The Unyielding Stag (Game of Thrones AU/Invincible)
Chapter 39: Arrivals

A/N: The marriage candidates arrive in King's Landing, as seen through the eyes of an extremely introspective Varys.

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By sheer coincidence, Sansa Stark and Arianne Martell arrive within two days of one another.

The Northern Lady from Winterfell comes down the Kingsroad and enters King's Landing through the same gate that Axel Baratheon had entered the city through some months before. Meanwhile, less than forty-eight hours later, the Dornish Princess from Sunspear comes in through Blackwater Bay, entering the city via ship.

Varys is present for both arrivals of course, though he's not part of the official welcoming committees.

Neither is the King. Varys had it on good authority that young Axel had wanted to greet both women as they arrived in King's Landing, but his Hand had talked him out of it. One might think that Axel would only be doing the polite thing by being there to welcome both of his prospective brides to the city.

However, travel was rough whether it was by road or sea, and Jon Arryn had explained to their King that it was considerably better if he allowed both women to have a day or so to prepare themselves and put their best foot forward with him, rather than seeing them at their roughest.

In the end, Axel had come around to Jon's way of thinking, leaving his Hand to be the one to greet both women instead. First Sansa at the gate and then Arianne at the harbor.

Varys, of course, made sure to be present for the exact same reasons that Jon had convinced Axel not to be. He wanted to see these potential Queens of the Seven Kingdoms at their worst and start figuring out which of them would be the best match for both Axel and all of Westeros besides.

… After all, any other plans he might have had have now officially fallen through.

It was, perhaps, the greatest of follies that Varys had thought he could decide the fate of Westeros, once upon a time. Him, a lowly eunuch, had made schemes within schemes, only to have them all fall apart on him, one by one.

When Robert had begun showing his true colors early on in his reign, Varys had decided that there needed to be alternatives to continued Baratheon Rule, just in case. Fortunately, Viserys and Daenerys Targaryen had survived the Rebellion entirely on their own merits and it was easy enough to keep them safe over in Essos with the help of his good friend Illyrio Mopatis.

However, by then Varys had come to recognize the folly of his early service to the Mad King. Blind service for the sake of service to a terrible king who would only abuse his skills was precisely the sort of thing that Varys refused to let happen again. Instead, everything he did had to have a purpose. Every action had to be in pursuit of a goal. And if both Viserys and Daenerys turned out to be just as unsuitable for the Iron Throne as their father and Robert, Varys needed to have another option.

That was where the scheme to create a false Aegon Targaryen had come in. Elia's son died the day King's Landing was sacked along with her and her daughter. Varys knew that to be indisputably true. However, the babe had been all but unrecognizable after Gregor Clegane got his hands on him and smashed his skull in. This was also true.

And so Varys and Illyrio Mopatis of Pentos had seen fit to find a child of the proper age, disposition, and looks… and they'd created quite the ruse from there. Even Jon Connington, the man they'd ultimately entrusted with their fake Aegon, had bought the lie completely and utterly. But then to be fair, the exiled Lord had been a very good friend of Rhaegar and was likely desperate to make up for his perceived failures during the Rebellion.

Faking his own death, Connington had taken over the raising of Aegon, taking on the name Griff and giving Aegon the name Young Griff. From there he'd raised the boy from a scant few years of age into a bright young man who had all the skills of a sailor, but also all the skills to become King if need be.

However, life on the seas was never truly safe. Disaster had struck just a few years back. 'Young Griff', their false Aegon, had fallen from the rigging, struck his head on the railing of the ship, and died. In turn, Jon Connington had lasted just long enough to get news to them before he'd ended his own life in his grief.

And just like that, their ploy with the false Aegon was over. But it shouldn't have mattered too much because at the end of the day, Young Griff was only ever supposed to be the backup plan.

Ah, but there Varys' folly could be seen even more so. Viserys had apparently grown up vain and capricious even through the kindest interpretations of Illyrio's reports. Daenerys had been described as quiet, shy, and all around biddable, but she was also treated like little more than a trophy by her brother, something to be owned rather than her own person.

For a short time, Varys had wondered if he would have to arrange the death of Viserys and see if anything could be made of Daenerys. But before a decision could be made, the choice was once again taken from him by events outside of his control.

The rumors he'd spoken of in the Small Council Chambers had been confirmed at this point. Daenerys Stormborn had indeed sacrificed her brother's life to hatch dragons. She'd drained Viserys of his blood and set fire to his corpse and out of the fires produced by the ritual, it was said that all three of the dragon eggs she'd been gifted had hatched.

Needless to say, when Varys and Illyrio had arranged for those dragon eggs to be gifted to Daenerys at her wedding, neither of them had intended for this to happen. Blood magic. Sorcery. And all of it prompted by this Red Priestess that now had the last Targaryen's ear. Melisandre, her name was.

And so, for all his planning and all of his scheming, Varys was left with no other option but to throw his lot behind Axel Baratheon. The bastard son of a drunken whoremonger of a King who was never expected to inherit anything, let alone the entirety of the Seven Kingdoms.

Axel was nobody's first choice for King, but perhaps there was a lesson to be had there. Varys had made so many plans, but the last male Targaryen was dead, the false Prince was dead, and the last female Targaryen was a budding sorceress with growing dragons.

Meanwhile, Axel had survived numerous assassination attempts, won a war against his traitorous uncle with minimal bloodshed, and now focused on settling the Crown's Debts to the best of his ability while working hard to learn all of the things he needed to learn to be King from Lord Arryn.

