Jon had to admit that looking up close the Sealord didn't look that much intimidating. Although, he was a little squeamish to be sitting opposite to the ruler of Braavos even if the Chessboard was between them. After the speech, Jon delivered he has been asked to meet in private with the Sealord while the council deliberated on the matter. From the first moment that he entered this room, he was asked to explain the Chess and how it is played. Right now the Sealord was setting up his pieces for the first game.

"You have presented your case with a flair Master Snow. You have really rattled several of my councilmen with your revelations." said the Sealord and Jon couldn't get a read on the man because the Sealord was keeping his face down observing the pieces he had assembled and Jon was not surprised that it was white

"I have only presented the situation as truthfully as I could. Lorath and Norvos have positioned themselves to the hills in the East of Braavos. The only path Braavos can expand is to Andalos and even then I suspect Norvos would try to prevent that." said Jon and he hummed as the Sealord made his first move- pawn to g3. Not to keep the Sealord waiting Jon made his first moves Knight to c6

"You said the truth you wanted to say for what I don't know but I will find out." said the Sealord as he moved his bishop to g2

"Aren't you going to ask me directly?" Jon asked as he made his move- knight to f6

"Are you going to answer me truthfully?" the Sealord asked and he moved his pawn to d4

"Why the caution? When all is said and done you get Andalos. Isn't that a prize Braavos and yourself will enjoy?" Jon asked instead of answering and he moved his pawn to d5

"Do I get Andalos or do you?" the Sealord asked as he moved his pawn to e4

"I have no ambition to hold Andalos to myself. That piece of land means nothing to me outside of the land that I need for expanding my business." said Jon as he made his move- knight to e4 and that took the Sealord's pawn

"You have drawn first blood." said the Sealord as he made his move- bishop to e4 and thereby taking Jon's knight

"Indeed and you paid me back. You are vengeful!" said Jon said as he moved his pawn dxe4 hereby taking the Sealord's bishop

"As are you. If you have no interest in Andalos why go there?" the Sealord asked as he made his move- pawn to d5

"Sometimes you have to make a stop before travelling to your true destination." Jon blurted out in the heat of the moment and he moved his knight to e5

"Really? Where is your true destination then?" the Sealord asked as he made his move knight to c3

"Home, where else?" said Jon as he moved his bishop to g4

"You should take a ship straight to the North rather than match all the way to Andalos!" the Sealord advised as he moved his knight back Nge4

"Hmm…I will go there eventually. But first I must go to Andalos and then I go home." said Jon as he made his move- knight to f3

"Hmm…I could have you thrown out of Braavos and avoid all the headache that this is causing me and is going to cause." said the Sealord as he moved his king to f1

"If that was the case you would have never allowed me to speak in your court. You are enjoying the game now and you look forward to the game that I am going to play in Westeros. You yearn for the waves once again yet you must satisfy yourself with the games that we play. You are after all the captain that destroyed the Pentosi fleet in the Narrow sea." said Jon with a smirk as he made his final move but before that, he looked straight into the Sealord's eyes and saw that the ruler of Braavos was excited and curious in equal measure

"I promise you the game that I play will not get you bored." with that said, Jon moved his bishop to h3 and that was checkmate

For a time the Sealord remained silent and then started shaking slowly then that turned into full-blown laughter. Jon remained silent throughout the laughter and waited for the Sealord to regain his bearings.

"I suppose you will be heavily involved in the campaign for Andalos?" The Sealord asked and at Jon's nod the ruler of Braavos sat still for some time and seem to come to a decision

"You will take Syrio Forel with you as your second in command. While I do enjoy the game that you are about to play I must ensure that you play it within the boundaries that you set." the Sealord warned with a cold tone

"As you wish. A skilled swordsman is always welcome by my side at any time of the day." Jon agreed readily

"You ready to play another game?" the Sealord nodded at the chessboard

"Always my pleasure." said Jon as he reassembled the board and started a new game

After a few more games, all of which the Sealord lost, Jon said his goodbyes and he walked down the steps of the palace. Not far from there Dacey was waiting by the side of a carriage and he quickly strode over to her side.

