Chapter 176: Resistance Means Severity, Going Home for the New Year
Egger guessed the beginning, but he didn't guess the end.
He had long anticipated that he would be interrogated or investigated for tipping off Tyrion, but what he hadn't expected was that before any of his prepared excuses could be put to use, he was tossed directly into the Red Keep's dungeons and locked away for nearly a week!
Five days, six days? Or perhaps five and a half? In the dim cell, the sense of passing time became blurred. The only consolation was that he was imprisoned alongside a crowd of Lannisters—as political prisoners and hostages, their treatment wasn't too harsh before the Iron Throne and the West officially went to war.
Judging by the reactions of the Lion's kin and the sworn swords on the same floor, ninety percent of them truly had no inkling of Cersei's indiscretions or her treasonous plans. Some spent their time in the cells constantly crying out their innocence; others roared and bellowed, demanding this or that and vowing to make their captors pay once they were out. Some sat withered in the corners of their assigned cots as if their souls had been drained, waiting for death in silent resignation. Aside from these two extremes of noise and silence, Egger found those who acted as if nothing had happened most remarkable—they ate their fill and chatted, then slept when they grew tired, treating the cell like a bedroom they simply couldn't leave at will.
In Egger's cell, there was just such an oddity. After a few days with nothing to do but talk, the Night's Watchman had actually struck up a friendship with one of his roommates. The Lannisters were simply too wealthy, and the rich generally need to balance their books more than the poor; this roommate happened to be an accountant for the Lannister merchant guild in King's Landing. From him, Egger learned that the total wealth of the Lannisters and their affiliated Western interests in the city reached a staggering hundreds of thousands of gold dragons. Once this wealth was swallowed and digested, the Iron Throne would have the starting capital for a war against the West... not to mention the leverage of the hostages.
"The Hand arrested hundreds this time, at least dozens of whom hold noble rank," said Egger's new prisoner friend, Humphrey Hill. "Westerners have always been valuable. Without a ransom of several hundred or a thousand per head, I doubt they'll settle. That's another tens of thousands of gold dragons right there."
Tens of thousands of gold dragons. Egger clicked his tongue inwardly. After all this time developing the Night's Watch industries, his assets only amounted to a few tens of thousands, most of which was debt or investors' money. "This is war, though. If the armies of the six kingdoms lay siege to the West... tens of thousands of gold dragons would likely burn away in a matter of days."
"True, but don't forget: when a castle is taken in war, the wealth inside belongs to the victors. The West has many gold mines and is dripping with riches; aside from the Reach, it's the easiest target in the Seven Kingdoms to 'sustain a war through war'." Humphrey sighed. "Thanks to Lord Tywin, few usually dare to eye Western coin. But with the Iron Throne leading the way, that hard bone becomes fat meat in an instant. Lord Eddard only needs to say, 'The wealth within the captured castles belongs to the conquerors,' and the lords and soldiers of the six kingdoms will charge faster than anyone... If the Lannisters refuse to yield and have no clever tricks up their sleeves, their downfall is only a matter of time."
Egger thought it over and realized this was true, which made him worry: If he had taken such a massive risk to cover Tyrion's escape only for the Lannisters to lose the war anyway... wouldn't his suffering be for nothing?
"Humphrey, will your family pay your ransom?"
"My name is Hill. I'm a bastard, and my mother passed away long ago. Who is there to pay for me?"
"What about your father?"
Humphrey clearly didn't want to say his father's name, or perhaps he didn't know it. "Some big shot in Lannisport, I suppose."
"What usually happens to commoner captives with no one to pay ransom?" Egger asked out of pure personal curiosity.
"There are established rules among the nobility, but commoners don't enjoy them... In a war, those of knightly rank or higher are eligible to be held as captives. Small folk like me are either killed or pressed into service on the spot; we don't usually get a 'cell vacation'." Humphrey scratched his head. "As for our current situation, it likely depends on how things develop. If the King takes the West easily and is in a good mood, we might be released. If the war goes poorly, it's off with our heads or off to perform hard labor somewhere."
"If you're at a dead end, you could try taking the black. At least it saves your life."
"Hah... that godforsaken place at the Wall? Whoever wants to go can go."
Egger wanted to say he was the Chief Logistics Officer and could look out for him, but remembering he was currently behind bars himself, he didn't feel qualified to make big promises.
