Ed looked at Caitlin, "Caitlin, Will said he had an encounter with an alien ghost ...."
"Ned, do you believe that? Fae ghosts?" Caitlin said.
Ned was Ed's nickname, and only Caitlin and old Nanny called him that. Caitlin was used to calling Ned, it was the couple's little kiss yet, it had blended with life.
Ed, the man, only called Caitlin Kate when he was alone with her, as if Caitlin's father, Duke Horst Tully, had called Caitlin what she called him.
"I don't believe in fey spirits." Ed shook his head, "The Fae have disappeared, as if the Children of the Forest had ceased to exist."
"And you brought him to the Godswood Forest if you don't believe me?"
"He believes in the God of the First Men, and he has been given some fragments of oracles, some metaphors from dreams, and I want to see if the Heart Tree can bring me certain divine revelations."
"What dream metaphor?"
"The stag grieves and the three wolves travel south." Eddard withheld information about what Will Caw had told him about fragments of the oracle relating to Jon Snow. The allegory of dragons, wolves and giant pillars, any oracle about Jon Snow is safest buried in the heart, "King Robert's family crest is the stag, ours is the ice wolves, and I brought him here in hopes of divine revelation from the Heart Tree to unravel the allegory of the aphorism."
Catelyn was visibly stunned as she and Maester Luwin exchanged glances, the aphorism and the news she had just received were surprisingly compatible. Maester Luwin nodded slightly, and Catelyn said softly, "My dear, I don't know how to ask this of you, but I have to tell you anyway, Maester Luwin and I have just received news brought to us by the Letter Ravens of King's Landing that Jon Arryn has passed away."
Ed hesitated, "Jon ... passed away? Is the news true?"
"King Robert's own letter, stamped with the King's Trust."
Ed was silent!
Jon Arryn, who was like a regenerated father, suddenly died, and the grief in Ed's heart was unspeakable, Caitlin slowly walked over and gently held Ed's hand. Her big beautiful eyes were full of tenderness, and the sadness on her face was touching.
After a moment, Ed's eyes slowly looked over at Will Cao with a mixture of hurt and pain.
Jon Arryn is the adoptive father of Eddard Stark and Robert Baratheon, and the three of them are as close as father and son.
Eddard Stark and Robert Baratheon both grew up in Jon's Eyrie, and Jon Arryn not only hired the best sword instructors to teach them martial arts, but also taught them to read himself, doting on them like his own father.
Back then, after Crown Prince Rhaegar stole Robert's fiancée Lyanna Stark, Eddard's brother Brandon broke into the palace with a band of brothers from the North and demanded that Rhaegar hand over his sister Lyanna, but Rhaegar wasn't in the palace, he had taken Lyanna into hiding in the Tower of Ultimate Bliss in the territory of Dorne.
Brendan, nicknamed the Wild Wolf, was a brave man who broke into the palace and angered the Mad King, Aerys Targaryen II, and was eventually hanged alive by the Mad King.
The Mad King then went on to burn Eddard's father, Rickard Stark, and took his anger out on Eddard and Robert. The Mad King, Aerys, demanded that Jon Arryn hand over the heads of Eddard and Robert. Jon Arryn refused the Mad King's demand and rose up against the Mad King in order to protect Eddard and Robert, his adopted sons.
Jon Arryn rose up in rebellion, in order to seek to get the support of the army of the Tully family in Riverrun, Jon Arryn took Lysa Tully, Catelyn's sister, as his wife, and Eddard also took his brother's fiancée's current wife, Catelyn Tully, and the two fathers and sons married a pair of sisters, and the relationship between father and son's kinship, although it has turned into the relationship of the sire bond, but that kinship, it is even deeper in the fire of the war.
And Robert also worshipped his adoptive father, Jon Arryn, as his own father, and when Robert claimed the throne after slaying Rhaegar at the River of the Trident, he used no one of his own family, as long as Jon Arryn was his Hand of the King. In all of King's Landing, if anyone's words can still restrain the wanton King Robert, it is Jon Arryn alone.
