Born in Flames || Game of Thrones

Chapter XL ''Discussions''

In the evening, Visenya was sitting in the king's chambers, but despite the late hour, she had not yet untangled her hair or changed into her nightgown. She was sitting at the table, with her legs thrown over it (she had not even known that her uncle Oberyn had such a manner) and was playing with the clasp, running it between her fingers.

She was waiting for Tyrion, whom she had asked to come over to her to discuss 'something important'. That was exactly how she put it.

A small letter she had received from Christer Renel was lying open on the table near her feet. She had finally read it and it was this important matter she wanted to ask Tyrion about. And in the meantime, distracting her thoughts from making all the important decisions, she played with the clasp and thought about its owner, not even realizing that a gentle smile had appeared on her face.

She remembered how only a few hours ago they had been holding hands and she dreamed of him raising them to his lips and placing a kiss on her skin. She could have sworn he had intended to do so, but for some reason unknown to her he had decided against it. And then he had addressed her so formally...

Maybe she was reading his signals wrong? Or maybe they weren't there at all? Could she have just imagined all this? No, she certainly wouldn't be able to confuse it with simple courtesy.
She wondered what he thought about all this, but wouldn't go ask him, that would be stupid...

She was going to consider it further, but at that moment the door to her chamber opened. She looked at Tyrion, not changing her posture. She only discreetly put the clasp in her pocket.

"You wanted to see me, Your Grace?" he said, closing the door behind him.

She watched without surprise as he reached for the wine before coming to sit down next to her. He, on the other hand, hadn't expected to find her sitting like this. He clearly didn't know her as well as he thought. Just like back then, after the decisive victory over the Lannister forces, when he thought she would want to behead both Randyl and his son, and he wanted to dissuade her. And she surprised him positively, because it turned out that she didn't even intend to do that.

"Yes." she replied shortly, leaning out to reach for the letter lying on the table. She handed it to him and waited for him to read it.

"Where did you get this?" Tyrion asked. He immediately deciphered the initials, Petyr Baelish. Was he in the capital? Where did she get this letter from, when?

"It doesn't matter." she replied dispassionately, taking the letter from him and playing with it instead of her clasp. "Do you know who it's from?"

"Petyr Baelish." he had no doubts about it. He wasn't happy that she was asking only questions, and didn't want to answer any of his. Nevertheless, he decided to try again, with a different question. "When did you get it?"

She didn't want to talk about it. She simply didn't consider it important. She didn't know that Tyrion was worried that Baelish had decided not to withdraw from the game of thrones yet. For Visenya, it wasn't a reason to worry, after all, she had received the letter from someone she owed a lot to. Despite the strange impression that had remained with her after her conversation with Christer, she didn't consider it a threat.
Her opinion changed only slightly after she learned the identity of the sender of the message. When she had been at court years ago, she hadn't had much contact with political games.

Tyrion, on the other hand, decided he would have to tell this Varys.

"It doesn't matter." she repeated her previous answer, which only made him angrier.

"If everything doesn't matter, then why did you ask me to come?" yes, he didn't like her attitude.

He was just as aware as Visenya that the war wasn't over yet, but he didn't see why she would act like that. It seemed to him that she had been under much greater pressure many times and was coping just fine. She looked... Tired and bored. She sat and played with a piece of paper, not giving her conversationalist more than a single glance.