Asha

A storm brewed to the east. It seemed the storms were always brewing to the east despite the fact that her storm was more south than east, but brewing it was. The Ironborn would descend on Pyke and one of them would kill Euron Crow's Eye.

He was sitting in her chair.

"Captain," Lorren said, "Lord Gylbert is refusing us entrance, what would you have us do?"

Asha looked out at the island. It was a stony cliff face jetting out in the middle of the Sunset Sea like a knife from the Drowned God attempting to stab at the Storm God's lair and getting stuck instead on the waves. Jutting out from the east side of the rock was a castle. The Farwynds carved out the rock and built their seat from the island's innard stones. On the western end of the isle, facing the open ocean, was the village of hardened Ironborn, living off their meager crop and pulling salt and fish from the sea.

"Ready a longboat. We're going." Asha commanded.

"You certain that's a good idea?" Tristifer asked, a hand resting hesitantly on his sword.

"You want to sail way the hell out here when my uncle is dead?"

That drew something in between a smile and disgust from her Botley first mate, "Just saying. If Lord Farwynd refuses us, should we waste our forces? Wouldn't you want to save them for the Crow's Eye?"

"That's why it's just us going." Asha encouraged, "Don't worry, Tris. You said the same thing at Blackmont, remember?"

"Yes, and if I remember correctly, Victarion almost killed you, too."

"Let's not forget that it was one of the key decisions of this war. That meeting got us Victarion's support. This one will get the Farwynd's."

She wouldn't listen to another word from Tris and jumped into the longboat with Qarl and two rowers. The sea this far out was always a bit rough, the waves rising higher than the deck of your average ship. As they rowed closer to the Lonely Light, the ants on shore began to grow arms and Lonely Lighters began to scramble on shore to prepare for the Ironborn visitors.

"You're positive this was a good idea?" Qarl whispered into her ear over the crash of the waves. It seemed like he was always whispering in her ear nowadays. So far, she was lucky enough to keep him separate from Tris, but now they were all in a rowboat together and the Black Wind wasn't all that big.

When their boat scraped against the beach, Asha jumped out onto the sand and marched forward. Before she got fifty feet a dozen men in armor and carrying axes descended on her party. The captain of their guard stepped forward, "Lady Greyjoy, I speak for Lord Farwynd when I suggest you leave Lonely Light unmolested."

Asha let a hand rest on her axe, "I have no intention of molesting the isle. I've merely come to speak to your lord. I am his liege."

"That remains a topic of contention, I believe," the man answered. The guards around him prepared for the confrontation.

Asha tried to calm them, "I've not come for blood. Merely to speak to Lord Farwynd. There's only five of us to twelve of you. You can see that I might've brought more, but saw no need. I don't need an army to simply speak with your lord."

Not wanting to press the issue any farther, the captain commanded the men to lower their weapons. They did and he escorted Asha's men to the castle. Inside were banners with the Farwynd sigil: a silhouetted ship against a great red setting sun. For generations, the Farwynds claimed to have sailed to the other side of the Sunset Sea, reaching a land rich in spices and precious metals. If the claim was ever verified, House Farwynd could become richer than even the Lannisters. Until then, they were just the family at the edge of the world.

The captain asked Asha's men to remain in the great hall where he would retrieve them meat and mead while Asha met with Lord Gylbert. The tower to the solar was a cold climb, assisted by arrow slits that looked out on the sea. Asha glanced out one and saw the Black Wind rising with the waves. To be honest, she had no desire to be out here treating with Lord Gylbert and would rather be on the deck sailing to her destiny on Pyke.

The captain of the Lonely Light guard opened the door and directed her inside, "Lord Gylbert, Asha Greyjoy, the Captain of the Black Wind."

"And Balon Greyjoy's heir." She stepped forward for emphasis. It certainly wasn't a title she was proud of, it was merely the truth.

Lord Gylbert, his hair and beard, once black like the sky over Pyke, were now more salt than pepper. His shoulders were hunched in a way that reminded her too much of her own father. He wore black accompanied with a look of far-sighted death in his eyes.

"Lord Gylbert," Asha called out, "have you nothing to say?"

