Thrice Tangled Threads
Twenty Third Day of the Fourth Month 294 AC
There was a certain satisfaction for any schemer, but especially one adept in weaving thousands upon thousands of threads at once, in finally tying one off, the more definitive the better. So thought Varys who was not Varys, the raven in spider's coat standing in the familiar hall of the Small Council on this, the last Small Council in the history of the Seven Kingdoms.
"The Ironborn must be brought to heel!" Guncer Sunglass blustered and fumed. "My fleet will see to it, I need only word from the regent and we will expunge their heathen stain from the seas of Westeros. If your brother cannot even deal with that nest of de-fanged pirates..."
One could almost pity Kevan Lannister, a loyal man going down with the sinking ship. Alas, for him it was a ship captained by traitors and fools.
"Will you leave King's Landing open to attack because of your damnable pride then!" One did not usually hear the Westerlander lord shout, but then Brynden had set the man's already debatable sanity simmering, for weeks plying him with tales of Lannister treachery against the Faith and the Kingdom. Given a bit more time, he could have probably convinced the idiot to attempt seizing the young 'king' in a coup.
His aim for today, however, was simply to get Cersei Lannister to appear at the meeting with her brother-lover at her side in a show of family unity so that he might remove them both along with the rest of the Council, per the King's command.
Yet when he heard the all too familiar tapping of the would be regent's shoes outside the chamber beside the armored boots of Ser Jaime Lannister, he heard a third tread that he had not expected, light and soft, yet feigning confidence.
Fuck. Even the most cunning web can be ruined by a fool stumbling through it.
Cersei had brought the boy 'king' to settle matters in person, according to her own sweeping proclamations.
How, why? He was supposed to be practicing the sword with Selmy. Bloodraven had trusted the old kingsguard to hold onto him in the brief chaos to come, to keep him from getting any ridiculous ideas of flight. It had not merely been a plan, he had Seen...
That was when the Last Greenseer sensed the odd void around the boy, they had given him a proper mind ward to match his mother's. He could see through it, of course, the same away a man might smash though a locked door if he rant at it full tilt. Subtle it would not be, nor something one should get into the habit of if one wishes to have arms still attached at the shoulder. Lannister gold grinding up the works of the kingdom one last time. Now he could not even tell if the boy had a contingent translocation effect. He
should, of course, being the king, and he had seem him with it as recently as yesterday, but Bloodraven was not in the habit of letting his plans hinge upon what should be rather than what is.
Over the next hour as the council debated its pitiful options with ever more passion and wrath, Joffrey Waters seemed ever more entranced by it, not the business of rule but the fascination for bloody battle that only those who had never seen a battlefield could espouse.
"I shall head west and help secure our position with the Ironborn. Expect the armies of the Westerlands and more, soon..." Ser Kevan said, adding to Bloodraven's dilemma. He was running out of time.
Getting the boy out of the room of his own accord would be nigh impossible. His mother would have to stay or this whole blaze would be a waste of his vessel's death. Perhaps the Kingslayer could be persuaded to get the boy out of the room? The queen would trust him to do so, if she trusted anyone. On the other hand, he could let the session pass and hope he could have another shot at it before Kevan left for the West.
Thankfully, this was not the age into which he had been born. Speaking to the king was only a thought away. What does Bloodraven do?
[] Persuade the Kinglasyer to take Joffrey out of the room before the explosion, leaving them both alive in the aftermath
[] Let the meeting end without setting off the Varys bomb, risks Ser Kevan slipping away before the next one
[] Write in
OOC: Bynden's socials while buffed are such that there is no question he could persuade Jaime to take Joffrey and do something more interesting with him, like sword fighting, but he can't get the kid to leave on his own because he would get shut down on the first word and no matter your social skills you need to actually be able to talk to someone to persuade them and he can't send him with someone else because Cersei is too paranoid. Not yet edited.
