Game of Thrones: Viserys the Three-Headed Dragon.

Chapter 191 Canyon Guardian

When the letter from Arya Stark, the newly appointed Duke of Winterfell and Lord of Riverrun, was placed in front of Petyr Baelish, the newly appointed "Keeper of the Rift", the conspirator couldn't help but reveal a look of discomfort on his face, as if he had eaten a fly.

The bannermen of the Vale of Arryn resented Lysa's marriage to Littlefinger, and the ancient families of the Vale resented Littlefinger's title of Guardian of the Vale.

The major families in the Vale, led by the Royce family, which is related to the Stark family, were on the verge of open rebellion because Lysa refused to send troops to help Robb. Now with the marriage of Lysa and Littlefinger, Lysa handed over the power of the Vale to Littlefinger, who was born in a humble family and came from the Five Fingers Peninsula.

Although Littlefinger is now the Earl of Harrenhal in King's Landing, at this critical moment, many people think that Lysa's choice of Baelish is equivalent to choosing King's Landing, which makes the vassal states of the Vale even more resentful of the current rulers of the Vale.

It is said that the major families in the valley, the Royce, Waywood, Redford, Belmore and Templeton families have united to demand an explanation from the Eyrie, and they are even willing to use force to threaten.

Since arriving in the Vale, Petyr has spent far more time at the foot of the mountain than in the Eyrie. He negotiated with representatives of various families who came to the Eyrie to seek justice. He planned and looked for opportunities, and used his familiar schemes to gradually erode the power that controls the Vale.

During this time, he tried his best to bribe Lynn Corbray, the heir of the Corbray family in Heart's City, and promised this chic knight "gold, boys and promises". Originally, according to Petyr's expectation, Lynn would maintain superficial hostility with him, participate in every conspiracy against him by the lords of the Valley, and tell him everything as an undercover.

This would allow Petyr to learn of his opponents' plans, buy himself time, eliminate weak opponents, win over wavering factions, and isolate staunch opponents.

However, the arrival of this letter caught Petyr off guard.

Arya, who inherited the title of Duke of the North in Riverrun, did not send a raven to the Eyrie to ask her aunt Lysa for reinforcements like her brother Robb did, but sent raven to all the lords. She did not ask for an alliance or reinforcements, but openly "borrowed troops" from all the lords, ostensibly to go back north to restore the Stark family's Winterfell and rescue the crisis of the Wall.

When Arya went beyond Lysa to "borrow troops", the situation was completely different from when Robb asked the Vale for troops.

Previously, it was Robb who wanted the Vale to support the King of the North, and Lysa could have refused and remained neutral. However, now Arya is borrowing troops from various lords, and even if Lysa herself objects, the Royce family, who have long been resentful of Lysa, and some of the Vale nobles who are close to the Royce family will be ready to move.

Although the news of the Targaryen king's recovery of the Stormlands has now reached the ears of the lords in the Vale, it seems foolish to turn around and help the Tully and Stark of the Riverlands, who seem to have already lost the battle.

But Little Finger knew the meaning of the four words "Save the Great Wall" in the letter.

This Duke of Winterfell "Arya" who suddenly appeared planned to turn to King Targaryen, a king with dragons.

Littlefinger is not sure whether the Arya in Riverrun is real - after all, there is another Arya in the North waiting to marry Roose Bolton's illegitimate son, but he feels that the person who controls this "Arya" now is not simple.

Littlefinger knew that Arya was only an eleven-year-old girl, just like Sansa, who was only fourteen under his control. Even if they claimed it, they were not old enough and would definitely need a guardian. The guardian would rule on their behalf until their sixteenth name day.

In fact, Littlefinger had other plans for Sansa. He originally had a grand plan to marry Sansa to Harold Hatton, the heir of the Arryn family and the heir of Robert Arryn, the boy Duke of the Eyrie. According to the law, if Duke Robert met with an accident, Harold would inherit the position of Duke of the Eyrie and the Guardian of the Vale, thinking that one day in the future he would claim ownership of Winterfell in the name of Sansa and rule Winterfell and the North.

The appearance of this "Arya" obviously disrupted his plans.

Once the Targaryen king recognized "Arya" as the Lord of Winterfell.
Littlefinger frowned. He could already imagine that if that happened, not only would the Riverlands lords who currently supported the Tullys and the Starks immediately split into two factions, but even the Vale lords would be affected and divided into the Targaryen faction and the King's Landing faction.

Perhaps there are still some who want to remain neutral, but once King Targaryen sets his sights on the Vale of Arryn, it will only take a few ravens to squeeze out the neutrals first.

Littlefinger was well aware of the power of the Targaryen king's raven.

Bolton and Frey are in an awkward situation now, largely because of King Targaryen's raven.

The Frey family completely turned to King's Landing. Not to mention that the Frey family's reputation was ruined by the Red Wedding, but the river lords were waiting to see them. The bigger reason was that the Lannister troops could not go north to support their allies, and Targaryen had previously publicly denounced the Frey family for their shameless massacre of guests at the wedding.

