Chapter Fifteen

Highgarden was in celebration, as it was Princess Margaery Tyrell's seventeenth birthday, and several princes, lords, and ladies of the seven kingdoms were there to present some gifts to the beautiful young lady on her seventeenth birthday. But of all the gifts a noblewoman could give you, there was one that was not gold, jewels, or clothes of the finest quality.

The Lord of House Stark sent a gift, which Margaery was looking at with great affection, for it was a white owl with touches of gold, it was beautiful everywhere you looked, at first as was to be expected from the nobles of the South, they scoffed at such a poor gift, why send an animal and not jewels to a princess like Margaery. But she did not want such things, for why would she want to be given jewelry if she could afford to buy it herself? The only jewel she wore was the one her betrothed had sent her on her previous birthday, a black ruby, very few could get that kind of ruby because of its rarity, and now another gift that was not common, an owl, a most beautiful owl.

The man in charge of bringing that owl was none other than Hector Barbossa, at first he refused as he did not wish to use the pearl as a cargo ship, but then he agreed because someone in his crew wished to meet his brother's betrothed. And Barbossa soon realized how easily the girl could fake what people were looking for and manipulate them, all these little noble children who wanted to destroy Margaery's betrothal were easily manipulated by this girl. A very dangerous woman indeed.

On the other hand, Margaery was not only watching the gift her betrothed sent, but also the man who came to deliver it personally along with a girl of her age apparently, who was looking at her fiercely, perhaps in the north there were women who were more than interested in Harry Stark, in the same way that men were interested in her, In his letter he apologized for not being able to attend her birthday again, but he did not give any hint as to why he was not there, he wanted so much to procrastinate, for the sole purpose of her asking the man in front of her, and no doubt he succeeded, because she wanted to know.

- "My apologies, but may I ask you something" - Margaery was always very polite, although she wanted to demand to be answered, things were not like that, you always had to show politeness and let people see what they wanted, that was the best form of manipulation than any other method, something Barbossa knew, but still he only nodded his head to imply that she could ask her question - "Why didn't my fiancé come?"

- "My brother is very busy, that's why he sent us" - Artemisia spoke for the first time, she wanted to meet her brother's fiancée, ever since Harry told them about his fiancée, both she and Mya wanted to meet her, to know what kind of person she was, and here she was in front of her - "My name is Artemisia Stark, as I said Harry Stark's sister" - Artemisia was always very analytical with people, - "My brother always said, that you were beautiful like the most beautiful rose in a garden" - Those words only made Margaery smile, apparently her beauty caught the attention of the Lord of the Stark House - "But, you have to be careful. ...at any moment you could be pricked by its thorns... the most beautiful roses are the ones with the most thorns."

Margaery stared at Artemisia, once again her betrothed was proving that he was not just an ordinary Lord, which made her all the more eager to meet him.

Artemisia had to admit, her brother was right, Margaery was a beautiful woman and in time she was going to get much more beautiful. But she was also dangerous beyond belief, her brother would rather fight the Lannisters than have a war with the Tyrells, and for that reason, he wished to have Margaery as close as possible, where he could have a certain advantage against the Tyrells who in political arenas were the best.

From a safe distance, Olenna Tyrell was watching what was going on, at first the Stark girl took her distance and analyzed her granddaughter, which was unusual for a Northerner, they don't analyze things, they act, which gave her an understanding that the North was changing, while her granddaughter concentrated only on the owl and the man in front of her. The northern girl was analyzing her, it was very bold of her, to keep her distance and then speak, not many people did that, they always wished for attention to be paid to a place. But just as Margaery was about to speak, an owl flew up to where they were standing, and perched on Barbossa's shoulder, and she stared at the beautiful animal.

- "My apologies, Lady Margaery, but we must leave." - Barbossa politely took his leave and began his march with Artemisia, and left Margaery and her guests, though for the young Tyrell, there was something on her mind, the north was not going to be easy to control.

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Winterfell

A small crowd of people surrounded two people who until recently were in a fight, where one had the upper hand, one of those people was Harry Stark, seventeen years old, you could see that the boy had an extremely worked out body, and being shirtless, you could see his perfectly toned abdomen. Near him, but on the ground, was the boy who when he visited the king's landing, saw him being mistreated by two Lannister soldiers, Harry was giving him the chance to become strong, the chance that when his enemies saw him they would surrender instantly, for that he had to give up his old name, and accept the one he was given.

