Chương 6: That escalated quickly

After the end of the battle, it was looting time, the soldiers stripped the castle of anything valuable, and any supply they could find was taken as well, some were left for the northern garrison of course but since the lord of the castle was killed by my wall of fire and the heir died in battle with the royal fleet, his line ended and the castle will probably be abandoned for some time, so we pillaged all of it, what raised a discussion was what to do with the thralls, they are basically slaves with another name what I never understood was why they were not freed on the original timeline, there are a 100 something in the castle and more around the isle.

"We can't just steal their smallfolk, the southern lords would not stand for it," said Jorah to the other lords on the table

"You're not stealing smallfolk lord Mormont you freeing the ones that were stolen from you, I believe that slavery is quite illegal in Westeros why the Ironborn don't follow such a rule," I argue I will need people to fill my land wherever it may be, and the Ironborn thralls are the ones that do everything on the islands blacksmithing, woodworking, shipbuilding, building, and any limited planting all done by thralls, if I can take the tralls from the iron island I gain trained workers and cripple the ability of the Ironborn to build a fleet and cause problems in general.

"I say we take them, fuck the ironborn," said Greatjon

"Even if I agree with Antares, the decision, in the end, belongs to the king."Lord stark finishes the debate, "Antares I have something to ask you, for time's sake we will embark our soldiers now and head to start the siege of Pike, you will help the other lords finish the siege in Tawley keep, take this letter explaining the situation, as soon as you finished, you shall join the rest of us with the host in Pike, try not to kill the Lord Tawley, the hand and the king will not approve we killing every lord in the iron islands," he explains his plan.

"speaking of him, what about the king and the southern armies, "asked the Bolton

"Robert's armies already left Lannisport and will be here in two weeks at worst," Ned answered

"with the sorcerer by our side by the time they arrive we already are leaving and the ironborn all be defeated," the loud Umber said

"I'm a druid, not a sorcerer," I say to Greatjon

"what the fuck is a druid"

"A druid uses the powers of nature and of the land itself with very little blood or sacrifices needed, with a little cut on someone's arm I can make the land fertile and animals fat, not even the Blood mages of valyria had this kind of power for it comes from gods that they did not praise."

"Can you really, I mean make the land fertile?" asked Jorah

"yes, but the land cant be a desert or completely ice and it has to have a good number of weirwood trees,"

"you follow the old gods then, between your conditions to make the land fertile it seem quite clear,"

"you are correct I am a follower of the old gods"

"As interesting as this conversation can be we have to embark our army and Antares has a siege to finish." Lord Stark interrupts our conversation.

"I will put some protections on my ship's cabin and then I will leave immediately" I am of course bullshitting, but if those sailors believe that I can sink ships by singing, then saying some words in the tongue of the first man and then making the door glow will keep anyone far away, Lord Stark would not be thrilled by the surprise I have to Robert.

It took me a day to arrive at Tawley keep, it was not very impressive but the terrain make it quite shit to take, is on and very high hill with a mud path to the top, I can see a palisade in front of the castle wall, is a pickle to march up in a mud hill taking fire on your head from the castle walls, the northern camp is basically done by now, I see the tents are up and they are getting comfortable for a siege, too bad chumps you will be moving soon.

I turn back from my animal form and approach the camp when I hear.

"Halt, who goes there"one of the sentries scream

"My name is Antares, I carry a message from lord Stark to lord Karstark."

"you may approach"

they search me, but when I show them the letter with the Stark seal on it they direct me to the commanding tent, there I find a Karstark, a Manderly, and a Glover the rest I didn't recognize they banners but not all the lords of the north came so they probably some minor houses.

"here" I give the scroll to the Karstark" lord Stark is moving to siege Pike, as soon as you finish here, we are supposed to join them "

the one with the mermaid on its chest asked" how can lord stark have finished the siege of orkwood castle so fast, been barely three days since we left the rest of the army"

"According to this letter, our messenger here was the one responsible for lord Stark's quick and swift victory, so he was sent here to finish the siege," the Karstark said after finishing reading the letter

"Indeed, but lord Stark also said that we should not kill the lord of the castle this time" I answered, some of them looked impressed with the fact that lord stark gave such trust to an unknown.

