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Post by The Gambler on Jan 8, 2014 3:48:28 GMT -5
"You were allowed entry, were you not?" His Grace asked rhetorically, already impatient. "If I truly desired to avoid you, I would have my solar moved to a room with a smaller door."
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Post by Deleted on Jan 8, 2014 4:03:23 GMT -5
Well, this was a good note on which to begin her petition. Never had she more acutely longed to find freedom from her father's keep. "And force me to deprive myself of good food in order to seek an audience?" she said lightly. "That would be too cruel."
She seated herself opposite him. "I have a request, Your Grace. As the second in line to the throne, it is proper that I should have my own lands and incomes. It will reduce the number of dependents on the Crown treasury, and give me the independence due to my position. And if Aegon marries me, then those lands would pass on to Rhaena, of course."
Aemy paused. "I do not expect you to give me this freely, Your Grace. I request a castle and lands of my own should I successfully help Aegon bring Oldtown to heel. And for the first year, I would pay the Crown an extra tithe that would go towards paying off our debts to the Iron Bank and the Tyroshi."
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Post by The Gambler on Jan 8, 2014 4:11:24 GMT -5
"Then it would seem to me you have done this out of order." the king replied, glancing up at her now with a look that said his time was being wasted. "You ask for a reward based on merit, when you do not yet have claim to the merit required."
"I would lay upon my funeral pyre and light it with my own hand before I consented to marry you to my heir." he added, almost as an afterthought.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 8, 2014 4:14:28 GMT -5
"Surely that's Aegon's decision?" Aemy retorted, wondering how her father had not already ended up on his funeral pyre. He grew steadily more odious every year. "And forgive me Your Grace, but I did mention that the reward was conditional on my victory."
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Post by The Gambler on Jan 8, 2014 4:19:35 GMT -5
"My father chose which of the sisters I would wed. I will do the same for Aegon." he replied with finality. "That is how it has always been and how it will always be."
"Then have the victory before you request the boon." he spat, words like daggers. "Else you are little better than a beggar."
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Post by Deleted on Jan 8, 2014 4:30:26 GMT -5
"If that is what you had intended, you'd have married him off by now," Aemy replied with some heat. She told herself it was unwise to antagonize her father when his good will depended on her receiving any castle and lands from him, but she was infuriated. "Aegon is well past the age when he should have been married. And your lady wife seems to think it is Aegon's decision. She has always said this to us. Besides, if you haven't controlled your son's choice of faith, how do you expect to control his marriage?"
"Very well, sire," she said coldly. "You may as well save some time and write my name beside Darkheart Keep in the Book of Deeds, because I'll return with Dragonbane's head."
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Post by The Gambler on Jan 8, 2014 4:39:36 GMT -5
"A father must allow his children to make their own mistakes." he said softly, which Aemy would know well was far more dangerous than his yelling. "A king must correct those mistakes that may become a detriment to the realm. Choice is an illusion of children; duty the only reality. You will never be queen."
He left the second half of her statement unremarked, having no patience for bravado. Many had promised to return with the head of Ser Hector the Dragonbane, including His Grace's own father and uncle. Yet, they and their dragons were dead while the grizzled knight's head remained on his shoulders.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 8, 2014 4:42:30 GMT -5
Aemy's purple eyes became as cold as ice as she listened to him. "I'm glad I know where I stand," she said, equally softly, and for a moment her voice strangely resembled her father's.
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Post by The Gambler on Jan 8, 2014 4:45:57 GMT -5
"Will that be all?" he asked, eyes already returning to his parchment.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 8, 2014 4:48:01 GMT -5
She was still looking at him with an odd look in her eyes. "That's all," she said, in the same soft voice, and she rose and took her leave.
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Post by Lord Commander Brandon Snow on Jan 15, 2014 21:01:44 GMT -5
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Having been seen by a maester, Brandon Snow made his way to stand his post at the King's chambers, limping slightly as he found his place besides Maegor.
"Your grace," he said, as he silently nodded to his counterpart who gratefully departed back to the White Sword Tower to eat and sleep.
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Post by The Gambler on Jan 15, 2014 21:47:44 GMT -5
Maegor favored his Lord Commander's leg with a pointed glance before returning his violet eyes to the missives on the desk before him.
"Are you fit to carry out your duty, commander?" he inquired, without glancing up again.
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Post by Lord Commander Brandon Snow on Jan 15, 2014 22:09:52 GMT -5
"Yes your grace," Brandon replied, "It's just a scratch, the maester says. Some of these Poor Fellows don't know when they've been killed unfortunately. I had taken Aerion on a flight while on my break, and ran across some of Lady Massey's men. Poor Fellows took her daughter upon the road and were holding her for ransom. The girl is safe now," he explained. "The fellows were slain to a man."
