It had been a hectic few months for one Jon Targaryen and his men. Almost the entirety of The Seven Kingdoms had come under him in this time. With the declaration of the small council, things truly began in earnest to recover from the war and make improvements.
The planning for the restructuring of the city had occupied most of Jon's time. Tyrion Lannister suggested improvements and Ser Baelor Hightower gave an estimated cost for that improvement. Jon and Ned were both impressed by The Hightower heir. When Jon had sent the letter to Leyton Hightower, he did not expect Lord Leyton himself to come. The Old Man of Oldtown had not descended from Hightower in more than a decade. Even when submitting House Hightower to the Targaryen rule, he had done so through his eldest, Ser Baelor. It was through the exchange of ravens that Lord Leyton suggested his eldest take the seat. He was the heir and had been taught everything so one day he could take over without a fuss. And so far Ser Baelor was proving himself a good choice. Already he had brought in more business for The Crown through his connections with various merchants.
Ser Monford Velaryon himself had answered the call when a raven had been sent to House Velaryon. The state of affairs at Driftmark he placed in the hands of his half-brother and the maester, while he moved to the Capital with his family. Ser Monford was proven to be an experienced man of the sea, as was expected of someone carrying the title of Lord of The Tides. He made acute observations and gave precise solutions to better the state of the royal fleet. Jon gave his consent to the ideas, once it was discussed with the rest of the council of course.
At Lord Stark's suggestion, Jon appointed Lord Rickard Karstark as his Master of Laws. Lord Rickard was a stern man who stuck to his oaths and the laws of the crown. But he was not shy about speaking up about certain laws that made him feel were either unnecessary or too much. He brought it to the attention of The King and The King worked with him to remedy it.
The seat of Grand Maester was still unoccupied. The Citadel had written to them and agreed to send a replacement for Pycelle, who had been sent back with a letter of vows he bent during his time as Grand Maester. The replacement was a Maester by the name of Theobald, who was also an Archmaester. The man was described as a gruff but good man in the raven and Brynden himself agreed to the assessment after personal research into the man. Jon found that reassuring. In his absence Varys had been doing most of the raven work, taking the small letters to the rookery and keeping a record of it all. The spider seemed more than happy with doing the work for a short time.
During this time Brynden had also found capable men from the common folk to train and create the new City Watch, both foot soldiers and archers. Jon had declared the man Lord of Harrenal to the Lords gathered not long after he had Ser Barristan knight him. As a Knight Brynden Ravenwood, as he began calling himself, had garnered more respect from everyone. It also helped when he looked for recruits. One of the recruits that had caught Jon's eye was Podrick Payne. Jon gave express order to train him to take the place of Leader of The City Watch when Jon eventually moved Brynden to the council. He had also plucked Anguy from the Stark battlements and placed him in a position to train the archers when Brynden was unavailable for some reason.
All that was left was dealing with The Western Lords and The Vale of Arryn. Both groups arrived at Kings Landing almost at the same time. The Westerlands bent the knee first, represented by the Lords of Houses Lefford, Brax, Marbrand, Banefort, Crakehall, Greenfield, Sarsfield, Farmanm Westerling and Kenning. Jon accepted their fealty and imposed a monetary punishment from them since they did not declare for Jon when he staked his claim, much like he did with The Reach. Petyr Baelish's assets had been used to pay off the Iron Banks, the monetary punishment was used to refill the royal coffers that Robert Baratheon emptied. The loan that had been taken by The Crown from House Lannister had also been forgiven. After all of that Jon had officially declared Tyrion as Lord of Casterly Rock before the houses under House Lannister and named House Lannister Wardens of The West. House Tyrell remained the Warden of The South, with House Stark remaining Wardens of The North and House Tully remaining The Lord Paramount of the Trident. That only left one position that had to be dealt with.
The Lords and Ladies of The Vale stood proudly before the new King. And behind them chained inside a cage was one Lysa Arryn, who looked almost as if she was frothing at the mouth.
"Was the cage necessary?" Jon questioned.
"When the news of Petyr Baelish being killed reached us, Lady Arryn had become quite stressed" Lord Yohn Royce spoke. "The chains and captivity are for hers and our safety, your Grace."
"Bring her forth" Jon sighed. He was lucky that both Catelyn Stark and Edmure Tully were there at the Riverrun. They'd have both made some comments about the behaviour of and against their sister. Edmure had already looked demotivated at Lysa not being able to attend his wedding or see their father before his time was at an end.
The cage was opened and Vale men brought Lysa forward. Jon better understood now why the chains and cage were necessary. The woman was half-mad, trying to bite the guards and screaming obscenities. Jon called for her silence in a hard voice. When she quieted, he spoke with an authoritative voice. "You know why you are here. Is it true? Did you poison your husband?"
