[Chapter Size: 4700 Words.]
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Third Person POV
Reach, 299 AC.
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Olenna Tyrell was seated in her garden as she opened Baelish's letter, updating her on the new negotiations after Renly's death and what the situation in the capital was like.
The negotiation with the Lannisters was carried out behind the scenes. Each side sought its own interests. The Lannisters wanted the gold and the food that the Reach could provide. More than that, they wanted the army, which would guarantee them a great advantage in the outcome of this war. And with all of Westeros fragmented, food would be the main reason to have the Seven Kingdoms under total control.
And the Tyrells would also come out ahead in this alliance. They would have Margaery as queen, and if the dream of having her family in royalty were fulfilled, she would be on the Iron Throne, within the royal lineage — or at least within a new royal lineage.
The history books would record the rise of the family that would help control the Reach more than they did today, since there was still resistance to them being the lords of the kingdom for almost 300 years.
After all, they had been merely stewards of Highgarden when the Gardener family was entirely slain in the Field of Fire by Aegon the Conqueror... The nobles of the Reach had always seen the Tyrell family as usurpers, since their ascent came through a dragon king, not by blood.
Obviously, the Tyrells, even in this era, did not have the control they wanted over their vassals, and some lords were foolish enough to make demands, such as complaining about buyer prices, among other things that irritated the Tyrells, believing they were not worthy of Highgarden.
With the rise of a Tyrell to the throne, this could mark the family as never before. They were already rich and had greater control over Westeros's food trade. The Riverlands were also fertile for planting and had their share, but nothing compared to what the Reach could offer. And the war had brought only destruction to the Tullys and their vassals; the only farm of the Seven Kingdoms at this moment was the Reach.
But despite all this pride, Olenna often looked to the North, trying to see, thousands of miles away, a land about which no one had any information.
She always said it was frustrating. It had been ten years since a kingdom had been built beyond the Wall, but no one knew any concrete information about it. The Arcticans were extremely loyal. Even her spies — or even attempts to seduce them with women in search of information — always encountered limits. All they ever said was about a perfect city, where people lived peacefully, food was plentiful, and the cold did not affect them as it once had.
They said they were blessed by the old gods and that there was a giant tree. Everything could be summed up to that. No crucial information. Even when drunk, the Arcticans looked after one another so as not to let any information slip that could harm the kingdom.
The king was also quite perceptive. He managed not to pass on information about his kingdom while gaining it easily at the same time. Olenna knew that the boy had already been able to understand the entire political landscape of the Reach with just one night of conversation at that meeting four years ago, while the nobles — those fools — did not help, wanting to negotiate with a growing superpower at the time merely to obtain benefits.
He might even be a bastard, and many people whispered unpleasant things behind Jon Arctic's back at that time, but they had to admit that the boy had potential. And everyone wanted to take a piece of that.
Olenna already knew when she saw him, he was Rhaegar's son.
But that was not what made him grow; it all began with the money he gave the Starks a few years earlier... after all, who would give 400 thousand gold coins on a whim? So they believed his words when the negotiations began upon arriving in the Reach.
The boy proved to be more and spent two million gold coins as if it were nothing, buying an enormous number of purebred horses, which seemed to leave everyone both pleased and worried at the same time. All the lords of the Reach saw that as the purchase of enough horses to raise an army, but at the same time, there was talk of an army beyond the Wall, which made no sense at all. Gold spoke louder; no one was truly worried about a heavy cavalry thousands of miles away.
They would only learn the answer later.
In any case, there were confusions. In addition to the attack on Oldtown and the destruction of the Redwyne fleet, a great concern fell upon the houses of the Reach when they began selling food to Essos, starting with Braavos and other cities, with Braavos being the main trader.
They continued making these voyages, but the trade was already established, and the port of Braavos was constantly filled with Arctican food, sold at a much cheaper price than the Reach could offer. They had already lost a small portion of the food trade with Essos. Even if it was not very significant, it was still extra gold coins.
When the North began buying food from Braavos, scrolls started arriving from all the lords who cultivated food in the Reach in desperation.
Arctic could provide an enormous amount of food, including products that did not even exist in the south. Some later tried to plant these fruits and grains imported from Essos in the lands of the Reach, but they were unable to cultivate them.
