Betrayal

(General POV)

It had been a few weeks since Jamie had left Asteria, and despite what everyone thought, there were no dire consequences from the crown or from Tywin Lannister. Not that Will would have known even if there were.

As though he hadn't just done something that could spark a war, Will continued on as he always had. The next tournament had been held a week after Jamie departed Asteria, and all in all things had gone pretty good.

Most of the Northern Lords had shown up for it, including Ned Stark, who had only seen fit to bring his son Robb and his ward, Theon Greyjoy. That had been a reunion of sorts for them and Jon, who had been quite happy to meet his brother, or cousin as it were.

With it just being those three from Winterfell, Jon had decided to introduce Robb to the rest of his family, but not before he had gotten permission from both Lord Stark and Will.

The meeting had been more awkward for Ned than anyone else, but that was mostly because he wouldn't really talk to Robb about anything they learned.

Robb still didn't know about Jon being a Targaryen, but he at least figured out that there was something he wasn't being told, given how Jon's "mother" never revealed herself to anyone, and how it was all cloak and daggers between her and his father.

Aegon, Rhaenys, and Daenerys had all met Robb personally, and aside from a not so friendly spar with Aegon, the meeting had gone rather well.

Both Theon and Robb had an immediate attraction of sorts with Daenerys, but it was a little unclear how she felt about their affections.

Jon didn't even bother to be the go between for his aunt and his friends, choosing to stay as far away from that shit show as he could. It was a good thing he did, because as soon as Will found out about it, he had made the two boy's lives miserable.

It was only in the 2 days preceding the tournament that the rest of the Northern Lords arrived in Asteria, at which point things in the city really picked up.

There was a pre-tournament sort of event that went on, which was mostly a few impatient people coming together to beat the crap out of each other. Well, it was more like Will coming to beat the crap out of anyone who fought outside the arena.

The tavern brawls had been the best excuse for him to intervene, seeing as how that was where the most damage was and also where the biggest gatherings were.

It was strange how Lord Glover managed to get himself beaten at every tavern in the city over the course of two days, but no one else really bothered to think too hard on the matter.

When the Tournament actually happened, Will had done pretty much the same things as the previous tournament, only there were a few additional rounds that were for children between certain ages, or young men as Ned had called them.

Will had done this so Aegon, Jon, Robb, and Theon could go beat the life out of each other and not have to worry about some adults coming in to kick their asses.

Aegon had of course won that division of the games, but only because he was given strong incentive to go above and beyond his usual levels of skill.

Will had told him that if Robb or Theon won any round of the games, training would be tripled and he would have to feed himself for a month.

Elia and Rhaenys had commented that they had never seen Aegon try so hard for anything, but in his defense, they had no idea why Aegon was trying so hard to begin with.

Had they known, Will was sure Elia would have stopped him from making the boy's lives so difficult, after all it was adorable that Daenerys had some suitors.

Still, the little girl was more than a little attached to Will, and he would be lying if he said he didn't see her in a little sister sort of way. Given his relationship with Rhaenys, they were damn near brother and sister.

Anyway, Aegon had won every game for the youth division, save for the Archery and the Horse races. Thankfully though, neither Robb or Theon won the Archery, but unluckily for Aegon, Robb did win the horse race for the youth division.

The kid even made some grand show at the finish line towards Daenerys, whose face was as red as her colored hair.

Other than the little shows of affection for Daenerys, nothing much of interest happened for the rest of the tournament.

Will had won a few games, some of the other Lords got the chance to win some prizes, Oberyn got the shit kicked out of him, and everyone was happy.

Most of the Lords returned back to their own places of power the following days after the tournament, though Ned was the exception.

Dacey tried to stay longer, but Maege had practically dragged her home kicking and screaming, which was kind of funny for Will to watch.

Ned on the other hand had his own goals. For some reason, he and Elia had a few things to discuss, all about Jon.

