Ironing out Details

A/N: Well guys, I just barely managed to get this chapter ready for the 5 month anniversary since my story began, in my time zone at least. But here it is and as the 70th chapter no less. That's quite a lot of progress in a short time frame if you ask me and I am glad so many of you have remained with me, reading and commenting. So, thanks a lot. For now, enjoy it. And here is to 70 chapters more! :D

Jon Stark apologized profusely to Tycho Nestoris for spitting on him by accident but the high-ranking official replied that, honestly, he had brought that on himself for revealing the tremendous amount of money they would be giving him while he was drinking across from him. Still, Jon remained silent for a long moment, trying to imagine such gigantic wealth and probably coming up short, since it sounded beyond his wildest dreams.

The banker finished drying himself with a napkin and before his cough interrupted his contemplations. "I imagine you have questions."

"Too many to count right now," Jon muttered. "Why don't you walk me through the most important details? I imagine there must be conditions for all of this, even if it's not an actual loan."

"You are very perceptive, King Jon," Tycho responded with a nod of approval. "As you say, there are conditions to this agreement. You see, in the past, we would have provided you with all the funding, or goods and services purchased with those funds, that our alliance with the greatest order of the assassins in the world required of us, within a few years. That's what we did for House Martell, you see. However, in case you are not aware, the Faceless Men operate under the premise that the price to be paid for their services must be proportional to the wealth of their clients or at least for what they are willing to offer," He explained. "That costly practice began so that the people who sought out their services would be as sure as they could be that they really, really wanted their target dead, because according to members of the order, the gift of **** should not be given lightly or by the underserving. It also allows poorer people to partake in their...religious contracts since the value they will have to pay scales with how much or how little wealth they can offer."

"As a result," The servant went on, "they also applied that proportional value to the Iron Bank on the rare occasions they demand us to honor the monetary part of our agreement. And since the Iron Bank is not only the richest financial institution in the known world by far but also much more wealthy right now than we were 300 years ago, and in no small part thanks to the large cuts we receive from all the contracts of the Faceless Men, the amount of money we would have to give you in this day and age would be much higher than what we gave House Martell centuries ago. Hence the 50 million sum."

"I see," The secret god said slowly. "I suppose that makes sense in this case then, based on their methods."

Tycho simply nodded before taking a deep breath. "Back then we gave House Martell the equivalent of around 15 million golden dragons. However, due to our desire to keep that alliance in the shadows, and the need for the rulers of Dorne to keep their scattered people feed, clothed, and armed during the long and fiery years that Aegon and Visenya Targaryen put every keep and holdfast of the arid region the torch except for Sunspear through the use of their dragons, Balerion and Vhagar, we didn't actually give them that much gold. Rather, they preferred to receive a constant stream of food and supplies around their long coastline during the night, which was then distributed among the different pockets of resistance in order to sustain their war effort," He said in-depth as explanations flowed from him.

"That said," The banker added as he went on, "your situation is not exactly the same. It true that you still have to deal with the usurpers at your ancestral home and I imagine the government of the Iron Throne is not just going to let you go without a fight if they can help it, you will probably have to fight a war or two at the beginning of your reign. More than that, because of the interests in our agreement with the Faceless Men, you have more gold to spare in this arrangement than the Martells did back then."

Jon scratched his chin as he pondered the matter. "True. And I must say I am impressed, as this would clearly mean that the last few centuries must have been truly profitable for your bank if the interests have risen so much. Still, winter has very nearly arrived in Westeros and the landscape of the North is already too full of snow in most places to be able to farm properly. With such enormous financial aid, I would be most interested in using much of the money to buy excess food from elsewhere so that my people will be less likely to starve, especially considering that if the Maesters are right, it will last longer than the last 10 year-long summer."

The high-ranking official smiled. "I was hoping you would say that. Not just because it shows you to be a competent leader that can think ahead of such a large pile of gold in order to improve the future of his people but also because of one of the conditions we would require you to accept."

"And that one is...?" The young king pressed on.

"That whenever you seek to use these specific funds for purchases of food, weapons, and supplies across the Narrow Sea, allow the people of Braavos to offer you their services first, before looking elsewhere in Essos," Nestoris responded. "To clarify, you can still use that money to buy other supplies from the rest of Westeros that your people may need in winter and in the wars to come without issue but, given how poor the weather conditions will get soon enough and how ravaged much of your continent has become in recent years, your kingdom is unlikely to get everything they may require from other further south. Especially among the kingdoms where there is bad blood against the North right now."

"And that is where you intend to come in to fill in the void of our economy, I take it?" Jon asked with a neutral expression, his fingers interlocked.

"Indeed," The banker confirmed with a nod. "Of course, there may be times where Braavos won't have enough quantities of the supplies you require, in which case you are free to seek out more goods and services from elsewhere in Essos. But we demand that Braavos becomes the first choice of your government to spend money on across the Narrow sea in exchange for whatever it is you may require."

