75 Chapter 75: Southern War

After Aiden arrived amongst Spawn and the group, seeing various injuries on all of them, he began healing Angela and Daenerys' dragon Daelora, he had decided to expedite Dacey's and the other girls healing naturally using the sun itself.

He could feel that they were close to unlocking their heat vision, so to ensure no serious damage would occur when it activated, Aiden decided to bring them near the sun to absorb more solar radiation much quicker. They would also be able to freely practice using their heat vision and gain control over their improved senses that would also receive an even bigger boost than they already were.

After dropping off Angela, Spawn, and Daelora at the Fortress of Solitude, he requested Kelex to observe the battle for the Iron Throne and to keep him updated on the war, then Aiden and the four women floated into space towards the sun.

Aiden was going to have the girls take down the Wall once they had absorbed enough sunlight to push them past the milestone of being able to fly. They can use the Wall as a training wall, practicing using their increased strength so that they could get a handle on their improvements.

It would take several months of being closer to the sun, but with the threat from the others gone, and Aegon wanting to fight the war without his help, they had plenty of time to accomplish getting them to that milestone in their powers.

The main reason Aiden had turned them into kryptonians was because he knew now they would live much longer lives now, he had grown attached to them over the years, and he knew that even if they lived a few hundred years, that was just a blink of the eye for him so to speak.

Now they would practically live forever like him as long as they didn't die at the hands of an enemy. To ensure this didn't happen Aiden planned to have them practice and familiarize themselves with the martial arts of Krypton that he had Kelex upload into their minds using the knowledge induction machine.

It was used on Krypton to implant knowledge to kryptonians, basically doing away with the need for schools, the knowledge could be directly implanted into a kryptonian then they could digest it and begin applying it with practice.

As Aiden and the others were in space, down on the planet the war for the Iron Throne inched closer and closer. As the massive northern army made up of both northerners and Free Folk crossed the neck, they had done away with House Frey completely.

Aegon was fully aware of House Freys actions as of late, increasing tolls for bringing supplies back and forth from the North and South, as well as selling information to the Iron Throne.

Walder Frey was a cruel, arrogant, lecherous, and tyrannical man who had no issue breaking any oath he gave to any house. He only cared for himself, never about the future of his house after he is dead and gone. The man had murdered each of his wives after he grew tired of them, thus allowing him to marry younger women of noble houses.

He had been married eight times, and fathered many children, true born and bastard alike. Though he was sworn to House Tully, he never once sent any assistance when requested, rather he would always play both sides of the field, always having a route to switch sides to whoever would be the winner.

He fed whatever information he could to Daemon Blackfyre, claiming loyalty to him while also maintaining that he was still loyal to House Tully on the surface. However, due to having access to Kelex, who was constantly monitoring the planet below, Aegon knew of what Walder Frey was planning.

When they arrived at Walder Frey's castle, in his hubris, he had stated that Aegon had to wed one of his daughter's while Arya would become his new wife in exchange for passage. Walder had heard of Aryas beauty, and knew she was quite young and defiant which was his favorite kind of woman, plus he would gain a Stark captive to increase his own ability to give himself more power to do as he pleased.

Walder felt that the northern army had no choice but to comply if they wanted passage into the Riverlands. The Twins castle consisted of two near identical towers and a fortified bridge that spanned over the Green Fork river. It was the only crossing point over the river for hundreds of miles in either direction.

What Walder didn't know was they didn't truly need to cross the river, the real reason Aegon was even there was to throw off Daemon. He knew Walder would inform the crown of their movements the moment they arrived, he wanted Daemon to believe that he was trying to attack the Westerlands.

In reality Mance Rayder and the Free Folk army was traveling by way of the Kingsroad north of the Twins, while Aegon had only brought the northern army with him to come to the meeting. This would keep the Free Folk army hidden, allowing them to move towards the Vale and recruit the mountain clans found in the territory, many of who were Free Folk themselves who had migrated generations ago.

Jaime and Gerion Lannister were feigning loyalty to Daemon themselves, which was believable considering that Daemon held Cersei captive. This would force Daemon to send his armies thru the Goldroad to reinforce the Westerlands, or else lose the apparent advantage that he held on the Reach.

