58

Chapter 58: Ch 49 Meet my friends

Chapter Text

"W-What are you doing? Don't come near me!" Darrio warned Jon while swiftly retrieving his hand from beside the vibrating knife stuck in the table, "You won't be able to get away with this. I am telling you." he said with a fierce expression, "Do you even know who I am?" as Jon came around the table but the tremor in the banker's voice gave him away, "Just one shout from me will have guards swarming this place and you will be done for—"

"Do it, then," Jon interrupted Darrio with a shrug while leisurely taking a seat beside the knife on the table right in front of the banker.

"W-What?" Darrio creaked out incredulously, thinking that he had heard wrong, but the Northerner sitting in his face didin't react, as if he didn't care about his threat to call the guards at all, "You!— I am not joking. I will do it."

"I know."

"G-Guards," Darrio tried but only managed an embarrassing high-pitch squeak that didn't reach very far, "GUARDS!!" he tried once again with a proper shout but the madman didn't even flinch and maintained his poker face which made his stomach fall to the ground.

"Everyone knows that Bravoos is a place where information is almost as valuable as gold." Jon said in a calm conversational tone after the banker had finished with his futile shouts, "So of course, they are going to make sure that their information stays only theirs... and to that effect when this Bank was made they made sure that rooms were as sound proof as they could them." Darrio had a shocked expression on his face as if thinking how the hell does this outsider know about this when even most of the people working here didn't, "And sadly for you the only guard who could have heard you is right now sitting on a privy and he probably won't be coming out any time soon... So basically you're stuck with me," Jon finished with a smile.

The Iron Bank was supposed to be one of the most secure places in the world. They have guards around every single corridor and room in the establishment. And not to mention the strict surveillance they have at the gates and how they never let anyone, no matter who they are, carry any sort of weapon into the premises not even a little fork.

But somehow this man from Westeros managed to find a loophole and not only feed his guard a laxative but also find a way to smuggle a bag of knife inside.

"W-What do you want from me?" Darrio finally asked with a gulp, his false bravado having completely left him, "If all you want from me is for me to lower your taxes then there was no need to go so far, I would have— Argh! No! Don't kill me!" Dario flinched and ducked in terror when he saw Jon suddenly jerk the knife out of the table surface.

"Ah! You're mistaken," Jon said with an amused smile at the man almost pissing his pants, "I was just a bit hungry and wanted to have an apple. I can... can't I?" he asked while taking one from the fruit basket nearby.

"O-Of course," Darrio replied hesitatingly while thinking, 'As if I am in any position to deny you'.

Jon nodded his head and rubbed the red apple on his shirt before he started slowly and skilfully peeling it. Darrio peeked at the man calmly skimming the apple and slowly lowered his guarded hands as he was sure that the man didn't intend to kill him... At least for the moment.

"W-What do you do you want from me?" he tried once again after a minute when he saw that the man was completely focused on the apple and was ignoring him, "Because if it's money then you didn't have to—"

"Oh! No, No, No!" Jon shook his head with a smile, "I am not here for the pennies you have in your account. What do you have like 150-something thousand in there..." Darrio involuntarily nodded his head with his eyes completely wide at the eerily accurate amount, "Yeah I wouldn't do this much work for so little..."

Darrio would have normally felt offended at the way the man was belittling his life savings but he wasn't in any position at the moment so he kept all that out of his expression, "Then what—"

"What I want from you is... You!" Jon said while pointing towards the banker with a smile.

"M-Me!" Darrio squeaked involuntarily while pointing at himself with a dumbfounded look on his face.

Jon nodded with an earnest expression on his face which immediately sent the banker's mind down the wrong path as he looked at the dashing young man with gray eyes telling him that he wanted him. Fortunately (or maybe, Unfortunately) Jon explained himself before he could misunderstand.

"Yes, I want you," Jon nodded while putting a slice of apple in his mouth, "To be exact, I want you to be my helper, my spy, my subordinate, my... pawn. I want you to obey every single order of mine, whenever I ask you to do something, you will set everything aside to do it... you'll work for me, you'll steal for me, you'll kill for me—Basically, you'll... live for me."

"Are you kidding me? You—" Darrio's indignant retort almost instantly died in his throat as he looked at Jon's raised eyebrow and remembered the situation that he was in, "I-I mean Yes! I will be your puppet. I will do whatever you want me to do, Sir," his tone quickly changed to a fawning one but... 'Like hell, I will obey you, You Barbarian! The moment you step out of this room, I'll call the guards and have them capture you for me. I'll drag you through the streets. I'll skin, I'll flay, I will torture you until you're begging me for death, You Bastard!!!' he screamed internally but the only thing visible on his face was an awkward smile.

