Chapter Twenty-Six

The Red Keep. Kingslanding.

Given that I commanded a fortress-city in space it took a lot to impress me as such I was not at all moved by the sight of this city or the keep that served as the seat of power for the King of Westeros. Nor was I impressed with the monarch, who if anything was even fatter than on the TV show, and he didn't seem like one for any sort of exercise either because he collapsed into a chair as soon we entered the Small Council chamber. He'd looked excited about my visit until now, he must really hate this part of his job.

"So what do you want?" asked King Robert.

While that had been rather blunt I didn't mind getting to the point, but first I took a moment to check out who else was on this council. I saw Grand Maester Pycelle, Lord Renly the Master of Laws, then there was Littlefinger, the corrupt accountant of this realm who I would need to deal with sooner rather than later, the Hand of the King who was current Eddard Stark. As well as the queen and the king. The show didn't do Ceresi Lannister justice, she was quite the beauty. Lord Stannis who acted as the Master of Ships could not be seen. I'd heard that someone had wiped out the whole population of Dragonstone. I wondered if it had been the Inquisitor if so I could only guess at his motives.

"I am an envoy for an organisation, which you would call an empire" I explained "An empire that spans more worlds than you can imagine".

The Grand Maester huffed before speaking.

"There is only one world" he stated "You must come from some land we simply don't know about".

His words made me smile.

"You've seen my flying ship," I said "Do you really think if there was a kingdom out there with such devices that you would have never heard of it before?".

At least the others were considering my words.

"As to what we want" I was saying "The Imperium of Man, the empire I serve is taking is this world and bringing it into the empire".

Now that caused a stir, so much so that King Robert had to yell to get people to shut up.

"Before anyone starts worrying about a war" I went on to say "The Imperium is a vast empire and as long as certain are followed and tribute is made we have no interest in governing every part of this world. So should the Seven Kingdoms join with us this can become the start of mutually beneficial agreement".

Again there was more muttering.

"You can't expect to just bend the knee," said Lord Stark.

I was surprised that it wasn't King Robert saying that.

"Have you heard what happened to Astaphor?" I asked "Don't kid yourselves you can not defeat the Imperium. We could wipe out every city if we chose to and rule over the ashes, or invade with our armies, however, we wish to profit from bringing the power of Imperium to this world, and you can profit too".

I signalled more chests that were carried by some naval armsmen were deposits on the table. They were soon opened and inspected.

"This appears to be something akin to a Mryish spyglass," said Lord Renly as he inspected a pair of binoculars.

Rather than lavish them with gold, spices and silks, the kind of loot we'd taken from the Stepstones, a lot of which had ended up in my vaults as such things had value in trade should I need to deal with another primitive world or some planetary governor who wanted some exotic, I'd made use of the manufacturing facilities onboard my cruiser to produce items that the Machine Cult don't consider complex enough to regulate their use with any needless mysticism.

This included binoculars, telescopes, combs, paper, samples of dyes, cans of deodorant as well as luxury items such as perfumes and incense. We even had these little hand-crank torches that would stay lit for hours as long as you charged the battery with a generator that just required you to move a handle. They were very hard to break and didn't make much effort to charge.

All of this was easy for me to acquire as I had a well-stocked ship and could acquire raw materials very easily thanks to my Ad-Mech allies who had set up far from here.

"We're not merchants!" complained King Robert "What about these guns that I've heard about. You sell them in Pentos, well we want them too".

I'd promised Illyrio that he would control the supply of ammo and the selling of guns in the Free Cities between the Narrow Sea and Slaver's Bay, so far this had proven to be highly profitable. I didn't mind giving a House here in Westeros the right to sell ammo to anyone in the Seven Kingdoms, although that would give that House too big of an advantage over the others. It would be better to sell to everyone and reap the profits while the natives weaken each other. Then I could install a puppet without much trouble just as planned.

"Weapons might win wars and win you a kingdom, but it is trade that keeps an empire going," I said "But yes I can sell you guns. Assuming you can afford them, according to the Iron Bank you're broke".

Oddly it was Balish who agreed with me.

"We're massively in debt I doubt we can afford to purchase anything from Lord Thrax," he said "At least not as a kingdom".

