50

Chapter 50: Ch 41 Backup and The Bank

Chapter Text

*sigh*

"I... am... tired..." Frost thought ruefully as she flew aimlessly over the endless expanse of the dark blue ocean, with no land in sight in any direction

"No. You're Not," Jon's absentminded reply sounded in her mind, "I know for sure that you fly and maintain a state like this without flapping your wings and skillfully using the surrounding winds for weeks and weeks... So I know that you're not tired."

About a month and a half had passed since the last battle with the Ironborn ships and during this time Jon had made a lot of very profitable trips all over the western coast, even managing to add two more Trading Galleons to his fleet. The Starkhorse business was not the only one that was booming, in fact, other Northern products were also in enough demand that he was already in talks with Lord Glover of Deepwood Motte for a second port for ease of transport from the Mainland.

The Ironborn hadn't been up to any of their usual mischievousness around these parts since that ambush and his minions who had been keeping an eye on them told him that Balon wanted to keep a low profile at the moment and that most of the extreme-right pirates had already gone to the Stepstones, which is said to be a thriving home to them. And while he knew that it wouldn't be the last he would battle with them, Jon was at least relieved to know that he wouldn't have to deal with those scrouges for quite a while.

At that moment his physical body was at the Bear Island port preparing all the ships that he would take for the upcoming trade with the Wildlings. And while he had managed to acquire enough ships during the last battle so that this trade wouldn't affect his Southern one, he wouldn't be able to take too many of them because of the need to keep secrecy. He was only going to bring the most loyal of crew and even then he would try to make sure that he only brought the most essential crew required.

And while overlooking the loading of ships, his mind was connected with only the thinnest of threads to Frost, which meant that he could neither see nor hear anything that she could like he usually would. So instead of sharing any senses with Frost, this connection only enabled them to talk with each other in their minds without interruption, and because it was really efficient, they could do this for hours... it was almost like a phone call from his previous life.

"I am tired," Frost replied firmly, "Seeing nothing but blue sky and the blue sea in all directions again and again, every day is so... so..."

"Boring," Jon supplied helpfully, "So that means you're not tired, but just bored,"

Frost was still learning all the nuances of the common tongue so from time to time, she had trouble finding the words to express herself but it was already very remarkable that she was able to learn so quickly. 'Now she just needed to develop one of those voice boxes that those parrots like birds possess and she would be good to go...' Jon thought absentmindedly while imagining all the pranks he could pull on his siblings if she even developed this ability.

"Yes! Yes, that word. Bored! I am very bored right now," Frost said in a whining tone, "So can I not do it from now on, please... and it is not like it's turning out to be any useful anyway... if I haven't been able to find anything until... there very little chance that I would in the future..."

The reason she was flying aimlessly was that Jon had tasked her to carpet search the complete west side, from the shore near the wall to as far as she could go in a few days and then back to shore and begin once again while moving a little South each time so that in the end she would have completely scouted the accessible part on the West side of Westeros which was still a mystery to everyone.

The main reason for this carpet search was that he wanted to have somewhat of a backup plan for the Wildlings, in case the White Walker turned out to be too overwhelming in the future. So he thought that if during his search Frost was able to find some kind of a big enough island there that no one knew about, then even if the Northern Lords prove to be too stubborn in the future about giving the Wildlings a place to live, then he would have some other place to settle them... somewhat of a safe haven, so that at least the Wildlings don't get exterminated completely and turn into the walking dead.

Jon thought about it for a while before he said, "It has really been unfair on you...huh! Fine, then, you only need to search for a few more days and if you really can't find anything then we'll call this a failure..."

*Squeak!* Frost immediately cheered at that, "A-And you also need to get me a good gift this time for all the hard work that I've been doing... And not something like the last time when you said you'd get me a gift and instead you bought that stupid bird with you..."

"Hey! I thought you would become friends with Tweety... and I remember clearly that Tweety was incredibly excited when she met you..."

"That stupid bird is excited all the time," Frost snorted derisively, "And why would I ever want to become friends with the critter... she is about the size of one of my little claws and I could eat her in a single gulp, and she is stupid and..." and so on, Jon had to listen for quite a while as Frost started to badmouth Tweety with everything that came to her mind, "And just because she was a little helpful during the last battle doesn't mean that she's special... that bird brain can't even learn the common tongue, Humph! Humph!"

