WILOW-Ch.357: Deciding the Next Course of Action
Riverrun Castle, Riverlands
POV of Domeric Bolton
The feast went on till late at night.
At one point, Domeric felt the communication mirror vibrate in his pocket and excused himself from the feast.
He went out, found an empty corridor, and set up a sound barrier around him before taking the call.
The face of Lyra came up in the mirror, and he frowned.
"Lyra. Any important news?"
"Yes. I have some." She nodded, "But I've yet to receive the report about the battle. My informants are either dead, drunk, or balls deep inside a whore and too busy to call me. So, you might as well tell me how the battle went."
"It went well. The plans we had made needed to be adjusted a little bit, but otherwise the battle went exactly as we had thought it would, which I'm told is quite rare."
"Not if you have the equivalent of dragons in your forces." Lyra grinned, and he rolled his eyes.
"As for the precise numbers." He thought about it for a moment and continued, "We lost 14 of our men. But I had to say approximately 400 to our allies. Most of them were from the Southern-West battlefield, where the fighting was the toughest. In return, we killed about 10,000 Lannister men, captured about 3,000 of them, and routed 2,000 of them. We've also taken their armor, weapons, and any other supplies that the wildfire didn't burn down. They might be of some use in the future."
"Really? Such low casualties in a battle of this scale are unprecedented in the history of Westeros," she said in astonishment.
"Yes. The magic amulets have been even more successful than I expected."
Lyra nodded.
"What of Edmure Tully? Wasn't he the prisoner of the Lannisters?" she said.
"He was. And I saved him before the battle." He said, "Now, if there's nothing else you want to know, tell me about the news that you wanted to give me."
Lyra nodded and spoke, "I have two pieces of news. One about Stannis and one about Lannisters."
"Give me the news about the Lannisters first." He said.
"Well. Tywin Lannister found out that Lysa Arryn called the banners. So, he has called for more reinforcements." She said, "The Lannisters are gathering yet another army outside Casterly Rock. This one is mainly made of boys and men who're too old to fight. But they might be able to interfere with your plans. That's why I thought it would be better for you to know them."
He frowned and nodded, "Do you know how many there are?"
"For now? Nearing about 5000. But if you don't eliminate them quickly enough, that number will only increase as they forcibly recruit more and more soldiers."
He pinched his chin and wondered which path he should take.
Destroy this growing army or destroy Tywin Lannister.
He decided to think about it later and looked at Lyra once again. "Tell me the news about Stannis."
"He has taken Storm's End." She replied, and he frowned once again.
"Storm's End? Wasn't that castle supposed to be impenetrable?" He scrunched up his brow. "I mean, I know that there's no impenetrable castle, but taking it must have cost a lot of men for him. Right?"
"Apparently not." Lyra shook her head. "The Castellan of Storm's End met an untimely death, and the gates were opened for Stannis after that."
"Untimely death…" He frowned. "I didn't take Stannis Baratheon to be the kind of person who hires assassins."
"Not assassins. At least I don't think so." She said. Her voice was more serious than before.
"What do you mean?"
"I… Do you remember the Red Priestess who had been counselling Stannis Baratheon?"
"Yes. What of her?"
"Well… a bit of investigation on her told me that she was originally from Asshai. And… there are rumors about her."
"Rumors?"
"Rumors that she practices blood magic and is a shadowbinder." She said, "I could not confirm these rumors, but I'm pretty sure that they're true. Plus. The woman is old. Like, really, really old."
He nodded, "Would she be a problem?" he asked.
"Probably." Lyra nodded, "Because of her, Stannis Baratheon has taken to R'hllor as his religion. Rumors about him burning the Statues of the Seven have already spread. Even if he manages to take over the Seven Kingdoms, his religion would cause a religious upheaval, and well… I don't think that Westeros would survive that. Not intact at least."
Domeric knew this, too. He thought about her other intelligence for some time.
"If Stannis has taken Storm's End, then his claim would gain a great deal of legitimacy. Which means that Renly would be forced to fight his brother before he could advance on King's Landing." He said and then nodded, "Let the two brothers fight it out. If this Red Priestess is as powerful as you fear, then she might assassinate Renly Baratheon with her shadowbinder abilities as well, which would be in our favor. But if she fails, then Stannis would be defeated and probably killed by Renly, which would be nice as well." He said.
In the original storyline, Renly's fate was known, and frankly, it would work in Domeric's favor if events unfolded the same way.
"You're not going to deal with the Red Priestess?" Lyra asked.
"No. Not now." He said, "Any other news?"
"Oh yes. I almost forgot." Lyra said, "Do you remember me telling you about the agent who persuaded Ser Barristan Selmy to meet you?"
"Yes."
"Well. He and Ser Barristan Selmy should be near Riverrun now. If you wait for a day or two, then they'll catch up to you."
He nodded, "Anything else?"
"No. There are no other noteworthy issues at the moment." She said.
"Hmm. I've decided on which army I'm going to attack." He said.
"And which army would that be?" Lyra asked.
"The one outside Casterly Rock." He said, "Mostly because I plan to take Casterly Rock and its riches after that. But also, because that would give us time for the Baratheon brothers to fight it out."
"Don't you already have all the gold that you could ever want?" Lyra asked.
"I do." He replied, "But most of it is in different currencies. That makes it harder for me to use them in Westeros. Moreover, this isn't about whether I become richer or not. It's about whether my enemy remains rich or not. Now if there was nothing else…"
"No. That would be all, my lord." She said.
"Goodnight then." He replied and cut the connection.
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Next Chapters' Name:
Ch.358: All Mine!
Ch.359: Lord Stark Can Wait
Ch.360: Blessed One