Pyke 299 AC.
Asha.
It had been hard for her to come back and see the islands as they were and she'd worried she'd not be accepted. Her uncle Victarion though had backed her claim and knowing that she had the king's blessing and some of his fleet to back her up had helped. Still seeing the islands as they were now and her people as broken as they looked, had been hard for her. The once-mighty Iron Fleet was no longer that, true there were still many ships that had not been destroyed during their attack on the Shield Islands, but they had lost good men there and in the attack on the North. Those who remained were broken somewhat and some had no desire to follow a Greyjoy once more, especially one that was a woman.
Had she just had the backing of the king and queen it would probably be enough for her to be named as the Lady of the Iron Islands. Even without her uncle's support she perhaps would have been able to cow these men and bring them to heel. With it, along with the Reader's and with the return of her mother to Pyke though, it was not only easier, it was done more willingly. Yet even as she had promised them that the king had plans for them and that they would not be allowed to just sit and rot on their rocks, as more than one had feared, she found herself wavering.
"We will rebuild, but not as we once were, no longer will we reave, you've all seen what happens when we face the dragons." she shouted loudly.
"Then what, we are to starve?"
"You would have us on our knees?"
"Are we to just sit and wait for the drowned god to call us home, is that to be our fate."
"This king is not the same as the last one, nor is his queen. He has promised to help and see us right, promised coin so we can rebuild and supplies so that we won't starve. The dragons can end us, Aye, you've all seen just how true that is. I've lost family to them just as each of you has, but they didn't seek to end me, nor do they seek an end to the Iron Born." she said as one or two banged their mugs on their tables in the Great Hall of Pyke.
"And when the Crow's Eye returns, what then?" one of the Drumm's shouted out though she could not see which one.
"I doubt my uncle can outrun a dragon." she said to laughs "But perhaps he can, perhaps he'll turn up back here and spew his false promises once more. Any of you who wish to follow him can do so. I'll not stop you should you think you stand a better chance with him than with me, but be forewarned, everywhere you go a dragon will follow, and even should my uncle manage to outrun the dragon long enough to make it back here, he won't outrun one forever." Asha said to more bangs on the tables.
After that, she'd accepted their oaths of fealty to her and to the king, and though some had given theirs reluctantly, they'd given them all the same. Yet as the weeks went on with no ships from the king, no ravens, and no word, even Asha began to think they'd played her false. It would serve them right, they'd attacked the Greenlanders twice and failed. The second time they'd attacked the land of the King's own kin and Theon had gone so far as to attack his sister. Euron had only made matters worse by attacking the Queen's own people. If they were left to rot and starve then they could truly have no complaints and yet she felt a certain amount of betrayal in those thoughts too.
She had believed them both, the king and queen. Asha had heard the tales of what they did in King's Landing, both the ones that people spoke of that were happening now and other tales of many years earlier. Tales of a boy and girl who sent food, blankets, healers, and even toys to the poor of King's Landing. While she was in King's Landing she'd not been able to leave the Red Keep as such but she'd heard it, as she had in the North also. So it stung a little, to feel that they had played her false as they had no need to and she cursed herself for believing that they may be different.
