Chapter 397: Margaery’s Reminder

Watching Lynd ride that strange four-winged dragon as it soared from the Dragonpit platform toward Summerhall, the officials and nobles who had just left the council chamber of the Red Keep couldn't help but reveal expressions of envy and longing.

"If only one day I could..." someone began to fantasize.

Another quickly cut him off, saying, "Stop dreaming. It's impossible."

The man protested indignantly, "Why not? My ancestors once married into House Velaryon. I have Valyrian blood in my veins too!"

Someone immediately laughed and said, "If that's your claim, then the prostitutes in Lys are more qualified to ride dragons than you are—their Valyrian blood is far purer than yours."

"Enough, all of you! Stop asking for trouble," Garlan scolded as the conversation grew more outrageous. He then turned his gaze toward Balin, who seemed to sense the look and met it with a strained smile.

Before working with Balin in King's Landing, Garlan had encountered him several times. In his memory, Balin had seemed like a mercenary or a knight—never someone involved in intelligence work, certainly nothing like Varys, who carried that distinct aura of secrecy.

But now Balin felt like a completely different person. There was something unsettling about him. It was as if he gave off no sign of life at all. Even standing close by, if one didn't look at him, it was almost impossible to sense his presence.

It made Balin terrifying. Spending too much time near him left one feeling as though invisible eyes were constantly watching from behind.

Garlan had learned from Margaery that Balin had once made a mistake and been punished by Lynd, sent to undergo the trials of the Redemption Sept. After completing the trials, Balin had become what he was now.

This left Garlan deeply curious about the Redemption Sept. What kind of trials could transform a person so completely, not just Balin, but also Cersei? Unfortunately, the Redemption Sept was shrouded in secrecy and heavily guarded, making its inner workings completely inaccessible. Margaery might know something, but she refused to say anything and warned him not to pry.

Just as Garlan was lost in thought, Prince Oberyn, the Red Viper, was leading his retinue out of the Red Keep toward the construction site of the Great Library. It looked like he was heading there to inspect the progress, probably to avoid another situation like the earlier council meeting where he had been unable to answer the king's questions, an embarrassment he clearly wished to avoid.

Garlan noticed the Red Viper leaving. After thinking for a moment, he gestured to his colleagues to go ahead to the official residence without him, then quickly caught up to Oberyn.

"Lord Oberyn, please wait a moment!" Garlan called out loudly from behind.

The Red Viper hesitated briefly, then stopped and turned to look at Garlan thoughtfully before smiling and saying, "Lord Garlan, you must be here about the imperial system discussed at the meeting, right?"

Seeing the Red Viper's directness, Garlan hesitated for a second before nodding and saying, "Your conversation with His Grace left much to ponder. It's clear your full support for the king's plan to reduce the lords' powers stems from information from the Kingdom of Lorne. Might Your Highness be willing to enlighten me? What sort of news could have led you and Prince Doran to make such an unusual decision?"

"Haha!" Oberyn laughed, staring at Garlan. "Honestly, when you questioned His Grace just now, I found it very strange. Logically speaking, House Tyrell should be the last to challenge the king's decisions. You should be the most willing to cooperate with his plans. I didn't expect you to know nothing."

"What do you mean by that?" Garlan asked, frowning in confusion.

"I mean you have great resources, but you don't know how to use them," the Red Viper said, shaking his head slightly. "Your Margaery has earned His Grace's deep trust. She's been appointed Speaker of the Kingdom, holding immense authority. I imagine she knows far more than I do. You'd better ask your little rose for answers!"

With that, Oberyn turned away and continued leading his men toward the construction site, clearly unwilling to say more.

Garlan stood there for a moment, realizing he had been looking too far afield. As the Red Viper had said, Margaery was indeed their best source of information.

Yet, ever since Lynd had become king and established the Tarren Dynasty, Garlan had deliberately avoided Margaery to avoid giving the impression that House Tyrell was trying to monopolize power in the new regime. Now, thinking back, it seemed he had been too cautious. Not only had he failed to avoid suspicion, but he had also cut himself off from their best flow of information, leaving him completely unprepared in the crucial meeting earlier.

