Dany could locate Gerold at any time through the soul mark she had left on his arm.
However, Gerold couldn't do the same. Unlike Dany, he couldn't use the soul fragment on his arm to send a "caller ID" signal to the Dragon Queen like the one Dany had once used to reach Quaithe.
In other words, the prospective White Knight, Ser Gerold Dayne, lacked the ability to contact the Dragon Queen on his own initiative.
Yet this time, he was the one who contacted Dany first.
Melisandre, the Red Priestess, had intervened.
That woman had somehow connected to Dragonstone's magical network without even having the "communication frequency."
She hadn't even used a glass candle.
"Don't be surprised," Melisandre said. "Your magical node stirred a new wave across the currents of the magic sea. It would've been difficult not to notice."
Inside the wide dragonglass mirror, as broad as a dressing mirror, flames coiled around Melisandre. Ser Gerold Dayne stood silently behind her.
The flickering firelight made the image ripple like water.
Melisandre was standing beside a fireplace in the King's Tower, conversing across thousands of miles with the Dragon Queen.
"I understand that the node can cause minor ripples across the magic tides," Dany said, frowning. "But to connect with Dragonstone's crystal sphere, you need specific spellwork. Even if you know the structure of the node, it's useless the magical frequency of the communication channel was set by me."
Melisandre's pale cheeks reflected a soft red glow in the firelight. Her full red lips curved into a confident smile as she said,
"You locked your door, yes, so I couldn't enter. But that doesn't mean I can't knock. I'm not a thief; I have no need to sneak in.
Your moon-singer stationed at Dragonstone heard me knocking and kindly opened the door."
Dany was speechless.
A wild mage with deep enough mastery could indeed locate the link point of a magical network just like a hacker searching for a U.S. military server on the Internet.
The problem was, what kind of hacker would dare harass it under their real name?
The grand sorcerers of Valyria were far more terrifying than the U.S. military, and their counterattacks were far more direct and brutal.
If the one controlling Dragonstone's magic crystals at this moment had been Dany instead of Marwyn, then with just a thought, she could have burned Melisandre's beautiful face into a skull by transmitting fire sorcery directly through the magical connection.
Unlike the Internet, which could only transmit data, the magic network transmitted real energy.
Magical power could be converted into information or into fire sorcery.
Still, Marwyn wasn't exactly negligent. He had only "opened the door" after confirming that Ser Gerold was with Melisandre.
"How did Jon die?" Dany asked, pulling her mind back to the topic with piqued interest.
Melisandre looked at her deeply and said, "He broke his vows. The Night's Watch beheaded him."
Wow. Even more tragic than being stabbed in the original story.
Beheaded! Tsk, tsk.And somehow, that made it sound even funnier.
Dany couldn't help but laugh, a sense of wicked amusement filling her heart. "Hehehe, well, that's not my problem anymore. Let him rest in peace!"
"Oh no, he can't be buried," Melisandre said calmly. "The White Walkers are beyond the Wall. The body must be burned on the spot. Did they burn it?"
"You're not even curious what vow he broke?" Melisandre asked.
"Of course I am. How exactly did he break it?" Dany replied at once.
Melisandre sighed softly. "Even in the North, the schemes and deceptions born of power are everywhere."
She spoke with quiet lamentation before describing in detail what had taken place in the North after Dany's departure.
At Castle Black, after failing to locate the "control hub of the Wall's magic array" also known as the Black Gate Stannis immediately sent ravens to the Northern lords.
As king, he called upon the Northern houses in the name of justice for House Stark, urging the loyal nobles of the North to rally to his cause.
It was… awkward.
No one responded, save for one spy.
Roose Bolton had sent Lord Arnolf Karstark of Karhold as a double agent to infiltrate Stannis's camp at the Crofter's Village and mislead him into attacking the Dreadfort.
But the Dreadfort was a fortress its walls high, its roots deep. The Boltons had ruled there for ten thousand years and were supported by all the local folk. Even if Stannis's thousand men charged in, they would vanish without a trace. Winterfell, however, was another story its people and knights were fanatically loyal to the Starks, and they hated the Boltons to the bone.
