General - Pov.
Location - North | Winterstrom.
The north, a cold place where air currents do not know the meaning of warmth. In the interior of these lands, people live their lives one step at a time, the precarious living conditions to which they are subjected, force the population to adapt, old earthenware houses hammered by time, cracks spread along the walls together with the dirt of the environment, resulting in a gloomy feeling, there is no happiness, not even a crumb, the Stoic faces of the people stained with earth do not bode well for these lands.
It's not like they can do anything about it, they work all day non-stop just to receive a few bronze Denali, it's not a lucrative thing to do, but on the other hand, they have no choice. Speaking ill of the lord of the city can bring death.
Right in those corridors damaged by time and humidity, a girl walked who made a complete contrast of the place. Being possessed of dazzling ethereal beauty, walking through the streets with a soft dress like snow made it seem that a goddess came down to earth to tour the place, this girl of course bears the name of Sansa Stark, who walked with her Older brother Rob Stark and another child with a delicate appearance without losing the manly air in him, reddish hair accompanied by light blue eyes.
"I'm telling you, Rob, this tournament is almost in the bag there is no way we are going to lose." The boy replied as she carried both arms behind her neck.
"It's good to be confident, but you forget that all the best knights in the kingdom will be participating?" Rob replied.
"Bah, that doesn't matter, the only real threats are the old knights and the occasional royal heirs, outside that there is no competition." Said the redhead with a disdainful smile.
Raising an eyebrow in confusion, the Stark heir asked "Why do you think that? The noble houses have good warriors the D'orné in the south for example have a history of good and skilled warriors, also the Morndmet, and of course how to forget the Burkhardt's the strongest noble house in the kingdom. "
In response the redhead snorted in displeasure "The D'orné despite having a history of good and skilled warriors, it's been moons that no D'orné has won a tournament, it is so losing its touch like the Morndmet and you don't even get me started with the Burkhardt's especially with that heir who eats books they have. "
This caught the attention of both Stark brothers, Sansa for her part who had kept quiet, only listening to the conversation between her brother and Theon Lancelles, one of Rob's childhood friends, despite being from a Royal family since childhood. He has been close to the north to stay with the Stark's.
This started to happen when Rob was only 7 years old. Naturally, there was a reason for this, no royal would send one of their children, so far north just for the sake of it. Eddard knew this but did not see any way to refuse, until now the boy had only been friends with his children, removing the fact that since he arrived he had been trying to get closer to Sansa.
The Lancelles were waiting for the opportunity to save the Stark house from Sansa's marital problem, of course, offering the same treatment that Eddard practically forced Nicholas to accept as a good brother that he was, the lord of this Royal house was always different from others.
He did not act without thinking, he was rarely linked to the scandals of the other families, and this is not because the man did not want to. It is because in reality the person with the power was the lady of the lands the man was just a smokescreen to pretend, is he a woman, by nature, it is very perspective at the moment he saw Sansa as a child he commanded him
Unfortunately for her, the problem had become too high and even the Lancelles house could not bear the consequences of 7 houses together.
"You speak as if you don't like Burkhardt's," Sansa asked.
Her angelic voice made both children look at her, Theon with a smile and Rob with curiosity.
"I just say the facts, make useless inventions for women or food, because you better not become useless anymore? The title of the genius inventor is wasting on such a person, don't you think? I doubt that he can even lift a sword." Theon snorted.
"It certainly seems so," Rob said.
Both boys started laughing, instead, Sansa looked at them without saying anything and stared straight ahead with her typical emotionless gaze. His eyes roamed the place and each person who passed, there was a hint of sadness in his beautiful crystalline eyes, seeing the conditions in which the children in charge of his house lived, it caused him pain in his heart this should not be happening But could she change something? Even if I tried, without power you can't do anything in this society.
And right now she had no power, that bothered her greatly, and she was not willing to stay without doing anything about it.
It was then that Theon's previous words came to her mind, 'useless inventions', those she calls that ... they can be the difference whether a person lives or dies ... Right? They can make the conditions for their land better.
