Chapter 92: Act 2: Chapter 32

Ninth day, Tenth Moon, 257 AC (+12 days)

"Thanks, Brise. That will be all for today."

She bowed her head and exited my study. My new maester, Simon, dutifully finished taking notes for me as I reviewed the paperwork that Brise had left behind. Sales had been good, with slightly higher prices than the last year from Brise's goods, which matched most of my other peoples' information.

Simon coughed to clear his throat and said, "Master Michael, I know I am still getting used to how you do things here and getting a hold of the current state of things, but your prices seem much lower than they should be. Especially with hosting such a large event, should the prices not have been higher to recover what you spent?"

"Please, Simon, just call me Michael when we are like this. No need to stand on ceremony. And yes, it probably could be higher, but I am not just trying to sell wool. I am also selling more things – with much higher profit margins, so I sell the wool cheaply to attract merchants that might not otherwise come. You have to look at the whole picture," I said.

He worried his lip nervously. "Very well. But about this way of recording numbers," he said, trailing off.

I nodded. "I call it double-entry bookkeeping. It's actually quite similar to how the Braavosi deal with finances – or so I'm told. Hopefully, in the next few moons, I can get my hand on a book from Braavos that will explain their system a little better. Mine is simple and mainly helps to record things, whereas theirs is more advanced – at least according to Irrys – and deals with more complex topics."

"I have the basic pattern memorized, but I still don't understand the why."

"That's alright; you've only just been introduced to it. I can teach you more a bit later. It might also help to sit in on a class I am teaching in a few days to some of my managers."

Simon frowned slightly. "I must admit, I am also confused about that as well. Why do you teach the smallfolk such things?"

"Knowledge is important, don't you agree?"

He nodded cautiously. "But what would they do with it? It does little for them."

I shrugged. "It does more than you think – but me telling you it does, clearly doesn't convince you." I cut off his objection. "That isn't a slight or anything – I merely mean that you will see with your own eyes what it can do. Just be patient."

"Of course, Master Michael."

"Good, now onto planning. Can you grab that geological map from the shelf for me?"

As he rolled out the map, I examined our current situation. "We have two main priorities right now," I said, thinking aloud. "Osend and Silverhold. Silverhold being the more important of the two, as it will finance everything else – hopefully. For that, we need an easy way to get there."

"By ship might be the easiest," offered Simon.

"By ocean?" I clarified.

"Yes. Down past Stonefisk," he said, tracing his finger. "And then up the Twin Lakes River."

"Another alternative would be to travel by boat up one of the rivers, either to lakes BW22 or BW23 – whichever provides the shortest distance. But we can't know that until I send someone to try and walk there themselves. When I had done my tour, we managed to get to BW23, which had Laketown already established, but it was a challenge. It would be easier with a proper road, but it isn't straightforward, with many changes in elevation. I think I will need to send out some people to try from BW22 and see what they find."

Simon dutifully noted the task on some paper.

"If we can find a good route, I will have to send a team to start a road from the closest navigable point on the river to the Twin Lakes."

"If you end up choosing BW22, would you create a road to that lake as well since BW23 already has one leading to Laketown?"

"Eventually, perhaps. But it isn't a priority. River travel will be just fine for now. But for me to choose BW22, the path must be significantly easier since Laketown is already established and will be close to the Wolfswood Highway once it is completed. It would be silly to abandon those advantages for only a slightly easier trip."

"Can you explain the Wolfswood Highway a bit more, Master Michael? I've heard it mentioned a few times, but I am still unclear on what it means."

"Well, it's certainly new, so I don't blame you. Essentially, we will be redoing the road from Redbridge all the way to Winterfell so that it is even better than the Kingsroad. The road will continue from Redbridge following the existing road to the village, Refuge, and then instead of continuing along the coast to Northshore, it will cut inland toward Laketown. From there it will continue northeast until it links up to the existing road that travels through the nicest pass in the mountains and then onto Winterfell."

Simon looked confused. "Where does Deepwood Motte come into this then?"

"Not directly. They will be redoing their own portion of the road and meeting up with the highway creating a sort of triangle – another branch of the highway, if you will."

"And they agreed to not be on the main highway?" he asked.

"Reluctantly," I replied. "Lord Stark and I are paying for a lot of this, and most of it is on our land, so Master Glover has little to argue with. It will still benefit him, just not as much if all traffic was forced through Deepwood. He did manage to adjust the path a little to favor a few of his chosen vassals, so he is getting a good deal of political capital out of it."

"So, is it just a road then?"

"Just a road, he says?" I mocked, chuckling as I did. "It won't be concrete, but it will be a macadamized road similar to the road already being built northward. There will be proper bridges; the road will be wider, smoother, straighter, directions and towns properly marked and signed, less prone to floods, and much quicker to travel on. Additionally, I am planning a series of inns along the route, but that will probably be far in the future."

"That would be a lot of inns to cover the length of the road."

I shrugged. "Probably. They would be spaced out, and serve multiple purposes, like making sending large letters much quicker, but as I said, far in the future."

"And what of the road to the Tallharts that Lord Stark mandated?"

I sighed. "That's tricky. There just isn't much sense in building a road from Silverhold to Torrhen's Square. It would mean multiple trips through the mountains as there is no good way to connect them to the Wolfswood Highway. Nyra seems to believe that the road was less a punishment for me, and more a political move to bind the Tallharts closer to Winterfell."

