Silver Stag

The Essence Of Surprise

[Iron Fleet - Narrow Sea]

Following their destruction of the Dragon Queen's ships, some ships from the Iron Fleet had taken a detour and sailed through the Narrow Sea on the way back to King's Landing.

They noticed a single ship, flying a banner of a turquoise seahorse on a white field.

Highborn bastards were known for creating their own sigils in the style of their father's houses, but with reversed colours.

That meant this must have been one of the ships stolen by Aurane Waters, the self proclaimed Lord Of The Waters, after the arrest of the Queen, Cersei Lannister.

As it sailed closer, they noticed it was unmanned, but there appeared to be various chests on board.

Ironborns would be Ironborns. They could not resist the urge to pillage and plunder.

Which is exactly what they did. They released a ladder that connected the ship to theirs, holding it in place, much like they had done in the attack on Yara Greyjoy's fleet.

"Go on," one of the men urged his fellow Ironborn. "Check it out."

The man did as he was told, crossing the ladder and looking around, checking for any occupants.

When he found none, he emerged from the lower deck to tell them what he had found.

"It's gold. Tons of gold."

The Ironborn who heard him began cheering and spreading the word.

Multiple men climbed aboard, gathering all the gold they could, and distributing it amongst their ships.

[Dragonstone - Daemon & Aelinor's Chambers]

Daemon lied in their bed, watching as his heavily pregnant wife played on the floor with her eldest.

They had been trying to spend more time with him, ahead of the twins arrival, as they knew they would be extremely busy. Even more so with two babes.

"Do you think it worked?" Daemon asked.

"I'm certain," Aelinor responded. "They won't be able to resist. They pillage, loot and rape. It is their way. Perhaps it is timr someone cause them to rethink that decision."

And if she was the one that had to do it, then so be it.

It was rare she took such vengeful action, but in this instance, it was necessary.

At least Daenerys had managed to halt the Dothraki from their raping and pillaging by giving them a common goal. One that still allowed them to participate in one of their favourite activities; battle.

"It is the essence of surprise."

[King's Landing - Cersei's Chambers]

Cersei was sat in her chambers, enjoying a glass of wine when there was a knock on the door.

"Come in," she called.

"Your Grace."

It was Qyburn.

"What is it?"

"The remaining Ironborn ships have arrived."

"Is that a problem?"

"No. Except, all the men aboard appear to have been poisoned."

"What do you mean, poisoned?" She stood and rushed out to the Blackwater Bay.

"Your Grace, best not to get too close. We still don't know how they were poisoned." Qyburn insisted.

Of course, Cersei being Cersei, she ignored him.

She climbed the ladder and peered down to find multiple men with dried blood flowing from their mouth and nose, dead.

"This looks much like what happened to the Freys." She commented, climbing down. "Any reason to believe it was the same person?"

"We don't know, Your Grace. In the attack on the Freys, it was a young woman. Here, there are no witnesses and no idea what killed them."

"Where did they get the gold?"

"We're not sure, Your Grace."

"Well, what are you sure of?"

"We must take extra precautions, especially with the summit."

"This has my brother written all over it."

"Pardon me, Your Grace. But, I did not know Tyrion was so skilled with poisons."

"He's not."

But someone else was. More than a few someones actually.

Most of which had a reason to hate her, and wish to cause her harm.

Only they had chosen to do so indirectly. Not by killing her, but by further tipping the scales in favour of the Dragon Queen.

The only question; which one of her enemies had decided to act on their hate?

(A/N: Can anyone guess where I drew inspiration for this chapter?)