Chapter 189: Arthur 1 295 AC
Thunder clashed beyond the walls of my laboratory as I put the finishing touches on the last of the Bronze plates, tracing my own lightning-wrapped finger down its length, subtly melting the bronze in a way that was at once difficult to explain, and innately easy.
Well, it hadn't started as being innately easy, especially figuring it out, but after I had done about two hundred of them my fingers started tracing the markings I wanted in my sleep, and now, of course, I would just have to move onto the next part of the project.
God, I was tired.
Sighing, I lifted the lid on the Stormwater bath beside me, the blinding white light it projected quickly darkening as I dropped the brass plate into it, and the markings along its surface began to absorb the power in the liquid.
Some of the acolytes could replicate the markings, but thus far I was the only one able to make the Wildlightning concoction. So the process was unfortunately limited.
That lack of production speed was why l so many of my projects had thus far failed to get off the ground, in most cases figuratively.
I glanced up at the hourglass I had set up in the corner.
'Damn…'
It was approaching morning, I had intended to finish by midnight. That meant I would have to rush a bit before I left.
"I knew you'd be in here." A chiding voice sounded out from behind me. "Couldn't even come to join me for breakfast before we left for Kings Landing without me coming to drag you over by the ear?"
I smiled as I stood up to greet my fiance, suddenly not nearly as tired as I was the moment before. I reached over and pulled her into a hug that crackled with electricity. "Hey there sunshine, slept well I hope?"
"More than you did you big oaf." She smiled. "Look at you, bags under your eyes. It's ruining that handsome face."
"Hardly handsome." I chuckled, letting go of her back, though she did not release me. "Not to anyone except you at least."
"Good." Ariane put on that saucy smirk and my heart wanted to melt. "Less competition that way."
"Oh?" I stepped past her. "Stealing my lines now are we?"
"You were worried about more competition, not less of it." Ariane raised a finger. "Despite every inclination, magical and physical, to the contrary.
"And that's because you're the most beautiful girl in the seven kingdoms." I shook my head. "Magics nice and all, but I still have to worry when I leave the gold candlesticks out in the front hallway."
"The complements were cuter when you were shorter than me."
"Oh sure." I laughed. "But you've only gotten more beautiful."
She paused, turning around, before a small pout came to her lips, "all right mister, you've won this one, but don't think I won't get mine eventually. I've got a long memory."
"Sure, sure." I smiled. "So what were you thinking for breakfast."
"Anything but fish, we're going to be on a boat soon." She giggled, and despite the fact that she was older than me I had to reach down and pat her head.
"Alright, as you like it, Princess." I reached down and picked her up, something that she was at this point not even surprised by. That was natural, given how much I did it once I figured out I could. "Let's go wake the chefs up."
"Aye." She smiled, turning towards me and winking. "Lets."
Breakfast was of course, delicious. Far removed from the tavern Faire that I had been limited to in the early days of my rule over the islands. Now that Storm-Peak palace was well underway, I could house a full staff, including several capable chefs, and flank bacon was about the best damn thing you could have for breakfast as far as I was concerned.
It had taken a while getting used to having Arianne around. When I had first gotten to Dorne with the marriage contract all signed, she had all but thrown herself at me, and I had gotten to find out in painful detail just how harsh the effects of our pact had been on her in my absence.
Prince Doran had given me some very hard looks, and frankly, I didn't blame him. Even now I had a certain feeling in my gut when I thought about it. She was a wonderful fiance, and soon to be a wonderful wife, but she had been nearly despondent without me, and it worried me that we might never be able to leave each-others side again.
Yeah sure, that sounded romantic, and to be honest, it was, but pragmatically? It made going to war a very difficult proposition for me.
And I would need to go to war eventually, more so than just sending my armies out.
That contradiction sat on my mind like a sack of boulders, but like most contradictions, I would just have to ignore it until decision-time came.
For now, at least I was just content to eat and listen to Arianne talk about the preparations her mother was making her do, and how much she was looking forward to the entire event. Norvasc wedding preparations were apparently extremely intricate, and while my soon-to-be mother in law was offended at much of the West erosion wedding practices we would no doubt undergo, particularly the bedding, which she claimed horrified her, she was still going to harass her daughter into doing some of the Norvasc spiritual preparation.
Personally I was of two minds on the bedding. On the one hand, to modern sensibilities, it seemed pretty strange, but on the other, it wasn't as if literally the entire population of Westeros and even much of the stepstones had undergone it. Hell, I'd even been part of more than one as my governors took their wives, though I still had decorum enough to abstain from the bawdy jokes.
It was one thing to bitch about it when it wasn't part of your culture, but to be honest, I was a creature of Westeros now, and I wasn't going to raise a stink when my Uncle was the one hosting my wedding.
Frankly, as in so many of the things she tried to push, my mother in law could get stuffed. She had a seat on the general council and a load of local representatives behind her, but I was the Prince and chief executive of the realm. She could go boss her own people's weddings around if she wanted to, but not my wife and I.
My own preparations for the marriage were largely more military and economic in nature. Not only had the maiden fleet been called back, those vessels still in sailing condition, but five of my proud new line of Heavy Frigates stood at attention in my harbor, each was larger and more powerful than the Sword of Baratheon, and each had a copper-plated hull. They were the pride and joy of my new model fleet, which was mostly occupied in the basilisk isles at present.
That along with a large company of marines, two of the three Dragonstone Brass Bands, and enormous numbers of other retainers, shipwrights, chefs, and other staff, all the best I could bring together from my burgeoning empire without abandoning my two ongoing wars or leaving the islands defenseless.
It was going to be the best damn marriage King's landing ever saw.
I would be making sure of it.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone