8 Wasting time but making profit
It has been five days since I arrived at Pike, and we still sitting here watching that fucking castle, why you may ask, why didn't I just fly inside its walls and open the gates or kill the whole garrison like the last two castles that we sieged, well that's the good question, let us go a little back in time.
" I beg your pardon," I say as soon as Lord Stark finishes talking, he looks as frustrated as me, and all the lords around the tent are as well because what we just heard was quite stupid.
"That is the king's command, we shall await his arrival before we invade the castle." How desperate is he for some action, go conquer the Stepstones or something, fucking Baratheon's man.
"so we have to await the southern to come and siege the rest of the iron islands even when we have the capital already under siege, just because they want some glory and they pound of ironborn flesh." well, that will work in my favor, I just have to finish the gift for Robert this week they will take to arrive, but it is frustrating anyway, especially for the northern lords that could be going home to prepare for winter, at least this will make the opinion they have of the south worse.
"well, this is shit, what do they think we are, some attack dogs that they release at their enemies, and when they want they pull our leash back, "I hear some inflamed grumbles around the tent" if that is all you needed from me, Lord Stark, I will be in the healing tent treating the sick, my lords" I take a small bow to lord Stark he nods back then to the other lords and walk towards the opening of the tent and I leave.
Ten thousand men is a lot of people, there is a multitude of ways for someone to get hurt in accidents, on training, or something heavy falling on somebody but what is worse is the sickness, dysentery is the worse one yet, is everywhere and it is deadly in this medieval society, why, well the primary cause of dysentery is poor hygiene and spread easily by touch, so yeah is everywhere, I treated a lot of people with dysentery this five days and is starting to become a bother, so I decide to actually do something about, I had a talk with lord Stark and the other lords about hygiene in the camp, after some argumentation I manage to convince them to put some new rules around here, the soldiers had to wash on the ocean at least once a week, latrines were on the edges of the camp and the ones cooking had to have some extra precaution on the hygiene front, we have to wait a little more to see if will really work but is better than nothing.
I've grown quite the reputation around the camp thanks to my healing, soldiers nod or bow heads as I pass some murmur prayers, it feels good to be appreciated but is kind of weird to have people bowing to me or saying prayers while I pass, but I have to grow accustomed to it if I intend to be lord.
In the front of the Paintings well I have finished Robert's gift and Ned's I probably just need one or two more days to end it, the painting of the lady Tanley is quite a success among the nobles even unfinished, I have the face and the good part of the torso already painted and being the only painting that is "public" made it quite famous, nobles are quite excited to see this new and more realistic form of art, many want to have one made of them or they families, tapestries are more common in Westeros and is not the most accurate form of recording someone face, painting here is either on walls or shields, but an oil painting on a canvas is something new and with my hand and magic can be very close to the memory of the person I am painting, I am sure it will be very profitable as well as soon as the southern arrive here.
in my time waiting I did not just paint and heal, I also scouted the castle, I turned into a crow and flew all around the place, and once inside the walls I turned into a rat to have a walk around the castle, said castle is definitely not beautiful or well kept either, some towers have big holes in it or entire portion of the walls collapsed, but for sure is a nightmare to take, too many narrow points, many bridges, you have to muster an overwhelming number of soldiers to pass through and you lose a lot of them but the victory would be yours, but with me here the tale will be different every choke point can be dealt with easily, there is maybe perhaps 1000 ironborn soldiers in here on the other hand just the northern army is at least 10000 strong and of course our reinforcement will be soon, as soon as the ironborn lost they navy they lost the war as well.
I traveled the entire keep and took note of important places, the room where the Greyjoys sleep, the barracks, the kitchens, there are other lords around here as well, but I don't really know a lot of them, Drumm isn't here or I didn't see him so no Red Rain to me, I saw a Harlaw or I think it is, the tunic he is using has the silver scythe on black but also a peacock on light brown, no not brow, more like cream a guess, a vassal maybe, but the most important thing a saw was the Seastone chair.
