Chapter 18 Luwin

(Hello everyone! So, this is a fanfic that I've been working on for a while now. I borrowed several elements from Game of Thrones and A Song of Ice and Fire. This is my first fanfic on this site, so constructive criticism is welcome. Appreciate!)

As he always did Maester Luwin of Winterfell came to the raven rookery each morning an hour after dawn to check for any raven that had flown in during the early morning. Ravens did not fly at night so sometimes they would be nearby and stop for the night to rest and then continue their journeys as soon as it got light. Sure enough one raven was in its little perch, with a tightly rolled and sealed piece of parchment attached to its leg. A quick glance told him the raven was from Riverrun. Its message was addressed to Bran, but it was Maester Luwin's duty to open all messages and give wise counsel to his lords. He quickly opened it, eager for news of the war and the Starks. It was from Lady Catelyn Stark.

Dear Bran and Rickon, I have both glad and sad tidings. Your sisters Arya and Sansa are at Harrenhal with your father and will soon be free. We will make the exchange in two days time, and then we will soon be home. Sadly, your grandfather, my father, Lord Hoster Tully of Riverrun, passed away in his sleep yesterday. Today we will have his funeral rites. It grieves me that you never met him. He was a good father and a wise lord. May you both grow to be half as good a man as he was. I will see you soon my darlings. Love, Mother.

Glad and sad tidings indeed, Maester Luwin thought as he reread the message. Arya and Sansa were at Harrenhal. How had that come about? The last he had heard Sansa was still a prisoner in King's Landing and no one knew where Arya was. He had heard that Lord Eddard had been released from his prison after being forced to proclaim Joffrey the true king and then forced to join the Night's Watch. Some how all three had ended up at Harrenhal. Soon enough he hoped they would be home where they never should have left.

The death of Lady Catelyn's father was terrible news, but not unexpected. He had heard from Lady Catelyn of the illness that took him, the wasting illness, a terrible way for anyone to die. He was at peace at last. He had met Hoster Tully only a few times, the last time many years ago, when he had traveled north to visit his daughter and her growing brood. It was shortly after the end of the last winter, just after Arya had been born, and before the Greyjoy Rebellion had begun.

Soon, the Stark family would be reunited. The 'exchange' meant the trade for the Kingslayer, Ser Jaime Lannister. As Maester Luwin thought on this his mind went back to what Bran had said to him more than a week past. Young Cley Cerwyn had come last to the harvest feast and had told Bran that Joffrey was a bastard and had no right to the Iron Throne and that Stannis Baratheon was claiming it. Maester Luwin had already heard this news, as he had a raven from Dragonstone. So apparently had many other houses in the north and the story was on all the lips of all those who had gathered for the harvest feast. But it was not a story for an eight-year-old boy's ears and Luwin had kept it to himself and only told Ser Rodrik Cassel when he had returned north after bidding goodbye to Lady Catelyn in White Harbor. Bran had come to him the next day before the harvest feast to ask him if it was true.

"Yes," Maester Luwin told him as they sat in his study room in the maester's tower. The huge stable boy Hodor stood behind Bran, ready to take him wherever he wanted to go next. "Stannis Baratheon is claiming that Joffrey, Myrcella, and Tommen are not King Robert's children. That he is the rightful king as Robert's next older brother."

"How can the Kingslayer be their father? He is the Queen's brother."

Master Luwin looked at him steadily and thought carefully on his words before speaking. "Bran, men and women are not always true to the laws of gods and men. They break their oaths, they forsake their vows, and they wrong the gods. While I do not know the entire truth of this story, it is possible it is true."

"He has golden hair, does he not?" Bran asked next, an odd look on his face.

"Ser Jaime? Yes, all the Lannister's have golden hair. Why do you ask?"

Bran looked like he was about to say something but then shrugged. "Trying to remember what he looked like. He was here, with King Robert, when I got hurt."

"Yes, he and the Queen and Tyrion Lannister their brother were all here."

"I know that," Bran said in a tone that said 'I am not stupid'. "The Imp gave me the design for my saddle."

"Yes, he did. That was good of him"

Bran fidgeted a bit. "Why did my mother have him arrested?"

"She believed he had paid the man who attacked you."

"I think it was not him," Bran declared. "He was too nice to me. Why would he have someone try to kill me?"