The two talked until their throats were dry. As the conversation tapered off, footsteps approached from outside. Soon, a jailer arrived with a Winterfell guard Egger recognized all too well. The jailer unlocked the door. "Prisoner Egger West, come out. The Hand wishes to see you."
The turning point had finally come. Egger glanced at his cellmate and nodded a farewell. Under Humphrey's envious gaze, he followed Harwin out of the cell.
Wearing several movement-restricting items on his hands and feet, Egger followed Harwin to the Hand's office. He stepped inside and saw his biggest patron—and the man who had ordered his arrest—Lord Eddard Stark. Standing beside him was his apprentice, Arya. The girl gave Egger a smug wink, her expression clearly saying: I saved you. Aren't you touched?
"Lord Stark." In front of Eddard, Egger didn't dare exchange glances with his daughter. He stood before the desk, offered his greeting, and waited for the great man to speak first.
...
"After being locked up for a few days, your head should be clear by now," the Hand said, looking up with a neutral expression. "Do you know what you've done?"
So he hadn't been forgotten in the cell.
Locking a man up for days and then immediately hitting him with "Do you know what you've done?"—if this were an average commoner, they'd likely be so weak in the knees they'd confess every mistake they'd made in eight lifetimes. But Egger was a modern man who had read plenty of psychological literature and had survived his fair share of storms in King's Landing. Though it was his first time experiencing this tactic personally, he knew the routine.
Moreover, Eddard had allowed Arya to be present, which made this interrogation anything but terrifying.
(He doesn't intend to do anything serious to me.) Egger's intuition told him his previous judgment was correct. From the moment he watched Tyrion leave, he had been thinking about how to handle today's interrogation. The strategy he finally settled on could be summarized as: Resistance means severity, but staying silent gets you home for the New Year.
Putting on a look of grievance, Egger spoke according to his pre-planned script. "My lord, I did indeed kill two men that night... but they struck first. I was acting in self-defense."
Playing dumb? Ned hadn't expected Egger to use this move. He frowned; this boy was too slippery, immediately blocking what he had intended to say. "Not that matter."
"Not that one?" Egger opened his mouth, looking bewildered. "Then which one? Please enlighten me, my lord."
"On the day Ser Alliser brought the wight into King's Landing, you accompanied him into the Red Keep but left halfway through. Where did you go, and what were you doing?"
"Oh, that. It's like this, my lord: when I saw the chaos erupting in the Red Keep, I suddenly remembered that Lady Arya often goes out of the city to the Night's Watch training grounds to practice her swordplay—and she was with the Imp. I worried she might be taken hostage by Tyrion Lannister, so I hurried out of the city to fetch her!"
"Arya didn't go to practice swordplay that day."
"Teacher didn't know that!" Arya chimed in. "Even I only found out that morning when Septa Mordane stopped me and said you wouldn't let me leave the Tower of the Hand!"
Ned gave Arya a displeased look. The girl realized she shouldn't have spoken up for Egger, pouted, and said no more.
The Hand turned back to Egger. "It is true you might not have known, but the guards I sent to the gate said they told you Arya hadn't left the Red Keep."
"The Red Keep has side gates, my lord," Egger said earnestly. Since the Night's Watch industries had become successful, he hadn't been this nervous about misspeaking in a long time. "Looking back, I truly could have gone to the Tower of the Hand to ask of Lady Arya's whereabouts... but it was an emergency. I thought: if Arya had left the city, wasting time to go and ask would be disastrous. I didn't dare gamble with your daughter's safety, so I decided that even if it was a wasted trip, I had to head out of the city first."
"So you say it was all out of the goodness of your heart, and I have wronged you? Then explain this: why did Tyrion leave on horseback immediately after you arrived at the industrial park? And why did you later deceive the City Watch soldiers by telling them Tyrion had left by ship?"
Ned stared directly into Egger's eyes, his tone rising in severity until it was harsh and commanding. "Not a single ship departed for Casterly Rock that day! I know there are rumors in King's Landing that I, the Warden of the North and Lord of Winterfell, am the great patron of the Night's Watch—that I will always help and protect you. Well, this time I shall tell them: I am no one's patron! Join the Watch, and your past crimes are wiped clean, but if you come to King's Landing in black and commit new crimes, do you truly think saying 'the secular world has no right to judge a Watchman' will protect you? There is no such easy path!"
The talk of the Hand being the patron of the Watch was indeed widespread. Whether Ned admitted it or not, his presence was the greatest catalyst for the industries' rapid growth. Could it be that Eddard Stark cherished his reputation so much that, just to prove this rumor false, he was making an example of Egger—locking him up just to show the people of King's Landing?
