Chapter 617

Rise and Fall.

That was the phrase “Ironhand” Jastelyn Bywater used to sum up the trajectory of his life.

Born into the cadet branch of a dwindling noble house, his youth had been marked by hardship. Though noble in name, his family’s fortunes had long since withered, leaving him so destitute that he could not even afford a proper horse, armor, or a knight’s arms. Without these essentials, no lord was willing to grant him knighthood, leaving him stranded in a humiliating limbo—too noble to be a common footman, yet too poor to be anything else.

It wasn’t until middle age that his fate took a turn. He enlisted as an ordinary soldier and fought in Robert’s Rebellion, distinguishing himself in the campaign to quell the Greyjoy Rebellion. His right hand was lost in battle, but his valor did not go unnoticed—King Robert knighted him for his service and granted him a modest officer’s post in the City Watch.

But Bywater was a man of unyielding integrity—forthright, principled, and utterly incapable of flattery or deception. As a result, he never earned favor from his superiors. His saving grace was the simple fact that he had been knighted by the king himself. With his impeccable record and lack of scandal, none could find an excuse to remove him, so he endured. Slowly, painstakingly, he climbed the ranks, until he finally secured a respectable post as the Captain of the Mud Gate.

For a man of no great lineage, no connections, no extraordinary talent—this was a career that should have carried him comfortably to retirement.

And then fate intervened.

An aging man, already streaked with gray, he found himself caught in the crossfire of a clandestine power struggle between the Night’s Watch and then-Commander of the City Watch, Janos Slynt.

On the night of the King’s Landing riots, a young Night’s Watch officer—hunted and nearly executed on Slynt’s orders—stumbled into his barracks, seeking sanctuary.

Bywater had long despised that pig of a commander.

In that moment, he seized his opportunity.

With a single decisive stroke, he gambled everything. He locked down the barracks, led his loyal men in an armed standoff against Slynt’s forces, and shielded the young black-cloaked fugitive from certain death.

That act of defiance became his ticket to power. The Night’s Watch had his back. The financiers who secretly backed them had his back. The rank-and-file of the City Watch—who had suffered under Slynt’s corruption—had his back.

And so, when Slynt fell, Bywater rose in his place.

Lord Commander of the City Watch.

King’s Landing’s highest military authority, answerable only to the King.

The apex of his life.

For the first time in generations, House Bywater stood poised for revival.

But it did not last.
----


When King Robert died, Bywater swore loyalty to the rightful heir—Stannis Baratheon. For a man of his background, it was the only rational choice.

But then the War of the Five Kings spiraled into chaos.

Renly Baratheon, marching with the strength of the Stormlands and the Reach, laid siege to King’s Landing, intent on taking the throne for himself.

Bywater had been confident. They had the walls, the numbers, the rightful king. It should have been a defensible position, a battle where he could prove his worth and cement his place in the new order.

But then the betrayal came.

From within the City Watch, traitors—spurred by the whispering lords of the Crownlands—opened the gates.

Stannis lost King’s Landing without even understanding how.

Bywater had not been among the traitors. The North Gate, where the betrayal occurred, had never been under his jurisdiction. Yet, that fact did not save him.

To Renly, he was a former loyalist to his brother, a man of the old regime. Even if there was no bad blood, there was no place for him in the City Watch under the new order.

To Stannis, he was the Commander who had failed to root out treachery among his own men. The fall of the city was his failure.

Thus, within a month of wearing the golden cloak of the City Watch’s highest authority, he was stripped of his rank and cast aside.

And when the tides shifted once more—when Renly was slain, and Stannis reclaimed King’s Landing—Bywater was left to rot.

Though he was reinstated, it was only as Captain of the Mud Gate. A hollow, empty return.

And now, once more, fate had placed a crossroads before him.

The young Night’s Watch officer he had once saved—Aegor West—had returned.

Not as a fugitive.

But as the commander of an army.

Marching beneath the banners of House Targaryen.
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"Ser, you saved the life of the Night’s Watch Lord Commander once. If you reach out to him now, if you open the Mud Gate when the Queen’s army arrives… you would not only have a connection, but a great merit to your name. Forget being reinstated as Lord Commander of the City Watch—House Bywater could rise to the rank of great lords!"

A week ago, one of his most trusted subordinates had whispered these words to him.

Bywater had dismissed him outright, reprimanding him harshly.

A man owed loyalty to his liege.

Stannis might not have reinstated him as Lord Commander, but he had at least returned him to his post. He had never once withheld his wages or treated him unfairly.

Jastelyn Bywater had lived a life of integrity. How could he stoop to this?

And yet.

Late at night, staring at the ceiling, those words lingered.

He had once commanded the entire City Watch. He had once been one of the most powerful men in the capital.

And now? Now he stood guard over a single gate.

How could he not feel resentment?

Perhaps Stannis had sensed this wavering in him.

For as soon as the Targaryen forces encamped outside the walls, the King had sent his most trusted captains to each gate, placing them in command of the watch.

Bywater no longer had the authority to open or close the gates.

That should have been humiliating.

Instead, he felt relieved.

Because now, he couldn’t betray his king. Even if he wanted to.
----


"Ser, we must surrender!"

This time, the words came not in secret, but in the open, in front of dozens of his men.

"If we reveal your connection to Aegor West, we might even be spared! At worst, they’ll send us to the Wall—under the Lord Commander’s protection, we’d still hold rank in the Night’s Watch!"

This time, Bywater almost nodded.

Because they had just fought an unwinnable battle.

A battle unlike any he had ever witnessed.

The enemy’s firepower was monstrous.

Steel balls smashed into the walls, leaving gaping craters. The air shrieked with projectiles.

And above—above, a dragon.

Not diving, not clawing at them. Merely soaring at a height beyond their reach, casting down explosive barrels that turned men into broken, shrieking husks.

And then—

Then came the final blow.

A cannon shell struck the Mud Gate.

The very gate he had opened and closed for a decade. The gate whose every nail and board he knew by heart.

And it collapsed.

Blown inward.

Splintered and shattered, its supports obliterated.

It was over.

The final defense of House Baratheon—the grand battle plan that Stannis himself had devised—had been torn asunder in an instant.

The Queen’s army had torn through the Riverlands, shattered the Ironborn, and now—

Now, in the very first assault upon the walls—

They had won.