Episode 7: The Dragon Stirs

Interactive Transcript

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spk_0 The following podcast is entirely without profit.

spk_0 Father. Father.

spk_0 Eris opens his eyes to find Rhaegar sitting across from him before the half. The prince has helped himself to a rare glass of wine and placed another on the stand beside his father's chair.

spk_0 I was told you wanted to see me, but I would ask you to make a brief. I mean to make an early start for Harrenow.

spk_0 Eris sits up, rubbing at his angry bloodshot eyes. He smiles slightly when he notices the purple yellow-green bruise on Rhaegar's cheek. The laceration at its centre held together by a coagulated ungwent.

spk_0 I've never known a badge of shame to come in quite so many colours.

spk_0 Do you ever ask yourself how you arrived at a place where your senses are so twisted that you derive such evident pleasure in seeing your son and heir so publicly humbled and by Lannister no less?

spk_0 Perhaps I might have spared you the lesson had I known you were so determined to humble yourself.

spk_0 What are you talking about?

spk_0 I told you I did not want you taking your prophecy nonsense before the small council. Not only did you disobey that command, you seized upon Tywin's charity like a curse, robbering over its master's hand.

spk_0 I made no mention of any prophecy and Tywin raised the mat of the night's watch unbidden. The black brothers need all the help they can get and if none is forthcoming from you, then I make no apology for taking it wherever else I can.

spk_0 Now whose senses are twisted?

spk_0 Tywin's largest was not a victory for you because you got what you wanted it was a defeat from me because Tywin was a man that handed it to you.

spk_0 Not everything is about you father nor your untermable grievance against Tywin Lannister.

spk_0 The wall- Tywin doesn't give a damn if the wall shouldn't melt you blind fool. He saw the game I was playing with Jamie and decided to play it like with you.

spk_0 Sun for sun, air for air. He means to win you away from me and tosses you these scraps to seduce you over to his side.

spk_0 And how do you respond? You thank him, meek and servile as though he were doing you a kindness.

spk_0 Eris lifts his wine glass and considers his son over its brim.

spk_0 When the beggar dons a crown he does not become a king, the court becomes an arms house. A strong ruler never makes himself a supplicant before the help.

spk_0 Nor did I, I have no intention of repeating my father's mistakes.

spk_0 Eris absorbs the jab but throws his son a mocking sneer in return.

spk_0 And here I thought you had nothing left to learn from me.

spk_0 No longer perhaps, but I have learned a great deal by your example over the years. I learned that a good ruler seeks out the advice of wise men, not empty affirmations and idle flattery of sicker fans.

spk_0 A good ruler raises others up to serve his ends without living in fear that one day they were cast in down to serve their own.

spk_0 And a good ruler consumes himself with the interest of his realm, not the shadows of phantoms of his own paranoid vendettas.

spk_0 You name me paranoid. When right within these very walls my own hand has spent half a lifetime conspiring against me, chipping away at my authority pieced by peace, year on year.

spk_0 Where would he find the time to conspire when he spends every hour of the day overseeing your kingdom?

spk_0 Years are you serpah, and rather than clip his wings as I summoned you home to do, you have permitted yourself to be made complicit in his schemes against me.

spk_0 Then why do you persist in allowing this serpah to control your council, to continue wielding the most powerful office in the land? Why not walk over to the tower of the hand right this minute and command your serpah to step down with immediate effect?

spk_0 Unless, of course, you're simply too afraid of how tiring my take is to smithle.

spk_0 The dragon fears nothing. You do well to remember that boy.

spk_0 You fear plenty old man. You fear that I have not grown to hate Tywin Lannister. You fear that I may be able to work with Tywin Lannister.

spk_0 You fear that I know how to use him without being used myself. And most of all, you are terrified down to the marrow in your bones of what it would mean where all those fears proven well founded.

spk_0 That the problem never was Tywin Lannister. The problem was you. Your distrust, your jealousy, your inability to overcome even for a moment the bitterness and spite that poisoned your every single life.

spk_0 Every thought will allow me to offer some peace of mind at one point at least. I may not hate Tywin Lannister, but neither do I trust Tywin Lannister.

spk_0 He is ours for as long as it serves his interest and he will betray us exactly one heartbeat before that no longer holds true.

spk_0 But the task of governing the seven kingdoms is too big for one man alone. You understood that once or you would have pointed a weaker man in Tywin to be your hand.

spk_0 You raised him up because you understood then what it is I'm trying to remind you of now. There may have been another way back when Tygarians ruled the sky and fire made flesh. But all the dragons are gone father.

spk_0 Compromise and cooperation are not choices not as they were for Aegon in his heirs. They are necessity. There will be no Tygarian dynasty without them.

spk_0 Eris's face softens and it seems for a brief moment as though Rhaegar's plaintive appeal has succeeded in reaching through the king's embittered exterior.

spk_0 But only for a moment Eris blinks and his eyes are suddenly filled with venom and vitriol.

spk_0 And what dynasty will there be when my son and air isn't even man enough to fuck his own wife?

spk_0 What did you say?

spk_0 There is nothing that happens in this castle that I don't hear about. I know you've not visited your marriage beds in snow as first sighted south of High Garden.

spk_0 She's still too weak. I will not endanger her health.

spk_0 If she has the strength to eat oranges with her uncle and she has the strength to spread her legs for you.

spk_0 Rhaegar rises and the sitting heirs flinches into his seat, suddenly confronted with a physical disparity between the pair.

spk_0 The father beset by the lassitude of Agent Neglect, the son lean and muscled in the full vigor of his manhood.

spk_0 I'm not going to sit here and debate my wife's condition with you or my marriage bed. You talkers though I had no air. Have I not already made you grandfather twice over?

spk_0 Is that the sum of your virility, a soft-hearted girl and adornish-colored weakling?

spk_0 Rhaegar waves an arm at Aerys in disgust and moves for the door. Aerys leaps to his feet and plagues his son's steps like a scavenger, sending the blood of a bigger, stronger beast.

spk_0 Perhaps all those miscarriages were not the fault of Aerys' fragility after all.

spk_0 Perhaps your water-received was too pitiful to be get children strong enough to survive even nine short months.

spk_0 Stop this.

spk_0 Oh is there another reason you took such an interest in those upbeat intellectuals of the citadel and spent so much time strumming your harpsing in pretty songs with all those pretty bards and minstrels?

spk_0 That's enough. I won't listen to another word.

spk_0 Perhaps you've allowed yourself to be fitted for cock-holed taunts, is that it? Has Elliott found more potency under pie-cells' robes than between her own husband's legs?

spk_0 Has she surrendered to her dornish blood and taken to rutting with that uncle of hers to repay him for his protection?

spk_0 That's enough I said. You may insult me until you're blue in the face, but you have no right to talk about my wife like this.

spk_0 I have every right. Her body is not her own. It belongs to you and it belongs to the realm.

spk_0 She is yours to command as you are mine. If she is incapable of surviving another pregnancy, you will set her aside for someone again.

spk_0 We do not continue to feed and kennel a hound once it has lost its lust for the hunt.

spk_0 Utterly a ghast, Rhaegar looks his father over as though seeing him for the first time. He shakes his head, disgusted and incredulous in equal measure.

spk_0 I was wrong when I said I had nothing left to learn from you. No man alive burns bridges half so well as you.

spk_0 He lays one hand on the door handle, then stops himself, corralling his composure.

spk_0 The next time we see one another, it will be my turn to share some hard truths of my own.

spk_0 Oh it will will it?

spk_0 Yes, it will. You should have no say in the matter. You won't be able to shut me out like the way you shut our mother.

spk_0 You won't have this petty pathetic pointless war with Tywin Lannister to distract you. Just you, me, and all the things I should have said a long time ago.

spk_0 You forget yourself, Prince Rhaegar. You are my son, and I will...

spk_0 I'm Rhaiella Tigerian's son, every last part of me. If there is some small shred of you hidden somewhere deep down inside, I pray to all the gods that it stays there for both our sakes.

spk_0 Pack your things, I'm sending you back to the rock.

spk_0 Standing before his father's desk, Jamie is temporarily struck dumb, but his sister suffers no such affliction.

spk_0 Father no, I understand you're angry with Jamie for striking the prince, but please, you can't send him away.

spk_0 My business with you is done for the moment. You have my leave to go.

spk_0 Please father, you cannot separate us. He and I have never been apart more than a few days in all our lives.

spk_0 You say that as though it weren't something a grown woman ought to be embarrassed to admit. Go, and be sure to close the door behind you.

spk_0 Cersei looks to Jamie, then back to Tywin, tears of anger and frustration, welling in her eyes. She bolts for the door before her father can witness her weakness.

spk_0 You have nothing to say for yourself?

spk_0 Oh, I have plenty to say. You always knew Cersei meant to follow me to court, didn't you?

spk_0 New and instructed.

spk_0 For what purpose?

spk_0 For the same purpose any father introduces his daughter into high society, so she can secure herself a husband.

spk_0 Elia Martell's husband?

spk_0 Correct. At least Otto Hightower had the decency to wait until the queen was dead before he pushed his daughter into her husband's bed.

spk_0 All the money I invested in your education and you learned less from ten years with your maesters than you did in ten minutes in the Hall of Kings with Aerys Targaryen.

spk_0 You know about that.

spk_0 Aerys shows those hideous statues to every visitor that passes through his gates. It's less common he invites them to luncheon with him however, so for that much at least you should feel flattered.

spk_0 You're not angry with me?

spk_0 Why would I be angry with you for doing precisely the thing I brought you here to do?

spk_0 I don't understand.

spk_0 Then allow me to educate you as to the King's true motives in showering you with his favour.

spk_0 Aerys Targaryen has always been of the view that Amanda's closest relations are also his greatest vulnerability, that if you lack the means by which you might manipulate Amanda your own ends directly, you must instead do it through his family.

spk_0 As irony would have it, that is a lesson he learned by my own hand twenty years ago upon the stepstones.

spk_0 You're wrong. Aerys wouldn't do that.

spk_0 Don't be so naive. You sound like a child.

spk_0 I'm not a child. I'm a man grown and a knight of the realm.

spk_0 Very well then. Let us speak as men. Why do you believe Aerys has made you his priority since you arrived at court?

spk_0 Perhaps he sees something in me. Perhaps he believes in me.

spk_0 And I do not. Is that what I'm given to understand?

