you though, being someone that would eat just about anything, a couple of years at Uni and being bad at money management would make someone willing to eat just about anything that they could find in the fridge that smelled reasonable enough to be eaten, had made me someone willing to taste out new things.
Once, on holiday in Spain, I had thirty clams. They were horrible. I soldiered through it all though. That is how adventurous I am when it comes to the food stuff.
But once again, the northern cuisine was pretty plain and I was pretty sure the strange thing in the middle of the table was haggis. Adventurous? Yes. But adventurous enough for that bullshit? No chance in hell bruh.
Haggis was something I tried once and decided was never for me.
Having already tried everything on the table, I amused myself by checking out the entirety of the Stark clan that had been summoned for this particular little celebration.
Compared to the Starks from the original timeline, there were about a dozen of them seated around the main table. So many in truth I wondered why the hell not there wasn't several cadet families of the Starks. I mean seriously, I could literally count three male Starks that could easily become the Starks of something.
Here's a thing about the north. It was big.
Everyone knew that.
Problem is, it had the second lowest population right behind Dorne. Which meant that the majority of the north was unclaimed. Hell, it was very rare for a territory dispute to rise up between the Houses of the north simply because sometimes, there would be a large amount of land that separated one house from another.
And since it was unclaimed, that land was under the default ownership of House Stark.
Why the hell someone didn't just build a holdfast and give it to a Stark on those unclaimed lands would be beyond me if I didn't actually answer my own question about the low population thing. Yes, Westeros was a feudalistic society, but unlike Earth feudalism, the smallfolk could go wherever they wish, in theory anyway. In practice? Not so much.
Therefore, it was standard among the northern Houses to be rather possessive about their smallfolk. Some new holdfast comes out of nowhere and they have to send their precious smallfolk of another lord? That sort of shit wouldn't stand.
Sort of makes sense as to why there were very little cadet branches of northern Houses around these parts of the woods.
"So Prince Duncan, does your presence here mean that Prince Aerys will be returning to the capital soon enough?" Artos Stark, uncle to my lovely wife Branda who was seated beside me, asked.
My uncle quietly chewed on the food in his mouth and swallowed before speaking, "Unfortunately so, my lord. Sad as it is to say, me and my nephew and his companions shall have to forestall the hospitality of your Houses magnificent castle for the nonce. My royal nephew has duties to attend to back in the capital."
I nearly couldn't stop myself from rolling my eyes. Duties? What duties? I didn't have any duties apart from being an upper-class twit. A rather charming and handsome upper-class twit. Uncle Duncan was essentially telling everyone as diplomatically as possible that my father wanted to have words with me as soon as possible without embarrassing me or my lord father.
That, and to show their vassal House that the royal family was unified in a single goal.
Lord Artos merely nodded his head simply at the reply he received, "I do hope you won't work him too hard. A young man such as the prince does deserve a break every now and then."
There was some political double speaking going on here. Easy enough for me to deduce as that whatever punishment that shall be levied upon my persons better not infringement on my marriage to his niece or stop me from doing my duty as a husband.
Yes, the Starks were all about honour, but these Starks seemed to be more political than future descendants. Or perhaps that had only been Ned.
Uncle Duncan smiled amicably. His smile seemed real enough, "Wouldn't dream of it, my lord."
The following conversations went right over my head. My goodfather said something about bringing a company of guardsmen for his daughter, him leading it. Apparently, he had been wanting to take near the damn contingent of guardsmen from Winterfell but had been swayed with a company of a hundred men.
A hundred men was still pretty excessive though for a household guard in the capital. Then again, considering the distance of the north from the capital and far away from any form of reinforcement, a hundred was a healthy number. Most noble guests in the Red Keep had a household guard that for propriety sake, didn't number more than thirty.
As Branda was now a royal princess, an exception could be made.
Oh yeah, my wife's cousins, the twins Brandon and Benjen would be coming along as well. The twins were near of an age with young Rickard but only a couple of years older. As twins they looked similar obviously and shared some Stark features, but they took after their mother more than they did than their father.
They still had the guarded looking face, but less solemn looking and their eyes were a grey that looked like blue at a distance. The opposite of my own wife which was a blue that looked grey from a distance.
I hadn't interacted with the twins much during my days in Winterfell, but at the few times that I did, they seemed like a solid couple of guys. Brandon the older one was more reserved than his younger brother and kept his chestnut coloured hair cut short, whilst Benjen was the more outgoing one, keeping his hair long that it went past his ears and nearly reached his chin in it's length.
Benjen gained my attention and leaned forward on the long table, "Is it true what they say about the capital?"
I blinked as I tried to recall the conversations that had been happening around me that I hadn't actually been paying attention to. I got nothing, "True about what exactly? A lot of people say a lot of things about King's Landing."
