"During the reign of Emperor Brandon I the Pious, Qarth was lost for the fourth time. In the previous three invasions, the city had not remained long in the hands of the rulers of Westeros and had been lost as a result of various uprisings.

The rebels were a group calling themselves 'the Children of the Black Goat'. The Iron Throne had strictly forbidden the worship of the Black Goat due to reasons such as human sacrifice and black magic, and this was also the reason for the rebels' uprising. Even so, it was difficult to take precautions against them, because these rebels hid their faces with masks and frequently used secret tunnels beneath the city or the sewers to carry out assassinations against Westerosi soldiers. They were secretly supported by both Qarth and Qohor nobles, since the Westerosi had strictly banned everything related to sorcery.

Upon receiving the news, the emperor personally took command of the army. He first repelled Volantis' attempt at invasion, then, after dealing with the Dothraki for a time, marched his army toward Qarth. After liberating the city, he planned to go to Qohor, since the uprising there had reached the highest level.

Emperor Brandon took the city with little resistance. 'This is a city of sorcery cursed by the gods,' he said to the lords around him. 'To hold it would bring nothing but a curse upon me and my line. Sorcery must be eradicated at its root.'

By Emperor Brandon's order, the entire population of the city was driven out, the underground of the city was filled with barrels of black powder, and it was detonated in a single blast. Thus, the legendary city of sorcery that was Qarth, thousands of years old, was destroyed before the eyes of its people and nobles, and the establishment of a second settlement in the region was forbidden.

When the nobles of Qohor received news of Qarth's destruction, they feared that the same disaster would befall them, for their city was famous for the art of smithing, especially for forging Valyrian steel — meaning that, in Emperor Brandon's eyes, it more than fulfilled the conditions of being a 'cursed city that practices magic'.

This fear forced the Qohor nobles to act. They immediately withdrew their support from 'the Children of the Black Goat'. Later, by informing the imperial army commander in the region of this organization's center, and by supporting the army with their houses' personal soldiers and showing the way, they helped crush it. The organization that had plagued the local governor for many years was dismantled in less than a week. Thus, when the emperor arrived at the city's doorstep with his army, he found only an obedient Qohor, and could find no pretext to destroy this city as he had done to Qarth.

At the end of the campaign, everyone except Emperor Brandon was happy."

— From the Records of the Essos Conquest, by Maester Lewyn.

The assault was highly successful.

The ship Sun was crewed by a group of twenty soldiers, most of them elderly, all of them ready to die to avenge their families. Their sacrifice was judged by the priests of the Seven not as suicide, but as martyrdom, and the king personally honored them with a feast, guaranteeing a safe future for the remaining members of their families.

A day when the sea was calm was chosen. The ship entered the harbor at full speed and, after crashing into the castle, detonated itself. Half of the fortress was reduced to rubble by this attack. Ned made sure that the lords of Westeros watched this assault, so that they would see the power of House Stark.

The moment the castle fell, an attack was launched immediately, without giving the Valyrian army any chance to regroup. While Brynden Tully's army of sixty thousand advanced from the south in a campaign of total devastation, another force of twenty thousand under Lord Massey passed through Stonedance and entered Massey's Hook. They immediately struck the southern Valyrian army from the rear and, using the mountain passes, rapidly established dominance over them. The enemy army made a few attempts to respond and to ignite wildfire, but the attack was sudden and came from an entirely unexpected direction, in a way no one anticipated. Lord Nassarin, his three sons, Lord Varys, and many Valyrian nobles were killed at Stonedance. The Valyrian army was now a headless chicken, and its defeat was certain.

The greatest loss was suffered during the assault on Sharp Point. There, twenty thousand soldiers under Robb's command attacked the castle. Taking the castle itself was not difficult, but Robb remembered Prince Oberyn's words at the war council and followed a very cautious approach during the assault. Edmure Tully, however, did not heed his nephew's orders and charged the castle with his own men in pursuit of a swift and decisive victory. As a result, Prince Oberyn was proven right, and the wildfire stored in the castle's vaults exploded.

Hoster was already a bedridden man; now I will have to explain to him how his son and his only male heir died in such a foolish way.

King Eddard celebrated this swift and decisive victory by holding a great feast. At the end of the feast, he told the nobles, "Return to your families and your loved ones. In three months, we will meet at Stoney Sept and decide how the new order of the realm should be shaped."

Ned was now the king of Westeros, a position he would never have dared to even dream of in his lifetime. Yet it had been earned. Yes, it had most certainly been earned. Ned was proud of himself, and he knew that his ancestors were proud of him as well.

However, the Westeros that King Eddard inherited was, to put it mildly, a crippled continent. More than half of the Westerlands had burned. The Reach had first suffered a civil war and then a Valyrian invasion. The Stormlands and the Crownlands had been plundered by the Valyrian army and would take a long time to recover. The Vale had only just emerged from a civil war. The southern part of the Riverlands had been ravaged by the Dothraki.

Damn it all! The realm did not even have a capital. Ned would have to rebuild it from the ground up. Even in the days when Westeros had been divided into seven separate kingdoms, the continent had never been this devastated. Had Aegon the Conqueror faced such a Westeros, he likely would have abandoned the idea of conquest altogether.

At Stoney Sept, the path necessary to rebuild the realm from the very beginning would be chosen. A new dynasty and a new order would be established. Ned had no luxury of complacency during this council, for it would determine the fate of his line centuries into the future. As the first Stark king of Westeros, King Eddard had to ensure that his house stood on firm ground; otherwise, after his death, Westeros might begin to fracture once more.

