gently down the stream...

The sparring sword was knocked away from his hands by a blow he barely saw coming before it clattered onto the murky ground of the yard. 

"You were too eager, again." Ser Garret groused as he looked down at him. Will let out a sigh as he waited for the insult that was surely to be thrown his way. "Even a blind rat would have noticed that opening was nothing more than bait." 

Yes, there it was. 

Ser Garret, was anything, if not predictable in his own way. Actually, Will couldn't help but wonder about something, if a rat was blind, how would it be able to see the bait? Did Ser Garret not realise what he said didn't make any sort of sense? 

Or was the contradiction in his insult another way to try and rile him up? If so, he certainly wasn't making a good show of it. 

"Pick up your sword and let's do this again." 

"Aye sir." Willem replied as he picked up his sparring sword once more. He turned and steadied himself, shield held in front of him and his sword held at the ready. 

Ser Garret took a moment to look him over before giving a single nod of the head. "Good, begin." With that single command, Will strode forth to be given another battering once more. 

It seemed the king had kept to his word about giving him to be squired to a knight of renown. Will had never heard of Ser Garret, not even all the way south in Duskendale, but then again, he never ventured any further north than the Antlers and for good reason as well, Harren the Black lurking around those parts. 

To his own research, Ser Garret seemed to be a knight of respect amongst the Tully household, although the knight being sworn to the Tullys made it rather suspect that what people said about him should be taken with a hint of salt. Perhaps some wished to not insult the knight, especially to his newly announced squire. 

A good knight he might be, a good person he was not. 

Ser Garret sent a thrust at him that Will was quick enough to block with the raising of his shield. He took a step to the side and swung his blunted sword at the older knight's arm, in a bid to, at the very least, disarm him, of his weapon. Not his arm. 

If only it was possible. He thought to himself idly before cursing as Ser Garret pulled his arm back quick enough that his attack missed. He quickly hid himself behind his shield once more as a couple of attacks battered against it, each strike forcing him to reground himself. 

Ser Garret was both fast and strong.  

Faster than him and stronger as well. 

In a moment of clarity and reprieve, Will charged forth, putting all of his weight behind him. Any other day, he wouldn't be able to knock a man down who was that much bigger and taller than him, but he hoped at the very least, the surprise behind this particular stratagem would catch him unawares for a brief moment to give him a chance to catch the day's victory. 

After all, all he had to do for this to all be over was to land one clean hit and that would be it. 

"Yes Willem! Just like that" 

Wait, was that Alys? He began to turn his head slightly to see if it was indeed his sister before he realised something, he was in the midst of a spar, Shit, I have to concent- it was too late as that moment of inattention was swiftly and brutally taken by Ser Garret. 

A powerful swing from the older man resulted in Will's shield being ripped from his off-hand, leaving him open to a powerful low swing into his abdomen that sent him crashing onto his back. To Will though, the pain was secondary to taking in as many breaths as possible to regain the breath that had been knocked out of him. 

"Will!" He heard his sister cry out, before he heard the slight sounds of feet running above the din of the training yard. His sister's form soon stood over him, her expression a mixture of worry and anger. "Are you alright?" 

Will coughed as he continued to drag in air into his lungs. "I'm fine." 

Alys looked him over a couple more times before the worry on her face disappeared before turning into anger. She quickly rose from her crouched form and to her feet and marched towards Ser Garret, her face the visage of an angry goddess. 

"What do you think you were doing!?" She demanded, angrily. "You could have killed him!" 

"He shouldn't have been distracted then, girl." The knight grunted out, not at all seemingly affected by the anger thrown in his direction. 

Will shakily rose to his feet, his free hand placed over his stomach, thankful for the padded clothing he wore. That had taken the brunt of the blow, but he knew that it was going to be hurting in the moment. In fact, he was rather sure he was going to be spotting a lot of bruises come the morn. 

Ser Garret's explanation didn't at all dissuade his somewhat worry-wart of a sister. "That's not excuse!" 

Did Alys always screech this much? And people were now starting to look. She was making a commotion. Will didn't want this. All this attention.  

"Alys, I'm fine," He began walking towards his sister. When he reached her, he placed a calming hand on her shoulder, something he did, he noticed, quite a few times as of the past few weeks since their time in Riverrun. Hopefully, his sister would be able to control her anger when it came to her duties as lady-in-waiting to whoever the king thought was appropriate. "The ser has the right of it, I was distracted, even for a moment and was punished for it. If this had been a battlefield, I would have found myself injured or worse." 

