章 160: Stannis 10
"I will not dally with words Arthur. You have overreached, and threatened the positions of both yourself and the family by doing so."
Stannis suppressed his own response as the boy squirmed under his gaze. There would be time for sentimentality when the boy understood what he had done wrong.
"Furthermore, and as I had expected, you did so in full knowledge of this overreach, without seriously consulting myself on the matter." He reached to the table beside them, picking up one of the more decorative letters. "This letter proves this, as you were already positioning yourself to swear the kingdom of the narrow sea to Robert and to petition him to integrate it with Dragonstone. A sensible action to mitigate the damages your behavior has caused, but proof that you were consciously aware of those damages. Is this correct?"
"Well…" the boy seemed to think for a moment, as if going over excuses in his mind, before finally relenting. "Yes Father, you are essentially correct. I have acted to secure a kingdom for house Baratheon of Dragonstone in a unilateral manner, while fully conscious of the dangers involved."
"The fullness of your understanding is debatable, but I do not detect regret in your voice." Stannis frowned. "If you believe your actions to have been correct then I will hear you defend them."
"I acted on what I believed to the best interests of House Baratheon of Dragonstone, and I was not compelled by any oath or compact not to do so, as I have not sworn any oaths or signed any compacts which restricted my ability to independently expand."
'Ah, this is my fault then.' Stannis found his teeth grinding. "You believe then that you are considered an independent actor?"
Headstrong as he was, the boy could not be faulted for his intelligence. It took him hardly a second to realize his error. "Oh…"
"Yes, you are correct that in a vacuum your actions would be acceptable, laudable even. Your method of fairly handling the small folk here has to my eyes been exemplary, and you avoided or reduced many components of conquest which I would normally consider necessary evils." Stannis reached out, raising the boys quickly sinking chin so that their eyes met once again, ignoring the crackle of lightning. The boy had been honest about that at least. "However, you are not operating in a vacuum, as much as I wish it were not so you have given our enemies at court significant ammunition against us, especially since my orders to conquer the Stepstones were given while I was operating as the Master of Ships engaged in a major war. The Stepstones normally would be distributed to the Lord's who performed admirably in the war during its conclusion, if the king decided to keep them at all. Thus since you are my son this appears a considerable power-packed on my behalf."
To his credit, the boy matched his eyes, and the guilt was clear there. "Robert would be well within his rights to remove me as master of ships and strip the Stepstones from you. He will not, as that is not his way and it would be political suicide besides, but it would nonetheless be a legally sound response to such an overreach. Do you understand that?"
Arthur was silent for a long moment.
"Yes."
Stannis nodded.
"Good, and finally, I would like to address your status. Both as a power and as my son. You are aware that I have granted you extraordinary powers for a minor yes?"
Arthur nodded now, looking even guiltily than before. He could likely see where this was going.
Stannis was quite sure that he needed to hear it either way. "I have given you that independence for two reasons. First, because I believe doing so will improve the fortunes of our house. This has not changed. Your actions will likely be a positive for us in the long term, despite their obvious foolishness." Stannis ground his teeth a little, the next part would be hard on the boy. "The second, however, is that I trust you to make these decisions sensibly, and especially to consult me on major things such as founding a new kingdom of all things. In doing this you have fundamentally violated that trust. I would suggest that if there is anything else of major import that you are hiding from me, that you reveal it now. Even if it is a further violation of trust, I will endeavor not to grow angry with you."
'So there is something then.' Stannis thought, sighing as he sat back into his chair. At his mention of more secrets, the boy had gone stiff as a board.
"So, what is it then? What have you been hiding from me."
"..." Arthur stalled for a moment, probably thinking of his phrasing carefully. Admirable in that. "Several things, of varying import." The boy raised his hand to silence interruption, though he hadn't been planning on doing so. "Some older and some quite new, I should start with the oldest I think. There was a collection of Dragons eggs in the cache I dug up several years ago, in addition to the weapons and lore, and the lore was more extensive than I or likely Maester Cressen have told you if he did as I asked that is. Several of the texts were grimoires of Valyrian blood-magic."
"Mhm." Stannis crossed his fingers. That was news, he was surprised that Maester Cressen had not told him, but that they hid them made sense in hindsight. He would have simply destroyed the books in accordance with the Seven-Pointed-Star and his role as a Lord. "Have you been practicing blood magic then? Is that where the lightning came from?"
"No." The boys face twisted in disgust in a way that was honestly relieving. "No, I wouldn't touch any of those spells with a ten-foot pole, the least of them require a human sacrifice, and the worst need bloody Massacres to feed them. The Valyrians were monsters. I have no doubt their vile magics brought on their own doom, and I do not wish the same."
"Then where did the lightning come from?"
"I will speak on that in a moment. Please let me continue first. Anyhow, the dragon eggs are kept in a hidden compartment in the dragon glass tower. I know how to hatch them theoretically, but it is also a ceremony involving a human sacrifice in the absence of another living dragon. One I am not willing to do."
"Very well." The elder Baratheon tapped his left index finger on the desk. "What else have you hidden from me then?"