"Everything went as expected?" Dacey asked

"What we expected and more! Our next stop is the Iron Bank." Jon said to Dacey and climbed into the carriage together

As the carriage rocked back and forth moving through the streets towards the Iron Bank, Jon unfastened Dark Sister and handed it over to Dacey.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Dacey asked as she handed over another sheathed weird to Jon

"Oh, I am very much sure. Dark Sister belongs to my family but Stormcrown belonged to a trusted guard of Aegon the Dragonbane. While Valyrian Steel has its uses this one I have to let go." said Jon as he unsheathed Stormcrown from its sheath and ran his fingers through the smooth ripple patterns on its surface

"I don't know why you are doing this. Valyrian Steel is priceless and you are just going to give it away and for what?" Dacey huffed in indignation

"I understand your concerns but this blade is more useful for me by selling it. When the time comes it will return to my hands or to someone who is worthy of wielding it but for now, it has other uses." said Jon as he sheathed the sword back into the scabbard and waited for their destination to arrive

He didn't have to wait long as the carriage pulled to a stop.

"Wait here." Jon said to Dacey before he disembarked the carriage and climbed up the steps of the Iron Bank.

The Iron Bank is the premier bank of Braavos. It is one of the wealthiest banks of the known world and often lends money to outsiders, such as archons, triarchs, and the Lord of the Seven Kingdoms. Right now the Iron Bank was financing the crown and that too at an interest rate that would boggle any money lender. Considering the fact the Iron Throne was fast approaching a debt of three million gold dragons in just thirteen years the Bank has considerable investments in Westeros. While three million gold dragons is a huge debt Jon doubted that his earlier stint in the Braavosi court would magically make the Iron Bank recall the debt. Why would they? After all, the Bank earns a lot from interest rates paid by the Iron Throne and so long as the Lannisters support the crown the Iron Bank will never move against the Baratheons. What Jon was hoping to achieve by exposing the secrets of the Baratheon regime was to expose the cracks early. Doing so in full-court meant that the investors if the Iron Bank will be more aware and pit any more dealings with Westeros under further scrutiny. When the War of Five Kings starts the Iron Bank will inevitably clash early with the Iron Throne and Jon will be there to seize that moment for all it was worth. But that will only happen if he manages to bring the Lannisters down a little bit early. The true power of Lannisters is derived from the mountain of gold they are sitting on. It was there that Jon was going to strike and no matter how rich or how many mines that have in their control it won't matter if they can't mine and process the gold in the same rate they are going to spend it in the next two years. If production can't meet demand then the Lannisters will flounder as the war knocks on their doorstep. There is one more plan that Brynden Rivers was all too happy to chip in but Jon was doubtful of the effectiveness of the plan. Even still he had already dispatched someone to check that out and if successful then Jon was sure that he will be able to do significant damage to Tywin's precious legacy.

Jon put all these thoughts aside as he was immediately led to his personal account manager. The Iron Bank has a policy of personal managers to accounts that hold significant sums. This was mostly done as per the request of the holder and the said manager's standing in the bank is elevated if the account gets more deposits. It was a 'give and take' policy that was designed to keep the account holder establish a more intimate relationship with the bank and the Bank mostly used female employees to get this done. If only the Iron Bank had computing and advanced communication technology then Jon was sure they would have given the Credit Card companies of Earth a run for their money.

Speaking of his account manager she was sitting behind a Mahogany table with a smile. While Lenera Aenyr was pretty looking and gave off vibes of a vain woman, she was anything but that. The woman was a damn good accountant and she was a distant cousin to one of the oldest key shareholders of the Iron Bank.

"Welcome back Master Jon. How may I help you this fine day?" asked Lenera never losing her smile

"I want you to set up an auction for a precious item without revealing my name to any of the bidders or anyone for that matter. At the same time I want you to invite specific individuals into this auction as well Can you do this for me?" Jon cut straight to the matter without mincing any words

"That is a tall order to accomplish Master Jon. You know that I can't keep your name anonymous within the Bank's ruling council." said Lenera with a stare that suggested that he was walking on thin ice

"I don't care about the Bank. I want you to keep my name out of the auction. No participants should find out that I was the one that sold the item in question for at least one year." said Jon and he watched as Lenera go into a contemplative look

"I can work something out but what exactly do you want to auction?" Lenera asked curiously and Jon placed the sword on the table. Lenera gave him a curious look but slowly unsheathed the sword and the second she saw the ripple patterns of the Valyrian Steel sword she took a deep breath while sheathing it quickly back to its scabbard.