Will wasn't sure why, but Ned wanted to make sure Jon was given the chance to learn about the Old Gods and other Northern traditions, something Will didn't care one bit about.

Elia herself was somewhat religious, though like the rest of her family, made it a point to not discuss it with or around Will. Despite the time that had passed, Will still very much did not like the Gods, or at least one God in particular.

Aside from the topic of religion, Ned wanted to make sure Jon knew about a few traditions that differed greatly in the south, and asked Elia to not try and talk Jon out of learning them, or even try to teach him differently.

She of course said there wasn't a problem with Jon worshiping the Old Gods, and that she would even encourage it if it was actually something the boy cared about, but she also said she wasn't going to keep him ignorant of the faith of the Seven. It was a whole ordeal, but one that was resolved quite easily.

It was almost a week after the tournament before Ned went back to Winterfell, which wasn't soon enough for Aegon.

While the Warden of the North was in town, it was Aegon's job to keep an eye on Robb and Theon, who like all young men, wanted to show off for pretty girls.

There of course were a few random girls here and there that liked to watch the little Lordlings shoot bows and arrows, or ride around near the fields on horseback, but there was one little girl in particular who was enjoying the attention she was getting.

Apparently it was universal that when you told a young woman to stay away from a boy, all she wanted to do was go and see that boy. Same went for if you threatened a boy to stay away from your sister, all he wanted to do was spend time with her and shower her with gifts.

Daenerys had clearly seen how Will showered Rhaenys with beautiful words and gifts, and Rhaenys had obviously shared stories with her mother and sister, and the young girl just couldn't wait to experience such things herself.

Granted it would be a long time yet before Will ever let a boy do anything other than compliment the little girl, but he at least wouldn't make her be a nun or priestess or anything. Not that the idea hadn't been tossed out there.

In the following weeks after the Tournament, Will had gone to the Last Hearth to carry out his agreement with Lord Umber. It had actually been rather fun if he was being honest.

He had made it a little adventure of sorts, where they had visited Deepwood Motte, Winterfell, and then the Last Hearth.

To keep it somewhat fun, they had a scavenger hunt where they were all given a list of items to acquire, and they had to find them along their journey.

Jon would have actually won the game if he didn't get caught cheating, though in his mind he was simply using his head. Most of the items they had to 'find' or buy to win, Jon had simply carved them out of wood or made them with what little materials he could find.

They were by no means works of art, but they would work in a pinch for what he needed them to be. Needless to say, he had been commended for his thinking, but punished for trying to skirt the rules.

They had only been at the Last Hearth for all of 3 days before Will finished up everything the GreatJon had needed him to do, and that was with him going above and beyond what he said.

Aside from the few pumps he had put in, Will repaired the keep, added a few walls here and there, and even expanded the keep itself. Needless to say, the GreatJon was more than pleased with Will.

On their return to Asteria, they had made a detour south and stopped at the White Harbor to do some trading. There wasn't much stuff they needed, but it worked out well for everyone that they kept trade going, and they got to see a bit more of the North in the process.

When they finally returned home, Will decided to just take it easy for a few days, because soon enough Elia and the others would all be heading South. Well, everyone besides Rhaenys. She most likely wouldn't be leaving Will anytime soon.

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(Jenkins POV)

It had been quite awhile since Jenkins moved from the little fishing village on the Stoney Shore to Asteria, and he had to say that he was enjoying his life quite a bit more here, and he owed it all to William.

Life had been much harder before he came here, and he and the rest of the villagers were almost always hungry, unless they pulled out a good haul of fish, but with the tiny boats they could never really get all that much, even with a good catch.

Now though, Jenkins was some big time official in the nicest place in the North, maybe even the world. Food had never been so plentiful, and he could never remember being as clean or as warm when he slept in his new home. It was a real home too, not one of the mud huts he had been living in before.

All it had taken was a little faith and trust from Will to give him this chance, with a little hard work on his part, and things couldn't be better.

