I do not own Game of Thrones
Hoster Tully took a deep breath feeling like a fish out of water, ironic given his family sigil. Even his brother with his refusal to marry had not given him as many headaches as teaching his daughter.
His son Edmure may be a disappointment but his actions at least didn't directly harm Riverlands without external influence. Catelyn's education on the other hand was so defective that it could turn disastrous in an instant and he was only realizing it now.
Catelyn was far too influenced by her Septa rather than the Maester. She had become allergic to godswood, bastards and misshapen people. If she saw any dwarfs, cripples, burnt faces and such, she immediately decided that it was punishment from the seven and that they deserved it.
She was even harsher on bastards and was decided on opinion that everyone of them was a sinful creature. At least she still had enough humanity to not plan to have them all executed but to have them exiled. It was a far more troublesome solution even if it was more humane. She would create Blackfyre problems where there were none.
Hoster had given her a mission of establishing a Sept in Winterfell after marrying there before the whole mess with succession happened, not realizing how she mistook his intention. He had no intention of promoting their religion in the North, at least not in a conventional sense. It was simply a preparation for the distant future.
There would inevitably come a time when North will have to be properly integrated into the culture of the remaining kingdoms. It could be smooth process of mixing two mutually tolerant cultures or it could be another bloody battle like Andal invasion with a lot of unnecessary loss of life. If a battle like that would happen, it will be in Riverlands as always.
He simply wanted soften the mistrust of North towards Southerners and their faith by showing a devout but decent example in Catelyn rather than an extreme Septon. That was a failure as she feared the Weirwood in Riverrun for some reason saying the sounds it made with winds creep'd her out. Worse she wanted to kill it like the one in Raventree of Blackwoods.
As for her marriage, she wanted a handsome yet burly and adventurous man rather than a quiet, grim and sensible one. The former were the exact type that were most likely to sire bastards. Her contradictory nature made it feel like she wanted a pet beast rather than a husband. Not that it mattered anymore now that Brandon was marrying Barbrey Ryswell and Eddard was marrying Ashara Dayne.
Catelyn options had been reduced to Benjen Stark, Elbert Arryn and Tyrion Lannister. She would likely strangle that last one in his sleep. There were Robert Baratheon (former betrothed of Lyanna) and Oberyn Martell as a suitable whoring replacements for Brandon but there was no point to it if they weren't neighbors to Riverlands. The whole reason was obtaining peace for farming in their defenseless lands.
Cersei walked past the guards to her fathers bedroom with her flowing golden gown baggily fluttering in the wind matching her hair. Anyone else would have been scrutinized but guards were afraid of provoking her by extension of her father. She knocked and was bade to come in by the smooth voice.
"What is it at this time of night? Don't tell me you have bad dreams and expect me to tell you stories." Tywin asked in an irritated voice.
Cersei laughed at that.
"Father comforting someone? To think that a sleepy Tywin gained a sense of humor."
"Keep your childish comments to yourself. You are my heir now and its about time you behave as such. Lannisters don't act like fools."
"I know father. I am the only one who has taken your teachings to heart. Not Jaime and certainly not the dwarf."
"Hmph. Only half of them. You conveniently learned what suited you and ignored the rest. You are not dim-witted but neither are you as clever as you think. Jaime is at least consistent in his stupidity so I can use him."
"Yes, and yet he is now a kingsguard. Surely you are happy that the dwarf will not sully Casterly Rock with his existence?"
"That was not going to happen anyway, I would rather burn it to the ground. I intended to somehow remove Jaime's white cloak or give it one of your children with more brain and less impulsiveness than you. Don't think I don't know who encouraged him to take the white cloak in the first place."
"Know or suspect? If you knew for sure, you would have punished me. What I wanted to ask was about your future plans for other kingdoms. Surely you are not satisfied with what we have?"
"You are presuming too much. A lion does not expend all its energy fighting unwinnable battles. It waits for the right moment for its hunt."
"Its just that Tyrells have started to overreach. Aren't they the second richest family, the same as Reynes used to be? I don't like there being a second place at all. Reach even have a bigger army than us."
"Reach had more numbers but we have armor for all our men unlike them. We are the richest of the seven kingdoms with an early muster army of 35,000 professional soldiers and 25,000 peasant levies for a total strength of 60,000. Even an armored peasant would have better livability than an unarmored trained soldier. A war is a meat grinder different from a duel."
"I see. Well, I just came to tell you that I have already taken care of the dwarf. He won't bother us anymore."
Tywin was now widely awake, his sleepy disdain replaced by a cool rage.
"WHAT did you do to him?"
"Now that's a surprise. I didn't know you cared. I put him down peacefully in his sleep. I wanted to torture him but it was too risky. He could scream or worse, escape."
"I hate him with all my heart but that is irrelevant. He is a Lannister. He is Joanna's child. No one is allowed to kill him. His death should have been in service of the family." Tywin gritted his teeth but felt his vision fading.
"So its finally working. Sorry father, you still had long to live and I could not wait for that as a decoration heir. Worse if you wouldn't even let me kill that little monster. Don't worry, I will make full use of both your deaths."