Ser Garret's dark eyes blinked once as he spoke. "By that, girl, he means dead. Your brother would have been dead." 

Will stopped himself from having to thank the knight for pointing out the obvious. His sister wasn't as considerate. "Thank you for that, ser. It's not as if I would have figured that out myself." 

"Oh Alys..." Sometimes, Will though that Alys was the gods punishment to him for some unknown crime that he had committed. He loved his sister, he truly did, but sometimes, she was just so... 

The knight's eyes laid themselves on Alys and for a second, Will thought the ser would lay hands on Alys. He didn't know why he thought that way, there had been no flash of dangerous intent in the knight's eyes, but those dark eyes of his, it made it rather difficult to get a bead on the man or his intentions. 

"What do you want, girl?" He asked, simply. 

Alys was defiant as she looked back at him. "I have a name." 

"Yes, yes you do, and it's girl. Now. What. Do. You. Want?" 

"The king has requested for my brother to attend to him for the evening." 

The ser was quiet for a moment. "His Grace could have sent one of his messengers to get him. How do I know this is not a ploy for you to get your brother out of his badly needed martial training?" 

"I'm not happy about this myself to be nothing more than His Grace's messenger," Alys said in what, Willem hoped to be the most polite tone of voice as possible considering the manner of her words. "But until I am attached to a lady, I am currently attending to the king." 

Will had to hold back a cough that nearly came out of his mouth. The ser just looked down at her, his expression unchanging. "Go." Before his full attention was brought back to Will and Will alone. "If I learn you were not needed and your sister had come to remove you from your training, I wont be so gentle in our next sessions." 

This was him being gentle? But none the less, Will nodded and bowed. "Yes, Ser Garret." With that, they left. 

*** ​

Will had been attending to the new King of the Rivers and Hills for little over two weeks now and he had still to make out the type of person the king was. It was easy enough to see that he was somewhat friendly and seemed to treat people with a certain noblesse oblige that seemed out of place for the most powerful man in the Riverlands even amongst the nobility. Sometimes, he chatted casually with some of the lowborn smallfolk, like old friends...that just wasn't done. 

He understood that the king had grown up among these people and these smallfolk had more than likely served his family for several generations or for even thousands of years, but the way he treated them so casually, what kind of lord, let alone a king, acted like that? His father always said that a lord had to hold to himself to a certain gravitas. 

From those observations alone, his new king didn't seem to have that gravitas, or perhaps he had yet to come and fully understand the gravitas that the king held. 

May haps he would never understand. 

"I think you're going to like this." The king said as he, well, he might as well be skipping towards the blacksmiths workshop. He seemed excited about something. "I really think you are going to like this. It's going to be brilliant." 

Will and Alys had trouble keeping up with the pace that the king was setting, but they were making a good go of it. "What exactly are we going to like, Your Grace?" 

"I thought I told you to call me Edmyn or Ed, whichever you prefer." 

"Yes you did, Your Grace." Alys replied as she held up the front of her skirts slightly so that she didn't trip over them at the pace that had been set. "But it would be massively improper to refer to a king in such a manner." 

Will nodded his head in agreement with his sister, even if the king wouldn't be able to notice the action. "It doesn't show the proper respect due for someone of your station." 

The king made a sound then. "I suppose that's something I'm going to have to deal with. Whatever, I'll get used to it eventually, or I might eventually get you to actually call me Ed." 

"Not going to happen, Your Grace." Alys said quickly with a certainty that left no rebuke. 

The red-haired king let out a small chuckle then. "At least give me a chance to prove you wrong, my lady." 

They continued to make their way towards the workshop. As of recently, the castle bustled with activity, there was never a time that it did not seem to Will that someone was doing something, except, perhaps during the night when people slept. Even then, people went about doing their duties till late or early morn. 

There was even more people in the castle as well, as just a few days ago, he had seen a procession of several dozen men arrive at Riverrun and settle within the castle. It was only till later in the day that he had learned that the men were acolytes and novices that had been sent to Riverrun on the request of the king. 

Why King Edmyn needed acolytes and novices from the Citadel when he had his maester was something he couldn't come up with a reasonable explanation. Something like this was something even his own lord father had never done before. 

What could the king possibly want with even more coin-counters and scholars? Was one not enough for the king? 

Perhaps I can finally have a private tutor instead of sharing the maester with others. Will thought to himself. It made sense. He didn't care much for the finer details of book learning, but he respected the knowledge they held well enough to know that it would be important for him to know the finer details of coin-counting for his future role as Lord of Duskendale. 

