Chapter 26

Once you and your Family were back Home after the last few dozen Mercenaries were dealt with, you didn't hear of any more problems that were severe enough to keep you from enjoying your time once more. And after you took a moment to actually look over your Siblings, it seemed to you that Cersei and Jaime for their part were having the time of their Lives, for freezing as they were, they smiled nevertheless and were all in all rather unperturbed by the dangers the Journey had put them through.

A good Sign for the future for sure, as was the Fact that the King failed to send a Host to reign in his greatest Vassal, and as such the time flew by until you noticed one Day a decline in the Magic surrounding the Lands of your Family. A decline that you could feel was currently only affecting the Westerlands, though the effect had changed very little, you're now quite confident that your Magic can, if given enough time, dispel the Frost-magic surrounding the Continent.

Not that you're planning to attempt to do such a thing for a good number of Years yet, for there's nothing your Family would gain from you doing so, thus after thinking on how the matter could benefit your House, you decide that very little needs to actually change at the moment. And that keeping up the production of your Holy Artifacts should do the Trick just fine, for the Westerlands could use every Advantage you could give them, and with how the Royal Fleet will do its best to cut off Trade and Fishing when they can finally set Sail, you're sure an early Harvest wouldn't be a bad thing to have.

Though for what reason the remaining great Houses haven't used the abundance of Opportunities to loosen the grip of the Crown on them is beyond you, especially with how there's a literal Lunatic on the Throne. You can't think of a single decent reason for why they're now of all times decide to remain loyal Vassals of House Targaryen, you even created an easy way out, one in which they can use the Prince to revitalise the Realm in the future, but they all seem to prefer standing behind the Madman, what a World, really.

Thus, you decided to ignore the madness of the World around you once more, and instead focused on your work for the Guild, which just makes simple good Sense, which you can really appreciate right now. You were of course also able to appreciate being allowed to properly use your Ability once more, for despite how relatively short your visit to the Capital was, not being able to use your Ability openly made itself felt incessantly, and you're saying that now, while hiding the Details of your Ability from the Populace.

Given the immense versatility of your Ability to manipulate Stone, it was always in the back of your Mind, and you had to stop yourself from using it so often that the deaths you gave to those Knights that were pursuing your Party were a bit brutal, even by your own standards. And you guess that you had to sleep again didn't help your mental State, or the King's Knights for that matter, so yeah, you were planning to indulge yourself to the fullest.

Your Plan, not that you would honestly call it that, was coming along nicely, and with the Stockpile you left before leaving Lannisport, your Artifacts were already warming the Westerlands considerably, from the Castles in the Mountains, to the Cities in the Valleys, and each Village along the major Trade Routs. Everywhere but the Coast, with the exception of Lannisport, so as to not encourage the Ironborn, who were doubtlessly looking and waiting for the first moment of better Weather or even Weakness to begin plundering.

And you struggle for a good moment to properly refocus on your work, for if anyone would be stupid or dense enough to think they could take on your House, it would be the Ironborn, those Bastards that are actually dumb enough to board the Ships of their Enemies in Plate. Yes, that really took a moment to dismiss, but when you succeeded your Speed of creating had increased quite decently, seeing as this feels more and more like a Prophecy with each moment that passes by. Hence, you couldn't quite ignore the Thought that you might want to free up some of the time you had planned to spend in your Workshop, for something of a more martial nature, it doesn't hurt to be prepared after all.

Thus, when you finished the Stockpile replenishment of your Guild, you left your Workshop to see to the matter of the Ironborn directly, beginning with the Fleet, which was mostly still fishing, and thus more vulnerable than you would like it to be. But your Solutions are nevertheless a bit limited by the Fact that People like to eat, and all that, so the best you could come up with stopped a bit short of satisfying. You decided that investing into the Fleet, when it's outnumbered anyway, would make little Sense, and that scaring off any Ironborn would be much more efficient in keeping the Shore secure, and what would do that better than the Symbol of House Greyjoy itself.

The Kraken is bound to the God of the Sea and the ruling House of the Ironborn at the same time, thus creating eight Krakens to keep their grabby Hands at bay seems more reasonable than drawing Resources from your Project in Lannisport and thus slowing it down, or doing the same to the assembling of your Father's new Army. For truly, who could argue that losing Ships in your Family's Position wouldn't be problematic, and well, simply unacceptable, mayhaps even resulting in a need to draw upon Forces from the Boarders to guard the Coast.

Yes, simply spending some of your time on the matter is clearly the better Option, compared to spending actual Resources, though it might become quite time intensive, with how strong the Connection will have to be. Yet you know that it's the best Course of action you can currently take, especially with how screwed you would be if the Ironborn came to think they could gain Artifacts here, that could make their Wood starved Islands warm and comfy at the ever so small Iron price, yeah, you prefer to see a giant Kraken tearing apart Ships sailing under the Kraken a few times a Year, over having to stop a hundred Raids each Month.