[Chapter Size: 3100 Words.]
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Pessoa Thrid POV
Westeros, 295 AC.
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Jon returned to his fleet with the 13 ships heading back to the open sea, while the fleet was stationed.
"You finally came back." Seryna went to greet her husband with Arya, "You got a good deal, I presume?" she asked.
"You can say that, Arya negotiated for the first time, then I met the lord of Casterly Rock and we had some action on the way here," Jon spoke.
"I met the dwarf known as the Imp!" Arya exclaimed as she approached.
"Dwarf...? Do not offend us little one, that is just a man with a height problem, true dwarves are us!" A dwarf exclaimed upon hearing Arya and seemed to take offense.
Jon just sighed and returned to his men. "Anyway, prepare for us to return to Artica," Jon warned.
The men nodded and began to move while organizing the fleet, "My king..." An Artican scout approached; he had captured a seagull on the journey and took it as his bond animal while traveling miles from the fleet to navigate the sea.
"Speak," Jon urged him to continue.
"We spotted 10 ships to the north... they are Greyjoy flags as you taught us. They saw us from a distance, but did not approach," he spoke and Jon nodded.
"So it seems the squids are curious about us, but let them be, we have no time for such things, our goal is to pass through all the forces that Westeros will throw at us by sea, I see that they tried everything to stop us," Jon spoke, he had no time to destroy some squids, they had a long journey.
"Of course, my king," the man nodded before Jon approached the captain.
"Was there anything that happened while I was away?" he asked.
"Well... nothing much, besides Eric comforting his distressed southern wife after learning we attacked Oldtown," the man spoke and Jon nodded.
"I can't blame her, but she will have a good life in Artica, so the South can be our enemy," Jon spoke in the end.
"Let's go inside," Jon asked his wife as he moved away from his men while she nodded. The Artican men quickly began working on the fleet as the ships began to align before starting to head south at this moment, the fleet soon began to disappear on the horizon.
Meanwhile, in Lannisport, the only ship that survived the attack arrived with a single survivor, while Tywin approached with his family.
"My lord..." A Lannister guard greeted him while maintaining a cautious tone.
"Tell me what happened! There were 30 ships at sea, why do I only see one?!" Tywin could not help but be a little worried.
"There are no other ships nearby... this was the only one that came back with a survivor and the men are afraid to go see what happened so as not to be attacked..." he spoke.
"A survivor... bring him here!" Tywin spoke waiting to find out what happened, but at that moment the Lannister guards began to exit the ship while bringing a large man on a stretcher, covered in blood, screaming incomprehensibly in pain, he was tied up as he was brought close.
"Is this the man?!" Tyrion could not be more shocked.
"..." Jaime's eyes trembled towards his brother.
"This thing... is really him..." Kevan also did not fail to comment.
"..." Tywin looked with furious eyes.
The Mountain groaned like an animal, his arm was still bleeding and one could see the cut between his legs.
"He lost his tongue... His arm is not well and he lost his balls... Am I dreaming or something?" Tyrion murmured. As everyone in the port of Lannisport watched this strange and bizarre scene as they began to murmur.
"He did it to warn us..." Tywin murmured, and turned back to his men at that moment. "I want you to prepare for any attack coming from the sea, I need some ships on the sea to monitor the situation and I don't care if they are scared, just do it!" He gave his order in the end, as his men began to move, organizing for any retaliation from the fleet at sea.
But unbeknownst to them, Jon no longer cared about Lannisport, heading south, while he was in the middle of a pile of maps. His wife had just woken up at this moment, getting out of bed and looking curiously at her husband, stepping out of the body wrapped in her blanket.
"You can't sleep," Jon asked without looking at her.
"I think you're the one losing track of time, there's already sunlight hitting the window," Seryna murmured, noticing her husband hadn't even bothered to look away from whatever he was doing until she spoke.
"It's true..." Jon admitted, his gaze drifting to the sky above the ships.
"What are you doing there, marking those maps?" Seryna asked, surprised.
"Well... you see, it will take moons to travel back to Artica... circling the entire continent again through the South and passing by the East side... I don't think we will be trading in these regions anymore... but certainly if we need to come back here, this route is very long, and I'm working on a project to shorten this journey," Jon explained, pointing to a side of the map.
"You want to build a port to the west of the lands beyond the Wall...?" She couldn't help but comment, surprised by this.
"Yes... I have many plans for the lands; first, we'll expand Artica, I want to take Hardhome in the future and build a port city, it will filter the entry of foreign ships into the capital, but also have a port beyond the peaks of the First Men..." Jon spoke, marking the two points.
"That's clever, but don't you think access to the west is very bad, with the mountainous area?" she asked.
"It is, but I have a plan, I had mapped the entire area as soon as we arrived there years ago, I found some interesting stretches," Jon said.
