The Queen was the Queen, after all. Even if she had been kept completely in the dark like a fool, she remained the object of everyone's loyalty.
Daenerys's desire to find the true culprit and bring them to justice was so strong that, even though Aegor had already declared the matter a cold case, her subordinates dared not skip any step. Under her orders and leadership, the Gift Army high command was tasked with executing the investigation, while two of the Queen's Guard were assigned to assist and supervise. The temporary investigation team was granted the highest authority, equivalent to royal command, allowing them to carry out a thorough search across Winterfell without restriction.
As the most important prop and physical evidence in this grand performance, the perfect toxicological characteristics of the "Stranger's Kiss" were a vital foundation for the entire plan to proceed. However, although this poison had been both formulated and named by Qyburn, it was not his exclusive secret. Back when he had still been an energetic Maester, Qyburn had originally sought to develop a medicine to save lives. But by accident, he had instead created a deadly poison of shocking lethality. At the time, still considering himself an "excellent healer," he hadn't thought much of it. He simply followed Citadel convention and reported his discovery, registering all the physical, chemical, and toxicological properties in the records.
This unintentional act now became a major loophole for Aegor. If he tried to conceal the poison's origin, he might deceive people temporarily, but it would only bring disaster once someone discovered the truth.
Since it couldn't be hidden, Aegor simply bypassed the issue with a crude but effective strategy: he had Qyburn "identify" the poison himself and then "discover with surprise" that it was one of his own stolen concoctions.
In doing so, the focus of the investigation naturally shifted from "finding the source of the poison" to "finding the person who stole it." From there, the events could follow the planned script.
Aegor's rough plan looked like this:
[
After separate questioning, investigators would obtain two batches of testimony. The first was from guards who claimed to have seen someone loitering near Maester Qyburn's chambers two days before the incident. The second came from kitchen staff, who said they saw someone dressed similarly near both the Stark wine cellar and the Gift Army kitchen the day before the poisoning.
The common detail in both—no, in both batches—of these accounts was that the person seen had been wearing Northman-style clothing, with what appeared to be the flayed man sigil of House Bolton on the chest.
Up to this point, all signs pointed to the Boltons. However, the investigation leader, Harvey, would then raise a critical point of doubt. While seeing a Bolton soldier outside Qyburn's chambers might be understandable, the problem was that by the day before the incident, when the suspicious figure was seen near the wine cellar, the Bolton soldiers had already been ordered by the Queen to remain in their camp under guard, due to the incident fabricated by Petyr involving a false rape accusation.
A deeper investigation would confirm Harvey's suspicion: on neither the day before nor the day of the incident did any Bolton soldier enter Winterfell through the main gate.
So either all the witnesses had lied—which was technically true, though few would think of it—or the Gift Army's garrison had failed to notice intruders scaling two walls and crossing a moat to infiltrate the castle—which was impossible—or someone inside Winterfell had disguised themselves as Bolton men, intending to frame Roose Bolton.
To convince others of the third scenario, a new twist would be revealed at just the right moment: during a search of the inner and outer castle, someone would discover a fresh pile of ashes in the corner of the old courtyard near the tower where Bran Stark had once fallen. In the scorched remnants, half a burned garment bearing the flayed man sigil would be faintly visible.
Someone had destroyed evidence.
With the situation escalating, a new round of searches and interrogations would begin. But this time, no matter how thoroughly Winterfell was turned upside down, no more witnesses or clues would be found. Since the "evidence" never truly existed, there was nothing more to uncover. The investigation would stall here... and after two days of no progress, Aegor would "finally awaken," and despite his lingering illness, take control of the situation, guiding the case to its dramatic conclusion.
]
That was the plan.
Though somewhat rushed, the script had accounted for every critical detail. As for the unplanned pieces, they could be figured out while Aegor remained in his feigned coma, or simply left to his subordinates to improvise. After all, the purpose of having underlings was not needing to do everything yourself.
In a contest with someone of Varys's caliber, winning at all was a stroke of fortune. Waiting for everything to be perfectly in place before acting, hoping for a flawless victory, would only lead to endless delays caused by unpredictable accidents. That sort of hesitation would end with regret and missed opportunities.
An incomplete plan was bound to face unforeseen events. All conspirators involved had mentally prepared for such surprises. What they had not expected was that the real disruption would appear at a completely unanticipated stage, and in a manner they could never have foreseen.
...
The nonexistent culprit was actually found.
Here was how it happened: the first act of the investigation, according to the original script, was to "trace the source of the poison." Naturally, that began with the kitchen workers and servers who had handled the food and wine. Originally, this was meant to be a routine process, with those individuals cleared quickly. After all, Aegor had already arranged for the poison's source to be traced to the wine cellar, not the kitchen.
But during questioning, several kitchen staff began behaving strangely—avoiding eye contact, speaking hesitantly—which raised suspicions.
