34 Plotting

The Trident, The Riverlands

Ruby's ford, the place where Robert's Rebellion ended with victory when Robert Baratheon caved Rhaegar Targaryen's chest with his warhammer. The Royal Party stopped here because Robert wanted to reminisce. In the Queen's tent, the Kingslayer and the Queen were talking "I couldn't find anyplace in Moat Cailin for us."

Cersei nodded and whispered "I know, damn Starks. I want you, I need you inside me." Jaime promised to make it up to her when they are in King's Landing. Their discussion was interrupted when their brother entered the tent.

"Sister, brother, I heard the King wanted to marry Joffrey to Arya Stark."

Cersei snorted and said "Like I will ever let my Golden Prince marry the second daughter of the branch family of a wild barbarian from this backwater frozen lands."

Tyrion rolled his eyes. "You were always the stupidest Lannister. How can you talk like that of the North after seeing the might of Moat Cailin and visiting Starkhaven every day? Now I ask you, what are we to do now? Who is Joffrey to marry?"

"Joffrey's marriage is not important right now. In the future, he will marry someone worthy of him, maybe a Lannister cousin. Should the worst come to pass, he'll just marry Stannis's daughter just to put some babes in her. I would've never allowed him to marry those wildlings savages anyways." she finished with a laugh.

Tyrion looked at her, face blank, he then looked at his brother. Then a small smirk came up to his face. He wiped it from his face. Then another one came up, a bit bigger this time. He wiped it off as well. He looked up at Cersei. She had an expectant look on her face. He just couldn't help it.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA." He bellowed out. She had a furious look on her face, which just made him laugh harder. "HAHAHAHAHAHAHA." he finished, his stomach hurting from how hard he had laughed. "I cannot believe you honestly said that. A Lannister cousin? Like we don't have enough Lannisters in the capital, not to mention there would be no purpose for it. Having the Starks as allies was the best thing that we could ever want. And you really think Stannis will ever allow his only daughter to marry that madman you call your son?" he asked incredulously.

She then screamed "How dare you call my golden boy a madman you little beast? And Stannis will do his duty as shall his daughter should it come to it."

Jaime decided to intervene and asked his brother "Do you think the Starks will do a play against Joffrey for the throne?"

Tyrion shook his head "No, they won't conspire against him as they have little interest in the Game but Aryan will not support Joffrey that is for sure."

Cersei then said "He will do his duty to his King when it is time."

Tyrion rolled his eyes at his delusional sister and continued "As long as we don't annoy them, he will not take any actions against us. He respects and likes Robert a lot so he will not do anything against his son unless provoked."

Cersei started to look startled and Jaime sighed, Tyrion seeing this asked "What?"

Cersei said "Joffrey told me the other night that when he became King, he planned to bring the Faith in the North and free the northeners from their trees."

Tyrion was gobsmacked "I hope you told him to never do that." seeing neither his sister nor brother respond he got angry "Fools! Idiots! I warn you two, never allow him to do that. I saw the 'The Bloody Wolf', he isn't honorable like Ned Stark. If Joffrey tries to do that, Stark will burn the Westerlands to the ground before killing us all and we don't have a lot of friends in the Seven Kingdoms to help us fight the wrath of the wolves."

For the first time in gods know how many years, his sister looked down in front of him, Jaime then said "I will talk to Joffrey about the Faith and the North. Tyrion is right, we can't let him do that."

~

Moat Cailin, The Northern Realms

"What are we going to do to the squid? His foolish father will obviously attack us when the war starts. Will we send his head? We know that he wants revenge for how you treated him even if father treated him like a ward instead of a hostage." Jon said.

"When the war starts, Balon will attack us. Even if the Reach and the Westerlands will be easier but Balon wants his revenge. The fool will send his men to be slaughtered. I won't do anything to Theon, I will even allow him to go back to his homeland." Aryan said.

"Why?" Lyarra asked.

"Yes why cousin? I would've imagined that you would send body parts to Balon every week." Cregan asked.

