(Disclaimer: I do not own A Song of Ice and Fire nor its characters. Those all belong to George R. R. Martin, aside from my OC.)


(Erlend POV, Harrenhal)

The siege of Harrenhal had been over for nearly a week, instead of immediately going on the move, I had the banners recuperate and secure supply lines, lest they be stretched too thin.

While the Riverlands harvest could feed the Banners, it could prove a hindrance to my new plans should the population be hostile towards me if my men steal them. Because it will make up a primary part of my domains, that would be quite foolish.

Aside from securing the territories under my control, the supplemented men that had joined up with the Banners from the Riverlands were put to purging them from bandits and deserters.

Those that weren't were sent to aid the 6th banner in their campaign within the Crownlands.

This had the effect of giving me a positive image with the locals, as well as ensuring that the Banners didn't face shortages due to supplies or equipment being stolen.

House Whent could muster approximately 7,000, nearly half came from their vassals. Hence when my Banners had methodically besieged and captured each of those vassals, that limited their number to 4,000 that came from lands directly under their control.

This was the same for nearly all the major houses in the Riverlands which could raise about 4,000 to 5,000 men, when including their minor vassals.

Despite joining the side of the rebels, the Tullies could only muster 10,000 - 15,000 men out of about 45,000, since most of their major vassals either remained neutral or joined the loyalists. With only the minor houses and House Mallister heeding their call.

Ravens had already arrived in regards to the Crownlands campaign. Lt. General Strong was making good progress, having successfully besieged Rook's Rest and now heading toward Duskendale where he would be joined by Valemen under Old Horton.

As I continued to look through potential strategies I could use going forward, a faint noise could be heard coming from outside the solar.

Curious about what was going on, I decided to get up and check out the issue.

The sight I walked out to was that of Yohn and Uncle Lorimas arguing about something, choosing not to interrupt them and motioning for the guards to remain silent, I listened on.

"Damn it Lorimas, You can't just go making such a decision without consulting anyone" I could practically feel the exasperation in Yohn's voice.

"It wasn't sudden old Man, I can assure you that I've been thinking about it for a while" was my Uncle's response.

"I've seen you making decisions Lorimas, it doesn't exactly take all that long" Yohn looked incredulously at my Uncle.

Deciding to interrupt them, I made my presence known "I see you're up to your usual shenanigans Uncle".

Whatever they were going to say was lost as both men swiveled towards me in surprise.

"Hey… Lenny, how much did you overhear exactly" There was a tinge of nervousness in my Uncle's tone.

"Enough to know that it would either piss off Aunt Dalia or amuse her"

"Ahem, maybe we should relax a little bit, there's no need to bring your Aunt into this"

Raising my eyebrow at this, I turned my eyes towards Yohn, clearly looking for a proper answer.

Sending an apologetic look towards my Uncle, Bronze Yohn chose to be honest with his answer "Your Uncle has chosen to adopt Mya Stone, natural-born daughter of Robert".

Silence, absolute silence was all that could be felt throughout the corridor, not even the crickets dared break it.

It would be Raymond's response that described my feelings nearly perfectly "Bloody hell, my Lord, I hope you've prepared protection, you'll need it when Lady Dalia hears of this "

Little Mya was a sweet little girl, her mother had unfortunately recently passed away from the same sickness that took Cousin Denys wife and son and Old Nestor had decided to take her as his ward.

My Uncle being the sentimental fool he was, decided to adopt her, after having met her during our time in the Eyrie. Nestor had been unable to convince him otherwise and had decided to inform his cousin Yohn, a good friend of my uncle to do so.

Frankly, I had no problems with this, the issue lay on whether my aunt would be pleased about it or not.

While I knew my Aunt cared little about whether one was within or outside of the sheets, she was also someone who tended to think long and hard about any decision. Suddenly adopting Mya would give her a headache, due to the political ramifications it would mean for him and indirectly myself.

Still, it was already too late, word had quickly spread about my Uncle's decision, and a few of the more traditional Lords made their displeasure known, though they were quick to silence. As their reactions had been mitigated by the fact that she was Robert's bastard, and that smoothed a lot of feathers due to the not-so-insignificant amount of friends he had.

There would be a bit of displeasure but it could be dealt with, I just hoped he'd be ready to sleep on the couch for the foreseeable future.

My attention was now focused on ravens that had been sent by my good-uncle Jason Mallister who sent word that House Mallister, House Blackwood, and Ryger had rallied to my cause and were now intending to besiege the brackens whilst keeping the Freys trapped within their lands.

House Ryger joining my cause certainly surprised me, as it had been assumed they'd fight against me in the name of the Targaryens or such other rot, but it seemed they wanted to avoid meeting the same fate as the Whents.

Blackwood joining my banner was to be expected, as they were quite close to the Mallisters. Unfortunately, this also meant that the Brackens would oppose me on principle, which I didn't mind as much since it just saved me less effort in the future.

"Well isn't this interesting"