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Chapter 64 - The Vale
🕑 Added 2026-01-26 21:47:50 +0000 UTCVale of Arryn
100 YA
The Thunder Dragon soared over the cold mountains of Vale. Carolaine Arryn had taken her court to Eyrie, fearing that her bannerman might assault the Bloody Gate to depose her.
Circling down the ancient keep, the dragon hovered before the small gate. The doors of the carriage underneath it opened. Ei, followed by Kage, Chiyo, and Sasayuri. The puppet helped the Oni maiden down, while Sasayuri flew down on her wings.
The guards were running around like headless chickens. Queen Carolaine, far braver than her men, came out of the gates. Covered as she was against the cold, only her childish face that was slowly maturing was seen.
She looked resolute for a fourteen-year-old.
“Your Excellency,” the Queen of the Mountain and Vale bowed, far deeper than she should have.
“Queen Carolaine,” Ei greeted her back with a shallow nod.
“We have much to speak about. Please, allow me to welcome you in.”
She followed the young queen inside, glancing at the guards and the courtiers. Hushed questions accompanied the hesitant looks. Queen Carolaine must have kept the letter a secret. Otherwise, she might have been dead by now.
The ancient seat of House Arryn was impressive in a way. Built at the top of a mountain, a siege was impossible. Without support from the skies, this keep was one of the greatest defensible places in the world.
Against mortals, of course.
She took them to her solar, a room with a raging fireplace. Wood has been stacked inside, and in this cold, they would have to be constantly burning to avoid deaths.
“As I am sure you are aware, the situation in Vale is tense. Half my bannermen want the kingdom to open to the outside, and the other half wish for the opposite,” she explained after taking her place.
The Vale did not have many trading partners after Queen Regent Shara Arryn and then her son, Ronnel, unofficially banned traders from her kingdom. The North did not trade with the Vale in the first place, and the Kingdom of the Rock did not produce enough foodstuffs to trade.
The Vale was self-sufficient when it came to food, but the lack of trade had increased the prices on the coastal lands. Not everyone could afford to feed their bellies.
Traders from the Valyrian Empire were opportunistic, and the poorer houses, such as Corbray, Coldwater, and Lynderly, suffered due to the increased food prices. The Graftons and Melcolms were discontent as they saw less trade each year.
The remaining lords were content to be cut off from the kingdom of heretics.
It had resulted in the Battle of Redfort, where both sides nearly annihilated each other. It left her position as an unwed young queen extremely precarious.
“You think the solution to it lies in becoming a part of the Storm Kingdom?” Ei asked. This girl was far wiser than any child of her age in the neighboring kingdoms.
She nodded, “I believe that eventually, you will conquer the remaining kingdoms, whether through blade or with peace. I simply wish to get ahead of the curve.”
“You are wise for your age,” Kage praised.
Carolaine reached down for the bottom drawer. She pulled out a book.
Management of Land in All Its Aspects, by Her Excellency, God of Thunder, Argella Durrandon
“You read it?” Ei asked. The books written in the Storm Kingdom were banned in the Vale.
“Among many of the books written in your kingdom. Some traders brought them to Vale, and they were to be burned, but I managed to save them,” she answered. The young queen was clutching the book rather tightly in her hand.
“Your kingdom has grown in wealth, people, and strength year after year, while we all wane. If I don’t join your kingdom today, the smallfolk will revolt again and do so eventually,” she explained.
The winter did not break the people yet, but it was grinding them down each day.
“I am inclined to accept your offer, but the lords will not be given mercy should they be belligerent,” Ei warned.
“I have no wish for you to spare their lives over a misguided sense of kinship.”
“Very well.”
“I will summon my bannermen to the Bloody Gates, at least those that will arrive, to surrender my crown.” In the sight of the nobility of the Vale, she would surrender her crown. There would be no talks of coercion by the lords.
“We could take her with us on the dragon,” her shadow suggested. It would save on the travel time.
“I appreciate the thought, but it is for the best if I travel with the court. I do not want rumors to arise.”
The fate of the Vale rested on her shoulders; the discomfort of the ride was nothing compared to it.
“Then we shall return to the Storm Kingdom to prepare the army for an intervention should there be resistance.”
The details of the Vale becoming a part of the Storm Kingdom were the same as with the other prefectures, minus the tithe taken from the coffers. The new governor would be decided through merit.