When he had been promoted from the Harbor Master to City Official, Jenkins had been worried that he would fail and let Will down, but the Young Lord had always been understandable and kind to him, and Sren had been able to pull any slack he couldn't handle.

They were all new to this sort of thing, so it was understandable that there would be problems, but despite being new to the position, Jenkins had handled everything quite well.

His job was mostly just to interact with people and make sure no one was doing something they couldn't handle. It wasn't actually that hard, which he was thankful for, as it gave him enough time to keep an eye out on other things.

A part of his job was to be informed of most things and keep Will informed of any problem that might occur, so Jenkins had tried to keep on top of most things in the city, including things that weren't actually his responsibility.

He helped out in the Healing House, mostly taking stock and making sure Sren had any herbs or items that he might need, something which the man was quite thankful for.

With Roark, Jenkins had helped acquire armor and training weapons, as well as make sure the soldiers throughout the city had a personal smith that would look after their equipment.

That had actually been a great help, and had earned the man a number of drinks at the Jade Phoenix from more than one man.

One place that Jenkins really enjoyed helping out in was the harbor, but it was mostly because it reminded him of where he started and where he was now.

He micromanaged more than his fair share, but he did his best not to step on anyone's toes, and everyone was happy.

Today was one of the regular days where he went to the harbor and checked up on things. Walking into the main building, Jenkins made his way into the back room where all of the papers were filed.

Having used to run the place in the past, no one really questioned him when he walked in and sat himself down in Varick's chair and began to flip through some documents.

He had only been seated for less than five minutes when he finished checking over the daily logs for the third ship, when to his confusion he found a log for a fourth ship that wasn't listed as returned, meaning it was still out at sea.

Looking the document over, Jenkins saw that it had the Harbor Master's Seal on the bottom of the page, so Varick had definitely signed off on it.

If the ship was just late then it wouldn't be too bad, but yesterday morning when the ships were departing, he had talked to the captains to make sure they were here by sundown today so he could do a full inspection of the ships come morning, something which both he and Sren had been planning for the last few weeks.

They had planned around when Will would be back so they could get his help on acquiring any materials they didn't have on hand, so it was imperative that all the ships and crews be present.

It wouldn't be until the morning that the inspection was carried out, but he wanted all the ships to be ready so they didn't have to keep Will waiting on them.

Anyway something of note that really had him worried, Jenkins distinctly remembered only 3 ships departing yesterday, having watched them leave the bay himself before he went to carry out his duties for the day, so this fourth log was confusing to say the least.

Still, it wasn't completely out of the ordinary to send out a few extra ships later on in the day when they had the manpower for it, but a few of the ship crews were currently delivering a shipment of fish to Winterfell and Torrhen's Square, leaving most of the ships anchored in the harbor.

Reading the names of the crew for the fourth ship, Jenkins had to read it a second and a third time.

'I don't understand...' He thought, not seeing why the people that went out would have gone out.

He knew most of the names on the list, names that shouldn't even be going out to sea yet. With more than a few questions on his mind, he made his way out of the building to try and find Varick to get some answers.

Running around the whole harbor and not being able to find the man, Jenkins asked around on the ships that returned about the fourth ship, but like he suspected, none of them even knew about the fourth ship, nor had they seen any other ship while they were fishing.

When he couldn't find Varick, Jenkins decided to bring his concerns to Will, knowing the man would be able to answer the questions better than he could.

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(General POV)

Will was working on one of the new buildings in the southern district of Asteria when an old man came running towards him.

"M'Lord!" Jenkins shouted as he ran up to Will completely out of breath.

"Take a drink!" Will told the man as he extended a small jug of water that he pulled from thin air. Taking the offered drink, Jenkins took a swallow before looking back to Will.

"M'Lord! Four of our ships went out yesterday, and one of them hasn't returned! Being fishing vessels, I gave strict orders to be back before sundown, and there's no sign of them! The fourth vessel wasn't even in sight of the other ships!" Jenkins hurriedly explained.

