Chapter 20: The Conciliator's Era, and Winter's Deepening Vigil
The reign of Maegor the Cruel had been a bloody storm upon the southern lands, but like all storms, it eventually passed, leaving behind a landscape of fear and ruin. His nephew, Jaehaerys, ascended the Iron Throne with his sister-queen Alysanne at his side, and a collective sigh of relief seemed to ripple through the Seven Kingdoms. Jaehaerys I, soon to be known as the Conciliator, the Wise, or simply the Old King, ushered in an era of peace, justice, and reconstruction that would last for over half a century. For the hidden immortal Starks of the North, this long peace presented both new opportunities and fresh challenges to their carefully guarded secrecy.
The first major act in this new era, for the North, was the "passing" of King Beron I Stark. Having publicly ruled for what was considered an exceptionally long and prosperous seventy years (his true age approaching one hundred and sixty), Beron, with the meticulous planning of his father Jon and his son Edric, staged his dignified decline. He appeared frailer, his Elixir-sustained youth carefully masked by powerful glamours that painted a convincing portrait of advanced, venerable age. He spoke often of his pride in his son Edric, the Prince of Winterfell, and his readiness to join his ancestors in the crypts.
His "death," attributed to the lingering effects of a harsh winter and the simple wearing out of a long-lived frame, was met with genuine grief throughout the North. He had been a good king, a strong king, a king who had brought peace and unprecedented (if quietly managed) prosperity. His state funeral was the grandest the North had seen in centuries, his "body" – another flawlessly crafted golem imbued with the illusion of death – interred with all honors.
King Edric I Stark, already a man of over a century but appearing as a monarch in his vigorous fifties, ascended the Wolf Throne with solemn dignity. His coronation, like his father's before him, was a Northern affair, steeped in ancient tradition, his oaths sworn before the Winterfell Heart Tree. He was known to the Northern lords as a wise, capable, and experienced leader, having served as his father's right hand for decades. The transition was, once again, seamless, a testament to the Starks' meticulous planning.
Beron, now free from the burdens of public rule, retreated to Wyvern's Eyrie and Jon's Frostfangs sanctums. He joined his father as a full-time member of the hidden council, his vast experience in governance and his perspective as a "recently deceased" king providing invaluable insights. He also took a more active role in the training of the Stark dragons and the oversight of the Starksteel forges, his days filled with the true work of their eternal vigil.
The next critical step was the full initiation of Brandon Stark, Torrhen's eldest son. Now a man of thirty, Brandon had proven himself worthy in every respect – his character unshakeable, his loyalty absolute, his magical aptitude significant, particularly in elemental manipulation and warding. In a now-familiar ritual within the dragon-guarded heart of Wyvern's Eyrie, Brandon drank the True Elixir of Life from the Grand Philosopher's Stone, his mortality shed, his life force anchored to the timeless power his great-great-grandfather had harnessed from Valyria's fall. He became the fifth immortal Stark, a vital link in their multi-generational chain of guardians.
For his dragon, Brandon formed a bond with Boreas, the formidable ice-blue Valyrian male whose scales shimmered like glacial ice and whose breath, while still fire, carried an unnatural, biting chill. Boreas was a fierce, independent dragon, but he recognized a kindred spirit in Brandon's disciplined strength. Their first flight together, with Jon on Ghostfyre, Beron on Veridian, Edric on Erebus, and Torrhen on Argent, was a breathtaking spectacle witnessed only by the silent peaks of the Frostfangs – five Stark dragonriders, a hidden power that could have shattered any army in Westeros, yet remained utterly unknown to the world. Brandon's responsibilities within the council soon focused on the direct command of the "Winter Wolves," their elite Starksteel-armed guard, and the development of new defensive magical formations.
Lyarra Stark, Brandon's younger sister, continued her own unique path. Her bond with nature was profound, her Greensight less about grand prophecies and more an intimate understanding of the North's living essence. She worked alongside Arya and her great-aunt Lyanna (Edric's sister), the three women becoming a formidable triumvirate of nature wardens. Their greatest achievement during this period was the full awakening and interconnection of the North's primary ley line network. Drawing power from the Grand Philosopher's Stone, channeled by Jon from afar, and guided by their combined Greensight and communion with the weirwoods, they wove a vast, invisible web of protective and vitalizing energy across the entire kingdom. This network subtly enhanced the land's fertility, calmed harsh weather patterns, strengthened the ancient magic of the weirwoods, and created a psychic shield that made the North resistant to hostile scrying and certain forms of dark magic. It also served as an early warning system, capable of detecting unnatural magical disturbances or the approach of significant threats from any direction.
The reign of Jaehaerys the Conciliator and his beloved Queen Alysanne brought a new dynamic to the Starks' relationship with the Iron Throne. Unlike his predecessors, Jaehaerys was an active, inquisitive, and beloved ruler. He codified laws, built the Kingsroad, abolished the lord's right to the first night, and, crucially, embarked on great royal progresses throughout the realm to foster unity and understand his diverse peoples.
The news that King Jaehaerys and Queen Alysanne intended to visit the North, as part of their grand progress of 58 AC, sent ripples of carefully managed concern through the Stark hidden council. This would be the most significant test of their secrecy since Aegon's Conquest. Winterfell, and indeed the entire North, had to appear prosperous but not unnaturally so, strong but not overtly magical, its Stark rulers wise and long-lived but still within the bounds of mortal exceptionalism.
King Edric, appearing as a monarch in his venerable late sixties (though in reality nearly one hundred and twenty), prepared to receive the royal party. Jon, from his sanctum, orchestrated a meticulous campaign of subtle illusion and misdirection. The most potent enchantments on Winterfell were temporarily dampened or disguised. The more obvious signs of Stone-fueled prosperity were attributed to generations of careful Stark stewardship and "newly opened silver mines in the western hills." The Starksteel weapons of the honor guard were replaced with high-quality, but mundane, steel for the duration of the visit. The "Winter Wolves" were nowhere to be seen.