In Arctic, somehow, in the middle of that frozen desert, there existed a vast farm that Olenna could only describe as something magical. What could not be ignored was the obvious conclusion: the boy had been blessed with farms since he was only eight namedays old. Many in the Reach believed the boy was Garth Greenhand reborn.
A boy who, apparently blessed by the gods, conquered half the world in ten years — if someone had said this ten years ago, she would have laughed at them all. But now? She wondered what Rhaegar would say about his son...
In any case, they managed to reverse the food supply situation to the North by sending complaints to the court, with the Crown forbidding the North from buying food from Braavos, cutting off funding from Westeros's declared enemy.
This left the North deeply offended, but the lords of the Reach did not care about selling at higher prices and trying to squeeze everything the North could give... They did not care if another kingdom prospered with cheaper food, they did not care if they died of hunger, all that mattered was their coffers being full.
Later, this rift between North and South exploded in the events that followed in Winterfell... Tense events, full of confusion, that the realm had never seen, surpassing even the scandals of the prince at Harrenhal...
A daughter of a Lord Paramount declaring that she would not kneel before the king, right in front of him and the royal family.
The crown prince injured by that same girl, and the North rose from a foolish bet the king had made. The North had the Gift again for themselves.
An assassination attempt by ambush carried out by the Faith Militant and the queen herself.
The trial of the queen herself and the expulsion from Winterfell, which did not happen.
The queen's face cut by an eagle.
The Royal Guard of Arctic arrived in Winterfell and threatened and mocked the king of Westeros.
A royal guard, none other than the queen's brother, lost his sword hand.
And she thought that Highgarden itself had suffered enough scandals when he was here.
All of this happening in just a few weeks since the king arrived at the castle — something Olenna would not believe if it did not seem so real.
The Tyrells continued the game and went to see how the pieces stood. Lord Baelish began negotiating behind the scenes with her as soon as he arrived in King's Landing after what happened in Winterfell.
Her granddaughter met the crown prince along with the royal family, but Olenna had to admit that she did not like the boy. She found him arrogant, especially in the way he spoke of a cut on his hand, leaving a scar, caused by Arya Stark, saying that she had cheated and that his father had been merciful in sparing her after what she had done — but without mentioning how foolish he himself had been, while, meanwhile, the North had once again gained the Gift for cultivation.
This once again left the men of the Reach uneasy, but there was nothing to be done. The king had agreed to it and signed the decree, making it very clear that the North now once again possessed those fertile lands. They would only need to ask permission from the Night's Watch, which was later done, and some lands began to be cultivated by Lord Stark.
Olenna thought that at that time, the nobles of the Reach might finally become worried, even her own family. However, that concern died as soon as the wars began... After all, the North had not cultivated enough to make it through an approaching winter, with temperatures suddenly dropping over the last moons. The populace was already preparing to announce that winter would begin to arrive within the next two years.
And with the Riverlands completely destroyed due to the war, the Reach was the only way to feed Westeros today.
They could finally concern themselves with profit after this war ended, with all of Westeros in the palm of their hands, begging for their grain.
Olenna was dealing with other matters at the moment and had to think quickly. She had not liked the prince, noticing traits of cruelty, vengeance, and hatred in his personality, especially in the way he had spoken to Margaery during their small walks through the Red Keep.
They chose Renly immediately, after he began preparing the Stormlands and joined with the Tyrells, creating the largest army amid all that division of kingdoms. Although the soldiers of the Reach were mostly green boys, their numbers were frightening. There were one hundred thousand men; no other kingdom would have such a number.
They were confident they could win, and Margaery would sit beside Renly with such strength, but he was assassinated, and with that, her grandchildren returned to Highgarden dejected, especially Loras, who felt Renly's death more than anyone else.
Not that Olenna could doubt it. The boy was locked in his room for a reason: his bed lover had died. Olenna did not care much about that; she would soon deal with him and force him to fulfill his duties to the family.
Margaery was somewhat worried about marrying Joffrey, but Olenna had now allied with the Lannisters in pursuit of the crown. She would deal with Joffrey and would not let her granddaughter suffer...
Littlefinger would help one way or another.
