S3

Chapter 3

Storm's End, 281 A.C., Two weeks later…

Well, the past two weeks has been interesting. The last three days of the march was dealing with the fallout of my idiot cousin revealing my invention to basically the entire realm. That night I made sure to verbally rip him a new one in a long, unhinged rant that I'm pretty sure hammered words like "confidentiality" and "operational security" into his head. I then put him on latrine duty for the rest of the march, a very humiliating punishment for a noble. If how he's acted lately is any indication, then he seems to have learned his lesson.

Once we got to King's Landing, the army camped outside the city while Robert led all the lords to the Red Keep. I was in the throne room, off to one of the sides with Wyman and the other lords and it was surreal.

The unoccupied Iron Throne loomed over us as I watched a young Sean Bean furiously arguing with a young book-version of Robert over the death of Elia and her children while a young Charles Dance and book versions of Jon Arryn and Jaime looked on. I spotted my uncle, Walton Seastark, across the room when Ned Stark stormed out in anger leaving a red-faced, furious Baratheon behind. Jon Arryn awkwardly called court to an end but not before announcing the Alchemist Guild, for siding with the Targaryens, was to be disbanded with all living members declared outlaws to be brought to the crown for justice.

When the court dispersed, I walked with Wyman toward my uncle but was cut off by Jon Arryn telling me that we would meet to discuss the wayfinders after the siege at Storm's End was lifted. I told him that was fine and suggested looking in the sewers for any surviving pyromancers, he nodded but commented that he would be stretched thin for manpower once the army marches off to Storm's End. I volunteered Wyman and two dozen men to help Jon Arryn search the sewers, ignoring the former's look of dismay. When the lord of the Eyrie accepted Wyman into his temporary service, we parted ways to join up with my uncle.

My uncle Walton Seastark was tall and bulky man in his mid-thirties with the classic Seastark brown hair and blue-gray eyes who could hug with the strength of an Umber. Catching up with my uncle, he talked about his ride with Ned Stark to King's Landing, the sack, finding the Kingslayer on the Iron Throne over a dead Aerys before bragging that he was going to accompany Ned Stark in the search for his sister before asking about the rumors of a magical box and why his son smelled like shit. I laughed and told everything that happened after I woke up including volunteering Wyman for sewer duty and showed him the wayfinder. I felt vindicated when my uncle smacked Wyman upside the head and berated him for giving away a massive advantage for our family.

My and uncle and I marched out with Ned Stark the next, leaving Wyman and the volunteered men behind to search the sewers for pyromancers and wyldfire. The way I saw it, if Wyman fucked up and blew up the city, at least I wouldn't be there.

It took us ten days to march to Storm's End, which gave plenty of time to get to know Ned Stark. Hugo had met Ned only once when he was five about a year before the second-born Stark son left to foster in the Vale so this was the first time formally meeting him. We bonded over the losses of our fathers and how we both became lords due to this war. He asked about the wayfinder he heard murmurs of and I showed him. When I saw he was impressed by it, I told him to keep it, as a gesture of friendship between their houses and when he said he couldn't accept it, I told him at least use it to find his sister.

When we arrived at Storm' End, everything played out like canon, with Mace Tyrell and the Reach army breaking off the siege and bending the knee. I didn't see Ned before he and his group rode off for Dorne, but I did see my uncle before he joined him. I told him the night before; I had a greendream of a pregnant she-wolf being kept in a tower of joy by three Kingsguard in the Red Mountains. Even though I could tell my uncle didn't believe me, I did manage to convince him that picking up a healer or a midwife on the way wouldn't be a terrible idea.

Which brings me to the present, sitting at feast in Storm's End surrounded by Northern lords, wondering if I've done enough to help Ned save Lyanna or deal the wyldfire under King's Landing. The atmosphere of the feast is an odd mix of jubilant, yet subdued for the obvious reason that the castle and it's inhabitants just got done with a grueling months-long siege. As I was in conversation with Lord Slate and Lord Fisher of the Stony Coast about the Sunset Fleet, Stannis calls out to everyone.

"My lords, MY LORDS, we have received dire words from my regal brother and the Hand! Large caches of wyldfire have been found in the sewers beneath King's Landing and after interrogating the pyromancers they uncovered a plot by the Mad King to place barrels of wyldfire beneath the city to detonated when he lost the city…"

I couldn't hear the rest because the hall erupted into noise as I leaned back into my chair. Well, that's one problem taken care of.