ch 18

The one benefit to being an outcast that everyone wants to harm or seriously maim is training partners. I had literally zero issues with getting volunteers to spar.

Who is the most skilled of those volunteers? The answer is very simple: Lyn Corbray.

Although he did not have his house's ancestral sword on his waist, he deserved it. His father still rode with it by his side, as useless as that made it. But Lyn had obviously grown up with a blade in his hand and that showed.

Basic Sword Fighting Lvl 100

Defense Lvl 100

Offense Lvl 100

Sword Fighting: Lvl 98

Defense Lvl 96

Offense Lvl 98

Horseback Lvl 92

Advanced Sword fighting: Lvl 75

Defense Lvl 76

Offense Lvl 71

Horseback Lvl 70

Is it a surprise that my skills had increased so much on the slow march to King's Landing? Absolutely. Martially, the game continues to reap rewards for me. At this point, I was convinced that I could serve as a real fight to the Kingsguard. Although, I could not test that until much later.

It was skills outside of martial prowess giving me troubles. Firstly, I seemed to forget one of the most important aspects of this world: honor. Unfortunately, honor was something that everyone, besides the king and the wardens of Westeros, had to live their life by.

I had not been very honorable, in Jon Arryn's eyes. My first strike was the taking of Gulltown. It was rash, and given another chance, I wouldn't have fucked Lady Grafton. Although I would still have taken the city at night, and betrayed Lord Grafton.

An honorable man would have also returned Heartsbane to House Tarly. Well that just wasn't going to happen, not until I knew how to make valyrian steel myself at least.

It didn't help that I literally killed a man and grew a weirwood in front of a host of knights, and my entire town. That was another no no in Westeros.

Then, a forest of Weirwood magically appeared on my land. Any idiot could draw the deduction that I was practicing blood magic. Well, it was no wonder that Jon, As High as Honor, Arryn reacted the way he did.

It's also a wonder why I haven't had any assasination attempts by the Stormlords I constantly embarrassed and slighted. They probably hadn't even heard of the blood magic, however, being so far away and too busy with the rebellion.

"He is making the men fat." Ben said as we rode beside each other on our horses. He startled me out of my trance.

"Yes, but the Vale and North are not as well trained as the Stormlands. You are only as strong as your weakest member, remember that." I told my friend as we continued to ride by ourselves towards Kings Landing. Ben was getting more and more jaded, because of the reaction of our fellow lords and knights.

I was sad to see that the harsh looks everyone gave me were also directed towards Ben. He didn't even have a chance to defect to another lord, for he was already branded a traitor to the Faith, even if he wasn't.

"You should be Commander, we would have taken Kings Landing by now." Ben mumbled. He was more bitter about this whole thing than I was.

"You should forget about it Ben." I told him seriously. "We are all but out of the war at this point. They would rather us die in battle for them, so that we can be erased from history, then actually achieve glory or save lives."

"Why didn't you stand up for yourself?" Ben asked, hurt and anger seeping into his voice.

"It wouldn't have done any good." I answered. "They had already made up their minds before we entered the tent."

"You're just going to roll over and take it?" Ben asked.

I shot him a look that told him he had gone too far. What else was I supposed to do, kill my liege lord and take over?

"What would you have me do, Ben? I refuse to give them any more of myself. If they want to win this war, they must do it on their own." I told my friend.

"I would have you fight, Lord Baelish."

I looked away just as Kings Landing came into view.

The Red Keep was beautiful, I had to admit. It was as beautiful as it was tall and mighty.

The ruling seat of the Seven Kingdoms.

It's pale red stone shone like the scales of a dragon when the sun hit it. The suns rays were just peeking over the horizon. Did it know that it was rising for death? Did it know that we would try and scale the walls today?

Did it know, as I did, that we would fail?

"Petyr."

I turned my head, slightly surprised at the voice as it hadn't talked to me in weeks. Robert Baratheon rode his horse up to me. His armor was freshly polished and gleaming. The antlers on his helm made it obvious to who wore it, as did the warhammer in his right hand.

