Brandon watched Melkor hold Durran by the throat against the wall. His legs kicked to reach the floor as he clawed at Melkor's vice-like grip.
Moments earlier Durran had lunged at Melkor, but even with his enormous seven-foot stature and beast-like strength, he was no match for Melkor as he dwarfed him with his nine-foot stature and godlike strength.
"I have grown tired of the same routine, the same thing happens again and again. I don't demand much. All I ask is you bend the knee to me, swear your allegiance, and answer my call to war should I call for it. You can keep your titles, and I do not care to take your lands but to simply ingrain in your little mind I am YOUR KING!"
Melkor threw Durran against the wall before the last breath could leave him.
He tried standing as he clung to the wall, coughing as he tried to draw breath.
"I have ruled these lands for a hundred and fifty years. If you think I would bow to some tall prissy shit like yourself then you have another thing coming."
Durran spat at his feet as he finally regained his bearings.
"And you!" Durran spun around and pointed at Brandon. "I'll forgive you this one time for this transgression for what you did for me and this keep." Durran got face-to-face with Brandon, his hot breath blasting into Brandon's eyes. "If I see you ever again Brandon, I will tear your arms out of their sockets like a stick."
Brandon didn't respond to the threat. He knew Durran would never agree to the proposition. But it wasn't his decision to let Durran live as the sole king, not under Melkor's heel.
"I don't think you understand Durran." Brandon stared into Durran's eyes with a fiery resolve. He knew he had to break him if he wished to see his friend live another day.
"We have traveled from keep to keep, village to village demanding their allegiance. Have you shut your ears to the stories outside your walls? Melkor has the mightiest houses on these lands. House Stark, Casterly, Gardner, Mudd, the Bronze King, and now all that is left are you Durran. Do not forsake your life for pride. Melkor is a being who has raised mountains from the earth and has called enormous waves to strike down his enemies."
Durran's fiery temper simmered as he listened, but not yet quenched. "Bring your armies, this keep shall hold, it has held against the gods, and shall hold against another!"
Durran raved at the pair as Brandon tried to make Durran see reason. "YES! Your keep was made to stand against the gods! BY ME! And just as I built this Castle I can just as easily tear it down."
Durran bristled under Brandon's words knowing he could easily dismantle the runes he had woven into the walls of his home.
"Many of those who serve under me have come telling me of their fears of a dark god going land to land demanding their crown. They spoke of how he had destroyed a great force led by you and your uncle's Brandon."
Brandon nodded to Durran "It's true. A great wave cut the land in half, Nothing remained but a massive river, a bog, and a tower. Bend the knee Durran, for both our sakes, I do not wish to watch my friend die."
Durran looked to Melkor. "You say I'll keep my crown, my lands, and my keep."
"All I request of you is that if called, you will march your armies to my aid. No taxes no hostages, just that you call me your King, and you and your descendants will honor that for the rest of time after you are long gone."
Durran balled his fists as he begrudgingly bent the knee to the Elder king of Westeros.
And as Durran swore before Melkor, Brandon watched as Westeros was finally united and ready to fight whatever Melkor foresaw to come.
"Melkor."
Melkor turned to Brandon "What is it?"
"Winter is coming."
Melkor stared into the depths of Brandon's cold Icy gaze "And death follows."
....
As the day went on a storm had gathered around Storms End. It did little to the walls of the mighty keep. But brought a sense of ease that had grown up in the lands as what they had known to be so natural had slowly returned.
The great hall of Storms End was as lively as ever. Men laughed and sang. Women filled the men's tankards of ale, and food was devoured. And at the head of the feast sat Durran Godsgrief. To his left sat his wife Elenei, daughter of the gods that battered against the mighty keep.
To Durran's right sat Brandon and Melkor.
As the men feasted and drank with joy, they had the presumption they were welcoming Durran's old friend who was responsible for the creation of the mighty keep.
But the truth of the feast was known to only the three who sat at the head of the feast.
Durran has yet to inform his wife of his new master and hoped he did not need to for the foreseeable future.
