25 A Plan for the Future

"Well, I am glad you are already thinking about our future Oberyn. I was indeed deliberating a lot about what to do in the last few days. I always wanted to stay away as far as possible from the old forces of Westeros. Our next step would be to infiltrate slavers bay and build a large forge. Using superior weapons to slowly build our own arms business would be quite the complementary industry to the Di Natale family.

But the events of the past few days changed my mind. The interest groups of Westeros are not of one mind and even an outsider like me can turn them against each other even with a stupidly obvious deception. After the thought of fighting with the old interest groups of Westeros came to mind, I was thinking about the cards in my hand and how to gain the most benefits in Westeros with the least resistance. It came to my mind that it wasn't all that hard to find a starting point. By coincidence I seem to know a noble young master of one of the oldest families in Westeros. You might take a little guess who I am thinking about?" Victor said with a smug smile on his face.

This was the first time in Victor's perception that Oberyn turned truly serious while sitting up straight. "Are you trying to involve the Martell family and the interest of Dorne into our relationship?" Oberyn asked starting to get angry. He didn't want his only friend to turn into the person he hated the most in the past. People that only engaged with him to take advantage of Dorne or benefit from his family.

"It seems like you still don't trust me very much. I get it. You faced to many situations like this. But don't worry I am not suddenly exposing my dirty mind to you. My goal is indeed one of the noble families of Dorne, but I won't attack them on my own. Rather I am preparing to reap benefits once they face disaster. They will die at the hands of others; I just want you to pick up the benefits instead of some random nobles of Dorne that I don't even know."

Oberyn was visibly disturbed. He was aware of the methods of the person in front of him. If he expected a major noble house of Dorne to face misfortune it was likely going to be this way. And if he even wanted to give up his plan for Slavers Bay for this because he was at least 90% sure to make a big bargain. He was extremely curious what the little genius of the Di Natale family wanted to do.

"We both know that slavers bay has many benefits for you and your family. Creating a large weapon business could increase your importance as a chess player by a lot. You could easily gain favor of many warlords if you send them many high-quality weapons at the right time. Thats a relatively easy way to gain many benefits. That suits your style a lot more than going up against the old foxes in Westeros. What happened?"

Victor chuckled as he could see Oberyn's desire for knowledge about the situation of his home behind this question, but he was not quite ready to talk about his plan for Dorne.

"I just realized in the last couple of months that my steps were becoming a little too big if I started with Slavers Bay. Literally too big in terms of distance. There is a huge distance between Lys and Slavers Bay, and I don't have any checkpoints on the way. That means a lot of uncertainty and very low reaction time to sudden emergencies. I changed to plan for the Di Natale family after I noticed this problem. I drew a circle around Lys and our three islands of the Stepstones. This was my current territory of active operation. After that I drew a slightly larger circle around and looked for a location that could be used as a base of operation. I did this many times, always keeping the real distant in mind, and slowly increased the range of operation with Lys as the important center. I now needed to find consecutive targets to formulate the next strategy for the Di Natale family."

As Oberyn continued to listen to Victor's narration his hands were slowly getting more wet by the second. The little devil sitting across from him was not even six years old today. Fuck my worthless life. He didn't even dare to think what he did when he was still five years old. Suddenly his head was hit by something, and he looked up in confusion.

"If you don't listen to me fuck off Oberyn." Victor said annoyed by the misdemeanor of his friend.

"Sorry, sorry, you just wanted to talk about the next goal, just keep going, keep going." Oberyn said with a little pleading in his voice.

"The next target is very close to Dorne, and I would like to involve House Martell in this business. I already planned out two more steps after this goal, but everything depends on you, Oberyn. My next goal is one more island of the Stepstones, the Veiled Isle, very close to Ghost Hill in Dorne." Victor explained.

Located deceptively close to Dorne, The Veiled Isle is shrouded in near continuous mists. As such, the isle provides a refuge for those not wanting to be found, although often proves perilous to those who seek harbor. Rocks and crags hidden by fog litter the waters around the island, and the land itself is fraught with caverns and cliffs that threaten to drop the unwary to a quick death.

"But this cooperation would bind my interest with Dorne to a certain extent. And I certainly will never do that, as no one will ever lead my steps except my family or my interests. As such I would need a person that is trusted by House Martell and even more by myself. And as I only trust my family, I would need someone belonging to House Martell by blood to become a family member of House Di Natale. Who do you think my target is, Oberyn?" As Victor finished his speech and looked over to the person he chose as his goal, he managed to see something he would never forget.

The Red Viper was slowly turning white, then blue, and back to white again. A truly marvelous picture.