However this didn't work out very well, for Walder, since this request not only angered Aegon but all the northerners as well, including Ned Stark. So shortly after they had confirmed that Walder had sent out word to Kings Landing, they attacked the Freys using the dragons who had remained hidden during the talks.

With the dragons destroying most of the fortifications, the northern army was able to easily take the castle, not to mention that they had coordinated a simultaneous attack with Jason Mallister's army from Seagard who was more than happy to be rid of House Frey. Ned Stark personally beheaded Walder Frey after they had taken the castle.

After a few months the northern army was able to meet the army sent by Daemon to reinforce the Westerlands. With the help of the Riverlands forces they were able to set a ambush along the section of the Goldroad that passed thru the southeast corner of the Riverlands.

With the decimation of the crowns forces along the Goldroad as well as the unrest in the Vale and Stormlands caused by the Free Folk who had split their forces when they reached Harrenhal, Mance taking thirty thousand heading into the Vale while Tormund led the rest south into the Stormlands, Daemon found himself in a precarious situation.

Not only had he lost a decent chunk of his forces, but the Vale and Stormlands were dealing with several raids and were unable to send more men. Mance and Tormund were using gorilla tactics to cause chaos across both realms, splitting their forces into multiple squads to cause chaos across the whole territory.

Daemon wasn't stupid, he and his generals within the Golden Company figured out Aegon's plans. Keep the other realms busy so that his own forces would have to fight alone, he couldn't afford to send any men to reinforce the Vale or the Stormlands, it would leave Kings Landing vulnerable.

But he did have a hidden trump card, the Faith Militant and Citadel. He had been moving the Faith Militant into Old Town in the Reach for months, the Citadel had been hiding a large force of Militant elites for him so that they could take the Tyrells.

The Reach was important, so even before he had received word from House Tyrell of their refusal to bend the knee to him, he had began sneaking groups of the best men the Faith Militant had to offer into the Reach. They were able to use the Citadel and Septs to hide in plain sight.

Since the Reach were followers of the Seven, these soldiers could disguise as Septons to travel safely from Old Town to House Tyrell's seat of power, Highgarden, rather safely and freely.

Daemon knew he needed to eliminate Lady Olenna Tyrell, if he could get rid of her then the Tyrells would practically be done for since Mace Tyrell was a foolish man. Wilas Tyrell had a strong mind, but as long as Mace was alive, he held no real power to effectively hinder Daemon.

Same went for Olenna and Mace, as long as Olenna was alive, Mace had no real power even though he was technically the head of the family. Everyone knew that was just in name, the true head was the Queen of Thorns. She could overrule any decision Mace made with but a word.

So Daemon felt it was time to create chaos himself, his spies within Highgarden had informed him of Highgarden's vulnerability due to much of it's forces were dealing with Dorne.

Mace Tyrell was occupying Nightsong Castle, which was a Stormland castle located north of the Prince's Pass which was the main gateway into and out of Dorne. So this left Olenna, Wilas, and Margaery who was assisting in keeping moral up with the citizens while the Targaryen armies moved forward.

After sending a letter to the Citadel, who would in turn send a coded message to the Maester stationed within Highgarden, to kill Lady Olenna and to take Margaery and Wilas hostage. He was aware of Margaery's marriage to the Targaryens thanks to the Citadel.

While Daemon prepared to battle Aegon by having multiple ballista made to combat the dragons, Aegon and the norther army marched to Kings Landing.

"It was a wise decision to have the Free Folk focus on the other realms. Had you used them in attacking Kings Landing it would've been difficult for you to win the hearts of the people. Using an outside force to win the crown wouldn't allow you to have a stable reign, that's why the Iron Bank never backed some Essosi lord to come claim the Iron Throne even with such a large debt. They knew that they wouldn't be able to maintain it for long." Ned stated to his nephew with pride in his voice.

"Aye, Aiden had told me as much. I used to ask him why he never attacked Robert after so long, he could've easily taken the throne back and crowned himself king. Even if he is known as a Sand, he could've just crushed any rebellion." Aegon replied back.

