[Chapter Size: 3600 Words.]

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Third Person POV

Casterly Rock, 298 AC.

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Two months had passed since Joy Hill had been captured by the Arcticans.

They still had not left the sea, and she had somehow gotten used to that life.

She was truly convinced that there was nothing else she could do, she was a hostage of that group of people.

In the first days, she remained silent, hardly interacting with those people, she was a bit cautious and afraid. She wanted to scream, to call for help from her family, to get a raven and send a letter.

But would that work? Definitely not.

Her drawers were full of letters she herself had written, and incredibly, the Arcticans had left her with quills, ink and parchment, books among other things. There was a vast number of books ranging from stories to knowledge, placed in her room since she had woken up.

Her meals were brought four times a day, the men who entered her room always made her nervous, but they only greeted her and left the food for her. Then they left with a small farewell, but without saying anything else.

The food was good, she could not deny it, in the first days she did not want to accept it from her captors, she even thought it could be poisoned, but that was also a difficult thought when they could simply kill her directly in the middle of nowhere, poisoning did not seem to be the best option to get rid of her.

She ended up finding comfort in the fruits, some she had never eaten before, all fresh, chilled drinks with ice stones and food in abundance, better than she was used to eating among the servants. Her meals were filling, with two of them being light for early morning and mid-afternoon, while two were heavy for noon and during the night, only if she wanted, since she did not like eating heavy meals before going to sleep.

This also made her think that, as that Jin Sakai from the first day had told her, their king wanted to ensure her safety, in the name of her father. The father she had not seen in years, and she felt a certain anger upon learning that he now had a family in Yi-Ti.

He had abandoned her in the end, that was how she had received the news from her aunt, not revealing those feelings directly to Genna, but as soon as she went to her room, she cried silently.

It was in those thoughts that her father once again occupied her mind. Could she trust that these people were truly helping her, taking her to that place no one really had information about beyond rumors, both fantastical ones and those full of horrors?

At first, she could not, which was why she wrote many letters asking for help, tried to sneak around the ship and search for any raven, since she had seen some flying outside, though she did not understand how they were there flying in the middle of the sea, and she knew that in the end, none of those ravens would actually find a way to Casterly Rock to warn her aunt or any Lannister ally.

Strangely, her room had always remained open, and even so, she wanted to immediately look for help and tried, but an Arctican would always stop her, passing through the corridors and finding her.

The first time, she found a man carrying boxes inside the ship, and he stopped as soon as he found her in the middle of the corridor.

“You…” was the only thing he said, staring at her with a certain shyness.

“!!” The first thing Joy did was run back to the room after one of those men saw her outside with the letter in her hand.

She immediately closed the door and pressed her back against it, she was sure she would be punished and her room locked for good, she would never be able to leave again then.

She would be made even more of a prisoner than she already was.

It took her some time to move away from the door, it was only when she was sure no one would appear yelling at her that she went to her bed, picked up a book and began to read.

There was a book titled Arctic and she opened it, discovering it was about the kingdom, curiosity had taken hold of her. No one in Westeros had proper information about that place.

On the first pages, she saw painted images of a great city, a tree that extended over the entire place, very similar to the heart trees she had visited a few times around Casterly Rock, two of which were still preserved.

But she could not believe that image, it was obvious that this book was very expensive, books with drawings, especially in color, were much more expensive, since they needed to hire skilled painters to fill the pages.

Such a book should be on the shelf of a king’s private library, not on the shelf of a nameless teenage prisoner, with nothing but a promise from her father to their king… She still could not understand how she had such a book in her hand.

Her delicate fingers touched the page with ink, gently, feeling the texture without fading it. Her fingers withdrew and she continued looking at the image, it was of excellent quality and very detailed, few paintings in Casterly Rock could compare to what she was seeing on that page.

