>>FROM:@STORMBORN | >>TO:@ALL

[dorzalta]

I ask that you use caution if encountering Yhych in the courts. Or at least carry with you an anti-toxin.

[ dot dot dot . . . ]

Is anyone a weapon-maker here?



>>FROM:@STORMBORN
>>TO:@BURGERKING, @PONYTAIL, @MODERATUS, @POINTANDKICK, @DIEDHARD, @BOARING, @AEGONNER, @PERSONALSTAFF

Ignore my next message until you are alone or are able to control your reaction.

[ There will be a pause, one which seems to tick away as an eternity for her. And then: ]

I'm told Kebechet is here.

Comments

[dorzalta]

I don't know what I want. Scout merely said to make it worth the trouble.

[ A beat. ]

Do you think we could use him to get to her?

[northerndragon]

Maybe. But I think it might be foolish to try. A gamble. Too much of a gamble, if we don't want her to know what we know.

Would an appeal to one of your Unsullied make your Hand or Lord V vulnerable? An appeal to one of the Free Folk wouldn't undermine the big ginger, whether or not you had their brother's knife. You understand my meaning.

Would you set something they want against a lifetime of following? How do you know they weren't approaching you for some other reason?

[dorzalta]

That suggests unbending loyalty. Does she have his? When I was with her, she suggested that the units were separate. They had their own ways of accomplishing their tasks.

Perhaps some of what she said was to try and hone my anger toward the lions versus the wolves. Maybe it was to sway me. I don't believe all of it a lie. Why distinguish themselves into varying contingents, then?

If he wished for something beyond the spearhead, I don't know.

[northerndragon]

The lions and the wolves may not be as loyal to each other as they are to themselves, but they're all loyal to the Regency. In that, it may not matter if Kebechet has the personal loyalty of the man who wants the spear, if they're all ultimately loyal to the same thing.

Trusting the man is a risk. Maybe there's some way of finding out where his deeper loyalties lie?

I remember that girl in Valmy. She was loyal to them, and she was afraid.

[dorzalta]

I don't know if he'd find a spearhead more valuable than his loyalty. Some might. Fear may be enough of a deterrent, should he veer toward Xici's side of things.

[ He's right, of course, that trusting the man is a risk. She doesn't even know his name, and yet there seems to be a pricelessness to his offer. Young makes it seem that way, as well. ]

Trusting anyone here is a risk. We do it regardless.

[northerndragon]

Must have been someone he loved, mustn't it? I don't think he'd be talking to you otherwise. That might already be some kind of breach of orders.

Family, or a lover, it's hard to say. There's a lot I would have done to get my father's sword back, and a lot I wouldn't have done. But I never had the chance. This man has a chance, whatever its owner meant to him.

[dorzalta]

In that case, I almost feel as if I should give it to him.

[ Sentimentality. Rare though it might be, she can understand this. ]

[northerndragon]

Would that be a show of good will, or just a show of weakness?

I only know a little of how these people think. You could just give it to him. You could offer to sell it to him for what you paid. You could trade for goods in kind. You could ask for a favor, but there's no telling whether or not he'll keep his side of the bargain.

[dorzalta]

Knowing what we've seen thus far? Likely a show of weakness. COST would view it that way, as well. But this is all speculation, and your point about having a limit to how far you'd go to retrieve your father's sword is all the more valid in lieu of that.

You'd think someone who fights for peace could be swayed.

[northerndragon]

I think it's what they're being told they do. I don't think it's what they do.

[dorzalta]

Nor do I, but they believe it.

[northerndragon]

Can we challenge what they've been told their whole lives? Is there a way to prove otherwise to them? The ones with eyes to see can open them, but is there something that would help them do it?

[He thinks of the way his own eyes have been opened against things he'd thought to be true his entire life: how he doesn't think the same way he did when he was sixteen.]

