The Citadel

[King Perceon IV Gardener]

Home to the order of the maesters and the center of learning in the Reach, and as such Westeros as a whole. Its entrance gates are flanked by two large green statues of sphinxes.

[King Perceon IV Gardener]

The day after the arrival of his guest from the west, Percy found himself with little remaining to attend to prior to his wedding and coronation. Hoping to repay Bethan for the gift he had won from her in their wager at the melee, he invited her to come to the Citadel with him.

Accompanied by a small number of guardsmen, feeling fairly safe in oldtown, as well as Ser Clayton who he had taken into his service as a reward for protecting Geralt at the joust, Perceon waited for Bethan to join him at the entrance to the Hightower, where they took a small boat from Battle island to the dock nearest the Citadel. From there Percy and his companions travelled on foot toward the citadel, so Bethan might better see the city at a slower pace. Moreover, Percy was a better walker than rider, so it had the added benefit of not making him look a buffoon in case he slipped while dismounting or suffered some similar equestrian misfortune.

[The Forgotten God]

The Citadel looms large over the western side of the city, and Bethan looks about at the gigantic metropolis as they walk. "I always assumed the size of Oldtown was exaggerated," she said. "If anything it's understated." Vendors sell their wares in the streets and it seems fairly well kept and orderly for a chaotic city. The sphinxes stare at them as they approach. "An odd symbol," she said, "nowhere else in Westeros uses them."

[King Perceon IV Gardener]

Percy laughed. "We do not brag in the Reach. Our boasts are true ones. Still, I imagine I should be just as impressed when I see your mountains and forests. The geography of the Reach must seem plain to you."

As they approached the entrance he considered her words. "Nowhere else is like the citadel." He replied. "I doubt even the maesters know what they represent. Or rather they all think they know but none of them agree."

Ser Clayton followed behind at a distance. He was bored and hot and as far as he was concerned maesters were only to be tolerated when you had a hole in your body. Seemed damn foolish to seek the old snooty bastards out.

[The Forgotten God]

"I don't trust anyone who claims they don't brag," she said. As they walk to the entrance, an old man approaches them and bowed. "Your Grace," he said, "I'm Archmaester Fredric, Master of the Seas," he said. "Princess Bethan Durrandon," he added, "rumors of your beauty can be considered heard and acknowledged as shameful understatements. How can the Citadel serve you today?"

[King Perceon IV Gardener]

Perceon smiled at the obvious flattery because it was still very validating and thus a refreshing change. "Well met, Archmaester." He responded, nodding respectfully. "We had hoped we might peruse some of your histories today. I will leave the area for the princess to decide. Perhaps you could be so kind as to furnish her with interesting recommendations?"

Clayton would have groaned at the idea he'd have to spend all day in the citadel, but it occurred to him it might let him sit down and get out of the sun so he held his tongue.

[The Forgotten God]

"The notes on the building of Storm's End are here," the arch maester said. "And many histories indeed." Bethan looked about.

"I'd rather read of the Reach," she said. "Of the lineage my new family descends from, that my children shall be a part of.

Walking into the Citadel is both more and less exciting than commonly thought. The smell of wormy old books permeates the air, but artifacts from eight thousand years are strewn about, lovingly catalogued centuries ago and left to stagnate, much as the continent itself.

[King Perceon IV Gardener]

Percy smiled at her, pleased by her answer. He allowed Bethan to precede him in, he having the fortune of having visited before. He loved the smell of old literature, so as far as he was concerned, the citadel was only exciting. He gazed about, taking in artifacts he had overlooked in his earlier visits, or that time had caused him to forget. "You are hiding your wonder better than I did the first time I came here." He commented quietly to her as they made their way after Fredric.

Clayton dismissed the other guards, letting them wait near the entrance. The King and his little queen were under no threat from a bunch of weak old men. He followed them in, keeping a way back of the two, thinking the building could use some airing out.

[The Forgotten God]

She looked about. "It is impressive," she agreed, "but all this knowledge is stuck here, when so many could benefit from it," she added. "Although then they may read enough to think they don't need kings and queens anymore...so maybe it is for the best." She frowned down at a shield with a dozen cuts on it. "Seems non scholarly to me," Fredric led them to the section detailing House Gardener, five hundred or more books on their family deeds and more, and Bethan ran her fingers along their spins as she looked for one that seemed interesting. "Any ideas, Percy?" She asked. "Where to begin?"

[King Perceon IV Gardener]

"Most cannot read, and many more who can would never take proper care of these works." Percy disagreed kindly, clearly having been given the citadel line when he was young and having eaten it up. "The practical knowledge is given to the maesters who use it to help people, and the other things - the stories, are of little interest to anyone other than you and I, outside the citadel." He looked to the artifact she commented on. "You don't think it best to preserve relics of the past? I think it brings the histories to life."