The Seastone Chair is made of a block of oily black stone carved into the shape of a Kraken, the throne room on the great keep is a long hall with stone pillars by the side with tapestries hanging from them, long tables occupy the hall from the entrance to the Seastone chair, the ceiling looks like the bottom of a ship with its wooden structure, its very Viking like, around the hall there are huge water container, a taste, and its seawater, must be a religious thing, is better than I expected as well, but the real focus here is the throne, it almost sucks the moonlight out of the room and it's not normal I can feel it, it is late now, nobody is in the hall, so I do the obvious thing, I turn back into a human and put my ass on the king of salt and rock seat.
"You seem quite comfortable" a voice comes from one of the pillars of the hall, the hall is underwater now, some fishes swim around, its torchers are all lit now with a cyan flame, and the tapestries all sway like a current is passing through them.
I watch a figure come out of the shadow of said pillar, I look at the owner of the voice, Obi fucking Wan, he's looking like the one from the live series, a little older and tired, but the eyes tell other tales, mischief is behind those eyes, I still sitting on the throne say to him.
"It's been a hot minute since we saw each other, I didn't expect to see you here, after all, you said that the isle of Faces was the last place of power in the south," I said raising a brow.
"And it is, this is not the south nor the north, we are at the iron islands, their culture, their way of life, and their gods are different, all you have to do is ask any ironborn if he considers himself a southern or northern, he will tell you that he is an ironborn and you are a Greenlander." he smiled as he explained with a calm voice.
"When you put it like that, I guess, but anyway what do I gain from this," I said like an excited child on Christmas.
"Well you found the throne of the merlins, an underwater race that is responsible for the building of some "miracle" buildings around Westeros, it depicts one of their gods known as "The one who waits beneath" it was raised from the sea bottom when an underwater volcano eruption shattered the island above and turned it into the iron islands it was found by the first man in great Wyk years after the chair was raised from the depths, the chair has the same power of your Weirwoods but instead of strengthing the plants it shuns the surface lifeforms "
"wait, what," I say.
The fuck, I didn't know about this deep lore, was it on the books? I'm pretty sure it isn't, and that god doesn't exist here in planetos right, and he waits beneath what, the throne already was at the bottom of the ocean, then again the merlins were not supposed to exist, people don't know shit about them so maybe they have a god, well it is not a problem and when it becomes a problem, it will not be mine.
So the chair is making the iron island unable to grow or regrow its plants, huh, good, I was thinking of throwing it onto the sea to break their morale or taking it with me as a trophy but it serves me a lot better here, makes the ironborn ability to create a fleet harder and with me taking the proficient workforce with me they will be fucked for some time.
"I see you finished your inner monologue." I hear Obi-Wan's voice as I leave my thoughts behind " you will receive one spell of level six and two under level five as well you will become a master in navigation, but the spells selected have to be of the element water or fire, neutral spells are available." he finishes.
"wait really, why put such conditions now, and why fire merlins live underwater no?" I asked confused
"The throne you sitting on right now was forged by an underwater civilization that uses volcanos and spells to forge everything they need, fire and water right there, neutral spells are always available, about the conditions, I sincerely don't know, as I told you before I don't put the prices I just tell you what they are, as you mortals like to say, I just work here.
I laugh at that "fair enough I guess, I have some questions though, unrelated ones" he gestures to me to go on" can I teach my magic to anyone else, and can I create my own magic, as I mean, fuse spells together or create new ones outside of the dnd spells." I ask, these are some questions a have thought about before and always forget to ask.
" For the first question, yes, your children will be able to use magic like you but not in the same way, they will not be able to visit powerful locations and gain new powers or have cheat spells like you, they will only be able to cast what you teach them and they spell slots will be the same as their ages, there are other things that I will not be able to explain at the moment but that is the gist of it" he let me digest his words for a moment before continuing.
"Regarding your second question, who knows what the future holds, there are lots of locations with great power around planetos and spells are not the only thing you will receive as you discovered in the isle of faces." there it is, the cryptic smile again.
"Well I will pick" SHIT, I wanted I healing spell.
"fireball, "obviously, is the must-have spell that I didn't pick first because I am a moron.