The royal visit was a delicate dance of diplomacy and deception. Jaehaerys, a keen observer, was impressed by the order and resilience of the North, the loyalty of its people to House Stark, and the rough-hewn magnificence of Winterfell. Queen Alysanne, ever curious and compassionate, charmed the Northern lords and ladies with her grace. She even flew her dragon, Silverwing, north to the Wall, a sight that awed the Night's Watch and sent shivers of apprehension down the spines of the hidden Starks, who tracked her every movement with their own unseen "eyes."
Arya and Lyanna, using their deep connection to the land, subtly guided Alysanne's perceptions during her time in the North, ensuring she saw the beauty and strength of their ancient traditions, the harshness that bred resilience, but nothing of their deeper magic. When Alysanne, impressed by the Wall's immensity and the dedication of the Night's Watch, famously suggested granting the Watch new lands (the New Gift), King Edric, after a swift, silent consultation with Jon and Beron via their mirrors, readily agreed, seeing it as a way to further bolster the Watch's resources without direct Stark involvement, a move Jaehaerys praised as wise and generous.
The most perilous moment came when Jaehaerys, a scholar in his own right, questioned King Edric about the unusually detailed historical records of Winterfell and the surprisingly sophisticated agricultural techniques employed in the North, which seemed beyond what he had observed elsewhere. Edric, well-rehearsed by Jon, attributed it to the "long memories of the First Men, the wisdom passed down through generations of Stark maesters (like the revered, long-dead Arryk), and a few fortunate discoveries of ancient scrolls within our own crypts." He even presented Jaehaerys with a carefully fabricated "translation" of a supposedly ancient text on Northern farming methods, a document Jon himself had penned, filled with genuine advanced techniques but cloaked in archaic language and attributed to a mythical First Man sage. Jaehaerys, while perhaps not entirely convinced, could find no fault with the explanation, and the moment passed.
The visit concluded successfully, the Targaryen monarchs departing with a newfound respect for the North and its Stark rulers, their secrets thankfully intact. The Starks had proven they could navigate even the close scrutiny of a wise and observant Targaryen king.
During these decades of Jaehaerys's peaceful reign, Jon Stark redoubled his efforts against the true enemy. His research into the Others yielded significant breakthroughs. He confirmed his theory that their crystalline forms were indeed vulnerable to specific sonic frequencies, and began experiments with Beron, Edric, and Torrhen at Wyvern's Eyrie, teaching their dragons to produce roars of specific pitches and resonances, amplified by magically shaped weirwood resonators – a potential "dragon song" that could shatter ice and disrupt the Others' coherence. He also developed, using the Stone's power, "Sunstones" – fist-sized crystals infused with concentrated sunlight and positive energy, which, when activated, could emit a burst of warmth and light capable of repelling lesser wights and causing discomfort to more powerful undead creatures. These were slowly, secretly stockpiled in hidden caches near the Wall.
The Wall itself remained a primary focus. Jon, through painstaking, long-range magical workings, continued to subtly reinforce its ancient enchantments, weaving new threads of Stone-powered magic into its icy matrix, strengthening its spiritual barrier against the encroaching cold dread from the Lands of Always Winter. He established several magically concealed observation posts high in the mountains overlooking the Haunted Forest and the lands beyond the Wall, manned by specially trained "Ice Watchers" – descendants of his most loyal Northern families, men and women with a touch of cold resistance and keen senses, who could relay information through a network of magically linked weirwood tokens.
Arya, Lyanna, and Serena completed their great work with the North's ley line network. The kingdom was now protected by a vast, invisible shield of natural magic, a web of interconnected weirwood groves and ancient standing stones that pulsed with the life force of the land, subtly enhancing its resilience, purifying its waters, and making it a deeply inhospitable environment for creatures of unnatural shadow or ice. This shield also served as an alarm system, alerting Arya and her kin to any significant magical incursions.
In Essos, the Century of Blood had largely given way to a new, if still unstable, political order. The Free Cities had reasserted their independence, though their rivalries continued. Finnan's network kept Jon apprised of these developments, occasionally securing valuable texts or artifacts from the recovering Valyrian successor states. Jon was particularly interested in acquiring more knowledge about Valyrian sorcery related to controlling weather and geological forces, hoping to find ways to counteract the extreme cold of the Long Night or even, if necessary, to trigger localized "natural" disasters to defend the North.
As King Edric's public reign moved into its third decade (his true age now approaching one hundred and forty), he, following the established Stark protocol, began to speak more of his son Torrhen's capabilities, preparing the North for the next "natural" succession. Torrhen's own children, Brandon's generation, were now young adults, their magical potential being carefully assessed, the next links in the immortal chain being forged. Brandon himself was now a seasoned dragonrider and a respected voice in the hidden council, his ice-blue dragon Boreas a familiar sight in the secret skies above Wyvern's Eyrie.
Jon Stark, the Shadow Lord, watched from the pinnacle of his long existence, his age now exceeding two centuries in his Stark body. He had seen empires fall, new dynasties rise, and generations of his own blood live and publicly die while he endured. His loneliness was a vast, cold ocean, yet his purpose was a burning, unquenchable star. The Golden Reign of Jaehaerys and Alysanne was a welcome respite for Westeros, a time of peace that allowed the North to further solidify its hidden strength. But Jon knew peace was fleeting. The true enemy, the Great Other, was a patient, eternal force. And the Starks, the immortal guardians of Winter, would meet that patience with their own, their vigil unending, their preparations for the ultimate Long Night continuing with silent, unwavering resolve, generation after generation, until the final winter came.