Lord Regent, Tyrion Lannister was once again sat at his desk, something he had found himself doing much more often after Joffrey had left for war. The thought of his nephew fighting in battle brought butterflies to his stomach. Although he put on a brave face for his favourite nephew, he was scared shitless when he learnt that the Protector of the Realm was to set off to crush his rebellious uncle. Tyrion knew that Joffrey was a capable fighter, though he still believed that Cersei had made Jaime go easy on him when he was learning how to fight, but he still couldn't shake the feeling that something was going to go wrong while the King was off waging war in the Westerlands.
He shook himself out of those morbid thoughts and brought himself back to the present, on his desk was an important document, which he was about to sign, it read:
I, Lord-Regent, Tyrion Lannister, using the powers vested in my by His Grace, Joffrey of the House Baratheon, the First of His name, the King of the Andals, the Rhoynar and the First Men Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and Protector of the Realm do hereby make the following proclamation:
All the properties and businesses owned by the late traitor, Lord Petyr Baelish shall become the property of the Crown, to be used how His Grace sees fit. All decisions surrounding the estate of the late traitor shall be made by His Grace, and all revenues made by the estate shall be paid into the treasury of the Crown.
This includes all lands previously owned, in all parts of the Seven Kingdoms, by the late traitor.
Signed,
Lord-Regent Tyrion Lannister
While Joffrey had meant to do this previously, the matter had fallen out of importance, with everything that had gone on since the execution of Lord Baelish. And now that the Crown had to fund a war and all the other things that Joffrey wanted to do, now seemed like a good time to bring the profitable brothels into the hands of the Crown. The de facto ownership of the brothels had fallen to the matrons of the premises after Baelish's death, now however, with the brothels now formally owned by the Crown, Tyrion would ensure they would be run efficiently and to maximise profit, which would hopefully boost the Crown's coffers.
No doubt there would be some who, once the proclamation was published, would argue that the Crown should not be involved in such things as brothels and whores. Tyrion however would argue that the fact that the whorehouses were so profitable should be used in whatever way they could to maximise the Crown's revenue. The Seven knew that it needed the money. Either way, the King's seal was on the document now, it was law, and Tyrion would ensure that this debt got paid off, even if it were the last thing he did.
The situation in the city was not good, to be frank, they were running out of food. While the crops in the newly built glasshouses (still visited on a weekly basis by Prince Tommen) were coming along nicely, the food wasn't growing quick enough. The gardeners in charge of the glasshouses told him the first batch of crops were around 6 moons away, yet the Crown was already rationing bread and other crop-based foods, were all but out of meat, and the supplies they did have would only last, at most, one month, with the current rationing regime, and if they tightened the rationing, three months. In short, they were fucked.
The implementation by the High Septon of a daily fast to bring the 'will of the Gods' unto the King's army had helped somewhat, the majority of the populace of King's Landing were religious (as was all of Westeros, though the exact religion differed) so many did partake in the fast. The people were hungry however, and the fury of the Seven wouldn't prevent them from making their dissatisfaction heard if they weren't given enough food soon.
Problematically, there didn't seem to be an easy solution to the problem, most of the Kingdoms were involved in the war. Those on the side of the King needed to feed their men, those who weren't obviously wouldn't send food. The neutral Kingdoms were the Iron Islands, the Vale and Dorne. The Iron Islands didn't have enough food to spare, the Vale despised the King, and in Tyrion's opinion needed dealing with before things got out of hand. Dorne, meanwhile, was an unlikely solution, but short of importing food from across the Narrow Sea (and borrowing more money which Tyrion was loathe to do) it was the only option. So with that, Tyrion picked up another piece of parchment, inked his quill, and wrote a letter.
Prince Doran Martell, Lord of Sunspear, Prince of Dorne,
I, Lord-Regent, Tyrion Lannister, on behalf of His Grace, Joffrey of the House Baratheon, the First of His Name, King of the Andals, the Rhoynar and the First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and Protector of the Realm, do request a meeting between yourself and a representative of His Grace to discuss the relations between House Martell and the Crown. I understand that relations, particularly between my house and yours, have been more than strained, but I would request that, for the betterment of the Realm, you consent to a meeting.
Signed, Lord-Regent Tyrion Lannister.
All Tyrion could do was hope for the best, because without a deal between the Kingdom of Dorne and the Crown, King's Landing was in real trouble.
With a sigh, Tyrion stood up; he had a Small Council meeting to get to.
A few weeks later, many miles away, the Prince of Dorne received a raven bearing the Royal Seal. Anger rushed through him as he saw it for the first time in many years. The loss of Elia was as raw as ever. Curiosity got the better of him, though, and he broke the seal and opened the letter. Doran read the missive in a rapid manner, it was relatively short after all, as he finished it, the anger was replaced with mirth. How ironic? They killed his sister, overthrew the old King and now they come crawling in their hour of need? He saw through the formal, polite wording; they needed him!
And the Prince of Dorne laughed, for the first time in seemingly forever, he laughed.
