The first snow of true winter fell silently, covering the grey concrete walls of Blackwood Keep in a shroud of white. The world was freezing. The ground was hard as iron.
But inside the long, low stone building Ronan had erected against the south wall, it was spring.
"The sand arrived just in time," Ronan said, watching the furnace roar.
This wasn't the massive Blast Furnace used for iron. This was a smaller, domed structure built from the highest quality fire-brick. Inside, three crucibles glowed with a terrifying, blinding light.
"Silica from White Harbor," Ronan murmured. "Lime from our quarry. And Potash from the burnt timber."
He turned to the glassblower he had recruited—a man named Gallo, who usually made simple bottles and cups. Gallo looked terrified.
"My Lord," Gallo said, wiping sweat from his brow. "I have blown cups. I have blown vases. But you want... flat glass? Glass cannot be flat. It wants to be round. It is a bubble."
"We will force it to be flat," Ronan said. "Watch."
Ronan picked up the blowpipe. He dipped it into the crucible, gathering a glowing gather of molten glass. It was viscous, like honey made of sunlight.
He blew. A bubble formed.
But instead of spinning it into a disk (the "Crown" method used for small, thick castle windows), Ronan swung the pipe.
He stood over a deep pit dug into the floor. He swung the glowing bubble back and forth like a pendulum. Gravity pulled the molten glass. The bubble stretched. It became a long, glowing sausage. A cylinder.
"Cut it," Ronan ordered.
Gallo, trembling, used wet shears to snip the ends of the cylinder. Then, he sliced the cylinder down its length.
"To the flattening stone," Ronan commanded.
They moved the cut cylinder to a separate oven with a flat, polished stone floor. As the glass reheated, it softened. It uncurled. With a wooden block, Ronan smoothed it down.
What was once a bubble was now a sheet.
It wasn't perfectly clear like modern float glass—it had a faint ripple and a slight greenish tint—but it was transparent. And it was big. Two feet by three feet.
"Do it again," Ronan said, handing the pipe back to Gallo. "We need two hundred panes."
The Crystal Hall
Three weeks later, the structure was complete.
It was a marvel of engineering. A long stone spine ran east-to-west. The south face was entirely glazed with the new glass panes, angled perfectly to catch the low winter sun.
Wynafryd Manderly stood at the door, wrapped in heavy furs. Her breath misted in the freezing air. The Manderly caravan was packed and ready to leave; the sand had been delivered, the contracts signed.
"This is your final trick, Lord Ronan?" she asked. "A glass house? It will shatter in a hailstorm. And it will freeze at night."
"Hail is rare in winter," Ronan said. "And it won't freeze. Look down."
She looked at the foundation. Visible through small vents, she could see the familiar glimmer of heat.
"The hypocaust," she realized. "You ran the pipes under the dirt."
"Hot water and smoke," Ronan said. "The soil is kept at a constant 60 degrees. The stone back-wall absorbs the sun during the day and radiates it back at night."
He opened the door. "After you."
Wynafryd stepped inside.
She gasped.
The air was heavy, humid, and smelled of... earth. Rich, wet, living earth. It was twenty degrees warmer than the outside air. Condensation dripped from the glass panes.
But the real miracle was in the soil beds.
Rows of green.
"Spinach," Ronan pointed out. "Kale. Carrots. Turnips."
He crouched down and brushed the soil aside to reveal a radish, bright red and crisp.
"In the North," Wynafryd whispered, "we eat salted pork and dried oats for six months. We lose our teeth. Our skin goes grey. We get the sickness."
"Scurvy," Ronan noted. "Vitamin C deficiency."
"And you..." She looked down the long rows of green life thriving while snow piled up against the glass inches away. "You have fresh vegetables."
She looked at him with a new kind of respect. It wasn't the fear she felt at the crossbows, or the greed she felt for the iron. It was awe.
"This is worth more than the steel," she said. "If you can feed the North fresh food in winter... you aren't just a Lord. You are a God."
"I'm just a gardener with a furnace," Ronan said, standing up.
He pulled a small knife, cut the radish, washed it in a barrel of water, and handed it to her.
"For the road," he said.
Wynafryd took the radish. She bit into it. The crunch echoed in the quiet greenhouse. It tasted sharp, peppery, and alive.
"My father will want this," she said seriously. "He will want glass houses in White Harbor."
"He can have them," Ronan said. "Next year. For a price."
Wynafryd smiled. A genuine smile this time. "Of course. Always a price. Goodbye, Ronan."
She turned and walked out into the snow. But she didn't look cold anymore. She carried the knowledge that winter had been beaten.
[Project Complete: The Winter Greenhouse]
[Food Security: High (Vitamin Deficiency Eliminated)]**
[Public Order: Maximum (The people know they won't starve)]**
Ronan watched the Manderly banners disappear into the treeline. He was alone again.
"Varrick," Ronan called out.
The administrator appeared, holding his clipboard.
"The lady is gone," Ronan said. "Now we focus on the road. If we are going to export this glass, the mud track to the Kingsroad won't suffice. We need pavement."
"And... the invitation, My Lord?" Varrick asked hesitantly.
"Invitation?"
"From Winterfell. It arrived this morning. Lord Stark summons the banners. Not for war... but for the Harvest Feast. He expects you."
Ronan looked at his reflection in a pane of glass. He saw a man who had transformed a starving village into an industrial engine in three months.
"Then we shall go," Ronan said. "And we won't go empty-handed."
Status Update:
• Tech: Glassblowing (Level 1).
• Economy: High (Export ready).
• Next Objective: The Road to Winterfell.
.....
Author Note
Hi guys! Thank you for reading my fanfiction.
I wanted to let you know that I'll be releasing bonus chapters for Power Stones. Here are the goals:
30 Power Stones: 1 Bonus Chapter
50 Power Stones: 1 Bonus Chapter
80 Power Stones: 2 Bonus Chapter
100 Power Stones: 2 Bonus Chapter
Thanks for the support!