He just didn't care much for sharing the maester with several dozen other children to learn from. Especially as he felt the speed of learning was particularly slow, something he cast the blame on his 'classmates' as the king put it. 

It wasn't their fault, most of them were peasant brats that had more than likely never held a book in their life before. 

And him sharing a maester's time with peasants was another insult thrown his way that he felt was obligated to weather. 

He couldn't help but wonder if the king set out to intentionally insult and heap slight upon slight on his persons? Even as young as he was, he knew that would be foolish, considering in the future, he was set to become one of his greater lords in his realm. 

In the end, it made his bid to understand the king even harder. 

"Alright, we are here." The king said as he entered the workshop, where the blacksmith, Willem thought Mikken was his name, along with the keeper of the Wheel Tower, Blake Rivers and with them, standing to the sides were the apprentices of the blacksmith as they awaited for the king. "Tell me, does it work?" 

The bastard nodded as he stepped aside to lead them to whatever it was that had gotten the king excited. "That's only for you to judge, Your Grace. But I'd like to think we did what was asked of us."  

"I think you boys would have done a good job. I know I entrusted this project to the right men." The king said as he headed towards the...'project'. 

Will didn't know what it was, but it was tall. Taller than him by, probably, a couple of feet and the same as well to how long it was, although the same couldn't be said to how wide it was. He tried to make sense of the thing, but he didn't know what to make of it. 

"Alys...?" He ventured to his sister, to see if she knew what to make of this thing as well. 

The response he received was nothing more than a shake of the head from his sister, who seemed to be having trouble much like him to make sense of the contraption in front of them. Surprisingly, she didn't seem to have something to say. 

The king walked around the thing, taking it in, he even dragged a hand along its length and dipped his hand into something. Was that ink? 

"Alright, let's see what it can do." The King of the Rivers and Hills eventually said. 

The blacksmith nodded and indicated towards some of his apprentices. "You heard His Grace, let's get to it!" 

What followed next was a mass of movement by a couple of the apprentices as they took positions around the machine and began to work at it. The screens folded down, an apprentice worked at a windlass. Curious, he took a step forward and saw that the bed of the thing was being rolled underneath what seemed to be like a platen of some kind. 

The apprentices continued to work on the machine before eventually coming to a stop, opening up the screens once more and a sheet of parchment was removed by the blacksmith. The blacksmith moved towards the king and passed him the paper. "Your Grace." Was all he said as he handed the parchment over. 

The king grabbed the parchment before looking it over, turning it this way and that before a smile slowly crept across his face. "My lady, gentlemen, the Renaissance bids us bonjour!" 

Willem blinked as he tried to understand what the king had just announced, but all he could come with was. "What?" 

*** ​

This was Willem's first time seeing Lord Samwell Mooton. There was nothing about him that particularly stood out, he was of an average built, an average height and he was dressed rather demurely for one of the richer lords in the Riverlands. 

After all, Maidenpool would not boast itself as the equal of Duskendale, no city or town could very well do that, but it was still the most prosperous port that was in the Riverlands proper, so was it safe to assume that the lord would be wealthier than most of his fellow lords?  

Compared to the way he dressed himself, Lord Samwell might as well have been a pauper compared to his lord father. 

The king looked over the parchment of paper that he held in his hands. He had been looking over it for quite a few moments and Willem couldn't help but wonder what was so important about it. What secrets did it hold to require so much concentration from the king? 

"My lord, I will admit, that is a lot of zeros on this sum." He eventually yielded and began to roll the parchment of paper up and leaned into the back of his seat. "They agreed to give us all of this gold?" 

Lord Samwell nodded his head with a slight smile that played on his lips. "There initial offer had been less in amount, but I eventually was able to convince them to increase their amount." 

The king idly toyed with the parchment in his hands, his eyes darting from left to right as he absorbed everything in. "The interest rate is better than I thought it would be."

The lord of Maidenpool made a sound as he sighed. "Many of those of the Faith look down upon those who profit from the lending of coin, but in Essos, they follow their own false gods that allow them to commit such a sin."

"I know. It's a shame but I suppose the Iron Bank would have to generate a profit somehow." the king said with a shrug of the shoulders as he rolled up the parchment once more. "But as I said before, it's far better than I thought. You have my thanks, my lord."

The lord inclined his head in a respectful bow as he replied. "It was a pleasure to serve, your grace."

