“I hope you do not confuse mercy with pliancy,” Rhaenyra tells Mysaria in the latest episode of House of the Dragon. What does she mean?

On the newest episode of House of the Dragon, “The Burning Mill,” the spymaster Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno) bargains her way into an advisorship position under Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy), who’s currently at war with her half-brother Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) for the Iron Throne. Until recently, Rhaenyra regarded Mysaria with suspicion. Although it was under duress, Mysaria worked with Rhaenyra’s husband Daemon on a scheme that resulted in the death of King Aegon’s young son Jaehaerys, something that horrified Rhaenyra. Yet Rhaenyra honored Daemon’s promise to grant Mysaria her freedom. In return, Mysaria helped Rhaenrya by alarting her to an assassination plot just in time.

In the new episodes, Mysaria tells Rhaenyra that she was impressed by the queen’s mercy. “I hope you do not confuse mercy with pliancy,” Rhaenyra tells her. The word “pliancy” has apparently given some viewers pause. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, pliancy is the “willingness to change because of what other people want, or to do what other people want.”

So a pliant person is someone who will do things just because other people want them to do things, rather than stick to their convictions. Rhaenyra is a queen at war and has to make difficult decisions all the time. She can’t afford to be seen as pliant, otherwise people would try to walk all over requesting things.

But she’s still a decent person who will try to treat people fairly. Here, she’s essentially telling Mysaria, “Don’t mistake my kindness for weakness.” The two have already established a working relationship now that Mysaria helped Rhaenyra sneak into King’s Landing to meet up with Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke). What happens between them next, we’ll find out when House of the Dragon returns on HBO and Max next Sunday, July 7.