Ei knew Carolaine had a great chance of being the first governor of the Vale Prefecture.
She would open the trade routes to solve the immediate issues the people of Vale faced, starting by bringing in foodstuffs. The winter would be over soon, as she had expelled the influence of the Others after accepting Carolaine Arryn’s offer.
Should any of the belligerent nobles refuse or resist, no quarter would be given. On a brighter note, the army would get to test the new weapons in a real environment.
Further details would be left for the meeting at the Bloody Gates.
—
Storm Kingdom
Storm’s End
“It’s barely been two days,” Saiguu said as the group entered the garden. The kitsune was lounging under a shade, attended by the Children of the Forest, who had become her unofficial minions.
“Everything went smoothly. Carolaine will surrender her crown at the Bloody Gates. Her bannermen will be there to witness it,” Ei explained, taking her seat.
“I will go and prepare an adequate force to march,” Sasayuri said. Ten thousand men, along with the new cannons, would be enough for the broken forces of Vale and the mountain clans.
Chiyo left to gather grain and preserved foodstuffs. Riverlands was the closest prefecture. With its farming growing by leaps and bounds in the last century, they had more than enough to spare.
Beyond the orders, the Riverlanders worshipped the ground Ei walked on. Even if it was a voluntary contribution, the people of the Riverlands would fatten the entirety of the Vale.
The Reach Prefecture would be sending their share as well. The people there were not the zealots the neighboring Riverlands were. The septons were the most active in the region, having written the rest of the kingdom off as a loss.
Still, a growing section of the population was worshipping Ei. The septons were racing against time, and time always triumphed.
—
The cabinet received the orders to create a plan for the integration of the Vale. The First Princess Aluna Durrandon, as the leader of the cabinet, began the work in earnest.
Everything would start with infrastructure. Paving roads and building ports to restart the trade was the first step. The Vale’s internal resources would undergo an investigation to prop up the local economy and turn the region self-sufficient.
The mountain clans were a thorn in the side of the region ever since several of the First Men refused to yield to the Andal invaders and fled the fertile fields of Vale and hid in the Mountains of the Moon. With the weakening of the Vale, they were more active than ever.
The Minister of Defense, General Sasayuri, created a plan with the Minister of Internal Affairs. The mountain clansmen would be offered a chance to be a part of the kingdom. They would be free to keep to the faith of the old gods. However, kidnapping women, raiding, and other illegal activities would be barred.
Any women who have been kidnapped would be set free to return home. The clans that refused the offer would be hunted down until every warrior capable of fighting lay dead.
The ones that took the offer of peace would be allowed to settle across the kingdom, sharing the full range of civic rights every citizen had.
Houses Frey, Roote, and Hawick would extend their roads to the neighboring lands. House Roote would be the ones to pave the path to the Bloody Gate, where the army would cross into the region to ensure security.
—
Queen Carolaine Arryn, at the age of fourteen, handed her crown to the God of Thunder with a deep bow. Her bannermen, broken as their forces were, did not resist. They gave the oaths of fealty with scrunched faces and went home.
Carolaine would not be the governor due to her young age. During the transition period, she would instead be the vice-governor to Prince Randall Durrandon. Younger than his sister, Aluna, he too had received an excellent education. A contender for the position of the First Prince, he had narrowly lost.
Undiscouraged, he had instead applied to work in the Ministry of Infrastructure. His talents would serve him well in the Vale.
Once Carolaine had learned all that Randall could teach, she would make an excellent candidate as the governor.
The distribution of foodstuffs, in addition to the healers sent by the latest ministry to be created, the Ministry of Health, had reduced the tensions among the population.
The livestock took a hit due to the harsh winter that has been going on for two years. The lack of trade did not make it easier for the granaries. The old, injured, non-breeding, and surplus livestock have been slaughtered to stave off the fodder.
It would take time for those numbers to return. Meanwhile, the rest of the kingdom would pick up the slack by feeding the Vale until the snows melted and the farmers started to work again.
The first mountain clan to be greeted by the expeditionary force was the Stone Crows. Antagonistic against the forces of the God of Thunder, they were annihilated in quick order when the Thunder Dragon detected their campsite.
Black Ears, led by a woman who wore the ears of her enemies as a necklace, challenged the Commander of the Expeditionary Forces, Chiyo.
