Chapter 56

Things continued to go quite smoothly with the Boys after that, as their Parents weren't mad enough to oppose an Invitation into the service of a Great House, though you did feel that they had a problem with how eager the Boys were to finally get started. You on the other Hand really didn't fault your new Companions for their lack of control, though you did decide that they weren't ready to meet your Father like this for quite some time. Thus, you decided that you would need to allow them a few Weeks to adjust a bit to the Rock before you would throw your Father at them.

You loved him from the Bottom of your Heart, but he truly wasn't made to play around with Children that weren't his own, which was now quite annoying since the three of them were far too talented to not catch the attention of your Father. But that being said, Antos, Tilon and Maltor were young, too young, and while you were certain that they would sooner or later manage to cross Paths with your Father as was normal. You really didn't want to risk anything seeing as they were more or less normal Children unlike you and Marie, meaning any Damage to their Minds and mental State may be permanent.

Concerns like these weren't usually something you wasted your time on, but the same things you told Marie so long ago still applied to the Brothers, especially since they didn't have her enhanced Charisma that could just sweep away all those problems. But you had now five People in your Retinue, not just two, and all of them were Commoners, with four of them being still Children, yeah, anyone could guess what the majority of your Father's Vassals would think about that, and how harsh they would treat the Boys as a Result.

But you were sure that your Mother would understand your concerns, so you silently left the Brothers to their Weight Training and made your way to the Gardens to see if she would have some Ideas for how to keep your Father away from the Boys while they were still mentally vulnerable. It felt weird to put it like that, but it genuinely seemed like your Father would be able to intimidate a fully grown Lion with his presence alone, so it really wasn't something that you wished didn't exist, it was just hard to contain.

It's an awesome Ability that you couldn't match to this Day, for most of the time when someone stopped you in your last Life you were required to show what would happen to your Enemies again and again to get the Point across. Yes, one could say you were genuinely jealous of your Father, which was something you had never felt when you were still free to conquer in your last Life. But this only drove you on to improve that Aspect of yours, for it was absolutely beyond you why so many People see Jealousy as something bad, given that trying to suppress it would just be disingenuous and would lead you nowhere.

With those Thoughts in Mind you wondered if you should integrate the many uses of Jealousy into your Lessons, but you decided quickly against it, brilliant or not they were still Brothers and you didn't trust yourself that you could fix the Bond between Siblings from the Outside if it were to break. You weren't perfect, just like the rest of Humanity, hence you had a decent Number of your Shortcomings that could be found in matters concerning Emotions, which made it hard to properly evaluate the Risks and Returns in these Situations. It was a Weakness to be sure, but you had little Interest in fixing it, seeing as it provided you with a good Reason to not tempt Fate when you found a way to be more efficient.

It was a largely harmless Flaw that you used to gain greater Strength by preserving such a glaring Weakness to make sure you would remain properly grounded, and your progress driven by said grounded Mind and passive Jealousy and Desire should be obvious. For while, you certainly didn't have the Presence of your Father, you still had improved massively since the time of the Water-Elemental debacle and the whole matter with the six Guards that you killed that Day for being denser than Lead. You supposed that many Sheep might be born by embracing Negative Emotions, but you truly couldn't see anything else that would explain why no one seems to openly use said Emotions, and most People didn't even understand what you actually meant by Sheep, so that didn't make much Sense did it?

Why would People focus on achieving all kinds of Positive Emotions and then turn around and act all bothered by the use of Negative Emotions, isn't the turning of something bad into something good the best thing one can do, similar to how corrupting something pure is seen as the worst thing one can do? You didn't know why you thought of all this madness corrupting the World when you simply wished to speak with your Mother about your Father, but you guessed that it didn't really matter seeing as it wasn't anything new, so you simply refocused on finding out if you could buy the Boys some time to hopefully adjust and impress your Father.

Sadly your Mother was rather unsatisfied with your limited and sporadic Visits, so the Price for her help was quite high in Terms of how much time you would have to spend with her, she wanted to play with you for a whole Month, what madness. You weren't even allowed to bring anyone but your Knights along, so you would have to give Marie some Work to make sure she wasn't digging her own Grave somewhere while you were wasting your time drinking Tea.

But nothing you tried to shorten the time worked on her, and you finally had to give up when you heard that your pushing got you the Position of the Stuffed Animal for the Month she would be staying in your Chamber. It was a surprisingly dirty Move by her seeing as you could guess your Father's Reaction to sleeping a Month without her, and you were sure that no one would want to Work near him in that State of Stress. Not even you, for you still had Plans with your Life, honestly, your Mother could be such a Meanie when she wanted to be, it must be the Lannister Blood.