Soon enough I was back in King's Landing. Lord Tarly had ridden back with me, with his son and wife and a retinue of a few hundred men, he had left the majority of his men at Horn Hill to defend it in case of a siege. Now with the support of Lord Wylde and Lord Tarly I was confident that if anything were to happen, I would have the means to deal with it.
One problem that remained was the vacant position of Master of Coin. I simply had no idea who to give it to. One idea I considered was giving it to my grandfather, however I was weary about giving the Lannisters too much power. They already had enough. Unfortunately outside of them I couldn't come up with many options. There was no one that I could think of who had the skills and or the political power to warrant the position. No one in the North or the Riverlands were too fond of me right now, the current lady of the Vale was insane and dispises me due to my execution of Littlefinger, the Reach are seemingly siding with Renly, I haven't reconciled with Dorne yet and no one in the Crownlands is really important enough. So as far as I could think of I had three options: I could increase Lannister power, I could give a minor lord more influence or I could abolish the position, at least for the time being. I decided to think on it.
After eating and dealing with a few minor issues I realised just how tired I was; I had ridden quite a distance and I always became exhausted after travelling. With that in mind I decided work could wait and I set of to my chambers ready to sleep and recoup before starting afresh later.
I entered my chambers and changed out of the expensive clothes that I wore and into some night clothes that mother had made for me. While the tunics and sills are quite comfortable, sleeping in them would ruin them, and Cersei would go absolutely bat-shit if I did. I sighed in comfort as the goose feather stuffed pillow embraced my head and I drifted off to sleep.
I shot awake as an almighty explosion rattled the Red Keep to its core. "What the fuck!" I shouted and I ran out onto the balcony. What I saw filled me with dread, my heart dropped. "No!" I gasped, "No no, no, no!" The screams of people reached me as I watched green flames reach up as if trying to touch the sky. The flames danced from building to building destroying everything as they went. "You fucking idiot!" I screamed.
How could I forget about the fucking wildfire?!
I dashed back into my room and then out into the corridor people were running this way and that but I spared them no mind as I started running out towards the gates. Luckily I soon saw a familiar face "Tyrion!" I screamed. I couldn't believe this was happening. Of cause knocking everything down and digging fucking sewers would disrupt the wildfire! "Get as much sand as we have and send it over there, we need to stop it spreading!" He nodded seriously before heading to do just that.
I continued running towards the gates and once there I was greeted by what seemed like thousands of small folk trying to get passed the locked gates.
"You fucking bastards!" I shouted at the guards, "fucking open them!" As soon as they did the small folk cascaded into the courtyard. I pushed against the wave of people who were to panicked to notice who I was.
Soon I was getting closer to the ever growing fire, I could feel the warmth on my back and the stream of people heading towards the keep (word must've spread) were looking more and more panicked, the frequency of injured people was also increasing.
Soon I could see the flames. They were intense to say the least. They were moving quickly in all directions, if we didn't stop this quickly King's Landing would no longer exist.
I soon spotted Tyrion speaking to a large group of people who were trying to help put out the flames. As I approached he spoke to me. "Your Grace, it is too late to just put sand on the fire, it is too big."
"I agree." I said and then turned to the group of both lords and commoners alike - the only time you'd ever get them to mingle- who were standing seemingly looking for orders. "Head around 100 metres in each direction and then create a circle of knocked down houses, make sure there's a big enough gap so that the flames won't be able to spread!" They soon went off to do so and I joined them but not before ordering one of them to bring some tools to the men and telling Tyrion to gather as much of the City Watch as possible to aid in destroying the houses.
Soon it seemed the entire city was at work hacking at the wooden houses. The sweat was pouring down me as I too brought down house after house with the aid of the resistance force. My arms were the weight of lead as I brought down the houses, but I had to stop this fire.
The flames were approaching rapidly, I worried that we wouldn't finish but luckily just as the demented green flames were licking at us the last house was brought down.
I ran back hoping that the 10 or so metre gap of nothing would be enough to extinguish the flames. Luckily, while a few houses started to catch they were soon doused out by the sand that was now on store nearby.
Hours later and the houses within the flames grasp had collapsed and the damage was clear: miles of destruction. A huge circle of what used to be homes and shops were no more. How many dead? How many had lost their homes and livelihoods?
All because of one mad king...
After ensuring that the flames were now under control I sought out the captain of the City Watch, soon he would no longer have the position but for now it was him I must go to.
"I want every member of the Alchemists' Guild in the Black Cells." I ordered sternly.
"Yes, Your Grace." He replied before bowing and walking away.
I just hope they haven't paid him off.
If I can't have Aerys then it will be them who pay for this.
I'll have their heads on a spike.