Judging by how worried he was, it was plain to see that he thought something bad had happened, but this wasn't the first time a ship had come in late, nor was it even the second or third time.

"Relax, Jenkins. They could have just got held up with some big catches." Will told the ex-harbor master, who didn't look all that convinced.

"But, M'Lord! I made it clear the ships weren't to be out late today! And based on the logs, they were mostly green lads, this only being their second or third time going out!" Jenkins explained, giving Will a little bit of an idea of why he was so nervous.

Whenever it was an experienced crew going out, Jenkins almost never worried, but newbies were another story all together. Jenkins became a worried father when that happened, which was why they had made it a point to only put 2 or 3 new workers on one ship with at least a dozen skilled fishermen.

"How many of the crew are new?" Will asked, wondering if it was more than the usual number, and if it might be why Jenkins was acting that way.

"Half!" Jenkins answered, making Will frown.

"What? Why would they go out with only half of an experienced crew?" Will asked, trying to make a little sense of it, but so far that wasn't at all how they had been doing it over the last few months.

"I don't know, but that's what the report says!" Jenkins answered, holding out a parchment Will hadn't noticed the man carrying before.

Grabbing the paper from the man, Will saw that it was yesterday's ship log. It showed the number of ships that had gone out, the names of each sailors and number of sailors on each ship, as well as which region each ship was going to be fishing.

Looking over the names on the ship that wasn't back yet, Will recognized only a few of the names on the list, which was kind of surprising, given how he had read the weekly reports for months now and was quite familiar with most of the names on the ship lists.

Out of curiosity, Will checked the list of names for the three ships that were already back, and like he expected, he recognized all but one or two of the names on each ship.

"How did this crew do in the bay?" Will asked, knowing no matter what answer he got, it still shouldn't account for this.

"They never went to the bay." Jenkins said, making Will's frown deepen. It was standard practice for anyone wanting to go on the fishing ships to go through basic training in the bay with some experienced sailors, otherwise they would be more of a liability if they just went out to sea as is.

They already had accidents in the past, which was why things had been put into place to prevent such actions, so this didn't make sense.

"Did Varick approve of this?" Will asked Jenkins as he pointed to the list of names on the parchment.

"Aye, M'Lord." Jenkins said, pointing to the Harbor master's seal on the bottom right corner of the paper.

Will of course had seen the seal, but he hoped that someone else had been the one to stamp it. That was just wishful thinking on his part though.

There was only one of those seals, and it had been made apparent that it was to never leave sight of its owner unless Will said otherwise.

While he was thinking about the paper, Jenkins explained how there shouldn't even have been a fourth ship that went out, at least not to his knowledge. Based on the parchment, Will fully agreed.

Deciding to go talk with Varick personally, Will began to quickly make his way towards the harbor with Jenkins only a few steps behind him.

Going straight into the main building at the port, Will didn't bother letting his presence be known as marched to the backroom and walked inside the main office.

It had taken a simple glance to find the man, who was actually in his office now, which was good because Will had no intention of running all over the damn city to find the man.

"What is this?!" Will demanded as he held the parchment only a few inches in front of Varick's face.

It took a few minutes for Varick to recognize what exactly it was he was looking at, at which point he grabbed it from Will before asking, "Where did you find this?"

"He got it from me!" Jenkins said, speaking up from the doorway. Clearly Varick had no idea that Jenkins had taken the report, given his obvious ignorance.

"I-It's obviously a m-m-mistake, M'Lord!" Varick said nervously. The way he fumbled around his words made it seem like he wasn't sure of what he was actually saying, which wasn't completely uncommon when dealing with Will, given how intimidating he could be, but there was no cause to stutter if it truly was a mistake, but Will knew better.

