News hit the camp three days later, Lord Stannis Baratheon, master of ships had won a decisive victory against the iron fleet. The king could be heard laughing from several tents over. That same day, Lord Eddard Stark joint the host as they were crossing through a small village. A young baker's girl could be seen visiting his tent and it was then that everyone knew the world would have another bastard.
"Hey, I heard you can make things?" A man asked, gruff and bald, with no beard and a scar running over his eye. He held up a few silver coins, "I need something to bring back to my wife and I doubt that the ironborn cunts will have anything worthy of her beauty. I can't afford to pay a jeweller but I can give you a silver moon if you make these into a nice necklace for her"
"With pleasure. Women love jewellery, that is a constant from Yi Ti to these western lands. Any favorite animal?" Max let the coins dance inbetween his fingers like others might do with a pen.
"My wife loves to feed the ducks", he admitted, "we run the bakery and she feeds them with the bread that didn't sell"
"Ducks eh?" Max let the coins cling rhythmically against one another. The sharp and constant metallic sound was garnering the attention of the other soldiers. They crowded around him, waiting for him to use overhaul. Many of them had witnessed it already but it was no less impressive and to those who hadn't seen it, only heard of it, it was a spectacle which they desperately wanted to see in action.
Max closed his eyes and used overhaul. A necklace of silver appeared. It was a chain of silver, with a centre piece of a flying duck on it but before the soldier could reach for it, he shook his head, "not good enough"
The duck at its centre wasn't quite right. The wings were too big, the bill too crooked. He might be able to freely change its shape but he wasn't an expert on duck anatomy. He reworked the necklace two more times before he was satisfied with the product, "here, now you can have it"
"Thank you so much! My wife will be elated", the man bowed and handed him a silver coin, as promised m, though with it, he also was handed a few copper pieces, which he pocketed.
"Can you make one for my daughter too? I don't have any silver but plenty of copper" another soldier asked, pulling out a few copper pennies.
And so it was that Max spent the next few days making jewellery from coins. The intricacies which these works required made him learn a lot about his power. He could create large structures, like with the bandits with ease but these detailed works were quite a bit different. One stray thought and the whole design came out looking wrong. Now, compared to this worlds skill, without machines to do the intricate steps, the shoddy works were already of great quality but he wasn't from this world, so his expectations for himself were quite high. The news about these beautiful pieces spread like a fire. At first it was one or two requests in a day but by the end of the week, he had close to a dozen requests each day, both by lowborn and highborn.
When it just didn't stop growing, he implemented the seven requests a day policy, since he still needed time to train in swordsmanship. Yes, during their rests, he learned how to properly swing a sword. It was his payment from a few knights which had requested his services. Sure, with overhaul, he could end a fight at a moment's notice but a man with a sword just had more reach and yet again, he wondered whether he could reconstruct a cut throat on himself. Not something he was willing to try out.
It was during one of these training sessions that a kings guard, a white cloak approached him, "Max of Yi Ti?"
Max, whose brow was furrowed and covered in sweat turned around, sword still in hand his golden eyes pierced the white cloak's soul.
"Yes? What is it, milord? I'm training right now"
"King Robert Baratheon has requested your presence", the white cloak -whom he didn't recognise- told him and his brow furrowed even deeper. The king? What did the king want from him? Surely he wasn't interested in jewellery. King Robert was a warrior first, a king second. He had no use for jewellery or at least so Max had thought.
He sheathed his sword and followed the ser. They walked towards the king's tent.
The white cloak pushed open the curtain and revealed the king and Lord Eddard Stark, sitting and drinking from big goblets. The king was laughing, whilst Lord Stark was stoically sipping from his goblet, "your grace, I have brought you the sorcerer", that last word was laced with quite a bit of venom.
King Robert slowly placed his goblet on the table in front of him, "him? I expected a sorcerer to be frail and skinny. He looks like a warrior, not a weak magician" there was no venom when the king said sorcerer. He held up a golden ring, "I have heard rumors about what you can do… you made this, didn't you? Amazing worksmanship but I heard you could do something more, destroy walls perhaps? You see, the entrance to Pyke is guarded by walls which would take significant effort to breach. If the ironborn cunts were warriors, they would meet us on the field but they are too cowardly. We would use many good men if we breached it normally but, and Ned here suggested this, you could break them down easily, couldn't you?"
"I… could, yes but I'd need to get close. I have to touch whatever I want to destroy or reshape. Archers could kill me in a few seconds"
"I though so…" King Robert deflated, ready to send him away but Max wasn't done.
"I have an idea how we could make this work though. It is called a turtle formation, the unsullied use them…" he explained the Roman Testudo formation.
The king looked more excited by the minute, "great! If this works, I will make you a lord! Ned, you said that that dragon- something was still open for grabs, right?"
"Sea dragon point. It has plenty of wildlife and woods, as well as many weirwood trees"
At first, Max was disappointed but when he heard weirwood, that all changed. Who cares if the area wasn't that grand right now? With overhaul, he could terraform the area to his whims, "sounds like a deal"
"Great! Those cunts won't know what happened! Ha ha ha! Come take a drink with us!"