Hidden room

NOTE: Some of you told me you cant read the chaps cause of some webnovel update shit. I also publish in Archive of Our Own and Fanfiction.net Same story title and same user name.

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The corridors of the Citadel are almost never empty, there is always a student or teacher going from one place to another but there are also small intervals of time when not a soul is in sight.

Doran plans to take advantage of one of those moments to enter hidden room number 1. This hidden room is located in the main building, the oldest in all the Citadel, where most of the classes are held.

The prince has a leather bag on his shoulder and a book in his hand, he walks calmly without arousing suspicion. He sees a group of students walking in front of him and slows down. As the group rounds the corner Doran stops and looks back.

`There is no one, good.`

He moves a painting a bit revealing the stone wall. Behind that wall is a hidden room, he concentrates his magic on it and moves his right hand in a pattern.

"Alohomora!" He whispers softly but firmly.

He hears a click and a portion of the wall moves revealing itself to be a door- Doran hears footsteps in the distance and quickly enters the dark room, closing the door behind him.

He stands still for a moment and hears someone walk by, sighs in relief and raises his right hand.

"Lumos." He whispers, a ball of light appears in his hand.

Thanks to the light he can see the hidden room clearly. The room is no bigger than the Dursleys' living room. There are several shelves with books and some locked chests; he also sees various scrolls on the shelves.

He approaches one of the shelves and sees that the volumes do not have titles on the sides, he takes one out and sees that he does not have the title on the front either. Doran also notes that the book is very old as the material it is made of is not paper, it is papyrus.

`They stopped using papyrus when a Dornish explorer introduced paper after one of his voyages to the Far East, that was over four thousand years ago.`

Upon opening the book he sees that the book is written in a unique language, some of the runes are familiar to him and he recognizes them as the language of the First Men, the Old Tongue.

"Sword. Warrior. Protection?" Doran can only read some of the runes. The prince puts the book down and looks at the others, after pulling a few dozen books from the shelves the prince is sure that these books all predate the Andal conquest.

`They are all written in the Old Tongue.`

After conquering most of Westeros the Andals tried to reshape the continent in their image and likeness, that included changing laws and traditions, language and religion,... They were mostly successful, even the `pagan` North changed its language and many of its laws.

To hasten this process the Andals destroyed all the artifacts and monuments belonging to the First Men culture, that included the massive destruction of the books that contained millennia worth of First Men history, tradition and knowledge.

`Books and parchments belonging to the Age of Heroes, vestiges of the Long Night and that mythical era. If these books are what I think they are, it means that some noble, most likely a Hightower or Gardener, refused to destroy their libraries and instead hid the books here, in the heart of Knowledge in Westeros.`

Doran notes that the books are well maintained, they don't look thousands and thousands of years old but they don't look like they've been touched in centuries either. The thick layers of dust that cover the entire room show that no one has entered the room for at least a thousand years.

"This feeling- Nox" After turning off the spell Doran can feel hints of magic coming from all over the room. `My own magic drowned out the minuscule amounts of magic here. The magic is everywhere, on the walls, on the door and in all the objects in this room but it is camouflaged. Something-`

The prince concentrates on his senses, closes his eyes and feels the magic flow around him. He feels that in one part of the room the magic is weaker, more repressed, and he walks towards it. He sees a small iron chest and tries to open it with magic but feels a barrier preventing Alohomora from opening the lock.

`A magic barrier, it's weak. If I were a few years older I could destroy it with just pure power but given my physical age... But the barrier only protects the chest from magic, I can still open it using other means.`

Doran takes a pair of lockpicks out of his bag and sits on the dusty floor and starts trying to open the chest..

`The number of tricks you learn after a decade of traveling.`

Click.

After several minutes the chest opens and what is inside surprises Doran a lot.

"It looks like a bonsai but it's clearly a weirwood. A miniature weirwood." The prince sees that many runes are written on the trunk and branches of the miniature tree.

`This is the heart of the barrier, and its power source.`

After studying the barrier a bit, Doran discovers a couple of things, the barrier has two main objectives. One is to preserve the items in the room, and another is to keep the room hidden.

`And there seems to be a third, a sort of camouflage spell to keep the magic in the room hidden, concealed. If I hadn't spent the last few years training my senses to sense small amounts of magic, I wouldn't have sensed the magic in the room.`

Doran copies all the runes written on the tree into his notebook, and after looking at what's in the other chests he leaves the hidden room without taking anything from it.

After going to the kitchens to eat something, as he spent hours in the hidden room, he goes to the library.

"Hello Maester Leo, how was your day?"

"Well, my prince, same as always. And yours?"

"I'm glad. It was a quiet day, no surprises." He says with a mischievous smile. "Could you help me find some books?"

"Of course. Do you know the titles or-?"

"I'm looking for some books about the runes of the First Men."

"Oh yes. We have quite a few on that subject but not as many as we used to. Many students were reckless and countless books were destroyed, a real shame. Anyways personally I would recommend Maester Jon's 3 Volumes, he was one of the first Maesters of northern origin, at that time the Old Tongue was still spoken in the North so his writings are very reliable. "

Leo, who is one of the Maesters in charge of the library, guides him to a somewhat distant section. The library is seven stories high and consists of several huge rooms filled with bookshelves from ceiling to floor.

Climbing up a narrow staircase, Leo comes down with three huge books, each half the size of Doran.

The prince looks at them with wide open eyes, the books are not only big but also thick.

`Each one must have at least a thousand pages!`

"I know, my prince. They are not light reading but you will not find better books to explain the Old Tongue."

"No, no. I'm not complaining, I'm just a little surprised. I'll have to ask for help to get them to my bedroom."

"I'll send some acolytes to bring them to you. You already know the protocols for book loans."

"Yes, maximum a moon and if I require more time I have to notify one of the supervisors. Thank you Master."

"You're welcome my prince, it's always a pleasure to help a promising scholar."

Doran returns to his bedroom followed by an acolyte who is glaring at him with all his might.

`It looks like he wants to cut my throat, but I don't blame him. Those books must weigh a lot and carry them all the way to my bedrooms...`

The bedrooms where Doran stays are intended only for the high nobility. In the Citadel there are several towers that serve as dormitories and all its inhabitants are divided; lowborn students are housed in one tower, noble students in another, students belonging to the Great Houses or royalty in another, maesters in another, and archmaesters in another.

`That way no one forgets his place.` he thinks with a wry smile.

Upon reaching his bedroom, Doran gives the acolyte a gold coin, changing his expression.

"Thank you, my prince!" The boy leaves with a huge smile on his face.

The prince takes the first volume and opens it.

`It is time to learn this dead language. I almost regret focusing on High Valyrian in my Known Tongues classes.`

At Known Tongues there are several teachers, each one teaching a class focusing on one language. Doran has been attending High Valyrian and Braavosi Valyrian classes.

"Learning this language will take me a while." Doran sighs and begins to study.

***

NOTE: Some of you told me you cant read the chaps cause of some webnovel update shit. I also publish in Archive of Our Own and Fanfiction.net Same story title and same user name.