"I don't know," Maester Luwin told him and the truth was he really did not. Here at Winterfell before she went south, Lady Catelyn had suggested Jamie Lannister was somehow involved in all that had happened to Bran. Then in King's Landing she had learned the dagger belonged to Tyrion Lannister. Or so she was told, by Petyr Baelish. From those words in her ears all else had followed. When Ser Rodrik had returned and reported all that had gone on from the moment Lady Catelyn had seize Tyrion Lannister at the crossroads inn he knew it was a folly from the start. They had had no proof except the word of one man against the other. As Bran had just said the actions of Tyrion Lannister did not seem those of a man guilty of such a crime. He was not here when Bran was attacked, and he had been gone from Winterfell the day Bran had fallen – or was pushed, as Lady Catelyn believed. Try as he might to remember Bran still had no recollections of that day. Or so he said.

Folly it was to accuse the Lannisters without proof, and events proved him correct, with Lord Stark and Sansa taken prisoner in King's Landing, with Arya going missing, and with all of their friends and companions killed. When the news came to the north, there had been shock and outrage and Robb had called the banners and the northmen in all their fury marched south. It had been left to Maester Luwin to sort through the messy details of what had gone on in King's Landing. He wrote to Grand Maester Pycelle, asking for the names of those killed and those held prisoner. He wrote despite not trusting Pycelle, knowing he had been too long Grand Maester of the Seven Kingdoms for too many kings, and was really more a servant of the Lannisters than the realm. A maester served, no matter who was in charge of the castle, the house, or even the realm, and was bound by oath to take no sides. But history was rife with maesters who had forgotten this simplest of oaths, and Pycelle he counted among them.

The news he got back had been a curt message saying that Lord Stark was a traitor who had tried to overthrown the new King and would be judged accordingly. There was also a list of all those they knew to be dead. There were no prisoners. That was a lie as Sansa and Lord Stark were still held against their will at that time. And a few names were missing from the list, including Jeyne Poole, even though her father was listed among those killed 'resisting arrest', as Pycelle had put it. It was a mummer's farce. They had killed them all without mercy, Maester Luwin knew in his heart, even old Septa Mordane, who would never hurt a fly.

Then it had been left to Maester Luwin to go from family to family in Winterfell to tell them this dreaded news of sons and husbands and other loved ones now dead. There had been more anger and many tears and he could do naught but offer them comforting words. He knew there would be more such news in the months to come as the lists of the dead from the battles in the Riverlands was added to those who fell in King's Landings.

Maester Luwin had feared the worst when young Robb had gone south at the head of his army. Tywin Lannister was the foremost commander in the Seven Kingdoms and his son was one of the best swordsmen. But Robb had shocked them all and had defeated and captured the Kingslayer and had outwitted Tywin Lannister. Now Lord Stark and his family were soon to be united and were coming home.

He found Bran and Rickon in the great hall, having their breakfast, with Ser Rodrik, the two Frey boys, both named Walder, and the children of Howland Reed, Meera and Jojen. The Frey boys Bran did not like, and Maester Luwin knew why. They were full of swagger and self-importance, knowing they were supposed to be treated as honored guests. The Reed children were the opposite of the Freys, polite, and friendly to all, and respectful. Bran and Rickon had taken an immediate liking to them.

"Pardon me," Maester Luwin said to them has he approached the table. "I must have words with Bran and Rickon. Stay as well, Ser Rodrik."

The Reed children immediately got up, but the one they called Little Walder, who was big, continued to munch on his bacon while the other one they called Big Walder, who was actually smaller than his cousin, ripped a piece of bread from a loaf and took a bite.

"He means you should leave," Bran said sharply to the Frey boys as if they were deaf or stupid.

"I'm not done eating," said Little Walder in an insolent tone.

"You can finish later," said Ser Rodrik, trying to keep his tone calm. "Now go out in the yard and get yourselves some tourney swords and we'll practice when I am done here."

Big Walder's eyes lit up and he stood, grabbing some bacon. "Now you're in for it," he told the other one.

Little Walder laughed. "I'm bigger than you."

"I'm twice as fast and you know it."

The Reed children had already gone after polite goodbyes and these two soon stomped away, hands full of bacon and bread.

"I hate them," Bran said in a low voice.

"They're fun," Rickon said with a grin.

"They're stupid," Bran retorted.

Maester Luwin knew why Bran hated them and Rickon liked them. They liked to play and run around and have fun and soon Rickon had joined in their games. Bran could not join in, as his broken body did not permit him to have much fun anymore. His hatred was part due to their insolence and part due to his jealousy that he could not do as they did.

"Put them out of your minds for now," Maester Luwin told them. "I have news from your mother. Good news and bad news, I am afraid."

Bran looked scared. "What's happened? Is it Father?"

"No," Maester Luwin said quickly then sighed heavily and told them the bad news. "Your grandfather, Lord Hoster Tully, has died."

"Oh," said Bran in surprise and then Rickon spoke.

