novelraw Chapter 155: Mind and Body
Chapter 155: Mind and Body
Chapter 155: Mind and Body
Forgive the delay in publication, dear readers...
As a modest gesture of apology, a double publication!
Happy Reading!
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POV: Barbrey
Never Winter Bank.
About a minute after the name of a new institution was announced to the world...
Pyrotechnics erupted the instant after the announcement.
A few drops of Wildfire and coloured firework powders created a magnificent spectacle throughout the hall.
One hundred stone cauldrons lit up simultaneously, creating green and silver light shows. The monumental candelabra in the centre dominated the firework of lights with a small red and white sun.
It was a small birthday present from Barbrey for her partner.
The candelabra began to sprinkle flakes of soft silvery faux ash, like bright white snow...
Barbrey sought out the birthday boy's gaze, and he fixed it, bowing his head with a slight smile of thanks. A smile that the lady returned. This chapter is updated by
Then... both gazes became more serious.
'The moment of truth... at least 100,000,000.' Barbrey thought with slight anxiety mixed with shivers of excitement.
{Hundred Million Gold Coins} was the minimum sum the Never Winter Bank had to be able to raise to stand a chance of competing against the furious, rich and ruthless Titan...
At the time, the Platinum veins shown were nothing more than a stage trick.
A compelling visual means belting the Bank of Braavos founded inside an Iron Mine.
In fact, the precious metal, yes, was present in the mountain, but the mine was not yet profitable enough to be called such. The mountain was certainly not Casterly Rock.
The chief miner and many other experts in the field estimated, in the rosiest prospect, a thousandth the amount of platinum compared to the overflowing golden rock found by the ancestors of House Casterly and Lannister.
On top of that, the rock was tremendously hard to work, and mineral veins were scarce. So even digging at total capacity, the Never Winter Bank was unlikely to make more than 8,000 gold dragons a month...
A relatively paltry sum compared to the Bank's exorbitant needs.
The North needed urgent liquidity to meet all the hyper-expansionist challenges the First Men would face in the next three years.
And Braavos was not going to sit idly by - no.
The Iron Bank would certainly have aggressively attacked the Never Winter Bank on all fronts.
Oldtown held the first place of war superiority in the Known World, but not even the combined resources of the Second, Third and Fourth World Organisations could rival the mammoth stockpile of gold and riches crammed into the Titan's coffers.
The Trade sector was Braavos' favourite battlefield, and no one had so far managed to wrest any notable victories against the World's Greatest Economic Super-Power...
Ronan estimated at least 1,500,000,000 gold coins in funds-deposits, and at least 700,000,000 shares. And that was the estimate for the mere liquid coinage available to the Council of Braavos...
Between: magical artefacts, Valyrian steel, mana stones, jewellery, precious stones, unknown treasures, real estate, ships, and holdings in a variety of business sectors, crammed and well guarded in only the Old Gods knew which remote corners of the world, the Iron Bank boasted total assets worth between 4 and 5,000,000,000 gold coins (approximately $ 40,000,000,000,000).
The Fourth World Organisation did not even hold a tenth of the assets. Yet, the Spider Queen had chosen to invest 30,000,000 gold coins in the Never Winter Bank, risking almost a third of the organisation's liquidity in the Bloody Snow & The Frosty Spice Queen project.
The investment agreed upon the year before saw 'only' 10,000,000 golden coins. Still, both The Watcher and the Spider Queen had not taken particularly kindly to the Titan's rudeness in moving against Zick's young heir immediately after the end of the protection period.
In response, Madame Zishua had not only tripled her investment but had also pulled several strings and called in several favours to get many of The Watcher's 'friends' to change their trusted financial institution and move their gold to a more promising Bank...
Almost half of those famous 41 million, taken from the Iron Bank in the last few months, belonged to the hundreds of wealthy merchants, warlords, nobles and heirs of Essos who owed one or more favours to the Fourth Organisation.
A young man in his early twenties, clad in full black ceremonial silk robes adorned with platinum trimmings, descended the steps, positioning himself one step down to Barbrey's right.
Ronan Atreides respectfully bow to the audience, uttering no words but expressing all his confidence with his gaze and bearing.
Barbrey could not help but enjoy the brief moment of astonishment, rancour and jealousy that the eyes of the boy's former Master Trainee expressed in that instant.