"Hmph," Jon hummed, thinking. "I suppose that's more than fair. That said, we will have to make an additional account in order to differentiate between the money you would be giving me then and other sources of income I would get from my kingdom, like taxes, or returns on investments I would get from projects I would begin financing with this financial aid."

"That has already been contemplated by the Council of Secret Investments," Tycho said in agreement. "Moreover, we are in the process of updating the previous account you made with me to the Ruler's Section under the name King of the North and the Trident."

Then he paused for a moment as he lightly tapped the surface of his wooden desk. "Which brings me to my next point. If at any moment, whether by circumstance, by rights of conquest, by popular support across Westeros, or anything else, you happen to gain control of the Government of the Seven Kingdoms, then you would be inheriting its debt to the Iron Bank, which, at last count, stands at over 23 million golden dragons."

The secret god's eyes widened at that. "I know wars swallow gold like a pit in the earth but I was not aware they were so much in debt, especially with the Lannisters in charge of that iron chair."

"Well, you see, not many outside this walls know about this," The high-ranking official continued. "but Casterly Rock ran out of gold mines a few years ago."

The dragonrider's jaw dropped at that, his mind alight with that revelation. "Seriously?"

"We are talking about an unfortunate situation that has cost the Iron Bank a lot of gold," Nestoris pointed out. "Believe me, King Jon, I would not joke about this."

The legitimized Stark was silent for a long moment as he took that in. Now their motivations for backing him up made even more sense. They want their loans paid back in full and they may also be hoping that with all that wealth I may have a much easier chance to open a path to the Iron Throne. And like he had told himself during that restless night after conversing with Sarella Sand, that could very well happen if he played well the cards that were dealt to him by the hand of fate.

Suddenly, a bolt of inspiration struck him as a mad, seemingly counter-intuitive idea came to mind. But the plan sounded like such a good investment in the long run that he couldn't just ignore the possibility. He ended up masking his features and started to address the banker's latest condition.

"What I am about to say must not be repeated outside these walls," Jon stressed with a firm tone of voice. "But I suppose I can share some relevant, royal secrets of my own after everything you are revealing to me, along with your enormous offer of gold."

Tycho nodded in understanding. "We value the price of discretion here at the Iron Bank. Do not worry, your Grace."

"Well, in that case, then know that after I am done retaking my ancestral home, I will begin preparing my armies to invade and conquer the Iron Islands," The King of the North and the Trident declared. "Arya revealed to me that the reason she tried to escape the order of the Faceless Men was that she learned that their current king, Euron Greyjoy, was planning to offer them a rare dragon egg in exchange for establishing a contract that would result in my ****. And that. Will. Not. Stand." He vowed. "Especially not after all the carnage that the Ironborn put the North through during the War of the Five Kings, under the order of Euron's brother. And even if he hadn't put a price on my head, I simply can't ensure the stability of my newly established kingdom with those raiders constantly attacking our western shores. So, yes, I do intend to expand my domains," The secret god confirmed.

"I see," The banker said slowly. "Certainly a better cause to start a war than many others I have heard about. Any other kingdom that has caught your attention?"

Jon tilted his head as he stared at his new ally with a calculating gaze. Then he shrugged. "I have come to realize that it is quite possible the Lords of the Vale may decide to break away from the Iron Throne and declare for me as their king, due to many reasons but time will tell in the end. Other than that, I recently established a non-aggression pact with the Reach through Lady Olenna, the influential matriarch of House Tyrell, during my visit to White Harbor. Between us, they appear to be seeking to disentangle themselves from the Iron Throne but we hadn't established any concrete alliance that would be solid enough for the Reach to join my kingdom. Well, not yet anyway," He added, as he thought back on the veiled marriage proposal Olenna offered between Margaery Tyrell and him.

His eyes widened as he remembered that he hadn't actually made the wish he had been carefully wordsmithing on his way to Braavos that would ensure the secret escape of Sansa's friend from the prison of the Faith's Militant, along with her brother and father. Raising his glass of water again, he slowly began drinking so that he wouldn't have to answer immediately while he mentally willed his thoughts into reality. About half a minute later, the three of them were safe on a ship bound for White Harbor and any injuries Arya would have sustained during the fight with that acolyte and her superiors would have been fully healed.

On the other chair, Tycho Nestoris was none the wiser about the important rescue the king before him had just implemented in a matter of seconds without moving from the spot, despite being an entire sea away from the city those events took place. Jon put the now empty glass of water back on the table and put on his most unreadable expression.

