Chapter Thirty-One

Pleasure Craft. Outside of Kings Landing.

Why a ship that had been created for the use of the most wealthy of nobles contained a small torture chamber was something that had confused me if only for a moment. Then it all made sense, the elite would always have powerful enemies and if an enemy spy was captured they would need to be questioned with what the Americans called enhanced interrogation techniques.

The small room had a slab the centre that could be moved from horizontal to vertical as well as a number of tools meant to cause pain hanging on the walls. I'd had them and the hooks removed since I had no need or desire to use such crude implements, and if a captive somehow got free of their bindings the stuff that had been on the walls would have given them a choice in weapons to use during an escape.

Strapped to the slab at and angle that allowed my prisoner to look at me but only by keeping their neck in an uncomfortable position, was Lord Petyr Baelish AKA Littlefinger who'd come to my ship recently, no doubt with the intent of somehow dragging me into his many schemes for power. That had been a foolish thing for him to do.

Someone's spy would notice that Littlefinger hadn't left my ship I just didn't care as no one was going to risk going to war with me over the life of a glorified accountant and pimp. He was a scummy little man with no real allies or friends. Not that he was lacking in value, I wanted to know all about his schemes and about where he'd hidden the money.

I needed the money because when I put Viserys on throne, which was still my plan, he would need to play the part of a good king and if one his first actions was to pay off even some of the debt to the Iron Bank then not only would he look to be a better king that Robert he'd get the support of the Iron Bank who would support his rulership if it meant getting back the money they'd invested into Westeros. It might take a while to pay it all back, but the Iron Bank would get their due.

As for the man I'd taken as a captive I'd already gotten a sample of his DNA taken so that he could be cloned. I did need a good Seneschal and while Littlefinger clearly had the mind for such a role there was no way I would trust him in the role. However a clone, one educated and programmed for loyalty, he might serve nicely. I would have to use my psyker powers to monitor the clone just to be on the safe side.

"Okay then Littlefinger" I said to the bound man "You and I are going to talk about your creative accounting".

The fact that he was gagged wouldn't get in the way of this since I'd been gifted with psyker powers, or cursed with them depending on your point of view. I had no idea what kind of abilities my connection to The Warp gave me, all I felt certain about was I couldn't hear any voices in my head, and when I reached out I could feel minds or maybe it was people's souls, assuming that there was any difference. It could take centuries to fully understand what I could do as a psyker and I knew that I would never learn unless I got a teacher or I experimented a lot.

I worked to clear my mind and not to think about my earlier meeting with Tywin Lannister who'd quickly worked out that out of everything I sold that bullets were by far the most important. He'd already made a proposal that would given his family a lot of control over the supply of ammo in the Seven Kingdoms. He'd gone as far to offer up a princess, his own granddaughter, as a way of uniting our houses and while that was tempting as I could wait for the Lannister Princess to grow up she was the product of inbreeding and might be able to provide me with healthy children for my dynasty. That would make her a worthless person to acquire as a wife. The same could be said for Dany, but Valyrians aren't like other humans and I could always use a little genetic engineering to get around such issues.

Working to stay focused I began to draw on The Warp. All psykers draw their powers from the extradimensional realm known as the Immaterium or The Warp that underlies four-dimensional realspace and is the source of all psychic energy in the universe. Psychic energy comes from sentient minds so it should exist in some form anywhere there are people.

Although the powers of psykers are many and varied, they usually fall into one of several disciplines. The five most common psychic disciplines are: Biomancy, Divination, Pyromancy, Telekinesis and Telepathy. I remained focused on the Telepathy discipline and its use in mind control, because I wished to be able to control or at least influence the thoughts and actions of others. A most useful thing for a Rogue Trader and while some use of psyker powers would be handy in battle I had many weapons, bodyguards, ships and whole armies to call upon. Besides the more subtle uses of psyker powers were less likely to draw attention.

I reached into the twisted mind of Littlefinger and while you can't read a human mind like a book I discovered that you can view memories and see how they link to each other. It wasn't hard to find the source of this man's evil, for lack of a better term, until he became Master of Coin he'd always been the most minor of nobility, looked down upon, and this only filled him with resentment. He wanted to topple the system and put himself in charge to show that he was superior to everyone else. His own ego drove him.

All his schemes were woven together, he'd borrowed from many, given out loans to others, and stashed away plenty of money, some of which was hidden away right here in Kings Landing. Once I had some of my crew coming to this city for shore leave, something I felt that could get messy even with my disciplined crew, I'd send members of my battle harem to collect some of the stashes. They could be subtle when required.

He'd hidden quite a bit away in some place called the Drearfort. I'd have members of my battle harem go there was well with some back up. I'd have to remove all witnesses, but that didn't mean killing anyone as I could just have the people taken and the smallfolk village near the Drearfort sacked so it looked like raiders.

I broke my connection to Littlefinger's mind as the images I'd been seeing had started to go dark. I couldn't let the Master of Coin die, not when he had more information to share with me.

"Keep him alive" I ordered the Medicae I'd brought along "But do not let him talk, he is a creature of lies".

I could practice more with my power later for now I had more business matters to deal with. I'd have to attended the tourney and once that was done I wished to seek out other allies before the fighting started. It would become even without Lady Stark having taken the Imp something else would come along and set off the powder keg. Robert would not live much longer and once he was dead matters would process quickly.