The world bustles for profit, and people scatter for the same.
Marriage alone cannot guarantee an alliance; true allies are forged through shared interests.
Due to geography and conflicting interests, House Frey—one of the major bannermen of the Riverlands—had gone AFK and declared neutrality during the war.
The lords of the eastern Riverlands, such as Whent, Mooton, Darry, and Ryger, stayed loyal to the crown. Meanwhile, most of the lords in the western Riverlands backed House Tully, violently splitting the region in two.
House Tully was no friend to House Whent now. The only true allies the Whents had left were the other defeated Royalists, bonded by shared misery.
In the Westeros of today, following Robert's ascension to the Iron Throne, the lords and knights of the realm had been brutally divided into two categories: winners and losers.
The Wolf-Fish-Falcon-Stag alliance were the winners—the primary beneficiaries of the new regime. House Lannister had also bought their way into the winner's circle through a royal marriage.
The remaining Royalist lords—hailing primarily from the eastern Riverlands, the Crownlands, the Reach, and Dorne—were undeniably the losers, completely frozen out of power.
House Dayne was technically related to the Targaryens by marriage; King Maekar's wife (the one crushed to death) had been a daughter of House Dayne.
"Lord Dayne sent me here because he is deeply concerned about your situation. The Riverlands are the crossroads of the realm, a prime target in any war. Given the sheer wealth of Harrenhal's lands, you are bound to face significant trouble," Ser Lucas said.
Ser Lucas's personal sigil was a crossed sword and a falling star on a pale purple field.
Starfall was protected by formidable natural barriers: the Red Mountains to the north and the Summer Sea to the south. The castle itself was built on an island. Even in defeat, it wasn't a place an ordinary army could simply march into.
Harrenhal enjoyed no such luxury. It was built squarely on open plains, lacking any real geographical buffer.
To put it bluntly, the lords of the Riverlands were notorious fence-sitters, constantly changing masters depending on which way the wind blew.
House Tully was the textbook example, having sworn fealty at various times to the Mudds, the Baratheons, and the Hoares.
"The power of our houses has been severely crippled, while House Tully is riding high. Old Hoster may covet Harrenhal, but he won't make a direct move against us. As for the eastern Riverlands, defeat has forced us to stand together," Earl Walter noted astutely.
The truth was, House Tully's position in the Riverlands was incredibly awkward.
The foundation of power was land. Riverrun was a small, highly defensible fortress, but its direct manpower mobilization was actually quite weak.
For comparison, House Tyrell controlled the vast, obscenely wealthy lands surrounding Highgarden; the Reach practically dripped with gold.
House Tully simply lacked that kind of deep foundational strength. They commanded respect, but they lacked the sheer power needed to expand or absorb their neighbors.
Even Hoster Tully's master-level political maneuvering—relying heavily on marriage alliances—could rarely translate into direct territorial expansion.
The lands held by House Bracken, House Blackwood, House Vance, and the newly ascended House Frey were all vastly larger and fielded more men than Riverrun. House Mallister of Seagard possessed older, purer bloodlines. House Mooton of Maidenpool commanded immense wealth. And Harrenhal, despite its cursed reputation, projected far more awe and terror than Riverrun—and was ten times its size.
Before Minisa Whent married Hoster Tully, and certainly before the Battle of the Trident, House Whent was the single most powerful vassal under House Tully.
Now, the wheel had turned. House Frey, having suffered zero casualties or financial losses during the war, was the undisputed heavyweight of the region.
Arthur understood perfectly well that Hoster's reluctance to strike Harrenhal had nothing to do with kindness.
The eastern Riverlands were packed with defeated Royalists. Coming down too hard on House Whent could easily spark a massive, unified revolt.
Furthermore, Harrenhal's curse was legendary. The castle's track record of sudden, bizarre "accidents" wiping out entire families was more effective than any squad of assassins. Lord Hoster just had to wait it out.
The moment Harrenhal faced a succession crisis, Riverrun would swoop in to claim the prize.
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"Stay vigilant and observe," Ser Lucas advised, raising his goblet in a toast with Earl Walter.
"Arthur, now for some good news. Lord Dayne has sent a gift," Earl Walter said, gesturing for Arthur to open the cedar chests Ser Lucas had brought from Starfall.