spk_0 Twenty years I've labored in these chambers. Twenty years of thankless service to a man I despise.

spk_0 Why would I have suffered even a single day if not for my son and heir?

spk_0 For your son and heir perhaps, but not for me.

spk_0 I'm afraid the distinction eludes me.

spk_0 If you believed in me, you would not have manipulated me like this.

spk_0 You would not have used me the same way you use everyone else.

spk_0 We all must work to advance the fortunes of House Lannister, in whichever way best suits the talents the gods chose to bestow upon us.

spk_0 I'd assume sit you behind a desk with quill and ink as dress your sister in a suit of armour and send her off to war.

spk_0 And you believe this should be the extent of my ambitions?

spk_0 To keep the king occupied when you turn my sister into regart our Garyens Hall?

spk_0 For the moment. But one day in the not so distant future you will succeed me as Lord of the Rock and Warden of the West.

spk_0 And breed.

spk_0 Your sister will marry the prince, and breed.

spk_0 Your sons will marry Cersei's daughters, and your daughters her sons, and populate the line of succession with children of Lannister blood.

spk_0 No, that's not the life I want.

spk_0 And I thought we were speaking as men. The world does not care what you want, sir, and neither do I.

spk_0 The seeds may be planted now, but I will be long dead before the tree has grown much beyond the sapling.

spk_0 It will fall to you to nurture it to full strength, and to your children to gather its fruit.

spk_0 And when your day comes you will do your duty as a Lannister, just as your sister will do hers now, and just as I have done these past twenty years.

spk_0 Because you are the custodian of my legacy, you are the future of our house, and yes, you are my son and heir.

spk_0 But if it pleases you to play its soldiers until I have further use of you, then you and I have no quarrel,

spk_0 but you shall do so at Castley Rock, where you can do no more harm to my affairs.

spk_0 Your affairs? Far away from Prince Rhaegar, you mean to say?

spk_0 In more ways than one Rhaegar Targaryen is my affair, and nothing else besides, and the fact that you cannot appreciate that is precisely why your presence here at court is now creating more problems than it solves, as evidenced by your pitiful tantrum in the yard.

spk_0 I have a meeting of the small council this afternoon, directly after which your sister and I shall depart for Harrenhal.

spk_0 By that time, I expect you to be half a day along the gold road.

spk_0 Now go, and don't dare bring any more shame upon the Lannister name in the few short hours that remain to you.

spk_0 Come.

spk_0 Your grace, Lady Cersei would like.

spk_0 Oh, Rhaeala!

spk_0 Cersei bursts past Oswell and throws herself into the Queen's arms.

spk_0 Oh, my sweet girl, whatever has to matter.

spk_0 Cersei buries her head into Rhaeala's breast to overcome with emotion to answer.

spk_0 Rhaeala strokes the girl's hair as a mother might comfort her distraught child.

spk_0 Oh, dear, my love, that's the hair.

spk_0 It's alright, Cersei, as well, you may leave us.

spk_0 As you say, your grace.

spk_0 Once they are alone, Rhaeala leads Cersei down onto the couch.

spk_0 Come now. Let's just calm down and take a good deep breath.

spk_0 Let me have a look at you.

spk_0 She brushes the loose golden strands from the young girl's face, drawing a hencachy from her sleeve to wipe gently at Cersei's shining cheeks.

spk_0 There now. No more need for tears. Everything will be alright.

spk_0 You just tell Rhaeala what has you so upset.

spk_0 It's Jaime, father is sending him back to castily rock.

spk_0 Something fleet and cynical flashes across Rhaeala's eyes, but she quickly marshals her thoughts and betrays only the faintest flicker of surprise.

spk_0 Because of what happened in the yard.

spk_0 Please, Rhaeala, please say you'll speak to father. Please say you'll convince him to let Jaime stay.

spk_0 Jaime is not my son, Cersei. It's not my place to tell Tywin how he should run his own house.

spk_0 But you're the queen. Everyone has to do whatever the queen says. If you command him, then he will have no choice but to obey.

spk_0 That's not how things work, child. But why?

spk_0 That's a far bigger question than I think you mean it to be. And not one I can answer in any way that will make sense to you right now.

spk_0 Cersei wraps her hands about Rhaeala's own, her shimmering green eyes, wide and imploring.

spk_0 Please, Rhaeala, I'm begging you. He's my brother. He's the other half of me. I'm not even a whole person without him.

spk_0 I know father means to punish Jaime for spoiling his plans, but he's punishing me too. And I haven't done anything wrong. I've only ever done exactly what he asked me to.

spk_0 Rather than offer comfort to the girl, Rhaeala inspects her with a curious tilt of the head.

spk_0 What do you mean, spoiling his plans?

spk_0 What?

spk_0 What did your father ask of you, Cersei?

spk_0 The colour drains suddenly from Cersei's flushed red cheeks.

spk_0 I-I don't. I-I didn't.

spk_0 No lies now. I can't help you if you're not completely honest with me.

spk_0 I am being honest with you. I swear it.

spk_0 Cersei? Look at me. Cersei? What aren't you telling me?

spk_0 We need to talk.

spk_0 Looking out over the city from his balcony, Aerys takes a long drink of wine before finally turning and regarding his wife with weary antipathy.

spk_0 What do you want, Rhaeala?

spk_0 The king shuffles to the desk and drops into his chair. He slumps back, rubbing at his bloodshot eyes.

spk_0 I've already had one battle with my own blood today. I don't believe I have the stomach for another.

spk_0 What makes you think I've come to fight?

spk_0 What other reason do you or I ever have for visiting one another's chambers?

spk_0 Rhaeala takes the chair across the desk from her husband.

spk_0 Tywin is sending Jamie back to costly rock.

spk_0 Aerys suddenly perks up, a sly and smug smile creeping across his face.

spk_0 Cersei, the old lion has finally blinged.

spk_0 Don't look so satisfied with yourself.

spk_0 It has nothing to do with this clumsy little game you've been playing with his boy.

spk_0 Aerys, Scowls, take it and a berk.

spk_0 What do you know about anything, woman?

spk_0 When it comes to Rhaeala, it's my business to know everything.

spk_0 While you've been distracted seducing Tywin's son, Tywin has seized his opportunity to do the same with ours.

spk_0 I'm in no mood for riddles, Rhaeala.

spk_0 The girl Cersei.

spk_0 Tywin would have as all believe it was Jamie he called to court and his sister simply followed after him.

spk_0 The truth is quite the opposite.

spk_0 It's Cersei that came here with a purpose.

spk_0 You're wrong.

spk_0 Then tell me why Tywin has suddenly decided to ship his son an heir back to the rock.

spk_0 Jamie made a fool of himself in the yard.

spk_0 He struck the crown prince.

spk_0 Tywin fears I will punish the boy for his mistake.

spk_0 The old lion's pride.

spk_0 Has never gotten in the way of his ambitions before.

spk_0 20 years serving a man he loads.

spk_0 That's a lot of pride to swallow, even for a lion.

spk_0 You truly believe he would risk it all by moving Jamie beyond your grasp.

spk_0 To what ends?

spk_0 Sparing your dear new friend a slap across the wrist.

spk_0 And why?

spk_0 Because the boy has become a problem.

spk_0 Now Jamie is aware of his father's carefully laid plans for Cersei and our son.

spk_0 That sorry episode in the yard will have made it plain to Tywin.

spk_0 The Jamie possesses both the means and the motive to burn those plans to cinders.

spk_0 I briefly entertained the notion that you provoked Jamie deliberately.

spk_0 But you played upon his brotherly instincts to incite his anger towards Rhaegar.

spk_0 But now I see that was just a happy coincidence of whatever nonsensical lesson you sought to teach us on at the point of Jamie's steal.

spk_0 Rhaela sits forward in her chair.

spk_0 The lavender eyes she shares with her brother.

spk_0 Unnervingly cold.

spk_0 Calm and commanding.

spk_0 However we ended up here.

spk_0 Whatever consequences your game may have wrought.

spk_0 It's time to put an end to it.

spk_0 It's time you made your move against Tywin.

spk_0 Eris stares back at Rhaela for a long moment.

spk_0 Then rises and retreats to the sideboard.

spk_0 He pulls himself another goblet of wine, keeping his back to his sister.

spk_0 There are things afoot of which you haven't the fentest notion.

spk_0 For months now I've been loading the bolt, winging back the strings.

spk_0 What good is a crossbow if you lack the courage to ever shoot it?

spk_0 Eris turns to face Rhaela.

spk_0 His face is hard and lethal as sharp and steel.

spk_0 Careful now.

spk_0 Or what?

spk_0 You'll sit on your hands for 20 years and then summon a unit and a dead man to whisper barbs against me over the small council table.

spk_0 Rhaela stands and stalks over to Eris.

spk_0 For the second time that day the king is made aware of his physical shortcomings.

spk_0 The queen towers several inches over her brother, sheer and undeniable authority resonating from every paw of her presence.

spk_0 Since the day you named him hand you've let Tywin run roughshod over your realm, your court and your kingship,

spk_0 without ever so much as a scolding in reprieval.

spk_0 And I've sat back and watched it happen.

spk_0 Because trick we told has been longer than I care to remember since I was able to summon any interest in your failings beyond a vague sense of shame.

spk_0 But not anymore.

spk_0 Not when it's our son he is coming for.

spk_0 If you bear your belly now and allow this to stand, you're no kind of king.

spk_0 You're no kind of father.

spk_0 You're barely even a man at all.

spk_0 Eris's jaw moves as though noying at the air too stricken with rage to summon speech.

spk_0 Rhaela leaves him standing at the sideboard and strides from the room without a backward glance.

spk_0 Your grace?

spk_0 Leaning in from the hallway, Varys peers tentatively around the doorframe.

spk_0 May I be of service, Your Grace?

spk_0 Eris's face contorts into a rancorous scowl.

spk_0 His whole body seeming to vibrate from the billious fury boiling within.

spk_0 Your Grace?

spk_0 Eris looks down at his hand.

spk_0 Where only a second ago there existed a finely crafted wine goblet.

spk_0 He unclasps his fist and a shower of shattered glass tinkles to the stone floor.

spk_0 Glittering silver stars sprinkled about the crimson clarrot firmament of blood

spk_0 pooling about the king's feet.

spk_0 Flattening out his palm, Eris studies with peculiar detachment the shards of glass buried in his flesh.

spk_0 Tywin's licks, Bittles.