[dorzalta]

[ She thinks of the way she'd been so timid and meek around Viserys, and how the Dothraki instilled ferocity into her. ]

We show it. My people did not become my people until I made an effort to understand who they were, what they wanted, and what they needed.

[northerndragon]

I can't say it's been much different for me, except that what they wanted was safety — a chance at life. Don't think that's the same.

If we show it, it might be better to give him the spear, or ask the officers for more advice.

[dorzalta]

Do you feel they're removed far enough to not answer emotionally? I can't say Scout appears to be.

[northerndragon]

No. Sarge might be. Or it might be that their emotions are helpful.

Everyone involved in the Regency is still just a person. Some of them haven't had many choices. Many of them, I'll wager.

[dorzalta]

He may be, but he seems optimistic in a way that's not entirely realistic with what we've faced thus far. I could be wrong. Commander is the exact opposite, but she was touched all those months back when I offered to fight for her.

[ A longer pause. ]

The Araneans. They were slaves once, correct?

[northerndragon]

They were made to be slaves.

[There's something intrinsically wrong with that.]

[dorzalta]

Yes. And how did they break free of that?

[ She's a point, have patience. ]

[northerndragon]

The Great Consumption. The Queen's mother, I think.

But if you're thinking that the average person under the Regency will rise up, it would take a lot. We'd have to reach a lot of them at once, and they'd have to be convinced that they won't suffer for it, that their children won't suffer.

[dorzalta]

One already has, far as we know. How did the Commander break free of the Regency's hold?

[northerndragon]

She didn't tell you?

One person's bravery doesn't mean their fellows are the same. Most people just want to live. They don't want to be caught up in the high lords' wars. Even the wars for peace.

If they force their people to be soldiers, it may be that there are some cracks there. The shabtis, maybe. People like them. But if they've been raised to it, and never allowed any other path, it's hard to say whether many of them would be looking to break out. Why aren't there more like the Commander?

[dorzalta]

I didn't ask her at the time. But why aren't there? We've sects of COST. Are they all ones who have broken ties with the Regency, or are they like us?

It makes me wonder if this is why COST is like chaos with regards to its leadership. There's little organization on these missions.

More importantly is the commonality between the leadership of COST and our hosts. Yet the topic of slavery is what got me poisoned. They're quick to rise, as history would suggest, yet they would rather rule and be served. We speak with formalities and follow the etiquette which was drilled into us, but have we truly made much progress?

[ If they take, it is war. If they defer, it is weakness. If they win battles and show mercy, it is weakness. If they win battles and murder, that is strength, and that's what earns favor. Or trickery. It feels more and more like a game each day. ]

jhashch: where the rules are made up and the points don't matter because thsh is just toying w/ you!

[northerndragon]

The Araneans aren't letting on. And they gain as much from us, or they wouldn't care whether or not we came to their house parties. They don't want us to have power, but we do, though we may only hold it for as long as the queen favors us. We have it because she keeps them working for it.

I don't know how to use it. The Night King, I understand... not why he does what he does, but what he's going to do. Here, would it be better to give them what they want, or to strike off the jaw of the next Aranean woman who says I look delicious? Both seem to have their merits.

I don't know why COST hasn't recruited any Araneans other than the one you found. It would be a great help if they had.

pretty much lmao

[dorzalta]

Scout dislikes them and their entitlement to consume whatever they wish. The Commander believed their males to be stupid, and my daughter to be problematic. Can you truly imagine an Aranean yielding to COST's ways? That would require a firmer hand to make one yield.

Also, a giant spider-like creature attending a mission sounds like a terrible attempt at blending with the environment.

Show them your belly, and you might as well be eaten. I imagine that mindset is what makes them unwilling to yield so easily to any one side, particularly if they have a history of being enslaved. Loyalty remains with the conqueror, not with outsiders.

[ That, she thinks, is the only similarity between her people, Westerosi, and Araneans. ]

None of which helps us.