Chapter 294: End of the Meeting
Dreadfort, Bolton Lands
POV of Domeric Bolton
"We'll leave by the end of the week," Domeric said and then continued. "Now, Tyrion. Tell me about the mass migration from Kings Landing and Gulltown."
"It's… going slowly." Tyrion said, "Even if these people have nothing to their name, they're still afraid of venturing into the unknown lands. So far, we've only been able to convince some 10,000 men and women to come to the North to live in the New Gift. The ships from the Royal Fleet had been loaded with these people and had been sent up North. They'll arrive within a month or so. That number should also increase once the others see that more and more people are migrating up North."
"I see." He said, "Does anyone else have anything important to report?"
Lyra got up from her chair, and he nodded at her to speak.
"The King and his entourage have finally reached King's Landing." She said, "Lady Sansa and Lady Stark went there along with Ser Rodrick Cassel and 100 Stark guards. I heard that some kind of altercation happened between Lady Sansa and Prince Joffrey on the way to King's Landing. Prince Joffrey became angry, and Stark guards moved to protect Lady Sansa. One of them grabbed Prince Joffrey's hand as it raised to strike Lady Sansa. For this, the Queen had that guard's weapon hand cut off."
Of course, "Lady Sansa" Lyra was referring to here wasn't the genuine Sansa. It was the Imposter Mannequin who had taken Sansa's place. The genuine Sansa was currently training under his aunt as Domeric's bastard half-sister.
But very few people were aware of Project Gemini, and even some in this room were unaware of it. Therefore, when Lyra mentioned the imposter mannequin in her reports, she had to refer to it as genuine Sansa.
On the other hand, Domeric had told the members of the Small Council that the person training under his aunt wasn't really his half-sister. However, many still didn't know her identity and assumed she was simply someone Domeric had recruited for protection.
After all, they couldn't possibly believe Sansa was in King's Landing while simultaneously being here.
"How did the Starks react to the Queen's attitude?" Domeric asked Lyra.
"The tense atmosphere between the Lannisters and the Starks has become even more fragile at that point. Once the Starks reached King's Landing, Lady Stark didn't allow Sansa to go anywhere without at least four guards on her side all the time."
"This does not bode well." Tyrion said, "My sister is a vengeful beast. Once she sets her eyes on someone, she won't stop until she has utterly ruined them. I don't think that Starks will have a good time at King's Landing."
"Moving on." Lyra said, "King Robert Baratheon has started yet another Tourney as soon as he returned to King's Landing. For the betrothal of his son, Prince Joffrey Baratheon, and Lady Sansa Stark. Will you be sending anyone for this Tourney, my lord?" She said while looking toward Varko.
Domeric scoffed. "As if the King needs any reason to host a tourney. And yes. Varko can easily participate in the melee and then return before the ships reach Hardhome. Are you interested, Varko? What is the prize money this time, by the way?"
"20,000 gold dragons for the melee champion," Lyra said.
"Some extra gold will not hurt," Varko said, already having earned more than 200,000 gold dragons in all the melee competitions he has won so far.
He wanted to ask Ygritte if she was interested in the archery competition, but the Queen hated him and knew that Ygritte was his lover. She might try something exceedingly foolish to pay him back for her humiliation, for which Domeric would have to kill her and make an example out of her.
He would rather not do that, so he didn't ask her anything. "Any other news?" he asked.
"Only rumors about the next Hand of the King," Lyra said.
"Let me guess. Stannis?"
With how much Robert disliked Tywin Lannister, there was no way he would make old Lannister his hand anytime soon. And truth be told, after Lord Arryn died and Lord Stark rejected the offer, the King doesn't really have any good choice left.
Lyra nodded, "It seems Lord Stannis is going to be the next Hand of the King." She said, "Though I'm sure that the King plans to take as long as possible to hand over that position to his brother."
"No doubt about that, King really doesn't want to give Stannis this task, but he knows he has no other choice," Domeric said and gestured with his hand for Lyra to continue.
Lyra nodded, "One last thing. Daenerys Targaryen is set to marry Khal Drogo in short order. Should we do something about that?"
Although it wasn't very clear, Domeric could understand the meaning in Lyra's tone.
Daenerys Targaryen was one of two existing participants in the Gemini Project. The real Daenerys Targaryen currently lives in a house in Braavos.
Living in the house with the red door, where she had lived as a child, was one of Daenerys's conditions for the Gemini Project. This was a simple matter for Domeric, and he had Lyra purchase the house in his name at his behest.
Currently, all of Daenerys' needs were met by Domeric's treasury, and all Daenerys did outside of his everyday daily life was regularly watch Imposter Mannequin's memories and see what her life would have been like if he hadn't accepted Domeric's offer.
Meanwhile, Sansa was also regularly watching the memories of her mannequin replacement.
Domeric wanted them to know what their lives would be like if he didn't help them.
What Lyra really wanted to ask here was whether Domeric wanted Imposter Mannequin to continue behaving like Daenerys and keep up with this marriage, or whether Domeric wanted it to act differently.
"No. Let the beggar prince dig his own grave. If he's naive enough to think he can control Khal Draco and bring his Dothraki army to Westeros, then he deserves what he gets." He said.
The Imposter Mannequin he used for Daenerys in Project Gemini had performed the ultimate cloning ritual with Daenerys Targaryen. Frankly, Domeric had to use quite expensive and rare materials for this.
But if the information he had gathered about the Imposter Mannequin was correct, the mannequin currently replacing Daenerys was 100% identical to her.
And Domeric wondered if this mannequin could hatch dragon eggs like a Targaryen.
"Does anyone have anything else to add?" Domeric asked when Lyra didn't say anything for a while.
Lyra shook her head, and the others likewise shook their heads after Lyra.
Domeric got up from his chair and said. "This meeting is over then. You're dismissed."
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Next Chapters' Name:
Ch.295: Dragon Hatching Ceremony
Ch.296: A Day of Triplet Sisters
Ch.297: Construction of the Forts at the Wall