Queen Asha Greyjoy

She sat the Seastone chair as Queen of the Iron Isles, and yet the way in which she had come to her throne still bothered her greatly. She had contested her uncle Euron's claim to the throne, claiming that as the last surviving child of Balon Greyjoy's loins the throne was rightfully hers, her uncle Aeron had said that no woman could sit the Seastone chair and as much as he might not like it, the Drowned God had chosen the Crow's Eye as their king. Asha had laughed and had asked her uncle when had the Ironborn ever cared what any god had ever had to say, and retreating to Harlaw with her uncle the Reader she had begun plotting her next move. She had thought that her uncle Victarion being the loyal lapdog that he was would remain with the Crow's Eye, but he had surprised her by turning up at Harlaw with half of the Iron Fleet- the good half- and roughly half of the lords of the isles. Raising her standard she had declared herself the rightful ruler and war had raged across the isles. For a whole year the Isles were engulfed in war, Asha saw more death and destruction in that time than she had seen in around ten years of raiding and pillaging following her father's first rebellion. At the end of it, the Crow's Eye was killed by her uncle Victarion in revenge for some sort of sin committed many year ago, and her uncle Aeron placed the driftwood crown atop her brow. The civil war had been a year ago and yet the Isles were still not fully recovered from it, and that was why she had reached across the pond to the North where they had once held sway, for an alliance and men.

She had thought that the north would reject her alliance, considering that her brother had been the one to take Winterfell and kill the Stark boys, and yet Wallace Stark a man whose reputation was growing with every day, had accepted and terms had been set. And some three moons after the terms were agreed Ser Morton Waynwood, Stark's brother arrived with 300 men, and they had begun planning their move to take the Shield Islands. Whilst Asha had been received with a lot of hostility by most of the men under Morton's command, Morton himself seemed to have no problem speaking to her, speaking her mind to her. It was that she supposed that had attracted her to him, and him to her, and whilst there was a lot of pressure on her to marry, she had found that she did not truly wish to marry yet, not until she had had her fun with Waynwood. And even though the man was married with two children, they had fallen into bed with one another before leaving Pyke, and for the time that they had been out at sea they had been lovers and confidants and much more. It was a very invigorating experience for her, and one she had wished had not to end, even if it would soon have to.

The sounds of battle raging brought her back to her senses. They were fighting to bring the Shield Islands back under Ironborn control, and whilst her uncle Victarion had command over some thirty of the Iron Fleet's ships to take Grimshield and Oakenshield, Asha had command over the rest of the fleet to take Southshield and Greyshield. And as such the fighting that was raging was fierce and quick, Asha raised her axe as a Reachman came charging towards her, Asha cleaved him in two and then marched on swinging her axe like a woman possessed. She kept swinging her axe cleaving men in two as they kept coming in large numbers, swinging, hacking and blocking, on and on she went, bringing more and more men down as she went, her axe was wet with blood, the ships floorboards were stained red with the fallen blood. On and on it went swinging her axe, left right and centre on and on, she knocked one, two, three, four, five and then six men and pushed on, onto the next ship where the same thing happened once more.

Morton was fighting next to her, his face flushed from the fighting he turned to her and gave her a mad grin before shouting. "They're defences are weakening, soon enough we shall have the ships we need to take the castles." Asha nodded and together they pushed on, swinging her axe, whilst Morton cleaved through another man. The fighting went on and on and on, and in the midst of it all they got separated, but Asha paid very little attention to that, instead focussing on keeping her axe in front of her and trying not to slip on the amount of blood that was on the floor. And so with her axe stained red with blood she came across the last of the greenlanders commanders and as she cleaved through his skull, she raised her axe in triumph they had taken command of all the greenlanders ships, and now their assault of the islands began.

