Emissary's Path
Eleventh Day of the Tenth Month 293 AC
Rhaella Targaryen only realized she had been humming a melody as she looked over the parchments before her when Meraxes, her not-quite-familiar Calligraphy Wyrm, started tapping his diminutive claws along with her. Objectively she was working harder than she ever had these days as the pile of reports far eclipsing the cup of Myrish tea on her desk attested, yet she felt more at ease about it than ever she had as Queen of Westeros, and it had taken her no small amount of time to realize why.
The sound of her own quill added to her assistant's work:
Set envoys in the trading towns along the Chalkwater, focus on hiring locals so the Omberi lords do not think it's a priority of the crown and get disgruntled, but the roots get laid. Use Silver Serpent Enterprises...
Before, she supposedly had a great deal of influence as one who stood at the left of the throne, but that influence was as illusive as cupping sunbeams in the palm of her hand, just one voice out of so many others vying for Aerys' ear, one that was ever more displeasing besides. Here and now she had powers and responsibilities to each other, power that was direct as it was incontestable in shaping one of the institutions of a fledgling realm, the Heralds. True her heralds were not wrought of steel and Adamantine, they could not breathe flame nor tear their foes apart, but behind each one of them would lay the shadow of the Dragon. The task of seeing that these first envoys would behave with dignity and restraint, but also with the pride and gravitas expected of them was a long and arduous one, and it was also rewarding to see it form beneath her hands like clay upon the potter's wheel.
Open diplomatic letters will be carried by horse and raven to allow a polite pretense of 'waiting for word', whenever such would be needed in ongoing negotiations or to feed false information to enemy agents... This would be harder to codify than most aspects of the service. Rhaella made a mental note to present her draft to Lord Drekelis.
Diplomatic Corps will be complete by the end of the month (53/40)
Of course, not all the letters to cross her desk could carry pleasant news. Kira's short sojourn to the Three Sisters had revealed no hint as to the worship of 'Mother Earth' beyond a few hints in song and folktale. Unsurprising, perhaps, given that the Sistermen were sailors and fishermen first, and such folk would be more interested in the ebb and flow of wind and wave than in the rhythms of the earth, but it would have still been pleasant to see some leads about.
Three Sisters Minor action complete: No new information uncovered
Thankfully news from Lorath was much more promising, with the old rogues of the Windward Society making headway in persuading the Prince of the Streets, as well as the many of the local magisters with vested interest in the Narrow Sea trade, that the city would be well served under the protection of House Targaryen. Also apparently the local red priests were coming along to the notion that Viserys was their prophesied savior, a notion that left Rhaella shaking her head in bemusement. Her son had done great things to match or surpass even the Conqueror, but he was not bound by the webs of prophecy or the whims of gods, a fact for which Rhaella was ever more happy of the more she learned of both.
Sway Ruler (Lorath): Promising Results (21/???)
OOC: Here we go. I hope I did not summarize too much, but I do have to do it somewhere and these rolls for these actions were all pretty run-of the-mill.
