[Chapter Size: 4600 Words.]
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Third Person POV
Twins, 300 AC.
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The worst thing for Black Walder was what the reports meant — or rather, the lack of them — all the time.
With every man sent, none returned.
At first, he found it normal, but soon he began receiving no response at all and sent more, and more.
He started by saying something like: "Be careful, hide, try to see them from afar, climb trees, stay in high and hidden positions... but bring back some information, no matter how small!"
However, not a single man returned, only silence. That would leave him increasingly frustrated over the days in that tower at the Twins.
His father wanted answers he was incapable of giving. The soldiers were growing restless, and his half-brothers and their sons were also quite uneasy, even looking at him with some anger for being a bastard and still assuming a position of command in the defense of the fortress, since the main brothers were in Riverrun along with the Lannisters, trying to break a siege against the Blackfish, who had managed to escape moons ago, locking himself inside the castle.
Some of them were using the fact that he couldn't get any answers to try to take his position. House Frey had become quite problematic. Since the war — which was not only because of the North, but also involved personal attempts at revenge — the internal situation of the house had destabilized. Now, everyone seemed more greedy, wanting a piece of the pie.
All united.
That was the motto of House Frey, but it didn't seem to fit very well with what the house had become.
Riverrun was now the main course, where everyone wanted their share. Although Roslin had married Edmure, and was pregnant, being a possible heir to Riverrun, there was no guarantee that Walder Frey would do that; they could very well hand the castle to his heir, which would further solidify his position as Lord of the Riverlands.
All of this only increased the tension among the Freys. They were constantly trying to prove themselves, after all there were too many sons, and no one wanted to end up as a mere guard, even with noble blood.
Sons and grandsons trying to climb socially, lies, betrayals... Well, Black Walder was already used to it. He also played his own game. After all, as a bastard, things were a bit more complicated, but he wanted to prove his worth. Despite enjoying being cruel, he wanted to ascend socially, he knew he had a chance at it and would do anything to achieve it. His father trusted him a lot.
The problem was the message that that rat had delivered about the Arcticans and, even so, no response from his scouts — simply disappearing, which was obviously not a good sign.
This also made him think about the informant himself who, instead of heading to this side of the river, asked for passage to the other side, as if he were fleeing with his 2 silver coins for the information. That made him quite irritated, but he couldn't do anything in the face of the threat of getting into trouble, being beaten, and losing what he had earned. He kept fleeing — whether to the North or to the Crownlands, it no longer mattered.
Even so, he could have used that man to extract more information by going to the Arcticans, since he managed to provide information about them when his scouts failed. But he didn't think of it in time, and now it no longer mattered.
Thus, he stood there, watching the forest ahead and the main road, when some soldiers approached.
"We brought all the men from the second tower here, leaving only the minimum defense," said one of Walder Frey's grandsons, working as a minor captain, approaching Black Walder, despite a certain arrogance.
Black Walder nodded. "Good... let's prepare."
"Do you think it will be enough to stop them?", one of the nearby men murmured, as Black Walder raised an eyebrow.
"What do you mean by that?", he asked, stepping closer to them, his tone dissatisfied. The men who hadn't noticed Black Walder nearby seemed startled.
"I mean, my lord... we've heard that they are extremely powerful. That they have weapons capable of destroying ships and tearing down gates."
"The Twins will not fall, you fools," Walder spat. "We just need to hold out long enough until our men from the Lannister army can send reinforcements to fight them. Besides, we have hostages."
Black Walder said that, but his eyes did not seem confident.
That was bad.
Damn reputation that the Arcticans had built over the years.
From the moment it was announced that they had arrived on the coast, the soldiers had been quite restless, even more so when the latest news was that they were appearing on the western side of the continent and attacking the ironborn.
One of his brothers was receiving some ravens now, as he acted as a maester. There were reports from Bear Island, in the North: they had simply destroyed more than four thousand ironborn, without any mercy.
Black Walder believed that it could have been just a surprise attack, with the ironborn caught off guard. Many Arcticans must have fallen in battle. He did not believe that the Twins could be easily penetrated. Otherwise, he himself would have already fled.
But it was all just rumors... right?
He had never seen the Arcticans. They couldn't simply appear and destroy them!
And so six hours had passed since the sun rose.