Sometime later once Southshield and Greyshield had been captured, Asha found herself sat in the great hall of Greyshield celebrating with her men drinking and feasting. A messenger had told her that her uncle had captured Grimshield and Oakenshield and was making his way over to Greyshield to hear what more she had to say, the drinking and feasting continued well into the early hours of the morning, and Asha was more than a bit drunk when the castle maester came shuffling up to her and whispered in her ear. "Your Grace, I have bad tidings. The man you asked me to care for? Ser Morton Waynwood? He died from his wounds just now. They had gotten infected and though myself and my helper did all we could to relieve the pain and tidy the wounds up there was nothing more we could do."

Asha feels some sort of pain in her chest at the news but merely nods her head and says. "Thank you for trying maester, you may rest now." And with that she gets up and leaves. When she wakes up the next morning her head is pounding and there is an emptiness to her, that has nothing to do with her empty bed. By afternoon the rest of the castle is up and awake, and though there are a few soar heads they are all smiling and cheery for they have done something that has not been done for 300 years they have taken the entrance to the Reach. Eventually after lunch has been had, Asha calls a council to discuss what their next move should be, her uncle Victarion as well as Ser Harras Harlaw, Nute the Barber, Alton Volmark, Dennard Kenning and Tarius Pyke are all present. Asha takes a sip of water and then says. "Well done my lords, we have hold of the Shield Islands, and therefore have managed to prevent any retaliatory attacks on the isles from any one from the Reach. Of course once news of our victory here reaches the Iron Throne they shall wish to retaliate anyway, and as such we must prepare for that. But for now we must plan where we shall attack next."

Her uncle speaks then his voice heavy and determined. "There is only one place where we can truly attack and realistically expect to succeed and that is the Arbor. The Redwyne Fleet is most likely still in King's Landing, and for now with the weather being how it is, it will take them a lot of time to get from King's Landing to their homeland to defend it. In that time we can raid the Arbor, take what wine and other plunder we wish, and if you so desire capture it, or alternatively simply set it to the torch."

There were murmurs of agreement there. Nute the Barber a simple man as ever one Asha had ever met said. "Aye, take the Arbor get drunk on their wine and fuck their women, and then burn it to the ground, and we shall have sent a clear message to King's Landing."

Tarius Pyke spoke then and asked. "Aye we could raid the Arbor and burn it once we are done, but I thought that you had promised to expand the Ironborn's control over Westeros, how is doing this expanding control? This is just resorting to what Dagon Greyjoy did those many years ago when the dragons still ruled. If you want true control go for where the Reach's strength and power resides, not that flowery seat of Highgarden but Oldtown. Take that, or even take what you wish from there, and the world will sit up and take note."

"And how do you propose we take Oldtown Pyke?" Her uncle Victarion asked. "Oldtown has never fallen, not to the dragons or to anyone else, the last time the Ironborn tried to take the place, Urrigon Greyiron and half his family ended up dying on the banks of the Whispering Sound. To attempt taking Oldtown is akin to suicide."

Pyke though was unrelenting. "Aye it might be suicide, but what of the old way? We are Ironborn not greenlanders, such risks are in our blood, have always been in our blood. To attempt to take the Arbor but not Oldtown I believe is cowardice. Take Oldtown and we can then move onto Highgarden and from there the whole of the Reach."

Her uncle rebutted that by saying. "Aye, we have just had a civil war from which we are not fully recovered, and we are lucky that the shield islands are so sparsely defended. Oldtown will not be, whereas the Arbor might be. With Morton Waynwood dead as well, there is also the question of whether or the not the men who came with him will remain with us to the end whenever that might be."

Asha spoke then. "Whilst you both have put in good arguments for what we should do and why. I feel that I am more inclined to attack the Arbor, we know it has a lot of wealth and resources, things we desperately need. Oldtown is too risky for us what with how few men we truly have. We must plan carefully and go from there. That is the only way in which we shall ever actually achieve what we have set out to do." With that said, Asha dismisses her men and ponders how they will attack the Arbor and when.