She did not stop looking ahead from that balcony. Her granddaughter was somewhere in that garden, while Olenna continued to observe her from there, walking and tending to the flowers — especially the new flowers and plants that had been cultivated in recent years. Those that Jon Arctic had personally brought as a gift, making her granddaughter and her mother fall in love with them immediately.
Olenna could even see an enclosure full of hell roses, something that should not grow in the south, but that somehow managed to be cultivated from the seedlings Jon Arctic had given them, forming a large garden of blue flowers that her granddaughter adored.
Yesterday, there had been a meeting with her grandson and heir, Willas, and her granddaughter... They had a small conversation. Margaery and Willas were worried, mainly about the possibility of that army that could come from the North at any moment, while the Tyrells were involved in this mess...
Everyone was worried, and allying with the Lannisters could be dangerous. Olenna remembered the queen hiding her face, badly wounded, behind veils, casting hatred in all directions, confined to no one and always seeking someone to hurt, just as her son did.
Olenna could scarcely remember having seen a woman so bitter — a woman who had lost everything through her own foolishness, by believing she would always be protected by her family's name.
She learned in the worst possible way that the Lannisters were not untouchable. Especially when it came from that kingdom...
In the end, Lord Stark had been killed by her vengeance. And Varys had sent a letter telling them to remain neutral in this war, because a new candidate would soon arrive, someone worthy of facing all the enemy armies of Westeros and even Arctic head-on.
Olenna raised an eyebrow at the audacity of those words from the Eunuch and ignored them. They needed to make a decision. Even their own lords wanted answers about whom they would support and what their next actions would be. So she acted.
She could not simply trust words, especially with eunuchs playing against the Lannisters in a way she did not fully understand. Still, this new expectation was interesting, and Olenna wanted to know more about this mysterious candidate; it certainly was not Rhaegar's son... She would see this personally in King's Landing.
Olenna looked at Littlefinger's letter for a few seconds, thinking about what the plan would be to eliminate Joffrey before he married Margaery. Littlefinger would reply later. Her army, commanded by her son Garlan, was advancing toward King's Landing. They had already made their decision, hoping that if everything went wrong when those men from the North came and defeated them, they could still use many paths toward a negotiated surrender.
Moreover, if Margaery married the Lannister king and was declared queen, kneeling to Arctic as soon as he arrived to destroy the Lannisters, would Margaery not continue to be queen?
The plan was perfect: if Margaery became queen of the Seven Kingdoms, eliminating Joffrey, having Tommen take his place, and not bedding him since he was still just a child.
Margaery could be kept as a virgin queen, with her marriage unconsummated, and if they lost to Arctic, they could enter negotiations.
Her granddaughter was still in love with Jon Arctic. After all, he had left a good impression, something that was only confirmed when she saw the traits of the current crown prince. If she managed to remain a virgin, she could marry Jon Arctic, even if she were not his first or only wife. They could negotiate that Westeros would belong to her as queen, and that her children should take the Iron Throne after him. He would have the Reach supporting him, and to hell with all the people who hated him for having sacked Oldtown four years ago.
There were so many possibilities between victories and defeats that it became a dangerous variable, capable of destroying them or making them thrive. It was a gamble. A high-stakes gamble that Olenna was making, but the highest bets always brought the greatest rewards.
The Tyrells no longer owed Jon Arctic anything; they had paid everything they owed at the meeting in Winterfell and White Harbor. Certainly, her grandson had shown that the Tyrells supported him, even if secretly. And Arya Stark's words should have already reached the king's ears, about the conversations with Garlan and Willas.
Olenna took her tea, hoping she had made the best decision for the family. Either they would stay neutral, as Varys wanted, awaiting the arrival of a new player — far more powerful than any other, according to his words — which seemed like fantasy. Still, she would try to follow her plan, hoping not to get burned along with the Lannisters.
Even knowing that they were invincible at sea, Arctic would face a battle in open ground. They had defeated the Dothraki and the Arcticans, yes, but that did not mean they could defeat a unit formed by Lannister and Tyrell soldiers supported. Their numbers reached over 130 thousand men, and fighting against the 45-50 thousand Arcticans, victory should not be guaranteed, right?
So it would not be right to remain neutral until the time came. The Faith would not accept this, especially with the Faith Militant circulating through all the kingdoms in recent years, since the king authorized them to arm themselves again. The houses that hated Arctic for the attack on Oldtown would also not support them until Arctic won this war completely. Until Arctic crushed the Seven Kingdoms, everyone saw them as the enemy.
