REDKEEP

[{Pic}]

Queen Rhaella Targaryen was in the small council room as always. She was told of the North entourage to the city and how they had come for an audience of the crown.

It was customary for the King to be present in the audience hall when a bannerman of the crown appears before them, much less for one of the Great houses, but after the Duskendale event, Aerys had grown a huge paranoia towards everyone and had kept himself locked up in his room.

The responsibilities of the ruler in Westeros were upon the Crown prince and the Queen who was a regent all but in the name.

The spider Varys had told the hand and the prince of the Stark's trip to the south, much before they even left the castle of Winterfell, which was a feat on its own for a master of whispers.

There was also some information about the entity Mimirsen Jim, who was proclaimed by the Stark's patriarch, Rickard as the Foster father of all of the Starks, and by extension of the North.

Being a foster father to Brandon, the Stark heir, or even one of Lord Paramount of North, Rickard Stark was no big deal, everyone sent their child for fostering somewhere. But being the overseer of the Starks as a whole was no less than the Stark house head.

This was dangerous if the man was who Rickard proclaimed he was, then the North knows how to keep its secrets, given there was no information in the realm about this man.

- Ser Barriston Selmy came into the small council room to introduce the North party, comprising of the North heir Brandon and his youngest brother Benjen, along with their foster father Mimirsen.

Brandom and Benjen gave a bow to the Queen and the prince, while Mimirsen just nodded at the sight of Queen Rhaella and the hand of the King, Tywin Lannister.

"Heir Stark" the queen acknowledged Brandon's greetings.

"And you are?" Queen Rhaella asked, addressing Mimirsen.

"He is my guest, Mimirsen Jim, foster father of all of the Starks," Brandon replied in lieu of Jim, which raised some brows along the table.

"How does that work out, Lord Mimirsen? I have not seen the name of House Mimirsen anytime while I was taught by Maester?" Prince Rhaegar questioned the MAester instead of Mimirsen.

"My family has always been the Foster fathers of the Starks, for centuries yes. We just hold the authority to correct the absolute abomination of decisions of Starks, which have been quite rare so we never came forward. It was written in the books in Old Tongue at Winterfell that my forefather was the one to suggest the North bend knee against the Dragons." this was true as in the Winterfell there was mention that Torrhen Stark received the revelation from the Old Gods that if North stood against the Vallyrains, they might win but at the cost of all men.

For the Queen and prince, this was surprising, while for the Lannisters and Varys, this was dangerously eye-opening as they may not have eyes and ears in the whole realm, but in the north, they were confident in their spying activities.

"Still the name of your house is not mentioned in any of the meetings with the Starks anywhere." This time Tywin spoke up, staring at Mimisen.

"As I said, the Starks are quite competent in their governance, and while we may hold the authority to change their ill decisions for the North, we will never rule the North for them. As for my family name, it usually never remains the same. It is based on the parent you see."

"My name is Mimirsen Jim as I am sen(son) of Mimir, my family members usually have similar naming sense, having names like Thor Odinson, or Odin Borson and Hela Odindottir." Jim smiled through his cheeks while reminiscing past.

"Enough of the personal questions, Lord Hand. May I ask the subject of your visit, Heir Stark?" Rhaegar asked changing the subject.

"Yes, prince Rhaegar. The North is in dire need of gold for its governance and sustainability. For this, the North asks for 8 million Golden dragons from the crown, here is the word from my father." Brandon passed the letter to Prince Rhaegar.

"Presprostous, the crown does not have gold to donate to the North. The most we can do is levy the taxes of the North, but 8 million? That amount is too huge for the crown to forget about." Qarlton Chelsted, the Master of Coin at Aerys small council spoke up.

"They are not demanding the gold, they are asking for a loan from the crown Lord Chelsted." Prince Rhaegar passed the letter to the Coin Master as Tywin started looking over the proceedings.

"The crown can indeed loan as our coffers were full as the Master of coin reported a fortnight ago." Varys inserted his nose out of nowhere, but it passed the ball in favor of the North.

"The crown can indeed loan out the gold, but might I ask what the gold will be used for in the North, the Iron Bank reports talks over a loan from them of 2 million Golden dragons. The north is quite spendy these days?" Tywin asked, more like demanded or the info in Westeros's interest.

"The Winter is quite harsh in the North, while we also have been quite lacking in the means of trade the grain out of the South in large quantities. The gold could kick out the food shortage from the North, once and for all. We have to be always prepared and this is the right time for preparations as we all know,"

""Winter is coming."" Mimirsen spoke up but Brandon and Benjen followed in sync, the banner words of House Stark.

From their faces, Prince Rhaegar and Jon Connington were in favor of loaning out to the North, as the realm was at peace for now and the coffers were overflowing with gold in the Crown's treasury. While Tywin and the queen were doubtful about the purposes, and the Master of Coin was confused as to what to decide.

Prince Rhaegar eagerly spoke up in favor of the grant, which was positively passed by the small council as they had no major reason to stop the same, however, the negotiations about the principle and time were taken over by the queen instead of Lord Hand and Master of coin, which was finalized for 6 million golden dragons for five years (283AC), with the returning amount of 6 million 6 hundred sixty-six thousand, six hundred sixty-six golden dragons.

At the end of the negotiations, Mimirsen gifted a beautiful Valyrian steel necklace, embedded with blue ruby to the Queen.

"I did not know the Starks held such beautiful artifacts."

"They are not artifacts, my Queen. Mimirsen here opened up his family vault, it held some beautiful stones and 3 ingots of Valyrian steel, along with a small bead of it, we had the chance to meet a Valyrian steel reforger at Winterfell, he was a roaming smith so we had this carved for the Queen." Brandon flattered the queen for their artwork, while Jim was watching Tywin's face as he held a serious and disappointing expression with hints of rage.

They were leaving the council room when the door that was shut, opened with a large thud.