MEADOWLARK INBOX

[998]

@jon.snow | ■ ▲ ◌ ▼

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[998]

My sword.
The old lord commander gave it to me.

[forcevisions]

Is that like a General?

[998]

[he knows this one!]

Yes.

[wait.]

Did I never tell you about the Night's Watch, here?

[forcevisions]

No.
But I figured you were in some kind of military. You wanted a weapon, and you didn't reach for the black markets right away.

[998]

I wanted the coin for a good sword. I mean to earn it.

The Night's Watch is the army that holds the Wall. A massive wall of ice separating the Seven Kingdoms from the wild lands beyond it. I was the lord commander's steward, and after he died they made me lord commander. For years we fought the Free Folk from beyond the Wall. I lived with them a while to learn what they were planning. When I returned to Castle Black I helped to hold it against their attack. They only wanted it for shelter from the White Walkers--they are like men made of ice, and they march now after thousands of years to make war on the living with their army of the dead. When I was Lord Commander I was able to shelter them that couldn't fight in the Night's Watch own lands--the Gift--and garrison those that could.

Lord Commander Mormont gave me his sword after I saved him from a dead man, with fire. His quarters burned and the hilt melted. So he had a new one made in the form of my wolf Ghost, and made me a present of it. It had been a bear before, as it wasthe sigil of his house. He had left it to his son when he joined the Night's Watch, but his son was a criminal and a traitor and fled to the free cities rather than join him on the Wall. He left it for his aunt, the Lady Mormont of Bear Island, but she returned it to the Old Bear as she and her daughters preferred the mace.

[forcevisions]

[ Rey: ok i can do it. i've been working with Fitz to improve reading comprehension and complex concepts.
Rey, halfway through: how much of this can possibly be important.
Rey, by the end: WHY AM I ALONE CHOSEN TO SUFFER HAVING TO READ TWO WHOLE PARAGRAPHS wait ]

You use it to fight against the dead?

[ !!!! Ok that was worth two paragraphs. ]

[998]

[IT'S IMPORTANT TO HIM REY]

Only fire kills the dead. But it's Valyrian steel, and that may be the dragonsteel I've read is supposed to be kill White Walkers--Valyria is where dragons were found, and tamed, and it's said they used dragons to forge Valyrian steel. But I haven't gotten close enough to a White Walker yet to try it out.

[forcevisions]

How did they raise an army of the dead, then?

[ She's less interested in how Valyrian steel is forged than in zombies. Sorry, Jon. ]

[998]

[how could jon possibly know that. he just said he's never even been close enough to a white walker to kill it??????]

They have a strange magic. Nobody knows how it works.

[forcevisions]

[ HE KNOWS LOTS OF THINGS. ]

It's been a thousands years and no one's figured out how it works?

[998]

[he!!! knows!!!!!!! nothing!!!!!]

No. It's been thousands of years since anyone's seen them at all.

[forcevisions]

[ no one warned rey of that ]

Do you know what they want from the living?

[998]

Only to kill us, as far as anyone could ever tell.

[forcevisions]

Maybe someone here will have ideas on how it can be done--and how it can be stopped.

[998]

Someone who remembers them from the Dawn Age? They might have trouble with the network. :)

[forcevisions]

YOU have trouble with the network.

[ he's in no position to make fun of people without technology!! ]

But I meant more along the lines of, you know, other people who've seen something similar in their own galaxy.

[998]

I can read and write. Nobody could, before the Andals came.

I've known people to speak of their world's undead--to be undead--but the white walkers don't fit any of their patterns.

[forcevisions]

Right. In the place where you met me?
The clock?

[ She still doesn't really have a frame of reference for it. It's this odd foreign thing that she can barely imagine, and therefore often sidesteps considering. ]

[998]

Aye. My friend Mal told me much, and she didn't know what to make of the White Walkers.

[forcevisions]

I wish I could do more to help.

If I had my power, and if I could see one ...

[ The Force might have some insight. But she can't. ]

[998]

[aww...rey...that's sweet. don't do it.]

No. Wherever they go they drain the world around them of warmth and beauty, leaving only the chill of death. Not...a natural death. I can't explain it. When they are near you forget how it is to have ever felt happy or loved, or warm. And I am only a skinchanger. With your powers it would be worse. Like--when Sansa tried to warg a monster in the dream. Only it wanted her out, and I'm not sure that the White Walkers would let you go.

[forcevisions]

I'm stronger than you think.

[998]

I know you're strong. That's why we can't afford to lose you.

[forcevisions]

[ She doesn't much like that answer because it demonstrates either pessimism--a firm belief in the futility of the fight, the likelihood of loss--or placating. But it's not worth arguing about since it's all just wishing anyway.

She changes the subject. ]

Did you sew those things on your cooltalk?

[998]

[he just doesn't want his best friend on a suicide mission!! also he's p sure uncle benjen died looking for white walkers so.]

No haha they're Sansa's. :)