His gaze was still fixed on the forest. It was already midday, and no scout had returned. He was about to go to the hall to eat something, hear his father complain and demand answers, when a horn began to sound.
The reaction was immediate, everyone instantly stood upright.
A horn coming from the forest more than 800 meters from the tower.
That could only mean one thing. Black Walder had placed some scouts nearby with horns to warn with a loud sound if anything happened. The fact that they had disappeared without leaving any trace only made it even more concerning.
"They've arrived!"
He immediately turned to his men, who were already beginning to shout.
"Prepare yourselves! All of you! Take your positions and get ready!"
He stepped back as his men quickly began to move. Bows and arrows — many arrows — started to be distributed, as they positioned themselves around the tower, from the highest points to the lowest, all with good shooting range.
His men who were outside the fortress, two hundred, began advancing into the first tower with their horses, entering until the last one came through, who had been farther away serving as a scout, with the gate being closed right behind them.
"Listen, everyone!", one of Walder Frey's sons took position down below as soon as the gate was shut, while Black Walder continued observing from a higher point, ready to give orders.
"Everyone take your positions and prepare to weigh against those—"
His speech was interrupted as the men who had just entered left their horses and began to prepare, running from one side to the other.
A trio of soldiers in particular, wearing Frey armor and helmets, exchanged glances. With a nod, they began to move forward — but they did not head to the same place as the others, nor toward the stairway to take position and join the troops.
While all the soldiers entered and climbed the stairs, they went through a different door, looking around to make sure no one was watching the three of them in particular.
They continued past an archway, while servants and other soldiers were quite rushed. They advanced to a door and opened it, the three of them entering. They kept moving through corridors of the fortress with fewer people in sight until they found a place with several sacks of flour like a storage room, hearing only the muffled sounds coming from outside. The horns continued to echo through the fortress.
The three removed their helmets. They were two Arctican soldiers and Lord Jin Sakai himself. They also had their own mission inside the Twins.
"Well, we got in easily. They didn't check our identities, which gives us an advantage," Lord Sakai said, while the other two — also members of the infiltration team, trained specifically by him in Arctic and who had participated in the infiltration at Casterly Rock — nodded. They had been summoned as two of the best among the infiltration group along with the leader.
"What's the plan, Lord Sakai?", one of them asked.
Sakai took a deep breath. "Let's move. We have a few dozen minutes before the army reaches the bridge. We'll map things out and stay hidden. Our task is to reach the hostages and ensure they are not killed in the middle of the chaos."
He spoke, and all of them nodded. Then, Sakai pulled out an improvised map of the fortress.
Jon had already done the work of mapping the entire place through the rats themselves and other animals inside the location, so they already had knowledge of the structure.
Their idea was not to extract the hostages, but to infiltrate the dungeon and lock the doors, preventing the Freys from reaching them until the Arctican army arrived there.
The important hostages were in that tower, since the West Tower was already where Walder Frey's main hall was located.
It seemed that no Frey was willing to use hostages as a shield against the Arctican army — which would be foolish, since the Arctican response would be aggressive. But the Freys did not know that, and this ignorance gave them an advantage.
"We need your ability, Judas," Sakai said to one of his men.
He nodded, taking a rat he had brought with him and setting it to move through the passages. Then he closed his eyes; when he opened them, they were white. He was a warg, entering the rat's mind and beginning to move out of that room. His goal was to scout the place, check where there were fewer guards and more open routes to the dungeon. This information would be passed on to Sakai, who would determine the best path on the map they had.
While the man remained with his eyes rolled back, inside the mind of the small rat, Sakai and his other companion waited in silence. It was their duty to protect their companion in that state.
Now, the Arctican army would do its part while they were there, knowing they would not be disturbed for a while — unless someone decided to hide in that place, which was a flour storage room, used only for kitchen resupply. There were already several sacks stored there, so it would not draw attention for now. But clearly, men would start hiding there once the tower was quickly taken.
Minutes passed on the outside.
Black Walder had no idea that there were already men infiltrated there. He remained watching, until he finally began to hear the sound of marching.
"Black Walder! I saw it, there are giants among them!", one of the scouts said as he sounded the horn outside, approaching with a look full of fear.
"So it's true... giants...", someone murmured.
The people around began to whisper.
"We've heard a lot about them... giants don't win wars..." Black Walder said with a growl, not liking that others were hearing that.
