TheLifeandTimes19
patreon
The Spider and the Mockingbird
🕑 Added 2023-02-16 21:39:01 +0000 UTCA Spider and a Mockingbird.
Kings Landing-288 AC
Sitting in the small council chambers in the Red Keep of Kings Landing, some of the most powerful men in the realm sit and discuss the course of the largest and most powerful kingdom in the known world.
Varys, The Master of Whispers for two kings and two different dynasties generally found these meetings to be a source of both amusement and crucial intelligence that he could gather for his own goals.
Under the reign of King Aerys, he had to walk on a very thin line when it came to these meetings. He would have to ensure that he gave useful information to the king and his councillors before anyone else did so, lest the king find his worth in question and decided to have him burnt. At the same time he would have to make sure that he leaves some information out of his reports so that he could use the information to manipulate events the way he wanted them to go, while trying to subtly influence the king using the way he reported his information so that Aerys reacted the way he hoped he would. He would subtly fan the flames of the kings madness in such a way that left him well clear of his wrath. He had to be careful in his manipulations to make sure Aerys never caught on to what he was doing lest Aerys decides to have him burnt for that instead. He supressed an instinctual shiver when he thought about burning alive.
Compared to when Aerys was ruling, he found it almost trivial to run rings around the new Baratheon Dynasty and the new Small Council.
While most of the current members of the Small Council were competent in their jobs, they each had crucial flaws that he found easy to exploit.
Jon Arryn was a decent Hand of the King. He wasn’t anything special when it came to practicing the politics the position demanded, but he wasn’t bad at it either. Jon Arryn was competent. He held the realm together when the ties that bound it were the weakest it had been in centuries, but compared to the likes of Tywin Lannister, he fell well short when it came to politics. The man was a pacifist. While his honour and mercy may have granted him the respect of many throughout the realm, he knew that there were those who would take advantage of Lord Arryns kindly nature to plot in the shadows.
Varys counted it as a blessing that the Falcon Lord was named Hand of the King, as he has the ability to hold the realm together, but not the ability to strengthen the Baratheon hold on the throne very much. This is to his benefit as the realm fracturing any more than it currently is would be detrimental to his long term plans. He needs the realm to be stable for a few more years. At the same time, increasing the power of the Baratheon Dynasty would be even worse for his plans.
Stannis Baratheon in comparison was a hard man. Not someone prone to smiling or even showing any emotion at all besides frustration, which became evident when he ground his teeth. He was a man who wouldn’t bend for anything. He would complete what he believed to be his duty to the utmost degree that he is capable of. Varys can admit to himself that he admires Stannis’s devotion to his duty in some capacity. The problem with Stannis was that he was terrible at politics. Politics is all about bending and twisting people in certain ways, and in some cases bending yourself for greater profit later down the line. Stannis’s refusal to partake in any of the games in court is probably his greatest weakness. It can blind him to many schemes in the shadows, that he has no way of knowing about due to his staunch refusal to employ people to act as his eyes and ears in those shadows or just through his inability to see that others would bend more easily if he took a softer approach.
Pycelle was a simple creature with simple desires. A Lannister supporter who would do or say anything as long as it benefitted the Lannisters. The old man liked it when men underestimated him, happy to stay out of sight. Varys doesn’t ever really think Pycelle will become a problem. He has almost nothing to do with the running of the realm, content to give advice every now and then but happy to ignore any problems unless he is asked about them directly or they affect the Lannisters.
Lord Estermont sat in the seat of the Master of Laws. He was a smart and competent man who manages to run the Gold Cloaks of the city efficiently and dispense justice in the king’s name with great skill. Despite that, he started to slow down in his old age. The lord had mentioned that he plans to retire from the position in a few years.
The position of Master of Coin remains empty at the moment, due to the last person who held the post being unable to accommodate for the kings expensive tastes.
Most of the men sitting in the solar are content to remain silent while waiting for Lord Arryn to begin the meeting.
Bang!
All the heads in the room move in unison toward the door when it was slammed open, only to find King Robert Baratheon I drunkenly stumbling his way into the room followed by Ser Barristan Selmy the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard.
Varys feels a faint tug at the corner of his lips as he stood with the others in the room for the King. This meeting had just got interesting.
This is only the third small council meeting that he can recall the King ever sitting in. Most of the time he was happy to leave the running of the kingdom to others, while he drank and whored his way to an early grave. The King would much rather do anything else than waste his time, in the kings own words, ‘counting coppers’.
Ser Barristan in contrast would probably be a good voice to have at these meetings but is banned from attending them due to the fact he used to serve the Targaryens. He finds it funny thst he was allowed to keep his position but such a loyal and honourable man was not.
Robert barked. “Sit, sit damn you!”
