Chapter 9: The freeholders

Year 34 BD 9 month

After discussing the topic of the new continent with Rickon he told him that once he was back in the north he would want him to help him get an audience with his father and he would have to recruit soldiers and settlers who are loyal to him and there should be about a 500 soldiers and about 500 common folk families who are skilled in stuff about farming, construction and other stuff and that he would be incharge of the free folk once he conquered the new land and defeated the thenns.

Once that was done Aegor gave Rickon a new Valyrian steel great sword which he named as frostbite and his new personal sigal a black wolf on a field of show. Some may think why would Aegor invest so much on a person who is not of Valyrian descent to be a lord in his new kingdom the reason being he could get his family's ability to greensee or warg which are great scouting skills and make a connection with the old gods also he would be much more easy to make him the leader of these freefolk tribes and slowly make them embrace new way of living and make them more compliant.

After that it was now time for the hard part, bringing the idea of setting up an outpost in the Nortos before the council of the freeholders who assemble once in 3 months. The main issue is that we do not want them to see it as a move to expanding the land and influence. If the other freeholders saw it like that, it would lead to the other large freeholders like the Maltheons and Valennis wanting to set out more outpost and have one of their own cadet branch family members settle which would ruin his plans of being the most powerful house in the known world.

The major Players in the council were the top 5 families Maltheons, Vaelyreos, Belaerys, Barlaeron and Valennis with the most resources, dragons etc. These families had the most say in major policies and other stuff so if you wanted things done you would need to figure out how to be under their good graces. The combined military might of house and Maltheons and Vaelyreos was enough to match the combined forces of the remaining 35 freeholders and if all 5 joined together then it was pretty much a one sided massacre.

The plan is to make sure that other 4 major families feel that this move is not threat to them and that it is not worth bothering about it, which would enable him be able to get away with a lot of thing like move a lot of valyrian common folk,slaves convince other minor valyrian house to into Nortos. Also gradually move his whole family along with their dragons, banners and fleet of ships so that none of them notice the change.

So Aegor asked his father who is a member of the council and who is also well versed in it's politics to lay the proposal of setting up a outpost in Nortos while Aegor used his Though manipulator to reinforce the belief that any place north of Essos was not worth invading since they believed it was not an ideal place for dragons because of the cold, but to Aegor it was perfect since with my tool creation skill he would just need to create a tool which would generate a barrier that encases the whole continent so that he can manipulate the climate so that it would have the same climate conditions as the reach.

Finally the day for the council to meet up has arrived, Aegor arrived at Sky hall in Oros the location of the council of the freeholders. It is located on the top of the highest mountain in Oros, the building was made up of white and black marble with golden veins and had statues of dragons roaring all as one which gave it an aura of majesty and power. The interior was just as majestic as the outside white and black marble with golden veins, golden status of founding members and murals depicting Valyrians in all their glory.

All dragons of the freeholders were kept in place which could be considered a stable for dragons so that they can rest in. It was 20 times larger than the dragon pit of westeros and there was a dedicated room/ hall for each house of the 40 Dragonlords to house there dragons till the conferences ended, as dragons of the freeholders were not allowed to let there dragons fly around the sky's of the sky hall since they didn't want any disturbance while business was conducted. Each family's room/ hall could at least fit 3 large variety dragons comfortably without any issues.

After having a grand tour of the place with his father, Aegor finally reached the council chambers. It was a huge room with all the seats arranged in a semicircle with the speaker seated at the opposite end of the curve. Once the meeting started Jaelor came and stood up and started addressing the council " Fellow member of the council and Archons I would like to share with you the recent discovery of lands North of Lorath we have still yet to explore, and would like to propose and that my family take the initiative to set up an colony outpost. The expedition would be headed by my son Aegor and would also be given stewardship of that outpost and will send us updates regarding the development of this colony." After addressing the council, whispers and talks were going on between the lords and finally Viserys Maltheon stood up and asked " Why is it that you wish to send your son over to this new continent. My lord, all regions north are not worth exploring. And What would you gain from sending him there?" with a suspicious look.

Before Jaelor could give lord Viserys a reply Aegor used his Though manipulator to reinforce the belief that any place north of Essos was not worth invading and that it was nothing more than a fool's errand. " My lord I am just trying to make sure that the name might of Valyria is know through out the known world and ensure we have a foot hold in this new continent and will also give my son the chance to help him gain experience of running and maintain a territory before he takes my place as the Archon of Vaelyreos." Many of the lords were not buying his reason but Aegor keep using his skill to make the minds of the freeholders that it was silly dream and that he as just wasting resource in this venture and it was stupid and that he would only find ice and snow and nothing else. The Idea of any place far north or south was worth conquering was going to be a waste was constantly being reinforced by Aegor.

And finally after that they all just brushed it off as a foolish dream by a foolish Archon and the outpost proposal was passed without any resistance or opposition.

After that the rest of the day was spent on discussing items like rebellions in the free cities, the spice war, petty disputes between freeholders and other topics. Once the meeting was done a feast was held for all the freeholders to enjoy and have regular highborn discussions like who is marrying whom, glories in battle, new found wealth all the petty discussions to say I am better than you.

During this time Aegor was taking initiation to talk to all the Archons of each family. The reason being that he wanted to extract information about the wealth of each house and the potential location of all their vaults, libraries, cattle, horses and places where all their dragon eggs and resources are stored.

And during that time he was able to find just how rich these assh*les are. It turns out that the combined wealth of all the 39 houses is 10 times greater than the combined amount owned by the Iron bank. And that is excluding the dragon eggs and other resources. With this he knew that he could create a new bank that is greater than the iron bank and cast a greater shadow than them. And With the help of his sling ring he could just enter in and out without even making a sound pick Valyria clean before the Doom

Once the doom comes all this wealth and resources will be lost and never to be found so instead of letting it go to waste, why not use it to enrich his house, any way what use is riches to dead people though Aegor with evil grin.

Now after a successful meeting with the council Aegor was finally ready to move to the next stage of his plan: The conquest of Nortos.