For context, old Lord Arnolf was the uncle of Lord Rickard Karstark the one Robb Stark executed.
Though the younger Karstark lost two sons to Jaime in Whispering Wood, he still had one daughter at home, while his last surviving son was taken prisoner by the Lannisters. This, of course, was the price of Roose Bolton's scheming sending Northern nobles on reckless ventures deep into the Crownlands.
The younger Karstark was unlikely to have survived captivity after all, his father had executed two Lannister prisoners.
But Robb acted quickly and decisively, taking the younger Karstark's head himself.
So while the younger Karstark died miserably, his youngest son's life was spared. Tywin, satisfied with Robb's "explanation," did not further violate the unwritten rule against killing noble prisoners.
And that's where the trouble began old Arnolf grew greedy.
With his nephew dead, he wanted his own son to inherit Karhold.
His infiltration of Stannis's camp was not only meant to win the new "King in the North's" favor but also to use Stannis as a blade to eliminate the younger Karstark's last son, who was still held captive in King's Landing.
If old Arnolf defected to Stannis, did Cersei look like the type to spare his grandnephew? Hardly.
Moreover, he planned to have his son marry the younger Karstark's daughter.
A marriage between uncle and niece.
The girl refused, of course, and fled to the Wall to seek Jon's help.
Here, there's a bit of timeline overlap.
Old Arnolf went to the Wall first, persuading Stannis to attack the Dreadfort. Fortunately, Jon ever the voice of reason talked Stannis out of it, sparing his army from disaster.
After that, Jon handed Stannis House Stark's "second-to-last trump card": the hill clans.
The mountain clans were essentially the wildlings of the North fierce tribes loyal to the Starks.
With three thousand of these hardened warriors, Stannis finally had enough strength to rejoin the game of thrones.
Next, he led his newly gathered forces to liberate Deepwood Motte.
The mountain clans and Deepwood Motte were both northwest of Winterfell, and Stannis planned to attack Winterfell from that direction Deepwood was simply the first stop.
There, he captured Asha Greyjoy and gained the allegiance of the fool Ser Lyanna Mormont well, House Mormont's Bear Island lay right next to Deepwood Motte, and the first Lady Mormont had once hailed from there.
At this time, Little Cat finally escaped to Castle Black on the Wall.
Little Cat knew that her great-uncle, Old Cat, was working undercover, and she told Jon about it. Jon grew anxious Stannis's army was already on the move, and there was no way to send a raven to warn him.
So he sent his animal companion "the Old Bear Raven."
For the first time, Jon participated in Stannis's "campaign against the traitors" through the eyes of a raven. Soon, there was a second time, and a third.He even sent his direwolf thousands of miles away to the Wolfswood near Stannis's camp.
His deep involvement not only gave him a clearer understanding of the battlefield but also began to change him.Or rather, like Tyrion, he had always been one of those who placed family above all else.
The "Jon Snow of the Night's Watch" was only armor a means of self-protection. Beneath that armor was his true self, a Stark with the blood of the direwolf.
He saw the hope of vengeance thanks to his direwolf Ghost, there was a real chance Stannis could take Winterfell and kill the Bastard of Bolton (Ramsay Bolton) to avenge his kin.
But then, he saw that hope slowly slipping away Cersei had successfully married Euron, the gate at Moat Cailin had been opened, and Roose Bolton was leading thousands of northern veterans and Frey soldiers back to Winterfell.
What worried him even more was the attitude of the northern lords.
The northerners were loyal to House Stark but the Starks were, in name, extinct.
They hated the Boltons for betraying the Starks and slaughtering so many northern knights during the rebellion, but the Boltons were still an old northern house. The Dreadfort's history was no less ancient than Winterfell's.
Stannis, on the other hand, was an outsider a failed king, bad-tempered, and utterly lacking in charm.
The North would never rally behind him.