She became absorbed in the image of what Arctic was supposed to be, wondering if it was truly real, if such a place existed, memorizing the details, showing the city, the castle white as snow, the tree behind it. Further down the image, she could see rivers passing through the city, bridges that people crossed, high enough for boats to pass under them while carrying passengers.

On the streets, images of merchants, people buying, dwarves, giants, strangely small green creatures, even smaller than the dwarves she had heard of, and humans, walked through the city with joyful expressions.

She did not know how long she spent just on that image, but she stayed there for quite some time, as if she were hypnotized.

Then she began to flip through the book. There was an introduction about how the Kingdom was created, learning more details about how the boy who had been born like her, as a bastard, had become a king feared throughout the world.

There it said that he had found a prosperous land and built the famous kingdom in about ten years.

That seemed far more than romantic stories of knights saving ladies and binding themselves to their love. No, that was quite different. And personally, Joy acted like the foolish girl she was, listening to stories of famous knights and their passions, like any lady. But that story was equally exciting, yet in a different way: the boy who wanted to help the people beyond the Wall, whom everyone said were savages and hated throughout the Seven Kingdoms, but it was he, a bastard raised in Winterfell, scorned by his father’s wife, who went beyond the Wall and extended his hand to stop a certain darkness that was coming for the realms.

There were not many details, everything was very summarized. She did not know what to think when the book described Jon Arctic having certain powers granted by the gods, that he could grow an entire forest and that the first thing he did was create a vast area for the cultivation of grain and food, to support the people while forming a kingdom.

Those pages also spoke of hidden races, of gods with whom he was said to have spoken, and even of the creation of dragons.

Joy was lost, unsure whether she should believe any of it. It was hard to believe when they spoke of dragons or trees sprouting from the ground simply by the will of a boy who had built all of that out of nothing, gradually gaining allies over time and people coming to the kingdom he cultivated.

She flipped through more pages and began to find the first signs of the city as it had been built. The heart-tree, which initially had around twenty to thirty meters, began to grow, bringing warmth to that land and expelling any unpleasant chill from the region, becoming a sort of magical shield and making the kingdom as warm as, perhaps, the Reach.

In the last pages, the city was shown almost complete. She could not help but be fascinated. The place was immense, designed to house millions of people, while the current population was only a fraction of that, around two to three hundred thousand, living there among four different races.

Her eyes quickly moved over the king’s castle, the Senate, the great library, the university, the sacred grove, the main square, the king’s forge, the king’s greenhouse, along with all the other important buildings in the core of the kingdom’s creation, to the south of the city.

There was also the port itself, built artificially, using the water that the roots of the great tree drew from the underground, creating rivers that ran throughout the city and emptied directly into the port, where there was a canal, also artificial, that connected directly to the sea, even though it was hundreds of kilometers away.

Both the canal and the wall around the kingdom had been constructions developed over the years. Joy tried to memorize all of it. She did not know exactly why, but she was fascinated, enchanted. She wanted to know where every part of the Kingdom was located.

When she realized, night had already fallen. Everything was dark and she struggled to read. She got up from the bed and pressed one of the crystals. She still was not used to that: crystals that could generate light. It was bizarrely strange, but functional, and she eventually got used to it after the first few days.

She continued reading for a while longer, until the door finally opened. Joy flinched. Probably that man she had met in the corridor had told them she was trying to leave her room.

And the one who entered was not one of the men who usually asked if she wanted to eat or brought her meals, but rather Jin Sakai, the man who had introduced himself on the first day.

“May I come in?” he asked.

She only nodded automatically, though cautiously.

“Rulf said he found you outside the room,” he said immediately.

Joy flinched even more. “Look, I…” She tried to speak, but he raised his hand, gently cutting her off.

“There is no problem in you walking around the ship. Even in the darkness, there are crystals lighting everything. You should go out a bit. Get some sun when there is sun. Enjoy the few hours of light in the sky,” he said.

She only nodded, a little embarrassed. She had not imagined she would be treated like that, but she was relieved she was not being reprimanded.

