Chapter 15: Blackmail
Sipping tea in the inn watching the city below a man entered her boot seat and started watching her.
"You are a little too close, no? Ser Jaime." She didn't even turn but she knew it is him.
"Where are all your Northmen guards? They are missing all the fun." He asked with a cold tone his breath wafting on her exposed neck.
"In the North, even small folk brush their teeth with tooth brushes and charcoal. Your breath smells like a cunt of an old woman." She turned and pushed him off her chair.
She had meant to push him lightly but he crashed a small distance away looking worse for wear. "Ow dear, I never did learn how to control my temper." She pretended to be embarrassed and closed her mouth with her hand.
Jaime stood up and looked around. "All of you, get out!" Jaime shouted and Lannister men entered the inn. A few minutes later everyone who is not one of the two parties is gone, even in the rooms.
"I see you have made your choice." Olivia said with a light tone.
"You are still too green to tell me what to do. I dislike killing children but you won't die, at least not here and not slowly." He said with cruelty.
"Well get on with it, men shouldn't talk so much." She said with a bored tone.
A sound of a blade slicing through flesh sounded and a men in golden armor fell on the ground. When Jaime and the rest looked they saw a small group wearing civilian clothes. They have been paying attention to Olivia not seeing that not everyone left the building.
The few of them are fast, too fast for the normal men to track. Olivia didn't move and watched a group of previously untrained bandits dispatch seasoned soldiers in a matter of minutes.
Jaime became surprised, a dread seeped deep into his skin. "What are these people? Normal humans don't fight light this. They move like..."
"Hooligans." She said on the side. Fitting, since they were bandits when she found them. She had liked that they only entered a place, take all the rations and leave everyone alive without committing atrocities like normal bandit groups. .
"how can they be that strong?" Jaime looked like he has seen a ghost. To that, She didn't say anything but put her finger on her mouth and made a shushing gesture.
"You must be tired. You can rest now." She said and he fell unconscious. The people on the ground are not dead, just knocked unconscious or pretending to be unconscious. She had them dragged outside where the people started robbing them of whatever coins they have on their bodies.
Cersei is waiting for the good news when two men entered the room carrying Jaime's body. She jumped and screamed when she saw him unresponsive.
.....
"Cough...cough..cough... bleh." Tywin woke up feeling like his chest is constricted. He got out of the bed and spouted a mouthful of blood all over the floor before standing up to rinse his mouth.
"Every damn day." He squeezed the cup in his hand in frustration. "Call me the Measter!" He shouted to the guard on his door.
A few moments later the Measter and his underlings entered. "My Lord." The old man felt very conflicted knowing exactly what the old lion wants.
"Anything? It has been a two weeks and I can feel that I am dying." He is not exaggerating.
"My lord, even the grand Measters in the Citadel have never seen anything like it. Its as if your organs have come to life and are rebelling. It must has been a foreign body that invated and disrupted your internal system. All we can do is make it as comfortable as possible."
"Are you saying that all I can do now is wait for death?" Tywin is a calm man but he really wants to strangle this old man right now.
"I will ride to kings landing." He declared. How could he have been poisoned? He is very careful in everything he eats.
"Get out!" He chased the useless people away. He knows when he is bested. Whomever did this has won. He will go to kings landing and demand his son's release from being a knight so he can come home to inherit his birthright.
He sighed feeling helpless. "It seems I will be seeing you soon my love." He mummers as he reentered his resting chamber to change.
"Are you looking forward to it?" A young female voice suddenly sounded. Before he could shout a powerful scent assaulted his nostrils and he couldn't speak after that. His body became stiff and heavy.
"Are you changing into your armor? I should probably help you with that. But first.." She pulled a chair in front of the imposing man and stood on it to be at eye level.
She then took out a green pill and forcefully opened his mouth throwing it inside. As soon as it came in contact with saliva it melted and entered his system. A few moments later he felt a warm current surrounding his innards and then disappeared soon after.
The pain from before is gone, in fact his body feels good as if its purring in delight. He looked at the young girl who seems amused by his groan of comfort a moment ago.
"Now can we talk?" She blinked. He tried to nod but his body is still very stiff.
"Okay, I understand you. We will meet in your office in an hour. Don't be late old lion." She got down from the chair and walked out using the door.
He stood there stiff until he could feel his limbs again. He ran outside to check his men but found them sleeping flat on the ground.
"The description looks to be the famous bastard of Winterfell who was at Kings landing a while ago. Is she here for revenge?" He knew the only one with answers for his questions is the young girl. Besides he needs to know how she knew of his illness.
In exactly an hour Tywin entered his study and found her seated where visitors sit. "What is it you want Snow?"
"To talk." She doesn't seem impressed that he knew who she is.
