FULL CHAPTER HERE —> NERD IN THE NORTH 7-2

“Look at them.”

His eyes remained on his balcony as rain drizzled against stone; damp patches threatening entry into his solar proper. The brazier at his side burned bright, incense thick enough to stifle the air inside and force another cough from his aching chest. Man can’t heal me, so why not hasten the call of the Stranger?

He didn’t believe that even as the thought settled on him, but his frown deepened regardless as the sweet smell forced itself throughout the room. “P-pathetic.”

He forced out the word, spittle flying like the rain outside. “The lot of them.”

Three men he could see from here, not even bothering to seeking shelter from the weather as they were none of them dry. No, each one waited as men did; his gaze enough to pick it apart from a hundred paces, rain or no.

And who was it they chose to wait on, as if he were king or liege lord?

A boy.

Hair of gold and skin of fresh cream, in armor that shone like silver; plate that never knew mark nor smear of lesser filth no matter where he walked or the blood he spilt. As if a figure from a song, the boy walked the line of wagons unaware of watchful gazes, hands behind his back as he eyed the growing caravan.

One that would soon leave with him. And all the better.

Father, we have he—"

"Can you believe this, b-boy?” The cough took him on the last word, a spasm from the depths of his gut nearly driving him from his seat before he could get the cloth to his mouth. The ache in his belly only turned with the cough, a gnawing hound within merely nibbling at him before it shifted back to sleep.

The cloth came away before Edmure could come round, a wary eye on his ailing father. “I told you to look.”

FULL CHAPTER HERE —> NERD IN THE NORTH 7-2