WILOW-Ch.444: The Death of Stannis Baratheon

Underground Base, Imperial Lands

POV of Domeric Bolton

Domeric was woken out of his sleep by Ygritte poking him in the chest.

He opened his eyes to find that, sometime in the night, the blanket had fallen half off of them, and Ygritte had turned around and buried herself into him.

She was now looking at him with her new purple pupils, looking more beautiful than ever.

"Hey there." He said as he tucked a stray strand of silver hair behind her ear, "How are you feeling?"

"Sore." Ygritte replied and groaned, "As if a few hundred horses had trampled me at once. But I also feel powerful. As if I have some power that I didn’t have before." She said and frowned, "I’m not entirely sure, but I think I can enter into an animal’s or bird’s mind now."

His eyebrows rose, but he was not very shocked by this news. In fact, he had expected that the ritual might wake up some of the dormant magical talent in her blood. But it was still a very pleasant surprise.

After all, Domeric had used his own blood as a medium to transfer his magical abilities to Ygritte. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

His aim was to enable her to use wizarding magic, but Domeric was also a Greenseer. And through its influence, the dormant Skinchanger talent in Ygritte’s blood might have been awakened.

He nodded and cupped her cheeks.

"After you rest and feel better, we’ll train your skinchanger and wizarding talent. See how far we can take these talents of yours."

"And hatch me my dragons." She said petulantly.

"Of course." He chuckled and kissed her lips before he separated from her and got up from the bed. "I’ll call Lyra and tell her to have our chefs cook something for us. Do you have anything you wish to eat?"

Meanwhile, the moment their lips touched, they both felt a bond stronger than ever before form between them.

Domeric knew at that moment that a soul-bond had been established between them, that they were now soulmates, and Ygritte similarly understood the nature of this new bond.

But neither felt the need to discuss it. Whether they had a soul-bond or not, the feelings they had for each other wouldn’t change. The soul-bond had simply taken their connection to the next level.

Ygritte nodded and said, "Some of the spicy chicken dumplings whose recipe you brought from Dorne. And some lemonade, as always."

"Of course." He said and picked up the communication mirror from the table.

He quickly called Lyra, who picked up the call after the third ring.

"Lyra, I..." he started, but was quickly cut off by Lyra.

"Your majesty. News from King’s Landing." Lyra said, and he gestured for her to continue. "The Northern forces finally broke through the siege today."

He frowned. He was pretty sure that, given how the siege was going, it would easily take a week or more to end.

The fact that the siege ended so abruptly, without his troops’ participation, must have meant something important happened.

"How did that happen?" he asked.

"The Northern forces were fighting on the walls of Red Keep when Stannis Baratheon led an attack toward them." Lyra said, "It was a pretty good surprise attack which allowed Stannis to corner King Aegon, King Eddard, Prince Robb, and a few others."

"Let me guess. King Aegon and Stannis dueled it out?" he asked.

Lyra grimaced, "Not really, your majesty. It was actually Snowric, Jon Snow direwolf who jumped at Stannis as soon as his men started attacking and tore his throat off. The Baratheon forces surrendered after that."

He took in her words and sighed, "When did this happen?"

"Just an hour ago, your majesty." Lyra said, "But you told me not to disturb you, so I didn’t."

He nodded, "You did well, Lyra. Now I have a request to ask you."

He went ahead and ordered the food, then cut the connection and went back to bed with Ygritte.

"So... are you going back South?" Ygritte asked.

He nodded, "Yeah. Now that they’ve taken the Red Keep, I’m pretty sure that they would want to hold the Coronation as soon as possible for Jon. And I’m supposed to be the one to crown King Aegon. But considering my coronation hasn’t happened yet, we need to do that first. So, there’s a lot of work to do, and that’s why I need to leave as soon as possible."

Ygritte moaned and pulled him into a hug. "Stay with me for a while at least."

He smiled and pecked her on the lips. "Sure. Just let me inform Varko."

Domeric then contacted Varko, instructing him to keep the others occupied until he arrived and to prepare for his own coronation ceremony.

Although he didn’t particularly enjoy such ceremonies, the coronation ceremony was something he had to do. Even though he preferred to have his own coronation in the Imperial Lands, Jon needed to be crowned as soon as possible, and for that, he had to be crowned first.

Therefore, while his allies from the North, Riverlands, Vale, and Reach were already in King’s Landing, Domeric decided to hold his coronation there.

He would then personally bestow the titles of King on Aegon Targaryen and Eddard Stark and crown them during their coronations.

This would clearly establish the Empire’s hierarchical order, and the picture would become clearer in the minds of the nobles.

Of course, he would publish everything in detail in his newspaper so that the nobles outside King’s Landing would also be informed, and the peasants would learn what was happening.

He planned to hold the King of Dorne’s coronation on his own lands. Most likely, he would declare the Iron Islands a kingdom and hold its coronation ceremony at the same time as Dorne’s.

Domeric knew that none of the existing kingdoms could control the Iron Islands. No matter which kingdom they belonged to, Ironborns would continue to cause trouble and wreak havoc on the shores of Westeros.

Therefore, Domeric decided to make them a separate kingdom and bring them directly accountable to the Empire and to him. This would at least make them a little more afraid.

After all, while it would take weeks, even months, for other kingdoms to send their armies there, Domeric’s wyverns could arrive in a day or two, and the Ironborns could do nothing against the wildfire bombs the wyverns would rain down on them.

But he knew that the Iron Islands’ greatest source of income was plunder. Therefore, he couldn’t simply ban plunder and be done with it.

He had to offer the Ironborns a way to generate income, even make money. Fortunately, Domeric had been thinking about this for a long time, and when he had all his plans in place, the Iron Islands would possess riches they had never had before.

And his empire would benefit greatly from it as well.

But those were things for later. For now, pushing those thoughts to the back of his mind, he returned to Ygritte’s side, lay down beside her, and took her back into his arms.

The affairs of the Realm could wait for now.

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Next Chapters’ Name:

Ch.445: The Last Piece for Peace

Ch.446: The Coronation Day

Ch.447: Mingling in the Great Hall