"I am just saying that because I am your friend, I saw you looking at the Hightower girl, that woman will be your downfall, trust me in this Jorah." I try to convince him.
"She doesn't look like she can cause any harm, and she's gorgeous," he said back.
"That is the only good characteristic she has and that is not a foundation for a good marriage, not even a decent one, she was born and raised in Oldtown with all the luxury and comfort the house Hightower can pay for, do you think that she will adapt to the lifestyle of house Mormont?" I argue, and he looks down ashamed.
"I'm not trying to shame your house Jorah but let us talk truthfully, House Mormont can't spend in Vanity what the Hightower can, and if it's any consolation, you would get that marriage easy." I put a hand on his shoulder, he smiles softly.
"I thank you for your advice, it would be unwise to not heed the word of the most powerful wizard this side of the narrow sea." He says with a tease in his voice.
"This side of the narrow sea, preposterous, tell me the name of this wizard in Essos that claim to be more powerful than I, and I shall, fuck him over." I finish dramatically, he smiles again and shakes his head.
"I need to get ready for the Jousting, wish me good fortune."
" Fuck wishing good fortune, I am betting on you, so if you lose, I will turn your arse into a bear, be warned, Ser Jorah."
"There are worse animals to be," he says as I start to leave the tent.
As I walk to the Royal booth, I receive salutes from soldiers around both stromlanders and northern, after the end of the siege of Pike I had a lot of soldiers to heal, after all, they had to fight their way to the great hall, and the Ironborn put a good fight in close quarters, so yeah I am quite popular with the soldiers. The nobles, on the other hand, are pestering me for other reasons, as soon we arrived, king Robert showed all his war painting, of course, the vain nobility loved the art, and fanned over the craftsmanship, but when he screamed his house words and the painting came to life that made them lose their minds.
When they heard the price though, many backed down, more than enough stayed, I have two paintings for house Hightower one for the Redwine, Lord Lannister is sure to ask another two or three just to show up the Hightower and the Tyrrells will not be far behind, with the price of 3 million golden dragons each magical painting.
I believe I will have at least 18 million to start my noble house, the tournament will be lasting 3 weeks, more than enough for me to make two paintings, today is only the start of the tournament I'm sure more will come.
I approach the royal booth and everyone is already sitting at a long table with all types of food, there are two side tables as well, and the booth is exactly in front of where the two knights will meet, the king is sitting in the middle of all, and to his left is an old man with the hand brooch on his chest, the old Falcon, Jon Arryn, huh I was expecting him on the siege of Pike but he wasn't there, too old for war maybe, more to the left is Ned, and Wylis Manderly is with him, on the right side, sits the royal family and the rest of the Lions.
First to the right is Cercei and damn, she's beautiful with golden long hair, green eyes, and a body that just has all the right curves, she is gorgeous, but behind all the beauty I can see the beast, you can see in the eyes the contempt and spite for everything around her besides house Lannister, on her lap is a young boy with green eyes and golden hair, it's the little shit Joffrey Lannister, well he's probably 3 years old now so maybe he is not a psycho yet but he will grow.
To the right is not Charles Dance, well My disappointment is immeasurable, and my day is ruined.
Lord Tywin Lannister, is bald has bushy golden side whiskers and pale green eyes flecked with gold, surprisingly fit for his age, and is just sitting there menacingly, he looks at me and gives a light nod without breaking eye contact, and I know I can turn him into a meatball but his presence is just threatening, I don't know, I feel uncomfortable, I return the nod.
Besides him sit a very small young teen with blonde hair and miss-matching eyes, Tyrion, he not quite hideous as I expected, he is worse than Peter Dinklage but better than the book, he seems to be trying to be even smaller and undetected, poor guy.
"ANTARES COME, HICK, SIT WITH NED AND THE MERMAID" the king has started drinking already, and the Queen looks at him with disgust.
"Your Graces, my lords" I bow lightly to the Royal family, Jaime seems irritated behind the king, Tywin raises an eyebrow, and Cercei mirrors her twin in his irritation but in her eyes, there is something else as well, I go and sit at Wilis side and make some light conversation.
"So, I know that are already some orders but I would like to ask on behalf of house Manderly for a painting, a magical one, of a beautiful mermaid, like our banner of course, on the deck of a ship," he drinks a bit of wine.
