Travel towards Gondor
In the end, Robert and Stannis had been forced to agree with Suleiman that sending their children back to Westeros, was literally asking for them to not be safe from the Nazgûl and a new kidnapping attempt with their fathers unable to hurry after them again.
"I really do not like it, I really do not!" Stannis kept muttering under his breath, gritting his teeth with his characteristic scowl on his face.
"I would have preferred them back home, too, as far away from this as possible, brother," Robert said, where they were watching the surrounding lands seem both familiar and unfamiliar as the fleet of Eastern, Dornish and a few Crownlands ships was sailing towards Gondor. Seeing how Stannis was in no mood for talking, Robert turned his attention anywhere else:
"How is it going up there, Argella?"
Up in the main mast of the front ship where the Baratheons and Suleiman were sailing, the oldest Baratheon princess was using her steel fans to create winds which allowed the fleet to sail faster.
"If this does not allow this fleet to sail faster, Father, I do not know!"
Her power over winds and air had proven to become very useful in the attempts to reach Gondor at the highest speed the fleet could make. The sooner they arrived alongside the Anduin river to reach Minas Tirith, the more damage the very presence of those soldiers could hope to give the armies of Mordor in the expected battle.
Inside his private cabin, Suleiman had a meeting with the three younger Sand children of the late Lewyn Martell.
"Cousin Elia have confirmed that the Rohirrim and the Dornish soldiers there have started their journey towards Gondor to give aid to them as well."
Pointing at a map, Lemore showed where the large army on horses most likely was right now.
"Well, Gondor shall not have to complain about being left alone against Sauron, for sure. While none of us can tell when we will arrive, we are not ignoring that Minas Tirith will be the site of Sauron trying to break the people of Gondor. The loss of a capital or other important cities really lowers morals in a war."
Suleiman was also pleased to hear that his father and the rest of the expanded Rûm sultan family had not fallen ill in some form yet.
"The dangerous thing with two worlds suddenly coming into contact are the risks of unknown diseases that can easily be transformed into a pandemic because one world is not immune to the illnesses which can be found in the other one. It is why we in Dorne are really strict with those who travel between Edoras and Sunspear, placing them in isolation and limited contact with just a few people, for at least one week's time, to not cause an outbreak which can prove fatal if nothing is found early."
"Good work to avoid that sort of scenario, indeed. And I guess that Elia, Rhaenys and Aegon must have fallen sick to some of the illnesses that can be found in Rohan and build up their immune systems against said illnesses."
They were all familiar with stories of how long-distance travelers were a good example of spreading diseases, infecting a whole village or town, as they wandered from place to place.
"By the way…" Suleiman wondered, "I heard that King Robert, for some reason, has brought his father-in-law along in chains like a prisoner. Care to explain that, if you know why?"
The two sisters and brother looked at each other.
"Somehow, Khamûl seems to have found out that Rhaenys is Mara reborn…and that Tywin Lannister was behind the attempted murder of Eia and her young children, on that very day as Théodred first met them. You see, he once wanted his own daughter to marry her first husband…"
"Oh, dear Gods."
Suleiman could imagine the scenario looking very much at how Princess Mara had nearly been killed in her first life and how this action, driven by his own ambition as well desire for power though his daughter as the Queen consort instead, would lead to Tywin Lannister becoming a target for the second most powerful Nazgûl's wrath.
"He is lucky to still be alive, I must say. Given that Khamûl is second only to the Witch-King of Angmar, then he likely intends for this Tywin Lannister to suffer brutally for the crime of trying to harm his precious Mara in her new body."
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On the other hand, Lyonel was trying to do something very private that he really did not want his father or siblings to notice:
"There is nothing wrong with liking both genders, or just one, young prince. Unlike what your dominant religion in Westeros seems to teach, sexuality is not that easily arranged neatly into what is normal and abnormal. Quite a lot of my old customers were only attracted to men aka their own gender, or switching between men and women depending on who they wanted to bed."
As a former courtesan in a all-male brothel which had been placed in a Mannish town in southern Mordor, Domelvo was not that surprised that Lyonel had come to him with a lot of questions that he seemed unwilling to ask anyone else. While Domelvo had left that lifestyle behind over fourteen years ago after being redeemed by Gingis so they could marry, his experience of life as a worker in the red-light district, allowed him to have a quite a board knowledge about sex and similar things that were related to that side of human nature.
