50

Chapter 50: Part LNotes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Disclaimer: I own nothing, just borrowing for a while.

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"Whoever is new to power is always harsh."

Joffrey Augustus ("borrowed" from Aeschylus)

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Blackwater Rush – King's Landing – 299 AC

Tywin Lannister was not a man prone to outward displays of anger or frustration, at least beyond a glare that could cut through Valyrian steel, which meant that when he did indulge in one it had greater impact than it might have coming from another man. "Tyrion?" he repeated incredulously. "The Lord Regent asked your opinion as to whether to dispatch Tyrion as his emissary to the Wall, and you not only went along with such a ludicrous notion you actually endorsed the idea?"

"Tyrion was the ideal candidate" Octavian replied, seemingly unmoved by Tywin's attitude and tone. "Honestly, I was actually just surprised Lord Stark was so insightful with his choice" he continued, inwardly gratified that Tywin had reacted much as he had expected, thus confirming his assessment of the man. It was fortuitous that he had interrupted him while he was indulging in one of his recreational activities, in this case fishing the Blackwater Rush just where it emptied into the bay, so Tywin had initially been calm and relaxed, although Octavian's words had quickly robbed him of that rare state of mind.

One advantage to being the king, albeit a king with a largely ceremonial role until he took over the reins of power from the Regent, was that when he requested an audience with the Hand of the King, even when he was off-duty and did not wish to be disturbed, it was granted immediately. The half dozen guards watching over them both were at sufficient distance so as to not overhear, but would still prevent anyone else approaching to disturb them.

"Why was I not counselled on this?" Tywin wanted to know, putting aside his fishing rod, his tone of voice crossing the line between suppressed anger and what might be described as fury stoked by a sense of entitlement.

"You are being counselled at this very moment" Octavian responded coldly, looking his 'grandfather' right in the eyes and holding his gaze firmly as he did so. "Moreover, I am only doing so personally as a courtesy since, as a family member, I thought it would be best to hear it from me given your likely thoughts on the matter" he explained. "Beyond that it also seemed wise and expedient to ensure you were kept in the know, hence my coming here to inform you with all haste."

"I am the Hand of the King" Tywin growled. "It is not my place to be kept 'in the know' it is my place to be 'the know'."

"Technically you are the Hand of the Lord Regent" Octavian corrected him, "regardless of which technicality, the latter as ruler has the power and authority to make such an appointment and as the former you cannot override the decision" he stated firmly. "Your role is to advise when advice is sought, and to only exercise those powers which are delegated to you. It is not your role to dictate policy but instead to implement it when required" he continued, sounding more than a touch condescending as he did so. "At the risk of sounding uncouth, and to paraphrase the old saying, 'The Lord Regent shits and the Hand wipes', do remember that My Lord" he added for extra snark, feeling the need to emphasize Tywin's position in the order of things.

Tywin narrowed his eyes. "I am not accustomed to being talked to in such a fashion" he responded with unspoken menace.

"Then it is fortunate perhaps that you will have plenty of opportunity to do so when the regency ends and I take power in my own right" Octavian told him, still holding the older man's gaze and utterly unflustered by his posturing. "Assuming, when that time comes, that I am forgiving enough to not to immediately dismiss you, and instead replace you with a Hand that doesn't hold to the erroneous belief that they can talk to their rightful king in such a manner as you are now" he continued, an impassive expression on his face that somehow managed to infer plenty of its own menace in return.

Tywin blinked, taken aback by the response and the surprisingly intimidating way the boy delivered it. Joffrey must have been surreptitiously observing me, taking lessons on how to browbeat dissent, Tywin decided, not knowing whether he should be proud or extremely annoyed. "I apologise for any unintended offence I may have caused, Your Grace" he responded carefully. "I may, on occasion, look upon you as my grandson to be taught and lose sight that you are also my king."

