I think Varys appears in visions and prophecies as a mummer. I think mummer is his Essential Identity.
Illyrio: perhaps older… not die so easy [not die from the tongue removal]
Varys: No. The younger are safer… treat them gently… [don’t remove their tongues]
Illyrio: …if they kept their tongues… [Illyrio is complaining that Varys doesn’t want to remove their tongues and insisting that they should remove the tongues.]
Varys: …the risk… [We usually interpret this so that Varys is complaining about the risk of letting the kids keep their tongues, but from the way the conversation is going it seems more likely that Varys is attempting to calm Illyrio’s worries about the risk of letting the kids keep their tongues.]
Apples and Dragons 