Chapter 31: The lines are drawn

113 AC

Small Council Chambers

Red Keep, King's Landing

I am starting to get sick of all the wedding talk and its preparations. The Small Council should have more important things to worry about rather than plan my marriage that happens to be with the heiress of the Seven Kingdoms. For my first marriage, I threw everything related to my wedding on Aemma's lap to deal with but I would be a fool to do the same thing with Alicent.

Already making things hard to swallow this wedding of mine has started to look like the Purple Wedding, held on the first day of the year 114 AC, with seventy-seven fucking courses. I will be dammed if I die like that brat Joffrey, just need to be careful of my wine. Fortunately, there will not be an awkward wedding breakfast for this is not a wedding conducted in the fashion of the Reach as was done for Viserys' second wedding but rather one done in the fashion of the Riverlands. And Riverland weddings include having the marriage ceremony conducted at dusk with an all-night-long feast. Just like the Red Wedding, how fun is that?

Though it is worth noting that, in addition to the ceremony in the Grand Sept Rhaenyra and I will have a Valyrian ceremony in Dragonstone on the same day that we settle in the island as is the tradition when Targaryens intermarry, a marriage ceremony done in Sept and another done in the smoking vents of the Dragonmount. As I married Dacey, we did not have the Valyrian wedding and the same goes for Daemon with Rhea while Viserys had a Valyrian wedding with Aemma as she was half Targaryen.

"Your Grace, there are a few important matters regarding affairs of state that are not related to the wedding that must be discussed as well," Lyonel says which happens to wake me right before I doze off.

"Yes. please, do share," I quickly spoke up before Viserys could waive off this talk. Viserys looked mildly annoyed as he had no intention of dealing with statecraft but he relented.

Lyonel nods as he begins to speak "War between the Free Cities of Braavos and Pentos seems imminent, I do not doubt that within a few weeks, we will receive heralds announcing the start of open conflict between them." To the best of my knowledge, clashes between the sellsword companies on either side had already begun whilst citizen armies and fleets of both cities had begun mobilizing.

Tyland then says, "This war means that our shipping lanes and merchant transports will be under attack from both sides, we must ensure that both parties respect our neutrality, emissaries must be sent to both the Prince of Pentos and the Sealord while it must be made mandatory that all ships fly the Targaryen banner or the banner of any other the Great Houses to ensure that there are no unfortunate mistakes."

"Unfortunate mistakes will occur regardless, privateers care not about such things but, yes we must try to enforce our neutrality." Lyman Beesbury responded shaking his head, he remembers that mess we had with the Triarchy and now it is our erstwhile allies.

"A war between Braavos and Pentos will involve more than just the two cities, Myr will join the Braavos while Tyrosh will join the Pentos, and who knows what the Volantenes and the Lyseni will do, thereby dragging six of the Free cities into this war, and it won't be a surprise if Lorath joins this fight for the Braavosi," Grand Maester Mellos responds sagely.

Jason Wylde nods "The Myrish are nothing but Braavosi puppets but I doubt they are ready for war, the Prince of Tyrosh will use this war to increase his holdings yet again, the downfall of the Rogares allowed him to seize even more of Lyseni holdings in the Disputed lands and now he will push forward to an unready Myr."

"The cost of occupying Myr is getting too expensive for the Braavosi to simply underwrite, there is a decline in support of the occupation amongst the keyholders of the Iron Bank, I believe that the Braavosi might withdraw from Myr if the cost of defending it is too high for them," Lyonel informs us.

Looks like the imperialists are losing to the populists, with the death of the more expansion-minded Sealord and his replacement being a relative isolationist, Braavos is looking at ways to withdraw from Myr but they will do so only after their interests are secured.

"Yes, but what does this have to do with us, I have no intention of getting involved in this fight, we must leave the Essosi to their wars," Viserys answers exasperatedly.

It is a little quiet for a few seconds before Mellos answers, "Your Grace, this war could be damaging to Westerosi trade and it could spill over, it would be prudent to intervene, not militarily but rather diplomatically, it has happened before, your grandsire did help establish a peace treaty with Pentos and Tyrosh."

Viserys ruefully shakes his head, "My grandsire had a talent for conciliating after all, it was in his name but despite my best efforts, I am afraid I am not his equal and if I try to intervene in any way then it might make things worse, you of all people, Mellos, ought to know that."

"Prince Aegon, what do you have to say about this war?" Lyman then asks looking at me and everybody turns their head toward me, I was the one who started his conversation after all to escape the wedding talk.