"But, my lord, I heard about the war in the Dothraki Sea once...", he tried to speak, but was interrupted by Black Walder, who almost wanted to have the man whipped.
"Yes, five thousand giants... a story like that I would tell my bastards. Now shut up about it and move that ass to prepare. Do not run. Otherwise, I will impose martial law on all cowards; after our army arrives with the Lannisters, we will carry out a grand execution of the cowards. House Frey has no need for such men!"
He needed to maintain morale. He hated those men who were already sweating over rumors and letting fear show, something that spread like a plague among his ranks. An army without morale was a lost army.
They had the advantage. They had hostages. The Twins were a key fortress at the crossing of the bridges over the river. They could not simply destroy them. For the Freys, it was unthinkable that Arctic could do something as drastic as blowing up the fortress, as they did with ships at sea using wildfire.
The Twins were far too important!
His eyes remained fixed in that direction, until he began to see the banners first. Then came the drums — war drums, in a frantic rhythm.
Black Walder could not help but tense up at that. He still couldn't see soldiers, but they were certainly already positioning themselves, as the sounds continued.
"They think a few drums will scare us?", he mocked, trying to regain confidence.
Until he saw the first soldiers emerging.
Horses wearing chainmail and some impressive armor, along with soldiers clad in an extremely striking steel — so striking that it would make even the Kingsguard feel envy.
"Wait... isn't that Valyrian steel?", someone exclaimed. Even from afar, the shine was far more intense than that of common steel.
"Have you ever seen any Valyrian steel in your life? I don't think so!" someone mocked. "But his armor is very good..."
"Don't be a fool," another replied, as more and more soldiers with the same type of armor began to appear — at least eight of them.
After all, how could Valyrian steel be displayed in such quantity? No one there would believe that Arctic had recreated it. It was as if they possessed tons of that material in the army.
At last, at least twenty of those soldiers appeared, as they began to observe the Twins. There was a large open space between the forest and the first tower on the riverbank, about 300 meters apart.
They were out of arrow range — much to the Freys' displeasure.
As they began to line up, more and more soldiers came out of the road that led from the forest.
There was no one without armor. Horses for the men, ponies for the dwarves, whom they saw only as small men. The giants, on the other hand, were on foot, but that did not seem to be a problem, given the endurance they had developed through training in recent years.
It was impressive.
At last, Black Walder fell silent, unable to continue underestimating those soldiers.
There were at least five thousand of them, beginning to form ranks in that open area.
That was a first-rate army. All wore white armor with the symbol of Arctic, organized as they began to position themselves in the field.
"Let me see them... let me see those bastards!", a voice came from behind, filled with irritation.
Black Walder turned as he saw his father approaching, trembling, looking with a certain disgust.
"Let me see those bastards who think they can take my tower."
He approached the parapet and looked out, straining his eyes. His gaze narrowed as he tried to see better, his vision already weakened by age.
Then, his eyes widened.
He trembled in silence.
No one said anything. His men grew even more nervous, and his grandsons looked at their grandfather with concern.
"How many are they?", he asked.
By this point, it was already possible to distinguish the giants, although it was difficult to differentiate them all at that distance with his aged eyes.
"Five thousand, my father," Black Walder replied.
"We can win... we will defeat them...", Walder murmured, trying more to convince himself than showing real confidence.
Black Walder couldn't blame him, but he also couldn't allow his father's doubts to affect the soldiers.
"Don't worry, father. We'll hold out until your sons arrive with the Lannisters. They'll take them from behind. It's only five thousand. We have nearly fifteen thousand men in Riverrun. Ten thousand can easily cut them down from behind, by surprise."
The words seemed to bring some comfort to the old Frey.
"I like that... you're right. I'll leave this to you. Tell those damned Arcticans that they'd better withdraw those soldiers from here, otherwise they will face horrible deaths."
He was no longer of an age to shout orders. It would be up to Black Walder to do so.
"Leave it to me, father."
With that, Black Walder turned his back and began to walk away.
The Arcticans continued organizing themselves. He watched for a while longer, then turned to his men.
"Prepare a flag of truce. Let's first see this Arctican king in person."
With those words, he began to prepare himself, accompanied by at least four of his brothers.
When Black Walder descended, about three hundred meters away, the Arcticans began to notice the movement of the gate.