"Who is he?"

"Our grandfather, stupid," Bran said to his little brother and Rickon punched Bran's arm.

"Don't call me stupid!"

"Enough!" growled Ser Rodrik. "Act like the little lords you are supposed to be and not like two idiot Freys. Listen to the maester."

"He was sick for a long time," Maester Luwin explained. "Now he is with the gods."

"We never met him," said Bran in a sad voice.

"No, you did not," Maester Luwin said. "He was a good man and loved by all. Now…there is also good news. Arya has been found and she and Sansa are at Harrenhal with you father."

"Yeaaahhh!" cheered Rickon. "Arya!"

"And Sansa, too?" Bran asked with a smile.

"Yes," Maester Luwin told them. "They will soon be exchanged for Jaime Lannister."

"The gods be good," said Ser Rodrik.

"They're at Harrenhal?" Bran asked in puzzlement. "What was Arya doing there?"

Rickon spoke up before the maester could answer Bran's question. "Are they coming home?"

Maester Luwin nodded. "Soon, they will all be home. As for Arya, I know not the details. Here is your mother's letter."

He handed Bran the small piece of parchment. "Read it out loud!" Rickon asked loudly and Bran did so. After he finished they talked on when they might come home and other things and Maester Luwin had some food as well.

Afterward, Ser Rodrik and Rickon went out in the yard to practice with the Frey boys. Hodor carried Bran as he and Master Luwin went to visit the new steward of Winterfell. They sat for an hour and went over all the inventory of the harvest and how much wine and ale and wood they had in storage. They had already had the white raven from the Citadel of Old Town telling them winter was coming.

"It will be a long winter, I fear," Maester Luwin said after they left the steward and went to the yard to watch the others practice. Hodor placed Bran on a chair at a small table set up nearby and Maester Luwin sat as well. The Reed children were here as well, practicing in the yard with the Frey boys and Rickon, using the weapons of their people, net and spear, and more than once Bran laughed as Meera caught one of the Frey boys or Rickon in her net and they fell to the ground.

Maester Luwin looked at the children of Howland Reed and once more wondered why they were really here. They said they came to pay their father's respects and to reassure the Starks of his loyalty in these troubled times. But Howland Reed had had little contact with the Stark's over the years, despite living so near and being a close companion of Lord Eddard during Robert's Rebellion. The northerners were always suspicious of the crannogmen, despite their oaths of loyalty. Crannogmen were different, to be sure, shorter of stature than the tall northerners, and were oft despised for the way they fought, using poison and hiding in their bogs to strike suddenly. The Neck was a place travelers feared to go, with snakes and lion lizards around them, and crannogmen hiding in the bog. But it was all nonsense as far as Maester Luwin knew. They never bothered travelers and often helped those who took ill or whose wagons broke down on the causeway through the swamps. In many years he had heard of no one actually being attacked by crannogmen on the road through the Neck.

"Do we have enough food to last a long winter?" Bran asked and Maester Luwin came out of his thoughts and smiled. It was good of Bran to start asking such questions. Someday he would need to know such things, if he was to serve his father or brother well.

"Enough food for a five year winter," Maester Luwin answered. "But it may not be enough, if the winter last longer."

"Longer than five years!" Bran said incredulously. "That can't be possible."

"This summer has been more than nine years, the longest in living memory. Why can't a winter be five years or more?"

"I don't know," Bran replied in the slightly sulky voice he got when he did not know the answer to something. "You're the maester. You tell me why each season is so different."

Maester Luwin made a thoughtful 'hmmm' sound before speaking. "Long have my order thought on this question. Many of the small folk and lords and ladies say it is the will of the gods to make it so, to test our will in times of need. One of my brothers who studied the stars for many years claimed it was due to our position in the heavens. He said that the sun moved, and the world moved, and at times we were closer to the sun and then at times farther away. So the heat we received was not the same at all times. Hence summer and winter."

"That sounds right," Bran said right away. "Already the days are growing shorter and the sun is lower on the horizon."

"Smart lad," the Maester said. "It is true. The days grow shorter and the sun dips lower. Soon there will only be five or six hours of daylight per day and then the howling snows will come."

"Will the food last?"

"We have grain a plenty, wheat and oats and barely and corn. Of salted fish and beef and pork and mutton, many casks. Smoked sausages and hams as well. There is also plenty of wine and ale and beer. What we will lack is fresh food as winter goes on. We have the glass gardens to grow fresh vegetables for a time yet but when the real cold comes and the sun is very weak even the glass gardens will not be able to grow anything. The vegetables will then not last long, nor the fruit. So we must pickle as many vegetables as we can, preserve as much fruit as we can. Clay pots are good for that but glass jars are better. But glass jars are lacking. I tried to order more from White Harbor, but they say a shipment from Myr was lost to pirates or a storm. It never arrived. And with the war in the south nothing is coming up the Kingsroad these days."