Willem blinked in surprise. This was about the Iron Bank? Even he knew about the Iron Bank. His father had once had business with them in the past and he had been unusually deferential to coin counters. 

He nearly shuddered as he recalled what his father had once told him about the bank, about how they all lived in its shadow without knowing it. And how it was wiser to simply pay back the money one owes the bank rather than find themselves on the wrong side of the bank. 

The king was quiet for a moment as he looked at Lord Samwell. "Speaking of service to the Crown, Lord Samwell, I had been meaning to ask if you would like to have a position in my government." 

"Your government, Your Grace?" 

The king nodded. "Aye, I can't rule our newly independent kingdom by myself. I need capable men to help me with many of the duties involved, and honestly," He shook the parchment of paper he held in his hand slightly in the air in front of him. "You were able to convince the Iron Bank to lend us a generous sum, a sum that is more than I expected to receive, on quite the terms for us. That takes skill, and I want you in my government, to use that capability." 

Lord Samwell pursed his lips in thought. "So I shall be the coin counter of the kingdom?" 

"I would prefer to call the position Minister of Finance, but if you're willing to call it the coin-counter, I am not one to stop you." The king offered with a light laugh. "Of course, you shall receive payment for the position, once all of the details have been sorted out." 

Payment? Willem was confused. Why should the king pay the lord to come and do his duty? That didn't make any sort of sense. The lord was obligated to come to the king's aide, payment or not. 

"May I have some time to think it over, Your Grace?" The lord asked. "It is a tempting offer." 

"Take all of the time you need, my lord." The king paused for a moment. "But not too long. I might find someone else to be my minister. But I have to ask, what is the news from Essos? I'd admit, Ive heard sailor's tales here and there, but I'm more concerned with problems at home than abroad." 

Willem leaned his head slightly forward from where he stood to try and hear better about what was about to be said. Like the king, he had heard of what was happening from Essos through the gossiping of women and men, but he supposed that wasn't as accurate as someone who had been on the continent itself. 

"There isn't much news, Your Grace. Maybe you have heard already, but Volantis sued for peace some time back after Aegon Targaryen burned their fleet outside Lys and Argilac smashed their host in the Disputed Lands." 

The king sighed. "So the same thing we've heard then. No new development has happened?" 

"Unfortunately not, Your Grace." 

The king rose and Lord Samwell rose with him. "Thank you for this, my lord. And I hope to hear a good answer from you soon enough." He said as he clasped hands with the lord. 

"It was a pleasure to be of service, Your Grace." 

Lord Samwell left not long after, leaving Willem with the king, in silence. 

"A drink, Your Grace?" Willem offered, breaking the silence that had settled the private hall above the Great Hall of Riverrun. 

"No, thank you for the offer though, Willem." The king replied.  

Nodding, he continued speaking. "Would you require anything more of me, Your Grace?" 

"No, that would be all for-." The king stopped abruptly as he put a finger to his lips in thought. "Actually, I have a message for you take to Maester Jaime." He said as he rose from his seat and went to the desk at the side and pulled out a small message scroll. Willem watched as the king dipped a quill into a pot of ink and began to scribble onto the scroll. "Give it to Maester Jaime, it's to head for Storm's End." 

Willem blinked. "Storm's End?" 

The king finished writing his message and sealed it with the sigil of House Tully. "Storm's End. This message might very well be of a great boon to our fledgling little kingdom. So I suppose it's rather important, try not to fail this mission, young Will." The king finished as he passed over the rolled-up scroll. 

"I can deliver a message, Your Grace." Will replied easily enough. By now, he knew the king occasionally liked to rile him and his sister up, for nothing more than the 'funzies' as the king said. "I won't fail." 

"Then godspeed, young Willem." 

*** ​

I was going to guess these hills I was currently looking at where the hills that would eventually go on to become the hills King's Landing was built around. I can see why Aegon went for them. They had a rather commanding position on the mouth of the Blackwater and the only ford nearby that one could effectively use to cross a large amount of men, like say an army, within a reasonable enough of a time. 

The only other ford capable of that sort of transport was the one near Tumbler's Falls, but that particular town was well defended and was something I was going to have to make sure it went from well defended to a bitch of a pain to take, therefore one shouldn't even bother. There were a couple other fords, smaller and less likely to be used to move armies, but still be able to use to move raiding parties. 

