Chapter 26: Fallen Empires
109 AC, King’s Landing
Otto Hightower sat in the Small Council chamber, doing his best to maintain a neutral expression on his face, with the news that was just announced by Grand Maester Runciter. “It gives me great pleasure to tell you that the Triarchy is now no more. The alliance has fractured, and the cities of Tyrosh, Myr, and Lys are now at war once more.”
He had known of this likely outcome for some time, ever since these cursed letters had come to their shores. The War in the Stepstones had been a boon for Otto and his cause, even if it had boded rather poorly for the rest of the realm. For one, it kept Daemon occupied, and perhaps some pirate would have been fortunate enough to kill him and his dreadful beast, as Dorne had done to Queen Rhaenys a century ago.
But most importantly, the war had invalidated most of the Sea Snake’s glory, his conquest of the Stepstones, stopping the potential threat that his line posed to the Iron Throne, as well as his potential influence over most of the trade outside with Essos, and even in Westeros. This was power beyond what a lord, any lord, should be allowed to have, not without the Crown’s control, at the very least, but Corlys Velaryon’s ambition was truly endless, and it was up to Otto to curb it, for the good of the realm.
And the war had been his masterpiece, one that had worked better than he thought possible. It had perfectly curtailed the influence of House Velaryon, tainted his earlier victory, and kept Daemon Targaryen far away from the Capital.
It had even allowed Oldtown to take Driftmark’s position as the main place to trade with Qarth, and it had succeeded partially in that regard, as the war had not lasted as long as he would have liked to reinforce that.
Oldtown had flourished greatly, and Hobert had seemed almost overjoyed by the effect of his scheme, engulfing Daemon into another war. Truthfully, Otto had not expected things to escalate so greatly, but he should have, given that the Rogue Prince was involved. The Sea Snake had wisely chosen not to rejoin Daemon in his war, and Otto had hoped that the prince would see it as a betrayal of sorts, but then again, he might simply have thought someone intervening in his domain to be an overreach as well.
Daemon might have been his enemy for years, and yet Otto would confess that he knew very little of what went on in the mad mind of the Rogue Prince.
Still, the scheme was set, and Oldtown had invested much in increasing their shipyards to deal with the projected influx in trade, only for the Sealord of Braavos to shake the very foundations of the world. After all, who could possibly be foolish enough to simply give away the method of forging glass, a secret that had been guarded by Myr for centuries, enough that they sent their Sorrowful Men to kill anyone who might pose a threat to their production.
And yet, the secret was sent to every major city and seat in Westeros and Essos alike. Otto had first thought it to be a ploy, some kind of play from the Braavosi Sealord that he planned on doing later. But rumours began to spread that it was true.
According to his informants, it took a Fortnight for some smith in Qohor to forge glass, though imperfect. Though the glass was not as clear as Myr’s, it was progressing towards it every day. Others soon followed, trying the same, and now every city, every kingdom, wished to forge glass, thinking that it would be a gateway to earn wealth similar to Myr, unknowing that glass would soon lose its value with its sudden abundance.
Of course, the true impact on Myr’s trade would have taken years, first until the process was refined enough, and then until manufacturing was stable. The Free City could have weathered the storm, had they decided to shift their focus towards their more delicate glass products, like Far-eyes and mirrors, and diverting more gold into their crossbow production as well as their lace and silks. That was what a sensible ruler would have done.
Unfortunately, the magisters of Myr were not sensible creatures. What they had done was panic and presumably try to start a campaign against Braavos, one that Lys and Tyrosh did not support. Adding in the fact that tensions were brewing, as reports of Lys and Tyrosh trying to replicate the glass began to appear. Either way, it was obvious that Myr was not happy with this situation, and that their alliance was growing more fragile with every moment.
There was only so much that Myr could tolerate from its ‘allies’, and this was something that everyone on this council knew, especially Lyonel Strong, given his next question, “A war then?”
