AN :
In the Game of Stones, you either win or you wait. The more Power Stones you offer, the faster the chapters come.
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( Ilyn Payne POV )
"Ser Ilyn, I've heard news from the Rock Ser. Lord Callum's boat just arrived at the Castle's Port." Ilyn felt his eyelid twitch, as he very, very carefully did not spill the wine he was currently holding on his chest.
A sigh, and he set the goblet down to the side, gesturing to it with a finger. Lukas could have it for all he cared, it wouldn't do to drink and then march up that damnable mountain
...
He made no further gesture as he walked back into the merchant house, finding his way to a basin of water and wiping the sweat off of his face. He pulled his hair into a more presentable state, then fixed the shoulders of his vest, and headed to the bakery, since it was morning. Mattieu, the older of the two bakers on staff, greeted him as he came down the stairs.
"Ah, Ser Ilyn, glad to see you Ser-" he started, only for Ilyn to hold up a note he'd been scribbling on the walk down. 'Lord Callum returned to The Rock, need to go see him.'
The Baker's polite smile grew into an honest one, "Ah, The Blessed Lannister is back in the Rock?" he said "That's a wonderful thing ser, tell me, do you think he will visit us here in Lannisport?" the man asked eagerly, "Oh, or perhaps at the presses near the Lion's Mouth? Shall we go there to see him?"
Ilyn blinked, processing the man's words for a moment, but before he could even hope to put pen to page, the patrons of the bakery exploded into gossip and questions and Ilyn felt a headache start to grow as they all pressed him at once.
"Ser Ilyn you know him yes? Do you think he might invest in a-"
"Oh my daughter would love to meet him-blessed by the maiden they say he is-"
"Do you think he would be willing to visit the Southill Sept and say a blessing-"
"Oh Septa Margot- I've got to go tell her that he's back"
"Are the rumors true that he's actually a girl pretending to be a man?"
Ilyn rubbed his forehead with one hand, and with the other wrote out a note on the back of the one he'd shown Mattieu.
'We'll see.'
With those two words raised ahead of him, he pushed straight through the crowd of gossipping Merchants, their wives, Septons and Septas, and made his way out the door onto the street, where he quickly marched to the stables and took his horse, Bleakwind, by the reigns. Already, he could feel that the next few weeks at least would see him with little if any time to relax.
Some three miles of riding later he was entering the Lion's Mouth back into Casterly Rock, and perhaps three-thousand stairs after that, exhausted by the climb, he staggered up into the actual living area of Casterly Rock, way up on the ocean-facing side of the mountain.
"Ah, Ser Ilyn." one of the servant women- he honestly couldn't remember her name- greeted him with a kind smile. "You'll be looking for young Callum then?" she asked, smirking at his current state of exhaustion from the stupid mountain he'd just had to hike right up to near the top of.
Ilyn, still panting for air, fumbled for his notepad, and hastily scrawled out 'water first.' raising it for the woman to see. From the recognition in her eyes, she could actually read it, which was rather lucky as otherwise, he would have had to pantomime like a mummer to convey his meaning.
The servant woman laughed. "I'll have that for you right away, Ser." she smiled at him, heading down a hallway towards the kitchens and soon returning with a cup of water, which he gulped down greedily after the long climb up. He gave her a smile of his own and handed her a note with 'thank you' scrawled across it, before heading down the hall on his own, having a pretty good guess of where Callum was likely to be.
He turned out to be right on the money, finding the boy in his father's study conversing with his Uncle, Lord Kevan. The older blond was busy hearing the story of Callum's trip to Dorne and Oldtown, and he barely gave Ilyn more than a glance as he entered. It was honestly amusing, just how similar Lord Kevan's mannerisms were to Lord Tywin's. For a man who had always been his brother's right hand, he was more similar to Lord Tywin than he was different.
