"There were a handful of guards and a few of the smith's apprentices who have seen some portion of the forging, but two of your children were the only ones watching when I wound the wire. That would have been the first time an observer could see the pattern. I performed the folds that produce the pattern while no one with any skill at smithing watched, no need to share the secret with unvetted craftsmen."

“Good,” Lord Stark nods slowly. “This is a wonderous work, and... And I cannot predict how the other noble houses would react if they were to find out. Oh would that I had ten of you, and it were known somehow that those ten could not be coerced into giving up their secrets. Ten would perhaps be too many to assassinate, but one? You are vulnerable, and if it were known that you had the lost art of valerian steel there would be a target on your back. How to proceed?”

"There's not so much need to worry, I'm not so easy to kill as all that. That ring which suppresses cold is not my greatest trick."

"But to proceed, we should prepare to work at higher scale. I'd like to start assembling a full-sized furnace and refinery, and a set of forges and casting basins. Before we get too far, though, I need to understand if you need to prepare for something specific. Should the other houses be considered threats? Customers? What does your country need? Are swords truly what would help you most? If so, who are you fighting? There are...other weapons I should perhaps demonstrate for you, if you can find me sulphur and niter."

“This is not a conversation best had in the open,” Lord Stark replies. “Shall we take ourselves to the godswood? That is traditionally where my house holds its secret talks. Not much secret if it’s tradition I suppose, but it is a small space and near impossible to listen in on without those you’re listening to noticing. This is a very great gift, by the way- it occurrs to me that I have not adequately expressed my gratitude.”

"It is no trouble, I am pleased that my craft is so well respected in these lands. "

They walk to the godswood. Is it a wood filled with gods? Maybe just a wood owned by gods. Or perhaps the wood itself is godly or derived from gods in some way. Human religion is weird, but maybe that's to be expected when they don't get to spend thousands of years personally hearing all of their creator's bad opinions.

It is a small glade enclosed by a high wall of tightly fitted grey stone. The trees are tall and old, dark and brooding like the ancient forests back home, but to describe the centerpiece of the garden as a “tree” is to do disservice to it. It’s a massive thing, bigger than a windmill, it’s bark a pale white unblemished by knots or creases. Just a smooth white surface. It’s leaves are a deep blood red, darker near the stem, lighter near their gently waving tips. There are no dead leaves on the ground. Red sap leaks slowly from a face carved deeply into the trunk, but despite the fresh sap Annatar gets the impression the face has been there a long time. As long as the tree perhaps. 

There are whispers over Osanwe. “We know you... we know your deeds... we know your works... we know what you are...” it seems to be coming from The Tree. 

Oho, what's this? This does not seem consistent with the lack of magic he had seen before. He focuses carefully, is there a mind, here, or just some sort of hallucinatory echo?

And yet I do not know what you are. It seems there are mysteries in this world after all, tree.

The tree does in fact seem to have a mind- of sorts. It seems... slower? More ponderous? Less quick to change tracks than a humans, but not exactly less intelligent? It’s an alien mind, as different from Annatar’s as a human’s would be, but in a very different way. It doesn’t seem to respond to Annatar, but that seems to be more because it’s mind can’t move that quickly to the next step in the conversation- insofar as this can be considered a conversation. 

Interesting! It seems almost like an ent, except that ents can't use osanwe. Annatar will continue interacting with the strange mind at its own pace, he can hold his conversation with Lord Stark in the meantime.

"This is a lovely tree, I have not seen its like in my land."

“The Weirwood Tree?” Lord Stark hums. “Yes, they’re certainly strange. I have heard a thousand different mutually exclusive explanations for where they come from, but if there’s truth buried in those explanations I am not clever enough to find it. You asked is I had anything which I needed to prepare for?”

"Yes, who is an enemy, who is a threat, who is a customer, and so on. I understand my swords are impressive to you, but are swords what you most need? I can help you to make as much steel as you need, but what would you wish to make with it, and is there something else that might even be more valuable than steel to you?"

