Office of the First Builder

[Lord Rhodri Arryn]

"We will tell the King that men are needed. Men who will swear the oath and stand for life. As for Doyle, we will make our own inquiries. If nothing else, my brother, the Hand, will want to know his fate," Selwyn says.

[Deleted]

Aranya took Selwyn's arm. "Could we have a private word?"

[The Smith]

"You should read more. Clearly you know nothing of wildlings. They always calm during the Winter. It is incredible hard to travel up here with the deep snows." Mudd shakes his head and rubs at his eyes. "That is why we didn't start screaming, Lord Wendwater could be trapped and some accident could have happened to the ravens he brought with him."

[Deleted]

Aranya took Selwyn into an adjacent anteroom and shut the door so Mudd couldn't hear. "The builder's wrong," she said, speaking quietly and urgently. "I've seen them in my dreams, Selwyn. It's not wildlings who are going to come over that snow. We need to get Wendwater and his hundreds of stranded sworn brothers back, if they're not already dead." She handed him his dragonglass sword. "The old crone taught me how to see. I know I have to do this."

[Deleted]

She suddenly stopped, thinking of Brynden. There was no way she would leave him here with that mad monkey Mudd and that harsh old crone. "You have to stay behind," she said. "But keep the sword. Mudd looks like he'll try to rape and murder you in your sleep."

[Lord Rhodri Arryn]

"His own rangers could not find the Lord Commander. How can you, through winter snows, and with babe in arms? We must find Doyle Swann, Rhodri swore he was the finest ranger he had ever seen. Cape Wrath is nearly as wild as the north, less snow but more storms. Doyle can help you."


OOC: I guess Brynden is now nine months old. That's an age I'm quite familiar with. He could survive fine without breast milk, my daughter is weaning herself as it is.

[Deleted]

OOC: Okay.

"We'll wait till we can find Doyle Swann, but I have to try. I might not know those woods beyond the wall, but I'm no stranger to ranging and scouting, and I have..." she paused, not sure how to explain her shaky new second sight. "I have...tools."

She sighed. "Callen suspected that there was trouble, but I doubt he realized it was this bad. We'll have to search for Doyle Swann ourselves, so I guess we'd better get started."

[Lord Rhodri Arryn]

"Aye, I'll ask our leave from the First Builder. He'll be just as happy to have us out of his hair, methinks. Then we'll ask around the keep if any know of Doyle," Selwyn says.

After that, he steps back into the First Builder's chambers, explains that the King will be told of the Wall's news and needs, and that they will seek Doyle Swann themselves, and leave him be.

[The Smith]

Selwyn is almost out of the door before Mudd's "wait" catches his ear. "There is one more thing, and this is the worst. Lord Bracken who commands Eastwatch-by-the-sea and Lord Wull of the Shadow Tower argue over the Lord Commander's seat."

Pausing and taking a deep ashamed breath he says, "Their arguements have come to blows three times. I do not know how many deaths, they stopped taking orders from me when Lord Steward Voller died."

[Deleted]

Aranya went swiftly outside again to await Selwyn there. Her black courser's coat had little snowflakes and ice on it. As the crone brought Brynden back, he snapped at her irritably.

"I need to go beyond the Wall," Aranya said. "But I need a ranger."

The old crone smiled. "The one you want is not far. If you try, you will know."

[Lord Rhodri Arryn]

"Brackens again," Selwyn mutters. "The Brothers cannot fight each other. You may say the Wildlings have settled for winter, but the realm cannot afford this. There can be no new Lord Commander until Wendwater is confirmed dead. That should cool their heels, or encourage them to find him."

"I am a Southron, I know, so my word means little to most of these men. But I do have the ear of the King, and the blood of the Hand, and I can make men's lives easier or harder here. How can I stop this bloodletting?"

[Deleted]

"Go to the Rimegate," the crone said. "There you will find him."

"I'm coming with you," Lustrig said, standing by Aranya. Together they went to the Rimegate, and asked after Ser Doyle Swann. Soon the man himself appeared. A sturdily built man, Doyle was, with a calm, proud face and kind eyes. A good man, Aranya thought, satisfied. When she introduced herself and asked him to come with her, Doyle readily agreed.

[The Smith]

"I have tried all the words I know. Yet the fools keep attacking. There are provisions for is the Lord Commander is missing for too long. This will not be the First Lord Commander lost to a ranging." He rubs his eyes again tiredly, "Maybe you can talk to them, as a representative of the king."

"Please apologize to your wife for me. Her shrill accusations were just reminders of my own failures. But let her know if she ever speaks ill of my men in my presence, King's repesentative or not, she is going south even if I have to tie her to a pack horse." He nods with surety.

[Lord Rhodri Arryn]

"There are days I ponder tying her to a pack horse. She has a fiery temper, but it has served as a virtue on other days. I'll try and have her mind her tongue. I will do what I can. Which should I start with? Is one man more reasonable than the other?" he asks.

[The Smith]

"Before their current Madness I would have proscribed that trait to both of them." Mudd sighs, "Wull, he is older, and came to the wall out of choice. Bracken was Banished here after the War of the Stag and Dragon."