Chapter 1: Winter is Coming

[valmont-vicomte.livejournal.com]

Castle Wolfsbane, Moroz

The stronghold of the Wolfsbane family, Castle Wolfsbane is a motte and bailey. Outside the walls of the bailey, a town has over the years grown up, a place of low wooden and stone buildings in tightly-knit streets enclosed by a guarded wall. The town of Moroz is a busy, bustling place of industry and noise. The keep itself is a thick-walled place, but even those do not keep out the draughts. From the top of the keep one can definitely feel that winter is approaching. Life at Castle Wolfsbane is fairly informal - the entrances to the bailey and keep are guarded, but once allowed inside you can pretty much roam where you like except for the family's private chambers. Personal attendants, of course, can go in and out of those. Much activity takes place in the training yard/courtyard and the hall. There is a recent addition to the castle - as well as the temple to the old gods that has been here for many generations, there is a chapel dedicated to the Sun-Bringer, Lady Mia's god of choice.

Bloody cold morning, air like a mouthful of ice water. You can never forget up here what cold's like, not even in the height of summer, but this is a reminder that it's going to get a lot colder, and soon. Well, the furriers'll do well out of it, and we've laid in enough food to last the town for a right long winter, so I'm not too worried on that score. The idea of two, three, four years of cold does make me grind my teeth, but I've lived through it before and will again. And then spring'll come, with all its madness - and hopefully by then Mia and I'll have our own spring to celebrate. I'd have a son by preference, but a daughter would do to start. It's been three years we've been married, and people are starting to ask why we don't have an heir yet. Sometimes things take time, I say, and I keep making sacrifices to the gods of earth and to the goddesses of the water to ask that they nurture our seed, but nothing's come of it yet. People've been mithering me with sly suggestions it could be because the gods don't like Mia's Sun-Bringer, but anyone with any sense knows there are hundreds of gods so why they'd take on about that one I don't know.

I go down to the courtyard, because I like it down there - always lots going on. A kid getting a clout from one of the smiths for getting under his feet, the snick and whistle of archery practice, the smell of horses.

Chapter 2: Son Rise, Sunset

[al-shairan.livejournal.com]

King's Castle, Excolo City

The largest town in Excolo, the capital sprawls luxuriantly around the port, built of warm stone, golden-hued in daylight. It is a prosperous, busy city with all the pleasures and crimes you'd expect at a major port. The castle stands on a cliff above the town and overlooks the harbour; the approach is a dizzying climb up steps carved into the cliffside. The castle has elegant interiors but is very much a working castle.

When I awoke this morning there was a fine frost on the windows. It was just past dawn, and it melted once the sun was properly up. Dawns are much later than they used to be. I remember a few years ago there was barely any dark at all for months and months. I miss that. I can only just remember the last winter, and I know I didn't like it. And I keep thinking about how the ground is hard to break in winter for graves. Which is stupid, because when my father dies they will put him in a tomb.

It won't be long, the doctor tells me, but that could mean days or weeks or months. He's been saying the same thing for weeks now. His Majesty still attends to business, but he just signs what the Council gives him instead of going to meetings, and he's taken to sitting by a window for hours, looking out to sea. He won't go to bed during the day, though. He says that's giving up. I try to talk to him about what I need to do, to become, but he says he's too tired to talk about it. He says I tire him out, and he sends me away.

With a cloak on it's warm enough to walk around the gardens and so I do. I like this garden the best, which is built so it overlooks the sea. It makes me feel like I can breathe better, having all this sky and water nearby.