Chapter 28: Fire To the Dead
Olivia woke up to find herself in the middle of a trial. A man on his knees disheveled with wounds on his body on the ground a small distance from him is a large crowd of peasants. Another distance away is a boy with golden hair standing next to Cersei Lannister and Sansa Stark.
Looking closely the crowds are booing and cursing at the man. It is not easy to see but this injured and disheveled man is Ned Stark.
"I am Eddard Stark, Lord of Winterfell and Hand of the King,... and I come before you to confess my treason in the sight of gods and men... I betrayed the faith of my king and the trust of my friend, Robert... I swore to defend and protect his children, yet before his blood was cold, I plotted to dispose and murder his son and seize the throne for myself. Let the High Septon and Baelor the Beloved and the Seven bear witness to the truth of what I say: Joffrey Baratheon is the one true heir to the Iron Throne, and by the grace of all the gods, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and Protector of the Realm"
Things just got interesting because a while later, Jeffrey demanded for his head. Then he dies just like that.
A man of honor and insipit quality when it came to politics took up a position of one who answers only to one man. How to feel about an obvious ending to a predictable story? Pity him or just go on with life às always. Afterall there is nothing surprising about a sun rising from east and resting in the west. A Northerner politician! Hha!
"No!" Olivia woke up screaming. She is sweating profusely her sleep wear wet against her skin. Her previously died hair has turned white like snow again. Every time she sees her white eye lashes and white eyebrows she feels like someone drew her on a piece of paper. Especially against her pale Northern skin and her full red lips.
"A prophetic dream. That might have been my fault." Morpheus said walking on her.
"Is my father going to die in the south?" After getting her breathing under control she looked at her dragon and asked.
"That is the likely possible future. You can try to change it." Morph said trying to comfort her.
"As if I didn't already know he would die if he ever go south. Why don't these prophetic dreams show me an undiscovered gold mine in my lands?" She grumbled. The two dragons looked at each other and chuckled.
The entire morning she is thinking about all the possible reasons she would be dreaming about seeing her father's head go fly. There must still be time because he is not in Kings landing yet.
Olivia gave several millions of iron bank notes for gold coins to the military so they can go buy her more soldiers. As many as possible. She will need them if she hopes to kill the Lannisters should she be unsuccessful in saving her father.
Having prophetic dreams made her reconsider yhe depth of her connection with her children. According to Morpheus she is able to share her power since she is connected to her as a rider. In one day she is performing a spell and runs out of her own magic she is able to borrow some of her.
This is not recommended while the human body is weak. Because of this, Olivia has decided to go through the forging of her blood and bones. It is painful but it will give her steel bones and jade skin. Ofcourse it is not the kind that changes the appearance of her body nor does she become hard skinned or cold blooded.
This will have to happen after she comes back from the Wall. If she hadn't given her words the night before she wouldn't be accompanying them anymore and instead will gather the ingredients for her medicinal baths.
She might have pretended to be okay after that dream but in fact, she is beyond pissed at the Southerners. It is this reasoning that has led her to her plan. She will use her power to connect with her dragons to reinforce the spell on the wall.
When this happens she is well aware the night king will not lay down in waiting any more. No, he will freeze the seas and walk to the south that way, hopefully sparing her home. As soon as the night king leaves she will close the path making sure he bever comes back. At least that is her next ambitious plan.
"Are you ready?" She is accompanying the crows down south she will be taking 8 of her 12 queen's guard. Yes, she will have 12 of the strongest in her army escort her when necessary. She won't be taking them everywhere like the Southerners.
However she can not have all the strongest since they are all going to the 'recruit' mission. She asked them to avoid expensive ones like the unsullied or the gladiators and recruit normal trained soldiers who will fight when asked to.
"What are those things?" Jeor asked her as they are waiting in the town square.
"Things to carry supplies."
"They are exquisitely made."
The 12 guards came on horseback they mostly chose white horses but some are black. Olivia took the blacks to the stables. Its more like the horse farm. Horses are very important especially in war time so Olivia changed her mind about selling her strong fast horses and began breeding them.
During the past battles with the Dothraki her people woud always take away the horses shipping them here now she has three large farms with just horses. They are in the military territory but the others have smaller stables for their horses as well.
Tens of thousands of horses separated into many floors below ground, it is very organized. "Choose a horse since you donated yours to the wild." Olivia laughed when she saw their surprised expressions. As they aaw the vast land within the farm lands. There is a lift made to go down and up on each floor.
"This is...wow. How rich are you?" Tyrion asked. The place where the horses are is separated into 5 floors going down. Each floor has a vasy open space with some grass and a body of water here and there where horses eat and drink.
These horses are very intelligent they each have a sleeping place prepared for them. As soon as they are strong enough to survive the environment they are used for patrol and training.
Right now these visitors are only seeing just one floor. Olivia just shrugs "I get by, pick one horse and we can go. If you can't subdue it move on but beware... they can smell fear."
