"By the Mother's mercy, I watched with my own eyes as he was guided to heaven by the Holy Sparrows." Illyrio smiled in relief.
"Then do you know why Aegon was able to enter heaven?"
"Aegon was a good child. From a young age, he was taught by Lady Ashara and Ser Clinton, devout in his faith and faithful to the knightly code, and thus received the Mother's protection."
As he spoke and smiled, sorrow crept back across the old face beneath his heavy eye bags, adding another layer of wrinkles.
"Aegon may have been devout, but he was originally not qualified to enter heaven." Sansa then recounted how the Dragon Queen had transferred a saint's qualification to him.
"You must be joking. Even a place in heaven can be transferred?" Illyrio found it hard to believe.
"Daenerys, like the Holy Sparrow, is a holy child of the Seven. You have seen the Holy Sparrow descend to the mortal world, haven't you? He is remarkable now, serving as a guide to heaven and managing a heavenly island for the Mother."
Thinking of the Great Sparrow he had once seen, the fat merchant began to believe her. A strange light slowly appeared in his gaze as he looked at his daughter-in-law. "So what is it you want to do? You refused to see me at all before, yet today you not only see me, you also tell me so much."
"I met Daenerys at Winterfell. She will not spare you, but she does not blame Aegon, nor does she resent me or the child in my womb," Sansa said calmly.
"That is good, very good." The fat man's eyes lit up again as he said happily. "No wonder the Mother chose her as a holy child. Daenerys is completely different from her father."
"More than that, she also acknowledged Aegon as a Targaryen and still recognizes the 'one house, two branches' of that day. My child will be the sole heir of Black Sword Targaryen, whose ancestor was Aegon Targaryen the Fourth."
With every sentence Sansa spoke, Illyrio's eyes widened a little more.
"What you're saying, is it all true?" His face was filled with disbelief.
"Otherwise, why would I come to you?" Sansa's expression was cold.
Illyrio slowly regained his composure and asked with dawning understanding, "What do you want from me?"
"Everything."
"Everything?" Illyrio raised his brows. "Aegon was my only son. If you bear him a child, everything I have can be given to you. But what do you want it for?"
Sansa stroked her abdomen, where the pulse beat strongly. Her gaze was firm as iron. "I do not know what I should do next, nor how far I can go, but I will fight with my life to secure the very best of everything for my child."
"Good. Very good!" Illyrio seemed to have been struck at his most sensitive point. His eyes shone, and he was so excited he could barely contain himself. "You may not be a good wife, but you are certainly a good mother."
"How am I not a good wife?" Sansa frowned.
"If you were a good wife, you should not have allowed Aegon to be burned alive. In this regard, you are not even as good as Daenerys." Illyrio did not conceal his resentment toward his daughter-in-law.
"I did not know Stannis would…" After offering a brief defense, Sansa immediately withdrew the bitterness from her face and said coolly, "What happened between Aegon and me is none of your concern. When he descended from heaven, he did not mention you even once."
"Descended from heaven?" Illyrio was momentarily dumbfounded.
"Aegon did not see me before he died, and there was always a knot in his heart. Fortunately, the Mother was merciful and allowed him to leave heaven and descend to the mortal world once. Last night, I spoke with him at length in my dreams."
"That's possible?" The fat man half believed it, yet when he recalled that even the Great Sparrow could manifest in the mortal realm, Aegon appearing in a dream did not seem impossible.
"So he still refuses to forgive me? I am the same as you. Everything I did was to let the child obtain the very best," he said dejectedly.
"You are not the same as me. My child will live amid honor, flowers, and applause, clean and untainted for a lifetime," Sansa said coldly.
"I sincerely hope everything you say will come true." Illyrio looked at his daughter-in-law's belly and said in a deep voice, "What do I need to do?"
"First, tell me about your assets in Pentos."
"Palaces, shops, ships, estates. There are too many. I cannot remember them all. I would need the account books."
"How much grain and how many guards do you have?" Sansa frowned.
"Only two hundred reliable guards. They are of no use to you, but I have prepared a great deal of grain."
The fat man smiled smugly. "Long ago, I learned from Daenerys that the Long Night was coming, so I began stockpiling grain and acquiring farmland in large quantities.
"After that, to help Aegon conquer Westeros, and to help him win hearts and minds after taking King's Landing, I spent millions of gold dragons purchasing grain without limit from the market.
"Up to now, the total amount of wheat, butter, and smoked meat I prepared for him exceeds five hundred thousand tons. It is enough to maintain the grain supply of King's Landing until the True Dragon Alliance captures the granaries of the Reach.
"Unfortunately, fate has been far too unjust to me. A thousand calculations and ten thousand plans, all ruined because of someone who had almost been eliminated…"
"What is the point of saying all this now?" Sansa interrupted his complaints impatiently. Her eyes flickered with excited light as she asked, "Is all that grain at Storm's End?"
The fat merchant shook his head. "Storm's End is only a temporary base. Shipping five thousand tons there is enough to sustain the army's daily consumption.
"After that, two hundred thousand tons were gradually transported to Dragonstone. The rest is stored in granaries in Pentos and Myr."
"Dragonstone?" Sansa frowned.
"Aegon's target is King's Landing!" Illyrio said with a creased face. "Dragonstone sits right at King's Landing's front gate, and Dragonstone is still safe."
"That batch of grain is probably unrecoverable," Sansa sighed.
"Dragonstone is not short of grain," Illyrio said uncertainly.
"Leave that batch alone for now. You are to leave the Vale immediately and transfer all the remaining grain to Tarth," Sansa said solemnly.
