"Fire and Blood" by George R.R. Martin, List 6

The Brackens, the Blackwoods, and the Vances all ruled wider domains and could field much larger armies, as could the upstart Freys of the Twins.

Clad for court, it was said, Lord Benjicot was very much a boy, tall for his age but slight of build, with a sensitive face and a shy, self-effacing manner; clad in mail-and-plate, Bloody Ben was an altogether different man, and one who had seen more of the battlefield at thirteen than most men do in their entire lives.

Amongst their supporters were two extraordinary women: Alysanne Blackwood, called Black Aly, a sister to the late Lord Samwell Blackwood, and thus aunt to Bloody Ben, and Sabitha Frey, the Lady of the Twins, the widow of Lord Forrest Frey and mother of his heir, a “sharp-featured, sharp-tongued harridan of House Vypren, who would sooner ride than dance, wore mail instead of silk, and was fond of killing men and kissing women,” according to Mushroom.

Within the Red Keep, the Lads found the dead king's body laid out upon a bier beneath the Iron Throne, with his mother, Queen Alicent, weeping beside it.

“Are you babes in swaddling clothes, to be cozened by flowers and feasts and soft words?”

Lyonel Hightower capitulated, agreeing to all the terms put forth by Lord Corlys, including the return of the Crown’s gold (to the fury of his cousin, Ser Myles Hightower, who had stolen a good part of that gold, though that tale need not concern us here).

Three of Belgrave's Sworn Brothers had been present at King Aegon's death and were similarly condemned, though their complicity in the plot could not be proved (the three Kingsguard who were not in the city were judged innocent).

Gutter knights and men-at-arms, litter-bearers, serving men, heralds, the keeper of the wine cellars, three White Swords of the Kingsguard, every man of them suddenly evinced a deep desire to defend the Wall.

Instead the Hand claimed a curious failure of memory, insisting that he could not recall who had been black and who green, whilst demonstrating a dogged loyalty to the son of the very queen who had sent him to the torturers.

There were ominous stirrings along the Dornish Marches too, for Dorne had a new ruler in the person of Aliandra Martell, a brazen girl of ten-and-seven who fancied herself “the new Nymeria” and had every young lord south of the Red Mountains vying for her affections.

An unscrupulous, venal, or overly ambitious mate might cause no end of war and woe.

His virility was beyond question; he had fathered two sons on his first wife, and five more on his second.

He was proud without being arrogant, just in judgment but not vindictive, loyal to his friends, dutiful in religious matters without being excessively pious, untroubled by overweening ambition.

Several of the regents, outraged, urged Ser Tyland to appeal to the High Septon for an annulment, but the Hand’s own response was one of bemused resignation.

All along the Sunset Sea, the Red Kraken and his ironmen continued to raid and reave.

As Ser Medrick had been childless, this had a further calamitous consequence, in that the lordship devolved upon his brother Ser Torrhen, who was thence forced to give up his place on the council of regents to take up the rule of White Harbor.

It behooves us now to pause for a moment and turn our gaze upon Unwin Peake, who would rule the Seven Kingdoms in all but name for the best part of two years, serving as Lord Regent, Protector of the Realm, and Hand of the King.

Once relieved of his duties, Septon Eustace departed King's Landing for Stoney Sept, the town of his birth, where he devoted himself to the writing of his great (if somewhat turgid) work, The Reign of King Viserys, First of His Name, and the Dance of the Dragons That Came After.

The Feast Day of Our Father Above is a most propitious day for making judgments, the septons teach us.

However loudly the mob might cheer for Oakenfist, their bold young hero's rash attack had left the realm in an untenable position.

Then as now, the Braavosi were a pragmatic people, for theirs is a city of escaped slaves where a thousand false gods are honored, but only gold is truly worshipped.

Having thus demonstrated the power of Braavos, however, he was more than willing to be placated. Whilst he haggled with Lord Mooton over terms of peace, Lords Follard and Cressey spread lavish bribes amongst the city's keyholders, magisters, priests, and merchant princes.

In the end, in return for a very sizable indemnity, Braavos forgave Lord Velaryon’s “unwarranted transgression,” agreed to dissolve her alliance with Tyrosh and break all ties with Racallio Ryndoon, and ceded the Stepstones to the Iron Throne (since the islands were held by Ryndoon and the Pentoshi at this time, the Sealord had in effect sold something that he did not own, but this was not unusual in Braavos).

The boy was dour and gloomy, no one truly knew his nature.

Disappointment had turned her sour, her detractors said; once her father's heir at Storm's End, she found herself of little account in King's Landing, and bitterly resented having to care for the weepy, feeble-witted child queen whom she blamed for all her woes.

And in the event that both of them were “found wanting, for whatever obscure reason," Lady Sam helpfully appended the names of thirty-one other nubile maidens from Houses Hightower, Redwyne, Tarly, Ambrose, Florent, Cobb, Costayne, Beesbury, Varner, and Grimm who might be suitable as queens.

Mushroom adds that her ladyship ended with a cheeky postscript that said, “I know some pretty boys as well, should His Grace be so inclined, but I fear they could not give him heirs," but none of the other chronicles mention this effrontery, and her ladyship's letter has been lost.

Alyn Oakenfist enjoyed the hospitality of the Hightower, explored the ancient wynds and ways of Oldtown, and visited the Citadel, where he spent days poring over ancient charts and studying dusty Valyrian treatises about warship design and tactics for battle at sea.

Ser Marston Waters of the Kingsguard seemed discomfited by His Grace's attendance, however, and Lord Peake took it for a rebuke.

Yet even this did not long mollify the King's Hand, for less than a fortnight later, the leading elements of the Velaryon fleet returned to King's Landing bearing a cryptic message: Oakenfist had sent them on ahead whilst he set sail for Lys to secure “a treasure beyond price.”

The excitement occasioned by Oakenfist’s return was palpable, however, so all the Hand could do was seethe.

Law and tradition were on his side, Grand Maester Munkun admitted when the Hand brought his grievances to the council...but the king and the smallfolk felt otherwise, and it would have been the height of folly to repudiate Lord Alyn’s pact.

In this, the Seven Kingdoms lagged well behind the Free City of Lys, where the collapse of the Rogare Bank had led inexorably to the utter ruin of the house that Lysandro the Magnificent had built.

Lord Oakenfist had refused to be a part of House Lannister's vengeance upon the ironmen, but the old Sea Lion proved more amenable to Lady Johanna's entreaties...swayed, mayhaps, by her promise to marry him if he delivered the Iron Islands to her son's rule.

When the other claimants proved intransigent and refused to accept his ruling, Ser Corwyn imprisoned the Gilded Falcon and his sons and executed Eldric Arryn, yet somehow Ser Eldric's mad father, Ser Arnold, eluded him and fled to Runestone, where he had served as a squire in his boyhood.

As gonfaloniere, the glory of conquest would accrue to him, enabling him to win the office of first magister. By sacking Tyrosh or Myr, he would gain sufficient gold to restore the funds he had taken from the bank and leave him the richest man in Lys.

King Aegon gazed down on him, saying naught, but his brother was less reticent, commanding the Grand Maester to send forth “a thousand ravens” so the realm might know the king was being held a captive in his own castle.

Many and more have wondered at the seeming forbearance of the new Hand and his allies during this stalemate.

Ser Gareth Long was the most voluble, declaring loudly that Aegon III was a weakling unfit to hold a sword, much less sit the Iron Throne.

So thick was the miasma of mistrust in the Red Keep that Aegon III did not leave Maegor's Holdfast for six more days after his brother Viserys unravelled Lord Rowan's false confession.