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Ch.80: Half-Brother
🕑 Added 2025-02-26 07:00:07 +0000 UTCDreadfort Castle
POV of Domeric Bolton
Domeric looked into Briar’s eyes and sent another legilimency probe with the efficiency of a hammer as he tried to forcefully extract her deepest memories from inside her mind.
To her credit, Briar had gotten used to the pain that came with her training and only flinched a little but didn't move or close her eyes.
He paused and came out of her mind. "Again." He said and when she nodded, he sent another painful probe into her mind.
Something that he'd realized a while ago about these people was that despite their ability to control the animals and birds with minds, they were not wizards and could not perform the magic like him.
It was also the reason why none of them were able to create occlumency shields despite how hard he practiced his legilimency on them.
But even if they weren't able to create mind shields to oppose him, the wounds suffered by their psyche allowed them to grow after a while. Which in turn led them to be able to control their animals and birds without much effort.
When he came out of her mind, he found her panting and clutching her head in slight pain.
The fact that she was showing any sign of pain at all meant that she must be in a huge amount of pain.
But if there was another thing he'd have learned about these people. It was that they had a very high level of pain tolerance.
He stayed quiet and allowed her to recover. Once she did, he asked "Again?" She nodded and when he was about to send another powerful probe in her mind, they heard a knock on the door.
He frowned. He told his subordinates not to disturb him until they had finished their work or unless they had something important to report.
Which meant that they had something important to report. As he knew that his subordinates were anything but incompetent.
"Enter." He said softly and a few seconds later, the Raksa opened the door with a sheepish expression and allowed Lyra to enter the room.
"Lyra." He said, greeting his spy mistress.
"My Lord." She bowed, showing a generous amount of cleavage to him while doing so.
"What is it Lyra? If you're disturbing me right now, then it must be something important." He said, "Get on with it then."
"My lord" She spoke once again, but this time her voice was a little cautious, as if she was afraid of telling him the news. But before Domeric could tell her to hurry up again, she continued. "The king is hosting yet another tournament in King’s Landing."
He waited for her to continue but when she didn't, he rolled his eyes and said. " 'King Robert' holds these tournaments every 3 months or so. That is one of the main reasons why the realm is under so much debt. But you're not here to tell me about the Tournament. So, whatever it is. Just go ahead and say it. I promise I'll not be angry at you."
"My lord" she spoke "We've found a boy… in a village some distance away from the Dreadfort. We've found that the boy is… the bastard son of late Lord Roose Bolton."
His eyes sharpened at her words. "You're saying I've a half-brother somewhere out there. And I've not known about it until now?" he asked, a hint of anger in his voice even as he told himself that he promised not to get angry at her.
Still, he held 'family' in the highest esteem in his mind, as it was something that was robbed away from him in his past life.
The reason why he killed Roose Bolton was that the man was a psychopath who tortured people regularly in his dungeons for his amusement. And also, despite taking this new body, he never saw the man as his father.
But Aunt Barbrey had shown him more love and care than his Aunt Petunia ever did and became a sort of pseudo-mother for him in this world.
So, to know that he had another family member in this world, and he didn't even know about him was… upsetting.
"Apologies my lord. Very few people knew about the bastard son of late Lord Roose Bolton as he had hidden this from everyone except his most trusted people." She said. "The only reason we were even able to find out about the bastard boy was that his mother came to our castle door a few days ago begging for some stipend to raise the boy."
"A few days ago. And I'm only hearing about this now." He said as his eyes once again sharpened at his spy mistress. A little upset that she had hidden such a thing from him.
"Apologies my lord." She said quickly "I wanted to make sure that the woman spoke the truth before I could give the news to you. There are, after all, times when the women among the smallfolk try to pass off their children as the bastards of lords even when it is not true."
"I see." He said, controlling his misplaced anger "And if you're telling me now about all this then you must be sure that the boy is my half-brother."
Lyra nodded and Domeric got up from his chair and looked at Briar.
"We'll continue this session tomorrow." He told her and then turned to look at Lyra "What is the name of my half-brother?"
"Ramsey Snow." She replied.
"Is he in the castle right now?" he asked.
"They're staying in the 'Sleepy Eye' tavern outside Dreadfort." She informed him.
"Very well. Take me to the boy then." He spoke and the woman hesitated for a moment before she bowed and led him out of the door, Varko and Raksa quickly following him as his sworn shields.
As they walked through the halls of Dreadfort, he could feel Lyra hesitating about something, so he stopped and turned to face her once again.
"You've something else to tell me." He said with confidence in his voice as Lyra and the others stopped with him. "Go ahead. Let it out."
To her credit, the woman only hesitated for a moment longer before she continued "My lord… Are you aware of the rumors surrounding the Boltons before… well… before you changed everything."
He furrowed his brows and tried to think of what she could have meant. Then it clicked and he said. "About the Boltons still flaying men in their dungeons and wearing the skin of their victims."
The thought of wearing someone's skin nauseated him despite his gruesome experiences from his past life. The fact that his 'father' truly used to torture people in the dungeons and that the Bolton ancestors truly wore the flayed skin of their victims as intimidation tactics left without any rebuttal.
"Yes. Those ones. Well… you might want to know that there are rumors about your bast… half-brother being a little… off in the village he lives in."
"Off? In what way?" he asked, a little cautious of this 'half-brother' of his even as he tried to hold judgment about the boy before truly meeting him.
"The rumors say that he butchers wild animals for fun. And rumors that he uses the dogs in his possession to 'hunt' down the women of other villages" She spoke cautiously.
"Only rumors?" he asked, and she hesitated.
"Three girls have gone missing from the nearby villages in the past year." She spoke, not saying anything more about this matter.
He thought about all of this with a heavy heart before he turned to his sworn shields "Varko. Raksa. You'll stay behind me during my meeting with this boy. Since I'm the only true Bolton left in the world, the boy and his mother might likely try to kill me through some nefarious means.”
“If they do, then I'll more than likely find out. And on that occasion, I'll give you the signal that we've prepared for such an occasion, and you'll act to subdue both the mother and the boy."
Varko nodded at him in his usual stoic manner and even Raksa showed a strangely mature sight for once and nodded with a serious expression.
