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Post by Laena Pyre on Mar 16, 2019 17:24:54 GMT 1
Laena listens carefully to Malyk's speech, and, while his philosophy seemed to work for him, she'd never had the ability to simply *choose* to be happy. If she enjoyed something, she wanted to do it again, rather than trying to cling to a memory fading by the day.
The meal was a good example: new, different, and delicious. Laena is excellent at light, casual conversations, and contributes without dominating. When it ends, she offers a sincere compliment and thanks for the meal.
And then, finally, it came. Leaving her empty wineglass, but ensuring she still had her fan with her, Laena stands. "I'd be delighted." She gives Malyk a quick reassuring pat on his shoulder as she passes. By the time they're both sat in the study, an excited smile is peeking out the edges of her mouth, but otherwise, her guard is fully up. She lets her host speak first, observing her mannerisms, and how they've changed from before now they're alone.
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Malyk
House Levalle
Posts: 648
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Post by Malyk on Mar 16, 2019 20:40:47 GMT 1
The study is dark and intimate. It fits the Queen of Thieves like a glove, which of course means anyone else is in the palm of her hand. She pours herself and Laena a brandy and sits in a large leather chair, indicating the other for her to be comfortable.
"So, Lady Pyre, what brings you to my home? No-one except Meerkat crosses my threshold without wanting something, and even he has an agenda, of sorts, tonight."
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Post by Laena Pyre on Mar 16, 2019 23:06:24 GMT 1
Laena raises a glass in acknowledgement of her recognition. It was hardly a *hard* task, given her relatively high profile and distinctive appearance, but it deserved acknowledgement nonetheless.
"I fear we may have set you up for disappointment. But let me give you some context, anyway." She taps her knee with her fan for a few moments, trying to decide where to start.
"I went to the Black Tourney with a single goal in mind: to get remarried. For a variety of reasons, I attracted next to no interest - only a single, unlanded knight saw my value, and he wasn't in a position to follow through anyway.
"I have a sister. Well, I have many sisters, but one in particular is renowned for her beauty. I spoke with her a couple of times at the Black Tourney, and found we are of similar mind. Very similar, in fact.
"...except she's better than me. In every way. More attractive, smarter, younger, more learned, more ruthless. Her mere existence makes me obsolete." She does not state this in a self-pitying way, but rather as a simple statement of fact.
"When I'm losing, I have two options: cheat, or change the game." Simply accepting loss was deliberately left off. "I have changed one game by abandoning my home house, and striking out on my own. No longer seeking marriage, but rather power and influence in my own name.
"But that's only half the game. I need to be unignorable to be talked about. I need to be desirable for Lords to open their gates for me. I need to be intimidating to avoid a constant stream of young knights viewing me as nothing more than a prospective bedmate, and instead recognising me as someone worthy of wary respect, despite my genitals."
She tilts her glass towards the other woman somewhat. "That is where you come in. I know courtly beauty. And it is clear I cannot play that game nearly as well as others. Malyk observed that there was a ... discordance between that beauty and my natural beauty. My beauty is that of the shark, the bared Valyrian Steel blade. That is the beauty I need to draw out. But I didn't know how. I've known dangerous women, but they hide their danger behind courtly beauty. I've seen men with that kind of charisma to them, but I've no interest in denying my femininity. I merely wish to .. sharpen it.
"I needed a perfect example. A woman who other women view with awe and envy. Who strong men view with frustrated lust, while the weak soil their breeches in fear of her displeasure.
"I needed you.
"You ask me what I want?" She gives a rather playful smile. "My apologies, Queen of Thieves, but I have already stolen it from you." There is no mockery in her title, but there is definite humour in her choice of words.
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Malyk
House Levalle
Posts: 648
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Post by Malyk on Mar 17, 2019 0:59:29 GMT 1
The elderly woman chuckles and sips her drink. "There will always be someone younger than you, prettier than you, smarter than you. You can do nothing about that. However you can be more learned than anyone else, and far more ruthless than anyone else. I cannot tell you the number of clever people I have met in my life. Most of them are now dead, while I am not. Often you do not need to beat your enemies, you need merely survive them. There is nothing more infuriating to someone than an enemy that refuses to die.
