Capítulo 121: Chapter 121 - Artican Trade in Westeros 48 (Consequences 01.).
[Chapter Size: 3000 Words.]
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Pessoa Thrid POV
Westeros, 295 AC.
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"They are finally leaving..." Margaery commented, looking from her balcony alongside her grandmother.
"Yes... it seems our guests have really left..." Olenna remarked. "Is this the last time we will see him?" Olenna asked calmly, while Margaery seemed a bit affected by this.
"What's wrong... Don't tell me you've fallen for that boy..." Olenna spoke with an inquiring tone.
"It's... No!" Margaery responded.
"Don't come at me with that, Margaery, I know you're attracted to Jon Artica and I can't blame you, not when his visit was full of highs and lows, with him winning the tournament, slaying those who challenged him, and defending his wife, the royal guard is still in a coma, and will wake up to the news that he will no longer be able to see with one of his eyes," Olenna commented calmly.
"Tell me... will I have a husband like Seryna?" She didn't hesitate to ask, Margaery may not have met Jon's second wife, who returned to the kingdom, but she certainly looked at Seryna with a certain envy... She had a ruthless husband despite his young age and was still a smart and strong queen from what she could talk, even the knowledge that Seryna and Arya had, surpassed any noble lady, equaling with a maester, sometimes they even talked among themselves in a different language without anyone knowing what they were whispering to one another.
"I know she is a lucky woman..." Olenna admitted. "But remember, you will have something better than disputing a throne beyond the wall with other wives... who are already expecting a child from the Arctic king. The Iron Throne, my dear. That's all that matters," Olenna said with a more serious tone than usual while Margaery nodded at the end.
"Yes, Grandma, I will be the queen of Westeros," she said, regaining her confidence while looking firmly at Olenna.
"That's what I wanted to hear... The Iron Throne will be better than any ice crown you would find in the north, girl. You will be the greatest queen Westeros has ever seen and will bring our family to the highest point of its history," Olenna said with a firm tone, not caring about whom she would marry, but how she would take the Iron Throne through the marriage of the fool she would bring to bed.
Margaery nodded, after all, this was also her own desire to become a queen, as much as her heart had been divided by passion and duty, she would choose what she grew up learning.
Even though Jon didn't seem to care much for her beauty, she had been amazed by everything he had done since he arrived and his charm. "What you feel now is just passion, something that will soon cool off with time," Olenna told her granddaughter to learn.
After her granddaughter nodded to her, Olenna spoke again. "Now, let's talk with your brothers, after all, we have a long conversation with them," Olenna said, starting to leave the balcony, followed by Margaery, entering the castle and going to a room where Willas, Garlan, and even Loras, were waiting for them. As they entered, with the looks from Margaery's brothers, Olenna sat down calmly at the table for her grandchildren.
"Well, let's begin then. I would even call your father, but the fool wouldn't help at all in this meeting, so let's talk among ourselves," Olenna spoke, while the Tyrell brothers nodded.
"To start, we learned many things about our visitors. First, we found an ideal match for Willas to become the lord of Highgarden..." She commented, as Willas raised an eyebrow, since his grandmother had instructed him to court this same woman in the last few days.
"It's not just us who saw this, many nobles are also interested in the girl... I'm sure that soon, Winterfell will be raining ravens with marriage proposals for Lord Stark," she passed before continuing. "But there's also another thing we must analyze before asking for a marriage between Willas and Arya, after all, we have Sansa Stark too... and putting her in a marriage with Willas would be even more advantageous politically for us, after all, that would open up the royal marriage for us. Arya may have shown herself to be a very intelligent woman and perhaps someone could have led our family with Willas, having so much knowledge and skills, but putting Sansa as the lady of Highgarden doesn't seem bad either, after all, we would take her out of the possible marriage between Sansa Stark and Joffrey Baratheon," she said calmly while the others listened attentively.
"Arya couldn't be set to marry the prince then?" Willas asked.
"That's true... However, I have a way to get the best of both worlds... to have Arya marry Willas and at the same time, deny Sansa's marriage to the prince..." Olenna spoke.
"How would that be, Grandma?" Margaery asked curiously.
"That's a little secret of this old lady, but to achieve this, I will have to talk personally with Ned Stark. So, we will have to wait a bit longer..." Olenna commented with a small smile.
"Grandma, the things that happened here today will soon reach King's Landing, don't you think some things might change?" Garlan was the one who commented this time.
"You are absolutely right, they will hear about the Artican company soon... but speaking of which, it is strange. We haven't received any more ravens from King's Landing or Oldtown, where they are always eager to speak with us... but anyway, let's wait and see what the king thinks of all this," Olenna commented.
