New chapter is live.
Settle in, take your time, and let’s see what waits in the dark 🖤 ✦ Broken stones from the abandoned watchtower lay scattered across the floor of the old inner yard.
A summer snow had fallen over Winterfell not long ago; the snow that touched the ground had already melted, but a little white still clung to the stones.
Fear of falling masonry was the main reason the castle’s residents rarely came here.
The place had gone untended for so long that weeds had grown past the ankle and almost to the knee, and several hardy shrubs of an unknown kind had taken root as well.
If Aeg wanted to train here every day, he had to clear weeds and move the stones that were in his way.
The work took hours.
His black clothing was both an obvious mark of identity and a kind of protection.
The North had always respected the Night’s Watch, and Benjen Stark bringing Aeg back to Winterfell for the feast had created the impression that he was one of the First Ranger’s trusted men.
The plan went smoothly.
The servants found it strange that he would choose such an out-of-the-way corner for training, but no one stopped him.
A few helpful souls even gave him a hand.
With very little trouble, Aeg claimed the small, neglected yard for himself.
In truth, he had even considered hauling stones into the First Keep and blocking the stairs that led upward, solving the problem at the root.
But he was only a guest.
After some hesitation, he decided against altering the Stark family’s castle without permission.
* * * The days passed one by one, and the king’s planned stay in Winterfell drew near its end.
Before dawn one morning, Robert led a hunting party west into the wolfswood, hoping to add bear meat to the last feast he would enjoy in the northern capital.
The prince went with him.
Every adult male of House Stark, including Robb, followed as well.
The queen, however, remained in Winterfell, and her brother Jaime also chose not to join the hunt so that he could keep his sister company.
There could hardly be a better chance for an affair.
Someone was more nervous than the two people involved.
Aeg watched the First Ranger ride away with the king’s party, then immediately hurried to the ground he had claimed.
He had decided to guard the yard leading to the First Keep without taking a single step away until the hunters returned.
Of course, he could not simply sit there and wait.
He began with sword practice.
The sun slowly climbed into the sky, and the air began to warm.
The black brother had already run through a set of cuts against a straw dummy and was now shooting at a target when an unexpected visitor arrived.
“If I am not mistaken,” said a relaxed male voice behind him, rich, confident, and strong, “you are the black brother who crossed the Sunset Sea to reach Westeros, got taken into service by the men of the Wall, and killed an Other?” Aeg turned and started in surprise.
“Your Grace.
Ser Jaime.
Good morning.
That would be me.” Jaime Lannister nodded to him.
Behind Jaime, Cersei glanced expressionlessly at Aeg’s black clothes and clearly had no interest in wasting words on a man of the Night’s Watch.
Jaime was Tyrion’s brother, and the two were close.
It was hardly strange that the Kingslayer had heard from the dwarf about Aeg killing an Other.
But approaching him for a chat over that matter did not fit Jaime’s character.
The moment Aeg saw the queen behind him, his guard went up.
‘So they are already hunting for a place.’ Aeg had no personal hatred for the golden-haired man before him, but one’s position shaped one’s thinking.
Now that their interests were opposed, seeing these twins walking together made a curse rise in his heart before he could stop it.
The curse stayed inside.
On the surface, the black brother quickly put on an anxious, respectful expression.
Jaime was manageable.
Cersei was a different matter entirely.
Her temperament was nothing like either of her brothers.
She was petty, highborn, foolish, vicious, and powerful, and in a world full of danger, the people one least wanted to offend were powerful fools who stopped thinking the moment anger took them.
“Not bad with a bow.” Jaime looked at the arrows stuck in the straw target, suddenly interested.
“Hand it here.” * * * While at the Wall, Aeg had once thought of using leftover scraps from the dragonglass dagger to make several dragonglass arrowheads.
If he could replace the iron heads on the arrows issued by the Watch, he would have “dragonglass arrows” capable of killing an Other from range when necessary.
But the matter was not that simple.
Arrows were important military supplies, controlled as strictly as ammunition had been in the army of his previous life.
They were stored in the armory, signed out when issued, and returned if unused.
Outside of wartime, losing even one arrow could bring punishment.
Such things could not be freely modified or assembled by ordinary soldiers.
So when Gared discovered Aeg secretly tinkering with arrowheads, he gave Aeg a savage tongue-lashing and strictly forbade him to continue.
The reason was simple: if an officer found out, Gared would be punished along with him.
Arrows were too large to hide the way a dagger could be hidden, so the plan had to be abandoned.
That was why, when Aeg later faced an Other, he had only been able to stake his life on a dagger.
The plan for dragonglass arrows had failed, but Aeg had not neglected archery.
Encountering the Others was a remote possibility.
Running into wildlings, on the other hand, happened every few days.
As perhaps the only black brother from another world, he valued his life.
Compared with close combat, a modern man from a world of guns and artillery naturally preferred dropping an enemy from a distance.
Driven by that instinct, he went to the range whenever he had free time at Castle Black.
His archery was much better than his swordsmanship.
✦ ✦ ✦ Want to keep going?
I hope this chapter gave you another reason to stay with the story.
There’s still plenty ahead, and things are only starting to unfold.