Mother of Wolves (Game of Thrones)

Westeros and Magic (Allister)

Nightwell was an exquisite castle and had pretty lands. We were one of the richest and most powerful houses in the Reach, after House Tyrell. In the days of House Hightower's rule, we had owned our own section of the Reach and the Westerlands, as large as the Reach was now. We had five vassal houses of our own and a lot of money too.

Now I was Lord of it all and left with the responsibility of ruling, as my uncle had died. Finlay, my year-younger brother was more suited for this, as he enjoyed it. As for my other three siblings, Magnus, Thea and Clarice, they would marry someone to strengthen the ties between House Ellwood and whatever house they married into.

As I sat on my throne-like chair, Thea and Clarice came in to speak to me. They looked happy, but tired from their ride back from Casterly Rock, where they had stayed for a few days in order to ensure that House Ellwood and Lannister would stay allies. I would have sent Finlay or Magnus, but I decided that my sisters would be able to charm the old man better.

"Allister, why did you send us to Casterly Rock?!" Thea asked, furiously. "Tywin Lannister only wants to strengthen alliances between our houses and we had to play along! It was boring and stupid, but there were some funny people there."

Thea had dark brown hair and brown eyes that were so dark they looked black unless you were right in front of her, the tip of your nose touching hers. She was nine and rather pretty for her age, with tan skin and a slender build. She would make a man happy one day, when she was much older.

Clarice had similar looks to her sister, dark brown hair, tan skin and a slender build. There were only two differences between Thea and Clarice; their age and their eye colour. Clarice had doe-eyes and was sixteen going on seventeen. She was to marry Quentyn Martell in a week and the House was scheduled to arrive today, or if not, tomorrow.

"You two have been raised to play a hand in politics and I wanted you to finally test your skills and to travel," I told my sister's, seriously. "I am Lord of Nightwell now and I need to know that we have allies within each of the Seven Kingdoms. We may not be a Great House, but if House Tyrell falls, we will rule the Reach, so we need allies."

"It is because we have magic, is it not?" Clarice asked, quietly. 

"Yes," I stated. "Now, go clean yourselves up. The Martells could arrive any minute now."

As if summoned by me, a knight came in and informed me that The Martell's of Sunspear were under an hour away. Finlay and Magnus were left in charge of getting everything ready, so I hoped that they had not slacked off. 

I went to my chambers and changed into breeches, a thin tunic and wore a purple and black doublet over the top, with black clips on the front. I put on a pair of boots and cleaned my face and hair, looking into my mirror while doing so.

Once I was dressed, I looked at myself in the mirror. My light brown hair was shaggy and almost in my grey-green eyes. My skin was pale, unlike all of my siblings and I was slender yet slightly muscular and could swing a sword better than any man in the Reach, including Loras Tyrell.

God damn Loras Tyrell, who was always so cocky and sure, but too arrogant and naive to realise that he needed to be more careful. His grandfather had died while hunting for birds because he was too busy looking at the birds than where his horse was doing. Only the women of House Tyrell were truly sensible.

Both the men and women of House Ellwood had to be sensible because we had magic and the Royal Houses knew about it. Tywin Lannister probably tried to bore my sisters so they would use magic and he could see how it worked. He would have to do much better than that.

The Ellwood family has been around since before the First Men, Andals and the Rhoynar, around the time of the Children of the Forest. We prayed to their gods, but held onto our tradition of using magic. No matter what, if someone had Ellwood blood in them, they had the slightest bit of magic in them too.