TheLifeandTimes19
patreon
A Withering Rose
🕑 Added 2024-08-29 00:53:56 +0000 UTCA Withering Rose
“Go Loras!” Little Margaery called from her place next to Olenna on the ramparts as she watched her older brother tussle in the yard with some of the other young boys in training.
“Ooh! “ She cheered as she watched Loras knock down a Florent boy a year his senior and place the sword at his throat. Garlan quickly moved between the two and picked a new boy for Loras to fight next. A boy who was new to the castle and whom Loras never fought before. Her youngest grandson practically jumped into position, always eager to learn under his older brother.
“Ha Ha! Thats my boy! Someday you will be as great a warrior as your father!”
Olenna scoffed under her breath. Each of her grandsons were practically already better with the sword than Mace ever was. Still, she couldn't help the slight smile that came onto her face. She loved moments like this. Where she could just be with her family. Without any obligations or politics that would force them to put on a show.
Oh, her family wasn't perfect. Not by any means. Each of them had their issues. Olenna had always strived to try and look for any flaws that she could see in those she loved. Taking extra care to point them out whenever she could. Shes aware that it can be grating, but she does it out of love. She wouldn't live forever. Knowing their strengths and weaknesses would only help to keep them alive when she passed on.
And occasionally they do learn to fix those weaknesses where they could.
Olenna was wise enough to know that she knew very little about fighting. The actual techniques and skills were outside of her ability to judge. Still, in all her years of life, she has developed many ways of reading the character of people. How they approach combat was just one of them. One that was occasionally very useful. Men often watched their words around her, too afraid to let something they shouldn't slip. But when they were fighting, they more often than not showed their true selves.
The next bout started. Loras rushed in with no regard toward taking the measure of his opponent. Convinced of his own superiority before even the first clash of steel. Olenna sighed. That had always been his greatest weakness. His arrogance.
She tried many times over the years to make him more self-aware. Humbler. She had very little success. The issue was that he was the best sword in his age group in the Reach. With every victory over his peers, his confidence grew, but so did his arrogance. He started to see himself as greater than his peers. That wouldn't be such a bad thing in a Tyrell, if he also didn't dismiss any of them as threats. Convinced none of them could ever be a danger to him.
Fool boy. There were more ways to be destroyed than through fighting.
After a few moments the spar ended. Loras firmly putting the boy onto the ground with little issue. Once the spar was called by his brother, he puffed his chest out like a peacock and strutted back to his starting position in the arena. Not even giving his opponent, a Redwyn boy, a second look or a friendly bit of advice to try and foster relations with him. Dismissing him completely. Already convinced the boy was inferior and thus not worth his time.
Never mind the fact that the boy was set to be sent to the Citadel in a year or so, due to being a third son of above average intelligence. Their House could always use more friends amongst the Maesters. Not to mention dismissing opponents in such a way could breed resentment. If that boy looked negatively on House Tyrell, then he would be biased against them if he ever ends up giving advice to a Lord in their keep in the future. Sure, Maesters might swear to be neutral, but plenty of men don't stick to their oaths. Even if he is one of the few who does, it would be easy for that negative opinion to reach his future Lords ears without him even meaning it.
Olenna doesn't believe it is possible for Maesters to be completely neutral. To be so would mean they have no opinions of their own that could cloud their views. While a good lord will always be aware that their Maesters opinions aren't always correct and can often be wrong or biased, there are all too many who can easily be swayed to their ways of thinking. Some who even prefer to let their Maesters rule in their stead whilst they drink and whore to an early grave.
It wasn't worth making enemies through arrogance when just a kind word or two would get them allies instead.
Thankfully it seems Garlen at least learnt that lesson judging by the way the boy's face lit up by whatever he said.
She would have to have another word with Loras about his actions.
Olenna started drifting off in her own mind, thinking about ways she could hammer that lesson into his head without him dismissing it, when a cough brought her back to the real world.
Her focus shifted to her oldest grandson, Willas, who had shown up and was waiting patiently for her attention. Shifting slightly from his injured leg, leaning more weight onto his cane.
Olenna scoffed. “Sit boy! You're making my neck hurt. Forcing an old woman to bend her neck to look up at you like that.” She grumbled.