"Well," The high-ranking official said as he scratched his chin slightly, "If those plans go your way, then that would mean you would have over half of the territories of Westeros that are south of the Wall under your rule. Hmph. That's not the entirety of the Seven Kingdoms but if you get that far, it would be quite likely that eventually the rest of the regions would follow suit, especially with the Stormlands and the Westerlands so weakened by the last war, to say nothing of the current succession crisis in Dorne and the chaos in King's Landing by now. I suppose we can afford to wait on that front."

"You are assuming I actually want control of all of the Seven Kingdoms," Jon pointed out. "You could be wrong."

The banker shrugged. "We could be. However, if what you say about the Army of the Dead is true, I believe you would not like to waste a golden opportunity to unify most of Westeros under one banner."

The former Lord Commander of the Night's Watch sighed. "I suppose you have a point there. But like I said, time will tell if that is what will actually happen."

"Indeed. Now, let's talk about the last three biggest conditions," He urged. "Another one is that, once your position of power has been consolidated, you must sign a treaty with the Sealord of Braavos where our domains would enter a military alliance for the next 50 years at the very least. We hadn't sorted out all the specifics for that treaty as of now and Braavos hasn't really had a war with other Free Cities for a while now but it pays to be prepared. Moreover, if you would rather not send your armies to support us for whatever reason, then we would require you to pay us money from the 50 million sum so that we can use it to hire sellsword companies in order to improve our defenses. Technically, if we would decide not to support you with our own soldiers for the first half a decade after the treaty is signed, the vast amounts of money we already have reserved for you would be considered a valid enough compensation for that," The servant clarified. "But after that, we can help each other on more martial terms when the need arises."

The secret god took a moment to consider the potential ramifications of such an alliance. Some of his highborn subjects might dislike the idea of eventually getting dragged into a conflict across the Narrow Sea but even without taking the tremendous amount of money they would be giving him into account, and how could they not, such a mighty alliance would make many think twice before attacking either of their territories. To say nothing of all the mutual benefits in times of crisis.

"I would have to read that treaty very carefully before agreeing to sign it," The young king remarked. "However, from what you are saying, it sounds like an acceptable condition to me and likely to prove mutually beneficial in the long run. If the terms stay that way instead of getting crucially altered, I believe we can establish a formal alliance."

"That is gratifying to hear," Tycho responded with a nod. "So, let's continue. The fourth condition is that for the next 15 years, 8 out of every 10 ships you would be financing for the construction and expansion of your military fleet must be constructed in the Arsenal of Braavos. We are your fastest option to make a vast fleet anywhere in the known world at any rate so it's not a bad compromise if you ask me."

"Hmm, if your fabled Arsenal can really construct a warship in a single day, then it would be unwise of me to say no to that arrangement," Jon said in agreement. "And it would allow more wealth to flow into Braavos as part of the deal. Very well, sound reasonable."

"In that case, now we just have to discuss the condition concerning how frequently we would be sending you that gigantic amount of money," Nestoris said. "As you can imagine, 50 million golden dragons is an immense quantity of wealth, even for us. We can pay for it and we have even more money than that under our control but we are concerned that if we send you the entire sum at once, it would end up devaluating the price of gold in much of Westeros and the Free Cities and provoke an enormous economic crisis eventually. So, we have decided to give you 10 million golden dragons, to begin with, so that you can consolidate your kingship, pay for the supplies your people will need to prepare for winter, and finance the wars you'll need to fight early on in your reign," He explained. "After that, however, we would just be giving you one million golden dragons per year for the next 4 decades until all 50 million golden dragons have been handed over to you. And if you happen to die before the final payment, then the money will go to your successor. Is that acceptable?

"Of course," The King of the North and the Trident said with a nod. "After all, I wasn't even expecting to get this financial backing from you when I flew to Braavos to bring my sister back to Westeros with me. But if you are determined to honor your agreement with the Faceless Men, then I have no complaints about this condition. It is certainly fair enough."

The high ranking official smirked, seemingly pleased with himself. "Then it's settled then. I truly believe this could be the start of a very profitable partnership, King Jon. And the Iron Bank is always pleased to be of service."

Tycho Nestoris offered his hand and Jon shook it, solidifying the initial stage of their agreement.

"Now that we have taken care of this order of business, I am going to look for the High Priestess of the Temple of the Moonsingers and accompany her to this room," The banker told him. "She is quite anxious to speak with you. Please wait here. I will return shortly."

And with that, he left Jon alone in the office, now that they had made the deal of the century.

A/N: Well, that takes care of most of the finer details of the business with the Iron Bank. I imagine it may not have been that interesting for some of you but I needed to explain and establish their mutually beneficial relationship at some point due to the future plans I have in mind. Plus, remember that this is Game of Thrones. Political machinations are kind of ingrained in the themes and plotlines of this franchise. Anyway, I hope you found some things to enjoy in this chapter, and until next time guys, see ya!