Chapter XVIII: The First Great Deed, by Maester Alyn, of Summerhall
The Pentoshi expedition, what men across the Seven Kingdoms now misguidedly call the War for the Stones, or the Humbling of Pentos, or among the Faith as the Sacred Passage, more suitable names, ended with widespread destruction of the countryside of that Free City, King's Baelor army carrying thousands of carts of loot behind them.
Having landed north of Pentos, the host carved a path of destruction with fire and sword until they reached the Velvet Hills. There the army rested and awaited with increasing worry the return of the king, who had gone to hunt a white hart, returning only after a fortnight.
But the fact that the king was once again with his army, and the host ready to march again, paled in importance to what His Grace had brought with him. Not the white stag, which the king later called a messenger from above, but the Seven Stones of the Faithful, now counted the greatest relics of the Faith, being, as legend claims it, the first carved statues of the Seven, supposedly by Hugor's own hands. While colleagues at the Citadel have not been able, through lack of means, to ascertain that the Stones were indeed carved by his hand, it is an unanimous belief among those who possess the copper link of history that these statues are indeed those that the Andals, before the Crossing, held to have been the original ones.
The High Septon was quick in recognising such, and it is said, that those among the Most Devout, and also among the most devout, through long prayers and shows of piety, have been able to sense the presence of the gods themselves while beholding the statues. Sers Oscar Tully and Jonos Edgerton, who had joined King Baelor on the hunt, as had some peculiar Andal warlord, have sworn that they had felt the self-same presence, when they were the first to beheld them after countless centuries.
Once the king had acquired these most holy relics, his army advanced towards Ghoyan Drohe, and continued their raids while marching upon the Valyrian road towards Pentos. The approaching army brought great fear in the hearts of the Pentoshi magisters, which already suffered from a joint blockade of the Braavosi and royal fleets. They beheaded their fourth prince for the year and sent the fifth to make peace.
The Pentoshi were to suffer a grievous pace, for the king and the Sealord impose upon the city strict conditions. The many slaves that suffered under the yoke of the magisters, and where until now not freed by Baelor's knight, were to receive their freedom, without compensation for their former masters and no Pentoshi would be involved in the slave trade. The great farming estates were to be carved in half, one coming into the possession of those who had once laboured without pay.
Pentos could keep but twenty warships, was prohibited from employing sellswords or free companies, could maintain no permanent force beyond the City Watch, though citizen militias could be called to arms for a time, for training, or for defence of their lands.
The king was not satisfied with such, and an indemnity of fifty thousand dragons a year was to be paid to the Iron Throne for the next twenty years. Collecting the gold would serve also allow the Westerosi envoys to inspect if Pentos held true to its word.
A peace made with Pentos, the royal host returned home, with great stores of plunder and many freed Andal slaves, which sought a better fate across the sea. It was they that bestowed upon the Blessed King one of his many monikers, the Breaker of Chains.
The Seven Stones were transported home on seven different ships, the king being overly prudent in the matter. Once the relics were ashore, the ships were dismantled, and the wood stored for further use. The desk that even now is present in the King's solar was made from the ship that carried the statue of the Crone, furniture in various septs, septries and motherhouses is said to be made from these seven ships, and there is a great trade amidst the merchants and the richer smallfolk in nails purported to have once belonged to these vessels, now fashioned into amulets.
The Seven Stones remained in King's Landing, although the Most Devout Abelar purported to have been sent a divine vision to escort them to the Starry Sept. The King refused him with the greatest prejudice, denying the truth of his revelation, asserting that if the matter were true, the One-Who-Is-Seven would have surely given him knowledge of the location of the Stones, and not to the king.
For the King once returned, had proclaimed that the Seven had revealed unto him the location of the Seven Stones and sent a white hart to guide him. Once his Vision was made known all across the realm, neither the High Septon or the Conclave of the Most Devout made no further such requests. The Starry Sept was to be pleased with lesser relics, carved from the prows of the seven ships. The captains of the ships were knighted and settled with lands, on the condition that they were to sail no further in the service of the king, for no greater mission would he have for them than escorting such holy relics. Their descendants are easily recognised by their banners, each depicting a ship with a symbol of one of the seven aspects of the One.
The relics remained in the Royal Sept for a time, until a more suitable place for hosting them was to be build, a fact that would have more reaching consequences and would greatly benefit King Baelor and the kings that came after him.
Once the first of the Seven Great Deeds of the Blessed Baelor was finished, the king turned his eyes towards home and then southwards, were the Dornish wallowed in rebellion and oathbreaking, and unto the Stepstones, which were to be the first step in resolving the matter and making the Seven Kingdoms whole.
Those who wish to know in further detail of the First Great Deed, of Baelor's Revelation, the Hunt of the White Hart and the Holy Passage, must look upon the work of Archmaester Tommen, or if they are inclined to a more hagiographical work, they should read "The Seven Great Deeds, or the most holy life of the Blessed Baelor", written by Septon Bonifer of the Stoney Sept.