He flushed. “Apologies grandmother. “Without another word, he sat next to her and looked out over the training fields. That was always Willas greatest weakness. He was easily the smartest person in their family, apart from her, but he needed more of a spine. Especially when it came to his family. Olenna hoped he would start giving barbs back at her one of these days. Then she would be comfortable that their family had an heir that would take care of them and curb their poorer impulses. If he had more of a spine, perhaps he would have refused that idiotic joust his father insisted on that damaged his leg so badly.
After a moment of silence, he began. “There's been news from Kings Landing regarding the North.”
He instantly had her full attention. She noticed Mace had also turned away from the sparring and focused on Willas. Good, at least he knows whatever is happening in the North is important.
After a moment of silence where Willas didn't continue, she spoke. “Well? Out with it boy.”
He hesitated slightly before speaking. “It seems the news we received from our spies in the North was true.”
Mace scoffed. “Ridiculous! Giants and The Children of the Forest are myths! My Maester taught this to me as a child!”
“Our spies in Kings Landing say that it has been confirmed by the Master of Whispers father.”
Mace rolled his eyes. “Then the eunuch is wrong. He is from Essos, they are a superstitious lot.”
Olenna interrupted before Willas could argue. “I might not trust or like the Spider, but even I can admit he is good at his job. I doubt he would report news like this to the King unless he was certain. Not unless he wanted to be a laughingstock.”
Mace had a stupid look on his face, opening and closing his mouth for several moments before he rallied. “Mother, you can't seriously believe this nonsense!”
Olenna closed her eyes for a few moments. Gathering up the strength to deal with her sons' stubbornness. “If our spies and the Kings spies are both reporting the exact same thing. Then odds are, it's true.” In truth, Olenna already suspected that it was true even before this news. Too many of their agents were reporting the same thing for it to be a hoax.
Mace all but collapsed onto the chair in disbelief. His face was blank for several moments before it quickly became filled with rage. “Those heathens! The Starks have gone too far!” Margaery and Willas both jumped slightly at the anger in his voice.
“Mace!” She barked while gesturing to her most trusted guards to make sure the area around them was clear. They had already done so earlier, but with the topic turning the way it was, it was better to be careful. Margaery quickly turned back to watching the yard. Not interested in grown up talk just yet. Olenna was fine with this, she still had time to grow.
Mace didn't even wait for them to begin their job before he went on a tirade. “No mother. Those creatures are an affront to the Seven! They are abominations. How can the Starks just accept them into their lands? “
Willas was the one who answered. “The Starks don't follow the Seven father.”
“Still! Surely they know that this will just anger the Faith even more?”
Olenna hummed. “I expect that is half the point.”
Mace stared at her as if she was mad. “What?”
Olenna didn't answer, instead looking towards Willas. She liked to challenge her grandchildren to think instead of providing all the answers.
He furrowed his eyebrows before he started to speak. “There was already a growing movement amongst the Faith in the Vale for a new Faith Militant. Some parts of the Riverlands and even the Crownlands have been having issues as well. The Starks would have always been a target for the Faith Militant. So Hadrian Stark probably cared more about gaining new allies than trying to appease a Faith that would likely want him dead anyway. Especially as his allies provide a lot of legitimacy towards the Old Gods for the Northerners. Now after the Faith landed an army on their shores, most Northerners would be more united against the Faith than before. More united behind the Starks than before. Especially as the Boltons are no longer around. But I doubt Hadrian Stark planned for the Boltons or the Faith Militant army that when he accepted the Giants and Childrens fealty.”
She hummed. “Anything else?”
After thinking for several more moments, he shrugged. “I don't know grandmother. “
She was slightly disappointed but let it go. He was still young. He would learn. “Our spies also said that Hadrian Stark executed the Septons that lead that army in front of a Heart Tree. That is just pouring oil onto the fire. It's going to anger the Faith more than it has been already.”
Mace twitched. Olenna refrained from rolling her eyes. There would be time to deal with Maces religious tendencies later. She just had to make sure he didn't do anything idiotic in the meantime.
Willas frowned. “Why would he do that though. Surely he has enough enemies with the Faith as it is. Why give them more reason to hate him? It doesn't seem smart.”
