Chapter 471 - Driftmark.

Chapter 471: Chapter 471 - Driftmark.

[Chapter Size: 3500 Words.]

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Third Person POV

Crownlands, 300 AC.

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Despite the strange things that had been happening in King’s Landing over those last few days, the council decided that it would proceed with the wedding. Even with such tension. Tywin, in particular, was rapidly pushing the wedding forward, with many daring to say that he was desperate, to create a direct alliance with the Tyrells.

It was his only way to have any chance of surviving what was happening in Westeros.

While no one could understand anything, Cersei was trying to pressure Dorne into sending its army as quickly as possible, through unofficial letters. But no news had come from Dorne by then, and soon her growing anger began to turn into hysteria.

Dorne still had Myrcella, who had been sent there by Tyrion, while they no longer had any hostages. Their only hostage had been Oberyn, who had been burned to death according to the witnesses, and her dwarf brother had told her some things that she was beginning to think might be true.

Perhaps they did not have the leverage she thought they might have. The Dornish could become angry because none of them had managed to protect Prince Oberyn and might even take it out on Myrcella. Cersei’s arrogance behind her mask soon changed, and desperation began to take over her eyes.

Then she began sending letters with demands and threatening them that, if they touched Myrcella, they would pay dearly for it.

Meanwhile, Tywin also seemed quite worried. He had been drinking more over the last few days, and Tyrion, when he went to help him, could hear him mentioning the names Jaime, Kevan, and Casterly Rock all the time. His father was troubled. The truth was that his brother Kevan might already be dead by that point, and they would not even have any way to confirm it. All they could do was wait.

And so the days passed, until finally the wedding day would arrive tomorrow.

A few days before the wedding, a Lannister scout north of the Crownlands was observing the area behind a river so that he and his horse could have something before returning south, when he managed to spot some smoke in the air, in the distance. He went to investigate what it was and, approaching the northernmost bay in Brune territory, passing through a forest, finally reached the place only to be met with a sight that frightened him the moment he saw it.

A gigantic encampment near the coast, in a lower area where almost no one would be able to see it, stretched out before him. The man could barely take in the countless tents scattered across the area, the innumerable men and even giants walking through the camp, while there were at least fifty ships anchored along the coast.

But when he finally decided to return and turned his horse around, he found himself facing several men of both small and normal stature, holding a kind of crossbow he did not recognize, and which looked very well-made. That was not good at all for his situation.

"You’d better get off the horse."

The man immediately raised his hands and jumped off the mount, swallowing hard. "What are you going to do with me?" he asked fearfully.

"Nothing much, but we’re going to need your cloak and some of your clothes. Be thankful you’re not a soldier we’re going to slaughter on the battlefield. You might even live to see the end of this fight... this war," said the Arctican, watching the man with an amused tone.

"You... you’re them?"

"Yes, we’re them," said a dwarf with a hammer in his hand. He wasn’t wearing armor, only casual clothes, since they weren’t about to enter battle. The nearest enemy army was still stationed near King’s Landing, so they were more relaxed there, with only a small portion of the force that had just arrived on the coast to gather information and also divide their forces, establishing a few posts farther north to protect the rest of the fleet.

"Tie him up," said the dwarf.

The man had no choice but to allow it. He was soon tied up and taken into the camp, while he watched a man putting on his clothes and cloak.

"Are you planning to infiltrate?" the man asked.

"Do you only state the obvious, man? Just stay there and keep quiet, understood? I already told you that you were very lucky to be caught now, because when we advance against your army, we’re going to crush you completely," said the dwarf, leaving the man frightened, as he watched everyone move away while talking among themselves, with him now being their prisoner.

"Go. You know what to do," said a leader to the man now dressed as the scout they had captured, as he mounted the horse and rode off into the distance.

It wasn’t only in Brune. Several places north of the Crownlands were filling with ships along the coast coming straight from the sea, entering the Bay of Crabs, while anyone who could see them was immediately hunted down, either by Arcticans stationed in the region or even by animals the wargs were controlling.