"We should make our own glass jars," Bran declared.

Maester Luwin nodded. "I said this to your father many times. We should hire a master glass maker from Myr to teach some young boys here. But the Glass Guilds of Myr are very strict with their secrets and rarely do they permit their members to take service outside of Myr. There is a master in King's Landing, in service to the royal family, but he is the only one I know of outside of the Free Cities."

"It's not right," Bran stated strongly. "They should share the secret."

"Many men would agree, but if you knew how to make something special and it made you rich and powerful, would you share the secret?"

Bran thought for a long moment on that. "No. I think I understand."

"Good. Now, as for the food, the fresh and preserved fruit and vegetables will not last a long winter. At the end we will be down to eating hard bread and salted meat and maybe even drinking just water. The animals I fear may also be lost if the winter is too long. We shall have to keep them all inside and fodder for them will be hard to come by."

"What about Summer and Shaggydog?" Bran asked suddenly. "Will we have food for them?"

The two direwolves were locked up in the godswood, banished there after Shaggydog bit one of the Frey boys who had struck Rickon with a stick in a game they had been playing. The direwolves' howls at night unnerved the whole castle for many days but now they seemed to have settled down.

"I believe we will," said Maester Luwin to Bran's question, but he knew that come winter the two direwolves would be trouble. They were not animals meant to be kept inside walls. If the winter lasted long and food ran short, they would starve and might even end up in the pot themselves. He would tell Bran and Rickon to release them before that happened, and hopefully they could survive on their own in the wild until winter passed.

The direwolves had been on Maester Luwin's mind of much lately. Bran kept saying he dreamed of them and Rickon said so at least once. They both had an unnatural attachment to the direwolves. He wondered if the other Stark children had also been so attached. Ghost was with Jon on the Wall and Grey Wind was at Robb's side in the Riverlands. He had heard of the terrible thing that had happened on the Kingsroad as Lord Eddard and his daughters traveled south. Nymeria had bit Joffrey to protect Arya and then ran away, and Lord Eddard had been forced to kill Lady to appease the Queen. This protecting of the children was not unusual for dogs, he knew, who would die to protect their master. But of direwolves he had no experience. Nymeria had leaped to help Arya and Summer had saved Bran's life from the footpad with the dagger. Shaggydog had leaped at the Frey boy as soon as he had struck Rickon. And then there was how Summer had howled through the time Bran was unconscious and they all feared he would die.

As he thought on this a great yell came from the yard and once more Meera had one of the Frey's, Little Walder, caught in her net. As she untangled him, her tripped her and leaped on her in anger and was about to strike her with his fists when Bran yelled.

"Stop it!" and Ser Rodrik had already done so, grabbing Little Walker in his big arms and pulling him off Meera who instantly leaped to her feet, her spear in front of her and her eyes glaring at Little Walder.

"If you cannot practice without getting angry, you shouldn't practice," she said to Little Walder.

"You cheated!" he shouted back. "Only cravens use nets in a fight!"

Ser Rodrik turned him around and glared at him. "Anyone can use any weapon anytime, so you best be ready for anything if you want to live. You understand, boy?"

"Yes," he said in an abashed tone. "She still cheated."

"Right, off you go," said Ser Rodrik. "All of you. That's enough for one day. Get washed up and then after lunch you have your lessons with the maester."

"I hate book learning," said Big Walder as they walked away.

"That's because you're stupid," Bran said under his breath.

Thirty minutes after lunch Master Luwin had all six children in his tower, discussing mathematics with them and making sure they learned how to do their sums and the rest. Meera and Jojen had at first not taken part in these daily lessons but they seemed quite bored and Maester Luwin had invited them to join the lessons. He knew they had no maester or septa at Greywater Watch, their floating home in the bogs. They said their parents had taught them all they knew. Meera and her brother were older and Maester Luwin soon learned they were far ahead of the others in mathematics so he gave them more complex problems to solve. Bran was of an age with the Walders but was also far ahead of them and Maester Luwin wondered with a shake of his head what passed for an education for the children of the Twins. Rickon was learning fast and quickly got bored with just doing addition and subtraction so Maester Luwin was now teaching him multiplication and division as well.

The first day he had had class with them all the Walders had bristled at Meera joining them. "Girls don't study with a maester," Big Walder had said. "They study with a septa and learn music and sewing and stupid things women need to know."