"Close enough to an actual apology to count as one I suppose, Lord Tywin" Octavian replied sardonically. "Now, as I began to explain earlier, after seeking Lord Tyrion's counsel on a personal matter, Lord Stark came to the realisation that since my uncle is not only well-read and blessed with an excellent grasp of human nature, but he has also spent time at the Wall and is familiar with the organisation of the Night's Watch and its leadership, that he would be an excellent choice for envoy representing the interests of the Lord Regent and the Iron Throne itself."

"And for what purpose is this envoy intended, may I ask?" Twin asked, keeping his expression more placid and his tone more civil now.

"Officially at first only as an observer, but with the option to lead on negotiations with Mance Rayder going forward" Octavian replied. "Rayder seems to have a reputation amongst his followers as a good talker so having a talented wordsmith of our own to counter the man is surely prudent" he continued. "A well-read wordsmith with an eye to detail."

"Wordsmith? Your uncle Tyrion is a stunted fool entirely unsuited for such a position of responsibility" Tywin stated with conviction. "He is naught but a drunk and a whoremonger" he added, wondering if part of the reason Joffrey was so supportive of the dwarf was that Tyrion seemed to be the one that facilitated the procurement of whores to the boy-king himself.

"Whilst none would argue against the observation that he is 'stunted', the only person with even a passing familiarity with your son Tyrion that considers him a fool is you, I'm afraid to say" Octavian chided. "For a man who is near-universally regarded as tending towards the rational and pragmatic, not to mention efficient to the point of ruthless, your inability to put aside your emotions concerning by far the cleverest of your children is rather disappointing, alas."

Tywin gritted his teeth against the strain of keeping his anger in check. "I would prefer not to lectured by my own grandson barely old enough to shave" he responded, curtly.

"Unfortunately I seem to be the only person that is in a position to deliver such a lecture, one that is both long-coming and sorely needed, grandfather" Octavian told him, wisely opting not to smirk as he did so despite very much wanting to. "I am well aware of your personal distaste for your youngest son, and the reasons for them, but it blinds you to his positive qualities to a frankly ludicrous degree" he continued. "Even your daughter, my own mother, who dislikes him intently, concedes, albeit reluctantly, that his intellect surpasses her own no matter how much it grieves her to do so" he said. "With all due respect do you really want to be perceived as less rational than your daughter, who is, and let us be honest with ourselves here, even more deranged and governed by her emotions than most women are."

Tywin closed his eyes and took a deep breath to steady himself, the last thing he wanted to do was explode into a burst of anger because the little ingrate would only interpret that as proving his point. "You speak of things you do not know or are too young to understand" he replied eventually.

"I'm sure you find that notion easier to accept than it would be to admit your flaws, or even simply face them, but don't expect me to ignore reality as well" Octavian countered. "The hard truth is that you loved your wife dearly and blame Tyrion for her demise because in that he provides a target for your ire" he argued. "It is a frankly absurd belief given that women quite regularly die giving birth to children who are not born with dwarfism and it does you no credit whatsoever to hold to it."

Tywin was so shocked by what had just been said right to his face that he couldn't even respond at first.

"Are you going to say something clever? Go on grandfather, say something clever" Octavian challenged him.

"How dare you!" Tywin eventually exclaimed.

Octavian rolled his eyes. "Get a hold of yourself right this instant unless you want Tyrion to inherit Casterly Rock instead of Uncle Jaime" he replied simply.

Tywin opened his mouth to speak again, then blinked and shut it again. "What?!" he responded once his mind caught up with the conversation again.

"I know you don't want Tyrion to inherit the family seat, and frankly that suits my purposes just fine because I have better things for him to do anyway," Octavian told him, "so you may wish to consider that I am the only man with the authority to dismiss Jaime from the Kingsguard freeing him to both marry and inherit."

Having collected his thoughts again Tywin went on the offensive. "You cannot possibly have such an inflated sense of the strength of your position to believe you can use that as leverage against me" he stated in disbelief. "If you think me a puppet that you can…"

"I don't think you're a puppet, I think you're smart enough to grasp that there are limits to your reach, that there are things you would like done that are beyond your ability to instigate or achieve" Octavian interrupted him mid-sentence. "I'm just trying to establish if you realise my own reach will go much further than your own, and incidentally demonstrate how you let your emotions cloud your judgement in a way that is detrimental to your own goals and objectives."

