THE MANNIS UNLEASHED
Disclaimer : All Characters are owned by George RR Martin and HBO. This story is a self insert into Stannis Baratheon during Robert's Rebellion.
Chapter – 26
Lady Olenna Tyrell
The queen of thorns have known many men both great and foolish in her lifetime. Unfortunately her son was more oafish than anyone she knew. 'The Fat Flower' was the name other lords call him behind his back, their house never contributed anything to westeros despite their riches and food supply. She caannot remember one famous 'Tyrell' who had any impact on westeros that they could boast of. She knew the precarious position her house is inif not for the careful alliances she has crafted till now through marraige.
When Robert rebelled against aerys she asked her oaf of a son to remain neutral like the lannisters till they are sure of each sides winning chances. But her oaf of a son has called the banners and true to his name tarly defeated robert and sent him hiding. Mace seiged storms end with his army trying to take the castle and kill robert's brothers. But everything changed from there. She heard rumours from the men that stannis baratheon was a sorcered who plagued the reach's armies with beasts and foul magic.
Mathis even said that the very skies rained lightening on them killing many knights and burning seige equipment. She heard that the chivalrous army of the reach ran away like cowards when the castle itself was engulfed in lightening. She was sure mace has pissed himself and cried making the tyrell look weak again but something despite her wildest dreams happened. Stannis baratheon and mace tyrell became fast friends and allies despite their age or personalities which baffled her. How did stannis secretly plotted with mace and rescued the lady lyanna from dorne in the middle of a seige is baffling to her.
There are stories from their own household knights that mace stood up to lord tarly and denied his request to crown viserys and back them. Mathis told mace was a changed man after his experiences. She got a letter from mace after hhe bent the knee to robert and asked to stay in the capital till the royal wedding. She could not believe her son gained royal faavour and resect of his lords. Mace did the impossible that even she could not do herself, he got a royal match for his future daughter or son from the king himself. Prince stannis said to laud mace for saving his life at the blasted 'tower of sin' as it was called now and even became the first tyrell to fly on a wyvern.
Lords Varner and Sloane were rewarded well for supporting her son who had earned the moniker mace 'the ace' tyrell. Olenna smiled as she heard both the lords praise her son's bravery in dorne. Mace had sent her a letter detailing the new trade agreements and charters the reach will share with the crown and the stormlands. Mace also told her that the reach will invest in the 'golden bank of westeros' formed by the lannisters. For the first time in a long time she was not chiding her son for his decisions. Mace also said that they will fund the rebuliding of summerhall for prince renly who will be fostered in the reach.
Olenna received the invitation for the wedding of stannis to cersei lannister at storms end. She wanted to see and test this so called sorcerer prince who they say is a brilliant player of the game. She cursed mace for leaving such a prize to the lions. Had she known early she would have married her daughter janna to him and build a greater bond with a baratheons. Very well she still have time to train any grand daughter she had and make her a queen. Yet the targaryans are alive and the king decided aerys's babe will marry his son and heir which poses a problem but she know she caan think of a way to remove her one way or another.
Olenna Tyrell looked at her grandsons willas and little garlan playing with their toys, a smile crept up her lips, the future is looking good for house tyrell if they marry into the royal family. Now if she can marry one of her grandson to a stark girl and another to an arryn girl mayhaps, her family will be safe and protected by the alliance from tarly and florent no matter what happens. She called for her maids to pack her bags and prepare for her journey to storm's end.
Bronn Blackwater
The newly made squire looked himself in the mirror and beamed at his own image. He was called as nasty bronn by the other lads who were thugs in flea bottom and stole things here and there. He was looking for his scores three moons ago when the onion knight hired him and dirk for a mission in the step stones. Bronn did not think of much of it except for the pay and food offered. He has never been at sea but he learned a lot from ser davos while on his ship. He almost panicked in his mission to steal the arakh from the dothraki. He almost shit his pants when he saw karl gutted like a pig.
But he did not waver and killed the savage with Dirk's blades which earned him a lot of favor with ser davos. When they reached kingslanding he and the others were taken before the prince who praised them on a job well done and dubbed him as bronn blackwater which stuck. Later ser davos offered to make him a squire and promise to knight him eventually. He agreed quickly along with dirk and travelled to storm's end on a ship with ser davos and the grand maester.
