Chapter 24: Ch 15 House Codd
Chapter Text
A small figure stood in a grass field that seemed to stretch as far as eyes could see. If someone looked at the figure a bit closely they would be to sense that it wasn't a real person as it would seem like the figure was missing some of the finer details, for example, it had no ears to speak of and its eyes were a bit out of place, it was as if the one who created him was an amateur painter.
Only someone who had known him for a long time would be able to interpret that the small figure was actually Jon. Jon looked around for a moment before he closed his "eyes" and when he opened them another figure suddenly appeared in front of him out of nowhere this one being a bit more adult sized.
But the new figure was even more bizarre as it only had the basic body shape and was even less detailed as there was only a shadow in the place of a face. While it would be quite hard to see any similarities between them, this figure was actually based on Jory Cassel.
By now it was easy for anyone to comprehend that it wasn't a real place, and they weren't actual physical figures instead it was an imaginary one, and the figures were the construct of Jon's mind.
At some point in time, both of the figures had acquired swords of different lengths from somewhere. Jon took an offensive stance with the figure in front of him mirroring him, and suddenly at some unforeseen signal both of them started attacking each other with swords.
The taller figure fighting Jon was based on Jory because he was the one that he dueled the most in the training yard which means that he was familiar with all of his habits, quirks, the way he moved, and all the different kinds of moves he was likely to use in various situations.
As they went back and forth, the smaller figure started improving his combat ability slowly but steadily. He used his agility to the fullest and started to find better postures to use with respect to different positions of his feet which slowly improved the efficiency of his muscles along with his attack speed.
Ever so slowly Jon started to get a sense of how to apply more strength while using less energy and how to dodge the sword coming toward him in such a way that it would leave him in a better position to attack, he was basically making dodging into an offensive maneuver.
Jon didn't just train with the sword after a period of time had passed he switched to a spear and started practicing with that.
In this place he had a kind of omniscient view of the whole fight, he was able to see all of his various muscles from a 360° Pov, which helped him a lot in being able to see all the mistakes he made unconsciously and experiment different ways he could rectify them and improve.
After the spear, he trained with a sword and shield, and he even changed his dominant hand from time to time. Even Jory changed his weapons after Jon went through one cycle of all the weapons he was training in. He was able to train himself to fight against different kinds of weapons like spears, swords, shields, etc.
The figures on the field kept on fighting without ever getting tired, they just moved from one weapon to another which helped a lot in improving Jon's hand-eye coordination and getting a perfect feel for the correct depth for each weapon as well as the best range for each weapon.
Time was meaningless here so he didn't how long had passed but suddenly Jon could feel his face getting warm, and before he could think about that he woke up and the field instantly disappeared as Jon opened his eyes to see sunlight streaming through the window on his face as he was lying on his bed.
All the image training Jon had been doing using various weapons was actually in his dream.
As Jon started to get better at being a warg and as his mind developed over months and years, the quality of images he could conjure in his mind started to improve by a lot. But unfortunately, it was still very slow going as he was still not at the level where he could imagine moving figures in his mind consciously.
And that was when he found this dream hack.
While he was having a normal dream one night he found out that it was very simple for him to control things he could do and imagine in the dream consciously. And due to his mind being a lot more active in dreams, he was easily able to do image training here, which he had found impossible to do during the day.
It was as if his body was able to focus all the resources that were used to do other things while he was conscious solely toward running his mind.
And while he couldn't do it very consistently as he was only able to stumble on this about once a month. It was still very useful since whenever he was able to remain aware in his dreams he was given a god-like view of his various fighting abilities and his combat strength improved by a lot every time that happened.
He was hoping that as his mental strength improved and he warged into more and more animals, eventually he would be able to do Image Training consciously which would have an immense impact on his combat.
After he got out of bed, Jon went through his usual morning routine quickly and after wearing comfortable clothes left for the training yard.
As almost all of the veteran guards had gone to fight the Rebellion with Lord Stark, there were no appropriate opponents for him to train against in the training yard, and Ser Rodrik too left just a few days ago, so after warming up Jon started going through the forms.
And the lack of a sparring partner didn't hamper him that day as he had time to digest the gains he made during his dream training. Every time he went through a training session in his dream, he struggled to sync his body and mind the next morning. It was something he struggled with as his mind was able to come up with moves so rapidly that his body just couldn't keep up, so he had to train to bring his mind to be in line with his body.
As he was midway through his training, he saw Robb entering the training yard. He quickly joined him after warming up and picking a wooden sword along the way.
"Where were you?" Jon asked when Robb was close enough.
"Oh! I was with mother," Robb said while going through his forms, "She was a bit stressed as Father's letter arrived from the Westerlands. They just reached there and would be going on a ship toward the Iron Islands from there with the King,"
"Yes that would do it," Jon nodded as Lady Stark was far enough in her pregnancy that she was moody all the time, so the news of her husband going to war would definitely be something that would set her off.
As they were training Jon felt a familiar ping go inside his head which him stop swinging his sword at once, even though it had not happened too many times he immediately understood that it was Frost knocking on his mind door.
So he quickly left the middle of the training ground and went toward the weapon rack in the corner. He went into the shadow of the weapon rack and leaned against the wall before he closed his eyes while looking like he was just taking a breather.
A second later most of his conscious mind left his body as he warged inside Frost. The moment he looked through his companion's eyes, the first scene that appeared in front of him was so breathtaking that he was speechless for a while.
He was hundreds of meters high in the air, and as far he could see, all that was visible was vast clear blue skies from above joining the similarly colored infinite blue ocean below with just the shining Sun in the middle.