Apparently he did not.

Asha sighed, "You have refused me entrance…"

"And you have come regardless. I have said everything, now just tell me what you want." Lord Gylbert croaked out his words and turned toward Asha. That's when she saw what he was cradling in his hands: a human skull.

"Lord Farwynd," it was hard to sound brave while staring into the haunted look in his eyes, "I've come as your liege. To call you to our war."

"War?" Lord Gylbert stood up so violently from his chair that it knocked over, bringing a small table down with it, leading to a small avalanche of skulls. Asha counted three of them on the floor, rolling around the solar and staring at her with empty sockets, "Was it war you said?"

"It was."

"Tell me, how many wars must I fight for Pyke before you leave House Farwynd alone?" he stepped toward her, Asha stepped back once before standing her ground.

"My uncle Euron has stolen my inheritance. You are my bannerman. It is your duty."

"Don't you dare talk to me of my duty! Don't you dare! How many children's bones have they brought you? How many brothers died in your arms? What do you know of it woman?"

"Watch yourself, my lord." Asha's hand reached for her axe, even gripping the handle.

Lord Gylbert noticed, "Oh? Would you kill me? Is that why you've come? To demand my devotion yet again, or my death as a substitute?"

"When you swore allegiance to the Seastone Chair…"

"I don't care!" he screamed, "Twice I have answered your father's ravens. I sent the boys of this island off east to die. I held my brother after the siege of Pyke. All his sons dead, I might have died too. Then what Farwynd would you have to call on? And when Theon Greyjoy took Winterfell, I never head back. My son lies in a ditch in the North. Ygon and Yohn killed by the Crannogmen. My house dies with me."

Asha let go of her axe, despite the fact that killing Lord Gylbert might put him out of his misery."Would that my sons could buy peace with their deaths. But instead you have come, and would take a fourth son if I had one. You'd take him away to die."

"If I could have stopped your sons from perishing…"

"You would have saved my house?"

"I would not have demanded you send all three of your sons."

"Oh? Well that's good to know." He bent down and picked up one of the skulls, "Did you hear that Ygon? With Lady Greyjoy wearing the Driftwood Crown, she wouldn't have demanded your death! So there's that." Lord Gylbert dropped his son's skull and let it clatter against the floor. He walked away from Asha to the window to watch the sea.

She tried to appeal to his sense of reason, "I don't ask for your blood, Lord Gylbert. Only ships. Regardless of how many ships are destroyed, I will return as many as I can take. You suffer no risk."

He laughed. Asha did not expect that, "You Greyjoys," he leaned over the table and his hand fell upon something sharp, "You come here, time and again. Come, let us raid the east. Let us raid the green lands. Let us conquer Casterly Rock, no Winterfell, no King's Landing." He turned to Asha with the knight tightly in his grasp, "You Greyjoys, you come. You hold out your promises of gold, and glory, and duty and you just destroy everything!" he raised the knife, fury blazing in his eyes and clenching his teeth like bared swords, and slammed the blade into the table, sinking it up to the hilt and pinning a map to the wood. Asha noticed it cut right through Ironman' Bay.

As difficult as it was, Asha tried to focus on her issue at hand, "Will you not provide any ships?"

There was a long silence penetrating the tragedy of the room. Lord Gylbert stared out the window for a long while, his hand still holding firmly to the knife, "Kill me. Then take what you want. I believe that is the Greyjoy way, is it not?"

He sat back in a different chair and stared at the floor, his hand slipping away from the hilt. For the first time since her mother, Asha felt like she was seeing another human being, not an Ironborn. The captain led her below to the great hall where her men awaited the news. Asha conversed with the castellan about Lord Farwynd's ships. Lonely Light had fifteen. Asha told him to get them ready for tomorrow, they would set sail and join the remainder of her fleet off Saltcliffe.

It was the plan she worked out with Victarion: the Iron Fleet would approach Pyke from the east and engage Euron, Asha's ships would come from the west, braving open ocean and flank the Crow's Eye. By then the Greenlanders would be in Harlaw and they'd have to kneel. But it all started with Euron.