I poured myself a cup of hot spiced wine from the jug on the table and I took a sip, savoring the taste before I said, "It is a fool hope to think that we can remain neutral in this war, Daemon controls the Stepstones and the Narrow Sea which inherently means that we will be dragged into it whether we like it or not."

Jason then quipped, "With Prince Daemon in the Stepstones it is only a matter of time before he drags us into the war."

"There is a good chance that both the Braavosi and Pentoshi might try to commit acts of violence on Westerosi soil and frame the other to try and get us on their side," Lyonel warns Viserys who sighs tiredly yet again.

"It won't be them but rather the Lyseni," I offhandedly remark as I drink more of the wine while grabbing a couple of grapes, and upon hearing that everyone turns to me yet again.

Viserys knows what I meant as I told him the day before but the others don't so I inform them, "A couple of days ago, I was approached by a couple of Lyseni representatives of the Haen, Pendaerys, Dagareon, and Orthys families, asking me to intervene in the ongoing power struggle in Lys, they fear that with the coming war, Tyrosh and Volantis will tear Lys apart."

"And will you intervene, Prince Aegon?" Tyland cautiously asks me.

"Truth be told, I don't know, they did offer a very good price for my efforts, and I told them that I would think about it, a blunt refusal would make people think that I had taken leave of my senses."

"And what exactly is this 'very good price'?" Lyman curiously asks as he leans forward and so does Tyland.

I stayed quiet for a few long seconds before saying, "A thousand talents of gold with three hundred and sixty thousand pounds of silver to be paid over five years." There is pin-drop silence in the room as people hear the number.

For a few minutes, as everyone got the number through their heads, I got up and walked over to the antechamber where a chamber pot was present, there is indoor plumbing in Westeros, and more common in Essos but it is simply too much work and expensive to put in already existing castles. Dragonhall has a rather rudimentary plumbing system better than other but much less than what I want it to be.

Once I came back from my little break, I could see gears turning inside everyone's mind as I sat down Tyland spoke. "I am certain that by the time of the wedding, I can have the fleet mobilized and supplement them with merchant cogs that can be requisitioned," Tyland said rubbing his hands, he was a Lannister and even he found this amount to be exorbitant.

Jason then said his piece, "We can marshal a sizeable army, it will be good enough for a peacekeeping mission, and with Prince Aegon and his dragon we can take care of Tyroshi or Volantene attacks, and with all the Lords and knights of the Realm arriving we might have a lot of volunteers, many young knights did not get to fight in the Stepstones, they might come for this."

Lyman looks rather giddy "It will take some time for me to calculate how much of that can be converted into gold dragons and silver stags but I am certain it will cover the cost of this wedding thrice over at the very least."

"This might also cause the value of gold and silver to drop, I suggest we mint the coins sparingly, and rather than keep them as reserves, we should keep that money in the Bank of King's Landing, it can lend out to merchants and others and it will increase the trust in the bank and be a safety net of sorts," Mellos advised the council.

Before anybody else could say anything Viserys who was looking at the whole thing in shock finally exclaimed. "Are you all out of your minds, the second you heard the amount you jumped straight to minting the coins instead of even thinking about whether we should intervene or not much less on how we should intervene!!"

"Apologies, Your Grace, we may have gotten carried away." Tyland as he bows his head but not in shame.

Lyonel then speaks "The question remains, should we intervene or not, and if we do, what exactly do we do? This isn't some town or village where we enforce the king's peace, even if we were to occupy the city and keep the peace, what shall we do of the slaves?"

"I believe that Prince Aegon need occupy the city until the conclave of magisters come together and elect the First Magister, Prince Aegon has to ensure that no murders take place all the while giving the city of Lys protection, and once that is done, take the money and leave, shouldn't be that hard," Jason says after a while.

"And what if someone tries to murder him?" Viserys asked with frustration evident on his face and tone.

That is when I spoke "I don't think that anyone will be foolish enough to try something like that, but for safety's sake, I suggest we take hostages from all the noble families of Lys for the duration of the occupation to ensure their cooperation and warn them that should anything happen to me or any other Westerosi noble, we will wipe out all families root and stem regardless of their involvement or not."

I see a few approving nods from the table before I continue, "But we shouldn't get carried away, I suggest we wait a month after the wedding, if there is no change in the situation of Lys or if we see either Tyrosh or Volantis gaining too much power for our comfort, we shall intervene." And a month of sex is more than enough to get Rhaenyra pregnant before I leave for yet another expedition to Essos, hopefully, this won't end that badly.

"And the slaves? What shall we do about them?" Mellos asked, "No self-respecting son of Westeros can stand slavery, what shall we do with the slaves?"