The Lady Arryn looked at Jon with venom in her eyes and spat at his feet. The court rose in an uproar but Jon silenced them with a gesture of his hand. "I put the tears in Jon's wine, yes I did!" she hissed and the Lords and Ladies of The Vale bristled. "The old man wanted to send Sweet Robin to Stannis! He wanted to send my son to that stone-faced man, into his stone infested home! I couldn't have it, I did not have it! Then Petyr came to me," her face softened, "I always loved Petyr. I gave him my maiden's gift, did you know? I would have given him a son too but they murdered him with moon tea, with tansy and mint and wormwood, a spoon of honey and a drop of pennyroyal. It wasn't me, I never knew, I only drank what Father gave me…" she went on. But then she broke into tears, falling to her knees. "But it doesn't matter now!" she wailed. "He's dead! You killed him! My sweet Petyr turned to ashes! You burned him like your mad grandfather burned your other grandfather! Is that what you're going to do to me now? Are you going to burn me like you burned my sweet Petyr?" she wheezed, looking at Jon with madness in her eyes.
"It was a mistake on my part" Jon admitted, much to the shock of everyone. "Petyr Baelish was guilty, don't get me wrong. And he deserved death. But burning him as I did, that was not how I was raised" he stood and held out his hand. Tommen, who had been standing near him came rushing over and held his sword out for him. Jon drew his sword, the re-forged Dark Sister, and let the entire court see it with their own eyes. "The one who passes the sentence must swing the sword. Lysa Arryn I sentence you to die. May in death you find the peace you deserve."
Lysa Arryn remained kneeling, looking at Jon with tear-filled eyes as he approached her. "Please, what about my boy? What about Sweet Robin? He can't live without me. He needs me!"
"Your son will be well taken care of. He is the son of a Noble House. He will not be neglected, you have my word on that" Jon spoke to her gently. Lysa seemed to stiffen at that and began to shake her head uncontrollably. Two Vale guards held her at Jon's orders and in one smooth swing, he beheaded the guilty.
Servants came in and took Lysa Arryn's body away, some staying back to clean the blood. "I apologise for having to do that in here. I am lacking a proper execution ground" Jon explained. "Now, Lords and Ladies of The Vale, kneel and submit to my rule."
The Lords and Ladies on the Vale wasted no time in kneeling and swore their oath of Allegiance. Jon smiled at them and bid them rise. "House Arryn will remain Wardens of The East. But owing to the condition of young Robert Arryn, Lord Yohn Royce will oversee the duties of Warden and will foster young Robert, until the time comes when Robert Arryn is capable of taking over the duties from him" Jon declared and the Vale Lords and Ladies consented to it without complaint.
Jon dismissed the gathering and slowly the room emptied, leaving only Jon, his page Tommen, his Hand Lord Eddard and two of his Kingsguard, Ser Barristan and Ser Loras, the latter of the two swearing the oath once Jon had allowed him to behead Stannis for the role he played in killing Renly. Nobody was fooled about the reason the young knight was adamant about being the one to do it.
"Uncle, how is Bran?" Jon asked.
"Doing much better. Maester Luwin says Shiera's treatment is doing wonders for him. He would always have a limp in his left leg, but he will be able to move around."
"No Knighthood then" Jon smiled sadly. Bran had always wanted to be a Knight of The Kingsguard, it would break the boy to learn he won't be able to achieve it. But Jon would have the boy alive and semi-well over him being dead.
"He'll share another trait with his father now," uncle and nephew shared a smile. But there was a hidden message passed through them. Shiera had come to Winterfell to help Daenerys regain her ability to birth children. But she had also come up with a solution to help Bran. Catelyn Stark had all but begged her husband to allow the silver-haired woman to work her magic. Ned had allowed it but had warned her about using dark magic to accomplish it. Shiera had promised him that the magic she will use would mend the broken, nothing more. But Maester Luwin was told to keep a close eye on her work. If the Old Maester found nothing amiss then she could continue. And Luwin had not found anything amiss and so Shiera was allowed to work her magic.
But there was a hidden message passed between Shiera and Brynden, and by extension to Jon. Magic always demanded a sacrifice. To heal Bran, sacrifice was necessary. In this case, Bran's abilities as a Greenseer and Warg had been sacrificed to give him his ability to wake and walk again. Jon was okay with that, and so was Brynden. Bran did not need those abilities anymore.
"Robert Baratheon and you had wanted to unite your two houses, yes?" Jon asked suddenly and Ned looked at him a little shocked.
"It was more Robert's dream than mine" Ned muttered under his breath.
"Robert Baratheon has no true son or daughter" Jon stated calmly, "but he has one niece."
"Your Grace?" Ned asked, a little surprised and making the connections to what Jon wanted to say.
"Shireen and Bran. They are close to each other's age. I am suggesting a union between the two" Jon answered.
"Your Grace, the girl is afflicted by Greyscale. It might be a risk" Ser Loras spoke up.
"I know that Ser Loras" Jon replied smoothly. "But there might a cure to it. At least for those that have not fully been driven into madness by the curse", he added, much to the shock of everyone in the room. "I was having an interesting conversation with one of the men my uncle brought from Harrenhal. He knows of ways to heal the poor girl. It will undoubtedly be a painful procedure, but he assures me that Shireen will be alright afterwards."
"If such a method exists," Ned drawled on. "If this works your Grace, I consent to the match."
"Won't you need to talk to your wife about this?" Jon raised an eyebrow.
"It's a match made by you, your Grace. She wouldn't have it in her to refuse" there was amusement in Ned's eyes and Jon almost snorted.
"Very well then" Jon called for one of the guards on the other side of the doors. "Bring me Lady Shireen Baratheon and Qyburn."