It took a while for Jon to pick up the reason behind Frost's sudden hostility from her mind... it seems that Frost was a little jealous because of all the new companions that Jon had been getting lately and in addition to feeling left out she was also a little scared that he would leave her when she became less useful.

Jon didn't waste a single moment after finding out the crux of the issue and immediately tried to fix the situation, "You're absolutely right, my friend. There's no one in the world who can compare to you. No one is as smart as you or is as beautiful as you or has such pretty feathers—"

"I see it!"

Jon's shower of praises on Frost was suddenly interrupted by her, "What is it? What do you see?"

"I think I see an island,"

"What—" Jon immediately put down the work he was doing at that moment and immediately concentrated his mind, widening the connection with Frost he was immediately able to see what Frost was talking about.

Far off in the distance was a very small green dot barely visible even with Frost's magical eyes, "That looks too small doesn't it? Could it be another dud?" And it wouldn't be the first time if that was the case, there were a couple of close calls before where they had gotten incredibly excited about their discovery only to later realize that the island they found could barely hold a thousand people so was completely useless.

"No! T-This one may just be it—" Frost said excitedly, being able to see better with the same eyes and then without waiting for his answer she immediately flapped her majestic wings a few times and zoomed across the sky, the acceleration was a joke as she had suddenly increased her speed from a leisurely helicopter to a fighter jet.

It only took them a couple of minutes before they were close enough for Jon to see the Island or Islands in its entirety. There were a total of five islands in front of them, two very small ones, two medium-sized islands about the size of Pyke, and the biggest one was almost double the size of Bear Island.

"This is it... you did it, Frost," Jon said with glee in his tone as he looked at the islands filled to the brim with greenery, not only that but he was also able to hear some faint bird calls from the Islands, which meant that life already thrived here, which was just the cherry on top.

'Looks like we finally got our backup plan...'

....

While Jon and Frost were working hard to try and counter the Long Night, on the East side of Westeros his business was facing some difficulties in Braavos.

"Alright, Boys, get on with it," Sam shouted towards workers after the ships had properly docked. "We don't have much time so pick up the pace!" They had bought a total of five ships loaded with Starkhorses from White Harbour to sell in Bravoos, so it would take a long time to unload them.

Merchant Sam had come a long way from only doing leather business in the North. Now Jon had placed him in charge of his whole operation on the eastern side. But even though he had tried his hardest, there wasn't much wiggle room available here for a new Merchant group to establish itself.

Unlike the western shore where there had been no trade between the North and South via sea for centuries, it wasn't the same on this side. Here the Manderly already had their hands in pretty much all kinds of Northern products so Jon had ordered him to only focus on selling Starkhorses for the moment, which meant that the profit was a bit less here compared to the other side.

"Be careful with that, You Idiot! Listen up! If I find a single scratch on any of the Starkhorses because of your carelessness then you can forget about stepping even a single foot off the ship—"

"Boss!" His aide suddenly interrupted him and when turned towards he saw him sporting a dumbfounded look on his face while pointing at something behind him.

"What!" Sam barked as he was feeling uncomfortable at having his tirade getting stopped mid-way, it was as if there was a bone stuck in his throat.

"I-It's here again!"

"What's here again—" he began while tuning around but his words got stuck in his throat as he saw a familiar pristine white paper stuck on the wall behind him, it was a wall on the port near the place where they always docked. "Oh! No! No! No! NO! Please don't let it be us..." he prayed to the old gods while slowly walking towards the notice.

Only one institute in the whole of Braavos was wealthy enough to waste an expensive piece of paper to give out a simple notice, the one place every single debtor was scared of, The Iron Bank.

Sam didn't know what they had done to incur their wrath but starting a few months ago, they had started getting notices from the Ironbank that their import tax for Starkhorses had been increased. And it wasn't just a single time instead after every couple of trips they would be greeted with the same notice that was slowly strangling their business.

And his dread turned out to be true when he got close enough to read the paper...

"Did they increase it again, Boss," the aide asked anxiously when he saw Sam standing there with a deathly pale face.