spk_0 How much longer do you need to make them mine?

spk_0 Everything is in place, Your Grace.

spk_0 You need only give the word.

spk_0 Then consider it given.

spk_0 Bring me my counsel, Lord Varys.

spk_0 And some tweezers and a towel, if you would.

spk_0 Wait just a moment.

spk_0 A tale this succulent simply must be accompanied with a glass of wine in hand.

spk_0 Red for steak, gold for fish.

spk_0 Which serves best with blackmail, do you wonder?

spk_0 Blackmail?

spk_0 Carmilliario, you know me better than that.

spk_0 Does a sculptor whittle his wood with an axe?

spk_0 Does a painter colour his canvas with mud and cinders?

spk_0 Just so.

spk_0 Tell me then, precisely which tools does an artist in tree-y gwield in his compositions.

spk_0 Grandmester?

spk_0 Pysel holds in his progress across the walkway that overlooks the red keeps in a courtyard

spk_0 and turns to discover Varys at his heel.

spk_0 Oh, it's you.

spk_0 If you have a moment, I'd hoped I might impose upon your expertise.

spk_0 It's something of a personal matter you understand.

spk_0 Fine, fine, but be quick about it.

spk_0 I'm late for my appointment with the princess Elia.

spk_0 Then I shall be brief.

spk_0 These past few months I've been finding my sleep unusually disturbed.

spk_0 At first I'd put it down to simply being in new surroundings,

spk_0 but even as I'd grown accustomed to the sounds of the red keep,

spk_0 still somehow a restful night's sleep eludes me.

spk_0 I wondered if you might be able to prescribe something.

spk_0 I thought perhaps a few drops of sweet sleep might be best.

spk_0 Oh, did you now?

spk_0 How fortunate for you then that you still possess sufficient humility to seek out the wisdom of your betas.

spk_0 In the first place, sweet sleep comes in powdered form, not liquid.

spk_0 How foolish of me.

spk_0 Furthermore, a small pinch of sweet sleep would more than suffice for your needs.

spk_0 I'd always equivalent to a few drops,

spk_0 would paralyze the heart and induce a slumber so deep you would never wake again.

spk_0 Goodness, thank the gods I came to you, Grandmaster.

spk_0 I do hope that apothecary gave Prince Lewin similarly cautionary advice.

spk_0 Prince Lewin?

spk_0 Hmm.

spk_0 Oh, yes.

spk_0 It seems mine and the kings are not the only weary heads within these walls.

spk_0 One of my little birds ever heard the prince making inquiries about sweet sleep in its effects.

spk_0 Varys tilts his head in concern, as Pysel is immediately overcome with a curious paroxysm.

spk_0 Are you feeling quite all right, Grandmaster?

spk_0 You've said and they turned a frightful shade of grey.

spk_0 I-I-I-no, I mean, yes, yes. I-I'm perfectly fine. Just-just give me a moment.

spk_0 May I walk you back to your chambers? I would hate for you to take a fall.

spk_0 No, no, I can manage. I'll-you'll have to excuse me. I-I must be getting along to-um...

spk_0 Your appointment went the princess Elia?

spk_0 Yes. Yes, precisely. Yes. The princess.

spk_0 Pysel takes his leave. The Grandmaster begins towards princess Elia's chambers,

spk_0 then suddenly veers to the right, and hurries off in the direction of the tower of the hand.

spk_0 The Grandmaster is far too obtuse to tempt, too loyal to turn,

spk_0 better than to remove him from the board entirely.

spk_0 After scuttling away to alert his master to their plots discovery,

spk_0 he promptly sealed himself away within his chambers,

spk_0 refusing both food and water from fear some dawnish spites may find its way into his dish.

spk_0 His face, a thunder cloud of anger,

spk_0 Lewin strides with purpose from the tower of the hand,

spk_0 and across the connecting rampart,

spk_0 Lume and Perkins hurrying to keep pace.

spk_0 He comes to such a sudden stop upon reaching the castle proper,

spk_0 his escort almost barrels into him.

spk_0 We don't have time to waste, Salluin, just a minute.

spk_0 Perkins places a hand on Lewin's back to urge him forward.

spk_0 You heard little tywin's orders, and start walking.

spk_0 If you don't take that hand off my back boy,

spk_0 I shall be taking it home with me to sunspere.

spk_0 Withering beneath the prince's steely glare, Perkins does as he's bid.

spk_0 Lume, might I say a couple quick goodbyes before we depart?

spk_0 Sorry, Lewin, but our orders were to say you directly to the docks.

spk_0 How many times have I covered you in a night shift

spk_0 so you and that kitchen-meet of yours could sneak away to the pantry together?

spk_0 Lume pretends not to notice his partners raised eyebrows,

spk_0 and instead considers Lewin's gambit with a weary sigh.

spk_0 He looks back in the direction from which they just came.

spk_0 Then nods.

spk_0 All right, but we only have time for one stop.

spk_0 Anymore, and the old liar will have my head fitted for a spike.

spk_0 Lewin nods his thanks and turns away.

spk_0 Standing at the convergence of three corridors,

spk_0 he looks first to the left, towards the quarters of Prince Rhaegar and his family,

spk_0 then to the right towards the wing of the red keep that houses the masters of the small council.

spk_0 Lewin hesitates, pawned between his two paths.

spk_0 He looks back at the guards, sure to follow closer to his heels.

spk_0 Then makes his decision.

spk_0 Lewin!

spk_0 Elia springs up in her bed, astonished at her uncle's sudden storming of her chambers.

spk_0 Listen to me carefully, I don't have long.

spk_0 What's happening, what's wrong?

spk_0 Tywin sending me to sunspir.

spk_0 What? Why? When?

spk_0 Today, now, write this minute.

spk_0 It wants me to treat with your brother about this nonsense of a wine-dude's.

spk_0 But you've got nothing to do with that.

spk_0 You don't know the first thing about trade.

spk_0 There must be half a hundred people better suited.

spk_0 Tywin suggests I might like to linger once a deal is done and deliver the crown's congratulations when Millario delivers.

spk_0 But that's months away.

spk_0 It makes no matter. It's only the next few days we need to worry about.

spk_0 I want you to go to Heronhole.

spk_0 Heronhole. But you know I can't.

spk_0 Pysel says I'm still too weak to travel.

spk_0 That's a chance we'll have to take.

spk_0 Rhaegar and three of my brothers are there.

spk_0 You and the children will be safest with them.

spk_0 They're going to rain use have done no harm to anyone.

spk_0 They're just babies. What danger could they-

spk_0 Listen to me, Elia.

spk_0 Louis ceases his niece by the shoulders, holding her tight.

spk_0 I'm only here. I'm only wearing this ridiculous white cape

spk_0 because Doran insisted on you having family here at court to wash over you

spk_0 to have a motel inside the red keep when-

spk_0 When what to do when you're scaring me?

spk_0 There's no time for that now.

spk_0 I need you to listen to what I'm telling you and follow my instructions exactly.

spk_0 Wait until Tywin and his escort have left the city.

spk_0 Then choose two dozen of your household guard and follow after them.

spk_0 Martel man only. Do you hear?

spk_0 No Targaryens, no gold cloaks, only Donishman.

spk_0 I don't understand, though.

spk_0 What aren't you telling me? You can't expect me to just-

spk_0 You should listen to your uncle, Princess.

spk_0 Elia and Louis turn in surprise to find Riella

spk_0 has slipped silently into the room.

spk_0 You can return to Sansbier with an untroubled mind, Prince Louis.

spk_0 I'll see to it that Elia and the children are well taken care of.

spk_0 Your grace, it was my understanding you decided not to travel to Heronhall.

spk_0 That was my intention.

spk_0 But if you believe my son's family will be safest at his side,

spk_0 then consider those intentions changed.

spk_0 Louis' indecision is written clear upon his face.

spk_0 Elia slips her hand into his and gives it a reassuring squeeze.

spk_0 It's alright, Louis. Riella would never let anyone hurt us.

spk_0 I trust her as those who were my own mother.

spk_0 Your mother was as false and cunning as a viper,

spk_0 as the queen can well attest.

spk_0 I love my horror for many years, just as I love her daughter now.

spk_0 In all the time you've been at court have I ever given you cause to doubt that.

spk_0 Louis encloses the half dozen steps between he and the queen.

spk_0 He studies her face, only inches from his own.

spk_0 Swear to me.

spk_0 We'll ride together, eat together, sleep together even.

spk_0 They will never leave my sight.

spk_0 I give you my word as a Targaryen.

spk_0 Ha, I'd sooner you gave me a bucket of rod and fish heads coated in night soil.

spk_0 Then I give you my word as a woman and as a queen,

spk_0 most importantly as a mother.

spk_0 Elia and the children are safe under my protection.

spk_0 Colton-chelsted climbs happily up the narrow curving staircase of the white sword tower

spk_0 and throws open the door of Louis's cell.

spk_0 He freezes like a rabbit beneath the wheel of an oncoming carriage

spk_0 at what he finds waiting on the other side.

spk_0 I am afraid I have some upsetting news to share my lord.

spk_0 Lord Vars, I hoped I might speak with Prince Lewin.

spk_0 We, I have a few last minute details of a Lordhands escort to Harrenhall that need confirming.

spk_0 My word, how is it even possible that a man so successful at keeping secrets

spk_0 should prove such a failure at telling lies?

spk_0 Colton has no reply.

spk_0 His mouth merely bobbing open and closed like a landed fish.

spk_0 Vars waves a pacifying hand.

spk_0 You needn't trouble yourself fumbling for another.

spk_0 I know about your special relationship with the Prince.

spk_0 I thought a master of whispers might do better than to traffic in Scarlett's roomer.

spk_0 Would have you heard, I?

spk_0 More to the point, Lord Colton.

spk_0 Tywin Lannister knows.

spk_0 The colour drains from Colton's face.

spk_0 His panicked eyes perform a plaintive survey of the small stone cell.

spk_0 Where's Lewin?

spk_0 Somewhere between the gallatin' Massie's hook, if the winds are kind.

spk_0 Lord Tywin has sent him home to Sunspir as the crown's representative.

spk_0 There he will treat with his nephew, Prince Dorrin, and seek a renegotiation of equitable terms

spk_0 in the importation of Dorna's shred.

spk_0 This doesn't make any sense.

