Chapter 33: Strategic Retreat

[ Arthur POV ]

As I was escorted by maester Marwyn, I couldn't help but look at the man in front of me. He is unlike any other maesters, he is called Marwyn the Mage. An Archmaester who brings whores to his bed, sacrifices to different gods, he has been to the Shadow Lands and has learned the different things from the Shadowbinders of Asshai. 

He has travelled the world and even I can't say if I am more knowledgeable than him in the art of higher mysteries. But I do know that I am stronger though. It seems like his Life Fire is weak, meaning that he has used spells of high calibre during his life.

 A person with 100% life fire is a person who has never used the higher levels of magic. I myself have around 90% left, having used strong magic only on occasions, he only has 25%.

But I have used more powerful spells myself but I can steal others life fire, though the conversation rate is 1:100 meaning one person sacrificed to restore 1% of my life fire.

I should do that soon, so I can at least go back to 100%, but it is a painfully long ritual that can only be performed during the full moon at midnight. So I will have to wait.

Anyway as I walk beside Marwyn with ten guards behind us, I can't help but amusingly ask. "So, are the rumours about you true?"

Marwyn doesn't look at me, he just leads me towards what I assume will be the library. 

"What rumours my lord." Says Marwyn, with a certain nervousness in his voice.

I immediately pick up on that. He must think that I might be like the other lords and kill him because he seems heretical. "Well obviously the rumours about you talking with harlots and witches."

….

[ General POV ]

As Marwyn hears that, he can feel a certain chill up his spine. He knows how lords can be, and even if he is to be killed no one in the Citadel will make a case against his death. He was sent to meet Lord Arthur because every other Archmaester is scared sh*tless of Arthur. Sending a regular maester might make him mad, so they choose an Archmaester that is disposable.

Marwyn was even afraid of breathing too loudly when he heard Arthur's question. Unknowing how to answer it, but at the same time a high chance of death if he doesn't speak. And if he lies, his lie would shortly be discovered. This all goes through Marwyn's mind in a split second.

"That is true my lord. Curiosity has always been a weakness of mine." Answers Marwyn truthfully. Already planning a way to get out of this. 

"I see." Says Arthur, leaving it at that and not talking about the subject anymore. "Take me to the Higher Mysteries section, I don't necessarily like sorcery but you can definitely teach me how to battle it.

Marwyn nods at this. A little relieved, at least now he knows that Arthur won't kill him until he learns of Magic. At least that is hene Marwyn thinks.

Arthur on the other hand has a whole different way of thinking. He is planning on whether to get rid of the man in front of him or make use of the man. He knows that ambitious men can be very dangerous… but very useful at the same time. After all, an ambitious man will work as much as ten times a normal man. 

….

When they go to the part of the library with higher mysteries. Arthur at the corner of his eyes sees some obsidian candles. His eyes slightly narrow at that. 

'That could be dangerous. If those candles light up, every maester will know that I am a Sorcerer.' Arthur just sighs and takes a deep breath and slowly inflates his life fire, bjt then he seals it… stopping him from having weird life force and making them light up. But this stops Arthur from using magic all together. 

...

Arthur doesn't find anything useful in the Citadel about magic, except on the way one can make Wild Fire… so he memorized that and took some healing and anatomy books. 

'As expected of people who despise magic. I mean I can understand why logical men like them hate magic.' Contemplates Arthur. He knows how wild and uncontrollable magic can be. One reckless move by the children of the forest and the Night King was made. 

Logical men definitely don't like uncontrollable things. 

….

[ Arthur POV ]

Two days later and I get some disturbing news. Not from my spies but from my hawk, who actually does have a certain amount of intelligence. More like a robotic intelligence that only suits my needs, if I am in danger or a perilous situation.

They are also 50,000 strong, and with the newly recruited troops that Olenna Tyrell gathered in order to keep me out of the Reach the numbers will reach around 70,000… that is absolutely dangerous to me. They have the number advantage and the one leading them is Randyll Tarly. Yep, I am fu*ked if I stay in Oldtown. 

Damn… my spies didn't even notify me of anything. If I didn't have magic I would have likely been caught off guard. Damn… Tarly is a gifted commander, so it seems like I will need to retreat.

Which is a shame since I didn't plan to abandon it during the war, but fighting an enemy with lesser numbers and on their own territory is the height of stupidity… Well you can't win them all.

 I better just cut my losses and go back where I can play my own game. I already robbed the Hightowers blind. I only got around 2,000,000 Gold Dragons, but that is only because I pay my soldiers very good. Not too good so they can retire, but good enough that they can buy themselves the best of whores. 