Yes, the investigation was staged. But only Aegor, Harvey, and a few top officers knew that. The Queen's side, as well as the Gift Army's middle officers and investigators, were in the dark. Loyal to their Lord Commander and motivated to secure their own standing, they pursued the case with full seriousness. When they noticed the suspicious behavior, how could they not detain and interrogate those involved?
Thus, the first act of the script went off course. A large group of innocent kitchen staff were arrested and questioned aggressively. The investigation veered into the "wrong" direction.
Aegor initially thought his subordinates were making false arrests, so he instructed Harvey to step in and stop it. What was strange was that—before Harvey could act—the interrogations yielded a result. The arrested staff all confessed to the same name: Ezzan.
The name was unfamiliar even to Aegor. He recalled hearing it only once, two days ago, when this man reported Arya for wandering through the castle armed with a sword, which had led to her mistaken detention.
Compared to the Gift Army, Ezzan was part of the Queen's camp. But Daenerys didn't know him at all. He was a subordinate brought in by Varys, nominally serving as the Master of Whisperers' assistant and secretary. Taking advantage of the time when both Aegor and Petyr were focused on Varys, he had quietly worked his way through the ranks, befriending and recruiting lower-level personnel in the Gift Army without raising suspicion.
When The Gift reported their findings to the Queen's Guard Lord Commander, Black Shell arrived at once with a group of Unsullied to arrest him.
Then came the twist. Ezzan was caught in the act—dumping bottles and jars. These were later examined by the Queen's Maester and confirmed to be poisons of various kinds.
As assistant to the Master of Whisperers, it was perhaps reasonable for him to possess such substances. Just as Harvey and Aegor were trying to find a way to bring the situation back on script, an even bigger surprise struck. After being arrested by the Unsullied, Ezzan, unable to withstand the interrogation, managed to take a hidden poison sewn into his clothes. He committed suicide without saying a word.
The poison he used to kill himself was not "Stranger's Kiss," nor was it found among the poisons he had tried to dispose of. He made no confession and revealed no master. But in committing suicide this way, it was like having mud in your breeches—whether or not it was dung, it looked like it.
If Aegor didn't know for a fact that he was the true culprit, even he would have believed Ezzan was guilty.
---
In a quiet room where only two people remained, the mastermind—supposedly still unconscious—sat up in bed in his nightclothes, sipping hot soup to replenish his strength. While listening to the report, he was caught between confusion and disbelief, unsure whether to be alarmed or amused.
"We didn't have a hand in the arrest or interrogation of Ezzan, right?"
"It's Ezzan. If you mean actual involvement, then absolutely not," Harvey answered. "Per your orders, we divided responsibilities with the Queen's Guard. We handled suspects from the Gift, they handled the rest. The boundaries were clear. We didn't overstep, to avoid tension. From arrest to interrogation to suicide, the Gift Army only observed. No one laid a finger on him. Even his meals came from the Unsullied kitchens."
"Very good." Aegor nodded. More than good, it was perfect. This way, Daenerys would never suspect that The Gift had framed him, or silenced him.
In fact, they hadn't. Aegor had intended from the start to turn the case cold, not frame anyone. From the initial witness reports to the fabricated physical evidence, and even the unexpected suicide, The Gift had neither tampered with nor intervened in anything. They were clean.
But that only made it more baffling. Since they hadn't done anything, how had a scapegoat fallen into their laps?
Things like this didn't just happen.
Frowning, Aegor questioned Harvey further, piecing together all the scattered details. As the picture came together, a much larger, more elaborate scheme began to take shape. An invisible hand had guided this outcome.
Ezzan's real goal had been to bribe the kitchen staff and poison the Northern lords during the feast at Winterfell, wiping out the entire gathering.
At first, Aegor had been puzzled about how Varys planned to escape after such an act. But then he realized: destruction was always easier than creation. Unlike Aegor, Varys had no personal power base. He had no concern for casualties among Daenerys's camp. In fact, the more losses she suffered, the better. He didn't even care about avoiding suspicion.
Varys had likely hoped that Aegor, Petyr, the Stark family, and all the Northern lords would perish. The North would believe Daenerys had hosted a treacherous feast. The Gift Army would think the Starks had retaliated. The Unsullied would be busy protecting Daenerys amid the chaos.
The entire castle would descend into madness. Who would have the time or ability to investigate?
If the plan had worked, Daenerys would instantly lose both The Gift and the North. Petyr would be removed. With no rivals left, Varys could control both the position of Master of Whisperers and Hand of the King. And with Daenerys weakened, her union with Aegon and the Golden Company would become inevitable.
Aegor and Petyr had long suspected Varys would make trouble during the Lord's Assembly. They simply hadn't imagined how far the eunuch had been prepared to go. This had been no mere scheme to stir dissent—it was an all-in gamble.
Ezzan, who had poisoned himself in silence, wasn't a scapegoat. He had simply failed to act in time. Like a seasoned fighter caught off guard by a wild, unorthodox punch, he had been beaten by sheer coincidence.
And so, the blame for the poisoning incident had landed squarely on the wrong man—who just happened to deserve it anyway.
(To be continued.)
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