Winterfell had seen many feasts, but none quite like this.
When the cries of a newborn echoed through the halls that morning, the chill of the North seemed to lift. A child had been born — a girl with hair as red as fire and eyes as blue as the sapphire. Lady Catelyn had survived her long, harrowing labor, and the news spread through the keep like sunlight through snow-laden clouds.
Before the sun had reached its height, the bells of Winterfell were ringing. From the courtyards to the kitchens, from the rookery to the stables, every man and woman stopped to whisper the same words — a daughter has been born to Lord Eddard Stark and Lady Catelyn.
The Joy of the North
Lord Rickard Stark, proud and gray-bearded, stood in the great hall surrounded by his family, his eyes gleaming with joy as he looked upon his newborn granddaughter. "A girl with her mother's beauty," he said, though the child bore the fiery Tully hair. "The gods have blessed us."
Lyanna stood beside him, smiling as she looked upon the infant sleeping peacefully in Catelyn's lap. "She has your calm, brother," she said teasingly to Ned. "Let's hope she doesn't grow up with Brandon's mischief."
Eddard smiled faintly. "One Stark like Brandon is more than the world can handle."
The laughter that followed was warm and free, echoing off the cold stone walls.
Lyanna placed a hand on Catelyn's shoulder. "She's beautiful, Cat. Truly. And Winterfell feels brighter for it."
Catelyn, pale and tired but glowing with pride, managed a smile. "You've brought luck with you, Lyanna. You and your boy both."
That evening, Lyanna made certain the joy did not remain within the castle walls. "This isn't just the birth of a noble child," she told her father. "It's a blessing to the North. Let Wintertown share in it."
Rickard, too pleased to argue, gave his consent. "Then make it a feast to be remembered."
And so it was.
Under Lyanna's direction, Wintertown came alive. Torches blazed along the streets, and the cold air filled with the scent of spices and roasted meat. For the first time in memory, the food was not simple Northern fare. The cooks prepared dishes Lyanna had learned in Narnia — honey-glazed pheasant, spiced goat stew, steaming bread filled with fruit and cream, and a drink called starfire mead that burned warm in the belly.
The smallfolk marveled at every bite.
"Never tasted meat like this before," said one old hunter, wiping grease from his chin. "By the gods, is this what they feed their children in Narnia?"
Lyanna laughed as she passed among them with Sirius and her guards. "This and more," she said lightly, and the people cheered.
Musicians played from dawn till dusk — fiddles, flutes, and drums — while the children danced around the fires. Even some of the lords from within the castle came down to join, for the smell and sound of celebration could not be ignored.
Sirius, as always, drew a crowd of children. He stood proudly atop a barrel, his direwolf lying lazily behind him, and began retelling one of his favorite stories.
"And then," he said, eyes wide with excitement, "the Lion of Narnia roared so loud that the whole mountain broke apart! The evil queen turned to stone and the river ran free again!"
The children gasped, enthralled. Some begged for another story, others for a game. Sirius laughed, enjoying every moment, while his wolf huffed and wagged its tail lazily.
From the distance, Lyanna watched him with a smile — her heart swelling with a mother's pride. A shadow fell across her shoulder, and she turned to see her brother Benjen, grinning.
"You've turned Wintertown into a carnival," he said.
"Why shouldn't we?" she replied. "Let them remember this day. The North has had too many winters without joy."
He nodded. "You've changed since Narnia."
"I've learned that happiness shared is twice as strong," Lyanna said softly.
Benjen gave her a long, thoughtful look. "Maybe your Sorcerer husband taught you that."
Lyanna smirked. "No, brother. That lesson was mine alone."
Later that night, after the fires had dimmed and most of Wintertown slept, a rider arrived through the southern gate. His horse was lathered, his cloak heavy with frost. He carried a sealed parchment bearing the sigil of House Manderly.
Lord Rickard broke the seal himself and read by torchlight.
To Lord Rickard Stark of Winterfell,
His Grace, King Rhaegar Targaryen, and his royal retinue have departed White Harbor two days past and ride now for Winterfell. Expect to arrive within a week's time.
The old lord's face grew solemn. "So the dragon arrived," he murmured.
Lyanna's heart sank slightly when she heard the news, though she hid it well. She had expected this moment — dreaded it, even. Soon, she would stand face to face with Rhaegar Targaryen, the man whose name had haunted her songs and her silence alike.
But for tonight, she pushed those thoughts aside.
Tonight was for celebration. For new life, new laughter, and a child born under both fire and frost.
As the fires flickered across Wintertown, Lyanna looked toward the cold northern sky.
"May the gods bless you, little Sansa," she whispered. "You've brought warmth to Winterfell — and the North will remember this night."