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Post by The Gambler on Jan 16, 2014 4:02:08 GMT -5
"A 'yes' would have sufficed." Maegor replied sharply, though with a tinge of jealousy in his tone as he toiled.
There was a long silence before he continued, seemingly needing to confide in someone and choosing the man sworn to keep his secrets.
"I miss the front, Brandon." he said softly, unusually informal. "It is where I should be. Grandfather always said I had been born for this war...bred for its purpose...that to have come into the world at the dawn of the greatest outpouring of blood and fire since Prince Garin led 250,000 Rhoynar to their deaths against the Valyria was a favorable omen rather than an ill one. Yet here I sit, a glorified bean-counter standing fearful watch against the ill will of my own people."
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Post by Lord Commander Brandon Snow on Jan 16, 2014 8:57:45 GMT -5
"Yes your grace," Brandon said, unused to the outpouring of sentiment from Maegor. The truth was if Maegor desired the front there was no man who could keep him from it although it would be folly. The Militants would throw ten thousand lives away to put a scratch on Maegor's face and count it a deal. If he died, they won, no matter the cost.
"They say that men wield swords, and kings, they wield men," He finally offered.
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Post by The Gambler on Jan 16, 2014 18:13:25 GMT -5
"I miss the clatter of those swords." he replied "It is hard to hear them in these stone confines."
"War is all I know. If peace is achieved, what will I be then? The bards are keen to sing of the horrors of war, but what of the monotony of peace?"
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Post by Lord Commander Brandon Snow on Jan 16, 2014 18:31:25 GMT -5
Brandon was of the opinion that certainly monotony was vastly preferably to war, but he said instead, "Perhaps war is a waste of the talent of great men," he replied, "All the skills needed for war like vision, organization, and the ability to command can be used to build just as easily. Perhaps your grace may turn his sights towards some project that will withstand the test of time, for a time when men will not even remember what a Poor Fellow was."
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Post by The Gambler on Jan 16, 2014 18:40:14 GMT -5
"Grandfather always said that war was the only god remaining...the truest form of divination...a forcing of the unity of existence that gave the world meaning." he replied, recalling the lessons of Maegor the Cruel. "What could I build, that war could not bring low?"
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Post by Lord Commander Brandon Snow on Jan 16, 2014 18:48:10 GMT -5
"My mother's people built The Wall," Brandon said. "It's stood more than a thousand years, despite numerous wars. And certainly they were no Dragons." he hastened to add, "So whose to say what's possible."
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Post by The Gambler on Jan 16, 2014 21:31:43 GMT -5
Maegor seemed to consider the words, looking up from his missives.
"What wonders can be built without coin?" he asked bitterly. "The Iron Bank owns more of this kingdom than I it seems."
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Post by Lord Commander Brandon Snow on Jan 16, 2014 21:40:36 GMT -5
"As to that, your grace, I know not." Brandon replied. Apparently he was not made to be a beancounter either.
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Post by The Gambler on Jan 16, 2014 22:13:27 GMT -5
"Tell me one of you own of war then, ser." His Grace replied with a sigh. "War is so much simpler than ruling. I could use the distraction."
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Post by Lord Commander Brandon Snow on Jan 16, 2014 22:22:47 GMT -5
"Your grace was there, for much it. I served with our Lord Father in the Reach." he said, pausing as if to think, before recalling a story that the King would not have heard.
"As your grace knows, when Father died, I... did not take it well, and spent time in the North. I... built a small shack on a ridge in the Lonely Hills, in a territory that is controlled by a group of Northmen who call themselves the Burleys." he said. "Curious men, clansmen, their way of war is not like ours, as I found out when they took exception to my presence."
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Post by The Gambler on Jan 16, 2014 22:31:05 GMT -5
Maegor nodded as he listened, eyes sparking with interest at the tale.
"Not like ours how?" His Grace asked, living vicariously for a moment.
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Post by Lord Commander Brandon Snow on Jan 16, 2014 22:37:54 GMT -5
"They hide, and they ambush each other. They fight long ranging feuds. A man might stab another for something done to his great uncle by the man's grandfather, and so on." Brandon explained. "there's a great deal of stealing each others sheep, and such as that as well. "One day, I was getting water from the creek which ran by my property, when I stepped into a rope trap they had prepared for me, and found myself suspended up side down, as six of them emerged from the underbrush." Brandon explained, stretching the story out some in order to entertain his patron.
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all alone and also really bored 
Hopefully going to kickstart the festival too
Jul 3, 2014 12:43:09 GMT -5
Hopefully going to kickstart the festival too
Jul 3, 2014 12:43:09 GMT -5