Capítulo 18: Chapter 18: Greyjoy Rebellion
Westeros
As Aiden and the Targaryens were getting settled within the city of Kandor, back in Westeros the realm was once again embroidered in war.
Although the kingdoms weren't as united as it once was when the Targaryens ruled, all the Kindoms hated the Ironborn equally. They raided costal towns and ports, robbed merchant vessals and were indiscriminate in doing so, so they had basically stolen from every house for years.
So when banners were called to war against the Iron Islands, King Robert easily was able to get an army made up of all the kingdoms. Even Dorne joined in since they too had grievances with the Ironborn. What better way in enact revenge that joining in on the kings little war?
But not all was as well as it seemed on the surface of Westeros, there were multiple pieces that moved in the shadows of the political board.
Robert Baratheon's rule was shaky at best, it's stability was nothing but a facade. Had Robert called for war on any other house besides Greyjoy or Frey, the Frey's were probably the most hated house in all of Westeros, then the truth of Robert's true strength would have shown.
Robert only had three noble houses that would back him completely, besides his own house. But even within the Baratheon house the three brothers didn't really get along. Balon had seen this weakness, what he didn't take into account was how much he and his people were hated by all the other houses.
Lannister, Tully and Arryn were the three major houses Robert could rely on, while Martell, Tyrell and Stark houses were becoming more independent.
Ned remained distant with the throne, but for different reasons than the Tyrell and Martell families. Unlike the other houses, his was betrayed and set up, someone used his house to do terrible things.
He went to war with his sister's husband, he participated in an act that was close to kinslaying. Had he been the one to kill Rhaegar, in the eyes of the Old Gods that would be exactly what he was.
Things didn't change either, over time, he had seen the working of a shadowy hand, causing various troubles for the north as a whole.
Food shipments going missing, failed deals that seemed secured, northerners being reported as missing and various other small things.
So Ned used this time, while the Kindom was at war to watch the various lords more carefully. He spoke to a few of his trusted men, which just happen to be the six that had joined him in going to the Tower of Joy in Dorne.
None of those lords told a soul at what happened, only saying that they searched but found nothing. They knew even if they did let it slip none would believe them, but still they didn't say anything.
As they waged war on the Greyjoys, Ned and his men paid attention to all the lords and their actions.
A few curious things had came up, they had noticed Roose Bolton and his men quite friendly with certain houses in the south, such as with the families backing the crown fully.
Another curious matter was Dorne and the Reach being friendly with his men, Ned even received an invitation from Lady Olenna Tyrell thru a letter delivered to him by Mace to come to Highgarden to discuss a better price on food.
He didn't know what to think, but he had no choice, he had to go, it was the reason Olenna used that forced his attendance. She knew with that as a pretense, Ned would have no choice but to come, even if he didn't want to.
Olenna was a very intelligent and shrewd individual. She knew the game very well between nobles, she was a very scary woman, able to see thru most schemes and plots at a glance.
She knew that Ned knew more than what he let on, she had inside information thanks to the Hightower family. She was fully aware that Lyanna Stark was alive, and that she not only no longer carried the Stark last name, but that she had gave birth to the true heir to the throne.
What she was after was this hidden weapon that the Targaryens had at their disposal, that was what was disconcerting. Olenna feared the return of the dragon, especially since it wasn't Viserys who was the heir, that was the only reason they had bent the knee, to not allow another Mad King onto the throne.
Her goal was to befriend the North, show sincerity and hope that when the day comes when the Targaryens returned, bringing "Fire and Blood" with with them, her family would have a chance at remaining in power or at least their lives.
The Rebellion didn't last very long at all, it took more time to gather and transport the armies than it did in actual fighting.
The Greyjoy fleet was destroyed, Balon lost both his eldest sons, leaving his youngest, Theon Greyjoy, as his only remaining son, which was then taken to be Ward of the Starks. This was to ensure no Ironborn raided the North, or risk them executing his last son and heir.
The rebellion had only lasted about four months in total, Balon had overestimated himself greatly, not only that but he only aimed for short term benefits rather than thinking long term.
Many nobles questioned the rebellion and Balon's intelligence, even a simpleton could surmise that no matter what, the Iron Island was heavily outnumbered. They had no allies and were alone, so Balon starting a war he had no chance at winning from the start made him look a fool.
Many believed this rebellion had solidified Roberts rule, he had been able to rally all the nobles and win a war with ease, but that changed once they returned to Kings Landing.
They learned that the Targaryens quite possibly had a dragon, although it wasn't seen due to everyone hid indoors from the Dothraki, the roar was heard and the left over evidence of the battle led the Tyroshi to believe it was so.
Although they were happy that Viserys was dead, it didn't relieve any pressure on the new King, rather it made it worse. Viserys was the reason all the nobles bent the knee so easily. Now there were still three known Targaryens, all of whom had a right much higher than Roberts to the throne.
"I don't care that those bloody dragonspawn are babes, find them and kill them, I don't care what it takes. Babes grow, I'll not have my claim to the throne questioned." Robert shouted at his small council.
"We don't even know the validity of those claims, dragons have been gone for over a hundred years. Probably just some slaves wild story to get out of investigating."
Renly Baratheon, the Master of Laws and youngest brother of the king, replied.
Most members on the council agreed with this assessment.
"The issue is they are no longer there, vanished apparently. Perhaps the Spider can tell us what his little birds have to say." Petyr Baelish, the Master of Coin, said as he looked at Varys with a smirk.
"They speak of many things, Lord Baelish, the amount of people living within the house, three men with white armor, two women and four children, two boys and two girls. I am sure we all can guess most of the identities just from that description. It is said the former queen had passed so who would be the additional woman with Elia and her children?" Varys gave what info he had as he placed his hands within the sleeves of his robe.
