>>FROM:@AEGONNER

[northerndragon]

Tell me about your gods.

If you don't have that kind of faith, then tell me what else you believe in. There must be something.

And if not that, tell me what you think of when you know a battle is coming.

Comments

[northerndragon]

The alliance? For us, oh -- over one hundred years, and about thirty after The Young Dragon's conquest. The first Daenerys wasn't her ancestor -- maybe the sister of an ancestor. The rest of us from Westeros are not of Valyrian blood, and so you don't see some of those names much outside of the Targaryen family, unless someone wanted to flatter them.

The one here is the last of them -- the last Targaryen.

[A skeptical expression crosses his face at that one: he intends that she won't be the last, but neither of them can be sure of the future.

He moves on to explain some particulars of his homeland, and the look on his face falls away, leaving only one that's normal in a serious conversation.]

The North doesn't produce much. Wool, wood, plenty of deer and wolves to hunt, but sometimes the land doesn't yield much... and winters can be hard, if they stretch on three or four years or more. We don't have gold mines like they do in the south, or lush farms like in the Reach -- which is quite far south.

Winterfell... my home [he inclines his head here, remembering his dream]... is relatively central in the North, but it's still 500 leagues from the capitol, and there's not much north of it that's of any interest to southrons... mountains, forests, bare fields, little villages, the seats of a few smaller Houses. The Wall is 200 leagues north of Winterfell. I suppose most of them don't think of it at all. Or if they do, they think it's not worth thinking about, that it's only there to keep out wildling raiders.

Still, I've seen lords from the south who once mocked the Watch go grey at the sight of what we really stood against.

[courtintrigue]

Of course it includes magic. I can feel my power and making use of it requires no faith in anyone else.

If you mean healing in the vein of beneficial potions, then not quite. Herbalism, in my world, can be related to magic but does not require it. There is a popular branch of magic dedicated to spells that will heal and boost a person's natural abilities, but other kinds can summon the elements to your fingertips, a ball of fire or chained lightning. Others still can drain the power from your enemies or slow them to make them easier prey.

But what is your war about? How were you convinced to trade one war for another?

[mylawn]

Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it, I guess.

[dorzalta]

[ He makes it there well enough. Throatily chuckling, Dany leans in closer, til their chests press, and her mouth grazes his jaw. ]

I'd love to see you try.

[ Her hand slips away from him, and she's ducking back, searching for the cowl he'd made mention of. It doesn't take long before she's fiddling with it, attempting to turn it into a sash to hold his shirt together.

Not the most befitting outfit for a queen, by any means. The faintest traces of his scent are on this shirt, and she occasionally catches wind of it. ]

Oh hush, they're absolutely delectable. [ The worst lie, tempered by a light thwack to his stomach as she brushes past him. ] Come on, we'll make the best out of it.

[horsepowered]

Apologies for using the wrong word. [But, poing taken. There are family trees that probably twist and turn as well, something tricky to track and why there are probably men who are paid to track such information.] But I follow you as far as length goes. And flattery, although I have to wonder if the flattery is truly that common.

[At the mention of last, Chiron's face flickers and becomes something more pensive.] That's an unfortunate distinction for anyone to have. [But not one that Chiron feels right commenting on further. No one likes to dwell on that particular sort of information.]

Mm, is there a particular boundary line that defines where the south ends and the north begins? From what you're describing based on the products of each area, it seems to me that there would be a sort of natural line where the farmland tapers off and becomes the realm of shepherds and your own people.

[The impact of climate on who produces what is something Chiron absolutely understands. The required ores to make metal and weapons aren't everywhere in Greece, and a city can be made on reputation for a particular good.]

Out of sight, out of mind. [It's too neat of a summation for the circumstance, but it seems to be a painfully true one.] Is this sight of what the wall is for a relatively recent matter?

[circumspector]

I haven't used it but, I crunched the numbers. Definitely an SMG. Maliwan Hellfire, to be exact. It's got all of the Conference Calls power but way better range. Not to mention with the elemental damage those things pack? Like the slogan says - light some people on fire!

[widow_of_the_crag]

No "my lady." Jeyne, please. You're my goodbrother. I don't want us to be strangers.

[There were stories about the Night's Watch, but usually it spoke about the brave men that protected the realm from monsters and unspeakable horrors. The songs and stories were always more preferable to reality. Those knights that made up the Watch didn't seem to exist, save for in the hearts of some of the men...she hoped.

White Walkers?]

White Walkers are stories nurses tell children. There is no such thing.

[She hesitated, glancing up at him shyly.]

The will wouldn't be with him. He would have left it somewhere safe. I wish I knew, but he didn't accept my presence at his council meetings. [Maybe it didn't, but it was what Robb wanted. That was all she had left.] You bent the knee to Stannis Baratheon?

What about what your brother wanted? You are the only one who can reclaim Winterfell and the North.

[northerndragon]

Jeyne. [He concedes it with a nod.

Much of what she says, he sets aside for a moment, addressing only the most pertinent thing.]

I took back Winterfell and the North, with the help of the wildlings, and the Knights of the Vale, who came to fight for my sister Sansa.

I didn't bend the knee to Stannis -- the Watch doesn't, though he wanted it. But if I had been King in the North when he came North, he would have pressed for it. As it was, he tried to make me Jon Stark and Warden of the North when neither the North nor Winterfell was in his hands to give.

I wasn't made king until after he failed to take Winterfell himself, but it wasn't because of any will of Robb's. It was because we won the battle -- we took it back from Ramsay Bolton.

[widow_of_the_crag]

It doesn't matter if it was because of Robb's will or not. You still did it. You avenged him and you reclaimed the North, you have been acknowledged as king. That's what matters to me. It means that Robb's wishes have been met.

[It might not make any difference, but it could at least reassure her that he might rest more peacefully. She wasn't superstitious by nature, but this was all she could hold onto, the small fulfillment of Robb's last requests.]

Sansa was saved from King's Landing? How did it happen? Who helped free her?

[If only Lady Catelyn could know. After the deaths of Rickon and Bran, it was like a large part of her had died as well. Robb being killed before her eyes had likely done the rest. This would at least have reassured her, knowing that her daughter still survived and returned home.]

What of Arya? Does anyone know what happened to her?