Tyrion scratched his nose absently with his free hand as he walked down the hall to the Council chambers, his other hand occupied with holding a thick sheaf of papers. The papers contained notes from his conversation with King Bran last night, after the Iron Bank's representatives had been fed and sent to their beds, and he hoped he would not need to use them. It had been a late night, trying to think of all the right questions to ask his Grace to prepare for this morning's meeting, a process to which he was becoming more accustomed but at which he was not sure he was getting better. Nonetheless, he now had a wealth of information. He smiled to himself. Yes, this meeting was going to be all about wealth.
Bronn and the bankers, already seated at the council table, nodded to Tyrion as he entered, but Bronn didn't pause his story, a recounting of how he'd reached a compromise with the Master of Ships over funding. For every ship the Crown funded, the Crown also funded the building of a new brothel, the profits of which then went to paying for the next ship's construction. "As I told 'im, ships won't come to your port if you don't have whores waitin' for 'em, and if you 'ave sailors spending their money on whores, some of the money might as well go back into shipping," Bronn finished, sitting back with a self-satisfied smile. Tyrion had to admit, the plan had worked better than he'd expected, and even Maester Samwell and Ser Brienne now had to bite their tongues at Small Council meetings when the subject arose. Money was money, and trade was trade, and right now they had precious little of either.
"We are glad to hear that his Grace has someone with such business acumen as his Master of Coin," the banker called Tycho Nestoris smoothly replied. Bronn grinned broadly and looked at Tyrion to make sure the dwarf had heard the comment. Tyrion pointedly ignored him as he shuffled his papers and surreptitiously examined the two Iron Bank representatives across the table. Tycho Nestoris had a bland expression that matched his plain clothes and face. The other banker, Noho Dimittis, had similar expression and clothes, but he allowed himself the extravagance of a beard, which he seemed to be fond of stroking. Tyrion had noticed last night that the duller the conversation topic, the more Dimittis stroked his beard. Dimittis had kept his hands clasped on the table during the whores and ships story but now his hand was creeping toward his chin.
"Well, banking is an interest of mine," Bronn started. If Tyrion had longer legs, he would have kicked the Lord Paramount of the Reach under the table. "So what is it you gentlemen are here to discuss?"
Good, put the burden on them, Tyrion thought. Dimittis's hand moved back to the table. Had Bran not mentioned Nestoris's and Dimittis's imminent four days ago arrival, the Small Council would have been completely surprised by the Iron Bank's visit. Even as it was, Tyrion had spent much of the last few days and nights trying to figure out why the Iron Bank had chosen to visit and whether the visit was to collect old debts, create new ones, or just confirm the dragon parts for which various Essosi had taken out loans actually were from a dragon. Bronn, being Bronn, had told Tyrion he might as well stop worrying because they'd find out soon enough. Bronn does not play the game like his predecessors would have, Tyrion thought. Perhaps that was why Bran had insisted Bronn be Master of Coin over Tyrion's objections that the former sellsword was more suited for Master of War.
If Nestoris and Dimittis were surprised at Bronn's direct question, they did not betray it. Well, Davos says they dealt with Stannis, and a more blunt man than that is hard to find, Tyrion reflected. Nestoris, as usual, replied first.
"The Iron Throne has some outstanding debts to the Iron Bank," he started, holding up a hand as both Tyrion and Bronn opened their mouths to argue, "but we recognize that there has been a change in leadership. So, we may be willing to forbear collecting on those loans, understanding Westeros's current dire financial situation, and we are here to offer financial assistance for you to feed your populace during this long and hard winter. I believe you currently are relying on sales of dragon carcass parts to buy food, but dragon carcasses are finite resources."
Bronn spoke first. "I'm a simple man, so I prefer simple terms. Does forbear mean forgive, or just delay while more interest piles up?"
Dimittis found his tongue. "Forbear means that we will not press to collect the debt now."
Bronn exchanged an amused look with Tyrion. "Seems to me that debt was incurred by a queen who's not only dead but defeated. There's no relationship between her and his Grace, King Bran. Do you usually take your bad loans and wander around telling other people to pay them, hoping you'll eventually find a sucker?"
Tyrion struggled to hide a smile as Nestoris's mouth tightened. "If the Targaryen girl were sitting on the throne, no, we would not be asking. But seeing as your regime killed her after she defeated Queen Cersei, it would seem that you were aligned with Queen Cersei or at least, with her interests. After all, I do believe the King's Hand is Queen Cersei's brother?" He turned and faced Tyrion with a raised eyebrow.
"Considering my sister had a bounty on my head, and that I was Hand to that same Targaryen girl who defeated her, I don't think the happenstance of my birth can be held as proof that King Bran was in any way aligned with Cersei. Moreover, the Iron Bank funded neither Daenerys Targaryen nor the Starks and other Westerosi who have taken power, so the normal arrangements you have do not apply."
