Chapter 4: Aftermath

283 AC

Riverlands, Royalist Camp

Gerold Hightower

"Ser Gerold, The sword has been fitted according to the King's orders" The Blacksmith who holds the sword Lady Forlorn in his hands comes towards me.

I take a look at the sword and sure enough, it's more or less like how the King wanted it.

"You have done well," I said to the Blacksmith, and he bows and says "I live to serve House Targaryen"

The crossguard is fashioned like flames seen in the portraits of Dark Sister but in red color, while the grip is black in color and the pommel which used to be a heart-shaped ruby was replaced by a pommel in the shape of a dragon in red color with its eyes having obsidian stones in their place. The scabbard was made of dark supple leather with silver inlays.

This sword used to once belong to House Corbray but with the deaths of Lord Corbray and his three sons Lyonel, Lyn, and Lucas in the battle, House Corbray is extinct and so the sword is up for the taking. Lady Forlorn now has a new house.

I can only imagine Tywin Lannister's face when he sees that Lady Forlorn belongs to House Targaryen, House Corbray was not a rich house, ancient and proud yes but not rich and so Tywin made multiple offers for the sword but he was rebuffed at all times because no one will part with their ancestral weapon and now that very sword is with the Targaryens, he will be so upset that I would pay a thousand gold dragons just to see his face. I chuckle at that thought.

I reach the King's tent and he is looking over some papers.

"Your grace" I call out, he turns and upon seeing the sword he grins "So it's done", I nod "Yes, your grace, it is", I hand it to him and he unsheathes it, and gives out a few swings, "Quite light, much lighter than what I expected"

Valyrian steel is half as light as other steel and yet twice as strong and can cut through anything.

And to check if he can cut through anything the King brought up his second suit of plate armor which he didn't use for the battle and swung at it diagonally, and then with a crash, the sword cut the suit of armor like it was a cake.

"Now that is something, wouldn't you agree Ser Gerold," King sheathing the sword asks me

I agreed "Yes, your grace it is", then I ask him "What do you intend on doing with the rebels, your grace"

The King doesn't reply right away but thought for a while "A few will be given mercy and a few will be executed, which reminds me to have the birds eaten the flesh of their heads"

I nod "Yes your grace, the birds have eaten most of the flesh and now all that's left is the skull"

The King asked me to place the heads of Robert Baratheon and Hoster Tully on spikes on the two opposite banks of the Ford. At first, you wouldn't know who is who because both their faces are damaged beyond recognition, you know Hoster from the fact that his head will have red hair while you would know Robert's head with his black hair but the faces of both have been destroyed and now after a week they are nothing more than skulls.

Then Ser Jaime arrives with a missive "Your grace, a raven has come from the Golden Tooth, My father has attacked the Riverlands in your name, and he intends to capture Riverrun for you, your grace" It's been a week since we have won and while we are recovering Tywin finally decides to join.

The King has an unreadable look on his face before he says "Of course, he has, why am I not surprised?"

Honestly, I thought that Tywin would side with the rebels solely because of all the insults the Mad King has done towards him but then again with Jaime here as an unofficial hostage his hands were tied,

"Even a fool will know what Tywin would have done had I lost" The King mutters darkly and Jaime reddens but he can't deny what the King says.

The main reason why we haven't already sent men to attack Riverrun is that we are still recovering from our losses, out of the fifty thousand men we had, nearly five thousand died and another thirty thousand were injured to the point where they need the presence of either a Maester or a healer and thankfully the losses were avoided with the King ordering the use of boiled water, even camp fever was reduced with the King mandating that all soldiers drink boiled water instead of ale in the weeks before the battle.

Out of the rebels, most of them had it bad, out of the five and thirty thousand men that the rebels had nearly one and twenty thousand were killed while the rest were captured and most of them were so severely injured that we had to put them out of their misery.

"So what now your grace?" I ask the King,

The King turns to me and says "Arryn and the Blackfish will be executed, and as for Stark, I will talk with him and hopefully he will bend the knee"

I then say "I will search for an appropriate executioner" But the King shakes his head "I will execute them myself" but before I can ask the King why he would want to do the executions Ser Barristan and Ser Richard enter the tent.

"Your grace we have word from Storm's End and King's Landing," Ser Richard tells the King and The King nods to allow him to continue "Storm's End has fallen, Stannis Baratheon died defending the castle while Renly Baratheon was captured, the rest of the garrison and the castle's inhabitants were put to the sword"

The King doesn't say anything at first and he turns around and asks "What else?" Ser Richard reads one of the missives in his hands and says "Prince Doran and Prince Oberyn are coming to King's Landing and they want to take Prince Lewyn's bones and they also want to have an audience with you, your grace"

'Prince Lewyn a brave and loyal man indeed, Baratheon managed to smash in his breastplate and cave in his chest before Lewyn could skewer his neck with his spear. His like will not be seen again in the Kingsguard, I see that both Ser Barristan and Ser Jaime looked pained at the mention of Prince Lewyn, a loss of a brother always hurts and it will be my duty to fill his pages in the Book. Lewyn had his faults, he had a paramour and broke his vows but then again none of us are perfect, we kept his secrets and he died doing his duty to the King as a true Kingsguard.'