I have been married four times in my life. I loved two of them, in my way, the first and the last, and I murdered two of them. I regret not murdering the second one sooner; disgusting little man, and I regret the third was necessary; a weak man who should have stuck to his beloved garden and not meddle in things he did not understand. So many men with power have little understanding of how to use it. It is why I detest the nobility, for the most part. Power should be in the hands of those with ability to use it effectively, not squandered on someone because they were the first bawling brat to be squeezed out. My eldest son is as ruthless as they come, but he has no leadership qualities or imagination. He *is* very loyal and follows orders well.
If you wish power, Laena, there are only two paths that I know of: love or fear. Love is more enduring but fear is more effective. I have power because everyone fears me. Meerkat has power because everyone loves him. I learned some time ago I can stop him if I must in some things, but it is incredibly difficult in others. People do as I ask because they fear the alternative. People do as he asks because they want to, and see the benefit to themselves. In a short race I can beat him every time. In a long endurance race he will win every time.
I call him Meerkat. A meerkat is part of the mongoose family. They weed out bugs, rodents, and kill snakes. They are also almost immune to poison. I can think of no better name for a man that roots out what he views as evil and seems almost entirely immune to corruption.
My son Barce met Malyk at the Siren's Call many years ago. He was going to the brothel to lay with men, and thought he was hiding it from me. What he didn't understand was it was not his desires that offended me, it was his cowardice. Malyk was working at the brothel at the time. While he refused to speak of why he had been dismissed from Lord Levalle's service, the story was he had been caught stealing in the castle; an obvious lie, but it would not be the first time an innocent man had been wrongly accused.
The brothel was run by a man named Drastor. He thought himself clever, perhaps he was, but he was arrogant and believed himself untouchable. Four months later Lord Levalle's men dragged him from his brothel. The list of charges against him took almost an hour to read, then Ser Robyn chopped off his head and the untouchable Drastor was no more. Meerkat had infiltrated the brothel to find out the truth, not only to discover his crimes, but those who worked with him. Imagine a man that is willing to go to any lengths to do what he believes is right, even prostitute himself if that is what was necessary. Within three months every small brothel was closed down and the Siren's Call re-organized under new management. He does not speak of that time, but rumor has it he was one of the best male whores the Tear has ever had. That does not surprise me. Any task Meerkat does, he tries to do well.
It did not surprise me when he was made Seneschal. It did not even surprise me that much when I learned he was a Great Bastard. Those of Targaryen blood have been varied in personality, but they all exhibit two qualities without exception. They have all been completely unshakable in the belief they are right, and they all have an enormous capacity to reshape the world around them to fall in line with that belief. Some have been more successful than others, of course, but that is just debating scale.
So, Laena, the question is, if you want power, what are you willing to do to earn it? I think you have a pretty good idea what lengths I am willing to go to, and you now have an example of the lengths Meerkat is willing to go to in pursuit of his ideals; and he doesn't even *want* power in any form you or I understand it. Meerkat and I may have different goals, and we certainly have vastly different methods, but we both possess one quality that no-one gaining power or keeping power can do without... absolute unwavering conviction.
Those who seek power for it's own sake are always removed by those who have a clear understanding of what they wish to use that power for. What prize do you have your eye on, and what will you do to get it? In a contest, it is often not the one most skilled that wins, it is the one that wants it more than any of the others."
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Post by Laena Pyre on Mar 17, 2019 15:53:29 GMT 1
Laena gives a small nod as Alexia speaks of love and fear. That matched what she had been taught by her mother, but it was good to have it confirmed by a woman as successful as Alexia was.
When she reveals Malyk worked at a brothel, her hand clenches around her glass slightly, and her jaw clenches briefly - small signs, but enough to clearly project anger to a woman as perceptive as Alexia.
"I will give you the respect I feel you are due by not revealing my desire to you." Because doing so would imply she didn't consider the other woman a threat to her. "However, I have abandoned my entire family to walk alone among dangerous lords, surviving by my wits alone, to accomplish it. And I love my children and younger brother both, so that was not easily done.
"My blood may gain me access to halls otherwise barred to me, but I will succeed or die based solely on my own capabilities." She takes a sip. "That will have to be enough, for I am not as self-sacrificing as Malyk." she notes quietly. "I much prefer others to fill that role."
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Malyk
House Levalle
Posts: 648
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Post by Malyk on Mar 17, 2019 16:43:04 GMT 1
"You do not need to tell me your goals, so long as you have them. Without absolute focus on your goals, you will never achieve them.