Some had control over horses and could make them throw off any rider who tried to race away to warn others about the small camps that were forming. Arctic wanted to keep the entire region under control. They intended to prevent King’s Landing from learning of their arrival until the royal wedding.

Meanwhile, on Driftmark, a boy with platinum Valyrian hair walked through the corridors with his uncle, who looked quite similar to him, with platinum hair and Valyrian eyes. The boy couldn’t help but stop in front of one of the windows, looking out at the harbor. There were at least six hundred ships anchored there, stretching beyond the harbor, all bearing a single banner.

"Lord Ducken told me they have more than a thousand ships," said the little boy with great admiration.

"That’s quite a fleet," said Aurane Waters, also staring at that fleet filled with weapons capable of dominating the seas.

As a man who had lived at sea ever since he had been small enough to fit aboard a ship, there was no way Aurane could fail to recognize what the Arcticans had accomplished over the last few years. His brother, the former Lord Velaryon, had not paid much attention to the Arcticans before, until they finally began doing business in the south of Westeros, starting with Dorne. Monford Velaryon had already seemed shocked, and later came the news of the conflicts, and they were called upon to attack them alongside the royal fleet. They had already attacked Oldtown, the Lannister ships, destroyed the Redwyne fleet, and there had also been the destruction of the pirate fleets, even before the war against the royal fleet.

They made sure to eliminate even more pirate groups later on, and Aurane could not have been more shocked over the years.

Pirates who were known by name and feared for their reputations had simply been erased ever since those ships arrived on the seas. Aurane even wondered whether the Arcticans had any idea just how dangerous the men they had annihilated with those weapons had been.

And, frankly, he believed they did not. None of them cared. Those pirates were now nothing more than a waste of alchemical fire fired from their ships. His brother had certainly begun to fear them, but the real change came when they discovered who Jon Arctic was, Rhaegar’s last living son.

Aurane did not take part in the Battle of the Blackwater. He was sent by his brother to White Harbor, in an attempt to gather information about Jon Arctic, try to make contact with them, or at least make an attempt to venture into the North to warn them about what was happening in the south.

Unfortunately, the answers were not very positive. The Manderlys, at the time, had no intention of sending ships north of the Wall, even though they desperately wanted to speak with Jon Arctic, especially after hearing about his arrival at Winterfell. They knew that many ships had been sent by mercenary groups from Essos, but none of them had returned. They were all destroyed back then, especially with the terrible visibility, since most of the day remained dark.

By the time he returned south, Stannis had already lost the battle. His nephew was now supposed to be the lord, and there was no longer any way to follow Stannis’s cause while he had turned his attention toward the North. Stannis had even sent a request to him, but Aurane refused to answer it.

Aurane was thinking about many things at the time. He had even considered becoming a pirate, but after discovering that the Arcticans had returned, his plans changed immediately. Everything would depend on what that group did, after all, they were the ones who would determine the entire war now that they had returned. And what a return it had been... they had made all the Ironborn pay. Stories that they had spared no one echoed everywhere.

Never in Westeros had there been such a massacre. There had already been conquests, deaths, and the extermination of leaders and their families in the most extreme cases, but practically an entire people, to the point of leaving none of those they captured alive, was disturbing even when they were talking about the Ironborn.

Even so, the Arcticans were ruthless with those they considered enemies. There were stories of sorcery, of an entire forest turning against the Ironborn and hunting them with thousands of animals. And now, in the west, they were somewhere on the continent. The last news they had received was that they were attacking the Freys and had returned to the sea.

And shortly afterward, the news arrived, Dragonstone had fallen. A letter was sent to Driftmark aboard a ship, asking whether they were friends or enemies. Any response would be intercepted by the Arcticans, and more than fifty thousand men would simply be stationed before Driftmark with around a thousand ships if they refused to follow their orders. Taking the island was part of the strategy to keep their army in that region.