"Shut up," Bran told him instantly. "Our sisters learned from Maester Luwin and Septa Mordane."

"Be more civil, Bran," admonished Maester Luwin. "Not all houses do things the same way." He turned to the Walders. "Meera is our guest as are you and as we have no septa at the moment she will study with us."

"I am almost sixteen," Meera had said, her anger obvious, as she rose from the table they sat around in the maester's tower. "I know many things already. I don't need to study."

"Sit down," Maester Luwin told her. "There is always more you can learn."

She did as he asked and she soon learned she did not know everything. Her younger brother had not said much at first but Maester Luwin soon learned he had a sharp mind and was quick to understand many things.

After the lessons ended he sent them off to play or do what they wanted for a time, with an admonishment not to fight. Bran, however, took a book on the stars from Maester Luwin's collection and went off to read. To understand summer and winter better, he said, and Maester Luwin grinned and patted him on the back and Hodor took him away.

With some free time on his hands Maester Luwin decided to deal with an unpleasant task he had been brooding on since receiving Lady Catelyn's message this morning. He needed words with the wildling woman Osha. He found her in the kitchens, helping the cook cut some vegetables. He didn't know if it was wise to let her have access to a knife or not, but she had proven herself grateful she had not been killed and had served well, if grudgingly, these past few months. Maester Luwin had a decision to make and once he decided, he had to talk with her. Alone.

"Osha, when you are free come to my tower," he told her and an hour later she arrived.

"What is it?" she said right away, before he even said anything.

"Sit," he said, and she did so, looking around in suspicion. She doesn't trust me or anyone else here. Well, she was a wildling after all, so that was expected.

"I need talk with you about several things," he told her. "First, Lord and Lady Stark will be coming back to Winterfell soon."

"Is the war over?" she asked.

"The north's part in it will be over soon, at least."

She snorted. "Don't fool yourself, old man. War hasn't even started up here yet."

Maester Luwin looked at her steadily. "If you are referring to the Others…"

"I am," she said quickly. "And those of my kind. They'll be coming, to get away from them with blue eyes. That's why I come south, you know that."

"How many of your kind is there?"

"Don't rightly know," Osha told him. "Tens of thousands, I reckon. Mance was gathering up all the free folk, but me and them others you lot killed decided to head south as far as we could."

"Winterfell is not that far south."

She shrugged. "Maybe I ain't done running yet."

"Maybe you will wish you had kept going. When Lord and Lady Stark return they will ask about you. I am sure by now Robb has told them what happened. You attacked their son, a crippled boy. They will not forget nor forgive that."

"You going to put me in chains again?" she asked with a snort. "Leave me for your masters to skin alive?"

"No, Lord Stark would do no such thing. But he might be angry enough to kill you. It would be a quick death."

"Why you telling me this?"

"I think you know why."

"You are a fool, old man. You let me go, what do you think Stark will do to you?"

"I am not letting you go," Maester Luwin told her. "I am merely advising you of what could happen. If you wish to go, however, no one will stop you. You are not a prisoner anymore."

She thought on that and he could see she was trying to see if there was any trick in what he said. "Might be I stay a while longer," she finally said. "It's warm here and you got food enough for one more mouth."

"With the recent harvest, yes we do. So, be it on your head. I have warned you of what could happen."

"Aye, you have. If that's it…"

"No, please stay. I want to ask you some more things."

"What?"

"Tell me all you know about the Others."

Her face took on a more serious demeanor. "All I know is what my father told me and his father told him."

"It may be that is more than even we know."

Osha raised her eyebrows. "You a man of learning and all and you're asking me about things you don't know about. Ain't that something."

"I'm willing to learn if you will teach me."

"Fancy that. Right. First thing is burn the dead, my father said," Osha told him. "When the cold winds are rising it means they are coming. So burn all your dead. Animals, too."

"Burn the dead because…?"

"I didn't ask him, old man," she said. "I just listened. You should too. Burn your dead."

"When the cold winds are rising. What does that mean?"

"You sure you're a man of learning?" Osha said with a suspicious look in her eyes. "It means when it's cold. Winter."

"But we have had hundreds of winters and the Others have not been seen for thousands of years. Most people think they are a myth."

"They ain't a myth, old man. And they ain't been seen cause they been sleeping, under the ice and snow way up north. The old wise woman of our village said that a winter unlike any other was coming soon, a winter so cold that it would crack the Wall in two and the Others would march south like they did in the past."

"The Wall was built to stop the Others."

