Interlude 2

Even after living there most of his life, Kevan still liked to watch the sunset from the towers of Casterly Rock. Having visited most of the free cities in his youth, and the important holdfasts of the south in his later years, he was confident that there was no place on Planetos that offered a better, more varied, view. The combination of the large bustling city to the south, the clear Sunset Sea to the west, the fertile farmland to the east, and forested hills to the North was something you couldn't see from anywhere else.

Almost as imposing was Casterly Rock itself, when viewed from afar. The large castle on top of the Lion-like mountain magnificently displayed the might of house Lannister. No army seeing this fortress would have any hope of taking it by force.

The caws of ravens shook Kevan from his thoughts. Wondering who had send a letter, he realized the sun had just set, ending his favorite moment of the day. As he walked back inside towards his quarters, he thought on the unusual message from Tyrion two days ago.

At first glance, the letter looked ridiculous. Powerful empires which had metal dragons, came from another world, and wanted to establish peaceful trading relations? As if. And Tyrion even asked for Tywin's permission to deal with them in the name of his house.

Obviously, Tywin had just ignored his son, dismissing the tales as drunken ramblings. However, Kevan himself had a bad feeling about that letter, even though he knew it only contained drunken ramblings.

It was just an hour later, just before he planned to join Dorna in his bedroom, that Kevan's feelings were validated. A servant appeared, relaying that his brother wanted him in the solar. While it wasn't the first time this happened, Tywin Lannister usually waited until morning whenever possible, indicating this was a matter of importance.

Kevan arrived just in time to see Maester Creylen leave the solar, his face concerned. While Kevan would normally have stopped and talked with the knowledgeable Maester, he now only offered a small nod before entering his brother's solar.

Inside, his brother Tywin was seated before a gold-ornamented desk. Two letters were opened and spread out over said desk, while a third was held in between his brother's hands. Two cups and a bottle of Dornish Red were already prepared by some servants, which would undoubtedly be appreciated after the upcoming conversation.

"It appears I might have been somewhat rushed in dismissing Tyrion's letter. Here, take a look at this." His brother said as he handed over the letter in his hands.

As Kevan grabbed the letter, he was surprised to see his niece Cercei's name on top. Curious, he began to read the lengthy letter.

When Kevan's eyes finally left the piece of parchment, he saw that his brother had already started on the wine. Still reeling from the contents of this letter, Kevan joined his brother in drinking.

After he had taken a large sip of the Dornish Red, Kevan spoke:

"So, everything Tyron said is true?"

Even though Kevan already knew the answer, he still wanted to hear it from his brother's mouth.

"Yes, that and more. If my daughter and Tyrion ever agree on something, it has to be true. However, that means our good King Baratheon has actually been so monumentally stupid that he sold his lands to those newly met outsiders."

And that was the most ridiculous and unbelievable part of the letter. What wealth could those outsiders ever have offered Lord Stark and King Baratheon to sell a piece of the continent? It would never make up for the strategic loss of giving a mighty foreign empire a permanent foothold on the continent. Even worse, if those long range weapons Cercei spoke of were as powerful as she said, and they had multiple iron dragons, it might become impossible to ever force those outsiders back across the sunset sea once they were here in numbers.

"For us, this deal is even worse compared to the other houses, as the King will undoubtedly use the money to pay back the Crown's loans and diminish our hard-fought influence in the capital. Unfortunately, there is not much we can do about that except damage control."

Tywin then handed Kevan a second letter, which was written in Tyrion's distinct handwriting.

"There might be some upsides to this whole mess though. If Tyrion is to be believed, the foreign empire has access to the secrets of Myrish glass and methods to make cheap steel, as well as other contraptions not even Myr and Braavos are able to create."

Curious, Kevan started to read Tyrion's long letter. Not only did Tyrion describe his impression of the foreigners and the events at Winterfell, but he also included a surprisingly long list of goods which the foreigners would be willing to sell to the Seven Kingdoms. Shockingly, this included almost every valuable good created in the free cities, as well as more fantastical contraptions like the so-called printing press that could write a book in less than an hour.

"Brother, do you agree with Tyrion's plan?" Kevan eventually said, after he read the latest part of the letter.

"As loath as I'm to admit it, it might be the best way to deal with those foreigners. Going to war with them without the backing of the Starks and the King is foolishness. Likewise, if we ignore them, it will only make the North and Reach more powerful."

Twyin Lannister, lord of Casterly Rock, took another sip of his wine before he continued.

"Since Tyrion seems so enamored with those foreigners, it seems fair to give him what he wants. He can go to their lands, be our envoy and make trade deals in my name. However, since the foreigners do not seem to be careful of their military knowledge, I expect him to figure out the secrets of their ranged weapons, iron dragons and steel production while he's there, by any means necessary."

"And what if Tyrion fails at that?"

"Then I'll revoke his privileges and send someone more capable, of course. However, one of my more capable spies will accompany him, so there shouldn't be much difficulty."

Kevan wasn't surprised to hear Tywin had a spy in the King's party. It explained the third letter and Tywin's sudden change of heart regarding the existence of the foreigners.

"Tywin, regarding Tyrion's trade proposal, how much are you planning to implement?"

"I'll be writing a letter tomorrow to our kin in Lannisport. They're to double the size of our trading fleet and expand our port accordingly. I want all trade between the foreigners and the Southern Kingdoms to flow through Lannisport. As for the costs, they will be free to borrow as much from our coffers as they need."

Kevan was surprised to hear that his brother had not only taken Tyrion's plan, but expanded on it. That said, gaining a monopoly on trade with the seemingly rich foreigners was certainly a great plan.

"In addition, we'll be massively expanding our navy. I do not trust that Squid Balon to keep his hands off our new trading vessels once we start trading with those foreigners on the Stony Shore. Not to mention the fact that we'll need that fleet once relations with the foreigners start going south. Come next summer, the Lannister navy should surpass the Squids and Redwines in size and quality."

Considering the size of the Redwine fleet, that was a very bold plan, bordering on impossible. However, before Kevan could comment on that, his brother continued speaking.

"Since I won't have the time to oversee this, I want you to do that in my stead. You don't need to worry about the costs of the plan, as long as the navy is build up as swiftly as possible."

"But, Tywin, even using millions of dragons, getting enough people and materials to build the ships will be arduous. Training the new sailors into an effective fighting force in such a short time will be even harder."

"We can use our increased trading fleet to get cheap wood from the north, in addition to the goods from the foreigners. Hiring experienced sailors from Braavos to train new recruits out of Lannisport would solve most other issues regarding the plan."

The next few hours were spend discussing what they knew about the foreigners, making more detailed plans regarding the expansion of the navy, and debating how to deal best with the loss of influence in the capital that accompanied the loans. Predictably, the Dornish Red hadn't lasted long into the tumultuous evening and another, lighter, bottle of wine had to be fetched. Hence, Kevan was beyond tired when he was finally able join his gentle wife Dorna in bed.

AN:

Thanks for everyone who favorited or followed the story, and especially to the people who took their time to write a review for this story!

Writing Tywin is hard, even when deliberately not writing from his POV. After rereading his parts in Tyrion's GoT chapters, I still find it hard to capture his true character completely.

I have a question for you people. Regarding the chapter titles, shall I rename them in aSoIaF style? (like Jon I, Tyrion II, Kevan I etc.), or shall I continue using chapter X and interlude Y for respectively common PoV chapters and (usually shorter) uncommon PoV chapters?