Asher didn't really understand what was going through Jon's mind these days. No one in their right mind would agree to sell a Valyrian Steel sword especially when he knew Jon's finances were well off. Then again the little bugger was always scheming and the Red Priest was also chipping into those secret plans. Asher really wanted to know what plan made Jon sell a Valyrian Steel? It was just something no one ever did. Even before the Doom claimed the entire Valyrian peninsula no one ever gave up their Valyrian forged blade. Now, Jon was planning on selling it for a large sum of gold for sure but gold is not everlasting. He had even tried to talk Jon out if it as did Dacey but his friend was more stubborn than he was. He now understood how his father felt whenever he refused to listen to his advises. His personal grievances on the Valyrian Steel aside he had to admit that he was looking forward to the Andalos campaign. As a Northerner, he did indeed know about the Andal invasion as well as the Andal conquests that destroyed all First Men strongholds south of the Neck. He was taught if that dark history from a young age and it was only because of Theon Stark the North was spared the same fate. When Theon united the bothering kings if the North under his rule he managed to beat back the Andal invaders. The Winter King then learned the secrets of steel and sailed across the Narrow sea and burned the Andal lands to the ground. While all of this happened centuries ago Asher was still fired up to lead a campaign into the ancient Andal lands. If nothing else the simple prestige that would bring in the North for his house was more than enough to get him on board. If only he could first find a blasted drama troop to satisfy Jon's mad idea of creating a spy network.
For days he has been searching high and low in Braavos for someone working in a travelling drama troop but all of them were busy playing some sob story for some nobles. The one's that were free in schedule had no constitution for being spies. At the rate, his search was going Asher was sure that he would have to deliver the bad news to Jon. When he first took on this job from Jon he had boasted that this will be a simple job. Well, now he knows just how simple this is turning out to be. He could already hear the mocking laughter from that damn Red Priest. To forget the woes that had befallen him he turned to the one thing that could soothe his troubles—wine.
"One more cup!" he ordered as he finished the previous cup. The bartender filled up the cup full of wine and he once again began to drown in the red liquid.
"If you drink any more you will lose yourself, friend." said a guy from his back in a heavily accented voice that he couldn't quite place
Asher looked on curiously as a large dark-skinned man covered in red robes sat by his side on the table. There were strange yellow and orange tattoos inked across his forehead and cheeks. The guy had pearl white hair and sickly green eyes. Asher also noticed a giant staff with a dragonhead by his side. From the looks of it, he could already this guy was a friend of Thoros.
"What the fuck do you want? You are a red priest, aren't you? Don't tell me Thoros sent you here?" Asher slammed his cup on the table as hard as he could which of course made his wine spill out across the table.
"While Thoros is a fellow brother he didn't send me to you. The Lord of the Light did! My name is Moqorro, a Red Priest in service to the Red Temple of Volantis and I have what you need."
"What's that?" Asher asked already writing off this Red Priest as another fanatic similar to Thoros
"You wanted to find a drama troupe did you not? I am saying I have one in my service." said Moqorro and the priest stopped Asher from taking another swig from his wine cup
Asher really wanted to punch the priest across his face but already he was getting a few weird looks from the tavern. He shook his head to clear the cobwebs in his mind.
"You brought a drama troupe for me, why?" Asher asked as he regained some bearings
"I hadn't brought them for you. I brought them for the Azor Ahai and more of the faithful will be waiting for him in the Braavosi coastlands when he starts his campaign. The Red God wants his army to be ready for the true war against the Dark One and his chosen warrior will get all the help he needs." said Moqorro without missing a beat
"I didn't understand half the things you are saying but I do understand you can help me and that's all I care about at the moment. Let's go then." Asher rose to his feet and paid for the wine. Soon they were out of the tavern and walking along the streets.
"Where Is this drama troupe you were talking about?" Asher asked as he followed the bulky priest
"They are in my ship but first you must take me to Azor Ahai." said Moqorro and now Asher turned to the Red Priest with a cross look.
"Yeah, that is not happening. First, you show me the drama troupe and then we go see your hero. Seriously, you and Thoros need to tone it down before Jon gets a big head with all this messiah shit." Asher grumbled and thankfully Moqorro just nodded and they were on their way to the ship.
Jon was glaring a hole through the smirking face of one of the captains of the Company of Rose. The real kicker was that the guy was a bloody Dustin whose name was Gerold Dustin also known as Bloodyhand. There were two other captains, one was Martin Umber and the other was Baleon Sunglass. Jon was really interested in learning how a Sunglass managed to become the captain of this particular sellsword company. While the Company of Rose was happy enough to take up the contract in Andalos the sellsword had an obscene amount of a prize for the contract.
"Three hundred thousand gold honours is too much for one sellsword company." Aneros shouted clearly not at all comfortable paying up that much for just one sellsword company
"We have nine thousand men in total. The three of us leads three thousand men each. The Company has three thousand mounted men and that means we have to look after the horses. The campaign that you are suggesting will pit us against Dothraki as well as any other sellsword companies fielded by other free cities in Andalos. Under such circumstances we need the gold for more weapons and resources." said Gerold standing firmly on his demands
"Very well. But all your battle plans will be discussed with me and I will, in turn, keep my colleagues in the know of your activities. The objective of this campaign is to dislodge the Dothraki and any Norvosi influence in Andalos. Your contract will be considered completed when we have control over the lands between Mother Rhoyne all the way up to the Velvet Hills." Jon put forth his condition to the contract
"Are you really trying to control our war strategy boy?" Gerold growled
"I am not your boy Dustin. We are paying you to clean up the land for us. We have to make sure when all is said and done we don't get a burned up wasteland with no worth. We do need the land intact if we are to make something out of it." Jon didn't budge from his point and the three Captains agreed after discussing it between themselves
"Your troops will be transferred from Pentos to the Braavosi Coastlands as quick as possible. Not far from the coastline there is a sizeable lake called the Blueberry lake. Your forces can set up camp there and all the provisions that you will need can be mustered there." Jaqiros suggested and the meeting came to an end while a formal contract was signed in the presence of an Iron Bank employee.