Lord Stark sits on a nearby stone bench while he mills over his response. “We are not at war with anyone currently, but things change and winter is coming. This summer was a long one; few remember the winter that came before, and that was a mild one. This winter will be bad. Unless I badly miss my guess, there will be wars over the remaining food stores by the end. Wars over coal and firewood perhaps, as that is used up and the alternative becomes freezing in your home. And, of course, tales of worse things living north of the wall. I don’t know whether to give them any stock or not, but some people certainly believe. Of course, winter is still several years off. More pressingly, the hand of the king is dead and many people think it was poison. Regardless of if they’re right, they will act as though they are, and wars have a habit of following such thoughts. Who is our enemy? I cannot say. There are houses that have no love for mine, certainly. The Lannisters, the Frays, the Greyjoys. Even many of my own bannermen I do not fully trust. House Bolton has served mine long, but their symbol is the flayed man and their temperament matches. We are at war with none of them of course, and I do not mean to imply that we are, but we shouldn’t sell them weapons and it would be... bad... if they heard that we had the only smith living who can make valerian steel.”

”As for customers? You would become very wealthy selling those devices that protect from the cold. Moreso as the winter comes. Weapons though, it seems unwise to export at all. You ask what WE need, but I can’t say I know enough of your capabilities to tell. I don’t even know enough to guess where our artistry is deficient from yours, except in the ring that protects from cold, and the valerian steel. You ask what I need, what my house can benefit from you, and certainly I am happy to tell where my knowledge is sufficient, but the question must be asked: what do YOU need? What goals have you? In my experience, those who claim to work for free are always paid by your enemies, and my house MUST have you.” 

"There is joy in good works, and the opportunity to teach my craft and direct a great forge is a dear enough reward itself. But I do assure you I do not intend to be merely charitable. If my skills are as valuable here as they seem, I am sure I can begin amassing gold whenever it becomes more convenient than our current arrangement. If the steel is sold I will take a portion of the profit, and I will be able to sell enough for as much gold as would be useful to me. I will do the same for any other creations you find useful."

"What I need is a true ally in this foreign land. I know much of leadership and forgecraft, but I have no resources, no men who answer to me, no knowledge of the needs and desires of those who could help or harm me. I do not fear any ability to survive, or to sustain myself. What I fear is that if I can gain no power here, the only one I will be able to aid is myself. There is little I could be bribed with but trust."

"But if you fear so many of the lords around you, perhaps weapons ought to be a small portion of what I prepare you to make. We could encourage defense, by selling only armor, but there are also other inventons you may find useful. I think rockwool would not be so hard to make here, it requires great temperatures but little finesse, and if a room or house is lined with it, heat will escape more slowly. There is glass that would also trap heat but not light, my people can grow plants even in winter in a room such as this. I could copy books or notices faster than I expect is possible for you. There are some diseases of men, known to my people, which can be spread purposefully to prevent the innoculated from contracting worse diseases. I would share all this knowledge in time, but if you know whether you lose much possible wealth most to lack of food, or time spent in travel, or time spent copying books, or the difficulty of mining in hard rock, then I would better know where to begin."

"If these rings are the most useful of what I can offer, I shall begin constructing the device needed to create them. But I warn you such items are slow to form. I could create a device which lets one man make more in a week, or a device which lets a hundred in a few months, but each of those men would take months or years to do the same. A newly trained craftsman could perhaps make a ring to ward against cold in a few months, or an object to ward a whole house in a year. In five years we could perhaps ward twenty thousand houses, if I could find the men for it. Would this be valuable enough to forego interventions which scale faster?"