"Control Water" must have if are on a ship really, and now I am a master at navigation so I will spend some good time on a ship, yeah control water is good.
my first six-level spell, what do I choose, water and fire are out because the six-level is quite shit when it comes to both, the neutral spell is where the money is, I want to choose disintegrate but I don't need more firepower at the moment, I have fireball, so I chose Programmed Illusion, it is just money waiting to be made this one, the neat stuff though is that instead of the item components I can sacrifice an animal to power the spell, well blood and sacrifice have more power than normal items, especially in this world.
"I believe this is a farewell for now then," he says
"wait I have one more question, lately I have been bleeding from my nose and feeling dizzy but I can't identify the reasons, can you tell me if I have up my medicine to find out or is magical and I need a spell to fix it," I ask, it is really starting to worry me you know.
he smiled and said"I can give you that answer, what ails you would be a beginner mistake on your part," I look confused at him" it is your first reincarnation, you need to let your mind adapt to your new body, it needs some time off to adapt itself to your new, let us say sleeping schedule and process all the information you collected, your mind is still human, it needs time to change and evolve." he explains making me more confused.
" but im a warforged technically, my mind wasn't supposed to need rest," I say back
"Your body is warforged, but your mind is more let us say the spiritual part of your brain, the soul is the spiritual part of your body, when we first met you had no body, and by consequence no brain but you had a mind and a soul." my brain exploded or my mind, both.
"So im tired without feeling tired," I say
"Something akin to that indeed, as I said is temporary, it just happens because is the first time, you've been up with no rest for about a month believe, your mind is used to having the sleep time to process information and now it doesn't, one good night of sleep every week for some time will fix such a problem in no time." he lectured
"Wow, thank you for the pre-warning man, could you not have warned me before that happened," I ask him a little salty.
"I could but that would not be as entertaining" he smiles and starts to fade into nothing.
"Dick" really this guy, just, ahhh.
I open my eyes and im back in the darkness of the great hall the torches are all dark again and it is not full of water but there is still someone here.
"Who dares to sit on the Seastone chair," the voice says with anger and irritation.
as I focus my eyes on the person it reveals to be the Harlaw wannabe, the one who I have seen wandering the halls he points his sword at me with one hand and has a lantern in the other.
"Now, now that's just rude, you ask my name without giving yours and then point a sword at me, there are no manners in this world anymore," I say in a mocking voice and then I use telekinesis to pull the sword off his hands.
"well then, know that Harras Harlaw will take your head for your insolence" his sword still in hand pointing at me.
wait a second, what, I use telekineses again to pull the sword, but it doesn't come, it doesn't work on him in general, and he starts to approach sword in hand, shit.
out of my hand comes a flash of light and a Guiding Bolt flies in his direction, he jumps out of the way, huh he is not an idiot.
"fucking sorcerer" I summon a spiritual weapon, one giant watery hammer appears above his head and strikes down he tries to dodge but I use telekineses to put one of the benches in front of him, he hit his face on the bench as soon as the hammer hit his side he flies across the room, the sword falls onto the ground, I look at the sword and my first instinct is to examine it, but I turn to the Harlaw that really should have stayed in bed and use telekinesis in him and this time it works, I smile.
CHANGE POV: Balon Greyjoy
"What do you mean you found the Harlaw drowned on the Seastone chair, "I ask the maester in front of me.
"the signs were clear your grace, he died of drowning," the old man says back" there were signs of a concussion on this nose but not mortal."
"it's pretty obvious what happened, harlaw always thought himself high and mighty, he tried to sit on the seastone chair to fantasize about being king of the rock and salt but the Drowned God only accepted one man on the throne, he drowned the fool and took his sword to the deep," says one of the drowned priests on the hall." the Drowned god made he will know to us, only King Balon Greyjoy can sit the Seastone chair and he shall lead us to victory, what is dead may never die" he clamors with fervor at the top of his lungs.
the ironborn around the hall answered as one "But rises again harder and stronger". perched on a beam above the hall a crow released something that reassemble a laugh.
