Date: 299 After Landing, Winter, Long Winter
Location: Banefort
So, the capture of the Banefore didn't go as planned.
Asha Greyjoy is more clever than I originally suspected. When I arrived at the castle I could see how difficult it would be to assault though traditional means and so I sneaked around to the sea-facing side and slowly scaled the outer wall, making handholds when there wasn't any. Once the sentry's were knocked out, I took a look inside and saw a massive force of Ironborn, easily fifteen thousand strong. They had to be the survivors of Faircastle and Crag, as well as a few reinforcements from nearby Pyke. And as I investigated the rest of the large fortress I found large stores of supplies and siege weapons ready for use. Falling back to the Banefort was just a large faint to trick the Lannisters into bringing their full strength to bear, where it could easily be crushed.
When I finally found The Krakens Daughter, she was asleep in the former Lords bedchamber. She also wasn't alone. When I approached her bed, she pulled a blade from beneath her sheet. The cut wasn't deep, not much more than a scratch, but almost immediately I started to feel strange. My whole body went warm, and before I knew it I was on the floor helplessly staring at the ceiling. I remembered her standing over me, looking down with a look somewhere between surprise, horror, and maybe a little admiration mixed in. Then everything went dark.
Upon waking I found myself in the forts prison, wearing only my pants, hands bound with thick iron manacles and locked inside a cell. A dozen Ironborn stood guard along the wall, alert but relaxed. I was ready to escape when Asha arrived, and started asking how I managed to survive the poison that coated her blade. She said it was powerful stuff, able to drop a man in seconds and kill him a minute later, but I seemed to sleep it off like a drunk sailor. I guess the same thing that keeps me from getting drunk also protects me from poisoning. I was only knocked out for a half hour while my body recovered.
She explained that she suspected I was the one who would turn up, that she believed the recent turnaround in Lannister luck was because of the fabled "Mountainbreaker," the "Warrior-Made-Flesh," lending aid. But with me dead, or at least locked away, they would be free to conquer the Westerlands.
I asked why she didn't just kill me when she noticed the poison didn't work, but her only response was to smile and walk away. Maybe she wanted to keep me as a hostage or use me for ransom. Either way, it didn't matter. Before she could lock the door I broke out of those shackles and busted down the cells doors, throwing the raw iron cuffs at two of the guards and knocking them out before the others had a chance to draw their weapons. Once I had their weapons, taking care of the other ten guards was quick. I soon captured Asha and put her in cell, and after finding my gear, I let the rest of the Ironborn know their leader was captured and that they needed to throw down their weapons and leave the fort. I couldn't exactly put them all under arrest…the cells weren't big enough and I was alone, so my only option was to let them leave.
Even so, the majority wouldn't leave Asha behind. I had to force her to give them orders to sail away, and she did so even though I'm sure she knew I wouldn't hurt her.
Actually, during the six days it took for the Ironborn to leave and the Lannister army to arrive, Asha and I had some interesting discussions. Things were, tense when she was around. She reminded me of Dacey in many ways, like it was her but with the volume turned up…
I think that was why I let her go. When Jaime and his troops arrived I said that Asha has escaped, that since I was one person she was left unsupervised in the jail most of the time while I watched for Ironborn invaders, but the truth is I let her go. The Ironborn had lost their last foothold on the mainland, they had lost this war, but they still had strength for a new one. And she seemed more interested in maintaining the Islanders independence from Stannis than trying to gain land elsewhere. I let her know that as long as they didn't raise arms against the North or the Westerlands, I might be able to work out a treaty between King Eddard and King Balon.
I don't know if anything will come of this, Balon strikes me as a very…single-minded man. But maybe something will.