She then looked back at her desk, where the contracts were, "Even though it's been a bit turbulent, with the visit of the Articans we certainly gained from it. Besides him spending over a million gold coins with us, although a large part of that was ours," Olenna spoke with a darker tone this time, wanting to curse her son for the folly of betting 200,000 gold coins on a game like a blind fool. "I'm sure their products will also be quite popular all over Westeros and now we have control of them in the entire kingdom. I just hope nothing happens that we have to cancel this," she commented.
Garlan spoke right after. "I would also not like to make enemies of him. Grandma, those giants, and from what I've heard, there are many of them in his army. We would be screwed on a battlefield fighting against those things," he didn't fail to comment.
"That's not a worry, my grandson. When, and if, we possibly go to war against them, which I find very unlikely, we will have much more than any army they could muster from that desert beyond the wall," Olenna spoke with a mocking tone.
She then turned to her only grandson who had said nothing. "And what does the prince think of all this, Loras?" She asked.
"..." Loras was silent for a while... seeming hesitant to speak.
"Are you still angry about losing the tournament? Or are you jealous?" Olenna said with Loras turning gloomy.
"It's not that, Grandma..." He spoke, but he was frustrated... first for losing the tournament and jealous over the level of attention Renly was giving Jon Artica, not that Jon was interested in a man, as Jon found Renly excessively annoying with his friendly posture to a point that seemed forced, but for Loras, it was petty jealousy.
"Stop this foolishness and answer my question," Olenna said with a more demanding tone, and Loras nodded quickly.
"The prince sees Jon Artica as a great ally, he even says that although he lost lands on the coast in his kingdom to the Articans, he still gained a closer ally too. He believes that Jon would support him in any claim to the Iron Throne..." He spoke despite not liking these words.
"And he thinks he will succeed...?" Olenna asked.
"He's saying there are strong indications that the queen's children are not Baratheons... but he still has no proof and doesn't know who the father is yet..." Loras spoke at that closed meeting.
"That's scandalous!" Garlan choked while Willas frowned and Margaery covered her mouth.
"..." Olenna seemed thoughtful then decided to speak. "If it's true and he gets proof, I'm sure that Renly would be the best match for my granddaughter..." She spoke, since the fool is so easy to manipulate that he would be a perfect puppet for the Tyrells, meanwhile Margaery looked surprised at this and nodded, though she was uneasy with the idea of sharing a future husband with her brother.
"I want you to stay alert to all this and inform us... but for that we will have to wait for the current king to die somehow... but the way he drinks and prostitutes himself... it's very likely that this will happen soon..." She spoke.
They continued talking a bit more, mainly about logistics and about the construction Jon had given them the blueprints for—they were to build warehouses to store ice and products.
Loras returned to Renly's room later, while the latter was eating grapes near the window. "Prince Renly..." Loras greeted.
"Loras..." Renly murmured, smiling and looked towards the window. "You know, you can still see the giants from here..." Willas commented, watching the Artican group disappearing on the horizon.
"Do you think we can trust them?" Loras asked cautiously.
"I'm not absolutely sure, but I am confident... we will form an unbeatable alliance... I might even offer Winterfell to him, and put Artica above my own crown too..." Renly spoke dreamily, if Jon heard this, he would punch Renly in the face for the tasteless joke.
"..." Loras remained silent.
Renly spoke again, looking at Loras this time. "Any news from King's Landing?" he asked.
"No, my prince... we haven't had ravens for over 5 days..." He spoke as Renly nodded. He had sent some letters to King's Landing, while in a distant part of the castle, a raven was speeding towards Highgarden, with a symbol of King's Landing on its feet, continuing as it already spotted the castle landing on it.
However, everything seemed normal when it was caught by a sudden thud as a bird grabbed it with its claws and despite the raven's protests, it was killed shortly after, holding it to take to another location while dropping its body in a place that would not be found and the eagle picked up the cord with its beak, bringing it to Jon the next moment.
He saw the approach of one of his two birds while mounting his wolf, as it paid him by the arm showing the scroll in its beak, and he smiled at it. "You did very well," Jon smiled after seeing its memories while stroking the eagle, before taking the scroll.
He unrolled it and began to read it after breaking the seal, it was a message from King's Landing about the order to put Jon Artica and his group of men into custody at the castle, a foolish plan, but they tried...
"These guys are persistent, this is the fourth letter in the last few days. Seems they already expected them to be intercepted," Jon mocked softly. He saw that the letter also mentioned a group of soldiers with a guard also coming. Jon would like to see them try to stop his group.
