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“Pardon me, sir, but I think we’ve met before.”
It’s a young voice that interrupts his reading of the morning paper; he’d just reached a line about Lannister Corp shares dropping 20 points (a net loss of a thousand dragons a share) before the close of the trading day due to a rumor that they’d lost their monopoly of a valuable shipping lane from Lannisport to Old Valyria. It was patently untrue, but he’d needed the point drop to secure a dozen shares held by shell corporations in Braavos. He was close now, practically nipping at Tywin Lannister’s gold-plated heels.
He flips the top of the paper down to gaze upon this interloper, who dared to interrupt his morning routine.
Petyr started a bit in his chair when he realized she was not alone in her recognition. They’d met before, but where?
A delicious enough mystery that the Lannisters could wait until he’d solved it.
Petyr gestured to the chair across from him, “Please, sit. Perhaps if we work together, we can reach a satisfying conclusion.”
The girl blushed a little, the pink stains on her cheeks were most becoming, nicely complementing her red hair. She took the seat and settled her things around her. Her intent to stay herself awhile was clear.
“I’m not sure how to begin,” she said, “you’re a stranger, even if I do know you.”
Petyr smiled, charmed by her eagerness, “A game of questions, then? Or shall we start with introductions?”
She bit her lip, made a little shy by her faux pas of bypassing proper introductions before seating herself at his table, but he watched as she steeled herself against the momentary embarrassment.
“Questions, I think; though I’ll ask them direct. I’ve a feeling you’d twist any game to your advantage, and besides, our names will always be there, won’t they?”
“You’ve a quick mind. I like that in a person.”
“I’ll start then, shall I?”
Petyr nodded in agreement.
“Were we bacteria together in the primordial sludge?”
Petyr blinked, taken aback by the, admittedly, strange opening, but her question stirred him, the idea of the twined so indelibly. Still, a question needed an answer.
“I think I can safely say that all of us in this world were bacteria at one point. ‘From dust we come and to dust we shall return,’ after all.”