He was amazed to see the castle which withstood a seige by over fifty thousand men during the rebellion, but he quickly got the lay of the castle. He and dirk watched in amazement as the wyvern flew above the castle as it brought back memories of them flying on that terrifying beast to escape the stepstones. He shuddered as he remembered praying to any gods to save his life. That is a story no other knight or squire can boast of and gladly told anyone who asked. He was tasked with overseeing the bringing of the 'basilisks' from the ship to near a pen created for them at the castle. He was also fascinated by the huge elephants which were brought in a large drummond by that funny looking ser harry strickland.
Bronn heard many lords and knights of the disbanded sellsword company were given lands in the stormlands and became bannermen to house baratheon. He wished he could be the same when he earned a knighthood. Ser davos has promised that he could come with him on atrip to the free cities when he accompanies prince stannis and lady cersei.
He saw the prince arrive with the new kingsguard knight on 'rodan' and they are followed by the 'king' and 'queen' arriving on 'lockheed'. The big party of lannisters and baratheons arrived hours later and the castle was abuzz with people. Bronn never saw this many people in one place except from the capital. He saw several lords and their parties arrive for the wedding. He saw the eunuch lord blackfyre and a fat merchant, the hand arrived with the former queen and her son, the northern lords arrived with the riverlords, some dornish prince even came with a fine looking woman. Because the castle is filled with guests , bronn and dirk shared a tent outside the castle where minor lords and hedge knights set up camp.
The day before the wedding was exhausting for him as he helped the hunting parties move the hauls to the kitchens as more reach lords came carrying wine and food supplies. He accompanied ser harry and some knights as they led four of the elephants brought from essos near a small section of land surrounded by a moderate forest which where men were working to build a keep. Ser harry said this was to be his keep and the surrounding woods were to be breeding grounds for the elephants. Ser harry even showed them his new sigil which was a grey elephant on a green forest. Bronn though that he needed to come up with his own sigil one day.
Once he returned to camp he slept peacefully and come morning he was happy and excited for the wedding as bread and bacon with cheese along with mead was provided as breakfast for all of them. He sparred with some of the other squires till he saw there was scarred lad with a burnt face sitting quietly near a tree drinking some ale. Bronn saw that the lad looked angry and bitter as he barely touched his food.
"Ho you there are you lost friend" he asked. The lad stood up and bronn could already see that he is a foot taller than him. The boy's face is burned on one side and he looked fierce with that scowl on his face. "Do I frighten you so, bugger off then and mind your business" said the lad angrily. "I don't frighten easily friend I've seen terrible beasts than anyone can imagine the name's bronn blackwater. I squire for the onion knight" bronn replied to the scarred boy.
The lad looked surprised "Sandor clegane, I came from the westerlands with my sister and some household guards to serve the queen. She asked me to bugger off as my face scares her ladies" he replied. Bronn can sympathize with the scarred lad, it was difficult to be an outcast among a large crowd. He smiled and replied "then I suggest you join me and my friends for a bit of sparring while the lady primps up her royal arse" which got a chuckle out clegane. He nodded and asked "do you have any chickens ?". "Aye we can find some clegane, follow me" he replied and asked the lad to follow. He had a feeling this lad is a good swordsman with a temper.
Lord Arryn
The hand of the king felt a huge headache pummel his head as one storm lord after another ranted to him and lord eldon estermont regarding the newly formed houses in the Stormlands. All these proud lords felt their lands were being taken by rebels and traitors despite the king ordering them. Lords Morrigen, grandison and fell argued that they are being disrespected by an uncaring lord paramount who befriends sellswords and pirates and cares more for traitors than his own lords. They demand that stannis remove the former exiled goons from their lands.
The gall of these proud lords enraged arryn and the disrespect they are showing stannis was unforgivable. He warned them they can take this to the king or he will make sure more of their own lands will be taken to settle in new lords or knights which shut them up. Arryn warned stannis that his strange ventures and new friendship with mace tyrell will not be appreciated by the stormlords when the prince visited him for discussing marriage alliances between stormlords and reacher lords but he did not listen.
Unhappy vassals is a recipe for rebellions as Aerys found out, he did not want one as sharp minded as stannis to anger his lords. He needs to talk to the young man once he was wed. He heard news that stannis intends to sail to essos with cersei leaving the stormlands for some time, this would only help the traitorous lords to join forces. Prince Renly is too young besides he will be fostered in the reach. He only wondered if stannis have thought this through as house baratheon is more influential than ever now and they need the support of the stormlands behind them now more than ever.