Egger didn't dare overthink it. Even if his guess was true, he couldn't exactly retaliate against Eddard Stark.
"My lord, Tyrion wanted to return to Casterly Rock because Janos Slynt had publicly arrested him at the River Gate that morning. He was caught red-handed by the arriving Ser Jaime and your captain of the guard, and it nearly came to bloodshed. After the incident, Ser Jaime rode back to the Red Keep, and Tyrion said right then that he planned to return to Casterly Rock today—this wasn't a snap decision I prompted by tipping him off!" As for why he gave the City Watch the wrong directions, that was even easier to explain. Egger looked innocent. "I truly did not know if there were ships heading for Casterly Rock that day. I merely repeated the last thing Tyrion said to me before he left to the soldiers. I cannot guarantee the truth of his words, my lord."
At the mention of a certain someone, Arya also grew indignant. "Exactly! If you want to blame someone, blame that stupid, fat, lecherous Slynt who only ruins things! And Father, you also said the Watch must not interfere in the affairs of the realm. Teacher couldn't exactly lay hands on the Imp to stop him from running!"
I shouldn't have let Arya stay here, Ned thought. Letting her personal whims dictate her loyalty to an outsider was truly immature. He remained unmoved, arms crossed, silently staring at Egger without a word, his face a mask that said, "I'm just going to watch you keep acting."
...
Egger knew this was a psychological tactic to pressure him through silence. If he began to panic because of the atmosphere, Eddard would achieve his goal, and once the mental defenses wavered... well, there was no need to say what would happen next.
The way to beat this tactic was simple: stick to the story, show no hesitation in speech or manner, and since Eddard had no evidence, he would eventually be forced to let the matter go. Then Egger could go home and sleep!
Understanding the theory was one thing, but as the silence stretched on, Egger found to his frustration that as someone who didn't practice Zen or meditation, standing before a man who held his fate in his hands made it impossible to truly empty his mind.
He began to realize his previous confidence rested on two pillars. First was the modern presumption of innocence—that without proof he had tipped off Tyrion, Ned couldn't convict him. Second was that with the threat of the Others and wights confirmed, Ned would give him a pass even if he had suspicions.
But in reality? In this feudal world of A Song of Ice and Fire, a man without noble rank was lucky to even get a trial. So many people had been thrown into the dungeons this time; who had the time to try them all individually? If Ned wanted to punish him, he didn't need evidence. As for the threat beyond the Wall, with Ned firmly in the position of Hand and theoretically able to mobilize the resources of the Seven Kingdoms, the strength of the Night's Watch industries was barely noteworthy...
Even if Ned, being the lawful man he was, insisted on following the rules and didn't convict him without evidence, simple suspicion and displeasure would be enough for him to tell Mormont to send Egger back north to guard the Wall. As a member of the Watch, if the organization required him to return to headquarters for duty, he couldn't say a word in opposition.
His life was likely safe, but if he were forced back to the Wall and his industries were handed over to others, it would be a fate worse than death.
Cold sweat began to prickle his skin again. Arya seemed to see Egger's predicament and, relying on her status as a daughter, began to act spoiled again. "Father, Teacher answered all your questions. If you have nothing else to say, you can let him go!"
Minutes passed. Eddard Stark held his stern expression for a long while without seeing Egger recant or admit fault. Finally, his face softened, and he shook his head helplessly. "Fine. For now, I shall consider that I have wronged you. Harwin, get the keys and let him go."
That was it? Egger felt a surge of relief and was about to offer his thanks, but at that very moment, a thought struck him. Could this be a trap?
"My lord, I find the phrase 'for now' difficult to accept. I cannot accept mercy for something I did not do. If my innocence cannot be proven, then please lock me back up and continue the investigation."
"Are you crazy, Teacher!" Arya shouted, eyes wide.
Ned gave a thin smile. This boy... he had been convinced that Egger was responsible, but in this chaotic time, he didn't have the energy to investigate such a small matter. Considering he had once wrongly pegged Egger as a fraud and that the man had done real work for the Watch, he had intended to let him go after a warning in the form of a few days in a cell. But now, with this self-righteous stubbornness, Ned found himself less certain.
Perhaps his prejudice from the Wight Incident truly had caused him to wrong the man?