As for the Bolton family, King Targaryen only used two letters to the northern lords to make it extremely difficult for Lord Bolton to completely control the North. King Targaryen's letter put forward requirements for the Northern Guardian and gave the northern lords a name to fight against the Northern Guardian who did not follow the requirements. The most important thing is that the letter also mentioned that the Northern Guardian should be selected from the Stark heirs.
Although the Vale of Arryn had never been involved in the war, and had declared itself neutral and maintained peace, Littlefinger knew that if King Targaryen sent a raven to deliver a letter to the Vale of Arryn one day, the situation in the Vale would never be settled.

Now, that king has dragons, Dorne, and the Stormlands.

He was particularly patient. The king had already forced Stannis to take the initiative to attack. Littlefinger was not sure if he would force the Lannisters in King's Landing to be impatient. Littlefinger was terrified just thinking about it. A king with a dragon was as steady as a mountain when he took action, nibbling away step by step, squeezing a little bit. Littlefinger could even imagine the predicament of King's Landing now. They could only watch a mountain pressing down from their heads little by little, and all they could do was to hit the mountain head-on or wait for the mountain to come down and crush them to death. Before Arya's letter came, Littlefinger thought he was still far away from the Targaryens and had enough time to control the Vale and plot against the North.

But now that the letter has arrived, Littlefinger has discovered that the Targaryen King of Dragonstone has never been someone who can be ignored. Littlefinger's title of Earl of Harrenhal was granted by King's Landing, so naturally people think he is on the side of King's Landing, and he has no choice. Once someone in the Vale stands on the side of the Targaryens, this kind of opposition will naturally form, and even Lady Lysa, the actual ruler of the Vale, cannot prevent this opposition from occurring.

It was a representative of the Redford family who showed the letter to Littlefinger: "Lord Petyr, how should we reply to this letter?" Littlefinger realized that they were testing his attitude.

Littlefinger asked, "How did Lady Lysa respond to Robb Stark before?"

The other party had a mocking look on his face: "How would we know such secrets? We only know that the valley has always remained 'neutral'."

Little Finger smiled and replied, "I am a newcomer here, so of course I will follow the old rules. I will give you an answer after I have asked Madam how she responded before."

The other party asked: "As the guardian of the canyon, can't you make the decision on such matters?"

"The Vale belongs to Lord Robert. Lord Robert is the Lord of the Eyrie and the Protector of the Vale. Lady Lysa is the guardian of Robert. Although I am Lysa's husband, Lady Lysa still has the final say on this matter. Once I am familiar with the old rules, I will be able to help my wife better assist Lord Robert."

"Ah."

Littlefinger kept smiling: "I wonder what the Redford family thinks about this?"

The other party replied: "Lord Arya is Lady Lysa's niece. I think Lady Lysa will make the right judgment. Since you can't make the decision, let us go to the Eyrie to meet Lady Lysa and Lord Robert."

Hearing this, Littlefinger was relieved. It seemed that the other party was just taking this opportunity to attack and wanted to take this opportunity to go to the Eyrie to ask for an explanation from Lysa. This letter was just an excuse. They did not realize that this letter hinted at leaning towards the Targaryen.

What they may still be thinking about is forcing Lysa to remove the title and power of Guardian of Littlefinger Canyon.

This is not so bad. Littlefinger realized that he might be able to buy some time to prepare for a more dangerous crisis, a crisis from the Targaryens: "Of course, you can go to the Eyrie to meet Lysa and Lord Robert at any time."

The other party looked at him strangely: "We want Sir Nestor Royce to take us up the mountain."

"Of course." Little Finger answered. He took a deep look at his hidden player in the crowd, Lynn Corbray.

This Lynn Corbray was undoubtedly a dangerous man, but he was not necessarily smart. Littlefinger liked dealing with these people, who liked chaos as much as he did.

Little Finger started thinking in his head how to muddy the water and buy himself some time.

Littlefinger had no idea how the lords of the Vale would react once they realized that King Targaryen was about to intervene in the Vale.

Littlefinger realized that he had missed a lot. In his plan before coming to the Vale, many of these Vale families had made great contributions in the Usurper's War. In order to achieve his goal, he prepared a lot of excuses before coming to the Vale, so that they would not easily turn to the Targaryen King. In this way, Littlefinger could take the opportunity to slowly erode the power of the Vale.

However, the Stormlands were suddenly recaptured by the Targaryens, and in such a peaceful way, that many of Littlefinger's prepared rhetoric was doomed to be ineffective. He actually ignored this point, and until he saw Arya's letter, Littlefinger realized that he had been busy fighting with the lords of the Vale during this period, too far away from Dragonstone and King's Landing, and ignored the Targaryen King's very important influence on the situation in the whole territory.

That king has always created an image of a benevolent monarch, and many stories about him being loved by the people have been spread among the people. Those stories terrified King's Landing, but as news of his treatment of the lords of the Stormlands and Duke Shireen of the Stormlands spread, those stories will undoubtedly spread further and wider with the news, causing the image of this king to even affect Tully and Stark, who were supposed to be his mortal enemies.

This made the desperate Tully and "Arya" of the Stark family begin to place their hopes on King Targaryen.

Littlefinger was horrified to find that the lead that "Arya" had set was so frightening that once she really gained the recognition and endorsement of King Targaryen, not only the Riverlands, but the princes of the entire territory would have a deeper understanding of the king's reputation and methods.

Little Finger thought fearfully that all the princes in the territory would inevitably be divided into two factions from now on.

(End of this chapter)