First Meeting of the Athenaeum Club (5)

You could literally hear the breathing sound in the large room. Victor's statement completely disregarding the king was very impressive to everybody present. The first to regain his composure was surprisingly Rodrik Harlaw of the Iron Islands. He survived many difficult battles during his still young life and was probably the least in awe of the Iron Throne, as the Iron Islands already disregarded King Aerys quite a bit already. He used this long silence to voice his own question.

"Lord Di Natale, I truly admire your determination as a noble of the Free States. As a lord of the Iron Islands, I am honored to have received an invitation to such an exclusive club and would like to express deep gratitude from the Greyjoy family and Balon Greyjoy himself. But many people of the Iron Islands were very surprised after House Harlaw received this invitation.

I am very aware of the reputation the people of my home have across the Known World, some rightly so, but some because of wrong reasons. Being invited by the nobles of the Free State to a very exclusive private club with many benefits, by a family no one from the Iron Islands had any prior contact with, left many with confusion.

Some are even considering deceptions behind this unreasonable goodwill. Would you mind explaining why the Iron Islands, with House Harlaw as a representative, was invited to the Athenaeum club?"

Victor looked around the roundtable and could see many different expressions. Curiosity, disdain, and even pure anger were displayed by the nine new members. He was very willing to answer this question and explain one of the major purposes of the club.

"As you all already know I decided to invite one representative from all the administrative regions of Westeros, this of course includes the Iron Islands. However, I didn't just invite Lord Harlow here simply to fulfill a formality. House Di Natale relies primarily on sea trade and sea forces to secure our wealth and power in Lys and the newly conquered Stepstones.

Many of you should be able to notice that I primarily invited families close to the sea or directly owning a major port to the Athenaeum club. This of course has the purpose of being able to spread our goods through sea trade and share many available resources among the club members.

I am deeply aware that House Di Natale cannot secure such a long supply line across all of Westeros and Essos by ourselves and even if we could, we would need to be able to buy and sell resources in all those different regions. It would take ages, if it's even possible, to build such a large network. 

Inviting all of you here serves the purpose of increasing the speed of building this network of shipping routes and resource collection, while simultaneously increasing the wealth and power we all possess. This is a large alliance of interest, with interest and resource sharing as a major point.

Even after this alliance is established everyone being present will still need to share their own interests with the nobles of their territory, especially the Lord Paramount. House Di Natale himself will share a large part of interest with the nobles of Lys, especially House Maar and House Nahohr, the primary partners of the Athenaeum club.

The Iron Island was of course needed to join this exclusive club, because it is simply undeniable that they own one of the major sea powers in the Known World. The entire west coast of Westeros is not completely controlled, but at least deeply influenced by the Iron Fleet."

Victor took a small break and let all the information sink in. Many people showed signs of realization and when they could slowly understand the large interests behind this alliance even the anger of Lord Mallister was slowly disappearing.

Everybody could understand that they couldn't sacrifice large interests of this new alliance by excluding the Iron Islands and risking many fights and robberies by them. When Victor was satisfied with their expressions he continued, facing Rodrik Harlaw directly.

"Lord Harlaw I am very aware of how the people of the Iron Islands do things in generally and it would be pointless to invite the Greyjoy family. I wouldn't want to be connected to same idiot as Euron Greyjoy. But I do think that there are smart people on the Iron Island that still value commerce and properity, like House Harlaw. If we as an alliance want to prosper the sea trade along the west coast, we need a representative of the Iron Islands.

Many of you might be aware that I had some contradictions with House Tyrell in the past. Even though one of our members, Randyll Tarly, is well connected in the Reach, the ocean along the coast of the Reach is in control of House Tyrell and House Redwyne. We need the people of the Iron Islands to make them afraid of troubling our ships or the trade along the south and west coast might not be really profitable."

While Victor made a slight pause one of the participants of the meeting finally understood why he was invited to this meeting. With a slight chuckle and some feelings of anticipation Roland Crakehall voiced his opinion with his deep voice.

"Hahaha. I finally understand why House Crakehall was chosen among the many nobles of the Westerlands. You need us and our liege, Tywin Lannister, to make the Reach and the Tyrells afraid of interfering with the ships of the Athenaeum club along the west coast. You are using the ships of the Iron Islands and the army of the Westerlands to put pressure on the old widow of Highgarden. 

Victor Di Natale, I like your thought process. Anything that makes the Tyrells unhappy, I am happy to do. But I am like Sir Mallister. I don't like working with some dirty reavers of the Iron Islands. The Crakehall family once ruled the Iron Islands for a short time over 200 years ago and having one of your ancestors killed by reavers doesn't really increase your relationship, does it?"

Of course, Victor wouldn't drop his relationship with the Riverlands and the Westerlands because of the Iron Islands. In the worst case he would use force to completely deter the reavers of the Iron Islands. But stabbing into this hornet nest wasn't really his preferred choice. He stared at Lord Harlaw and waited for him to announce his opinion. Depending on his statement the club might lose his first member on the day of its first meeting.