Chapter Two
…
"….and here are the ledgers that you asked for my lady," Miloh, the castle's head servant says placing the rather large book that records the general information of the Riverlands.
"Thank you," Delianah smiles at the old man who bows at her words. Unlike the high Lords of the Riverlands, the smallfolk rather admire her for her talents and rising from nothing to the unofficial Lord Paramount seeing that Hoster is old and Edmure is still being Edmure.
Delianah makes it a point to be kind to them. There is power in gaining the respect of the larger populace. The more you're kind to the downtrodden, the more they'll repay it in the long run. The history of humanity back home has proven this truth time and time again. Sure there is power in gaining the respect of the Lords and Barons of a realm. The true power a king, or in this case, a Lord Paramount might have is however found on the people and Delianah makes it a point to attain that one way or the other.
It is however a work in progress and Delianah's long term project.
"Your father expressed his intention that you visit him at his solar for the midday meal my lady," Miloh informs her.
"I'll be there Miloh, thank you," Delianah smiles at the old man who bows before exiting her solar.
Now truly alone, Delianah opens the ledger that contains all the information that she needs about the Riverlands. To have a solution, what she needs is to specifically identify the problems and their root causes. Only then will she be able to tackle it. No point implementing reforms and changes and find out embarrassingly at the end that there's no need for it anyway. If she plans to turn this mud hovel issue that she's changing into something, then she needs to be extra smart about this.
It takes Delianah and hour or two to fully peruse the ledger of the past Riverlords. She might have finished sooner but for whatever reason, the previous Riverlords are not exactly the best when detailing their thoughts into paper resulting into a jumbled mess of information that one can only see when dealing with elementary students.
As it is, Delianah leans on her rather hard wooden chair only alleviated by some folded robes that she asked the servants to place there before (She makes a mental note to introduce feather filled cushions soon) as her mind starts to think.
For hundreds of years under the Targaryen rule, the Tullys' rule of the Riverlands is soft and comfortable. However despite siding with Robert Baratheon during the Rebellion, the influence of the Tullys' are becoming more and more unstable. Bandits and thieves are becoming more prominent in activity thanks to the rather lack of action and implementation of the Master of Laws of Westeros. Inside the Riverlands, there is the continuing power struggle between House Frey and House Mallister who ironically almost have the same power and influence as House Tully. There is also the ever present dispute between the Blackwoods and the Brackens. There's also the silent Targaryen supporters, most notably of all, House Darry who scorns the name of Tully. She doesn't also fails to notice the threat that the overambitious Golden Lion of the West whose influence is like a plague infecting many of the Riverlords, buying off their loyalty piece by piece. There is simply no harmony on the Riverlands with High Lords barely having control of their own lands.
Her father, the old Fish is aware of these problems but inability to travel far, old age, past wounds, and lack of family and male support throughout the years has made him quite weak and helpless. Sure he hs tried to restore order but with zero renown, lack of an ace in the hole, and a soft reputation ends his efforts in failure before it even manages to start. Edmure and Brynden are no better as far as she's concerned. Edmure is a man-child who would kiss his reflection on the river if someone dared him and Brynden is a petty outcast who wants nothing to do with his familial blood due to insults through the ages.
The only thing that the Tullys' have at the moment is their alliance with both the North and the Vale. Having both of its daughters as wives for two Lord Paramounts have brought unmeasured goodwill, treaties and benefits for the Tullys' and secure their power a little bit more against the other Riverlords.
Delianah hums to herself wondering how she would start. At first, she might have gone with her first instinct of simply developing Riverrun and all its surrounding lands. It would be quite easy if she's going to be honest. The land around Riverrun is fertile and does not have any village or town, merely empty space. It would be a good start for her to build her base of operations.
Now that she thinks about it though, it would be a very bad idea on her part. For starters if she does something like this, nine times out of ten, her achievements would be claimed by Hoster Tully or worse, Edmure. She is a bastard after all despite being a legitimized one. No, not even the hint of any possibility of them taking credit will she suffer. Time is a precious thing, and the last thing she wants to waste.
Plus, now that she's thinking, Delianah is realizing that she doesn't need to be Lord Paramount of the Riverlands herself. There are more ways to be at the top other than sitting on a chair and be bombarded by paperwork and responsibilities. Yes, she can get the former and ignore the latter. What she needs though is space, lots of space.
….
