Nerd In the North 6-1 Preview

Here is the opening excerpt to Arc 6 of Nerd In the North. I haven't slept since yesterday. I'm gonna nap for a few hours and finish this.

Mud, horses and ambition; a mix of all three coated the air of Bitterbridge like a perfumed maiden; the blend entirely unexpected for how sweet it sat in his chest. The Baratheon of Storm’s End breathed it deep, the raw, earthy scent of a hundred thousand men and their beasts a grounding weight on its own.

It pressed against the flighty silk of his doublet as Renly stood rooted, a stag in his prime surveying a field of steel.

Banners stretched to the horizon, a sea of color snapping like applause against the sky of the Riverlands. Lush and promising, the golden rose of Highgarden stood first and foremost, the huntsman of Tarly strutting right behind and firmly ahead of the Frey’s twin towers, stark and drab as the Riverland sky itself.

A rainbow of loyalties all their own, woven and braided into a single, magnificent tapestry formed of thread, sword, and beating heart all in a vast assembly all his own.

Robert had no claim to this, his brother nearly in the arms of the Stranger as he clung to his deathbed. And neither did Stannis, his terse brother with no hold over these men’s hearts or minds. No strength of arm or crushing hammer blow had won these men to his side, and certainly no dry rasp demanding duty he had yet to earn.

No, his.

All his; won with a smile, a jest, a calming hand on an unsteady shoulder.

A good day to be a king. The remnant of wine in his cup was as warm as the thought he favored, the very last sip down his throat equally enjoyable. Nay, a perfect one.