spk_0 I quite agree it seems an awful lot of fuss over pressed and fermented grapes, but an

spk_0 inebriated populous is a compliant populous, I suppose.

spk_0 The tend to hoax upon which Colton has been floundering since his arrival finally appeared

spk_0 to lose their purchase, all the anxiety and fear of the past few months, draining from

spk_0 his muscles in an instant.

spk_0 He stumbles to a chair, looking faris over with grim resignation.

spk_0 You told Tywin.

spk_0 Quite the opposite, in fact.

spk_0 Then how did he come to know?

spk_0 I feared lies beyond my powers to provide you the cause, my Lord, only to underscore for

spk_0 you the gravity of the consequences.

spk_0 Tywin would never dare to Lewin any harm, he is a Prince of Dorrin.

spk_0 Which is no doubt the only reason I was able to reach Lord Tywin through his initial

spk_0 fury, and why Prince Lewin is currently being spirited safely away aboard a ship sailing

spk_0 the King's colours and not beaten and bound down in the black cells.

spk_0 But you possess no such protections.

spk_0 You have no famous name, no powerful nephew or niece, no order of nightly brothers to

spk_0 swear you their sword.

spk_0 I have Lewin.

spk_0 You had Lewin.

spk_0 Now you have nobody, not even the benefactor that raised you to these giddy heights to begin

spk_0 with.

spk_0 I have served Tywin well.

spk_0 He needs Millers Council.

spk_0 He wouldn't sacrifice a seat to Eris, not now you and Regard.

spk_0 If you truly believed that, my Lord, you would not have gone to such pains to keep your

spk_0 chests from Tywin's attention all this while.

spk_0 So you've come to tell me, my dead man, how do I occur to you?

spk_0 Not quite.

spk_0 Strange as it is to consider, that same transgressions by which you earned Tywin's

spk_0 enmity may well prove the means of your deliverance.

spk_0 I'm not sure if I should take that as an insult or a compliment, but if you think Tywin

spk_0 Lannister is susceptible to seduction, let alone by...

spk_0 You mistake my meaning, my Lord.

spk_0 Consider this.

spk_0 Step on Baratheon is drowned.

spk_0 Simmons Staunton carried off by fever.

spk_0 One dead master is unfortunate.

spk_0 Two is tragic, but three in the space for a few short months.

spk_0 Questions would be asked.

spk_0 Motives interrogated.

spk_0 Blame apportioned.

spk_0 Either Tywin knew of his hand-picked master's corruption and became complicit by his inaction,

spk_0 or he was so feckless in his duties as to remain utterly oblivious to the deviance

spk_0 occurring right beneath his nose.

spk_0 Whichever the case, it does not behove Tywin's interests to draw upon himself the greatest

spk_0 scrutiny your untimely demise would surely precipitate.

spk_0 Carlton peers at Varys through the fingers pressed against his face in mortification,

spk_0 at the predicament in which he finds himself.

spk_0 What am I supposed to do?

spk_0 I can't just carry on like before now.

spk_0 To escape beyond Tywin's clutches you would need either a cast iron commission calling

spk_0 you away, or the blessing of an alternative benefactor too powerful for even Tywin Lannister

spk_0 to counter-mande.

spk_0 Fortunately for you, I may have the means to provide both.

spk_0 And what would you expect in return for fashioning me with this escape?

spk_0 Varys's lips curl into a conspiratorial smile.

spk_0 Perhaps you had best close the door, my lord.

spk_0 You and I have a great deal to discuss.

spk_0 And would I be correct in assuming Lord Tywin remains entirely unaware of Chelsea's

spk_0 dalliance with the prince?

spk_0 You would indeed.

spk_0 It was Sir Lewin's discovery of the sweet sleep in Princess Eleos' tinctures.

spk_0 A discovery he never made, of course.

spk_0 The precipitated Tywin's sudden dispatch of the prince back home to Sunspir.

spk_0 As far as Lord Carlton knows, however, he was spared Lord Tywin's wrath towards his

spk_0 and Lewin's liaisons only through my own intervention.

spk_0 A debt you wasted little time in calling in, I have no doubt.

spk_0 Lord Chustered, toward Waiow this unexpected.

spk_0 Is it?

spk_0 Carlton ducks his head and steps into the captain's cabin, an enormous leather-bound ledger

spk_0 tucked under one arm.

spk_0 Luceris stands behind his desk.

spk_0 His surprise at this rare visitor to his quarters upon the King, Yeharris, near as plain

spk_0 as his aversion.

spk_0 Forgive the intrusion, Luceris, I assure you this is not a social call.

spk_0 Big rudgingly, Luceris waves a hand at the seat before his desk and retakes his own.

spk_0 What business could you and I have, one another, that could not wait until the council?

spk_0 What I have to say is not for Tywin Lancet's hearing.

spk_0 Luceris glances wearily at the door through which Carlton has just passed.

spk_0 You know better than to talk like that within a day's ride of the red keep?

spk_0 Further now, since the spider has nested his little birds all across the realm.

spk_0 The days of you and I living in fear of Tywin's wrath are at an end, my friend.

spk_0 Carlton opens the ledger to the past month's expenditures and passes the tome to Luceris.

spk_0 The master of ships frowns, but looks nonetheless.

spk_0 Ten thousand gold dragons, he'd in full to Lord Quellen Greyjoy.

spk_0 Every month for the past nineteen years, it used to be five thousand, but not even blood

spk_0 money is immune from inflation these days.

spk_0 To what ends?

spk_0 When the Dothraki hordes descend upon the towns and cities of Assles, the wisest rulers

spk_0 furnish the cars with tribute of gold and silver so they might spare themselves a sacking,

spk_0 it would seem our Lord Hand has taken instruction from across the narrow sea.

spk_0 Realisation slowly dawns across Luceris' face.

spk_0 He wipes at his mouth as though suddenly tasting something rank and bitter upon his lips.

spk_0 Tywin's been paying the iron ball to force where their raids on the Seven Kingdoms.

spk_0 He would let himself be extorted by the Greyjoy's for two decades, rather than trust me just once with a royal fleet.

spk_0 In point of fact it's actually the king that's being extorted.

spk_0 The coin comes from the royal treasury after all, though never at the king's instruction.

spk_0 I could have crushed Quilon a thousand times over for a fraction of the fortune that old

spk_0 fallen has added over.

spk_0 As I understand it, the deal was struck in the Housey in Days, following the fifth Black

spk_0 Fire Abelian, when the winds of comradering cooperation were still blowing like a gale

spk_0 through the fractured kingdom of Old King Jeharris.

spk_0 But even back then Tywin was not a man to put much stock in sentiment alone.

spk_0 He knew that peace, like most everything, always comes at a price.

spk_0 The reins and tarbecks paid in blood, while others, as you see before you now, were paid in plunder.

spk_0 Gold has its uses, but wars are won by iron.

spk_0 How many times have we heard him say that?

spk_0 Why does the oldest line rather loud us?

spk_0 Sooner or late, the young man's boast becomes the old man's bluff and bluster.

spk_0 Lucerus sits back in his chair, running his fingers over stubble chin,

spk_0 in contemplation of this latest, in a long line of insults served up by his patron.

spk_0 I've always suspected how little Tywin truly thought of me,

spk_0 but my pride permitted me to believe my remand to port was most readily explained by Tywin's

spk_0 esteem for my value in the council, rather than his depreciation for my abilities at sea.

spk_0 To see the truth here before me now, written down in black and white, calculated to the very last copper.

spk_0 His attention shifts to Carlton.

spk_0 He studies the master of coin closely, his eyes narrowed in suspicion.

spk_0 You've known about this sort of little arrangement, all this time, and never breathed a word to me.

spk_0 I was commanded to keep payments of secret,

spk_0 thus I be suddenly and precipitously returned to the lamentable circumstances from which our

spk_0 dear hand raised me. Then why break that command by bringing this to my attention?

spk_0 Are you suddenly overcome by some strange fancy to resume your residency down in the gutter?

spk_0 How many times have I suffered silently in council while Tywin saddled me with authoring some

spk_0 onerous new taxation, full in the knowledge it would not be his name but my own the small folks

spk_0 would be spitting? He was Tywin's ruling that their rations be cut down to crumbs as winter,

spk_0 and yet it was my head the mob was demanding as they charged upon the castle gates.

spk_0 Even now I cannot walk about the city without hearing heckles of

spk_0 Carlton's crumbs and cruel Lord Carlton.

spk_0 Trust me when I tell you I understand your resentment all too well.

spk_0 Of the many forms and justice takes in this world, there's something uniquely

spk_0 galling about being forced to suffer the consequences of another man's actions.

spk_0 But such has been our lot for twenty years.

spk_0 Lord Carlton, what has changed to make you target your colour now?

spk_0 You have Lord Lazarus.

spk_0 I saw your eyes when Tywin handed your command to Lord Eman. You looked like a man that

spk_0 had lived his life beneath the shadow of an hourglass and was just now realizing that the last

spk_0 few grains of sand were redding themselves to drop. I have nothing to fear from Eman.

spk_0 You feared him for half your life, my lord. With each passing year you spent

spk_0 chain to the council table, shuffling papers and growing soft about your middle.

spk_0 That fearsome reputation you earned yourself at the closing of the war

spk_0 receded a little more into memory. Your brother, meanwhile, stubbornly persisted in growing into

spk_0 manhood, earning as he aged his own reputation as an expert seamen, admired by crews and

spk_0 contemporaries alike, to a degree unprecedented since the days of your illustrious namesake.

spk_0 Eman can conquer all of Essos and it will still make no matter,

spk_0 as these ledgers only serve to reiterate, Tywin order requires one thing from his licks petals,

spk_0 and I can fill a chair just as well as Eman can.

spk_0 And which of you would provide doubt your insulation against the discontent of the masses I wonder?

spk_0 Behind which shield would Tywin feel himself most protected? The first war hero of this generation

spk_0 or the mercenary of the last? The sea slug or the sea snake come again?

spk_0 Which shield would better absorb the weight of public emity? The valurian made of freshly forged steel

spk_0 or the valurian made of parchment? The master of ships considers Carlton closely,

spk_0 then stands and paces across his cabin to look at the world beyond his port hole.

spk_0 He watches as a twin mastered merchant ship passes beyond the reach of the longest dock

spk_0 and escapes into the open sea. It's hundred ores sithing through the placid blue waters

spk_0 in synchronic pursuit of the far horizon.