Messenger ravens had always been a matter of pride among the maesters of the Citadel. They were disciplined, precise, and trained through years of patience to fly from tower to tower across the Seven Kingdoms. No bird flew those routes by chance — until the owls came.
At first Maester Luwin thought them a curiosity. One arrived during a council supper, slipping through the open window like a shadow and landing neatly beside Lord Stark. The second came during a snowstorm, wings heavy with frost, but still it found Benjan Stark, in the courtyard as if guided by thought itself. The third owl, a snowy creature with eyes the color of moonlight, arrived with a letter addressed to Eddard Stark.
No one had seen it come. No one had seen it go.
Luwin had trained birds his entire life, and he knew the impossibility of it.
So when the miracle of Catelyn Stark's healing followed soon after, the maester's mind refused to rest. The vial Lyanna had used — that clear, glowing liquid that closed wounds and stilled death — was something no Citadel scroll could explain. It was not alchemy, not herbcraft, not any art man had known since the Doom of Valyria.
It was magic.
And for the first time in his long, careful life, Maester Luwin wanted to see it with his own eyes.
It was early evening when he came to her solar. A fire crackled in the hearth, and the scent of pine filled the room. Lyanna sat beside the window, Sirius asleep on her lap, a book of Narnian tales open beside her.
When she saw the gray-robed maester at the door, she smiled faintly. "Come in, Maester. I've been expecting you."
He blinked in surprise. "Expecting me, my lady?"
"The wind told me," she said softly.
He wasn't sure whether she jested.
She gestured to a chair. "Sit, please. I imagine you have questions that only a fool would ask — or a brave man."
He sat slowly, clasping his hands before him. "I've served this house since before your birth, my lady. I've seen strange things. But never… never what I've seen since you returned."
Lyanna's gaze softened. "You mean the healing."
"Yes." His voice trembled slightly. "You saved Lady Catelyn when no leech, no poultice, no prayer could. That vial you used — it burned with light, not fire. It stitched flesh without needle. Tell me truly, my lady… what was it?"
Lyanna hesitated only a moment. She had promised Harry she would not spread knowledge of Narnian secrets — but Maester Luwin was no gossip. He was a scholar, a man of quiet devotion. And perhaps, she thought, he deserved to know the truth.
"It was magic," she said simply.
Luwin's breath caught. "Magic? You mean… like in the old tales? Like the Children of the Forest?"
Lyanna nodded. "Older, perhaps. My husband is a sorcerer — one of the most powerful alive. He built Narnia with his own hands and his own will. The rivers that flow there, the mountains that rise — all came from his magic."
For a long while, the only sound was the fire.
Finally Luwin said, "Forgive me, my lady, but… the Citadel teaches that magic is a fading force. That whatever power men once had, it died with the dragons. Even the glass candles of Oldtown have been dark for centuries."
Lyanna smiled faintly. "Perhaps the Citadel should look beyond its own towers. Magic never died — it only left those who no longer believed in it."
He frowned, leaning forward. "And this kingdom of yours… it thrives by magic alone?"
"By magic and by heart," she said softly. "Narnia was born out of love and built by courage. The people there live with the aid of magic every day — lights that never fade, tools that move on their own, creatures that speak and think as men do."
Luwin's eyes gleamed behind his spectacles. "Creatures that speak?"
Lyanna chuckled. "You should visit sometime. You'd never sleep again from wonder."
The maester leaned back in awe. "To think… after all these years of study… that the world beyond our maps holds such things. We believed only dragons carried the last embers of that power."
Before he could reply, a loud screech echoed from the courtyard below. Lyanna rose and crossed to the window. "Ah," she said softly, "the skinchangers are training again."
Luwin followed her gaze. Ten of the Narnian skinchangers — the young men and women who had accompanied her — moved in the snow below, their bodies still as statues, eyes glazed with concentration. Around them prowled wolves, foxes, hawks, and even a great brown bear.
At first, Luwin had assumed the animals were pets, but now he saw the truth. The creatures moved with them — not beside them, but as extensions of their will. When one boy raised his hand, the wolf mirrored it. When another breathed in sharply, the hawk launched skyward, circling above the battlements.
Luwin's breath came in a whisper. "By the Seven… they share one mind."
Lyanna nodded. "They call it skinchanging — a gift given by the old gods, refined by my husband's teaching. He helped them master it, to move between their own skin and that of the beast. In Narnia, we treat it as sacred — not a curse, not witchcraft, but a bond."
Luwin could not look away. "I once read of such things — in dusty scrolls the Citadel keeps locked from common study. They said it was an abomination, an echo of the First Men's madness."
"Then the Citadel is wrong," Lyanna said gently. "You see no madness here, only balance."
He nodded slowly, almost reverently. "It's… beautiful."
They stood in silence for a time, watching the snow swirl around the courtyard. Then Luwin spoke again, his voice quiet, full of the wonder of a child.
