A Telepathic Report & a Secret Meeting

A/N: Before we begin, I just wanna say that this chapter is probably the most relevant to the plot so far in terms of developments, especially unexpected ones for most of you. Long story short, I decided to finally shed some light on some of the whole Jon-being-the-acknowledged-champion-of-the-Valyrian-God-Meraxes situation and how such a massive domino effect as far as direct divine interference is concerned (and not just by giving Jon the Written Ownership powers) could have greatly altered the course of events in this timeline. Let's just say for now that the plot-related stakes have been raised...well, seven-fold, if you want to go with the themes of the chapter and its implications.

So, hope you enjoy this chapter, ****-full of reveals, implications and many questions that sprang from the mysteries therein. Have fun taking a glimpse at the long-term narrative that I will be building towards in between sex scenes across this branch. And as always, please review!

Once Jon finished cleaning himself up and getting dressed again, he opened the door to make his way to the Great Hall for supper. However, before he could start rehearsing what he would like to say to Lady Catelyn to her face after so long, an image he had come to know quite well suddenly hit his mind.

Jon raised an eyebrow as the background around the glass candle became clearer in his mind's eye. Over the years he had come to find many glass candles to give to his most trusted and capable servants so that they could report things of interest to him at lightning speed and to coordinate the trading operations of all his businesses across the seas and continents much more effectively and therefore profitably. So, he knew enough by that point to realize that as soon as the image of a glass candle appeared on his head, he should expect a mental message soon after. Thing is, he was so full of anticipation that he was tempted to order his Braavosi agent to wait until later to deliver the information he was contacting him for.

But then he saw the middle-aged-looking man, clad in black robes, and standing near his follower out of the corner of his mind's eye. Jon paused and deliberately slowed down his pace to the Great Hall, realizing something must have gone wrong if HE had reason to come to the hidden chambers of his highest ranking follower currently in Braavos.

"Captain Moredo," The wealthy bastard greeted as he beamed out his thoughts through the glass candle connection with familiar ease. "Anything new to report?"

"Yes, Master," The capable merchant under his command responded. "Originally, I was just going to inform you that everything you requested of us in the past few hours has been taken care of. Per your command, the valuable pieces of cargo were loaded on the Sun Chaser II and already set sail to White Harbor; with the Wyvern rider messenger that you asked for following close behind and her mount resting its wings on the specialized platform when needed. Knowing the record of the fastest ship in our fleet, they will arrive at White Harbor a couple of hours before noon tomorrow, at which point the messenger will take the cargo to her winged mount and rush towards Winterfell through the clouds. As such, soon you'll have what you need to help contain the future political issues that you were concerned about."

"Excellent," Jon replied, pleased with the speed of his network of loyalists. "Make sure to oversee the necessary arrangements to pay everyone involved with a bit more than usual the first chance you get. It was most important for me to get that cargo before nightfall came on my youngest sister's birthday and your combined haste in organizing everything fast enough to set sail by supper time tonight will all but guarantee those results."

"Thank you, Master Jon," The member of House Prestayn of Braavos said in a grateful tone. "I will take care of it."

That was when the Bastard of Winterfell slowed down his pace even further and took a deep breath. "You can let my partner speak now."

Wordlessly, his sworn agent moved to the side and the middle-aged visitor approached the table where the glass candle was burning with the spark of ancient Valyrian magic. They stared at each other from over a thousand miles away and Jon nodded almost imperceptively when he realized that despite the change since they last met, his pale blue eyes truly did look the same when he actually examined them, now that he was more familiar with them.

"Greetings, Nameless One," Jon said silently but his mental tone carried the sincerity of his respect all the same, as he used the title he preferred to be addressed as whenever they talked through the magical connection due to diplomatic and...pragmatic reasons. "I wasn't expecting to hear from you and our other partners until the next High Council meeting, as I thought I explained the progress I have made on my end well enough the day I set sail back to the North."

Suddenly, the handpicked champion of Meraxes paused when he calculated the days since then and a concerning possibility occurred to him. "Has something happened to the Sorcerer Lord during the battle?" He asked, deliberately using the title of their mightiest ally in the far east instead of his actual name.

The Nameless One shook his currently fair-skinned but mildly scarred head. "No, it's not that. In fact, he actually contacted me a few days ago to report that so far, many soldiers following General Pol Qo in his campaign across eastern Yi Ti have come to regret bringing the war to the Carcosa region now that they have to deal with his...creative traps and frightening ambush tactics," He assured him. "However, something did come to my attention that I should warn you about."

The shadowy leader inhaled deeply for a brief moment before looking him right in the eye.

"Someone came to the House of Black and White to ask how much it would cost to hire the services of a Faceless Man to **** you," He revealed.

Jon titled his head, alarmed but also curious as he narrowed his eyes. "Who?"

"Not the one that actually wants you dead enough to pay the extremely high sum it would take to get my order to **** a man of your caliber, I can tell you that for sure," The Nameless One told him. "Regardless, it was a moot point. As you well know, we took a magical Blood Oath not to utilize Faceless Men to **** our fellow partners as long as our agreement holds and it falls to me to veto any contracts made by others against the Council Leaders of our Secret Alliance."

The Bastard of Winterfell nodded in understanding. "Well, where is this middleman of the one that wants me dead now?"

His partner's borrowed face didn't change but he could detect a slight hint of legitimate concern in his eyes which was a lot more emotion than was usually visible on any of his faces.

