Song of A Northern Sorcerer

After receiving the more than slightly cryptic Force vision, Nox made haste to leave the godswood and return to his room within the guest house of Winterfell. Although to call it 'cryptic' was a misnomer. The vision was quite clear, which was an oddity in and of itself. Most Force visions gave the seer a glimpse of a possible future. But this vision, this vision gave him untold numbers of possible futures, each ending in failure before giving him one that succeeds. It was, strange. Not even the Voss for all their ability of foresight could have such a vision. He was going to have to spend hours in deep meditation to figure out just the hell the vision meant.

He managed to make the return unseen by any of the waking staff and had just managed to step foot back into his room as he felt a servant approach his room. The young girl who hesitantly knocked at his door was a pretty little thing with dark hair that was pulled back and tied into a single braid that nearly reached the small of her back. She held herself with confidence, but despite her apparent confident appearance, he could sense her nervousness and slight awe as she inquired whether he wanted to break his fast. Apparently, his actions in saving young Jon had gotten around the keep since they'd arrived the night prior.

He declined the offer of food, the Force would provide for him for the moment, and instead inquired about if Winterfell had a library and if so, where was it located. The young servant, Nyra as she introduced herself, proudly informed him that not only did Winterfell have a library, but that it was also one of the oldest in all of Westeros and was located within the tower adjacent to the godswood and was attached to both the guest hall and the main keep.

After giving the girl his thanks, he made his way to the library, setting his expectations low considering the state of this world. But when he arrived within the library, he quickly changed his opinion. The library tower was positively massive on the inside. And it seemed as if every square centimeter of shelf and table space was being used to house books, scrolls and even stone tablets. The part of Nox that remained the Head of the Pyramid of Ancient Knowledge was nearly salivating at the prospect before him. He knew many a Sith that would kill for the chance to claim this library for their own, himself included.

Making his way deeper into the library, Nox found a small out of the way table and cleared off the few books that were littered across its surface before heading in between the shelfs, holding his right hand up and running it across the shelves as he let the Force guide him. Within the span of a few minutes, Nox had collected nearly a dozen tomes regarding the history of this continent, Westeros, both ancient and recent as well as an in-depth history of the Northern Kingdom. Setting the books down heavily on the table, he pulled down the first book, one detailing the great and lesser noble houses of Westeros. If he was going to make sense of the vision he'd had in the godswood, then he needed to understand the major players in Westeros.

The wolves were easy enough as they represented House Stark. The oldest of the great houses of Westeros that'd been ruling the North for nearly eight thousand years. An admirably impressive accomplishment. They managed to unite all the kings of the North under one banner, creating the largest kingdom in Westeros and repelling dozens if not hundreds of invasions from the southern kingdoms. The dragons were the next house that he was interested in. But what he found disturbed him. The Targaryen's had been the ruling monarchs of Westeros for nearly three hundred years after one Aegon Targaryen and his sister wives defeated the individual kingdoms of Westeros and forced them into one unified land. And they must've had some inherent Force abilities as they were said to be able to control the alpha predators of this world. The dragons. And combined with the fact that some were said to even be immune to burning, his interest was definitely peaked.

But as he read on, he found his disgust with the Targaryen's grow quickly. Firstly was the fact that they somehow managed to fuck up and lose their greatest advantage and the means to which they kept the rest of Westeros in line. Their dragons, who were now supposedly extinct. And then there was their practice of breeding almost exclusively within their immediately family. Which was honestly completely idiotic. Genetic diversity was essential for the continued survival of a species, not to mention all the genetic disorders that can come about through inbreeding. And the Targaryen's proved to be an almost textbook example of this. Each ruler seemed to either be a great ruler, or an insane one. And more often than not, they fell onto the latter half of the equation. And in the end, it was their inbreeding to madness that led to their destruction as the Mad King Aerys Targaryen and his son Rhaegar Targaryen each contributed in separated events of stupidity and insanity that led the rest of the realm to rebel against them.

Moving on from the Targaryens and the Starks, he began sorting out the other Noble Houses that'd been represented in his vision. The lion represented House Lannister the rulers of the Westerlands, the rose was for House Tyrell the rulers of the Reach. Two of the wealthiest houses in the kingdom but for two completely different reasons. While the Lannisters made their wealth and fame from their gold mines, the Tyrells did it through food production. And while gold was useful, no mine was infinite. And according to what he'd read, Westerlands had been mining gold ever since before the Lannisters came into power. But no mine was infinity deep. If the mines hadn't already run dry, they had to be close. An advantage that he was going to have to investigate. The Tyrells however were the smarter of the two in his opinion. They were named Wardens of the South after bowing to the Targaryens after House Gardner was destroyed and proceeded to make a name for themselves by cultivating their food production. Until he could better spread food production around the land by introducing new techniques, he would have to keep close relations with that house. It was never a good idea to spit in the face of the ones who provided most of the food to a kingdom as large as Westeros.