"Y-Yes... by 10% once again,"

"But that is... that is just absurd," the aide replied frustratedly, "How are we supposed to do business then, our orders have already been decreasing lately due to the harsh import taxes and the resultant sudden increase in prices and if we increase them once again I am afraid the orders would stop altogether," the main selling point Starkhorses had always been that it was cheaper than a horse in the long term, so if that wasn't on the table then they would lose their target customer base.

"I-I'll do something about it, Don't worry, " Sam said resolutely after taking a deep breath, "I'll go straight to the Iron Bank and try and reason with those greedy bastards.... to see if they can stop this absurdness."

"They didn't listen to you the last time... How would it be different this time,"

"I have to try though," Sam said with a helpless smile, "And if nothing else, I'll at least try to find the reason for this unreasonable tax that is only applied to Starkhorses,"

"I hope you succeed boss... For all our sakes,"

...

The evening Sun was just about to set and the otherworldly orange colour reflecting on the water flowing through the city created a picturesque scenario that all the artists around the world would die to see. But the aide who had been standing outside the massive building, also known as the temple of Money, was in no mood to enjoy that scenery.

The aide had been waiting there outside the bank in the shade of a tree since early morning, waiting for his boss who had gone inside early in the morning but he still hadn't left the premises. The whole day his stomach had been in turmoil over the thought of whether he would still have a job or not... or maybe he was just hungry.

Ever since joined this ship his life had completely changed, his parents were proud of him, he had gotten married to a comely Northern girl and he even had a child on the way so it would be very devastating for him if he lost his job as the future would be very bleak.

'There he is,' The aide sighed in relief when he finally caught a glimpse of Merchant Sam coming down the stairs, but his relief was killed shortly when he saw the slumped shoulders of his boss, along with an absentminded expression on his face, it just spelt bad news.

With dread pooling in his stomach, he approached Sam who also caught sight of him and met him halfway. He immediately asked when they were close enough, "H-How was it, Boss? Did you convince them?"

Sam opened his mouth to answer but it seemed that the words were stuck in his throat as he was able to get anything out of his mouth, so he just shook his head with a self-deprecating expression on his face.

The colour completely drained out of the already deathly pale face of the aide when he got the answer he was dreading the most, "T-That can't be it, boss... there has to be something that we can do. What if... What if we ask the Lord Manderly for help, I am sure they wouldn't mind helping us out just this once—"

"We can't," Sam shook his head after clearing his throat, "That greedy bastard already warned me about that..."

Sam could still remember the smirk on that bastard face as he sat behind his desk and declared that there was nothing he could do about it.

...

"I know that you earn enough from that contraption of yours, so what's the problem with sharing a part of it with us too..." he had said with those unfeeling eyes.

"But, my lord, the tax was already too high, and with this new tax increase, no one would want to buy from us anymore..... we would simply not be able to sustain it—" Sam had tried to plead with the man to no avail.

"That is your problem, isn't it? Not mine," he had said nonchalantly as if he wasn't just putting dozens of people out of jobs.

"B-But My Lord—"

"That'll be all, you can leave now," and with that cold dismissal Sam had stood up from his chair with a helpless expression on his face and went to the door, but not before hearing his last shot, "And just so you know, I wouldn't contact the Manderlys if I were you, the last you called them to intervene I had to honour them because of our long history of trade but this time... I wouldn't be so lenient so if you don't want to harm our relations then don't call them,"

...

"But I don't understand... Why? What exactly did we do to deserve such animosity from them..."

"That I was able to find out about," Sam said with a fierce look on his face, "And while it cost me a big chunk to bribe the guards, the information was worth it..."

"What is it?"

"It turns out that there is some kind of election upcoming for some high positions in the bank and as you'd expect from those greedy bastards, the candidates are selected from those who bring in the highest revenue no matter their methods... so that bastard decided that we were a soft target and decided to squeeze us dry..."

"Just because of a silly..." The aide was left speechless at this new knowledge before he shook his head with a rueful expression, "So this is the end, huh..."

"No it isn't..." Sam said with a resolute expression on his face while looking towards the North, "Now that I've tried all avenues and failed... It's finally time to call 'him'... the only one who brings us out of this predicament..."

"Who?"

"The Boss of you Boss..."

///