"Did you poison me?" He asked before he took his seat.
"I did."
"Why?"
"I want you to work for me."
"Is this how you hire people?"
"No, this how I blackmail them. What I gave you is only temporary. And I have your son on a comatose state. So if you are thinking of doing something foolish like kill yourself out of pride, castley rock goes to Tyrion."
Tywin lost his cool, his gaze that was initially a mask of indifference turned frosty. Seeing this, Olivia smirked.
"There he is."
"You have already poisoned me why involve my son?"
"To help you. If he is in a comma he is of no use to the king. Use this chance to bring him home and start to teach him how to sign papers and give orders." Olivia she gestured dismissively as if that is all Lords do.
"I don't need your help to do that."
"You do. Because the alternative is to kill him. He is a nuisance and I am trying to take him away from Cersei. It's either this or his death. I am being very considerate here." She said with a sheepish tone.
"That's what this is about?"
"No. I want to use your...reputation and I can't be bothered to do this kind of work myself so I will employ your image for the time being." Olivia explained. Tywin kept silent for a long time but Olivia is not in a hurry. She waited for his questions.
"What do you want me to do?" He finally asked. He was checking if her medicine will only last for a short while, in which case she would have been in a hurry to finish their conversation.
"I want you to be the face of my new product." She said with a boastful voice.
"Hha..You must be joking. You want me to put my reputation on the line for some half baked Northen mountain weeds?" The disdain in his tone is very thick.
"Okay, first of all, that hurts my feelings. Secondly, look at the box on your left." She pointed at the box.
Tywin opened the box and saw a small glass and an exquisitely designed bottle in a shape of a lion's head. It looks vivid as if it is a real beast. The brandy in the box was made from yellow apples so the lion came out golden.
"The bottle is just a container the price is inside. Take a sip. Don't worry its not poisoned it's just alcohol." Tywin opened the bottle and a smell of strong alcohol with a refreshing light apple scent wafted out.
"I want you to be the face of this product. You see, I don't like dealing with politics of any kind but you are a master at it. Plus your reputation will go a long way. You won't actually be making it of course I will bring the final product and you will sell it for me."
"Don't worry, I will have someone help you and if you do a good job you get a pill once a month. If you don't, I kill your stupid son and your legacy ends with a dwarf." She smiled sweetly.
"You could have given this 'opportunity' to your father. Why bother me?"
"Father is busy. Frankly I don't see him as a businessman." She admitted, to this Tywin scoffed.
"You will get to continue pretending that you are still rich and I make money off your image. Win win. What do you say?" She asked with a smile.
"I decline."
"Umm...your son can only remain in that comma for two weeks after which he will die. I was going to let him die at first but then I needed money for this research project and thats where you come in." She admitted. She scratched her head.
"You will regret this decision." He said with gritted teeth.
"Thats right old Lion, keep me on my toes." She gave him a slightly deranged smile.
"I will bring the stock in a few days and I want you to take care of everything. The more money I make the sooner you will be cured. So, monkey dance." She clapped her hands and left.
Tywin left for kings landing and found that his son did fall into a comma. This news was beeing suppressed by his sister. The old loin took his son home and released him from his duty as a knight for the time being.
It was easy because he is incapacitated at the moment. When he got back home he found guests there waiting for him. A few of them are Northerners who are guards for the antorougge.
He felt a headache when he thought about being controlled by a child with a silly pill but remembering he was ready to die before she showed up, he arranged accommodations for the group.
The foreigners amongst them are the businessmen under Olivia and the North men are there to ensure thier safety. They gave him the medicine for waking up his son.
This is to motivate him to make money for Olivia as soon as possible so she can get out of his life.
He held a meeting and developed a solid plan to sell the product all over the seven kingdoms first. Then he expanded to the rest of the world. The major hurdle is the glass which Olivia seems to have in abundance.
Her glass is of superior quality and the foreigners even bought most of the alcohol just for the glass. This drew the attention of the glass makers and this became Tywin's first battle.
He had suspected the real reason Olivia had used him was because he will have to but heads with these people.
...
"This is one of the most beautifully made ships I have seen in this life." Seun said looking at Oliva with awe. Then he realized, Olivia doesn't seem satisfied.
"What's wrong?" He asked the young girl.
"I bet I can swim faster." Olivia frowned.
This is already very fast for a non warship. "Thank you for meeting us here. I have decided to leave the seven kingdoms. There is only one place where I wouldn't have to hide my power. This place is untouched by politics." It is a place dictated by strength not family names.
She stood at the top of the ship she made a while ago with her tutor Seun, in front of her is 800 builders from Essos sold by their masters at a high price. Having builders slaves is costly to feed them when there are no structures to build.
It is better to have few so they can train new ones when the time comes.
