Chapter 129 - Artican Trade in Westeros 56 (Oldtown 06).
[Chapter Size: 3100 Words.]
---------------------------------------
Pessoa Thrid POV
Westeros, 295 AC.
---------------------------------------
Jon left the citadel as soon as everything was ready for transport. He emerged outside while his men had numerous wagons brought from the ships placing all the looted items in them, before transporting them to the port.
"I noticed that you've dominated the west side, any problems?" Jon asked one of those responsible for organizing the Artican men.
"Everything is under control, my king. We just had some trouble with a force concentrating in the east, trying to get past our men, but it was easily repelled; the city is practically taken, my king." Jon heard this and nodded to his man.
"That's good, there's nothing more we can do here, it's time to have a conversation with the current person in charge of the city." Jon spoke calmly.
"Yes, my king." He spoke as they organized a group of soldiers to accompany the king to the south of the city.
They quickly began descending the city, Jon with 50 guards passing through empty streets filled with dead people, as he approached the great tower, surrounded by the river that passed through the middle of the city and met the sea.
The place was surrounded by Articans from every side, while they positioned themselves in front of the water ready to attack, there were men in the windows with bows ready, prepared to guard the place.
"How are things there." Jon approached the man responsible for the siege, another royal guard.
"My king... as you can see, we've surrounded the place and are waiting for a response from Lord Hightower... But he wants to speak first with you." He spoke, and Jon nodded.
"Send a message saying I am here." Jon said calmly.
The royal guard nodded and wrote on a letter that Jon was here and sent it on an arrow before throwing it to a safe place over the walls around the tower.
"Now let's wait..." Jon said, and they waited 20 minutes.
"These damn, they think we are what to wait so long?!" Greg growled near Jon, he was a robust Artican man with a short fuse.
"I have to agree with Greg, these guys are under a siege and think they can do something like this...?" Jon commented with a not frustrated look as his bird passed by the place, but Lord Hightower's brother with his son seemed to argue in a room without windows or spaces to let any rodent through after seeing Jon control nearly all the animals in the area where the war took place.
It was at that moment that he saw new movement inside the structure as men began to come out of it and a well-dressed man approached one of the gates then they opened it, coming out with some guards in house armor, while they took a small boat and moved towards where Jon was on the eastern side of the city.
They finally approached and Jon asked some men to bring them to him, while he waited seated, picking up an Artican wine and drinking it, this drink was not traded due to complications they could have with Dorne, since Jon wanted to put those products there, not that it mattered now, after all the attack on this city made Artica and the seven kingdoms have a completely destroyed relationship, not that he cared about that now.
The men were soon brought to him, while they looked quite nervous around the Articans looking at them. It was 4 guards and the man with more social clothing, looking at Jon carefully.
"Jon Artica, the king of Artica." Began the negotiator, with a voice trying to maintain a posture. "I am Emissary Lyle, sent by House Hightower to discuss the terms of your occupation." Jon nodded slowly, allowing the man to continue.
"We recognize your control over Oldtown and wish to avoid further bloodshed. We are willing to discuss how we can come to an agreement..."
"What does your lord have to offer me before we start breaking that gate." Jon spoke calmly.
"My lord would like to negotiate inside his house... if you would accompany me with some guards." He spoke, and Jon wanted to laugh at that.
"You should already know my conditions, there will be no negotiation inside the place, I want him to lower the bridge and come out surrendered." Jon spoke "That's the only way for me to be merciful to you."
"But Artican king, that's not fair..." The man spoke.
"Fair? You think I didn't know your lord's plans, what he planned with us, when he asked me to accompany him to his tower?" Jon mocked as the man swallowed hard.
"But..." He tried to argue once more.
"Stop, you don't need to continue." Jon raised his palm and continued. "These are my conditions, I want 20 minutes until your lord raises the bridge and surrenders, otherwise, we will start the attack." Jon said.
"Take them away, there's no more negotiation." Jon ordered and the men were quickly taken away by his men.
"What should we do, my king?" A royal guard asked.
"Let's prepare to destroy things, they're not going to surrender and I want you to keep an eye on any of those archers in the tower, any attack from them in these 20 minutes... you can kill." Jon gave his order.
The men quickly began to organize while Jon prepared for any sign of surrender from the other side. At one moment, the windows were filled with more archers and they began to arm arrows, but before they could shoot them, Artican arrows began to intercept them, eliminating all of them.
"15 minutes and he gave his response... very well, blow up both drawbridges." Jon ordered as each side of the river prepared to launch wildfire.
The giants quickly began to launch their giant arrows with the green liquid, and before the people inside the tower could react, both gates were blown up in the next moment.
BOOOOOM!!!
BOOOOOM!!!