Despite this, the letter made it very clear that they knew Aurane had spoken with the Manderlys and that House Velaryon, if it supported Arctic, would be well rewarded.

Despite the threat, Aurane and his nephew accepted, just as they had planned from the beginning. He felt a little afraid, but they soon saw that the Arcticans were not a cruel group, they were highly disciplined and respected the rules. There were no problems when they arrived with around six hundred ships, Aurane and his nephew also met two extremely important men in the army, who held very high-ranking positions in Arctic, equivalent to members of the king’s Small Council. They were called ministers in that kingdom, holding roles that the council of Westeros did not have.

One of them was a dwarf and was the Minister of Infrastructure and Construction, responsible for the entire dwarven race, as they explained. The other was Arctic’s chief general himself, commander of the army after the king.

One claimed to be more than three thousand years old and that his people had been living inside a mountain until they met the current king and were recruited by him. The other, to everyone’s surprise, had once been nothing more than a simple soldier from the North, serving in a small town belonging to a minor noble, a vassal of the Glovers, since fiefs were always divided among lesser leaders of each land, and he met Jon when he was only 9 namedays old and decided to leave for that crazy thing beyond the Wall.

The man certainly looked nothing like a simple soldier from the North. He was tall, imposing, and spoke in a firm and authoritative tone, certainly someone accustomed to shouting orders to thousands of people on a battlefield. Aurane had never seen Randyll Tarly in person, but he believed that man must have a presence similar to his, perhaps even greater. After all, when it came to the Arcticans, things never seemed ordinary.

During their reception, when they talked for a while, the man laughed and even the dwarf named Thor joined in the laughter, saying that when he first saw Ducken, he looked like a slender, short, and thin man who had offered to serve in the Royal Guard. Ducken confirmed that, at the time, he had already begun to change, as they had established Arctic some time before coming into contact with the dwarves hidden in the mountains.

The man said that, over the years, he had managed to learn from the king himself, who in turn had learned everything through a Green Vision, something Aurane and his nephew did not understand very well. He had also gained experience by beginning to command those who, until then, had been wildlings, turning them into decent groups of warriors until they became a relentless army.

And every one of those men had trained day after day within the kingdom for the great war they fought against the army of the dead. All of that had begun more than a decade ago.

"The largest fleet in the world," said his nephew, looking at his uncle.

Aurane simply nodded. "They were already the most powerful before, but now... three hundred ships on the western side of the continent and more than fifteen hundred here. What man could have imagined that they had such strength and that what we saw before was only a fraction of what they truly are?" Aurane said, looking at the boy with a certain satisfaction.

The boy used to be frail and sickly. And these men arrived with a solution to his problem... According to them, the king himself noticed it and sent a recipe to the alchemists aboard the ship, since they even carried medicinal herbs among the resources needed to create medicines.

It was unbelievable, because no one else would do something like that around here. Normally, they gathered plants along the way, or wounded and sick men ended up dying in the middle of the military campaign, while only the nobles received better treatment directly from the maesters of the castles or even those they brought with them.

But among the Arcticans, they seemed to treat everyone equally. There was a unit solely dedicated to caring for the sick, with at least two thousand men specialized in the field among the eighty thousand troops of the total army that had arrived on that side.

And they brought the solution to Monterys’s problem, the young and current lord of Driftmark, with only 6 namedays.

"Come on, they’re waiting for us, nephew," said Aurane.

The boy quickly skipped away from the window, nodding as they moved toward the end of the corridor.

On the other side of the doors to the next chamber, they could already hear voices discussing the plans. When they opened them and entered, they saw some men staring at them, but most continued discussing, barely paying any attention to the two of them. In the middle of the table was a gigantic map of the Crownlands, with several points indicating enemy positions and the outposts that were being established.

