Threats, Scowls and Intimidation (A Song of Ice and Fire/Exo Crossover)
Title: Threats, Scowls and Intimidation
Rating: G
Word Count: 1,107
Genre: General
Summary: Tao knows he has no reason to feel intimidated in his own hall - but he can't help it when faced with someone so unfamiliar and unreadable.
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Seated in the high chair of his father’s audience chamber, Tao fought down the feeling of intimidation that was threatening to rise in his throat. There was no reason for it, he reasoned - this stranger was completely unarmed, petitioning him, and could be subdued within seconds by the Braavosi guards just outside the door if he did prove troublesome.
But really, that scowl on the stranger’s face could have cowed a manticore.
“What is your business here?” Tao demanded, in a voice that he willed to be as imperturbable, steady and firm as his father’s would have been. That man had terrible timing - usually, when Tao sat in on the Sealord’s court, the petitioners were just Braavosi natives complaining about taxes, or swaggering sellswords, merchants, and envoys all jostling for importance.
Tao knew, from years of watching his father deal justice, how to deal with those types of men - he could have done it in his sleep. But of course, the day when his father had decided to take a day trip hunting in the hills, leaving him nominally in charge, had to be the day when he was faced with someone who fitted none of those categories. And whose face gave not a single clue as to his purpose.
Tao willed himself to glower. It wasn’t exactly the mature response to the other man’s scowl, nor was it an expression that crossed his face often, but he had been told it suited his face and made him appear much more fearsome.
He highly doubted it would make him look anywhere near as fearsome as the other, but it couldn’t hurt to try nonetheless.
As he’d expected, the other’s countenance didn’t falter in the slightest. He studied Tao’s face shrewdly for a moment more, before glancing quickly around the room, as if to check there was no one hiding in the corners.
Tao tightened his grasp on his concealed knife, and almost shouted for the guards waiting outside, but the other made no move to attempt an assassination, as he’d almost been expecting. Instead, he took a deep breath, met his eyes once more, and said, “I need to hire one of your assassins. The Faceless Men, I believe they’re called.”
Well. That hadn’t quite been what Tao had been expecting.
He really didn’t know how to handle this.
Leaning forward, he began, “First of all, they’re not my assassins.” He winced inwardly - he sounded like a petulant child, and he knew it. Shaking himself, he continued in a tone that he hoped was reminiscent of his father, “The government of Braavos has nothing to do with the society that calls themselves the Faceless Men. Their conduct breaches the laws of our city, and if it was within our power to trace them and shut them down, we would do so.” That was the official line - however, Tao was fairly sure that not only did the state fear them far too much to ever attempt to shut them down, they were also, somehow, benefitting financially from the association’s continued existence.
Sitting back and assuming an air of confidence of which he somehow still felt rather bereft, he looked down at the stranger haughtily and said, “You know, I could have you arrested just for associating yourself with them.”
He had expected either anger or fear in response to the unsubtle threat. In reality, the response was rather different: the other tilted his head slightly, and after barely a moment’s pause, replied, “But you won’t arrest me, will you?”
That brought Tao up short yet again. “What makes you think that?” he snapped.
He shrugged. “If you meant a word of what you were saying, you would have done it already. As soon as I mentioned that I require their services.”
Tao spluttered, losing all semblance of dignity for a moment and barely giving a damn. “And why do you require their services?” he demanded, letting some of the ire he was feeling seep into his voice.
There was a pause. A much longer pause than had occurred so far in the entire audience he’d had with this man, much longer than he was expecting to occur at all. It would have been incredibly unnerving for him, except that the other man had, finally, dropped his gaze to the floor, looking more vulnerable than Tao could have imagined possible a few seconds ago.
“Do you know who I am?” he asked eventually, voice unsteady, and Tao suddenly realised that no, he knew nothing whatsoever about this man who had caused such disruption to his morning. “My name is Kris,” he continued without waiting for an answer, “and the late Archon of Tyrosh was my father. He died in the Myrish offence of the year 404, and I mean to avenge him.”
Tao was completely lost for words. The grief in the other’s tone was so raw that he found it hard to believe his loss was from seventeen years ago; it seemed more like a fresh wound, barely begun to heal. Unbidden, an image flashed before his eyes - his own father, injured from the duel he had fought, and barely won, not two years before.
Their best healers had all thought the Sealord would die. It was a testament to the old man’s stubbornness that he had not.
Tao cleared his throat, averting his eyes. He was speaking before he could think his words through properly, saying, “I cannot help you to get in contact with the Faceless Men, that is not my concern. However, as a noble of the Free Cities, the hospitality of the Sealord of Braavos is yours for the duration of your stay, as per the tradition of this city.”
Kris blinked, apparently taken aback. “I-I had not thought to stay long...”
Surprising even himself with the firmness of his tone, not to mention the purpose behind it, Tao commanded, “Dine with me tonight, at least. The cupbearers make for poor company, and I’d be very interested to hear how the old Archon’s son has ended up in Braavos with a Sothoryosi tribal mark on his shoulder.”
Kris looked more unsure than he had during his entire audience, but he nodded his head sharply in agreement. “As you wish.”
“Very well, you’re dismissed. But I’ll see you later!” Tao realised a moment too late that he’d dropped the cold, efficient persona he needed to don to deal with the state affairs; a friendly smile had even crept, unbidden, onto his face.
But somehow that was okay, because Kris was suddenly smiling back at him and really, his face wasn’t so intimidating after all.
END
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