The entire city heard the echo of the explosion as the fire rose in the south of the city, the tower with the lighthouse trembled at that moment and Jon nodded with that waiting a bit before starting to advance, his ships were positioned to send troops, while this quickly happened and Jon didn't even need to interfere as he approached the place a moment later.
Jon saw his men holding the entire Hightower family there, while what seemed to be the eldest son, trembled with fear, Lord Hightower's brother in Highgarden had an angry look at Jon.
"Do you know what you've done?! You've started a war with the entire south of the wall!!" He exclaimed.
"I am aware of that, Lord Hightower... you should know that by making me your enemy, I would attack, or did you really think I would stay silent, while you kept me like a trapped rat? Look at the result, we managed to end all the forces of the city losing very few enemies..." Jon spoke calmly.
"You're some kind of witch! You're a demon! I saw what you did with the animals." He exclaimed losing his composure.
"Well, it was you who wanted to mess with this demon. And great, you gave me a good reason to start looting all the Hightowers' vaults." Jon said, and looked to his men, "Loot the place, steal everything valuable, this will be my response to this house." Jon said.
"You can't do this!!" He tried to exclaim, but Jon looked to a man who was behind the noble and nodded, making this man hit the head and make the man faint in front of his son.
"What can we do now..." Jon murmured and looked at the tower.
"Very tall, isn't it, must be a nice fall." Tormund appeared at Jon's side at that moment, and he wondered how the redhead came to be there.
"I think you're right, I feel like knocking down this tower, why not blow it up?" Jon suddenly spoke and this made the people in the castle widen their eyes to that, after all, they had seen the Articans blow up the gates without any difficulty.
"You can't do this... please, king of Artica." The young man who should be Jon's age there, exclaimed, but unlike his father, it was not a demand.
"Well, I couldn't do it even though I wanted to, after all we have to maintain our stock of wildfire, after all we don't know what we will encounter at sea with Westeros wanting to hunt us..." Jon murmured quietly before turning back to that young man. "You're lucky, so pray we never come back here, otherwise I will knock down this tower and watch from some privileged place." Jon said in the end.
"What will we do now with the men taking the gold, my king?" The royal guard asked and Jon had to shrug. "Seems like there's nothing left to do in the city, just finish looting the place. Meanwhile, I'll return to my ship." Jon said and before leaving there, he looked at the man on the ground passed out. "I also want him taken as our prisoner, but he's more ill-mannered than Ser Jaime, so keep him in a cell for the rest of the trip." Jon said and left, ignoring his son pleading for it.
He returned to the ship after coming back, and the first thing he did was go to a cabin. "Now we have to give an answer to the king of Westeros before any raven arrives about what happened... Or maybe I should send both letters at the same time..." Jon thought calmly, wanting to see the face of each of the council members after this event. He still held the letter he had taken from Lord Hightower's brother's plea for help.
He would send both letters to see their reactions. Then he began to write his response letter while his men continued bringing wagons full of books to the ships, filling them with everything they could. It didn't take long for the ships that didn't have animals, filling them with hundreds of thousands of books. Jon was plundering at least 60% of the citadel.
Such a large number that it would be a good start for Artica to educate its population. He didn't want to plunder the metals of the city because the common people had nothing to do with his quarrel with the maesters, nobles, and men of the faith, so he only took what he could from those groups.
It didn't take long for the ships to finally be ready to depart, while a group of a thousand Articans headed north, where their ships were moored. Jon left his room and caught one of the flying ravens, attaching the messages to its little legs and made it take off for King's Landing.
No one yet knew what happened in this city for a few days, after all even though some castles outside the city could see the chaos and smoke rising from it a few kilometers away, it would take days to reach Highgarden if Jon didn't prevent them from being sent.
"My king... we've finished loading all the ships and the men are retreating, returning to the port right now." A royal guard spoke and Jon nodded.
"Great, let's start to depart as soon as everyone is safe." Jon said.
The Articans began boarding the ships, organizing themselves over the next 30 minutes while the last one finally entered, Jon gave the order for them to begin departing, leaving a city totally in chaos and destruction. He may have been harsh, but it was the response he had to give to Westeros, that if they really wanted to mess with his people, these would be the consequences.
The 100 ships from the port began to gather at sea with the other 20 that were on the north coast, and they advanced towards the other 30 ships at sea.
Arya finally spotted the ships approaching a while later, while she exclaimed to Seryna heading to the side of the ship and smiling that her husband was finally back and hoping he was well. Meanwhile, Jaime had just finished writing the letter that the Artican king had requested from him, while he had placed it on a raven that the Artican men had offered him. He watched the fleet approaching and beginning to position around them.
Jon's ship moved alongside the main one where his queen and Arya were, as he began moving to that ship with his royal guards and the items acquired. Nothing of great importance was acquired from the Hightowers, but there was a lot of gold that they had managed to obtain.
