The Origin of Changes

They passed through the Iron Gate at dusk, the king rode quickly towards the fortress while the prince trotted and the Kingslanders cheered him with blessings and requests for peace, it was not every day that the golden prince of King's Landing was seen in the streets of the capital. But today was different, not only the prince was seen but also a beautiful lady with black hair and violet eyes, many wondered who the girl with an almost magical appearance was, but that was when the king's entourage completely passed through the northernmost gate Once the Stark entourage introduced herself they understood who she was. Men in chainmail with the Stark banner across their chests were not shiny and charming, they did not smile or wave at the smallfolk. The name Dyana Stark and Rose of Winterfell spread through the crowd and the rumor that a female Stark would be queen of the seven kingdoms was revived and the future queen verified it. The blessings and requests for peace were divided between the prince and the northern lady.

"They liked you, Lady Stark, I would like to see their reactions if they knew what you do with your mouth"

The prince said next to Dyana, using their loud voices as a muffler.

"I learned from an experienced whore in this city, they might even think I'm a good wife... Which is good for her husband in times of stress"

She responded and Joffrey pursed his lips, but didn't stop nodding.

"I wonder what the smallfolk will call you: Good Queenwhore Dyana? Good Whorequeen Dyana?"

The prince said with a sideways smile.

"Second coming of Saera or Aegon Unworthy with pussy"

Joffrey laughed loudly and Dyana laughed too, the Kingslanders admired how the future king and queen looked slender and perfect, molded to be together like Jahaerys and Alyssane.

"I can be like Daemon the Rogue Prince. This city stinks and I counted forty men masturbating as they watched me pass by, your highness, I feel like this city needs cleaning"

"Janos Slynt is a disposable piece but the master of coin has him and his men in his pockets"

The prince answered her, now not waving and noticing the men touching each other as he looked at his queen.

"As for these men, they will be castrated before dawn, my lady, I will make them pay"

The prince's gaze froze and his fingers made signs in the air, for certain people to notice. The princess grabbed his arm and brought him closer to her body.

"Leave them to me, my prince, enjoy the people's love for our union, remember: the wolf does not leave its den alone"

Princess Dyana smiled but out of the corner of his eye Joff noticed a man in the background scream in pain when a Stark soldier stepped on his member and cut his throat with a knife, the prince turned his face away and the scene was repeated with many others, being beaten and killed.

"Ignore the shadows my lion, in the shadows the wolf hunts and in the light the golden lion rules and receives popular love"

They passed through the bronze gates of the Red Keep at sunset, reddening the pink walls of the Manor of the Dragon Kings. Prince Joffrey got off his horse and helped his bride, now Princess Dyana Stark, to get down carefully and skillfully, touching her tight buttocks from the last few days sitting in the Wheelhouse next to the queen and riding for hours. Dyana smiled and thanked her prince. She admired the fortress's outer courtyard, with soldiers and nobles dispersing after a long journey. Lord Eddard went straight to the hand tower and this would be Dyana's fate if Joff didn't call her.

"Come with me, Lady Stark"

He called her and she followed him. They walked through the outer courtyard and passed through the great hall of the red keep, a spectacle seen from the outside, much larger than that of Winterfell and its windows were painted with the seven-pointed star and the representation of King Robert defeating the last of the dragon princes. But his destination was next to the great hall, a long corridor that led to a staircase and an entrance to what would be a garden. However, Dyana smelled a familiar aroma from that place.

"When my grandfather said they would marry my brother and me to northern women. I thought that even though I wasn't familiar with it, I should be noble and restore some of the First Men's culture to King's Landing."

Joff held Dyana's hand and entered the Godswood of the Red Keep. Dyana had seen many Godswood's in the north. Those of the Wyce house are the richest and most vivid in nature and beauty, the most mysterious is that of Winterfell, the scariest is that of Dreadfort and the oldest is that of Last Hearth. But upon seeing the one in Red Keep, she found ancient peace and serenity, only seen in Last Hearth, the Heart Tree seemed more cheerful, smiling like a child, she studied about them in Sunhall, this Heart Tree was new and not long old of life. Among the trees there were elm, alder and black cottonwood as the majority and they were the oldest but there were also sentinels, oaks, ironwoods, chestnuts, elms, hawthorn and soldier pines as in the Godswood at her house. The leaves mixed in the aged dark green and the enamelled youth of new seedlings, in a meeting of old times and new ones that would also grow old in due time.

"Joff... This is beautiful... It's like Stonegarden. It's so... Innocent..."

Dyana smiled sincerely, no longer plotting to make her fiancé happy. She saw in the Godswood's a peace she had never felt before and amid the rot of that city, the northern lady found the comfort she imagined she had lost when crossing the Neck and leaving Moat Cailin.

"I'm glad you liked it, my star"

Joff said hugging her from behind and kissing her neck smelling of eucalyptus and ginger.

