The king's office was spacious and lavishly furnished. To me, it seemed to have settled on some kind of balance between not being too ostentatious, but enough to show the wealth and power...mostly the wealth of the realm which was essentially House Targaryen.

The walls were adorned with tapestries that depicted dragons a flight or on the ground. Famous battles and even more famous individuals. One of the tapestries had three people worked into it, a male between two females. It didn't take much of a genius to figure out who those three were.

Targaryen themed tapestries were not the only furnishes to feature the room, on the floor, a Myrish carpet of the highest quality hugged the floor tightly and dotted around the room in an orderly fashion were tomes and books attaining to one thing or another.

All in all, everything in this room must have cost a pretty penny and considering that future Tywin had a thing for being ostentatious to show off the wealth of Casterly Rock, I assumed he was going to be even worse.

Having entered the office, my notice was taken by the sofa at the side and I made my way towards and took a seat on it. It had looked comfortable and it was damn well comfortable as well.

King Aegon made his way towards his desk, removing his crown and placing it upon it. He turned around and looked at the inhabitants of the office that included me, father and himself, "Aerys, it's good to have you back in the capital once again. Although you would have spared many much heart ache if you had told us where exactly you were going."

I tried my best to not give my grandfather, the good old 'are you stupid?' Look. Even he would know that if I had done that, no-one would have left me leave the castle in the slightest, "It was much a spur of the moment thing."

The crown prince frowned, "You spurned your sister on nothing more than a whim?"

"That's one of the reasons, I suppose." I replied evenly enough, "That and for the reason that she is my sister."

King Aegon raised an eyebrow at my stressing of the word, but apart from that, he did nothing to set himself within the current conversation happening in front of him between father and son. Prince Jaehaerys' frowned slightly as purple eyes narrowed for a moment as he looked at me, "You don't want to marry Rhaella? You never made any objections before."

"And would you have listened?" I asked. Truthfully, Aerys had never actually objected to the marriage between himself and his sister. He had silently just accepted it and gone about his usual daily life without a hitch.

My father was quiet for a moment before he answered, "Yes."

"That's bullshit and you know it." I replied as candidly as possible to the look of shock and surprise on dear old dad's face. The king seemed to raise a single eyebrow in surprise or interest, or amusement. Oh yeah, I sometimes forgot that I had not filter on my mouth when I found myself rather passionate about a particular subject.

It seemed as if Prince Jaehaerys was at a loss of words from my reply, "What?"

I continued, "You married mother because you two loved each other. You very well know me and Rhaella aren't very fond of each other. Seven hells, I'd be surprised if there was someone in the castle that didn't know that particular nugget of truth. Yet at the words of some random woods witch from the back-end of nowhere, you decide to betroth the two of us together because of some half-baked prophecy? Like I said, bullshit."

Prince Jaehaerys' blinked some and made to respond, "I didn't think you thought so strongly on this."

"You never gave me or Rhaella the chance to voice our opinions on the matter. You just took it as a matter of fact as if we were going to go with what you just said." I stopped and smirked somewhat, "Which I have to say, is quite hypocritical. You, Father, are a hypocrite. You should be ashamed of yourself." Oh my, I was mouthing of to my father without a care in the world and from the look on his face, it seemed as if he couldn't believe the words that were coming out of my mouth.

Truth be told, I couldn't quite understand the words coming out of my own mouth. Let it be known that when people said I needed to learn how to keep my mouth shut at times, they were actually talking sense. I just always thought they were jealous. I'm a funny guy with a tongue made of silver.

Well, that's what I like to tell myself. It's not like I babble on and on when I'm nervous or something.

Nothing like that at all.

Prince Jaehaery's face formed itself into a mask of stone as he lost the look of surprise on his face, "...I understand that you feel strongly on this subject, but I am still your father, Aerys and you will treat me with the respect that is due of you."

Okay, I will admit, for a sickly looking guy that at first glance didn't seem to have all that much of a presence to him or just downright anything, when he actually decided to let himself be known, he let himself known.

If I wasn't sitting down, I was sure that I would have taken that moment to take a step back as I was hit with the full force of my Father metaphorically putting his foot down. I suppose if it wasn't for the fack that he was probably going to die sometime in less than a decades time meant that Westeros lost out on a great ruler that could have put a shackle on Aerys or noticed the signs of his impending madness and did something about it.

