Chapter 68 A head

I am 15 chapters ahead on my patreón check it out if you are interested

_______________________________________________

King's landing

Red keep

Eddard stark pov

As Ned sits in his chair next to the queen regent holding court, attending small council meetings he can't help but feel all of this is just a long dream, a illusion his head is playing on him while he rots in those black cells waiting for his death

But all of this is no dream no matter how outlandish it seems with dragons, direwolves, giants and magic, a year ago he would have call all of this nothing but tall tales but now he has experienced it all himself, while thinking he couldn't help but touch his leg that felt like it was never even broken

After his injury and his subsequent stay in the black cells his leg was gone beyond healing, after he was rescued the Maesters basically told him he would need a cane to walk for rest of his life but Jon just fed a vial of god knows what and after a night of excruciating pain his leg was good as new, even some of the old scars on his leg went away

Even now there are rumours going around about Jon being a Valyrian sorcerer but people don't even know the half of it,as he looks to the current grand Maester, the Targaryen prince that the world forgot about, even Ned didn't knew that the old Maester at wall was a Targaryen but he had seen the old man few times, but the Maester Aemon at the wall was blind and old beyond belief but now the person in front him while still old is no where near that

Dragons really are different from the rest of us, but Ned knows not to look at the gifted horse's face and is just glad that he can rely on the old Maester's wisdom, as the old Maester might look younger than he used to but is still wiser than ever, Ned frequently relys on the old man nowadays as he serves the new crown that deals with dragons, giants and magic on daily basis

As the small council meeting ended and people started to leave the old Maester stopped us " your graces, lord hand, lord stark the king has sent word, I would like to talk to you in my chambers if it's not too much trouble"

As the other members of the small council left Ned, queen Rhaella, Queen Elia and Robb followed the grand Maester to his chambers even the king's guard were left outside,as we entered the cellar of the Ned saw that it was filled will all kinds of old think books and old scrolls, they will literally spread all across the room

As we made are way through to the main table, the Maester took out a white wooden box and placed it on the table in front of us " I am sorry to abruptly call all of you here but my dear nephew wants all of you to know this before we leave for the wedding in winterfell and what is going to happen there, this all might seem like ramblings of a mad man but let this old man finish then you can say whatever you want"

Maester Aemon seriously looked at us before we all nodded then he looked at Ned and started to speak " lord stark your House's words have rang true for 8,000 years and now especially winter is coming or rather that it is almost here, while the seven kingdoms have faced some harsh winters over they years but now the true winter that the Starks warned about for thousands of years is finally coming the long night, while the world believes that the long night, the others, the white walkers are nothing but tales used to scare children and entertain others but that is no longer the case"

As the old Maester walked around the room " as you can see I have been reading on the long night for a while now but after all this time it is hard to differentiate between fact and fiction, but my nephew has been going beyond the wall for years to gather vital information for us, I would rather not have my nephew risk his life just get information but all men have their duty and their burdens to bear and my dear nephew's is the greatest of them all"

Maester Aemon took out a book from the shelf and put it next to the the white box, this book was different from the rest as it was new unlike all the old ones " this book is the result of all the efforts of my nephew over the years, I hope you all can read it soon, I am sure by now all you might think that is old man has lost his wits but what I have to show you now will show you a glimpse of what we are about to face " then he opened the while box to show what was inside to all of us

Gaaaa

A decapitated head suddenly growled from inside the box, Ned didn't know what happened he was just stuck looking at the head that was dead but was still moving somehow, as he looked around everyone expect the Maester were shocked by that ungodly thing in front of us but the old Maester went on

"This is a wight, a dead man turned by the walker's magic to join their army of the dead, as you can see even if the head is sperated from the thing still moves and wants to kill everything alive that is in front of it, the lands beyond the wall are crawling with these things now and before long they will breach the wall and come after us all, there are two wights South of the wall that are kept in winterfell, before the wedding the king will show them and tell the northern lords to allow the wildlings South of the wall"

Ned was still shocked by what is in front of them but the old queen didn't stay quiet " you say that lands beyond the wall is covered in these things and you let your king and my grandson go there alone, even now he went to the wall in front of all of us and you didn't say a word, I knew something was wrong when he brought those wildlings with him, how can you keep all of this form me "

The old maester just sighed at the queen regent's outburst, " I too feel my heart break every time my nephew flies north but it his duty and burden and no one can deny that, all those years ago when my nephew contacted me I thought I would meet my little nephew who could be the last hope for our house but instead I met a boy who seemed to carry they entire world's weight on his shoulders, at first I thought it was his upbringing in the north or his bastard status that made that innocent little boy grow up so fast but more I learned about my nephew the more I realized how unfair this world really is, Rhaegar's and lyanna's love plunged the whole realm in war and bloodshed and from that same love my nephew was born, he lost his father before he was even born and his mother soon after, as if all of this was not enough the fate of this rested on his shoulder from the moment he took breath,the little boy who barely started to understand the world was forced to watch the greatest tragedies that happened to our house, even when my little brother was made king the weight of the crown was hard for him to bear but my nephew has to bear that and more even when he is not even half the age my little brother was"