|
|
Post by The Black Dread on Jun 19, 2014 18:54:19 GMT -5
Spartan and austere, it is from here that Prince Lucerys Targaryen has served as the second-highest judicial power in Westeros, after the Queen herself, presiding over any and all legal matters in the capital, save those in which her grace decides to take a direct hand. There is a large desk in the main chamber, with strait-backed chairs on the opposite side of it, though Prince Lucerys' chair is quite different, and significantly more comfortable. Nobody has ever been in this office, and not seen a decanter of spiced Dornish red on the end table.
|
|
|
|
Post by Lord Lyonel Harroway on Jun 19, 2014 19:03:02 GMT -5
Lord Lyonel Harroway walked down the hall and knocked sharply on the door of the master of laws. His cane slipped on a slick stone and he almost toppled. He looked around to make sure no one had seen his near fall.
|
|
|
|
Post by The Black Dread on Jun 19, 2014 19:07:38 GMT -5
The Master of Laws was not a paranoid man, and though he maintained a retinue of men in the capital, he did not bother posting guards outside his door while inside the Red Keep, and nobody had seen Lyonel's narrow escape. A servant poked her head out of the door, and ushered Lord Lyonel into the antechamber, where he was made to wait another two minutes before the servant returned and led him into the solar proper.
"My lord Harroway, good afternoon," the Master of Laws said, rising from his seat as the other man entered. "Can I offer you wine?" he asked, gesturing to the girl, who was already filling his goblet.
|
|
|
|
Post by Lord Lyonel Harroway on Jun 19, 2014 22:29:31 GMT -5
"I would greatly enjoy that. It is an abnormally hot day this day." Lyonel replied as he walked slowly into the room. He looked around the room idly. "Your office is quite magnificent. I greatly admire it.I can not remember, have you always had these chambers?
|
|
|
|
Post by The Black Dread on Jun 19, 2014 22:39:03 GMT -5
"Only for fifteen years or so," Lucerys replied dryly, as the cupbearer poured for Lyonel and then handed him the goblet. "What can I help you with today my lord?"
|
|
|
|
Post by Lord Lyonel Harroway on Jun 19, 2014 22:49:20 GMT -5
Lyone chuckled and shook his head. "Well clearly I have not been visiting you enough. I will have to rectify that in the future." He took a breath and considered his next words closely. "I was wondering about our arrangement with Tyrosh. Is it an alliance in principle, or is it one committed too with pens and inks?"
|
|
|
|
Post by The Black Dread on Jun 19, 2014 22:56:53 GMT -5
Lucerys stood, and opened a wooden panel in the wall behind his desk, to reveal a large warren of round cubbyholes, most of which held a scroll case or stack of parchments. He examined them for a moment, before selecting one and unrolling it. "Singed by the Queen of Westeros and the Archon of Tyrosh in 81 AL… it refers to various trade benefits, and exemptions from tariffs. The Tyroshi agreed to provide the Queen with troops against her traitorous brothers, in exchange for a lordship and land for the Archon's brother, but there is no formal military commitment by either party beyond that," he replied, scanning the document carefully.
|
|
|
|
Post by Lord Lyonel Harroway on Jun 19, 2014 23:02:42 GMT -5
Lyonel nodded, "So if their city was to be attacked by an enemy force then we would not be called on to support them in any way?" He asked curiously as he studied the Prince.
|
|
|
|
Post by The Black Dread on Jun 19, 2014 23:11:39 GMT -5
"Not according to the treaty her grace signed with their Archon," Lucerys replied. "Why do you ask, my lord?"
|
|
|
|
Post by Lord Lyonel Harroway on Jun 19, 2014 23:22:58 GMT -5
"You have seen the maps as well as I." Lyonel replied as he stroked his chin deep in thought. "There is a new great power in the east. One that will not be stopped until it's shadow falls entirely across Essos." He sighed, and added, "Or is made to stop."
|
|
|
|
Post by The Black Dread on Jun 19, 2014 23:43:16 GMT -5
"I know of the Burned Rider, and better than most in Westeros," Lucerys replied. Lord Harroway recalled that he'd spent almost a year in Myr, Pentos, and Tyrosh, several years past. "His shadow is long, but his dragons are fewer than ours. With two or three of our dragons to aid her, Vhagar would be more than a match even for the Black Dread."
|
|
|
|
Post by Lord Lyonel Harroway on Jun 20, 2014 7:15:08 GMT -5
"I have no doubt of our strength, my Prince. But the grave yard of empires is full of strong powers falling to weak." Lyonel replied with small embarrassed shrug. "I was more concerned about if we would be forced into action. If Tyrosh is attacked I want us to make the best decision at the time for us. Not be obliged to defend them no matter our own situation."
|
|
|
|
Post by The Black Dread on Jun 20, 2014 8:53:58 GMT -5
Lucerys shook his head. "Our Queen is too wily to be drawn into such an alliance; of the last twenty years Tyrosh has spend twelve of them at war with one of its neighbors or another, and if we were obligated to aid them in each of those conflicts, our treasury would stand even more bare than it already does."
"If Tyrosh is annexed by the Burned Rider, however, there are only so many ways we might respond," he replied, unrolling a map of the narrow sea and weighting the ends down with a dagger and a book. "It is only a few hours' flight from Tyrosh to the Rainwood, and an invasion fleet would take only a few days to make that journey. We would be fools, to ignore the Burned Rider until he appears on our door-step."
|
|
|
|
Post by Lord Lyonel Harroway on Jun 20, 2014 9:35:20 GMT -5
"There is always an advantage to being perceived a fool but never actually being one." Lyonel was quiet a moment before continuing. "May I ask you a related question. Tyrosh falls and a grand armada is launched to invade our home. How does the Burned Rider prevent us from simply burning his fleet into the sea."
