Chapter 32 – Dealing with the Aftermath

<Konrad Arryn, Volantis>

Everything hurt and while he would have rather kept sleeping, only a fool would do that when the last thing he remembered was the mortified face of a fire priestess, before something, either an arrow or worse, a bolt hit him in the shoulder.

Opening his eyes, Konrad was greeted by the worried face of the Red Viper's paramour, whom Konrad tried to protect, or at least keep as far away from the fight as possible.

At the same time, Ellaria let out a sigh of relief as she saw Konrad open his eyes. She had been watching over him for hours, praying to the old and new gods that he would wake up. He was only a boy, and he had risked his life to protect her from the chaos that erupted in the streets of Volantis.

"Konrad, you're awake!" she exclaimed, her voice full of joy something that Konrad quickly found made his head hurt. Almost as if she noticed that she leaned over and kissed his forehead, then shouted for her lover to come and check on the boy. "Oberyn, Oberyn, he's awake!"

The Red Viper of Dorne rushed into the room, concern written all over his face. Judging by how tired the man looked, Konrad deducted that he had been busy dealing with the aftermath of the fight alongside Tyrek and Gendel.

A second later, he approached the bed where Konrad lay, his shoulder bandaged and his face pale. He smiled warmly and clasped the boy's hand. "How do you feel, lad?"

Konrad tried to sit up but winced in pain. He felt a sharp ache in his shoulder, where the bolt had pierced him, not to mention the dull throb in his head, where he had hit the ground.

"Could be worse." He said, lying through his teeth. Alas to no result as Oberyn rolled his eyes before checking his head and then his shoulder wound.

"You are one lucky lad, you know that? If the bolt were to hit you even a little above, you would have lost the arm."

When he heard that, Konrad's eyes went wide open, though before he could ask if there was still a risk, Oberyn decided to ease his worries.

"Thankfully I was able to take care of that wound quickly enough. If you don't get the wound dirty so that it could infect… you will heal in a moon or two, depending on how fast your body deals with the wound."

Oberyn's words came as a great relief for Konrad, after all, what kind of lord would he be if he were to lose one of his arms so early in life? With his greatest fear taken care of, Konrad wanted to hear what happened after he fell.

"My prince, wha-what happened after I was shot?"

"We won. The price was heavy as only three and twenty of the initial fifty survived, but we managed to best almost a hundred of the fire worshipers. Thought as much as I would want to claim the victory, we would have lost if not for the tiger clocks interfering in force and killing or apprehending all of the followers of the fire god."

"Why?"

Neither Oberyn nor Ellaria knew the answer to Konrad's question. But after the fight ended, Oberyn did hear from one of the tiger cloaks, the slave soldiers who served the triarchs of Volantis, that the daughter of one of the triarchs, Malaquo Maegyr, had managed to persuade her father to help them for some reason. And that right now she, along with a few other slave women, were taking care of the wounded in the palace.

"Who knows? She's younger than you by a year so mayhaps she has a soft spot for foreigners, or maybe she wants to make a political statement since we both are kind of important. I don't know, lad. But I'm grateful for her intervention. Without her, we might have all been burned alive by those fanatics."

Ellaria nodded in agreement, then leaned over and kissed Konrad's cheek. "You should rest, my sweet lord. You've been through a lot today. Let my lover and your men deal with the after. I'll stay here with you for now."

<Jaime Lannister, King's Landing>

His Fatness was once again plowing a poor whore to death, not that she would mind, but this was not a place for a King's guard to guard. Being called Kingslayer was bad enough already, but to be humiliated like this by his drunkenness…

The only good part of this whole thing was his beloved twin sister. Cersei was his escape from his broken world as a knight in white. And as of late, his beloved sister, seemed to have taken a rather keen interest in the oldest son of Bronze Yohn. The lad was a decent knight, that much he could admit, but other than that there wasn't anything special about him that might have made his sister interested in him… No, how could have he forgotten? His uncle, Tygett had a son, Tyrek Lannister, who, his father forced to join the King's guard years before he joined the order as well.