"You know... I can almost hear the thought jumping inside your head," Jon said with an amused smile on his face, "But don't worry I am a very persuasive guy. I assure you that by the time I leave this room not only will you agree to it... you'll almost beg me to be my puppet," he said those absurd words with such eerily calm eyes that it immediately sent a shiver down Darrio's spine.

"W-What are you going to do?" Darrio asked in an alarmed tone as his mind started conjuring all kinds of tortures this madman could inflict on him to "persuade" him.

"Oh, No! Don't make that face. I am not going to do anything bad to you," Jon assured with a nonchalant wave of his hand, "I am just going to tell you some of my secrets and explain to you what I am and why it would be in your best interest to follow me..."

"What... you are?" Darrio parroted with a puzzled expression, wondering what he was talking about.

"Exactly!" Jon nodded his head as if agreeing with him, "Hmm...Now, where to start... Ah! That would be a good place," he mumbled to himself before looking at the banker, "Tell me, What do you think about magic or sorcery... Do you think it exists?"

"Magic?" he mouthed with a weird expression on his face.

Jon asked because he knew that sorcery was a little-known force in this world. How much you believed in it was heavily dependent on where you were. In Westeros, particularly the Citadel, most people doubt its very existence. It has been so long since magic was truly potent that most understanding of it only lives on in superstition and rituals of questionable validity.

Only in a few places like Quarth does magic still remain a potent force, particularly in House of the Undying where the enigmatic warlocks were said to possess great powers. Not to mention the even more mysterious blood mages, spell singers, necromancers and many more that are said to gather and practice their arts in the lands by the Jade Sea and Asshai by the Shadow.

"Yes, Magic!" Jon nodded while explaining, "You know, like in those stories about witches and priestesses who can control flames or are said to be able to sacrifice blood and life to summon shadowy creatures to act as their assassins. Not to mention the ones said to possess the ability to divine the future by looking into flames or those who give you a prophecy about if you're going to have golden children just by taking a little bit of your blood... Have you heard about them? Do you think they are real?"

"Umm...No." Darrio answered awkwardly, trying to guess where this madman was going with this. 'Was he perhaps trying to tell him that he was a witch,' he scoffed in his heart.

"No? Hmm... That makes this a bit difficult," Jon said with a troubled face before his eyes suddenly lit up, "Oh! I know! What about something close by like those from the House of Black and White? You must surely believe in them, right? After all, the mightiest assassins in the world, Faceless Man, are trained there. And they obviously have magical powers given to them by their Many-Faced God, which enables them to take on any face that they wish to, whether it be an old smallfolk man, a woman or even a lord."

"Yes... I-I mean Maybe,"

Of course, Darrio knew about them, there's no one living in Bravoos who wouldn't know about them, but the number of people who actually went in and knew what happened inside would be very few. He was also one of those who only knew what he did about them from the stories he had been told as a child and the only thing that stayed in his mind was the repeated warning from adults about never going anywhere near that place unless you want to give up your life.

Even the Iron Bank had a policy of staying out of the temple's way, and it was one of the few places in Bavoos where the Bank had no control. Even though the temple was near them, the bank was very rarely known to use their services as it was well known how costly they were and that it was almost always way cheaper to just hire normal assassins and if it was someone well protected and in a prominent position... then it was still better for them to fund their opposition.

"Well... just like you guys have your mysterious assassins we have legends of our own in the North. Legends like the Children of the Forest, Giants, Mammoths, Direwolves, Ice Spiders, Ice Eagles, and much more. And... I am also someone from those Legends," Jon finished with a straight face.

Darrio looked sceptically at the Northerner, wondering if the madman was going to tell him that he was a half-giant or if he was a descendant of the Children of the Forest and had magical blood.

"That's right. Similar to those red priests of R'hllor who got powers from their Lord of light, I have also been given powers by the Old Gods..." Jon said spouting bullshit without flinching, but inside he was cringing at himself fiercely. He felt that his performance wouldn't lose to those cult leaders of MLM schemes from his previous lives, "What powers you ask?" he continued luring in the banker, "Basically, I am someone who's been given complete control and command over all creatures of this world, whether they be a four-legged beast, a bird or even an insect. I can make them do anything I want, from mundane things like delivering letters for me to fetching a fruit for me to spy for me and even... kill for me. You don't believe me, do you?"

"No, I do," Darrio quickly nodded his head with a forced smile. He would agree to anything... even accept the man as a god as long as he wasn't killed today.

"Hmm... Looks like I need to give you some live demonstration," Jon said with an understanding expression, "I know! How about I introduce you to one of my friends, I am sure you'll be convinced then," Jon said before pointing his finger towards the only window in the room, "You just need to turn your head and look there..." banker looked sceptically at the man before complying with his request.

Darrio silently looked at the blue sky while pessimistically wondering if enough time had passed for someone to notice something wrong or if the guard was finally done with his business and was coming to rescue him.

