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Heliocentrism — a Dreaming of Sunshine recursive collection, Rain Recs
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Published:
2018-10-15
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2018-10-15
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3/?
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Large Shadows

Chapter 3

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

"Any fool with a bit of luck can find himself born into power. But earning it for yourself? That takes work."

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In a way, this is my fault.

She'd been passing information left and right. Intercepted letters here. Whispers in private spaces there. Passionate screams from in beds people shouldn't be in everywhere.

Should've payed more attention to his side of things

In Marcus had gotten greedy. He was so engrossed in figuring out how to sell every scrap of information she passed him that he never stopped to consider whether some secrets were best kept that way.

Now his silence is bought and payed for in a much more permanent sense.

The cutthroats – Stone Cloaks by the look of them – died by her hand, just as he died to theirs.

The first two fall to throwing knifes, too stupid to take a fourteen year old girl walking into this – of all places – seriously.

The others are trickier. Three and Four slash and lunge at her with shorts swords, amateurish and unprepared for a real fight. She'd have killed them outright if it wasn't for the Five, wielding a Morning Star like he'd been born with it in his hand.

For a moment it's almost… well, not a challenge, but maybe something that could be mistaken for one. At a distance.

Then, three overextends so outrageously that she almost mistakes it for a trap before her tantō leaves him bleeding out of his femoral artery as he desperately – futilely – attempts to stop the bleeding.

Moments later and Five's head is cleaved from his shoulders as he desperately tries to wretch his mace from Four's skull.

Elain, casts the blood from her blade as she stands, alone, in a room littered with corpses.

I'm so tired.

She has been, for such a long time now. But as she stares into Marcus's dull, lifeless eyes, she knows that this is it.

She… she cant do this anymore.

This place. This world. Pretending that this time she can survive under the radar. That she can ignore the empty pit in her where – family, friends and purpose – used to be. Not helping. Pretending she can't make a difference.

All of it.

She'd thought she could just adapt. Cast off what was and just be the Shadow. A thief. A spy.

A nobody.

And she can.

But she won't.

Because she's the confused dead woman. Gone before her time and lost in a cosmic improbability that should've driven her mad the moment she saw Kage-Mount-Rushmore.

Because she's a shinobi. The princess of corpses – still mad about that name Ino – who stood tall against end of the world when no less than three bat-shit jutsu gods tried to make it so.

Because she's a bastard heir to the throne that can fuck right off and that's just the start.

And most of all, because she can help, so that's what she's going to do.

Elain closes Marcus's eyes.

"I'll start with whoever did this" she tells him. "You deserve that much."

The door's hinges whine and the new arrival is nearly dead to a throwing knife before he's even through the door.

"That!" he yelps, panicked but also… not? "Should be quite unnecessary, if you please."

A portly man, head clean-shaven, shuffles inside before letting out a breath, disappointed.

"I had hoped to arrive here before the assailants" he says, surveying the corpses, eyes lingering on one in particular. "Oh Marcus. Information can be such a sturdy shield. But only if there's someone left to speak it."

"You're the Master of Whisperers." It's not a question. She knows exactly who this man is.

"And you are the 'Shadow' of King's Landing." He says, looking up at her. "Ours are quite the names to live up to, are they not?"

Her hand twitches, an aborted move towards something deadly. They both pretend not to notice.

"That's quite the assumption." Says Elain . "You should be careful with those". She sweeps her hand out "Maybe your 'Shadow' is lying in a pool of his own blood for crossing the Stone Cloaks."

Varys's expression somehow communicates the entirety of, 'come now, this lie demeans us both'.

"The Stone Cloaks," hey says, as if he's merely speaking about the weather, "in all seventeen of their years, have never once allowed a woman into their ranks". He spares a glance toward the bodies surrounding them. "Their loss, clearly. But perhaps," he says, scarcely missing a beat. "We might put such a tragedy to good use."

"For the good of the realm?" she asks, drawing upon one of the few scraps of memory she has left. A good man, she thinks. But not necessarily a kind one.

Varys's ever-so-slight smile never quite disappears, but it's a close thing. His eyes – it's always the eyes – narrow for a moment as he revaluates her place on the board in his head.

"Quite so."

They both know he didn't come here to save anybody. He allowed whoever it was to give the order, and then he arrived – right on time – to snap up the most valuable pieces of Marcus's organisation.

He's here to recruit her.

"It would appear I'm in the market for a new employer." Elain smiles, just for the look of the thing.

"I do however, have one condition."

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Which is how Elain Waters finds herself with an entire network of spies at her fingertips, all to find out who killed some insignificant fence from King's Landing.

She does.

Bethany Lannister. Originally Bethany Clegane, the long lost – presumed long dead – sister of Sandor and Gregor Clegane. Her resurfacing a few years ago might have caused something of a stir if five kings weren't, at the time, all trying their very best to murder one other. Nobody cared when the beautiful, but politically unimportant, Clegane girl fell in love with a Lannister of equally minor standing.

Their wedding was noted by nobody.

Nobody, Elain realised, except for Marcus, who'd received the news, looked into matters, and had spotted the telltale signs of a fellow grifter.

'Bethany' was from Flea Bottom.

A slum kid with no name, no money and no power who'd prettied herself up and pulled off one of the most daring cons in all the seven kingdoms.

And it worked.

And then, after having Marcus killed for trying to blackmail her, it'd worked some more.

"Holy shit."

"I'll admit" chimed Varys. "My own reaction carried a similar sentiment."

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Notes:

Things which might not have been clear:

Gregor and Sandor actually did have a sister in cannon who is supposed to have died under mysterious circumstances (probably Gregor). I though this might add a bit of actual plot to the DOS/GOT crossover. Something which didn't happen in cannon but could have.

Elain's condition for working with Varys is that he supplies her with information on Marcus's killer. He didn't know who did it and is genuinely surprised at the information. In the meantime, aside from serving as another of his spies, Elain also functions as Varys's very own Bronn. Someone who can employ violence, but who also knows when not to, is exactly the kind of person Varys in particular would appreciate and is in short supply of.

I have no idea if or when I'll continue, but we've made it to season 3.5 more or less, so that's not bad. If I don't continue but enough people ask, then I'll post what would have happened. Hopefully it won't come to that though.