The whole report itself was a mistake and shouldn't exist in the first place, and with a not so subtle glance at the small piece of leather around Varick's neck, Will saw the stamp that carried the Harbor Master's seal on it, so it clearly hadn't been lost or stolen.

"Where is the tenth ship?" Will asked plainly, causing Varick to stare dumbly at him.

Will had given 10 of his ships to the Harbor Master for the citizens to rent out, but if his guess was correct, there were only 9 ships in the harbor.

He doubted Jenkins would have come to him without checking if all 10 ships were there to begin with, so there wasn't really too much of a concern of him being wrong. The report itself was proof enough for him.

Staring unblinkingly at Varick, Will made sure the man felt the full weight of stare. For his part, Varick looked like he was sweating buckets by the second.

The room remained quiet for another minute before Will decided to try a different tactic. Creating a ball of fire in his right hand, Will pushed the flames towards Varick, making so when the Harbor Master pulled back to get away from the heat, he went over backwards in his chair.

When Varick went down, Will followed him to the floor, keeping the ball of flames in front of him so he couldn't get back to his feet without getting burned.

"Where is the ship?!" Will demanded, more tempted than ever to push the flames the last few inches into Varick's face.

"S-SOUTH!" Varick finally cried, his fear getting the better of him.

Once he had broken, Varick revealed everything. He had been paid off by the IronBorn to send a ship southwards.

The information didn't quite make sense to Will, given how the IronBorn loved to reave and sow across the western shore, but after a bit more explaining, he understood.

This was more than to just reave, it was to get vengeance on him for having raided the Iron Islands and killing Euron Greyjoy. It was apparently a man named Victarion Greyjoy that had paid Varick a bag of gold Dragons for setting this up.

It was supposed to be done in such a way that Will wouldn't know about it, but also in a way that the IronBorn looked strong to each other, while at the same time getting a ship full of thralls, or slaves as everyone else called it, to come work the mines or some other odd task.

The way Varick explained everything, this would become a regular sort of thing if they could get away with it, at least that's the way it sounded to Will.

Victarion apparently wanted to look strong, and who better to prove his mettle against than the man who had risen the highest among the world.

He looked strong for raiding a weak ship, solely because of who the ship belonged to, something which was just stupid to Will.

They couldn't brag about it, because Will would eventually find out. Hell, just the missing ship alone would have raised flags with him, even if they gave him some lame excuse about getting sunk or something.

This was one of the reasons you had to be a competent sailor to go out, less chance for messing up out at sea.

It was just too bad Varick wasn't more competent, otherwise the fool would have probably lasted more than a day before he was discovered. Will clearly had given the man more credit than he deserved.

As soon as Will had gotten the information and found Varick's blood money, he punched the man in the mouth before he dragged him outside.

Jenkins had already informed a few people by now of their discovery, so when Will came outside dragging Varick by the hair, Roark was already standing at the ready with a few of his men.

"Take him to the dungeons and chain him up! Make sure he can't move!!" Will ordered angrily to two of the guards standing at attention. They moved quickly to carry out his order, and they weren't gentle. It was clear they weren't too happy with what Varick had done either.

"Get a ship prepared to depart, and have 3 healers and 7 soldiers get on board. We'll depart within the hour!" Will commanded, getting a nod from Roark, who looked kind of pissed himself.

It was a shame he was needed back in the city, otherwise he himself would be coming with Will to wherever it was he was going. Still, he had the traitor with him, and there were a number of things he could do to occupy his time while they waited on Will's return.

Before he could leave, Will went to his mansion to let Elia and the others know where he was going. Rhaenys herself would be coming with him, but that was mostly because he wasn't a Warg, and she had a bird that she could use for scouting long distances.

While they were gone, everyone else was to be on alert in case something happened while he was gone. Not that there was really much of a risk, but Will was kind of paranoid on the best of days when it came to his family.

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It wasn't until hours later that Will and his ship got within range of four vessels, and one of them looked to be his ship.

