Wayward King - 006

[A/N: I have so many ideas for this story and I truly love the lore of it. ASOIAF has without a doubt one of the most comprehensive and interesting lores of all time. Researching it again for this story is just incredibly fun :D

Also, you may have noticed that the chapters for this story are almost twice as long as those for 'The Wanderer' since a lot is just background information.

PS: I think I will write another chapter or two for this story, to get it really started, before moving back to 'The Wanderer'.]

Chapter 006 – Memory, Two Remaining

[289 AC – Winterfell]

Somewhat speechless, Jon couldn't help but think at what an 'opportune' time this message had come, smiling wryly.

Forgetting the notification for the moment, he first took care of some more 'urgent business' before leaving the privy again and rushing back to his room, the freezing temperature in the small chamber having made him shiver.

Back in his bedchamber, Jon turned his focus on the new five-sided sub-crystal that had appeared and was spinning around the crystal pearl in his mental space, moving on a different trajectory than his first 'Knowledge'-crystal.

Re-reading the message too, he sat on his bed while he made plans to train his sneaking skills since they could be immensely valuable, especially if the System reward enhanced the skill in a special way.

Naturally, that was just speculation as Jon didn't know if the rewards for milestones on different skill-veins were the same. He also pondered on which criteria his Support System judged 'Stealth' to be a special skill, and what other skill would fall into this category.

Likewise, there was no answer to be found through passive musings, only through actions could he gain more information and draw more precise conclusions.

Thinking up to here, Jon picked up the 'The Great Houses of Westeros' again, determined to finish the book and hopefully advance the rank of his 'History' skill in the process, which might shed some more light on the mysterious inner workings of the System.

His reading speed had naturally been greatly enhanced with the emergence of his past life's memories since the 'Common Tongue' was nothing but English, and while the writing style seemed awfully 'ancient' at times, he could still recognize it after some getting used to it.

He quickly finished the pages that talked about House Tyrell, as well as the next chapter mentioning the three Great Houses of the Iron Islands, two of which, namely House Greyiron and House Hoare, were also extinct.

House Greyjoy was the only Great House of the Iron Islands that had survived till this day and age, and they were also the ones to have rebelled and drawn the ire of Robert Baratheon, but more than that the ire of House Lannister and House Stark.

Euron Greyjoy had started the rebellion a few months back by burning the fleet of Tywin Lannister at Lannisport, which was also the only victory that the Iron Islands had achieved during this 'rebellion'.

Every other attack had been soundly defeated by the Lords and Houses of Westeros, especially so after the royal army arrived and the other Great Houses had sent their men.

The Northerners had a particular grudge against the Ironborn since even during times of peace, raiders would invade small villages along the coast. They obviously did not display their sigils and dressed themselves like wildlings but it was still rather easy to figure out where these men had come from.

But since the wildings truly did come to raid the western coast of the North with boats from time to time, traveling from the Frozen Shore through the Bay of Ice, nothing could be done without concrete evidence.

On the topic of wilding raids, Jon remembered his 'father' having mentioned that House Mormont was so widely respected in the North because they had held onto Bear Island for centuries despite the unending raids from the wildings, Ironborn, and other parties.

They were a small House if one took into account the number of men that they could provide but no Stark would ever disdain having a Mormont by their side, their bravery and steadfastness in the face of adversity being unmatched.

Now, with the Greyjoys rebelling against the Iron Throne, the Northern Houses, especially those from the Western Coast, were out for blood.

And while reading through the history of the Iron Islands, Jon couldn't help but shake his head every so often since he realized that this was without a doubt the most problematic kingdom of the seven that were ruled by the Crown.

One of the biggest hindrances, which had prevented the people from the Iron Islands to integrate with the rest of Westeros was their difference in religion since they believed in the Drowned God while the rest of Westeros believed mainly in the Faith of the Seven or the Old Gods.

And while there was still conflict between the Old God's followers and the followers of the Seven, which was mainly reflected in the fact that the people of the North, who were said to be the descendants of the First Men, usually don't interact much with those from the South who mainly descend from the Andals, neither religion was actively advocating for war.

This was especially true for the following of the Old Gods since they had no priests, holy scripts, or temples in the first place. The Old Gods were worshipped through silent contemplation in front of a weirwood tree, which had a face carved into them and was said to act as the eyes and ears of the Old Gods.

