Journey to The North

The sun reincarnated and rose high up in the sky, bringing dawn to a new day. It sent its golden rays to penetrate the curtain of darkness around the Bay of Wolves and brought with it a new day for the crew of Poseidon. Sirius broke his fast and started practicing with Black Reaper. He kept swinging it wildly in a chaotic rhythm with an occasional stab, slash, or sweep. The most crucial thing in any wielding technique is to keep your moves formless. Having a pattern always allows your enemies to read through your fighting style. The bare chested Sirius stood there with Black Reaper held straight with its dark blade sucking the sunlight. He saw the magnificent harbor of Memphis appearing on the horizon, and the scene drew a smile on his face. He asked his servants to prepare his royal robes to prepare to enter Memphis.

They brought him a luxurious shiny black silk brocade tunic with silver wolves embroidered into it, along with black silk boots and a silver cloak over his mantle. His long platinum hair was held in a silver tiara crown adorned with a grey diamond. He entered the fancy carriage that carried him to the Great Pyramid, or as it was renamed Royal Pyramid. On his way, he started recounting his gains from his trip to Valyria, the greatest, of course, is Kisara, yet there were other hidden benefits.

Bonding with Kisara brought Sirius some boons as well. First, he became stronger physically in his human form and felt his skin getting firmer and more resilient, probably taking from her diamond scales. This seemed logical to him as Kisara was much stronger than Drogon, who gave Daenerys a significant physical boost after their bonding. He also became immune to all flames weaker than Kisara's, which includes most flames. The drawback is that hatching a dragon again brought magic back into the world and strengthened magic users like the Red Priests, Shadowbinders, and the Warlocks of Qarth. He will have to deal with them later as time goes on.

He also understood the secrets behind Valyrian steel; although he can never forge the steel now without Kisara's flames, it won't be far away when he could develop Valyrian Steel. He also found a vast stash of gold in the form of ingots probably waiting to be minted. He can mint it into Golden Wolves, the coin of the Winter Kingdom that became wildly spread through most of Essos due to the heavy trade that is based in Memphis and Alexandria.

He also found a full-body Valyrian armor that he planned to present to his father in his next thirtieth name day celebration in the coming moon. The most remarkable finding is a wide short tower that was like a cemetery for the deceased dragons, which meant it was filled to the brim with skeletal dragon remains. The number of bones he found was so huge that he spent a few days transporting it into Poseidon. This amount was enough to be grounded and added into steel to make dragonbone recurve bows for his Mamluk Army. Dragonbone bows are the best known bows, only potentially rivaled by Goldheart tree bows from the Summer Islands.

These bows and their already made Damascus Steel scimitars, and round shields will complete their armaments requirements. Their horse riding training is already administered as the Mamluks are bonding with their Arabian horses. They will soon be able to practice horse archery to finalize the training and forge that army into a genuine elite Mamluk Versatile Cavalry army that Sirius always dreamed of having.

As soon as Sirius entered the Royal Chambers, he heard a squeak as a tiny squirrel like girl drove into his arms. He grinned wildly, hugging his dear Serenay as he twirled her in the air. She squealed in laughter, feeling happy that her beloved older brother finally came home. "How was my dear princess in my absence?" Inquired Sirius smilingly.

"I was behaving and attended my studies every day, and the royal tutors even praised me more than stupid Seth." Sirius laughed in delight at her reply, not believing most of her boasting. He played with her and Seth for a few hours before retreating to his solar, feeling utterly content that he is back home.

Although Sirius did not have a specially close bond with his parents, he sincerely loved the young twin cubs, Seth and Serenay. He had a strange protective feeling towards them, his love for them was on a level unmatched by anyone in this life. He had grand plans for them; they will be advisors to his court, Betas to his pack, companions in his journey. He planned the best for them, their education in politics, warfare, strategy, and economics. He also prepared a routine for their training as humans and later as wolves. As a final gift for their coming to the age of majority, he will present them two petrified dragon eggs, one large black egg for Seth and another smaller golden egg for Serenay.

Sirius held a meeting in his solar with Alaric and Meng Tian to brief him of their recent intel and plans. Meng Tian had a terrifying acumen for strategies and plans. At the same time, Alaric is now a proper Spymaster who is probably the most knowledgeable of what happened the day before all around the Known World.

Alaric first started reporting, "The people of Winter are increasingly satisfied with His Majesty, King Cregan, and they also worship you, your highness. There were a few problems internally though. We caught a few small spying children in unseen situations, just like you predicted. We caught them and controlled most of them, while a few stubborn ones were eliminated. Our gyrfalcons hunted any of their ravens flying in our lands, except the ones we allowed. We fed the Spider some information about your ancestry and let him know that your father curses Ned Stark and drinks toasts to the day he bathes Winterfell in blood and retake the North. This will prove a great cover to your plans in the North."

After a moment of silence, Alaric continued, "If the North has the Winter Kingdom as its enemy, it makes sense for them to try to develop their army, rebuild their castles, and all your plans will be smooth at least for a few years; however, we have to be ready as Varys, Jon Arryn and Stannis Baratheon are not to be underestimated, so as soon as they regain their full control of Westeros, they might turn their attention to a terrifying new kingdom like ours, especially now that we drew their attention." Alaric finished his briefing in a few short sentences he summarized all the happenings in Westeros in Sirius's absence.

Sirius mused silently for a few minutes before looking at Tian. "Alaric, you do not need to worry about their machinations. With our armies garrisoning our cities, with Tian commanding them at the back and Uncle Wu commanding them on the front lines, the Westerosi can do nothing by themselves right now. We will have a slight problem with naval battles as our fleet is still not ready; however, I know that by now, Stannis Baratheon has just started to rebuild the Royal Fleet, so we still have a couple of years before; they could pose a threat to us."

He looked severely at Tian. "Tian, I leave all the Winter Armies in your command as Master Strategist of the Winter Kingdom, you will receive the official decree from his majesty as soon as I leave Memphis." He turned to his cousin. "Alaric, is all the preparations for my journey ready?"

"My prince, you will travel to Naath through the Summer Sea, then from Naath you will sail to Bear Island, and from there you will aimlessly hunt while nearing Winterfell. There you will meet Ned Stark, from the North, and your ancestors were the founders of the free company Wolf Pack. You are fed up with your mercenary life and want to go back to your roots, to spend the rest of your days hunting throughout the northern woods. You will be nothing but a retired sellsword, Geralt the White Wolf."

"Great, I will also check our military post in Naath and also see the state of the new Silk industry we established there. I will send you any commands I have after my visit."

After a fortnight, on top of a small boat, stood a tall man standing at almost 7 ft with broad shoulders. He had long white hair and piercing blue eyes. On his back was a long shaft of a polearm except that its blade was covered with a thick wooled cloth. Along with the terrifying-looking long shaft, his stalwart figure scared the sailor he hired from Alexandria to take him to Naath. He threw a few Golden Wolves to the sailor to calm his nerves and complete their journey.

Three days later Sirius, disguised as Geralt, set foot on Naath as a starting point of his journey to the North.