Chapter 28

And it seems like growing the Krakens some more was indeed the right Choice to make, if the Expressions around you are anything to go by, though you're happy that no Ships were in the Docks at the time, with how you didn't actually bother to check beforehand that could have gone wrong quite fast. But your Mind just can't be everywhere at once, and it did make for an intimidating Sight, so you would say that you don't need to fix something that isn't really broken, though you suppose that even with such a Mind Set the Docks still needed to be classified as broken.

Thus you find yourself thanking the Gods that you could hide your Screw-up as part of the Display, seeing as you could now push the Blame to your Father, who wanted to impress his Vassals before you were ready. Well, at least there won't be any Rebellions or major Ironborn Raids in the future, which should outweigh the small cost of mending the current Damage to the Docks a thousand times over. And while looking over the Nobles observing your new Creation and then your Watch, you realise that it's the perfect time to gain your House control over the Fleets of the West.

"Father, there's a problem with the little ones."

"Oh, and what might you be referring to Azami, perhaps my destroyed Docks?"

"No, nothing like that."

"It's a greater problem."

"Out with it, Azami."

"They can't tell Ships apart, Father."

"Once they're on the open Sea, Ships sailing under the Lion and Ships sailing under the Kraken just become twenty-five meter long Pieces of Wood to them."

If it wasn't your own Father you would have enjoyed his Face after his Comment about the Docks, but he is, thus you decide to be merciful, and wink at him. Your Father for his part needed only seconds to understand the meaning of your Words, and you guess by his Expression that he likes the Thoughts now filling his Mind quite a bit. Without a clear military need to justify the maintaining of one's Warships, and little in the way of Trade to protect, the moment is indeed perfect for a House of sufficient Wealth to swoop in and buy up the Fleets now being relegated to nothing more than catching Fish, which well, isn't that profitable nor useful if you don't actually have the greatest City in the West to feed.

Being able to augment the Fleet by simply throwing Gold instead of the usually so expensive Favours at the Lords of the Westerlands is pleasingly beneficial to the Rock's War effort. So much so that you decide to have a bit of fun, and of course not the kind that others would share, thus you decide to send out one of your little ones to see if you couldn't make sure that the Ironborn remained in their Homes for however long the Realm might be split.

For while you anticipate the coming Wars, you weren't planning to let everyone that wants to have a Try at tearing the Realm apart do so freely, at least as long as there's no one properly defending it. And truly, it's not like the Ironborn need all of their one-hundred and ninety Longships to claim their part of Westeros once the first Wave of Wars are finished. For now, you were simply planning to shake up the great Houses, and show them just how weakened the Crown truly is, not to actually fight half the Continent, and thus you had to give your Neighbours a little slap on the Hand to keep them subdued for at least the remaining Years of the Winter.

But then who said that you couldn't have fun while pushing the current Events forward, especially in front of the Facts that clearly show that the Armies of the Westerlands come with the Winter and all that to just over thirty-nine thousand Men. Thus, you decide after a short moment of thought that investing some time into picking apart potential Enemies makes indeed for a decent enough use of your time, and after looking up the numbers once more you can clearly see that there's indeed more in the way of reasons to have some fun with your Creations than there is doing anything else at the moment.

And so a Fleet of twenty Longships from House Orkwood, sailing under the Kraken of House Greyjoy found itself above a giant Monster deep Underwater, waiting for Nightfall, waiting to equally dye and illuminate the Sea around the Fleet in Red. Which you after three Hours of waiting commanded it to do, thus once the Black Depths of the Ocean and the dark Skies above joined together in the faint light of the Moon all hell broke loose.

Sailors like the Ironborn were hard to break, so your little one had to do its best from the very beginning, starting with the smashing together of two of the Longships, and then followed up by the open Display of swallowing the Ships whole a moment later. Naturally this got a better reaction than the simple Red lights from the Ocean, but not nearly enough, thus after its Snack was crushed eight of its Tentacles gripped four more of the nearest Ships and dragged three of them into the Depths of the Ocean, while it was gulping down the fourth one, Crew and all.

Yeah, that did the Trick quite decently, and after taking a moment to properly feel the reactions around your Kraken you're satisfied to see the Ironborn so desperate that they're even helping out their Slaves now. But you can't let so many of them flee, that just wouldn't work, so the Tentacles were moving once more, and thus four more Ships were drawn into the Depths, if only they didn't wear Plate, or Chains, but like everyone in this Fleet they did, and thus be it Captain or Slave, they drowned.

A clear Punishment from their God, and that without discernible reason, sometimes your nature and just what you see as entertainment actually shocks you, but you guess it also helps your Family, so it should be fine. As you decide to feel the Fleet once more you see to your chagrin that they have gotten a hold of themselves once more, which again, won't do. Hence you quickly decide to use a Trick that has worked decently before, namely the growing of your Kraken, and so you grow it, and then you grow it some more for half an Hour, and after finishing a simple Thought went through your Mind, screw the Iron Islands.