Chapter 105: Act 2: Chapter 41

Nineteenth day, Seventh Moon, 260 AC (+0 days)

Michael POV

"No, Master Michael, the ship's captain declined to sign anything. Says he can't read or write and doesn't want to get in trouble for putting his name to something he doesn't know."

I sighed. "Reasonable, if disappointing. I should have realized sooner."

Artos, one of my many new assistants, shrugged. "I still have a detailed list of what he brought into White Harbor, as well as some generalities of what he has been ferrying to the Stepstones from King's Landing."

"Good work," I praised. "That will make it easier to figure out what the army is short on."

Davin, another of my assistants, snorted. "We already know what they need – everything."

"True," I said, "but we can still tailor exactly what we send them. The King has been generous in buying goods from White Harbor instead of sourcing it all from the south, so it is important to get the most out of it."

Artos nodded eagerly. "According to my notes, food is still their biggest issue, specifically meat and grain. According to the captain, the sauerkraut was purchased – they won't turn away food – but the price was low. The captain supposedly tried to testify to the effectiveness of the goods, but the merchants he was selling to seem unconvinced."

A cool breeze blew in through the open door of our warehouse meeting, sending a slight shiver down my back.

Ignoring the feeling, I said, "Now that was not unexpected. I didn't think the message would translate well. It will be years before the demand for that becomes prominent. Did the captain indicate that he wanted to buy more for his crew?"

"He already placed an order," Artos confirmed.

"Excellent. I also have good news; Lord Manderly has agreed to sell hardtack, rather than just grain, to the south."

The men assembled in the well-lit warehouse murmured in appreciation. It was a long time coming, but my arguments about the increased profits for White Harbor had finally swayed his opinion. It had been a point of contention between the two of us since the start of my role as a sort of quasi-quartermaster for the North. I was responsible for arranging shipments from Northern Houses to White Harbor, and then on to the Stepstones.

It didn't take me long to figure out that it was a huge task, since I had limited authority, in a non-traditional role, and it was further exacerbated by my low social standing. The first step had been wrestling together some kind of bureaucracy to facilitate scheduling and organizing our part of the war effort. Weapon production lists, merchants going to and from, harvest information, and above all, my budget.

The information I was working with was basic – a weapon production list was my fancy way of saying I got a letter from Lord 'X' saying that he could have five swords by a certain date. Thankfully, White Harbor had a large pool of learned men – mostly those who washed out of the Citadel either due to a lack of funds or politics. They liked to call themselves half-maesters, and they had a nice little community in the city.

The next step was starting to throw my weight around a little bit, even if I had to get approval from Rodrik Stark, my son's soon to be goodfather, as he was in charge of Winterfell as Lord Stark was on campaign. I got shipments sent to me directly, and paid if needed, or recorded it so that the person who sent it could have it deducted from their taxes. Trying to punish those who were late or ignored me was a futile task, so I bluffed a lot.

Slowly, ever so slowly, I got things ironed out. Goods came in and went out. The merchants who were returning from the south also brought with them goods, as there was no sense in returning with an empty hold, which meant there was also a glut of goods in White Harbor. Luxuries were hitting a record low, as far as Lord Manderly was aware, which also meant that the merchants delivering goods from the Lords also returned with even more goods.

This entire thing, a large foreign war, was still a fairly new concept to Westeros, and people were learning. There had been foreign raids, like Theon Starks raiding of Andalos or Argilac Durrandon's contributions to the Century of Blood, but a large scale war had never been attempted before. It was unchartered territory, with the risks and rewards that come for that.

White Harbor saw its rewards as it was booming, and while I was happy for the Manderlys, I was a bit disappointed that Redbridge would not see the same. I bought a lot of goods myself while I was here, to bring back with me after the war, to try and kickstart the same sort of effect, but I had no idea when that would be.

Regardless, good news still arrived from Redbridge, with ever more people flooding in, though at a slower rate, and the population was booming. Immigration to Redbridge itself had reduced to a trickle for the time being, though its natural growth rate still saw the population ever-rising, but it was the other towns that saw the largest increase. Silverhold had close to four hundred people now, even tucked away as it was. The lumber camp, near Bear Pass, to the north of Osend, which was now called Treebear by the locals, had swelled to four hundred strong and was already sending lumber to Osend.

Osend was also firmly established, with roughly twelve hundred people in the area. Koryn was overseeing the training of Rangers for his area, as well as the beginning stages of his castle, as it was being pushed ahead of schedule with the influx of people.

Davin coughed. "Meat is starting to run low, Master Michael."

"In White Harbor or across the North?"

"In Lord Manderly's land certainly, though less is being sent from other Houses as well."

"I had hoped to continue selling meat for a while yet, as the borts were proving very efficient and fetching a high price. Is it that the North is running out of spare animals to sell, or people are just reluctant to continue to part with their herds?" I asked.

"I'm not entirely sure," replied Davin. "Lord Manderly might have that information, or perhaps his Maester, but I don't."

I nodded. It wasn't unexpected news, but disheartening, nonetheless. Alongside Theomore, the two of us had been going around the Manderly lands spreading my farming knowledge and spreading out the farming machines we had available. This saw a rapid rise in the amount of crops we had available to us, but animal husbandry was a slower process. It was hard to both sell off your herds for the war andgrow it.

"Very well, good work, everyone. You all know your tasks for the day, if anyone needs me, I plan to go to talk with Lord Theomore for the rest of the morning, but I should be in the warehouse this afternoon."

As the meeting broke up and the men filed out of the warehouse, I followed them out. I was greeted by a cool, salty breeze coming off the water in the early morning sunlight. Watching the boats gently rock along the docks, I couldn't help but think of my sons. I hoped they were alright.

A/N: A shorter chapter just showing what Michael is up to. The next chapter will resolve the cliffhanger, don't worry! Also, for those unclear about last chapter, Rex is latin for King (which harkens back to Valyria's Roman-esque origins)