Once the rebellion ended, everyone thought that he perished somewhere in battle, but a few years later, Lord Hand's son, who was supposed to have been kidnapped sent a letter through the Starks of all of the people explaining where he was and who was protecting him. To the Lannister's surprise, their kin, Tyrek was alive and well in Essos fighting assassins and keeping the young lord alive.

Just remembering his aunt screaming bloody murder at his father, demanding her son to be brought home, only for Tywin to shut her down with a simple sentence: He's a knight first before he is your son. Fool or not, Tyrek was tasked by someone to protect Jon Arryn's son, and the lad did a great job of keeping a child alive as well as having a squire.

Then out of nowhere, he heard footsteps coming closer to him and as a knight trained for war, he quickly put his hand on his sword just in case, only to freeze when he saw Ser Barristan Selmy running towards him or better said his location with a worried expression on his face.

As soon as the older knight reached him, Jaime was about to ask him what happened only for Ser Barristan to speak first.

"Ser Jaime, his grace is still inside?"

Was he asking if the drunk fat king was inside of a woman or inside of the brothel? Jaime didn't know for sure, but he decided to be at least nice to his commander.

"He is, ser. Did something happen?"

The moment he said that Ser Barristan's face morphed into one of sadness.

"Aye. The Master of Coin attacked the commander of the Gold Cloaks killing him while the commander was enjoying some company. After killing him, Baelish left King's Landing on a ship."

Jaime couldn't believe his ears. Baelish, the little whore owner had the balls to kill Janos Slynt, and while the man was far from being a good swordsman, Slynt was at least trained to use a sword, unlike Littlefinger. Not to mention that the whole thing would mean a long and undoubtedly boring small council meeting where his fatness would be forced to attend and act like a fucking king once and for all.

"Baelish killed Slynt? How? Why?"

Ser Barristan shook his head. "I don't know the details. All I know is that Slynt was found stabbed in the throat with a dagger that belonged to Baelish and that there were people who saw him fleeing the city. No one knows why the traitor would do that. Lord Hand had been hit badly by this revelation and so were almost all of the members of the small council, even the spider."

Seven hells, that's what Jaime thought when he heard that not even Varys knew about this madness. With Baelish out of the picture, the small council was in dire need of a new Master of Coin. Mayhaps Father should come to King's Landing, alongside Uncle Kevan, Uncle Gerion, and mayhaps even Uncle Tygett.

<Oberyn Martell, Volantis>

The Red Vier had to admit that whatever kind of training these men loyal to the young lord was better than many a good knight the seven kingdoms boast about. And while most of them were young men, Oberyn could only wonder just what Konrad was planning to do once he amassed a big enough army.

But for now, his focus was on dealing with the aftermath of this shit storm. The Temple of R'hllor had, to everyone's surprise, caught the person behind this attack and had shackled her, waiting for the Triarchs and even his and Tyrek's judgment. Essosi politics were nothing like Westorsi ones, but if his years as a sellsword taught the Red Viper something, that was how to deal with those people.

His beloved brother was quite adamant about keeping the interaction with the Triarchs to a minimum, but alas no confrontation survives the initial plans or so they say. Because of that, he, together with Tyrek and that tall brute of a man named Gendel alongside one of the few surviving knights of the order of Saint Mary, whoever she was, was waiting for Malaquo Maegyr to arrive. The man was to his surprise more than happy to meet them once he heard that those fire worshipers almost killed his son, who from Oberyn's learned, despite his young age, was already learning how to become a successful merchant. The poor lad got himself caught in the fray earlier this day and almost died if not for one of the squires wearing black sacrificing himself to save the young boy.

"Do you have any idea what the man might want to talk about, my prince?"

"Ever so polite, Lannister? But to answer your question… I'm as clueless as you are. Yes, one of your men did save the triarch's son, but I don't think that's all he wants to talk about. Besides, I'm not exactly part of your merry band of knights."

Luckily for them, the Triarch in question arrived a few minutes later guarded by no less than twenty tiger cloaks. Seeing those slave soldiers made the prince of Dorne smirk, at the obvious tactic the middle-aged man was trying to use to scare them into a better position for himself. The man was in his mid-forties if not even his fifties and by how he looked, Walder Frey was a top-tier beauty compared to this man. Though his silver hair and purple eyes did raise his looks slightly, or at least it did in the man's youth.