The Maester nodded sadly at that, “It seems so. I know not of all the specifics, only that Myr has attacked some mercenaries under Lys’s allegiance to show their displeasure. A Myrish Magister was assassinated in return, and his assets were seized by a Tyroshi merchant. Either way, all three cities have summoned their forces from the Stepstones to secure their own borders, and their army of mercenaries and pirates is split between the cities. It seems that the Three Daughters of Valyria will soon return to fighting one another, as they have decades ago.”
It was more than that. Aside from the war being fought, the gold promised to the sellswords they hired would beggar each of the cities, and they would not be able to charge tolls for passage in the Stepstones given that they have set aside their ambitions for the key passageway, for the moment. Daemon now had all of the time and opportunity to secure his domain, something that Otto truly disliked, as he would hold leverage and sway over trade in the Seven Kingdoms.
Of course, King Viserys smiled widely at these words, “To think that this dreadful conflict in the Stepstones had been able to be resolved through the generosity of the Sealord of Braavos. Truly a remarkable man, perhaps even worthy to be a peer to my grandsire. No wonder the Sea Snake had wished to tie his blood to him.”
Otto gritted his teeth at the King’s response. The Sealord’s decision had likely very little to do with his generosity, but to destroy the Triarchy, quite cleverly at that. By sharing the secret of glass, Braavos had gained something of an honourable reputation across the world, especially given that it had been used to destroy the Triarchy and the threat that it posed to trade to Braavos.
It was also a testament of Braavos’s power. After all, if they had uncovered one of Myr’s greatest secrets, what other ones did they know? They had shown themselves to be more than willing to set aside great wealth, if only to destroy their enemies. The production of glass could have easily brought them tens of millions of dragons over the next few years alone, and they had given it all away, just to destroy the Triarchy. They might be willing to do the same to any of their enemies, with only a letter.
Either way, Quarro Otherys cemented his place in history, likely as one of the greatest Sealords in the history of Braavos, and likely ended the bloodiest and yet, least bloody war in the history of the Stepstones. After all, this army of pirates and mercenaries was bound to be destroyed, their blood spilling on the Stepstones due to the war between the Three Daughters of Valyria.
Thankfully, Lyonel Strong, the Master of Laws, continued, “Did the instructions of forging Braavosi glass show their worth?”
Grand Maester Runciter nodded, “The Citadel reports that they have achieved some promising results in Oldtown, with the glass gaining better clarity with some work, but it is in Driftmark that the results are more pronounced. Maester Gerardys of Castle Driftmark claimed that they were able to forge clear glass thanks to Laenor Velaryon’s new forges in his new castle. Ser Laenor was also presumably involved as well in the process.”
Viserys smiled widely, “I suppose he must be. He is quite the gifted young man.”
Otto gritted his teeth at that answer. The Velaryons… again….
Truly the Gods must favour this grasping House in some way. For one, Viserys was still obsessed with the boy’s painting that he had been gifted during Aegon’s nameday, and by relation, the ‘Painter Knight’ himself, as he was often referred to in King’s Landing.
It was meant as a mockery of a sort, but it had been silenced with the boy’s new feat of slaying one of the greatest assets of the Triarchy, the pirate lord Sargoso Saan, while he tried to raid a vessel that he was sailing on. From the songs being spread across the Crownlands, likely paid for by Corlys Velaryon, the boy had defeated the combat in single combat, claiming his Valyrian Steel weapon as his own, while being surrounded by half a dozen enemy ships to his own.
Otto doubted most of what occurred, but his spies in Driftmark told him that the Painter Knight was wielding a Valyrian Steel sword, that he named Riptide, and that Sargoso Saan was truly dead, his fleet fractured due to infighting.
If Otto would guess, some soldier or guard was paid a very large sum of gold to earn Ser Laenor his glory. No matter how intelligent he was, Laenor Velaryon was but a boy, a pawn of his father in the great game that spread across the Seven Kingdoms, and even beyond. Unfortunately, for Otto, he was also a dangerous pawn as well, given his performance in the tourney, his artistic talents, and now… this.
The heir to Driftmark was becoming the talk of the realm, and likely one of the most attractive matches in the Seven Kingdoms, especially with the fact that technically speaking, he ruled his own seat, Castle Driftmark.
