Chương 13: Talk with the Honorable Wolf

As Benjen and I made our way through Winterfell's courtyard, catching up on the rest of the family, I was glad to fill him in. I told him about Arya and Jon, about my little plan to coax Jon out of his shell by nudging him and Dacey together, which had him laughing outright. I mentioned how I'd been growing closer to Theon too.

Both of us had been studying our grandfathers with Luwin, and Theon, through seeing the Iron Islands' history from an outsider's eye, had grown a fonder appreciation for his own grandfather and a rather sour view of his father. Benjen seemed pleasantly surprised to hear it. I told him Theon was giving archery lessons to me and the rest of the Stark children, plus the wards now living with us. I pointed out that little Jon Umber was already a beast in the yard, every bit his father's son by Father's own account.

I mentioned too that Wynafryd Manderly and Sansa were getting along wonderfully, and that Mother had clearly taken a shine to her over the other two wards. As we walked on through the training yard, Benjen commented on the guards drilling there. I explained they'd taken up some extra conditioning that I had made up — suicide runs, pull-ups, the like — and offered to walk him through the exercises properly so he could carry them back to the Wall himself.

He agreed readily, laughing that he was glad to see Winterfell so full of life and purpose.

"Ned should be pleased with all the work you've put into yourself, and into the castle," he said, and I nodded, adding that Father's whole day would likely be made just by seeing him again. I knew Benjen and I still had a fair way to go to bring Father around to our now shared idea, but we had some time yet. I meant to lean on his sense of honor and duty as Lord Paramount and as a Stark.

And with Benjen there beside me — a brother that I knew Father missed more deeply than he'd ever admit, not since the two of them had drifted apart after the war, Benjen taking the black and leaving Ned alone with everything — this could be a way to mend some of that distance too, at least in Father's own mind. I hoped it would help win him over to the plan, and help the North, both at once.

We stopped for Benjen to eat and drink in the kitchens first, then made for the main hall, where we ran into Vayon Poole, who greeted me with a simple "Morning" and Benjen with a far warmer welcome home. Benjen always claimed the Wall was home to him now, but I could tell he liked hearing it said anyway. I asked Vayon where Father was, and he told us the solar, having just broken his fast. Good news for us both — we could go straight to him and start wearing him down before the moment cooled.

We thanked Vayon and made our way to Father's solar, about to deliver, I suspected, one of the tougher sales pitches in Westeros — or at least in the North, this early in the game. At the solar door, Benjen and I traded a nod with the guard posted at the end of the hall, then stepped up to Father's door. Son or not, I still knocked, and waited for his "Come in" before we entered. Benjen and I exchanged one last glance, nodded to each other, and stepped through.

Inside, Father sat behind his desk, a map of the North spread before him, another hanging on the wall alongside old Stark banners, antiques, and small direwolf figures scattered across the room.

"Father," I said, keeping my voice light, "I've brought a guest," as Benjen and I came to stand before the desk. Father looked up, his stern features softening the moment he saw Benjen.

"Benjen. Didn't expect you for a few days yet. Glad you made it safe," he said, rising to embrace his brother.

"Good to be back," Benjen said.

"Robb's told me all about the wards, and the family. You must be proud — he'll make a fine lord one day. Reminds me of our father, the way he's always thinking of connections, though up here instead of down south. Got your best qualities too, and Catelyn's grace besides," he added, with a sidelong glance and smile toward me. Father grinned at that, chuckling.

"I know it. Our father would've been proud to call him grandson." His face turned to look fondly distant. Not wanting Father's mind to drift toward what had happened to his own father, not yet, I spoke up quickly.

"There's something Benjen and I wanted to speak with you about, Father." Father's face grew solemn again. He glanced between the two of us.

"What is it, Robb?"

"We have a proposal for you," I said with a nod toward Benjen.

"With Benjen's help. Something that could better the North — the Wall too. May we sit?" Father nodded, settling back in his chair as we took our seats.

"This sounds serious, judging by your tone." I glanced at Benjen once more, this was it, then back to Father, and nodded.

"It is, for the North's sake. It's about the Stony Shore," I began, leaning back and starting from the far end of my argument.

"It's Stark land that has sat idle for years, but it used to be some of our most valuable land — not just for crops or taxes, but for what it guarded against. Ironborn raids, mostly, for the North and for House Stark both. It's our duty to see that land restored, for the folk still living there, and for the North's own protection." I leaned on the word duty, watching it land.

"Even with Theon here, and I don't doubt his loyalty but, his father's a different matter entirely. We should strengthen that coast — and I believe I know a way to do it that also eases pressure on the Wall, without tipping favor toward any one Northern house over the others." I looked to Benjen, who picked up the thread.

"As you know, the Wall's been failing more each year. More raiders slipped past and over it, and not enough men to stop them. We've asked for coins and equipment to hire local hands, repair what forts still stand. But what Robb and I worked out together" — he nodded to me, and I appreciated him framing it as ours — "could ease the wildlings' strength, help folk on both sides of the Wall, and cost the Night's Watch nothing in coin." Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

"How, exactly?" Father cut in.

"I know you need more men and gold. I don't see how I could supply more than we already do."

"You wouldn't have to," Benjen said.

"In fact, it'd hand the North and the Starks more manpower, not less. Directly and indirectly both. Giant power, even," he added, with a small smirk. Father looked puzzled, and I saw my opening.