Thinking of this, Garlan immediately turned and headed back to the Red Keep. At this moment, Margaery should be in the Queen's Hall at Maegor's Holdfast, holding a council meeting to finalize various plans and proposals.

Originally, as Speaker of the Realm, Margaery should have attended the meeting Lynd had hastily convened earlier. However, the council was then engaged in a closed-door discussion about an important grain procurement plan, so she hadn't been disturbed. Judging by the time, that meeting should have concluded by now, and they would be moving on to the customary vote to decide whether the plan would pass or need amendments.

When Garlan reached the door of the Queen's Hall, he coincidentally heard a burst of applause from inside—clearly, the grain procurement plan had passed successfully.

Moments later, the doors swung open, and the members of the council filed out. Upon seeing Garlan, they each bowed politely to him.

Once most of the crowd had dispersed, Garlan entered the hall and saw Margaery sitting at the Speaker's seat, carefully signing the minutes of the meeting and the finalized plan before handing the documents to her attendant for archiving.

Watching Margaery so diligently at work, Garlan couldn't help but feel a pang of emotion. His little sister had grown up without him even realizing it.

"Garlan, what brings you here? Aren't you supposed to be avoiding suspicion these days?" Margaery said as she looked up from her papers, her tone carrying a slight chill and a hint of resentment.

Garlan approached with a smile and explained, "You should know that our house is now one of the foremost families in the Tarren Dynasty. If we don't know how to keep a low profile, our strength won't last."

"Fine, I can't argue with you," Margaery said dismissively, waving her hand. "But I doubt you came all this way just to lecture me. Speak—what trouble are you in now?"

Looking at Margaery as she was now, Garlan couldn't help but let out a wry smile. He found himself missing the sweet and obedient little sister of years past.

"I really do have a problem, and you might be the only one who can help me." Garlan proceeded to recount everything that had happened during the earlier council meeting.

"His Grace is back?" Margaery interrupted immediately upon hearing that Lynd had returned. She turned to a nearby clerk and asked sharply, "Why wasn't I informed?"

The clerk quickly replied, "Your Grace knew you were presiding over an important meeting and didn't want to disturb you."

"Where is His Majesty now?" Margaery asked again.

"He left just recently—he should be on his way back to Summerhall," the clerk answered.

Margaery pursed her lips in displeasure, then turned her attention back to Garlan, saying, "Go on, brother."

Garlan resumed his detailed account of the council meeting. When he mentioned that he had, on behalf of the other lords, asked Lynd whether the future imperial system of the Tarren Empire would be built on the model of Summerhall, Margaery, who had been reclining casually, suddenly sat up straight, her expression growing serious.

When Garlan further described how the Red Viper had surprisingly voiced his full support for implementing the Summerhall model—and even pledged to cooperate with reforms that would curtail the lords' powers—Margaery abruptly stood up and asked anxiously, "Didn't you read the letter I sent you two days ago?"

Garlan blinked, then admitted, "I haven't been home these past few days. I was supervising the circuit courts. Your letter must be in my study."

Margaery pressed a hand to her forehead, visibly frustrated. "Damn it! How could it be that you missed that letter of all things?"

"Was it that important?" Garlan asked, confused. "What exactly did you write?"

Instead of answering right away, Margaery stood, handed the rest of her paperwork to her attendant with instructions to organize it and bring it back for her signature, and then gestured for Garlan to follow her.

They left the Queen's Hall together, passed through the corridors and courtyards, and made their way to the Maidenvault behind the Red Keep's small sept.

The Maidenvault had once been where King Baelor I imprisoned his sisters, but Margaery had since transformed it into her own residence. Due to the confidential documents kept there, Lynd had assigned Silent Brothers and sisters of the Redemption Sept to guard the place.

