Part MMDXLIX: Foresight's Edge
Foresight's Edge
Twenty-Ninth Day of the Seventh Month 293 AC
Though the words are heartfelt and in their own way admirable, you cannot agree for to reveal your deepest plans to one who had no protection against foresight or enchantment would be folly. You could lie about this too, Varys' thought is oddly sleepy for this hour of the day. Though the suggestion is true, you will not follow it. More honest to make it clear that you will keep some secrets than to break a solemn oath. Still, that is not a lesson words alone can teach.
You get up and walk to your desk, and from there you draw a silver ring in the likeness of those first talismans Lya made years ago in Braavos. Handing it to Vargor you explain: "That will protect you from the most common enchantments meant to befuddle the mind, spells of the first circle among the simplest taught in the Scholarum and elsewhere, yet which could make you think a spy is your closest friend and confidant. Even with that protection a skilled mage can still glean the thoughts from your head, however..."
"Such spells can be thrown off," he challenges, reminding you that he is not wholly ignorant of matters arcane by virtue of the counsel he receives.
Maelor raises an eyebrow, a challenge obviously on the very tip of his tongue, yet it remains unspoken. No sense in humiliating the man.
"Be that as it may, the very fact of knowing something casts shadows into the future for a diviner to read, and while such shadows may be broken, the price of that is higher by far in skill and gold." So saying, you allow the Conqueror's Crown to briefly take its true form upon your brow, spellsteel thrice forged in sorcery not bright to the eye but weighing heavily in the mind with the arcane stillness it bears.
"I swear not to deliberately lie or mislead, but some truths must be kept hidden," you finish, the unspoken implication hanging between you. It would be troublesome to find a new Lord of Sallosh, but you could do it at need.
"That is not the answer I wished to hear, Your Grace, but it is one I can live with," he sighs and nods deeply, the gesture almost a bow.
"More I will not ask for," you smile. "Now let us see about the needs of Sallosh and precisely what your people most need of. It would be a shame to waste the journey..."
Much of the rest of the day is spent ensuring that Vargor is eminently aware of all your realm can do for his people, not from promises or ships laden with goods and tales, but from seeing it with his own eyes... though he does spend more time in the company of clerks than out and about enjoying the wonders of Sorcerer's Deep.
Before you return to Sallosh, you make a point of divining the specters' reaction to his true heritage in his presence. So do even thoughts of the ancestors he sees with dread and reverence stand revealed, thankfully showing them unconcerned with royal blood as you had first guessed.
"My thanks again, Your Grace, for all you have shown me," Vargor says as the two of you depart again through the ether.
Rather than interjecting into the matters of Sallosh, you allow Vargor to explain his legacy or lack thereof to the ancient dead.
"I am no heir of the last High King," he says unto the looming figure in the dark.
"And yet the deed of saying so was a kingly one," answers the voice of the dead. "It is the weight of the crown, not the shape of the head, that makes the king."
The Valyrian Steel blade you grant onto Vargor upon your return on parting burns away the last traces of resentment from the bond of lord and bannerman.
***
Thirtieth Day of the Seventh Month 293 AC
The next day starts with a excellent progress report from the Scholarum sliding across your desk. It is likely if not entirely certain that you will be able to train mages in the manner of the Silver Eye by next month. Teana's skill in enchantment and spells to clear the mind have gone a long way to allowing mages to refine the Braavosi methods.
Silver Eye Courses Progress: 12/20
Instinctively, you reach out for the next paper in the stack. Finding nothing you ask your golden assistant what else you are to do. You do not often forget your plans for the next day, but it has been known to happen under particularly hectic circumstances. The answer you receive is a little like missing a step going down stairs. Everything you had planned for this month is done and you still have almost two days before the next report.
Having found yourself at odds' ends for the first time in months, what do you do?
[] Spend a day with some of your wards
-[] Write in which
[] Spend some time with your mother and sister
-[] Write in plan
[] Write in
OOC: It's not that Viserys has not had any free time this month, it's just that full free days are rare as hen's teeth, so finding out he has two of them was startling.
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