So, that's what a Tywin temper tantrum looks like. Well, a serious one at any rate. Definitely something to be afraid of, that was to be sure. You see, the note I'd sent with Stannis had been opened, read and begrudgingly executed as he and the naval forces of the Crown had beaten down the Iron Island fleet. The decree that the letter contained, signed using my currently titles, decreed the elimination of the Greyjoy family except for Theon in Winterfell and Asha, a current resident of the Islands. It also called for an Ancient Rome-style decimation of the crews of the ships of the Iron Fleet. As in they would all line up in groups of ten, draw lots and nine would beat the drawerer of the short straw to death with their bare hands. I hoped that it would be a brutal reminder of what it was truly like to pay their so-called Iron Price. This was their price for daring to betray the Iron Throne. These executions were the exception to my stay on executions as a message needed to be sent. The decree lastly called for a kingsmoot of the Iron Islands to elect a new ruler of the islands. If Theon or Asha got the title, full power to them, if not, well, hopefully they'd be somewhat more cowed after what they'd had done to them.
Regardless, since it was another thing that I'd failed to inform Tywin about, he was pissed. Adding to that was what he perceived as unnecessary violence. Which was ironic, coming from him, but I sat and listened. All the islanders needed to be was pacificed, to which I reminded him that my father had done that and many members of the Targaryen's had done that. And yet, here we are having to pacify them once again. This way, the Iron Islanders would think twice about rebelling against the Iron Throne in the future as we have taught them how we pay the iron price for their continued loyalty. Or so I hoped at rate, it could spur them towards rebellion in the future, but for right now they were rather busy licking their wounds and sending their dead out to sea. Still, my arguments didn't do much to stay the anger of my grandfather, but it did lessen it somewhat and he did congratulate me on my critical thinking. He seemed to possess the opinion that this kind of tactic would only breed resent and have the islanders thinking about revenge. So, exactly the opposite opinion to mine, to keep a long story short.
I could understand that, and time would tell as to which one of us was correct. I apologised for not informing Tywin sooner, but my dealings with Cersei and Jaime had taught me that it was regularly in my best interests to keep things away my mother's side of the family. In the spirit of opening up to my Hand and ensuring the continuity of things, I let him know about the dealings I was going to be having in Braavos, the wildfire currently stored not too far from the city, the gunpowder (or black powder as I was calling it), and the Master of Roads goings on. Sufficed to say that he needed to take a few moments to absorb what I'd just told him. There was plenty I wasn't telling him of course – about Jon Snow for example – but this was some of the stuff he needed to know. I resisted the urge to smile as he calculated what I was trying to achieve.
After a while he nodded, and asked to be kept informed at Small Council meetings. I shrugged and agreed. It was a reasonable request and the stuff I was doing was bound to come up at the meetings anyway, so best he find out now and not later and get even angrier. Though, I got the feeling that he'd be doing his best to keep an eye on me and what I was doing from here on out so that this sort of thing didn't happen again. This was going to be fun to be sure as our personalities clashed.
Not too much later, Qyburn showed up. The former Maester was somewhat confused as to why the Crown would be interested in a man like him, which just caused me to grin. I put what cards I had on the table – I was aware of the medical testing he had undertaken and why he'd been expelled from the Citadel. I added that while I didn't necessarily agree with his methods, the results had spoken for themselves. All of which surprised him, as he wasn't aware that any of what he'd done would have reached his ears, I merely commented on the efficiency of the Iron Throne's intelligence apparatus and that we knew more than people gave us credit for. Still, after a short conversation about whether he wanted to continue his work – which he did – I offered him the chance to work for me. As in my Joffrey Baratheon, not the Iron Throne or the Small Council or anything like that. Having someone like that on the payroll would definitely be useful and I didn't want it getting back to Tywin or anything like that.
All it took was a discussion with the Keeper of the Second Key, who dealt with funds regarding the king's purse-funds for the king's personal interests. Hiring and funding Qyburn definitely counted as that, and it kept it off Tywin's radar, along with Tyrion when he returned and reassumed the Master of Coin position. It took a little readjusting as I'd offered no real notes on my official interests since I'd assumed the Iron Throne, but it was soon handled. The former Maester was officially hidden away somewhere in the books and I swore the Keeper to secrecy by threat of Sandor visit.
Which reminded me, I needed to get Cersei out of here as soon as was humanly possible. She'd been keeping quiet of late and that had me worried…