She left them there and went to spek with Dixon. "I want medicine to give them. Common medications and some strong pain killers. I am going to give a few life saving pills to them if they promise to aid us should the need arise."
"Why put so much effort into them? No offense but they seem like a desperate few with barely enough to get by."
"They have never participated in wars below the wall, even in the North. Their job is to guard the realms of men. They have been fighting with the wildlings for so long they take it for their purpose. Mance is annoying but he is still human. They are focusing on the wrong things."
"Do you hope to make them see this?"
"I am hoping to have them under outh when I eventually take over the wildlings. I won't attack them and they won't be hostile to me. This way we will end thousand years of conflict."
"Sneaky."
"I agreed. But it has to be done." She smiled and their party finally left. She didn't forget to give Tyrion a healing pill for her sister and a smaller horse.
"You changed your hair color. Why purple? If I may ask." Tyrion asked on his horse. Olivia ignored his questions and looked to his horse.
"It will grow. I wonder if you'll be able to keep it by your side around the greedy Southerners at that time." Olivia said.
"Thank you, lady Snow for your generosity." Tyrion says as he ride a white little pony. The others laughed at him.
They made their way south but as they had already gone half way through they came across an odd sound.
Four grown men are fighting a single man who is using two swords. He is fast and deadly. They clearly don't stand a chance.
"Broady?" Olivia is the first to see who it is.
"Amon, he's 12!" Olivia said in outrage.
"He is training to be your sworn guard my lady. I can't be soft on him just because he is a bit young." Amon said.
"He is rather good. I can't say I have ever seen a man that fast with two swords. And I live in the south." Tyrion comments.
"I was hoping to build a place where children don't have to fight to survive." Olivia explained.
"He's no more a child then you are my lady." Tyrion says annoying Olivia. She looked at him in annoyance.
"Your mouth is too big for your head Tyrion." She snarled.
"He is not fighting to survive. He is fighting to win a place by your side. To refuse him based solely on his age will be unfair. I don't suppose you want to build a place where people are looked down upon based on their age and not their efforts or talents." Tyrion says which made Olivia hesitate.
"Alright then. Test him twice as much. He is young, young people are fickle about their gaols." She said and rode ahead. Amon looked at Tyrion in admiration.
"You're brave man dwarf. If she gives that look to a lesser man he might has shat himself." Amon rode after his lady queen.
"Then I am not responsible for whats in my pants." Tyrion is visibly sweaty after seeing those usually expressionless eyes looking at him in annoyance.
When the others finally made it to Broady, they gave him pitying looks and he didn't understand why. He thought he did very well as a scout.
After making camp near the fist of the first men outside the forest, Olivia refusedfood and ate meal capsules.
"The forest has shifted inland by a long distance. It feels like it never ends." A ranger said. They continued arguing and chatting while eating.
"Someone is coming. On foot running from something." Olivia suddenly said amidst all the sounds of eating and crackling of the flames.
They all listened for a while but only the cold winds blew and nothing else sounded. "Nothing is out there." A nother crow said.
"And how do you know he is running?"
"There is something familiar around him. A strong stench of fear, and death." Her expression changed and she stood up taking out her two long knives.
"You said you came out here to look for a missing ranger?" She looked to Jeor Mormont. "Does this Ranger have my blood by any chance?" She asked with visible anger.
"His name is Brandon Stark."
Olivia ran towards the incoming horse. "Lady Snow."
"My queen!" Her guards shouted and took their weapons running towards her.
Olivia felt the air through her face, cold and unforgiving. She ran forward nonetheless, she can't stop, not when she can feel the candle of one who is her blood about to go out. She increased her speed even more and reached her goal in a few more minutes.
A man ran followed by a running small mob of boney dead humans. But that is not why he is running so desperately. There are several packs of growling animals on his tail.
Olivia ran past the man and released her flames upon meeting the dead wolves and bears the second she is at a close distance. They burned but they are too many of them. So she turned around and pulled the man running towards the camp.
When the guards met her she shouted. "Go take out the boms of wild fire the dead are coming and they bring beasts with them." They turned and ran towards the camp to take out the bombs of wild fire.
She on the other hand opened Benjen's wound and to her surprise it is an infection of some black magic. She didn't even have time to analyze it and sent in her white flames. Sinister sounds of a screeching creature came out of the man's throat and Benjen seem to be in a lot of pain.
She closed her eyes and recited the purifying spell, the louder she spoke the louder the screeches became. Finaly after a long battle a form of an old man with ice blood and white beard came out from the wound still making a horrifying scream and disappeared into the cold air.
Olivia is sweating profusely by the end, she lift her head to find that she is in the middle of a confrontation between the dead army and her traveling party. Tyrion is holding a knive by her side looking pale from watching her purifying a walkers infestation from Benjen Stark.
She pulled one crow "Watch my uncle."
"What? No!"
"Do it, or I'll cripple you to force you to stay here and watch over him. You hear?" When she is like this her Northern accent comes out fully. The boy is freaked out and just agrees.