I swallowed, "I apologise about that. It was out of line, but my points still stands." Yes, I was slightly out of line, but I wasn't bowling out on my accusation of Jaehaerys being nothing more than a grade-A bullshit swallowing hypocrite.

The Crown Prince's intensity lowered some as he relaxed and his face softened, "I suppose, but believe me Aerys, it was all for a good cause. The marriage between you and Rhaella. I'm sure you can understand that the happiness of the two of you means little to the greater good, no?"

Greater Good? Fuck that. This wasn't 40k and I was not a space ninja...communist...? I can't believe I forgot the nickname the fans had given the Tau. I was more of an IG guy, but the Tau were pretty decent guys in a horrible, horrible galaxy.

But back to the topic, I sorta knew what Prince Jaehaerys was trying to say, but I wasn't in this for the Greater Good. Nop. I was in it for my own self-survival.

I'm selfish like that, especially now that I've found myself in a world that took the Medieval Ages that weren't all that bad and made it worse by adding magic, demons and zombies whilst ramping up the usual human bastardry up to twelve.

I honestly couldn't remember if this was from the books or the T.V. show, but I was going to borrow this particular quote, "See, prophecy is like a half-trained mule. But at the very moment that you start to trust in it, it kicks your head in." I nodded at myself with a small pleased smile on my face, "I would like to know of one single time that prophecy actually was useful in any form of way."

My Father and Grandfather shared a look between each other and then looked back at me, both of them, before speaking at the same time on some unheard signal, "Daenaerys the Dreamer."

Oh.

I know of that name.

Well, not me, me, but Aerys, me. She was the girl that happened to give out the early warning alert of whatever happened to Valyria.

Fuck.

"...That's like only one. A complete and utter statistical anomaly." I tried to salvage this to the best of my ability, "It doesn't count." Yes, I did not have a single reply for that apart from the age old tested and true childish reminder of, 'it doesn't count'.

Don't fail me now, old and tested answer from my childhood.

Grandfather seemed almost amused, "I do believe it does." He said, speaking up once more, "If not for her, there would be no Targaryens. I think that means a lot more than you are willing to admit."

He had a point, but I had a point to prove as well, even if that point was sinking badly into the waters faster than the Titanic.

I could feel my mouth opening and closing but no words coming out. I was actually on a blank, I couldn't think of something to say and Father decided to interject into this little conversation, looking somewhat pleased with something, "What? Nothing to say, son of mine? No quips or japes?"

"Give me sometime and I'll probably think of something." Truth be told, I was never the fastest when it came to snark-to-snark combat. Sometime, it just came to me, others, I would flounder and flop around like a fish.

"Time you don't have." That serious face of Prince Jaehaerys came onto this face again as he leaned back into his seat. He crossed his arms as if he was in deep though, "I had half a mind to see if I could wed you to Rhaella regardless of your current marriage to the Stark girl."

I had a couple of points that I needed to voice, "First of all, that 'Stark girl' has a name. And it's Branda." I listed of and continued onto my second and far more pressing point, "Second, that would be a stupid thing to do. Marry me to Rhaella when I'm already married to Branda. Last time I checked, the Faith doesn't condone such a thing and we don't have dragons to keep them cowed...or the lords for that matter. I mean, you have to be an utter idiot not to realise that the Faith has more influence among the commons than the throne and nobility combined."

I think I saw some sort of light in my Father's eyes of one emotion or another but which, I didn't have the slightest idea. Reading emotions and facial expressions was never my thing, especially if it was extremely subtle, "I'm quite genuinely surprised that you are aware of such a thing. I had expected your mind to be taken by other...matters. I'm glad that you are aware enough to be able to note such things, as basic and rudimentary as they are."

Wait hold up, did Jaehaerys either praise me or insult me? Was this a backhanded compliment? I was still trying to figure it out, "Thank...you?" Seriously, did Aerys' own Father not have that much faith in his abilities?

Grandfather Egg silently bobbed his head up and down near his kingly desk, "Your lord father had come to me with this plan of his, but thankfully, he knew better." His eyes drifted over from my Father who had squirmed slightly in his seat like a child underneath the glare of their father...which had just happened and then onto me, "Unfortunately, there's still another matter that has to be settled."

I cocked my head to the side, "Such as?"