spk_0 Lucerus turns to face his fellow master, the old determination weathered by two decades of

spk_0 disappointments, now recast with a fresh and dogged obstinacy.

spk_0 I have sat idly by while my reputation dissipated like snow comes spring.

spk_0 I have sat idly by while Tywin hangs his own timidity like a millstone about my nick,

spk_0 but I'll be damned if I will sit idly by and wait for the day that a scheming old

spk_0 cut takes the fancy to cast me aside like my father did before him.

spk_0 Fuck him and and fuck Tywin Lannister!

spk_0 What do you need me to do?

spk_0 And just like that, the last tower comes tumbling down.

spk_0 Of all Tywin's licks, Bittles, our master of ships was always the most likely to require

spk_0 the slightest push to topple. That said, to be sure to pass along my appreciation to

spk_0 Narissa and Milleney for providing me the particular point at which to prick at the sea slugs pride.

spk_0 I gladly shall. I cannot help but wonder though. Was Tywin truly buying the Greyjoy's

spk_0 piece, or were those entries in Chelsea's leisure still wet with your own ink when laid before

spk_0 Lord Lucerus? Now, now, Elario, it's poor form indeed to expect a conjurer to betray the secrets

spk_0 of his deceptions. A sculptor, a painter, and now a conjurer,

spk_0 truly a man of many talents, this humble master sat before me.

spk_0 And now, as we were want to say in my mum's days, we come to the grand finale.

spk_0 My brothers and I have been keeping a constant vigil at his bedside,

spk_0 and Grandmase to Pysel has been most attentive in administering Sir Harlan's care.

spk_0 I had hoped to formally commend Grandmase to before council today.

spk_0 The Grandmaster is suffering a touch of fever I'm given to understand. He has confined

spk_0 himself to chambers for the duration, lest his affliction prove contagious about the keep.

spk_0 Of course, I shall see that alternative arrangements are made for Sir Harlan in the meanwhile.

spk_0 Thank you, Lord Commander. I'm sure I speak for all presents when I once again convey the very

spk_0 best wishes for your brothers full and speedy recovery. Gerald nods a curtuck knowledgement,

spk_0 and steps back to his accustomed place a few feet removed from the council table.

spk_0 Lord Chelsted, I believe you have an update for us on this sorry business with Lord Darklin.

spk_0 I do, my Lord Hand, though I fear the news will not be to this council's liking.

spk_0 Lord Darklin has expressed his willingness to accede to the Crown's terms.

spk_0 He will collect and deliver to my agents the outstanding taxation due from Duskendale,

spk_0 plus the 10% tithe. But, Lord Darklin's acube essence does not come without conditions.

spk_0 He insists that his grace the king speak the stranger's name and low he shall appear.

spk_0 The small council turns us one towards the doorway to discover aeris standing upon the threshold.

spk_0 The room rises, every man among them stealing syrup-titious glances in Tywin's direction as they do so.

spk_0 Your grace, you must forgive us if we appear surprised somewhat we were not for warned of your

spk_0 attendance. A thousand apologies, my Lord Hand. I shall make certain to send a herald ahead of my

spk_0 arrival in future. Aeris hovers pointedly at Tywin's shoulder, with a forward incline that could

spk_0 be termed a bow by only the most charitable of spirit. Tywin surrenders his chair at the table's

spk_0 head and relocates to the empty place to the right of Varys. Aeris raises his bandaged right hand,

spk_0 motioning for the room to join him in taking their seats. You may continue, Lord Chelston.

spk_0 Thank you, your grace. As I was saying, Lord Dennis has made clear any restitution of outstanding

spk_0 taxes is dependent upon certain conditions. For most among them is the insistence that his case for

spk_0 Duskendale being granted a special trading charter be presented before your grace, that is presented

spk_0 in person, in Duskendale. Aeris tilts his head, his brow creased as though Colton spoke in a foreign

spk_0 language that the King must first mentally translate. Lord Chelston, how many moons have passed since

spk_0 you first brought this matter before council? Three, your grace, almost four. And what action has

spk_0 this council taken since? At the Lord Han's instruction, I dispatched several strongly worded

spk_0 reminders to Lord Dennis, urging him to redress his outstanding debt to the crown.

spk_0 And when Lord Darkly not only ignored these reminders, forgive me, these strongly worded

spk_0 reminders, but persisted in his refusal to keep payment with his accruing debt, what measures were

spk_0 taken then? I dispatched a bard to call upon Sir Dennis at the done fort, your grace.

spk_0 Two brief to be certain, two slight to incur comment, the shadow of a smirk dances across Colton's

spk_0 lips as his eyes flit in Tywin's direction. Once again at the Lord Han's instruction.

spk_0 Forgive me, Lord Chelston. The wound I took to my hand earlier today appears to have spread to

spk_0 my ears somehow. I thought I heard you say you sent a bard. Indeed, your grace.

spk_0 If I may, your grace, several options were discussed for how best to handle Lord Darklyn's

spk_0 recalcitrance, but Prince Rhaegar was of the mind. Sir, it was my son's nation to serve Darklyn's

spk_0 song rather than steel, is that it? Not exactly, no, but... Can it be the lion of Castley Rock has

spk_0 finally lost his bite? You, the scourge of customer, who served at my side to take this country back

spk_0 from the grasping lords that rode roughshod over my father's rule? I need no reminding of my service

spk_0 to the seven kingdoms, your grace. First and foremost, been the unbroken peace I have propagated

spk_0 for near on twenty years now. Propagated with that vane glorious dudge, you commission to

spk_0 mythologize the triumphs of your distant youth. Among other means, your grace. In my experience,

spk_0 the timely intercession of an understated yet pointed reminder of the consequences

spk_0 attendant to a defiant such as dusk and dails can often times. Tywin interrupts himself,

spk_0 distracted by the manner in which Aerys's head suddenly snapped to attention. The kings face a

spk_0 picture of startled recognition. Can often times prove invaluable in forestalling the unwelcome

spk_0 expenditure in blood and coin that a more strident response invariably entails?

spk_0 Aerys remains transfixed upon Tywin's lips long after the king's hand has ceased to speak.

spk_0 Defiance. Darkly, darkness all around. The masters of the small council look at one another

spk_0 in confusion, and at the other's urging, Varys takes it upon himself to lean discreetly forward

spk_0 and insert himself in Aerys's peripheral vision. Your grace? If your hand is causing you pain,

spk_0 your grace, might I suggest? Well, you may still labor under the country conviction,

spk_0 Lord Tywin. It is clear to me, at least, that these pointed reminders, like a fearsome reputation

spk_0 by which they were inspired and upon which you have subsisted for so many years,

spk_0 have long since lost whatever efficacy they once possessed.

spk_0 Tywin performs a quick survey of the table, painfully conscious of the audience to this insult.

spk_0 His shoulders squared and chest puffed out as though set to receive a second coronation.

spk_0 Aerys rises from his suit and addresses the table.

spk_0 The lion may have grown too meek and complacent in his old age to serve the likes of Dennis Darklin,

spk_0 the swift and certain disciplines such disobedient curves require, but the flames that set the

spk_0 world afire in the dragon's ascendancy still burn just as hot and bright today. I promise you that,

spk_0 my Lord. Your grace, House Darklin has ever been a leal and stalwart friend to the crown.

spk_0 We must not give cause for the sentiment to gather that your grace so easily forget the good

spk_0 services of those that have long held faith with House Darkarian. While I'm certain you of all

spk_0 people would simply despair, were slanders and column needs against my person banded among the

spk_0 populace, such ill-adventure hardly compares with the rotten ruin that festers throughout the realm

spk_0 when a king's prerogative is so brazenly brought into challenge.

spk_0 If you have forgotten that lesson, my Lord, then I can only conclude that your memory of my

spk_0 father's reign has become as compromised as your once peerless prowess.

spk_0 About the table, the masters of the small council watch, unblinking, utterly captivated by the

spk_0 conflict playing out before their transfixed eyes. I assure you quite the opposite is true your grace.

spk_0 I remember very well the state of the Seven Kingdoms when you first came into your throne,

spk_0 just as I remember who it was that purged that rank and rot of which you so eloquently speak.

spk_0 And so it is to the preservation of all that I have built in the intervening decades that I

spk_0 cannot a good conscience allow- Allow! You cannot allow! How very bold of you to take a stand now,

spk_0 Lord Tywin, after all these months of fording Dennis Darklin more allowances,

spk_0 than would a four copper or an economy with which you're passingly familiar, I understand.

spk_0 I cannot pretend to any knowledge of horrors your grace, copper or otherwise.

spk_0 Not even the golden variety. I hear the high-born horrors are the most

spk_0 compliant of all. They'll do just about anything if you promise them sufficient reward.

spk_0 Tywin rises to his feet with disconcerting speed. At the far end of the table,

spk_0 the Lord Commander takes a stealthy step forward, his sword hand shifting from the pommel to the grip.

spk_0 For the third time in as many hours, the King is confronted by the vulnerability of his inferior

spk_0 stature. Yet on this occasion, hear his betrays only the slightest crack in his imperturbable facade,

spk_0 a near imperceptible flinch, breaking the death stare into which he and Tywin settle.

spk_0 If you will not be swayed to restraint by the weight of my appeal alone,

spk_0 perhaps hearing it reiterated by your small council will serve to convince you of its wisdom.

spk_0 Tywin looks with imperious surety from Colton to Lucerus to Varus,

spk_0 even including the still alert and coiled Kingsguard in his survey, such is his confidence.

spk_0 But for perhaps the first time in Tywin Lannister's life, that confidence proves unfounded.

spk_0 Actually, my Lord Hand, I find myself in complete agreement with his grace.

spk_0 As do I, your darkness must answer his presumption, and not before time. This farce has been

spk_0 permitted to drag on far too long. I serve at the pleasure of the King. As do we all.

spk_0 Apologies, my Lord Hand, but it would seem your opposition is unanimous.

