[Chapter Size: 2200 Words.]
Third Person POV.
Winterfell.
...
...
After announcing the sudden marriage, Daemon interrupted the conversations that were beginning to gather there by raising his hand.
He looked at each of them, searching for any dissatisfaction about his union with the daughter of the mad king, since it was a prejudice that still lingered among the north. In fact, there were some who showed an unconscious glimmer regarding his decision, but they soon averted their gaze, not wanting to attract his wrath.
No one spoke. So he no longer needed to worry about it.
"I want to speak now about the north. You know we have some regions that will be left unoccupied. The Boltons will no longer exist in the north, so their lands will be stripped of the titles of the Bolton name. Bolton will be marked as a traitor and the last of the red kings in the north. None of his descendants will have any right to any goods that Roose Bolton once possessed. That is, of course, if I'm not able to kill Lord Bolton before he sires some children out there. I heard he married a Frey..." Daemon began.
"Yes. The damned Bolton is sleeping with a Frey after they joined at the Twins." Maege spat on the ground as she said it.
"That will be resolved later." Daemon said. Pausing before continuing. "It's not just the Bolton territory that we have to discuss, the Hornwood was considered a land without a name and I intended to divide it, giving a part to the Cerwyn who joined us." Daemon looked at the boy beside his mother, seeming proud of that statement, but soon returned to Lord Glover.
Beside the Lord, there was a young man, looking nervous at Daemon. "It seems the Hornwood bloodline has not ended after all, since Halys Hornwood left a son, Snow or not, Larence Snow carries his father's lineage. Step forward, Larence Snow." Daemon requested, and the boy nodded, approaching Daemon cautiously.
Daemon saw the boy kneeling and nodded. "You knelt as Larence Snow in this moment, but now I legitimize you as Larence Hornwood, you will have all the rights to the land your father left behind, the castle and its titles. I reduced a few of the castle's servants as you have heard, but I am sure you will be able to find others to replace them. You may rise, as a Hornwood and no longer a Snow." The king declared.
"Thank you, your majesty!" Larence—now Hornwood—thanked.
"You may return to your place, Larence Hornwood. We have other lands to discuss. The seat of House Dustin is without someone to succeed it... As well as Moat Cailin which I want to reactivate as a fortress. Also the regions in the west, but I want more information and will announce later what to do there." Daemon said.
"And House Stark... could you first say your plans for your mother's family?" Maege spoke again, while Daemon raised an eyebrow and looked toward the members of House Stark. They all naturally turned their gaze to him, evaluating his next words intensely—Lord Stark and his children, of course, but even his uncle Benjen and Daemon's own mother, invisible floating above them, stared at him.
"I will not take the Starks' rights over the north, I will not remove their titles or land, Winterfell belongs to the Starks and no one else; my mother was a Stark and I am sure she would not want me to punish Lord Stark's children for his and his wife Lady Catelyn's mistakes and cruelties. Therefore all rights return to the hands of Rob Stark until his father's trial is over." With these words, the people nodded in agreement. The north seemed to agree. Even with Rob's mistakes, his vassals still wanted him in power and naturally believed Daemon would do this — after all, he is part Stark.
"Still, about the lands that are vacant in the north. Mance Rider, step forward." He said as the man of the free folk came to Daemon, kneeling.
"I will give you the Bolton lands, so that you and your people may live as you can with your people, provided they accept to submit to the laws of the Seven Kingdoms and that you place your son under the wardship of the Starks, so that he can learn to be a northerner and inherit the Bolton lands after you." Daemon said, drawing several murmurs, which was normal — the lands were among the largest, and being handed to none other than the former king beyond the Wall.
'Broken oaths.' It was something whispered among the northerners; when Mance was a man of the Night's Watch, they did not seem pleased about this.
"Many of you may not like this, but it was the free folk who fought against the traitors of the north and the ironborn. They trusted me to give them a place here in the south; you may be angry because of the conflict that has gone on for thousands of years against the free folk, but at this moment, we have a common enemy — the dead — and we must unite against them if we want to win and not become something worse than enemies with histories of thousands of years." Daemon raised his voice.
"Moreover, I am giving you this chance provided they respect the laws of the south; otherwise, they may return to north of the Wall when it is safe there. And not to mention that Mance's descendant will grow up as a Stark — I know there is no good example with Theon Greyjoy, but Mance is not Balon; he is a man who knows how to fight for what is right." Daemon looked at the man, staring him down. Mance was not pleased that his son would be living elsewhere, but he said nothing. He could understand Daemon.
"This man may seem to have betrayed his vows by fleeing the Wall and joining the free folk. But in my opinion, he did not betray as you think." He paused. "This man saw something that no one else could see, he noticed the dead before everyone else; he could have gone to the Watch and reported the threat, but no one would have believed him, and when they did, it would have been too late. He then abandoned the Watch many years ago and began to prepare the free folk to try to survive. He did this for years; he sought to bring as many people alive together so they would not be consumed by the dead..."
