At the end of each day, Varys would gather and summarize the messages brought by his "little birds."
From the lords and nobles of the court to the members of the royal family, no one was beyond his surveillance.
[The queen ate more fruit than usual today.]
[Viserys went to the rookery and released three ravens.]
[Ser Willem, the master-at-arms, and Viserys visited the queen together.]
[Today, Viserys wandered around the Red Keep, passing places like Maegor's Holdfast, the Tower of the Hand, the White Sword Tower, and the gardens...]
The movements of every important figure within the Red Keep never escaped Varys' eyes.
"Viserys again?"
After piecing together all the information, Varys sharply sensed that something was off about Viserys.
As the Master of Whisperers, he was, of course, aware that Aerys had ordered another mass execution, killing hundreds. What he didn't expect was that Viserys seemed to have been involved.
How old was he? Barely older than Varys' little birds.
To Varys, those children—those whose tongues had been cut out—were expendable tools.
And yet now, it was one of these "tools" who made him feel a trace of unease. There was also something that didn't make sense—how did Viserys know how to use ravens?
Varys was familiar with training ravens; he secretly kept some of his own.
Using a raven wasn't as simple as just tying a message to its leg and letting it fly. You needed to know how to teach the bird where to fly and which direction to take.
In the same castle, two people were troubled by each other.
...
Meanwhile, Viserys was studying the essences he had obtained. All the essences were red in color. But their shades varied in intensity.
The ones from regular soldiers were lighter, while those from elite troops were much deeper. He chose to fuse the essences from the regular archers, which he had the most of.
Five light red essences merged into one darker red essence. The message he received was [Elite Archer].
"Oh, five regulars equal one elite?"
"Then what about five elites?"
Viserys, thrilled by the further development of his cheat-like power, eagerly continued experimenting. He fused five Elite Archer essences, and this time obtained a new, even brighter and deeper red essence—Warrior Archer.
But this fusion had cost him twenty-five elite essences. He could have continued, but Viserys decided to stop for now.
"It looks like my cheat is meant to push me into warfare—the more enemies I kill, the more essences I can collect."
Realizing this, Viserys' mind began to shape a rough plan.
And he hadn't even unlocked the full potential of his ability yet. There was still the [Transfer] option, currently greyed out and unavailable.
"Let's absorb this Warrior essence first!"
As he absorbed it, the brilliant red essence vanished, and countless memories of archery practice flooded into his mind.
When he opened his eyes again, the world around him seemed clearer. When the curtains fluttered in the breeze, it appeared to move in slow motion to him.
Even...
Viserys clenched his fist and noticed a significant increase in strength.
Though still young, his body now had the power of a grown man.
At least enough to easily draw a war bow capable of lethal force. And the essence hadn't even fully unleashed its potential yet; part of it was still dormant, waiting to be unlocked.
In that case... Viserys' gaze fell on the dragonbone bow hanging on the wall, black as the night sky.
Even though Varys knew the Red Keep inside and out, there was something he certainly didn't know. He absolutely didn't know Viserys wanted to kill him.
Nor did he know Viserys dared to kill him. And he definitely didn't know Viserys could kill him.
Viserys leaned out of his window and looked down. His room was on the second floor, right above the queen's ballroom. Even if he jumped directly, with his current strength, he wouldn't be hurt.
Besides, he was leaving King's Landing at dawn.
He decided to deal with Varys in the simplest and most brutal way.
The sun was nearly set, and there was still some time before bat-hour. To maximize the bow's power, he replaced the bowstring with a thicker one.
But just then, someone knocked at his door.
Opening it, he found one of his mother's handmaidens. "Your Highness, the queen requests you to accompany her for rest."
'Tch—why now?'
He didn't panic, and quickly came up with a solution.
"Please tell my mother that I would love to accompany her," Viserys said sincerely, "but since we are leaving tomorrow, Rhaenys wishes to speak with me."
Being one of Queen Rhaella's closest handmaidens, she understood the implications without needing everything spelled out.
After sending her away, Viserys waited patiently until nightfall.
During bat-hour, the Red Keep was still bustling with servants. During eel-hour too, there were still many people moving about. He planned to wait until owl-hour.
By then, most people would be asleep.
Sure enough, his excuse worked. Rhaella didn't insist he come.
Time passed along with the beat of his heart.
Outside, the cooing of owls could faintly be heard. Viserys threw the bow down first, then jumped after it. His room was only five or six meters above the ground.
Thanks to his light body and the strength boost from the essence, his legs absorbed the fall with ease.
Just as he expected, he wasn't hurt at all.
After all, a prince sneaking around the castle with a bow strapped to his back would draw far too much attention. He might not even make it past Maegor's Holdfast.
With the bow slung over his back, the slight figure of Viserys slipped into the darkness.
However, he failed to notice that not long after he left, a stable boy sucking on his lips quietly tailed him. He was one of Varys' "little birds," assigned to watch over Viserys.
Since Varys' rise in the Red Keep, he had replaced many lowly servants—like stable boys and gong farmers—with his own people.
These inconspicuous figures provided Varys with great advantages.
The stable boy, lips pursed, followed Viserys and soon realized where he was headed. Varys' quarters. He had no idea what Viserys was planning.
Before long, both arrived outside Varys' window, one after the other.
The lights inside were still on. The stable boy wasn't surprised; Varys was always awake whenever he needed to report.
"What's he doing?"
The boy frowned in confusion. He watched as Viserys picked up a stone and threw it at the window. *CRACK!*
Startled by the noise, Varys opened the window to check.
What greeted him was a sharp arrow.
*FWOOSH—!* The poisoned arrow pierced straight through his head like a skewer of candied fruits. More than a decade of scheming and plotting vanished in an instant.