Chapter 2

The Pride

The Hand of the King was dead and all of King'slanding mourned. The great, Jon Arryn of the Vale was no more. What remained was a city without a ruler, a ship without a captain one might say. A fever in the night had burned the guts of the old Lord Paramount and by morning the bells rang their cold tune.

The nobles heard the news first. First as whispers floating about and then a herald at court. A tension built among the nobles from the news of the second most powerful piece in the game being knocked off the table. To these black hearts a vacuum had appeared and all of them had every intention to fill their piece of it. Act, they could not however. Not while the King mourned and raged at the so the snakes waited for their turn, and dressed for the dead, and ate for the dead, and cried for the dead, and did all the things expected of them at the passing of a great man such as Jon Arryn.

Of course there were those nobles whom needed not pander to the rules of the game. Very few to be true and very foolish to the eyes of the watchers. Tyrion Lannister was one such man. With only a 'My condolences your grace' to the heartbroken king, he carried on with his day as if nothing had changed. No one's death could stop the imp from his lechery and his debauchery, dare he say it not even his fathers death could do that.

Brothels and exquisite ones at that, was where one might find the smallest Lannister as the people at court mourned. After all for the common folk the news was a hiccup in their day and business continued as usual. He fed of plump breasts, embraced tight cunts and washed it all down with only the most expensive wine. In between such delights the dwarf of Lannister collected and practiced peculiar magic. The markets of King'slanding were perfect for this particular hobby for theirs was a city buzzing with trade from all over the known world.

The Merchants shouted for the famous dwarfs attention and even more for his coin. The gold of Casterly Rock attraction them to the half-man, same as the whores he engorged in. He made his way passed stalls ignoring those that were meaningless to him and laughing at those that were beneath him. Here and there some would interest him but not for long and not in the way he desired. Alas a few hours into his search he found what he was looking for near the street of steel.

"Come my lord, come. Precious wares I have for you today!" Spoke the lucky merchant selling at the stall.

"Yes my good man. What do you have for me?" asked Tyrion curious of the man's magical wares.

"Only the best Essosi crafts, here my lord an enchanted necklace. This one will make you invisible to the eyes of the world. All yours for only three gold pieces." The merchant advertised, pitching a well crafted silver triangle with a soul crystal in the center.

"Oh, and how much charge do these trinkets have? Not much by the looks of it. Show me something special and I'll make it worth your while."

"Something special you say? Well I have just the thing for you my lord. This way my lord." The man moved from the stall notifying a guard to watch the stall as he led Tyrion to a house behind the stall. Inside the house was filled with containers with spices and wares sold by the merchants. Inside a room that looked like it was slept in the man dug out a small box made out of metal and handed it to the dwarf.

"Here is your special my lord. A Magisters wand made of Ibbenese whale bone. You will find no conducter of magic better than that one this side of the Narrow Sea."

"I'll admit this is a fine piece of workmanship but hardly the type of special I was looking for. Find me something better and I will buy both. I already have a wand but a spare wouldn't be amiss." Tyrion shiwed the man his own wand made of gold with perfect calligraphed script written around it.

"Yes, my lord. Of course I have just the thing." This time the merchant found a finely crafted flying broom made out wood with red hairs.

"This must be a joke, everybody knows these things are near useless for anything but racing. Do I look like a racer to you. By the seven know your audience man."

"No my lord. You can fly for hours on this one. Days even!" The merchant barked desperately in hopes of getting the sale.

"You must be out of special items if your previous confidence has been reduced to flat out lying." Tyrion laughed as the merchant tried to defend himself when a book caught his eye.

"And what is that my good man? Don't lie now or else I will simply leave." Tyrion asked about the thick tome on his eye.

"Oh that, it is only a book. I have not had it appraised yet. I got it from a sailor two days ago." The man answered nervously.

"What type of sailor would have a tome like this I wonder?" Tyrion's mismatched eyes stared deeply in those of the merchant daring him to be dishonest.

"Oh that. It was, um, a pirate my lord. But not here of course I got it in the savage Essosi cities no pirates can be found in great Westeros!"

"Yes, I'm sure two days ago you were nowhere near Westeros. Neither were your wits apparently." Mocked Tyrion as the merchant panicked at being caught out for his lie. "Lucky for you I very much enjoy books. Ten pieces for both that is my final offer."

"Deal! They are yours for 10 pieces my lord. Yes, a very good deal, very good my lord." Stars gleamed in the merchants eyes from the sale. To him the book meant nothing after all finding a trustworthy appraiser would take time, time which was costly and wouldn't feed him today.