"I see..." Seryna spoke while glancing at the headboard of the bed, where the dragon eggs lay as her husband liked to place them, the book still unopened by her husband rested there, but Seryna said nothing.
Days passed as they headed south of the continent, the shocking news of the sack of Old Town soon began to spread across all the houses on the continent, the news was very obvious, Jon Artica had initiated an attack on Oldtown while massacring grain maesters, septons, and even the High Septon who was in Oldtown.
Jon Artica had gained a less appreciated fame than when the rumors of him taking his sister north of the Wall appeared, not that he cared, but people now feared the name Jon Artica more than ever, to the point of questioning whether they could offend him, he had already looted a city, what's not to say he wouldn't do it to others.
The kingdoms began to receive summonses from the king, as many began to respond, mainly the Reach, the nobles had gathered and exclamations began at a meeting that happened even before Jon arrived in Lannisport, no one approved of the Artican attack, Lord Hightower was the most distressed, his city had been plundered, his brother now kidnapped... All his plan with the maesters, had backfired, it was clear he was portraying himself as the victim, if he truly was a failed schemer of maesters and had lost much because of this, the Citadel might never recover.
Jon didn't care about this fame he gained, he already had everything he wanted from Westeros and now with his storages full, could demonstrate to the entire continent what kind of realms they were messing with, Jon never planned to attack Westeros, but the seven kingdoms pushed him to the limit with their schemes, and now they were feared and if they wanted to be enemies of Artica, well... Artica has no enemies.
He spotted a fleet forming in the South as he was not approached until he finally passed the sea of Oldtown, the Redwynes after all, summoned their ships, being one of the most powerful fleets in Westeros, by order of the king, Lord Redwyne sent a letter and asked to attack the Articans.
What was a great mistake, because as soon as the fleet sighted 200 of their ships, but without Lord Redwyne, after all the man had been in Highgarden still, without having time to return to his lands, Jon initiated an attack.
The 200 confident ships, soon began to explode like dust, even before they could get close. "My king... they are fleeing..." His captain informed while Jon watched the destruction at sea.
"I didn't want to use all our wildfire here, but we have no choice; I don't want there to be any survivors to report on our tactics at sea," Jon said, after all, their stock of wildfire was running out fast with this enemy trying to stop them, but now it didn't matter. The ships continued to chase and quickly began to eliminate most of them, leaving the sea a graveyard, Jon had been cruel, but he had his people to protect and would not let any survivor or witness reach any city in Westeros.
"What should we do with the men fallen in the sea?" His man came up to him.
"..." Jon thought for a moment. "I want you to gather all of them, put them in the ships' prisons, we'll put them to forced labor in Artica," Jon decided, after all this was an alternative to not just killing them while they were swimming, although he would have Serume solve this problem if he were here.
The men began fishing the men out of the high sea and putting them in holds. "Looks like Lord Redwyne will have quite the news soon," Jon spoke in the end, as the fleet passed by 200 destroyed ships.
He knew how this would drive that lord mad, as receiving a message stating that his entire fleet, the pride of his house, was turned into burnt wood, would make any man wonder if he was in a nightmare.
"We will have to fight some battles manually, no more wildfire, but that does not intimidate us, after all, we are Artica, the strongest people in the world," Jon spoke to his men, as they responded by raising their weapons.
Then they continued passing by, making any ship that spotted them run to the other side, they left the waters of the Reach and finally entered the region of the North, heading east.
"Will they be sailing through our waters?!" Edric Dayne couldn't help but ask curiously.
"Probably, but it's better not to mess with them..." Allyria, his older sister, said while looking seriously at the son and heir of the house.
"Would they launch an attack here...?" He asked cautiously.
"We don't know... but we must be alert, that's why I called the banners a week ago," she informed.
Edric nodded in the end. "I heard that besides them looting the citadel... about what Jon Artica did to the Mountain and about how they wiped out the entire Redwyne fleet and left no one to tell what happened... It seems unbelievable... the maester told me they are some kind of demons that bring death and terror wherever they go," he commented.
"Well... I can't disagree with him, but that doesn't matter... let's just make sure they don't come here, the king is preparing another fleet in the Sea of Dragonstone... but I doubt the men will have the courage to face them after the news they heard about them here," Allyria spoke.
"..." Edric was silent after that, as another subject came to his mind. "So that's why I must leave tomorrow?!" He accused, seeing that his sister was sending him away out of fear of receiving an attack from the Articans, who are instilling fear all along the coast of Westeros.
"Yes and no. I'm doing this earlier for your safety, you are the heir of this house, my husband Lord Beric Dondarrion will take care of you, but I had already planned to do this before, you will take over Dawn one day, so I want you to develop your own skills," she spoke and he nodded in the end.
"Alright... but one day might I be as good as the stories about my brother were told?" Edric asked about the brother he never met.
