Chapter 48

The Riverlands you wished to ally with were often seen as the weakest of the Seven Kingdoms, and depending on the State of the Iron Islands they were so by quite the large margin. Even the Stormlands had their strong Castles and Mountains to defend them, and the Ironborn themselves lived on Islands protected by one of the greatest Fleets in the Realm. Compared to that, the Lands of House Tully had only a bunch of Rivers and smaller Keeps to seek shelter behind, one could say that if it wasn't for their decently sized Armies and extensive Will to still protect their Homes that they would have become part of History Ages ago.

But their Keeps could easily be expanded and reinforced with the help of the Westerlands, and in doing so a number of quite experienced and sizable Garrison Forces would be freed up to strengthen Positions wherever needed in the Realm. Or when you look at it from another Perspective, if the Crownland, the North, and the Vale all remain loyal to the Targaryens then the massive Garrisons the Riverlands so heavily depend on could join and march united with the royal Armies on the Westerlands, it would make for a much greater Threat than the slow and prideful Giant that is the Reach.

Though to your surprise you didn't have much trouble convincing your Father of going with the Tullys over the Tyrells, for as he tells you, he already played with the Idea for quite some time, much to your silent embarrassment. What was a bit more problematic was that he didn't plan to approach them for quite some time, and that would obviously mean that you couldn't use it as a Distraction for your Plan in the Vale, which would simply be too wasteful for you to accept.

"Any Chance that we could create the Alliance early, Father?"

"You were the one that made the Ironborn go insane, Azami, we even sent some Ships their way to help them out, and now you want to throw all that effort away?"

"Their Armies should be spent by now, Father, they won't be of much use if we want to move against the King before there is a Victory for him to reap Benefits from."

"I have no wish to move early, my little Lion, is that Scheme in the Vale truly worth all the potential problems?"

"Yes."

"It's great that you believe in yourself, but I don't think it is worth it."

"Even without additional help, it's questionable if they would truly come forth from their Mountains to defend the Crown, no matter how long they preach about their Honour."

"The Arryns have enough Forces to threaten the future of House Lannister, Father, they aren't just a great House, they're a Great House, they were Kings once, and are even stronger now, they could oppose House Lannister as they did in times past when the Rock was still the Center of our very own Kingdom."

"The Answer remains the same, Azami, and it's not like your Mother would be fine with having that come out of nowhere at her."

That Outcome was not what you were expecting, but you still decided to scrap your Plan like your Father wished, no one with a working Mind would go directly against the Lord of the Rock after all, not even his Children. Well, at least there wasn't much that you actually lost with your failure to win him over, except for the time and effort invested into creating the Necklaces which you could surely find another use for, there wasn't anything to be genuinely mad about.

You guess that you should start catching up to the slowed restoration efforts with Marie for now, mayhaps it would be better if you left the planning of this kind of stuff to him so as to avoid similar problems in the future, neither you nor your Father were fond of repeated Mistakes after all. There was still plenty you could do to push things forward, and you would need to start helping the Ironborn again first, though this time Reinforcements in the form of additional Ships won't do.

The Ironborn would need more time to rebuild just as urgently as the Westerlands needed more time to fully prepare for a drawn out Continent spanning War, some things just can't be helped. At least you already had the right Tool prepared to deal with the problem, as long as no one knows what destroyed their Fleets in the end there shouldn't really be a problem. Considering how little they had to do since the Ironborn understood not to raid near the Westerlands they were a wasted Asset anyway. And seeing as Westeros was never a Nation that placed much focus on sailing, so it should be fine to go the easy way to resolve the matter, it would just inflate the Threat the Ironborn were posing in everyone's perception after all.

You also thought about helping out the Wildlings fighting the Starks up north, but they were simply too dependent on their limited amount of Ships to just get south of the Wall for you to truly care. Above all else, you still wanted the Arryns dealt with, and helping some Ruffians being good at nothing but plundering won't help you with that Goal. Thinking about it, that actually wouldn't be such a bad Idea, your problem the last time you thought about it was that you couldn't really get the Weapons the Mountain Clans would need to them in secret. But seeing as the Vale was on the other Side of the Continent, the Logistics that made it so hard would also make it impossible to trace them back to House Lannister.

Your Father would most likely not give you the Equipment you needed to make it work seeing as he just turned you down, but you were sure that the Tyrells would unknowingly oblige you once your Krakens ate up their new Fleets, though you again supposed that you would have to increase their number for the Undertaking. That being said, your not so little Siblings weren't bound to the Sea like their fleshy Counterparts so at least transporting the Loot from the Shore into the Mountains under the cover of Night wasn't really a problem, you would even call the Plan effortless if it wasn't for the Fact that creating your new Siblings would take some time.