There was a moment of silence and then the King said "Bring Arryn and the Blackfish out for execution and bring Stark, Blackwood, and Royce to watch it as well along with Hightower and Tarly"

An hour later, in a secluded part of the riverbank of the Trident, with a few men-at-arms standing guard the execution took place, Lords Stark, Blackwood, Royce, Tarly along with the Kingsguard and Ser Richard and my nephew Baelor were present. And of course, along with us were the about-to-be-executed Jon Arryn and Brynden Tully.

Ser Richard set up an execution block and upon seeing that the King was about to do the execution everyone was surprised but none more than Eddard Stark, to the best of my knowledge I believe that executions are done by the Lords in the North, they don't have a headsman to do any executions and seeing the King do the same shocked Stark and judging by the looks on the faces of both Royce and Blackwood they both are equally shocked as well.

Then Ser Jaime pushes Jon Arryn onto the block and the King unsheathes Lady Forlorn and says "Jon Arryn, Lord of the Eyrie, I Rhaegar of the House Targaryen, first of my name King of the Andals, the First Men and the Rhoynar, the Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and Protector of the Realm do hereby sentence you to death for treason, if you have any last words now is the time"

Jon Arryn turned on the block to look at Eddard Stark and told him "Don't forget what I have taught you, Ned, always remember it and never forget" Then he turned to the King and said "What all I have done, I done for my honor and my house and my sons Robert and Ned and I would have done it again"

The King doesn't say anything but simply raises the sword and Jon Arryn looks down Lady Forlorn descends and it is a quick and clean cut.

Following him is Brynden 'Blackfish' Tully and all he says as his last words are "My nieces and nephew had nothing to do with rebellion, please spare them" The King doesn't bother to reply as he cuts his head off.

He turns to Ser Barristan and tells him "Take their heads and place them on spikes on the banks like it was done for Robert and Hoster"

And then he turns to Stark, Royce, and Blackwood and says to them "I think its time that we had a little talk"

Eddard Stark

"Stark, the King will see you now" A Kingsguard knight who I believe is Jaime Lannister, comes to tell me as we wait in another tent wondering what Rhaegar wants from us.

I came down South to get justice for my father and brother, rescue my sister, and in the process depose House Targaryen and put Robert on the throne, and right now everything just jumped out of the window.

Of all the Northern lords who came down with me, only four survived. Jon Umber, Roose Bolton, Howland Reed, and Wendel Manderly were the only ones to survive, Rickard Karstark almost managed to pull through but last night he succumbed to his wounds, they say that Rhaegar rode over him but I don't know. Now all I can hope for is that Lya might be safe.

I follow Ser Jaime into the King's tent the King is sitting and looking over a few papers and when he sees me "Ah, Come in and do sit, Lord Stark" says as if I am not his prisoner, and he is the captor.

"I want to tell you how sorry I am about your father and brother" How dare he say that, he is saying that as if he isn't responsible for their deaths.

Then as if reading my thoughts he says "I know that you will most likely consider me responsible for their deaths but I will have you know that what Brandon did was stupid on his own and he brought your father down with it as well, and in regards to your sister, I did not kidnap her but rather we ran off together after I saved her from my father's sellswords"

And then begins to tell me about everything that happened ever since the Tourney, about how she was the Knight of the Laughing Tree, about why he gave her the crown, and how the Mad King sent sellswords after her and their love story that occurred after that.

At first, I don't know what to do, I want to laugh or maybe cry, but how do I trust to know whether what Rhaegar is telling me is the truth or not, I asked him as much "How do I know that you are not lying to me?"

Rhaegar just shrugs and says "You can ask Howland Reed about the Knight of the Laughing Tree, after all, it was for his honor that she rode in the lists, and also Benjen helped her with the armor and the horse"

BENJEN HELPED HER, INSTEAD OF COMING TO EITHER ME OR BRANDON HE HELPED HER IN THIS STUPIDITY, I almost lose my temper and I am about to blow at something but then Rhaegar says, "Speaking of Benjen, I think it's time we talked about your punishment"

"What does Benjen have to do with this?" I ask slowly and Rhaegar says "I made all the rebels an offer of clemency but you didn't take it and now to vouchsafe your loyalty a hostage will have to be taken"

I stare at him dumbfounded Oh no, he will be taking Benjen as a hostage and then Rhaegar continues as if nothing has happened "Now he won't be a hostage per see"

What is it with these southerners and their bloody flowery speech just tell it already "Your friend Robert killed Prince Lewyn of the Kingsguard and as such, there is a vacancy in the Kingsguard"

He is asking Benjen to join the Kingsguard, it's just another way of keeping him a permanent hostage

"He is just five and ten" I weakly protest, I seem to have lost my voice "He will be trained over two years under the tutelage of the other members of the Kingsguard and then inducted at the age of seven and ten, that is non-negotiable" Rhaegar is adamant on that.