He was absentmindedly scouting when he saw something suddenly flash by, something that made his eyes widen in disbelief. He immediately rubbed his eyes in doubt while thinking, 'There's no way what I saw was real...'

"Did you see it?" Jon asked while looking expectantly at Darrio but the banker just shook his head speechlessly, "Oh, was it too fast?"

"I-I just saw some b-blue flash outside the window..." Darrio answered hesitatingly as he felt that his mind was just playing tricks on him before and he refused to believe that any creature could be that big.

"Let's try that again then... I'll ask my friend to slow down this time."

And this time Darrio had his eyes completely peeled open, which meant that he was able to see the horrifying huge blue eagle-like bird in full clarity as it slowed down. His face immediately paled as he saw the icy creature pass by the window. The ethereal creature had crystal-like sharp feathers, fierce yet gentle blue eyes and gleaming claws, it was something straight out of legend—a fairy tale.

"She's called Frost..." Jon said quietly to the deathly scared banker, "One of the rare legendary creatures that I mentioned... Don't you think she's quite beautiful?"

Beautiful wasn't exactly the word that Darrio had in mind while looking at that otherworldly eagle, instead all that stayed in his head were those knife-like claws that he was sure could easily twist his neck and pluck his eyes out and with the speed that he had seen he was sure that she could do much more... And to think a creature like that was under this man's control...

"And she's not the only friend I have nearby," Jon said cheerfully, breaking Darrio out of his reverie, "I've got another smaller one here who's dying to meet you," he said before turning his face towards the empty room, "Come out, Gan."

Almost immediately squeaky sounds echoed through the floor and before Darrio could recover from the shock of what he had seen out the window, he saw another "friend" of the Northerner.

A small brown mouse quickly and skillfully climbed the table and scampered across to a stop right beside Jon and started rubbing the man's clothes as if it was a pet dog or a cat, and what was even more unbelievable was that he actually saw the little thing look straight towards him with a human gleam in its eyes and wave its small claws at him as if greeting him.

"He's a very cute little critter isn't he," Jon whispered with an indulgent smile while gently rubbing his finger on the mouse's back, "He's quite intelligent, you know. The perfect little spy."

He didn't want to but Darrio had no choice but to start believing what the Northerner had been telling him from the start. He still didn't think that he was a god or anything like that but... it was getting harder and harder for him to deny that the man had magical powers probably given by those heretic Old Gods.

Still even with the little spy mouse, and massive killer eagle, there was a small bit of resistance left inside of him that told him that he could still find a way out of this situation as long as he was somehow able to get away from him for a while...

Unfortunately for him what happened next utterly destroyed his last bit of defiance...

"And last but not least, I want you to meet my newest little friend," Jon said looking up from the harmless-looking mouse that seemed to have relaxed the tense nerves in Darrio, "She's quite a unique one, as in there's not a lot of her species left in the world. At least not in any places inhabited by humans. I found her in a very remote forest in Westeros, a place where all kinds of creatures thrived without interference from humans but that's not the most unique thing about her." Jon said with a sneaky smile, "The most special thing about her is her lethality, her ability to kill. Even though she's quite small, no bigger than my finger, she has the ability to bring down any creature a hundred times bigger than her in a matter of minutes with just a small bite... Yep, you guessed it right, she's a spider."

Darrio involuntarily gulped and his eyes started frantically looking all over the room in search of the spider wondering where it would jump out from.

As he was looking around the corners of the room, he suddenly caught a mischievous smile from the corner of his eyes and when he turned towards Jon he saw him staring at his right hand which was placed on the arm-chair. And almost instantly a shiver of revulsion ran through Darrio's spine as he understood the implication of his gaze.

Just as Darrio was about to fling his arm out and hopefully dislodge wherever the abomination was hiding in his sleeves, Jon's hand clamped upon his wrist like a pair of steel forceps rendering his right hand immobile.

"Uh! Uh! Uh!" Jon shook his head while clicking his tongue, "You can't make sudden moves like that. What if you scare my friend into biting you, she's quite shy, you know." he said in a light admonishing tone before he ignored the banker and looked down, "Come out, Widow."

Almost immediately Darrio started to shiver and shake in terror as he felt something crawl up his arm. If Jon wasn't holding his arm in a vice grip the banker would have already been jumping and screaming like a little girl.

His mind was completely overwhelmed with fear as he closed his eyes and started praying with tears hoping that he didn't piss himself. It took a while, but thankfully for him the crawling finally stopped when the creature reached his wrist.

Breathing heavily, Darrio slowly opened his eyes to see a grotesque arachnid sitting on the back of his palm. Its body was a sickly combination of mottled black and deep crimson, and its dark abyss-coloured beady eyes stared unblinkingly towards him. Its long sinewy legs were covered with tiny hairs arising a deep sense of disgust and terror in him.

