Kings Landing
3rd POV
277 AC
After Prince Rhaegar's return from Dorne, he was quickly embroiled in the recent ongoings of court. At the time, Lord Darklyn's proposal for a city charter was hanging in the balance.
Lord Darklyn decided to stop paying his taxes and started garrisoning his lands lightly. There was a great discussion on how to move forward with this new development.
Eventually, after Lord Tywin Lannister recommended calling Lord Darklyn to court to answer for his crimes, King Aerys decided to go to Duskendale to treat with the lord and resolve the issue.
It didn't work.
King Aerys was captured and imprisoned—his guards killed—and a message was sent saying if anyone came into Duskendale, he would kill the King.
An uproar in Westeros.
Never had a king been held hostage by his vassal. People were frothing at the mouth at the symbolism, because if Darklyn managed to succeed in this endeavor, their own vassals might do the same. The hatred for Aerys was set aside for their own security. Some still planned to sabotage it (Tywin), but discreetly.
For four months, Duskendale was under siege. No going in or out. No food coming in. Letters were sent for a concession between the parties based on the safe return of the King.
By the beginning of the fifth month, a plan was hatched between Rhaegar and Tywin. They would send two people undercover to rescue Aerys. Ser Mihawk volunteered, saying he could get around the Observation Haki users, and Barristan also followed him.
First, they dyed their hair black before putting on outfits of boiled leather brigandine that were also dyed black. They snuck in under the cover of night.
Ser Mihawk wrapped Conqueror Haki around them both (very tasking, mind you). They made their way into the keep. With their daggers, they started eliminating stragglers outside the keep who might interfere with their eventual escape. They whittled down the numbers as they continued searching for the King. Eventually, they found him in a dungeon cell—battered and bruised, in filth, with some of his nails pulled out.
Obviously, Barristan was enraged but eventually calmed down. No matter how strong he was, he couldn't take on a whole castle full of guards with just two people.
They eventually picked up the King after reassuring him that they were who they said they were. Barristan hauled the King onto his shoulder and started moving. Their plan involved Mihawk staying a little behind to block and counterattack with his devil fruit.
As Barristan ran, Mihawk was attacking the guards—using gravity to lift them up and throw them onto others, moving furniture and their surroundings to create cover.
Eventually, Barristan reached the walls and used Armament Haki on his fingers to dig into the stone and scale it with the King. He looked over at Mihawk and saw an arrow sticking out of his back and stomach as he faced Lord Darklyn and two other guards at once.
Barristan jumped over, entered the camp, and dropped the King onto a chair. He informed them to immediately start invading—that Ser Mihawk was fighting alone and was almost killed.
Immediately, some knights followed Barristan's lead, using Haki on their fingers to climb over. They met a sight many would later sing songs of. Bodies piled high, the ground cracked like glass. Ser Darklyn lay on the floor, heavily breathing, his left arm and right leg missing. More guards poured in from the keep, all running at one man.
Ser Hawkeye was barely on his feet, standing with a sword lodged in his stomach, his blade Yoru clutched tight in his right hand until his knuckles whitened. Still, he looked at them defiantly, as if sure he would kill them all in his condition.
Barristan immediately attacked them as more royal soldiers and knights infiltrated the place. The clash continued until they put every man to the sword and dragged the Darklyns from their keep.
Ser Mihawk had already been dragged to a maester to be attended to before the end of it. He had lost a lot of blood and was stitched up. It was said he would need medical attention for a few moons.
If killing Maelys Blackfyre made Ser Barristan a legend, then rescuing the King made him untouchable. The same can be said that the Defiance of Duskendale made Ser Mihawk a legend too, but of a different scale. He was seen as the warrior reborn—as though he had walked out of the pages of the Age of Heroes. Every boy wanted to be Arthur Dayne; every knight wanted to be Hawkeye.
In later years, when the journal of Maester Cullen (the maester who treated him) was found, he asked Mihawk how he survived the onslaught before being rescued. Mihawk answered:
"How I survived? I awakened my fruit when I was at the edge of death… I did it after so long—I crossed the barrier that confined me with the rest of you."
People still speculate what he meant by awakening his fruit. Is there a facet to the devil fruit we don't understand? Was that why he was so powerful in later years?
But that is a story for another time.
3rd POV
After putting almost all the Darklyns to the sword by King Aerys' command—except a squire, Dontos Darklyn, spared at the behest of Ser Barristan—the King visited the chamber where Ser Mihawk was recovering.
In private, he asked what Mihawk wanted for a boon. Ser Mihawk initially thought of holding on to the favor but remembered what Aerys would soon become. Testing the waters, he asked if he could take over the castle of Duskendale and all its original lands. Surprisingly, the King agreed, even granting him a tax exemption for five years. Officially, he was sworn to the Crownlands, but his loyalties would always be to the North.
Just like that, a new cadet branch of the Mormonts was created in the south. Ser Mihawk became the new Lord of Duskendale.
(Note: Corrected the punctuations and spacing.)