Lady Sheila Whent would be the first to admit that she is the last of the Whents of Harrenhal. In a way it is not surprising. No other lord would dare try and live on the ruined castle now filled with nothing but memories, silence and ghosts. Still, once her family, the Whents lived here and tried their damnest to live. Someone after all must be lord of Harrenhal and secure the roads that pass through the Green isle. Now all that is left of the Whents is her and she is old and dying.
Imagine her surprise when out of nowhere, the renowned bastard daughter of Lord Tully, the one who is rumored to be brilliant and even allowed at Oldtown appear out of nowhere proposing to her not only to inherit the giant ruined castle that her and her family had taken care at the best of their abilities but also restore it, Sheila Whent is both relieved and skeptical.
She has always expected that once she died, this castle would be given to one of the hedge knights that would not even make an effort of staying here out of fear of the ghost of Harren and his sons. Then all that her family had striven for throughout the years would be for naught. Now here comes one, voluntarily mind you not only telling her that she will live on it but also repair it. She can't believe the audacity that the bastard of six and a half year old girl is bringing to her.
If asked a few years later what made her say "yes" to the proposition that the bastard of Lord Tully is bringing to the table. Sheila Whent won't be able to fully explain. All she knew that when she looked at those piercing green eyes of the Tully, she saw not only the truth that she will do what she promised to do, but even go beyond it. On those eyes, she saw greatness and then the legacy of her family would continue to stand stronger and firmer than before.
Thus with her consent and by her decree, Sheila signs the paperworks alongside with her seal naming Delianah Tully as the next Lady of Harrenhal after her coming of age. She will still be living in the castle until her dying day, but the finances, the running, the small villages, the people and the large tract of land that belongs to the Lady of Harrenhal would all fall under the purview of Delianah Tully and all her heirs.
In a way, in one simple confundus charm, Delianah Tully has taken her first step on building her power base in this new world. All hail Harry the Great!
…..
Four weeks, that is the timetable that Delianah has transferring everything that she owns from Riverrun to Harrenhal. Her leaving suffice it to say is a cause of sensation for Riverrun. Already gossips and made up stories about why she's leaving are circulating around the castle like bonfire. Of course to give herself a little bit of amusement and excitement, Delianah herself started the rumors that the main reason she is leaving is because the Lord Hoster Tully wants his son Edmure to handle the affairs of the Riverlands instead of her.
Of course this rumor results into several backfires to the current ruling regime. The Lords after all of the Riverlands are divided in opinion when it comes about Hoster Tullys' bastard daughter. While many of them are rather doubtful and skeptical of her due to her former status as a bastard; none of them however can deny that she does good work when it comes to managing the affairs of the Riverlands during her brief tenure as pseudo-lord for her father. Frankly, majority of the Lords of the Riverlands would not rather have Edmure manage the Paramount responsibilities. Last time the man boy was put in charge by his father, he had mixed up two bethrothal letters nearly causing a civil war on the Riverlands as the two families who arrived for the set date of the wedding were not the families that both bride and groom expected. The result was a lot of angry Riverlords at the future heir and would had hamstrung him if not for the arrival of a royal edict from the Hand of the King, Jon Arryn to maintain the peace else face the displeasure of the Crown.
Thus on this happy note, Delianah leaves with Hoster Tully once more taking over the responsibilities of his station as Lord Paramount until Edmure returns (correction, if he ever returns from the countryside with his friends).
Now here she is, sitting on the large but empty solar of the former Lady Whent who have taken residence on one of the rooms on the lower levels to spare her old knees the pain of walking up and down. To say that Delianah is pleased with her current progress is the understatement of the century.
There's a good reason after all why she chose Harrenhal as her base of operations and home. For starters, what she needs above all currently is secrecy to hide her magic. The last thing she wanted is to waste even more time dealing with angry Faith followers protesting at her door for being a wizard, or witch now in her case. On the other hand, it would be extremely fun to watch Lords and Ladies of the realm try to crack their heads wondering how she does things.
The other reason she chose Harrenhal is the fact that it is filled with ghosts and unable to rest spirits. Many died here during the burning of the castle during Aegon's Conquest of Westeros with many not even knowing that they are under attack of Aegon's dragon before being turned to a crisp. Their spirits now are wandering in this castle, unseen by anyone not magical. They would be essential literally for Deliana's plans long term. Basically they would be fuel for transmutation.
She doesn't plan to play fair after all in her soon coming to be rise of greatness. The cornerstone of any success is money after all with lots of it and currently, her purse other than the small stipend her father gave her is literally zero. She'll need millions of golden dragons for her plans and she's got a plan for it. What she needs though is the wizarding art of transmutation. Transfiguration is all great and stuff but any transfigured item has the tendency to transform back to its original form in a given set amount of time. Transmutation however does not. One of the key ingredients of transmutation though is wandering spirits. They tend to be used as batteries for the spellwork.