Moving on from those two, he investigated the remaining Great Houses. The Tullys, rulers of the Riverlands and Lady Stark's family. House Arryn, rulers of the Vale of Arryn. Rather pretentious, even for a Sith, to name the land they ruled over after themselves. Then there were the Baratheons, rulers of the Stormlands, cousins to the Targaryens and now the ruling family of Westeros after the fall of the Targaryens. And lastly there were the Martells, the rulers of Dorne. The Martells and Dorne in general surprised him. For a patriarchal society, Dorne was the outlier. Their women could inherit and were also trained to fight side by side with the men. Impressively progressive given the era and worth looking into.

Then there were two other groups that warranted his attention. The Night's Watch and the Maesters. The Night's Watch was little more than a glorified penial colony that manned a wall that was, to be blunt, almost obscene. He hadn't believed the description of the wall the first time he came across it. But after crosschecking the supposed dimensions of the wall in three other works, he was forced to conclude that what he'd original read was true.

After he was done looking at all the major players, he began studying each of the individual regions of the land. Their estimated population, their exports and imports, their military prowess. Anything and everything he could find. A hundred leagues long, over seven hundred feet tall and three hundred feet thick. And apparently, according to every source he could find, the Wall was built to keep out the wildlings. 'Ridiculous,' Nox thought as he read another book stating the same thing. 'You do not build a wall like that to keep out an insignificant rabble like the wildlings. No, the only reason you build a structure like that is too keep out something else. Something that could threaten all life on the other side. The darkness that I saw in my vision…The Wall is the key to discovering just what that darkness is.'

Making a mental note to come back to the Wall, Nox moved on to the next group; the Maesters. He was impressed at first to discover that this land had a dedicated learning system in place. Even if the culture on this world had not progressed enough to realize that women were just as capable as men. But as he read further and further into them, the more he began to question the motives of the Maesters. 'They say that they swear oaths to the cities and castles, but not to the Lords.' He thought as he delved deeper into the Maesters' ideology. 'What a load of bantha shit. Their oaths are just a cover for their true motives, nothing more.'

There was said to be one Maester in each keep in Westeros, acting as advisors and teachers to the Lords, Ladies, and their children in each keep. But when the Order was viewed through the eyes of a Sith, they became much more insidious. A single Order who would be left alone no matter if a keep was razed and the family butchered. The Maester would remain and serve the next Lord or Lady of the castle. A single Order who could whisper into the ear and 'give advice' to each Lord and Lady of the Realm, as well as the King and Queen. He would have to keep a close eye on these Maesters as well as keeping the Maester here at Winterfell at arm's length.

Setting aside his first pile of books, Nox got up from his spot once more and began to wonder through the shelves. 'If there is an organizational principle to this library, I've yet to find it,' Nox thought grumpily as he wandered through the shelves, letting his fingers brush lightly against the spines of the books. 'Outside of arranging the books, scrolls and tablets by dates, there is no other organization here. No genres. No authors. Nothing. Though, I suppose that the sheer size of this library can afford a forgiveness in the lax on organization. But if I'm going to be making any headway in the near future in this place, I'm going to need to have this library properly organized. Perhaps…yes. I'll write up an organizational structure of the library and give it to Lord Stark. The problem will be in finding those literate enough to help with the organization.'

After selecting another armload of books and scrolls, Nox made his way back to his workspace and dropped the books down heavily onto the tabletop. Turning his back on the pile of books, he set off into the depths of the library once more, this time searching for something to write on and something to write with. It took him nearly an hour, but eventually he managed to locate a pile of blank parchments as well as an ink well and a quill. 'I swear,' Nox sighed, shaking his head as he resumed his seat and dipped the tip of the quill into the ink. 'I think I'm the first Sith in thousands of years to actually have to lower themselves to writing with a quill and ink!'

Putting quill to paper, he began writing out improvement ideas as well as other potential plans or observations. While some of his more immediate and easier ideas he spent the time to write out in the written word of this world, most of his own writing meant for himself was done in aurebesh. Not because he wanted to hide what he was doing, but mostly because while he could read the written word of this planet, he was by no means an expert. And trying to write out the unfamiliar language for all his ideas and plans would slow him down considerably.

