A Covenant of Necessity
Eighteenth Day of the Tenth Month 293 AC
Tyene Sandviper had never desired another arcane talents for her own—not Lya's ever expanding collection of lore, not Dany's vast trove of stolen spells, not even Viserys' power to sunder mountains—but standing there unseen before a foreign shrine, meeting the eyes of one who could as easily be an ally or a deadly rival, she dearly wished she had Garin's power to meddle in the memories of others. Five minutes would be more than enough to know for certain, to bind Mei Lin in chains of light, to lay upon her a curse of silence and another to weaken her will, and then to pick through her thoughts for the truth.
The sorceress shook herself.
Have I grown so dependent on magic that I cannot judge for myself, so used to being wrapped in arcane protections that I can no longer take a chance? She had been sent here as much for her judgement as much as for her magic, and by that judgement she would choose.
In a moment that seemed to stretch out unnaturally but was barely twenty heartbeats long, she looked back on what they had learned about the senior concubine over the past two weeks, not rumors, but word from the eunuchs who knew her well.
Ambitious, clever, does not shy from a fight but does not start one without provocation or a clear goal in mind, content to give her foes rope to hang themselves with...
The headdress shifted. Gold clinked against gold. She was whispering something too low to hear.
With a thought Tyene shifted the magic bound into her mind and soul, the words still faint but clear:
"...grant me peace from these nightmares and visions of madness. If the end of the Golden Empire is truly upon us then I will not strike the first mournful note. Not even for him." Her eyes will filled with pain not guilt. A gamble...
Before she could second-guess herself, the Dornishwoman drew lines in the air, her voice rising in a spell. The glamour rippled around her but it held. Garin was no novice in the grafting of glamours. The 'dagger' was bound in threads of light stronger than Adamantine, torn from Mei Lin's hair even as it transformed into a writhing serpent with its dreadfully human eyes.
"I would speak with you, my lady, but not in the presence of spies that defile this hallowed place," Tyene spoke quickly, using as few words as she dared to try and reassure her before a cry for help could alert the guards.
"Kami?" the word was a gasp of surprise and for a moment Tyene was tempted for she was skilled in the crafting of glamours and had read enough lore of the local guardian spirits to project the form of one. Better to begin this as she meant to carry on.
Dispelling the veil she bowed hastily, somewhat lower than her station would require, but now was not the time to be punctilious about the royal heritage of House Martel. "No guardian spirit am I, only a traveler from far off lands."
"But... you cannot, he will know,
he will come for me," the woman said, clinging to her composure by sheer stubbornness.
"It was forced upon you?" Worse than she had hoped but better than she had feared, the sorceress concluded. The fear and disgust in Mei Lin's voice was not false, else she was the greatest mummer Tyene had ever seen.
"Yes, to ensure I did not tell holy man or cultivator of the soul of rot that spreads ever closer to the Son of Heaven.
He is coming, you must run or hide as you were before..."
Tyene was touched by the unexpected altruistic impulse, nothing she had been told of this woman would have led her to believe she would be inclined to ward a stranger in the face of peril, but the last thing she was inclined to do was flee. "Who is this foe and when do you expect him?"
"Kai Gang Ru, the Vice Minister for Revenue. He would not dare cross the threshold of the temple, but his servants do not fear holy things for they take pleasure in defiling them..." The woman trailed off, noticing that Tyene had already turned her attention to the still bound Fiend. "What are you doing?"
"Looking through its mind to learn more of its master," Tyene answered absently. "There's some good news to be had, he was not looking through the spy's eyes. It has no way to send word back since it has been bound, and it is not scheduled to report back for three more days..."
"Who are you to walk through the mind of a dark spirit so lightly..." From her tone it seemed as though the woman was beginning to have doubts about the wisdom of trusting aid unlooked for.
Tyene was about to explain that the creature before her was petty indeed as fiends were counted, but spell-wrought intuition stilled her tongue. "I am one who very much needs to know what I have walked in on. Better to take a small risk now than the greater risk of the unknown."
The admission of weakness calmed Mei Lin as nothing else before had done. This was a woman who was used to being in charge and would take poorly to being wholly in the power of yet another mage, but now she seemed to have found her footing. "If what you say is true then we yet have time to seek out more allies to proclaim Kai Ru's treachery before the throne and see him executed."
"A good thought, and one which aligns with my own purpose and my lord, who is King in the far west beyond the Gates of Qarth, who sent me and others of his most trusted confidants to offer warning and counsel to the Son of Heaven in these dark times." Under other circumstances that would have been a shamefully curt proclamation given its gravity, but time was short.
Thank you, you Fiend-binding son of a bitch, Tyene thought, keeping back a smile as Mei Lin nodded resolutely.
OOC: Well, you have your audience. The question now is do you want to leave it to your emissaries or try to go in person from the start, actually that could be part of the current vote if you guys like.