"Your grace." I said as I bowed my head towards Robert.

"So you saw it then?" Robert said as his horse stopped in front of mine. "They made a bloody spectacle out of it, didn't they?"

"They paraded you in front of the gates, and crowned you with golden antlers. Yes, they made a spectacle of it." I answered, as I recalled the memory.

"Rhaegar was on the walls then, did you see him? He couldn't take his eyes off of me, nor I him for that matter." Robert said with a smile.

That was a shock, and definitely significant news.

"When did he return?" I asked, since I hadn't been privy to such knowledge until now.

If Rhaegar returned, did he bring Lyanna or leave her in Dorne? Did he have Dorne's army with him? Did Arthur come as well?

"Two nights before we arrived. I told Jon we should have marched the men at a faster pace." Robert answered, confirming what I thought.

"That would have been wise." I agreed, but said nothing else.

We fell into silence then, an awkward silence. I had nothing to say to Robert. In fact, I was very surprised he had the nuts to come talk to me. Did he expect me to forgive and forget? I think not.

"I didn't want to do it." Robert said, out of nowhere.

"Why did you, then?" I asked. "You are king after all." I added, to make sure he knew I wouldn't put up with any bullshit from him.

"We never talked about it you know, that night we sparred and I caught you on the ribs… I saw something I can't explain." Robert answered.

It was true, we never did get to talk about it. I didn't want to talk about it. It seems I would have to.

"Because I don't know what to say." I retorted, quickly.

"Tell me what it bloody was, for starters. Tell me how you did it? Seven Hells Petyr, tell me something about it!" Robert responded.

"I don't know what it was, Robert. I don't know how it happened, all I knew was that I had to get to a weirwood or I would die. Call it the old gods, call it the new, I don't fucking know either way. All I know is that you almost killed me, and they saved me. Whoever the fuck they are." I told Robert.

It was mostly true too. I wasn't sure if it was the game that ruled my life, or the magic of being a greenseer, or literal gods that saved my life that day. All I had were theories.

"That isn't good enough." Robert answered, as he turned his horse around.

I had actually expected him to ask for me to fight beside him in the coming siege. I was one of the best warriors in the world, after all. My arrows didn't miss, and my prowess with a sword was well known. But apparently, he had no reason to visit me, besides to alleviate some of his own guilt.

"Was Summerhall good enough? Ashford? What about your major victory at Goldenbridge?" I asked loud enough for him to hear as he rode back to where he would lead the army.

I left him with another parting shot, I just couldn't help myself.

"Good luck taking the city today, your grace!"

"No, no, you idiots! Shield your comrades!" Ben roared atop his horse beside me.

Below us, at the walls of Kings Landing, we watched the rebellion try and fail to take the walls of the capitol. Just outside of the archer fire, the main host of the rebellion waited while they sent hosts of men towards the walls.

Some of the men had one objective, set the ladders on the wall, get up the ladders, and take the wall. The other men were to protect those men from the stones being thrown at them, the arrows being shot at them, and the hot oil being poured on them.

It wasn't going well at all.

Already I could tell that the walls and gate would not be taken without some engineering marvel, such as siege towers we saw in Lord of the Rings, or something along those lines.

What made it worse was that it wasn't the city guard on the walls anymore, no it was the Dornish reinforcements that Rhaegar brought with him into the city. Hard men that grew up with bows in their hands, and real struggle. The city guards didn't stack up in comparison.

A plan began to form in my head without my consent. I did my best to ignore it.

"It is futile." Ben said as he shifted his horse around in his anger.

We continued to sit there and watch as more and more men were sacrificed to try and take the walls. With every failed attempt, and retreat, Ben looked at me as if I was the cause of the entire thing.

I weathered the stares with ease at first, but guilt was beginning to gnaw at me.

"Lord Baelish."

I turned, and smiled when I saw who it was that called me.

"Ser Davos!" I called out and waved him into my tent. "Come in." I said as I stood up and made my way over to him.

As he came in, I saw who trailed him inside.