“I… can I go out then?” she asked, her shyness evident.

“Of course you can. You are not a prisoner. Our king made that very clear.”

“Thank you…” she murmured.

Jin nodded, satisfied. “In any case, if you need anything, you can call us. We will not hurt you or anything like that. You could meet the others too, it’s good to have someone to talk to.”

He seemed to notice how cautious she still was. It was a very familiar look to him. He remembered when he rescued women and children in Yi-Ti; some thanked immediately, others remained wary, unable to believe they were safe. He knew he needed patience — and he knew he needed the same patience with that girl on this side of the world.

“Oh, and Rulf… he said he got embarrassed and scared after seeing you in the corridor. He’s very shy, so don’t be surprised if he runs from you,” Jin said with a slight smile.

Joy remembered the man who had found her. He really did seem shy — perhaps more frightened of her than the other way around. She almost laughed, but the situation was still too strange for that.

She lowered her eyes and noticed the book still open on her bed. Before Jin left, she called out to him: “Wait… let me ask something.”

Jin paused and looked at her.

“This book… is it really true? Is your Kingdom really like this? Here it speaks of dragons, living dragons… Are there truly dragons in Arctic?” Her voice trembled with disbelief.

Tyrion always said that his greatest dream was to see dragons in his lifetime, but that it was impossible, since they were all extinct. And yet, in that book, it said the opposite: that in Arctic, dragons flew across the sky almost every day.

She could not believe it — but at the same time, she wanted to believe.

For a moment, she imagined Tywin Lannister’s face if he learned of that. For the first time, she might see her uncle truly unsettled.

Jin Sakai heard the question and could not help but smile.

“Well, that is something you will discover for yourself.” He turned and left the room, illuminated only by the crystals.

She closed the book and walked to the shelf with the crystal lamp in hand. She put it away and picked up others. There were books about chemistry, stories of the North. Curiosity took hold of her. One of them showed, on the cover, one of those small green-skinned creatures she had seen in the illustrations of Arctic.

She wanted to better understand where she was going, so she began to read. The book identified them as “children of the forest,” an ancient legend she had heard mentioned a few times, but never taken seriously, not even in the maester’s lessons alongside the children of important servants in Casterly Rock.

The next day, she tried again to send a letter. She was still determined to ask for help, this time even mentioning the dragons she had read about. And then she found that man named Rulf again. He only greeted her, shyly, before almost running away, just as Jin had said. She raised an eyebrow, but continued on her way, eventually finding the perch where there was a raven in an empty room.

“I need you to take this to any lord in Westeros. I am sure they will warn my uncle.” she murmured.

When she approached to tie the letter to the bird’s leg, the raven simply stood up and tried to strike her with its own foot, kicking her hand.

“What?” she murmured, surprised. “I need you to take this!”

She raised the rolled paper again, but received another aggressive caw in return. It was as if the raven was saying that she had no right. Joy was stunned — and, for some reason, tried to beg.

“Please, I will give you food…”

The raven turned its head with disdain, as if it were already being very well fed there. Joy stared at it, feeling ridiculous. It was almost as if it truly understood — and was refusing.

With no choice, she returned to her room, discouraged, and hid the letter with the others. As the days passed, she began to go out onto the deck and enjoy the sun as he had said, shyly and with her pride a bit bruised. The people on the ship looked at her with curiosity, but without hostility.

Jin Sakai sometimes went to talk to her, trying to include her. He was respectful, and that made Joy begin to open up. Over time, she also began talking to Rulf — still shy, but kind — and then became friends with other Arcticans. She tried to understand who they were, asked about the kingdom, and gradually, her days became less lonely.

Thus, almost two months passed. The journey was peaceful. The only problem they encountered was when approaching the Iron Islands, but they diverted by sailing west, where the ironborn rarely ventured. This made the trip longer, but allowed them to sail in peace, especially by blending into the near-constant darkness of the day.

