As I exited the Red Keep and looked out over King's Landing, I let out a sigh of relief upon only seeing a few smoke clouds.
'seems like the men remembered Pillage, THEN burn. now lets just hope dear old dad can stop them before they are done pillaging.'
With that thought I turned to the Lannister officer standing next to the palace gate "I need two hundred men immediately, get them for me and then go order another three thousand to form up in Aegon's Square."
The man blinked in surprised before saying "My lord? That's a quarter of our total host."
"Aye, and if you question my orders again then that host will count one less among its number. Now gather my men." I coldly replied.
The officer gulped before giving a shaky nod and saluting "Right away my lord."
With the first two hundred in tow I headed for the Alchemist's Guildhall through streets where soldiers ran riot and civilians boarded their doors and huddled inside in the hopes of illusory safety. I did what I could, gathering the Lannister men we passed into my host, but it was all too little and, all too often, far too late for the smallfolk.
When we arrived at the imposing edifice of black stone its gates were barred by falling green fire. The wildfire would be poured down murder holes, fall through the aligned holes below, and presumably be recaptured in jars under ground.
'great defense, looks awesome too. totally insane of course, fucking pyromaniacs.'
Once my full host had gathered and were arranged in battle line, the steel shutters over a window approximately a dozen feet above the gate opened up and a man looked out.
"What do you want?" he shouted out.
"I want every Wisdom you have out here now. The new king wants the wildfire that you lot have been secreting all over the city for the past month gathered up and secured, and you are going to help me carry out those orders." I shouted back.
Another head appeared through the window "Now why would we do that, Lannister?"
I gave him a vicious smile "Because you want there to be at least one Alchemist left alive come sunrise tomorrow and our new King is no where near as fond of fire as the last one. Indeed, one could rightly say that Robert Baratheon is deeply unfond of fire. This last year your guild has enjoyed a great deal of royal favor but that died with Aerys and now you are facing royal disfavor.
"So you will send out every Wisdom who knows how to safely handle the substance and help me secure all that has been placed around the city to the best of your ability or I can come back here with the entirety of the Lannister host, tear down your guild hall, and take off the heads of every single member of your guild. The choice is yours."
The two men said nothing, merely retreating back out of sight and closing the shutters again, but after nearly an hour of waiting the wildfire portcullis cut out and a hundred men in the reddish brown robes of the Alchemist shuffled out before the gates closed again and the wildfire portcullis reappeared.
I lead the party off to Aegon's square, pleased to find that the full three thousand were present in ranks.
As I approached, I was mildly surprised to see just who was commanding the force. "Uncle, what are you doing here?" I said to Kevan Lannister.
"Figured if you were ordering up a quarter of our men then you had a damn good reason, kid." he replied, holding out his arm.
We clasped forearms as I said "Glad to have you, but our task isn't a happy one. Aerys had wildfire secreted all around the city and we need to clear it before this entire place becomes a funeral pyre."
His eyes went huge even as he winced. I gave him a nod of agreement before continuing "Indeed. I've drafted a hundred Wisdom's into helping out but the city is still in chaos. My plan was to use some of the men to secure a dock and a chunk of Flea Bottom and move the wildfire to there. Once we have it gathered we can either transport it wherever by ship, or just load it all onto a ship and tow it out into the bay before lighting it. With a hundred Wisdom's I'm thinking to assign ten men to each, another thousand to secure the docks and storage point, and have the last thousand start bringing order to the city.
"If you're interested, I was thinking that you could oversee the storage part of the operation."
"I would be happy to." he replied before turning to some of his officers and starting to issue orders.
In the end the whole operation took most of a week and now I was in the small council chambers to give my report. Present were Robert, Jon Arryn, my father, Grand Maester Pycelle, and Varys.
"So Jon tells me you cleared my capital of wildfire Kingslayer?" prompted the King before taking a gulp from the flagon of wine in his right hand.
I gave a nod "Aye your grace. Almost ten thousand jars of it in total. I currently have it under guard in Flea Bottom."
"Why would you store it in that shithole?" the king demanded.
"Precisely because it *is* a shithole. If an accident were to occur, better that Flea Bottom disappear into the flames than any other part of King's Landing." I replied with cold pragmatism.
"Still, I want it gone from the city just as badly as you do, Your Grace. If you agree, I was planning on having it loaded aboard ship with some of the more intractable Wisdom's and sent to the Wall." I continued.
"Why the Wall, Ser Jaime?" questioned Varys.
"Being as far away from the capital as possible was one consideration." I said wryly, getting a chuckle out of Pycelle, before continuing more seriously "The Night's Watch is woefully under-strength if the Wildlings should move against them in strength, so giving them a weapon as powerful as wildfire would mitigate that issue. That there is nothing valuable to burn if any accidents should occur was another factor, but in many ways the most important point is that it puts the whole mess under Lord Stark's oversight." I answered, and when a glance around the table showed that only Tywin (and perhaps Varys) were following along I continued the explanation. "We can't keep it in King's Landing, the risk is just too high. At the same time, that much wildfire is a weapon that the throne can not allow to be in any but the most trustworthy hands. So we can either load it all on a ship, float the ship out into the sea, and burn the lot or we can send it somewhere were any accidents won't cost us a city and where it will remain under the oversight of the King's most trusted lord."
Robert gave a nod and grunted out "Makes sense, see that its done. I see you still wear the White Cloak."
I gave a slightly wry smile as I stood and unfastened it, saying as I did "It's been a long week Your Grace", before folding it and laying it on the council table before him.
"Keep it." Robert said, waving a hand at the cloak.
I shook my head in the negative "I'm afraid I must decline, Your Grace."
Robert blinked before blurting out "You don't get to just "decline" Kingslayer, you swore the oath and those oaths are for life."
"Aye, 'Kingslayer'. When I killed the Mad King I didn't just break my Oath as a Kingsguard, I shattered it. My remaining a part of the Order after that would sully the honor of the entire institution more than it already has been by my actions. In truth, I should probably take the Black to redeem my honor but unlike some I don't, quite, value my honor high enough to freeze my balls off on the Wall.
"In addition, the Targaryans are dead and as far as I am concerned my oaths died with them. You are a new King, the font of a new dynasty, and you should have a new Kingsguard to go with it. Perhaps ask Ser Barristan, once he has recovered, for his thoughts but I know that one of our constant gripes when I was a member of the Order was how thin we were stretched trying to protect the royal family with only seven members." I explained.
Robert mumbled something under his breath but eventually waved a hand in dismissal and said "Fine, your father can have his heir back. Still, I owe you a favor for taking Aerys's head."
I gave a nod, said "Thank you, Your Grace.", saluted, and left the room to oversee the wildfire's disposal.
'Now to see how many Wisdom's I can "intervene with the king" for to save them from being sent to the Wall like so many of their brothers. let's try for an even dozen.' I thought as I made my way though the keep.
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