The triarch stopped before being helped to sit on one of the chairs presented in the rather enormous room. He then looked at the four men standing on the opposite side of the table clearing his throat and speaking to them in a raspy voice.

"Greetings, my lords. I am Malaquo Maegyr, Triarch of Volantis and the owner of the Tiger cloaks. The reason I ask to meet you today is because you saved my only son, Malon. He and my older daughter, Talisa are the only family I have left."

Before Oberyn could say anything, Tyrek quickly thanked the older man for his gratitude but then asked him if there was anything else they could do for him, since it was clear this meeting wasn't exactly all about how one of his men saved young Malon from certain death. Besides, Oberyn too had his doubts that whatever the man might want would be related to Konrad, mayhaps even a betrothal between him and Maegyr's daughter.

Seeing that he wasn't dealing with idiots, the triarch smiled thinly, revealing his crooked teeth. "Please, my lords, make yourselves comfortable. I have some wine and fruit for you if you wish. And yes, there is something else I want to discuss with you. Something that concerns the future of Volantis and Westeros."

He paused, looking at each of them, wanting to see their reactions. To his dismay, none of them reacted in any way the triarch would have wanted them to. Once he realized that his little game failed to earn him what he desired, Maegyr decided to speak bluntly, after all, what could he lose?

"You see, I am not a fool. I know that the young lord these three men are sworn to is someone important. Now, while I don't know for sure who he is, since I haven't got any information about him yet, I'm more than sure that he would grow into a respectable young lord, one that I dare to say might even change that continent of yours for the better."

Hearing the man's words, Oberyn was the first one to react. "I presume, my lord, you want to have a closer relationship with the young lord, am I right?"

"You are Prince Oberyn. Mayhaps we both want the same thing and that is peace and for our families to not live in fear of being killed."

That hit Oberyn right where it hurt him the most. To be fair, Oberyn was taken aback by how well-informed the triarch was, then again, the man, unlike his two other "friends" was more of a merchant than a slaver, which was better seen in Westeros.

"My lord, what are you suggesting exactly? Please don't take my words as an insult, but why would my young liege agree with such a deal? "Tyrek asked the man while looking him dead in the eyes.

"The whole power of Volantis."

When they heard the man mentioning the whole power of Volantis, none of them knew how to react, especially Oberyn, who just now realized that if Konrad did indeed marry Maegyr's daughter, the Vale of Arryn would become one of the most powerful kingdoms in Westeros.

"Yes, you heard me right. The whole power of Volantis. I am willing to offer you my support, my influence, and my wealth, in exchange for a marriage alliance between my daughter and your young lord. I know it sounds too good to be true, but I assure you, it is not a trap. It is a genuine offer, born out of necessity and mutual benefit."

Not hearing any response from them, the triarch decided to explain himself. "You see, my lords, I am not a young man anymore. Both of my kids are young and by the time both of them become adults, I might be dead. Volantis is no longer the same city people thought it was. While the other two triarchs are slavers and make a living out of it, I'm more inclined to trade goods, which earn most of the goods sold in the city. Over the years, I've slowly bought various people, gaining the power and loyalty of the tiger clocks for my family. However, once I would die, my son would be forced to take my mantle and that means ruling a city. As for my daughter … I just want her to be happy and, in this city… other than me and my son no one would care about her happiness. If marrying her to a lord from Westeros who is around the same age as her, then both of them might even fall in love."

"How will you make the other two triarchs listen to you if by some chance, your future Goodson would require your help?"

Maegyr smiled at them before chuckling to himself. "Please, Prince Oberyn, I would have thought that you out of all the people in this room would have realized the answer to your question."

Not only Oberyn, but even Tyrek, Gendel, and even the knight's eyes went wide open when they realized what the man was planning to do.

"You are planning a coup."

"Aye, one that by the end of 290AC would make my family the sole ruler of the city, and with it, the fall of slavery in Volantis."

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