"But even the best Mind in the world needs a vigorous Body to protect it.
Therefore, let us give a second welcome to the steadfast left arm of this new institution...
From the distant lands of IB Nor, the current Commander-in-Chief of the Company of the Rose!
One of the last descendants of Beris Stark, cousin of the last King in the North, Torrhen Stark, and
current New Executive Chief of Security and Trade for Foreign Affairs of the Never Winter Bank...Commander Cregan Ilayx Winter!"
A second man made his entrance, but unlike the first, he was twice as old, a much stockier and taller build, and was lined in steel, fur and leather of the highest quality the Bank of the North could offer as a gift.
It only took one glance to realise that this individual had been hardened by countless battles and that the rank of Commander-in-Chief had not been inherited by mere descent but earned by sweat, blood and steel...
Cregan bore a fair resemblance to Brandon Stark, with the same hair, a similar square jaw and a wild yet martial bearing that only an actual Alpha Wolf could display. However... 'the look'... That look was much sharper and more ruthless.
Those were the eyes of a man in perpetual contact with death and suffering.
The various scars on his face decorated the pale, hard skin almost artistically, marking the seriousness of the northern man.
It had not been easy to gain favour and cooperation with the Company of the Rose.
It took more than a year, dozens of messenger delegates, various gifts and gestures of friendship to achieve just one face-to-face meeting with Cregan Ilayx Winter.
A meeting that Barbrey was forced to take part in great secrecy in Sisterton...
The exiled descendants of Torrhen Stark vowed never to set foot on their homeland again until the North was once again the independent kingdom it once was, and the Old Crown of Iron and Bronze was once more worn by the Kings of Winter...
The members belonging to that Sellswords were no ordinary mercenaries.
Over the centuries, the Titan had signed hundreds of Iron contracts with almost every sellswords from Tyrosh down to Qarth, always keeping some captain, lieutenant or officer in each Company in reserve in case the current commanders-in-chief chose not to honour the agreement...
Should the need arise, Braavos could even force even the Golden Company, a company famous for its loyalty, to never break a contractual agreement, to dissolve minor contracts and benefit exclusively from their services.
History recalls Aegon Rivers, known as Bittersteel as the founder of the centuries-old Company, but few know where and at what price the bastard of Aegon IV had found the funds and resources to set it up from nothing.
Golden Company, Second Sons, Company of the Cat, the Stormcrows, Gallant Men, Long Lances, Jolly Fellows, Iron Shields, Windblown, Bright Banners, and so many others, too many to name... Almost all the major and minor sellswords in Central Essos were secretly in the grasp of the Iron Bank.
Only one major company, outside the control of the High Tower, Carcosa or the Spider Queen, continued to resist the insistent enticements, offers and manoeuvres of control of the First Four World Organisations... The Company of the Rose.
Five thousand swords and pikes, one thousand heavy knights, two thousand light knights, and two thousand archers and crossbowmen tempered mainly by perpetual skirmishes against Khalasar Dothraki, marauders and pirates. Loyal mercenaries in the service of one grand island that, three centuries earlier, welcomed and provided shelter to the exiled First Men in their time of need...
To wrest from the hands of IB and New Ibbis, their strongest and most trusted militia had not been an easy achievement, nor had it been achieved on the cheap...
Barrowton and Torrhen's Square had bestowed various facilities and trade agreements with the Ibbenese. Moreover, the Never Winter Bank had promised the IB Council the funds and resources to double the numbers of the Company of the Rose so as not to deprive them of their trusted militia...
As for convincing the Commanders and officers-in-chief of the company itself... well, it had been a different kettle of fish.
Mountains of gold, inexhaustible stockpiles of Karstark leather, thousands of Ryswell stallions and war mares, shares in the Never Winter Bank, and even Damascus Steel... nothing seemed enough to move the 'Honourable-Testardness' of the officers of the Rose Company one inch.
The not-yet-official 'Green Council' was even forced to reveal a few hands earlier than expected.
Lady Barbrey's latest offer disarmed the immovable distant descendants of the Starks...
The Administrator of the Never Winter Bank glanced at her trusty new shield, recalling the climax of that arduous and exhausting negotiation.
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End Chapter.
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