After stumbling his way to his seat he waved one of his hands while another brought a goblet to his lips. After taking a gulp the king slammed the goblet on the table. “Jon you asked me to come because you said there was something important to discuss. So, get on with it before I piss myself!” He boomed.
Jon Arryn visibly sighed at his wards behaviour, but notably no longer even bothered trying to make Robert act more dignified.
After taking a moment he straightened in his chair and started. “What is the status of the fleet, Stannis?” Lord Jon Arryns voice echoed around the small council chambers.
For such an old and otherwise kindly man, Varys admits that Jon Arryn has skill when it comes to commanding a room. The Falcon Lord almost never raises his voice, not even when he gets angry at an idiotic lord. He speaks in such a way that brings all but the most unruly of bannermen to silence and attention. Lord Arryn has the unique ability to cut a man down with a smile on his face and in such a way that it leaves most Lords confused whether they had won their exchanges with the lord or not. Varys has even seen some men who were dismissed from court in shame believing Lord Arryn was doing them a favour by protecting them from the kings wrath, or the wrath of the Lannisters. If only the lord had more steel in his spine and was willing to show less mercy to his enemies, he would probably be many times more effective in his role and would have made a much better adversary in the Game of Thrones. Unfortunately for the Falcon Lord, his honour and mercy may win him many friends, but it also gives many of his enemies more opportunities to plot in the shadows, as they don’t fear the repercussions of doing so. As many believe the worse that Jon Arryn would do would be to give them a slap on the wrist.
“The construction of the Royal Fleet is proceeding as expected Lord Arryn. So far, we have constructed twenty three trading cogs and nine warships. Filling those ships with competent and loyal men is a far more difficult task however. Most of the men who try and join the fleet are wastrels who would be better served cleaning privies than serving the king in such an important role. Ser Davos has been inspecting the men and bringing those that qualify up to standard but it is a slow process. Piracy on the Narrow Sea has also greatly slowed down progress. There was a large increase in piracy after the destruction of the Targaryen fleet and we have lost quite a few ships trying to curb it. The worst of it seems to be behind us however, so we should be seeing more success in the coming days. That is, of course, as long as we receive the proper funding.” He said the last part while looking at the king, who seemed to be too busy admiring his reflection in the goblet to notice the not so subtle barb to his spending habits.
Jon Arryn sighed while messaging his nose. “The crown is one hundred thousand gold dragons in debt to the Iron Bank. We will have to take another loan to pay for the rest of the fleet. I’m looking at candidates to fill in the position of Master of Coin, but finding someone qualified and trustworthy is proving difficult. My wife suggested a Petyr Baelish, who she knew as a girl. Apparently he has worked wonders at Gulltown. I invited him to Kings Landing half a year ago to work in customs for a while so that I can see how competent he is with my own eyes. So far he seems to be doing a good job but I will watch him for a while longer. In the meantime, Pycelle will have to continue looking over-“
He was interrupted when the king threw his goblet across the room into the wall. “Come on Jon! You told me that we were discussing something important. I don’t want to sit here all day counting coppers! So get on with it already!”
Jon Arryn sighed. “Very well Your Grace. The main topic for discussion for today is the Iron Islands. We received a letter from the Starks quite a few moons ago that stated they believe the Greyjoy’s are building up their fleet. Possibly for a rebellion. Varys, last time you said you didn’t have any spies on the island in position to confirm their fears. I trust the situation has changed?”
He could see the king perk up at the change of topic. It could be because the Starks were mentioned or it could be because the possibility of war was. Most likely it was for both reasons.
Varys smiled. “Even my little birds find it hard to survive on those dreary rocks among the pirates my lord.” That was a lie. He had spies on the islands for years. He just wanted to delay informing the king of his news for as long as possible, in order to give the islands as long as possible to prepare. He knew that their first target would most likely be the Lannister fleet. Varys was happy to have the Ironborn destroy the fleet if it meant weakening the Lannisters for the foreseeable future. After all, they would be large obstacles to overcome for his plans.
He continued before he could be interrupted. “It does seem like young Lord Hadrian is correct in his assumptions however. My little birds report that Balon Greyjoy has been building ships at an impressive speed. What these ships are for I cannot say with certainty, but a rebellion is the most likely possibility.” Truly what he found most remarkable about the whole thing, is that such a young boy was able to see the signs of the coming rebellion before lords older and much more martially tested did.
The king laughed. “The Starks are reliable as ever.”
Lord Arryn cleared his throat. “Yes it seems they are. Now the decision remains, what are we to do about this Your Grace?”
Robert frowned. “Ey? What do you mean? We call the banners and smash those upstarts. What else is there to discuss?”