"How was it, Jon, did you have to fight many warriors in the city?" Arya asked eagerly as soon as she saw him arriving.
"I had to fight a few..." Jon commented, while touching Arya's head and kissing Seryna's forehead as he approached.
"It was quite disappointing..." Tormund approached with a tone of disappointment.
"Don't be a bore, Tormund..." A royal guard spoke.
"Anyway, let's go inside, I want to rest a bit, controlling so many animals gave me a headache that I haven't felt since my 8th nameday..." Jon mentioned, recalling that he had reached his limit just at that farm in Icehill.
He began to tell Seryna and Arya what happened, and both were quite angry as soon as they heard what Jon had heard from those maesters and septons. But Jon continued and spoke of the spoils he had managed to get.
"Do you have dragon eggs?!" Arya commented in surprise.
"Yes, they are in some boxes that I asked to be taken to my room." Jon said.
"Can we see them?!" She asked immediately.
"Later... I'll organize them, I'm happy and surprised that we managed to get 12 of them while the maesters had been storing them inside the citadel the entire time..." Jon said.
They chatted a bit while having a meal and Jon went to the outside of the ships. "Captain, take the ships to the next stop." Jon requested and the man nodded, "To Lannisport, right?" He said, and Jon nodded again, before he began shouting orders to all the other ships, with the night finally arriving.
Jon decided to go to the room with his wife waiting for him. He saw the place filled with chests; he began to open them while Seryna watched him in silence. He started placing the eggs on some pillars around the bed.
"What is this?" She asked curiously.
"I want them to stay close to us, actually I want them to get used to our son." He spoke with a smile.
"So Eragon will have new companions?" She said with a playful tone.
"I hope so, 12 of them. Just imagine, dragons flying over Artica, making nests in the great Weirwood?" Jon imagined this scene.
"That would certainly take Artica to a new level." She admitted.
"Yes, let's just wrap up our things in Lannisport and leave. We will have time until the baby is born." Jon said. Lannisport was the last stop, after all, he had no more places to stop in Westeros; the only place he might try would be the Vale, but that was now out of possibilities.
Jon ended up going to sleep with Seryna while they were surrounded by dragon eggs ready to be hatched when they arrived in Artica.
The next morning, the queen of Artica woke up while seeing her husband next to the bed, looking at a strange book. "Jon... what is this?" She asked curiously.
"It's a book I took from the citadel..." He responded vaguely.
"You didn't answer my question. You took at least 600,000 books from that place... but out of those 600,000, just one you keep with you and I saw you hid it among your clothes, why?" She pressed and Jon sighed.
"It's hard to explain, but something tells me that when I open it, everything will change..." Jon murmured, feeling a connection between him and this book. Something he couldn't explain but was certain that his life would be turned upside down.
"Do you want me to see it with you?" She asked with a loving tone.
"No... I need to do this alone, but I'll look at it later, when we are returning to the north." Jon said, wanting to put off worrying about it for later.
Jon got ready and had breakfast with his sister, before calling her to see the dragons later, as the ships were heading north. Meanwhile, ravens began to fly to various parts of Westeros starting from there, with important information, as one raven flew to Casterly Rock, another to the Kinglands, and the raven that would arrive first in Highgarden.
The mood was already tense in the place, as the news of what happened near Oak Garden was heard by everyone there, with Jaime Lannister being captured and taken by the Artican group.
"What should we do, my prince..." Ser Loras asked while the whole family was gathered with the prince. Jon Artica had kidnapped the son of Tywin Lannister, who was also a royal guard and is at sea with him.
"Can we do anything? Just send a letter to King's Landing, do they still want us to keep the Articans under custody? Those fools from King's Landing didn't seem to have any idea what was in our waters if we tried anything against the group..." Olenna spoke and scoffed.
"Yes... I'll notify my brother... I wonder what they will say when they hear the news about the fall of two royal guards..." Renly commented, a bit lost.
"Well... Anyway..." Olenna was about to say more when the door burst open with an explosion and a maester fell through.
"My lady, I apologize for this, he just ran and jumped at the door..." A guard spoke immediately explaining the maester's conduct.
Everyone looked curiously at the scene while the maester tried to get up with a frightened expression. "My lady!! It's urgent, there's news from Oldtown!! The city... the city has been sacked!!" He exclaimed, his tone indicating the gravity of the situation.
◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆
🦝 Raccoon here: 🦝
I hope you are enjoying this adventure and that it gives you everything I always wanted in a good story!
Follow me on Patreon!
🌟 RaccoonLeague | Patreon🌟
Visit our Patreon for more: patreon /RaccoonLeague
Your reading and support make all the difference!
◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