spk_0 Even if I were of a mind to admit a sentient voice to your own, which it pains me to say I am not,

spk_0 it would seem you stand entirely alone. And who am I to resume myself wiser than the

spk_0 collective will of the King's small council? Tywin stands like a statue in a storm throughout

spk_0 his councils revolt, his early expression of incomprehension dissolving into a rictus of

spk_0 seething indignation and incredulous fury. This is not the entirety of the small council,

spk_0 Grand Master Pysel is not here nor would it make a difference if he were. The old

spk_0 fool exhausted his worth during my father's day. Perhaps once I have settled upon our new master

spk_0 of laws I shall send to the citadel for a master hail and healthy enough to sit in a chair when

spk_0 called upon. Lord Carlton, your grace, gather your things and take the first ship you can find

spk_0 sailing for sunspere. You are to assist Saloon in settling this nonsense over our imports in

spk_0 the shortest possible fashion and then return as promptly as the two of you are able.

spk_0 As you wish, your grace. Carlton glances towards Varys, the master of whispers returning a

spk_0 surreptitious norde of acknowledgement. Your grace, might I inquire as the reason Lord

spk_0 Carlton may not take passage upon a vessel of the royal fleet? Because the royal fleet has no

spk_0 ship to spare. How many did your brother leave in port when he sailed to the Arbiseid?

spk_0 Nine, your grace. In up to Mount Oblok-Aid? I believe so, your grace. Then gather what cruiser

spk_0 can, captain. We march on duskendale before the turn of the moon, and I want that harbour sealed

spk_0 up tighter than a zorce's arsehole in a sandstorm before we arrive. Beaming like a child on his

spk_0 name day, Luceris exchanges a conspiratorial norde with Carlton. Recognising the run of play,

spk_0 Tywin opts for a different tack. He turns his back towards the council and inclines his head

spk_0 to speak only for Arises' hearing. Marching against duskendale is folly enough, but it is rank

spk_0 absurdity that the king himself should- Touch, as I am by your concern for my well-being, my Lord,

spk_0 I assure you I am perfectly capable of fighting my own battles. That's not how I remember it.

spk_0 Arises face colours a dark and ominous cast. He stares down his erstwhile friend,

spk_0 and Tywin stares right back. Times change, Lord Tywin. None of us are the men we once were.

spk_0 At the last, something you and I can agree upon. Aris looks down to discover his hands are clenched

spk_0 into fists. The bandage about his wounded palm soaked a crimson red. Small droplets of blood

spk_0 drip between his curled fingers to splatter on the stone floor. The bursting beads as loud as

spk_0 cannonfire in the tomb-like stillness of the silent chamber. Acutely aware of the master's

spk_0 leaning forward in a vein endeavoured to discern the content of his and Tywin's whispered

spk_0 aside, Aris snorts to riceably at Tywin's illusions and returns his attention to the table,

spk_0 speaking more for the benefit of their audience than for Tywin himself.

spk_0 I know you are eager to start out on your long journey to Harrenhall, my Lord Hand.

spk_0 The master's and I will handle things from here. You have my leave to go.

spk_0 Surely you cannot still intend to me to leave the capital.

spk_0 I not only expected, I command it. Your presence is anticipated and I will not have my people

spk_0 disappointed. Tywin holds the king's eye, the disdain that passes between the two, so palpable.

spk_0 The very air appears turned viscous and rank. The council holds its collective breath.

spk_0 Bravo, old friend, bravo indeed. You well and truly are an expert artisan in manipulation.

spk_0 Deceit and deception the tools of your trade.

spk_0 Where are you going? Forgive me, but I have an appointment I simply must attend.

spk_0 Now, write this instant. I thought we might at least dwell upon our success at least a moment or two.

spk_0 I should like nothing more, but alas, my date does not possess much patience with the un-punctural.

spk_0 We will talk more on this soon. You have my word.

spk_0 Bewilded, various frowns in consternation at the empty doorway through which the

spk_0 magister has just swept with nary a backward glance.

spk_0 The Stark household stretches along the king's road for a quarter mile.

spk_0 The trains settled into a leisureed progress, knowing they still face another half-dozen days

spk_0 of riding before they reach Harrenhal. The riders have forced warn their typical heavy furs.

spk_0 The warmth of the southern early spring are welcome change from the ice and snow of the north's

spk_0 tenacious late winter. Riding alone in the middle of the line, the Anna's solitude is disturbed by

spk_0 the arrival of Mastor Wallace, trotting up alongside.

spk_0 Mastor? My lady, I come to you on a matter of the gravest importance. I beg your pardon,

spk_0 if the words do not come readily to my lips, but I dare say, even the hardest of warriors would find

spk_0 yourselves unnerved by the enormity of a mischief such as this. What is it Wallace?

spk_0 My lady, please steady yourself. May Benjain move into your chambers once you move to Storm's End.

spk_0 Leanna shares the Mastor's smile and turns the look down the line. A hundred feet further back,

spk_0 Benjain draws in his craning neck and does his best to appear as though he wasn't watching Wallace

spk_0 carry out his commission. So Benjain has roped you into his campaign now, hasn't?

spk_0 You made a compelling case, my lady. His current quarters are overrun with rats, would you believe,

spk_0 and the winds that come in through his northern-facing windows are so cold,

spk_0 he freezes a bridge of stiff through his wardrobe door.

spk_0 Oh, it's... I had no idea my brother suffered so. I shall have to devote many hours of serious

spk_0 contemplation to properly appreciate the merits of this proposal. Wallace bows his thanks and the

spk_0 pair ride in silence for a spell. Leanna considers the old Mastor with a suspicious eye.

spk_0 Why do I get the sense you have something more to say?

spk_0 Such is the curse of my calling, my lady. I hoped we might speak on your coming naturals.

spk_0 Of course you did. I warn you. If you mean to appeal to my familial sympathies,

spk_0 my father has preempted you. I have always been a man predisposed to prose of a poetry,

spk_0 as you well know, my lady. There exists a macaeryality in matches of the heart that confounds my

spk_0 natural inclination towards the stubborn, surety of facts and figures.

spk_0 So you've come to make the case of my father's coffers?

spk_0 I hardly need explain to you the futistry benefit to how stark of close reliance with the South

spk_0 My Lady. The expensive, important grain to see us through this long winter would have beg of

spk_0 the lesser power, even allowing for the favorable terms you're far from the gocheted.

spk_0 One need only consider the words of your house to appreciate the benefit of tethering together

spk_0 as a fortunes of wolf and stag while the spring flowers are still in bloom.

spk_0 If our friends in the South were amenable to selling us their surplus for this winter,

spk_0 why is it suddenly contingent upon my being wed that they should do the same for the next?

spk_0 You are still a young woman, my lady. Scarecely removed from childhood.

spk_0 You've never known anything but peace and harmony among the seven kingdoms.

spk_0 I am old enough to remember a time when cooperation between the great houses was a rare thing

spk_0 indeed. Before the fifth Black Fire Abelian brought the realm together in common cause,

spk_0 this was a divided land, neighbor betraying neighbor, old entities flaming up like wildfire,

spk_0 every lord greater petty pursuing his own agenda, clutching and curing for a greater share of

spk_0 wealth and power. That was a different time, a different country. So give me my lady, but even the

spk_0 most obtuse of novices will tell you the path of history is circular. Everything old is merely a

spk_0 precursor, everything new, just an echo. The ties that bind the nobility together were afraid before

spk_0 and they will be again. When that time comes it will be in all our interests for stark,

spk_0 baratheon and tully to stand together. You do yourself a disservice when you claim your

spk_0 sensibilities cannot extend beyond the prosaic, maester. What little girl doesn't dream of the

spk_0 day she will stand before the gods and enter into the happiest political alliance of her life?

spk_0 You forget my lady and you when you were a little girl, you dreamed of adventure of distant lands

spk_0 and exotic peoples of perilous quests and powerful glories that never of the day you might marry.

spk_0 Man or woman, every living soul dreams of falling in love Wallace, just because I prefer

spk_0 baudi songs and riding leathers to needlework and silk and dresses does not mean I'm content

spk_0 surrendering to a life without romance. Romance has ever been the preserve of youth for my lady,

spk_0 or in time you will see. I swear if you invoke my age and service to your condescension one more time

spk_0 I shall see to it that your bedroll is placed by the latrine pits when we make camp tonight.

spk_0 Impressed by the unfamiliar flame of authority that flickers to life at reminding Wallace of his

spk_0 proper place, Leanna leans into its seductive warmth. Why do you even care? Your name is flowers

spk_0 not stark, there's no game for you in any of this. I have no name, more have done since I swore my

spk_0 service to Winterfell and I was scared the older than you on our. I am duty bound to champion whatever

spk_0 measures may profit house stark as these unions adaptably shall. Duty bound to house stark,

spk_0 but only to my father among its members I cannot help but feel. You would be child,

spk_0 I brought you into this world with these two hands, you knew this face even before your mothers,

spk_0 may the gods keep in protector. Leanna cannot help but feel guilty for speaking so harshly,

spk_0 Wallace's prayer serving to remind her of the comfort and care with which the maester eased her

spk_0 mother's final hours. If I gave the fence I pray you'll accept my most sincere apologies,

spk_0 mate. I meant only to say that the feeling between a man and a woman only rarely occurs as it does

spk_0 in storybooks. Only one in every hundred thousand of us will ever experience love as those struck

spk_0 by a bolt from the heavens. For everyone else fortunate enough to avoid a life of looseness,

spk_0 it more commonly creeps upon us without unnotice like the soft midriff of middle age.

spk_0 That was certainly the way of things between your mother and father and the bars themselves

spk_0 would have struggled to imagine a more enduring affection. I have affection for the starling that

spk_0 made her nest up of my window last summer. I do not think it the fancy and folly of youth to ask

spk_0 for something more from the man I am to marry. The maester reaches a hand across the space between

spk_0 their two trotting horses and squeezes Leanna's own where it rests upon the pommel of her saddle.

spk_0 A presumption she permits as though in correction of her briskness a moment ago.

spk_0 I did not expect to make a conduit of you in a single city my name. I only ask that you at least

spk_0 do me the courtesy of thinking on all I've said, particularly by observations and the trajectory of time.

spk_0 Your parents were as good as strangers when they spoke their vows, but together they made a safe

spk_0 and happy home for you and your brothers. If you could only find a way to enter into your own

spk_0 marriage with an open heart I can think of no reason why history should not repeat itself.

spk_0 In the yard of Storm's End the party bound for Harrenhull ready to make their departure.

spk_0 Ned sits atop his horse beside a dozen Baratheon guards waiting patiently while Robert says his fair

spk_0 wells. A sniffling wrenly hugs his brother's leg like a limpet to a rock.

spk_0 Robert wipes the tears from the young boy's cheeks.