The duel had lasted a whole second. Chiyo blurred from her position, cutting the metal part of the woman’s axe in half. Her blade had stopped just shy of cutting her skin open.
She had yielded.
The Burned Men, Milk Snakes, Painted Dogs, and the Moon Brothers clans were destroyed. The winter had weakened the clans, and the summer made them more willing to commit to dangerous raids.
The remaining clans had surrendered. They would be allowed to practice their culture, except for the parts that were banned, such as mutilation of self and enemy, raids, or kidnapping women.
All kidnapped women, who weren’t many to begin with, were taken back home. Some had chosen to take the children they were forced to give birth to, to the outrage of the males, but most had chosen to leave the children with the clans.
Forcing oneself on another person, regardless of the gender, was a crime, and the fathers had either chosen to go out by combat or were hanged.
The situation in Vale began to stabilize with each passing day.
—
The echoes of Vale’s willing submission to the Storm Kingdom were felt in Essos. The heir to the High Archon, humiliated by the Kitsune Goddess, had been considering an alliance with the Vale. His plan was to prop up the Arryns to lead deniable attacks against the Storm Kingdom.
When Jarred Arryn died and left a little girl as the Queen of the Vale, he had decided to travel to Vale himself. He reached the docks, only to learn that the little girl had bent the knee to the God of Thunder.
He left, furious that his plan was over before it even started. It did not mean he was giving up. If the Vale was out of the board, and the remaining kingdoms were too afraid to act, Aerys knew where else to find allies.
Kandac could only be reached by the long-distance ships of the Storm Kingdom. The Valyrian Empire had many talented artisans and shipwrights. They should have no issues building ships to traverse the Sunset Sea.
Word on Kandac was scarce, except that they were three islands locked in an ever-changing game of superiority. Also distrustful of the outsiders, Aerys knew if he could convince at least one island to accept the empire’s assistance, he could have allies.
The Ironborn were mere prisoners, and they worshipped an actual god. If Kandac had a god too, why shouldn’t it fight for the lands of his followers?
The Kingdom of the Rock and the Kingdom of the North feared they might share the same fate. If the people rose in rebellion because they wanted the life the Storm Kingdom offered, or just as bad, they kept abandoning their respective kingdoms, where would they be?
The nobility was only a small part of the population compared to their power. If the fields were not tilled, blacksmiths did not smith, and there were no workers, how would the kingdom stand?
Begrudgingly, both kings agreed that the God-Queen’s idea of improving the smallfolk’s lives was not some divine flight of fancy but the brilliant decision of a ruler.
Which led to Casterly Rock and Winterfell reaching out to the Storm Kingdom for cooperation on carrying the same reforms into their kingdoms.
Researchers from the Academy of Transience were sent on tours in both kingdoms, tasked with understanding the current state of the lands. Natural resources, state of the trade, internal security, and whether the lords were capable of ruling or not would be documented.
The reports would then be examined by the cabinet to determine whether the Storm Kingdom should assist the neighboring kingdoms or not.
If a positive decision was reached, action plans would be made to see how the Kingdom of the Rock and the Kingdom of the North could be uplifted.
The Kingdom of the Rock possessed many mines, the source of its wealth, yet it was rarely invested to create more stable sources of income. No matter how deep, those mines would eventually run out.
Lannisport still received a great deal of trade, but its importance has been lessened due to the increasing number of ports in the Storm Kingdom. Without the canal shortening the voyages, the situation would have been worse.
The North was more desolate. Its underground resources were not explored. Considering the size of the kingdom, the potential wealth beneath the snow could be astronomical. It was such a pity they were too content for the last eight thousand years to explore their kingdom for gold, silver, copper, tin, coal, and other valuable resources.
—
Notes: Time skip next chapter. Also, the first three chapters of my original story, Arrival, is out. Please let me know what you guys think
Comments
Rachel N
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Bal
I doubt they know their dragons will turn tail and run when Ei is close or her friends
Jugubi Wolf
I’m going to assume aerys going to lead to the Targaryen’s losing their dragons
orcun demir
Not really. The Reachers cannot deny Ei's power, so no matter how boastful the Riverlands look, it is all truth. Since they can't break the law by attacking an entire region based on religious beliefs, even the most die hard woshippers of the Seven have to swallow it.
Bal
Have there been religious conflicts between the Riverlands and the Reach?
Orchamus
Methinks the family fuckers about to get fucked up.