"Tarth? Why not Storm's End?" The fat merchant looked completely baffled.
Sansa shook her head and sighed helplessly. "Stannis is growing ever stronger, and at any time he might decide to reclaim his ancestral seat.
"He has a winged dragon corps, and the Baratheon name carries far more influence in the Stormlands than Aegon's. With dragons working alongside the Stormlands lords, taking Storm's End would not be difficult.
"And Tarth's position relative to Storm's End is like Dragonstone's to King's Landing. Both sit within the gateway bay.
"Brienne is the sole heir of Tarth and also one of my only two vassals at present.
"She is absolutely loyal to me and far more reliable than the Golden Company.
"If anything unexpected happens, the Golden Company can immediately withdraw to Tarth to preserve its strength.
"At this moment, Storm's End absolutely cannot be treated as a foundational base, but in the future…"
At this point, a dim and inscrutable gleam seemed to veil Sansa's blue eyes. "I did not bring Rickon to the Eyrie this time just to find Robert some company.
"If Winterfell can hold, that is best. If it cannot, then so be it.
"The Starks have not never lost their ancestral seat before. Even if it is breached by the Others once again, it does not matter. As long as the Starks live, there is still hope.
"Stannis intends to challenge the Night King beneath Winterfell. If Winterfell falls, he will certainly have died in battle already.
"At that time, Storm's End will become another foundational stronghold for Black Sword Targaryen and the Starks.
"And Storm's End lies south of King's Landing. With both troops and grain, it will certainly last longer than Euron and Cersei."
Illyrio's expression changed. "You have not given up on the Iron Throne?"
Sansa sneered. "Why should I give it up? There is a Targaryen in my womb, and Daenerys still adheres to the oath that the one who ends the Long Night shall be king.
"As long as all my rivals die, I may not have no chance."
"You are relying only on Brienne and that other person?" Illyrio knit his brows, filled with worry.
Sansa smiled confidently. "Brienne and my great-uncle Brynden Tully, plus the Golden Company.
"In terms of how solid the foundation is, it actually surpasses Stannis at present.
"Of course, I am not foolish. My child deserves the very best. The Iron Throne is only the highest goal.
"If Stannis truly can resolve the Night King, I will lead the Golden Company and that batch of grain to swear fealty to him in exchange for a duke's title."
Hearing his daughter-in-law lay out such grand yet exceedingly pragmatic plans, Illyrio finally put his mind completely at ease.
"Good. I will help you with all my strength. Besides grain and gold, I also maintain a hundred-man assassin organization. Along with Varys's intelligence network, I will give them all to you."
"You even have an assassin organization?" Sansa asked in delight.
"Among the major Free Cities across the Narrow Sea, which merchant prince does not keep a group of water dancer assassins? They assassinate others and prevent others from assassinating us," Illyrio said with a wry smile.
Even he himself was a top-tier water dancer.
Without superb swordsmanship, he would never have lived to this day.
"Very good. We will remain behind the scenes and watch them perform." A long-missed, unrestrained smile appeared on Sansa's face. "Now, I am going to see Stannis and ask why he has yet to fulfill his agreement with Daenerys."
The Second Stag had no intention of going back on his word.
After returning from the Wall, he followed the Dragon Queen's advice, donned Aegon's Valyrian steel armor, and demanded that Melisandre accompany him to the North to fight the Night King to the death.
Mel, however, was a thousand times unwilling.
"You are not ready yet. Just as Azor Ahai needed to sacrifice his wife to forge the Red Sword, you too must sacrifice the one you love most to forge your own unique 'Red Sword,' the demigod demon dragon Vhagar," she urged him bitterly.
To prove that her words were not false, after replenishing their magic, the two once again stood together by the hearth and peered into the future through the flames.
Within the fire, the Second Stag saw the blurred figure of the Night King. The other seemed to sense something, and then the savior and the Night King locked eyes across the void for the first time.
Under the gaze of those eyes radiating blue light, the Second Stag's soul was nearly frozen to pieces. He saw endless ice, darkness, and death. It was as if a giant hand clenched his heart and dragged him violently toward hell.
At that moment, the Second Stag felt bone-deep terror.
"Do you understand now?" Mel waved her hand. The hearth flames roared upward and then exploded violently. The Night King's icy blue gaze vanished, and the Second Stag broke free from the soul-seizing terror, gasping for breath, drenched in sweat.
"Your Majesty, you are not ready yet." The red-robed woman gently stroked his sweat-soaked back and sighed softly. "You need the demon dragon. Those who undertake great deeds, how can they do so without sacrifice?"
"Shireen is my daughter. She is my heir," the Second Stag said hoarsely.
His gaze gradually cleared as he continued, "Daenerys will help me. The Three-Eyed Crow will also help me. I do not believe their aid is inferior to that of a demon dragon whose power is still unknown.
"Daenerys alone has three demon dragons at her side."
Mel froze, rendered speechless.
After a long while, she finally said softly, "They are very powerful, but are they worthy of trust?
"Daenerys is still competing with you for the Iron Throne. The greenseer is a servant of the Cold God. Are you truly at ease entrusting your back to those two?"
"I have no choice. The Wall has fallen, the Others march south, and the Seven Kingdoms stand on the brink," the Second Stag said with a pained expression. "You, more than anyone else, should understand that the primary reason I contend for the Iron Throne is the savior's mission."
Mel was stunned.
(End of chapter)
Want to read the chapters in Advance? Join my Patreon
https://patreon.com/Glimmer09