"That is a Valyrian Steel sword right?" Lenera asked while she covered her mouth with her right hand

"You are correct." Jon nodded already guessing what was going through her mind

"You do know that a Valyrian Steel word has never been sold by the Iron Bank not are there any records of such an event anywhere in the known world?" Lenera asked and by now she had her left hand holding her left forearm tightly all the while she was covering her mouth with her right hand

"I know that too." Jon said calmly

"No one has ever put a price on Valyrian Steel swords which means that they are priceless." Lenera said that more to herself

"Tywin Lannister once tried to buy the ancestral sword of House Mormont for three million gold dragons." said Jon to provide a little context

"Three million! And you are telling me you want to put this weird for an auction and you want me to do it?" Lenera asked once more with her eyes nearly popping out of her sockets. Jon leaned forward conspiringly and said 'yes' and that was all it took for Lenera to do whatever that was required by Jon regarding the finer points of the auction.

After discussing the matter in depth Jon departed the Bank while Lenera started the process of drafting the necessary papers for the auction to happen. Due to the nature of the said auction, she estimated that a one and a half month or more time would be needed to let all the bidders time to present themselves in the Bank. Inevitably a lot of attention was going to be on this auction and she needed time to prepare to plug all leaks and conduct the auction as per the specifications that Jon suggested.

When everything was said and done it was an extremely satisfied Jon that stepped into the manor. After all, he had achieved success after success one after the other today. He managed to present his case successfully before the Braavosi court, managed to make them paranoid against two of his greatest enemies in Westeros, managed to kick start the campaign against Andalos, achieved the tactical support of Braavosi armada and the Sealord, managed to befriend said Sealord and finally started his first move against the Lannisters. While these were all great things to be happy about there was one more piece of news that made Jon a very happy person. The reason for that happiness was standing right before him in his study in the manor.

"Just as you ordered captain Dormer managed to buy this slave and her son from the Lyseni whorehouse you mentioned Jon. Meet Tysha and her son Gerion. Just as you ordered their collars were removed and they were freed the moment they step foot on Braavosi soil. Even gave them the contract of employment as you asked and Tysha here signed up on her own free will." Nester explained as he made himself scarce from the study leaving the woman and child of ten namesdays with Jon

"Please take a seat Tysha. Ah, forgive me Tysha Lannister would be your proper name. We have a lot to discuss and believe me when I say that involves teaching some golden lions some much-needed lessons in humility." Jon poured two cups of coffee and offered it to them. He didn't know why but he could almost hear Arya's FM background music in his ears. Looking into the mismatched eyes of Tysha's son Jon's smile was borderline maniac at this point.

I really have to do something nice for Brynden for this gift, thought Jon.

AN:

I wanted to include Tysha's PoV in this chapter but I am pushing it to the next chapter. Never expected her to make an entrance did ya! Oh, the plans I have for Tywin and his golden legacy…(queue mad evil villain cackling). I really – really want to rush to the part of WoFK and I am barely holding myself back after writing this chapter.

Gerion's age is based on the assumption that Tysha gave birth to Tyrion's son in 286AC which is the year Tyrion met her and bedded her. I think Tyrion was thirteen years of age or around that when he met Tysha. So there you have it. In the books, Tyrion always seems to be thinking about what happened to her when he was wandering around in Essos after he learned the truth from Jaime. As you can imagine there will be a reunion between Tyrion and his wife but I have not yet planned how it is going to pan out. Will Tysha forgive Tyrion for believing the lies his father and brother fed him before fifty men raped her and Tyrion himself had sex with her afterwards. Any woman that can forgive something like that must be up in the level of Jesus in my mind. There is also the abuse she and her son must have endured in Lys to be accounted for. As for her son's name being Gerion is no coincidence. That will be explained in her PoV.