She turns to the battlefield seeing the burning dead are few and there is more coming. She coated her blades with her flames and entered the frey. As soon as she did it became obvious with her yellow red flames amongst the green. She might have been just an alchemist in her last life but she was a sword wielder as well, there never lived a pure alchemist who who never went to battle, at least not for long.
The basic technique that people think is nothing in the last life makes her seem like a master here. It's the damnest thing. She slashed and stabbed through the crowd of the dead until she saw them retreat. It seems this group had strayed from the group.
When she came back, she is surrounded by her guards. "Anyone deaad?" She asked.
"No."
"Anyone injured?"
"Here."
"Here."
She gave them the life saving medicine that disinfects and heal at the same time. "Let them sleep it off. We move now."
"They are not in the condition to ride horses I'm afraid." Mormont said. He has gained a new found respect for these people. They fight like a pack of well trained savages. They couldn't kill the nights with their normal steel but that didn't stop them from cutting them into many pieces.
He hasn't met a sword that cut through bone like theirs. "I'll see what I can do about them." She went into the woods. The guards followed behind her. Some have never seen her use her power before. She mended the trees and made a slate with enough room for three grown men to lay next to each other.
Coming out, she presented the four wheeled flat carriage. "Did you make it in these few minutes you went inside?"
"Which is more likely? Me having bent wood to make it in this short time of me having similar looking slates every few meters incase one of my men gets injured?" She asked Mormont.
"None."
"Then none of those happened. We are good to move now? We are lucky not to run into their generals. I hear they are very hard to kill." She heard that from the children of the forest.
"You were very good in a fight. I didn't think lord Stark let his daughter learn the art of fighting."
"Is your mouth always open?" She asked Tyrion.
"I am just fresh from witnessing the horrors I had only read about in stories. But I saw something even crazier than that, I saw a little girl go into battle with these horrors and emerged from the battle unharmed." He came closer. "I saw you shoot white flames from your hands." He said in a very low voice.
"No one would believe you." She warned.
"I am not planning on telling anyone. I am just curious. Did you exorcise a demon from a man of the nights watch?"
"Not a demon. He was infected by the Necromancer magic. He was being consumed by death slowly and soon he would have been one of them. He was in a lot of pain during the process I am not sure he will survive this with all his sanity intact." She admitted.
They loaded the men and used the horses to pull the slate away. They travelled through the night and only took rest when they came across Crester's keep.
"I see you came back with friends. Who is this young pretty thing?" Olivia didn't answer and chose to help the men bring the unconscious into a hut.
"You brought back a wildling girl? Tired of sleeping by your lonesome old friend? What's in those things?" He looked at the carriers with curiosity.
"That is no wildling and those belong to her. The men with slick black armor and shinning blades are her sworn guards."
"Sworn guards? Is she some high born coming to experience the cold winds of winter?" Crester's eyes kept wondering where Olivia had been.
"What is she carrying in there?"
"She didn't tell me."
Olivia took her uncle and put him on a sleeping bag covering him and the others with warm blankets. "Let us through. We want to check on our men."
Tyrion watched her with interest. When she drew two blades and lit them with flames and entered the battle he thought to himself. 'Huh? Have I ever seen a more beautiful and terrifying woman?' He doesn't think so.
Watching her handle her uncle's sick body with so much care and practiced caution he finds he can't recognize her. His uncle often told him that women are a great mystery. Now he knows why.
"Let them in." When the brothers found their comrades sleeping on comfortable looking cushions covered in warm blankets they became mad with jealous.
"Now I want to kill them." One said.
"Fuck'n kunts. Get rewarded for sleeping on the job."
"We have had a long journey. Come, lets enjoy a warm drink." Olivia poured everyone a bit of vodka.
Some couged at the strong stuff. "Hahah..." She and her men laughed at them.
"Don't drink too much on an empty stomach. Eat some dry meat." They ate and joked while Jeor Mormont spoke with the sleazy looking man.
At night they are called to join Crester's family for food but they are already full and so they refused the man's kind offer. Her guards didn't drink.
Olivia and the others left first thing in the morning. You could see the regret on the sleazy old man's face when they left without opening the carriers.
A few more days they made it to the wall. "First time seeing it?"
"Yes."
"It's magnificent isn't it?"
"The magic inside is dwindling. It will crumble any day now. No wonder the night king is so active again. He can feel it. This is what he has been waiting for all these thousands of years for the magic on the wall that is preventing him from advancing to run out." Olivia said jolting everyone out of their excitement for making it home.
"We're so fucked." She declared.
"Winter is really coming to stay this time. I need to go to Winterfell." Meantime she is cursing inside.
"How can you tell?" Jeor looked at the wall that has always looked the same to him and then turned to the girl making wild clams.
"I can see the magic reminants in the wall, they are pitifully low. This wall is weak now, a little push would have it crumble." She continues to say.
"Lady Snow, you're scaring everyone." Tyrion suddenly said. What he meant to say is you're scaring me.
"Good. Fear is appropriate." She said riding ahead.
....