I am so sorry Benjen, I have no idea what to do now, but Rhaegar said more things that just made it worse "Your sister and our child will also be in the south"

I lose all feeling and I become numb, my brother and sister will now stay as hostages in the South, and then add to the fact that my father and brother were killed in the South,

"Starks don't do well in the South," I said to him but Rhaegar brushes it aside saying "There is a first time for everything and as such, there is the first time for Starks to do well in the South and now speaking on the children there are more things for you to know"

"What more could you possibly have for me?" I am just so tired of the South, If I ever find the man who gave my father the ridiculous idea of interfering with the South, I will kill him and feed his remains to the dogs, most likely it must be that Maester Walys, Gods I will kill that man.

"Ashara Dayne has given birth to a girl, the child's name is Lyarra and she has named you as the father"

I was shocked to my core on hearing that and the shock may have come on my face because he addresses it "You did sleep with Ashara didn't you at the Tourney at Harrenhal"

I mindlessly nod at that, I fell in love with her and would have married her if not for the rebellion, then I finally get my voice

"SHE WAS PREGNANT??!!" I blurt out loudly which causes the Kingsguard outside to come in, weapons bared but Rhaegar waves them off

"Wow, you didn't even know that, not that I blame you, she found out that she was pregnant after your brother showed up and at the time having a child with a Stark for a father in my father's court was a very dangerous thing so Elia sent her away to Starfall" He calmly explains to me all the while I am shocked that I had a child in the first place.

Rhaegar continues "This might be the wrong time to tell you this but you need to know that Riverrun is under siege by Tywin Lannister"

Just what I needed and now my pregnant wife is besieged in a castle by a man famous for killing everyone in both Castamere and Tarbeck Hall.

My sister and her child along with my daughter and my brother will be in the South for the rest of their lives while hopefully, I will get to go home with my wife and soon-to-be-born child.

Thankfully that is the end of the meeting and I am escorted out, Rhaegar gives me until tomorrow morning to bend the knee and think about his offer.

Do I even have a choice?

Tytos Blackwood

"Lord Blackwood, it is your turn to meet the King," Ser Jaime tells me as Ser Barristan is escorting Ned Stark out, For the first time in my life have ever seen a Stark look so lost and dazed. What did the King tell him so and more importantly what will the King tell me?

With trepidation, I entered the King's tent wondering if I would lose my head, when I entered the King bade me in and gave me a seat and he asked if I wanted wine and I politely declined, hoping that the King would dismiss the pleasantries and get to why he called me in.

"Lord Blackwood, I will be honest with you, I have an offer for you to become the Lord Paramount of the Riverlands" Did he just offer me the title Lord Paramount "I am sorry your grace, but I didn't quite catch it "

I ask hoping that what I heard at first might have been a mistake, The Darrys have stayed loyal to the Royal cause and now he gives me the Lord Paramount position, No I must have heard wrong.

"I intend on giving you the Riverlands," He says slowly and I still don't understand it so I ask "What about the Darrys?" so he says "Not all of the Riverlands, some of the Eastern parts will be annexed to the Crownlands and also at the same time the Darrys will be given Riverrun and the Tully's will be stripped of their castle"

And then he shows me a map of the Riverlands showing the areas that will now be part of the Crownlands and when I see it I can't help but notice that the entire Eastern coastline will be taken over thereby allowing the Crown to block the Trident at any time.

At the same time to compensate the House Mallister for Jeffery Mallister's death, Seagard will be given a city charter and along with them of course the Maidenpool will also receive a city charter at the same time.

House Frey will be given the title Warden of the Green Fork, Lord Goodbrook's younger brother will be given Fairmarket and the title Warden of the Blue Fork, and then the Darrys of Riverrun will be given the title Warden of the Red Fork, thereby elevating these three houses above the rest and just below that of the Lord Paramount.

I still can't believe this offer, looks like Rhaegar is indeed magnanimous and he continues "The reason why I am choosing you is that you are an honorable and trustworthy person over the Brackens"

Damn right I am, even the most dishonorable Blackwood will be more honorable than the most honorable Bracken, if there are any honorable Bracken that is

"And I am also giving you this offer for the sake of Queen Betha Blackwood and Bloodraven" Looks like Queen Betha and Bloodraven still stand for us with the Targaryens

"Of course one of your sons will be taken as a Hostage" Of course that has to happen.

