Family Meeting (1)

"Don't worry Armin. I know how much you hate anything related to physical work. I will leave you on Tarth, even just for the sake of my mother. She would probably get tired from work and taking care of my sisters without you.

Maybe we started too many projects at the same time, because recently my mother complained to me about the huge amount of work in Sapphire Hall.

I will need you to stay on Tarth and control the situation together with your deputies. Even with my eagles to transport messages, I wouldn't be able to respond in time if any accidents were to happen.

Anyways, it's time to gather everyone for a meeting to discuss the work for this year. I will leave in roughly one month for King's Landing. The travel time will be roughly one month on the first way, while visiting some noble lords of the Stormlands, and I will stay up to two months in King's Landing. My return is expected to be in the latter half of the year, without any accidents.

My expectation for you is to create a list with all the tasks required to be completed this year and you will be responsible to make sure everybody stays in line according to the plan we will showcase, Armin.

A family meeting will be held in three days that includes everyone with status in House Tarth. My father decided to gather the whole family and my personal subordinates for the preparation of my first important journey. Make sure to prepare an overview for my plans. You will be responsible for most of the explanation, if any questions come up."

During the first part of Galladon's speech Armin was a little annoyed, truthfully. Of course, he would dislike physical activities after growing up with a bunch of freaks in his early childhood. Let's forget about Galladon, even Gustav bullied him a lot in the early years, due to his weak physique. Compared to a normal man Armin was fit and well trained, according to the standards of this world, but in front of his childhood friends he was simply the weakest of them all by a large margin. Therefore, he hated to be involved in any physical activity they participated in.

But as soon as the young heir of House Tarth explained the upcoming Family Meeting, he got extremely serious. Yes, he wanted to be unknown to everybody outside of House Tarth, especially their potential future enemies. But within the family Armin longed for acknowledgement and respect. His father was a long-term retainer of Selwyn Tarth since his early childhood. He didn't have many exceptional skills but shined with loyalty. During a hunting session in Selwyn's early childhood, he was once protected by Armin's father, who lost an eye while saving his lord.

Armin gained a very important chance due to the behavior of his father. Truthfully, at first Armin lacked some respect for the elderly man in his family, because contrary to the fathers of Gustav, Patrik and Emil, his own father didn't shine in personal skills like swordsmanship and archery.

He seemed rather pale compared to them and Armin always hated this and felt a little inferior to his friends. But with the increase of intelligence and growing wisdom, the young counselor realized that loyalty and the trust of his lord is worth a lot more than having superior skills.

Surely, without skills you will never achieve something great, but loyalty is above anything else. Without loyalty, not only will you not be appreciated, but you will also be considered a threat. 

When this idea rooted itself in his mind his relationship with his father improved a lot, which was heavily appreciated by Lord Selwyn and Galladon himself. A counselor with a lot of influence and power that is somehow feeling inferior to people with skills or good family upbringing will be a time bomb and someday cause internal disputes. The current lord of House Tarth, Selwyn, was very happy with the development of his oldest and best friend's son, Armin. 

Selwyn himself promoted the marriage of Armin and the daughter of Cedric Silverwood, Tarth's richest businessman. Calling Maria Silverwood a childhood sweetheart of Armin was rather euphemistic, whereas it was more of a one-sided crush. But after Selwyn realized the great development of Armin and his future potential, after knowing he had been included in Galladon's aura for many years, he gladly supports his old benefactor and his friend. Galladon gladly supported this decision, as it benefited not only his most important subordinate and good friend, but further bound Armin's interest and family to House Tarth and the island of Tarth.

Galladon had a clear path for his own counselors in mind. They were all required to marry into some wealthy or noble family of Tarth and have a proper and functioning family life. In the best case their wife was smart and supportive of their work, while caring for their children. This sounded very cliché, but he had a very important reason for this standard.

People like Lord Tywin Lannister, Lady Olenna Tyrell, Petyr Baelish, or Varys were certainly great minds and players of the Game of Thrones, way better than portrayed in the television series of his previous life. They fought their way to high positions nearly impossible for women, small unimportant lords or even eunuchs in this highly medieval society. They used any means possible to achieve their goal and reach one step towards this Iron Throne they all somehow desired, whether for themselves or their family.

As a young heir of a noble family in Westeros and a person that was preparing himself with knowledge of the future and even magical abilities, he had nothing than respect for those highly intelligent figures in the history of this world. To some extent he was even fearful of them, rightfully so. This fear and respect would keep him away from many dark traps he would face in the future, when the history of this world would slowly drift apart from what he expected.