Things had changed a little since the revelation of Aegon Targaryen, but it was too early for him to have support. The mad king left a bad impression, and knowing that Jon Arctic sacked Oldtown and destroyed two fleets of Westeros... They would not be well regarded, not yet.
Olenna sighed. The game of thrones was becoming more and more unstable. Who would win it all in the end? Not even she could predict that now. It was not just the Seven Kingdoms in a civil war, Arctic and Varys's mysterious candidate were also in the game of thrones.
Meanwhile, in King's Landing, Sansa was locked in her room.
The situation in the city was not good. She could feel the heavy, tense atmosphere, as if an attack was about to happen in the city in the coming days or weeks.
Her eyes were red from crying through another night while staring at King's Landing from the window — if she could do anything else, after all, she was trapped there.
How she regretted everything.
When that damned letter had arrived, with Lord Kevan Lannister heading to the north, demanding compensation for what happened in Winterfell, and her father arguing that the queen had tried to kill her youngest daughter.
And that Jaime Lannister had entered into a fair fight against the Arctican man and lost. Her father argued that Winterfell owed nothing.
Sansa disagreed with that. They should not have hurt the queen, nor cut off her brother's hand, nor insulted the king in front of everyone.
She hated Arya at that moment, hated the Arcticans, men coming from north of the Wall, hated her bastard brother. She hated everything they had built and that was now destroying her dream.
She was supposed to be the queen. Her father had destroyed that for no reason at all. She would have helped House Stark far more than Arya ever would.
She knew Arya had something to do with this, and she hated her with all her strength for it. Arya had already been responsible for her mother being expelled from Winterfell, for her suffering...
But when she read the letter, her bitterness was replaced by hope.
The queen's letter said that she could be the next queen. That immediately thrilled her, almost making her want to scream with excitement. But she could not alert anyone, for the letter demanded absolute secrecy. If anyone found out, she would never get what she wanted.
The letter gave clear instructions: she was to flee to King's Landing and marry Joffrey, for he loved her — according to the written words — and he had begged his mother to try to marry him to her. Even though Sansa had not seen such behavior, only coldness, hearing this from the queen made her forget the eyes full of hatred that Joffrey had cast at her and her family in recent days.
She managed to forget all of his bad behavior, coming to see him only as a perfect and gallant prince, ready to take the throne at her side — at her side.
She managed to flee Winterfell in the middle of the night. Men were already waiting for her outside, and so they took a horse and rode through the darkness, heading toward the coast, where a ship awaited them. They boarded and sailed south.
But when she arrived, she was hidden from the king. She was confused at first, but the men said that the queen had asked that she remain hidden for now, as there were political complications.
She understood very well. She could hardly wait to finally see Joffrey, while the queen tried to persuade the king, as she needed his permission. As the days passed, she stayed in a manor hidden from the Lannisters.
The queen saw her one day, spoke with her, and said that soon she could finally be announced as the future queen.
She learned that her father was in the city searching for her. She grew nervous, but the queen assured her that everything was fine. Then the news came: the king had been killed, and her father had attempted a coup.
She was finally summoned to the Red Keep for the first time. She was nervous about everything that was happening, and when she saw Joffrey for the first time since leaving Winterfell, she realized that even after weeks in King's Landing, there was no man in love with her there — only coldness behind the crown.
He did not speak to her, but the queen instructed her to do several things, such as insisting that her father publicly confess that he had made a mistake and repent.
And so her father was killed in front of her.
She could not believe it. She told herself that even if things should not have ended that way, that was the price to become queen and help her family, to prove that everyone was wrong.
She wanted to have the arrogance to look at her father with a crown on her head and make him apologize, to say that she was better than Arya, living in that frozen wasteland.
Since Arya's return, a feeling of inferiority had been born in Sansa. Her younger sister, who had always been called "horse face," had transformed into a woman that everyone desired and admired — far more beautiful than Sansa herself — which left her deeply frustrated.
How did Arya become so beautiful?
Over the years, she had heard of important houses sending letters to Winterfell seeking marriage alliances, not for the eldest daughter, but for Arya Stark, as if Sansa had no value at all.