The Lord Stark nods thoughtfully. “If what you desire is gold, house Lannister is wealthiest by far, and they ‘always pay their debts,’” this last he says with a sort of bitter sarcasm. “House Tyrell too, is very rich and somewhat less objectionable, but the North is the largest of the Seven Kingdoms and the North is mine; if your motive is to aid people then the North holds the most people and will be hit hardest by the coming winter. From the way you speak, I would guess the land you hail from is far to the south, untouched by the snows, and yet you speak also of growing things during the winter cold. Do we speak of the same thing? I cannot conceive of how one might grow food during the long night, but you seem capable of many wonders so perhaps my mind is too small for it. Only the maesters know how long the winter will be, and theirs is only a guess, but they all say this next one will be long and terrible. We stockpile grain during the summer years, but we must rely on the guesses of the maesters and the luck of large harvests to see us through. If you know a way to grow food even when the sun vanishes for a decade or more, and the snows pile so high that houses disappear beneath, and the air grows so cold that horses have been known to freeze dead in minutes, that would be a great boon. We need not necessarily ward every farmhouse and hovel against the cold, but the small folk will need lodging in the keeps of the lesser lords and Winterfell will play host to many. Those keeps, at least, will need to be protected else the fires must burn day and night and who can say if the firewood will hold out? If you do indeed have a way of growing food even during the long night, we will need a way to distribute it as the scattered keeps exhaust their stores or else it will only benefit Winterfell. If the method of its transportation is arranged, communication will be necessary because the ravens would not endure the elements long enough to carry a message. If all those problems were solved, the great lords of the other six kingdoms will look upon the North with envy, and that envy coupled with the despair of their own troubles WILL lead to war. Even if the monsters of legend stay only in the shadows of our past and the bedtime stories used to scare small children, there WILL be war. There are too many keeps to be so warded if your estimation of production time is accurate. There are too many mouths for my kingdom alone to feed, even if we can grow during the long night. Southern kingdoms do not remember the last winter that touched them, but I have been assured that this one will. They do not stockpile grain, and they will not spend fortunes to buy your methods while they see no pressing need. By the time that they are convinced of the necessity it will be too late. Some lords will listen- some owe me fealty, some are North enough to know what must be done, some are friendly of my house, and some reasonable enough to be talked around. So long as there is no use for war, your arts can be shared there and that will lessen the burdens all round, but that will merely serve to push the war off our borders and onto others. That is worth doing for its own sake of course, and for the sake of the small folk of those lands, but I do not think war can be averted. I am guessing about many things- I do not know your methods, and cannot predict their efficacy or the time it will take to implement them- but guesses can be made with a degree of reliability and I do know the squabbling lords of Westeros. Weapons then will be needed. Weapons to discourage attack by the other lords, and weapons in case the legends are true. If, after all that, after weapons and farms which work in the winter and keeps which stave off the cold and caravans which move in the high snows and communication which goes through when a raven cannot, there is still effort and time to spare, the mining you speak of would be helpful. The North is rocky and the ground often frozen; the ability to dig in hard ground would allow my people the wealth enjoyed by the southern kingdoms. I think it more important though, that my people be alive than wealthy. I apologize for the lecture friend Annatar; you are a newcomer to this land and since I am unsure of what you know, I must say everything. If I assume you know of the long night, and your winter farm relies on the southern sun, many people will die. If the lords of your homeland are slower to war or less covetous than the lords of mine... I have made my point I think.” 

Mysteries, the tree sends at last, yes, many mysteries in the land, felt with the roots, wrapped, deep mysteries so deep so hidden. Metals the humans know nothing of, yes, and things they cannot dream, things which burn and things which shine and things which seep down so deep with a drip drip drip... the old tree seems to lose itself in whatever it was thinking. 

"To explain clearly is no insult to me, I appreciate your detail. It seems that I must waste no time in any given tool, and try to introduce as many tools as we can manage before the winter reaches us."

What sort of winter do these people have, anyway? That isn't really how seasons worked under the sun, perhaps this place has more active gods after all. But it does sound like there's a lot of work to be done. Annatar begins directing a large portion of his attention to designing new bodies, to better split his attention. He's never tried this before, but the Valar could do it, and with his Ring he has become very strong indeed.

"More specifically, there are plants I could grow without light, yes. Not grain, perhaps, but some roots or tubers can grow if kept warm, even in the dark. Better communication and the groundwork for better transport will be obviously valuable to others even in gentle times, so I am confident we can make good advances there before they grow nervous. Better mining and better plows will please many in any weather. And weapons, perhaps, are better stockpiled that used. The consistent point that I see is that we should begin quickly. Do you think that the craftsmen you may call on will be willing to learn, or do you think I would be better off training laborers? How many of each do you think you could summon here?"

“I can call perhaps a few dozen craftsmen on short notice,” Lord Stark replies, “though they are of various trades and any could be spy for another house, wittingly or no. Given three months I could perhaps muster three hundred with the same concerns. Northmen are slow to accept change but we are no fools: your arts are good and they will be willing to learn. Laborers of lesser skill I could muster two hundred tomorrow, and some few thousands in the same time frame. I would warn though, that sending out the call for a large project will be noticed by rival houses and allies will wonder why they were not invited to take part. Doing so may increase the labor pool, to the cost of security.” 

"Is the dearer concern that the other houses will take rapid growth as a threat, or that they will learn the techniques? Perhaps there are tricks of farming and medicine which would work better in the south, and could convince them they are also sharing in new wealth. Or is steel so valuable that any sign of newfound speed and skill at producing it would be enough to worry your neighbors?"

“Steel is used for many things, but in quantity? Rapidly? They would ask themselves who I am planning to ambush. The scout returned, incidentally. The one you ordered sent after the brigands who burned a man’s farm? They carried no banners or sigils but the leader was... distinctive. See Gregor Clegane. We lack the means to bring him to justice.”