spk_0 What's this? I thought you were afraid of water. Not anymore I'm not. Can't I come with you?

spk_0 I've got a lot of hard miles ahead of me and a great deal of business that wouldn't be very

spk_0 exciting for a child. But I'll be back before you know it and when I do it will be for good.

spk_0 Really? For good? That's right. I'll be here in the mornings to drag you out of your bed.

spk_0 I'll be at the table to make sure you eat your vegetables and in the evenings I'll sit

spk_0 your mull up in front of the fire to see that you learn your letters. And I'll be bringing you back

spk_0 something really exciting too. Another fairyt. Even better. Next time we see each other I'll be a

spk_0 married man and you'll have a new aunt to spoil you. Well I have a cousin. There aren't many

spk_0 children here and I'd really like a cousin to play with. One thing at a time, Renly.

spk_0 Celice steps forward placing a hand atop Renly's dark brown curls.

spk_0 Hurry along now you don't want to end up as sick as your brother.

spk_0 Renly turns and scampers back towards the castle. Robert looks about awkwardly.

spk_0 Should I wait? Who knows. Last night he hardly said a word over supper and he was already

spk_0 gone when I woke this morning. I'd hoped after I'd talk the other day. Old ruins tough in the skin

spk_0 when they scar. Give it time. Robert nods in reluctant acceptance. Take care of yourself, Celice.

spk_0 And you, Robert. Robert places a foot in the stirrup. He gives one last for lawn look back towards

spk_0 the castle and smiles. Stanis descends the steps towards the yard. Master Cresson following

spk_0 dutifully after him. You left it close. I was hunting down Cresson here. Stanis gestures to the

spk_0 Master looking nervously at the tall grey palfrey being led from the stables. I'm sending him with

spk_0 you to Harrenhall just as a precaution in case that chest of yours worsens on the road. I'll not

spk_0 be held responsible for you passing on the spring sickness that all the lords and ladies of Westross.

spk_0 I'm quite sure my health and your reputation have nothing to fear, but I appreciate the gesture

spk_0 all the same. You're sure you won't join us? Turn these were never my notion of time well spent.

spk_0 Aye. Far too much like a good time. Stanis remains stubbornly unamused at Robert's good nature

spk_0 jive and turns away to make a scan of the yard. He nods to Ned who returns the acknowledgement,

spk_0 then discreetly turns to pass idle talk with their escort and afford the brother's amodicum of

spk_0 privacy. What you said the other night in the solar. I meant every word. I won't have it said I

spk_0 took advantage of your grief to steal what isn't mine. Nobody will say that. They may. Then

spk_0 fuck him. You're my brother and this is your home. You cannot steal what's already yours.

spk_0 Stanis holds Robert's eye for as long as his in vetorate discomfort will allow,

spk_0 then nods in stiff and formal gratitude. He hesitates a moment more, then offers his hand.

spk_0 Take care of yourself, Robert. And you, Stanis.

spk_0 Stanis steps back beside Celice and the pair watch as Robert gives his horses heels and leads

spk_0 the egress through the gates of Storm's End. Tywin passes another stack of papers into the arms

spk_0 of Sir Amory Lorch and waves a hand and dismissal. Take those down to the carriage and ready the

spk_0 horses for our departure. Sir Amory does as he's bid, leaving Tywin to perform one last

spk_0 survey of his chambers. He returns to his desk and retrieves the anonymous scroll from its drawer,

spk_0 tucking it into his doublet. Your grace was there something in particular you wanted.

spk_0 I'm about to depart for Harrenhal. Do give my best to Cersei, won't you? I shall miss your daughters

spk_0 company greatly. My daughter is no concern of yours. Oh, I wouldn't say that.

spk_0 Not when she came running to my chambers this morning like a poor lost lamb,

spk_0 bleeding for its mother. She was so distraught, simply boiling her beautiful green eyes out, poor thing.

spk_0 I don't believe she knew half the things that came tumbling out of her mouth.

spk_0 Tywin's eyes narrow, but Rihanna pays no heed. She strolls casually across the room to the

spk_0 open window. Oh, look how lovely all your friends at Court of Gather to see you off.

spk_0 Tywin steps out into the eerily deserted yard. His escort of two dozen lannister guards

spk_0 wait, mantered and ready by the open gates. Sir Aemary holding the reins to Tywin's horse

spk_0 beside the extravagant golden carriage that serves as Cersei's conveyance.

spk_0 Tywin stops in his tracks at the sight of Aerys, standing atop the battlements,

spk_0 flanked on either side by the masters of the small council. Varys at least has the good sense to

spk_0 avoid Tywin's ice cold glare, but Colton and Luceris make no effort to disguise their satisfaction.

spk_0 I suggest you take a good long blue-blood Tywin. You can expect the place to look quite

spk_0 changed the next time you lay eyes upon it, but have no fear. The interests of house lannister

spk_0 shall be well represented in your absence. Tywin's lip curls into a distainful sneer.

spk_0 He is about to turn away when an even more galling sight presents itself upon the walkway.

spk_0 Jamie emerges from the tower and looks down at his father in grim defiance.

spk_0 Sir Jamie has graciously accepted my invitation to remain here with us.

spk_0 Until such a time as you return to recommence your service to the crown.

spk_0 The muscles of Tywin's jaw tense. His hands close into fists. His teeth grind with such

spk_0 ferocity. It's a wonder the sound does not reach the king's receptive ears across the silence

spk_0 of the yard. He appears for all the world as though he's ready to charge up the steps and drag

spk_0 his son away with him. But instead he turns his back and directs his steps towards his waiting mount.

spk_0 Father. Cersei leans out the carriage door, her face flushed and her cheeks damp with fresh tears.

spk_0 Tywin wheels about to serve Cersei all the impotent anger raging inside him,

spk_0 but sees her attention shift suddenly to something over his shoulder. He follows her

spk_0 eye line to the tower of the hand and Rayola's satisfied smile beaming back at him from the open

spk_0 doorway. Please, Father, I thought she could help. I thought she could stop you from sending Jamie away.

spk_0 Well now he's staying and it's you that's leaving. I hope the irony of that provides you some

spk_0 measure of consolation for the long road ahead. Without another backward glance, Tywin climbs into

spk_0 the saddle and leads his guards through the gates of the red keep, Cersei and her conveyance

spk_0 trembling behind. Through the rear aperture of her carriage, she desperately searches out her

spk_0 brother upon the battlements, reaching out a hand as though to draw him close, silent words of

spk_0 devotion dancing upon her lips. But Jamie has already gone.

spk_0 Alone in his quarters, Carlton hastily bundles

spk_0 armfuls of clothing into a pair of pristine new travelling trunks.

spk_0 Carlton's head snaps to the door like a trapped animal taking the scent of a predator.

spk_0 He crosses to his desk and retrieves a dagger from the drawer, makes a few practice stabs at the

spk_0 air then steps tentatively towards the door. He opens it only the width of a finger and peaks between

spk_0 the wood. Your grace. Carlton opens the door wide and bows before Eleor. She smiles sweetly at the

spk_0 two guards in Martell colours that flank her on either side. If you could leave us for just a moment

spk_0 says. Eleor's escort does as they are bid, retreating out of earshot down the hallway.

spk_0 Forgive me your grace, I did not expect. To find me about the keep or to discover me at your door.

spk_0 Both are a welcome sight, your grace. Would you, Kett, come in.

spk_0 Thank you, but I must get back before I'm discovered out of bed. I only wanted to give you this,

spk_0 a gift from a mutual friend. Eleor presses a small wooden figure into Carlton's hand.

spk_0 He inspects the miniature closely, inferring from the sword in its grasp and the pointed

spk_0 helmet upon its head that he holds an effigy of the warrior. He asked that I express his deepest regret

spk_0 that he could not be here to deliver it himself. Thank you, your grace. It's beautiful.

spk_0 He has always been a man of many talents. Carlton's brown knits together as he peers more

spk_0 closely at the warrior's face. He traces a finger over its aquiline nose and the high angled

spk_0 cheekbones above bare, shaven cheeks. The resemblance to his own features is too close to be coincidental.

spk_0 Is this? Eleor reaches out a hand and squeezes Carlton's forearm.

spk_0 They care of yourself, Lord Carlton. The princess turns and departs, her guards falling in at her heel.

spk_0 Carlton watches her go. His vision blurred by a thin film of tears that he quickly retreats indoors

spk_0 to shed within the privacy of his chambers.

spk_0 Various stops at the top of the short flight of steps leading into the throne room proper.

spk_0 At its foot begins the two rows of dragon skulls, each skull along the approach to the iron throne

spk_0 larger than the one before. Of a size with a melee apple at the door, bigger than a wagon cart

spk_0 in the shadow of Aegon the conqueror's thousand blades. Various considers the throne sceptically,

spk_0 much as a house cat will turn up its nose at an offering insufficient to its palate.

spk_0 For perhaps the first time in recent memory, the chambers of the hand of the king betray no

spk_0 sign of occupancy. No fire in its half. Shutter's closed over its window. The imposing desk of

spk_0 a varnished oak that dominates the space bereft of its usual stacks of ordered parchment.

spk_0 Various lingers in the doorway, like a reverent penitent, reluctant to disturb the stillness of a

spk_0 sacred set. He smiles at the sight of the hands empty chair, with a look of satisfaction that

spk_0 same house cat might reserve for a source of cream. The master of whispers crosses cautiously

spk_0 to the desk, runs a finger along the wood and inspects his fingertip as though expecting to find

spk_0 a layer of dust have already settled. With a long, steadying breath, he slowly lowers himself

spk_0 onto the upholstered leather of Tywin Lannister's chair. He pauses, listens, looks about the room.

spk_0 The walls of the red keep steadfastly refuse to crumble. The seas refrain from rising up to swallow

spk_0 the city. The sky shows no intention of falling. Various leans back, luxuriating in the view from

spk_0 behind Tywin's desk, a perspective of power commanded solely by the same indomitable figure for

spk_0 the last 20 years. Various furrows his brow. His surprise at the presence of others,

spk_0 equaled only by his indignation at this unwelcome intrusion upon his private moment of triumph.

spk_0 He reluctantly relinquishes his seat and follows the voices through to the solar,

spk_0 in which Tywin has long been holding meetings of the small council.

spk_0 A familiar face sits at the near left of the council table,

spk_0 facing the door through which Various enters. His chair angled towards its twin at the head of

spk_0 the table, the tall and ornately carved backrest of which obscures its occupant from Various's view.