Well, technically it might have actually belonged to the IronBorn once upon a time, but he had stolen it fair and square, and he wouldn't let them take it back from him. Not to mention they had taken a number of his people and probably killed a few of them as well.

"How many of them do you see?" Will asked Rhaenys once her eyes returned back to normal.

"It looks like there are 9 people tied to the mast on the ship belonging to Asteria." Rhaenys said, sounding a little saddened by her own words.

It made sense though. There were originally 14 sailors when the ship had gone out the day before, so 5 of them had most likely been killed. It wasn't something Will wanted to hear, but honestly he wasn't expecting any good news after everything he learned today.

"Keep heading towards them!" Will ordered, then jumped into the water and disappeared beneath its surface.

It had been awhile since Will had created a water demon, but today it would come alive once more to haunt the spirits of its victims.

There was no warning before it burst forth from the water, it being punctuated by a boom of the water rising into the air. There was a fair bit of screaming from those on the ships, but it didn't last long. Will made sure of it.

"You want to be with your Drowned God so bad, let me introduce you personally!" Will growled out as he began to drown each and every one of them.

He wasn't really sure it could technically be called drowning, given how drowning was a type of suffocation induced by the submersion or immersion of the mouth and nose in liquid.

For some of the people they were suffocated, but lots of them, the water moved as if alive inside of them, ripping them apart from the inside out. It was just a passing thought, but Will didn't dwell too much on it.

In less than 10 minutes all of the ships had been cleansed of any IronBorn, including whichever poor sap was Victarion Greyjoy. Will hadn't even bothered to find out which one he was, but that was because he didn't care.

The Iron Born had attacked his place of power, and rather than wait for them to do something stupid like this again, Will was already deciding on what he was going to do in retaliation.

Storing the now three empty ships in his inventory, Will moved to the last ship where the captives were bound. With just a glance it was obvious that some of them wouldn't survive if they weren't treated soon, but there were only 4 or 5 of them that were actually in critical condition.

With a simple bit of healing Will removed the possibility of them dying before they got treatment, but it would take longer than he wanted to be here if he tried to heal them all completely.

Soon enough his own ship arrived, and without being told the healers began to check everyone over, while the soldiers who had come helped them move the injured men to more comfortable positions.

Once everyone was all boarded on one ship, Will stored the other ship before spurring them on back towards Asteria.

They wouldn't arrive until late into the night, but he wanted to get the captives home before anything else was done. Their families were probably already worried enough as it was, and with the deaths of a few people, it wasn't going to be a hero's return.

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When they got back to Asteria, word had spread quickly the following day about what happened. Varick's betrayal had been completely unforeseen, and it was only after it that Will had to try and make sure that nothing like that would happen again.

He knew that human greed would always be there to loom over him, but Will decided to take a page from Tywin's book to hopefully stop it, or at least reduce it.

Using Varick as an example of what would happen to traitors, Will made his death very public, and very brutal. No one had come near Will for days after the execution, save for Rhaenys, who had been sick for days following the event, but it still didn't stop her from being with him.

Things got weird between them until they actually talked about it, which was still weird for Will. He didn't want to sit there and talk about how he was feeling with someone, but he knew he couldn't just shut everyone out of his life. That was no way to live, and he couldn't do that to his family.

To help fix any problems, Will had made so that each major position in Asteria had a bit of help, which in turn would work more in his favor.

For instance, there were 3 assistants for Harbor Master now, 3 Healing House assistants, and so on. He was thankful to Jenkins for doing as he had done, and it was because of that that Will actually promoted him.

It was more like he just gave him a few assistants like the other major positions, but it sure seemed like a promotion with the way he acted about it.

Plus it kind of was a promotion, given how each assistant for every major position would do their own report of the day's events and send them to Jenkins and his assistants.

The way it worked out, Will had made it so if someone wanted to bribe an official, they sure as hell would have to bribe a long list of people to get whatever they wanted done, but without knowing who was really doing what, it would hopefully never happen.