Later she summoned Kevan, Tyget and Genna as the Lord/Lady of Westerlands.
"My dear father and brother were killed by those upstart Tyrells. Call the banners. I will lead our forces into the Reach."
She ignored all of their doubts and complaints anticipating how it would feel to sing 'Rains of Castamere' in Highgarden.
She would also need plans to deal with Lyanna Stark and Ashara Dayne. Lyanna for seducing her Rhaegar and Ashara for bewitching people and making them lie that she is more beautiful than herself.
Lyanna had no idea that someone hated her enough to want to kill her. She considered herself the most wild yet lovable woman who ever lived. And yes, she was a woman! Not a girl, thank you very much.
All of her feelings of eternal love for the Prince had evaporated the moment she was declared the heir to the North. She still kind of liked him but was no longer in as much heat about it.
She reconsidered that as fun as sex with such a dreamily handsome man would be, it might lead to pregnancy. She did not have nearly enough patience to spend months in inactivity. She had also began to realize that Elia would likely curse them for it rather than a convenient dream blessing that absolved them of their sins.
She had begun to come to terms that her hate for Robert was less about his flaws and more about being forced to marry him. The man was way too similar to Brandon to truly hate him and had some qualities that made him better than her brother. She hated taking orders and liked breaking the rules.
If she had an arranged marriage with Rhaegar, she would have looked for his flaws as well no matter how well hidden they were. She wanted to stay in Riverlands for longer and had plans to run away with her Prince. But she had been called back home due to new circumstances.
She entered her fathers solar to see all her brothers there. Brandon looked so happy, he might as well be flying, Eddard was as plain as ever with no expression, Benjen just looked confused.
Rickard started speaking first.
"So as you all know, Lyanna is now the Heir to Winterfell and future Warden of the North."
"Congratulation." Bran said. It angered her to see him so happy about letting go of his position.
"Congratulation." Ned said. Will it kill him to show her if he is happy or not about this?
"Will she pull pranks on all the Northeners now?" Benjen asked. How dare he! She will pour juice or wine on his head again.
Rickard waited for them to quiet down before asking.
"What do you know of the Geo-political situation, logistics and economics of the North?"
"Whaa ..." What language was her father speaking?
Her father sighed and asked again. "What do you know of the Kingdom that you are about to rule?"
Ah. "Its big, barren and ugly. Except for winter roses, those are pretty. The people love me and will do anything for me."
"It has more to do with Stark name than you. I'll have you go around anonymously to show you the reality of how many will actually love your spoiled self."
Rickard started to press his palm on his head. Rude.
"I know you didn't receive the heir's training but you should still have picked up more than that from your general education. From now on, you will spend minimum 4 hours a day with the Maester. Brandon will even give you supplementary classes if necessary."
She felt humiliated that father considered her more ignorant than the meathead Bran.
"What will you do if a you see a village starving in winter and its youth prepared to take the black?" Rickard asked again.
"I will take out grain from our granaries and give it to them to eat aplenty. No one will starve in my rule." Lyanna said.
"And how many villages can you feed like this and for how long?"
"All of them forever." Lyanna said but her father was now massaging his temple hard. Even Ned was looking at her like she was an idiot.
"This is how you have always been, haven't you? Selfish to a fault while others pay the price for your idiocies. At least your heart is in the right place. The result will be the same as a cruel tyrant though with your willful ignorance." Rickard chastised her cruelly for the first time.
"What about Ned? Isn't he the logistics nerd among us? He can help her with this." Bran asked.
"He will be going to Starfall to marry Lady Dayne." Rickard replied.
Lyanna froze as she saw an expression on her middle brother for the first time, a blush.
"Heh, I am the one who set it up. But to think that you would work so fast. Be careful though, she is Dornish so you don't know who has been ... " Bran stopped speaking because of Ned's glare.
"You will send Ned that far away?" She asked.
"Yes, I will. Its better for not just them but also for trade with Essos. More importantly tell me about our military."
"We have 45,000 fighting men."
"Partially right. With early warning which you would rarely have. North is too big. Our quick muster is only 18,000. Thankfully our men are more hardy and better fighters than southeners on average."
"Then shouldn't we crush three sisters, Iron Islands and Skagos?"
"With what navy? We don't have the ships. Thankfully Lord Quellon is a reasonable man. With the fostering of Ned with Lord Arryn, the piracy issue of three sisters can also be resolved peacefully. Skagos is something you can evaluate though."
"What about the Wildlings then? We don't need a navy for that."
"You will lose half your men to cold without any fighting. And that is for Northeners who are somewhat used to cold."
Lyanna finally lost it with all her words being refuted.
"Men this, men that, why not add women to military like Bear Islands or Dorne?"
Rickard smiled that something of actual value had finally interested his daughter.
"You know what? This is your homework. Come up with a proposal of why and why not. If its good enough, I will consider it."
Then his expression tuned somber
"And if you meet the Prince secretly before he formally sets his wife aside in front of the world, I will disinherit you even if it means losing lands. I will not let my kingdom suffer, not even for the idiotically impulsive daughter of mine."