"I want to see you happy, Dyana, since that night in Moat Cailin. I understood the love my grandparents shared."

"I understand too, Joff, I completely understand what my mother felt when she took my father's heart."

She turned her face and her lips met in a slow, romantic kiss.

"I love you Joffrey Baratheon"

She paused, declared and returned to the kiss.

"I love you too, Dyana Stark"

He responded and they stayed there for a long time.

Kingscrown's Bridgegate rose as one of the guards turned the lever that moved the gears, Saloman Wyce mounted on a gray garrane, set off on yet another hunt for the Free Folk invaders. He had with him a detachment of one hundred men from Houses Wyce, Burley, Harclay, and Knott. These were the most suitable for fighting in the mountains, where the terrain was steeper and the sharp winds from the wall were sharper. Saul had fought more than two dozen battles in recent weeks, from the mountains near the Shadow Tower to Eastwatch in the Bay of Seal's. He also raided and burned wildling camps, killing men and women who could fight but leaving children too innocent to understand what was happening, alive to become farmers and labor on the newly built farms.

His decision generated revolt among the mountain clans and the Umber's, but it was necessary, he could not allow these children to die to become like those beings. The conversation with Osha enlightened him on certain subjects, questions were answered and his fears intensified. The Watch was no longer powerful enough, even with some castles recovered, more men were needed to defend themselves from Mance Rayder's army and the terror of the coming winter. He sent a letter detailing each of the subjects he discussed with Osha to his father and brother in Tentown, the Warg's who took it by eagle said that Lord Wyce read it carefully and said that in a few moons, a regiment will be formed with more men from the north. There were five hundred men when Saul arrived and three hundred more from other regions of the north arrived in the last week. An entire regiment will be at least two thousand men. Saul breathed more lightly when Orwen sent the letter and waited for his struggles to subside.

"We will arrive at the mountain in two days, the Warg's watch the caves and say that a blizzard has hit the place"

Said Robb Stark, next to Saul. The boy has changed a lot in the last few weeks. He lost the innocence in his eyes after witnessing so many deaths. He also changed his own sense of honor, inspired by Ned Stark. It was difficult to make him understand that some children, no matter how young they were, could not be re-educated into the stable society south of the wall.

"Greywind no longer feels the pain of the last incursion, he can help us when the snow falls along the way"

The wolf already looked like a pony and was proud as a pack leader, Robb was the same and the blood of battles hardened him like iron being purified in the flames of a furnace.

"Allow him to go ahead, the wolf protects you but we are here and he can help us against other Warg's, your bond with him is too powerful for any Warg to dare connect with him"

Saul said and Robb, using his gift, ordered the Direwolf to go ahead.

"How are you?"

Saul asked, he always repeated the same question every time they left and returned from Kingscrown.

"Strange, I feel different, changed and a little scared. When I saw my father give Ice to Jon, I understood that in a few years I will be the lord of Moat and that I would need to understand the challenges of the smallfolk and understand who I am. I am Robb of House Stark or another Robb, lord of Moat Cailin remembered as a close relative of Jon Stark of Winterfell"

Robb hadn't blinked, he kept his eyes on the road, a stretch of the Iceroad that runs from Frostport to White Harbor and runs the entire length of the north. Saul had seen in the blue eyes of that young man with red hair, the fear of losing his identity, his true self in the world. He and Robb are almost the same age, a difference of a few moons, but they both share different births from their families. Saul was dark and red brown like Lady Myna but without the same appearance as Tyron and Robb was red and blue of Tully like Lady Catelyn, not dark and silver gray like Stark, but he had the youth of the old Ned, in the words of Benjen Stark.

"My grandfather sometimes visited us at Moat..."

He decided to tell him another detail of his life, Saul is used to hearing about Ned, Catelyn, Sansa and Arya but this is the first time he has heard about Lord Hoster Tully.

"...He would come with a retinue bringing gifts and we would have bimonthly banquets with him and Uncle Brynden, telling us stories of the times she spent with Aunt Lysa and a boy from the Vale of Arryn. Sometimes Grandpa would ask his mother to call Aunt Lysa and if possible, Jon Arryn, but they never came..."

Saul frowned, remembered a tale from his father, when he traveled with Brandon Stark, Jon and Dyana's father, and told about the time a small, skinny young man from the Vale of Arryn fought against him for Catelyn's hand. It was necessary for Catelyn herself to ask for mercy for the boy... Petyr, his name was. Saul laughed with pity and admiration for the boy.

"...But there was one day, the children left, the adults remained in the dining room of the north keep, I had tasted two sips of wine and sleep was not coming to me. I decided to go downstairs and ask uncle Brynden for stories again. But what I heard was an argument... Dad was angry, arguing about his grandfather's honor, Mom was sobbing silently, Uncle Brynden in the corner observed everything calmly and from where he was he noticed me but signaled me. to remain silent. What I could hear was nothing more than my grandfather's indignation..."