"Fine. I stand corrected. After investigation, I declare in King Robert's name that the Watchman Egger West did not interfere in the internal affairs of the Seven Kingdoms. You are released. If that answer satisfies you and you have nothing else, then get gone."
"Thank you, my lord."
The matter was finally over. Egger felt a sense of helplessness. To be locked in a cell for days while wounded without any evidence, only to have to express gratitude upon release—that was the nature of power. He wondered when he would ever reach a point where such a great man would not dare to treat him so lightly.
Unshackled, Egger expressed his thanks to Harwin and left the Hand's office, rubbing his wrists. Behind him, Arya caught up, her face full of excitement. "Teacher... that was great! I admire you more and more. Whatever anyone else thinks, I support you. Tyrion isn't a bad man!"
"Don't talk nonsense. This really had nothing to do with me."
"Don't worry, I understand." Arya winked at him, her face suggesting this secret was between them.
Tyrion indeed wasn't a bad man, but tipping him off to help him escape was both a violation of the Watch's discipline and a crime. It had nothing to do with being bad. Arya was a child and didn't understand such things, but Egger felt a chill: if even a little girl could guess that Tyrion's escape was his doing, then his plan to bluff his way through on stubbornness alone had been far too confident in Ned's northern sensibilities.
He had likely been released less because of his denial strategy and more because of his loyal Watchman logistics officer disguise and the contribution of that wight.
It was also lucky that Robert hadn't died and that the one judging him was Ned—who balanced justice with a touch of humanity. If it had been someone as rigid as Stannis, he would have been in deep trouble this time.
Regardless, Egger did not regret helping Tyrion. But one must learn their lessons. After this stint in prison, he at least remembered one thing: he could no longer rely on familiarity to casually predict the actions of a man of Ned's stature.
"Teacher, one more thing." Arya skipped along as she accompanied him toward the Red Keep's gate. "Father said King's Landing might be restless for a while... he won't let me leave the Red Keep for sword lessons anymore. But I found a secret tunnel out! I'll come find you quietly!"
(Is Arya just too good at snooping, or is Westeros truly doomed? The Red Keep is a royal residence, yet a child can find a tunnel out?!) Egger was startled and his expression turned grave. "You will not. If you do that, your father really will send me back to the Wall, and you'll never see me again! Tell your father about the tunnel immediately and have him seal it."
"Oh—but it's so boring in the Red Keep." Arya shook her head. "And the tunnel is already blocked by an iron gate. I'm just thin enough to squeeze through the gap."
"You're truly dallying with death... aren't you afraid of getting stuck and starving? If you want to practice, find your father's guards. No more nonsense." Having left the Tower of the Hand and no longer being watched by the Stark guards, Egger relaxed slightly. "If you dare run out of the Red Keep through a tunnel to find me, I won't just refuse to practice with you—I'll give you a swat and send you right back."
"Hmph, fine then... I'm not talking to you anymore!"
"This is for your own safety. The city truly is restless these days; your father and I wouldn't lie to you." Egger spoke with heavy earnestness, rubbing his scruffy chin. He realized he was sounding like a weary old man and shook his head. "Alright, this is far enough. You are not to step a single foot out of the Red Keep. I'll head back on my own."
"Fine, I saved you for nothing." Arya felt her good intentions were unappreciated and threw a tantrum. Without a goodbye, she turned and headed back to the Tower of the Hand.
Egger sighed helplessly. His words—it's for your own good, I won't hurt you—he had heard those from his parents as a child. He could guess how Arya felt; everyone had been that age once.
...
The atmosphere inside the Red Keep was solemn. On the walls and between the buildings, soldiers in a mix of gray and gold cloaks patrolled with spears and crossbows. Even the main gate was guarded by a roughly 1:2 mix of Stark guards and City Watchmen. To his surprise, Egger saw several people from the Night's Watch industries there, including Ser Alliser, Nina, and the security captain, Jeros.
How was this possible? If the industries' intelligence network was so omniscient that his subordinates knew exactly when he'd be released, how could Tyrion have waited until the day of the incident to run?
Could they have been waiting here every day for him? Egger was moved, but that would have wasted a lot of work.
"My lord!" Nina saw him from a distance and waved.
Egger walked over, smiling as he greeted the group in black. "What are you all doing here?"
"The trial of former Commander Janos Slynt is today. We were required to attend as informants and witnesses." Nina couldn't hide her joy at seeing Egger released. "Unfortunately, we arrived early, and the guards won't let us in."
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