A Sword Without a Hilt: A Song of Ice and Fire/D&D 3.5 Crossover

Thirteenth Day of the Third Month 294 AC

Though none of those gathered around the rose embellished table wore black all were in mourning, from the Lord of Highgarden still bleary eyed at the late night awakening by a raven pecking at his window to the Queen of Thorns looking somehow frailer for the news they had just received. The only one present who seemed more composed than not was Wyllas. He was also the first to speak: "It's over the queen is truly dead and the court with her."

"The fair folk tricky bastards..." the lord of Highgarden began.

"For your compliment gracious thanks, but this is not deception." The voice seemed to come from empty aid before a knight in sky blue armor shimmered into existence. "The wrath of gods cannot be undone. Only Two of Seven yet endure by their own arts, my own lady is among them, but I fear for the grief of those more deeply stricken."

The mortal lords watched transfixed as the knight removed his helm and for a moment wept wordlessly for his fallen kin. "No pacts bind you, no bargains made. Rejoice mortal!" Even in his sorrow the knights words cut deep as steel.

"So that's it than, all hail King Viserys the Third and we should be so lucky as to lick his boots?" Mace raised his voice in anger. "All our plans..."

"Not so different from Baratheon after all is he?" his mother asked with a bitter smile seeming to deepen all her wrinkles.

"How precisely is he like the oaf in King's Landing?" Wyllas asked, running his hand though his hair in exasperation, though more at the situation than at his grandmother it seemed.

"He brought a warhammer to a knife fight," she replied with a small mirthless laugh. Turning to the fey knight she added. "HighGarden will no longer be requiring your protection Ser..."

"Mother you cannot be serious?" The tone was not one Mance Tyrell took with his mother often, but such was his agitation that he hardly noticed. "He made a whole high court ash and blood just because he could not have it. How many of the knights and ladies who were guests in this very hall died to poison, fire and other savagery..."

"I don't know I have not taken count recently," Ollena cut him off. Motioning to the fey warrior with a twitch of her head she added. "His Queen decided to play her game for high stakes and her bluff was called. We can sit here wringing hands and counting buckets of blood or we can deal with the board as it is set."

For a long moment no one spoke. Beyond the high window a nightingale sang, unconcerned with the doings of men and spirits. Then Wyllas asked: "If we were to shift existing pledges to the Warden and the Key would the courts be willing to make common ground in negotiations?"

"That is not and answer I alone can give. I am an envoy not a lord, but I believe terms can be renegotiated in principle," the fey knight replied looking down at the old woman with a mingling of respect and what might have been pity behind its sky-blue gaze.

"Good," the Queen of Thorns nodded sharply before turning to her eldest grandson. "Write at once using one of the Dragon's birds and ask if you may attend his coronation."

There was grumbling and arguing aplenty but in the end the latter did do out.

What do you reply to Wyllas' letter asking to partake in your coronation?

[] Accept, it will give you a chance to perhaps turn Highgarden from a headache into a asset

[] Refuse to show your lingering disfavor with House Tyrell

[] Write in

OOC: There was a chance the Tyrells would have lost someone in the attack (due to being in the Feywild when it happened), in which case their reaction would have mixed anger with the borderline panic seen above. Fortunately for them the dice were kind in that at least. Not yet edited.