"True, but then he would be seen as a tyrant king, no matter what power you hold, if you don't have the peoples loyalty thru their own willingness, but use fear to gain it instead, your rule will forever be rocky at best. Your people would show loyalty on the surface, but they will always be looking for any weakness to exploit to bring your reign to an end." Ned explained patiently.

"So is that why this Daemon is so worried? Why he demanded my hand in marriage, so that he can solidify his rule?" Rhaenys asked as she rode on Eagon's direwolf.

"Aye, he took the crown using the Golden Company which is made of mainly foreigners now, not only that but he made some of them nobles, so although many may show him loyalty on the surface, deep down they are looking for an opportunity to get rid of him and his men. They fear the Spider learning of their plans so they don't dare meet together to plan, which is why he hasn't had much trouble over the years." Ned answered her in return.

"I see, so what do you suggest I should do about the Seven as well as Aunt Catelyn?" Aegon asked as he gazed out onto the road ahead.

Aegon was conflicted on what to do regarding his Aunt and her religion, he knew she had attempted to betray him and his family, had events not played out the way they did with Joffrey ascending the throne, the north would've faced a holy crusade due to her actions.

Now however she has been a prisoner for several years, though she wasn't tortured physically or mistreated too much, she was still going through tough times. She has had no contact with any of her children, and has missed them growing up. She has been gone for just under nine years, that is a lot of missed time for a parent.

Hearing this question, Ned couldn't help but release a sigh, "Ultimately that falls on you to decide, tho I will only say that you should wait until you speak to your Aunt before making any decision. I know she has suffered much due to being unable to see our children grow into fine adults, even if that suffering was self inflicted. I can only hope that over these years she has changed, if not, then I can only hope that you be fair in her judgement."

"Too bad brother took away your first love uncle, I would say that you could always remarry Ashara, but Aiden just can't keep his cock in his pants." Rhaenys giggled lightly as she poked fun at her uncle.

Shaking his head Ned had a conflicted look in his eyes as he responded, "Nay, the moment I broke my promise and married Cat, I lost that chance. I could've refused to uphold the agreement between my father and Hoster Tully, had I known what I know today I probably wouldn't have went thru with it, but I don't regret it. Robb, Sansa, Arya, Bran, and Rickon would never have been born, so I accept my decision wholeheartedly without regret."

As they marched forward, Kings Landing was stirring with commotion. Word had reached the commoners of the large northern army being a few days away, fear was slowly taking hold within the city, making things difficult for the City Watch as crime was beginning to rise in the city.

Northerners had a bad reputation in the south, they were seen as barbarians who worshipped trees, violent and cruel heathens that were short tempered and without any honor. The reason they thought this was due to the Faith of the Seven, they never liked the north since they refused to convert to the Seven.

Once Daemon took over, the Faith regularly preached about how cruel and barbaric the northerners were, they wanted to spread fear and hatred as much as possible in order to gain donations and men willing to fight.

They knew the northern army was tough and deadly, the only chance to win was to remain behind the city walls and to fight with a numerical advantage. Daemon too had began to create wildfire traps along the outside of the city, in hopes to reduce the northern armies numbers as much as possible.

In the Vale, things began to take a turn for Mance Rayder, originally they were highly successful in raiding towns and villages within the territory, however they began to suffer several defeats. Using the several skinchangers within his groups, Mance began to investigate what was causing them to begin to experience such a sudden change.

He decided to begin changing tactics, launching raids on trade routes rather than towns, which would really hurt the Vale economically. Which was successful for a time, however he began to receive reports on other mountain clan settlements being destroyed.

This had a weakening effect on his forces, the men and women he had recruited from the mountain clans began to pull out from his army, they wanted to return home to defend their homes and families in case their clan was attacked next.

Mance knew this spelt trouble for him since he had only brought thirty thousand Free Folk into the Vale, and they had been spread out across the territory widely, this was because the Vale was a mountainous region so having too many men would've been more of a hinderance.

So once again Mance had to come up with a solution, he knew that he needed to stall the Vale for longer.

He was sure that as long as the Vale was distracted for a little longer, they wouldn't be able to reinforce Daemon or capitalize on Aegon's forces being tired from fighting against Daemon.

He knew Petyr was after the throne as well, so he was sure he would attack when the fighting was over and take the throne for himself. Which he was correct, the battle for the throne was about to begin.