Lyonel answers "We can emancipate the slaves but once we leave I do not doubt that the Masters will enslave them yet again, so it seems to be a rather futile effort."

That is when I reply, "I can change the constitution of Lys to include emancipation and force every family to ratify it if they want to stand for elections, give the former slaves the right to vote as other freemen have, give them land to farm on the mainland or give them wealth to start their businesses, and put a clause in the constitution that states that if slavery is brought back, it will result in military action by Westeros with a much more violent result."

Lyonel points out "Not all freemen of Lys have the right to vote for public office much less stand in the election as contestants, there are certain property requirements and only magisters can elect the First Magister and there is the part where the nobles might uphold slavery through indentured labor."

"Is there anything more we can do about that? Changing the constitution, forcing the noble families to release all their slaves, what more can be done by us? The former slaves must ensure that they do not lose their freedoms." Jason replies to Lyonel with a shrug.

Lyman turned to Tyland and asked "Is there any particular chance we can ferry the former slaves and bring them to Westeros? The Lyseni artisans and craftsman will find no shortage of work."

But Tyland shakes his head "Have you forgotten what happened when the Rogares fell, riots nearly broke out in King's Landing and Fairmarket, if it hadn't been for the City Watch being ready for such a possibility, the people of Westeros will not accept to have more Essosi come and take their jobs."

I agreed, "That is true, there is a sizeable Essosi population in Fairmarket, a little less than ten thousand, tensions were high after the Rogare fall, I have kept the peace through sheer force of will, and things are peaceful for now and discontent is down, if we bring in foreigners it will ruin all our efforts."

I seized all the Rogare assets in Westeros before they could be destroyed in riots by revenge mobs. Lysandro and Drazenko were good acquaintances of mine, of all the children that Lysandro had in the OTL, only Larra hadn't yet been born, as well as half of the remaining illegitimate children, in OTL, Lysaro was scourged to death but this time considering his relative youth of nineteen years he was spared though their assets were severely reduced, with nearly three-fourths of their assets seized, be they warehouses or ships, a bank run hadn't yet occurred which could have easily collapsed their bank.

I sold all the Rogare properties in Westeros to the native merchants and I gave nine-tenths of the proceedings to the Rogares, Lysaro, a boy who hopefully won't become a spendthrift wastrel who embezzled his way to death. Giving them the money was a good idea, it helped increase my reputation as that of an honorable man who was hard but just, (read Eddard Stark) and turned my reputation away from being Daemon-with-brains.

I continued, "However, we can settle the former slaves in the Stepstones and Dragonstone, but we can look further into that when we get there."

Viserys got up, "That is enough talk about Essos for now, we will cross that bridge when we come to it." He looked out of the window, "It is already eventide, I believe that it is time we retired for the night, for tomorrow is an important day, I will be holding court and I want every one of import present."

Viserys has been talking about holding an important ceremony and presentation in court for the past few weeks now and nobody quite knows what he has in mind. Alicent and Rhaenyra wanted to be in charge of organizing said ceremony but Viserys gave the job to the man whose job was to organize events in the Red Keep, the High Steward of the Red Keep, Gareth Hayford.

(Next Day)

Great Hall, Red Keep

The Blacks and the Blues stood on the left side of the Iron Throne with Rhaenyra and me while the Greens stood on the Right side with Alicent, with a long red carpet stretching from the throne to the great oak-and-bronze doors of the Great Hall more than five hundred courtiers filling the Great Hall, this was going to be something special, I could feel it, I didn't know what it was but I could feel it.

Both my sons were present, they both wore matching sets of deep blue doublets studded with a double row of silver dragon heads, with blue wool and black leather boots, while I wore a black silk tunic with an asymmetric cut to the tunic, a high collar, and an armless outer coat with peaked shoulder cuffs, worn over a longer undercoat with close-fitting sleeves, what I wore was the formal Targaryen men's wear with Dragonclaw on my hip.

I looked over to Rhaenyra who standing by my side, she was wearing a form-fitting gown of black velvet with sleeves of red satin with golden embroidery, her bodice was studded with pearls and diamonds and she wore a jeweled tiara decorated in rubies, a necklace of diamonds and amethysts, and rings with diamonds and emeralds, her overall outfit was worth more than the income of many Lords. While Alicent wore a jade green silk gown with sleeves of silver Myrish lace while her children wore the black and red of House Targaryen with little green highlights.

