"And he's blaming it on us is he? Well...That will never do. You are sure of this information though?" Terrence frowned as his quill scratched across the parchment laid out on the table before him, bringing a hand up to run through his white hair.
"Quite sure of it Lord Septon, at least that is what I was told when I overheard a poor fellow being turned away by the guards. I spared him what coin I could, but I distinctly heard that it was our fault the toll was established."
Terrence shook his head. "No, no...This will not do, will not do at all..." His quill paused above the parchments, a frown creasing his face as he thought of just how he should put the situation.
"Brother, prepare parchment, and go the the market and buy as much as you can carry. If Lord Frey will not listen to reason, the people will be forced to listen to an exhortation read from the altars and chairs about the Riverlands."
The Brother nodded, dipping into a curt bow before heading off at a brisk trot. Terrence merely shook his head as he leant over the parchment once more, his white feather quill scribbling away. Perhaps it is good I have called this holy day, plenty of more brothers to scribble down my words.
To Lord Brynden Frey,
Peace in the Seven be with you Lord Frey, may their beneficence remain upon all who heed to their mercy. I write to you with most disturbing news that has reached my ears from more than one quarter regarding a certain toll you have placed upon the roads in the Riverlands.
Do not think, my pious Lord Paramount, that I question the right to charge a toll for passage upon the roads, nobody will argue that is above your privilege. I write to argue against the petty actions that my agents have reported you are taking against the Faith, and even against the Seven themselves by the words your men speak.
I would remind you most humbly my Lord Paramount, that the exemptions you did grant us were free of hand and of your own accord. It was not during the negotiations to relieve Harrenhal from your uncle's control that this exemption was made, but freely afterwards in the Sept of the Most Holy, before Their very eyes.
Therefore I do implore you to end the falsehoods and slanders which your men speak, to end the petty squabbles you do throw against me and my men. The exemptions you grant us do not go to our own benefit, as they might with another Lord. But to the benefit of the smallfolk and all loved by the Seven. I urge you, do not so hastily regress on the promises you have made.
For I do think that this ploy is no more than a gambit to try and turn the people away from us, AWAY FROM THEIR FAITH. Your actions serve not to take money from those traveling on business, but is designed in the mind to take from those poor pilgrims coming to seek the Seven's mercy, and even to turn them away should they not pay.
But by doing so, do you not harm them? For any money they do retain and tithe goes for the benefit of themselves and their children, and by robbing them of it at our fault you do take the money for your own lordly purposes, and away from being put to their wellbeing.
Humbly, most gracious Lord Paramount do I appeal you to remove this petty tax for the good of all souls, knowing full well that you do damn some to the depths of the hells by turning them away. The burden of guilt will rest upon you Lord Brynden.
Humbly,
Terrence paused, looking up to the man sitting uncomfortably in the chair across from him.
"You were a good friend of Lord Brynden's, were you not Lord Tylor? Always there to aid him and his cause, to raise him and protect him, am I correct?"
The man nodded his head, grunting as he sat up. He still looked dreadfully thin, yet unquestionably more healthy then when he had arrived in the Forks dirty, emaciated, and afflicted by an illness of the lungs.
"Funny, I would not have guessed with how lax Lord Frey has been in winning back your seat...Indeed he only wished to move upon it after I volunteered to ride forth myself and liberate it. And I can assure you it was not for love of you, but fear of the people loving me for my actions that he decided to march so."
He let the words hang in the air for a moment, scrawling his signature at the bottom of the parchment before sliding it and the quill across the table to Tylor.
"Perhaps it is time to continue his education...Show him he cannot so easily go back on his word, even if he tries to mask it in subtlety. Show him that to be a Lord Paramount, he must keep any oath he makes, especially to the Seven."
Tylor's eyes flitted between Terrence and the Parchment, glancing over to the curtain that hid the main body of the Sept from the sacristy. "You're telling the truth Septon? On all of this?"
Terrence nodded his head, smiling as he pushed the inkwell forward. "Would I ever lie Lord Tylor? After all...It is a sin. Rather like what Lord Frey is doing...And we can't let anyone sin, can we?"
He had gradually been leaning closer to Tylor as he spoke, his voice quieting with every inch. His green eyes seemed to glint in the dim flickering of the candle as they bored into Tylor.
"No...I suppose not." The Mallister picked up the quill, scrawling at the bottom of the parchment.
Septon Terrence Fossoway, Lord of the Forks and Voice of the People, granted by the pious benevolence of Lord Brynden Frey.
Lord Tylor Mallister,True* Lord of Seagard.*