Robert Baratheon, Jon Arryn, and Eddard Stark. My jovial mood at seeing a loyal man return, turned sour.

"Apologies, my lord, I had no idea of the political circumstances when I arrived. The sea has no raven's I'm afraid." Davos said as he saw my reaction.

"It is alright. How was your journey? Is Storm's End safe?" I asked as I tried to ignore the newcomers.

"Yes, my Lord. They are getting fat with the supplies we delivered…"

"As is the royal family, with the supplies delivered by Dorne.'' Jon Arryn said, interrupting our reunion.

I turned to them finally. I had already been rude enough. "Your grace. My lords." I said bowing to the three of them. "How can I be of service?" I asked.

Were they here to ask for my help? Were they here to finally hang me for religious crimes? Or hang me for not being on the front lines sacrificing myself for the Kingdom?

"Robert insists that you might be of help. As you can see…"

"We're no closer to taking the fucking city, than Aerys is to sitting his own head on a spike. We need your help." Robert interrupted, getting to the point. He knew that I too, appreciated forwardness. I did not like to dance with words as the older generation did.

That did surprise me though. I had given up on them asking for help around day 8. We were approaching day 21 of the siege on Kings Landing.

"You must be desperate to seek out my aid." I said as I crossed my arms and gave them an uncaring look.

"My lord…" Ser Davos muttered, a bit surprised at how I was speaking to my own liege lord and king.

"I gave them everything I had before Ser Davos!" I snapped at the man. "I gave them the deadliest army in Westeros, I gave them victories, I even gave Storms End the means to survive only for them to spit on me because of rumors and honor."

Robert went to respond, but before he could I continued to speak.

"I'll do it, but for a price." I told them before they could punish me for what I said.

That did not sit well with Ned Stark, but Robert and Jon Arryn were surprisingly calm about it. "You'll do it because…"

"Enough Ned." Jon Arryn said, cutting off the man he fostered. "What is it you want?"

"1 million gold dragons…" I said.

"You're a bloody fool!" Robert yelled before I could finish.

"I will give you Kings Landing for 1 million gold dragons along with a royal decree allowing me to start a bank in my new city Siñon. To be run how I see fit." I expanded on my earlier demands. My voice was a little bit louder, so that I did not get talked over again.

"Where is Siñon? What is this place?" Ned said, not understanding.

"My growing town cannot continue to be referred to as Baelish Keep, it is dumb and I do not like it. Siñon is much better." I told him, explaining what I meant.

"It means Birth, in High Valyrian." Jon Arryn said, translating to everyone in the tent.

"Birth of what?" Robert asked me.

I shrugged my shoulders. "Birth of something great." I answered, being intentionally vague.

"Doesn't matter, the price is too high." Robert said shaking his head.

"You can give us Kings Landing?" Jon Arryn said, ignoring Robert and staring directly at me.

"I can open the gate." I answered. "From there, even Mace Tyrell could capture this city." I told him truthfully.

We stared at each other for a long time. But I knew he would agree. Robert and Ned were only reacting to 1 million gold dragons the way they were because they had never run a kingdom for any length of time. Jon Arryn knew that 1 million gold dragons was an acceptable price.

However, I could tell it was the second demand that gave him pause. A bank was something that had been brewing in my mind for a long time. Bravos, despite being very far north, and away from almost everything else, was a significant power in the world. And it all started with the Iron Bank.

Wars were fought because of it, wars were won because of it. It controlled a significant amount of gold that circulated the globe. And it was a veritable gold mine. Gold would be very important for me in the future.

"Done, open the gates of the city and you'll have your gold and your Royal decree." Jon Arryn said as he turned to leave.

"What?!" Robert yelled. "Have you lost it, Jon?" Robert asked before they could leave.

"I would have done it for 3 million, Robert." Jon retorted sternly. "The Targaryen reign is over!"

Well shit I should have gone higher then… Imagine what could be done with 3 million gold dragons.

"How will you do it?" Ned said, ignoring the discussion behind him.

"I cannot answer that." I told him. "Be ready. In the morning on the seventh day, you will receive a signal."