Aryan sighed "Balon, Theon, Asha, Victarion, Aeron, they are mere wasps. Insignificant wasps that I find too bothersome to squash. But even insignificant wasps can be of use, like Jaremy Rykker. Do you really think that he survived because of luck?" Aryan smiled and let out a chuckle, "I let him go to Duskendale so that people in the south know my stance on Targaryens. That way they will never suspect that one of them is my kin. The Greyjoy are useful wasps and Theon the most useful of them. The one who worries me is the Crow's Eye, Euron. Theon will die but not by my hands. He will die in a civil war against his uncle after killing a huge part of his forces."

Everyone was surprised by the length of Aryan's plans. Robb decided to ask "Is Euron really that dangerous?"

Aryan described Euron's role in Balon's folly and his actions following that in the Reach and in Essos the last years, "He is one of the six most dangerous man in Westeros. Now let us see if you learned anything of politics and the realm, who are the five others?" He looked at his cousins, the first to answer was Cregan, "Tywin Lannister."

Aryan nodded but asked, "Why?"

Cregan answered, "Look how much people fear Tywin, and how much he is respected."

Aryan raised his eyebrows and asked, "Do you believe fear and respect go and in hand?" Seeing Cregan nod he smiled but continued "A common mistake, I'll admit, but people who respect Tywin don't do so because they are afraid of him. Me, for example, I respect him for what he did for his House after his father but I do not fear him one bit. You see Cregan, you can't really respect things that you truly fear.

Any Lord that is not weak will be feared in his own way. He will be feared by the smallfolk, for he sits in power and judgement over them. He will be feared by his guards and servants, for he has total authority over them. This fear is natural, it is born of knowing that if one breaks their trust with their Lord, punishment will be brought upon them. Strength will always bring a measure of fear when it can be brought against you. I want my people and all your future people not to fear you but to fear you wrath. To fear the cold winds of winter that you bring with your fury."

Seeing his cousins still earnestly looking and listening to him, he continued "Having people truly live in fear of you is one of the last things you ever want. Fear is one of the most powerful and poisonous emotions that exist. Fear soon turns to anger. Anger will burn and grow, and it will turn to hatred, and hatred? Hatred will sit and fester, and it will spread like rot from an infected wound.

People say Tywin saved House Lannister. That the Toothless Lion almost destroyed the Lions of Casterly Rock, but that Tywin washed it all away in the Rains of Castamere, like the flood that flooded those mines. Aye, he brought some respect to his House, because he established that the Golden Lions were not weak. That he could lead, and more importantly, protect his people. The first and greatest responsibility of any Lord is to protect his people, and no one will respect a Lord who they do not believe can protect them. That is why no one respected Tytos. He was weak, and none of his people believed in his protection.

However Tywin regularly takes it too far, even beyond what he did to Tarbeck Hall and Castamere. He wants everyone to be afraid of him, and Houses all over the West and beyond live in fear of the name of Tywin Lannister. And that fear? That fear just grows with every heavy-handed action he takes. It spreads with every act of brutality he commits. And with every new person that learns to live in fear of Tywin Lannister, they also learn how to be truly angry. They grow angry at themselves for being powerless, and angry at Tywin for making them powerless.

And they learn what it means to hate. They hate themselves for being cowards, for not throwing their lives away to fight back. But they hate Tywin more. That hate will grow from just being Tywin, to all Lannisters. And it will grow, from hatred for the Lannisters to hatred for the West.

No one truly wants to live in fear, Cregan. No one may do anything about it as long as Tywin lives and never shows weakness...but when he dies or when he falters? If there is ever a moment where House Lannister truly looks weak...they will all pounce. Everyone who has ever learned what it meant to live in fear from Tywin Lannister will descend like vultures on a crippled lion, and if they are not up to the task of making the fear override their hatred? House Lannister will be in truly dire straights indeed." Aryan said in finality.

Everyone stayed silent for a couple of minutes before Sansa decided to speak and said "Littlefinger. He is a schemer and already has control of the Vale. He nearly succeeded in creating a war between us and the Lannister."