Time to implement her next step though. While it would be easy to transmute rocks into mountains of gold. It would be suspicious as hell for anyone with a brain to notice that the once pauper bastard suddenly became a millionaire overnight. No, what she needs is a start up income that would be big enough that she can then cheat her way through trying to "grow it" through various investments.
Raising her hand in the window, Delianah focuses her magical power in her fingertips with a very specific target in mind.
"Accion Brightroar!"
…
Tywin Lannister does not run. Yes. He never runs for nothing is important enough or bad enough to force the powerful Lion of the Rock to indulge themselves as something desperate as running. What he is doing right now though is not running, but rather fast walking. Yes, he is certainly not running just fast walking as he runs to the treasury followed alongside by his brother, Kevan Lannister who is running (ahem), I meant fast walking behind.
Today was supposed to be a normal day for the Lion of the Rock. He would manage his affairs and the affairs of the Westerlands, he would read the important reports that came from his spies all over Westeros, he would send a few threatening messages to those he believed were rather being uppity among his vassals, he would insult the Imp with a few choice words and he would read the usual loan reports from the Crown asking for more to indulge Robert's excessive lifestyle. All in all, a good day's work for Tywin Lannister, the most powerful man in Westeros.
So imagine his surprise when out of nowhere this morning, a letter by Raven came from Riverrun bearing the sigil of the Tullys'. Tywin never thought much of the Tullys'. Personally he detested them, Lord Paramounts who barely cling to power and only surviving throught the generosity of the Crown. It reminded him too much of his father who almost led House Lannister to ruin. On the other hand he's relieved that they're not as aggressive or as influential as the Tyrells or the Dornish. It is one least headache for him when it comes into securing the crown for his grandson.
So he cannot fathom the reason as to why the Tullys' would send a message to him directly. Curiosity of his won and he read the letter.
That is the reason why he is "fast walking" towards his treasury right now. For all his life, Tywin Lannister had always striven to bring House Lannister glory and prestige. The symbol however for prestige of all Houses is a Valyrian Steel weapon. All the great houses at least have one. Even smaller houses in fact also have. House Lannister unfortunately for all its wealth and power have failed to procure even a single one and for good reason. Valyrian Steel weapons are so closely guarded by Houses and passed normally from generation to generation. Brightroar is House Lannister's house sword before King Tommen of the Rock lost it during his travel to Valyria, at least that's how the tales go.
Tywin himself had offered a steady promise of money of at least a million gold dragons for anyone willing to sell him a Valyrian Steel sword for his house. No one answered the auction and even he had thought of it as a dead end throughout the years.
Now here comes this letter bearing the official seal of the Lord Paramount of the Riverlands signed by one Delianah Tully, the renowned female genius bastard of Hoster Tully claiming that she not only have a Valyrian Steel Sword, but Brightroar itself. She is willing to give it to him in exchange for double the amount of his promise. The Old Lion is not one to trust explicitly the words of a letter, but the official seal of the Lord Paramount on a letter is something that proves that this is not a scam. Wars had been fought for less and the Riverlands cannot hope to stand against the Lannisters in a hundred years.
Normally Tywin would have refused such double demand for someone of his station. The lure however of acquiring not only some random Valyrian Steel sword but Brightroar itself, the ancestral weapon of House Lannister is too much not to resist. Besides it's not as if he cannot recover the gold that he would be spending. The Lannister mines are providing gold as ever and two million five hundred gold dragons might take a while to recover, but they would recover.
The reason however that Tywin is currently now sitting on the solar of the treasury as his brother and his most trusted men count the gold that they need for the payment is because of the fact that Tywin is insisting on not delaying. The last thing that Tywin needs is for the former bastard to think that he is not agreeing to her exchange and start to auction Brightroar off. Tywin of course knows that he is not the only one searching for a Valyrian weapon. There are many others like him searching also, and the last thing that he needs right now is for the priceless heirloom of House Lannister fell at the grubby hands of someone else.
Kevan and the rest of his men though have to blink in surprise as they now also notice the esteemed Tywin Lannister helping them fill the bags of gold like a common servant while urging them to move as fast as they could.
…..
Author's Note: Hey guys so I've been thinking. Originally I planned for Delianah here to progress the Riverlands like any Harry fanfic making the North strong. I imagined though that this might be a bit boring for everyone else, so I am taking another route. One that can be rather unique on this HP X GOT page.