Ned Stark

Aryos left Memphis satisfied by the life of his only daughter, while also deeply intrigued by his genius grandson. He relinquished most of his anger on his daughter and her husband since he basically became a King with a Kingdom as large and rich as the whole Volantis, and according to rumors, its armies could crush the steel walls of Volantis. He also respected the brilliant utilization of a formerly useless island like New Ghis and transforming it into a trade hub like Alexandria, while also subtly using their now rampant fleet to protect the ships in almost all of the Summer Sea from the Summer Isles to Qarth, as this promotes the safety of trading in their lands while also collecting some "protection coins".

He made deals with Sirius to give them his silk trade rights, as they were already competing with him by the silk they got from Naath, an island east of Alexandria that had the Winter Kingdom's protection and got its silk industry revived. The silk from Naath was hard to compete with and he was only surviving because of their lack of quantity to satisfy the market as they just started reviving their Sericulture, production of raw silk. Sirius also gave him a carrot by making him the sole importer of Damascus Steel, Glass, and Spirits in Volantis, which while is not a huge trade as Sirius is taking most of the profits, gives him political leverage over his adversaries in Volantis. They will have to give in to Aryos's demands to get the superior Damascus Steel or drink the heavenly Spirits.

Sirius remained in his solar pondering over a crucial matter that he avoided for a while. He was debating whether to sail to the North to awaken Ned Stark's genes and make him phase. Ned Stark is a foolish man who will lead the northern Stark House to ruin. Does he deserve this gift, and more importantly will he keep a secret like that? Whatever Sirius will need he can get from Ned's children, does he need Ned? He needs to make a decision as soon Ned will pass the age of phasing. The advantages are that Ned has no idea that Sirius is already an alpha, so no wolf in his pack can betray him. The pack idea is that basically the feeling and thoughts of the pack members are freely shared among their brethren in the pack. The greatest use of Ned is that he is the current Lord of Winterfell, so him bending the knee will make Sirius's claim much stronger.

It does not matter that Sirius is descended from, the line of Jon Stark, if they even believed he is, no Northern Lord will just accept him as they are already loyal to the line of Brandon Stark, nephew of Torrhen Stark, and they served that house for three centuries. To truly claim the north and its loyalty Sirius needed to have Ned Stark's branch as his loyal bannermen. The major point that tilted the scale towards Ned Stark is that he actually is the best friend of Robert Baratheon. In Robert's mind, his wife, his children, his brothers, his bannermen all them could be traitors, but Ned Stark could never be. This basically means that if Sirius could control Ned as a front he would have free reign to do almost everything he wants to develop the North and no one will raise an army against him. So Ned as Sirius's proxy could strengthen the North for the next fourteen years by having the back of his best friend King Robert and his foster father Lord Arryn Hand of the King.

The possible gains outweighed the risks in Sirius's mind, and his confidence in his control over a shifter Ned is absolute. His mind started running and he started mentally drawing up plans and for his journey to the North to recruit Ned Stark in his pack, First, he needed a suitable alias to go by and he needed to set a complete storyline for his alias's character and early life, lest the Spider sniffs anything about him. He will basically incorporate stories and feed information and rumors to prove the authenticity of that alias. Nothing but the good old intelligence work of the 20th century.

These plans will have to be postponed though as he is now finishing his preparations to visit Valyria as he always considered it a mystery. This doomed city is said to be infested with Firewyrms. Some say they are akin to dragons, for wyrms breathe fire too. Instead of soaring through the sky, they bore through stone and soil. They are said to have lived in the Fourteen Flames, a series of volcanoes in Valyria, long before the dragonlords roamed Valyria. After the doom, they might have adapted to the ash or the gases from the volcanoes and actually flourished and now crawl all over Valyria. The volcanic eruptions of the Fourteen not only doomed Valyria but also left the water surrounding it in a disastrous form as they formed the Smoking Sea, literally a sea of rising smoke and ash.

Despite all these circumstances that point logically to avoid this needless adventure, Sirius is hell-bent on sailing there with his mind split, one part curiosity, and the other greed. Sirius is no fool the only reason he has such courage is that he is basically unkillable right now. He needs to have his body crushed, his head severed, or his body burned down to ash instantly to finish off his tenacious wolf life and crush his vitality before his regeneration is activated. Unless there are real live dragons, and unless their flames are hot enough to burn his magical tough fur to the ground in seconds preventing any healing, he will survive, so this campaign to Valyria is not as dangerous as others thought.

He finalizes the parchment that has the plan for the fifth Auxillary army. Now the Winter Kingdom has 20,000 Heavy Infantry Unsullied Army, 20,000 Heavy Cavalry Silent Army, 20,000 Heavy Crossbowmen Garrison Army, 20,000 Light Cavalry, and Mounted Archers Mamluk Army. Unfortunately, the population of the Kingdom is not enough to support any more of these armies. Also, with the new fortifications of round towers, ballista turrets, moats it was much easier to defend the cities so half of the Unsullied along with the Garrison Army was enough to defend. This left an available army of 50,000 for conquest. Sirius just wanted to add some special corps in this Auxiliary army to be ready for any situation.

He ordered the building of 5,000 Camel Cataphracts filling 5 legions using camels found in the Red Waste. They have a higher point so their arrows and even their long spears will prove deadly against enemy cavalry. He got 100 White Elephants from the Isles of Elephants east of Alexandria. Sirius ordered the steel factory to make Damascus Steel Scale Armor for these elephants along with a hardwood carriage on top of the elephant for archers and javelin throwers. Finally, he ordered a legion of one thousand Ironwood Scythed War Chariots along with siege engines like catapults, trebuchets, battering rams, and all the other support troops needed for different terrains.

Entrusting his Council with these plans, Sirius finally made his preparations to sail to Valyria.