Row, row, row your boat

When exactly did Aegon come and William the Conqueror shit out of Westeros again? I remember that he and Argilac became sort of buddies when they fought against Volantis during the Century of Blood and then after that, what happened again? 

This at all didn't help me with the fact that Georgie boy never bothered to build his world in a more detailed manner. When I read the books, I couldn't help but wonder what the calendar was before Argon had conquered Westeros. I don't think ever mentioned it in the narration or was even alluded to in the books. 

It didn't help that now I was living in that time period before Aegon, I learned that trying to keep the date was complete and utter bullshit. The fucking Andals couldn't even decide which fucking calendar to follow! 

As far as their calendars was concerned, it was either the year six thousand something or four thousand something or two thousand something, all depending on which date the Andals came and brought civilisation to Westeros. 

It also didn't help that depending on the maester, it was either the year six-four-two thousand something depending on his school of thought. 

Like I said, confusing. 

Alright, me complaining about dates aside, the entire reason I was complaining about dates was because the World of Ice and Fire doesn't exactly tell when Aegon and his sisters came swooping in with their dragons. Basically, what I'm trying to say is...I have no idea when Aegon makes his appearance. It could be an hour, a day, a week, a month-oh wait a second, Aegon invaded after the whole Volantis affair was over and done with, right? 

So, I just had to wait until that was done. 

Problem is, this rounds back to the whole problem of me not knowing when the Volantis ends its whole Empire Strikes Back phase. 

I once read something on the internet about Georgie complaining about Tolkien and his world building...now that I'm sort of living in Georgie's world before canon, he really had no grounds to stand on and bitch about. At least Tolkien had a well-documented and functional calendar. 

… 

I'm griping. I don't like griping. 

I should just go with it and just wait it out until Aegon eventually makes his appearance. Until then, roads need to be built, canals need to be guilt, some kind of government for the Riverlands has to be built. 

I had some work in front of me. 

I really wish I at the very least chosen to take Business Management and Public Policy as a course at uni. Probably one semesters worth of knowledge in such a course could help me more than anything at this point in time.  

*** ​

I don't think my maester liked me much, then again, for the past two months, I had given him more work than he probably would have liked to never have, primarily, the job of teaching the castle brats of Riverrun how to read and write amongst other things, but then again, he was bound to serve, so fuck him. 

"Some of the children seem to be learning faster than others." Maester Jaime, yes, his name was Jaime. I wonder if he was a Lannister or was related to the Lannisters or something. Maybe Jaime was a more common name than I thought. Don't think I saw any Jaime's in any of the Lannister family trees, or maybe I can't remember. "This has proven to be quite the problem when it comes to their overrall education." 

He sounded a bit sour. I chewed on the apple in hand that was part of my five a day. "Okay, I'm sure this can easily be solved. Just separate the classes with the students with the ones that are excelling one or more classes and the ones that are not in another and teach them accordingly." 

He gave me the sort of look that someone would give when they say something particularly stupid. I don't particularly think anything I said was at all stupid. 

If the maester wore glasses, he would probably be pushing them up the bridge of his nose right about now. "I have done that. The problem is, with the number of children, I can't possibly teach all of them by myself. I need help." 

Oh, now that I think about it, how many children did I tell him to teach again? I'm sure it was a fair few. 

"Okay, so what do you need, fellow maesters to help with your teaching duties?" 

The grey sheep shook his head. "Contrary to popular belief, my lo-your grace," I ignored the hiccup of addressing me by my new title. "Us maesters are not as widespread as is commonly believed. The Citadel might boast thousands upon thousands of acolytes and students, but only a fair hundreds of them eventually forge their chain." 

"Okay..." I assume he had a point to all of this. 

Jaime cleared his throat. "In other words, unless completely necessary, a single maester is more than enough for one house and requesting more depends on some extra-ordinary circumstances." 

"Hm, I'm guessing requesting more maesters to help teach some peasant urchins isn't extra-ordinary circumstances?" 

He shook his head. "No, your grace." 

I took a moment away from biting into my apple and pensively look somewhere, "So what do I need to do here? Hire teachers from across the narrow sea?" I noticed the look that had come across Jaime. "...Did I say something wrong?" 

"You would entrust the teaching of young Westerosi youth to those Essosi barbarians?" 