You care about the Meerkat." she said simply. "Interesting. He would call his time there an 'adventure' or a new learning experience. He values the friendships he made there, friendships, like my son, he might not have made otherwise. Even if he thought of it as a sacrifice, which I very much doubt, he would consider it small compared to the amount of good it accomplished. Most with power are individualists; they put their own power first and the community second. Malyk is that rare thing, a collectivist; the welfare of the group or community is more important than any individual within it. That he is willing to sacrifice for the good of his community is why he is loved, and what makes him dangerous. A man like Drastor would not even be able to comprehend such a thing, and that is why he died.
I am curious, Laena. Would you have given someone like Malyk the time of day had you not learned he shared your blood? Do you only do so now based on the claim he shares your blood? Does blood matter so much to you? If so, why? How is Meerkat more worthy of your time now than he was before? The faith nobles put in blood bewilders me. A man may be formidable or a fool regardless of who his parents were. Neither do I understand why 'Great Bastards' are so respected when all other bastards are despised. Surely Aegon the Unworthy's blood, him of all people, cannot be so valuable as to wipe away the supposed stain of bastardy. Perhaps if he had been a tremendous war leader, able administrator or generous benefactor I might understand, but he was none of these things, quite the reverse in fact."
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Post by Laena Pyre on Mar 17, 2019 20:59:36 GMT 1
Laena doesn't comment that Malyk is as much a mystery to her as he was to Drastor. The only difference between them is that she was aware enough to not underestimate him.
"It is not 'the Unworthy's blood'. It is *Targaryen* blood. The blood of Kings. The blood to command dragons. The blood of madness. Poison and elixir both. Aegon the Unworthy and Aegon the Conqueror. You yourself acknowledge we dragons have 'an enormous capacity to reshape the world around them', and we typically have unshakable self-confidence, yet you query why I consider us more worthy of attention than those with other lineages. Of course, individuals of mundane blood may be exceptional individuals, but the exceptions among dragons are those who are *not* special in some way. Our blood calls to us. Corrupts and exalts us.
"We are many things, good and bad, but we are very seldom *boring*.
"So, yes. To answer your question, Malyk matters more to me now I know him to be my brother. Very few, if any people, can say they *truly* know a person. Our relationships are all based on how we *perceive* a person to be. That perception may be more or less accurate, but it is a mere perception, a projection, nonetheless. Why, then, should it surprise that when the perception changes, so too does the relationship, even if the man beneath is unchanged?"
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Malyk
House Levalle
Posts: 648
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Post by Malyk on Mar 18, 2019 2:36:18 GMT 1
The woman laughed. "No. The Targaryens can be accused of many things, but 'boring' is never one of them. You are right. Power is as much perception as reality. The true skill is to blur the line between the two so that none may see which is which. I think I like you, Lady Laena Pyre. You are certainly much different than the noble Lady peacocks I have met, and you certainly aren't boring." She finishes her brandy. "Shall we rejoin the boys, or is there anything else you would 'steal' from me this evening. It should be no surprise I have a measure of respect for competent thieves."
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Post by Laena Pyre on Mar 18, 2019 15:42:39 GMT 1
For a moment, Laena is tempted to ask to see inside her wardrobe, to see what other clothes she has, but dismisses the idea quickly. She'll be adapting the style for herself, anyway. "Once someone is 'competent' in a craft, the biggest danger is overconfidence. I think I will content myself with what I have stolen already, and consider myself fortunate."
After a moment's thought, she corrects herself. "Though a personal question, before we go. I know of your eldest, and I know of Barce. Have any of your children become worthy heirs while living in your shadow?"
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Malyk
House Levalle
Posts: 648
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Post by Malyk on Mar 18, 2019 19:39:20 GMT 1
Alexia sighed. There was a great deal of insight in the one small sigh. "Not really, to be honest. You see, the skills needed to attain power, and the skills needed to wield power are often an entirely different set of skills. Few possess the required qualities for both. Gaining power means making friends and destroying your enemies. Keeping power often means betraying people who consider you a friend and dealing with those who consider you an enemy. Some of the people most integral to you obtaining power are, at best, useless to you in maintaining your power, and a worst a threat. Some of the people who were your staunchest opponents in your rise to power may be needed to maintain your power once it is obtained.
