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—
The Island of Pyke
Each and every single keep on the island had surrendered without a protest. Why?
The kraken was dead, and there were two very violent dragons on the island. The only resistance the Ironborn could put up would be the time it takes for the castle stones to melt.
Robert, sitting on a chair, surveyed the Ironborn nobles brought before him. In addition to the men, he had the women of highest station in each keep summoned, as punishment differed for each gender.
Clapping his hands to get their attention, Robert began to lay down his verdict. "We had a fun ride. Euron, whose heart I tore out with my bare hands, convinced you army of fools to attack Asgard, as if his dragonbinder could stop me."
"Then, he went and somehow summoned a kraken, which was kind of impressive, but you see how that ended." Robert waved his hand at the corpse.
After the lobster monster he had killed, more and more came pouring out, which his dragons found delicious, and once their snack supply was out, they started eating the kraken.
It was too large for them to finish, which meant dragons had their food supply shorted out.
"Now, it is time for me to dish out your due punishment."
"We'll start with the men." Balon, who had gotten on his nerves, found himself accidentally smashed to a pulp by Wun Weg Wun, leaving Victarion to speak for House Greyjoy since Theon and Asha were too young to do so.
"Every grown Ironborn male has two choices before them. The first is the headsman's block." Robert pointed at the two wooden blocks with the executioners standing at the ready.
"The second is the Wall. Now, you might think you can go to the Wall and cause trouble there or attack the North after rebelling, and while I don't care what happens to that blasted wasteland, I'll be sure to burn down every single keep and settlement in the Iron Islands as retaliation."
The Watch would get the manpower it needed, while he would be rid of the Ironborn. Their families, mothers, wives, daughters, and sisters would be the insurance needed to keep them in line.
"Any males that are not considered men can either go to the Citadel to be of some use to the Seven Kingdoms or join the Faith of the Seven." Such as Theon and the other children in the islands.
"You mean to punish every man in the islands?" Victarion asked. They had fought and lost, and no matter how much it crushed his pride, he knew they would be punished.
Those that did not fight deserved no punishment, and the children of the nobles were usually taken as hostages to ensure the compliance of the house, not sent to the Citadel and the Wall altogether.
With no males left behind, who would take the titles and rule the houses?
"I mean to end the threat of the Ironborn, once and for all." There were gasps, and more than one Ironborn rose in defiance but was clubbed down by the guards.
"As for the women, any who wish can join the Faith of the Seven to become septas. Otherwise, you are all confined to this island, without any male to have children, and I figure in fifty or so years, there will be no more Ironborn."
No more raids, no more threats to maritime trade security, and no more slavery in the Seven Kingdoms, no matter what the Ironborn called it.
"Of course, you can always choose to die, no hard feelings." He didn't want to kill the women, defenseless as they were, but those that didn't wish to live this life could always take poison.
"Please, show mercy." A rather mature woman begged, which confused Robert.
"I am showing mercy. Why do you think you are alive rather than ashes now?" He pointed to the dragons who were feasting on the kraken's flesh.
"If there are any children born after the men are gone, any maiden that has not flowered yet will be taken away along with the child, and I'll burn the keep and everyone in it to the ground." Break the rules; he did not have to show mercy.
Robert continued to lay down his rules for the Ironborn, who had no choice but to sit down there and listen.
—
"My lord, what of the saltwives?" Davos asked as dozens of women were being given warm food, free from their captors with the children they had to bear.
Robert pitied them.
"If they have a home to go to, we'll help them get there. If not, we can take them to Asgard."
That was the best he could do.
—
Eradicating the Ironborn without outright killing everyone was a messy and time-consuming job that required constant oversight.
Sending a considerable number of Ironborn to the Wall would definitely end in a disaster, but as Ra and Slifer had slaughtered the most, there were barely two thousand left from the main force, and the rest weren't fighters.
"How is the Faith supposed to take all these women in?" Davos wondered aloud. The men who would take the black would be expensive for the Northern lords to feed and arm, but their numbers could not match the women, who had not been harmed by the war.
"Simple, really. I am going to make the Targaryens pay for it." The Lannisters, the Tullys, the Tyrells, and the Starks would have to pitch in to save their allies.