"What signal?" Robert asked, anger still high.

"You won't be able to miss it, I promise!"

The water of Blackwater Bay was …surprise surprise, nearly pitch black in color. At night, it was even worse.

The moon was the only light we had, but my eyes had long since adjusted to the darkness. Even then, the waves looked more like obsidian. The only times I could tell I wasn't floating in space, was the brief reflections of the moonlight on the waves. It was eerie.

We had no lanterns on our little raft. We made no small talk, as Davos ordered. Ben didn't even have his armor or shield with him. We wore common clothes with common swords on our waists. I wasn't even allowed to bring my bow along with me, something I thought would be essential for the mission. Davos wasn't hearing it, however.

He really was an amazing smuggler. The ship had been anchored in the famous mist of Blackwater Bay, before we dropped our raft into the water. There were only three men on the boat: Me, Davos, and Ben. Ben and I weren't allowed to talk, and were given instruction to do our best not to make any noise.

Davos was the only one allowed to touch the oars, and you would think he wasn't even moving with how quiet he could manipulate the oars and water around us. His breath never got too quick, and he hardly tired as he constantly rowed us toward the city.

I fell into a bit of a trance, as the waves lapped all around us. The city's light pollution didn't allow me to see as many stars as I would have liked, but I stared at the night sky all the same.

I wasn't sure if it was a long time or not, but eventually I felt a kick on my leg. I looked to see that it was Davos. He nodded his head in a direction, and I looked.

There was a very short cliff we were approaching, maybe 15 feet in height, and on top of it, a lone set of stairs rose up into the city. There were no lights on the stairs, or the cliff. I did my best to find a lookout, but it seemed that if there was one, he was either hiding, or asleep.

As we approached, I stood up on the boat a little bit as Davos rowed us straight into it. I reached my hands out and grabbed the rough stone, stopping us from hitting it and making any noise.

Davos stood up, and without words he moved to grab the stone as well, but he also guided my hand to a certain spot in the stone. Immediately I felt a groove, a well worn groove.

He took my other hand, and did the same thing a bit higher up.

"They are the same distance, all the way up." Davos whispered in my ear before reaching towards Ben. He made Ben grab the cliff before whispering in his ear too.

Davos reached down and grabbed my left leg and pulling it up. He cupped his hands, and set my leg in them, immediately I knew what to do. I put my weight on his hands and pushed up a little bit.

My hand found the next groove easily. Whoever had carved the holds out of the cliff was very professional. They were almost exactly spaced as Davos mentioned. I pulled my other foot up and it found purpose on the cliff after a bit of sliding around.

And then I was off, I wasted no time in finding my handholds and footholds to pull myself up.

Before I knew it I was peaking my head above the small cliff. Surprisingly, there was a small platform that had been carved out of the rock. I couldn't help but wonder what this place had been used for before it became a smugglers best friend.

Perhaps a noble had wanted a good place to watch the sunset at night or something.

The most interesting thing I found, however, was the soft snores of a guard in a seat, directly beside the stairs. I had hoped that nobody would be on duty, as I didn't want to kill the man.

We would try to sneak past him first, as dead bodies raised suspicion, I decided right then.

I pulled myself up on the cliff as quietly as I could. My sword hung on the cliff and made a soft scraping noise.

I paused, and continued to stare straight at the man in front of me.

Ping!

Skill level up

Sneak lvl 10

The ability to go unnoticed.

I dismissed the prompt once I realized that the guard was still sleeping and finished climbing onto the cliff. I stayed in a crouch, as I looked back down to see Ben already on the cliff, slowly climbing his way up.

I stayed there for another minute or two, looking back and forth at Ben and the guard, ready to grab my friend and ready to charge the guard at the same time.

Ping!

Skill level up!

Sneak: Lvl 11

The ability was a useful one for sure, although with my status as a Lord, I did not expect to have to sneak around to get things accomplished very often. I was still happy to unlock a new skill.

Ben was a loud climber, and his stockier frame did not make it easy on him. By the Time he reached the top, and grabbed my hand, he was breathing heavily. I motioned for him to be quiet before I hoisted him up and over the cliff.

