The darkness embraced Varys like an old friend.
Night had always been his greatest ally.
Standing alone in the shadows, the former Master of Whisperers silently weighed the most important decision of his life.
Should he leave King's Landing...
Or should he stay and carry out one final assassination?
Assassination had never been his original plan.
But the situation had changed completely.
The Lannister regime had collapsed into chaos.
Tyrion had been captured.
Joffrey had been torn apart by an enraged mob.
Cersei had fled the capital.
Even the Magister of Volantis had suffered a crushing defeat thousands of miles away.
The people of Westeros were steadily turning their support toward the Stormlands.
If this continued...
Everything Varys had spent decades preparing for would disappear.
That left him with only one option.
Eliminate Gendry.
---
Surrender had never crossed Varys's mind.
The moment he saw Gendry's newly appointed Small Council, he understood exactly where he stood.
Ser Barristan Selmy, the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, had long blamed Varys for enabling the Mad King's tyranny.
Stannis Baratheon, now serving as Hand of the King, had never trusted him.
As for Selwyn Tarth...
Bronze Yohn Royce...
Even the famously stubborn Mace Tyrell...
None of them were men who could be manipulated.
There was no place for Varys in Gendry's new kingdom.
If he were captured...
The only uncertainty would be whether he died by the sword or the gallows.
---
On the day Gendry's army entered King's Landing...
Varys had been watching from among the cheering crowd.
The endless ranks of soldiers marched like an iron forest.
Sunlight reflected from polished armor.
Thousands of spearheads glittered beneath the sky.
Disguised as an ordinary citizen, Varys blended perfectly into the sea of people.
His disguises weren't as miraculous as those of the Faceless Men...
But they were more than sufficient.
He could have escaped with the refugees.
He could have followed Cersei into exile.
No one would have noticed.
Yet he couldn't bring himself to leave.
"If I abandon King's Landing..."
"...would I still be Varys?"
He quietly asked himself.
The dim light reflected from his bald head as he sighed.
"No."
"I cannot leave."
"My greatest weapons are here."
"My little birds."
"My web."
"My secrets."
Outside King's Landing...
His influence would shrink dramatically.
The vast network of secret passages built beneath the city by Maegor the Cruel formed the foundation of everything he had built.
Within King's Landing...
He was a spider at the center of an enormous web.
Outside it...
He was merely another old man.
The spies he paid with gold served only whoever held the deepest purse.
Only his Little Birds remained truly loyal.
Originally...
Those children had been prepared for Tywin Lannister and every ruler who sought to stabilize the Seven Kingdoms.
Now...
Their blades would be turned against Gendry.
---
"What a cruel twist of fate..."
Varys sighed.
"The pawn I ignored all those years ago has become my greatest enemy."
Back then...
Only two of Robert Baratheon's bastards had interested him.
Gendry.
And Edric Storm.
Gendry had been placed with Tobho Mott, the finest blacksmith in King's Landing.
Edric, acknowledged publicly by Robert himself, had received gifts from Varys every year.
As for Robert's younger bastards...
Varys had never paid them any attention.
They had been far too young to matter.
Who could have imagined...
That Gendry would eventually destroy not only the Lannisters...
But also threaten everything Varys had spent his life building?
Sometimes...
Varys truly felt as though he had dug his own grave.
---
"Very well."
"Let's see who wins this final game."
He unfolded a detailed map of King's Landing's underground tunnels.
It represented decades of painstaking work.
Every hidden passage...
Every forgotten escape route...
Every secret entrance beneath the city...
Had been recorded by his own hand.
"If Gendry wants to find me..."
"It won't be easy."
Varys carefully examined every corner of the map.
His greatest advantages remained unchanged.
The secret tunnels.
And his Little Birds.
If they were to assassinate someone...
It had to be through surprise.
Children could never confront armored soldiers in open combat.
Without stealth...
They were helpless.
---
According to the intelligence gathered by his network...
Gendry rarely stayed inside the Red Keep.
Instead...
He slept in the military camps outside the castle.
The northern bank of the Blackwater Rush housed the armies of the Stormlands, the Vale, Crackclaw Point, surrendered soldiers, and prisoners.
The northern districts of King's Landing held the camps of the Northmen and the crabfeeder forces.
The western side of the city belonged to the Tyrell army.
Meanwhile...