Jon Arryn sighed as he often seemed to do in the presence of the king. “We can’t just call the banners on them when they haven’t actually done anything yet Robert. Yes, it looks bad that they are building more ships, but they could claim it is for trade, they have almost completely stopped raiding over the past year. Their lack of raiding can be seen by some as Lord Greyjoy trying to change their culture as his father before him did. We can’t be seen as the ones instigating this war. Your reign is still new and some Targaryen loyalists will use it as excuse to name you a warmonger. ”
The king snarled. “Then what do you suggest? Wait for them to attack the kingdom?!”
Lord Arryn raised his hands in a placating manner. “I didn’t say that. We should just look for more peaceful means to avoid a war first. We warn the Lords on the coast, Lord Tywin, Lord Mallister and the Lords of the Reach need to be warned as soon as possible. We also start preparing the fleets for war and summon Lord Greyjoy to Kings Landing to answer for these accusations. “
Robert looked sceptically at his hand. To be fair he wasn’t the only one. Lord Stannis, Lord Estermont and even Pycelle didn’t seem like they agreed. Truly Jon Arryns pacifism was his most admirable trait, it is also a trait that could lead to much bigger problems for the crown down the line. Some problems in this world could only be solved with violence.
Robert sighed and shook his head. “Damn you! Fine, well try it your way first!”
Lord Arryns shoulders slumped in visible relief. “Thank you.”
The king slammed a meaty fist on the table. “I will be prepared when war breaks out though! Stannis, you are to start preparing the Royal Fleet in case a war does break out. I want the men training, I want them properly armed and armoured. Pycelle, send ravens to the lords to prepare to muster their banners if the Greyjoys do rebel. I want to crush those squids completely if they decide to spit on my mercy!”
Seeing both nod their heads. The king continued. “There that’s sorted, now was there anything else? Or can I go back to the girl waiting in my chambers?”
Jon Arryn shook head with downturned lips. “No, we need to discuss events in the North while you are still here.”
Robert narrowed his eyes. “What about the North?”
Jon Arryn seemed to take a moment to prepare himself for the conversation ahead. “The North has invented a new farming practice that is seeing them growing a lot more food. They also have the Gift now. At the rate that they are expanding their farms, in a few years they will no longer need to import food at all.”
Robert laughed. “Ha! Good for Ned! It’s about time the North got something for all their suffering.”
The Hand shook his head. “While I am happy that the North seems to be prospering, it is creating problems with the other kingdoms. Already they have stopped importing from the Reach and some Lords are complaining about it. Some Lords in the Riverlands also fear that the North will stop buying food from them too. “
The king spit on the floor. “Those bloody flowery cunts. They were happy to extort the Northerners for years, now that they are finally prospering on their own they want to complain? They can complain to my hammer! The North fought for me in The Rebellion while those cunts were feasting outside of Storms End. Let the bastards complain! The Riverlands were hardly any better. Hoster blackmailed us for his help, he refused to fight unless you and Ned married his daughters. Let him whine all he wants!”
Jon released a breath. “Robert-“
The king interrupted. “No Jon! The North has been loyal. They will be left to grow in peace! You hear me? That’s an order from your King!”
Lord Arryn closed his eyes. “Very well. That’s all Robert.”
The king was quick to climb to his feet and left the room with a muttered “Finally” under his breath.
After that Lord Arryn went through the rest of the agenda with the council before calling the session to a close and leaving to his other duties.
Varys made his way to his chambers in order to think about events and what they mean. While it wasn’t ideal that Tywin Lannister would no doubt be prepared for any Ironborn incursions, it wasn’t of great importance in the grand scheme of things. There will be more opportunities to bring the Lannisters low over the next few years. That’s not even going into the terrible secret of the Queen and Ser Jaime that he had discovered. With that, it should be easy to turn much of the realm against them.
Of more concern currently, was the growing power of the North. He estimates that in another few years the North will be completely self-sufficient. When that happens there will be nothing really tying them to the Seven Kingdoms, other than loyalty to Robert Baratheon.
If it comes out that the king doesn’t have any trueborn children the Northerners could just declare their independence from the rest of the kingdom. From that it will be extremely difficult to bring them back into the fold. All attempts to attack them from the South would be doomed to fail at Moat Cailin. If they try and attack them from the coasts they will need to march an army through half of an extremely large kingdom to reach Winterfell.
Varys is aware he doesn’t know war like he does politics, but even he can see it will be an extremely difficult undertaking to march an army through foreign territory that they don’t know as well as the natives. That’s not even taking into account the difficulties in supplying the army and the fact that soldiers on the march often fall sick. He imagines soldiers will be even more likely to fall sick in the cold. When the army does reach Winterfell they will need to dig in for a siege that will be extremely difficult and time consuming. Winterfell has large thick walls. It is easily one of the most defensible castles in the Seven Kingdoms. If winter comes while the army is camped outside of their walls, then the Starks win.