Leonidas Mormont was adopted by the Mormont family, and trained under strict training for two years from that day. He did not have the talent of Artemisia or Mya, but he worked harder than anyone else, the hard work had its benefits, and even though he had never beaten Artemisia in combat, even though he was much stronger than her, Artemisia always beat him. But on one of his many visits to Winterfell with the Mormont family, Harry Stark challenged him to a fight, and the result was clear.

- "Leonidas you look pathetic" - Mya helped her friend to get up, as in these years they were able to establish a very meaningful friendship, but for Leonidas, it was impossible to get up, Harry used him as a pillow that received blows, Harry's fighting style was extremely efficient, the same that Artemisia and sometimes Mya used - "You won't be able to beat Harry in a hand-to-hand fight."

- "I am the ruler of the North, I have to be much stronger than all my soldiers" - Harry looked at Leonidas, every day Harry fought, it was part of his training, he couldn't just be a Lord, and be someone weak, hiding behind an army, he had to be on the front line, defending his home.

His soldiers understood that Harry was not a person who would let his soldiers sacrifice themselves, nor would he send them to certain death as many others did, he fought head-on, and though many of his Lords made it clear that he did not need to, for the loss would be too great.

In recent years, it had been shown that the lords could not achieve what they did without Harry Stark's help and vigilance, they would rather die than see the North lose Harry, who gave his all for the realm. And you only had to see that the North was currently in a golden age, changes and more changes were what the North saw, something that in the past people would be afraid to do, Harry did it at the right time, after the defeat of the Targaryen, the North became powerful, in a very short time, what any kingdom cost a lot, the North did not.

In gold, it could easily fight against the West which was a kingdom rich in gold from the mines, especially the Lannisters, and the Dominion which was extremely rich from the food they sold. Now the North could stand side by side with those two kingdoms in part gold.

In the distance, Eddard GreyStark and Benjen BlackStark were looking intently at their nephew, who was having a chat, no longer with Leonidas, but with those in charge of training the recruits, no doubt neither of them believed that they would be able to do everything their nephew was doing. If it wasn't for his mother, they were sure he wouldn't sleep. It was good that Ashara could put an end to Harry because they were sure that no one else would be able to do it, the mother and son connection that the two of them had been unique, as she helped to keep everything in order in Winterfell, her walks were not just to stretch her legs, it was to observe if there was a mistake or a point where some people could take advantage, in the political part she was an excellent teacher along with Elia Martell, both were good in that area, so in that area they were Harry's left hand, while they were his right hand. Everything within the family, they were still a Stark, for that reason, they also inherited the house crest, a white and a black direwolf.

- "So far I cannot believe that our nephew has the respect of all the North" - Ned looked at his nephew with admiration, very few could have that respect from their people, you could count on one hand, the people who were respected as Harry was by his men - "Not even I, would have done such a magnificent job."

- "You're right brother, you were raised by the Arryns, from the first moment not everyone was going to want to follow you" - Ben was honest with his brother, even though he did not want to have a conversation with Ned so much, because he spent so much time with the Arryns, mortal enemies of House Stark, plus he could easily be influenced by Ned's affection for Jon Arryn, that's why Harry would not allow Eddard to be too far south, where Jon would try to take information away from him.

All the North knew exactly that Jon Arryn was going to look to his beloved ward for information, that's why Harry had his uncle Ned in charge of Moat Cailin, that made Robert happy too because he could feel his friend very close to where he was. It removed the possibility of Jon having information about what was going on in Winterfell which was the source of power in the North, it was the place where all the ideas came from, it was lucky that Ned was in favor of his nephew, and he was not saying anything about what the North currently had, which of course was going to be able to affect the North, because from the first point they were going to try to increase the taxes to the kingdom, which until it came to light of their business, was very good.

It also helped that the North lent them a certain amount of money, so an increase was going to be very good for the crown, more so now that the Starks had the support of the Lannisters, as the lions had the support of the wolves. Furthermore, it was a very beneficial truce for each house, you help me, I don't help you, you betray me, prepare for war.