"Ah, useful to know! Is the means that you lack a political strength or a strength of arms? But for the steel, would the other houses find it plausible that you are merely stockpiling. If you are already gathering food and wood, would it be so strange to also gather coal and iron? I could more easily hide how much steel we produce than how much ore we use, even if we gather more men to mine it. The first craftsmen we bring could be taught to level roads, to purify water, to raise stronger crops, and then be sent out to share this knowledge with others. Then the next set may begin the larger steelworks, and it will be less suspicious, especially if we at first only stockpile and produce some farming tools."

“If we only stockpiled, they would ask themselves what shortages I expect what what need I plan to have of it. Forges are rarely run during the long night because that is an unwise waste of things which can be burned for warmth.”

”we lack the means because Ser Gregor Clegane is bannerman to Tywin Lannister and of it were known that I sent men to slay ‘the mountain that rides’ he would be honor-bound to bring me war, and with the number of men that it will take to slay the mountain, the Lannister’s will hear of it. It is said that Gregor’s younger brother can cleave the head from a horse in one blow, and Gregor is as bigger and stronger than Sandor as Sandor is than you or I.”

Speak for yourself, Stark, Annatar is stronger than he looks. That does sound like an interesting and dangerous fellow, though...

"Unfortunate, but I am not sure I can help with such an issue besides in perhaps arming greater numbers of the common folk. Crossbows could be made in greater number with less metal than fine swords, but I do not know if you wish to arm so many peasants in such a manner. And if we wish to avoid others learning of the steelworks, the best option will perhaps be to increase the rate of production only slowly, to carefully vet those who work within it, to mine our own ore, or perhaps to limit contact between the works and the outside world. Perhaps I am imagining too much too quickly, but I believe I could construct a small town within a mine, building the steelworks inside it. We could grow the production more quickly at lower risk of others learning, and it would perhaps also be a good opportunity to test growing plants without light."

Lord Stark agrees that this could be a good solution and a worthwhile pursuit. He does wonder though where Annatar might get enough men to staff such an endeavor, unless he means to only make use of the craftsmen and laborers Lord Stark already has access to and what excuse will be given for gathering most of his craftsmen for an endeavor house Stark has had no interest in for generations. Perhaps excavating a new grain store for the winter, but the nearest mountains are far from Winterfell and grain stores have never before been built in such a fashion. Eventually also, silence will speak just as loudly as open action and any endeavor undertaken in secrecy is made more threatening because of it. If only house Bolton could be relied on; their methods are far too vicious for Lord Stark’s sensibilities but no one would bat an eye if Lord Bolton wanted a secret place to do terrible things to his prisoners. 

It is such a terrible thing when one has allies who cannot properly be trusted.

"If there are villages already near a suitable mountain, laborers could be recruited from them directly, or perhaps even a whole villiage convinced to move at once. Then the distance from Winterfell, and ideally from even neighboring villages, would itself be a security against other houses learning there is even a new community to find suspicious. We could claim it as an experiment in whether living within the mountains could provide better protection against the winter, rather than as a project intended to benefit anyone outside the villiage itself. Then it would need not be suspicious until we need to make use of the steel forged within. If the presence of a Bolton would be valuable, we could also speak to them personally. With offer of great wealth there is likely one loyal man among them."

“This is a good plan I think. You mentioned some skill at leading? What skill? Is this a project you could manage with little supervision? There would be oversight of course, but if I am seen to take such an active hand in ‘seeing if a village can survive the winter within a mountain,’ that will quite give away the game. You strike me as a just man and a good judge of character; if you choose to meet with Lord Bolton or his son, I trust your assessment of how much of their loyalty you can buy. You have my blessing to begin that endeavor, I ask only that you do not trust sensitive details to ravens, and that you return before the king arrives. Who to send with you?”

"I am honored by your judgement, and would be pleased to accept such a task. In my own lands I served a role not unlike yours, and am well used to directing groups. I think it would be best to travel lightly, so as not to imply the mission is of great significance. Some gold may be valuable, but crossing the countryside with reserves of food and iron will produce more problems than would be resolved by making it easier to begin when we get there."

"I would take a few guards, if possible one of them known to those I would visit, so as to vouch for my honesty in representing you. If one of your children or wards would find it interesting, it may also be informative for them to join us. And if you expect you can keep some papers from being seen by prying eyes, there is also a trick I can teach you to send messages that cannot be read by any means but the secret paper associated with them. Then we may request further supplies when the community is established and plausible."