Stannis VI

292AC

The painted table was not something Stannis found himself visiting very often. It was inconvenient to get to at the top of the castle, and not particularly useful outside of warfare. In fact, he had only visited it twice before when he first took Dragonstone and just before he left for the Greyjoy rebellion.

Still, be thought that it put him in the right mindset for his current task, as he shuffled through the betrothals that his son had found fitting.

The choices were sensible, for the most part at least, though he knew the boy had likely given the choice to him as much out of a lack of clear answer as of respect for his station. Still, it mattered little the reason as he stared down at the three with no obvious answer himself.

Redwyne, Martell, Tarth. All having clear positives, but a good amount of potential problems as well. Half of him wished that there was a clear frontrunner, but no such luck.

The Redwyne girl stood out to him as the least necessary. While it would give his son naval dominance over Westeros, that seemed to be on the way regardless, given their newfound ability to build Galleons that matched even the Swan Ships of the Summer Isles.

Not to mention she was half Tyrell, and her father had very nearly killed the boy as an infant, albeit indirectly. No, she would not have his son's hand. The Reach could fall into the ocean for all he cared, well, save perhaps for his wife's house.

That left the Tarth and the Martell. Both heirs to their father, albeit in different ways, and thus likely a great aid to his son's ambitions. His son had warned him that the Tarth girl might not want to be married at all when he had asked him to choose of the three and that he would need to speak to her first. Her reputation was certainly fierce, and she had already driven off an unwanted suitor, but then his son had gotten along well with her at King's Landing by his account, so she wasn't precisely ill-suited for it at all.

The Dornish of course, we're another set of worms, one with their own queen reputation. He had met a few of their ilk in his time and could not speak to its truth, but they were rumored to be odd, fiery, and dangerously in this case, promiscuous. Still, she was a Lord Paramount's heir and would give his son back a Kingdom, albeit not the Stormlands which by all rights should be his inheritance.

Stannis ran his hand down his face. The Tarth girl was plain and likely loyal if she did not resent his son for marrying her, but she had far less to offer compared to the Dornish. Tarth was not a kingdom, even if Dorne was the weakest and most isolated of the seven.

He sighed, looking at his hands. This was a matter of great importance that might well echo down his line for generations to come. House Baratheon of Dragonstone might never be stronger than it was today.

That thought and the fate of future generations left him with only one real option.

'The Dornishwoman it is.' He slumped, pushing the letter from Tarth away. He would need to write a confirmation for Lord Dorian in the morning.

The whole thing felt like a brick tied to his shoulders.

"I knew it." He heard beside him, looking up to see his lady wife. Though he was unsure how long she had been there. "You let Arthur push the decision off onto you, didn't you? What am I saying, of course, you did."

"Do you have something to say, Dear Wife?" he narrowed his eyes. While their relations had improved since Edric's birth they were still not exactly warm with each other, though they presented a unified front in public as was their duty. "Perhaps some insight?"

"A small one if you'll hear it. Arthur should make the decision."

"He has given me the duty…"

"But it is his duty at its base, and moreover we already decided to consider his happiness in the matter, yet he has only ever met one of these women."

Stannis nodded at the reasoning but remained unconvinced. "But it is my duty now, I should accept it."

"What is more important to you, that minor and recent duty or your son's happiness? We decided that he should avoid having a marriage like our own did we not? Is your word to me not just as high a duty as that to your son?"

The Lord of Dragonstone recoiled slightly as if the words themselves had slapped him, which in a way they had. "What do you suggest then?"

"He loves showing off his boats, doesn't he? And that big monster flagship he's been building is almost finished. Have him take that thing out with a few of his cutters and visit the candidates. That way he can make a choice actually knowing the girls, not just fusing about. This is more important because you" Stannis was a little shocked as his normally quite stern wife pointed a finger in his face, before sending it down towards his son's chambers. "And he both are inflexible and duty-obsessed, so once you make this betrothal they might as well be already married for all you'll seriously consider canceling it."

Stannis felt he must be gaping as much as his son had been earlier in the evening. Selyse was not one for such outbursts. But then, with their marriage the way it was, he could understand her hesitancy to have her son suffer the same fate.

Finally, after a moment of shocked silence, Stannis met his wife's eyes.

"Fine. We'll do it that way. I will have someone summon him here and explain."

His wife nodded sharply, what emotion she had shown now carefully reigned in behind her normal, nearly impassive mask.

"That would be for the best."