Atleast he was happy that Robert and lyanna were smitten with each other and she is encouraging him to be a good ruler which made Robert attend every counsil meeting and practice session. Ned was happy that Robert stopped whoring and was totally devoted to his sister. Arryn sighed as hoster was always berating lady ashara and asking him to send her away to dorne as her presence is a shame to his daughter.
Ned told him that he had impregnated the lady and she was carrying his child which complicated things even more. Poor ned he thought , his nephew became a bastard and now his babe by ashara will grow up to be a bastard. He watched the round hall as lord's drank and ate talking with other lords merrily. He never thought it was possible to achieve peace this early into robert's reign but here he was seeing great jon umber talking merrily with lord tarly, lord tywin talking to aenys blackfyre, lord mace speaking animatedly with ser davos seaworth and even the red viper trading barbs with Aeron greyjoy. He wished dorne had seen sense despite stannis warning him oberyn cannot be trusted.
Any attempt on their lives will disrupt the strong bonds of unity he and rickard stark only dreamed of and stannis helped achieve. His friend rickard was cruelly killed by the mad king but his 'Southern Ambitions' have bore fruit, the north and the south was now bound by blood. Six of the seven kingdoms were united in peace. He felt tired as his new household knights mark mandrake and Humphrey stone followed him at a safedistance to ensure nobody tried anything.
He was looking forward to the second wedding that is key to a united realm. Lord tywin was active than ever and looked excited to start the 'golden bank' as soon as possible. He had taken few of the exiled knights and tasked them with fighting the mountain clans and offered them lands if they succeed. These young exiles are looking for glory and acceptance from westeros and who is he to deny them that.
He saw prince stannis looking tense and strained today. The young man had no reason to feel so on his wedding day but may be something was bothering the young baratheon who had achieved more than any other baratheon had done in the last hundred years, steffon would have been so proud of his sons he lamented his late friend who was another victim of aerys's folly. He cursed his old mind for the weariness and left to have some refreshments.
Stannis the Mannis
He was tense when he woke up today, on the day he will be marrying cersei. He was visited by the cosmic entity in his dream but it did not say or do anything. Few remaining memories of his former life in a distant land plagued him. He willed himself to forget the past but it still gnawed at him. This is a big day for him, he got up early and ser illyfer greeted him when he came out from the room. Robert and eldon came to give him advise to which he nodded and laughed when robert said some sex jokes but he felt something was not right.
He bathed and got ready when davos came with the doublet, pants and the wedding dress which he made the seam stresses specific instructions to create. He tested it and found it to fit him perfectly. As he was about to leave the room he felt like someone was watching him which is weird because he kept an eye on varys and illyrio from the moment they came here.
He could sense some type of presence here, he felt paranoid and different scenarios ran through his mind. Had the dornish or aenys hired a faceless man, will he be poisoned at his wedding or is bloodraven trying to kill him. He felt unease and started getting paranoid. He did not drink anything nor he eaten anything since yesterday but he felt something else following him.
It cannot be a shadow assasin as storm's end is protected by wards and who else with kingsblood could have fucked a red priestess here. He could not let it go though and the added guests which includes his soon to be goodfather tywin lannister, jon arryn, ned stark, hoster tully, rhaella and viserys, aenys and the hot head oberyn. His doubts grew as he saw the eunuch talking with the red viper and his paramour. Did they plan to kill me here in my home along with my brothers and crown viserys ?.
He never was an intuitive guy but now he was not sure. He tried to warg and fly away in rodan's body for sometime but did not want to risk. He asked ser illyfer, ser davos and dick cole to keep an eye on the suspects while sending will cole to check for any strange activity. He tried to justify it by thinking nothing was afoot and he is just getting cold feet but still could not shake the feeling. 'Is it a good plan to trust the golden company ? or keep aenys alive ?', doubts gnawed him but he pushed himself to wish everyone present to take his mind off of it.
He will marry cersei in an hour in the sept in a nearby woodland village. He will be away from the castle which gives the target the perfect oppurtunity to kill them. He wished he had a valyrian steel armour covering him from head to neck but that is not possible yet. He can use this oppurtunity to catch the assailiant as well. His paranoia grew as the time ticked on, he wished he had time to tame a direwolf from beyond the wall which could alert him, he searched for proudwing and oddly found the bird's mind filled with confusion as well.
He quickly found the person he was looking for and had his squire summon him. Tobho mott was surprised and humbled he was invited to this wedding but he was bold considering the crowd surrounding him. Tobho bowed to him and gave him two boxes which contained the swords. He took the boxes and went to robert and told him about it. Robert called for silence in the 'round hall' and all the assembled lords and ladies looked at him.
