The Magisters of Myr had gathered in a massive hall inside the city. This was the command base of the Magisters for the upcoming war.
The previous evening, they had received the message and ultimatum from Lord Aeos, and since then, it had unleashed a massive debate among the power holders of the city.
An initial round of intense discussion and heated debate had occurred that very evening. Due to various responsibilities involving the upcoming battles, not all the Magisters had been able to participate in that informal kind of meeting, but even then, it had been highly chaotic. The tense atmosphere and their own anxiety had almost made them all short tempered and prone to anger. It was as if the pressure had caused them to lose their sense of decision making and rationality.
The next day, a formal meeting of the Magisters was convened, for which every Magister had freed themselves from their respective tasks to attend. Apart from them, more than a dozen top commanders of the Myrish army were also participating in the meeting.
"I believe that every one of you has already read the message we received yesterday from Lord Aeos," an old Magister, one of the most senior and influential among them, began, opening the meeting as he gestured toward the parchment lying on the table between the Magisters. "And I also do not need to state what purpose we have for calling this meeting."
"We have to make a choice. It is either surrender to Lord Aeos and accept him as our sovereign or we go to war against his massive army," he added, spreading his hands. "Make your choices."
(POV Florosol)
My name is Florosol. I am an old man in my late seventies. I am an old, weak and frail man. There is hardly any strength left inside my body to even lift a sword. Yet, here I am, lifting such a heavy, big, massive, and significant responsibility.
Did it make me nervous and anxious? Of course it did. In a moment, when you understand my responsibility, you will surely agree with me.
At any point in time, did I want to give up this responsibility? No. Not for a single moment. Before I explain that responsibility, let me share a few things about myself.
I was a slave. Yes, a slave. A fortunate slave to whom Lord Aeos brought liberation. I am a resident of Astapor, where I used to work for one of the Good Masters.
Call it my fortune, but even when I was a slave, I got a lucky opportunity to read and write early in my life. My Good Master, a shrewd man, recognized this talent of mine and arranged for me to become educated. Not every man whom the Good Masters owned was required to fight.
Apart from soldiers, they needed cooks and servants who could perform menial tasks, as well as people who could act as assistants in their businesses, perhaps to keep records, handle numbers, and manage tasks like that.
I was, of course, not his most senior worker, if you would call me that. There were a few men above me, and then there was me. But I was quite good at my tasks and talented.
My Good Master was a hot headed and arrogant man. He did not surrender to Lord Aeos when the city was captured and, hence, was killed in action. Lady Slyvia had personally cleaved his head off his neck and I have to admit that it had been quite a pleasing sight to look at.
I was liberated and freed. And then, I was hired to work in the new administration of Lord Aeos.
It was then, while I was tasked with training a few younger people, that I encountered Lord Aeos. He recognized my talent and offered me this large but risky responsibility. Having nothing else, no family or friends to live for, I decided to live for that goal.
And now that I have almost been successful in it, once it is finally all over, I can spend all my remaining days in peace and satisfaction.
Lord Aeos is a very brilliant man. From the very beginning, his aim was clear in his mind, and so were his plans. Which Free City he would take over first had been clear to him since the very start.
And so were his ideas and theories. From the very beginning, he had been clear and had constantly insisted that capturing any city was easier if it was done from the inside. All that planned revolution and revolt that happened in Yunkai and Meereen and that which would happen in Lys and Tyrosh was a part of his plan.
But Myr was somewhat different. No, not the city itself. Organizing a revolt here was no different than in its other two counterparts.
What was different was that Lord Aeos himself was coming for this city. And he wanted to use this opportunity to make a statement. A massive statement to everyone in Essos. He wanted to awe them and shock them. And thus, a slightly different method was chosen for Myr.
As I said, he believed in opening the gates from the inside and capturing the city from within. But a revolt was not the only way.
The Magisters were a greedy, predatory, heinous, and money-grubbing kind of men. It was a certainty that one could find a few of them in every city who would be willing to sell their home for a position of power, for a lucrative business deal, or even directly for coins. And hence, the grand plan began.
A list of Magisters was prepared, according to their personalities, which we had compiled based on the reports of our spies regarding who was most susceptible to these kinds of deals. It was a slow and arduous task.
Men first approached them with business deals regarding Lord Aeos's alcohol, his cement, his brick, and his paint. A relationship was developed and then slowly built upon.
Not everyone took the bait, but a few did. They showed signs that they would be willing to betray their city, and to them, direct offers were made and they agreed.
A couple of them, in both Lys and Tyrosh, had disagreed, but before they could reveal the plot to anyone, accidents had claimed their lives. It goes without saying that it was we who arranged for those accidents.
I was the one who served as the representative for this relationship in the city of Myr. Here, we had four Magisters, out of a total of more than two dozen, working for Lord Aeos. They were certainly not enough to make all the Magisters agree to surrender the city. But they were enough to accomplish what we planned to do in Myr.
[I think it would be clear by now why the Magisters in Lys, Chapter 172, had suddenly turned against their own counterparts. They were bought off.]
[The next chapter would be the last chapter of this invasion arc and from the story would move forwards. There were a few comments about Jon missing in action despite being the main character. Hopefully, we will see more of him from now on.]
[But we must also keep in mind that though he is the MC of my story, GOT is a very very vast world with lots of significant storylines and characters. Thus, to do justice to all of them, it would be natural that he would not be part of all the chapters and plots.]
[There were a few criticisms about my POV chapters too. True, I could write these POV chapters in third person too but for whatever reason I enjoy the POV chapters. I feel that the POV chapters make more sense and seeing things from the perspective of the person who is doing these actions gives a different connection. Also, it is not like that these characters would become part of the mainline story. They are here just for one or couple of chapters.]
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