Given that he'd been stealing from the crown he would no doubt be able to afford all the guns I could supply him. Alas for Petyr he would soon be spilling all his secrets to the Inquisition who I knew had agents on my ship who could break Littlefinger for me. Then I would find out where he'd stashed all the gold, and once I had it I could fiance some houses to make them my allies or just keep the gold. Why sell to him when I can just take his money directly?

House Lannister would try to take control of the new trade of guns, seeking the lion's share so to speak. I might give them something I didn't sell to other noble houses, but it would not serve my needs to give them too much in the way of advantages.

"You'll find the money or I'll find a new Master of Coin" threatened the king.

I was amused by this.

"If you're just going to borrow the money from someone I might as well sell to them directly," I said.

The queen almost jumped in her seat upon hearing that.

"I am the king!" shouted Robert.

That meant little to me.

"I'm not one of your subjects" I reminded the man who wore the crown.

If not for the fact that I had a lot of armed guards with me I felt sure that Robert would have taken action or at least yelled at me, but he wasn't actually that stupid.

"These guns are valuable" stated Lord Renly, who seemed to have sensed that this was a good time for him to speak "But what about ships, do you have more of those flying machines?".

Even if we had the means to build more landing craft and shuttles, and for now we didn't, I wouldn't sell them to anyone because they gave us such a huge advantage over everyone.

"They are not for sale" I replied "I'm offering more of what you see before you and the guns, as well as people who can train your soilders to use them. As for the Imperium, as I already mentioned as long as you're willing to pay tribute I see no reason not to leave you to your own affairs while we focus our efforts on Essos. This world's new governor has his eyes on bringing down Slavers Bay and there other lands for him to deal with".

Unless they were true fools they'd know that sooner or later they'd have to bend the knee to their new overlords or be conquered. As such they would want all the weapons they can get their hands on and time to prepare. Hence why it would suit the Imperium if they had a civil war that I could profit from while we secured Essos as then they wouldn't be prepared. An organised Westeros would be a pain to conquer given our limited manpower so we'd either have to flatten it or spend a couple of years pacifying the Seven Kingdoms.

Sure Aegon the Conquerer took over with only a few thousand men and a few dragons, and the armed shuttles could serve the role of dragons, but we didn't want direct control of the Sunset Kingdoms, we wanted a king under our control in power so that we could change Westeros over time. Its faith would have to be restricted and new laws accepted. Much easier to do if we had some control of its leadership.

"There is another matter that needs to be addressed before any sort of alliance is agreed upon," said Varys, the Master of Whispers "My little birds have informed me that you have taken the last Targaryans into custody".

Of course, Illyrio had told his friend all about me. I wasn't at all surprised by this. What did annoy me if nothing else was Varys mentioning this in front of the king, who had deep-seated hate for what he called dragon spawn, despite himself being descended from a Targaryen grandmother and the founder of his House supposedly being the half-brother of Aegon the Conquerer?

"I want them!" demanded the king as he slammed his fists onto the table "Hand them over!".

That wouldn't be happening.

"They are my guests and under my protection" I informed the king.

Lord Eddard Stark had to hold Robert back, who despite his size looked ready to leap across the table and strangle me.

"They are wanted by the crown for crimes against the Seven Kingdoms," said Lord Renly "Perhaps you should do as my brother asks".

No chance.

"They left Dragonstone when they were children" I pointed out "What possible crimes could they have committed?".

No one had a decent reply to that and I didn't need one I could tell that they were thinking about how the Targaryens are a threat to their positions of power. Which is exactly why I kept them close. If the current leadership proved to be unsuitable for the Imperium then I can simply place Visyers on the throne and by the looks of things we'd be going with that plan. Varys must have known that telling Robert about my guests would turn him against me. What was he playing out?

Predictably the king ordered that I be taken and thrown in the black cells, which didn't work out well for those who tried to lay a hand on me. My bodyguards didn't even need to kill anyone and Eddard Stark prevented things from getting out of hand.

"I'll be on my ship should anyone wish to make a deal and ally themselves with the true power in this world," I said "Good day to you all".

Thankfully no one else was foolish enough to try to hinder me in any way.