Dying to Know 6 - (ASoIaF, Qyburn!SI)
244 AC, Summerhall
As predictable, a need for the 'Peasant Army' came when King Aegon V was urged Lord Tytos Lannister to assist him in preventing a medium-scale rebellion in the Westerlands.
House Lannister had suffered a series of crises that seen its heirs and then its lord perishing between various important events. Lord Gerord Lannister, Tytos' father, had thought that harshening the regulations over his fief to keep the lords under check long before his son came to power would have been the best way to secure stability for the next decades.
What he didn't expect was for this to be viable to those houses that had the smarts to keep quiet for a few years into Tytos' misrule. Smaller houses had already started to get uppity over their loyalty and the chain of command, with people such as Lord Farman disobeying Tytos in regard of 'not building a defensive navy to avoid any raids from the Greyjoy' deserving some merit. But a large portion of those rebellious houses were still keen to not pay taxes and outright seen themselves autonomous to Casterly Rock.
As much as Lord Tytos may have this sort of mess, King Aegon V was not the kind of man that wanted for this sort of irregularity to become a normality within potential bad rules for other houses. Also, the reactionary practices enforced to milk more money out of the peasants further established grief within a man that was quite close to the smallfolk.
A letter was first dispatched with haste through a raven for Lord Lannister to warn the lords that were 'partaking in such dishonest practices to give up on such effort', the response was a written refusal from House Swyft, House Crakehall, and House Tarbeck.
I merely listened to these matters as they unfolded, but I admit in keeping track of what was unfolding in the backstage. The Swyfts were known to be quite 'unimportant' when put before other houses, but this irrelevance could be tied to their weakening following the Dance.
It was also true that they held a degree of sympathy for the Tarbecks, who were looking to rise up to power after a lengthy decline, and House Crakehall who is rumored to have had a secret tie with the Blackfyre Rebellions.
What ensued from that triple refusal was the first deployment of the Peasant Army as some nobles called it. The proper denomination if 'Royal Army of the Crownlands', but the king felt the 'badmouthing' to be worthy of turning such an 'insult' into a fitting name of strength.
Four years had not produced the finest army due to its still limited size of 9000 or so men in acceptable conditions, but the quality was just right as constant drilling and war games through Summerhall's permissive terrain allowed for some exercises to be made to ready the man.
The introduction of the 'Thundering Bells' as some of the troops called it also provided them with the firepower this new model force required. The cannons were among the finest I could have hoped to see conceived through the small blacksmithing group the school had, but the nature of their creation and their limited mobility despite efforts being made to make those attachable to chariots led by horses did decrease their value.
The true might lingered within their powerful shells- an explosive canister and an incendiary one just so the king would feel those as a 'sufficient' replacement to dragons during war times. And when rebellion came, it sure came handy in establishing a war plan to take care of this 'triple alliance'.
The king was, from what some officers would report back, surprised but pleased to hear this wouldn't be a matter of 'battle after battle'. Rather, the officer corps had established through what maps Lord Tytos was willing to provide which strike points to adopt.
It wasn't going to be the same as 'Operation Lion Grace' became the first well-planned war effort which saw two months of planning and preparations culminating in a rapid war of a few weeks.
The king and most of the Peasant Army at 5000 men struck into the main force assembled by the three houses, encircling and slowly wrecking them with artillery fire. The first volley shredded 'a few defensive posts but almost all of the foes' willingness to face off the King'.
It was a massacre for sure, with some remarking its 'similarities' with the Field of Fire. But what really caught many off-guard was that, at the same time, smaller forces sieged and then captured the main centers for the rebels.
I was not quite aware of what peace deal Aegon wanted to enforce as he had mentioned wanting to 'establish a new rule against rebels'. Considering the house he came from, that felt dreadful to imagine, but I had a feeling it wasn't going to be about personal torture and more about the houses' integrity.
What I knew was that the Westerlands found a wave of peace after that rapid warfare effort, and that the king would linger to make sure no 'new surprises' came up before he left. Tytos was being scrutinized, so that was going to be an interesting detail in regard on how Tywin will develop from this.
And yes, Tywin is already here... a cute little baby of two. Blissfully unaware of how much shit he will have to face once he grows up to become the new Lord of House Lannister.
