Cregan awoke to the creak of iron hinges and the cold bite of dawn wind sneaking past stone shutters. Winterfell was never truly warm, but the frost this morning clung even to the inside of the window.
He sat up slowly. His limbs remembered a thousand cuts and falls from yesterday's simulation, even if his body hadn't truly moved an inch. A side effect of the system? Muscle memory born from illusion—or perhaps something deeper.
[Daily Simulation Available]
Begin simulation? [Yes] [No]
He didn't hesitate.
"Begin."
The golden interface bloomed before his eyes.
Choose a Simulation:
Eavesdrop on a conversation between Maester Arlan and a raven handler.
Attempt to decipher an ancient rune stone in the crypts.
Practice archery in secret behind the stables.
His eyes lingered on the second.
The crypts.
His body remembered the books he hadn't read in this life—the tales of the First Men, the blood magic etched into the oldest tombs of House Stark. Even the books yesterday had hinted at it: magic not flashy or fire-born, but old, stubborn, Northern.
He selected Option 2.
[Simulation Running...]
You descend into the shadowed crypts, torch in hand. The air is thick, the silence sacred. The tombs of old Kings of Winter rise like giants carved in stone, each with a direwolf at their feet.
Deeper you go, where dust is thick and no Stark child dares wander.
You find it behind a collapsed arch: a wall carved with runes. Older than Valyrian, etched with the sharp lines of the Old Tongue, pulsing faintly in your vision.
You study them. They resist understanding, but you persist. The words aren't meant to be spoken—they're meant to be felt.
Your fingers brush the stone, and a flicker of warmth answers.
A whisper, too faint for sound, runs through your skull: not words, but emotion. Will. Warning. Power.
You inscribe what you can. Copy symbols. Memorize their shape. And then... the torch dies.
The crypt is silent.
But you are not alone.
Simulation Complete.
Knowledge Gained:
Introduction to Cryptic Runes of the First Men
Emotional Resonance Reading (Basic)
Trait Gained: Memory Engraving – Runes studied through simulations are permanently recorded in your mind's eye. Trait Gained: Attuned Mind – You are more sensitive to ancient or magical presences. Warning: You have briefly attracted the attention of an unknown force sleeping beneath the crypts...
Accept this outcome? [Accept] [Reject]
He hesitated. That last line. Unknown force.
But power came with risk. And whatever slumbered beneath Winterfell, it hadn't lashed out. It had... watched.
"Accept."
The world returned. His chamber. The frost. The grey light of morning.
He sat still for a long moment. Then, slowly, reached for charcoal and parchment.
He began to draw. Not from memory—no. From something deeper. The runes burned behind his eyes, each stroke sure and swift.
The first rune looked like a fang. The second, a closed eye. The third? A chain broken in two.
When he was finished, his hands trembled.
Winterfell was waking. But something else, too.
So was he.