An oath sworn before a weirwood tree was thus an oath sworn before the gods. As such, it wasn't too much of a surprise why the people of the North held their wedding ceremonies in the godswoods to do exactly that.

In stark contrast to that stood the faith of the Iron Islands, which had the Drowned God as the deity that was worshipped.

And the Drowned God's faith was centered around a naval culture and the practice of piracy, which had prevented the Ironborn's original raiding culture to change into something more peaceful. The Ironborn were unequivocally raiders and their belief supported this conduct.

Just thinking of this, Jon knew that the Ironborn would never change, and only the deterrent of overwhelming force could keep them in line, which simply was not a long-term solution given what history had shown.

Reading further, the next chapter was about the Great Lords of the Riverlands and it was the single biggest chapter of the book. The Riverlands had fourteenGreat Houses throughout history with half of them being extinct by this point.

It was the most fought-over kingdom in Westeros, and with good reason since it shared a border with every other kingdom except Dorne.

With the North above, the Iron Islands from the sea through the western coast, the Westerlands from the West, the Reach, the Stormlands, and the Crownlands from below, and the Vale from the East, the Riverlands sat in between five of the seven kingdoms.

And the fact that there were no major cities in the Riverlands, only some larger towns, was telling enough of the unstable history.

Still, House Tully was the current Great House ruling over the Riverlands, and Jon was especially focused when he read through the history of this noble house since Catelyn Stark was one of two daughters fathered by the current Lord of House Tully.

The Stormlands and Dorne were the last two kingdoms whose Great Houses were mentioned in the book, and by the time he got to those pages, he was already completely immersed in the words that had been written on the slightly rough paper.

Jon hardly even reacted when Alyssa came by to deliver his supper, though the serving maid didn't mind too much and just softly ruffled his hair before leaving behind his food and returning to her other duties.

It was already well into the night when he finished reading about how the Rhoynar Queen Nymeria had migrated with her people to Dorne to escape the dragonlords of Old Valyria and had ordered the ten thousand ships to be set on fire upon their arrival, cutting off the retreat for her people and herself.

The legend of how she allied with House Martell through marriage and finally conquered the entire peninsula, uniting it under her rule as the Princess of Dorne, stirred Jon's blood.

'How strongwilled and heroic Nymeria must have been to lead her people through all that, what kind of warrior she had to have been …', he wondered, 'Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken, indeed.'

Jon could hardly imagine what Nymeria must have been like but he admired her deeply just from what he read about her. And no small part of him wished that he could have been born in her time, so that he may have had a chance to meet the legendary Rhoynish Queen turned Princess.

It was through her example that House Nymeros Martell accepted even women to be the ones to lead them, and all of Dorne, to this day, which no other house or kingdom had ever done.

Finally closing the thick book, Jon sighed as his dark-grey eyes shone with a brilliant light like polished granite, aspirations blooming in his heart.

Nymeria might have been a woman but Jon honestly thought that what she had achieved throughout her life seemed much more impressive than what Aegon the Conquerer had done.

After all, fighting wars was much easier while sitting on a hundred-year-old dragon the size of a hill, whose fire could melt whole castles, than it was by fighting army against army.

Nymeria had just been a human, a being of blood and flesh, not one of magic and fire. And yet, she saved her people from the dragonlords, took them to a new land where she built a kingdom for herself and them, and ruled a part of Westeros as a lone Queen amongst Kings.

So, Jon swore to himself that he would be like Nymeria, to leave behind a legend worthy of being written down and read by another child hundreds of years from now. He didn't want to just survive anymore, he wanted to matter, to be remembered.

The blood of the First Men coursed through his veins, the very same blood that had coursed through the veins of the Kings of Winter. The very same blood that had coursed through the veins of the first to explore and make their homes on this continent.

And as if that wasn't enough, the Blood of the Dragon also coursed through his veins, the blood of Dragonriders and Conquerors, the blood of Valyria.

Yes, he wanted to go out and see for himself what this world had to offer but he didn't wish to be an explorer forgotten by time.

So, Jon swore to himself that whatever he was going to do with this life, he had to shine the brightest, to leave behind myths and legends about a Targaryen raised by wolves.