"Well, I wouldn't call them barbarians..." Wasn't Volantis bigger than any city in Westeros? Apart from the whole slavery thing, if I wasn't wrong, the Free Cities were considered more culturally advanced in some fan forums back on the world wide web. "But still though, if you're against it, what should we do then? I can't really expect you to teach all of your new students and do your duties as maester of Riverrun." 

Jaime linked his arms together, hidden in the loose robes of his vest. "Maesters may be few in number, but that cannot be said for the acolytes. Some acolytes have been at the students for a few years, since they were children, others have been there for decades and might have as much knowledge as maesters." 

"Soo, what you're saying is, we should get some acolytes to do some of the teaching?" 

Jaime nodded. "Yes, your grace. That is exactly what I'm saying." 

"Okay then, can you send out a request?" 

"The Citadel could very well require recompense for the loss of manpower?" 

Oh for fuck sake. Does everyone want money in this place to do a simple fucking thing?  

"How much is this going to cost me?" I tried not to sigh out. 

"That depends on the Citadel, your grace." 

This time I couldn't help but sigh and wished there was a chair for me to flop onto in exasperation. "Just go sent the letter. Thank you for informing this, Jaime." 

Jaime bowed. "It is my will to serve, your grace." He said before parting and leaving me to my thoughts. 

Thoughts filled with me deciding, the first chance I get, to get a complete lay of the land, and that meant a census in the vain of the Domesday Book. And quietly praying that when Lord Mooton comes back from his treating with the Iron Bank, he comes back with chests full of gold. 

Hopefully, chests full of gold that I would be able to pay back. I was fully aware of how the Iron Bank went about and did its business.  

Speaking of which, where was Braavos in the whole Volantene War? I don't think anything was ever said about them, or something was said about them during this time and I just can't remember. 

Oh well, that little war didn't impact me so much at this point in time, so I don't particularly care much about it, so I was going to ignore it. Until it impacted me, if that actually happened. 

*** ​

I had woke up one day and about ready to go through my itinerary for the day only to find Lord Goodbrook riding through the gates of Riverrun like a triumphant Roman general coming back from some great victory in some far-off province. All that was missing was a triumph of all the riches and glory that they had acquired in their conquests. 

"I have to say my lord, I hadn't been expecting you for quite a while." How long has it been, like a month or so? Lord Jason seemed like a fast worker. That was impressive. 

Lord Jason gave me a customary large grin that didn't seem out of place on his face. "Oh, what can I say your grace, I'm a rather fast and studious worker. I prefer to get all of my jobs done with as fast as possible." 

I nodded my head. "That's a good trait to have, my lord." I said as I looked over his protective detail and noticed something that was amiss. Two kids, dressed in colours that were not distinctly Goodbrook in colouring. "So how did it go?" I asked, noting the two kids to ask about later. 

"I was more than able to thoroughly convince Lord Gared that you were the man to follow in the coming days." 

I pursed my lips slightly. "Any...?" 

He shook his head. "He was a reasonable enough sort about it." 

I nodded then pointed towards the two kids that were taking in the sights of my castle. "Okay, so who are they?" 

"That would-be Willem and Alys Darklyn, Lord Gared's heir and favoured daughter." Lord Jason Goodbrook then looked over to me, a glimmer in his eyes. "And your new court paiges." 

Oh hostages. Wait, I thought paiges was strictly a boy thing? Did he mean lady-in-waiting? But I didn't need a lady-in-waiting or have a female relative that would be in need of one. 

I looked over the two kids once more and sighed. "I suppose there's a whole story to this." 

Lord Jason's grin couldn't be bigger. "Oh, you have no idea, your grace." 

*** ​

For a youth of two-and-ten years of age, Willem Darklyn was rather short for his age, to me anyway. I was positive I had been taller at that age, both in this life and the previous. I wonder if he was the sort of kid to get annoyed about being teased about his height? Well, since we were going to be working together in the foreseeable future, I had time to learn all about it. 

Oh yeah, he seemed grumpy for some reason. Probably had something to do with the circumstances of his happening to be here. 

His sister on the other hand stood at three-and-ten, so she was older and seemed to have her wits more about her. The look she was giving me was absent of any sort of emotion that I could work with. And she didn't even shy out of meeting my eye sight. 

I guess that she was a proper lady. 

