WILOW-Ch.371: Not at First
Near Casterly Rock, Westerlands
POV of Domeric Bolton
Domeric flew above the lands with his astral body and looked at the army as well as the large castle in the distance.
Looking at Casterly Rock now, he could understand why no one had ever taken the castle.
He also understood that even with his magically armored troops, it would be tough for him to win over this castle.
He would have to use his wits and magic for this one.
He flew away from the Rock and set his sights on the army once again.
Twelve thousand men led by a knight named Lucian Lannister from a branch family of the Lannister House.
Upon looking closely, he saw that the army was indeed composed of boys and old men, along with a bunch of mercenaries who were now being trained to hold the right end of their spears.
The Lannisters were truly scraping the bottom of the barrel with this army.
He looked at the area around the army and noticed that Ser Lucian Lannister had not stationed any sentries or guards around the army.
Which was understandable. They were a little distance from Casterly Rock after all.
And the time he was last sighted was at Riverrun.
No one would think that he had taken the Golden Tooth and had entered the Westerlands already.
This assumption was going to cost them an army.
Not that they would have been spared by him even if they had been prepared. But this would just make things so much easier.
He flew back up into the air and looked at the army's composition, the tent positions, and the local landscape once again, committing them to memory before he returned.
He came out of the Valyrian Glass Candle and took a few deep breaths while shaking his head to remove the disorientation.
Ygritte came from behind and rubbed his back. "Is it done?" she asked.
He smiled and said. "Yeah. The men are barely trained. They have no decent armor, and on top of it all, their commander had put no guards around the army." He laughed, "This is going to be easy for us."
"Don't become too overconfident, Domeric," Ygritte said, and he nodded and became a little serious.
Then he got up from his chair and walked over to a large table filled with clay.
He took out his wand, used Occlumency to bring up the memories of the army and the surrounding landscape, and then used transfiguration to turn the clay into a realistic, life-like map.
"There are more of them than I thought." Ygritte said, looking at the realistic 3D map on the table before looking at him, "You said there were only 8000 of them."
"That was half a month ago." He said, "Now there are 4000 more. At least this Ser Lucian is not totally incompetent if he's able to gather so many men in such a short time."
"Just incompetent enough not to station any guards around his army," Ygritte said, and he smiled.
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Trident, Riverlands
POV of Robb Stark
Both Robb and Jon sat on the ground and looked at the Lannister army on the other side of the river.
"You look tired." He said to his half-brother, whom he now knew as his cousin and the rightful heir to the Iron Throne. Funny how life was filled with irony.
He had always wanted to keep Jon by his side and made him his right-hand man. Now, if Jon took on Lord Bolton's offer, then Jon might sit on the Iron Throne, and the opposite might happen.
Well... if his father also were to take Lord Bolton's offer, then he too would become the crown prince of the North, and one day its King.
Perhaps one day they could sit opposite each other at a table as two kings. And frankly, that didn't seem like such a bad future.
He wondered what his mother would think when she heard the truth of Jon's parentage.
How would Sansa feel?
"I feel tired." Jon replied, "And afraid and confused and lost." Jon turned and looked at him. "How are you supposed to deal with the fact that your entire life has been a lie?"
"It's not a lie, Jon." He said, "You're still family. And Arya will always love you more than me or Bran or Sansa."
Jon chuckled at that, and he smiled.
Seeing Jon even a little bit happy was a rarity these days. Most of the time, he just stood in a place, looked in the distance, and brooded.
"You can always refuse." He said, "If you do not want this burden, then you can always refuse. No one needs to know."
Jon chuckled at his words, "You're right. I do not want to be a King. But Lord Bolton said that if I become the King, then I'll be able to send more help to the North during the Long Night."
"Possibly." He nodded, "But Renly and Stannis are not unreasonable men. If they became king and we showed them the Wights and the White Walkers and made them understand the severity of the situation, then they may do everything in their power to send us help as well."
"Lord Bolton said that if King Stannis won and sat on the Iron Throne, then the Seven Kingdoms would break down," Jon said.
Lord Bolton had already explained that, as much as they wanted to continue with the illusions, the truth was that the Seven Kingdoms were already breaking.
In fact, Dorne and the Iron Islands were a part of the Seven Kingdoms in name only.
And once King Stannis sits on the Iron Throne, neither the Westerlands nor the Reach lords will obey him.
Which'll lead to civil war in those kingdoms and cause more chaos.
And considering how Riverlands has already descended into chaos and madness, that only left the North, the Vale, the Crownlands, and the Stormlands in good enough condition to fight the White Walkers.
Then there was the fact that Lord Stannis had taken to the Red God and had the habit of burning down the statues of the faith. So, the Lords of the Vale might not support his reign either.
The whole political explanation had been long and confusing, but they did understand that Stannis becoming the King was not going to be good for any of them.
The fact that Lord Bolton knew so much more about the political stance of the whole of Westeros than their own Lord father only made them respect Lord Bolton even more.
"Do you think I'll make a good king?" Jon asked.
He wanted to lie to Jon.
He wanted to tell him that he would become a wonderful king.
But he knew that someone who had never known what ruling even meant was not going to make a great king. Not at first.
"Not at first." He replied, "But you're a fast learner." Jon didn't respond to his words.
So, he continued, "Besides, you won't be alone, will you? If Lord Bolton's plans work, he'll be there as Emperor. And if there's anything you can't handle, I'm sure he'll help you."
He looked at Jon and noticed that he was staring into the distance.
"Jon." He said, a little annoyed that Jon didn't listen to him.
Jon frowned and pointed at the distance. "Look. Robb."
He looked and could see a boat coming from the other side of the river.
"You think Tywin wants to negotiate?" he asked Jon, who frowned as well.
"Possibly." Jon replied, "Lord Bolton has defeated the Lannister army outside Riverrun, and the Vale army will arrive within a week or two. I don't think Tywin likes his odds too much."
"That's because he doesn't know that Lord Bolton has left the Riverlands." Robb replied, "If he did, then he would realize that he still holds the advantage of being on the other side of the river."
"That's true." Jon replied, "Well, let's go and greet our guest."
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Next Chapters' Name:
Ch.372: Lord Tywin's Envoy
Ch.373: An Easy Victory
Ch.374: Meanwhile, in Lannisport