Chapter 67: Discussion with Oberyn

[ Oliver POV ]

After finishing multiple sessions with Arianne, making my workplace office a mess and reeked of sex.

We put our clothes on and walked outside of the room with our expressions showing nothing. The Blood Zombies guarding my door were as emotionless as always. 

"Let's go and meet you uncle," I said, making it clear that there was no room for discussion on this decision. She nodded and followed along.

Once we reached the healer's room, the doctor… or healer as they are called here. Technically they were just Maesters that I gathered who hadn't formed their chains because I offered good money for them to come and work in my city. 

The person in charge bowed toward me. "My Lord, my lady," then he walked off, knowing what was going on here.

We went towards the bed that Oberyn was on and his leg was messed up badly. At least he seemed to be awake and looked at me. "If I can't fight anymore because of this, let me punch you in the face once."

"Sure," I agreed. "But remember, I am not above beating up a cripple either."

"You are a cunt," Oberyn shook his head and looked at his niece. "Arianne, tell me, is this man treating you well? If he isn't..." he looked at me with maliciousness in his eyes.

"There is no need to pretend uncle," she shook her head. "Oliver already knows that we met secretly before."

"Oh…" Oberyn was left speechless, well I would be the same after losing my leg for nothing and going through all this effort just to get found out in the end. "Then, are you the man who planted the guards in Dorne to kill off Arianne?"

His questions were blunt, and even though he was strapped to a bed there was no fear in his eyes. He really was the Red Viper of Dorne, though he is no viper, humans have always been more dangerous than lizards. 

"No," I answered, lying through my teeth while keeping a straight face. Lying was easier than people assumed, if it was hard, after all everyone does it. "That would have been too risky of a move, and I never had the resources, nor did I know enough skilled people to do that."

Oberyn nodded. He knew that as Oliver, I wouldn't have access to such skilled personnel. 

Even if I did, killing them like that would be a waste. But as Arthur, this body's father, it was a whole other deal. I knew many people skilled and disciplined enough to do that job, Braavos was a city where assassination thrived. 

"But, I also wanted to ask something, how was someone able to just take Arianne from you so easily?" My question made him frown, but he knew that if he didn't give me an answer then I wouldn't be obliged to tell him anything either.

"It was a complicated situation," Oberyn tried to say as little as possible, but once my eyes narrowed, he sighed, "we were infiltrated deeply. A quarter of our guards were all enemy spies.

The whole Martell family could have been killed that day, yet the attacker didn't do that, deciding to kidnap and confuse my niece."

He looked at me suspiciously, and I could see where he was coming from. All of the signs pointed towards me, after all, Davos was saved while the whole incident was happening and he met with Arianne.

This all led to me getting most of the benefits. So someone like Doran Martell, undoubtedly noticed this, but the illogical part of it comes where would I find people like that? 

Who would assume that I am Arthur reborn through the body of his son? That would be madness. The logical conclusion was that there was more than met the eye here.

I believe in Doran's logic to be my perfect cover, the man who did nothing after his sister's death and waited for the right moment. He will make an obvious and logical conclusion. Then I will use that against him.

"Yeah, the security in your palace sucks," I agreed with Oberyn, and that made him look suspiciously at me. What would I know about the security in Dorne? Quite a lot. "My guards were able to infiltrate and free Davos. That was easier than expected."

"You know that makes you look guilty right?" questioned Oberyn, a mask of calmness hid his real feelings.

Well, while Davos escaped with the first bodyguard, the chances of someone seeing him were almost certain. If I refuted this fact, and the truth came out, then why would this 'enemy' want Davos out of confinement.

No, it was better to admit these things now and later have the whole chaos after that blamed onto someone else. Maybe Varys? He was always suspicious and no one trusted him.

"I know how that makes me look," I admitted. "But right now, lying to you guys wouldn't lead me anywhere. Also, Arianne's marriage to me wasn't something I forced her into." 

That was the truth, I never explicitly forced her, I only made the situation seem desperate and that she would die if she didn't marry me. She decided to not 'die'...

"Then what about the letter that your man sent?" He asked, and this time it seemed like he wanted an answer no matter what. 

Undoubtedly Oberyn and Doran had shìt their pants once they saw the letter that I had Davos send them. There was information on how they wanted Arianne to marry Viserys. That would sink Dorne to the ground if it ever came out or Robert Baratheon learned about it. 

But due to my silver hair, it made me look like a Targaryen. So appearing in front of a half-drunk Robert wasn't a good idea. 

"That letter was a warning," I reasoned. "If Dorne interfered with my business, then that would spread all over the seven kingdoms. Though the marriage with Arianne has made that threat null."

I could see the gears in Oberyn's head turn. Slowly he was piecing together the 'truth' and what had really happened in Dorne. From his view, it must seem like such a strange mystery and slowly but surely he was piecing things in place and the situation would start to make more sense. 

My money had been on Doran figuring it out once he got the news, but Oberyn was quite smart too. Arianne stood by my side, she now had chosen who she would be with during these hard times. 

She made that decision during a moment of lust and pleasure, as expected from a naive girl like her. Medieval times are such a mess. If Arianne had been a modern woman, she would have divorced me by now and taken half my stuff, and had a child just so I would have to support her financially too.

My mind is wandering while waiting for Oberyn to say something. Also, I calculated when it would be good to start using gunpowder and arm my soldiers with rifles.

It should be later on, as I don't want to get that technology stolen, because if it got stolen… welp, say goodbye to all the plans. Every one of them would be useless. So I had to be careful with how my influence spread ideas around and squish the dangerous ambitions of people.

"Well, your explanation makes sense so-" Oberyn started talking, before he was interrupted by a loud bang, signaling the opening of the door, a soldier breathing heavily and panicked. 

"Lord Oliver!" He called out, "Something disastrous has happened!"

…

A/N: Here are the psychological tricks that Oliver used.

1 - Gasslighting, making an outrageous scenario where the truth is so unbelievable so he only tells a part of it. It's like a real Magician appearing in a YouTube video, everyone would just assume that those were cool effects.

Normal people would never think that he was a real Magician. (I am saying normal here because there are people who believe in Flat Earth… so yeah…)

2 - Arianne's "decisions" she has made no decision and the one she truly "made" was during sex. Which is a time where the mind doesn't work at best capacity, you will agree with a lot of things at the heat of the moment.

Oliver used this and had Arianne make her choice in those moments filled with lust. But it wasn't a real choice, and it was orchestrated so she thought it was her choice. (Think of it as asking someone in hype anime moments if he wants to go and see the next anime form in a cinema. They would agree at the impulse of the moment, even if its shìt.)

P.S: So in general, don't make decisions when your mind is influenced by hype feelings or when you are horny. (Did a LOT of mistakes due to the latter… don't be like me.)

...

 Don't forget to throw some power stones :)

...

If you want to read ahead of the public release, or just want to support me.

you can join my p atreon :

p@treon.com/Numera