Chapter 34: Calm
Olivia looked at Bree as if to inquire more. Bree tried to stabilize her breathing and decided to deliver more bad news. "The king sent a letter through Hardhome addressed to you. It said.."
"For me to come and kneel to declare that I am bringing in my city under the protection of the king and declare my father a traitor." She finished for her. Bree seemed stunned by her almost precise response.
"I assume the North is going to war?" She asked.
"Yes, Rob has already called for his bannerman."
"Close all business operations with the south. Bring everyone back."
"Already did. But what if they come to the harbor to buy?" Bree asked wanting to know if they should turn away any business.
Olivia looked at her. "No. Sell to all who comes except the Lannisters and the crown lands."
"Okay." Bree felt like the Mistresses heat wave is rising so she turned back and left. But before she is too far she heard her Mistress command.
"Send battle doctors with normal medications for disinfecting, bandages and strong pain killers to take care of our people. Let them pay extra attention to those loyal to house Stark. Have a group of rescuers who while take the wounded from the battlefield and send them to safety. If they are willing, have them join us, you know what to do." She took deep breathes between her sentences trying not to fall apart in front of her people.
"Yes Mistress." Bree said and internally praised her mistresses foresight.
There are also those belonging to the enemies who are wounded for life, she wants them too so "Have some of our people sneakily recruit the enemies who are crippled but were not soldiers to begin with."
Some of those are normal civilians who are forced to war. No training and just sent to die and buy time for the actual soldiers. She wants them investigated and confirmed as normal civilians. She will heal them in exchange they will become her people from now on and will train to fight for her or contribute to the city however they can.
When she is done sending instructions she felt her dragon and decided to ride it and clear her head it since it is now already night. When they made it to an uninhibited island she let go of her pain and screamed into the skies, her scream morphed from a sad cry into a roar full of murderous rage that released a powerful psychic blast knocking everything back a large distance away from her.
Morpheus being her companion dragon roared into the skies. Realizing she is also affecting her beast, she tied to calm herself. Deep breaths, but all she could see is his face, that proud smile whenever she gave him a way to improve the North, his stern face when she cursed out loud and that tenderness whenever he knew she is wronged.
She was still going to strangle him into confessing her mother's name. Now he is gone and he is never coming back. They took him from her, her first parent in two lifetimes. He was stupid, an honorable fool but he was her father, the only one she had and now he is gone. "Aaaaaahgh."
She sobbed for a long time until she finally fell asleep. Olivia had always known her great affection for her family and her father although she avoids them. Even now she is more sad than angry.
Something must have gone wrong. All he had to do was leave the place. Why didn't he?
Sadness so intense it makes her stomach wrench. But then the anger came, the first person to come to mind is Cersei.
The child wouldn't have so much of a problematic personality if she didn't fill his head since young that he is all that. Then there is Tywin refusing to see the problem with the little boy and now her father is dead because of it. She needs to prolong their suffering for as long as she can. She meditates trying to calm down her emotions so she can think clearly.
She closed her eyes in an empty land and recited the calm water mantra. When she came to it is already two days later and she can not waste any more time. She needs to learn all of her enemy's secrets.
"Morpheus, how are you feeling?" She forgot her dragon can feel her pain including emotional pain.
"I am angry. I want to burn them, all of them." His nose exhaled smoke which happened to be directly in her face making her cough. Jumping back, she knows he is just trying to make her fell better. Smiling, she hugged his large face and closed her eyes in comfort.
"But it has since calmed down a lot from what it was at first. What are you hoping to do?" The dragon asked her unable to read into her thoughts.
"Father was killed by their muddy political power. I am going to plunge into their politics and infect it with my range. I would prefer to just go there and have them crumble in my flames but I am already stronger than them. It wouldn't even last a minute. Sometimes restraint is the hardest thing to have."
"Why must you restrain yourself? You are not like them, the only thing they know is to scheme and plot. You are the blood of old valerian, the blood of the dragon flows freely and powerfully in your blood. All it takes is a wave of your hand and the will be crushed." Morpheus asked taking Olivia by surprise.
"You are angry, anger is poison. It is best to just get rid of it. I can feel it too you know, your boiling rage threatening to drown you. It is threatening to drown me too. I don't like the feel of it. It makes everything look gloomy and even my prey tastes sour. Lets go and kill this peasants, please...mother, I can't live like this." Olivia has never heard him sound so human. She looked at him sadly.
"If we show ourselves now, they will stop fighting each other and band together to eliminate us. Our threat is far grater than any they pose to each other. Let me tell you a story about how the reign of dragons ended."
"There was a family who could ride dragons and burn cities. They were great conquerors who united the seven kingdoms and ruled for 300 years. Everyone feared being burned by their dragons so they obeyed and waited. When their dragons died and it became apparent they have no influence over any of the seven kingdoms they remembered it wasn't love or admiration that won them the iron throne to begin with. Do you know what it was?"
"Fear?"
"Yes, due to the madness of being born from brother and sister this realization made them cruel. The last king burned my grandfather and uncle with wild fire while they were still alive."
"You never talked about this."
"No, it was a story of the past. I guess I am still coming to terms with the fact that I am related to the people who brought such devastation to the family I have always known. I guess I even dye my hair because deep down I am not proud to be a Targaryen but that is wrong of me, I am wrong."
"Having the blood of the dragon is what got me you and Aeryn, and I am proud to be the one to crack open a dragon egg in almost a hundred years. I am even happier that I have you and your sister in my life. From now on, no more hiding who I am." She declared and Morpheus roared in happiness.