"That you can smell the corruption from miles away."
I had to stop myself from smiling as Lord Artos nearly chocked on his drink, "Benjen!"
Uncle Duncan had something of a wry amused smile on his lips as he quietly ate his own food. I released a sigh I didn't even know that I was holding, "Well, it's less the corruption and more the lack of a decent sewage system...something I ought to see can be done about."
Benjen gave one simple nod as he leaned back into his seat, "Good. I do have sensitive nostrils. I rather they not be assaulted by the stench of the place."
"Oh, they will be assaulted alright." I laughed, "For a while that is."
I was being truthful. Improving a sewer system didn't just happen over night. I had walked past enough roadworks and other such things to know that it took time. And that was with modern equipment. I didn't even know or could make a guess as to how long and how much improving the sewers of King's Landing would take.
I realised then and there that I probably had a lot of work ahead of me. Now I'll admit, I sometimes questioned myself as to why I was even bothering going to do the things that I wanted to do, then my answer would immediately be the ice demons coming from the far north with their army of the undead.
Then my brain would tell me that I can just buy a piece of land somewhere in the Summer Isles and retire there when everything went to hell and possibly never come back. Then again, I would tell myself that the whole 'Long Night' thing was actually a thing that affected the world. Azor Ahai was a completely Essosi thing and yet apparently, the idiot with the flaming sword was involved (possibly, could be the last hero or Hyrkoon or whoever) was involved in the whole banishing the others that was a thing back in the not so good but actually bad old days.
So who was to say that the Summer Isles would be unaffected by the Long Night? Not me since I wasn't fucking George RR Martin and didn't know what the hell was going to happen to the rest of the world.
Since I was going to be actually living here, I figured I might as well go about as making life for me be as reasonably comfortable as possible. Therefore, I would very much prefer it if what was going to be my seat of power didn't smell to the high heavens.
When I had come out of my mental reverie, I had found myself back in my and Branda's chambers. I would admit, I was quite the spacer, but even this was ridiculous.
"I do hope that you actually pay attention in future dinners." Branda told me as she began undoing the laces on the front of her bodice.
I had happened to take a seat on a nearby sofa and enjoyed the free strip show that was being placed out in front of me, "I did pay attention."
She snorted at that as she went about putting on her night dress. A sheer thing in truth. A thing that did something to me which I wholeheartedly agreed with. I tried to bring my eyes up to meet her own. I think I did rather well, "I responded when someone spoke to me, did I not? I think that's pretty good."
"Is that a little trick you pick up at court? The ability to seem like you are not paying attention, but actually are?"
I thought about it. Strangely, that was rather accurate. Most of the conversations that Aerys had been subject to was nothing more than rumours and gossip, something he wholeheartedly engaged in, but some gossip and rumours bored him, so he had developed a rather useful talent of not paying attention, but only paying attention to some of the more important stuff so when questioned, he would act like he had actually been paying attention throughout the whole time.
After years of trying, I had never been able to do such a thing myself.
"Don't worry, I'm positive that you will learn the trick yourself when you come to court. It's a useful thing to know. Most of the people just go on and on and on without end."
Branda had made her way to our rather large bed that was quite a noticeable downgrade in the luxury compartment compared to the one that I had back in King's Landing, "I doubt I'll have the patience for such a thing." She looked at me strangely, "Are you going to sleep on the sofa once more?"
"I've become rather used to it." Like I said, I've only shared our marriage bed once with Branda.
Her face darkened as she frowned. She patted to the empty space beside her, "At first, I thought it was rather chivalrous of you, not to rush into this and at the very least try to know me and I, you. Now I find it rather insulting. Do you not find me desirable?"
I gave her a look, "You were there during our wedding night, right?" I think I more than showed than enough enthusiasm into our marriage back then.
"Forgive me for wondering where all that enthusiasm disappeared to." She patted the empty space once more, "Come along now. If you won't partake in your rights as a husband, I suppose at the very least, I like to think that my bed is far more comfortable to your current sleeping bed."
"Rights as a husband?" I repeated before shaking my head, "Truth be told, I would be hopeful that us joining in our...love...making would be because we both want to, instead of because one of us wants to." Mind you though, if she was up to it, I would be up to it.
Her lips quirked, "Love making?" She repeated, trying to stifle some giggles from escaping her lips, "If you want to say fuck, just say it. I think I have been repeating this for a while now, I'm not so delicate." She patted the space once more, "Now get here. At the very least, I would like to have something to cuddle to in my sleep."
I shook my head in amusement before doing what was asked for me, "By the way, I never took you for delicate after our first night together."
An eyebrow was raised in interest, "Oh, why is that?"
"You snore. Loudly." I stopped for a moment, "And drool as well. Not exactly lady like behaviour."
Safe to say, I ended up on the sofa that night.
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