Finishing business

We moved from the bedroom we were in into a chamber that look more like a solar, I asked the tralls to gather all the other tralls and warn the other five ironborn if they were found, that was useless to try and run because I can find them whenever(bullshit), so they instead come have a conversation with me, and now I am alone with Lady Tanley.

she's is staring at me with those ice-blue eyes, she opens her mouth and says with a defeated, tired voice.

"you have something on your shoulder" right, the arrow" I can ask for some of the thralls to remove and clean it for you."

"I thank you but is not necessary" I ain't going to move for some time so I yank it with telekinesis and cast spare the dying on the wound, all I have to do it's not move a lot, Lady Tanley's eyes widen for a short bit.

"You can heal as well, they had no chance at all" she pauses with a small vindicated smile" I, lady Eliza Tanley thank you for your help in dealing with the revolt on my lands," she bows her head a bit" but I have something to ask of you" I raise an eyebrow, that bold of her to ask in this situation I made a gesture to her to proceed.

"Aggar the master of arms that went to parley with you, is he dead?"

"Yes, I killed him, did you not see it by your window," I asked her she shook her head

"the wall is too tall for me to be able to look over from here, I did see you enter through the gate as a giant bear and massacre the soldiers in the yard." she pauses " ca-can you tell me how he died" right it was her rapist.

"I came to offer terms of surrender to you and you alone, after he refused to bring you out, I turned back to leave and he tried to take me hostage to keep the northern army at bay and to have a bargaining chip for later I believe, I had a problem with his plan so I turned into a massive bear and chew his head off." I see a smile blossom on her face, a cruel one this time" what would be your name, my lord," she asks

"I am not a westerosi lord yet, "her eyebrows rose a bit" but I have the impression that I will be by the end of the war, my name is Antares Palestars," I say with a light bow of my head.

"very well, Antares Palestar, I Lady Eliza Tanley surrender the Tanley keep to you" mission completed, and all I had to do its kill the entire garrison, ah diplomacy.

I call mentally Starchaser and bring from my satchel ink and paper I scribe a note to Lord Karstark " the keep is ours " as soon as Starchaser arrived at the window I open it and gave the message to her.

"you trained an owl to act as a crow," said Eliza.

"No, that owl is smarter than many men and older too(bull), it has been with my family for long enough for us to change our banner to include her(superbull)" I speak about the fake lore of my fake ancient family of wizards a little bit before a thrall enter the room with two men, well one man and practically a boy he's what, 17 I think, they wear chainmail have axes on their hips and are quite bloodied as well, they are looking at the ground and shaking, well its bullshit time.

"look at these noble, brave, warriors," I said with a mocking voice, I pull their weapons with telekinesis and they jump" now, now I just thought we all could be more comfortable, no need for weapons here, I have none myself" I smile at them, time to make a show of thaumaturgy" now, I have to judge you two, lady Tanley here will be our witness of a fair trial" they pale and Eliza smile" I will peer inside your minds and look upon your sins if I find they too heavy, you find that you have a choice to make, the wall or the block, if I find they light your punishment will be decided by me and lady Tanley and then you be in my service for a certain amount of time" I explain to them.

"Y-You can do that?" asked one of them

"and much more, now let me prepare" I float all the candles around the room in a circle and start mumbling something, I use thaumaturgy to close all windows of the room, they jump at that, and then flare the candles with a pale white flame " you first boy step on the circle and kneel before(Zod)me" he quivering and dragging his feet do so" look me in the eyes boy" thaumaturgy again to change my eyes from the blue-green to a bright white, such a fucking useful spell man, magical shock and awe all the way, I cast detect thoughts.

Well, little Glen didn't do much evil in his life, I mean he's is sixteen years old, sure he deflowered a chambermaid who was promised to another, but it was consensual, and really I don't give much a fuck about chastity anyways, did he break her heart, yes, but that just makes him a dick really, and if I try to kill every dick in Westeros the white walker will have nothing to do here at all, he also didn't really betray the Tanley lady, he just wasn't aware a coup was happening, he was passed out drunk when it happened, and when he woke up there was not much a guy could do really, he is negligent and a dick but he is sixteen who isn't at that age really, well let see what Eliza think about it, I leave his mind, oh right they bleed by the nose, eyes, and ears if I go to deep, my bad I guess.

"well, Glen over here is no traitor just a terrible guard and awful at dealing with ladies besides that not much crime was done on his part, he was passed out drunk when the Aggar took over, and when he woke up he could not do anything against the crushing numbers, so he put his head down, I believe he is not deserving of a heavy punishment."

By now thaumaturgy has faded and the flame of the candles is back to normal as my eyes, Eliza is holding the arm of the chair quite strongly.

