Chapter 26: Six pillars
"As my masters and the pillars of my city, I will now give each castle a way to make their own wealth and stay economically stable. Take note that you will need your own merchant ships, guards, and book keepers. You are essentially running a business now."
Vince raised his hand. This is his first time in a council meeting. "Miss Olivia, I may not be able to pull it off with my current knowledge."
"Then you learn. You find someone amongs the people you can trust to teach you the ropes because out of all of them, your position is the most important. You are to ensure the people in my city are well taken care of and they are in school, at work and doing something that will better their lives and contribute to my city. Hehe...I can say that now, my city." She smiled foolishly.
"I am counting on you to keep people off the streets. You should be the first to know if any of the pillars have a vacancy. Your welfare office will help people find a purpose. You are the voice of the people. If they have complains they come to you. Now where was I? Yes.."
"The scholars already have paper production, this is a few ways to make coins. Ink, pens with ink tubes that can be replaced when they finish, I have the blueprints. You may now produce these and sell them to the world. Talk to the ship master about buying a few merchant ships for yourselves."
"Mistress, this business promises to be very successful in the future, are you sure you wish to give it to only one castle master?" Bree asked feeling abit dejected.
"Even if I don't have something as amazing for your castle, I am still here. I will come up with something in the future. The military headquarters I am not overly comfortable with you selling your services as sell swords. Therefore I will give you the kings road concrete powder formula and the bomb powder for dissolving the sewers to sell. You may continue with your sell swords business but this way you don't have to."
"Thank you My queen." Caine kneeled and kissed her hand making her smile.
"You are welcome. This one is a cool stone much like the warm stone but the main ingredient is found on hot lands. Who wants it?" She looked around the table.
"The information bank will take it." Bree said.
"Are you sure? It will be included in structural construction to make cold rooms or to reinforce the frost glass houses." Olivia warned.
"Yes, we can do it." She said with confidence.
"Okay."
"The simple glass production. This one will make you directly under crossfire with the masters abroad. My formula is better which will only make things worse. Do we have a brave person. Don't forget, they have the house of black." No one came forth.
"Cough...pussies." She coughed into her hand and moved on.
"Moving on, the production of wine I am giving it to the information bank. Beer and vodka to wealth, resources and welfare under Ginyr and Vince. Brandy to weapons and ships, and lastly I am going to talk about the city watch."
"My queen, do the information get two?" Veer asked.
"They do have two departments one is responsible for the book keeping of the city and the other is to gather information from the rest of the world. If you need to know the current location of a certain lord it will require a lot more effort and resources to gather that information than finding out how many people here are originally from the summer isle."
"The wealth, resources and welfare is also responsible for two main departments one is to ensure the city has enough food, to do this they need to gather all the taxes from all the lord masters of the six Castles and gather all the food taxes into the main castle. They also need to gather the main castle's wealth and document it along with the wealth from the six Castles. Then they need to ensure our citizens are well taken care of I have already brushed upon this.
"Wealth from the six Castles.." Ginyr said unsure
"Are subject to book keeping. I am not handing out formulas for you to misuse the funds. Hire your book keepers and I will have my own team they will come together at the wealth and resources office to compare books. The two of you can separate the work, one is responsible for trade and gathering wealth while the other takes care of the citizens."
"I am giving you my lifes secrets today. If you are not sure of your post and wish to step down, do it now because after this there is no going back. Only you will have the main ingredients and the exact steps. Your labor will be separated into different rooms to complete each step. They won't have the entire process. If you betray me. I need you all to understand that I am as ruthless as I am generous."
"Yes, my queen."
"Very scary."
"Umm...my queen, what do I get?" Dixon asked
"Pills. I thought that was obvious. I will give you the pills that are sold outside and others. You are lucky your market is already established." Olivia explained.
"In the future, we will convene here and you will explain to me how you have used your wealth for the betterment of this city. If I am impressed I will reward you if I am disappointed I may take away your privileges. Your job is to help me run this city and have it prosper you will not fail me, will you?" She asked low.
The aura she exudes at this moment made the others fear and truly agree that she is a queen. Before they were just saying what they heard Caine profess because of his happiness.
"No, we will not fail." They said in one voice as if they had rehearsed it before. The hard expression on Olivia is suddenly replaced by the usual non expression. This look is what made Ned think the child's heart has been emptied.
"Now you will play in world's board against renowned players. The last piece of the meeting is that I need you all to know that the security of the city as a whole is your job for now. I will establish a guards office independent of all of you but directly under my command in the future."
"While I do so, you will each provide people and change shifts guarding the city. If something happens under your watch, it will be your head on the line." She smiled that scary smile.
She is about to say more when a knock came. "The men of the nights watch are here." Olivia frowned.
"Lead them to the throne room and give them a warm welcome." The man left. Olivia is proud that in her city, even a door boy is wearing warm and clean clothes.
"What do they want?" Dixon also frowned. She was about to see a beauty formula.
"Who knows? They may want to make trade? They did come all this way. I doubt they all made it here alive. I feed some of the beasts out there myself." Caine said he is obviously feeling sorry for them. Typical northerner.