Percy looked about the Gardener room. It was the room he was most familiar with, unsurprisingly. It occurred to him that he should return one day and peruse the Durrandon section, so he would know more of his wife's heritage, but for now he was with Bethan and that would have to wait. "You should start with Garth Greenhand of course!" he exclaimed. "Unless you prefer more reliable histories."

Ser Clayton spend about three seconds staring around at all the books before he became bored and wandered off in search of a nearby seat.

[The Forgotten God]

"Everyone knows those stories," she said. "I'd rather something different," she looks about and settles for something about a king a few hundred years before who had tried turning the Iron Islands to the Faith. Seeing as House Hoare had built Harrenhal, it could be presumed the effort did not go well.

[King Perceon IV Gardener]

Percy was familiar with that one, but it was far from his favorite. He thought that king was a bit of a fool. Especially now he had come to see the ironborn could not be trusted.

"That one is...different." He commented as he picked a history of Gyles III. "I've already done better than Gyles." he commented, looking pleased as he indicated the book he held, moving to join Bethan. "We've brought the Stormlands and the Reach together without the spilling of any blood."

[The Forgotten God]

Bethan nodded, clearly interested in her own tale of folly and idealism taken to an extreme. "It is curious he failed," she noted. "The Andals took this whole continent from the First Men, and they couldn't claim the last few rocks. If you ignore the North of course. I do."

[King Perceon IV Gardener]

"They failed to spread civilizing influences to the least civilized parts of westeros. It makes a certain amount of sense when you think about it that way." Perceon replied. "Theon told me that the ironborn are only the way they are because they were made to be that way by their environment. Now I see that was a lie. They embrace their savagery. They will never change, so long as they rule themselves."

He sat back and allowed her to read, knowing from experience with Geralt and Melissa the annoyance of having one's concentration constantly interrupted when trying to enjoy a good story. He flipped through the pages of Gyles' history, but he had already read it and remembered much of it, just putting on the act so Bethan did not feel rushed.

[The Forgotten God]

Bethan read for a while, pondering his words. "So you plan on them not ruling themselves?" She asked. "No one has ever successfully tamed them. Can you?"

[King Perceon IV Gardener]

"I don't want a war." Percy replied. "War is not good for anyone. It ruins harvests, drains treasuries, and depletes populations. But if they ironborn force war upon us, then yes, I would seek their subjugation. Not breaking them when presented with the chance will only leave another war to be fought by our children."

[The Forgotten God]

Bethan nodded. "Then victory shall have to be complete," she agreed. "Your planning has succeeded; the strongest kingdoms are aligned to one purpose, the Ironborn encircled."

[King Perceon IV Gardener]

"There is more work to be done yet." Percy replied. "If Theon wins his inevitable war in the Vale he too will have assembled a powerful collection of kingdoms."

[The Forgotten God]

"That would seem to make peace a more desirable option," Bethan allowed. "If our forces are evenly matched someone will have to look to the great hired armies of the east, as my father has suggested before," she said. "And no one wants twenty thousand foreigners on our shores."

[King Perceon IV Gardener]

Perceon nodded. "If you invite an army of foreigners you cannot trust they will leave after victory. Not to mention the ridiculous prices they would surely charge to fight. The money is better spent on improving the kingdom if that is the alternative."

[The Forgotten God]

"I'd say the money would be better spent burying it in a hole than trusting the easterners," she said. "But hopefully this ring of alliances will put minds at ease. Until someone does something stupid. I give it six months,@ she grumbled.

[King Perceon IV Gardener]

"Do you have any belief about who will be the one to make things worse?" Perceon asked, wondering if she was trying to raise a concern about her father or brother.

[The Forgotten God]

"The Lannisters," she said without thinking twice. "They are encircled by you and the Ironborn plague them the most. I think that having forces so vast will make them go on the offensive, and they'll assume we won't abandon them against such a task as crushing Harrenhal. Theon is too busy consolidating power to want war now."

[King Perceon IV Gardener]

"You're as clever as you are beautiful." Perceon said, nodding at her analysis. "But if you are right and the Lannisters do decide to start a war now, that would make them fools. There are matters we must attend to before committing to a war. Building a fleet capable of challenging that of our foes, for instance."

[The Forgotten God]

"Would it?" She asked. "If they attacked, what would we do? Refuse to fight and allow their knights to be slaughtered facing four kingdoms? Wouldn't that just make our allies weaker, and make the Hoares stronger yet?"

[King Perceon IV Gardener]

"If they plan to attack the Hoares now, I would tell them that the Reach would not stand with them. Unless they were particularly persuasive that the time for war is the present." Perceon responded. "It doesn't serve us to let the Lannisters attack alone, but it doesn't serve them to attack alone either if they are told we will not stand with them. I doubt they would go ahead with their aggression, believing they would be acting alone."

[The Forgotten God]

"My father would attack too," she said. "He'd love the excuse to get his family's former lands back," she admitted. "It's a dangerous state of affairs."