Stannis's fleet still patrolled the waters outside the capital.
Varys frowned.
"Assassinating him outside the city is almost impossible."
"My Little Birds cannot defeat trained soldiers."
"They must strike from the shadows."
His eyes continued moving across the map.
The Red Keep.
The Dragonpit.
Flea Bottom.
Then suddenly...
His eyes stopped.
"The Dragonpit..."
"And the Red Keep."
A faint smile spread across his face.
There were secret tunnels leading directly into the Dragonpit.
Knowing Gendry's personality...
He would almost certainly inspect the reconstruction personally.
That might be the perfect opportunity.
Likewise...
If Gendry ever returned to sleep inside the Red Keep...
Whether in the Tower of the Hand or Maegor's Holdfast...
The tunnels would once again become invaluable.
---
Still...
There remained another obstacle.
Gendry's guards.
Barristan Selmy.
Old...
Experienced...
Utterly devoted.
A true knight.
Balon Swann.
A formidable warrior from the Stormlands.
Then there were Anguy...
Lothor Brune...
Robar Royce...
And Harry Rivers.
Most of them were young.
Youth meant inexperience.
Unlike Barristan...
They had never spent decades guarding kings.
That weakness could potentially be exploited.
Varys nodded thoughtfully.
"And..."
"Wildfire."
"If any stores still remain beneath the city..."
"They could create enough chaos."
"Perhaps even kill Gendry outright."
He carefully marked the Dragonpit, the Red Keep, and several additional locations before folding the map away.
---
"A spider belongs in the darkness."
"The moment it reveals itself..."
"It becomes vulnerable."
He slowly poured a cup of wine onto the stone floor.
"Wouldn't you agree..."
"Petyr?"
Silence answered him.
Then...
He thought of another name.
Aegon.
Everything he had done...
Every lie...
Every sacrifice...
Had always been for Aegon.
"Gendry is the son of a usurper."
"Aegon..."
"...is the rightful king."
"From the moment he could walk..."
"He was taught how to rule."
"He learned swordsmanship..."
"But that was only the beginning."
"He learned history."
"Law."
"Poetry."
"Several languages."
"A septa taught him the Faith."
"He lived among fishermen."
"He mended nets."
"Cooked his own meals."
"Washed his own clothes."
"He learned what hunger truly felt like."
"He knew what it meant to be hunted."
"For Gendry..."
"The crown is inheritance."
"For Aegon..."
"It is responsibility."
"A true king lives for his people."
That belief...
Had guided Varys his entire life.
Everything...
Was for Aegon.
---
Meanwhile...
In the military camp north of the Blackwater Rush...
Gendry carefully polished Tiger Roar, the ancestral greatsword of House Marajo.
Though legendary in its homeland...
This was the first time the blade had appeared in Westeros.
Nearby...
The Red Priestess silently gazed into the brazier.
The dancing flames reflected within her crimson eyes.
"The great war approaches," she murmured.
"The Storm."
"The King."
"The Savior."
"Ice and Fire."
"Light and Darkness."
"Summer..."
"And the Long Night."
Gendry nodded quietly while admiring the tiger-like golden ripples flowing across the blade.
"Before the true war begins..."
"I think we need a small appetizer first."
Barristan frowned.
"We're searching every secret tunnel."
"Yet Your Grace refuses to stay inside King's Landing."
"Won't that simply force Varys to abandon the city?"
Gendry smiled confidently.
"No."
"Varys has invested decades building his network here."
"He won't willingly abandon it."
"Once he leaves..."
"He ceases to be Varys."
"So instead..."
"He'll gamble everything."
Barristan nodded slowly.
"So..."
"We should expect a desperate counterattack."
"The tunnels."
"And his Little Birds."
"If I'm right..."
"Those children have probably had their tongues removed."
"They've been raised as assassins."
The Red Priestess smiled faintly.
"I am always willing to serve you, Storm King."
She looked toward Barristan.
"You possess a noble heart, old knight."
"But when confronting darkness..."
"My power is better suited."
Gendry turned toward her.
"What do you need?"
She answered calmly.
"Your belt..."
"Or one of your weapons."
"If I possess something that belongs to you..."
"I can reproduce your flames far more effectively."
A mysterious smile slowly appeared on her lips.
"And that..."
"Will make our enemy believe exactly what we want him to believe."
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