"My lords, my ladies we have a couple of special gifts to some special people here" robert boomed before he looked at lyanna and winked. " my queen" he said before walking towards lyanna who stood up and looked at him with those deep grey eyes and said "my king". "Lyanna I know I have always loved you for your beauty as well as your fierceness. But when I saw you for the first time riding the horse with a sword by your side, I knew you are the warrior queen that I should marry. I have gifted you many pretty things though none that can interest your heart, so I offer you this gift on behalf of house baratheon to my winter queen" robert gave the smaller box to her.
Caught by surprise as all eyes on the hall fell on her, the queen quickly opened the box and removed a sheathed short sword from it. She gasped as she saw the dragonbone hilt along with a direwolf's head as a pommel with black onyxes fixed as it's eyes. She slowly pulled the sword out of it's scabbard as white and red ripples danced on the sword's smoky grey steel. The patterns were made in form of trees which appeared red in a certain way and the words 'Winter is coming' was written in first men language at the bottom of the sword.
Lyanna was stunned by the slender blade and tears formed in her eyes upon the inscription. She hugged robert and the hall cheered loudly before she composed herself and broke apart from him and said "thank you for the wonderful gift my king I will cherish it always" to which robert nodded and she gave the sword a twirl testing the blade. Her brother benjen looked on in awe as she showed it to him.
"Anything for my queen though every sword has a name do you have one in mind my lady" robert replied and lyanna spoke in a loud voice "I do my king, I name this sword 'SHE WOLF'" and the hall exploded in cheers before falling quiet again. Stannis saw ned stark smiling at robert and then stannis, 'why not the first queen belonging to house stark got a valyrain steel sword' he thought before looking towards mace. He felt a little less stressed after that and boomed "lord mace tyrell step forward". Mace waked towards him leaving his mother and wife and bowed before him and said "my prince". He looked at robert and nodded.
"lord mace tyrell you have saved my brother's life and rescued my queen. You have been an excellent ally and true friend of house baratheon. For that please accept this gift as a token of our gratitude". Robert passed the box to me and I took the box and placed it in mace's eager hands. He was almost shaking as he already guessed what gift awaiting him. Stannis saw lord tarly and lord hightower grimacing butb lady olenna looked like she would die of a stroke. Mace slowly opened the box and pulled out a long sword along with it's scabbard.
The crowd gasped as mace teary eyed pulled the sword out from it's sheath and held it high and green and silver ripples danced on the black coloured blade whose hilt and edges resembled thorns and the pommell is a golden rose which fascinating everyone in the hall. Mace tyrell cried with joy and spoke "your grace I am honoured for this invaluable gift to my house. I will remember this moment till the day I die". Stannis saw lady alerie tyrell and even olenna tyrell were teary eyed by the gift given to their house. He also saww hoster tully and jon arryn looking sad despite their efforts to feign happiness.
Of course every lord paramount now weilds a valyrian blade except arryn and tully. He felt guilty for giving a blade to mace before both these lords who were instrumental in seating robert upon the throne. He remembered a few missing blades and smiled 'just wait a little long my lords I will gift both your houses once I return from essos' he thought.
"Every great sword needs a great name my lord, do you have one in mind" robert boomed but mace looked to be in shock to think of any so I decided to help him choose. "Lord mace how about 'long thorn' or 'full bloom' or 'Dark Harvest' " he mused. Mace's eyes shot up upon hearing them "yes my prince good names all but I like 'dark harvest' more". The crowd cheered again as mace tyrell yelled the name and went back with it to boast to his mother and wife. Now that the excitement is over. Stannis knew mace became the fourth lord in the reach to own a valyrian steel blade after the hightower's 'Vigilance', tarly's 'Heartsbane' and the peake's 'Orphanmaker'.
Once the excitement was over stannis felt nervousness fill him again as lord grandison and lord buckler came to wish him. For a second he felt someone watch him from the corner of his eyebut found nothing when he looked at them. He prayed to all the gods and the cosmic entity to protect him and his family from harm today and joined renly and cressen who were waiting for him.
NOTE : Last week I have mentioned 'Davos Dayne' as "Sword of the evening' by mistake , Vorian Dayne is the last dayne king and dubbed 'sword of the evening' after he was defeated by Nymeria and sent to the night's watch.
Finally mace tyrell got a sword as did lyanna. Stannis can sense danger lurking around, as to what it was just wait and find out. As always thank you for the reviews and support.