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Winterfell (Another Point)

Elia Martell and Ashara Stark were quietly playing a game of chess, it was very relaxing and at the same time helped to work the mind, for a person whose greatest virtue was the use of their head, chess was an excellent method of learning, where you could quietly engage in a strategy for future wars, both military and political.

Elia and Ashara were politically different people, Elia always wanted to be the first to make a move because she thought she would have the advantage all the time, while Ashara did the opposite, she wanted her enemy to make the first move. The methods were different, but the effectiveness was the same, so in a game of chess, Elia could have a slight advantage by making the first move, and Ashara could counter that move and have the ability to make her opponent move her pieces the way she wanted so that in the end she would be the winner.

The result was a draw, the two had two pieces, the queen and the king, pieces that cannot be sacrificed at any time, because of the importance of each, when the king falls, the game ends an important function, but it was the only thing the king was good for.

The queen, on the other hand, was the best piece in chess, it could move as it wished when it was its turn, it had no limits, and it was the piece that if you protected it in a good way, was the piece that made you win the game, but if you lost it in the first moves, your moves would be greatly reduced, which could lead to a resounding defeat.

There was a chance to win by making that huge sacrifice. But was it necessary to make such a sacrifice, to know if you are lucky to win, the answer was simple, a sacrifice can give you a victory, but you can't sacrifice your most important piece in every battle because you can at any moment lose.

Ashara and Elia could be very good friends, but they were competitive, even though the score was even between wins and losses for each, neither could have an absolute advantage over the other. And now they were working together, to do something that many would think was madness, but so far the madness of placing the North as the most powerful kingdom of all, and ruling over all the other kingdoms was certainly something that would draw a lot of attention wherever you looked.

The North was extremely balanced, it had everything that Elia could consider a danger to other kingdoms, and it was already consolidated, as an unstoppable growing kingdom.

- "What will be our next move - Elia asked Ashara when the two players of the game of different methods came together, they were very good to hear, they both knew that they were not going to betray each other, as Elia owed her life and the lives of her children, to the North - "Petyr wishes to arrange a marriage with me, in the last year he traveled several times to Dorne."

- "Eliminating Baelish may be a solution, but sometimes it is better to let the poison run its course, after all, the man's presence does not affect us" - Ashara understood that Baelish was someone you had to watch out for, because of his great intelligence, and because he knew who he could brainwash a little to manipulate as was the case with Catelyn GreyStark's younger sister and Jon Arryn's wife who was madly in love with the man - "Both he and Varys are enemies you always have to keep a few eyes on."

- "It is surprising that House Blackfyre still exists, I thought the Targaryens had eliminated it in the Dance of Dragons" - Elia was surprised to learn that Varys helped the black dragons as they were better known, as they wore the symbol of House Targaryen, but the color of the dragon was black - "Do you think Varys might be a Blackfyre?"

- "Who knows, Varys was always an unknown factor for all of Westeros, you never know who he works for, and under his phrase, he hides many things, but I don't think House Blackfyre is a problem yet" - Ashara was putting her pieces back for another game of chess, as she thought about the possibilities of House Blackfyre attacking Westeros to conquer it again as the Targaryens did, it was interesting from one point of view as it was a lot of work, it was going to take a lot of things for that - "A war....the Greyjoys are thinking of attacking, we don't know exactly when, but they haven't yet completed the thousand little ships they want."

- "Compared to the ships that the north has, they can be considered that way, and more so with those cannons" - Elia smiled, and moved one of her pawns, waiting for Ashara to make her move, who moved her knight, which threw her off a bit, as it was not a usual move, but it was very interesting for the situation - "Do you think your son will show the northern power in that war?" - To the rhythm of her words, she moved another pawn, and watched as Ashara moved her knight back to where it was before as if she had not moved any piece - "I think the answer is yes."

- "The Greyjoys are natural enemies of the Starks, and ever since he learned that the Greyjoys wished to return to the way they were, Harry has been planning various strategies to liquidate the maritime power of that house" - Ashara knew that her son was keeping a close eye on the Greyjoys and all things noble in the Iron Islands, he had thought about who he was going to eliminate, to leave the squids as weak as possible, so that they would never again think they could attack the North without receiving something in return, such as the extermination of one of their most powerful vassal houses - "Winter is coming."