"Well that will be complicated since lord Tanley was killed in the battle of Fair island, and lady Tanley is leading the castle defense." the Karstark explain

"huh well, did you try to sue for peace, she has to have enough sense to surrender," I said

"of course not, we were told to take the castle not negotiate for it," said a fat man on the back, wait for a minute, I know this one, it's the Whitehill little shit, I don't even remember his name but I hated him so much in the telltale games.

"Well, Whitehill"I look him in the eyes, and his eyes dart to somewhere else" you can take a castle in a multitude of ways but since we dealing with a southern lady, an ironborn one sure, but a southern lady still, she will lean towards peace, after all, she is no bear islander so have no martial training and no idea how to defend a castle and she is vastly outnumbered."

"And if it fails?" asked the Glover

"I will deal with the sentries and open the gates of the keep myself for your army to march inside as I did with Orkwood castle" as say that some eyes widen

"so you telling me you scaled a high wall, killed all the guards, and managed to open a fucking heavy metal gate by yourself without being noticed, what else, did fly away on a dragon as well, "said the Whitehill with a mocking scoff, there some grumbling and some nods I just look at him and say in a deadpan way.

"Of course not, what are you, an idiot"there were some stilled laughs at this" I had my owl with me." now that got some laughs out of some lords and Whitehill started to look pissed.

"Listen here you little shit, who do you think you talkin..."

"My lords, please let us keep fighting against the ironborn, not one another," said lord Karstark" so you will deliver our terms to lady Tanley, Lord Palestars, and if she fails to meet our terms we take the keep by force, anyone has something to add, no, excellent." he sips his wine and starts again" the terms are the total surrender of the castle and its men, in exchange, they will not be harassed in any shape or form." he finishes there are some grumbles but everyone agrees with lord Karstark.

"I can work with that, all I need is a white banner and I will be going" lord Karstark nods and a squire brings me a spear with white cloth hanging on the tip, and to the castle, I go.

" Fancy you are, me darling. I love you all to bits. I'll climb up to your chamber, and under your enormous..." I was walking to the castle and singing but I was interrupted by a scream

" HALT stranger, what yer business here" a man from the top of the wall, I see up there fifteen something man with crossbows and some bows as well.

"I came from the northern army, I am here to parley with the lady of the castle." I hear some screaming from the top of the wall some time later a man screams back.

"Drop the spear and we will send someone to talk to ye" I throw the spear far away and wait, the wood gate groans as it opens, and three-man leave through it.

"I was expecting Lady Tanley to come to speak with me," I say and cast detect thoughts with the hands behind my back, the mind of the men on the right and left have the image of the last time they saw lady Tanley, they are guards, but the one in the middle has the lustful memories of him having his way with her, it seems that lady Tanley lost the control of her husband men once the news of his death and the invasion of the northern reached the castle, he's planning to marry her and take lord Tanley place or failing that, give her in exchange for a noble title, quite cunning of him.

"she gave me the authority to parley with you, im Aggar the master of arms of the castle," says the middle-aged man, he has a balding head with black hair on the sides, he's smaller than me but has a good physic, he is missing some teeth as well.

"Well lads, this is what is going to happen, you will surrender the lady of the castle, yourself, and the castle and we will spare everyone that doesn't fight back," I say smiling sweetly at them

"we will open the castle gates if you make lord Tanley and let me keep the castle," he said back

" you have what, 100 men inside the castle" I see in his mind he has 65 men " a month of supplies, and that's me being generous" less actually he had a feast after having his way with the Tanley lady." you really think you can make demands to us, you're quite the funny guy" I finish saying with an edge on my voice.

"Listen there's no reason to make things complicated just give me this small thing and you can go deal with the bigger problem" he starts to get nervous, I can see it, and detect thoughts is fading but I just need one more answer.

"ok, but you have to tell me this, did everyone inside the castle go along with your little coup" I see that the castle had 100 men before, but he had to kill some of them to take over, well time to make a good impression on the north and test some things.