"Are you trying to say that you've been trying to provoke me, boy?" Tywin growled.

"No, I've clearly succeeded in provoking you, now I'm trying to get you to grow up" Octavian told him. "It's not just your attitude to Tyrion, your inflexibility is clearly a result of witnessing your own father being mocked and dismissed as ineffectual, and a decision reached decades ago that you would never be perceived the same way. In most cases it has self-evidently served you well," Octavian conceded, "but you cannot rigidly apply the same approach to every situation and expect the ideal outcome."

Octavian sighed. "And honestly, would it really hurt so much to smile more and laugh occasionally?" he asked rhetorically. The occasional fake chuckle at a poor joke, or an insincere smile or two, worked wonders in bringing people over to your side, he knew.

"You speak of things you cannot possibly know or understand" Tywin spat back through clenched teeth, driven near incandescent with rage by this point.

"And yet I seem to have a better grasp on them than you do, mostly because my vantage point upon them is not clouded by such emotions" Octavian replied evenly. "In truth we are very much alike in how we see the world, and as this is so I have only the greatest respect for your opinions and talents in general, but happily I lack your glaring blind-spots on certain issues" he coninued. "I concede I may have my own blind-spots, and given that possibility I look forward to you pointing them out to me because that would provide me with the opportunity to remedy them" he said. "An unexamined life is not worth living, after all" he quoted Socrates, making a mental note to tell people he came up with the line. Perhaps I should write a book of sayings borrowed from the greatest thinkers of both Greece and Rome and pass them off as my own work, he thought to himself.

Tywin continued to seethe. "If you were only my grandson and not the king I would put you over my knee and…"

"You seem overwrought, perhaps we should continue our talk after you've had the opportunity to calm down and collect yourself", Octavian advised, "Perhaps you might even benefit from a short nap?" he suggested helpfully. "If we do not resume this discussion later today then perhaps tomorrow before the festivities arranged to celebrate the coming of the New Year?"

"We are not finished talking" Tywin told him, glaring.

"The notion that you are in a position to dictate that is perhaps the funniest utterance that has ever left your mouth" Octavian told him. "Oh, and if you think you can order your guards to prevent my departure, consider that they are all well aware that if they tried I'd have their heads put on a spike, so don't make yourself look weak by giving an order that they won't carry out."

Octavian turned and started to walk away. "It is not in my interests to waste your talents any more than it is in my interests to waste Tyrion's, so please don't take this as a slight. Just take it as my demonstrating why the Seven Kingdom's will be safe in my hands after you're gone" he said. "You hold that you are not my puppet but I am not yours either. If I was then the future glory and prosperity of Westeros would be in doubt and then you would have cause for complaint."

Lost for words Tywin Lannister watched his grandson head off wondering whether he had made a terrible mistake or if things had turned out quite horribly right instead.

After a few more moments to consider the situation Tywin picked up his fishing rod again, broke it over his knee and threw it into the Blackwater.

Notes:

Note from the Author:

Well that's been a long time coming, since the quote at the start of the very first chapter in fact, finally delivered in chapter fifty just at the end of 299AC. Expect Tywin to be shocked at just how powerful "Joffrey" has become working behind the scenes when he looks into it. The parallel here is with the episode in Rome where Octavian's sister cannot get over the fact that her little brother is suddenly (from her perspective) the most powerful man in the Republic with an army at his back and the Senate in the palm of his hand.

It's worth noting that as a young man in real life Octavian was a cocky, self-assured silly sod who everyone thought wasn't as smart as he thought he was. It wasn't until the time he was showing Marc Anthony, Cicero ad the rest how you really played the game that people finally grasped how much they had underestimated him... and by then it was far to late.

Honestly, if Imperator Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus was a fictional character I would call him a Mary Sue. :p

Just one more thing, going forward this story will update fortnightly instead of weekly, that's so I can get back to another story (that will update in the intervening weeks).