Unbound and Away
First Day of the Fourth Month 294 AC
You and Dany and Ser Richard walk with Jon through the dusty corridors of the First Keep, still under his uncle's eye, yet not somewhere a servant might see you. The dust lies thick as a memory of snow here, and in the deep silence you can almost hear Lyanna following along, unseen but not unfelt. "Can you please call your mother forth, Jon? This concerns her as much as it does you."
"No... that is, I can't. She was banished, I guess. I was afraid..." he trails off, unable to finish the sentence, or perhaps unwilling lest it tempt fate.
As good and opening as you are likely to get. "That is part of what I wished to speak to you of. Since Dany learned of your magic, we have been constrained in the aid we could give you in growing into your magic or indeed anything else you might wish to do with your life..."
"I want to learn magic, I need to learn magic," the boy interrupts you fiercely. "That
thing that came to Winterfell, you could cut it with a sword as long as the sword was Ice, but the Ones behind it, those will take sorcery to unmake, even to understand enough to know where to start."
With a mental note to thank Ser Halys Wavestrider for teaching Jon to value knowledge and not just power, you nod and continue, "Right then, let me start with an offer to anchor your mother's soul elsewhere than in your own." Jon looks like he wants to interrupt again, but you raise a hand in mute request to finish. "The binding between you is the consequence of magic and souls reaching blindly and without plan, and more to the point, it is not fair. It is not fair to you that you would have to carry another person through your every sleeping and waking moment, and it is not fair to her in that she would forever be frozen in that desperate moment, unable to let go of fear and anger lest love and life also slip away."
"I... I'm not doing that to her. Am I?" he asks, horrified. The air grows chill with Lyanna's anger, but you pay her no mind for now.
"No, you are keeping her here the only way you
can," Dany answers catching on to what you were playing at. "We could have glazed that in honey more, but it would have served no purpose." She pauses a moment, looking him up and down, then her eyes grow a little unfocused as she tries to look for Lyanna. "Love is not an arcane property, Jon. It does not require a thread of binding magic. Once she is anchored differently in life, be it by flesh, by steel or a necromancer's arts, she will still be your mother."
"Necromancers?" Jon asks surprised. "You have... I mean, I know I could use those sorts of spells and rituals, but I have never really wanted to. Too much like
Them."
"It is not the sort of magic anyone can practice in my realm, not without scrutiny and trust, but for all that it is a valuable tool In many ways. Consider those men call the Deep Ones, masters of mind magic yet unable to subvert those without living brains or minds...." You had not planned to give an ad hoc lesson on death magic, but it should hopefully prove distracting from his troubles and give Jon some understanding of how the Scholarum operates and why he might wish to travel to Sorcerer's Deep.
By the end of it, Jon is nodding along thoughtfully, and asking questions about testing Qyburn's unliving soldiers against Winter. You suspect he is imagining what some of them could have done in defense of Winterfell and his foster brother. "You said something about steel too. Mother is interested in that. I think..." he cuts himself off, a dark expression that might have been sorrow, anger or both together coloring his features. "We would like to hear about that."
So it is that between Dany and yourself recount the tale of Anu and the warforged, in particular of their powers and their nature as ensouled steel. Though you cannot judge Lyanna's mood directly, the warming of the air back to being merely drafty rather than cold enough for your breath to fog in front of you seems to be a good indication that you have won her over.
She speaks, the words almost too soft for you to catch, certainly too much so for Jon to hear.
"A bargain then. They would not give me steel to bear because they valued my body too highly, so it is fitting that I should wear a body of steel in the end." A moment passes, then five more words ripple through the air,
"You are not like Rhaegar"
You take the sentiment in the spirit it was meant. Perhaps Lyanna can be more than someone you tolerate for Jon's sake.
"She says yes," the boy repeats, unaware of the byplay.
"That brings us to the second part of my offer. If you wish, you may come to Sorcerer's Deep as my ward and study at the Scholarum. You can receive training in swordsmanship from Ser Willem Darry, oreven Ser Richard over there, just as Dany and I did."
"You used a sword?" Jon blurts out, cheeks flushing a moment later.
"More a knife really," she says, drawing Feeder, in all his strange glory. She laughs lightly. "Oh you think this is strange? Maybe you should have a look at Sorcerer's Deep before saying yay or nay."
"I would love to," Jon replies, though the smile slides off his face as he speaks. He sighs. "It's just that Robb would have loved to see it with me. I don't know if I can do or be...." he shakes his head almost angrily. "I should feel more grateful for this. I mean, you are giving me all this and all I can feel is angry and sad, and..."
Dany puts a hand around his shoulder. "It's alright Jon. We don't expect you to do or be anything. Viserys is offering you all this because you are family and we would like for you to be closer to home. There aren't that many of us out there, you know?"
"Home..." Jon had stopped walking, looking like he would like to step out of the hug, but not quite able to bring himself to do so. "Home was always here for me, but without Robb it won't be the same. Lady Stark would be less cold, I suppose, now that I'm no longer a stain upon her marriage, but..."
Cold comfort far too late, you silently finish what the boy is too polite to say.
"I love Arya and Bran as my own brother and sister, but they are still little, they won't miss me that badly, and I can still visit right?" Jon continues to convince himself, barely needing a nod from you. "All right, I'll go... I mean, if Lord Stark won't object."
Somehow you doubt he will, you think as you turn back towards the entrance of the keep, though that does raise a question of how much of a garrison you should send without Jon being present.
OOC: Breaking off here because I want to do Eddard's oaths in his own interlude. If you guys have suggestions for equipment and such for Jon now would be a good time to discuss. Not yet edited.