"Multiple bounties," Bronn interjected lazily. "In fact, she offered me a cartful of gold to stick a crossbow bolt in his guts."
Nestoris made a small but irritated gesture. "This is all semantics. We made a loan to the Iron Throne and we will collect it eventually. Robert's debt became Cersei's debt which is Westeros's debt. And while she paid off most of it, there still is an outstanding balance."
Bronn raised his eyebrows at Tyrion, who shrugged. Bronn stood. "Since you gentlemen are so concerned with the Iron Throne's debts, how about we pay a visit to that Throne to see what it thinks about it?" he smiled jovially at the bankers. "C'mon, a walk will do all of us some good."
Bronn whistled while leading them through the short passage to the throne room, Tyrion trailing behind the other three. The Master of Coin gave the bankers a cheeky grin as he pushed open the door to the throne room and gestured for them to enter.
Tyrion wished he was in a position to see their faces as they took in the ruined space. Bran had told the Council not to bother repairing the space, so the throne room still was the same as when Daenerys had rained fire on the Red Keep: open to the sky, ringed with rubble heaps and ruined pillars. The two Braavosi slowly walked to the dais, silently looking around at the destruction as they went. When they stopped and stared at the space the throne formerly had occupied, Bronn strode up next to them. "And that slag heap, gentlemen, is all that's left of the Iron Throne. You still want to try to collect debts from it? Be my guest." He knelt down and picked up a bit of metal that had splattered. "Here, you even can have a piece of it."
The bankers just looked at him. Bronn slapped Nestoris on the back. "So now that that nonsense has been taken care of, let's sit back down and talk business. Care for some wine? It's not Dornish red or Arbor gold, but it's better than water. But then again, all wine is better than water."
Tyrion allowed himself a lingering look at the Iron Throne's remains before he left the room. Such destruction, he thought, so much destruction for so little gain.
They returned to the Small Council chamber, the bankers looking thoughtful. After they were seated and Bronn poured a round of wine, which Nestoris and Dimittis fastidiously refused, the negotiations resumed. "I suppose that the Iron Bank can come to an agreement about that debt. But you have other, more pressing, matters at the moment," Nestoris advanced.
Tyrion sighed. It was his turn.
"Yes, we were planning to ask for a modest loan eventually," he started.
Nestoris and Dimittis both leaned forward slightly.
"But we're not confident right now that the Iron Bank is the place from which we would like to borrow."
"I'm sorry, my lord, but what bank were you considering using? I don't believe Westeros has a bank capable of the loans you need." Nestoris's words carried a slight edge of skepticism.
"We were thinking Volantis. It does have a bank," Tyrion kept his voice matter of fact.
Nestoris's reply dripped with sarcasm. "Volantis's bank is a tenth the size of the Iron Bank's. And we are here now, while it would take you months to travel to Volantis or to request the Volantene bankers to travel here. And there is no guarantee they even would deal with you."
"That is where you are wrong," Tyrion replied. "We have information they want."
Dimittis guffawed. "What information do you have that would loosen their purse strings to loan such a sum of money to a penniless, starving nation on another continent?"
"We can tell them which Triarch you replaced with a Faceless Man," Tyrion stated simply.
There was a clatter as the front legs of Bronn's chair, which he'd tilted back while lazily cleaning his fingernails with his dagger, hit the floor. Both Nestoris and Dimittis stared at Tyrion with slightly gaping mouths. Nestoris recovered more quickly, so Tyrion suspected he knew already about the deception. Dimittis took another moment to recover and then started protesting. Nestoris silenced him with a gesture.
"My lord, that is an extraordinary claim," Nestoris said smoothly. "I take it you have proof?"
Tyrion gave him a small smile. "Enough. And we know of some other Iron Bank activities that might be of great interest to its borrowers or those who are considering borrowing from it."
"So what exactly are you proposing, my lord?" Nestoris asked, leaning forward.
It took the rest of the day, as well as part the night, for the deal to finish. In the end, Tyrion only needed to identify one other piece of Iron Bank chicanery – funding both sides of a Myr-Tyrosh dispute, then paying the sellswords working for the Tyroshi to switch sides, so that Tyrosh lost and could not repay the Iron Bank and had to cede control over a strategic trading port to the Iron Bank as payment. Tyrion barely needed to start that story before Nestoris cut him off and agreed to the terms on the table.
Which was good, because those were the only two schemes Bran had been able to discern over the past few days. Tyrion did not doubt there were more plots Bran eventually could discover and Tyrion could leverage, but the longer the bankers stayed in King's Landing, the more likely they were to discover the source of Tyrion's knowledge and make arrangements to get rid of it. As it were, Tyrion suspected that some Iron Bank heads were going to roll when Nestoris returned to Braavos, but that was none of his concern. King Bran now had enough funds to cover another ten years' worth of food shipments, should they need them.