To Take What Is Rightfully Ours

Chapter 15. Taking the King's Fingers

After sending Athelstan away for the evening, Diane decided to proceed with the original plan. Viserys was musing over his model of Old Valyria when he heard a knock. People didn't precisely knock to enter his rooms; it was guards who usually announced someone's arrival. But that was beside the point because the knock was coming from a part of a wall that Viserys knew for a fact was a secret tunnel. He frowned. A very few people knew about it.

'Your Majesty, sorry for the- well, for coming like that but I heard back from Dragontemple, and I didn't want to risk anyone seeing me coming to your rooms so late,' Diane gave him an innocent smile because Viserys was the kind of man who would buy it.

The King was surprised, that was evident, but he didn't miss a chance to check her out as well. Diane mentally rolled her eyes. Men. When someone is so easily manipulated, it isn't even all that fun to do so.

'The walls of the Red Keep have too many eyes for my liking,' Diane added. 'May I come in?'

'Yes. Yes, of course,' Viserys nodded, stepping to the side so she could brush past him.

Diane found the nearest table to put her bag on it, and Viserys followed her because he wasn't sure what else he was supposed to do. 'So...' Diane opened her bag. 'My acquaintance in Dragontemple wrote down a very thorough treatment plan for the stage of Battle Curse that you have,' she looked at the King. 'I mean, I was not sure how far precisely the illness progressed so I took an educated guess. I hope that's alright.'

'I- I suppose,' Viserys said, watching how Diane was taking potion bottles of different sizes out of the bag.

'So the complete explanation is here,' she handed Viserys a scroll. 'I made sure to acquire a fair amount of remedies that will last for quite a while, and when you run out of them, there should be no trouble to acquire more,' Diane clapped her hands. 'That's pretty much it.'

There was a pause. Viserys looked at Diane, then at the scroll in his hands, and then back at her. 'Perhaps, you can walk me through it?' he asked. 'If it's not a terrible hardship.'

'Yes, of course,' Diane smiled. 'Shall we sit?'

It took her almost half an hour to lay everything out for Viserys step by step over the model of Old Valyria. She could tell that the King was listening. His eyes drifted to the cleavage of her dress once in a while but at least he was keeping up with the conversation, so it was a win.

'So... I need to cut two of my fingers off?' Viserys decided to confirm when Diane finished.

'The affected ones, yes. And when you cut them- well-' she reached out for his hand. 'May I?'

Viserys hesitated for a second but then stretched his left hand to her. Diane took it confidently.

'If you cut on the affected part,' she carefully touched where the King's fingers were black. Viserys seemed impressed that she wasn't repulsed by doing so, but Diane just knew that you can't catch the Battle Curse from an infected person, only from iron. 'It won't hurt most likely but it won't help much either. The trick is to cut here,' she carefully traced the healthy skin near his knuckles with her thumb. 'To where the infection hasn't spread yet. It will hurt, probably really badly, but it will noticeably slow the infection down.'

Viserys sighed, 'It would be hard to persuade Mellos. He is dead set on trying to save those fingers.'

'With all due respect, Your Majesty, there is not much left to save,' Diane touched the affected area with her fingertips again. 'Can you feel my touch?'

'No.'

Diane curled her fingers, now pushing with her nails. 'And now?'

Viserys shook his head, 'Still no. And I see your point. Mellos is just...' he glanced at the scroll with instructions. 'Doesn't like being wrong.'