The last landmass they saw was Bear Island. They said they were close now. Finally, they were heading beyond the Wall. Joy’s heart continued to pound even harder upon reaching the wild lands she had heard so many stories about.

She had already given up protesting or seeking help, and simply accepted her fate, whatever it was. There was nothing more she could do. And, in a way, she had come to trust the crew. They treated her with respect, never tried to hurt her or do anything improper. In that sense, she could credit them, and she had become their friend, sharing laughter while listening to their stories over the past weeks.

“We will reach our destination tomorrow. The king already knows we are here and will come,” said Jin Sakai, while she nodded, a bit nervous.

She would meet Jon Arctic for the first time.

The one to whom the men she had befriended were so devoted. She had once asked if it didn’t matter that he was a bastard. They laughed and said that such a thing did not matter in Arctic, nor did it matter that she was a bastard as well. There, she would be a member of Arctic like them. A companion, and one would protect the other from the moment she became an Arctican as well. She felt a different warmth at hearing that.

When the day finally came, the ship reached the frozen coast. Joy looked around, expecting to see some kind of marker or structure, but all she saw were dead trees and endless snow, as the ship moved closer and closer to the shore.

“This isn’t going to make us run aground…?” she murmured, worried by the rocky ice-filled coastline.

But they continued without hesitation. She had asked how, exactly, they would reach the Kingdom coming from that edge of the map. She had thought they would sail around the south of Westeros and then go back up toward the North. But no — they kept the mystery, only saying she would see soon.

Throughout the journey, she had learned about the construction of ships and how they worked. She had asked about the chains spread across the deck, which they said were essential to reach that place, but without much further explanation. Many parts of the ship had those strange chains, which she did not entirely understand, but she let it go.

It was when the ship touched the shore that her worry turned into horror. A massive shadow passed over the sky above them.

“The king has arrived,” said Jin Sakai, pointing upward.

The sun, racing quickly through the sky in that strange season, made it harder to see. But when the figure approached, Joy saw it. It was enormous. Its wings beat with a thunderous sound that shook the entire ship. Joy choked when she saw the creature.

A dragon.

A black dragon, real, alive, enormous enough to make the ship look like a toy. It glided through the air, descended, and landed on the snow near the vessel, lifting a white cloud around it.

Joy trembled.

Rulf touched her shoulder. “Don’t worry, Joy. He is the king. He came to get us.” said the shy Rulf, with a brief smile.

She nodded, while seeing a figure descending from the enormous dragon by a ladder attached to the saddle. A young man, wearing Valyrian steel armor, just as she had heard the Arcticans used in battle, approached the ship lodged on the shore.

“I see you’ve arrived. And I also see there is a Lannister girl among you… very good. That means the mission was a success.” said Jon, opening a brief smile in front of the ship.

“Yes, my king. I can see you’ve gained a new scar. How is the war?” asked Jin Sakai. Joy also noticed that the king had a cut over his eye, but it did not seem serious.

And Joy trembled upon hearing the word war. She had asked about it during the journey, and they confirmed that Arctic was involved in a great conflict with monsters. Now, the reality of that information was right there, in front of her.

Jon let out a smile, almost calm. “A mark of battle.” was all he said, as if it were of no importance.

Then his eyes — brighter than hers — met Joy’s.

She froze.

“You must be Joy Hill.” he said, opening a friendly smile. He took a step forward, without arrogance, but with a natural authority that no one there seemed to question.

“It’s time to go. I’ll take you to your new home.” He seemed sincere, warm, unexpected.

And in that moment, for the first time since being taken from Casterly Rock, Joy felt something different.

She was seeing a dragon before her.

She was going to a place that housed races other than humans.

A place where there was magic, and she could almost hear the septons from the sept of Casterly Rock condemning everything she had heard about the magic of Arctic.

A place where there was a war happening with the dead.

But she was not afraid. Not anymore.

She knew that her heart had accepted her fate.

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