"Um…Holly has said the same thing when we began to ask her about this last year, so Argella is pretty honest about the fact that she is drawn to Brienne…"
As embarrassed that Lyonel was to reveal this, Domelvo kept a neutral face.
"That tall, blonde young lady with freckles and your raven-haired twin sister? Yes, even those who are not living up to beauty standards, can still have their admirers and lovers who do not care about how they may look."
Really, Domelvo thought for himself, this otherworld prince was not so different from the young boys at the brothel, who were trained for the work they would start doing once they had turned fifteen years old. The main difference was that Lyonel was expected to remain faithful to the noble girl he had been betrothed to a few years earlier, because they would be legally married and hopefully have children together as the fruits of the marriage alliance.
"Are you worried that your future wife will think of you as easily controllable by the use of your cock? That she is raised to think of men as only thinking of sex and not being too bright in the upper head?"
"Um, yes…her paternal grandmother is quite known as the one controlling the family…and she is often using her older age to get away with quite mean things to say by claiming her memory to not be as good as in the past…"
In fact, that was precisely why Lyonel secretly had some dread about marrying Margarey Tyrell once he had come of age. That the teachings of Olenna Tyrell neé Redwyne to her granddaughter would make her believe that he was simpleminded and could be controlled in bed.
"Then I will give you some good advice on how you can shock her into realizing that she can't always be the smart one in a marriage. And one of those is to dress modestly yet also acting seductive at the same time."
Something about the almost triumphant smile actually unnerved Lyonel for some reason. Not that Domelvo planned planned to have sex in front of him, but to show that behavior and style of dressing could be used to almost literally kick the common sense out of the skulls of others.
"GINGIS! Get your lazy ass into our cabin and give me a little help here!"
Wolf whispers and friendly teasing were heard, as if everyone believed that Domelvo was calling his husband for a round in the bed.
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On the other hand, Tywin Lannister could, safely, be said to NOT be in a good mood. Not at all.
"Damn you, Robert Baratheon! Treating me like some common thief right after witnessing Cersei, my siblings and their families drown, and throwing me into the Black Cells, before I was chained up here below deck!"
As Robert had stripped Tywin and House Lannister of their position as Warden of the Westerlands, it naturally also had led to Tywin not being present at the burial of Cersei before the small Westerosi fleet hastily gathered at King's Landing had moved through the portal to the Heaven of Umbar.
"Lord Tywin?"
It was a loyal Lnnister knight, who had managed to sneak down under the excuse of bringing the food ration to Tywin.
"I have heard that this whole fleet is aiming for a battle somewhere, on land in a more distant place. If we use the expected chaos and King Robert being too busy in fighting, we will manage to free you then!"
Tywin said nothing as the plate of food and cup of water was set down in front of him, but the news was welcomed.
"Robert will regret treating me like this."
But as the knight tried to sneak back to his companions in the plan to free Tywin, he found himself knocked out by a smithing hammer from behind. In fact, the other three had been knocked out earlier.
"By all the Gods of both worlds! Just how stupid does they think our royal sire to actally be? Just because my half-siblings and cousins were not brought to Mordor, does not mean that the former Lord Lannister can walk around freely when he was demanded in exchange for them not being harmed by those wraiths on their flying beasts!" Gendry muttered in disbelief that the knight honestly believed that Robert did not expect a plot to free Tywin Lannister under his nose.
"Mya? Brienne? Please help me drag this fellow and his companions over to face Father before they awaken and tell him that they planned to free Lannister after we have arrived in Gondor!"
Really, sometimes Gendry was very grateful for that unless someone did really look close on his face, he looked like any other youth from the Crownlands with some Stormland blood in his veins. It was perfectly normal for children like him to exist, with a Stormland King sitting on the Iron Throne and naturally would attract his fellow Stormlanders to flood to the capital in the hope of finding work in some form.
"Just because I do not have magic like the others, does not mean that I can be useful in other forms despite my age."
With the two women arriving to help, Gendry knew that he had done something that would gain praise from pretty much all the Baratheons.
