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

Ninth Day of the Ninth Month 294 AC

"Are you sure you don't want me to do anything about it?" It is admittedly the third time you have asked the question in the last half hour, but you do not think it deserves quite that look from Lya.

"About what?" she snorts. "Gossips and gabbers impugning my 'virtue', truthfully I might add? That is not a crime, unless you want to fill every jail in the realm with people who criticize the throne and the changes it has made to their lives."

"Technically it is a crime if they say it too loudly and with the intention of undermining the state," you note. Though you had gotten rid of the overly formal aspects of lèse majesté from the earlier law codes, which were in any case more concerned with ensuring the smallfolk scraped and bowed so low you could not see their faces, that does not mean there is no echo of the crime in Imperial jurisprudence. The Lannisters had taught you well how perilous a few poisoned words can be. The crime is however far more rigorously defined, and with enough teeth to it to affect even the nobility in case of a concerted campaign of slander. Granted what you had heard was going around court was not that, but...

Lya has the same thought at the same time. "Being snide does not undermine the prestige and authority of the throne, and if they are going to make me the villain of their little morality play than I shall pay them in kind. I think I will do a lecture tomorrow on the educational system of lost Valyria, purely from an academic perceptive you understand..." And fish would not smell in her mouth, as they say in Braavos.

You laugh. "Far be it from me to stand between you and your vengeance."

Both of you of course know it is about far more than any petty slight, the decision had ultimately been a political one. Lya's first move upon the proverbial board since she had become Imperatrix. It is for a cause she believes in and one she is well suited to championing, but still... You like to think one should be allowed a touch of unreasonable protectiveness of one's new wife, particularly when you were guilty of the same supposed transgression and no one seems to be raising any concerns of your character.

Behold the king who is troubled that he is not blamed for enough misdeeds, Varys hisses, amused in the silence of your thoughts. Take care what you wish for, for thy wishes have weight.


You could not say for certain if your familiar was touched by some shadow of prophecy or just proven skilled in guessing, but whatever the case you receive word that very afternoon of strange doings in Volantis. There had been an attack on Benerro, not to kill but to capture. Though your first thought goes to the Lord of the Ninth and your second to the Red God's ancient foes, none of them are to blame from what little the diviners can see through the haze of glamor and false trails.

The hand of the Brazen Throne, the Heir of Iblis moves again, though this time with a more insidious purpose. You doubt His agents would have tried to capture a sorcerer-priest as skilled as Benerro simply to kill him in some out of the way alleyway, you cannot foresee in this matter for the agents are warded, but you can guess. The Red Faith is powerful, prevalent and linked to fire, and Benerro knows many of the secrets of his god, secrets that could well serve those seeking to infiltrate the faithful.

The question that now yawns before you is if the servants had dared to aim so high, how many others had not been as blessed or as skillful as Benerro in casting off their would-be abductors?

How do you deal with the possibility of infiltrators targeting the Red Faith?

[] Make it public, set as many eyes as you can on the problem before it can grow

[] Work discretely with the Faith in Volantis and elsewhere to eliminate the threat

[] Write in

OOC: More background rolls. Don't worry about the chance to hit back, you will be getting a delegation from some shaitans with an opportunity to do just that.