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Hamiathes's Gift Exchange 2025
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Published:
2025-09-24
Words:
567
Chapters:
1/1
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15
Kudos:
18
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Blind Spot

Summary:

She is learning intrigue and spycraft well, his young queen. But she still trusts too much.

or

A scheming session between Attolia and her Secretary of the Archives is also an opportunity for him to assess and teach.

Notes:

A treat for shrimp_chips, who wanted to see Irene and Relius in the early years of her reign.

Work Text:

“The ships pass by this port here.” Relius tapped the map. His young queen leaned over the desk, only her lively eyes betraying her keen attention. Her face was skillfully expressionless. 

He was proud of her. 

“This road,” Attolia said, tracing it with her finger just barely hovering over the paper. “It goes to the town where the olive harvesters from the burned area are coordinating resources, yes?”

“Where you are coordinating resources for them,” Relius corrected. Attolia was still far too reluctant to assert dominion over the goings-on in her country. He had impressed upon her many times the importance of exact wording in such things.

She didn’t outwardly acknowledge the correction. “Then it would be perfectly logical to divert supplies from a ship passing by that port. Salt fish and grain, I think.”

Relius nodded, pleased. “If we time the message to the portmaster correctly, the Baron Ithyacthes’s ships will be the next to pass. The portmaster will bring them in without any particular instruction needed.”

“And it will be only fair to the baron for royal workers to handle taking the supplies off the ship. We wouldn’t want to inconvenience the baron’s crew.” A small smile briefly flickered over her face.

“Naturally, the crown will compensate the baron for the supplies…” Relius led her.

“But the royal messenger won’t carry those moneys on the road,” Attolia picked up smoothly. “The captain will need to disembark to discuss this and receive instructions for how the baron can collect that compensation directly, leaving the unloading of the ship under the supervision of the first mate, who is uninvolved with the baron’s scheming and as such won’t know to obstruct a subtle search.”

“As of our last report the mate appears to be uninvolved,” Relius corrected.

“Yes,” Attolia accepted. “Even if I did fully trust the reports,” which Relius was trying desperately to train her out of, “The situation could have changed.”

“And if the search finds nothing?”

“The olive harvesters get relief supplies while they rebuild in a new area of the Sea of Olives, which they, the townsfolk, and the port crew will remember. Ithyacthes gets inconvenienced in a way he cannot complain about without making himself unsympathetic to the okloi and minor patronoi.”

Relius nodded, offering no corrections or additions. She was learning this well, his queen. 

A knock at the door had Attolia turning away from the table, and Relius hid a wince. 

There were some situations in which putting someone in her blind spot was unavoidable. In one of those situations, better Relius than someone whose continued safety and prosperity were less closely linked to hers, but this was not such a situation. Had she stepped backward to her left to turn, instead of forward to her right, she would have unobtrusively kept Relius in sight. As it was, his right side and arm were outside her field of view unless she noticeably turned her head. 

He jabbed the back of a pen into her side, just hard enough for her to notice. 

She didn’t flinch, but an embarrassed flush, just barely visible to Relius’s attentive eyes, spread over her face and then faded.

“Enter,” he called, once his queen’s mask of calm was back in place.

She still had more to learn, but it would be alright. Relius would teach her caution. For now, he would be distrustful for them both.