"Dead," The shadowy leader of the Order of the Faceless Men responded flatly. "Someone drowned him in the waters of the channels. But that's not the worst problem. In trying to learn more about the situation, we discovered that the Captain of the City Watch actually recognized his corpse. It was an exiled Ironborn named Cotter that once worked under him for a time. But the captain assured us that he decided to resign from his job as a guard after he was offered an opportunity to work in exchange to get his exile sentence pardoned and return to the Iron Islands," He explained. "To do that, he needed to join the crew of an expedition led by some Ironborn noble that the captain, unfortunately, can't remember the name of. But most importantly, Cotter told his old commander before leaving that the expedition's purpose was to discover some forgotten treasures in the southern continent of Sothoryos...specifically, in the tunnels beneath the Cursed City of Yeen."

Jon's eyes widened considerably at that, as countless thoughts erupted in his mind at the same time, trying to make sense of it all. But no matter how hard he tried to think of alternative possibilities, they didn't convince him anywhere near as much as the first answer. And when he looked at the grim expression on the face of the handpicked Champion of the Many-Faced God, the chosen Champion of Meraxes knew that his peer had come to the same conclusion.

He sighed heavily, the sound filling the otherwise empty section of the hallway of Winterfell that lead to the Great Hall. "They are finally onto us now."

The Nameless One nodded solemnly. "And this is only the beginning."

Jon clenched his fists. "No. It is only the beginning for THEM," He stressed, gritting his teeth. "We have been preparing for this moment for years, ever since our respective gods handpicked us for the Great War to come and we banded together to prepare our respective homelands for the darkness ahead. The Great Other, his malevolent ilk, and their own enforcers may have finally caught on but you and I both know that we still have a lot of room to maneuver our plans before the existential threat they represent is fully unleashed. Otherwise, we would have felt the collective godly might our patron deities spent to contain them shatter into pieces, as they warned us about before they started focusing all their efforts on holding back their necromantic tide while we grew our forces and prepared our nations. The divine shield may have been dented enough for them to finally learn about us but that's all this is, a dent," Jon assured his partner. "And before the crack comes, we WILL be ready."

The Faceless leader actually smiled lightly at his speech, his own eyes fierce for once. "Agreed. Our Alliance shall succeed, and no walking dead or caged, dark god will be able to stop us by then."

Then he bowed his head before him across his mind's eye. "Well spoken, Hand of Valyria," He declared, using the title Jon had chosen to hide his real name when using the glass candles to contact his fellow High Council members specifically.

Jon took a deep breath as the doors of the Great Hall finally came within sight. "Thank you for informing me of this crucial piece of news. But I am afraid I must break the connection soon. I have an important meeting six years in the making and I can't afford to be distracted for the next hour or so."

"Understood," The Nameless One replied. "And since it appears we will have to accelerate our plans, focus on advancing your interests in Westeros now that you are there. I will inform our partners on southern Sothoryos and Yi Ti to do the same with the next phase of their own goals. That said, I assume you will want to report all of this yourself to the rest of our fellow champions when you get some time?"

Jon knew the shadowy leader of the Faceless Men was asking that because the Bastard of Winterfell had been the one to officially recruit the last 3 members of their Secret Alliance once he had finally managed to discover their identities to track them down. Besides, he had worked more closely with them in the past than with his more distantly located peers, since their respective spheres of regional influence overlapped more closely with Jon's. So, he nodded.

"I will inform the Three-eyed Raven first," He decided. "At this point, he is our first line of defense before the Northern Army of the Dead can march on the Wall, and besides, he may have sensed something about all this that we hadn't. The Crimson Brother will be far from pleased if he is informed last so, I will let him know. And given his recent activities, it's probably more urgent for him to find out anyway. After all, the Mighty Hammer and his followers are much more out of reach from the Great Other's forces than we are. Still, we might need his powerful help sooner than we thought so I will inform him to accelerate his own preparations as soon as possible."

"Then it's settled," His peer said in agreement. "May your blades stay sharp and your enemies suffer, Hand of Valyria."

"Likewise, my fellow champion."

And with that exchange, Jon severed the mental connection, using the same reflex within his skull that allows him to return to his own body after warging into an animal.

The Bastard of Winterfell took a moment to compose his thoughts and breathed deeply, in the process. Then he pushed the door open, feeling determined for more than one reason.

A/N: Well, I did promise loads of reveals, interesting implications, and additional mysteries so...would you say I delivered? Lol.

Anyway, I am sure you have loads of questions about this sort of Illuminati-esq Secret Society my version of Jon is a part of in this timeline so, I will do something a bit new this time around. For those interested in commenting after this one, feel free to explain what particular details were the ones that caught your attention the most for whatever reason. I will pick up to 5 reviews I like most among the lot and then send you a private message where I will give you the option to ask me three questions about the implications this chapter just injected into the plotline you are most curious about. You can determine if you want the answer to be fully spoilery in terms of depth, or not.

Oh, and if it helps to get you started then know this: of all the seven leaders of the factions that form this Secret Alliance only 2 are OCs (Original Characters), one of which is this Nameless One although at least it's plausible to argue that the Faceless Men would have a leader at least for certain things so at least that one is based on a canon organization. So aside from him and the only other OC, the 5 other members are named characters from the show and/or books, even if I ensured the Point of Divergence for this fic would change their respective futures a lot compared to the canon plotline.

Regardless, I hope you like this one, as I had a lot of fun finally exploring some of my long-term plans into a chapter that has now been published. So, good luck in this little review contest, and have a great week!