Saul secretly asked the soldiers to move away with a hand signal and this they did. He has heard of his father Lord Garvy's raid by Lord Hoster regarding the Lord of Winterfell's inheritance.

"...grandfather wanted my father to take the position of Lord Warden of the North from Jon and my mother wanted the same, as it is the law that dictates, that Jon and Dyana are bastards made out of wedlock and that many men died in the Trident for his stay as warden of the north, he said a lot more later..."

"...Robb"

Saul interrupted him.

"By the gods, have you said those same words to anyone else?"

Robb looked back at him and shook his head.

"I will believe your answer. But understand what I am going to teach you Robb, Moat Cailin has always been in the northern domains and the Stark house, but there has never been a land lord in the fortress in Reed domains, even though there were lord commanders surnamed Reed, they obeyed their superiors in Winterfell and changes in a single brick must be allowed by Lord Stark in Winterfell. Since the Ryder's, Flint's, Ryswell's and Fisher's there have been no more than two generations of lord commanders of the Moat. there were no more Starks in the position of lord commander, much less lord regent of lands like your father. You will inherit the Moat but your children will not and the order will return to the previous course. If Lord Hoster, that decaying old man, dares to coerce him into betraying his cousin , expel him from the Moat and give the order that he will no longer be welcome there, understand Robb?"

The words cut through him like steel daggers, the warning was given coldly and in a threatening tone.

"However, with my future plans, we can have Stark's in the New Gift, the gods have been good to us and these lands respond well to the cultivation techniques we send from Sunhall. House Towers may need help and the Umbers need to grow through the union of blood, the mountain clans need to come down from their mountains and nothing better than a Stark drafting and participating in this union"

Robb seemed happy about the future and thanked Saul. The path to the mountains was peaceful, more dangerous animals moved away when Greywind showed himself to them, the detachment turned aside when the wolf sensed blood.

"A few meters away, on Kingsroad"

Robb said. They rode quickly towards the place and the garrons followed at an equal speed, always taking firm steps over the steep and rocky terrain.

"There it is!"

The young man pointed and what looked like a small caravan was burning in flames, there were more than ten bodies and blood painted the muddy bricks.

"Greywind heard the heartbeat of one of them"

He noticed and dismounted from his saddle, to run quickly to one of the bodies, where the Direwolf was licking the deeply gaping head wounds.

He was a fat young man, so fat that he made Saul wonder if he was a noble from Essos but his features were from Westeros, he analyzed the entire caravan to notice any banner, flag or seal but the blood had already stained any clue available for analysis with the naked eye. He dismounted the garro and looked for anything that gave him a sign, something that answered the origin of those men. But there was nothing. Everyone only had their underwear tied to their bodies and nothing was left on them, even the fat one didn't have a doublet but only a linen shirt bathed in blood and stinking sweat.

"He may live, but we will need to return to the castle, Saul, we have been clearing the areas around the Kingsroad for weeks but an attack like this could mean that there is a new group of wildlings south of the wall."

Robb looked enraged and indignant, his eyes burning with the same determination as before a battle.

"Jogyr, use your ravens to track down this possible new tribe in this area, I want a report by next week, we will return today. Boryll, send a letter to the nearest village and tell the patrol there to prepare a bed and any healers available for the treatment of the fat guy here"

Saul's orders upset some men in the detachment but they obeyed and prepared to set up a brief camp next to the remains of the caravan.

"Symon, treat him and tell me when he wakes up. This fat guy's hands are too clean to be smallfolk."

Symon was an apprentice healer but discovered a calling for killing when his family was brutally murdered by Ironborn's in Balon Greyjoy's rebellion.

Hours passed, the camp lit up with bonfires and remained on the side of the road, the bodies were wrapped in the cloaks of some soldiers, the fat young man breathed better as he was cared for by Robb and Symon. Saul waited under an ancient dark oak tree, the morning passed and the night passed with a light wind, where the men pitched tents around fires and slept peacefully. On the Iceroad that connected Kingscrown to the northern mountains past Kingsroad, carts were seen and men thanked the Gods for the coming of those men from the nearby village.

"He is waking up"

Robb warned as he came out of a tent, Saul sighed and put on his best, friendliest mask.

Upon entering the tent, he saw the fat man sitting and watching with droopy eyes as Robb explained where he was and who he and Symon were before introducing Saul to the young man.

"Forgive my manners and lack of comfort, boy, my name is Saloman but you can call me Saul"

He smiled at the fat young man, who widened his eyes as if the pieces in his head fell into place and Saul realized that this young man was no ordinary man.

"What is your name?"

He asked more seriously.

"S-samwell, my lord"

His eyes shone and his strong southern accent, from the Dornish Marches, was noticeable.

"S-samwell T-tarly O-of H-hornhill"