"May I ask how, my lord?" That was ambitious, to make the Crown and four of the great houses empty their coffers for the Ironborn.
"It takes around twenty-one days to travel from the Iron Islands to Asgard. With some simple sums, it becomes obvious that days after I left, the Ironborn knew that my city had no dragons to protect it." It was most likely Varys who had sent word to the Ironborn, but Robert could definitely use this to point fingers at the Targaryens.
And kill the eunuch too, of course.
"They were told." Sandor did not have the opportunity to think about how the squids knew that Asgard would be defenseless, but Robert's words made sense.
Robert pointed his index finger at Davos. "And who hates me more than the Targaryens and their allies?"
"None." Realization dawned on the smuggler turned knight.
The Crown had gambled heavily and lost.
That is, if they were the ones behind this scheme.
"You think they sent ravens to the Iron Islands? Yet none spoke of anything." Davos could not see any reason why the Ironborn would not sell their source out, if only out of spite.
Robert shrugged. "They can't prove it, or those that were told are dead with no one the wiser."
Chances are, Varys had somehow sent word to Euron, and with him dead and burned, there was no way to prove it.
However, there wasn't anyone else who would conspire in such a way against Asgard, and it wouldn't take long before the rest of the Seven Kingdoms thought the same.
"I'll spare them, in my infinite mercy, and they will be grateful enough to cover the costs the Ironborn will incur." The Targaryens were innocent, this time anyway, and would be spared, but Varys was going to find his chrome dome split open like a rotten egg.
"Or?"
"Or I won't even think of offering them the chance to surrender."
—
"My lord, Aeron Greyjoy's corpse is missing." The soldiers who had found the corpse in the first place came to report, and Robert just gave them a blank stare.
"Wow, it only took you three days to realize that?"
"Could someone have taken him?" Davos piped up, motioning for the terrified men to move aside.
Perhaps someone wished to send him off by the customs of the Drowned God?
"No, he is most likely alive and ran away before anyone took notice." Whatever resurrected Aeron Greyjoy was on his shit list now.
With his kiss of life, Aeron could quickly find himself a flock, and it would be up to him to chase the bastard.
"How? He was dead, I am sure of it." Davos, rather than desecrate a corpse, had searched for signs of life, since Aeron was a noble and would be worth more as a prisoner, but was convinced that the waters had taken his life.
"Because something brought that bastard back to life."
Any other day, Sandor would not have believed it, but Euron Greyjoy had summoned a creature from the depths of the sea, and if Robert said Aeron was revived, he knew it would be for the
"Their god?"
"Don't know, don't care. We'll see if he can be revived when I turn him to charcoal." Hopefully not. Then again, he might just keep Aeron as live target practice if he, in fact, kept getting resurrected.
"Send men, search everywhere. If he is not found, I'll make it your problem." Robert pointed at the men who had taken so long to realize that the corpse was missing.
"Sandor, find him. I don't care what you have to do."
The Hound grunted and left to carry out his task.
—
"I believe you had enough time to ponder. What will it be?" Robert, once again sitting on his chair, asked the gathered Ironborn nobles.
"You speak as if we have a choice." A woman spat out, and Robert did not give a fuck, to be honest.
"Dying with your dignity is one. I mean, can you imagine what someone like Tywin Lannister would have done to you?" Let his men ravage the women first and kill plenty of people, no doubt.
"I'll take the headsman's block. I am old; I'd rather die than spend the rest of my life in the North." An old man, who looked barely able to stand, spoke up.
"That's the spirit, old man. Off with his head."
"Anyone else?" The guards took the volunteer away, but no one else rose.
"I'll send my daughters to the Faith."
"So shall I." The women began to speak one by one, sealing the fate of their children.
—
Robert had a problem.
He did not anticipate the total population of the Iron Islands to be around half a million. His canon knowledge did not include any concrete numbers, except that of the ships and warriors the reavers could bring.
Thankfully, his men had thought Robert only meant to send the noble-born to the Wall or to the Faith, with a different idea in mind for the smallfolk.
Bullet dodged.
"What of the smallfolk, my lord? I can see no way to send them all to the Faith or the Wall." Of all the smallfolk Davos had seen in his voyages across the Seven Kingdoms, the common-born of the Iron Islands had to be the poorest.