"But showing my true self is different from is different from using my children to remind people why they hate Targaryen's."
"They hated them?" He asked her and Olivia chuckled. "If you lived under fear because of someone for many years, wouldn't you hate that person? Especially with so much bad blood with them burning so many armies over the extent of their rule. But there is another reason I don't want to stand out too much as a Targaryen. My adopted son's mother has opened three dragon eggs. I want to see what she does with her power."
"Then people who harm yours are going to go free just for these reasons?"
"My father is already dead. The one person that could have stopped me from going against my worst impulse is gone. I am going to show them just how much of a huge mistake they have made. At first they will call it bad luck then as time goes by they will see it as a curse. In the end they will know it was me all along."
"What are you going to do?" Morpheus got excited.
"I am going to leave their front and sneak behind them on every plan, every battle and every ploy they cook up. I will fuck it in the ass." She said something that Morpheus doesn't understand at all. Morpheus's excitement deflated like a balloon.
"Human politics are boring." He grumbled but it is obvious they both feel better and their bond is much closer than before.
"First we need to know their fatal weaknesses. It is time I met with an old friend." She rode Morph all the way to Kings landing, then cast an illusion spell to enter the city. She went to retrieve her father's head from a spike along with her father's body and took it out of the city.
She put it in a box and flew it outside of Robb's war tent. Going back she entered the inn where her first business partner after Ned Stark is located. Emma the keeper of most inns and brothels in Westeros.
Olivia is glad she came here because she can oversee the business pack up and leave in the night. She was able to deter the people who were keeping an eye on the soap business knowing it belongs to her city.
She made an illusion that all is as it should be with the help of her dragon's magic. She could potentially pull it off with her own magic but having Morpheus doesn't hurt.
What makes her happier is that she is able to save her two maids who had volunteered to work in the shop in Kings landing because the girls have always wanted to see the big city.
Olivia had only allowed them because they had finished basic training. Anna has grown into her big ears and chubby faith is now a very busty and beautiful woman.
She spent the rest of the night with Emma learning of information that Bree might have missed in pursuit of important news.
When the first thing that she found out is the information about the bastard children of Robert Baratheon, she spend an entire day collecting them and their families to be shipped off to the Haunted city.
"19 of them. The man was very busy." Veer said when he took command of a ship full of nervous people.
"If you work hard, you may have even more than him." Anna said to him having been familiar with his young man's lustful adventures. Hearing her, Veer smiled thinking of himself surrounded by tens of beautiful children.
They were housed in the recently built harbor apartments with everything a small family may need. They are given free housing for two years after which they must start working and paying rent like everyone else.
Luckily for them, mothers can leave their children in the day care and go to work. While the teenagers and young ones with no work experience can join the military if they are too young they are not given housing but are put in the orphanage inside Haunted city.
These things are not done by Olivia herself but by her subordinates. Anna and Faith are the ones responsible for housing these guests.
They are informed that King Jeffrey wants the bastards of king Baratheon dead so they are being taken here by someone who doesn't like to see him succeed. All of them are staying and getting an allowance of 10 silver coins a month for a year for adults and 5 silver coins for young ones.
This operation was done swiftly and without any pause making the council members suspect each other. Jeffrey wanted them dead but now someone is protecting them. After discovering that Ned Stark's body is missing, they became sure it is someone who is no friend of the crown.
Olivia met with the group that was supposed to send Ned out of the city in the nick of time. Before Olivia can ask what happened, they told her of Sansa's decision and how she wanted to be queen even if it meant lying about her future husband's bastard's status.
Olivia got so mad she started laughing. "Alright. You want to be a queen? Want to stay here no matter what? Then Stay."
She put effort into trying to find Arya. Olivia is positive about Arya's survival. The brave wolf will surely make it, especially if she ate the three pills Olivia had given her.
Stannis wants the throne, Jeffrey has the throne, Renly wants it. Who else? Ah yes, Robb Stark doesn't want it but wants revenge. Then there is the Grey joys Iron born.
Such a delicious mess of chaos. Let the games begin. There is also a road block by the Reach making Kings landing very hungry for food but having non. She snuck into the the royal treasury and left with 3 million 200 thousand gold coins. They should have taken this money and paid off their debt to the iron bank because now it all belongs to her.
Olivia is not satisfied and went to the Lannisters rock. After using her spirit power she found the safe, then she came out with 5 million 800 thousand. The crown still owes them around 1 million 700 thousand.
This is not enough!
Perhaps she could take something from Tywin. Something that will cut deep and leave a scar. The man has spent all his life wishing to leave a powerful legacy for his children and not be like his own father who was weak willed and made their house become a joke.
"A legacy? His children has already made a joke of his bloodline by committing incest and depriving him of a royal bloodline. Morpheus, If it were you and you didn't want to waste your army on a confrontation because you have an even more powerful enemy you are training your army to confront, what would you do?"
Morpheus tilted his head and thought deeply. In the end he coughed and said, "Can't I just burn him?"
"I need him to be at full capacity for now because the south is about to be engulfed in war and he has one of the best minds, I want to have him make his plans and then fail miserably."
"You are a dragon, is all this planning necessary?"
"No, but I want him to despair. I don't want it to come all at once, It should build up little by little until he is drowning in it. Only then will I allow him to die." The dragon has fire heart but these words made it feel a chill up it's spine.
"Careful mother, your true colors are showing."
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