Assassinating the Starks is more likely to work but even that comes with its own issues. Most Northerners, even the smallfolk, are loyal to the Starks and foreigners will be easily noticed in the North, making it difficult for them to even get close to the Starks. Unfortunately he can’t just ignore the problem either. Hadrian Stark is proving to be brilliant and has already laid the groundwork to make the North stronger than it has ever been. Varys can’t even imagine what he will think of to further increase their power in the future.
After contemplating the issue for a while he started to smile. The Greyjoy’s Rebellion is looking as if it is likely to fail without doing any damage to the Lannisters, but that doesn’t mean that he can’t find any use for it. All he has to do is direct them towards a different target.
Varys moved the carpet on his floor and lifted up the hatch to the secret entrance to the tunnels running through the keep with a smile on his face and a single thought at the front of his mind.
‘For Aegon.’
Line Break--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Petyr Baelish screamed as he threw his jug of wine against the wall.
“Fucking Starks!” He fumed.
Now Petyr was normally more in control of his emotions, but as it is, he can’t help but vent. His plans that he had already spent years on, were going so well. He had spent countless hours working in Gulltown making them more profit, or atleast making it seem like he was with creative usage of numbers. He was making a good amount of coin for himself while putting the Graftons in further debt. He successfully used his relationship with Lysa Tully to convince Jon Arryn to bring him to Kings Landing where he could more easily spread his influence. He was even being considered for the position of Master of Coin. Everything was going to plan.
Countless hours of planning, of scheming, bribing and blackmailing people in order to further his goals were all meaningless.
Once again, the fucking Starks ruined everything. First they took his one true love away from him and now they made all his plans worthless.
The new method of bookkeeping that Hadrian Stark came up with, that was now starting to be used in all the Kingdoms, made his plans infinitely harder. He is sure he could still figure out a way to steal money from the poor fools who hired him, only now it is much harder. And much more dangerous.
It is that much easier for people to notice discrepancies in the records and as such he can no longer be as blatant. That on its own wouldn’t be such a problem if he didn’t need to beggar the realm as much as possible for his plans.
After taking a few deep breaths he forced himself to calm down and think.
Petyr paced up and down his room in his new brothel in Kings Landing, while desperately trying to think of how he can find a way through this mess. While trying to think of another way to reach to top where he belongs.
His thinking wasn’t made any easier by the sounds of the fucking Septon standing outside his window preaching his drivel as loud as he could for all those around him to hear.
“Think Petyr. Think. You aren’t going to get outdone by a fucking boy. Especially not a Stark who doesn’t even know who you are. Think. What if I- no that won’t work. But if-“
“And The Mother gives mercy to all her worshippers!”
He growled under his breath but didn’t let the useless drivel distract him. “I just need to be more careful. Find another way to get the coin. If I use more Essosi merchants to hide-“
“The Father grants justice! It is by his light that all sinners are cleansed!”
He closed his eyes and released a breath. “If is use a third party to-“
“The Crone grants wisdom and lights the way for all believers!”
Having had enough he marched to his window to scream at the Septon to shut up. The damned fool was giving him a headache!
When he got to the window he paused at the sight in front of him. The Septon stood on a small wooden box preaching for all he was worth with a fanaticism that was astounding, but that wasn’t what caught his attention. No, what made him pause were all the people who stood there listening to the drivel the fool was sprouting. There must have been half a hundred people listening to his words. Even as Baelish watched, a man who was dressed in little more than rags, who looked to be half starved, dropped a copper coin into the basket in front of the Septon.
Truly the heights of some people’s fanaticism astounded him.
Petyr Baelish felt a smile grow on his face as he had a new idea that he hadn’t considered before. He doesn’t necessarily need gold to amass power. After all, the ability to command half a hundred people to stop and listen to you is a power all on its own. The ability to get a man to willingly give their last copper with nothing but a speech is also power.
Yes. This could work.
Baelish found his smile growing even wider as he found his new path to the top. He knows it won’t be an easy position to reach but….
‘Chaos is a ladder.’
Thank you for reading. As always criticism is welcome as long as it’s constructive.
Next chapter Thursday 23 February 2023.
To read ahead of the update schedule: Pat_reon(dot)com(slash) TheLifeandTimes19.
Comments
Chris
So is varys' plan to make the iron born target the north? How would he even do such a thing? If they attach the north after swearing feality then the king can come down harder on them. Also see it's much harder to host theon then. Finally the faith where always going to rebel against the north but right now the high septon is in the pocket of the Lannister. Hard to see how they benefit from this.
K. W.
Petyr Baelish, the L. Ron Hubbard of Westeros. Or perhaps Joseph Smith?