With the finer details of the contract negotiated and signed by the two parties, Jon waited for the Captains of the Company of Rose to take their leave.
"We will be looking forward to meeting you in the field by our side Snow." Gerold parted with that last shot of dialogue as well as his fellow captains
"Is there going to be a problem?" Jaqiros asked noticing the tension between
"Don't worry about them, Master Baerraris. They are just testing the waters so to speak. They are descendants of former Northmen who exiled themselves from the North after Aegon's conquest. It is understandable they are motivated to be a little rough around the edges with me. So long as our objective is achieved I see no problem with them." said Jon and after discussing some more about some of the tactical support that they will be receiving from the Sealord they left the Bank.
When Jon returned from his meeting back to the manor he was greeted with the sight of Dacey drinking quite heavily from a jug full of wine while Thoros was training Jerry(Gerion). Jon almost laughed at the attire of Jerry. The boy was covered from head to toe in padded armour and he was waddling around trying and failing to swing the wooden sword in his hand. Thoros was trying to teach the boy properly to swing but from the looks of it, he was having no luck so far. All that was happening was Thoros poking Jerry a lot with his wooden sword.
"How long has this been going on?" Jon asked as he joined Dacey as he leaned into the railing
"You want some?" Dacey offered her wine
"You know I only drink on weekends." He politely turned her down
"How did the meeting go?" Dacey asked
"As good as I expected. The company has taken the contract and the interesting bit of news is that there are a Dustin, an Umber and a Sunglass in the company's leadership." Jon informed her and held back a wince as Jerry fell into the ground when Thoros poked a little too hard.
"So there are still some heirs of the Northern houses in the Company. Although, how did a Sunglass managed to enter the Company?" Dacey asked as she blinked in surprise
"I don't know about the Sunglass fellow. He may have joined after the rebellion. We will find out I guess. They will be starting to move to the Coastlands soon enough." said Jon and Dacey nodded and they descended into a comfortable silence only broken by the grunts of exertions let out by Jerry.
"That boy is seriously weak. Are you sure you want to teach him the ways around a sword?" Dacey asked breaking their silence
"He has been living the life of a slave Dacey. The boy is too skinny and I doubt he had much to eat or drink in his stay in Lys. Although, you are right in saying that he could start his training after a little while." Jon nodded to himself as he jumped over the railing and walked closer to the duo.
"Perhaps we can start training Jerry once he has the strength to swing a wooden sword Thoros." Jon suggested as he helped Jerry to his feet
"I can—fight! I promised mother." Jerry managed to gasp out
"First you need to be strong enough to hold a blade properly in your hand. Perhaps you ought to be my personal squire and I will help you in building up your bodily strength." Jon rubbed Jerry's hair affectionately and let the boy waddle out of the training yard
"If you have to take a squire you have to be a knight first." Thoros pointed out as he unsheathed his sword and began to take some experimental swings
"There are no Knights in the North, you know that." Jon shrugged
"Aye, but you do not intend to unite the North alone under your banner do ya? You need the whole of Westeros behind you and being a Knight is looked on favourably in the South. Defeat me and I will knight you here and now." said Thoros as he circled around Jon and made to swipe at his legs. Jon was quick to jump right over the swipe and right before he landed Dark Sister was in his hand.
"If that was the case you could have knighted me when we fought in this yard days ago. What changed?" Jon asked as he started to hack and jab testing Thoros's defence but it remained impeccable as ever.
"Oh, I just thought we should give our guest a good welcoming show!" Thoros said as he nodded pointing to Jon's back. Jon looked back to find a large black man with a staff standing beside Dacey and Asher.
"Is he your friend?" Jon asked as he quickly swiped Thoros's sword away and began to rain down blow after blow upon the red priest.
"We are not friends yet but I am sure we will get along." Thoros said and stopped further talking and concentrated on the fight
Thoros came at Jon with fast and powerful swings and swipes of the sword, yet Jon was always ready to dodge, block or parry to the side. The two of them were moving around the training yard completely oblivious to the outside world concentrating on the dance of steel. Jon pushed in too hard in one of his strikes and managed to lock swords with Thoros. Both of them tried to overpower the other and slowly Jon purposefully slacked his arms. The sudden shift in power made Thoros gain a small edge but that distracted the knight for a fraction of a second. That small time of advantage was all that was needed for Jon to taste victory. Jon pushed their swords to the side, unbalancing Thoros who didn't expect such a thing before he found himself at the receiving end of a shoulder barge that sent him reeling backwards. Before Thoros could balance himself he had to clumsily defend from swift jabs and swipes from Jon.
Jon kicked straight at the knees of Thoros making said red priest fall to his knee. In the blink of an eye, Thoros found a sword close to his face.
"That was disappointing." Thoros murmured repeatedly as he climbed to his feet
"You should have used that fire trick if you were really intending to defeat me." said Jon as he helped Thoros climb to his feet
"I should have huh. Perhaps we should speak with our guest and then I can properly knight you?" Thoros suggested
"Sure why not?" Jon agreed and together they walked in the direction of their guest and Jon was curious who this new red priest was.