Quiet, he was not. He was too tired from climbing up apparently. How can one be so in shape, and so out of shape at the same time? My anger got to me as I looked towards the guard.

The snoring had stopped, and I moved to draw my sword.

Fortunately for the guard, he was only shifting around in his seat for a moment. I stood there quietly, as Ben did his best not to breathe too heavily. It did not take long for me to make the decision to get out of there as quickly as possible.

I tapped Ben and waved for him to move with me.

The guard did not wake as we slowly and surely made our way up the stairs that led to King's landing.

"Kings Landing is as big of a shit hole as I expected it to be." I told my partner as we walked down the streets of the city.

"I didn't know the smell would be so bad." Ben said as his nose crinkled.

Everywhere I looked, there was something disgusting to look at. Men and women sleeping on the ground with no cover, in the middle of the day. Children caked in mud and who knows what else running around. Some looked innocent, some had their eyes on the biggest coin purse around.

Literal shit could be found on the ground in some spots. Human shit, just casually on the streets. There was a brothel every four blocks or so.

I vowed to figure out some sort of plumbing system for Siñon. Even if it started at something simple like the castle I planned on building soon.

I was tempted to allow the Mad King the opportunity to blow the city into oblivion. But I would damn half a million people to death, and so I could not. The reason we were even walking around the streets was so that I could begin to map out the city.

In the corner of my vision, a mini map was displayed. Everywhere I walked, and could see, the fog on the map disappeared and buildings, along with streets took it's place.

I kept an eye on that map for nearly the entire day, looking for some sort of entrance into the tunnels of the City.

"You cannot pass."

I turned to the guard that said the words. He was an ugly thing, with a cruel scar on his face, and another on his throat that must have just missed anything important. Truly a shame.

I held up a small purse, completely expecting the treatment from the guard. This was not our first run in with the city watch since we had arrived. A quick coin, and they wouldn't say a word, just walk away.

This guard did the same, he accepted the coin with one hand and waved us away with the other.

"How can the capital turn into such a disgusting place?" I asked rhetorically as we made our way forward.

"It is disgraceful." Ben said. "I cannot wait until we leave." He added frankfully.

"Me either." I agreed as we continued walking. "Do you know where we are?" I asked as I looked around to the newest destination of our journey.

"The Street of Steel." Ben answered as his eyes roamed over the shops lined along the road.

The sounds of hammers on metal was the most prevalent thing in the street. It was not as loud as one would expect. The blacksmiths had the presence of mind to at least do the hammering in the back, to mute the sound just a bit.

The guard patrolling the street began to make more sense. Merchants, knights, and nobles were the only ones pacing down the streets. Some of them were looking for weapons to flip and sell for a higher price on their journey, some were looking to replace an old sword, and some were thinking about buying a set of armor for their second son.

It was odd, considering the city was under siege. Most of the people were continuing their daily activities almost ignoring what was on the outside of the walls at that very moment.

Well what else are they supposed to do… The poor still starve, yet the blacksmiths are making money, feeding into the local economy. Money still needs to change hands. Food, clothes, shelter…

I took my eyes off of the people, and then to the architecture. It was traditionally made for Westeros, but one could tell that there was more money put into the buildings. The wood stood strong, and the metal adorning it was polished and gleaming. That didn't exist in flea bottom, or the other slums of the city.

"You still haven't told me what we're looking for." Ben said as we continued walking.

My plan was a simple one, but it did include the tunnels of the city, and what the Mad King was hiding there. Wildfire is a hell of a drug, and it was the key to opening the gates of the city. It was day two, and I had yet to find even a glimpse of an entrance on my map.

I turned to my friend to respond, but before I could my eyes caught a group of older men in dark hooded robes walk through an alley between two shops on the east side of the street.

There were five of them, and nearly all of them had grey beards that ran down their chest. Their robes were black and made to look poor. But I could tell how the fabric moved

Now what are the odds that they are acolytes who just exited the tunnels?

"I believe we just found it."