The Silent Wolf

Chapter 13

I was an exotic beast in this pit of vipers. All eyes were on me, watching my every move, trying to figure out what my agenda was since every soul in King's Landing had one. Even the Prince was not that trusting of me, not since I had returned Dark Sister to his father and not him. Surprisingly the only one who did trust me blindly was the King.

King Aerys Targaryen always kept me close to him. He would seek my advice on matters big and small, no matter how personal it was. It was a little weird since I'm not sure I even gave good advice, to begin with. Still, I had somehow become his closest advisor. The King even sought advice on the matter of Tywin Lannister, his once close friend and former Hand of the King.

The relationship between Aerys and Tywin began on a good note but soured as time went on. Aerys' mistrustful nature that had been fanned on by Bloodraven had created a chasm between the two.

Aerys asked me what I thought of the whole situation, about the whole feud with Tywin, whether what he thought was correct or not. Of course, the King had told me his side of the story from the beginning, even the parts that he now understood were influenced by Bloodraven.

I gave him my honest opinion, as he had asked me to. Tywin Lannister had done a good job in running the Kingdom and overseeing the King's affairs. The man was unforgiving, calculative and not one to fall for flattery. He may have overreached by suggesting the hand of his daughter to Prince Rhaegar, but he was a proud man and thought the match was a good one. It would be in the best interest of the Crown to start mending relations with Tywin Lannister.

A letter was sent to Casterly Rock promptly, the contents of it unknown to me. I only knew about the letter because Lord Varys told me about it.

Varys had become another unexpected friend of mine in this place. The man was genuinely grateful to me for saving Serra. My memories told me that Varys would have planned to install Serra's son as King had things gone as they should have, so him being as friendly as he is right now seemed odd to me. But his friendship was not unwelcome, I just needed to be careful around him.

As for things in the North and other places that I was connected to, things were going along nicely.

I had received a letter from the North that Illyrio and Serra had decided to return to their home now that the dangers of death by childbirth had passed on. The couple had named their son Edd, after me, I'm guessing. By now the plague that would sweep Pentos had probably passed as well so I didn't have a reason to stop them.

The letter from Father was simple, he wanted me there for the wedding of both my siblings.

Brandon was marrying Mina Tyrell in Winterfell in the old way. The Tyrells did not seem to have an issue with that.

Lyanna on the other hand would marry Garth Hightower in Old Town, in the way House Hightower saw fit.

It was almost funny how these two pacts had gone from undesirable to the most desirable for the two families. Houses Tyrell and Hightower were ambitious houses, one in the open and the other in secret. They took action when they thought they would get nothing from these marriages, but the moment I had become the King's close confidant, they were too eager for the marriage to proceed. Both families had also tried their hands at marrying one of their daughters to me, but the King had been the one to decline their offers on my behalf for some reason.

Though there was a surprise in the letter Father sent. Benjen had been betrothed. The girl he was betrothed to was a girl named Jessamyn Manderly, the only daughter of Lord Wyman Manderly's cousin. Now which cousin this one was I was not sure, but the marriage seemed like a good one. With Benjen now a Lord to be of a port town, houses like the Manderlys would come to great use to help him manage his new lands and seas.