[Phase 2] Have to keep faith

Theomore never quite considered himself a gambler, though he did many things in the hope that the uncertain outcome would swing to his favor, preferably things that would result in something he could use no matter how the pieces would fall together. This seemed more like a venture that never would lead to anything, but he owed it to many, himself among them, to make the attempt regardless. Besides, all he risked was a polite decline, trust was easy to break and hard to make. Though lady Gwyneth might be the sort to give him one chance to prove that the man he used to be still existed, though the one most strongly in need of such proof was himself. Nothing to do but keeping faith in it though and take one thing at a time, first step to find her and see if he might have a word.

Gyweneth was easy to find at least. She was playing the social butterfly around the Red Keep, chatting amiably with the other ladies and painting herself as a pleasant but perhaps somewhat naive young woman...not a difficult task as the gentry of King's Landing were inclined to think that way of minor Houses anyway. She played into that, into their vanity, with a bumpkin's wide-eyed admiration of the opulence and grandeur of the city and keep, and raptly listening to the tales the ladies told...all the while listening even more carefully to what was not spoken of.

She spotted Theomore from across the courtyard, noted him approaching her, and quickly apologized and excused herself from the other ladies before it was too apparent. Then she crossed past the manicured paths and favored Theomore with a bright, cheerful smile as she curtsied.

"Ser Tullison! It's mad that our lands are so close, but we have to come to King's Landing to meet. Come walk with me, I must hear all your news."

Her arm was offered, and she motioned with her head just a little towards one of the less-populated paths off away from the others. There, perhaps, they could speak with some privacy.

"That, my lady, would keep us talking long into the morning hours." Theomore replies the curtsy with a bow, and he is quick to respond to her offered arm without pause, a man was expected to make these initiatives and a lady was not, but his sense of propriety had always been flexible. "And I think Mushroom provoked enough insults and duels for us to add to the amount of entertainment by spending the night catching up for lost time." His way of saying such things with a straight and rather inscrutable face and tone is hardly unfamiliar, Theomore never pushed anything except the limits of propriety, and even then it had mostly seen as a way to ease tensions and make others loosen up and laugh. His charm could be a force of good, though he wasn't known at Mountain's Reach for restraining it either, more than one young woman had loosened up more than just a little.

"The more important parts have reached my lady's ears I suspect."

"So my vanity would have me think," Gwyn replied with a smile, "Yet here you are. You're not one to seek me for idle conversation, after all. Hmm...perhaps here."

She glanced around. There were people in sight, but not so close as to easily overhear. Disappearing entirely with a man of Theo's...reputation...might not be a great thing for her standing.

"Now...what shall we talk about then?"

"If it were not for the time and place, my lady, idle conversation would be most welcome." Theomore enjoyed that sort, but this was King's Landing on the brink of war, he would steal such moments where he could, but she had cut to the heart of it. "And we do have too many words unsaid I think, but even now, ships are prepared to sail to many places, to secure victory in a war fought to forestall another" Theomore shakes his head, it was all rather futile. A war to win friends, experience and renown for the next one to come. It would only serve to harden the knights of summer. Tempered in the forge of battle. "The king would have us all united." A foolish notion, but that thought he hides well. "And yet, I hear rumors of those fanning the flames of faith, I shall not claim to know their motivations my lady, but I take issue with the intended results their acts seems to bring."

"It does seem curious," Gwyneth replied, nodding. "I don't see much tangible gain for local factions coming from religious unrest. We can't rule out foreign agents though, sowing chaos."

"Or, come to that, it may be some remnants of the Faith Militant, though I'd expect them to be keeping a lower profile these days."

She shrugged. "Speculation is idle. I intend to look into the matter...and from your words now, I gather you intend the same?"

"Indeed I do, my lady." Theomore nods. "It does not sound like the Faith Militant, no. Someone sympathetic to them perhaps, or someone hoping to use the fervor of a mob to wreak havoc upon his enemies, a foreign agent would likely be the most dangerous. There were enough blood on the streets when Ser Vaemond's brothers and sons tried to cut their way to the docks."