"Aye, the first time. Course you left my people on the other side and forgot we are men and women and children just like you. Call us wildlings and think the Wall was put there to keep us out. You got the wrong of it, the lot of you. We was trapped on the other side, says the old woman, and had no chance to run when the Wall went up. And for thousands of years you kept us there, as the Wall got higher."

"Perhaps," said Maester Luwin. What she said made sense, but he had no proof of any of it. And he needed proof for it to be real to him. "But surely if these Others exist and…"

"If? Old man, they may be just stories and myths to you southerners, but think on this. All myths have some beginning, don't they? Bran the Builder may be a myth but somewhere in the far past someone built that Wall and knew the secrets to keep the Others out. You believe in him, you know the Wall is there, then it ain't hard to figure that something, Others you and my kind call them, needed to be kept on the other side of that Wall."

"Then how will they cross this time?"

She shrugged. "Don't know. Maybe they won't. But Mance will."

"What do you mean?" he asked in worry.

Osha shook her head in despair. "What I been saying to you? You think the free folk are just going to sit still and let the Others kill them all? No, they're going to come south, either over that Wall or under it through the gates."

"There are only three gates left."

"Aye," she said. "Three gates. Every one of my people know that much."

"When will he attack?"

"The sooner the better if Mance was smart."

"The Night's Watch will stop them."

"They didn't stop me and them others you lot killed from climbing the Wall. There ain't enough of them."

"The Night's Watch is always short of men these days. They ask for support but the southern lords only send them the dregs of their prisons and towns and even those are not enough."

"Could be you tell them Mance is coming with the Others on his heels they will send more men."

Maester Luwin shook his head. "I doubt it. They do not believe in the Others."

"They should. Cause they're coming."

"There could be something to that. Many months ago a man deserted from the Night's Watch. He was babbling on about seeing the Others, even up to the point where Lord Eddard cut off his head. But no one believed him."

"They should have."

"Maybe. Now, what else can you tell me about them?"

"My father said that long ago the black crows knew how to kill them."

"How?"

"With fire. They fear fire."

"That's good to know. Fire is always a foe of ice and cold."

"Aye. He also said there were stories about the black crows having special swords and spears and daggers. They could kill the Others."

"What was special about these weapons?"

"Don't rightly know. Something about the blades."

"That is interesting. I need to do more research on this. I think that is all we need talk about."

But instead of leaving she spoke again. "I need to ask you something," Osha said to his surprise. "The little lord is having more wolf dreams, isn't he."

Maester Luwin stared at her and nodded once. "He told you?"

"The whole castle hears when he awakes screaming."

Maester Luwin sighed. "Yes. He says he dreams of being a wolf. His direwolf to be exact."

"Warg," she said in awe.

Maester Luwin was not surprised. He had thought on this also but still believed it only a myth. "No, that's nonsense, a warg is…no, it can't be. It's just a dream"

"Why can't it be, old man? A warg, a skin changer. That is what he is."

"Say nothing of this to anyone," Maester Luwin swiftly said. "They would not understand. They would fear him."

"I'll say nothing," Osha answered and was soon gone back to her work, leaving Maester Luwin with much to think on and no real answers. The trouble with such tales as Mance Rayder's wildling army and the coming of the Others is that those with power to do something about them would not believe until it was too late. As for wargs, well, that was something else he needed to do more research on.

But suddenly he had no time to think on any of this. The next few days were filled with bad news and endless activity. Roose Bolton's bastard son Ramsey Snow had waylaid the widowed Lady Hornwood on her way home from the harvest feast and had forced her to marry him and will him her castle and lands. She was now a prisoner in the Dreadfort. The Manderlys of White harbor had seen this as an insult to their family as Lady Hornwood was a Manderly by birth, cousin to the Lord of White Harbor. They seized the Hornwood castle and lands before the bastard could and now there was a small civil war going on between the Dreadfort and White Harbor. Ser Rodrik saw it as his duty to go out with a strong force of men to try to end the madness by forcing Ramsey Snow to release Lady Hornwood and set things back to rights, if it were possible. Maester Luwin had reluctantly agreed with him, and then wished Lord Eddard and the host with him hurried home as fast as it could.

Then not soon after that came news of the ironmen raiding the Stony Shore. The local lords said it was just hit and run raids but Maester Luwin had a bad feeling about it. He dispatched ravens to both Riverrun and the Twins with this news of the turmoil in the north and asked that they convey his message to the Starks with all possible haste. In his message he requested some force, however small, be sent to the north with as much speed as possible.

With all this happening plus his duties of maester and now the duty of castellan with Ser Rodrik gone, it was a good few days before Maester Luwin realized something else was happening in the castle. The first sign of trouble was when six guards had dragged the guard Alebelly to the baths because he had not bathed in some time. When asked about it Alebelly shouted that the frog boy told Bran he would drown if he went near water.

