Chapter 11

After explaining the List and the problems you had to your Father, you got directly what you wanted, and because of that you now have your own Escort of proper Knights loyal to House Lannister with you. It's great that your Father doesn't do things half-heartedly, though that it was such a nonissue still surprised you a bit, but you did know that he cares a great Deal about you, your Siblings, and your Mother, so perhaps you shouldn't see him as the Lord of the Rock all the time.

Yes, you really should work on that a bit more, especially seeing as your Father is a lot more than just a Title, though it's hard to describe him without it, with him being the perfect Image of a High Noble and all that. Hence, you're from time to time unsure if it's a Front or if he is just trying to be a good Example for you and your Siblings. You do want to believe the latter, but maybe he is really not much beyond his Title, though you don't want to think of him that way.

From a certain Point of View, he seems somewhat fragile now that the Thought has infested your Mind, and you have to wonder what would be left of your Father if one took the Title away from him. But that's a bit to mean too seriously consider it any further, you after all love your Father no matter his Flaws, though if the King would do any better would be interesting, and if your Father doesn't get his Marriage you might even find it out, but you will have to wait and see.

He really wants that Throne even though it would only weaken our House if we actually claimed it, yet to your relief the King is a Piece of Crap, and while you weren't there when the King insulted your Father you're now sure that this Friendship won't hold forever. You decide to not bother trying to visit the Royal Family for the duration of their visit, as to not annoy your Father when he is already a step away from having someone's Head on a Spike.

You do wonder for a bit what he could have said to create so much anger in your Father, but in the end you decide that you had misspent enough time already thinking about useless stuff, and so you simply can't allow yourself to waste so much time anymore. Instead, you chose to focus on the future, or more precisely how to handle the future Enemies of your House, for while you had often fantasised about how to crush them, having some real insight into the relationship between the Capital and the Rock will allow you to make some actually acceptable Plans for the Wars to come.

You often thought about what your Ability could contribute to the struggles ahead, and while using your Strength would certainly be entertaining, it could also upset the proper Order of the World, for what good would it do if your Enemies decide to just submit, that really isn't how Humans should live in your Opinion. Yet simply crushing all resistance would probably help your Family and your Father in particular the most, so you're a bit unsure about the matter of using or not using your Ability on the Battlefield.

Pushing aside the issue of putting either your Family or your Duty as a Human first, you can see that you will have a very simple time when everything begins to break down, though you decide to begin your work a bit earlier so as to not create yourself additional time pressure later on. And yes, while it would certainly upset the Order of the World if you use your Ability to its full extent on every Battlefield, the same can hardly be said for using it to give the richest House, namely your House, some more Strength in terms of Resources, or at least you hope that it wouldn't prevent the Wars to come, for you're confident that your Family will persist, as is proper.

Thus, the Question becomes how you're going to enrich your House, and you decide after a moment of thought that half measures aren't going to satisfy you, so Gold and Gems it is. You will simply have to wait for the King to depart and then ask for permission and the most stressful part will already be over, yet while extracting Gold Remains from the Stone is quite simple just like the creation of Chests full of Gems, keeping that all contained to the Rock will take some preparation, that you can say without a doubt.

For if this Information gets out you could have your War a good bit earlier than you want, and it would put your loved ones in danger as well, so this truly is a Situation in which Patience is a Virtue. Besides, it's not like you can't wait for a bit as long as you get it done when it's time, everything should work out just fine, and when the Rock's Forces are unmatched the Westerlands could be truly united under the Lion Banner, but you still don't think that your Father's Dream of the Crown is a plausible one, at least not one that rules all of the Kingdoms.

Mayhaps with enough Resources a third of the Seven Kingdoms could be won, but the rest is truly and utterly worthless, no, they are worse than just worthless, seeing as they will bleed us dry of Manpower sooner or later. Holding the North and Dorne would bring attrition just with their Weather, then next comes the Reach, which will take enormous amounts of Troops to Garrison, and the Vale would force us to deal with the Mountain Clans that gave the Knights of House Arryn trouble for Centuries, yeah, this just won't work out, it's just not worth it, and you hope that your Father will be able to accept this when the time comes, for you can't do everything in one push, it's just not possible.