Arthur popped the lid of the first cedar chest. It was packed with assorted vials and jars, resembling high-grade medical salves.
There was premium Myrish fire, a notoriously expensive remedy specifically designed to treat and disinfect deep lacerations—a flagship export of Myr.
When Arya Stark suffered cuts while training with her "water dancer" instructor, she used this exact medicine. It burned like hell, but it worked miracles.
There was also Starfall's exclusive snake oil, used to treat bruises, sprains, and internal bleeding. It accelerated healing and ensured the skin healed smooth, leaving no scars.
Every single vial and jar in that chest was worth a small fortune.
In this era, top-tier medical supplies were a luxury only the highest nobility and wealthiest merchants could afford.
These were the hidden, essential costs of knightly training. Beyond a horse and custom plate armor, a knight required a structured, healthy training and recovery regimen.
Just like modern professional athletes, elite knights required a holy trinity of proper nutrition, intense training, and physical therapy.
As an ancient house of legendary swordsmen, House Dayne possessed one of the most comprehensive and advanced martial training systems in the world, if not the absolute best.
"When training a warrior with sword and shield, you have to learn how to take a beating first. These little remedies are absolutely essential," Ser Lucas explained.
It was entirely normal. In any form of hand-to-hand combat training, you spent a lot of time learning how to fall and take hits before you ever learned how to strike.
Arthur opened the second cedar chest. Inside were fine Dornish silk tunics, premium bottles of Arbor Gold, dried lemon slices, aromatic flowers, nutmeg, black pepper, and other rare spices. Nestled among them was a sword specifically forged for an apprentice.
The blade was forged from castle-forged steel, gleaming with a faint blue tint. It was double-edged, the hilt wrapped in fine leather, and the pommel was carved from dragonglass in the shape of a bat.
Wine, spices, grain, and silk were the hard currency of the Narrow Sea trade network. Many of the world's wealthiest merchants built their empires dealing in these exact goods.
Other merchants built their fortunes on the slave trade. Slavery was strictly outlawed in Westeros, though some—like Jorah Mormont and Cersei Lannister—secretly dealt in it anyway.
Dorne produced unique wines and spices, while the wealth of houses like Whent and Frey primarily came from massive grain harvests and toll extraction.
Arbor Gold, known for its sweet, fruity profile, was a premier Dornish export, wildly popular on both sides of the Narrow Sea.
Dorne's southern latitude allowed for the cultivation of exotic fruits like lemons and blood oranges, giving their wines a distinctly different flavor profile from the rest of the Seven Kingdoms.
"Lord Dayne is incredibly generous," Arthur noted. The Lord of Starfall was clearly an honorable man.
Based on market value alone, the spices, medicines, fine wines, and silk were worth an absolute fortune.
Furthermore, the Myrish fire, snake oil, spices, Arbor Gold, and silks were all top-tier quality.
Some of these items couldn't simply be bought with gold. True snake oil, for example, was produced in very limited quantities by the Dornish lords who ruled the rugged, venomous snake-infested mountains.
Just the contents of these two chests amounted to a staggering sum in Golden Dragons.
It was similar to how quickly King Robert bled through the royal treasury. The King demanded only the absolute finest goods for his endless feasts and tourneys; factor in massive waste and the heavy skimming by middlemen, and the crown's debt grew larger by the day.
"True friendship cannot be bought with gold, Arthur. We are placing our hopes in you," Ser Lucas said.
As an ancient and storied house, the Daynes possessed immense pride.
They did not bestow their favor lightly. There were very few people House Dayne deemed worthy of their attention.
"Then I thank Lord Dayne for his profound generosity, and I swear I will not betray his faith in me," Arthur replied earnestly.
"Courtesy requires reciprocation. When the time is right, we must send a gift of equal measure to Lord Dayne, his lady, and his heir," Earl Walter added.
There was no need for false modesty. True knights were men of action.
Lord Dayne's gift wasn't a calculated political investment; it was an act of genuine goodwill.
In times as dark as these, the solidarity and warmth of fellow survivors was incredibly precious.
Friends like this were rare, and Arthur had no intention of losing them.