Dacey's eyes cleared, the milky whiteness fading, and her pupils returned as her consciousness snapped back.
"How Far?" Jon asked immediately, not giving Dacey the chance to completely regain her bearings.
"If we maintain our current speed, we should reach them just before tomorrow's sunset," Dacey replied, massaging her temples. "Ugh... When is Frost expected back?"
"Don't worry I'll call her back before the attack," Jon said with an amused smile while giving Dacey his hand and pulling her up, "But she would need to go back right after... So I am sorry to say you won't be free for quite a while..."
Jon had become quite an expert on warging over the years, and one thing he had noticed was that different people react differently to Warging.
Some of them are deathly scared of it, even the thought of leaving their body behind makes them pale. But after their first time, after they experience that distinct taste of freedom—of flying in the open skies, of cruising in the deep seas amidst colourful sea creatures, or of running through the deep green forest alone while smelling a hundred kinds of smells—they are also the ones who become the most hooked, the one most attracted to staying inside their warg animal's mind forever and so they have a hard time controlling their desires.
On the other side are those people who are not very scared of Warging—who in fact treat it as just another mundane task. While these people become quite good at warging eventually, they don't really adore the feeling of being vulnerable and don't like to stay away from their bodies for too long. And Dacey was someone who belonged to the latter group.
"Really!" Dacey grimaced while exiting the room after Jon, "When is her damn mission going to be over? Is it even possible for her to find something like that?"
"Hmm.... I can't say," Jon shrugged nonchalantly, "And it isn't like she was completely unsuccessful. She'd had some partial success... It's just that the ones she's found till now were too small for them to be too useful... so she'll just have to continue looking,"
Dacey sighed and stretched lazily, her joints creaking. "Do we really have to go to such lengths for the wildlings?"
Jon chose to ignore her grumbling and scanned the surroundings. After a moment, he called out to a man standing at the ship's bow. "BRIAN!"
Brian turned around, looking surprised, and hurried over. "Captain?"
"Send someone to gather all the merchants for a meeting," Jon instructed.
"Aye!" Brian nodded and started to leave but then hesitated. "Should I have them come here, or..."
"No, not here. It's better at the Galleon," Jon replied, and Brian quickly went off to carry out his orders, while Jon turned his eyes to the sea.
Directly behind the main ship, known as "The North Star," sailed the rest of their Bear Islands fleet. They maintained a disciplined triangular formation, resembling a flock of birds in flight. Navigating the heart of this formation were two immense galleons, heavily laden with a fresh bounty of goods.
The galleons were like floating fortresses, their hulls brimming with treasures such as grains, wine, spices and textiles. In contrast, the other ships were only half-filled with cargo on this voyage, a deliberate choice by Jon to ensure their nimbleness at the sea.
A bit further back, a smaller fleet of approximately ten ships followed. Six of them proudly displayed the Reach's vibrant flags, belonging to the same merchants Jon had met during the previous time when he pitched the Starkhorses in that Inn. The remaining four ships bore the heraldry of the Westerlands, owned by a trusted friend of Jon's, who had been interested in getting in on the North-South trade for some time.
All of these ships were different kinds of local speciality that they felt would sell well in the North. Except for food and grain of course since they knew that they would have to sell cheaper than Jon which wouldn't be profitable.
They were the first few customers of Jon's future shipping company which would basically provide escorting services to ships, guaranteeing their safety at the Sea, whether be it from pirates, harsh weather or any other kind of disaster—for an appropriate fee of course. And while it could be a little costly for the small-time merchants, it would still be absurdly cheap in the long run considering the amount of ships that got lost at the sea. It was kind of like an insurance policy in Middle-Ages.
Dacey had a frown on her face as if she was thinking about something before suddenly her eyes widened and she exclaimed, "Wait a minute! Was that your whole plan," she finally realised exactly why he had suddenly decided to call a meeting of the owners of all the ships, "You want to use them in the attack?!"
" 'Use' is a strong word," Jon said with a nonchalant shrug, "More like I am giving them a chance to aid—Why? You think it wouldn't work?"
"Would it? Really?" she retorted back, "I mean for the starters it won't be easy to convince those opportunistic suckers to join us in the attack since ironically they hired us to do the exact opposite i.e. to avoid conflict with the Ironborn in the first place,"
"Hmm... I think I've got an idea on how to get them onboard..." Jon muttered thoughtfully while slowly leading Dacey towards the only room on the deck other than the Captain's.
"AND even if you somehow convinced them—the battle would still be too even," Dacey urged, concern lacing her voice, "They have about 30-something ships filled to the brim with warriors ready for a raid and on the other hand we barely have twenty of our own ships and that's even counting the two galleons which are too slow and bulky to be useful in the battle, not to mention that quite a few of ours are filled with rookies on their first trip, so even counting the ten ships from the Merchants the odds would still be barely even AND—" She raised her voice as she saw Jon preparing to speak as they came to stop in front of a door.
"Even if we somehow successfully ambush them and win, it would definitely be a Pyrrhic victory. We would lose too many of our sailors which would be devastating to our base and affect a lot of our future plans and the worst thing would be if we somehow let a few ships escape..." Dacey didn't finish but the serious expression on her face completely conveyed what she meant.
Until now they had always made sure to wipe everyone on any ships that they target so that none of the nobles on Ironislands get spooked. But if this attack goes even a little bit sideways... then they may just have to prepare to deal with a huge retaliation from the reavers which Dacey was sure they weren't ready for yet.
Jon had listened with a patient expression until her friend had completely let out her concerns and then he began, "All good points, Dacey, but you don't have to worry because I think I've got the solution right here..." he pushed the door open with a smile.
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