"Probably just some servant woman, no doubt. What is more concerning is the three missing Kingsguard, due to the fact they are with Elia, his will hamper any assassination attempts greatly. Missions would be very expensive once they know both Jaime Lannister and Arthur Dayne are protecting them." Petyr commented, he knew Robert would still send the order, so he wanted to give an excuse ahead of time when he embezzles more funds than normal.
"Fuck the coin, I want every one of their heads. Especially that Lannister from the Kingsguard, I am sick and tired of those entitled pricks." Robert said with venom laced in his voice.
After their first child passed away due to miscarriage, Robert and Cersei had a even rockier relationship, Robert's hate for her twin brother in allowing the Targaryens to get away caused him to become violent with her.
Although she didn't suffer as harshly as Rhaella did with Aerys, she did receive some bruising during his rare times that he slept with her.
Cersei had tried to use her father to put a stop to Roberts violence, however he did nothing, only telling her to please the king, otherwise if Jaime was captured he would definitely lose his life. But if she could keep Robert happy, she may be able to influence Robert into pardoning him.
To get back at Robert, it was herself which drank a tonic that killed the only true-born child of Robert.
Although she had at one point loved her twin, more that a brother and sister should, over the years that love had grown into hate. She felt Jaime abandoned her, had he stayed he would still be a Kingsguard, her Kingsguard.
On the surface Cersei played the good wife to Robert, but behind closed doors she made sure to sleep with anyone who caught her fancy. Even her own relatives were included, in fact she preferred her relatives since she felt she should give birth to a true lion, one fathered by a lion on both sides of the family.
So not long after her miscarriage of Robert's true born, she began to cheat on him repeatedly with her cousins and even her uncles.
Two years after Robert became king, she gave birth to a blonde haired baby boy, she named him Joffrey Baratheon and passed him off as the Kings, when really it was not his but rather a bastard of her Uncle Kevan Lannister.
She had continued this practice even to today, while Robert was drinking and whoring, she was banging blonde haired squires and servants of the Red Keep. She wished it was her twin brother who fathered her children.
By the end of the rebellion she has given birth to a third child; Joffrey, Myrcella and now Tommen Baratheon. All of whom had different fathers, all of whom where also Lannister men.
In celebration of not only the Kings third child, but also various other births such as Jon Arryn's son with Lysa Tully, Robin, as well as to celebrate the winning of the war with the Iron Islands, against Jon Arryn's advice since the Kingdom was drowning in debt, a tournament was to be held in Lannisport after its reconstruction.
This was how Robert justified the tournament, since it would be dedicated to multiple things; birth to heirs, the reconstruction of a major port, and winning his first war as king. So the counsil had no choice but to comply.
This time more families did begin to answer the call, although the Starks and many nobles of the north made excuses as to why they couldn't come, Jorah Mormont offered to participate as a proxy for the north.
Roose Bolton along with House Ryswell also joined in, but their participation was for other reasons. Jon Arryn and Tywin Lannister had long been detecting that Ned Stark was up to something, since they had seen that the north wasn't as supportive to their alliance as he was during Roberts Rebellion.
They knew this was dangerous for the crown, the northern army was the strongest of all the kingdoms. They were hardened men and women, so they were more accustomed to fighting for their lives, between the cold, hunger, bandits and wildling attacks, they had the most experienced of fighters.
So Jon and Tywin were plotting to see if they could replace the Starks as Warden of the North with the Boltons instead. They knew it wouldn't be easy, but as Tywin liked to claim, gold runs the world not loyalty. Give enough gold and any man would break any oath.
Lannisport was almost restored, a few more months and it would be complete, then a few months later the tournament would be held.
During that time however, it had come to Jon Arryn's attention that the kings children may not be his. So in secret Jon began to investigate further.
What caused this thought was all the women he had to deal with that came forward with bastard children of Robert. It was said he had fathered over 15 bastards, but Jon was only aware of 8, all of whom were black haired and blue eyed babes.
This is what caused Jon to doubt that Joffrey, Myrcella and Tommen were even legitimate heirs. Only they had blondie hair and green eyes, these were Lannister features.
Jon had taken note of all the women who had come forward with the bastards, they had a variety of hair colors as well as eye colors, one was even from a branch family of the Lannisters, but every bastard child had Baratheon features.
Jon dared not speculate to anyone, not even to Tywin who seemed loyal to Robert, but making such a claim that the queen was unfaithful, Jon knew Tywin would back his daughter rather than Robert unless he had definitive proof.
Time moved quickly and Lannisports reconstruction was completed, preparation for the upcoming tournament had began.
Word spread both in Westeros and Essos of the tournament and prize. It was to be a two day jousting tournament, fifty thousand gold dragons the prize.
Across the ocean Aiden had learned of this tournament, curious of the state of affairs of his siblings kingdom, Aiden discussed with his family about him joining the tournament.
Elia liked the idea since by him winning the tournament he could take gold from the Usurpers pockets. Although they no longer needed gold since they took up residence in Kandor, it would hurt the Westeros economy for that amount of gold to leave circulation.
It was one of the reasons kingdoms held so many tournaments, it not only entertained the people, those that won gold would spend the gold which would help the economic situation. But if that gold was taken to another country, then tens of thousands of gold dragons would just disappear from circulation.
Aiden had build a transport Hub within Sunspear and Starfall in this time, it was easy to hide since only those with a wristband could use the device. All he had to do was disguise it in a room, the only way anyone would know its purpose is if they were in the room when someone came or left, even then they would only see the person vanish or appear.
Ashara Dayne and the Martell brothers both received access, Lyanna had wanted Ned to receive one as well but Aiden hadn't went North just yet. He planned to do so after the tournament.
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