Secrets and Snow Flowers
Tenth Day of the First Month 294 AC
As the sun fades from the sky above the first thing you speak of is dreams and things half-glimpsed, of memories all-but forgotten. No tongue have the dragons to speak of such things, no words grand enough to contain what they had seen in the dreams that drove them ever onward, ever
south, but not to the Wall though they knew from tales of the Free Folk that it was magic meant to keep back winter itself. No, the dreams had driven them to this hill which most called the Fist of the First Men. The giants of the Far North it transpired had a different name for it:
Om Wun Tog, The Broken Pillar of the World.
"Why does it have such a name?" you ask, knowing the words to be no twisting of the Old Tongue or distant echo of Common, but something older instead.
"Because it is its name, 'course it has a proper name," you get the same answer again and again from every elder, from every warrior present. Sometimes it is dressed in different garb, each trying to explain the rightness they feel about the name with different similes, but each one only confirms your suspicion that something truly strange is at work here.
A child speaks up unexpectedly, her voice soft and hesitant as she peeks up from her mother's arms: "It's called that because this is where everything broke."
Xor floats up to her slowly so as not to startle her, or more realistically her mother. Like many children Heg, for she had yet earned only one name not four like most adults or five like the elders, seems to take an instinctive liking to Xor. Her brow furrows with the effort of answering mentally.
"They aren't words, more images and feeling, but she said 'this is where the sky broke' and 'this is where lightning fell from the sky for the last time to die and coil on the earth like a serpent of stone'," Xor relays. Something about the words moves the other giants from mild curiosity to sorrow and in a handful of instances inducing Grum Nar to such rage that he has to be restrained, thankfully by his fellows not you.
Fear quickly follows both sorrow and rage as the giants do not understand why they felt that which they did anymore than you do. You are half concerned they might blame you and your companions, being the only mages at hand, but instead they look to you for answers.
"How did you know the Squirrel Folk are growing again?" Dany asks in turn. Seeing confusion upon the faces of those before her she explains. "That too is something you aught not have simply known for it happened in distant lands and yet you did. Perhaps the two are connected."
After some looking it transpires that the tale of the Singers growing in the south originates with a young giant who fell asleep in a field of hellebore flowers. "They sang me to sleep they did..."
You share a bemused look with Vee, Dany and Lya, Waymar outright shrugs. "No idea about talking flowers."
"They are a winter flower," Rina says softly. "Snow blooms. I think..." she trails off uncertainly.
"What?" you prompt when it becomes clear she is not going to answer on her own.
"The Queen of Winter braided them into her hair before the world was changed, before Night fell over them. They are still there perhaps. Frozen, perfect... dead." She closes her eyes against some memory showing itself before her gaze.
Hellebore, snow rose, you are not any kind of herbalist, but you certainly know enough of common plants and their uses in sorcery to be able to identify them. You fly once around the base of the hill, low to the ground and eyes fixed on the underbrush where cool moonlight slips between the trees... and all around the fist you find them, delicate flowers, with petals the color of frost.
"So it's a trap then. Get the giants in to gather here and keep them arguing so They can have all their wights in one place come Winter," Ser Richard concludes when he hears the news.
"The wards do seem to be stronger around them, but the flowers themselves do not seem corrupted at first glance, only faintly magical," you reply. Yet you had felt that strange emptiness when you first entered the fortress. Could that have been the touch of the Void?
What do you do?
[] Try to commune with the flowers
-[] Viserys, you will take any risk yourself
-[] Vee, for her knowledge of green growing things
-[] Lya, for her skill at wards
[] Try to physically take apart a piece of the Wall to see how the wardline reacts
[] Leave well enough alone and begin plans to move the giants out of harm's way
[] Write in
OOC: And here we are at last, again sorry for the distraction guys it's just the world is crazy these days. 
