Winterfell POV:
Rickard first came to sense that Aerys was slowly but surely going mad during his talks with the other high lords.
People who generally want to kill each other when they agree on the same issue means that shit had finally hit the wall.
The words of his father turned out to be sound advice indeed. Lies, deception and manipulation was the norm in the south and that's what always made him doubt anything and everything that he heard about things from there.
But Jon Aryn was someone he could trust.
Jon and Rickard and had fought together
in the battle of the nine penny kings.
The bonds of formed on the battlefield was a bond that he could always trust.
And when Jon said that the things are going to hell , Rickard couldn't help but believe him.
The situation was truly desperate otherwise there was no way in hell was he ever going to betrow his precious daughter to the whoremonger known as Robert Baratheon.
But alas things can't be helped now.
The suspicions were already spread and the die had been cast.
For better or worse, they had decided on forming a block against the Targaryens.
It was a necessary evil, considering the fickle mindness of the Targaryens recent history.
Aegon had gone and made reforms but it had costed him too much, even someone like Rickard could see that the implementation of the plans were pathetic at best and had made the nobility furious as the small folk rose in revolts and had to be dealt with which caused them a lot of problems and un needed losses.
Hoister Tully was a amiable man and the addition of the stormlands were a welcome surprise.
" Lord Stark, a party of men have arrived to meet you. They are coming from Esos and claim that they want to buy some
land. The leader of the party appears to be Valyrian. " Rodrik Cassel spoke up, he was the head of Lord Stark's guards.
" Escort them in to the hall where I shall meet them." Rickard said with a frown.
The last part about their leader looking like a Valyrian made him alert and a bit tense.
They could be from Lys, who wanted to meet him for some business.
After all the Lyseni are famous for their Valyrian looks considering the fact that the blood of Valyria still runs strong in them.
Rodrik nodded and went off leaving Rickard to himself.
Rickard collected his thoughts for one final time before leaving to meet his guests along with his guards.