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Casterly Rock

Tywin Lannister didn't ask much for his sons to make him happy, he asked Tyrion to re-enable Castamere, and he did, in less than two months, the mines surrounding the castle were re-enabled, and it was generating a lot of money for House Lannister's coffers as well as his youngest son's coffers. But he was the only son who was giving him a little happiness so far, even if he still saw him as a disgrace for being a dwarf, but he could pass it off, for all the good work he had done over the years since their relationship was growing closer, it was good to know that his family was not divided.

Although his other children were not giving him much joy, Jaime no longer asked for anything, he was an excellent warrior, but he did not have a good head for thinking as his younger brother had, he gave up on him because he did not want to leave his vows of knighthood, and according to Tyrion it was better not to be aware of something that would never happen, and then there was his eldest daughter Cersei, he only asked her to have children with Robert, was it difficult to get pregnant, was it difficult to ask her to get pregnant with a person who all he thought about was fornication, was it too much to ask.

Tyrion looked quietly at his father, he was hiding his joy that his sister was not having children, it was not the time yet, he was doing his best to stop his sister from having a child with Robert yet, and all thanks to his secret alliance with the Starks. They put a drug in every plate of Cersei's food or drink to stop her from getting pregnant a new medicine the Northerners were working on to stop the whores from getting pregnant, as well as to stop more bastard children being born, who were despised.

It was a good thing from one point of view, like the big profit the Starks were going to make from the whorehouses, because a pregnant prostitute was useless for making gold. And this medicine helped a lot to see his father's frustrated face, for not getting the heir he wanted, for the moment it was good to see how frustrating it was for his father, that the Lannisters did not consolidate power in Westeros as one of the ruling houses.

As gratifying as that was to see, he still had to pretend to be concerned about what was going on, it was something that had to be done.

- "Just be patient Father, at any moment Robert will get my sister pregnant" - Tyrion needed words that could comfort his father, although in reality he wanted to laugh at his father's misfortune, and his sister, he had nothing on Jaime, but he had some information against his brother that he was going to be able to kill his father.

- "Cersei thinks that because she is queen, she can disobey me, we will go to King's Landing tomorrow" - Tywin was determined he was going to make things clear to her, he was not coming back from that place until she was pregnant by Robert, no matter if she was raped by the same man, but she was going to have an heir to the crown and an heir to House Lannister.

- "You know, it's hard to put a leash on a dog once you've put a crown on its head," - Tyrion got a look from his father, as always that tenacious look that could strike fear into anyone, the feeling you got when you had the so-called golden lion of House Lannister in your face.

- "You think the crown gives her power, you think that because she is queen, Cersei won't do what I tell her" - Tywin looked at his son, he was very intelligent, but he doubted his ability to influence his son's actions, the fear Cersei had of him, he knew it, of the three sons, Cersei was the most afraid of him, more than Jaime and Tyrion where the latter was verbally attacked by him himself in his time - "Before she is queen she is my daughter, I put her there.... and she'll do as I tell her, I won't be as kind as the last time I went to King's Landing."

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King's Landing.

Being the King's Hand at the moment was a shitty thing for Jon Arryn, the crown had been in debt for a year to the Starks and the Lannisters, twenty million gold dragons was the total that had to be paid, ten to each house, it was a horrible thing to see, because they couldn't find a way to pay that sum.

When he finally has the money to pay, Cersei spends it on vast quantities of wine and Robert on whores, now he even asks for the best whores from each kingdom to be brought in, because he wanted to fuck them.

And worst of all, with every whore that Robert fucked, he called them Lyanna, still obsessed with the Stark's death. And Robert needed an heir to consolidate the throne for House Baratheon, but it had to be Cersei's son because Tywin is not going to like Robert having children with whores and not with his daughter.

The only times Robert behaved well was when that man came to the city, and he behaved like a king, but when Tywin left again he started the same routine, and he couldn't control it.

That was Tywin's show of power over Robert, the second moment where Robert behaves like a king is when someone from the North comes to talk to him, but then he doesn't behave like that, he behaves like a little boy.

Even when he refused to hand over the whores he almost went mad, but the North and West were the only ones who didn't listen to him and Robert did nothing.

