|3rd POV|
After saying goodbye, Lord Jon Arryn and his party walk away from Sunspear city. Their destination? The city of Vaith, where he will meet the assassin he hired to steal the cure for the plague.
He and his company take a ship through the Greenblood river to river Vaith and arrive in the city of Vaith two days later.
From the letter he gets from the Sorrowful Men, they will wait for him in the inn near the port called the Red Bear Inn. After they arrive in the city of Vaith, Jon immediately walks toward the inn, walks toward the innkeeper, and hears him speak.
"Good afternoon, my lord. What can this humble servant serve you?"
"Seven blood-moons and eight silver suns arrive in the pitch-black room."
"Of course, my lord. Please wait here."
After waiting for a minute, the innkeeper gets back from the back room with a crate in his hand. He gives the crate to Jon and says,
"Please open it when you are alone, my lord."
"Of course."
Jon nods and walks away from the inn. He returns to the ship and orders the captain to take them back to the Scourge River, where they will use a carriage to Stormland. He did not want to stay in Dorne any longer as he was afraid that Doran's men would notice the crate he just got.
After ordering his guard and locking his room, Jon places the crate on the table and opens it. But, instead of a box filled with potions, it was filled with the head of the Sorrowful Men he sent. Jon looks at the crate with a frown on his face and is ready to burst, but before he can shout in anger, he sees a piece of paper inside.
"The Falcon shall not take its prey for they have sinned. The Dragon holds their treasure hoard with all its might and the Falcon will be burned if he tries again. We are the Dragon's shadow who protects its treasure when our master is away from its treasure. The treasure was never yours, you have been warned. Dammit!"
Jon throws the paper on the floor and begins pacing around his room. His plan failed miserably. The Black Dog managed to fool Jon. Now, he cannot go back to Sunspear without a good reason as he already tells Doran that he will not bother him any longer and he cannot just arrive in Sunspear immediately.
Not only because of his pride, but it is also very suspicious. Doran can ask him to get out of his city with the excuse of him not getting the cure, and they are in the middle of a quarantine. He already has a hard time arriving in Sunspear because of it, and he knows that he cannot get back after saying that he will go back to King's Landing.
"Dammit! I lost a lot of my money and didn't get anything from it?! No. The Sorrowful Men guaranteed their success and they would return the money if their men failed. No. Instead of getting my money back, I need to tell them to finish the job."
Jon takes a piece of parchment from the drawer and begins to write. He has a letter that needs to be sent.
Jon Arryn is not the only one who is frustrated. In the western part of Westeros, the Old Lion is currently rubbing his head in frustration. Tywin's life is getting worse with each day passing. With his entire region having a failed harvest, he needs to spend a LOT of money on food trading with other kingdoms.
At first, he did not think about it too much, but the more he ignored it, the bigger the problem became.
His land cannot produce food. Every plant is dying after only a couple of weeks of planting. Even the simplest wheat cannot grow, and he did not know the reason why. He had already hired a hundred Maester, but they did not give him the answer he wanted.
They already had the answer, but it was the answer he did not want to hear.
"Can you say it one more time? I think I misheard you."
The Maester in front of him gets even paler than before and starts stuttering.
"I-It w-was b-because…."
"Speak!"
"Y-Yes! It was because of Poison! My Lord!"
The Old Lion was really holding himself back from taking his sword and beheading the man in front of him. However, he holds himself back because he knows that it will not solve the problem they are currently having.
"I see… And have you found the cure for this poison?"
"Errrr… We have not, my lord."
Tywin released a sigh and rubbed his head once again.
"Then you better make those cures before I put your head on a pike."
"Y-Yes!"
Maester quickly runs away from the room, leaving Tywin and Kevan alone in the room. Seeing they are alone, Tywin looks at his brother and says,
"How many?"
"What?"
"How many people have died in this mess?"
Kevan sighs and drinks all the wine in front of him before saying.
"Too many, brother. The famine and the Black Death make our territory weaker."
"Dammit!" Tywin slammed his hand on the table. "I need that cure in the Dorne!"
"We already tried that, brother. The House of Black and White did not want to get involved in this mess. They say something about the Dragon being touched by their Many-Faced God."
"Tch. I don't know how that Dragon's spawn managed to bribe them but it looks like we cannot use them to steal some of the cure from Lunaria or Dorne. What about the Sorrowful Men? They are willing to steal and deliver jobs."
"I have yet to have their answer. Maybe in a couple of days before their answer arrives."
"Tch. That is too long. Sent some men to Dorne. The spy I placed there said that there would be a shipment to Blackmont city next month. The information also says that there will be two healers from Lunaria in this shipment. I want our men to intercept the shipment and steal all the medicine."
"What about the healer?"
"Kidnap them. We will 'convince' them to work for us. Be it the easy way or the hard way."
Kevan shudders a little when he hears his brother saying the hard way of convincing anyone he has kidnapped. The last person that chooses the hard way loses one of his eyes and one of his hands.
"Very well. How many men do you want to send?"
"Two hundred men."
"That many?"
"I did not want them to fail. I want to make sure House of Lannister stay strong."