Celestial Hymn 55 (Patreon)

Celestial Hymn

Chapter 55

-VB-

The vote came in and passed without a fuss. All of the participants looked at each other and me before they all agreed that, yes, there would be a regency council.

It was nice having the power to sway political decisions like this. Still, everything that I have done was done in a ham-fisted manner that was nothing like the subtle cloak-and-dagger bullshit that even 21st-century America engaged in despite the literal millions of eyes looking on.

Yes, I did not like politics and I was starting to realize that some of it may have to do with the fact that I wasn’t even good at it if I didn’t have a massive amount of power to use as leverage.

Oh well. I can’t be good at everything.

Still, I got the regency council to pass, there was now peace in Westeros, and …

I wanted to groan.

“So … that is the end of the report.”

“And my wife?” Stannis demanded from the side.

“She managed to escape, milord.”

The man refused to sag in relief but he almost did it.

“So they return … with dragons,” Tywin muttered. “This changes-”

“Nothing.”

Everyone’s eyes in the Small Council turned to me.

“Once this meeting is over, I will go and subjugate the Targaryens once and for all.” I paused. “But until then, we still need to finish our discussion from before the sudden arrival of the report.”

The rest of the regency council looked at me as if I was nuts.

However…

“If you are so sure of it, then I will not hesitate to return to the North,” Robb spoke up first. “Our part in the war has officially come to an end with the implementation of this regency council. I will, however, send someone to take my place on the council once I reach my home.”

Stannis didn’t say anything. It was his home that the Targaryens had invaded, after all. Tywin, too, didn’t say anything.

When it was clear that there wasn’t anything else to talk about, Robb and Tywin left, leaving me with Stannis.

“At least your family is safe,” I sighed.

“Yes.” I glanced at him and he was gritting his teeth. “... How do you intend to deal with the Targaryens?”

I sighed again. “I don’t know. If she surrenders, then hooray, do some political drama to keep her tied down and with limited access to dragons. If she doesn’t, then I kill -”

“She?” Stannis asked.

My mouth clicked shut. Ah. Right. I knew that this was Daenerys coming for her so-called “birthright” but it could also be her brother in everyone else’s eyes. News about stuff like that didn’t travel fast.

“I heard that her brother died, given a crown of molten gold by Daenerys’s late husband.”

He grunted. “So there’s only one Targaryen left in this world.”

“One that’s silver-haired, yes,” I nodded.

“Then I suggest you end it, Lord Marris,” he bit out. “Don’t let them start become another Blackfyre Rebellions.” Seemingly with his bit said, he stood up and left.

I looked at him as he left until he walked out of the room, leaving me alone. Grumbling, I opened a portal and stepped into the Cabal’s headquarters.

Once I closed the portal, I clapped my hands, making everyone in the headquarters lobby pay attention to me. “I need my crew ready to leave in under an hour. Go and find them, and tell them to head on over to Brownspear.”

Everyone knew who the crew was, and so the acolytes who weren’t doing anything critically important quickly left the lobby to find the crew.

As for me…

“I suppose that this is the penultimate crisis,” I hummed as I opened a portal again, this time directly to Brownspear. My crew of acolytes will have to use the portal rooms with the dedicated portal-making acolytes to reach Brownspear.

As I waited for them to arrive, I thought about how I would put an end to the Targaryen threat. Would I have to kill Daenerys? Will I have to kill the dragons? There was also a high possibility that Daenerys might, in desperation when she sees how powerful my ship was, try to use the people of Dragonstone as hostages. What then? Do I burn Dragonstone with her?

Stannis wanted me to end her as a threat, and logically, his decision was right. If I wasn’t here, then those dragons would have been enough to reconquer Westeros even without other dragonriders. Daenerys had also declared war by attacking Dragonstone. It was fair and just to put an end to her in my duty as one of the lords of Westeros and a sitting member of the regency council.

Then if it was fair and just to put an end to an invader, why did I have other thoughts? Hell, even going further than the most basic justifications needed to kill her and her dragons, there was also that bit in canon where she went crazy.

But.

… But nothing. I was delaying because I felt ambiguous about this. This invasion felt like another chore I had to complete, not a grand battle that will be written down in history. Because it was. I have been putting down fires left and right, solving mysteries, and delaying my own projects.

This was the “penultimate” crisis, ie there was one more crisis to end and that was the Others.

…

Why don’t I just end it all in one-go? Kill Daenerys and her dragons and go over to the Deep North and burn everything that gets caught on my ship’s sensor?

You know what? I’ll do exactly that.

I’ll end it all, so that I can get back to what I want to do!