['History' has advanced from Novice to Apprentice, strengthening the vein greatly. Your memorization ability has been enhanced.]

['History – Apprentice(1)']

Jon had hardly finished his thoughts when a message rang out soundlessly in his mind, a stream of warmth coursing through his brain.

There was a sense of pressure accompanying this heat as he underwent some kind of enhancement, his thought too scattered due to the uncomfortable and somewhat painful process for him to read the message and understand exactly what was going on.

The whole process took only a few moments though, and soon his focus returned to him and he went through the notifications of his System, his eyes widening slightly after he had read through them.

The fact that learning history might enhance his memory might have suggested itself, considering that history was at its essence a subject of memorization, but Jon was still very pleased with this outcome as a better memory could bring him untold benefits.

Learning additional languages, for example, was something that largely depended on memory.

There was also the fact that this world had no electricity, which naturally meant that there was no internet where he could look up information. Everything that he wanted to know, every question that he might have, he would have to look for answers in a book or scroll.

But Jon couldn't just carry a library around in his pocket and read up on a topic whenever he needed to, which meant that his memory in this life was much more important than in his last one.

If he could memorize all knowledge in the Stark library, however, that would be a massive benefit to his way forward. Not to mention all the other benefits that he could not think of at the moment.

Improving his memory by learning history was simply a great bargain, Jon concluded unhesitatingly.

Turning his head to the two other books that a servant had delivered to him upon his request to the Maester, Jon looked at them longingly, guessing that they might also be about history and the noble houses of Westeros.

He was hesitant to grab them though since it was relatively late into the night already and getting enough rest during his recovery was important.

A bit torn, he finally decided to just take a look at the titles and maybe the first page so that he knew what they were about, but he promised himself to wait to truly read them until the next day.

Moving out from under the covers, Jon first carried the 'Great Houses of Westeros' and placed it atop the large drawer, reminding himself to ask a servant to get it back to the Maester come tomorrow.

Taking a moment to throw another two logs into the fire, he finally grabbed the other two books from his nightstand and placed them on his bed next to each other, the strenuous activity almost making him stumble. Though he ignored his own condition as he curiously read the titles.

The first book was called 'The Kings of Winter And Its Bannermen – Noble Houses of the North'.

It was obviously a more detailed text about the history of House Stark, as well as the other noble houses in the North, which made sense since it was obvious that Maester Luwin was supposed to teach him and Robb the history of their house and the land in which they grew up in. Especially so since Robb was the heir of Winterfell and was eventually going to inherit all this.

The second book though was out of Jon's expectations. Its hard leather cover was branded with a title that read 'The Twelve Houses Of Heaven And The Rulers Of Each'.

And though the title had the word 'Houses' in it, Jon knew that the title didn't speak of any nobles and their history since he had heard Maester Luwin mention the 'twelve houses of heaven' before. It was when he talked about the stars and wanderers visible in the night sky, and the twelve known constellations.

This was a book about astronomy, and Jon was surprised when he realized this as he hadn't expected that at all.

Unable to stop himself, he opened the book curiously since astronomy had always been a fascinating subject for him in his past life, where technology had allowed humanity to truly see into the void of the Universe.

His eyes were glued to the first page as he read it with relish even if it was just the introductory page, which gave a brief overview of the subject spoken about in the book, mentioning the term 'astronomy' and explaining it as the study of celestial phenomena.

But when Jon suddenly sensed several messages appearing in his mind, his focus shifted, his eyes slowly widening before a grave look settled on his face.

['Astronomy – Apprentice(53)' has been registered in the third 'Knowledge'-Vein.]

[Three skills have been registered in the 'Knowledge' sub-crystal. Be aware that you have only two remaining slots for knowledge-type skills.]

[It is discovered that the study of 'Astronomy' is beyond regular difficulty due to the lacking scientific advancement in this world, rewards will be adjusted accordingly.]

['Astronomy' has been registered as a Novice-level skill. You have been given a piece of meteoric ore for crafting purposes as a result of the reward adjustment.]

['Astronomy' has advanced from Novice to Apprentice, strengthening the vein greatly. You have gained 'Essence of the Moon' as a result of the reward adjustment.]

[Do you wish to materialize the meteoric ore? (Yes)/(No)]