It was an enormous piece of hide filled with details. According to what Aurane had discovered, they had maps of almost every region of Westeros, basically to aid them during the campaign, since he had heard some of them grumbling that they could not be like their king, whatever that meant.

"The wedding is almost here. Our king has already given information directly to Lord Staunton. He will receive us, and we need to send a group of men first to reinforce his forces before the main force marches... We cannot allow the common folk to flee and warn the others, not when we want to surprise them with the entire army marching toward King’s Landing on the day of the wedding," said one of the men.

And Ducken did not fail to glance at a bird that was there watching. It was a raven that generally took part in important meetings. After all, everyone knew exactly who was behind that bird.

The king might be on the other side of the continent, but even in a meeting on that side of Westeros, he still had the final word. The bird could even utter a few words in the human tongue. The general simply nodded upon seeing the animal nod.

Aurane certainly noticed that and frowned, but did not want to say anything. Even so, he could not help but look at the bird with a certain caution. The raven stared back at him for a moment. It seemed as though Aurane stood before a man studying him, rather than a simple animal.

That was disturbing. All he had to do was connect the rumors and stories he had heard with the authority that bird seemed to possess, making even the general of an army of eighty thousand men look at it as though asking permission for whatever he decided, to discover who was truly behind those eyes.

"Then let’s begin. We need to move the entire army of eighty thousand men into the Crownlands, and we’ll start with Staunton," he said, while everyone nodded.

They were already waiting for the next reaction, which would basically be to observe the number of ships. Whether they were lords who had supported them or not, they would dominate the region and prevent the commoners from leaving. With the wedding only two days away, no one would miss them or notice anything strange happening in the north. They were also using the Lannisters’ own desperation, pressuring the Tyrells to hold the wedding, to launch the attack. So even if some news reached their ears, they doubted the wedding would be interrupted.

And it was better for everyone that the Tyrells bear a stain due to their greed for power at the moment they were allied with the Lannisters.

Lady Margaery might have been kind to Jon and even harbored a certain affection for him when she first met him, but politics was politics. Jon would have an excuse, instead of using only force to suppress the entire Reach in the future.

He needed the war to happen. He needed to destroy their army. That would sacrifice men and cause even more people in Westeros to suffer, but it would also be a direct blow against the enemy and would go down in history. After all, a throne conquered too quickly and easily could lead people to believe it was fragile.

"But let’s begin, then. Lord Monford, how is your health?" Ducken asked, approaching the two as the rest of the group began to leave.

The orders were already being relayed to Dragonstone, where they were holding around one hundred and sixty merchant ships they had captured since arriving. They would let them leave without any trouble. Even if they warned others about the Arcticans now, it no longer mattered. The only point was to prevent them from reaching the Crownlands and alerting the enemy for the time being, since they wanted to surprise them and prevent any attempt to stop their advance onto the mainland.

Of course, if that happened and they were forced to remain at sea, King’s Landing would be struck by a rain of wildfire fired from the ships themselves. So, there wasn’t exactly a weak point.

They simply wanted to do it in the best way possible. They didn’t need to burn an entire city. They could do as they had done at Riverrun, blowing up its walls and invading the city. There were other options. They wouldn’t need to go to that extreme.

"I’m well, my lord. I wanted to thank you for everything you’ve been doing," said the little boy.

The general nodded. "Thank His Majesty. He was the one who told us about your illness. Now, we have a war to fight. Soon, you’ll be walking into King’s Landing so we can swear allegiance to a new king, the King of the Ten Kingdoms," said Ducken.

The boy nodded. "I can also fight in the name of House Velaryon," the boy declared.

The man simply smiled, thinking of his daughters in the North. "You’re still only 6 namedays old and you’re just recovering from an illness that weakened you for years. Leave that for next time. I’m sure the king would agree with that as well, and I know you’ll have another way to see him," Ducken said to the young Velaryon.

The boy nodded. Although a little frustrated, he had to accept it.

They went on to continue organizing the army.

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