He lifted his hand to his own chest. "I have done some traveling of my own. And nothing is feared more on a ship then fire."
|
|
|
|
Post by The Black Dread on Jun 20, 2014 15:40:22 GMT -5
"Were I he, I would not sail without an escort of dragon riders. Even if we meet them in the air over the Narrow Sea, his riders will have the advantage of the ships' ballistae. I would also enter into negotiations with Dorne; if he were to secure the fealty of the Dornish, he could make short hops across the Stepstones and land unopposed in Dorne, giving him a base from which to invade Westeros proper," Lucerys replied, studying the maps carefully but not looking up.
|
|
|
|
Post by Lord Lyonel Harroway on Jun 21, 2014 10:30:06 GMT -5
"Well we will hope he is more like myself then like you. For if it were me I would rape the undefended lands to my North rather then clash with the only power that surmounts my own." Lyonel replied with a slight grin. His blue eyes studied the Prince's face as he studied the map. "Do you think Dorne is posed to allow him sovereignty?"
|
|
|
|
Post by The Black Dread on Jun 21, 2014 11:50:38 GMT -5
"Princess Sarella would ally with the Burned Rider against us if there was any advantage in it for her, but every man and woman in that wretched country would die sooner than swear fealty to anyone, or so they would have us believe," Lucerys replied. "However she hasn't lived this long by being a fool, and she is too smart to think that the Burned Rider could be trusted as an ally, when all he has done is conquer."
|
|
|
|
Post by Lord Lyonel Harroway on Jun 21, 2014 13:21:58 GMT -5
"You are right of course." Lyonel replied, "Though with there being four dragons in Dorne. I wonder who truly controls that land now. I am betting the traitor spawn would rise swiftly in the service of Valryia."
|
|
|
|
Post by The Black Dread on Jun 21, 2014 14:23:11 GMT -5
"Perhaps. It is no secret that Sarella's heir has taken up with her; they've a child together I believe, perhaps as old as five. When Princess Sarella dies, Dorne's position may change, but that woman will never kneel to any man or woman, regardless on the dragon they ride upon," Lucerys said.
|
|
|
|
Post by Lord Lyonel Harroway on Jun 21, 2014 17:53:22 GMT -5
"How many kings or queens have died to mystery illnesses when their heirs have wanted a different course then their own?" Lyonel asked as he shifted back in the seat. "I would guess there are quite a few souls lost that way."
|
|
|
|
Post by The Black Dread on Jun 21, 2014 18:36:54 GMT -5
"Prince Trystane is widely regarded as far more agreeable than his mother, to be sure, and would be easier to negotiate with a man such as him than with Sarella, who is far too proud for her own good," Lucerys agreed. "I should not think that her grace the Queen would be displeased to hear that Sarella had fallen to illness, or even been deposed by her son."
|
|
|
|
Post by Lord Lyonel Harroway on Jun 21, 2014 21:08:40 GMT -5
"I am not sure the Queen would be pleased with that as she may wish she was." Lyonel replied. "I knew a woman once who had been rejected by the man she loved, and forced to marry another. Years went by and the woman complained every day about her inattentive husband, and how hard he worked and spent no time on his wife. She had three children who grew up to be strong men, and had a fine house and a good home." He paused to sip his wine, before concluding. "Twenty odd years pass, and she returns home to visit her father, and she mets a broken wretched washer woman with a crooked arm, and a swollen face. Turns out that this was the woman who married her true love. The woman who had stolen away the life she so badly wanted."
Lyonel shrugged and sipped his wine again, "I am the kind of man who prefers enemy I know rather then the one I don't."
|
|
|
|
Post by The Black Dread on Jun 21, 2014 21:21:25 GMT -5
Prince Lucerys politely stifled his yawn as Lord Harroway began talking about washer women, though he did understand the moral of the metaphor. "That is so, but regardless of what we may prefer, Prince Tyrstane will one day succeed his mother. And if he dies childless, it will be the Sword of the Morning who rules Dorne after Sarella passes, or perhaps his father, the Lord of Starfall. Either of them would make a far worse enemy than Trystane ever could," he replied.
|
|
|
|
Post by Lord Lyonel Harroway on Jun 21, 2014 21:35:11 GMT -5
Lyonel chuckled, "I think perhaps you have been surrounded by these laws longer then you know my good friend. These laws are only true as long as we hold them to be true. The chain of succession can be broken with ease, as the not too distant past has shown us. I would wager a bag of gold against a bag of silver that if mother and son were both to perish the only ruler of Dorne would be Chaos." He shrugged helplessly.
|
|
|
|
Post by The Black Dread on Jun 21, 2014 21:45:02 GMT -5
"I would accept such a wager in an instant, my lord, for you overestimate their divisiveness," Lucerys replied, amused that a man fifteen years younger than himself could be lecturing him on how long he'd worked with the law. "Queen Rhaena was the lawful heir to the Iron Throne when she was crowned," he warned, somewhat sharply. "It could be construed as high treason, if the wrong ears were to hear one suggest otherwise.
"Regardless of that, the Lord of Starfall's wife is Sarella's eldest daughter, and if both of her sons are dead there is no house in Dorne capable of even remotely challenging the Daynes for control of Sunspear. The Yronwoods might have, once, but Lord Baratheon saw to them a decade ago," he said.
|
|
all alone and also really bored 
Hopefully going to kickstart the festival too