After entering the Maidenvault, Margaery asked Garlan to wait in the sitting room. She then went upstairs, searched for a moment, and came back down holding a letter. Handing it to Garlan, she said, "This is a letter His Majesty the King wrote to me after returning to The Wall from the Land of Always Winter beyond the Wall. The news Prince Oberyn received from the Kingdom of Lorne should come from this letter as well. His Majesty didn't know that Queen Nymeria had already captured Braavos; he thought she was still in Ny Sar, so he sent the letter back to Ny Sar, where Ellaria Sand, who was left behind, read it. Since Ellaria is the Red Viper's paramour, she naturally informed him."

Listening to Margaery's explanation, Garlan took the letter and carefully read through it. As he read, his expression grew increasingly grim and unsettled. After finishing, he sat there in a daze for a long while before asking Margaery for confirmation, "Is everything written here true? That the Long Night is coming, that the Long Winter will descend, and that the entire continent of Westeros will turn as frozen as beyond the Wall?"

Margaery shook her head and said quietly, "I don't know if it's true or not, but I do know that His Majesty Lynd is treating this matter with utmost seriousness. Today's council proposals were drafted according to His Majesty's directives. There are more than a dozen similar proposals to follow. The plans for the kingdom—no, the empire—for the next few years are all tied to these proposals. I imagine it's not just the Seven Kingdoms; the Kingdom of Lorne, the Free Cities, and Qarth across Essos will also be implementing similar plans."

Though Garlan desperately wished the contents of the letter were false, when he thought about the current policies and plans of the kingdom, and recalled the Red Viper's attitude, he realized the legendary extreme climate of the Long Night and the Long Winter could very well be approaching, just as the letter had warned.

If the extreme climate of the Land of Always Winter engulfed Westeros, even the most fertile lands would no longer yield crops. Food would become the most critical issue, followed by the basic problem of survival under such brutal conditions.

Although wildling tribes survived beyond the Wall, and at a glance it seemed manageable, in reality, they had endured and adapted to the freezing climate over thousands of years. Aside from the North, where the people had some tolerance for cold, the rest of Westeros's inhabitants would be completely unprepared. When the time came, it wouldn't just be commoners; even the nobility would fall sick and die in droves from the cold, and their lands would inevitably be abandoned.

Thus, the things the lords of the Seven Kingdoms currently held dear would become utterly worthless. Whether they liked it or not, once the extreme cold arrived, vast swaths of territory would be vacated, and the empire would inevitably shift to a Summerhall-style system.

Garlan remained silent for a long while before asking, "Does His Majesty have any response planned?"

Margaery sighed, shaking her head slightly, and said, "The solution has always been right in front of you. Didn't you see it?"

Garlan hesitated for a moment before realizing what she meant. He asked for confirmation, "You mean the continent of Sothoryos?"

"Yes," Margaery nodded.

Lynd's formation of an expeditionary force, the construction of a naval base on distant Great Mokk Island, the stationing of forces in the mysterious Asshai—all these policies and moves, which had once seemed strange to others, were, in truth, preparations to develop the wild lands of Sothoryos.

For the nobles of King's Landing, Lynd's actions had seemed baffling. Spending vast sums of gold, manpower, and resources to develop Sothoryos and establish settlements on such a primitive land appeared to be a costly and pointless endeavor. Many believed it was Lynd's humble origins influencing his policies, thinking he had an obsessive thirst for land and expansion, which had driven him to push outward ever since his time at Summerhall, and now, even to Sothoryos.

Garlan himself had once agreed with that view. But now he realized he had been terribly mistaken. Lynd's push into Sothoryos was not driven by a desire to hoard territory—it was a contingency plan for migrating all the people of Westeros there when the Long Night came.

With that in mind, many of Lynd's seemingly irrational policies now made perfect sense.

After thinking it over, Garlan asked, "Should I now support His Majesty's imperial system, like Prince Oberyn did?"

"You'd better write to Highgarden and consult Father and Grandmother first," Margaery advised. "After all, you're not the Lord of Highgarden yet. You're just the heir. You don't have the authority to make such an important decision on your own."

Garlan didn't take offense at Margaery's bluntness. Instead, he nodded seriously and accepted her advice.