Aryan nodded and looked at his other cousins "That's two, who are the other three?"

"The Spider." said Robb. "With his spies, he knows everything and can make everyone in the realm dance to his tune." he smiled seeing Aryan nodding.

Directly after Robb, it was Lyarra who spoke "Olenna. The old shrew is the true Warden of the South and the true power behind the Tyrells, she has an extensive reach thanks to the Citadel and her goodbrother Archmaester Gormon."

Aryan nodded and told them that they still had one left. They said a couple of names like Robert, Stannis, Cersei, the Mountain etc. but it was Jon who found out "Doran. He already poisoned all the Lords who were not in agreement with his actions. He has full control of Dorne and wants his blood and the throne and revenge for his sister. He will not stop until he achieved his goals and will use any means necessary."

Aryan stared at Jon and smiled "Congratulations to you all." he then called someone in the room, a tall man with a lean body arrived and was about to say something before Aryan interrupted him "Don't call me that." the man smiled and was interrupted again by Aryan "I am anticipating."

"Yes, my Lord, you called me?"

Aryan nodded and turned to Robb, "This Lazelos Forys. He is one of the head of our spy ring. He will serve you from now on. He is a good administrator, a good fighter, and will tell you any information you need from now on."

Robb was surprised and asked "Why didn't you present him to my father?"

"Uncle Ned is too honorable, he will not use him to the best of his abilities. I hope you will."

Robb nodded and presented himself to Lazelos. Aryan then asked Lazelos "Do we finally have all the numbers?" Lazelos nodded and talked to everyone, "The Iron Islands have at the most fifteen thousand men, the North hit them hard during their rebellion. The Riverlands could field between forty to forty five thousand men without counting or eight thousand on our bridge in the Green Fork. the Vale has fifty thousand men but could field only to thirty five because of the Mountain Clans who are nearly ten thousand strong all together, they are also grateful to you who they now call 'The Stark' for providing food and good quality weapons. The Westerlands could field nearly seventy thousand strong is they march. The Crownlands can field twenty thousand and the Lords of the Narrow Sea twelve thousand men. The Stormlands can field more than forty thousand men. The Reach can now field an army of a hundred and twenty thousand men. Dorne can surprisingly field more than fifty thousand spears."

"So we weren't the only ones.." Aryan said quietly but everyone in the room heard it.

"Only ones?" asked Robb.

Aryan sighed and explained, "Look at the numbers of the military that each kingdom has. During Robert's Rebellion, Dorne could field twenty thousand men, the Crownlands less than ten thousand, the Reach less than eighty thousand, the Stormlands could barely field twenty five thousand. The Westerlands could field less than fifty thousand, the Riverlands could field twenty thousand and the Vale could field thirty thousand. All of them have tremendously augmented their military might. This is a good lesson for me and for you, I was arrogant and thought to be the only one who noticed." Aryan sighed and started to massage his forehead.

"I don't understand, cousin. Even if they augmented their military we don't have to be worried about them." Cregan said.

"It's true we don't have to be worried about them but if they all attack us at the same time, it could be catastrophic with the brother of our ancestor who wants to kill us all on the other side of the Wall. I specifically indicated to our spies to only count the people who have regular training with a weapon. So all these numbers are without additional levies."

"We have to be careful. The timing of our declaration of independence is essentiel. We need them to be really bloodied. We can't let the war for the throne to end quickly." Lyarra said.

"We need them to be so bloodied that they won't dare to even think of marching north when we secede from the Iron Throne." Robb added.

Everyone was in agreement. Jon then asked Aryan "What weren't you the only one who noticed?"

Aryan sighed and answered "It's been nine years since the Greyjoy Rebellion. Did anyone actually accomplish anything? The Baratheon were losing power but only the short-sighted Queen decided to grab the power left. The Minor Houses rounded up new forces for their liege. The Great Houses didn't take any action. It is like everybody is just preparing for something. Balon's folly was just a prelude to something way bigger. Jon Arryn is dead, the King will soon follow and there will be no turning back."