Next up, The Hammer falls down on the Darklyns

Blackwater Bay

Lord Baratheon had been recently asked to attend to the Council meetings, although he had no formal appointment to it. He had been doing so since shortly before the tourney at Lannisport, but he had returned to Storm's End afterwards. It did not take much to have him join us, he, Lannister and Father were close friends after all...

He was also a Family man.

I had hoped that this outing would let me meet my removed cousin Robert, however, it seemed that the lad was already at the Eyrie. Perhaps I'd find an excuse to visit Lord Arryn at some point. However, priorities are priorities, and right now, that meant ending this whole mess at Duskendale in a way that could allow me to diminish Lannister influence at court...

"Lord Baratheon" I greeted him calmly as I reached the deck of the Stormlander ship. He smiled at me, perhaps in the most sincere smile I had from anyone who was neither my close family, Arthur, or Lady Ashara. So, I smiled back as we shook hands.

"I am glad to count with you My Lord. I believe we are due to meet Lord Velaryon."

The walk back to a boat, and then the rowing and walking until we reached the quarters of Lord Velaryon on the Sea Snake was made in silence.

The meeting with Lords Velaryon and Baratheon was not a long affair, as both men agreed that the current circumstances gave us little choice anyway.

I vaguely recalled that Father may or may not have named Lord Steffon as his Master of Whispers, which was a task he was clearly not built for. Now, Baratheons have always had an understanding of warfare, and as Sun-Tzu once said, Warfare is based on deception... But courtly intrigue and palace plots were not in the nature of Lord Baratheon -and they would be even more of a strange thing for his son-

Once it was done, we all went to get some rest. The following morning we would stike at dawn.

That night, my mind drifted on to the world of dreams. I had never been a dreamer in my old life, actually, it was pretty strange for me to have a dream that I would not forget within fifteen or so minutes of waking up.

That night however, I had one such dream.

I was riding, riding to battle. By my side was a large man who had a cloak of black and gold on his armour, wielding a warhammer, as well as what could be called a phalanx of spears glistening in the sun, with the sun and spear in their shields. Banners of trouts wolves, seahorses and many others were fluttering in the wind... What unsettled me was the enemy.

The fight was in a sunny place, too sunny to be the Others coming south at last. The enemy flew scarlet banners, as well as orange and yellow banners with no symbols upon them. Fiery red cloaks and shields, screams in tongues from lands as far away as Mereen, we were outnumbered, and badly.

I could now see more properly the place, we were in a beach, on the midst of summer, the enemy was coming off of boats, and their fleet was huge, easily as large as Nymeria's Rhoynar fleet. But no women or children were here, only warriors. To our back there were hills, and a castle atop them. I unsheathed a sword, of the dark Valyrian Steel, and looked at the men that rode by me. Not only was Baratheon there, Arthur was here, Stark -Brandon Stark- and finally, Jon Connington.

I woke up as we charged them, never to know the result of this battle.

Shortly before dawn, I went to the deck. Getting on my armour and picking up a sword, I began walking to the boats. The one saving grace of all of this was that they had been forced to strip down the defenses at their harbor to reinforce the walls.

The bugle sounded, and a hundred rowboats touched land, knights and warriors came down and cut down the unsuspecting guards. I was there, and felt it like a haze. Kill or be killed, parry, sneak the blade in a weak spot of an armor, evade, parry and repeat. In the confusion, It took me a few seconds to notice that one of the men I had slain so unceremoniously wore a richer armour and had the arms of House Darklyn on his shield.

As the voice spread that Lord Denys Darklyn laid dead, his forces began surrendering, and we made our way to the Dun Fort.

In the fort, some of the defenders still resisted, but they were overwhelmed fairly easily. Few amongst our men died, and many men surrendered. As the soldiers secured the castle -and I gave orders that Lady Serala was to be brought alive to me- I ran to the dungeons, praying that Father's Sanity was not yet irreparably broken.

After killing a couple of guards who had no idea of what was going on, I reached his cell.