House Martell, House Dayne, House Tyrell, House Arryn, and many other important houses had approached her father with letters. The king himself had considered his son with Arya first... Whenever Sansa asked the reason, her father replied that it was due to the connection Arya had with Arctic.
Later, she discovered that Arya's beauty was also a factor. She was as the rumors described, it was real. Arya had become beautiful, with piercing gray eyes, silky hair, and a sculpted body with full breasts far larger than Sansa's and even her mother's — something Sansa had never imagined that skinny girl could have, leaving even Sansa overshadowed.
She felt the ground disappear beneath her as her mother praised the new Arya, as the eyes of pride no longer belonged to Sansa, but to Arya.
She spoke with their father easily, better than any other sibling — even Robb — on all matters. Arya proved herself intelligent, intelligent enough to speak more than five languages and openly discuss matters with Maester Luwin, and she had a sharp tongue, unafraid to use it, even against her own mother.
Later, Arya accused her mother of trying to carry out a coup against the bastard brother many years ago, which ended up resulting in her expulsion.
Sansa was frustrated at that time, but no one listened to her. It was just Arya, Arya all the time. People praised her and always wanted to be at her side.
When she realized it, Arya was already commanding the castle alongside their father, always giving advice here and there, helping Robb as well. Everyone only talked about her, and a feeling of jealousy took over Sansa in a way she did not understand.
When the king arrived, she expected to be recognized, but once again she was overshadowed by her sister. The king said he saw in Arya Lyanna Stark herself, the woman the king had loved.
Arya was rebellious enough not to bow before the king and to stand up to the queen. Sansa hated that behavior, but she also felt envy. Arya could behave however she wanted: she was fearless, intelligent, beautiful, and fierce. She proved this through her posture, her words, and her sword.
Sansa was sincere, submissive, and modest, a beautiful lady as her mother wanted and had trained her to be her whole life, but in the end, her years of training were worth nothing compared to what her sister had become. Even the king sometimes whispered about raising Arya as queen for his son.
Sansa did not want to accept the changes.
Her sister commanded men, had injured Prince Joffrey, confronted the queen, and even instructed their father, locking herself in the solar with him while they discussed matters Sansa did not understand — matters a lady should not know, but which Arya mastered, and everyone applauded her for it.
Even the nobles approached her to talk about her sister. Some compared them, wondering why Arya would not become the queen of the Seven Kingdoms.
Sansa wondered if she had learned something wrong during those moments. And when it was announced to her father that she would not marry Joffrey, she snapped. She hated her father. She hated Arya, who should be the main culprit for that. Arya was jealous of Sansa, she wanted to marry Joffrey! Sansa told herself.
And when she had the opportunity, she seized it. She would prove to everyone that she was better than her sister.
In the end, now she was there, trapped. Her father had been killed, and no betrothal had been made. In truth, the queen had shown her true colors as soon as her father died, mocking her for being foolish enough to believe in it. Sansa did not want to believe it at first, but then came the cold treatment.
Joffrey showed her no love and began to humiliate her publicly before the entire court. Sansa trembled, unable to believe how things had ended this way.
Her brother had raised the vassals of the North against King Joffrey, and he was not happy about it at all, seeing in this yet another chance to torment her while her brother won battle after battle.
The queen also did not like her and smiled every time her son acted like a monster. Sansa was slapped, kicked, and her clothes were nearly torn in front of everyone — if it had not been for Tyrion Lannister.
Sansa was now there, trapped, surrounded by people who hated her — people she had believed she could trust. Tyrion and Baelish were the only ones who showed her any pity.
The city could be invaded at any moment, and at that instant, she even wished for it. She wanted the queen and Prince Joffrey to suffer.
Now, Sansa hated herself. She hated having put herself in that situation, because now she knew reality as it was at this moment. She was no longer the foolish girl of almost a year ago, who idolized her father and fell into the traps of the queen and the monster she called a son. Now she suffered for it.
If she could change the past, Sansa would only beg to return to that foolish girl and scream at her. But it was far too late. She had committed crimes against her own family and was paying for them.
She wondered if she would ever be forgiven by everyone else, if she would survive.
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Raccoon Here:
I want to write now only about the council, Robb, and Bran in Winterfell. Then I will finish the war against the White Walkers.
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