"The moving part would be her jumping on the sea and bringing back a silver trident for one of the sailors." He says excitedly.
"It can certainly be done, lord Manderly," I speak lower to him" I will pass your painting in front of others, you know neighbor's privilege." He laughs and slaps my back.
"Lord Palestars, a word if you Will," the old lion says and walks to one of the side tables, I rise to give a nod to Ned and go talk with him, as I go I noticed the queen looking in my direction, I smile at her, she gives a fake smile and turn her face to me, bitch, I pull a chair of the table and sit with Tywin.
"Lord Lannister," I say with a neutral expression, I sit and cast detect thoughts, there's no way I am dealing with him without it.
"I would try and tempt you out of the north, but I can see it would be a waste of time, you seem to have grand plans for the place if I am reading your actions on the rebellion correctly, so I will be direct about my intentions, I want to commission two magical paintings one of the Lannister family and..." he pauses for a bit, his mind goes to a blonde woman, green eyes, I feel his love for her, the longing, time to probe.
"Of your Lady wife perhaps? If you can give me enough details I might make a perfect replica of her laugh even." I see for perhaps five seconds that the old lion softens a bit and then the steel comes back immediately, he is not Robert after all, now he knows I looking for something to spoilt.
"No, it will be of the rock the seat of House Lannister, I want a living painting of Casterly rock." He declared" and how long it would take to make such paintings."
"Well, Lord Lannister, there are others in front of your order, and" he interrupts me.
"I Will pay an extra million for it to be ready by the end of the tournament." I smile at him, his eyes narrow a bit, right he doesn't like smiles and laughter.
"If you have the gold ready by the end of the tournament, I will have the paintings, it was a pleasure to make business with you Lord Lannister, and I hope we do again in the future." He nods and goes back to his seat, as I rise to do the same a young man sits on the chair that Tywin occupied seconds ago, I sit back.
"Well hello young one, you must be Tyrion, Lord Lannister Son," I said to him, he is looking seriously at me, with no signal of the witty attitude that I remember Tyrion having, maybe book Tyrion is different than I expected.
"You can do magic correct?" I nod" and you're a healer as well."
"Yes, you're correct Lord Tyrion," I say to him
"Can you fix me?" Oof, right in the feelings, can I though, not now for sure but the only spell that I can think of is a true polymorph, a nine-cycle spell, I don't think I will get any of them, and if I do I will take wish, which also solves the problem, dumbass, but should I do that.
"At my current level of power, no I can't, Modifying a body permanently is beyond me now, the best I could do would be an illusion but that would not solve the problem." I see his face darken and hopelessness enter his eyes.
"I can't do it now, Tyrion, now, but in the future, I might, don't lose hope on the words of one man, who knows, you might meet your wife as a dwarf but your children will only know they tall father, so don't give up yet." His face lights up a little, and he smiles, it seems that marriage is not a problem, so he didn't meet Tysha yet.
"Will I be just tall or handsome as well?" he asks
"Why not both I say" and smile back" well when you meet your wife I could marry you in front of the old gods."
"Pfff, march to the frozen north just to get married, I think I Will be single till my death." He says with humor.
"That is the dream" I smile and get up, and I say lowly to him" if you need me I will be on the boring side of the table."
"And I will be on the entitled side of the table." He answers and we both laugh.
As I sit back, Lord Stark looked at me and raised an eyebrow, Arryn is look at me also.
"he wanted to commission some paintings and Tyrion wanted medical advice," I say to them.
"So you are the new lord of Moat Cailin, any plans for your new lands?" asked the Falcon lord rudely, I mean how about you introduce yourself first?
"Many, but first I have to see the lands and see with one of them I will be able to enact."
"it's that so if you don't mind me asking where you come from?"
what is up with the interrogation out of nowhere, I cast detect thoughts again, he is very suspicious of me in general, I am a stranger in Westeros, extremely powerful in his view, I took down more than one castle with very limited assistance after all, and now I have a big chunk of land, the trust of some powerful lords, and enough pull with the king that he would give the benefit of the doubt, yeah I kind of see where he is coming from.
"I doubt you would know where I come from, lord Arryn and is gone anyways, what matters now, is that I have a new home and I will make it prosperous and safe" I explain
"I see, it's... good to know that you are taking your new position seriously," he says ending this awkward conversation as two knights hit each other on the ring.
