Chapter Twenty-Nine

Pleasure Craft. Outside of Kings Landing.

One of the most important members of a Rogue Trader's household is his or her Seneschal, they are an important official of a Rogue Trader dynasty who manages all the various logistics required to keep the House functioning and profitable/ Every detail that might affect a House's business is of interest to a Seneschal, from the amount of dowry offered in a noble marriage to the wars going on in nearby parts of space. Upon becoming a Rogue Trader I'd not been assigned a Seneschal because I'd not needed one until I had a dynasty.

Now that I would be getting married, hopefully having children and had lots of resources coming in, I would need someone to help organise my affairs. Perhaps I could elevate a member of the crew, only it might be better to take someone with no existing loyalties and have them educated as best as possible. I would need someone with a keen mind, who had an eye for details and didn't mind dealing with less than legal matters. I considered Littlefinger as he clearly had an eye for details and mind for planning, but no amount of mind-cleansing would ever make me trust that git.

Olenna Tyrell crossed my mind, her age wasn't that much of an issue as we had ways of extending life and to partly restore someone's youth, but the Queen of Thorns had her own family to look after. Even if I made her granddaughter the Queen of the Seven Kingdoms by marrying her to Viserys, something that was looking more and more likely given how little faith I had in the current leadership, she might want to stick around and look after her family.

I also considered Tyrion Lannister. Although he exhibits self-destructive behaviour, such as drinking himself into oblivion and cavorting with ladies of the night, his quick-wit, natural intelligence and sharp tongue would make him useful to me. Despite their unfortunate relationship, even Tywin recognized his son's potential, and his brief time as Hand of the King proved that he could manage important matters of state.

My thinking had turned to trying to get Samwell Tarly out of the Night's Watch, so that he could be tutored for the role like how the Targaryens were being, when someone entered the study I kept on this ship. Like the one on my cruiser this study was an expression of my wealth and power shown to visitors via opulence. This involved displaying a lot of leather-bound books, having weapons hung up on the wall, and a huge desk made from wood that came from a kind of tree that was probably wiped out of existence to make paper for the administration that ran the Imperium.

"Master, someone is here to see you," said Yara Greyjoy.

Such a pity that the mind-cleansing had left this former pirate-princess so broken she could have made an interesting companion, instead she ended up as a meek thing that existed only to do chores for me.

"Who is it?" I asked.

I had a far few ideas and while I attempted to reach out my psykers powers to get a sense of who was waiting at the ramp of my pleasure craft I only got a vague sense of apprehension and impatience. I needed to practice more with my pysker power, but I had to be careful since the Inquisitor had his own pet psyker who might be able to detect what I got up to.

"The Queen" Yara answered.

Well that made sense. She'd been giving me hungry looks during the brief meeting and with King Robert having badly damaged any chances of our two Houses forming an alliance it was natural that others would try to ally with me. While the queen should be on the side of the stags I knew that Cersei was pure Lannister as were her three children.

"She can board just on her own" I ordered "Bring her here".

The queen wouldn't refuse to met with me, she couldn't afford not to, I'd changed the game and she would need my aid in putting her evil incest baby on the throne. While I didn't really want Westeros to suffer through a civil war it would serve my needs as I could sell weapons to everyone and more easily take over a weakened Westeros. You'd think that me turning up and declaring that the IOM was taking this world would unite them against a common foe, but they didn't yet grasp what they were dealing with. Besides the issues behind the coming war, such as Lannister ambition and Littlefinger's scheming had been building up a kind of pressure for years.

While Stannis would play no role in the coming conflicts there were still plenty who would want to sit on the Iron Throne and as they fought I would make my moves. Making allies, removing threats to the rule of my puppet king and part of that would be the taking of Dragonstone, the ancestral seat of power for the Targaryens, and could play to act out my version the Targaryen conquest when the time was right.

"The queen" said Yara.

I dismissed my servant with a wave of my hand before I invited Cersei Lannister to sit. The most powerful woman in the Seven Kingdoms wore a red dress of very fine fabrics and plenty of gold accessories, a display of wealth and power that I understood. My current outfit felt a little silly in my view. Some of it wouldn't have looked out of place if it had been worn by a high ranking officer at the battle of Waterloo, only my outfit had more sensible trousers and boots.

Knowing her love of wine I poured her a glass of something that could be called wine for Her Grace, only I doubted a single grape had ever been involved in its creation, but it sure tasted good, it went down smooth.

"Where is this from?" asked the queen.

I couldn't even pronounce the name of the planet it had been made on.

"Some world very far from here" I said "I only have a few bottles of the stuff in my possession. You're welcome to one I'll have it sent to you".

I wasn't being generous the gift was a display of how causally I could give out favours.

"Kind of you, but I didn't come here to talk about wine" said Cersei Lannister.

Of course she hadn't.

"I doubt your husband sent you" I reasoned "So you must be here on behalf of House Lannister".

She soon confirmed this to be the case.

"My father will wish to speak with you when he arrives" Cersei was now saying "He'll formalise any agreement between our two houses and I promise you that no noble house will be able to outbid the Lannisters".

Business with me didn't work that way.

"I'll sell guns to anyone wishing to buy them" I stated "But I can ensure that House Lannister get's access to some of the more powerful weapons I have in stock".

Machine guns, rifles with scopes and sidearms for the nobility that were far more decorative in appearance than they needed to be. I could see such things appealing to the lions.

"You'll also need to hire some of my people who can teach your men to use the guns correctly" I informed the royal "That won't come cheap".

Cersei suddenly stood up and walked around the desk so that she was very close to me. I figured that she was about to use sex as a way of winning me around to her side and if I hadn't know her so well it might have worked. However, I knew quite a bit about what this ruling lady got up behind closed doors, aside from fucking her brother she might already be fucking her cousin Lancel Lannister, one of the people she kills with Wildfire, and likely she'd spread her legs for some other people that she'd wanted to win over to her side.

"Tell me my lord" she wished to know "Have you ever fucked a queen?".

I got up and put some distance between us. Her effects at seduction were rather crude.

"Let's not mix business with pleasure" I said.

Her face show disgust for a moment and with my power I could sense that she very felt upset about my rejection. But I had my reasons, no need to stick my dick in crazy. The Lannisters were just a way for me to make money I had no desire to get into bed with any of them literally or figuratively. In fact while my plans weren't set in stone I could foresee several outcomes that resulted in me wiping them all out, or least culling the pride.

"I'll have some samples of my wares set up near this ship and my instructors can begin tutoring your men this very afternoon" I offered "Once you see the weapons in action you'll understand their worth".

Soon I'd do for the city what I had done for Pentos, which was to put on a show. The people who mattered would get to see the guns in action and they'd pay fortunes to possess them. I'd only sell the basics to most houses and keep the machine guns reserved for House Lannister who would think themselves important to me. However should they step out of line it would not be rain falling on Casterly Rock it would death from above.