Callum however, gave a much sunnier greeting. "Ah, Ilyn." The boy smiled, getting up from his chair to greet him. He looked Ilyn up and down, before giving him a smile. "You look well, though also like you've just climbed the whole rock to get here." Ilyn made a show of rolling his eyes in response to the boy's teasing and shrugged. He had gotten well enough used to Callum's odd sense of humor during his time learning to write from the genius of a boy.
'You've cut your hair' Ilyn wrote, and that got a snort out of Callum, who was now wearing his hair cut back to end above his neck. It was now shorter than all of his siblings except little Tyrion.
Callum colored a bit red at the comment but shook it off quickly. "I thought a change was in order after Septon Callrik declared me to be the living visage of the Maiden." the boy frowned. "I liked my hair too, but some things just aren't worth it."
"For what it's worth Callum-" Lord Kevan said from across the room, chuckling. "With your hair cut you're only a bit more girly than Jaime was at your age."
"Jaime is practically identical to Cersei," Callum grumbled, before turning to his uncle. "Anyway, apparently the Most Devout Septon also managed to see visions in my eyes, which is where the talk about me being blessed by the Crone comes from. He never told me what those visions were about though." the boy tapped his foot. "I heard Father had the High Septon declare me blessed too. Do you know if Father has some intention of sending me into the faith at this point? He hasn't written me about that at all."
Kevan Lannister shook his head. "While it wouldn't be a terrible idea, given all the hubbub around you now, I still don't think that Tywin would send you to be a Septon. Tyrion perhaps, but you're still his second son, the backup if anything happens to Jaime, which it well might, given your brother's love of fighting."
Callum shook his head. "I would be surprised if Jaime ever loses another fight in his life. If he dies it'll be poison or something that gets him." Callum smiled. "Though I take your point uncle, Father probably likes the prizes I bring back too much to send me into the church." he paused.
"Still, much as I dislike the nature of- well really just the one blessing I've been given, I think it might be worth it for me to start making tours of Lannisport, visiting the Septs in the city, saying blessings over people at their weddings, things like that," Callum said slowly. "It will only build my reputation, and I want to search out a place to build my new 'Academy'."
"I suppose that's reasonable enough." Kevan said, though after a moment he frowned, "But there's one issue, Ser Clegane tells me that you've hardly touched a sword since you left King's Landing."
Callum blinked, then paled. "That- well it wasn't intentional, I had a lot of work to do, the presses in Dorne to oversee-"
"Irrelevant, what it means is that you've slipped behind in your martial training," Kevan said, cooly. "Catch back up to where a boy your age ought to be, and I'll consider letting you manage your affairs personally. Otherwise, Ser Ilyn here has been doing a fine enough job of it without you."
Ilyn perked up at that, beaming with pride, even as Callum deflated.
"Yes, Uncle…" the boy sighed, before straightening out, as he slipped into the mask Ilyn always expected to see him wearing in most situations. The look of a dutiful son. "In that case Uncle, I will go to the yard and resume my martial practice at once." he paused. "Unless there's something else to discuss?"
Lord Kevan weighed him up for a moment, then shrugged. "No, I don't think there is. Go have at it, and don't let me hear you've been shirking again."
"Yes, Ser." Callum saluted strangely with his hand, before marching right out the door. "Come along Ser Ilyn."
Ilyn blinked, glancing over at Kevan, who nodded, inclining his head toward the direction the boy had gone. Seeing it, Ilyn hurried after his juvenile superior, wondering what impressive scheme he'd be responsible for executing next.
It didn't take long at all before he was being ordered to lead the servants and miners in constructing a number of new workshops and living quarters in the Rock and to start work on finding a suitable location for a second Citadel to be built in Lannisport. By an hour after that, he was also organizing the purchase of copper jewelry wire, and then the hiring of a number of blacksmiths, and a pair of carpenters. All of it urgent, and all of it to favor some dozen schemes Ilyn barely understood.
Such was the work of the Blessed Boy's chief henchman.
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