After filling out his fourth sheet of parchment, Nox leaned back in his seat and rotated his wrist, cracking his wrist in several places as he did so. "You can come out from behind the shelf, Nyra. I won't bite despite what some may think of me."

The sound of a gasp coming from behind him, followed quickly by the jostling of a tray and the scampering of feet told him all that he needed to know. Not that he had any doubts. It'd been a long time since anyone had managed to sneak up on him. "I – umm…I'm sorry for disturbing you, my Lord." The young serving girl stuttered nervously as she slowly approached him.

"You're not," he responded, pushing aside a few books and clearing a space for her. "Your timing is impeccable. Please, place the tray right here and have a seat if you wish. Far easier to watch me while you're sitting down instead of pretending to clean the same three bookshelves over the past few hours."

He could almost hear her heartbeat as she approached, setting the tray down next to him. The smell of the warm bread and warm soup made his stomach lurch as it decided to remind him that he'd skipped eating this morning in favor of getting to work. Picking up the bread, he tore off a piece and dipped it into the soup, being careful to keep both away from the pages he was working on as he took a bite.

"Are you going to sit?" he asked of the serving girl after taking another bite of food. "I'm sure the seat will be much more comfortable for you."

Biting her lip, Nyra stood still for a moment as she visibly weighed her decision about whether to stay or go. In the end her curiosity about him won out and daintily sat down across from him. The two sat in silence as Nox finished off the last of the offered meal. "Tell you what, Nyra, how about we play a game?"

"A game, milord?"

"Yes," he nodded, picking up his quill and picking up where he left off on his notes. "You're obviously curious about me, and I'm sure the rumor mill is abuzz about me as well. So, here's the game. You ask me a question, any question you wish, and I will answer. And then I will ask you a question. Seem fair?"

Nyra considered his offer for a moment before nodding. "Yes, milord."

"Splendid," Nox smiled while motioning for her to proceed. "So, ladies first."

"Are you truly blind, milord?" Nyra asked without hesitation.

Smirking, Nox reached up and untied the cloth from around his eyes. Across from him, Nyra gasped loudly as his eyes were revealed to her. "Not a pretty sight, are they?" Nox asked rhetorically as he put the cloth back around his eyes. "I don't just wear this because it makes me look dashing."

"I – I'm sorry, milord. Who would do such—?"

Waving his hand, Nox cut her off. "It doesn't matter. It's the past and I can't change what happened. But now, it's my turn in our little game, no? So, what is your opinion on the Starks? And feel free to be honest. Nothing you say will leave the two of us."

Not wanting to take any chances that the young woman might skirt around the truth, Nox gently probed her with the Force, encouraging her to speak more freely than she might've otherwise. "The Starks have ruled the north for thousands of years." Nyra replied almost immediately, her voice taking on a note of respect and awe. "They are always just and fair, especially during the winter years. It was such a terrible thing that happened to Lord Rickard, Lord Brandon, and Lady Lyanna. I was barely a woman flowered when they all died. But I remember clearly how the North mourned for their loss. And, in the end, the dragons paid dearly for thinking they could do what they wanted to the wolves. And Lord Stark has been a great Lord for the North so far. And little Robb is such a good boy. Even Lord Stark's bastard son, Jon, is a nice boy. It's such a shame that Lad – I…I shouldn't say more."

Her answers intrigued him greatly. Not because of the events around the Targaryens and the Starks, he already knew about that. No, what truly piqued his curiosity was the comment she made when describing the Starks. "Winter years?" Nox asked, seeking clarification. "Do you mean to say that winter here in the North can last for years? And does winter affect only the North, or is all of Westeros affected by the season?"

Nyra seemed taken aback by his question. "Yes, milord. The last winter lasted nearly three years and ended just a year past. And…yes. All of Westeros is affected by the winter years."

Rocking back in his seat, Nox hummed. 'That changes things. If winter lasts for years, that means that these people have excellent storage and preserving techniques for their food. But even with the best of techniques, fresh produce and livestock are a necessity. The greenhouses they have are insufficient to feed all of Winterfell and the small settlement outside the walls. Which means they either ration greatly during these years or they import their food from outside lands. This means that my first project will be to better their greenhouse techniques and expand their operations to better suit the needs of the people during winter.'

"Forgive me, milord. Is this not how winter and summer is in your homeland?"