"Right..." I began as I poured them some mulled wine. Kids had wine in this day and age. "Wine?" They shared a look between the two of them as they eyed the beverages offered to them. I rolled my eyes. "They are not poisoned." To prove my point, I poured myself some and took a drink from a glass of my own. "See? Not poison-Arck!" I started chocking and spitting out my wine. 

The two of them jumped up to their feet in alarm, panicked looks on their faces, that turned from panic to confusion when I started laughing to myself. 

"What?" Willem let out flatly as he looked at the chuckling me. 

His sister eyed me, eyebrows burrowed together, but not saying anything. 

"Sorry, finally, I got something out of you lot." I said in-between chuckles as I wiped away the wine from my mouth. "I mean, I was beginning to think the two of you were mutes." 

The sister finally spoke. "What is wrong with you?" 

"Nothing, I just have a sense of humour." I replied easily enough. 

She crossed her arms as she continued to look down at me from her standing position. "Would it still be amusing for you if your guards best into this very room, saw you chocking and think us responsible?" 

I thought about it for a moment. She did bring up a good point..."Still somewhat...funny?" I offered as an answer. 

She was really clutching to those skirts of hers, quite hard judging by the whites of her knuckles.  

"Alys..." Willem spoke quietly as he nervously glanced at his older sister. "Let's calm down, yes?" 

"I am calm, Willie." 

I nearly chocked. "Willie." 

The boy's face just dropped as he looked upon my laughing visage. "I've asked you to stop calling me that. We aren't children anymore." 

"Willie!" I was struggling to breath. Willie was certainly a new variation to William, but then again, his name was Willem, so it was probably a fair cop, but still. "I'm sorry, I just can't." 

Willem looked a bit put out. "Look what you've done Alys. Why did you go and have to call me that here? Willem, Will, anything other than that!" 

Alys seemed to calm down for a moment and crossed her arms, her knuckles were still white. "It was a slip of the tongue. Sorry, I got too heated." I was still struggling to talk, which seemed to annoy her even further. "Will you please control yourself? If you're going to call yourself a king, act like it." 

Oh, she had attitude, good for her. I still found her brother's nickname to be hilarious. 

"As a king, I'm liable to act how I please. And I'm acting highly amused by your brother's nickname, Willie." I wiped away at imaginary tears from my eyes. "But still, let's get to the crux of the problem. I don't have any sisters, so I don't really need a lady-in-waiting." 

Alys stood stiffly for a moment. "Then what's going to happen to me then?" 

Was that a hint of nervousness in her voice? Hm, probably. "I've got a couple of ideas on mind, will probably entrust you to one of my vassals who might be in need of one." Lady Anya? Probably. Lyam also had an older and a younger sister, so there was that option available.  

Willem looked worriedly at his sister before setting his eyes on me. "What about me?" 

"Well, you were brought here to be a page, so that's what you're going to be. Might even squire you out to a household knight, I've got a few, and a couple of them are handy with sharp, slicey, pointy things." 

"So not you then, my lord?" 

"Probably me, I just can't really be bothered." I shrugged. "Too much effort." 

Willem blinked before a look of anger slowly came onto his face. "You would squire me out to a household knight? That's an insult upon my person, upon House Darklyn!" 

Oh yeah, he was a bit of a lordling wasn't he? It wasn't that deep. 

I sighed as I ran a hand through my hair and explained my reasoning for the perceived insult upon his person. "If you haven't realised yet kid, I happen to now be king of a recently founded kingdom. My time, the vast majority of it will consist of doing my duties as king and sleeping, with less sleep than I would like. I won't really have time for any squiring of duties for you, but you will be on hand to shadow me every now and then and learn what it is like to be a lord, so there's that. It would be much better if a knight with more time than me did the duties that involves a squire and his knight. 

"At the very least, I'll get you a good enough knight of renown to be your mentor. Is that good enough for you?" 

Willem blinked for a moment before he and his sister glanced at each other once more. He then grudgingly looked in my direction. "I...I suppose that would suffice, your grace. Apologies for my previous behaviour." 

I waved his apology off. "You're barely into your teens, Willie," An eye twitched on the young heir to Duskendale." I'm not expecting much in model behaviour. So, it's fine. But why don't we talk about picnics?" 

This time, both eyebrows twitched in annoyance. 

"Heh."