Chapter 06: Wards and Alliances

King's Landing, Crownlands

3rd Moon/4th Moon, 259 AC

I was headed to my father's Solar to have our bi-weekly Cyvasse game, which I started after returning to the Capital as a way to help my father with his mental health, he was always frail, and the tragedy that hit our family was too much for him, the only reason he seem to be okay is because he realize the precocious position that the royal family is in and that he needs to be strong in front of the court.

He was most devastated by Rhaella's death, he blamed himself for forcing us to marry because of that damned prophecy, and now he regrets making her unhappy for the short amount before her death.

Our bi-weekly games helped a lot with his state, as the mental challenge and the talks that we had assisted with processing his grief in a positive way instead of bottling it in, we talked a lot about family and remembered the good times and the fact that I was not depressed and was handling myself better than him made the process easier and encouraged him.

After the game, I went to my mother's chambers to read books together as in my games with my father, I found my mother more relaxed with books so I made it a habit to read books of all subjects with her daily to lessen her grief, and the three of us made sure to have all of our meals together alongside Aunt Rhaelle and Good-Uncle Ormund, and lately with cousin Steffon who arrived from Storm's End, we all agreed to talk no politics on meals time, all of those activities helped tremendously with both of my parents health.

The recent awakening of my bloodline has shown wonder today in the training square, as my physical abilities were enhanced to a knight level as Ser Edric stated, not only that but my handling of of the longsword has risen by leagues, and as expected my archery skills reached the level of a veteran, the men-at-arms started talking about my talent and how I was the Dragonknight born again, Ser Edric was pleased that my increased effort and discipline is showing my before wasted talent as a future Knight.

Regaining my perfect control over my magic, along with the arrival of a shipment of goods I requested from Dragonstone at the port saw me heading to Maegor's Holdfast straight away without dallying accompanied by a carriage carrying said goods.

Entering my chambers I regarded the chest that was carried inside by some servants, it was made of some hardy Oakwood and painted with the Three-Headed Dragon of House Targaryen to show the owner of the goods, after securing the door I opened it to find myself staring at various chunks of Obsidian that were procured from the abundant mines of Dragonestone.

As for what I need this material for, Officially I am starting a new hobby of carving, which I let slip during a Small Council meeting so that it spread around masking my true purpose which is creating Wardstones, as obsidian from Dragonstone showed a great affinity for conducting magic, courtesy of the Dragonmont housing my family Dragons for centuries.

Making Wardstones wasn't that hard, it only required knowledge which I have in abundance, and great focus which can be said to be my middle name, warding my chambers was my first goal, so I could sleep more comfortably at night, my second objective was my parent chamber, which requires more discretion, but will go long way in not only assuring their safety but will further improve their health and even increasing their fertility, as despite my father health he is perfectly able of producing children and so is my mother, the only reason they didn't try after Rgaella was that they thought is enough to have two children, now with our state, it was easy to plant the idea in their heads and to be honest their nightly activities has improved their relationship, because after father forced me to marry my sister against our desire, while he married for love ignoring the fact that he compromised our

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House relations with two Paramount Houses, my mother didn't agree with him, and their relationship cooled after that, now with all that happened and my intervention, I hope I will be having a little sibling soon enough, as for the risks to Mother's health, let's just say that mother will have the easiest pregnancy and labor in the Seven Kingdoms.

Following this routine, another moon passed in this busy manner, during which Nobles from across the Realm kept pouring into King's Landing, and I was busy again politicking and making connections, to be honest, I was most pleased with my interactions with the Northern Houses, as dealing with them was easy because their lack of political nuance (except for few) and they weren't desperate to please me with fake words and promises.

Ironborns were the least pleasant to deal with, except for their Lord Paramount Quellon Grejoy who from probing his mind proved his genuine dislike for their Iron Ways, and the want for change, another Lord that pleasant to deal with was young Rodrick Harlaw who was one of the few Nobles of Westeros who has a genuine interest in knowledge to the point it got him the moniker of the Reader, that was demeaning in their cursed Isles, the rest of their Lords had heads full of lust and greed for the riches of the mainland, a problem that I intend on helping Lord Greyjoy deal with.

Most of the Reacher Lords Riverlords were stupid and greedy waste of space who were lucky to be born nobles, others like the heir of Horn Hill who was a martially inclined and a man of duty who doesn't think the World owes him like the rest of his countrymen.

The Westerlander were divided into two camps one loyal to House Lannister, led by House Marbrand, and the other camp led by House Reyne wanted more influence to usurp their overlord, which is something I talked about in length with my friend and heir to the Westerlands Tywin Lannister.

The Vale Lords are vain fools who have a flawed view of honor, and the notion that only they know honor, especially the Andal Houses led by their Overlord House Arryn, some of them were of the good sort, chief among them are First Men Houses, such as House Royce and House Redfort, that I shall find allies in.

The same can be said about three Riverlords that were the kind that uphold their oaths and don't have a foolish look on honor, those three were Lord Roger Blackwood, Lord Rodrick Darry, and Lord Petyr Mallister, whom I made sure to listen to their complaints and ideas as I see them as our best chance of securing the Riverland, and with how useless and overambitious Houster Tully, I don't think I can make amends with him and win House Tully loyalty back, as he blame House Targaryen for his House weak hold of the Riverland, because of the broken betrothal, conveniently forgetting their never had a strong hold on the Riverland that was granted to them by House Tragaryen.

The Dornish as always are the honorless snakes that hold no regard for oaths and have no dignity, except for House Dayne, who kept to their First Men tradition, and with their familial relation to my House, it's a safe bet to make the Daynes stronger so that they will be a deterrence against House Martell, as their most problematic Lordly House the Yronwoods are a known Blackfyre supporter that I don't want to see rise beyond their position, and I don't want to antagonize the Martells I just want to warn them not to cross the line, something which will they understand loud and clear.

House Tyrell is the most worrying of our Paramount Houses, as my family didn't just wrong Lothar Tyrell, but his wife Olenna Redwayn, by two broken betrothals, and Olenna from what I gleaned from her mind is someone who holds a grudge and is overly ambitious to see her blood on the throne.

My strategy against them is to strengthen their Lordly Houses by granting them some positions at court and some boons using the coming war as an opportunity, another strategy is to use my mind arts to convince the Reacher Lords to start selling their food products directly to the North as they do with the Stromland, by sending their goods to the King's Landing to be shipped to White Harbor, and not rely on Houses Tyrell and Redwayn to sell their food, taking House Tyrell leverage on food prices, thus lowering the prices of foods that the Tyrells and Redwayns have been keeping at as high as possible knowing that with how harsh the Winters in the North, House Stark and their people will have no option but to purchase so that they can survive, the thing that made the North population and infrastructure keep declining since the Conquest, especially since the taking of the New Gifts wrongly by my ancestors.