"Your marriage. I have nothing against it, in fact, I'm rather pleased about it. We need more allies," If I don't know any better, I was sure that a glare or a very strong look was levelled in Father's direction before quickly coming back to me and softening up, "Although you could have chosen a wife from one of the Great Houses closer to us."

"I called, none were available." My joke did not receive the reception it deserved, "...Forget about it."

Egg just nodded his head slowly before continuing to speak, "You shall need to be wed in a Sept. By the High Septon. With the eyes of the lords and ladies of the realm watching. I don't particularly care for this theatrics, but it has to be done. Some more...conservative elements of the Faith might protest at having a future king wed in front of a Heart Tree." He smiled somewhat, "I had to do it as well. Some days before my coronation that is."

Huh, so people actually cared about that? Can't believe that I had actually thought of that possibility. Maybe I wasn't so bad at this whole planning stuff or maybe it was just common sense? Hmm, one to ponder.

I smiled sheepishly, "Well, I suppose we have to give what the people want. Can't be helped at all."

XxX

See, when I had first woke up in westeros...well, that was a minor lie, after quite a few hours after I had woken up in westeros, I was wondering how I was going to go the usual uplift route and thing. I mean, that's what every insert did back on the forums and stories that I read.

Well, except for that one that decided to go to essos and eek out a living as a mercenary.

Still did well for himself.

...Great, now I'm never going to know how any of those stories finish. Or be able to witness some of the amusing comments that those stories always brought.

Argh, thinking about home was depressing. It made me depressed, especially with the knowledge that I was only a couple of months away until FIFA 17 was going to be released and now I wasn't even going to be able to play it.

But back to the topic, the thing is, westeros has been stuck in a medieval society with associated tech base for thousands of years. It wasn't that innovation didn't happen, it did happen, just it took an obscene amount of time due to various factors.

I like to think one of these factors being a rather insular culture that actually won't pick up anything unless someone forcefully introduces it, and geography. Think about it, the Free Cities are more advanced in term of culture and society than westeros, Braavos more than most. I had read somewhere that it was early Renaissance or some analogy of that particular time.

My tutor, Maester Gyldayn...yes, that Gyldayn, with all the cultural superiority he could muster about the Andals and westeros in general had grudgingly admitted that the Essosi were better than us honest folk in some fields, like finance and industry and literature among other things.

The thing though, just because it took some time for things to be invented, it also meant that when it came to some things, they knew what they were doing. For example, you know that other thing that inserts always like to introduce, canning? They have that.

Quite advanced, but then again, I'm not at all versed in how advanced because I'm not a canning expert or anything like that, but all I know is that they know how to can and preserve the shit out of things. Although, in their case, it's large scale canning, none of the home scale canning that we have back at home.

They also had Arabic numerals...or a close enough copy that it was very difficult to even consider them separate numbering systems. A zero existed.

Their origin? Valyria, who borrowed the numbering system from the YiTish who either came up with the system or borrowed it from somewhere else.

Another thing, you know the four field system or the Norfolk system as I learned in school? Yeah, they have that. Have had it for years.

They also had fertiliser, but of the natural kind. Not the artificial stuff.

I was going to try and change that and honestly, I didn't have high hopes for this. For starters, I barely recalled the shit I read about fertilisers and my chemistry is horrendous.

All I could recall about the artificial stuff was nitrogen fertilisers which had something to do with ammonia...which was probably either a result of nitrogen or a natural occurring element...

Then there was potash, which had something to do with Potassium.

...Yeah, I wasn't really holding out for anything, but at the very least, I was trying right? And that was why I figured I might as well go and enlist the help of the best fucking chemists in the fucking world as far as I cared.

The Pyromancers.

As far as was I concerned, if someone could make a supped up version of Greek fire that didn't know when to quit, then they were clearly the best in their field. Pretty sure there was some magic involved, there had to be magic involved, but I didn't care.

These guys were good.

And that was why I was meeting the head pyromancer. I had come unannounced and the acolyte that has greeted us had stared at me and my company with wide eyes at my presence before running off to get the guy sitting in front of me. To be honest, I didn't really know what I had been expecting.

I hadn't been expecting the fact that the pyromancers guildhall was fucking underground and that it was fucking freezing. I hadn't been expecting to find that the head pyromancer was a rather nice fellow, smiling and laughing.

Or was he just nervous because I was probably the first royalty to visit their guildhall, in like years?