Now that I think about it, I should probably set up watch towers near those fords, along with making sure they were connected to a semaphore network. I pointed to the tallest one. "I want a fort built on that big hill right there. It doesn't have to be fancy, just simple enough that it can hold this position. We'll expand on it as we move along." 

Ser Franklin looked towards the hill and his eyes looked unsure for a moment. "Argillac might not like that." 

"I know." I admitted as I saw a detachment of men ride towards the hill, along with several wagons that we had brought with us that contained the building material and equipment for said fort. "But it just so happens that the hills are on my side of the border. I can do with those hills as much as I want." Was this course of action stupid? Very much so, but if something worked, it wasn't particularly stupid in the first place. "At some point, I intent to build forts on the other two hills, and maybe one just opposite this very ford." 

Ser Franklin, if he could, would be shaking his head at what I was saying, but he was being polite. I liked this Frey, still made it rather difficult to understand how the fuck the Walder Frey came into being with genes as good as Franklin's circling somewhere in there. 

"This might invite war," He said and I would very much agree with him and I was about say something but he continued speaking. "But Argillac has just returned from a war abroad with less men than he had gone with. Those very same men have fields to tend and harvests to work at. He'd be a fool to go into another war so soon." 

I nodded as I agreed with him, I was playing a very risky here. But what was risk without reward? Better control of my southern borders was the sort of reward that I think was probably worth it. 

"Let's hope he's not as arrogant as people say. His arrogance might very well rule over his good sense." 

"So what bit of madness convinced you to take this action, Your Grace, if not arrogance?" 

I was quiet for a moment as I pondered on the question. "Hm, I'd like to say that it was an odd mixture of good and bad sense. At the end of the day, we'll only be able to find out when he makes his appearance and we have our little talk." I looked past the fast-flowing Blackwater and into lands that were considered part of the Stormlands. And it wasn't as if there was a treaty or anything of the likes that stopped me from doing what I was just doing. It just so happened the area around our borders along the rush were somewhat considered to be No Man's Land, with various raids and half been thrown across them by one lord or another. "Now where is that bastard. We agreed to meet on this particular day and time, yes?" 

Ser Franklin pulled something out of a sack that was tied around his horse's neck. It was a perfect circle with a simple stick placed in the centre. A sun dial, a rather simple invention that I introduced to Westeros that gave us a more accurate measure of time, and a safer way as well, without having to fear blinding yourself from looking up into the sky to check the time. 

Kinda useless during night-time, but that was something that could easily be lived with. 

"The agreed time was noon." The heir to the Twins announced as he held out the dial and look at the position of the shadow the sun cast upon the small device. "And it's near enough to noon. It seemed we were early." 

"Well, I suppose they don't have the benefit of a portable watch do they?" Ser Franklin didn't even bother to question me on what a watch was. "Well, I guess he deserves the benefit of the doubt this one time." 

So we waited, me, Ser Franklin Frey and the company of men that had come with me as a protective detail for this particular meeting of kings. Of course, we made sure to blatantly have the Seven-coloured flag out for all to see so that no manner of misunderstandings could happen. 

We didn't have to wait long after the agreed time. I think several minutes after the sun reached the apex of its journey across the sky, we saw movement coming from the other side of the river, a column of mounted men, making their way towards us. 

I took out the telescope or far-eye in the local terminology and looked towards the column. Now let's see who it was. I trained my far eye to the lead of the column were I immediately recognised the black crowned stag on a field of gold of the Durrandons. 

Now that I think about it, since the Tullys were now a royal house, did that mean a crown had to be added to our own sigil? I mean, that was kind of a stupid image, a fish with a crown.  

The Durrandon heraldry wasn't the only one that I saw, there were others, but I couldn't recognise them. I didn't particularly care for them, since as far I cared, the Durrandon coat of arms was the most important. It was the most important since I went through all this trouble to just meet this one guy. 

I hope Argillac won't be one to disappoint me. 

He didn't. 

Argillac was fucking massive. He was wider than me, heft with nothing more than muscles and taller as well. I think he was the tallest person I had come across in Westeros, then I remembered that most of the Baratheons happened to be rather tall bastard. 

Wasn't Bobby B like six foot something and pretty much superhuman in canon before everything went to shit? 

What did these Baratheons or more specifically for this particular moment in time, Durrandons eat? I hoped I could have children that tall. 

I blinked as I tilted my head slightly to look up at the older man. "I admit, you're much taller than I thought you would be." I was trying so very hard not to feel so utterly small and threatened by the massive man in front of me. 

