Vengeance

Two weeks after the Stangler's Wedding…

The massacre at the Riverrun was met with outrage all across the Seven Kingdoms. Dozens of minor and major houses of the Stormlands, Riverlands and North were gone extinct and all of this was blamed on House Lannister who professed innocence at the outrageous claims. Many were executed after the poisoning due to the alleged part in it.

However, to the good and bad of many people, Eddard Stark came out alive from the poisoning as one of the high members of the believers were in Riverrun. Still, he stayed bedridden for seven days straight and his son, Bran Stark, who was not allowed to drink due to his age and survived the massacre, was a constant visitor of his father every day.

Only seven days later Eddard woke up. He was like a man who gave up on living as his eyes were blankly looking at the ceiling of his room. Only when the man who saved him from death requested to meet him alone, he did react. After an hour, Eddard came out like a renewed man who only had vengeance in his eyes.

The first thing he did was send a proclamation to all the lords in the realm, it was the Lannisters who had done the massacre. Then, he sent a raven to Winterfell ordering the execution of all the prisoner lords, including Jaime Lannister.

The noble knights who were not high-ranked enough to attend the wedding and survived the poisoning swore their allegiance to the Stark lord in return for revenge. Thus, a strong army which was filled with vengeance and fury marched down the Riverrun, towards the Golden Tooth.

Many expected Eddard to go straight to the King's Landing but his move was unexpected. However, what was more unexpected was the smallfolk of Westerlands helping the Northern lord in conquering their own lords' castles.

Men and women, lords and ladies who claimed to help the Stark lord against the tyranny of the king and his family rebelled against their liege. Rebellions broke out all over the Westerlands, Reach and Crownlands.

House Farman, House Brax, House Drox and House Moreland were amongst those who rebelled in the Westerlands. However, amongst the rebels, only House Moreland professed innocence about the Riverrun poisoning and did not side with the Starks.

House Rowan, House Crane and House Varner were the only ones in the Reach who were rebelled but there were many small folks from other lords' lands who raised arms against those who sided with the Lannisters.

However, more rebels came from the Crownlands as they were already discontent with the rule of Robert Baratheon due to the high taxes and with the ascension of the new king, taxes were again on a rise and the crown was beggaring them so when they saw a certain victory, more than half of them rose in support of the Starks.

…

Temple of the Riverrun…

"I don't want another failure!! What was going to happen if I was not here?!" Gerold slammed his hand onto the table.

"I will send orders to the reeducation centre, immediately. This won't be repeated," said Lurs, the leader of the shadows. "Some shadows in King's Landing were revealed due to the rebellions and the crown realized our hand in the war so the temple was destroyed and a ban was placed on worshipping for our believers."

Gerold stroked his beard as thought of the ongoing events, "Have the rebel Crownlander lords help those who escaped. Are the cells still active in the city?"

Lurs shook his head, "Some were compromised but a small number of them are still hidden."

"Good, they will be useful in the coming days," Gerold said, "Leave the other kingdoms alone, for now, we will focus on the Westerlands, Crownlands and the Reach."

"Westerlands will be an easy game due to the ongoing invasion but the Reach will be hard to crack as the Seven still has a strong grip in the region. I think we should focus on Riverlands as most houses have gone extinct. If we don't do something Freys would be claiming half of the lordships and Brandon Stark is still a child so unless his father comes to his help, no one would be able to do anything."

"Hm, the empty castles and town should be filled by faithful lords. This would strengthen our hands in Riverlands. Freys could be a serious problem as they have many claims in the region. Send one of your shadows and ensure that Lord Frey have an accident in one of his bed adventures. The fight for the lordship will be bloody and many of them shall be executed for kinslaying." Gerold looked at the detailed map before him, "Do the same thing in the North but focus on the smallholdings. A few accidents won't be noticed but too many would arouse suspicion." Gerold's hands tapped the Eyrie as he looked at Lurs, "What about the Vale?"

"There are some complications in the Vale as the mountain clansmen grew bold due to the weapons they received from us. They are raiding castles at night and attacking convoys during the day. However, their actions do not damage our plans so I did not send any men to ratify the situation."

"The more they are ostracized the better. They will be already isolated after the war due to their inactivity so they will be open to influence. Continue to support mountain clansmen as chaos will work for us." Gerold's hand trailed down the Vale and stopped at the three islands to the west of the Arbor, "Does the boy arrived at the islands?"

"Yes and already, the experiments began. We are expecting results sooner than expected as the dragons we have taken from the Targaryen girl are responding well to this Jon Snow."

"Continue your work and do not disappoint me. Good, when the time comes you will be rewarded handsomely, Lurs." Gerold gave out a generous smile, "I can't be seen in public too much from now on. It is already difficult to hide it from Trios but I can feel the effects of it. Soon I will be the ones that take their places and they will be the ones who bow their heads…"