--------------------------a week later------------------
Well, the tournament was fun in a way, especially since Jorah won me 5000 golden dragons, he also didn't try to marry the Hightower, yay for changing the future.
It was certainly lucrative, I am marching back to the north with 7 million and five thousand dragons and two other commissions on part of house Tyrrel, but I will not get any money out of it, instead, I will receive food, it will feed my new small folk, they will need time to cultivate the land, to build the houses and to get used to the new environment, and while that happens they need food, and the Tyrrell's will provide such food, not a bad deal especially since I got a lot more food than the paintings pay for, Mace really is an oaf.
Speaking of smallfolk, over a hundred thousand Thralls, A Fucking hundred thousand, and I will be commanding all these people, I have plans to create two ports, one in the Bite and the other in the Saltspear so that will divide the population in three, and of course plus any small community around my territory, fucking hell, that is a lot of people.
--------------------"two weeks later"-------------------
Well the moat is impressive, and since we arrived in the Neck, I have this feeling like being back at the Isle of Faces, magic in the land perhaps, is still a decent castle but I can see it is a shadow of the former self and need a lot of work, well no pain no gain I guess, is on a hill is the wall is quite tall and some towers are in part still up, so yeah is liveable but is broken and ugly.
I want to go straight to the wall and get some new shit but I NEED to set things in motion here before I leave, I can't have these people doing nothing, while I am doing something else, any RTS player knows to not leave your villagers idle.
So necessities first, food is on the way, and shelter, that's the next step, I would love to make various beautiful warm dutch brick Houses, but guess what I have no bricks and no heating system either, so log cabins will do, the good thing is that the ex-thralls are quite good at woodworking not only on the ship front so that at least I can delegate.
I was given 50 men by Lord Stark to help my situation, they are trained men at arms so, I have someone to guard my keep, some lords stayed at the moat for a week to help with the organization, and also a lot of deals were made.
The Manderlys offered a group of farmers to help and teach my people how to tend to the land and also seeds, in exchange I would give them lower prices on the food, and other products I decided to export from my lands, in the same deal entered the Starks and Forrester with wood for houses and ship's, not ironwood just regular, Umber offered furs, Karstark will send some Hunters to help and teach as will Reed's but they will be more on the herbalistic front.
In general, it's a group effort to make this work, but I have one more thing I need to do before the all lords leave.
"Can I know why we are all going into the Godswood, in the middle of the fucking night?" asked Umber, I look at him and say in a deadpan voice.
"It's unfortunate but I will have to sacrifice all of you to the old gods."
"Umber here is worth at least two, so he can take my place," said Jorah.
"fuck you Mormont, and you are a knight now you are worth more as well" Umber retorts.
"He is right Jorah, sacrificing a knight of the seven will win some points with old gods so a can't let you go," I said as we arrived in the Moat Godswood.
"Jokes aside, I will perform a ritual tonight, nothing that needs killing, but it needs the blood of the lord of the land we are standing in, that would be me, and powerful magical blood is also necessary, that would be me again, this is a ritual to make the lands fertile, the animals will reproduce more and bitter winter cold will be more bearable to those of true faith."
"And you can do all that by yourself," asked Jorah.
"No, I am not that powerful, but the gods are" I cut my hand and spread the blood on the face of the heart tree.
"In the old gods, I put my faith my hopes, and my trust, bless this land of mine, master's of earth, water, fire, and wind," I say and make the torcher's fire change its color to a golden fire.
The tree shakes and groans and its red leaves start to rain down, in its place, the five-pointed golden leaves grow, and the sensation of calmness and being home spread through me, and if I am seeing correctly I am not the only one experiencing this.
"Gods, that is incredible," Reed said lowly
"I can unlock the potential of every heart tree, all I need is, my blood and the blood of the lord of the land, and a heart tree obviously," I explain before continuing.
"My lords, you are looking into a future that we don't need to fear the cold of the winters, the hunger it brings, or even the darkness that comes after, we will not only survive in this hard land of ours but we will thrive as well, all of that to the price of some drops of blood, so, will you take this exchange?"
-----------------------------1 week later----------------
"I have no problem with your singing Antares but every time you start that song I feel like I am being mocked," Said Lord Karstark from his horse.
"And I don't know what gave you that idea, Never gonna give you up is an excellent song." ah, the wonders of a world without the internet.
