Chapter 12

The gall of this people. My work! My invention! My blood! They dare try to regulate what I do with my products.

Fuck them. If it's war they want it's an assasination they'll get. My people are not yet ready for war but they can't reach is easily as there is no way without ships.

I remember them. Those cunts, Starks. Brandon didn't give me the time of day then and neither did his younger brother. The girl was young when I left tho now… she's a little slip of a thing. A different kind of beauty not the soft stuff those Southerners like.

Ughhhh Southerners. When last did I say that? I am The Elden Lord now. No longer am I Lucas the Blacksmith.

Or is that who I am deep down… I will always be Lucas the Blacksmith.

An epiphany. It looks like my blacksmith days are not done. I should make a personal forge near the castle for me. Preferably a Bessmer forge.

I walked back into my quarters in Harrenhall only to find Aemon and Rhaenys playing tag together with Elia and Ashara sitting on my bed watching them while smiling and talking to each other while Elia carried a little baby in her hands.'

'My princess. You grace me with your presence once more and the beautiful lady Ashara in the flesh. Would you permit this mere mortal to gaze upon you.' I said with a sarcastic bow which sent Ash into a fit of laughter while covering her mouth as Elia playfully shook her head.

'We have missed you and your silly songs in the Red Keep, Lucas. Even Rhaegar surprisingly.' Elia said.

Not for long. I'm trying to be his stepfather.

Elia must have sensed something cause she she squinted her eyes at me. I raised both hands in surrender quickly. She then sighed,

'I do not know how her grace managed to keep rumors of you being her paramour from surfacing.'

'I confess to nothing,Princess. The queen is an amazing woman but I know better than to pine after a married woman.'

'One of the reasons I came to meet you was for something else. The main reason is the underlying reason for the tourney. Surely you have heard rumors.'

Ohhh and what delicious rumors they are. Usurpation. They want to remove Aerys as king because of his growing madness and dementia. He burns subjects with Wildfire.

But should they really do this?

'Princess, this might be a bad idea in general. If possible stop it before it begins.'

'Why is that?'

'It sets a precedent. A bad one. That as long as a king is not popular enough he can be brought down.'

'It can be the fuel that sparks the flames of ambition in lessser men.'I continued,

'But it's is for the good of the realm. A madman being king is horrible to look at.' Ashara commented.

'The road to the seven hells is paved with good intentions. This is a kind of Pandora's box. One you do not want open.'

The two of them looked at each other before they spoke at the same time,

'Pandora's box?'

Ahhh shit it isn't a thing here. No… I'll make it seem like its one of the many gods of Essos.

'Pandora is a cautionary tale from one of the more obscure mythologies in Essos or was it Ulthos? It's long but I can tell you if you are interested.'

'Ohhh I am interested,my lord. I keep forgetting you grow up in Essos sometimes. And for you to bring it up in this conversation and yet say its a cautionary tale means something.' Ashara said while her eyebrows slanted a bit to give her face a frown.

'Fine. There is a tribe somewhere in Ulthos. Lost to us in this day as they moved from their previous settlement. They are called the Greeks. My mother used to tell me their stories all the time… maybe I should write them down in the future.'

'Anyway. The pantheon of their gods are called the Greek Gods. Their king is named Zeus. A very powerful god with control of the domain of the sky and thunder. When humanity was beginning to grow as civilizations started forming. Zeus and the other gods did not have a problem with it as they were still praying to him so no worries.'

'But a titan fell in love with us. Titans were beings that were there before the gods. The titans were defeated in a war and most of them were imprisoned in hell or as they call Tartarus. Some escaped as they were either too powerful, had ties with the gods through marriage or birth or they simply did not participate in the war.'

I noticed that everyone in the room was quiet even the children were sitting down looking at me and listening intently.

'Prometheus is the titan of foresight, fire and crafty wisdom. He loved the way humanity struggled their way up the food chain. They were still at the bottom but they were progressing. Centuries went by as he watched over us before he decided to help us. He went to Zeus and told him he wants to push us foward. Give us the tools to make our way in the world.'

'He refused and ordered Prometheus not to do anything. We do not know what Prometheus original plan was but he modified it. Instead he sent down the first flame to humans and also taught us how to create fire with our tools.'

'We have no record of where the First Flame is as it was said to be undying as a piece of Prometheus himself was in it.Humanity improved itself with the help of fire. Creating great works, cities, spears and weapons to combat the beasts of the land.This went on for a thousand years before Zeus took notice of us once more.'

'He was shocked how far we had come. We had progressed fast. Too fast.He called on his son, Apollo the god of prophecy, light, medicine and a few other things. Apollo can see the past clearly and the future comes to him in prophecy when he asks of it.'

'Apollo told him of what Prometheus had done. Zeus was angry. As a very foul tempered god he himself went to strike down Prometheus. He imprisoned him on a high mountain with chains that stripped most of his power away. He then created two eagles that would eat his body and flesh for twenty hours every day and allow him four hours to regenerate fully and continue once more. Prometheus was sentenced to be tortured like that till the last human falls.'

'But Zeus was not done with us. He decided to punish humanity for using the gift of the gods. He created a woman from clay and breathe life into her. The most beautiful mortal woman ever in existence. Trust Zeus to create a woman he would try to fuck too.'

'Ohhh Zeus was a womanizer?' asked Elia,

I shrugged,

'If it has tits and a hole you will find him there.'

'Ewwwwwww.' said Aemon and Rhaenys while Elia just cackled away.

'Anyway when she came to life Zeus saw her as a daughter regardless of the purpose he sent her down with. He gathered all the gods to the mountain were Prometheus was being punished. They decided to bless her before sending her off. Athena gave her wisdom, Hera promised her a good marriage, Poseidon promised her that the seas will not harm her and Zeus blessed her with immortality.'

'He then gave Pandora a box and told her not to open it in her life before sending her down to the world.'

'She obeyed mostly. Eventually she was to marry the king of a city but then eventually human curiosity won out finally. She wanted to see what was inside the box the gods gifted her. Her curiosity and the cruelty of the gods scarred us for all eternity.'

'You see inside the box was the concepts and manifestations of what we now know has all of humanity's evils. Old age, Sickness, disease, envy, greed, lust, betrayal and a whole lot of other evils escaped from the box into the world infusing itself into the world itself and humanity as a whole.'

'Diseases swept the lands, people went insane begging for mercy from their gods not knowing it was the gods themselves that did this. All the blame fell on Pandora for opening the box. She was the scapegoat created by the gods to take all the hatred of humanity to make them look benovalent once more.'

'It worked as they were being prayed to en mass. Their word was law once again. But not all hope was lost as in Pandora's box was the spirit of hope. She shut the box before it could escape leaving it trapped in the box for a while. Once more it was put in there by Prometheus the titan of foresight. How he did it we do not know.'

'Pandora eventually opened the box once more after a dream from the tortured titan letting hope into the world.'

'What I am saying princess is… like Pandora if you open this box. There's no way to take back the results and consequences.If you depose the king for being unpopular, why would they not depose you of the same later. No one can be popular forever.'

'It sets a bad precedent. If the lords can band together to depose their king… what stops them from deposing the whole royal family and crowning one of their own?'

'How will you the ambitions of the lords when they realize there is no large dragon to keep them in check anymore?'

'Because if Aerys can be deposed… so can Rhaegar. And eventually your son.'