"did you enter his mind, can you do that with anyone," she asks shocked, I look at the surface of her mind, she was imagining something akin to the ZONE OF TRUTH where you cant lie inside of it, I guess invasion of the mind was more violating than she expected.

"yes I did, all I need is a ritual as you can see, then I have the person I want to read the mind inside the circle and then look into my eyes, it is uncomfortable of course but it works." lies of course, but is better reveal that now so any information I give will have more weight and when the white walkers appear I will have an easy way to "confirm" it, when someone asks where I get any information I can say it was in his mind, I can't go too deep without the person noticing anyway so I will reveal the part of the ability I can't stealth, and keep the passive one for myself it also will give them the false sense that they minds are safe as long as I don't have the ritual up.

"Traitor or not he was a guard he should not be drunk on his post, but if what you said is true, five lashes on the back will serve as his punishment," she said, and damn I thought I said not a severe punishment, im trying to learn how to deal with the peasantry here, for when I become a lord, but all the nobles of Westeros are kind of dicks, so my fault for expecting anything else.

"it is not too heavy a punishment for being drunk?" I ask her

"if he was just a drunken fool on the streets, yes, but he was a guardsman of a keep that was readying itself for a siege, he wasted resources, and time and neglected his watch, making it easier for the master of arms to take over." when you put it like that I have to agree, huh I leaning something after all.

"you speak wisely lady Tanley, I shall see the punishment as soon as the host takes the keep then, something to say, boy?" I ask Gleen and he shakes his head, he is taking it like a champ, or I broke his mind by accident?

"Now you, step into the circle" I gesture to the other one

"nay, I take the black" this guy has some skeletons in his closet doesn't he, well not my problem, this is really tiring.

as I think that I feel something wet above my lips, I clean it with my hand, and its blood, my blood, from my nose, what the fuck where that came from I did not get injured besides that arrow, why im bleeding from my nose.

"well with that solved, let us all wait for the host to arrive at the yard" as I get up I feel a little dizzy as well, shit maybe I need some healing spells because I can't identify the problem even with my newfound medical abilities.

We all stand at the entrance of the keep looking in the yard, Eliza and the other two look a little pale and queasy, some minutes later we hear hooves thundering towards the gate, 30 something riders appear from the gate and stop around the yard lord Karstark dismount and come to us the other lords on his wake.

"what happen here," he ask in a shocked tone " look like a rabid animal attacked"

"Something in that area but the important is that the keep is ours now, Lady Tanley here surrendered the castle and is unharmed... Well unharmed by me."

"What does that mean exactly," he asks in a serious tone

"Come, we talk inside the smell is starting to get to me" is not helping the dizziness at all, we arrived at a salon with a big table, the tralls brought water and wine, and I helped myself with a cup of water, it helped a little, Lady Eliza is sited on my right side, when everyone was sited I started

"I arrived at the gate to offer the proposal you gave, the first problem was I was not dealing with Lady Tanley I was dealing with Aggar the master of arms, weird I thought but maybe the lady didn't want to deal with me, so I made the offer to him, total surrender of the castle in exchange for mercy, he refused and tried to bargain, I refuse to continue the talks, after all my terms were clear, as I turned to leave they tried to capture me as a hostage, I had a problem with that and made clear to every ironborn on the castle.

"Do you have any proof of that?" asked one of the lords

"If you asking about killing everyone part you can ask these two individuals over there" I point to the two ironborn in the corner" if you asking of what happened on the gate, I don't have proof after all everyone died but lady Tanley can say more about Aggar's character."

Everyone's eyes turn to Eliza, she seems a little caught off guard but recuperates quickly and says.

"I wouldn't put past him to do such a thing, he was cunning, ruthless, and more importantly stupid, what Palestars didn't mention is that Aggar was a traitor, an oathbreaker he did kill all men that were loyal to me and my late husband and took over the castle."

"Good riddance then" and "it was the right decision" and "less northern men dead" those are some of the comments we could hear around the table some grumbled about they doing nothing but the consensus is that my decision was the right one.

After that, we discussed how many men will garrison and how many supplies we would leave, Lady Tanley will come with us till the king decide what he will do with the nobles, Glen got his five leashes and I treated the would after, good practice, I put him in my "ringwraith" list, he will move from port to port and spread my tale.

Two days later I was on a ship again, this time painting on the deck with the supply I made from the keep resources, on a canvas I created, lady Tanley, she seem quite happy to be my model its good to see her with a good expression on her face and it seems I got the attention of the nobles, the northern ones, and those of the Riverlands as well, ah I can smell the gold on the paint.

"Land Ho" someone screams and I stop my painting to see the shores of the island of Pyke, finally, time to end this.