The boy was rumoured to be renovating Castle Driftmark as well. Otto did not understand the reason for it, but he knew that quite a lot of gold was spent on it. Given the expense, it was obvious some ploy of the Sea Snake to make a seat for the heir to Driftmark, perhaps resembling how the heir to the throne often ruled over Dragonstone.
It would not be long before someone pushed the idea of marrying Rhaenyra and Laenor. And with Viserys not naming Aegon his heir, both of them were claimants to the throne: Rhaenyra as the last one to be declared as such, and Laenor as the son of the Queen Who Never Was, and the heir to the line of Aemon Targaryen.
That marriage could not come to be, for it would grant the Sea Snake the opportunity to make another attempt at seizing the Iron Throne, but it would certainly be disastrous if it occurred before Aegon was declared heir. He needed to convince Viserys to declare Aegon his heir and quickly at that, while also pushing any other match for Princess Rhaenyra.
Still, with the Velaryons rising so highly, he needed to muddy the waters slightly, “Still, I admit to being concerned with House Velaryon’s closeness with Braavos. Their production of glass is quite refined and shows that they have likely been working on it for quite some time. And didn’t Ser Laenor defeat Sargoso Saan while he was on a ship returning from Braavos.”
Lyman Beesbury frowned as he asked, “Are you claiming that House Velaryon colluded with Braavos to end this war?”
“Perhaps it is but a passing thought, but it stands to reason that this might be the case. The Sea Snake did not join the war, which I found quite strange given how much effort he spent securing the Stepstones in the first place. And now, given what we know, Driftmark is quite advanced when it came to the production of glass, more so than any other seat in the Seven Kingdoms. This is no proof of such actions, of course, but I cannot help but feel this course of affairs to be… suspicious, and if my theory is true, I cannot help but wonder what House Velaryon promised the Sealord in exchange for this advantage…”
The Hand of the King did not clarify more, for he had no reason to. Laena Velaryon’s possible betrothal to the Sealord of Braavos had been a crisis that they had barely avoided, with the girl claiming a dragon instead of her brother. The current possibility of this match, whether it was true or not, would be bound to put some suspicions on the Sea Snake’s dealings.
After all, the man was aggressively pushing towards regaining his trade routes to Qarth, Yi Ti, and Leng, which much of Oldtown’s trade had been expanding towards, and that should slow him down somewhat. His older brother, Hobert, the Lord of the Hightower, had been working greatly to maintain the relations that they had forged in the war and the markets that they had failed, and so, slowing down the Sea Snake would be paramount.
Otto Hightower suppressed the smile that grew on his face as he saw the rest of the Small Council, especially the King, look uncomfortable by his words. After all, the cost of Castle Driftmark's reconstruction alone had shown them that the Sea Snake had not been as affected by the blockade of the Stepstones as the rest of the realm, something that still baffled Otto to this day.
However, Lyonel Strong seemed to frown towards him, but only for a fraction of a second, likely realising what he had done. He would need to do something about the man, perhaps some kind of scandal involving his son. He was gaining more influence over Viserys than Otto had liked.
Anyway, just as he expected, the Small Council transitioned towards measures to ensure that Braavos would not gain more influence over the affairs of Westeros, starting with potentially summoning Corlys Velaryon to the Capital so that he would explain himself. Hopefully, that would be enough to ensure that the Sea Snake would not rise too quickly, and hopefully, that would take his attention from pushing Laenor as a potential match to Rhaenyra.
In the meantime, he would need to speak with his daughter. The question of the succession has lasted for more than it ever should have. Aegon needed to be declared as the heir to the throne, and it needed to be done quickly, before it was too late.
AN: This story is still relatively new, so if you'd like me to continue it, please let me know in the comments what you think of the rewrite so far.
As for this chapter, well, it's meant as sort of the aftermath of Laenor's glass scheme and how it shifted the war, as well as showing a bit of Otto's plans backfiring. We should get back to Laenor in the next few chapters, something that I'm pretty excited about.
As I said before, I am planning on uploading more of this story (outside of normal uploads). I have a bit of a backlog of chapter drafts for this story that I’ll try to go through when I can. As usual, I don’t mind rewriting this chapter depending on your feedback, so please let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions.