Étouffée ( Flashback Starts)

I recalled the long-lost warmth in my heart from my mother and then smiled at the irony of the situation. I have 5 hearts spread across my body yet I don't feel the warmth of human emotions in even one of them.

My newly modified body has two hearts in my shoulder cavities and can be felt through my armpits. The other two are in between my hips and inner thighs. The newly added hearts along with a few micro hearts spread throughout my body can help me rapidly pump blood across my limbs increasing my stamina and power.

I had modified my heart after I ate a squid in my meal at Gulltown when we were taking a boat to storms end for the tourney arranged in memory of Steffon and Cassana Baratheon.

[ Flashback starts ]

Storms End castle was no less magnificent than Eyrie, built upon the seaside cliff surrounded by sea and sharp reefs forming a natural Moat connected to the land only on a single side. There is no other way to lay siege to the castle. No fleet of ships can survive the reefs and no armies can cross the roaring sea. Huge tower in the centre like a fist thrown towards the Gods above. Its smooth outer walls are forty feet thick at its thinnest point. There is a reason huge armies of Reach could never lay a foot inside the castle.

This castle was designed to fight against the gods. Then you may ask how a mere three dragons conquered storms end. They never did, house Durrandon was defeated on an open field. Since the defeat of the house Durrandon the castle's defences have been weakened. Although there are only legends of Castle walls woven with magic and it being able to prevent magic from affecting it or passing through it.

Altair could feel this after touching the castle walls on his visit, the castle feels like it is alive, some kind of living creature who is asleep in hibernation. Altair couldn't imagine the amount of magic power required to power such a powerful castle. Although his powers couldn't analyze the castle yet, he had made it one of his goals to find out the workings of this castle.

During his visit to storms end, he was able to eat a peculiar dish. It looked like cooked shrimp but when he touched it he was shocked. This was a peacock mantis shrimp, by analyzing information about its anatomy and its DNA he was very surprised to find many of its natural capabilities.

We left after the Tourney and instead of travelling by boat, we travelled through King's Road. I don't rashly change my body on the go even if I am confident.

That is pure recklessness as I have to change my body and brain and some nerves as well to add these features. I have to do some more research on brains.

If I don't adapt my brain imagine the consequences if I look at the sun with modified eyes or if someone shouts in my ears when I modified my ears.

When we reached the king's landing for Prince Rhaegar's wedding, The city of the king's landing was full of people. I had to dull my sense of smell from miles before we reached King's landing. I was once again amazed by the enormous red keep and dragon pit.

The Red Keep is made of pale red stone overlooking the mouth of the Blackwater Rush with its seven massive drum towers. It looks consistent with Targaryen's theme of blood and fire.

The dragon pit was no small stadium shown in the show. It was like an airport with a dome on a mountain filled with caverns.

Due to the celebrations of the prince's wedding traders from all over the world have come and all types of goods and wines were put up on stalls.

I asked my father for my allowance, he gave me a bag of gold dragons and asked Andar and a few knights to accompany me. Roaming through the markets I saw all kinds of goods.

I collected data from all kinds of grains, crops, plants and herbs available on the market. I asked Andar to keep the coins with him. Looking through the market I was pondering about finding the location of the black market or places where unusual goods are found. On the way, I came across a shop which sells different types of birds and their eggs.

I came by the trader and asked him to show me his wares. He told me his name was Haro and seeing I was a noble lord of a great house he suggested to take us to the port where most of his other wares were. We make our way to the port along with Haro. I also found out while chatting with Haro that the largest of the black market is the port itself. The shops are inside the hulls of these trading ships as technically the wares never make it to the land of Westeros, they escape punishment by technicality. They also have men of the City Watch under their payroll.

Haro had all kinds of birds in stalls set up by port. Many of them are known in Westeros, and many are from other countries.

Altair made a mental note to himself to explore other continents to become more powerful. However, he will have to keep delaying it till he is strong enough as there are a lot of magical beasts and dangerous species out there.

He also needs to have a firm stronghold in Westeros before he ventures anywhere across the world.