"My king, they are opening the gate." Lancelot said as he approached the king, who was brushing Panis and adjusting his Valyrian steel chainmail.
When the gate opened, a group of soldiers, with Black Walder himself, came out carrying a white flag.
Jon looked at that and nodded. "Very well. Let's meet them," Jon said, as he moved toward his horse.
"Freys cannot be trusted, Jon!" Arya approached.
"I know, and they will most likely attack us, I expect that, but their arrows will never penetrate Valyrian steel. I want three guards to accompany me, use horses with Valyrian steel barding as well, we will be fine, but I don't want the horses getting hurt." Jon said to everyone.
"Let me go! Jon!" Arya stepped closer. "Someone needs to look after you. These men are treacherous."
'She says that when there are three Kingsguard with me?' Jon thought. 'Whatever. The armor will protect her.' Jon decided.
Then he, along with his Kingsguard, mounted the horses with barding and armor, being Lancelot, Barristan Selmy, and Arya.
He was entering the range of arrows fired from the tower, but that did not matter. As the men themselves began to react to them, they seemed more impressive than a heavy cavalry.
"Everyone stay alert, keep your shields firm," Jon said, demanding that all already be prepared, with shields in hand and helmets on their heads, in case there was an attack, which he expected anyway.
"You are very far from home, Arcticans."
The voice of the one who seemed to be the leader addressed them with those words, lifting the movable visor of his helmet. He did not hide the surprise — and even a certain astonishment — at seeing their armor. Now they could confirm: it was Valyrian steel, the most expensive steel in the world.
And how would the Freys respond to that...? First came the surprise, then greed appeared in their eyes. That equipment could buy the Twins, it could buy Riverrun!
"We are where we should be. After all, the Seven Kingdoms belong to me by right," Jon said calmly inside his helmet, his voice overriding the previous arrogance.
The men hesitated for a moment, but the leader spoke again:
"So you are the one Lord Stark claimed to be the son of Prince Rhaegar? The words of a man who was about to be executed are no proof of who you claim to be. To us, you are just Jon Snow and you command a few wildlings." Black Walder said.
Everyone exchanged glances immediately. Then the Arcticans' response... was to laugh.
They began laughing at one another.
"Try something better. You're terrible at provoking, at least try something more convincing and realistic." Arya replied, laughing.
Given the reality before them, Jon seemed like a bastard and they were wildlings? Were these Freys drinking before meeting them or something?!
The Freys themselves seemed a bit lost; even Black Walder's companions looked at him strangely.
Jon laughed, until he calmed down, trying to become more serious.
"Anyway, call me a bastard, it doesn't matter... I don't care if they say I inherited the throne by right or by conquest. After all, I'm doing very well with the second part since I left the North. I've already dealt with most of the Ironborn, now you are next," Jon replied calmly.
"You are arrogant!" Black Walder still tried to find something to offend them with, but nothing seemed to come to his mind; calling them wildlings again would only make them laugh at him.
He wanted those armors! He couldn't let them go like that, they could take the armor from their bodies and bring it inside. His father would be very pleased.
The trace of madness and greed did not go unnoticed by Jon and the others.
Then Black Walder spoke. "Leave these lands and your equipment. Otherwise, you will get nothing from the Twins," he said, before casting a glance at Arya. Even though she wore armor, he could see her shape that revealed the delicate figure beneath that steel, and he smiled unpleasantly. "You could leave her as well... it's not every day we have such a beauty to entertain ourselves."
No one laughed now; Jon only sighed at that. "So that's how it is... we have nothing more to discuss."
Exchanging insults was not something he cared about. It had already lost its purpose. He was there only out of formality — a military etiquette. Otherwise, he would have already ordered the destruction of the tower entrance.
He could have gotten angry at that and responded in kind, he did not like them speaking to Arya that way, but he saw no point in it — why not just blow up the gate and kill them all?
"Let's go." He simply turned around, leaving the Freys stunned.
Black Walder watched Jon walk away before returning to the tower. Jon, in turn, immediately understood the reason for that quick negotiation under a flag of truce: the Arctican army was still positioning itself and was not ready to act immediately. Just as he had imagined, they would break the peace negotiation.
Jon looked at him, as he almost raised his hand to give the order to the archers prepared in the tower. "Don't do it. I know you're thinking about killing us to take our armor from the moment you saw us. But honestly, you won't make it back to your tower alive if you do that... I hope you understand," Jon gave him his chance, without even looking back.