"I apologise for the current state of our offices, Your Grace." The man said, licking his lips as a smile came across his face, "It's been so long since we guested someone of your position."

"A long while, I take it?" I asked. I was alone in the room with him, Ser Gwayne, had come to like the young knight, standing guard on the other side of the door we were in.

"Not since the time of King Maegor." The pyromancer admitted sheepishly.

Didn't know what was sheepish about that, but alright. Whatever floated his boat. I cleared my throat and decided to get to the crux of the matter. Like I said, their guildhall was underground and it was fucking freezing.

"I've come to employ your guild for a very specific matte-." I stopped for a moment and blinked. Fertilizer? Why stop there? Why not get actual stable Greek fire instead of the bullshit this lot used? It was green and did the same thing except that it could be quenched...I think. Probably not, but I was probably safer to handle than the bullshit of the pyromancers. That and gunpowder? I mean why not? Might as well go that route...and if I could only now remember all of the ingredients apart from saltpeter and something else...and something about a ratio or something? "-Matters." I corrected myself.

The pyromancer raised an eyebrow, "Such as?"

"Artificial fertilizer."

The pyromancer made a face and wordlessly moved his lips, "Artifishal?" He repeated, testing out the word as if he's never heard of it, "What does that word mean? It sounds somewhat Valyrian." He laughed sheepishly, "I was never instructed in that particular language unfortunately."

"Man made." I explained to him.

The pyromancer rubbed his chin, "Man made fertiliser? I don't think I've ever heard of such a thing, my prince. How do we go about with such a thing?"

"With a substance called ammonia." I told him helpfully.

He blinked at me blankly, "Never heard of it, my prince." He replied to me plainly.

I tried to explain, to the best of my abilities, which wasn't all that good to be honest, "Ammonia is extracted from nitrogen..." Remember when I said that innovation might not be a thing here, but when it came to what they knew, they knew there stuff? They certainly knew their stuff.

Nitrogen was a thing, although I don't know whether it was actually nitrogen, nitrogen, or maybe my brain mainly translating the word that I had read in some book about the elements of the world and giving me the closest approximation. Like Google Translate.

I think I made a fool of myself for like ten minutes before the pyromancer eventually got the gist of it. I didn't know whether he was taking me seriously or just entertaining a foppish noble who happened to be royalty and thus liable to have him killed at the slightest slight.

If it was the former, great, if it was the latter, not great. So I decided to seal the deal, "If you are able to create this substance, not the substance that suddenly alights on fire, by the way, I would be more than willing to patron your guild for any future projects that might need chemists of your pedigree." I made a deliberate sigh, "I had hoped that I wouldn't have to go to the Citadel with this, as it might have caused me to raise a second...'Citadel' if you wish in this very city rather than go to a group of people who are more than capable enough."

The pyromancer's nostrils flared, "Bah! Those grey rats of the Citadel are barely the chemists that we are. Don't worry, my prince, this ammonia and potash...we shall create them, even if it is the death of me." I would really hope not, "I shall work on it personally along with the best and brightest of the guild."

And like that, he might as well have flown out of the room, nearly crashing into Ser Gwayne as he barely got out of the way. Had to give it to the knight, he had a quick reaction time. He looked at me in confusion after looking down the hallway the pyromancer had run off in.

I shrugged as I got to my feet, "I might tell you later." I actually didn't need to tell Ser Gwayne jackshit, but he nodded nonetheless.

I stepped into the hallway and began to make out way out. Had to ask a random acolyte for directions after getting lost two minutes in, "Anymore stops today, my prince?" Ser Gwayne asked as he shadowed behind me and the young acolyte that was leading us towards the exit.

"One more, I think." I told him, "We are going to make some rounds on some of the cities orphanages."

I could hear the slight sound of metal on metal and the shingle of chain as Ser Gwayne have a slight nod of his head. I was a tad bit deflated that he didn't ask why.

Probably a good reason as well. Ser Gwayne was a good guy at heart, don't know what he would think about child spies...I didn't know what to think about child spies, until I told myself that this way, I can survive a day longer than everybody else.

After all, I was numero uno as far as I was concerned.

Thankfully, Varys had given me a blueprint on building a rather brilliant spy network...just the general idea, but nothing about the logistics. That was something I was going to have to think for myself, or involve someone that I trusted explicitly.

...Man, not even a year and Westeros had already made me paranoid as all hell.

Fuck my life.