Eddard is like a brother to Robert, but also has limited influence over Robert, and basically no one but Jon Arryn can speak in to restrain King Robert.
Jon Arryn passed away, and King Robert was inconsolable, as was Eddard. These three men were closer to each other than family.
Maester Luwin is learned and knowledgeable, and Edd asked him to come to the Godswood in the hope that Maester Luwin's wisdom would parse the oracle spoken by Will Tso, and now that the mystical prophecy has been verified, Jon Arryn's death, and Robert's grief, it's just as well that the stag's oracle of grief has been fulfilled.
Ed finally said, "Caitlin, where's your sister Lyssa?"
"King Robert's letter says that Lyssa has returned to the Eyrie with her children and guards."
"Eagle's Nest? What is she doing back there? There's no family for her there."
"Yeah, I'd rather she go back to Riverrun where her brother and father are still around."
"Then take the children and go to the Eagle's Nest to keep her company; she should not be left alone to mourn."
"I'd love to go, but I can't right now."
"Why?"
"The letter says the king is on his way to Winterfell."
"Robert's coming?" Ed's sadness was eased powerfully; he hadn't seen Robert in nine years. A brother who had grown up together, an ally who had fought alongside him in the war.
"Yes, the letter says that Robert is coming to discuss matters of state with you."
"A matter of state?" Ed looked to Will Cao, with no more doubt in his mind about him.
Jon Arryn died, Robert's most revered adoptive father was gone, and three men who were as close as blood relatives were left with him and Robert.
Robert came here, inevitably to ask him to go to Winterfell to help him manage the country, the so-called common affairs of the country. Robert is the king, a word, to call a lord to go to King's Landing to talk about things, a letter raven can be, but he has to personally run, which shows the status of Ed in his mind, but also because he understands Ed, he does not personally come to a trip, with a letter, it is difficult to invite indifferent to fame and fortune in a corner of Ed.
Ed disobeyed the king's order, with Robert and Ed's life relationship, Robert at most jumped feet and cursed, but to Ed is no way. However, Robert personally came to invite, the situation has changed, the king arrived, Ed also have to go, do not go also have to go.
Eddard's gaze meets Will's, and he understands the allegory of the three wolves travelling south. The wolves meant the Starks, and the three, maybe the actual number three, maybe a false reference, but in any case, Jon Arryn, Hand of the King, had died, and the Starks, well, had to have a few of them to go with the King to King's Landing.
Will read in Ed's eyes that Ed had understood the moral of the three wolves travelling south.
Will was thoroughly relieved: his oracle had spoken the truth.
He kind of saved the head on his neck.
Eddard Stark said, "Maester Luwin, naturally the King is not here for fun when he spends two months making such a trip, what do you think of the King coming north?"
"The king has come to ask your lordship to go to King's Landing to be the Hand of the King." Maester Luwin said.
"Three wolves travelling south!" Ed Stark said slowly.
Maester Luwin nodded, "The allegory of the buck's compassion and the three wolves travelling south has all been fulfilled I think, Will, swear by the Old Gods, are you a Shifter?"
It is said that out of 10,000 people (or 1,000 in the original, which would make the streets full of shifters), one shifter will emerge. Alienists can attach themselves to animals to observe the world, and those who are highly trained can also see pieces of the future. Even more powerful than the Alienist is the Seer. In the Seven Kingdoms, in the city of King's Landing and in the Night's Watch barracks, there had been shapeshifters as well as seers.
"I am not a shifter, my lord." Will said with a slight bow of his head, chivalrous, "I am merely following the instructions of the oracle in the dream world, and I am not a shifter myself." As he said this, Will saw the grey-brown eyes in the Hearttree's eyes again, eyes that were very serene, reminiscent of ancient mountains.
"So it's true what you said about the fey ghosts, too?" Caitlin's voice was otherworldly.
Ed and Caitlin's hands clasped each other, and he felt Caitlin's hand tremble slightly.