It also didn't hurt that this guy might as well be nearly as old as my grandfather. 

Argillac grinned widely as he looked down at me, arms crossed across his broad chest. "And you're just about as small as I thought you would be." 

I'd say that was an insult, but the guy probably had me by several inches and a hundred pounds, so that was less an insult and more along the lines of an accurate assessment. "I'm sure everyone is small to you, King Argillac." I realised I need to hit the gym more and get some mad gains. This just wouldn't do. 

He burst out into a loud laughter than sounded like the rumbling of distant thunder, except that it was right in front of me. I honestly swear that his laughter was loud enough to drown out the flowing river that we happened to be in the middle off. 

My fellow king leaned forward slightly, resting a hand on the back of his horse. "So tell me, did you make Harren scream before you took his head?" 

"No. That's a bit too much blood for my liking." I admitted with an easy shrug of the shoulders. Would that be an admission of weakness? If it was, I needed to show I was strong then. "But then again, for the better part until his execution, he spent most of his time naked like the day he was born, with a sock stuffed into his mouth. A sock that I had worn for several days with the express intention to stuff it into his mouth." 

That rumbling thunder like laughter came again. "Oh that's good, if it had been me, I'd have had him drawn and quartered. The screams would have been lovely don't you think?" 

Drawn and quartered? I've heard of the term, but I don't think I've ever actually seen a visual representation of it or read anything about it. Was it the one where you were ripped apart by horses? That seemed a bit... messy. 

"Father." 

If I didn't know any better, the imposing Argillac looked somewhat sheepish at the voice that had called out to him from the retinue of six knights that had come with him to meet me. "Where are my manners? Child, come forth." He ordered with a lazy wavy of the hand forward. 

From the pack of six knights that had come with him, one broke from the ranks and made their way forward before coming to make a stop beside his king. Then the knight removed his helmet and I realised it was less a him and more of a her. 

I took in the black haired, blue eyed female that was beside Argillac and I would admit, she was hot. I raised an eyebrow. "And you must be Princess Argella." I inclined my head slightly in greeting. "A pleasure to meet you." 

Her stormy blue eyes studied me without the slightest flicker of emotion then she spoke. "A woman in man's armour doesn't startle you?" Too everyones not surprise, her voice was far more gentle and quieter than that of her kingly father, yet still had an undertone of steely authority to it, just lurking underneath the surface. 

I suppose one had to have such a tone of authority if their father was one Argillac the Arrogant. 

My shoulders had automatically shrugged before I had even known what they had done. "Not really. These eyes of mine have seen stranger things. A woman in armour might as well be just another day at the office for me." 

My use of a word she had never come across before didn't even net me a point. Netted me a point with her father though. "Office? What are you blathering about boy?" 

Okay, time to assert myself a little here. Hopefully, that wouldn't set him off. "I know I'm younger than you, Your Grace, but just like you, I happen to be a king and I'd prefer it if you would treat me with the same respect I am showing you as well." 

His eyes locked with mine, narrowing so slightly as a storm brewed behind them. Or perhaps a storm had always been brewing inside them and I was just noticing this now? 

Behind me, I could essentially hear the uneasiness that had come over my knights as me and Argillac entered a sort of clash of wills, if you would have it like that. Unlike my knights though, Argillac's didn't even seem prepared to rush in to help their king. 

Then again, Argillac was a beast who could probably render me and the knights all by himself, so they probably felt if anything was going to happen, Argie-boy here would have it all in hand. 

Then that thunder like laughing came once more. "You have some balls, Your Grace. I suppose you have to have some to take on Harren the way I hear you did." 

"Balls of steel." 

That caught him and his daughter for once, off-guard. "What?" They both said at the same time. 

"Balls of steel. I have balls of steel. Not your average every day iron or bronze." Lies, blatant lies, but I was going to ride this for all it was worth until I fell off it. 

Once again, the thunder came back before a toothy grin that reminded me somewhat of the Cheshire cat was cast in my direction. "Right then, I suppose we should have a little chat, amongst us kings, yes?" 

"I'd like that very much, Your Grace." 

***​AN: I'll admit i did the bare minimum on the research, but it seems banks or the closest thing to banks in the medieval ages didn't charge interest, so I went with that line of thinking. If I have it wrong or I missed something in canon about the IB, someone tell me and I'll change it. 

Last chapter of this arc will probably be up later on tonight, so, woo?

EDIT: The IB now charges interest rates, so thanks for the feedback guys.