"No," Nox answered shaking his head. "But that's neither here nor there. Your turn now, ask me any question you wish."

This time, Nyra took a moment before asking, "Do you…Do you have a family back in your homeland?"

"Had," Nox replied, fighting against the ache in his chest as a face came to mind. A woman with orange skin and white markings that meant everything to him.

Nyra seemed almost taken aback by his one-word answer, but she caught onto the reasoning by his simplistic answer quickly enough. "I – I apologize, my Lord. I…I know that losing a loved one is painful. My own parents passed during the previous winter. And my older brother…He followed the Starks south during the Rebellion and never came home."

"My condolences, Nyra." Nox replied almost automatically. But what surprised him was the fact that he meant it. He was used to death and had become almost numb to it. As a Sith you had to be in order to survive. And he couldn't remember the last time he'd offered the sentiment at another's passing and meant it. "I believe it is my turn again. You've spoken of Lord Stark and his boys. But tell me, what do you think of Lady Stark?"

Again, Nox sent a gentle Force nudge in her direction. Only this time he applied a slight bit more pressure than he had before. She'd stopped herself from revealing something she didn't want to last time despite his persuasion, and he wasn't about to let that happen again. 'Her presence in the Force is nothing extraordinary, no more so than any other person in the galaxy who isn't a Sith or Jedi. Perhaps living in this fortress that was built using the Force, not to mention that tree which acts a focal point, has given her some sort of mental defenses that she otherwise wouldn't have? Another thing I'll have to look into later.'

As if to add credence to his theory, Nyra visibly struggled for a moment before answering him. "Lady Stark is…of the South. And she has made no attempt at conforming to the ways of the North. Instead, she expects us to conform to her! Lord Stark had a Sept built for her…a sept! In the heart of the North! Had it been ordered by anyone other than the Warden himself, people would've outright refused the request. Even the Manderly's, who worship both the old gods and the new, have never tried to build septs further into the North than White Harbor. She even went so far as to strongly suggest that all the serving staff begin worshiping the Seven if they wanted to truly please her! And her daughters…so beautiful. True daughters of the North… She won't allow for a proper northern lady to teach them. Instead she's insisted on a Septa to teach them. Ha! How is a Septa supposed to teach the she-wolves of the North? Then there is the way that she treats Lord Stark's bastard son. She goes on and on about her House words of Family, Duty, and Honor. And yet she… Oh gods… Please…don't tell Lady Stark I said any of this! I beg you!"

Her tirade was cut off so abruptly that Nox hadn't even realized she'd ended it until she was on her knees before him, almost in tears and clutching onto the hem of his robes. 'Well…shit. Guess I pushed it a little too far.' "Enough of that," Nox said firmly but not unkindly as he held out his hand for Nyra to help her stand. "I told you what is said between us stays between us. And I am a man of my word."

The relief was evident on Nyra's face as she sagged slightly. "Thank you, milord."

"Think nothing of it. I asked a question and you answered truthfully, for which I am grateful." 'But her response is quite telling. Apparently, the Lady of Winterfell rules this castle with an iron fist and isn't afraid of going behind her husband's back on some issues. And she's also highly religious by the sounds of it…I'm going to have to study the Faith of the Seven more. She might prove to be more problematic than I originally thought.'

Pushing himself away from the desk, Nox rose to his feet, cracking his back in several places as he did. "It is a beautiful day out today, isn't it, Nyra?" he asked, changing the subject.

"Umm, yes. It is, my Lord. For an autumn year, it is unusually warm out today," Nyra replied, her voice still lacking the confidence it'd held before her outburst.

"Well, it seems a shame to waste such a day," Nox commented as he faced her. "So, why don't you show me around Winterfell?"

Taken aback, Nyra stuttered as she looked around. "Umm, I'm not sure if that…if I have time to…"

"Nyra," Nox said firmly. "I thought that we agreed not to lie to one another. You were sent to watch over me and what better way to keep an eye on me than by giving me a guided tour of Winterfell?"

The young woman still seemed hesitant, but in the end she nodded. "As you wish, milord."

"Splendid," Nox smiled, offering his arm to Nyra, who hesitated only for a moment before taking it. "So, tell me, is there anything of interest happening around the castle today?"

Nyra thought for a moment before nodded. "Yes. The young Lord Robb and young Jon Snow are supposed to be training in the yard today. They train every other day."

"Is that so?" Nox smiled, an idea forming in his mind about how to integrate himself into the citizens of Winterfell and specifically the future heir and his bastard brother. "Well, this should be quite a show indeed."