Tyrion was happy too. The wand was finely made and very conductive as the merchant had promised though it wasn't as effective as the one he'd been gifted by his uncle Gerion. A masterpiece made with the legendary Goldscript magic of house Lannister. Naturally organic matter conducted better than any mineral, and gold being the most conductive of the minerals. House Lannister had Mastered the crafting and enchanting of gold, all thanks to the limitless stores of gold mimed at the rock. Tyrions wand was worth two times a mans weight in gold. However the tome was the real prize in his eyes.

The tome was seemingly made by Otorys Revyngar a notorious conjurer of demons from Tyrosh. Tyrion was well read on the brightest and darkest magicians of the ages and Otorys made that list. Like most Essosi nobles the man had shamelessly practised blood magic, using slaves to experiment and learn the most dangerous of magics. Unlike most Essosi nobles the man was able to fully control the abominations he conjured and used them many times to fight in the contested lands. His end unsurprisingly had come when he'd attempted to raise a Dragon from the demon world as the ancient Valeryans had done millennia ago.

The man had reached levels of magical power few could ever reach, capable of raising entire plattoons of monsters. Tyrion was eager to see if this tome would explain how he'd done it. The tome was worth more than Tyrion had paid no matter the content. Otorys's work was priceless.

With his business in the market finished the dwarf returned to the Red Keep where he rested his head. The Maiden's Vault dining hall was already set with food for the royal family when he arrived. Tommen and Myrcella were chatting playfully as they ate while Jaime and Cercei devilishly conspired with one another.

"Ahh, good day to you family, how I have missed you." Tyrion said announcing his presence to the dining family. Ruining the picture of the young doppelgangers of the elder two.

"The day has passed, it is evening now. You should not influence my children with your juvenile tendencies." Spat the queen

"Oh, how you wound me sister. I consider my tendencies to be of liberation of both spirit and body."

"And you brother, do you consider me a juvenile as well? Coming in, it was easy to see the closeness of the Lannister twins. Tell me you don't think the same as our sister in this."

"I'm afraid so brother. There is no greater juvinile in the whole world than you. Dare I say, you are the grand juvinile of the seven kingdoms." Jaime answered with a lough behind each word.

"So the both of you are in allegiance in this. I shall beg the wisest of us all to advocate my innocence. Princess won't you defend your humble uncle."

"Sorry nuncle, you truly are the greatest juvenile." Myrcella answered with a grin, enjoying the table banter.

"Tommen my gold hearted prince won't you defend your favourite uncle?"

"No one will defend you, stunted fool. You are an embarrassment to the house Lannister. Nothing anyone can do will excuse you from that." Answered Prince Joffery as he entered the hall.

"Favorite nephew, how good of you to join us. I wasn't enjoying myself at all without you here." Sarcastically answered Tyrion earning him snickers from the younger children at Joffery's expense.

The dinner continued in this vein with Joffery being rude to his uncle and Tyrion sarcastically responding to his barbs, entertaining the younger children and The twins whispering to each other in the background. Cercie was the first to leave the dinner and like clockwork Jaime excused himself as well. Joffery soon ran out of steam and left after snapping from Tyrions sarcasm. Tyrion with the maids helped Myrcella and Tommen get to bed and then returned to his own rooms.

The rest of the night Tyrion spent reading the tome he'd just bought. The tome was in fact a grimoir for the demons of another plane. Most of the spells needed sacrifices of human flesh to even work nevermind control but Tyrion found one that intrigued him. Deadra Impys the title read, demon monkey was the translation. A term his dear Sister often called her younger brother. The irony was too good for Tyrion to not attempt the summon especially as the it required no sacrificing of life. With a thorough read of the spell Tyrion drew the initial pictogram seal of the summon on the ground with chalk and began reciting the spell. "Undo Megare, Deadra Impys. Kunjoh, Deadra Impys." He chanted repeatedly as he fed pure magic into the summoning circle. With a puff of smoke the creature was summoned. A grey monkey with green fur and two straight horns on its head stood before him. The two stared at each other curious of the other.

The Dwarf moved to feel the manifestation but before he could the monkey screamed and jumped about the room looking for escape. "Stop monkey!" Tyrion commanded of the monkey ruining his apartments. Having no respite from the childish demon he tried to brake the seal but it did nothing. Realising his mistake of not reading instructions of how to dispel or control the creature Tyrion pulled out his wand and focussed pure magic into a bullet and fired at the destructive monkey's head spilling blue blood all over the room. The monkey was dead and his room was a mess. Too tired from the day Tyrion ignored the mess and went to bed. His last thoughts before he slept was of how much of a juvenile he was and how happy he was to be.