"Tell me, my lady… your husband — this King of Narnia. What kind of man wields such power?"
Lyanna smiled at the question, her eyes distant. "A man who fears his own strength more than others fear it. A man who could burn cities but instead builds homes. He calls himself no god, though he could be mistaken for one. And yet," she added softly, "he is still human. He bleeds, he doubts, he loves."
Luwin looked at her thoughtfully. "And you love him?"
She met his eyes. "With all that I am."
The maester inclined his head, the gesture half bow, half benediction. "Then I envy you both. For in all my years of service, I've studied truth written in ink — but you, my lady, have lived it written in fire."
When he left her chambers, the old scholar walked through the torchlit corridors of Winterfell in a daze. The words magic is gone echoed in his memory like a lie finally unmasked.
He passed a window and paused. The courtyard below glimmered under the moonlight. A fox ran across the snow, and for the briefest moment, Luwin could have sworn he saw the shadow of the boy who had controlled it flicker over the wall beside it — human and beast moving as one.
He whispered to himself, almost in prayer, "If the North remembers, then so too must the world."
And somewhere far away, an owl hooted — the soft, knowing sound of a messenger that needed no road, no map, and no maester to find its way.
The ravens' tower was colder than any place in Winterfell.
Snow drifted in through the narrow windows, and the air smelled of feathers, parchment, and lamp oil. Maester Luwin sat hunched over his desk, his quill scratching softly against parchment. His candle had burned low, the wax spilling over the iron stand, but he paid it no mind. The words were more important. The words had to be perfect.
He began for the third time that night.
To the Archmaesters of the Citadel, in Oldtown,
I write to you not as a man seeking approval, but as a servant of truth. What I have witnessed in Winterfell since the return of Lady Lyanna Stark—now Queen of Narnia—defies every teaching we have long held about the death of magic.
He paused, dipping the quill again. His fingers trembled slightly, not with fear, but with awe.
The art of healing through pure sorcery exists. I have seen mortal wounds closed without knife or suture, flesh restored with light alone. I have seen beasts who move in perfect union with their masters' minds, not as trained creatures, but as living extensions of the soul. The lady herself speaks of a land built upon enchantment, ruled by her husband—a sorcerer who shaped valleys, rivers, and mountains through will alone.
Luwin leaned back, rubbing his eyes. The firelight caught the glint of his maester's chain — links of lead, iron, and copper, dull with age. Each link represented knowledge, yet for the first time in his life, he realized how little knowledge truly meant when faced with something that lived beyond understanding.
A soft flutter of wings drew his gaze. One of Lyanna's owls had landed on the sill, its great golden eyes fixed upon him. It cocked its head, as if curious what secrets he dared to write.
He smiled faintly. "You've come to spy on me, haven't you? Or perhaps to remind me that some truths shouldn't be caged in ink."
The owl blinked slowly, its gaze ancient and knowing.
He sighed. "But the Citadel must know. Someone there — perhaps some forgotten scholar — still believes that the world holds more than iron and logic."
He turned back to his letter.
I know well that the Citadel distrusts all things arcane. Many believe magic died when Valyria fell, that even the glass candles' light was extinguished forever. But if knowledge is our calling, then to deny what we cannot measure is the greatest sin of all. I urge you: send a scholar who dares to see what I have seen. The North has changed, and the winds now carry whispers of Narnia — a realm of miracles, untouched by maesters.
He hesitated, his quill hovering above the parchment. He knew what would come of this. The Archmaesters would sneer. They would call him a fool seduced by wild tales, perhaps even strip his chain for spreading heresy.
And yet… he wrote on.
I write not for recognition, but for truth. Magic is not gone. It lives — and it remembers.
Your loyal servant, Maester Luwin of Winterfell.
He set the quill down and sealed the letter with wax, pressing the silver wolf sigil of Winterfell into the hot pool. When he finished, he stared at it for a long while, the red wax glistening in the candlelight.
A rational man would have destroyed it.
A cautious man would have buried it in silence.
But Maester Luwin was neither that night. He tied the letter to the leg of one of the trained ravens, stroked its feathers gently, and whispered, "To Oldtown."
The bird cawed once, as if understanding. Its wings spread wide, catching the draft from the open window. In a rush of feathers, it was gone — a black shadow flying south through the snow.
Luwin watched until it vanished into the storm. Then he whispered, almost to himself, "Let them laugh, if they must. The truth will outlive their disbelief."
He looked once more at the empty perch where the owl had been moments before. It was gone, too — flown off silently, perhaps to carry the same story to another realm of the world.
And as the night deepened, the old maester sat in the cold tower, staring out into the dark northern sky, wondering what secrets might now awaken in the Citadel — and what dangers might stir with them.
Author's Note:
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