Game of Thrones: StormBorn

"What?"

The odd face that the Storm Prince himself was making was certainly not one he had expected from the towering youth, even after his odd outburst earlier.

He had pushed those off as just being the result of the man's best friend dying. He doubted he would be his usual self a few hours after finding Robert dead.

This time though, he found that he could hardly blame the man, as his own eyes went down to Joffrey, who had clamped both of his hands over his mouth and had fixed his gaze firmly to the ground.

The air was silent for a long moment, save the whipping of the wind against the awning above, before the older boy managed to regain some part of his composure.

"What do you mean when you say that Joffrey?"

Ned found himself wondering much the same thing.

Joffrey, clearly rather caught on the spot, turned slowly to meet Ned's gaze, as if looking for help, then sighed, shaking his head quickly.

"I shouldn't have said that…" he mumbled quickly, possibly too quiet for his cousin to hear, before the boy visibly straightened. "Err… I had an… encounter with a Weirwood just after I first came to the North."

His eyes flicked to the other young man, whose eyes widened momentarily before he shook his head slightly.

"That's" the Storm Prince mumbled, "it gave you some sort of magical sight I suppose, let's you see souls? Is everyone in Westeros having fateful encounters with magic? Should I expect the Hightowers to start flying on brooms next?" 

"You!" A hint of danger came into his charges voice, and Ned quickly put a hand on his shoulder, if they were supposed to be talking things out, then anger wouldn't be helpful, especially with such a revelation fr Joffrey.

Arthur, if anything, looked taken aback by the outburst, though shortly after me slightly inclined his head in the manner he always used when conceding something.

"My apologies Joffrey, I did not mean to imply that I doubted your claims, only that the increasing commonality of magic is for me a cause of alarm." The man's eyes traced over to Ned. "It appears that the Bloodraven's claims are supported further than I had assumed."

Ned grimaced slightly, this was all a bit much to take in right now. Instead, his mind went to his charge.

"Joffrey…" he asked after a moment. "Why didn't you tell me?"

The visual change in Joffrey's demeanor was palpable, as all hostility towards his cousin rushed away in a flood of guilt. "I-I didn't think you'd believe me." The boy said eyes firmly fixed on the ground. "I didn't know you were having magic visions, or even anything at all about Arthur really. I thought you would have called me mad."

Ned nodded shortly, then placed a hand on Joffrey's shoulder. The Prince really was taking on far too much for a boy his age. "You aren't mad Joffrey." He squeezed his shoulder a bit. "Not at all."

The golden-haired boy nodded, digging his chin into his chest as he wiped his eyes. Eddard was a bit shocked to see that he was crying, he hadn't seen him do that since the war had ended.

The silence dragged on for a long moment, before finally being broken by the Storm Prince clearing his throat. "I apologize for cutting your bonding time short, but I'm on a bit of a tight schedule these days, and I would like to know exactly what Joffrey means when he calls my soul a monster."

Joffrey snapped his head to stare at his cousin, while Ned stepped back quickly. The man wasn't wrong, and given everything on his plate right now… well, keeping him waiting might be a bad idea. 

"Most people… well, their souls sort of reflect their personalities, desires, drives, that sort of thing." Joffrey said slowly. " Like Lord Eddard is a big wall of Ice on the outside, but kind of warm and pleasant on the inside."

The… accusation? Compliment? Struck Ned oddly, but he shook his head a moment later, it wasn't important.

"Not me though?"

"Do your ambitions and personality feature a massive swirling vortex of lightning and stormclouds reaching down and following everyone who works for you?" 

"Sort of, yeah honestly." The storm Prince answered, seemingly unperturbed by the description. "That sort of power is what I need to protect my people, and fulfill my ambitions."

Joffrey shook his head. "No, you don't get it, you're missing the important part. Normal people, even people like my father, their souls stop at the edge of their bodies." The boy raised a hand, pointing to his cousin. "Your soul in your body is all brass and cogs and lightning and smoke, but it doesn't stop there, it feeds into this big thing above you like a fire feeds a cloud, and that's what reaches out and touches things."

"Interesting." The Prince of the Narrow Sea said, pausing to think for a moment. "No Fish people?"

"What?" Ned asked, but the Prince shook his head. 

"Don't worry about it, if Joffrey is right they don't matter that much to you anyway. I thought perhaps my Durrandon ancestry was more involved in my power." The man stepped up onto his feet. "This conversation has interesting ramifications for the wider context of my magic, thank you Joffrey."

"Errr." Was all that Joffrey got out before the Prince continued speaking, seemingly content to push on without response.

"Now, as to the original purpose of the conversation. I wanted to tell you, and Lord Stark as well, that I have absolutely no designs on the Iron Throne whatsoever, it is a large chair made of swords, and if I owned it I would have it thrown into the blackwater Bay." The man hardly paused to breathe, seemingly intent on leaving quickly. "The only concern wherein I could see a major conflict between us would involve the succession of the Iron Islands, but I would be happy to discuss that with you at a later date." 

Ned blinked, about to raise an objection, though the Prince was already starting to walk away, not ceasing his speech.

"As for the power blocks intent on forming around us, they have no real option to press me into war, and I will make it clear that unless my allies are attacked I won't intervene on their behalf. Essos is my prize, and a better one than the seven kingdoms at that." The man reached the door, flanked by his bodyguard, turning back one last time to look at Joffrey and Eddard, some indecipherable thing in his eyes that gave Ned pause. "And with that, I must return to my quarters, I have a wedding to prepare for." He glanced quickly to Joffrey, then back to Ned "by the way Lord Eddard, you and your family are invited to the party I am hosting for the Essosi notables tonight, you as well Joffrey, it ought to be good to expand all of our horizons."

And with that, he was gone, and Eddard could only blink at the space he had been, his brain still reeling with the enormous volume of information the Storm Prince had dumped on them at once.

There was a pause, he didn't know how long before Joffrey spoke up behind him.

"I broke him." The boy said as Ned turned to him. "Well, some part of him, he was trying to leave before it became obvious, but I saw it happening, the gears were freezing up."

Ned found his way into one of the seats, his mouth not quite working, what an utter mess he had found himself in.

Whatever the cue, Joffrey decided to continue.

"It was the vortex thing I think when I mentioned it following his people around was when it started. I think he was really focused on that."

Eddard stared at the boy for a long moment. Joffrey looked, if anything, cheery as if he was asking for approval with every word.

Still, he just couldn't deal with his input right now, not until he had processed all of the other things that had been said.

"Joffrey," Eddard said quickly, his voice neutral as he barely even realized he was speaking.

"Yes?"

"Be quiet."