"Arthur was a great swordsman, the older sister, Ashara, told me his stories, but I hardly had time to see him as he was the strongest knight in the kingdom and was always going back and forth with Rhaegar... however... I believe you will be as good as him or better!" She assured, trusting the boy as he nodded.
Leaving Starfall and heading to Sunspear, Doran was pensive about what he was reading in the letter he had received, he was quite bewildered about the events that kept coming, and the latest was about the total destruction of the Redwyne fleet.
"He did this..." Nyra's voice sounded as she read the letters.
"Yes... it seems he is much more dangerous than we imagined... he's causing chaos throughout all of Westeros," Doran had to admit.
Nyra was very confused about the latest battles. Ever since Jon left, she felt an emptiness in her heart and was keen to hear anything about the man she had discovered she deeply loved since he left, something strange for someone she had known for such a short time.
The first news of Jon came when her uncle Doran had informed that his spy had been captured by Jon before winning a tournament in Hightower. The news didn't stop there, with one shock after another arriving weeks later.
First, Nyra was stunned by how Jon had made a massacre, eliminating all the men who controlled the Citadel and looting the place completely, stealing hundreds of thousands of books. She still remembers the letter from Sarella Sand, outlining all the horrors she felt while watching the Artican army killing soldiers in greater numbers, with Jon Artica, who she said was some kind of sorcerer, having set all the animals in the city to kill the enemy soldiers, it was a scene of horror, according to Sarella.
He even dared to kidnap Tywin Lannister's son and sent a letter behind a bounty. The famous Tywin was at the mercy of a foreigner, and Nyra took pleasure in hearing this, after all, she deeply hated him for what he did in King's Landing that night. She was happy that Jon made him deliver a large amount of iron to the Articans.
However, the next piece of news had shocked her in a way she had never been affected before, as the murder of her mother and brother had been tortured alive by Jon, mercilessly. Nyra could not imagine that he could be so cruel, but the thought of the Mountain being castrated, having his tongue ripped out, and even having to lose his arm, which had to be amputated days later due to the injury Jon inflicted, had been shocking.
Tywin could not keep this news a secret, and everyone in Westeros knew what happened to his hound, and it ended up being a joke, after all, Tywin had his son kidnapped, and still lost a vassal as soon as he tried to retaliate.
Nyra wanted to find Jon at this moment, but she couldn't. She couldn't leave Dorne because her uncle would never allow it, making her just clutch her belly hoping to meet him again one day.
Doran was very impressed with what he saw in the letters, while he was in the room with his children and Nyra, Oberyn had not yet returned, upset with his brother for having been practically expelled from Dorne.
Today they had received news about Jon and his fleet eliminating the entire Redwyne fleet on the west side and coming this way. Once again, everyone was shocked by what they heard.
Doran seemed quite thoughtful. "I think we underestimated them, even more than I imagined..." he murmured. "I will send a ship to meet him," he said in the end.
His cousin looked curiously at her father. "Wait, what about the king's order that we should cut all ties with Artica?" Arianne commented.
"The king may have issued an order to cease any commercial ties with Artica, but we will not end our dealings with the Kingdom beyond the North. It is too profitable, and he has given me a good reason to go against the king. We were waiting for a chance for revenge and it seems to have started now," Doran spoke while everyone just nodded, then he continued.
"I want to know all the news of the fleet and intend to invite them here for a meeting more important than the last. I would like to speak with Jon Artica," he said in a serious tone.
Meanwhile, in King's Landing, the city filled with rumors about the elimination of the Redwyne fleet with the septons speaking about the death of the High Septon, leaving everyone frightened.
Baelish was in his brothel, frowning, wondering if Stannis's ships would really be able to handle them, so he decided to talk to some of his contacts in Stepstone. He sat at his desk and began to write, before sending a letter south, issuing a bounty for some pirate groups to attack the Artican fleet when it passed through Step Stone again.
Meanwhile, other ravens arrived in the North. Lord Stark was not having an easy time in recent weeks.
The good news about his daughter and the proposals had become water under the bridge as news of Jon launching an attack on Oldtown and massacring people at the citadel came in.
What he had done to Clegane was not at all pleasant. He did not like the man at all, but what Jon did left him quite shocked. Then news had arrived about the elimination of the largest fleet in the Reach.
His wife was quite disturbed, since the king had issued an order to attack the fleet, and she feared for Arya every day and even went back to offending Jon by saying he was a monster.
"I hope things get better..." he murmured. He had not been called to attack Jon, due to the North having no fleet... but he did not know what he would do if ordered, but he certainly was not at all happy with Jon and his actions.
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Raccoon Here:
I didn't want to give too many details about the reactions beyond the most important ones, since the journey in Westeros has already come to an end, so we'll just have a bit of naval battle on the way.
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🦝 Raccoon here: 🦝
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