Saving Face
Twenty Third Day of the First Month 294 AC
"Faceless Men..." Valaena speaks the words like she cannot quite believe she is saying them. "You want to send Faceless Men to Driftmark to watch over father and mother? The Braavosi are terrified of them, the people who think burying a body together is how you know your true friends, and they will be there to protect the keep. They worship..." she cuts herself off, looking around. The flush in her cheeks is more one of embarrassment than anger, as she had almost let slip something her father was not cleared to know about.
Speaking of her father, Monford is starting to look quite pale by contrast from his daughter's
spirited discussion with his liege lord, not that he would not have been making the same arguments if he dared.
"They are not the most comforting people to speak of when all the masks drop, I will grant, but they can wear those masks like no others and their skills are unmatched. I trust that they can deal with our enemy swiftly and quietly, and I trust their oaths to the Empire utterly or they would not be allowed to function within my realm."
"We all have blood on our hands, Valaena, warriors and princes no less than assassins, and sometimes in the same manner spilled," you send silently to the young dragon rider.
You feel her agreement, almost unwilling, and see a flash of Dawnfyre's bloody birth, though that was not exactly the memory you wished to invoke.
"We mustn't tell mother," she sighs. "She will not take the notion of being protected my notorious assassins well."
Monford gives a startled laugh, as much form nervousness as amusement. "A bit of an understatement there, I don't think she would be willing to set foot in the keep if she knew." He shakes his head tone growing more serious once more. "Still, what she does not know cannot harm her, and if you truly believe that these... people can help...."
"I do," you interject.
"Set a thief to catch a thief," encouragingly, Dany offers the old adage, one common on both sides of the Narrow Sea.
"Then I will welcome them into my home," the Lord of the Tides says. He hesitates a long moment before adding, "Will they require an altar or shrine of some sort to make use of their magics while here?"
"The altar of the Stranger will serve, he is honored in the House of Black and White," you reply, a touch surprised that he would worry about such things, though perhaps you should not have been. The man does have a sorceress for a daughter as well as a dragon rider, and while he may have been slow to accept the full import of that fact at first, he become one of the first westerosi lords more open to the use of sorcery.
***
Twenty Fourth Day of the First Month 294 AC
Alas, persuading Lord Velaryon of the wisdom of hosting assassins is the only thing that goes well for the remainder of the night. Tuin and Morwyn have never encountered that particular poison and can offer no more of a guess than Tyene as to how long it might last without preservation magics, a few years, perhaps as much as a decade under ideal circumstances, though as your own still very profitable business in chests and barrels proves, such enchantments are cheap and easily made.
On the next day there are no more attacks, lending more weight to the suspicion that whoever is acting in Driftmark is doing so on some sort of schedule or at least a plan that involves wiping all traces of previous attacks before a new one is attempted. Perhaps 'Monford's' supposed resistance to deadly poison has thrown them off, or perhaps they are starting to suspect that he has been replaced. Perhaps if you could construct an opening, both plausible and advantageous, they might be drawn into the open.
Your time in Driftmark grows short, but you may attempt one more gambit. What do you do?
[] Arrange a clandestine meeting?
-[] Write in plan
[] Leave the matter up to the Faceless Men, they have both more time and more experience
[] Write in
OOC: The reason there wasn't an option to just send in the Faceless in secret if anyone's wondering is because it would be out of character for Viserys to disrespect his allies and vassals like that. Not yet edited.