Late in the evening Maester Luwin sat with Bran in his cluttered tower room and asked him what was happening.

"Jojen has the greensight, they told me," Bran began. "He said he has dreams that come true. In one of his dreams he saw Winterfell covered in water, that the sea had come and drown the castle. Many people drown."

"It's just a dream," Maester Luwin said. "Now you have scared Alebelly with such tales."

They talked long on what the greensight was and about magic and the children of the forests and other such tales. Finally they got around to Bran's direwolf dreams.

"Jojen called me a warg," Bran told him.

There was that word again. "Did he? Do you know what it means?"

"They told me it means I can go inside Summer and become part of him."

Maester Luwin nodded. "That is what the legends say a warg can do, if such a person exists. Can you do that?" He needed the truth of this now.

"I think so. Maybe. I don't know. It feels so real when I am dreaming of Summer. But then…then the rest happens."

"What rest? There is more to your dream?" Maester Luwin asked.

Then Bran changed the conversation. "Is the Kingslayer still a captive of Robb?"

"Yes… maybe. I am not sure. The exchange may have already taken place. Now Bran your dreams. You…" But Bran interrupted him.

"And we can't get Arya and Sansa and Father back without trading the Kingslayer for them?"

"No."

"There is no other way?"

"I am afraid not," Maester Luwin told him. "Bran what does Jaime Lannister have to do with your dreams?" The boy hesitated and Maester Luwin could see he was afraid. "Come, tell me. You can trust me. I pulled you from your mother when you were born. I have taken care of you all your life. Sorry to say I could not fix your broken back. I think no power in the world will able to do that."

"Jojen says I will fly when my third eye opens."

What was this? "Your third eye?"

"In the dreams there is always a three eyed crow, and he is flying to me, and sometimes it is pecking at my head and brain. Jojen said the crow is trying to make me see with my third eye, to see the whole world with my heart, not just my eyes."

Maester Luwin was beginning to understand. Those with the greensight power believed they saw the whole of time all at once, past, present and future. The Reed boy had such power, the brother and sister were claiming.

"Perhaps it is so," Maester Luwin told him. "If all men saw more than what was before their eyes they could see much more of the world."

"No," Bran said, getting cross. "It's not like that. He means I will have a special power. Like he does."

Maester Luwin sighed. "I have explained to you all I know of magic, of how I once studied it at the Citadel and tried to do it. Perhaps this greensight is a kind of magic. But maybe it is just a dream Jojen is having. The seas are far from Winterfell, Bran. How could they drown the castle and its people?"

Bran nodded. "I know. That's what I said to him. The sea can't come to Winterfell."

"Well, I am glad that is settled."

"I'm not finished."

"Oh?"

He was silent for a moment and Maester Luwin waited patiently before Bran spoke again. "In my dreams…I'm always falling."

"Is that why you wake up shaking and screaming?"

He looked ashamed and spoke in a small voice. "Yes."

"You are remembering how you fell from the keep's tower, that is all. It will pass with time."

"I didn't fall! I never fell!" he said with anger.

"Bran, there is no shame in saying you fell. It has happened and it is over with and there is nothing we can do about it."

"Yes, there is," he said and now he was shaking and Maester Luwin held his shoulders and could feel the fear in the boy. "But its too late. I should have said sooner. They are going to let him go. Maybe they already set him free."

"Who?"

"The Kingslayer."

Maester Luwin was confused. "What…?" And then he understood. Lady Catelyn had the right of it after all. Luwin held him by the shoulders and looked deep into his eyes. "Tell me, Bran. Were you pushed from that tower?"

Tears fell from Bran's eyes now and he nodded. "Yes," he gasped. "In my dreams a man with golden hair pushes me off the tower. Almost every night."

"Just in your dream?" That was not proof of anything.

"No…now I remember. Now my third eye has been opened. A little. The day Cley came and told me what Stannis is saying about Joffrey. I remembered, I knew it then. He pushed me because I saw them. I saw them doing what men and women do."

That was more than two weeks ago. Why had he waited so long? He was afraid. "Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Who did you see?"

"I saw the Queen and her brother, Ser Jaime. They were…like men and women who are married."

Maester Luwin felt his heart beat faster and he took several deep breaths. "And then what happened?"

Bran sobbed now and his words came between his gasps. "The Kingslayer…he… pushed me… out the window. And almost every night he does it again."