A determined glint appeared in her eyes. It seems that inadvertently one way or another fiancé ended up in her thoughts.
Now I was more curious to meet her.
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Eddard Stark - Pov.
My kids seem to be excited, especially Jon trains diligently after hearing the truth from Nick. Although it may also be because of the next tournament that will take place in four years, after all, they are young men and there is no better place to find a woman than in these tournaments, all the most beautiful girls in the kingdom will attend, that will leave thinking about his two daughters.
With Arya, she did not have much problem, the girl does not stop looking for information in the library about monsters and training in secret from her mother. The more I see her, the more excited she seems to me, on the other hand, Sansa is different since I was a child, it was hard for me to understand my daughter, she was born with a strange glow in her eyes, it gave the feeling that there was more wisdom than a baby should have to have.
Being very beautiful has only brought her problems, all the boys she knows are after her like dogs to a juicy steak. Even now that brat of the lancelles has not yet given up, it is a fortune that my good brother could help me, I am sure that his son will be good to Sansa, speaking of the brat it seems that he is indeed a Burkhardt everyone in that family is outstanding, especially on the battlefield.
But it seems that this boy is also a genius inventor, at 10 he has already created things that created madness in the kingdom.
Well, I have to admit his inventions are very good, especially the damn food after trying the things that Nicholas sent me to try, the food made by the castle cooks tastes like shit!
The boys loved sugar, especially Arya, that girl Catherine had to hide the little that was left so that it is not eaten by her hahaha.
I am curious to see if the brat knows how to fight like his father, I have tried to get information from Nick in the letters, but he always answers the same, he wants me to pay attention to the next tournament, knowing him it seems that he is very proud of it, then the brat should be pretty good.
"Sweetie." The voice of my wife took me out of my thoughts.
I looked at her with a slight smile "What's wrong?"
"It's nothing, it's just that you look tired, are you okay?"
The concern in my wife's tone filled my chest with a warmth I have not asked for a good sleep. Things in our lands are declining very fast and nothing happens to stop it. To withdraw more money from citizens would be to lead them to death, and in itself, deaths are at an alarming increase. Getting more out of them is not possible.
"I'm fine, just tired," I replied.
With a smile, Catherine put her hands on mine "Everything will be fine darling, we will get out of this problem."
The look on her was very thoughtful, she knew my wife well it seemed that lately, a problem had her mind occupied.
"What are you thinking about?.
Her eyes met mine, reluctance and concern shining in them at the end she let out a padlocked sigh.
"Do you think ... I'm doing wrong?
Raising an eyebrow in confusion I replied "I don't understand what you mean?"
"I mean girls, no matter how much I think about it, I don't like that they try to do or practice men's things. Since I was a child I was taught the art of a lady and it was my dream to have daughters to teach myself but ... Both Sansa and Arya seem not to be interested in the least, that's why these years I've been forcing them, I know they learn to fight in secret and that infuriates me. " As she spoke she squeezed my hands. "But ... After all, I understand the essential, after the revelation about what the world is I understand that the most essential thing is that they learn. Those two thoughts collide in my mind and I don't know what to do Ned."
Looking at my wife, I let out a sigh, I already knew that something like this would happen in the way of parenting and mentality with which she was raised to collide with reality and a more sensible way of thinking, it seems that this decision disturbed her more than she originally imagined initially.
"Catherine, life is not easy at the moment they are protected because we live. But that will not be forever they have to be the best prepared for that, we are not going to live forever that girls learn to defend themselves is something necessary. " Replicate gently grabbing her hands.
She seemed to be in deep thought, she was about to say something else, but the sound of the door opening caught our attention. Nobody would enter our room like that without warning more than the boys, when I looked over I could see Sansa walking towards us, she was about to speak, but I noticed the look on her face, it was something surprising, to say the least, I had never seen such an expression determined on it.
She was always a face of innate disinterest, seeing her as this interested me, even more, when she stood in front of us with a strong presence worthy of a northern wolf.
Catherine seemed as bewildered as I was and before we could get out of surprise she spoke.
"Mother, father, we have to talk about something very important."