But beyond those wonderful news that made me feel once again happy for this hard work yielding these positive results... I was given a bit of a surprise in the form of a summon to the Summerhall palace itself. I had not visited it once during those four years, mostly because Jaehaerys was feeling like a little prat about what I was 'responsible' for.
The boy sure knew how to hold a grudge, but the summon was less of his idea and more from a visiting Targaryen that was 'missing' me despite her last visit being a month ago.
Vaella was really worrying me at this point. I wouldn't say that she was obsessing over me, but her interest and desire towards me were highlighted by two things that were unquestionably above the notion of common friendship: first, she tended to focus a lot on me.
Albeit one could clearly think of this as her starving for affection and thus seeing in me as her only source of happiness, but the way she kept on wanting to visit and be around me without the intention of just 'checking on me' but outright be with me showed something more to it; and to make things somewhat worse, she had been ignoring any request of marriage from other families.
While there wasn't a grasp on who were the children Vaella gave birth, it is known she did have children and that she and those died in what would have been the tragedy of Summerhall.
The fact that she was avoiding getting married was a big fucking red flag on what was going on with us and while nothing intimate happened during those four years, that didn't mean the rumors were going to give a fuck about that truth.
As I arrived to the palace, I was feeling particularly nervous as I also learned that someone else had tagged along with Vaella for this particular visit and it was supposedly the other individual that would hate me for the publication of the anti-incest journals.
Shaera Targaryen was quite pretty at eight and ten, but where she should have already been made a mother to Aerys II, her lack of relationship with her brother Jaehaerys had prevented that from happening. Wearing a rather precious black dress that contrasted nicely with her Targaryen white/light blonde hair, Shaera was a little beauty, but one that matched Vaella's own due to the mesmerizing purple eyes and exotic white hair.
And while I expected her to be as broody as Jaehaerys was around me, I was greeted by a polite smile and an overall chill personality. Nothing about her outward manners suggested anything to worry about, but I refrained from being too open just in case of this being a mask.
For as much as many would be quick to think Jaehaerys was the one that led to their marriage, it's actually wrong to say he was the only one to blame. Shaera lusted after her brother in return just as much, and while she may not be as openly hostile towards me as her sibling was, that didn't mean that she wasn't.
The visit was not a lengthy one much to my immense relief.
The conversation was equally stale through most of the meeting. Jaehaerys was restrained in his praising towards me for 'giving his father an army worthy of a dragon', while Shaera was quite fair with her compliments and genuinely inquired about the complex nature of the school as she showed genuine curiosity on its organization. I could just tell that this was a legitimate interest she was bringing up and, for some reason, it annoyed Jaehaerys to some extent.
Vaella was the one without having to hold back as she mentioned that such a quick war proved how the King was still the absolute authority as always, but her real 'gift' was when it was time for me to leave. Before I moved inside the chariot, she reached out to land a soft peck on my cheek. Nothing too lingering, but enough for the chase gesture to matter a lot in the long-run.
"See you soon~," She said before waving and then leaving, giving me so many reasons to dread the next encounter for when that was going to happen.
I had to find a way to warrant a relocation without putting myself at risk, but as a few days went by and I enjoyed once more the relative peace that the lack of most of the army meant to the school, I found myself dealing with a new crisis.
To give a quick premise: I had been trying to get myself a secretary. I realized how difficult it was to handle the growing list of paperwork without someone reliable to pass some of the papers to and thus gain the chance to do other experiments in the mean time.
Since the level of interest and the pool of candidates was extremely limited, I didn't expect much to come out of it for a few more years. Hell, I made some of the requirements on purpose to exclude Vaella from trying to use her title to make it to the job but...
Someone else did use that authority to do it.
"Maester Qyburn, I heard that you were looking for someone to aid you in your duties. I wouldn't mind offering my service."
The sweetness and giddiness of Shaera Targaryen was not missed in her unexpected visit and request, I would even have a tougher time to 'choose' since the king had actually allowed for Shaera to try for such a job.
By an initial assessment, I thought that Shaera was trying to get in a close enough position to get close to her brother despite her father's best effort to keep them apart but...
There was more into it than I could have predicted by knowing Shaera from so little time.
AN
Shaera may like... war a bit too much~.