The men immediately grew tense.
"You wouldn't dare! Your house has been reduced to a bunch of cowards!" Barristan Selmy snarled.
"It's fine, we already expected this anyway, wouldn't you agree, Ser Barristan Selmy..." Jon hummed.
The three men with the Frey bastard couldn't help but look nervous, especially at the knight beside Jon — a legend in Westeros.
"They were about to break the guest right of my brother Robb," Arya mocked.
"Prepare the shields," Jon ordered calmly.
Seeing this, Black Walder immediately raised his hand.
It was permission for the men in the tower to attack.
He would not miss the chance to kill the enemy leader and take those Valyrian steel armors. He needed to kill them. As soon as he gave the order, he spurred his horse to get out of there and avoid being caught by the arrows.
"Giant archers, now!" Jon shouted, his voice echoing like thunder.
At the same instant, the horses burst forward with explosive speed. Jon took control of the four horses, forcing them to advance at the same time.
Meanwhile, all of them positioned their shields on their backs.
The Arcticans reacted in the same way as the Freys as soon as the arrows began to be launched at Jon's group. The horses did not stop, advancing as the arrows struck the Valyrian steel, unable to penetrate it.
On the Arctican side, it was not ordinary archers who responded. As their men were already roaring in fury, giant archers advanced with their enormous bows. A group of twelve quickly arrived and aimed, even from about three hundred meters away.
Black Walder gained distance, expecting to see the Arcticans fall. His disappointment was immediate when he saw that the arrows merely struck the armor without causing damage.
"What?!" he murmured in surprise at the effectiveness of the armor, shattering the arrows that fell with force; even the horses were protected. The sound of metal fragments colliding rang out, but it did not affect even the speed of the Arctican horses.
"We have to go back! Look at those giants!" said one of Lord Frey's grandsons.
"Fine, let's go!" Black Walder was disappointed, but at the same time afraid of that formation. He had heard stories about the giants, and he did not want his possible death to be the proof of those rumors.
They ran with their men back into the fortress, but he still looked back with disgust. Another volley of arrows had been useless, and now they were out of range of the tower's arrows; two volleys had failed to even scratch them.
Were they invincible on the battlefield?
Then, the giant archers fired.
A thunderous sound, like a storm, echoed across the field, drawing everyone's attention. Black Walder, already near the gate, looked on in shock, still frustrated at not having managed to take those armors.
He barely had time to react. The shots were all precise, even from that distance; the arrows were like a force no one could react to, flying straight without dropping.
All he saw was the world spinning before being struck by a massive arrow, thrown away from his horse. His men met no different fate. The twelve arrows, with absurd speed, pierced through all the riders. One of them even went through a horse, which neighed in pain. Other soldiers who stood near the gate were also hit, thrown against the wall like dolls.
Black Walder was pinned to the wall, the very rocks giving way as the tip struck a weak point in the stone.
Now his body writhed, an arrow piercing his belly, as he screamed for help.
Jon returned to the Arctican camp, while his men were furious at the Freys' cowardice.
"Looks like I wasn't wrong... Those men became so greedy because of the armor. The moment they saw us, there wasn't even hesitation," Jon said coldly.
Jon had kept his eyes on them the entire time; it hadn't been Black Walder's plan, but the fool ended up paying for it.
Jon approached Arya's horse, which had been hit by an arrow in its leg, removed the arrow, and healed the wound. He had managed to keep control of it until then, even injured, to get out of the Freys' range.
Jon looked at his men, all already preparing themselves with anger and curses.
"Well, you saw it, didn't you? Get ready, all of you. We won't waste time. I want you to start destroying part of the tower in the next few minutes!" he ordered.
The camp hadn't even been set up yet, and they were already moving the wildfire loads, beginning to open them.
If the Freys had been expecting any chance to resist, that audacity had destroyed it, and they had given the signal that no mercy would be shown.
The Freys' gate was immediately closed, terrified by those giant arrows. Black Walder had been greedy and was already dying now. No one could save him, pinned to the wall, his stomach pierced, his entrails spilling out through the wound, blood and filth.
Now, all the Freys would feel the wrath of Arctic.
No one could deny what had happened. Even the five hundred men that Lord Mallister had sent to observe the Arcticans had witnessed everything.
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