Speaking of said Lords, I looked over the room, the lines between the factions were starting to harden. On my side were Lyonel Strong, Lyman Beesbury, Donald Tarly, Barthimos Celtigar, Simon Staunton, Walys Mooton, Derrick Darry, Gunthor Darklyn, Allun Caswell, Stokeworth, Rosby, Buckler, Massey, Rowan, Blackwood, Mallister, Fell, one of the Vances, Frey, Roote, Redfort, Mullendore, Costayne, Manderly, and Grafton. It was telling when three of Hightower's vassals were on the other side.

On the side of the Greens, were the Hightower cousins from Oldtown, Jon Roxton, Unwin Peake, Grover Tully, Larys Strong, Jason Wylde, Humfrey Bracken, Redwyne, Piper, the other Vance, Merryweather, Ashford, Cuy, Florent, Fossoway, Norcross, Ambrose, Graceford, Rodden, Lefford, Reyne, Crakehall, Tarbeck, Swann, Connington, and Tarth.

Tyland Lannister was supposed to be a Green and he did stand on their side but he and the other Westerlanders didn't wear green and they stood on the corner, they wore their house colors, Tyland is a master politician, and he was going to hedge his bets until he got the better deal for House Lannister, might be worth reaching out to him, while Jason did not have the near tyrannical control over the West as how Tywin did, he was more than influential enough to tide over any challenges to his authority and the West would follow Jason and Jason will follow whomever Tyland sides with.

Rhaenyra leaned toward me and whispered, "Do you know what this is about?"

I whispered back, "If I knew then I would have told you." I have been spending more time with Rhaenyra as of late, flying, hawking, and teaching her how to play the Game of Thrones, she was alone in the Red Keep for the past eight years with only Viserys' grace helping her, if it weren't for the sycophants and opportunistic lords slighted and jealous of House Hightower, she would have been well and truly alone. It took some time before I impressed upon her the need to be loved, respected, and feared, instead of feared and hated as how Daemon taught her. She did spend more time with the boys and I could only hope that their relationship wouldn't sour.

Then Viserys arrived with all seven of his Kingsguard causing all talk to stop and everyone turned to look, Viserys in full regalia walked into the throne room with Blackfyre in his hands and then Ser Arryk/ Erryk announced, "King Viserys of House Targaryen, the First of his name, King of the Andals, and the Rhoynar, and the First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and the Protector of the Realm."

Everyone looked quietly, as Viserys walked he gave Rhaenyra and me a sidelong look before turning away, when Viserys reached the steps of the Iron Throne, instead of climbing the stairs he turned around and stood at the feet of the Iron Throne before loudly announcing.

"MY LORDS, LADIES, SERS, AND MY DEAR FAMILY, I HAVE CALLED YOU ALL HERE TODAY ON THIS AUSPICIOUS MORN, TO PUT AN END TO ALL TALK OF THE SUCCESSION, MANY SEEK TO CONVINCE ME TO CHANGE THE LINE OF SUCCESSION BUT I TELL YOU ALL THIS, IT WILL BE A COLD DAY IN HELL BEFORE I EVEN THINK ABOUT CHANGING THE SUCCESSION."

There was stunned silence in the Great Hall when I asked Viserys to reconfirm Rhaenyra's position as heir, this isn't what I had in mind, I figured he would have made all the Lords reconfirm their oaths during the wedding, Rhaenyra sported a wide beaming smile while Alicent looked like she had sucked on multiple lemons all at once, I wished to look at the other reactions but it felt wrong to divert my attention from Viserys.

Then Viserys called me, "Prince Aegon, Lord of Fairmarket, come forward."

I walked out to the dividing carpet and walked up to the bottom of the steps where Viserys was standing with the Kingsguard with more than a thousand eyes on me watching me with bated breath, "Kneel Prince Aegon."

I knelt as commanded before Viserys drew Blackfyre out of his scabbard, and I began to realize what his intentions were as did some of the people in the crowd if the murmuring was any indication.

He laid Blackfyre upon my shoulders as if he were knighting me, "Do you, Aegon, promise to be faithful to my heir Rhaenyra and to protect her and fight for her."

I nodded, "I do." I could feel that the edge of Blackfyre was cutting through my clothes and reaching the flesh.

Viserys turned Blackfyre to the next shoulder, "Do you swear to fight for Rhaenyra's claim and defend her with your life if needs to be."

"I do," I answered as the sting of the Blackfyre was now felt on both my shoulders, even my knighting ceremony didn't have this sting though Daemon did use Dark Sister.

"Then rise, Prince Aegon," Viserys said as he finally removed Blackfyre, as I got up he held out the blade by the handle to me.

"Behold, Blackfyre, the sword of the Conqueror, the sword of kings, I bestow it upon you, Prince Aegon, that you may wield it in the service of your future Queen."