"So? What does it say?" Robert asked as he leaned forward on the table with an eager look on his face, "When is he coming? Have they left yet?"
"No, Your grace. They have not." The Grand Maester replied in an apologetic tone while closing the letter in his hands as if he had really just read it for the first time, "Lord Stark sadly will not be able to attend the Tourney."
"What?!" Robert exclaimed in a shocked tone, "Argh, Damn it, Ned!" he cursed as he slammed his fist on the table, "What will it take for you to move your ass from that frozen wasteland?"
The men in the council room remained silent at that, as they all knew better than to interrupt the Stag King when he was on one of his tantrums.
"But why?" Robert asked grouchily after taking a big swig from his glass to soothe his irritation, "His own son is getting the honour, so why in seven hells is he not attending? I thought you told me that he cared for his bastard," he said, looking at Jon with accusing eyes as if he had been lied to.
"What the Grand Maester forgot to mention is that Lord Eddard is not coming, not because of a lack of interest but because of a bad coincidence," The Old Hand calmly replied after reading the letter taken from the Maester's hand. "It seems by the time our raven arrived in Winterfell, Lord Eddard and most of his family had already left their home to go on a trip to Essos. Even this letter had been sent in the name of his heir, Robb Stark, who, while apologising, has also confirmed that he will attend in his father's stead."
"Essos? Why would he go to Essos?" Robert asked confusedly as his mind ignored everything else Jon had said.
"Perhaps to visit the said bastard son, Your Grace," Varys said with an amused smile on his face, "Lord Stark might have gone there to visit his son and to see the vast shipping company under his command."
"But his son is going to be here, so why..." Robert asked bewilderedly before his eyes suddenly widened, "No, don't tell me!! Does Ned not even know about this Tourney?"
"It could be possible, your grace. After all, we did delay sending the invitations until just two months before the Tourney," Jon Arryn replied while closing the letter with a somewhat envious look on his face.
Just from the letter, the Hand could see that his ward's heir was a very competent lad, just like his half-brother in Essos; otherwise, Eddard would not have so easily left Winterfell in his hands, but on the other hand, his own heir was... Jon shook his head with a sigh.
"Which should have been more than enough time for anyone wanting to attend to travel to Kings Landing," Baelish jumped in before Robert could think things through and get it inside his head that it was somehow their fault that his friend from the North was not coming to play with him.
"Well..." Robert sighed morosely as he leaned back in his chair, "I guess it was just bad luck, then."
"It is not all bad, your grace. At least you can now finally meet the son that Ned named after you," Jon Arryn said consolingly, as he knew how much his ward had been looking forward to this visit.
"There's that," Robert shrugged half-heartedly as he took another swig of wine, "And? Who else is coming?"
"Well, your brother Renly has accepted his invitation—"
"Just like every other one he has been sent," Stannis muttered with a snort.
Lord Arryn ignored him and continued, "And Lord Tywin has expressed his regret as he has too much work on his hands, so he is going to send his son Tyrion in his stead."
"That's good. At least the dwarf will make it a bit more fun." Robert mumbled with a smile that was mirrored on the face of one of the Kingsguard standing in front of the door.
"But on the other hand, Reach and Dorne are both going to attend," The Hand announced, getting surprised looks from everyone in the room except for those already in the know, because of their various 'sources'.
"Huh? Why?" Robert asked incredulously with a look of incomprehension on his face, "Why are they coming?"
"I do not know your grace, but both of them have indeed replied positively to their invitations, with Lady Olenna and Prince Doran coming to attend the Tourney in person."
"Why in the seven hells did we even send them invitations?"
Jon Arryn sighed at the stupidity of his ward before answering, "You may not be aware of it, your grace, but we send invitations to all the great houses whenever we host a tourney or any other big event in King's Landing, whether they come or not, as courtesy dictates us to."
"Every time?"
"Yes, Your Grace."
"Then how come they never came to any of the previous ones?" Robert asked with a raised eyebrow, "What is different about this one? Are they just bored this time, or do they really care about Jon Snow getting knighted that much?
That question from the King left even the likes of Varys and Baelish stumped, as they too had been thinking on this dilemma ever since they got their hands on the news of their arrival.
And it was very uncomfortable for them to not know the main reason behind this sudden decision from two of the great houses.
"If I may hazard a guess, Your Grace," Varys supplied with a thinking look on his face, "Jon Snow is said to have had a very good relationship with the Reach ever since his first sea journey. In fact, one could even say that the massive increment of trade volume between the North and the Reach that has happened in recent times had all been because of him. So perhaps the Tyrells want to take this trade even further and are arriving at his knighthood ceremony as a good gesture, and as for the Dorne," Varys shook his head apologetically, "Well... even my little birds have are completely silent on that front."
Varys' conjectures, whether they were true or not, had left the council room in a thoughtful silence, which was only broken a few minutes later by Lord Hand.
"Leaving behind the pecularity of it all," Jon began with a keen look in his eyes, "This Tourney is turning out to be a bigger deal than I had expected it to be. Because if everything went well, then almost all the Lords from the Great Houses are going to present there (except, of course, the Greyjoys) which means..." he trailed off as the gleam in his eyes grew brighter and brighter; his mind came up with all kinds of deals and trade concessions that he could make in a gathering like this that comes once in a decade.
"Ugh! This is turning into more of a boring political thing than a Tourney..." Robert grumbled while massaging his head. He could already imagine all the stupid meetings and greetings he would have to go through at that time, 'Ah, why in the hell did I even agree to do something like this?'
"Lord Baelish," Lord Arryn ignored the King and turned to the Master of Coin sitting beside him and whispered, "You remember how I told you to limit the spending and make the Tourney setting as efficient(cheap) as you can... Well, you can forgo that, because I want the preparations to be as good as they can be; this tournament should reflect the prestige of a tourney being held by the Royal family."
"Are you sure, My Lord?" Baelish asked with a small, amused smile on his lips, "Because what you are asking is going to cost us a lot of gold, My Lord."
"I—No matter. You can take the gold from the treasury as long as it is being used appropriately," Jon Arryn replied with a forced smile on his face. "After all, we can not afford to slight any of those lords," he muttered under his breath.
The council meeting ended a few minutes later, and within the hour, with the council members and their direct subordinates and servants as the source, the news about the Tourney's renewed importance had spread throughout the city and then to other regions.
Finding out that so many great houses were going to be in attendance ignited the fire in Nobles like nothing else, and they immediately gathered all the young unmarried sons, daughters, nephews and nieces that they could find in their family tree, before immediately setting off for the capital.
Another direct result of this Tourney's sudden popularity came out a week later in the form of a letter from Tywin Lannister.
The Lord simply stated that he was going to set off from Lannisport in three weeks for Kings Landing, and arriving along with him would be his brother Kevin Lannister and their retinue of 150 guards; but, of course, the Great Lord of Westerlands made no mention of the polite rejection he had sent in his previous letter.
Because, after all, a lion does not need to apologise to sheep.
And so the Nobles, the Knights, and all kinds of Merchants slowly began congregating towards the Capital, bringing along with them their money, their skills, and their products, hoping to strike big at this massive congregation of Lords that hadn't been seen since the Greyjoy Rebellion.
...