The Silent Wolf

Chapter 6

How does one fight a shadow?

One shines a light on them and burns them from existence.

There was a force unseen that had watched the lives of every Westerosi for the past seven and twenty years. This force did nothing, remaining in his lair and spying on people. Occasionally he would act, and manipulate events to his choosing.

Was he created for this purpose? No.

Once upon a time, this force was a man, a son to a King and his mistress. He had lived a life where he had given his all for the Kings he served, even sacrificing his honour for the good of the realm. All that got him was scorn from those he loved and banishment from the lands he called home.

Eventually, he found a place that accepted him, people that saw the merit in what he did and celebrated him for it. He was taken in as one of their own, made their leader eventually and was practically worshipped for his mind.

But then he found him and his brother dying or dead at the hands of their enemies. He had no strength to save himself so he resigned to his fate, only to be saved by things that made him out to be the hero they'd been waiting for. Once more he was given the chance to serve his realm and save it. He happily agreed to it and he diligently did his work.

But as time went on, he grew bitter. He watched the family of the man who had banished him for his services grow and advance. He couldn't take it anymore.

And thus he was corrupted, using his powers to start laying waste to the family that was once his own. He used various means to do so, either through family members or through people outside of it.

But the last person he reached out to had thrown his powers off like it was nothing. This person was protected, he had made a mistake.

----

I was named a man grown on my six and tenth name day. There were no feasts thrown in my honour, a request I made to Jon. All the attention on me did not sit right with me.

Robert had tried to throw his own kind of feast in my honour, but I had declined it. Not that Robert minded. He had taken the feast for himself and a few weeks after he was told that the woman was with his child.

The good thing about turning six and ten outside of the sex was that my time at the Eyrie as a ward had come to an end. I was allowed to return home, while also was welcome to come back to The Eyrie any time I wanted.

I missed Winterfell. It had been too long since I had last seen it with my eyes, had seen my siblings with my eyes. I was all too happy to return home.

But I didn't return right away. The day I departed the Eyrie for Gulltown, I had written a letter to my Father informing him of making two journeys before I returned home.

The first one was to Eastwatch by the Sea. I wanted to see the Wall with my own eyes and not have an image of it in my head from the memories.

The Wall was a massive barrier of mostly ice stretching across the northern border of the Seven Kingdoms. It was a hundred leagues long and reached over seven hundred feet in height.

Eastwatch by The Sea was the easternmost castle along the Wall, located on a grey, windswept shore by the Bay of Seals. It was where ships came and went concerning the Watch.

I arrived at Eastwatch and met with the man in charge, a bastard son of a Southern Lord from the Vale of Arryn. He had expected that I had come to take the Black, so he was disappointed when I told him that I was there to see the Wall. The Wall was just as majestic as I knew it to be.

But that was not the only reason I was there. Much to the shock, disapproval and dismay of the man in charge, I had asked him to let me go beyond the Wall. Of course, he was hesitant to let me pass, imploring that there were savages beyond the wall that would eat me alive, literally. The Thens loved their food to be human. But in the end, the man had relented after I was able to convince him.