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Ch.74: Shopping Spree at Citadel
🕑 Added 2025-02-24 07:30:01 +0000 UTCDreadfort Castle
POV of Domeric Bolton
With his aunt Barbrey about to go on a vacation, Domeric realized that he would have to stay in Dreadfort for the upcoming two or three months and actually rule for once instead of delegating most of the boring tasks to his aunt.
But before that, there was another important thing that he needed to do.
He looked at the frankly large list of books that the men from the Printing Press workshop had asked him to bring.
After all, they needed a source of material to create books from, and as books were a rare commodity in the North, he would have to bring them from someplace outside the Kingdom.
And he knew just the place where he would be able to get all the books on the list without any problem.
So, he activated the portkey and with a tug and a twist, he was standing at the walls of Old Town during nighttime.
Infiltrating the Citadel from there was an easy task for him.
Sure, Hightower guards were guarding the large building, but they were few and far too lax in their duties as no one usually tries to steal from the Citadel.
Once he successfully infiltrated Citadel, he came to the library and was a little stunned at the sheer volume of books in this place.
He was sure that he could spend his whole life reading all the books in this place and that still wouldn’t be enough to finish them.
The library was closed during nighttime and despite the moonlight shining through the windows, it was pretty dark in here.
So, he brought his wand to his eyes and chanted "Vigilia Tenebris".
A few seconds later, it was as if someone had removed a dark film from his eyes, he was able to see everything clearly in the dark library.
He glanced at the library once again before he took out the list and read the first book on it.
'Wonders Made by Man' - Lomas Longstrider
Hmm…This was a book that he himself wanted to read for some time.
"Point me. Wonders Made by Man Book." He said and the wand rose in the air and pointed in a direction.
He found the book rather easily after that and then took out an empty notebook from his trunk.
"Omina Verba Effingo." He cast and a few seconds later, all the words from the original book were copied in the notebook.
A notebook that he would later give to the men working on the Printing Press so that they could copy the book and sell it in their bookstores across the cities in Westeros and Essos.
Once the spell ended, he put the original book back in its place with no one being the wiser and moved on to the second book on the list.
By morning, he had copied hundreds or so many books from the great library in Citadel.
But before he could go back home, there was something else that he needed to check here in Citadel.
"Point me Valyrian Candles." He said and the wand once again rose to point in a particular direction.
He followed the directions and found a room being guarded by two guards.
A confundus charm to each of them did the trick and an alohomora opened the door, allowing him to enter a dark and empty room with three Valyrian Candles that started to glow as soon as he entered the room.
All three Valyrian Candles were calling him to use them, but he knew better than to use an artifact that he knew nothing about.
So, for now, he simply put the three Valyrian Candles inside his bottomless pouch and quietly left the room in search of more hidden rooms in the Citadel.
Half an hour later, he was sitting in another hidden room at the top of the tower and was going through all the secrets of the Maesters that were recorded in the books kept hidden in here along with various other things like Valyrian trinkets, magical artifacts, books of magical origin and gold. Lots and lots of gold.
Who would have ever thought that the Maesters, the wise and humble maesters would secretly be so rich?
But it was understandable. The Maesters held a monopoly on the supply of paper, books, and ravens, all of which cost a pretty penny. So, there was no reason why the Maesters shouldn't be rich after all these years.
But the secrets he found in the hidden ledgers were disconcerting. The biggest secret was that the maesters had a hand in the downfall of the dragons over decades as they slowly poisoned the dragons one by one until the last one was a feeble little thing the size of a cat and died at a young age.
Not only that, the Maesters had also been stealing all and everything magical that could exist in Westeros just because it didn't align with their view of the world.
He felt rage bubble in his heart as he was once again reminded of the 'Witch Hunts' that took place back on Earth. The maesters had done similar if not worse deeds to remove magic from this world.
Something that destroyed any sympathy he had for them.
So, in an act of petty revenge, he stole every single thing of value from the room.
By the end of the hour, he was 2.4 million gold dragons richer along with various Valyrian trinkets like Valyrian spoons, glass, crowns, knives, etc. that when put together were enough to create another Valyrian sword.
He still felt angry at the Maesters but knew that he couldn't destroy their tower.
A single Fiendfyre would have been enough to burn the building and everything in it, but it would kill every single man, woman, and child in here, which was something that he couldn't do.
But even if he had the means to do so, he still wouldn't kill the Maesters. After all, a good portion of the Maesters were made up of scholars who only wanted to forge their chains and study in peace while only a small portion were the manipulative old coots who pull the strings of the world from the shadows.
He made sure to remind himself to give another check-up to his maesters once he went back to Dreadfort even though he had done everything possible to make sure that those men were loyal to him and him only. He might not be using loyalty charms anymore, but loyalty could be earned in other ways.
But he still would use legilimency on them and other people for security reasons. He already made them sign a magical contract. But there were still ways to breach contracts, and he didn’t want to be betrayed from behind.
After he was done stealing every single gold, silver, and copper coin from their hidden treasury, he gave the Citadel one last scornful look. Then he said the password, and with a tug and a twist, he was once again back in Dreadfort, tired from all the work but with a happy smile on his face thanks to all that he'd achieved in the past few hours.