Thus, the northern lords faced two choices:With a blade at their throats, they could hold their noses and accept the Boltons as the new Kings in the North. The benefit keeping their wealth and titles.Or, they could willingly swallow bitter filth and side with Stannis, challenging Roose Bolton and the Iron Throne behind him (at least the Freys). The benefit avenging their old liege, House Stark.
To northerners, whether they submitted to the Boltons or to Stannis, both choices were equally foul. Just think of how the Northmen treated their so-called savior Daenerys in Game of Thrones that's how stubbornly loyal and insular they were.
If they had to swallow something filthy, they might as well take the Boltons' filth and preserve their families.
So, in those days, more and more northern houses began siding with the Boltons House Dustin of Barrowton, House Ryswell of the Rills, House Manderly of White Harbor (in truth, spies), and House Umber of Last Hearth (forced to comply).After all, the Boltons were still northerners, some even kin.Roose Bolton's second wife, for instance, came from House Dustin.
But if, at that moment, a Stark were to step forward and declare support for Stannis everything would change.
Any Stark, even a bastard, would give the North a rallying point.
Jon entered the body of the raven and flew to the place that was once Winterfell, now alien and desecrated.
Through the raven's eyes, he witnessed how Ramsay tortured the people of Winterfell, how he barked orders from the seat that once belonged to Jon's father the throne of the King in the North.The raven even flew into the crypts, landing atop Eddard Stark's empty coffin, staring at his stone effigy.
"Father," the raven nearly wept.
Then came the final straw that broke the camel's back.
Jon received a letter from his father's dearest friend Howland Reed, Lord of Greywater Watch.
"Lady Maege Mormont of Bear Island is alive. She carries King Robb's written decree naming his successor as King in the North. When she was searching for Greywater Watch in the Neck, my men found her.
The one Robb named as his heir… is you, Jon Stark. (P.S.)"
As Jon read the letter, countless memories of Robb, Winterfell, and his father flooded his mind.
He remembered sparring with Robb in the training yard Robb smiling, panting, snowflakes melting into steam against his hair.
Maester Aemon had once said, "Kill the boy inside you, and the man will be born." Robb had done it.
But had Jon?
Was his duty to the Wall or to Winterfell?
He thought of Bran, agile as a monkey, climbing the tower walls.He thought of Rickon, laughing so hard he could barely breathe.He thought of Sansa, humming softly as she stroked Lady's fur.He thought of Arya, her hair a wild tangle, running through the castle like a boy.
Bittersweet emotions surged all at once.
Jon stood in the commander's tower at Castle Black, tears streaming down his face, choking on sobs.
"The Wall doesn't need another Jon Snow. But House Stark has only one Jon Stark left."
(P.S.: Maege Mormont truly survived. When Moat Cailin was taken by the Ironborn, there were only two routes back to the North through the Bloody Gate into the Vale and by sea to White Harbor.
Unfortunately, Lysa refused to allow her sister and nephew passage.
The other option was to find Greywater Watch and let Howland Reed guide them through the swamps to attack the garrison at Moat Cailin.
At the same time, word would be sent to northern lords to rally their forces and strike the Moat from behind.
Then, with Robb's main army attacking from the front, side, and rear, they could swiftly retake Moat Cailin.
Thus, Robb sent someone to the Neck to seek Greywater Watch a floating fortress hidden deep in the swamps, its location known to no one, not even the Starks.
Lady Maege Mormont Aunt of the Great Bear took up that mission.
Robb had his own reasoning. He knew Bear Island was weak, but Maege was loyal, brave, and pure of heart. He appointed her as his "guardian regent."
Maege carried Robb's handwritten decree, endorsed by Catelyn Tully, declaring his chosen successor.
And that successor was Jon, Robb's elder brother by birth, though bastard-born.
Perhaps the wolves' spirits had sensed the coming doom, for Robb, feeling a foreboding before the Red Wedding, had already named his heir.
That heir was Jon.
This is not something I made up.)
(End of Chapter)
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