Then he broke down in sobs and Maester Luwin held him tight and calmed him and later gave him dreamwine and had Hodor take him to bed. Long into the night Maester Luwin sat in his tower and worried on what to do and he realized there was nothing he could do that would not jeopardize Sansa and Arya and Lord Eddard's freedom. The Kingslayer would walk free. He probably already had if the exchange was finished. Maester Luwin was not a very godly man but he prayed that some sword would soon slay Jaime Lannister and that the gods would send him to some hell where he was pushed from a tower every night, to break his legs and back and lay in agony only for it to happen again the next night.

Maester Luwin knew he had to have a record of what Bran had said, and he had to write it now while it was fresh in his mind. He wrote a long account of his conversation with Bran and then he rolled the parchment tight and sealed it with black wax and put Lord Eddard's name on the outside and put it among his important papers and documents on a shelf.

The next morning Bran awoke and said he had no dreams at all and for a few moments Maester Luwin thought he had lied but then realized he hadn't. He had heard no screams during the night and the boy's guards said he had not made a sound all night.

Feeling good for the first time in days Maester Luwin went to the rookery and saw there was one raven with one message. It was sitting on a roost that was barely ever used. It was the raven from Moat Cailin. With trembling fingers Maester Luwin untied the scroll and opened the message.

Under attack. Ironmen. Send help!

That was it, written in a hasty hand, the ink running in spots, as if there had been no time to let it dry.

Moat Cailin under attack. Dire news indeed. The ironmen had made their choice. They had decided to enter the war. And they had done so with a strike at the most strategic point in all of the north. If Moat Cailin fell, then the Stark army would have to fight their way home. Once more Maester Luwin wrote messages to the Starks and sent a raven to Riverrun and for the Twins as well.

Now what to do. Ser Rodrik was still gone to settle the Hornwood problem and he had no word where he was or what he was up to. Moat Cailin was at the north end of the Neck. That was crannogmen lands. But no ravens would find them. No maester served at Greywater Watch, the floating castle of Howland Reed. Yet, he had two crannogmen here with him. He called the two Reed children to his tower, alone.

"How soon can you be ready to go home?"

"We can't go home," said Jojen, the solemn son of Howland Reed. "We must stay here with Bran until he is ready to fly."

His sister looked at him in anger. "Don't talk about it. He won't believe us anyway."

"Bran has told me some of this," Master Luwin told them. "But we have no time for such discussions now. Warriors from the Iron Islands are attacking Moat Cailin. It may have already fallen."

"That is terrible news," said Meera. "Am I to understand you want us to go to our father to ask for his help?"

"Yes."

"There is no need," she told him. "My father will soon know, may already know. We use no ravens, but the waterways of our land help us move swiftly for those who know how to travel them. He may already be assembling a force to come north to Moat Cailin."

"Does he have enough men to take it back if it falls?"

"No," her brother said. "He would not attack. Moat Cailin is very strong. We would lose too many of our people."

"That is unfortunate," said Maester Luwin. He knew the crannogmen would not fight an open battle. They would surely lose to the ironmen in any pitched battle. "Lord Robb Stark and his host will be trapped to the south if they cannot take back Moat Cailin. Is there naught your father can do?"

Meera smiled. "He can cut off their supplies and harass them. They will not see our people but will know we are there. Then Lord Stark and his men can attack them when they are weak."

"I have seen this already," said Jojen. "Three towers in the mud, many arrows coming from them. But a turtle climbed up out of the swamp and came to the door of one tower and used its head to knock it in. Soon the other towers fell as well."

"A greensight dream?" Maester Luwin asked him.

"Yes," said Jojen.

"No turtle can knock down a tower door."

"Sometimes the dreams are not always as they seem," explained Meera.

"Like the dream that Winterfell was drown by the sea?"

Now the boy looked steadily at Maester Luwin. "Winterfell will be drown by the sea. But now I think the dream is not as I first saw it. Now I think the wolf will return to Winterfell. When the wolf comes against the sea, the sea will retreat and will go back where it came from."

"What does it mean?" Maester Luwin asked in frustration. "Who is the wolf? Lord Eddard? His son?"

"Maybe. Maybe not," said Meera.

Maester Luwin sighed in frustration. "Very well. Thank you for your advice." They left him and for a long time Maester Luwin thought on what they had said. A turtle will rise, a wolf will return, the sea will retreat. All of this made his head hurt. He needed advice, advice on what was going on and what was going to happen next. He knew of only one man in the Seven Kingdoms who could advise him. For a long time he carefully composed his message. When it was done, he tied it to the raven for Castle Black and sent it off. Perhaps Maester Aemon would know more about these greensight dreams and what they truly meant. At the same time, he added Osha's warnings about Mance Rayder and the wildlings and the Others. He just hoped he was not too late.