As he was lost in the natural beauty of the view in front that he had never seen, even in his previous life, Frost suddenly cawed and berated Jon for getting distracted so easily by things like sky and water, as these were things she see saw every day and couldn't understand his fascination with them.
"Sorry," Jon mumbled in his mind before asking, "Why did you call me, Frost? Did you find anything?"
She immediately turned her eyes toward the sea below and brought Jon's attention to three dots in the distance. Jon was just barely able to make out that those three dots were ships before Frost did something with her eyes and suddenly he felt as if the entire view was zoomed 100's on times and he was suddenly able to see the view on the ships clearly.
He could even make out the people walking by and their facial features so it was very easy for him to make out the flag on the ships and if that wasn't enough the livery every single person on the crew was wearing was a dead giveaway that they were IronBorn. The Silver Codfish sigil was very easy to identify and Jon could even remember the words of the House Codd.
Their motto is, 'Though all men do despise us,' which sufficiently explained what they were like. The Codds are a house that was not well-regarded even among the ironborn, their men are thought to be thieves and cowards. This explained why they would leave the big war behind and go after the "Softer" targets like fishing villages in The North.
'Circle over them, Frost,' Jon said to Frost in his mind and started counting as she did so. He was able to get a rough estimate of about 50 members on every ship so about 150 reavers combined from the three ships.
'How far are they from the coast, Frost,' Jon asked as he couldn't make out anything except for the sea so he didn't know where they were.
Frost tilted her head and thought about it for a few seconds before she gave up and started sending Jon images and feelings of when she had last seen the coastline and how long it would take her to reach there if she went at her normal speed.
Jon had been training his mind to be able to do complex calculations in his head since he was a toddler so it was very easy for him to what Frost was implying in human time and conclude that these reavers were about four days away from the coast if they went at the speed they were moving at right now.
'Can you show me all of the places you passed while coming here, Frost,'
Frost didn't even think about it and immediately started bombarding the various places, landmarks, and scenery she passed on the way and what the coast looked like. It took some time but Jon was eventually able to identify the nearby landmarks and from there he could quickly remember which village was the nearest from here on the map he had memorized in Winterfell.
'Thanks, Frost. You did good,' Jon thought while sending feelings of pride and happiness toward his companion who had been at sea for quite a while due to his decision, 'I will prepare a reward for you when you come back,'
Jon exited his companion after she gave a delighted squeal. He opened his eyes to his own body and stopped leaning against the wall, his body was in the exact same position he had left it at. As he got more proficient with warging, Jon found out that he could leave his body in a default position and that it would stay like that even without his mind wasn't completely there.
It was as if he was able to leave a very tiny part of his consciousness behind that was able to keep all the essential things in his body going that were required to keep it in the default position whether it be sitting or leaning against the wall.
Not even a minute had passed so no one had noticed me except for Robb who was looking at Jon with suspicion. Jon quickly gestured for him to follow while leaving toward the exit, Robb left his weapon and started walking behind him.
They silently walked for a while before they came across a relatively deserted corridor and Jon immediately turned around.
"Were you warging?" Robb asked excitedly in a whisper before Jon could open his mouth and get a word out.
"I was," Jon nodded and continued before he could ask anything else, "And I found three Ironborn ships not far from our coast,"
Robb's eyes immediately widened as he immediately understood what that meant. He didn't ask him anything more and both of them started hurriedly moving toward the Maester's tower. They had created a plan of attack and defense a while back that depended a lot on Frost's intelligence so time was of the essence.
Along the way, Jon filled in Robb about the number of ships and the approximate number of sailors that were on board along the village that was the closest to their location, which would be their most probable target.
Before long they were standing before the Maester's room and without wasting a single moment Robb entered without knocking.
The Maester was sitting behind a desk and making some kind of herbal mixture using a mortar and pestle.
"Ah! You scared me—" Maester exclaimed while slowly putting down the bowl in his hand, "You should know better than to enter without knocking—"
"Jon knows where the next ship is going to attack," Robb said cutting him off.
Maester Luwin was confused for a few moments before he was able to understand what both of them were here for. He quickly stood up and went to the shelf behind him before he took out a map.
Laying the map on the table he beckoned the boys and gestured over the map with his hands before saying, "Where on this do you think the next attack will be?"
The map laying on the table was rough one of all the coastal villages on the eastern side of the North. This one needed to be regularly updated every few years because the villagers that settle there are vulnerable to many things like pirate ships, floods, better opportunities, etc.
"Here," Jon said after looking at the map for a while, he had remembered most of the map for a situation like this beforehand.
"That one would be nearest to the Deepwood Motte," He mumbled to himself before taking a piece of paper and writing on it.
"There are most probably three ships full of Ironborn with about 150 pirates," Robb informed him before he could complete the letter.
"Oh! Did Frost tell you that too," The Maester asked skeptically.
"Yes," Jon immediately nodded, "I trained her very well, she pecked with her beak on a rough map I made and even showed me the number of ships using berries,"
"Yes, I watched it too," Robb lied to back Jon, "Frost showed us using her beak and we would have even shown it to you if she hadn't left for the forest to rest,"
Maester sighed but added in the number of ships on the parchment before sealing it with wax. He immediately took the appropriate Raven out of the dozens in the rookery before tying the letter on its legs and letting it fly out of his window.
"How long would it take to reach there, Maester," Jon asked.
"The Raven should reach the Deepwood Motte in about 5 hours and from there it should only take a fast rider about 2 hours to reach the place where Ser Rodrik has set up camp," Maester said after pondering on the question for a while.
"Then it should be fine," Jon sighed in relief, "They should have plenty of time to set up the ambush we prepared beforehand,"
"We should hope so,"