The Targaryens were much the same. Aegon the Conqueror had both necessary qualities, his son Aenys had neither. Maegor understood how to seize power, but no idea how to keep it. Meerkat may not seek power but he instinctively understands it's nature better than most I know. No one person rules alone be that a guildmaster or a King. They can't build their organization alone, raise wealth alone or enforce their will alone. The power of a leader is not to act but to get others to act on their behalf. Seizing power is often predicated on collecting supporters that share your goals and promising them spoils if they are successful. Maintaining power is always predicated on the immediate and continual distribution of those spoils in a manner that benefits you most, not necessarily in a manner that benefits them the most. Spoils of power are limited, and you always promise more spoils on your rise to power than you can or would want to give once that power is obtained.
So you see the quandary, yes? My children that are ambitious squabble among themselves. They have the qualities required to seize power, but not the qualities needed to maintain it. Some of my unambitious children have the judicious minds to maintain my power, but lack the skills required to seize power, and therefore have little ability to protect themselves from others that would seize their power. If I placed one of them in my seat, they would likely be dead within a year. If I placed one of the ambitious ones in my seat, my organization might fall apart in five.
It is the problem every leader faces: How does one protect one's hard work and legacy after they are gone? As I have more years behind me than I do in front of me, the problem becomes more pronounced. The simple answer is that you cannot. The best solution I have come up with is to leave my organization to my eldest daughter Enya. She is actually the true leader of all my children, even if the others don't realize it. She is the worthiest, if not necessarily the cleverest. My eldest son Mercer is no leader, he is a weapon, but he favors Enya very much. She is also close to Barce and appreciates his quiet thoughtfulness. My hope is the three of them will be able to accomplish what none of them individually could. The rest of my children will have to strike out on their own and build their own power. They will at least have more advantages than I did when I started. Perhaps they will prove worthy, it is more likely they will end up dead."
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Post by Laena Pyre on Mar 18, 2019 22:48:19 GMT 1
Laena listens carefully to the explanation. Some of this was new to her - her mother never really had any power not given to her by birth, so while she could teach about not making the same mistakes she had, she could teach little about maintaining power. And her 'official' teachers only taught ladies to smile prettily and spread their legs for their husbands. Given how she'd asked the question on the spur of the moment, she was glad she had. It certainly gave her something to ruminate on.
"Thank you. That was actually rather illuminating." A slight inclination of her head in thanks. "I hope you don't end up having to kill any of your children to preserve your legacy."
She finishes off her brandy, and carefully sets the glass down. "Maybe if we return quickly, Malyk won't have reorganised your entire house to be more efficient by the time we get back."
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Malyk
House Levalle
Posts: 648
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Post by Malyk on Mar 19, 2019 2:49:18 GMT 1
Alexia nods as she rises. "It has not been necessary up to this point." The underlying tone implied she would do so in an eyeblink if it was. "My children may have varying degrees of cleverness, but I have raised none that are stupid. I have already placed some of them in positions of power in other organizations. Better they carve out a piece of their own pie than sit a drool over a piece of mine they may never have. Barce going to the Citadel will make him a more learned man, if not a better one. However you will note I made him earn it, rather than just arranging it for him. I knew what Meerkat's answer would be, just as he knew I knew. The real challenge will be capitalizing on this in four or five years time.
He has already done so in many ways. Strangely enough, it was an off-hand comment from a sculptor that gave me the greatest insight into Malyk. The sculptor said he never carved a thing, he simply took away all the stone that didn't belong. I think that quite eloquently describes what Meerkat does. He is as much an artist as any sculptor. He just works in people instead of stone, and is the best coordinator I have ever seen. I may not understand his methods, but his values are easy to discern from his results. He believes in truth, beauty, order and harmony. He may espouse the first the most, but it is the last he values the most. His work in the Tear has been to make the city harmonious in it's workings even if that is a harmony of lies and corruption. As you so aptly pointed out, perception is important and the perception of harmony is enough to make it a virtual reality even if it may not actually be the truth.
Some say he is a witch, or blessed by the Seven, or perhaps now that he has power from his Targaryen blood. I am not superstitious, but his results cannot simply be explained by his impressive dedication alone. He has some form of luck or destiny on his side. He has been in too many places at the exact right time to be dismissed as coincidence."
As they returned to the receiving room, music could be heard, like a bubbling, laughing stream. Malyk was playing a lute for Barce who watched the man's agile fingers dance across the strings. He was perhaps not the very best, but easily good enough to secure a position in most noble homes on the strength of his talent alone.
Seeing the ladies return, both boys rose. Eyeing Laena carefully, Malyk said. "I hope you both had an enjoyable conversation."