"Then why don't you tell the staff to prepare them tea and cookies? Maybe warm porridge?" She asked him. He stood up and bowed making his way out the door as quickly as possible.
"You were joking weren't you?" Veer smiled.
"Don't tell him that." She reproached.
"Hahaha.." The others laughed at him.
"You can wait for me out there so we can all meet our visitors as soon as I am done talking with Bree." The others left.
"How are the infiltrations coming along?" Olivia asked.
"The red keep was not hard since it is a place with many chores but the Casterly rock was very hard. We managed to have a servant for each of the council members but the still vacant post of master of coin."
"How did the operation go?" She asked with a serious expression.
"She is alive. Currently at the Western lands under her father's protection. He didn't kill the men who were found with her it is not known if it is for interrogation or some other reason. The three maids are now on their way back here having removed their ugly disguises and make up."
"This should delay the king from going North for a while. I am not sure if I should go back. Or just send these ships by themselves. Anything else?"
"The Tully's had apparantly been refusing to sell food to the North in the past even though they have an alliance. Now he wants to benefit, he is demanding Ned builds the road and improve their structures as well."
"Ned refused. Flatly and without any excuses." The master of information said. She was amongst the discarded slaves from Myr. She has been training spies for the Haunted city and they are all under her guidance.
First she taught them how to read and write then self defense and combat training. Then it was the art of disguise. They have infiltrated several kingdoms already including Dorne.
"The hand died trying to figure out the royal children's legitimacy. Apparently they are suspected of being fathered by Jaime Lannister. It was the spider who led him to this road. It is obvious he is trying to start something."
"What can he get from his death?" Olivia thought about it. "Was he hoping he be apointed as hand?"
"Probably not. The hand of the king is a very important position, they essentially run the kingdom while the king lives in debauchery."
"Stannis?" Olivia asked.
"According to reports the king still blames his older brother for letting the Tagarian children go all those years ago." Bree reported. She has green eyes and blue hair, Much like Olivia who has white eyebrows and eyelashes now, Bree has blue eyebrows and blue eyelashes.
After getting rid of her injury which wash on the side of her face, she is as beautiful as a full moon on a summer night. No one can tell that she is 43 years old.
"What about the Tyrell?"
"They are plotting to have the granddaughter marry into the crown. They also want to make Renly a king should Robert die without a true heir." She said.
"If Robert dies Stannis will never allow Renly to be king. He will be the rightful heir. This must be it, the spider wants the Lannisters to kill Robert and cause chaos in Westeros."
"If the king dies, the Lannisters will hold the trone, the Tyrells will endorse Renly, The Iron born will resume raiding, The North will likely support Stannis putting them opposite the Reach and The Lannisters. The entire kingdom will be turned up side down." Olivia explained.
Olivia called back the rest of the council.
"Lets close all the dealings we have in these kingdoms and bring our people back home. Lets focus on the always chaotic place for business. Across the Narrow seas. At least we expect it to be chaotic and have counter measures."
"My apologies but isn't it a bit hasty? We don't even know if this hypothetical situation will take place." Ginyr her business operations teacher asked
"If it happens that the king dies it will be too late to withdraw by then. The spies are trained but you must remember our sales people are not trained in combat. What happens if they are forced to fight?"
"How about increasing security on the shops? The average income on these shops is not small." Veer said with concern.
"I suggest another approach, instead of closing the shops, we send trained people to take care of the shops instead. If something goes wrong they can leave and make it home safely." Bree suggested.
"Fine. But you must increase the security as well. As soon as a disturbance occurs they come back." Olivia relented. She is just worried about raids and armed soldiers attacking.
"What of the North?" She asked. A silence descends. They are aware this was her home, as such they are not sure about her attitude toward this place.
"Well?" A little annoyed at the delay.
"The Tower you build has not been occupied since you left. Lord Stark has the garden planted with rare flowers."
"What about the status of the North?"
"They ran into a problem with Lys targeting their ships because of the competition for best wine. Your wine has become the favorite amongst the rich nobles reducing the sales of the Lys wine by a large margin."
"How did the North reapond to this?"
"Lord Stark sent this.." She gave her a small container.
Olivia opened the box and found a substantial amount of grain inside. She touched it and immediately got various formulas but the one that interested her is the wine recipe. "Hahaha...."
"It seems you can still teach an old dog new tricks." She could make a better version of Lys wine but what if they hire assassins to kill him? She should do it and shift the target to herself instead of giving it to Ned. She will sell it herself.
"Continue."
"The Moatt is now complete looking majestic while being the largest farming site in the North. The Northern people were very emotional about the revival of the Moatt since it showed the world their might."
"How is their finances?"
"They paid off the loan from the iron bank after the wine became popular. The lord of Winterfell even built three orphanages. He provides the pay for the workers, the food and the furniture. All seems to be going very well."
"What about the previous master of coin?"
"Varys gave him to lady Lysa Tully when the hand died. She took him to the Vale with her husband's dead body."