"w-what your talki..." he starts but I interrupt

"you are an oathbreaker, a traitor, and a rapist, your men as well, no true Northman would have mercy on you, so, neither will i" I start to grow bigger and bigger and fur start to appear everywhere, I hear the shouts of "demon" as I turn into a massive brown bear far bigger than usual and I lash against the three I get two of them with my claws and the master of arms I take a bite off, I fell the arrows and bolts hit me but it does nothing to stop me from entering the open gates.

inside there were 20-something men, they had standard ironborn equipment axes, spears, swords, some leather jerkin, and chainmail nothing that stop a massive bear from mauling them, I watch the various men, as they start to surround me, they are treating me like a bear thinking they will push me into a corner, too bad, I charge the one in the front a guy of 18 years max, I go into my hinder legs and come down with my claws from the top to the hip I slashed him, he fell dead immediately, I keep going on the attack, they don't know how to deal with such aggressive bear, I start to rip and tear, more ironborn started to come from inside they kept shooting at me until a spear hit me into the chest and I start to change back.

Around me, there are dozens of bodies, I killed like 25 guys, well not all of them are dead but they are in the process, I seem to have stun-locked the ironborn again, they are looking at me like I am the storm god that came to earth to fuck them, some of them are leaving the stunned state and screaming "kill the sorcerer, kill him" and that is the time I act, I point to one of the ironborn that was coming out the keep he is surrounded by his brothers in arms too bad, too bad, I cast polymorph on him.

he starts to change into another bear not as massive as me but he is in the middle of a crowd, they stop and look at him he seems quiet but a firebolt on the face made him enter in fury and start to attack his companions, I get hit by an arrow on the back of my shoulder, this shit hurts, I turn to the archers and cast a wall of fire on the top of the wall some of them jump and some burn, four ironborn that escaped the bear approach me, I cast spiritual weapon above them a glowing white hand with talons, it comes down on one of them and smashes him, now let us finish this.

As I use Telekinesis to hold them in place, the white claw kills the last three ironborn in the courtyard, with that and the bear I believe we killed, like 59 of the 65 men on the castle, the others ones are nowhere that I can see, I kill the bear with the spiritual weapon and break the guy's neck after, fuck im tired, I have to deal with the arrow on my shoulder, it's definitely not that bad, I break the arrow but let a part of it there, I believe there are still the tralls on the castle so maybe I will find someone to point me to the lady.

As I walk the hallways of the keep I hardly find someone, they are hiding, of course, the gates have been breached, after all, I see a trail of blood on the floor, I cast detect thoughts and use them to find any thinking minds, I will not fall for an ambush that easily, I find three close to me, two tralls and an ironborn by the fear on its mind, his name is Todric he thinks im a demon, I enter the room, its a bedroom, the tralls are holding each other on a corner of the room but the ironborn I know, it's hiding under the bed, adorable.

CHANGE POV: Todric

I ran to the inside of the keep, that ain't no sorcerer, the northerners brought a fucking demon here, and he turned Joron into a fucking bear, that son of whore slashed my arm, I don't want to die like that, I enter one of the rooms there is tralls here

"o-out of the fucking way you shits, go away " I scream to them, and they tremble and go to one of the corners of the room I hide under the bed, I will wait for the northerner lords to come to take the castle, then I take the black.

I hear steps in the hallway it-it can't be right, he has to have more important things to do than chase after me, the door opens slowly and I see a pair of black shiny boots, they don't look like they were walking over the blood of my friends minutes ago, a jovial voice echoes across the room.

"I can smell your fear and your blood Todric, wounded prey ain't hard to track" I whimper and shake, why, by the drowned god, why this fucker didn't go somewhere else "come out shaking deer, I will not harm you".

CHANGE POV: Antares

the guy pissed himself, that is the second one, well I need someone to spread the tale of how I took a castle and the tralls will be coming with me to the north so if I want it to be my rains of Castemere, these six ironborn left here will have to do the job, I cast detect thoughts again.

"Hello there, Todric " he whimpers harder" I have a proposition for you, one you might like, but first, you two there, go fetch me the lady of the house, please" they nod their heads and bolt out of the door" now tod, can I call you todd, I will do that anyway..." I did the exact same thing I did with Leon, from the ring scam to the threat of punishment and it still works great, but this time I gave a name for him to spread around, as we finish our business, the tralls come back with a woman in toll.

she is a woman in her mid-twenties with dark-brown hair that goes to the shoulders and sharp features, and stunning ice-cold blue eyes, she has a scar on the right side of her face and in the bridge of her nose, nothing hideous but makes her look like a wildling.

"Lady Tanley" I give a light bow" I am Antares Palestars and I come here, to accept your surrender" I smile at her.