Robert, on the other hand, had no idea what to do.
Separating half a million smallfolk into two and imprisoning men and women on different islands was one idea, but they were just too destitute to survive for long.
He might as well just kill them now to show mercy.
"My lord, my lord, can you hear us?" A voice, eerily similar to Tyrion's, yet as if he were speaking through a radio with heavy static, rang out of nowhere.
Robert raised his head from where he was looking at the ground to think. "Am I going mad, or did I just hear Tyrion's voice?"
He hadn't missed the dwarf enough for that.
Davos pointed a shaky finger to Robert's right. "That might be it."
A small, smoky figure, as if the remains of a ghost fading, stood there with a longer one next to it.
"Tyrion?" Robert asked to be sure.
The figure wavered, and the voice became just a bit clearer. "Aye, my lord. Marwyn managed to light up a candle."
"Huh. Good job. Say, is Leaf there?" Asgard had long-range communications now.
Suck it, world.
Another smoky figure appeared, a bit taller than Tyrion. "I am."
"Can you make poor and rocky soil into a fertile one?" Maybe this could solve two problems with one move.
"Indeed. However, it would require more magic than we have."
Robert looked at the kraken. If that thing wasn't magical, then what else? "Could you use the corpse of a kraken?"
There was silence for a while, as the figures on the other side took their time to absorb the implication.
"A … kraken?" Leaf's voice was excited for some reason.
"Yes."
"It has never been considered before, but it is a creature of old magic, and it should be possible, very likely, even." That sounded like music to his ears.
They would have no reason to consider using the corpse of a kraken, but now, they had one. "That's what I like to hear. I'll send a ship to bring you and any other Child of the Forest you need to come here."
—
Asgard
"My lord, did you kill a kraken?" Tyrion asked, exasperated. For the love of everything that was holy, could Robert Baratheon just not risk his life?
How did the kraken exist anyway?
"You can't see it?" Robert asked, and Tyrion just slammed his forehead on the desk.
"We barely hear your voice." Marwyn, who was keeping the candle in his hands, was beginning to tire, as using the candle was highly draining.
"Eh, connection issues. I did kill a kraken, an enormous, ugly one."
Leaf, more interested and less stunned, looked to be glowing in excitement. "Is it touching the seawater?"
"It is. Why?"
"As long as it is connected to the sea, the body will stay as it is. The sea is its domain, and there, it is nigh invincible." As in, there were no creatures that could contest it in water.
How Robert had felled a kraken, Leaf could not begin to imagine.
"Damn, now all I need is to find the missing Greyjoy, and this will be an excellent day."
The final part of his sentence fell off as Marwyn dropped the candle, sweating and heaving for breath.
"Well done, Archmaester Marwyn. You may go and rest."
"We didn't even tell him about the dragon."
—
"He did what?" Lady Rhaelle, who was inspecting the market, rubbed her back, which hurt as she had turned around too quickly.
"Killed a kraken." Tyrion, with the look of a dead fish and the voice of a man who had given up on all reason, repeated himself.
Rhaelle took a deep, deep breath to calm herself. "Did he send a messenger?"
"It was Marwyn; he actually lit up a glass candle, and we spoke to Lord Robert all the way from the Iron Islands. We weren't sure he could succeed, and as such, did not wish to disturb you." Which was a mistake, apparently.
Now, they just had to wait until Marwyn was rested to do it again.
"That boy will be the death of me." How do you even kill a creature of the seas when your dragons could not swim and their flames could not boil the entire sea?
Tyrion shook his head. "I disagree. He will be the death of every monster out there if he follows the same path."
—
In the next chapter:
"What does he intend to do with the Ironborn?" Tywin asked, weary. He was getting truly and utterly tired with Robert Baratheon.
Could they not conduct a single Small Council meeting without his name passing around?
It burned his insides, swallowing the bitterness of the fact that they had to let Robert do as he wished, or face certain death.
Varys smiled. He knew Tywin would be interested in knowing the fate of the Ironborn. "The men are to be sent to Wall, and the boys either to the Citadel or the Faith. The women are to be kept in the islands, living their days imprisoned to their keeps." Robert's plans regarding the Ironborn were simple to learn, solely because the Asgardians were celebrating it.
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