One of his main goals for the assistants was that they would keep the others all accountable. If their reports contradicted the others, or if one report had information that the others didn't, it would hopefully reveal a plot before it was ever carried out.

Nothing about it was perfect, but Will was still learning what it meant to Lord over subjects and the like.

It had taken a little over two weeks after Varick's betrayal before Will was ready to retaliate against the IronBorn, and he was going to use going back to Dorne as a bit of a cover for it.

He was taking Oberyn and his family back to Dorne, so it wasn't actually a lie or anything, he was just going to make a little stop at the Iron Islands on his way south.

On their journey to Dorne, Will stopped first at the island of Blacktyde, one of the seven major islands that made up the Iron Islands.

It took a few days and a fair bit of magic, but Will eventually managed to move the whole island further west and slammed it into the northernmost part of Great Wyk, the largest of the Iron Islands.

Orkmont and Harlaw were next, the islands all coming together in the bay of Great Wyk, trapping Old Wyk inside them.

Saltcliffe and Pyke were the last to get moved to join the rest of the islands, which could no longer be called islands. It was more of a tiny continent or a very large island.

Anyway, after his bit of world shaping, Will made sure to stop at what was once Pyke, then made his way inside the castle and killed Balon Greyjoy and his last remaining brother, Aeron Greyjoy.

Whether it was to be a complete dick or just taking notes from Tywin, Will got rid of every Greyjoy on the Iron Island, including someone named, Asha Greyjoy. That part was actually an accident on his part, and he wasn't actually the one to kill the girl.

Rhaenys had shot the young woman with a tiny crossbow, but the bolt had only made Asha lose her balance and she had fallen off a cliff and died.

Will honestly didn't know who the hell she was until after she was dead, and that was only because he was asking around for someone named Yara Greyjoy, but no one knew who the hell he was talking about. He simply concluded that whoever the fuck Asha was had to be Yara and left it at that.

With his main goal over and done with, Will decided to go a bit further in his actions. It wouldn't do to just kill off the Greyjoy's, he had to make sure the rest of the world knew not to follow in their footsteps.

Being somewhat of a civil man, Will made sure to have all of the saltwives, thralls, and basically anyone in the castle on Pyke leave it before he completely brought down the castle, turning it into rubble.

There had been a number of witnesses that had watched the whole thing, and he knew there would be more stories circulating the world about him after today, but that was what he wanted.

'Robert, Cersei, the Greyjoy's, they can all go to hell if they think I'm going to let them fuck with me!' Will thought darkly, losing what little patients he had with people.

When he was done with the castle on Pyke, Will left messages with each of the Lords of the Iron Islands, letting them know of the drastic changes that the place had undergone, since he thought them too stupid to realize the obvious earthquakes and shaking served a purpose, then left them there to kill each other.

By getting rid of House Greyjoy, save for Theon, Will left the seat of power up for grabs, causing the lords to start planning their own miniature war.

They couldn't just keep to their own territories anymore with the islands all connected together, and they weren't about to let someone else rule over them from right at their front door.

Hell, if Balon had been alive after the terraforming, the Lords might have killed him themselves just so he didn't try to govern over them from right outside their homes. As for a King's Moot, well it was the same thing.

Will left the Iron Island with a big old smile on his face, knowing that the IronBorn would do a fairly good job of culling their own numbers, and that they would be too busy killing themselves for the foreseeable future to worry about coming near Asteria.

Plus it was really nice to be rid of Balon and the house Greyjoy, not that the fool was actually a threat.

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After they continued their journey south, they had to stop in Oldtown because of a sickness. Well, it was kind of a sickness. Rhaenys had been sort of seasick for days on end, and no matter how much Will tried to heal her, it didn't help.

With still being a few days out from Dorne, they had decided to stop in at Oldtown so she could recover, but it was only after they arrived that Will learned they weren't the only notable figures in town.