For Jon, it was an insult how his pupil spat in his face all his teachings, so many years invested in making Robert into someone he was meant to be, someone he could manipulate with ease, molding Robert and Ned into people who needed only his person. But he failed, Ned was loyal to his nephew and Robert didn't care about the realm at all, just drink, fuck, drink, fuck, fuck, and sleep, the same routine every damn day. It was the damn reason they couldn't pay their debts and needed more money, so they could stabilize the city, people were starving in this place, and in no time a civil war could be born, that was bad.

- "I see you are very tense my Lord Hand" - Varys knew what Jon was suffering, and that was why it didn't bother him at all, as long as he was in this place, the crown was going to keep going into debt, people were going to starve, and then the kingdoms were going to turn against him and another war would start, a bigger one, and then the blow he wished for would be struck.

- "How could I not be, the realm was falling apart, and several kingdoms wanted more than they deserved" - As expected Jon's envy was coming out, knowing there were kingdoms superior to his, he didn't like it at all, the North, the West, the Dominion and Dorne four monetarily powerful kingdoms, with a military strength you have to consider depending on which kingdom it is - "Robert is still obsessed, with the Stark girl."

- "I always found it curious, Lyanna Stark was a beautiful young woman worthy of a king, but since the Starks and the Baratheons made that union, many were against it, even herself" - Varys had the information about that, Lyanna never liked Robert Baratheon and even more when she found out he had a bastard, that marriage almost broke up, if not for Robert's insistence - "Apparently the image still lives in his mind, the one woman he could not offer to the world, and forget her the next day."

- "Add to that his hunger for war, reigning doesn't matter to him, only fighting and fucking, as is evident" - Jon had a slight smile, there were very few people who could stand up to Robert in a one on one fight, not even Rhaegar Targaryen could stand up to him, and he was considered one of the best swordsmen that could have been born in Westeros, but he was no match for the fury of Robert Baratheon who defeated him - "Maybe if Ned was king, the Northerners would be better controlled, the Lannisters wouldn't have a queen, and everything would be in order.... it's something I can't help thinking."

.

Unknown Location.

A bored Jack Sparrow watched as the ships of the Iron Bank sank, they didn't know who they were going to lend the money to, but he didn't care either, the Iron Bank wanted to know who were the people who stole their gold. And they found him, 15 ships followed him thinking they had a chance with the mighty vengeance, they all died, and the ships were destroyed as if they were mere sheets of paper.

And he watched it all with a bottle of rum in his hand, the vengeance was unrivaled, obviously taking away from the other ships that the North had, but then he had no single rival. It was everything that any captain would wish for, an indestructible ship, but why that look of boredom, they didn't put up the fight as he expected, they didn't even fire the cannons, and the crew of the ship gave up when they reached the vengeance, it was obvious that they let themselves be reached, because they wanted to bring them to a place where no one would be able to hear the cannons, but when they were at a distance where they could see the magnificence of the ship, they decided to retreat, he felt insulted and started the attack, that's what caused this feeling of boredom, he thought that these mercenaries who were paid, were going to be able to give his men a fight.

- "Looks like we'll keep waiting for the squids to have the eggs to start the war" - Jack couldn't wait for that anymore, to show the might of the vengeance, in people who thought they owned the sea, he was going to take it upon himself to show them how wrong they were, he was going to break the Greyjoy's unbreakable morale, he was so eager he wanted another bottle of rum - "Gibbs, take us to the port kart.... the rum ran out" - The laughter from his men was not long in coming, Jack was respected by his men, even if he has that root of only caring about rum, though his face changed when, a hawk began to sing - "I didn't know the Dutchman was so close to us." 

- "What do we do captain" - Gibbs looked at Jack who was watching the hawk, the sea seemed too small at the moment for the Dutchman and the Vengeance to be close, apparently David Jones was also looking for ships to destroy - "We go to where the Dutchman is, or we continue on our course."

- "No need, we'll meet on the way, we're both going to Port Kart it seems" - Jack kept looking at the falcon, to remove his sword, and point towards his destination, so that a strong wind would blow the sails of his ship, the journey had to be as short as possible, and more so now that Jack's precious drink finished, who couldn't get a thought out of his head - "Jones, your lust for blood makes your falcon look for ships to destroy... I feel sorry for Victarion Greyjoy."