"It has been some time Lord Stark, I was most surprised when I heard you had arrived." Elenei spoke to the master craftsman. She had not seen Brandon since he was but a boy helping in the construction of Storms End.
"I was even more surprised when the boy I knew turned into the tall strapping wisen man before me."
Brandon smirked at the woman he considered an aunt in all but blood. She had pampered him like a child while he built her home for her. The relationship between the former goddess and the wolf king was an odd one if someone were to ask any other.
"Much has changed lady Elenei. My father now rests in the crypts of my home, and now I sit upon the Seat of Winter. The Entirety of the North is sworn to me now, the time of Magnars and chieftains fighting for land is coming to an end. Lords and Kings are coming to rule these lands, and the age of heroes has begun."
"Has it now? Elenei quirked her eyebrow up at Brandon. "I guess I can understand. Me and my husband have heard rumors of a man subjugating kings and lords. Some say even the great kings like the Casterlys, the Mudds, and the Gardners have knelt to this man. Do you know if these rumors have any merit, Brandon?"
Brandon hesitated a moment as he looked to Durran with a questioning gaze but all he got in return from Durran was a silent plea, and a look in his eyes that only showed a man's fear of his wife.
"Well we of the North know little of what goes on in the South, but what I do know is..."
The doors to the great hall burst open with a great crash of thunder, interrupting Brandon before he could speak any further.
From the enormous doors strode two majestic figures that shone like a pearl.
The pair were a man and a woman, clothed in little to nothing to cover them.
The man's face was starting to show its age, his hair receding but still, his grey hair was thick at his chin as he donned a most impressive beard with bits of seaweed entwined in it. He wore nothing but a loincloth to cover his modesty and a fishnet over his shoulder. In his hand, he grasped a great fishing spear like a walking stick as he and the woman strode to the head of the hall.
The woman was a sight that would make any man turn his head. Her light black hair was like silk. She donned nothing but a flowing cloth that somehow covered her modesty as it flowed with the wind.
As the pair grew closer and closer to the head table Durran Godsgrief rose from his chair with fury bursting from within. "How in hell did you get inside this keep! I should have you killed, I have the means to do it, and he sits right next to me, and I'm sure he would be more than willing."
Durran pointed to Brandon, knowing he had the magical means to if not kill somehow injure the new arrivals.
"Mother, Father, why are you here? How are you Here?"
Elenei's parents now stood before Durran Godsgrief. They had entered the great keep that was specifically made to keep them out.
"It's good to see you again dear Elenei, I've missed you dearly."
The wind goddess spoke to Elenei with sweet honey as a parent would a child.
"You haven't been mistreated, Have you?"
The sea god held worry in his voice. He cared deeply for his daughter and wished not for her to come in harm's way.
"I have been treated better than any other. My husband and I dearly love each other and he would never harm a hair on my head."
The pair's worries were answered by their daughter's honesty. But as they turned to her husband they changed from caring worried parents to the angry gods that had killed Durran's family on his wedding day, and destroyed his home.
"Durran. I see you haven't died yet, what a shame. I'm sure those in these halls are quite disappointed you haven't keeled over and died yet."
The storm god insulted Durran as he grew more and more enraged at his uninvited guests.
"I will not ask you again you damn salt covered, crusty malformed devil, why are you here!"
"I see your as foul mouthed as ever. But I and my wife are not here to simply here to trade insults, but fear for our daughters safety.
"What lives within these halls are no threat to my wife, and what lays outside them would never be able to breach them before facing the end of my sword."
The goddess of the wind strode forward and circled around to her daughter as she rested her hands upon her shoulder.
"But that is were you wrong you lumbering buffoon. You've let the biggest threat into your walls."
Eleneis mother looked Melkor dead in the eyes as Melkor watched the scuffle with a smirk.
Brandon stood breaking the goddesses gaze on Melkor.
"No one has come to harm you're daughter. Leave this keep and we shall forgive this insult. I dont know how you got past the runes, but I think you have overstayed your visit."
"No. I think their visit has just begun, and we have much to talk about.
Melkor stood from his chair as he matched the gods gaze with a fiery gaze of his own. His shadow consumed the room, and his blood red eyes bored there way into the gods souls.