– Shall I leave you with a riddle, Lord Tyrion? -He didn’t wait for the answer-. In a room there are three men of great importance: a king, a priest and a rich man. In front of them stands a mercenary, an unimportant man of low birth and an unsharp mind. Each of the big ones wants me to kill the others.
>>-Kill them -says the king-, because I am your legitimate ruler.
>>-Kill them -says the priest-: I order it in the name of the gods.
>>-Kill them -says the rich man-, and all this gold will be yours.
And tell me… Who lives and who dies?
{….} After several weeks {….}
“I’ve given it some thought,” Tyrion acknowledged. The king, the priest, the rich man… Who lives and who dies? Who will the swordsman obey? It is a riddle without an answer; rather, with too many answers. It all depends on what the man with the sword is like.
“But in reality, the man with the sword is nobody,” Varys pointed out. He has no crown, no gold, no favor from the gods, only a sharp piece of steel.
-That piece of steel is the power of life and death.
-Exact. But, if the one who really governs us is the man at arms, why do we pretend that it is our kings who have the power? Why would a strong man with a sword ever consider obeying a boy king like Joffrey, or a drunken idiot like his father?
-Because those child kings and those drunk idiots can call other strong men, with other swords.
-Then it would be those other warriors who would actually have the power. Or not? from where are their swords going out? Why do they obey? -Varys smiled-. There are those who say that knowledge is power. There are those who say that power derives from the gods. Others say that power is given by the law
[….]
-Are you going to tell me the answer to the damn riddle or do you just want to make my headache worse? -Tyrion tilted his head to the side.
“Okay,” said Varys, smiling again, “there it goes: power resides where men believe it resides.” No more no less.
-So, power is a farce?
“A shadow on the wall,” Varys murmured. But the shadows can kill. And sometimes a very small man can cast a very large shadow.