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Post by Laena Pyre on Mar 19, 2019 14:10:21 GMT 1
"We did, thank you." She's tempted to make a quip about no-one dying, but Malyk understood the danger they were in, and was nervous, so she didn't want to downplay that.
If anyone was getting stabbed tonight, it would be over cards.
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Malyk
House Levalle
Posts: 648
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Post by Malyk on Mar 19, 2019 21:35:15 GMT 1
With seats taken and drinks poured, the game commenced, or perhaps more accurately, another game. Malyk was paired with Barce, and Laena paired with Alexia. The Queen of Thieves was skilled at cards, and liked to win. Malyk was not quite as skilled but no novice either. He seemed to care more about doing his best rather than winning or losing. Barce was surprisingly good, although he lacked much in the way of tactics or strategy. The light banter from dinner was renewed; everyone falling into genial conversation for the most part. As all those at the table was intelligent to at least some degree, the discourse lacked the innocuous blandness that so many such dinners are prone to.
It was the middle of the third hand that a tall man entered. He was pleasant looking in a perhaps severe way. Agile and strong, lean carved muscle, all angles and edges despite the softening of his expensive dress that probably hid a degree of armor beneath. He wore a short-sword on one hip, a parrying dagger on the other, and a stilletto in one boot. Those were the obvious weapons he carried, unlikely that they were the only ones. He leaned over and whispered softly in Alexia's ear.
"Really Mercer? That *is* interesting." She looked at Malyk over her cards. "Andrueon is dead."
"Oh? That is a shame. I bid three hearts."
"A shame? You hated him."
Malyk sat back in his chair. "A shame for him, certainly... and I didn't hate him, I didn't care enough about him to hate him. I admit I didn't particularly like him."
"You didn't happen to have anything to do with his death, did you Meerkat?"
He shrugged. "I did tell him if he wanted his 'thralls' back he would need to go through the Raven Commander, but I heavily implied it was a stupid thing to do."
"And?"
The young Seneschal smiled softly as he re-organized his cards. "And I might have sent a message to the Commander that he could do something stupid. I also suggested that some of her better men change clothes with these 'thralls' on the chance that was the case. We may not agree on some things, Alexia, but we both agree that stupid has consequences, especially dangerous stupid." He glanced at Mercer. "Were any of Ceryllia's men hurt."
"Some of her sentries were badly injured, but all will survive. The pretend thralls suffered little harm. They cut down Andrueon and his men with complete surprise."
Malyk nodded. "I am glad no-one died." Ignoring the fact many had actually died. "The man's ship, battered as it is, will be more than enough to compensate their hardship."
"So... " smiled Alexia. "You implant the idea in his animal brain, patiently wait for him to take the bait, kill him, then steal his ship."
"I am not responsible for Andrueon's choices." frowned Malyk. "He could have been reasonable and cut his losses... and I will not be stealing his ship, Lord Levalle will confiscate it."
"But you knew he wouldn't be reasonable."
"I considered that he might not be reasonable, which is why preparations were made for the possibility. I was protecting our own, Alexia, not preparing a trap."
"A rather nuanced difference from where I am sitting." smiled the woman.
"I can't help that." Malyk sighed. "If I put a sign on a door that says 'Danger, do not enter on pain of death.' Is it my fault if someone walks in anyway?"
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Post by Laena Pyre on Mar 19, 2019 23:39:18 GMT 1
Laena is a talented player, certainly able to hold her own. With a good head for numbers, and an ability to not just hide her thoughts, but give deliberately false signals, she definitely has talent. The only thing hurting their team is that both ladies are proud enough that teamwork comes much less naturally to them than it does to the men playing - both ladies wish to not just do better than the men, but also each other. While not so petty as to outright sabotage each other, their side is distinctly less harmonious than the men's.
"*Choice* is what defines humanity." Laena opines. "Humans make choices, animals act on instinct. The living make choices, the dead do not. Either Andrueon made a terminally stupid choice, and suffered the natural consequences, or he abdicated making his *own* choices for letting Malyk make them for him, and so abdicated his life. That his body continued on for a short time thereafter is of no consequence.
"Whether he died a man or beast is solely for the Father to judge. All we have to judge is ... whether or not to match Malyk's bid." She lowers her hand of cards. "And I won't. Because humans can recognise bait, and *choose* to not bite." She smiles at her brother.
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