Interlude CCLXXX: In Ashes Writ
In Ashes Writ
First Day of the Fourth Month 293 AC
Never had a pile of ash been better protected, Malarys thought as he watched the girl carefully remove the lead-lined steel urn from its resting place. Not for the first time he wondered if she realized what she was doing, if she was even aware that it was in any way odd. The ritual she meant to perform, the one her aspect had created, was not a wholly novel one. He could recall something of the sort being used once in his youth when a lordling had been unwise enough to burn incriminating documents in common flame. It was not this one arcane tool that had the power to impress him, but the sheer swiftness of it all, a headlong rush over, under, and through any obstacle that might present itself. Many had been the time when he had almost opened his mouth to counsel caution only to bite his tongue.
This was not his world, the thought was as bitterly true as it had been months ago when he had felt rain on his cheek for the first time after his long slumber. Ancient hungers stirred while fools were all too willing to spill the world entire into those gaping maws, and only children there were to guard a world that had seemingly almost forgotten itself. Some nights he still woke in a cold sweat thinking of what was out there. There was a reason after all why he had chosen to see the Crimson Code upheld rather than stride forth upon the field of war, but such as these children of a new age boldly carrying their torches into the dark Malarys Vanor had no choice. This may not be his world, but it could be one day assuming it would stay unbroken long enough.
The mage priest waited quietly through the ritual, leaning against the wall of the chamber as he consigned all the motions and words to memory. One never worked ritual magic the same way twice, of course, but that did not mean that there was nothing to learn from seeing it performed as opposed to merely reading the instructions on dead parchment. The Lawmen could put it to good use, and perhaps now that there were finally more than a handful mages in the whole realm he could begin to weigh which of them were a good fit for routine investigative work. The day he could honestly claim the institution he lead was more reliant on him for guidance than magic would be one to treasure.
As the papers sprang from the center of the ritual circle in a mad flurry, burning in reverse, the minor elemental servants Malarys had already summoned helped gather them into some semblance of order.
"You knew that would happen?" the younger mage asked.
"I thought it a possibility," Malarys replied sincerely. "The foundation of all magic is chaos, after all."
She looked at him in askance. "I would have thought you would say that order prevails."
"Order must prevail if sorcery is to be more than a mad fancy twisting the world this way and that, but such is the duty of the mage," the sorcerer lord replied.
***
Thankfully the documents recovered were not enciphered, likely why they had been burned to begin with. They spoke of various business ventures across Essos and Westeros funneling funds into the cause of Illyrio Mopatis and these exiles who had taken their name from a sword like savage tribesmen who knew no law save blood. Most of the intelligence was likely unactionable after all this time, but a handful of hints in disparate reports lead to an interesting conclusion.
This Blackfyre conspiracy had considerable support in the Sunset Kingdoms, enough to blind or subvert many of Baratheon's agents in the east as well as move unhindered through his lands, not only listening but preparing the field for a campaign of whispers when the time was right... Of course, given the state of the true heirs of the Kingdom, Malarys doubted it ever would be, but these conspirators would provide such a convenient target to distract Baratheon's clients and servants.
OOC: Rina's Book in a later interlude. It simply would not fit here. To summarize what you learned from the above: the names of quite a few magisters who bankrolled or at least have friendly relations with Illyrio, the names and identities of quite a few agents in Essos and Westeros, as well as the suspicion that someone high up in the Westerosi intelligence apparatus is in on the Blackfyre conspiracy.
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