"What of the Spider?"
"We got a hold of a letter adressed to him. It was from a man called illirio Mapidit. The letter was in a code but when investigating this man we found two Targaryens living under his roof. We suspect they are the royal children who escaped long ago." Bree reported.
"I was wrecking my head thinking of a reason for the Spider to want the Westeros kingdoms in war. It seems he is preparing a nudge toward chaos and then he will present a hero who will lead everyone to salvation." Olivia laughed.
"Find me this Illyrio Mapotis. I want to meet my family." Olivia declared.
"Yes Mistress." Bree said.
"You can come with me and hear what our visitors are here for. This place is very far away from their castle not to mention the wild animals in the forest." Olivia walked alongside her trusted advisors and found the men from the black seated on the provided chairs still looking around like tourists.
"You have traveled a very long and hard distance to meet me. Why?" Olivia asked the hall carrying her voice for everyone to hear.
"Who are you? Why did you build such a series of large structures deep in the haunted forest?" Jeor Mormont stood up and walked towards her throne asking her loudly.
Olivia didn't answer but watched him approach the steps. The men stationed on either side of the stairwell took out their weapons.
"Veer, let him through." She commanded. Veer and the others who were blocking his path let him walk up the stairs towards the throne.
Olivia didn't get up and calmly watched him climb up to the last step and then started walking her way. Standing in from of her he looked at her eyes for a long minute before cursing.
"Fuck'n Targaryen. But why choose this place of all the land in the known world?" He asked.
"The north is my home." She said not knowing her purple eyes shown with briliance making Jeor Mormont take a step back.
The entire throne room turn hot. She awakened her power and have some control over it but when emotions are high, there is no control over it. "Why choose this land of all the lands on the known world? Because the North, all of the North is my home. What child doesn't want to live in her home?"
Jeor is closest to her, he is sweating by now. Taking several steps back he blinks away the drops of sweat blinding him. "Then why not build these mejestic castles below the wall?" He asked trying to regulate his breathing.
"I have a terrible temper and the world below the wall has been corrupted by politics and that damn faith. If I stayed another year I would have committed sin." She admitted.
"So you come here?"
"This place is untouched by their greed or politics. Here you get what you can keep with your own strength. It doesn't matter who your father is or who you are. It's simple, I enjoy simple."
The man quickly moves down the stairs almost losing his footing. "Are you going to organize the wildlings and attack the south?" When he finally reached the last step he felt the domineering heat loosen.
"I will do no such thing. If I wanted to rule the south I hardly need an army." Olivia rolls her eyes. Enym walked to her side and whispered something to her.
"Gentlemen I understand you are tired from your long journey. You will be taken to your rooms, there you will find bathing tubs and warm clothing. Don't be shy and use it. Someone will inform you when food is ready." She stood up and walked to the main door.
"We are not finished Olivia Snow." Jeor said standing in her way as she approached.
"I am finished, Jeor Mormont of Bear Island." She answered sharply walking straight towards him. For some reason Jeor Mormont felt as if he is being stared at by a powerful beast.
His old heart beat like a drum inside his rib cage. Veer got agitated. Olivia pulled his arm. "He has guest rights." She looked at Joer with a burning gaze. The purple ring turned bright making her look fierce.
"If you do not move out of the way, do you believe I will descend upon your marry band of crows like the fall of Valaria? I will be swift and I will be ruthless. Make. Way." She said this time she can feel the valarian blood pumping up power ready to incinerate.
She extended her arm and gently moved the man out of the way even as he tries to stand firm. The small arm just pushed him aside and moved out.
The other men of the nights watch didn't say anything the entire time. Olivia groaned when she reached her room. Boiling rage bubbling up her throat making her want to roar in anger.
And she did. She went up the roof to cool down and let out a deafening roar that released pressure on the entire castle. Everyone felt they are being pressed down by a mountain. Those on their feet dropped to the ground on their knees.
Olivia roared into the skies. It didn't sound too beastly but it is not a sound made by a human either. Two dragons came flying around her also feeling the agitation. Just like before, her body released a torrent of flames shooting to the skies like an inferno.
Her dragons also enjoyed the baptism. It took several minutes but before passing out, she saw the two dragons have grown twice as big and the colors of their flames matched their scales. Morpheus is as black as night and he shoots black flames that can melt iron.
Aeryn is as white as snow also having white soaring flames. As she fell asleep she thought, it wouldn't been cool if she was breathing ice. But white flames are beautiful too. Too hot for her liking but beautiful.
Her power was going out of control because she has been using it to engrave the purification spell on the city andon the wall. She has been going at it ever since coming back from Bravos. It turns out using her magic helps increase her power.
What drove jher almost over the edge is what Veer had told her in the trone room. Bree had just gotten a message and she told to Veer who is one of the people guarding her.
A group of people attacked her store in the Reach while it was still open and even took away three of her workers. She is so angry.
When she woke up the firat thing she did is to call on her ship captain. She wants an un marked set of ships to go south. The gray rats have just given her an excuse to take all their books for herself.
....