"That sounds very plausible, Master Michael."

"If that's the case, Lord Stark wants the silver flowing through those lands, and cares less about how it does so, so long as it does. I think I will try and make the case to ship the silver across the Twin Lakes to the Tallhart side, and from there work on the road to Torrhen's Square. The Tallharts would be responsible for their existing road to Winterfell."

"I think that Lord Stark may be amenable to that, Master Michael. Most of his 'punishments' seemed very little like punishments if you don't mind me saying, Master Michael." I waved him on to continue. "The marriage is a good one, and while the roads are costly, they are not as much as it would have been with your new machines, and Lord Stark did not specify a date in which they needed to be completed by. Also, I don't know if there is a normal amount that Lord Stark taxes his vassals on for precious metals, but it does seem a bit high, but not unreasonably - I would have expected the King and the Starks to tax near the same amount. Similarly, most precious metals must be sold to the mints, but I am not aware of any 'normal' amount."

"It's not so much the monetary costs that annoy me, Simon. It's the marriage – it's too soon."

"That is the price of nobility," he replied, not unkindly.

I clenched my fist under the table. "I just think it was unnecessary."

"It might not be my place, Master Michael, but I think Lord Stark may have blundered when he said it was a punishment. It seems to me that it was meant to be a reward more than anything. It gives your House a much greater reputation and strengthens it through the marriage."

"We are already wealthy, and that is only going to improve. I would rather my children be happy, rather than a little wealthier."

"Marriage alliances are not just about wealth, but about forging alliances and bonds – force of arms, wealth, and politics are all a part of that."

"I am already tied closely to Lord Stark – he just raised me to nobility! And I hardly see how marriages can truly seal alliances."

"It is a time-proven tradition among the nobility for thousands of years, Master Michael. It wouldn't continue if it didn't work."

"My knowledge of history is still lacking, but were there not families who fought on both sides of the First Blackfyre Rebellion? How did their marriages or even bonds of brotherhood not prevent that?"

Simon shrugged uncomfortably. "That was a unique time, Master Michael. Only the Dance of Dragons saw such things similarly overturned, even if less so."

"So, when Kings come calling, these marriage alliances fall apart?"

He fiddled with his hands. "As I said, Master Michael, they work barring extraordinary events."

I rubbed my face tiredly. "I know – I know. I will have to accept it eventually, even Nyra disagrees with me. I am alone in this, I feel."

"Lady Nyra is wise," replied Simon cautiously.

I snorted. "Wise indeed."

"Was there anything else you wished to plan today?"

I looked over the map again and thought over the possibilities. "Roads are nice, but there have to be people there. I will have to increase our immigration from Lord Dustin's lands to draw people to Silverhold and Osend immediately. We will also need a village near Bear Pass along the Twin Lakes River to serve as a lumber source for Osend."

"So, this lumber camp before populating Osend?"

"To a small degree," I replied. "Just enough to help people start building houses. I want people in Osend to start farming, especially soybeans as soon as possible, but there is a lack of trees in the area to help people settle in – although the recent survey did say new growth was looking promising. We currently have some soybeans growing around here, but it's not ideal – and demand is starting to increase for it."

"Will you be making a road through Bear Pass as well?"

I laughed. "Aye, another thing on the list. But not anytime soon. Maybe in two summers or so, depending on how everything else goes. I might have people start to clear some trees to form a path over winter though, but progress will be slow on that."

"So, will these new places be solely populated by smallfolk from Lord Dustin's land?"

"Probably most of them will, but if we get another large group coming to Redbridge, I might divert them to these new places."

"And Lord Dustin will be fine with us taking these people?"

I shrugged. "He said as much. Also, while I am thinking of it, can you draft a letter for me to Stonefisk? Sig, the manager of my tree nursery, has finished training up a few apprentices, and I need them to come back to Redbridge – I plan to take them with me on my upcoming trip to Ironrath."

Simon nodded. "Of course, Master Michael. And what of Silverhold? Do you need me to send any letters for you regarding that specifically?"

I shook my head. "No, Arthur will be heading out there soon enough to take charge, and general immigration from other lands is the only thing we need."

"Will there be anything else, Master Michael? Or shall I go about sending those letters?"

I shook my head once before stopping and replied, "Oh! Before I forget, Ryden said he would meet you later tonight for something?"

"Ah, yes. He wanted to trade; he will teach me a few of the board games he knows, and I will teach him what I know."

My lips quirked into a smile. "A fun trade," I commented.

"Quite! I look forward to it! I never thought about it before, but many people must have created a wide variety of games and such to keep busy over long winters."

I laughed. "Yes, a lot of variety indeed."

"When I first went to the Citadel, I learned a bunch of different games from the Acolytes there, but I never thought much into it. It's quite fascinating."

"Well, don't let me hold you up."

Simon bowed his head and exited the room.

A nice man, but it was weird having an advisor of sorts, much less one that I don't know very well. So far, I had been giving him basic tasks as I got a better feel for him and he was a surprisingly quick learner – well, maybe not surprisingly, I mean he was highly educated, so it wasn't that big a surprise.

Now if only I could get him on board to start teaching some advanced classes to some of the more advanced students. Children in Redbridge still attended school, but many stopped once they reached an age to be of more help around the farm or their parent's work. Still, a few persisted even further, and I was running out of established material to teach them. Coming up with more lesson plans, and someone to teach it, was just another thing to add to my To-Do List.