"The Thenns," I said, stepping in.

"A clan of wildlings," Father said.

"A clan of free folk," I corrected gently.

"More advanced than most of the others. Benjen can speak to their ways better than I can." Benjen once more took the lead from there, trading off with me as we made our pitch.

"The Thenns are one of the largest, most advanced clans north of the Wall," he said.

"Less nomadic than most — smithing, farming, settlements, some even walled, from what I hear. They've got giants too, or what's left of them." He paused, thoughtful.

"Giants who helped build the Wall and Winterfell alongside the First Men. Giants who bent the knee to Brandon the Builder, and to the Starks after him, in the fight against the Long Night. Giants who helped raise castles and hold the North against invaders, right up until the last of them ended up stranded on the wrong side of the Wall."

"This could be our chance to bring them back," I said, stepping in myself.

"As Starks, it's our duty — our honor, our tradition — to strengthen the North with every generation. What better way to do that, help the Wall, and avoid bloodshed all at once?" I appealed straight to Father's sense of duty and his distaste for needless war.

"We can't save every wildling, or north man who will fight them nor could bring every clan south as most won't bend the knee. But we can take in the most advanced of them without unsettling the North too badly, especially given everything they'd bring with them." Father studied me.

"Is this the real reason you took up the Old Tongue? You've clearly been turning this over a while. But I worry you don't understand the ill will some Northern houses — the Umbers, the Karstarks and others — still carry for wildlings."

"I do understand it, Father," I said.

"But with Smalljon here, he could help sway his own father. The Umbers value strength above nearly everything — why wouldn't they want their own sigil's namesake welcomed home? And the Karstarks are kin. Even if they don't like it, they'll stand with us. With Bran fostering there soon besides, that alone should soften them further." Benjen took over again.

"Ned. Brother." His voice had gone quieter, more direct.

"I think I could bring the Watch around, with your backing. Wall and Starks, united on this — it could work. All we'd need first is a meeting with the Thenns. Like most of the wildlings they keep the Old Gods same as us, and honor guest right same as us. If I can get word to them, promise safe passage, they'd at least agree to sit with you or Robb. They share our gods, and our first man blood too, just on the far side of the Wall. They might be the only clan willing to bend the knee at all.

They've got law, leadership, and farms. Once they cross, they'd settle on the Stony Shore, well clear of the houses near the Wall. We'd separate them from their giants, let the giants form a new house sworn to the Starks alone — land near the Wolfswood and the mountains, room enough for their mammoths to roam, all of it under the Stark banner and no one else's."

"I've thought this through carefully, Father," I said.

"There's precedent in the old scrolls Luwin and I have gone through — records of clans crossing before, in ages past. The Stark name still carries weight even south of the Wall. We've been lords and kings of the North longer than nearly any house in Westeros. Our history with the Old Gods, our wars against the Andals, our stand against the Long Night — the free folk especially still hold those tales close. That still proves we have the strength to see this through."

"I've even worked out the matter of leadership with Benjen," I went on.

"I could challenge them to single combat, and prove the Starks' strength stands over theirs directly. If I win, they keep their name and their clan, but their vows of loyalty go to House Stark, not just to me. You know I'm the best blade in Winterfell, if not the whole North. Let me help you strengthen the North, Father, as its future lord." I sat back, letting him weigh it all. He looked between the two of us.

"This is a great deal to take in, Robb, Benjen. You've clearly given it real thought — more than I have, plainly. I'll still need to discuss the rest of it with my brother alone. But I promise you both, I'll think hard on this." He looked at me with pride.

"I'm glad you've put this much care into it, Robb — your sense of duty, your honor, your faith in the Old Gods and this family. You make me prouder every day. Some days I find myself almost grateful for that fall, if this is what it made of you — a man who knows what he wants, young as you still are. You've handled the guards and the wards well, and I know you take your training seriously." He nodded to Benjen.

"I'll consider this properly and let you know before you head back to the Wall. Now — give your uncle and me a moment alone, if you would."

"Yes, Father," I said, standing.

"Thank you for hearing us out." I told myself this was the best I could have done — hopefully Benjen could push things along further once I'd gone. Father believed so fiercely in honor and duty that, in another life, he'd told a queen to her face he knew of her betrayal, and paid for that honesty with everything. I hoped that same unyielding sense of duty might let at least one clan of free folk cross over peacefully, this time, in service of the very thing he believed in most.

Stepping back out into the hallway, I thought about meditating in the godswood before wearing myself out in the yard and calling it a day. I was honestly spent — I hadn't had a conversation that mattered so much since arriving in this world, most of my days spent training, thinking, planning instead. But it felt good, talking to Father like that. I didn't want to grow more attached to him than Robb's own memories already pulled me toward, not when I wasn't planning to spare him from what waited in King's Landing.

I still needed the power and standing that would come with leading the North — with becoming King in the North, whatever the years ahead might bring though I would encourage him to follow his southern wife's family words more in the south. that family can come before duty and honor. As I made my way toward the godswood, I hoped I'd done enough to bring Father around.

I wanted the giants' help badly when the time came to go south — not only because some part of me thought the idea of taking giants to down a castle as siege engine was bad ass, but because an armored giant, a huge direwolf, and a loyal owl at my side would make for the kind of image a warg king of old might have worn prestige that the other kingdoms could not ignore and with magic starting to come back to Westeros I would secure my place.