Fatebringer | Viserys Targaryen

Chapter 21

Ysira gripped Viserys's arm to keep him in his seat.

"We expected as much," she said, casting him a look and warning him not to react too loudly. The Kingsguard was likely right outside the door or in a nearby hall. "We have to think carefully how to proceed."

"You said yourself you'd kill him at the first concrete evidence we found," fumed Viserys. "I ought to go and slit his throat where he stands."

"And yet, listen to what was said," she urged, running her thumb against his hand. "He stopped before we got to Qohor, which means Tywin's message came to us late because we'd already moved. He must have been doubtful when he first found us but clearly something changed. We are lucky this did not go worse."

Viserys huffed, "Are you not upset at this?"

"Of course I'm upset! It slipped past me even when I was overly suspicious of him from the first. Yet, we have to think of what did and did not happen. If it is true that he stopped so early on, then it means he changed his mind about whatever this pardon would have brought him. We would have still pardoned him publicly and I think he came to be inspired by Daenerys. We suspected he might be in love with her and I don't doubt it's still true. He's devoted to our cause because of her. He didn't bring her any harm."

"He could have," argued Viserys, fists balled up. "We were risking a great deal leaving Norvos, we had practically no defenses as we would barely find our first group of soldiers in Qohor. We were safe from Robert's assassins for a decade because we were in your mother's house. But the moment we stepped out, we risked our lives and had he not come to our side, he surely would have led those killers right to us. We would have all been killed."

"I know that," she insisted. "And I am furious for it. But it did not happen. Either way, we wouldn't have been able to do anything about it at the time! We would have died before reaching Qohor and wouldn't have learned of the mole. Which begs the question–" She faced Varys anew, "Why did Illyrio recommend I reach out to him if you knew he was a mole? Why would you send him to us?"

Varys nodded as if this was a fair question. "I wished for Ser Jorah to be a test of your growth. Illyrio had such little time with you, it was no way to fully determine how much you'd managed in the years you'd been there. Ser Jorah fed us information, yes, before he even met you– many knew you were in Norvos and many knew it was suicide for them to try and take you from there. I filtered the information I received to ensure King Robert continued being told that you were accomplishing little and remaining under the watch of your mother's house. Ser Jorah sent more information after you awakened the dragons and that reached us only after the King had succumbed to his wounds. The pardon was written for infiltrating your service, not for the information that came after. Lord Tywin would have exposed it to fracture you on the move but I'd not have let assassins find you regardless of whether Ser Jorah made the personal choice to let go of his role as our informant."

"So we should thank you, then?" said Viserys snidely. "You took a calculated risk to spy on us, determine if your support was well-met, and if it wasn't, then you would have let us be killed? You gambled on the fact Ser Jorah would see our value and choose to stick with us instead?"

"A dangerous gamble, Your Grace," said Varys carefully, "but one that went as I predicted. As I said, I filtered the information I received. I wouldn't have let assassins find you at any point. Ser Jorah played his role unknowingly for the good of your cause. He became devoted to you of his own accord."

"I don't trust this man," said Viserys, gesturing to Varys and staring at Prince Oberyn, who was pursing his lips as if he might've known about this earlier. "How could this not have been said to Ysira? We could have decided to execute Ser Jorah from the first, as he arrived too willing to serve a 'rightful' king that wasn't anything at the time he arrived. I was a cunt no one would have pledged their service to if they had a single sane thought in their head. Ser Jorah would have died, and then what?"