Westeros could not afford to fracture again. This Valyrian invasion had been completely repelled, but fortune might not favor them in a second attempt.

Ned withdrew to Riverrun with his family and his advisers. He sent his daughter, Allyria, to the town with the task of preparing Stoney Sept for the Great Royal Council. Normally, this should have been done by Queen Catelyn, but Ned needed his wife's counsel at his side.

Ned had not expected to encounter southern intrigues so quickly.

"The High Septon and the Most Devout Council have contacted me. They wish to personally see the functionality of black powder and the method of its production," said Queen Catelyn as she lay against Ned's chest in bed."

Ned frowned sharply. "Why?"

"The attack on Stonedance was a great display," his wife explained. "Some septons and nobles believe the substances used were wildfire or a similar product of sorcery."

"Do you call every fire you see wildfire? Believe me, if you ever see burning wildfire, you do not doubt it. No—you recognize it immediately, even if you have never seen it before in your life," Ned muttered irritably.

His wife took the king's hand, as if to calm him. "Ned… perhaps we should do this. Having this suspicion cling to our house would be terrifying."

'Impossible,' said the king with absolute resolve. "The production of black powder will be kept as the highest family secret of House Stark."

"But, Ned—"

"You don't understand, Catelyn," the king sighed. "The Targaryens ruled Westeros through dragons, and black powder will be our dragon. It will secure the future for our descendants. I cannot allow this knowledge to leak in any way."

"Is black powder truly that important?" Catelyn asked in astonishment.

"Yes, it is," Ned said without a second of doubt. "A fire-stick can only strike three paces ahead and takes nearly five minutes to reload, and there is always the risk of it exploding while in use—but its potential… its potential is enormous, to put it mildly." He could not hide the excitement in his voice as he spoke. "It can pierce any armor, Catelyn… any armor. It does not matter how famous or skilled a knight is—you cannot parry it. Even Arthur Dayne would be helpless against a peasant wielding a fire-stick." He rose from the bed. "If we improve black powder and the fire-stick, if we can make it strike at twenty paces and reduce the reload time to one minute, our descendants could be the conquerors of the battlefield even with far smaller numbers. And the wolf stick… by the gods, if we make that thing work properly, no castle wall will ever stop our armies again." He looked his wife straight in the eyes. "Black powder will be the guarantee for my family to rule Westeros for thousands of years. If this formula leaks, it could be used against our descendants and become our ruin. No—it must belong only to us, only to House Stark. I will never allow it to fall into anyone else's hands, under any circumstances. I will not risk it."

Ned had laid out every plan that crossed his mind, and he had said it with finality. Catelyn did not understand the art of war, but as the lady of House Stark and the queen of Westeros, she had to understand the importance of black powder and how critical it was for their family. Saying it once, clearly, was better than repeating it endlessly.

"If I had twenty thousand soldiers equipped with an improved fire-stick… I could wage war on all of Westeros and conquer it," he said, unable to stop himself from laughing at the shock on his wife's face.

"But turning the Faith against us could backfire badly," Catelyn lamented. "If they decide that black powder is a product of sorcery..."

"...another civil war will break out," Ned agreed. "Westeros is already in ruins; we cannot afford to fight the Faith. We might as well hand the continent straight over to the Valyrians."

He pinched the bridge of his nose as he sat down at the table. "Even so, I cannot take the risk of the black powder formula leaking. I will have to discuss this with my advisers."

"Ned..."

"Don't worry, such a stupidity is very unlikely," the king said. "The High Septon is devout, but he is not a fool. Even if he were inclined toward such a thing, many priests and nobles would object. If necessary, I will bring Baelor Hightower in as an intermediary."

"That's not what I mean. If we remove their suspicions permanently, we will spare ourselves a great headache in the future," the woman said as she rose from the bed.

"What do you suggest?" the king asked.

"The fire created by black powder... is it a normal fire?" his wife asked hesitantly.

"Yes, completely normal. Definitely not green," Ned said.

"Then show them that. Show them that the fire is normal and not a work of sorcery."

"How?"

"Show the color of the flame, roast a piece of meat over it, boil a bucket of water. Prove that it is not as destructive as wildfire. Then extinguish it by throwing water on it. Magical fires cannot be put out with water."

"That..." Ned thought for a moment, then smiled. "That's a brilliant idea, Catelyn. It will definitely work. When will the High Septon arrive?"

"He will be in Riverrun within a month."

"All right. You will handle this visit and the demonstration. Get help from Maester Luwin," Ned agreed.

"The High Septon will want to speak about matters of faith," Catelyn reminded him.

"I will not renounce my faith," the king muttered. "And I cannot speak for Robb, but I will allow little Robert and Eddard to be raised in the teachings of the Seven. The High Septon may crown me, but it will be before a heart tree."

"And what about the succession of Riverrun?"

"I am considering making this the capital," Ned said. "I have not decided for certain yet, but it is a good point in the center of Westeros. It is not on the sea, but many rivers pass through it."

"Wouldn't being on the shore of the Narrow Sea be more suitable for trade?" the queen asked.

"Doing that would leave the capital open to Valyrian invasion," Ned grumbled as he lay down beside his wife and kissed her again. "We have two more months to think about all this. Tonight, let us occupy ourselves with other matters."

Ned had not slept comfortably for the past year, and he knew he would not sleep easily in the months to come either. But not tonight. Not tonight—tonight, fuck everything.

A/N: Do you read the historical notes at the beginning of the chapter, or do you enjoy reading them? I would like to see your comments on this, since these notes are quite long.