Chapter 47: Lannister : Chapter 47: Breakfast Conversation II
AN :
If we hit top 30 I will release another chapter tomorrow.
In the Game of Stones, you either win or you wait. The more Power Stones you offer, the faster the chapters come.
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Doran chuckled. "Maybe I'll factor that into account when I determine your wedding prospects Oberyn. Find the one you consider least attractive."
"You wouldn't!" Oberyn said aghast. "Besides, why would I marry? My heart belongs to all the fair ladies of Dorne, at the very least." he tapped his chin. "Perhaps further, some of those reach and Westerlands girls looked fair enough."
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Doran snorted at that. "Oh please don't go starting more scandals by thinking with your loins, Elia did enough of that in King's Landing." he gestured with his fork at his sister, and Oberyn blinked.
"Ooh, she said something about that before-well that's not the point, I'd forgotten about it." his younger brother's smile flickered momentarily but came back with a vengeance. "What's this about Elia in King's Landing?"
"Oh, Seven preserve me." Elia blushed and put her head in her hand as Doran lifted his cup of fresh water and began to explain.
"Elia fell for Prince Rhaegar Targaryen at the opening feast for the tourney and spent the entire evening talking to him two seats away from Tywin Lannister. The man looked about ready to throttle her the entire time, I was sitting between them, I should know." Doran said, gossipping with his brother while their sister only groaned.
"Pfft" Oberyn nearly spit out his drink. "She what?" he leaned over towards Elia. "All those years of reprimands for my wandering eye and you go and do that. I'm hurt, Sister, truly I'm hurt!" He grinned devilishly. "So that's why you two came home early then. Hmm, and brought little Callum with you."
"Something like that," Doran smirked. "It's worked out, mostly, but we'll have to be a bit on eggshells with the Lannisters I think. For a few years anyway."
"Not with me too much I hope." Doran blinked, glancing down the table to his left where a boy had managed to sneak right up to the table without saying a word, while all the three of them were engrossed in conversation.
He took a seat next to Oberyn. Doran had gotten so used to eating only with his own family for years that he had nearly forgotten that Elia's betrothed was also invited to breakfast. It was only natural since, while they weren't technically fostering the boy perse, this entire visit was organized so that he could grow closer to them.
From the way Elia stiffened at his arrival, she hadn't really been thinking about it either. Callum hadn't been down to join them at breakfast since Mother died, probably trying to give them room to grieve.
"It would be a bit silly to have me here at all if you're going to spend the entire time trying to keep courteous and distant," he said plainly, taking a bit of freshly baked bread from the basket in the center of the table.
"Ready for a closer relationship eh?" Oberyn leaned over, and Doran was glad for it. While his own hackles had raised when the Lannister boy arrived, and Elia certainly needed time to gather her thoughts, their younger brother took it in easy stride as he worked his charismatic flow. "I hope you know that involves some teasing in Dorne."
Callum turned to glance up at him and squinted. "Teasing you about stealing my printing press you mean? I saw the one you're trying to build in the spear tower." the boy's inquisitive look then became a smirk. "For the record, the better version has moved away from wooden text already."
Oberyn looked taken aback for a moment, then smirked. "Oh is that so? Please oh clever one, tell me how you've improved upon your great invention. I, your lowly student, will take notes."
"Only so you can copy my work." Callum snorted. "Not that I didn't know that from the start. Liked the view my ass."
"Not such a fine view yet," Oberyn replied, and the two began to banter back and forth. It was a blessing as the gap gave Doran and Elia time to gather their thoughts, letting them settle into the fact that they were now at a meal with the Lannister child, and there were certain things that just shouldn't be discussed in front of him. Though Doran did have to wonder at how Callum and Oberyn had become such fast friends. They seemed to know each other much better than the week or so Callum had been in Dorne would have allowed. Elia voiced his concerns first though.
"When exactly did you two become such close friends?" His sister asked, leaning on her hand with narrowed eyes as if she had some inkling of a puzzle but wasn't quite sure yet.