"You will be given until tomorrow to decide on my offer" I am escorted out but as I am leaving the tent the King says something that completely sways me "Don't forget that if you do take this offer then all lands in dispute with House Bracken will be yours and if you reject, this very same offer will go to Lord Bracken"

Yohn Royce

"Lord Royce, your turn has come" Ser Jaime comes to take me inside the King's tent, I have seen Ned Stark walk out dazed while Tytos Blackwood walked out giddy so I am not sure what to expect when I enter.

After offering me a seat and wine, the King gives me an offer that completely astounds me,

"Lord Royce, I have an offer for you, an offer of the title Lord Paramount and a Royal marriage, " The King says straight to my face.

Did he just say Lord Paramount and Royal marriage? He continues "I am giving you such an offer because you are one of the most honorable lords of the Vale and also as restitution for the murder of Kyle Royce"

That still doesn't explain the Royal marriage, I never in my wildest dreams expected something like this, I honestly thought that I would be burned alive. Looks like rumors of Rhaegar's generosity were true.

"But what about the Royal marriage?" I ask and the King slowly tells me "My brother Viserys will marry your daughter Ysilla once she becomes six and ten"

I am still hesitant about such a deal "The last time a Targaryen married a Royce, it was an unhappy marriage" bringing up Daemon Targaryen and Rhea Royce

Rhaegar agrees 'Yes, you are right and that is why Viserys will squire for you in the Vale"

But Rhaegar continues "House Corbray is extinct and so the lands of Heart's Home and the few surrounding regions will be taken over by the crown and Viserys will be the Prince of the Dragon's Lair previously known as Heart's Home just like Summerhall is in the Stormlands"

Of course, he will, but there is always a catch "Along with that however the Three Sisters will now be a part of the Crownlands, not the Vale," The King says,

At first, I am fine with it, If you want to deal with those pirate bastards, by all means, feel free to do so, take them out of my hands.

Wait a minute, House Sunderland is extinct, the last two male Sunderland were killed in the battle, then who will rule the Sisters, Oh I get it now, he wants the Three Sisters as a launching point for the Royalists against would-be rebellion in the North and the Vale. Talk about cunning.

"You have until tomorrow to decide on my offer Lord Royce" As I am escorted out he tells me something that sways me "If you don't accept this offer, Lord Royce, then this very offer will then go to House Arryn of Gulltown"

There is no way in hell that I will allow those Copper counters to rule over me.

Rhaegar Targaryen

After I am done negotiating with the Lords, I pour myself a cup of Arbor gold congratulating myself on a good day's work. When Richard comes in with another missive from King's Landing, apparently Jon Connington is back and is heading here along with the Martell brothers, now that is a conversation that I don't want to have.

After a while, Ronald Connington and Brynden Darry came to me with a few concerns, but I manage to assuage their fears but pointing out to Connington that Jon will be Lord of Storm's End and Lord Paramount while he will still be Lord of Griffin's Roost, and as for Darry, I pointed out to him that I have given his younger brother Riverrun and also I managed to convince him that in his heart he doesn't want to deal with the Riverlords daily and also that being a part of the Crownlands was better for him and in the end, he agreed.

So that went well, I was thinking about what to do next when Richard finally came in with more details on what is going on in Riverrun and what happened in Storm's End.

Storm's End went like clockwork, they landed their soldiers in low tide under the passage, and at the same time they did an assault on the walls in the middle of the night, by morning the castle was theirs, and only Renly Baratheon survived along with a certain smuggler named Davos, Yay Davos is alive, apparently, they caught him just as he was about to run through their lines, thankfully he is not dead, I always liked the guy and also so I can use his help to catch all the other pirates and other smugglers around.

And as far as Riverrun is concerned, Tywin arrived in Riverrun within three days of receiving word of my victory, the garrison had the presence of mind to realize what was going on and they closed the gates beforehand, and with the moat already filled Tywin had no choice but to order an assault.

With the Lannisters constantly attacking the walls day and night, the man is desperate to get into my good graces after my victory and to show his loyalty. And the garrison is just as desperately trying to fend him off.

The garrison in Riverrun is about five hundred men and for every one of theirs lost they take at least five Lannisters but Tywin doesn't give up. Tywin has an army of eight thousand men and he is bringing with him another twelve thousand from the West to 'pacify the Riverlands'

If his monsters kill the Tullys like how he did to Elia and the kids in the OTL and if he starts to burn the Riverlands like how he sacked King's Landing in the OTL, I will make that asshole run back to the Rock in disgrace.

Then as evening falls and my goblet of wine becomes empty I called both Richard and Gerold, "Prepare the army, we are marching for Harrenhal at daybreak along with the prisoners, and send a summons to Lord Lannister to meet me in Harrenhal"