I guess I can't beat the Queen of Thorns on her own territory. She has shut down my spies on the Reach, I know that even spies are still human so she most likely bribed them or tortured them. Her spy network seems to be better than mine… inside the Reach that is, outside of her homeland is a whole different story.

….

Tomorrow comes and me and my soldiers are all retreating now and going towards the Arbor. So we just board our ships and this time to be sure I use my hawk to look for anything that might seem like any ship or armada that might try and intercept our escape. After all, I do trust my enemy to be smart and have thought of things like this. 

…

After a while as we are about to go right into the deep sea, my hawk notifies me. I immediately close my eyes and look from the hawk's eyes. 

What I see is a blue sea, with maybe around a hundred ships. I frown at this, they must assume that they have a better commander and might be able to defeat my armade with their weaker one.

Well they are right, I don't know anything about ships or something like that. But I do know tactics used by the best military geniuses from my world. Plus I have magic…

...

So as I see that they wanna trap me in the land between Three Towers and Blackcrown, pushing me back toward Oldtown in a tunnel like position in which numbers don't matter. Well that is actually a good move, I can't find a counter.

If we go on land we are fu*ked and if we stay on water, we will win but the casualties will be catastrophic on my side. Sadly Davos isn't here, because I know that he knows how to handle ships and battles like this.

I just look at my men handling the and my eyes land on a skinny old man who unlike the other young working soldiers he is just sitting on the stairs. I just call him over.. "Jacob, come over here."

The old man turns to look at me. "Of course my lord."

He is my healer, he doesn't question me, my servants know better than to do something like that. He knows that sometimes I get fevers and such. I of course just tell him that I have a terminal illness that acts up sometimes. But in reality, it's when I overuse my magic.

As he gets close he asks in a low voice. "My lord, is it acting up again?"

I shake my head. "No I just feel a slight headache, but you know how that usually turns out. I will be in my cabin, if I don't come out in thirty minutes come and check on me."

He nods, and so I go inside my cabin. Inside there is a simple bed nailed on the ground and a simple desk, there is also a mirror on the wall. I look at my face, I see the healthy look on it, with my Tony Stark beard. I like growing it like that. In medieval times there are not a lot of entertainment opportunities.

I just lie down on the bed. I close my eyes again and look from the eyes of my hawk, who is above the Reach's armada.

Slowly I start incantation. "Deep within the power of blood, bring to this moment the forces of water. Upon my life and within my heart I invoke, use the power of water to crash my enemies, crush them, destroy them, let the mermaid's song carry the men to the sea."

Suddenly the men on the Reach's ships look around hearing a strange but beautiful song.

"Make them thirsty."

Suddenly some men start jumping in the sea.

"Let the fish come and devour them."

Suddenly the water around them shark fins appear above water, and blood stains the water. The men that previously jumped have been killed by the sharks.

I can feel my body start heating up due to my life energy gushing out. I can even feel some pain but I use the incantation to concentrate my mind.

"Let the waves rise and destroy them, let the whales come and ram them. Let the Drowned God take them to his kingdom. Let the storm come and drop like the wrath of god."

*cough* 

As soon as I said that I coughed out blood. Spells like this are costly, I can feel my Life Fire drop from 90% to around 5%... almost killing me. 

But I have my hawk fly away because a storm and dark clouds surround the Reach's ships. Well I have done all I can now, not a lot of people might die, but they will definitely be pushed away and some of their ships destroyed, this is good enough. I would need around twenty Sorcerers together to crash an armada that big. 

Damn… I can feel blood gather up at the back of my throat and my eyes are involuntarily closing. I might choke in my own blood, as I don't actually have the physical strength to turn around. But I still scream out loudly.

 "JACOB." Calling over my healer, my eyes close as I hear the door to my cabin open. I look and see that it really is Jacob and just in case I look in his eyes. Making sure that he doesn't have any ideas, I do have his family living in my manor.

They are dead if he does something, that is the only reason I 'trust' this man. After I am reassured… I can no longer keep my eyes open and fall asleep.

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This is the price of magic in game of thrones, just to push away some ships and slow them down, he has to almost die for it. He won't be able to use magic of this level for quite some time.

Also I wanted to show that a spy network doesn't make someone omnipotent and knowledgeable about everything, that would be unrealistic.

But the MC still has his hawk, who flies around in the MC's orders and if he sees a ship, army or something like that, he notifies the MC.

The MC used magic because to him that was the best action possible.

PS: Don't forget to throw some power Stones.

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