The spider jumped from his wrist to Jon's and almost immediately Darrio snatched his wrist from Jon's hand, cradled it in his left hand and started rubbing it fiercely, hoping to somehow get rid of the goosebumps.

"Ah! Are you perhaps afraid that she bit you," Jon asked with an innocent tilt of his head, "You don't need to worry, because she won't do something like that unless I ask—Eh? What? What are you saying?" Jon suddenly stopped mid-sentence and looked down towards the spider with a shocked expression on his face, "But why would you—Oh! Are you saying that he shook too much and you accidentally bit him... That makes sense," he said with an understanding expression towards the arachnid.

"W-What?" Darrio suddenly interrupted with a hysterical look in his eyes, hi stomach dropped at hearing the words "accident" and "bit", "What is spider talking about!!"

"Well... It seems there's been an accident," Jon said with a sheepish expression on his face, "My little friend here got scared when you shook too much a few minutes ago and unintentionally bit you...But don't blame her too much you know, she's still a bit young—"

"DON'T BLAME HER!!! Are you out of... you..r...mi..nd..." Darrio's outburst was cut short as his tongue suddenly started going numb and before he could make sense of things his other bodily organs followed soon after.

His arms and legs got locked, his neck went stiff and he started shaking as if he was experiencing seizures. His face started going purple as almost everything in his body stopped responding to his brain's command. His senses started to dull and everything seemed foggy as if he was looking out of a thin screen of water. His veins were burning with fire as if a swarm of ants were moving inside him.

"Oh, my...It seems the poison's already started to affect you," Jon said with a troubled expression that didn't seem too sincere to the banker, "It's so sad... You didn't even get a chance to say if you agreed to my proposal..."

"S..av..e...me...pl..ea..se..."

"What? Are you asking me to save you," Jon asked with a tilt of his head, "I mean, I guess I could... I do always keep an antidote in here," he said while pulling out a small vial from the same bag he got the knife out of, "But this thing is quite expensive, you know and I only got this single vial with me. So it would be such a waste... of course, if you had agreed to be my subordinate I would have used it unhesitatingly... But—"

"I...ag..r..ee...so...pl..ea..se...I...be..g y..ou..."

"What? What did you say? Hey...I...didn't...hear...you..." Darrio's hearing suddenly turned down and warbly and his mind slowly started going numb as his consciousness started to sink.

He regretted ever getting involved with this northerner... it was such an absurd way to die... he wanted to live more than anything... and if he was just given one more chance, he would do anything... he wanted to live even if it was as someone's puppet.

...

The first thing he felt when he regained consciousness was pain... his neck and his back were stiff and hurting something fierce. His eyes gradually opened to find that he was still sitting in the chair in his office and for a moment he was ecstatic to find that there was no one sitting at the table in front of him, but before he could fantasize that everything had just been a dream, he heard the most dreaded voice again...

"Oh! You're finally awake... I was almost bored to death waiting for you," Jon had vacated his seat on the table and was sitting in the chair on the other side with his legs placed on the desk and was leisurely going through the last of the fruits in the fruit basket.

The position of the sun outside the window showed that not more than an hour had passed for Darrio... but that hour had been the most agonising of his entire life and he never wanted to go through something like that again.

"Well now that you've finally back to living, can we get back to the topic at hand... because I don't have much time now," Jon said while taking his legs off the table and sitting properly to face Darrio, "I don't know if you remember but just before you went to sleep you finally agreed to accept my proposal..." he stopped before he suddenly looked at the banker with a playful smile and asked, "You're not going to take it back, are you?"

Darrio looked down with a struggling expression on his face while Jon continued, "I mean not like you have many other options. I guess you could try snitching on me the moment I am out of here but then you could never be fully sure that I am not spying on you using any nearby rat, cat or dog, and you know what'll happen to you the moment I find out..." Jon said in a completely tranquil tone, "So unless you plan to spend the rest of your life in a completely isolated room with no windows and no holes from which any creatures enter—Ah! you would also have to abstain from eating and drinking because I am sure you know that since I can control all kinds of animals, it's not very hard for me to get my friends to slip something uncomfortable into your food without your knowledge—"

Darrio immediately shivered and quickly shook his head, "No! No, please... I am never going to tell anyone anything. I'll do everything you say... so please don't..."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes!"

"That's perfect then," Jon exclaimed in a cheerful tone while getting up from his chair, "I am so glad that we could come to an agreement... I knew that I would be able to persuade you," he said with a cheeky smile while moving towards the door, "Now, I need to go but don't worry you'll soon get my letter with your first instructions, so be sure to do a good job."

"Y-Yes, I will."

"Have a good day then,"

Darrio's body turned into jelly the moment the door closed, his eyes and pants started leaking simultaneously as his taut nerves relaxed. The banker had never imagined that what was supposed to be the best day of his life would end like this...

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