Chapter 6.1- The Seadragon's Roar

—107 AC—

I stared at the letter with rage building in my gut. I knew there was something I failed to take into account with this Baratheon squireship.Just go away for a few years, gt stronger and develop at your own pace had bee the offer, and I’d taken it like a good without causing to think about what I would be missing. Now, I could see it clearly. Corlys’ letter wrote about the pirates in the Stepstones attacking Velaryon ships without hesitation nor reprisal, and then his desire to appeal to the King for the right to retaliate. Except that Viseys was yet to accept us back into his good graces after what I’d done at the Great Council. There was no Daemon in this case to suggest war in the Stepstones.

Of course there wasn’t. I’d insulted his brother over a throne that I couldn’t even win in the end and now he was basically enemies with House Velaryon. There was no doubt that Daemon loved Viserys and we’d be the ones to suffer for that. I scowled and tore up the parchment in my grasp before grabbing another sheet and beginning to write again. In any other castle, I would have feared my words being intercepted and read but after years here, I still wasn’t entirely sure if any of the Baratheon men actually knew how to read.

It wouldn’t even be that shocking if they didn’t. Boremund had his Maester read anything pressing to him during dinner and he never seemed much interested in books or anything of the sort. Of course, it could be a question of desire and not capability.

Distracted again, I growled. Focus, Laenor , focus. You need a plan to make this work, and against all odds, I was beginning to get the bones of one in mind.

So, I wrote Corlys with a plan. House Velaryon shipped the luxuries that King’s Landing relied on. The reach sent food, yes. So did the Riverlands. But all the things more expensive and thus more important to pride than food like tapestries, spices, and the lot, was shipped on Velaryon ships. Corlys had provably enjoyed telling me all about how he had canibalised my idea for the Laena Velaryon and built cargo ships that could carry dozens more than any other even with more than a skeleton crew onboard. With that, he’d more or less muscled the Essosi out of the market. Now all he had to do was make those shipments dry out little by little. The increased prices would probably go some of the way in salvaging our lost revenue from the pseudo-blockade.

And when the Lords came to him to complain, all he had to do was say it was unsafe for Velaryon ships to pass the stepstones as the King refused to give him leave to deal with the pirates within. Let Viserys’ lords be the ones to pressure him. Let his Queen find no spices for her mutton, or lace for her dresses. Eventually, he’d cave. Someone like him? I’d give it weeks.