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

Fifth Day of the Fifth Month 294 AC

Out of all the people you wish to see seated upon the Curia's crimson and black, none are as likely to refuse the honor if it is ill-asked as the Night's Watch. It is a point of pride for them that they do not meddle in the affairs of the South, and in exchange expect no meddling in their ancient charge. Of course, like many matters of honor and tradition, this is more façade than truth. You had done more to empower the Watch, raise up their fallen castles, and give them again the prestige they had of old than any king that had ever sat upon the Iron Throne, even as you were technically a claimant to that throne and foe of all the Seven Kingdoms. In the end, the Lord Commander had taken the gifts you offered with both hands and glad was he for the bargain.

Yet there is a difference of kind and not just of degree between giving aid, even so generous and so varied as you have done, in the way of willing fighting hands, and asking that the Watch take up a voice in your council and vote in the affairs of the realm beside lords and burghers, governors and envoys of strange lands.

"So how do you think the Lord Commander is likely to take this?" you ask the man who had once borne that very mantle, before he had laid it down on the bare stone to take his place on the pale throne of the Greenseer.

"Better from you than from any other, Your Majesty, but I would not expect him to accept without strong argument given," replied Brynden, now the Lord Inquisitor. He wears the garb and mantle of his office with the silver pin glinting upon his breast, 'the better to get used to it as I will not oft have cause to wear it outwardly' he had said. "It will gnaw at Mormont most fiercely to be seen meddling in southern councils as he would see it as a trespass upon the power of princes he has sworn to leave behind. Graver by far than accepting aid that binds the Watch to the South for that sets tradition against oath and oath must perforce triumph. Perhaps you might give the Watch a seat, a voice, and not a vote with which others might be compelled to speak or to be silent."

"And then whatever envoy they send shall be discounted and mocked behind his back, his council mocked, his wisdom discounted," you scoff. "The Curia has little enough power already. I do not want to set the precedent that some of its members have even less than others."

"As you speak of wisdom, I would assume you have your uncle in mind for the posting?" he only half asks, for he knows you well enough to guess your heart in this, not to mention Dany's who had grumbled about Aemon 'freezing without purpose on that old pile of stones' more times than you can count.

"If he should wish it," you agree. "The Citadel shall soon be no more and the Watch has no need to keep a maester for form or for practicality. While Maester Aemon is certainly useful on the Wall, looking through the tomes and inscriptions they have kept, how much more so would he be in Sorcerer's Deep with access to the Palace Library and the brazier to see to it that any lore he gathers will reach the Lord Commander's ear at once?"

"It will seem like unduly favoring your own kin to many lords, particularly of the North," Bloodraven warns after a moment's thought and a sip of his wine. "While he is in the North his name and his tale are oft discounted, but back at court they will be turned this way and that within the hour." A thin smile marks his features. "Given that sorcery may cure the bite of age and he will be known for having the favor of the throne, I would not be surprised if some of the more adventurous or more desperate ladies do not try to tempt him into bed."

By the Endless Dream, they would at that, you realize. An incredulous laugh bubbles to your lips, but then it too settles into a smile. "Ah, but my lord, I am certain with the form you wear they shall start looking to you with such eyes first."

"Worry not for my virtue, Your Majesty," he answers dryly. "I think I still have the skill for fending off such advances."

How do you present your argument to the Lord Commander?

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OOC: Brought to you by 'updates for writers in a hurry', here is a bit more Brynden characterization and some foreshadowing for how the less formal side of the court life is likely to manifest.