Chains of Gold
Twenty Ninth Day of the Second Month 294 AC
Archmaester Marwyn takes his seat with the barest amount of formality required of him and not a hint of hesitation to the motion, obviously untroubled by what you may have learned of his comings and goings this past month, though some of them might have been troubling to a more cautious liege. According the city's Office of Land, he had acquired a modest townhouse with a large basement that could easily be made into an arcane laboratory and then proceeded to borrow books from the Scholarum and acquire reagents through Silver Serpent middlemen from Armun Kelisk.
For anyone in possession of both lists, which you assume he had wanted to make public, the former maesters' interests are obvious, if a peculiar combination; the history of the deep past, the Age of Dawn most of all, astrology, and weather working. The pieces are not hard to put together with your mind turning to the farthest North in the wake of Rina's transformation. Understanding, perhaps even reversing, the unbalancing of the seasons long ago. You cannot fault the man for his ambition, though you wish he would express himself within the Scholarum's structures rather than in private workings.
The Citadel would not have encouraged seeking collaboration as a first reaction in such matters, that much you know from Qyburn.
And unlike Qyburn, you are not in the possession of a treasure beyond price where his interests are concerned.
"I assume you can guess why you have been summoned here?" you ask with a wry smile that stops just short of being friendly, congenial you would call it. This is not a man who would trust fast friends.
"You wish to know what I know about the Citadel, about the Lannisters, and all other lore I possess, yes," he replies. His own smile may not add much charm to his battered face, but there is a slyness in his eye you appreciate. "I have spoken to others you recruited under similar circumstances."
"Well then, I would hate to be predictable.
Ssart with the Lannisters." Your jest startles a laugh from him.
"Not much like your father are you, Your Grace?"
"I will take that as the compliment it is no doubt intended to be by anyone who had the misfortune to meet Aerys Targaryen, Second of his Name," you reply, making a mental note to never ask Marwyn to to play the diplomat.
"About the Lannisters then, Lanna," He pauses a moment, collecting his thoughts. "She was my student once, or near enough as to make no difference. I still spoke to her as one mage to another as recently as half a year ago. I fear she is too much a creature of her birth and standing for all the streak of rebelliousness that sent her into the wide world. She heeds Lord Lannister because she does not trust herself, does not trust her husband. This is not the blind fear of the grey sheep, who see magic as a flame burning away the world rather than part of it. How could it be?"
"But?" you prompt. You cannot deny that of all the Lannister plans, you have been most curious as to what could keep the new lord and Lady of Castamere welded to Tywin's cause. They must know it's hopeless by now.
"There are checks on a lord's power, his vassals, his people, his neighbors. There are no checks upon a sorcerer lord's, or so she believes after having seen the wreck of Valyira. A system that hinges upon a single lever shall break upon that lever, after having learned of the Empire That Was before all Empires." The mage's gaze pierces yours measuring. "If an empire built upon heaven's own foundations could break with it, then why not one built upon the powers of dragons?"
There is something to the tone that makes you suspect it is not only Lanna's question being asked. Marwyn will serve you for his own reasons, that you do not doubt, but this is a man who wishes to understand where he stands. And perhaps one who is not wholly bereft of subtlety.
What do you reply?
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OOC: Not a lot of substance to this chapter I'm afraid. My cold just got worse today (still no fever though). Hopefully it's nothing, but I'm starting to seriously consider getting a test tomorrow, just to be sure, and to get a doctor to look at whatever the hell this is if it's not that. Apologies for getting all this stuff here, I know people come here to relax not stress about the pandemic.