On the one hand, there was no denying that the former bastard was unusual. On the other hand, learning what had happened over in Essos was the wakeup call that Varys had needed to finally put his suspicions surrounding Axel Baratheon to bed at long last. The young man was not sacrificing the people of King's Landing to fire, after all. He was performing no profane rituals, nor seeking unnatural powers at the expense of others.

In the end, his worst crime was allowing Margaery Tyrell to seduce him into fucking her into quite the stupor. And given who he was and who his father had been, a weakness for beautiful women was to be expected… anticipated and planned around, even.

Which brought Varys back to the two women who had come to the Capital explicitly for the sake of potentially becoming Axel Baratheon's Queen.

First they had Sansa Stark. She was a beautiful young woman who more resembled her mother than her father. Her big blue eyes and thick red locks were distinctly Tully features, as were her high cheekbones, which she'd definitely inherited from her mother.

However… from what Varys' Little Birds up in Winterfell told him, Sansa Stark was not a carbon copy of Lady Catelyn. Instead, as the years had gone on and Sansa had remained unmarried, the young Northern Woman had eventually come into her own and begun to spread her wings a bit more.

Just based on that, Varys thought she might have a good chance of being compatible with their young King. The question became, was Sansa Stark what Axel needed in a Queen? She was only somewhat willful at best, while her connections were far to the North and therefore not too helpful to the Realm at large. However, she represented a certain 'safety' in choosing her that her competition did not.

Said competition, Arianne Martell of Dorne, couldn't be more different than Sansa. She favored her mother just like Sansa did, but that was about it as far as similarities went. Where Sansa was a beauty, Arianne's figure bordered on indecent. Where Sansa was pretty, Arianne was utterly gorgeous, at least by what Varys knew of the standards of Westerosi Men.

Olive skin, large eyes, full black hair, full lips, and very full breasts. In fact, of every woman that Varys knew Axel had come in contact with so far, Arianne had the largest chest of them all. Such things mattered little to a Eunuch… but Varys would not be a very successful Spymaster if he did not understand the wants and desires of others.

Sansa would draw Axel's eye. But Arianne Martell would hold it. And she also knew how to keep it too, rumored to have far, far more experience than her Northern counterpart in all manner of indecency.

If Sansa represented the safe option, Arianne represented the dangerous one. No more could that be seen in just who they'd arrived with either. Sansa Stark had come to King's Landing with her mother at her side to watch over her and help guide her. Catelyn Stark was here to make sure Sansa was happy and safe after her lord husband left to return North ages ago.

But Arianne did not come with either her mother or father. She didn't even bring her uncle, and Varys would have bet money that the Red Viper would try to come along for the voyage. No, instead Arianne had brought a few of the infamous Sand Snakes with her… and most importantly of all, she'd brought the seemingly innocent and pious Tyene Sand, her closest confidante… and perhaps the deadliest of the Sand Snakes to boot.

Whether intended or not, both women were sending a message with the choices of company they kept and who they'd brought with them. And yet… there was something to be said about another Dornish Match for the Throne.

For all that things between Rhaegar and Elia had not truly worked out for either House Targaryen or House Martell, there was still a lot of power concentrated in Dorne. Power that Axel would be able to call upon if his Queen was a Princess of Dorne.

The truth was… Varys didn't know which of the two women should be Queen just yet. Nor was he foolish enough to think that Axel would accept his advice if he came straight out and told all of this to the young man anyways.

No, Axel Baratheon kept very few men in his confidence. In fact, the only man who could truly convince Axel of anything seemed to be Jon Arryn, in the end. The King and his Hand were connected at the hip sometimes, and often of one mind on a variety of topics.

But that didn't mean Varys couldn't nudge things in the right direction, just as he'd started to nudge Lord Arryn in the right direction of Petyr Baelish and his many, many schemes.

For a long time, Varys had pretended not to know what Baelish was up to, mostly because the Master of Coin's destabilization of the Realm worked in his favor. But no more. Now that Varys had decided he was backing Axel all the way to the end, Baelish's little games and incessant scheming had to come to an end. It was time for his delicate plans, built as they are on a foundation of sand, to come crumbling down piece by piece.

Yes, he would continue to feed the Hand what information he needed, until finally Jon Arryn stumbled upon Baelish's culpability of his own accord. If Varys just came out and said it, he wasn't likely to be believed. Or he would be punished and that… that wouldn't be good for the Realm. But if he helped things along… then all would happen as it should.

Hopefully, the matter of which woman should become Queen of the Seven Kingdoms would also proceed as it should and the best possible candidate for the role would eventually reveal herself. In the end, it would be up to their young King to make that decision, but Varys would nevertheless do his best to steer Axel in the right direction, whatever that wound up being.

… And as for Daenerys and her dragons, Varys might just have to take matters into his own hands on that front. Axel's honor seemed to prevent him from signing off on the assassination of the budding Targaryen Sorceress, but Varys would not allow a threat like that to continue, even if it was a threat at least partially of his own making… especially because of that, in fact.

Ser Jorah would receive a letter soon enough with instructions on what he should do next if he finally wanted to earn his way home. And Illyrio would receive a letter as well to prepare to be ready to receive a triumphant Jorah Mormont, who upon successfully doing away with the last Targaryen and her dragon whelps, would be housed in Pentos on his way back to Westeros.

Ah, and if Ser Jorah were to drink too much in celebration as he stayed at Illyrio's manse in Pentos, only to fall off a balcony and crack his skull open on the stones below… well, that would certainly be quite tragic, wouldn't it? Quite tragic indeed…

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A/N: Varys: "Alas, all my scheming has been for naught, what a fool I was."

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