The God's Eye

[Deleted]

Aranya still sat there watching him, dandying her feet in the pool. The ripples from the water fanned out from her, rustling the reeds around Yohn. "I didn't expect to see you again," she said after a while. "What brought you back from the Isle?"

[Lord Rhodri Arryn]

"I knew you would be here. I will return when you are gone," Yohn says.

[Deleted]

OOC: Sorry, my laptop disconnected from the modem when I was online last. Now I'm logging in from class.

"These are dangerous times, especially if you were in the Neck. Can the crannogmen protect you?" Aranya studied him. "You should be safe enough. They know the way."

"I've been planting your weirwood seeds, by the way."

[Lord Rhodri Arryn]

"I know. I can see the Godswood in the Red Keep, and I can see Petra, too. Will you plant more?"

"And they are the Greenmen, not mere Crannog. They have taught me much. I no longer fear my dreams."

[Deleted]

"Of course. Just now I can't go around doing it, however. You must have seen that war is coming. I misinterpreted some of my dreams, but no matter. "

She frowned. "Your father's home has been attacked. We ride there soon - and I will plant more."

"You'll be safe here. On the Isle the First Men signed a pact with the Children, and brought peace for four thousand years." She thought about the Child crone she had met, and wondered. "If any place in the country can keep you safe right now, it is this place."

[Deleted]

"The men behind this will be punished. I showed mercy, and this is what comes of it." Aranya's eyes flashed. "I will see them dead, and gutted on my sword."

[Lord Rhodri Arryn]

"No one will touch me here. I will not die on the Isle of Faces," he says. "You have something for me, though, don't you?"

[Deleted]

Aranya studied him again, critically. He was a little taller, but so thin. This had been nagging at the back of her mind all through their conversation. "What do they feed you?" she asked gruffly. "Moss? You need to eat meat, real food, or you're wrists will snap if you ever try to swing it."

When he just stared at her, she went to the sleek black stallion and unslung one of the swords. She came back to him and drew the sword out of its black leather sheath in one swift motion.

The obsidian greatsword was long, its two-hand hilt made of black bone. The black dragonglass flashed eerily, somehow taking on the reflections and colors of the water and trees so that they rippled along the blade as if it was a mirror. The blade was long, as only a greatsword's is.

"Lightbringers, of their own kind. There are two, given to me by a Child of the Forest, who will await us up north for years upon years, until you are grown and I am trained. My sword is wildfire, but yours will have its own flame." She sheathed the sword and handed it to him hilt-first.

"Did you ever practice with wooden swords, boy?" She took his arm and felt his muscle. "You won't be able to swing a greatsword, much less fight with one, without some teaching."

[Lord Rhodri Arryn]

"I practiced all the time until I came here, with Gower and Lord Valwert and the other knights in Storm's End. But I preferred the axe to sword," Yohn says.

[Deleted]

"This isn't an ordinary sword. Many years from now, you will need its fire. This is dragonglass, Yohn. Historically, obsidian is the weapon that can destroy the great enemy beyond the Wall, as does Valyrian steel. Typically obsidian shatters against flesh, but these blades have been tempered in something, and they do not break. I have managed to call the flame from them," here Aranya grimaced. "But we'll speak no more of that. Here."

She gave him the sword. "You need constant training, and I doubt the stormland knights let a little boy wield a greatsword. I wish I could train you myself. But I have to leave, and you must find another way. Do you know of any who can teach you?"