"Anything we should worry about, my king?" his royal guard spoke beside him.
"Tell them we'll have someone to kill!" Tormund shouted nearby, wanting some kind of action.
"Maybe, if they manage to catch us by the end of this path, then we'll have to wait... It's good that we've already managed to load the ships with the horses we bought and more thousands of animals that were placed days ago and are already moving out to the middle of the fleet at sea... We will now have little time to act in Hightower, so we'll see what they're capable of," Jon mocked again with his plan.
"My king, what about the letter you let that child write?" the guard asked.
"Well, we should inform some things, since they have been without much communication for a long time, they might suspect something is wrong. So, I left that letter of what happened for the spy. Let's see what Varys will say in the meeting and how they will react to everything that happened..." Jon commented, since King's Landing had been out of the loop about what was happening in Highgarden for more than a week. It would be interesting to pass on some information.
"And the maesters of Oldtown, Jon? Do they know we are coming there?" Seryna asked, a bit worried.
"No, I sent my birds into the sky and they shot down all the ravens. I want to surprise them with an unexpected visit. So, we'll see how the maesters will receive us," Jon said, cracking a smile.
He had the power to control all communication, if he wanted to, and a war without accurate information was a lost war. He would not let more ravens out as happened with Sunspear, where it began the conversation of the maesters with the order.
They continued their way, and for the next few days, a group with a royal guard, Ser Jaime Lannister, appeared on the road near Highgarden, startling all patrols and nobles passing through, while Jaime himself paid them no heed and headed straight for the castle.
"What is this?!" The Tyrells asked in surprise, and Renly Baratheon was the one who received them in the middle of the courtyard, curious about why a royal guard was coming here and what he was doing there without any announcement from King's Landing.
Jaime approached as he saw Renly, standing there in the middle of the place, stopped his horse, dismounted, and bowed to Prince Renly, along with all the other soldiers who came from King's Landing.
"Ser Jaime Lannister. How unexpected! What are you doing here?" Renly greeted with a smile while Jaime frowned at that.
"Didn't you receive the letters we sent here?" Jaime asked, still frowning, as they should have been aware of his presence.
"I think not..." Renly looked confusedly at Jaime.
"There's an order coming," Jaime said, as Willas approached Renly, looking confused.
"We haven't received any letters, Ser Jaime..." Willas came up beside and spoke.
"That's impossible. There is an order to arrest Jon Snow and take him for trial in King's Landing!" he stated, and this immediately silenced the entire place.
Ser Jaime harbored a certain anger towards the Starks, so he did not care to be respectful towards what he considered a wild king and even though the order referred to Jon as Artica and not Snow.
"Jon Artica? Why? What is the accusation for him to be arrested and tried?" Renly was surprised by this and looked confused, as he was not aware of anything that could label him as a criminal.
"The Artican ships attacked numerous merchant ships in the Vale. The king demands his presence for a trial to find out what happened and to ask for compensation," Ser Jaime said.
"Sorry, Ser Jaime , but Jon Artica left days ago after concluding all the trade contracts here," Willas was the one who spoke, and Jaime looked grim.
"That's not possible, only if he himself shot down the ravens with the order," Jaime muttered. "Let's go after them. If he left a few days ago, he must not have reached the coast yet," Jaime ordered his men and quickly left before anyone could stop him, mounted his horse, and departed.
This left everyone at the location confused. Not even Renly could stop Ser Jaime , despite being the prince, as this was the order of the king himself. He wanted to get this over with before returning to King's Landing and being beside the woman he loves, again.
A raven that Jon had released, a spy of Varys, departed in the last few days for King's Landing, and it finally arrived in the city on this very day, heading for the Red Castle and landing on the window of a man who was reading some scrolls from other ravens. Varys approached the raven, which exhibited none of the odd behavior he noted in others lately, and took the scroll from its leg and opened it before starting to read.
He read the content and saw that it really was his spy in Highgarden, with whom he had no contact in the last week. And when he read, he was somewhat shocked by what he saw. He immediately left his office and went to the Hand's Tower, calling Jon Arryn to inform him about what is happening in the Reach.
The man listened to him and read the letter a moment later, then left with a summons for an urgent council meeting, which happened shortly afterward. All council members were summoned and were heading to the meeting room.
Even the king was informed, and Jon Arryn used words that attracted the king, mentioning that Ned's son participated in a jousting tournament in Highgarden and won. If he wanted to know the details, he would have to attend the meeting as well. Curious to know what Ned's son had done, the king quickly got out of bed, dismissed the prostitutes aside, and followed to the meeting room. They would soon have the meeting about what happened in the last few days in that Kingdom.
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