Her lips twitched. “What can the Faith do to the North? They have fought them off multiple times in the past. Now, the North is growing stronger. As long as they stay in their Kingdom, the North can fight off armies many times their size with little issue. It will be a while before the Faith can make a move on them with any hope for success. All that he has done by pissing them off, is making it so that the different factions of the Faith Militant will act more rashly to grow their power. Eager for their revenge and filled with religious zeal, they will start causing more chaos in the Vale and the Riverlands. Petyr Baelish has been very careful with his moves so far. Mainly using the Faith to hunt down the Mountain Clans in the Vale and bandits in the Riverlands so as to not anger the Lords too much. Now that all the fanatics that follow him have been angered so much, it will be difficult to control them. More of them will start causing chaos in the name of the Seven. The Lords won't take that well. Not when so many have already been prevented from acting by Jon Arryn. It is only a matter of time before things start spiraling out of control.”
Now Willas started to look properly worried. “We should kill Baelish before that happens. If they gain ground in the Reach, it could be a disaster.”
Olenna chuckled bitterly. “Oh, it won't be that easy dear. I already looked at ways to discreetly get rid of him a while ago. Baelish is always surrounded by dozens of men who are fanatically loyal to him and hundreds more who are only very loyal. He moves around constantly and is incredibly paranoid about what he eats or drinks. He is smart. An assassin would be incredibly difficult to get into position to do something about him. A faceless man is an option, but that would cost a fortune. Less discreet ways to kill him would run the risk of being traced back to us. Which would be a disaster. Even if we kill him, we run the risk of making him a martyr.”
Olenna shook her head. “No, what we need to do is make sure that the High Septon doesn't have any ideas about preaching the same message as Baelish about a new Faith Militant. We need to then make sure he is well protected. Any signs of the Faith Militant in the Reach need to be stamped out as soon as they appear. We need to start looking into our Lords, making sure none of them get any foolish notions of supporting a resurgent Militant. It cannot be allowed to gain momentum in our Kingdom. Sooner or later, the other Lords in the Riverlands and the Vale will tire of Jon Arryns approach of trying to appease them and stamp them out.”
Willas looked hesitant. “I doubt it will be that easy grandmother. They are already quite powerful. I have no doubt their numbers will grow drastically now.”
Olenna sighed, feeling all her years. “No, it won't be easy. Many lords will support the Faith, for one reason or another. Others will fight against them with all they have. I expect a civil war. It will only get worse the longer the King does nothing to stamp it out. All we can do is prevent it from gaining any hold in the Reach while preparing for the coming storm.”
A somber silence descended on them.
Mace decided this was the correct time to open his mouth. “If the Faith is going to be such a problem, why don't we support them?”
Willas looked at his father with a baffled expression. Honestly Olenna wasn't that much better.
Noticing the looks on their faces he hurried to explain. “We don't have to do it openly. We can give them some weapons. Let them preach with little issue in the Reach without stopping them and watch the way the wind blows. If they look as if they are going to lose, we lose little. If they look like they are going to win then we can be assured that they won't move against us.” He started to get excited. “Perhaps we can even have them preach about our families right to rule the Reach if they win. No one would move against us if we had a restored Faith Militant on our side. Our family would be secure.”
Olenna had to physically hold herself back from hitting him. “That might be the dumbest idea you've ever had Mace. The Faith Militant cannot be controlled. It's made up of fanatics. They're too unpredictable. Thats not even going into what our bannermen or the King would do if they found out about it. No one with any sense wants a New Faith Militant. If we are discovered, it would be catastrophic. The only reason the King hasn't done anything about them yet is because Arryn believes he can reason with them. He thinks he can walk in the Conciliators shoes and end this uprising with a quill. Sooner or later the King will realize it was the Cruel that broke them, the Conciliator just gave them a way out of further destruction that they could swallow. This will be bloody before it is done. The best we can do is keep our family out of it completely.”
He clenched his jaw before relenting. “Fine mother. But what about the North. They are just getting more and more powerful and if you are right, the South is about to get a lot weaker. Something must also be done about those abominations.”
She hummed. Here, Mace actually had a point. “Our reports say there are only a few hundred of them. I doubt Stark would be willing to risk them in a war. Even if he does use them, men have driven them to the point of almost extinction before. It can happen again. But we can't plan on anything without knowing more about them. I don't want to make any rash moves. As for the North getting more powerful, there's not much we can do. Their new farming practices will cause their population to rise no matter what we do. There's no stopping it now. We can start looking at perhaps making an alliance with them. It will be difficult now that Hadrian Stark has taken in those creatures and with the Faith Militant on the rise, but it might be doable if we can get some of our bannermen to propose it depending on how the next few years go. As long as it looks as if it isn't our idea our bannermen might accept it.”
