Winterfell is built on top of a huge hot spring.
The water from the spa flows through the walls.
This temperature is nothing for the summer months and is often overlooked.
But in the heat of winter, that temperature is enough to save lives.
Lady Caitlin, the Lord of the City's wife, had the warmest room.
Inside her room, there was hot spring water flowing in every wall.
Caitlin came from the southern city of Riverrun, growing up in the warmer seasons, the harsh northern cold of Winterfell had not assimilated her habits, and after more than a decade of marrying over, she still missed the warmth of Riverrun.
Ned's room was just as cold, and there was no hot spring water running through the walls of his room.
So into the night Ned seldom stayed in his room, for Caitlin was quite unaccustomed to sleeping in the freezing air.
Ned got up from Caitlin's body and walked over to the window, opening it and letting the cold air blow on his strong muscles, which made him feel good.
Instead, Caitlin's bottom had a burning ache, caused by Ned's earlier onslaught, and the northern hunk hadn't learnt to be gentle in over a decade, but she was in a pleasurable mood.
"Ned, I'd like to have another child for you, and I'd like to have another girl, so we'll have three boys and three girls. Little Rickon will have company too."
Ned's muffled voice, "Yeah, have another one."
"You're not happy?"
"Kate, do you really believe that the Night's Watchman came to deliver the oracle?"
"He came to deliver the oracle, and at the same time he tried to escape."
"Yeah, that guy's word can't be trusted."
"You want to kill him?"
"The Night's Watch legions are strangely short of men, and one more is one more, so as long as he returns to the Wall, I won't kill him."
Any Vigilantes who flee have only one fate: beheading.
"Kate, do you think what the Night's Watch said about the fey is true?"
"We'll know the day after tomorrow; our letter crows will be back the day after tomorrow."
"On a hunch, do you think it's true?"
"Mostly a pretext for the Night's Watch to escape; why, Ned, do you think it's true?"
"I'm worried it's true!"
"It's true and there's no need to worry, Maester Luwin said that the White Walkers can't get past the Wall because it's guarded by magic."
"How long have the magical spells been on the ice and cornerstones of the Wall, thousands of years, and do those magical spells still work?"
"A magic spell works forever unless it's broken. --Ned, close the window, the cold wind is chilling the room."
"Oh, okay!" Ed said reluctantly. He liked the feeling of the cold air on his chest when he was done, and he didn't want to close the window.
"The metaphors of oracle fragments are always hard to figure out. Often, people don't know what the oracles really mean, there are plenty of times when wizards get them wrong, and what the shifter's eyes see is sometimes not the truth." Ed said.
"There aren't many wizards on our continent these days, and this isn't Yasha."
Yasha, the shadow land of the Eastern Continent, the easternmost part of the Dothraki Sea, the capital of magic. From here in Winterfell to Yasha, it would take at least a year and a half to get there, and that's by water, if you go by land, it would take at least two years.
"Robert will be here in a few days, you and Maester Luwin spent the whole afternoon with that Will, what did you ask him?"
Caitlin sat up, pulling the leather blanket made of shadow bobcat skin from the quilt underneath her neck, blocking her long, beautiful neck from the cold breeze that chilled it because Ned hadn't closed the window yet, "Ned, you don't want to know."
"Tell me about it."
"I asked Will about the Dead Ice Wolves, you know, the one he saw in the shards of his sleep."
"Well, what did he say?" Ed finally closed the window, the cold wind that had been pouring into the room was blocked, and Caitlin sighed in relief, her tight grip on the animal skin blanket relaxing as it slid down, revealing a glimpse of a snow-white neck.
"During the day, in the Godswood, Will said it was an unsettling omen, and I thought there was something in his words, so I went to ask him this afternoon, specifically with Maester Luwin, and he said that doe's don't have antlers, and so the deer that killed the Icewolf was a buck."
"The antlers snapped off in the ice wolf's neck, so of course the buck killed the ice wolf." Ed said, "What's there to explore?"
"Ned, your family crest is the ice wolf, and Robert's is the buck, the buck."
Ed laughed and sat up in bed, "Kate, you worry too much, even if the whole world betrayed me, Robert wouldn't. We'll have a conflict, and Robert will jump to his feet and swear extremely hard, but in the end, he'll get back together with me again."
"Maester Luwin said the same thing, that King Robert wouldn't kill you, but that Will Tso said that he didn't say that King Robert would kill Lord Eddard, and that he only saw the Icewolf die because of the buck's antlers."
"What do you mean?"
"The revelation of the oracle is that the ice wolf died because of the buck, not that the buck killed the ice wolf."
Ed was stunned.
One thing, two ways of saying it, but a completely different moral.
Ask yourself if he would have gone to his death for Robert, had someone endangered King Robert's life and authority ...
The answer is yes!
This is the death of the ice wolf because of the buck, not the buck killing the ice wolf.
"Kate, you and Maester Luwin are overthinking this, I don't believe in the allegory of this oracle, nonsense."
"Maybe." Caitlin's eyes twinkled.
"Kate, what else did you ask and hide from me? How many pieces of the oracle did that man in black, Will Cao, actually see? Don't put too much stock in what he says, Kate. He may be a liar, and when the Letter Crow returns, we'll know all about that fellow."
"Dear Ned, maybe Will Cao is fading into a shifter. If he really is the Chosen One, we need his help."
Only when the two were alone did Ed call Caitlin Kate, which was a nickname. And Caitlin, even in public, called Ed by his nickname, Ned, and was not shy about it.
Her love for him was open and selfless, unafraid of ridicule, and she was willing to give him everything.
The only thorn between the two is Jon Snow.
The only time Eddard ever cursed Catelyn and threw a fit was also because Catelyn was sending Jon Snow away.
Except for Jon Snow, the two are close to each other.
"Well, I believe Will Cao is the Chosen One, and what have you heard from the Chosen One?"
"He said that it wasn't a shadow that fell from the ruined tower, but a man, and he even got a good look at the man's face."
"Who?"
"Bran!"
"That's not what he said inside the Godswood Forest during the day."
"Yes, because we wouldn't believe him if he said it. It's like what he said about the White Walkers, and so far, except for me and you, who half believe him, Maester Luwin, Captain Jory, Desmond, and Huron, not one of them has believed what he said about the appearance of the White Walkers. Theon Greyjoy shouted liar, deserter and coward at him right there at the table."
"So you believe him now?"
"Apart from the fact that the Fae can make excuses for his escape, Bran's fall from the wrecked tower and the death of the Ice Wolves because of the buck are things we hate to hear about, and talking about them will only make us hate him more, which will do him no good, so there will be no need for him to lie to us about them. Ned, in the name of the old gods, go and have a good talk with the Chosen One. My eyes don't lie to me, and there are many oracular prophecies that the Chosen One has not spoken."