"Hmm? Oh, Oberyn spent half the time you two were visiting Casterly Rock in my study. We spent quite a bit of time discussing things." Callum said, giving a bright smile. "Evidently enough that he tried copying my work after coming back here. Alas, he is already behind the times."
"I suppose your design is already finished then?" Oberyn asked, leaning in eagerly while Elia shared a look with Doran. If breakfast was just going to be a protracted conversation between the two boys about the status of their workshops, then Doran wasn't entirely sure that he wanted to humor them for much more-
"Yes actually. From Ser Ilyn's last letter, the Faith has agreed to fund 200 of them."
Doran paused, "The… you mean the Faith of the seven yes?" he tapped his chin, now a bit more interested. Politics were far more interesting to Doran than his brother's eccentric designs. "However did you manage that? I can't see them paying for curiosities unless they had some religious importance?"
"Curiosities? Is that what you think the press is?" Callum tilted his head. "Over the next three or four years I'll have printed… probably about a million copies of the Seven Pointed Star."
Doran blinked.
Elia blinked.
Oberyn boggled. "T-two Hundred?" Oberyn sounded panicked and excited all at once. "And with each of them printing more than a hundred- you could actually do that!" Oberyn kicked back in his chair. "That's… absolutely insane, it'll change everything."
Doran was still trying to wrap his mind around the idea of a million books. The library of the old palace was by no means small, but there were definitely no more than ten thousand books on its shelves. Elia seemed to be having similar thoughts.
"But what would you even do with all those copies of the Seven-Pointed Star?" she asked, tapping her hand. "Sure the Septons won't need to copy them anymore, but even then you wouldn't need that many. There must be no more than sixty-thousand copies in all the Westerlands, perhaps less."
"I'm not giving them to Septs to start with. The books will be distributed by House Lannister, one to each household in the Westerlands." Callum nodded sharply. "Once that's done I'll take over the presses for House Lannister's use and figure out other things to do with them, but the most important thing is putting a copy of the scriptures into every house."
Doran took a moment to process the boy's words, feeling the world shift around him slightly. Without hearing the words, and having a passing knowledge of how Oberyn's own press worked (His brother had explained it at length before) he never would have been able to conceive of such a plan as possible. But now it landed on him that it probably was entirely possible, and more than that, House Lannister was already doing it.
House Lannister was going to give every family in the Westerlands a copy of the Seven-Pointed Star, and not in the distant future, but soon.
House Lannister was probably going to have the most loyal smallfolk in the Seven Kingdoms within five years. No one in the Westerlands would even hope to question them with the sort of allegiance that such an act would buy. They would be untouchable, even more than they already were.
In time, the Faith of the Seven would probably build statues of the little girly-looking boy who was sitting across the table from him. It was a plot so unimaginably vast in scale that it made Doran's plans for tax reform and new dye works on the Greenblood feel infantile, minuscule in comparison.
Only one question rang out in Prince Doran's mind, one he voiced almost immediately. "Do you think we could do that here?"
Callum glanced towards him, away from Oberyn who had been asking the boy more numerical questions, while Elia watched on in a bit of confusion, still sampling the same thoughts that had been running through Doran's mind.
The Lannister boy smiled and nodded his head. "Certainly. I could get it all set up and then you could probably run it on your own. The hard part is in the initial stages." the smile turned a little more vicious. "Only, how are you looking to pay for it?"
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Chronicle of the Targaryen Dynasty in the Seven Kingdoms
Maester Willem
276 AC- Eight Moon
Prince Rhaegar Targaryen and Lord Steffon depart King's Landing for Lys with a fleet of 20 Dromonds painted in Red and Black. Each of the ships sits 50 meters long with 30 rowers on each side, and all the sails are painted with the three-headed dragon of House Targaryen, except for Lord Steffon's ship The "Thunder" which has Stags.
Princess Ennella Martell of Dorne passes away surrounded by her children in Sunspear. Her son and heir Prince Doran Martell becomes Prince of Dorne. His Coronation is set for the first day of Tenth Moon. Callum Lannister, the second son of the Hand of the King Lord Tywin Lannister, is visiting Dorne during this period.
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