Westeros' Chaos

Late morning of the next day, Red Keep

The entire capital was in chaos.

The beginning of this chaos lay last night when Jon Arryn's kidnapper had infiltrated the castle once again. His target? The Hand's son, Robert Arryn.

But his plan failed. The gossip was that the white-haired kidnapper wasn't alone, but he was a member of a trained group of thieves. The kidnapper would have succeeded, if not because of some internal fighting that had caught the guards' attention.

The entire Red Keep had been awakened by the thorough search that had taken place thereafter. Even after the search, the night was bound to be a sleepless one for them. Only a few hours after the kidnappers' escape, a thin, putrid, and pungent gas had taken over the castle. It had such a stench that even the horses gagged, smelling it.

"It was the Seven Gods' way of showing their disapproval," said one common fanatic.

"No. It's the sewers," said the guard, breaking the fanatic's teeth with a backhand slap.

Whatever it was, wherever the smoke had come from, it didn't leave for another hour, lingering in the open areas despite the windy night. Only when the dawn approached did the smoke diffuse, leaving behind an unbearable stench.

Now we can have some sleep, many must have thought.

Wrong.

This time, it was the queen. Even bigger figures were involved in this sleepless scandal. When the time was just shy of dawn, the queen, commanding the Kingsguards and her household guards herself, descended on the blackwater bay like a sun. The beggars at the port told later that in her royal garments, the queen looked so furious that even the waves had receded at her command.

Well, that could have been an exaggeration, but the purpose of Cersei Lannister was not.

Anchored at the port was the ship, Mariene. When the red-cloaked Lannister guards stormed the ship, under the command of Kingsguard Meryn Trant, they found Lysa Arryn disguised and hidden under the Captain's bunk. The heir of Vale, Robert Arryn, was with her.

Why? Where was she going? How did the queen know? The royal court must have demanded the answers from Cersei later. But first, she threw Lysa Arryn into the dungeon, accusing her of perpetrating the kidnapping of her husband, Jon Arryn. Even outrageous was Cersei's action of sending Robert Arryn to her father, Tywin Lannister, via the same ship right there and then.

But who would dare to doubt the queen's explanation?

"The capital is festered with kidnappers and thieves," she told the court. "I feared for the little boy's safety. Lysa Arryn is half-mad. Who knows what she had planned to do with the boy?"

The king had listened to this all as if his face were a stone. He hadn't said a single word, nor had he refused the queen's reasoning. But Robert Baratheon's fury erupted when Cersei accused the Lady of Vale of having an affair with the Master of Coin, Petyr Baelish.

"How dare you say such things?" the king had roared, they say.

"My king," Cersei had replied innocently. "Lysa Arryn and Petyr Baelish had been at it under your royal nose for who knows how long. I say we should use a hard hand on her. All lies will spill out from her whore mouth before the sunset."

That was the end.

In the late afternoon, this sleepless night ended, with no more word from the castle. The only thing was sure that a storm was brewing, hidden under these events, which would soon engulf the entire Westeros. How could the lords, sworn to House Arryn, sit without doing nothing when their liege lord was kidnapped, and the heir of Vale was shipped off to the Warden of West?

Something had tipped over the balance of the seven kingdoms.

Someone had lit the match of discord.

That someone was savoring wine in the company of none other than Jon Arryn.

*

*

"You seem happy?" Jon Arryn asked feebly.

There was a smile on Kai's face. Happy? Yes, he was. After regaining his strength, the first thing Kai had done was to let the queen know about Petyr's plan. It was a short meeting, barely enough to take in her sleepy face. Kai had to be content with that, though.

There was no way he was gonna kiss those lovely lips, while his mouth reeked of sewer's filth.

And speaking of filth, his Elementary Filth Manipulation had advanced by 10%, reaching a whopping 15% in one go.

Then he waited. Kai drank, ate, and healed, as he waited for the chaos to spread out, encompassing every nook and cranny of the capital. Otherwise, he knew, with the sheer amount of Smoke Screen he had used, the guards would have come down into the sewers in hundreds to find the reason.

There was another reason for his happiness, too.

The Hidden Mission. Specifically, its reward.

[

Hidden Mission: Incriminate Lysa Arryn

Hidden Mission Status: Success

Hidden Mission Rewards:

1. 300 Mission Credits

2. +2 Attribute Points

WARNING: Attribute Points gained by completing Hidden Missions will be counted within the 1st Set's Points quota.

]

'Attribute Points!' Kai remembered seeing them with sheer elation. It was like completing an E- main mission in itself. 'Well, the danger was certainly befitting the reward,' he thought.

'So,' Kai reflected, 'with these 2 Attribute Points, I have gained 5 out of the 20 Attribute Points available to the Contestants of the 1st to 3rd floor.'

Kai hadn't waited before adding those two points to his Intelligence. Last time, Kai was unsure because of his lack of experience. But he wasn't an idiot. He was taught and trained to be the next greatest scientist of his generation by his mother. Though only for a short time, and focused on internal aspects of beasts' physiology, but enough to mold his personality into an inquisitive and calculative one.

As most of his Abilities were advancing at a steady pace, Kai didn't need to add more points to his Agility. But with all the Skills piling up, he severely lacked MP and HP to back them up. He could overcome the lack of HP through the Act, Relentless Love, but there was no other solution to MP.

"Oh, I am happy," Kai finally replied. "I just don't know how to spend this night."

There was too much turmoil for him to go out. So Kai waited, the wine dulling the pain in his left hand. Yet, it was remembering the taste of Cersei's lips that made him wince. With his heart longing to feel her skin, Kai went to sleep.

However, in his dreams, there was nothing but blood.

*********

AN: A short snippet on Tywin Lannister is available on Discord. I also want to share a good news that the number of Discord Server's members has finally reached 25 (28 to be exact). It's not a big number, but for me, who had no experience with this, its a momentous thing. Haha! Thank you all.

If you want to join, you can use the following link and become a part of my future Khalasar. (discord.gg/YYU3GyfZnv)