"we will be able to see Winterfell at any moment now," said lord Stark,
we moving to Winterfell where I will do the ritual with lord Stark, from there I will go to the wall by myself with a letter of introduction from Lord Stark, which will give me some nights at the wall if I need them to find the point were I have to go.
I left some people back at the moat(some smart ones) with instructions on what they should do while I was traveling, build the housing for the peasants, and start treating the land for seeds that will come from the White Harbour, the castle can wait till I come back to be fixed, if everything is running smoothly when I go back then I will have some people I know can help me governing the land.
The port in the Saltspear will be the second priority because we need to be able to at least receive the Reach ships with food, some of it will come by land but it will be slower and more dangerous since the war was just over and the roads will probably be full of brigands, the sea will have a lot fewer threats since the ironborn are out of the picture for now, so yeah a port will be ideal.
Anyways back to the matter at hand, Winterfell, I can say looking from here on the top of the hill, the show one was absolute shit compared to this, I mean what the fuck, is enormous and beautiful in its simplicity, I mean in a way that is not a vanity feast, is a very complex castle, there so many towers and passages and walks, the walls are very tall as well, is a very impressive castle, makes me wonder what harrenhall looked when still intact.
As we ride inside the courtyard we see the household waiting for us, in the front is a young boy probably six with auburn hair, and by his side was a redhead woman holding a small child, she looks a lot younger and more beautiful as well, Catelyn, Robb and Sansa, Lord Stark is the first to dismount and he goes to his wife and they exchange some words, I look at the rest of the household, the master of arms is here some guards behind them is the servants and among them a young boy with dark brown hair and grey eyes, for those who don't know he probably looks like Eddard Stark, this is Jon Snow, maybe I should mess with Ned just a bit, I dismount.
"and this is the new lord of Moat Cailin, Antares Palestars." Ned introduces me.
"My lady Stark," I lightly bow to her.
"My lord." She makes a gentle courtesy.
"It's true, that you took three castles by yourself," asked Robb excitedly.
"Robb!" Exclaimed Caitlyn, I chuckled.
"Its alright lady Stark, he is a kid and he is curious, no Young wolf I didn't take three castles by myself." he deflated at my answer but I continued" I took one castle by myself, I defeated the majority of the soldiers of the second and took the walls and open the gates of the third." His eyes widen excitedly and said." So you can use magic as well right"
"Robb enough, they are all tired, they need food and rest, my lords the servants will show you your accommodations," she says sternly at first but more soft-spoken by the end then she turns and start to enter the keep with the lord's following her, Robb who put his head down from his mother sermon looked at me again, I flash my eyes briefly with white light as I move to the keep, his eyes widen and his mouth hangs a little, and he bolts to talk with Jon, I smile and shake my head, kids.
There was a small feast, nothing too fancy some talks some drinking, but the end of the night was once again in the Godswood in front of a heart tree, this time besides the lords, Robb and Jon are there as well by Ned's request.
"Are Ready lord Stark?" I ask him as I pull a dagger, and cut my hand, the lords saw this happen before but the boys are scared.
"Yes," he offers me his hand and I cut it" repeat after me, In the old gods, I put my faith my hopes, and my trust, bless this land if mine, master's of earth, water, fire and wind," we both say and spread out blood in the tree, the ritual is concluded the torches change color and the hear heart tree spread its influence on Starks lands.
I didn't want to waste much time away from my lands now so on the next day I took my leave to the wall.
Three days of flight later I see the colossal wall of ice, and fucking hell, Bran the fucking builder knew his shit, but the guy didn't know how to hold back, I decided, I will not let this wall go down, seriously thought here, if the guy that actually fought the white walkers and won, build this to stop them from coming back, well, I hope I will be facing the show ones.
So I fly to the top of the wall as a crow and that view is something also let me tell you what a beautiful visio...
"Hello Antares," a small voice says.
FUCKING HELL, what the fuck, where that came From, I'm pretty sure I almost died again.
On the edge of the wall on one of the night watch wooden lookouts is a small being, like a toddler small, he has pink pale skin, claw's in his four-fingered hands, and big red eyes, a crow is perched on his blood-red hair adorned with leaves, and a smile on the lips.
"So you made it to the wall, congratulations, this will be a boon that can be only compared with Valyria, huh, maybe Asshai by the shadow." Said the small creature.
Wait a minute is that?
"Hello there, friend." The little shit smiles again.