"I am the sword in the darkness... I am the fire that burns against the cold... the light that brings the dawn... the shield that guards the realms of men." Daemon began to recite the Night's Watch oath for everyone there.
"Do you understand the meaning of those words? Created eight thousand years ago... The answer is in that coffin and at last, the Long Night is before us. Mance made his contribution even though he broke some of the terms; he still prepared the people beyond the Wall who would be consumed by death, to try to survive, that was before I arrived. Obviously I saw the threat and I also became sympathetic to the free folk." He spoke; Mance had a son and a wife after everything, but that was not important.
Everyone pondered his words, while eyes turned to the coffin with the creature inside. No one, absolutely no one, would want to become one of those things, even if they had to try to bring down the Wall.
"Your Majesty is right." Lord Stark said, breaking the silence. "I believe what we heard, what we saw." He said, looking at Daemon. "If the threat is coming for us, we must put aside our old intrigues." He gave his opinion.
"Anyway, let us continue." Daemon said, still wanting to speak about the Dustin lands and Moat Cailin, when he noticed something strange. And his gaze fixed on the entrance of the place where there should have been only guards.
"What do we have here..." Daemon said, completely interrupting his train of thought while keeping an amused look in his eyes.
The other gazes returned to where he was looking, putting various expressions on their faces when they saw what Daemon was staring at.
"What is that!?" Daenerys seemed frightened.
Nobles took a step back immediately while the women in the hall, with the exception of the free folk, screamed hysterically.
"Daemon!" Val stepped forward drawing Red Rain from his waist and ready to stand in front of him; Ser Barristan Selmy was doing the same.
"Wait." Daemon stopped them, raising his hand while his eyes were fixed on the creature.
"She's looking at me as many have already noticed... I am her target. What kind of magic are you?" Daemon asked amusedly of the black mass of a woman.
"My mother spoke of something like her, a shadow that killed the self-proclaimed King Renly Baratheon!" Rob said, frowning while his younger brothers were all frightened, as were the other children present.
"A kind of assassin to kill me... Made of shadows. I want no one to get in its way, even you, Lya." Jon spoke, still seated on the throne, not exactly unconcerned; people did not even seem to notice him saying the name Lya, so worried were they about that creature.
"You are that woman I asked Stannis to kill... the red witch..." Daemon began. The woman was rather stubborn. He just didn't know whether she was alone or if Stannis had tried to kill her. He would find out in the future; for now, he had a humanoid, murderous form of magic to destroy.
The dark creature did not answer Daemon; instead, it revealed a dagger in its hand, then rushed toward Daemon, flying in its shadowed form, drawing gasps, and when it was about to reach him with Val preparing to intervene, Jon pushed her back to keep her from getting between him and the creature.
The creature advanced further without resistance, ready to plunge the black dagger into Daemon when he simply raised his hand toward it, causing it to freeze less than a meter from him. It began to clutch its own neck, as if someone were strangling it.
"I've dealt with many creatures who used this kind of magic. You are no threat." Daemon said, keeping his hand raised while everyone there seemed to be witnessing a supernatural spectacle, the king holding the shadowed creature effortlessly with an invisible force.
Daemon looked at Val, who had stubbornly tried to face the creature and had been pushed aside by Daemon. He winked at her as she was still regaining her balance; she looked displeased but only huffed. Daemon was in no danger, but he was the same arrogant man as always.
In any case, Daemon stood after returning his focus to the dark creature. "You certainly have no idea what I am capable of, even after making the sky rain?" He asked the creature, but all he received was a murderous stare. Perhaps Melisandre didn't even know what was happening there.
Daemon raised his hand and Dawnbreaker began to materialize, vibrating with the light of dawn. Many saw the sword they had heard spoken of, said to be received directly from the old gods, in the king's hand.
Daemon said nothing else. He simply lifted it and drove the blade into the creature, who screamed in pain at that moment, yellow cracks spreading across its form until it was covered in hundreds of fractures.
Then the creature exploded, with the same scream of agony, disappearing completely. Daemon sheathed the sword.
Daemon sat back down as if nothing had happened, while everyone still stared at the place where the creature had been. "If you want to kill me, you'll have to do better than sending a shadow creature." He declared, as everyone choked on their breath.
It was a challenge no one could fulfill.
Daemon closed his eyes at that moment, ignoring the whispers and the red eyes of Winter blinking outside Winterfell.
'You must hunt her, everywhere in the north. If she is in Stannis' camp, you may unleash fire, just as you may in any place where the red witch stands. Bring me her burned body after.' Daemon commanded through the warg bond he had with the dragon, and his eye returned to normal when he finished. He could feel Winter taking off into the sky, heading south. That female dragon would hunt the human female to the ends of the world.
"Where were we again?" Daemon smiled, with everyone still staring at him in disbelief. He had just killed a creature that almost no one would dare face, and continued as if nothing had happened.
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