Mace looked horrified. “You want to ally with them?”
She scoffed. ”I don't see why not. Hadrian Stark is going to marry Myrcella Baratheon. If we can get a marriage agreement with Sansa Stark. Then that's Tyrell, Stark, Lannister and Baratheon all allied together for the next generation. We would be secure. Then if we can get Margaery as Queen, she would also have a strong list of alliances to draw upon. We have time to consider that however. It's better to see what happens in the next few years before deciding anything.”
Mace looked angry for a brief moment before he calmed down. “ Surely the King will no longer marry his daughter to Stark?”
She snorted. “I doubt this would stop him. More, he will need to have a marriage alliance with Stark now. Some Northerners have always called for independence. Those voices are only going to get louder as the North gets more powerful. Another reason to try for a marriage with Sansa Stark if we want Margaery to be Queen of all Seven Kingdoms, instead of just six of them.”
Mace huffed. “It doesn't matter how strong they get mother. Declaring independence will just set all other Kingdoms against them. They won't be able to defend against us united.” His eyes shone. “Especially if we use their own techniques to grow our own strength.”
“We’ve already been over this Mace. We already use most of the land we have that's suitable for farming and we export as much as we can at the moment.” She snapped. “If we adapt their new farming techniques without proper preparation, we will have a lot of food that will go to waste. We need to first finish opening up new trade deals with Essos, the Iron Islands and Dorne before we can use these techniques on a large scale. I have already been working on that and have a few promising contracts. But even then, we will have to take it slow as the price of food will plummet even more if we adopt it too quickly, leading to plenty of farmers earning a lot less coin which will just lead to large scale banditry. The Riverlands is about to have that problem very soon because the Tullys decided to adapt as many farms as they could without thinking of the long-term consequences. “
She took a breath. “We need to let our smallfolk slowly get used to this reality so they can adapt and find new jobs. We also need to prevent merchants from the Riverlands from selling their cheaper produce in the Reach, to try and keep as much coin in the Kingdom as possible. It will cost us some coin in the short term, but we will make up for it by avoiding chaos and making sure we prepared proper supply lines to Essos, so that when we do start using these techniques, we have somewhere to sell all the excess food we will have while still making a lot of coin.”
Willas groaned. “Desperate people in the Riverlands will be all the happier to join the Faith Militant.”
Olenna grunted. “Things are about to get a lot more complicated.”
Mace cursed. “Fucking Starks!”
That was something that she could actually agree with. “Fucking Starks.”
Comments
robert_lisson
tommorrow? :)
TheLifeandTimes
Yeah, had a bit of writers block, I had to replant the next few chapters as I wasn't very happy with them. The next chapter should be released tomorrow.
Holosagewolf
Its been a month and then some you alive?
Frankie Escobar
Hello a great chapter I read it like 6 times. In was wondering when the next one will come out its been a month now, cause the suspense is killing me haha
Abstein
That's the thing, I want to see the chaos that's happening around westeros before and after Wyman reaches KL but only if we had more than 1 chapter/month
Gabriel jakubovic Canejo
Hey i Just Came Back to Patreon After a While and i Forgot, when is a New Chapter updated? Is it Really Once a Month or It's not a schedule thing exactly?
Yiğit Yağcı
It would also be nice to hear Catelyn's and the others' thoughts. Especially. It would be interesting to read the children's reactions.
Yiğit Yağcı
I honestly don't know what to think about this. On the one hand, I'm curious to see what the other houses think, and on the other hand, I don't want to wait a few months to go back north. Is there a chance that you will have more frequent chapter in the future?
Jacob
That is true I was expecting more information about the actual north so slight letdown
Kevin Thunder
Agreed. No reason that Wyman and the Tyrells couldn't share a chapter.
Asharzal
It's funny how many of the more pious people in the South are all like "How dare they?! Everything non-human must be exterminated!" or "How dare House Stark accept the fealty of these, these monster!? We know they don't follow our religion, but they should still bow to our demands!"
TheLifeandTimes
Next chapter is Wyman, then it's back to the north
Abstein
The thing is if the next few chapters are just "westeros reacts to..." we still have the Lannister, Tully and martell family's focused POV to read before Wyman reaches kings landing. So we could end up waiting 4 months for the story to move on the worst case
Jacob
Good chapter very Tyrell focused so gives a good insight on what the other houses are thinking and planning