"Builders!"
She called out loud and they all immediately answered her call with a loud "Yes!"
"Today I venture into harsh and unforgiving land I am moving there to make a home for myself. This land is inhabited by savage humans who eat each other." She studied their faces, some show dread while most remain blank.
"Do not worry these men and women might be smalll in numbers but they are very strong. All you have to worry about is building me a city so that all of us here will have a home. When this job is done, and you feel the environment is not good for you. You are free to go wherever you want." She explained but didn't see any excitement in their faces.
She dismissed the slaves and went to hold a meeting with her men who will be responsible for securing the safety of everyone.
"Our numbers are too small." Broady said with his young voice trying not to show he is very scared.
"There's 136 people here, not to mention more slaves will come from Ustupor soon. They might not be gladiators or the unsullied but they were trained to fight." Awi one of her earlier recruits said with confidence.
"You are only a child whose only ever fought people who were trying not to hurt you. Can you manage under different circumstances?" Fuller said with a sneer.
He was a soldier under Ned Stark and lost the use of his legs. There are 312 of such people she recruited and healed completely with the use of her pills. Fuller had a son who died long time ago going to hunt in the forest for his mom and sister.
Now it is just him in this world all his family dead. At first Olivia was worried these former heroes harbor hate for Starks but it turns out Ned gave them some coins from the vault upon their return but they all knew he had been left with nothing in return.
"This ship took a long time to make it is has everything you need. The first thing we will do is to secure it and use it as our base of operations." Olivia cut off their arguments and reminded.
"The fighting soldiers who are coming are already stronger and can fight, their strength after taking my medicine will ensure our safety for a while until we recruit more people. Our resources are in this ship so we must keep it safe at all cost." She said.
"Snow, will you really build a city in this place?" Awi asked.
"I am going to start with a castle." She took out a splendid blue print and put it on the wall of the ship for all to see.
"I just see lines."
"I see many lines." Another one said.
Olivia grimaced and shot them a look. "To the bar! There's food and drinks for everyone, bring me the leader of the builders."
Olivia spent the evening discussing the details of the blue print. She and her men had been smuggling materials from her tower into the ship for months now. That is why she is confident to atleast finish the castle in a short amount of time.
The ship reached their destination and it is pulled out of the water with sheere strength. This is the benefits of creating a bunch of freakishly strong followers.
The first thing she did was to sneak away while everyone is drinking and eating. She is now at a relatively high level of mental power because she never stopped improving her mental power with medication and practice.
They docked and entered a forest. Olivia had mapped it out before and has chosen a spot for a castle. The forest is huge and feels like it is never ending and as a plant type ability user she will choose to live in the forest.
The first step is uprooting the trees from the chosen area. It is a mountain that will be hard to attack and easy to defend. The mountain is made of several small hills but she wants to build her castle at the very top of the large mountain.
Her structural tutor Lyman advises against the idea and proposed clearing the majority of the center then build a long wall to isolate the city from the Shivering seas. Her new city is to be built in the true North in the further Northern lands of the haunted forest.
The trees are moved out from the soil which proved to be harder than before since they seem to be older and more sturdy that the trees she is used to shaping.
Olivia moved the trees and leveled the place using the wood and tree roots.
She had to drink several recovering pills just to finish the job in four days. Her head is alrealy buzzing even though she is already powerful enough to build a cruise ship that can house thousands in only a single week.
Her constant practice and dosing has helped her alot. If this is her own world it would be nothing more than a parlor trick but here she can use this ability to build herself a comfortable home.
She had cleared all the trees from main the mountain the day and night before and when she came back after resting for a day, she used the collected trees to build a high wall around the main mountain and the several hills surrounding it.
The job was very hard, it felt as if she is trying to mold another element. Even though she can feel it is her wood element it still felt unresponsive. Feeling stubborn to have come all the way here from her family that excluded her, she will not yield to mere trees she was born to mold and shape as she sees fit.
As if a roar went off in her head, the previously stubborn wood became as docile as the usual wood. Her work to mold the trees into a tall wall became easier.
"So this is where you went to. I was wondering where my stubborn student went." Dixon her medical tutor said coming close and then touching the smooth surface of the newly formed wall.
"This is not normal wood." She commented. Olivia snorted remembering that it seems the trees had somesort of will. "They are very old virgin trees." Olivia explained.
"They have probably been frozen stupid." Dixon said.
"I can not believe you did all this in two weeks days while we were loafing around." She said.
"The others should be here soon. Have you administered the potion to the builders?" Olivia asked her. Dixon sighed.
"Their bodies are very weak and sickly if they were made to start working in such a place, they would die out in a few months at most. I suspect we still need a month to cleanse their systems before giving them the strengthening elixir." She continued explaining to her student.
....