"Well… there are two more things that have informed my decisions that I have kept from you. The first has to do with the power that allows me to control lightning. I did not lie that I acquired it during the storm, but the method was something I could not feasibly write down. I uh… God this is going to sound crazy. I had a-um… I had a spiritual visit with what I think is probably our ancestor in some capacity."
"You… What?" Stannis raised an eyebrow, that was a wild story, but then the boy didn't seem to be lying.
"Ah well, I hit my head in the storm and I found myself in some sort of big undersea temple chamber. There's a city above it that I found in the last month but the chamber itself was all I saw then. There's a big stone Merman there, he gave me this power, and I think he's the father of Elenei probably, the merwoman who married Durran Godsgrief."
"You… Are you entirely sure that this really happened?"
"Yes, I've returned there in my dreams since, some minor things have changed but that's the gist of it. Though I have understood my abilities to you and mother, mostly because I don't want the church of the seven to declare me a warlock."
"Which you are," Staniss interjected.
"Which I am." Arthur nodded "Though a fairly clueless one comparatively, everything I have discovered has been through dumb luck or trial and error. Aside from the Wisdom Frey, I have had no real tutors in magic, and alchemy is hardly magic as is."
"And what have you discovered?"
"Well… when I said that I swore a blood oath with Asha Greyjoy, there was some magic involved in it, some power in my blood made the words we spoke more binding than I had intended them to be… I intended not to swear another until I fully understood the consequences of that, but then Arianna, well, Asha told her about it, and then she got her sisters and her and Asha together to pressure me into making one with her to secure our engagement, and it's probably messed her up somehow now because she used stupid romantic language and Ican'tstopworryingaboutherexceptwhenImworkingandIjustkeepworkingand"
"Arthur."
The boy froze, before shaking his head. "Sorry, that's… that's part of the knock-on effect they have, I'm bound by my oaths to care for both Asha and Arianne, albeit in different ways, and the magic makes sure I uphold that promise. I imagine it's far worse for Arianne than it is for me." The boy shook his head for a moment.
"Anyhow I can also use the lightning to regain my energy in lieu of sleep, "recharging" myself, and I can bottle it in a similar manner to the production of Wildfire that you already know about. I plan to use the bottled form for a number of things I'll tell you about later, right now it's mostly just a big light source though. Oh, and I fought a magic statue for control of this island, but that turned out to not be that big a deal, so far at least. Nothing that you can do anything about probably." The boy clasped a hand to his chin as Stannis tried to keep a straight face. There would be time to question his son later. "I suppose I can also spew lightning outbox my body of I try, but it's basically useless since I can't control where it's going, not yet at least, once I have a good private space I'll figure that out."
The Lord of Dragonstone and Master of ships honestly had no idea what to make of his son's claims of magic. They made sense in a way, but they were simply beyond his frame of reference, other than the apparently powerful blood oaths, those would need to be addressed sooner rather than later.
"And the last piece of important information you didn't share with me?"
"Ah," Arthur said, his hand leaving his chin. "I strongly anticipate having to fight a civil war against Prince Joffrey at some point. The Baratheon dynasty isn't stable yet, and he is quite frankly a petulant and violent psychopath, ah, that means he is prone to fits of violence, sorry."
The boy Reclined in his chair. "What's worse he is jealous of me, and as a result, I will not be able to rest safely unless I am confident that our house will at the very least be able to indefinitely stalemate any later effort on his part to destroy us."
"Jeffrey is your cousin," Stannis said quickly, though that prompted an unexpectedly sharp look from his son.
"And Rhaegar was yours. Don't blame me for having eyes to see, father."
"Mhm," Stannis nodded slightly, rolling the thought in his head. "You should have brought all of these things to me sooner." He said at last. "Not doing so was indeed a betrayal of my trust, though I am happy that you have shared them now. Much of this will require further assessment, and I may have to alter my own future plans. I am glad you have shared this with me now but."
"Bad acts aren't erased by good acts and good acts aren't erased by bad acts, I know." The boy made a pointed glance towards Ser Davos, and particularly his hand. "What punishment can I expect?"
Stannis nodded. At the very least Arthur understood what was important.
"Nothing at present, but there will be punishment. Have no doubt of that." Stannis gestured with his shoulder out towards the Bay. "I must sail to support Robert as soon as possible, I felt however that your course needed straightening, apparently it did more than I anticipated." Quickly, he reached out and grabbed the boy, and bringing him to his chest in a tight embrace, eliciting a sound of surprise from his son.
"Do not think that any of this means I am not proud of you, you have still done far more than any child should need to. But you must trust me in the future, as I trust you." Ser Davos chuckled dryly to the side, and Stannis resisted the urge to glare at him. Instead, he released a very confused looking Arthur, a sight which almost made him laugh aloud, given its rarity. Though even with his ironclad self-control he did still have a small smile make it's way to his face.
Still, he was pressed for time, and basking in his son's rare moment of confusion was a precious waste of it. "Now then," He continued "I still have time to sign some papers, and there is much writing to be done."
"To begin with I believe you had needed a marriage compact signed."
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