spk_0 In area? Oh, there he is. Come in, my friend. Pull up a chair.

spk_0 What are you doing here? How did you get past the guards at the gate?

spk_0 Why I simply showed them my invitation.

spk_0 Invitation from whom? The Magister only smiles and gestures towards his mysterious companion.

spk_0 Various steps into the room, circling about until he stands across the table from Illyria.

spk_0 No master of whispers worthy of the name would ever allow his expression to portray his thinking,

spk_0 but the subtle incline of Various's eyebrows comes perilously close.

spk_0 Your grace?

spk_0 Rayaela smiles in greeting. She raises an open hand to the empty chair at her right.

spk_0 Lord Various, would you join us?

spk_0 As though moving through a dreamscape, Various does as he's bid.

spk_0 Her grace was just telling me how impressed she has been with your service these past months.

spk_0 I admit to certain misgivings at trusting in testimony from half a world away,

spk_0 but I see now your friend here was not speaking idle flattery when he praised your abilities in such

spk_0 Lord-at-true terms. It's refreshing indeed to meet a man that lives up to his reputation.

spk_0 I was given to understand it was the king that summoned me to court.

spk_0 My husband has always been an especially suggestible man. It was easy enough to plant the

spk_0 notion in his head. By the time you arrived from Pentos, he was just as likely to have forgotten

spk_0 your summons was my idea, as he was to have convinced himself it was his all along.

spk_0 Various turns and accusatory glare upon Illyrio.

spk_0 And you thought well enough of my abilities to recommend me to a queen,

spk_0 but never enough to include me in her confidence?

spk_0 You mustn't be too hard on the Magister. He petitioned me many times on your behalf,

spk_0 but I insisted that you be afforded the protective armor of ignorance.

spk_0 How very considerate your grace.

spk_0 A flash of anger streaks across Rayaela's eyes.

spk_0 In this game no one player knows all the pieces, Lord Various,

spk_0 but that you should be grateful.

spk_0 And what game is that precisely your grace?

spk_0 My own. A game hidden within another game you might say.

spk_0 I have allowed the men of this castle to make their moves,

spk_0 believing themselves players on a board of their own devising,

spk_0 and the rest of us mere pieces. In actuality, they've been pieces on my own board.

spk_0 Me the only player.

spk_0 It's a strategy that requires a great deal of patience, finesse, and no little subterfuge,

spk_0 which is why I began my granddaughters education early.

spk_0 I was twice her age before I learned how to manipulate men into doing my heavy lifting for me.

spk_0 Release is still a child, and already outwitting her uncle to piggyback her around the bases.

spk_0 Just as you have piggybacked on my efforts all these many months,

spk_0 only to leave down and complete the circuit yourself at the very last.

spk_0 You should feel proud, Lord Various, that was ventful.

spk_0 You did your job and you did it well.

spk_0 You weakened Tywin's hold on power, just as my husband tasked you to do.

spk_0 Then why involve yourself at all?

spk_0 If you wanted to see the King's authority restored, why not simply watch from the shadows as he

spk_0 and I brought Tywin to heal? Unless.

spk_0 You're on, sweet spider. You're almost there.

spk_0 Unless your ambitions far exceeded the King's own.

spk_0 Erice may have wanted Tywin's influence curtailed,

spk_0 but that's as far as he was ever going to take things.

spk_0 He may hunt the lion, he may even loose an arrow or two,

spk_0 but once it's wounded he lacks the courage to put a spear through its heart and make an end of things.

spk_0 I, however, do not.

spk_0 I have waited half my life to deliver the killing blow to Tywin, Lannister,

spk_0 and for your part in positioning him beneath my blade, I thank you.

spk_0 Respectfully, your grace, Tywin's influence over the council may be curtailed,

spk_0 but even now he remains the most powerful lord in the Seven Kingdoms.

spk_0 Erice will never dispense with him entirely, so long as he believes he can still make use of him.

spk_0 You cannot believe your game is one surely.

spk_0 A smile of droll amusement tugs at the corners of Raelas' lips.

spk_0 Patience, finesse, subterfuge, and the assurance that no matter how thoroughly they are outmaneuvered,

spk_0 the men in your life will always presume you need their instruction.

spk_0 No, Lord Varys, I do not believe my game is one.

spk_0 In truth, it's barely even begun.

spk_0 Perhaps then I would be better served asking why you play your game at all.

spk_0 Why are you so determined to see Tywin, Lannister, destroyed?

spk_0 I've only ever had two friends in this world, Lord Varys.

spk_0 Joanna Lannister, the Mayaramartel.

spk_0 I love them both more than you can imagine.

spk_0 Joanna especially was the rock to which I moored myself through all the misery of my youth.

spk_0 When I was forced to marry Ares, when I buried one child after another, she was the rock to which

spk_0 I clung to save myself from drowning. And Tywin sent your rock away. I sent her away.

spk_0 Even back then I was making the hard decisions, these great and powerful men around me lack the

spk_0 spine to make themselves. Once Ares came into his crown, this castle became his own personal pillar

spk_0 house. From sceptas to sculliums, high-born ladies to base-born beggars, unblooded girls to

spk_0 withered up old crones, my husband was not particular where he found his pleasure. No more than

spk_0 he minded whether they came to his bed willingly or otherwise. Ares had always stood after Joanna,

spk_0 and more than once has boasted about court that she had given him her maiden head.

spk_0 I knew there was no truth in that, but I also knew that to Ares mind it was less a lie than it was a

spk_0 premonition. On the day Tywin and Joanna were wed, Ares lamented to his old friend's face,

spk_0 the abolition of the leech-Lord's right to claim a new bride's first night.

spk_0 Later, during the bedding ceremony, Ares was cited taking certain liberties, shall we say,

spk_0 while assisting in Joanna's address. And you know what Tywin said. Nothing. A few months later,

spk_0 when Ares learned Joanna was with child, Ares commanded Tywin to find Joanna wetness,

spk_0 less the breastfeeding ruin those lovely pink and purred nipples of his lady-wife.

spk_0 And do you know what Tywin did? Nothing.

spk_0 Rayaela pauses a moment to collect herself and corral the rancor rising to color her cheeks

spk_0 at the recitation of her husband's infamiz.

spk_0 Joanna latched on even tighter to my hour and eye after that. If she was not in our company,

spk_0 then she was in her husband's every minute of every hour. She made certain she was never to be

spk_0 found alone about the castle. And still, Tywin said nothing. Tywin did nothing.

spk_0 The hand of the king cherished his own ambition for hot too dearly to ever imperial his position

spk_0 by risking open insult to the king. Once that became clear, I understood that I was the only thing

spk_0 standing between Joanna and her total ruin. Rayaela's face twists into something between a smile

spk_0 of pride and a sneer of contempt. She refused at first. She was a loyal woman, Joanna,

spk_0 and she knew better than anyone how bruised I was, how broken. She swore that nothing could ever make

spk_0 her abandon me, that she would rather die than leave me to suffer this loadsome place alone.

spk_0 So I called her a whore. I called her a liar, a snake, a grasping treacherous slut. There was

spk_0 only two eager to spread her legs for my husband. I told her those were dragon spawns she carried in

spk_0 her belly, silver-haired abominations born of aries rotten seed. They were certain to die as well,

spk_0 I told her, just as his other children had. Doubly certain, in fact, because the gods despise and

spk_0 punish bastards above all their creations. Rayaela's gaze settles into the middle distance,

spk_0 Varys and Elyrio, and the entirety of the red keep melting away before the tide of bitter memory.

spk_0 The moment I take my last breath in this world, I'll be picturing the way she looked at me when I

spk_0 said that. The queen all but shakes her head, forcing her mind back to the present.

spk_0 And so she went. She told my aara everything I had said, and so she went too,

spk_0 may not half so meet the Asjawana. The dornish have never been known for their

spk_0 even tempest, and my aara was dornish down to her marrow. Brawl her insults, and believe me when I

spk_0 say they were as imaginative as they were innovative. Nothing she said to me cut half so deep as the

spk_0 wounds I'd inflicted upon myself. Varys meets Elyrio's eye. Takes a slow, steadying swallow.

spk_0 Forgive me, your grace. I do not mean to impune what must have been a painful choice indeed,

spk_0 but, listening to all you have said, it sounds to me as though your husband must be

spk_0 apportioned every bit as much of the blame as Lord Tywin. Granted Tywin cherished his own ambition

spk_0 over the honour and safety of his lady-wife, but it was the king's outrageous that created the

spk_0 conditions by which they were endangered. It is you who must forgive me. Forgiven you calls to

spk_0 believe I cared one way or the other what you might think of me, or the choices I have made,

spk_0 old habits along in dying, but my days of explaining myself to men, least of all the likes of you,

spk_0 are well and truly over. There is more than enough blame to go around,

spk_0 and as I have already explained, this game has barely even begun.

spk_0 Raelas stands. Varys and Elyrio move to do likewise.

spk_0 Keep your seats. The two of you have a great deal to discuss,

spk_0 and I have a long hard ride to Harrenhall ahead of me. If you'll excuse me, my Lord.

spk_0 Elyrio watches the queen depart with an expression of rye admiration.

spk_0 If there were ever any doubt that the blood of the dragon flows through that woman's veins,

spk_0 he turns the Varys and finds a very different sentiment writ upon his old friend's face.

spk_0 I did say we'd talk more on this later, though I suspect from your expression that you are not

spk_0 best pleased with me. O Elyrio, you damned ambitious fool. You really have no notion of what you

spk_0 have done, do you? I pray to whichever gods may be listening that I am mistaken, but I do believe

spk_0 you may just have damned us all.

spk_0 The preceding podcast was entirely a worker fanfiction. It was unofficial,

spk_0 unaffiliated and unauthorised. Neither the podcast nor any individual involved in its production

spk_0 is now nor has ever been in any way associated with HBO, Game of Thrones, George R.R. Martin,

spk_0 or the Song of Ice and Fire book series. The podcast was, is now and shall always be,

spk_0 entirely without profit. Neither the podcast directly nor its makers indirectly

spk_0 generate or receive any form of revenue or financial restitution that might otherwise accrue

spk_0 to the right for copyright holders. The preceding podcast was entirely a worker fan fiction.

spk_0 We hope you enjoyed it.

Episode 7: The Dragon Stirs

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