Chapter 120 - Highgarden

Time passed gradually, and in Meereen, only Asmodeus remained among the wizards, others returned to their own affairs. Dumbledore and Grindewald also went back to John Snow, now the King of the North.

At the last gathering, the wizards agreed to set out for Westeros in two weeks. Within that time, Asmodeus and his team needed to stabilize Meereen enough to leave the continent and head for Dragonstone, where they would regroup.

Furthermore, Asmodeus did not inform them that he was waiting for John Snow to require Daenerys's assistance. He awaited the arrival of the red priestess on Dragonstone to see if there was inherent magic within her, and if not, to dissect her to learn how the demigods transfer their power.

Thus, preparations for departure were in full swing in Meereen.

Asmodeus found himself with little else to occupy his time, so he decided to commence Daenerys's education in proper dragon riding. They trained alongside Drogon, focusing on coordinated actions, reaction to danger, and more.

Daenerys and Asmodeus flew out of the city on two dragons, heading towards the abandoned island where Athena had found shelter and a place for games.

There, the training of Daenerys and Drogon began. For the first two days, Asmodeus simply explained to her why riding a dragon required a saddle and so forth. They agreed that blacksmiths and alchemist masters would create three sets of chairs that would not hinder the dragons in flight and could be adjusted in size, as dragons grow rapidly. Asmodeus noticed this when he saw Athena again; she had grown by about 10 centimeters in two weeks, although it was difficult to determine externally. The system could display Athena's size if asked. Apparently, before the world collapsed, this part of the world was inhabited by a large number of dragons, and the mana present in these lands was slightly tainted by dragons, which did not affect wizards but helped dragons grow faster.

When Asmodeus received the saddle for Drogon on the fourth day, he began training Daenerys to dodge projectiles launched from the ground. From heavy crossbows, bows, catapults, and the like. He attempted to mimic the behavior of these types of weapons and created fire projectiles, though it was just ordinary fire, lacking any special properties, so as not to harm either Daenerys or Drogon.

In King's Landing, the Lannister forces were actively searching for religious fanatics and clearing the streets of them. Cersei was proclaimed queen, and even Jaime had returned to King's Harbour.

Meanwhile, in Highgarden, Lady Olenna, who was initially extremely distressed by the news from King's Landing, received a message that not only pleased her but filled her with joy, if not for her old body. She received a message via raven that Margaery, Loras, and Mace had passed through the town of Cider Hall yesterday.

At first, she did not believe it, but five minutes ago, the guards reported to her that all three were currently in the dining hall. It's hard to imagine the emotional rollercoaster the old woman had experienced over the past two weeks. She quickly rose from her chair and headed to the main hall of Highgarden.

As she prepared to open the doors, she hesitated... fearing that what she had been told was just someone's joke... So she stood there for a couple of minutes until she heard her son Mace's voice from behind the doors, shouting for more wine. She immediately cast aside her apprehensions and opened the door quickly.

The hall fell silent. Tears welled up in the eyes of the woman often called heartless. For the first time in her conscious life, she shed tears. Olenna approached Margaery, who was also crying, and embraced her, as well as Loras and Mace, who sat to her left and right.

"I thought you died in the Sept... couldn't you have sent a raven!?" she asked amidst tears.

But no one answered, as the story would be far too long. Right now, the trio simply wanted to feel the familial bond of this old woman who had taught them how to live their entire lives.

They sat in silence for several minutes until they calmed down. Olenna sat on a chair, wiped the remaining tears from her face, and finally asked, "How did you escape?"

She understood that the question about the raven was silly, asked in the heat of the moment. Of course, they couldn't send a raven until they were sure they were outside the Lannisters' influence zone. Hearing her question, Margaery said, "Grandmother, can we eat first? The story will be long, and we haven't eaten in the last two days."

"Alright, eat, eat as much as you want, you're safe now," Olenna replied.

The trio immediately returned to the meal, paying no attention to any manners. Even on the outskirts of Longtable, their humiliation had ended with food. But they didn't stop. Except, perhaps, to water the horses. In Cider Hall, they only left a message and didn't eat either, as they weren't sure of the safety of any place other than Highgarden at the moment.

They ate and ate and ate. Until even Margaery's stomach didn't round out. If that belly hadn't grown before Olenna's eyes, she might have thought that during her absence from King's Harbour, Tommen had managed to conceive a child with Margaery. Fortunately, that wasn't the case. When she heard about the sept's explosion, Olenna had decided to kill Cersei and her children, although a day later came the news that Tommen had died too, so only Cersei remained on her list...

While Margaery and the two men ate, Olenna pondered the various ways they could have escaped. It couldn't be that they weren't present at the trial initially; Loras had to be judged first, and without his presence in the Sept, there wouldn't have been enough people gathered. Cersei wanted to wipe out all her opponents root and stem, and she wouldn't have taken such a risk. The possibility of hidden passages was also not considered. In that case, there would have been many more survivors, and it would have been difficult not to notice the disappearance of the main defendant before the trial ended.

Olenna, lost in thought, began tapping her fingers on the table until she was interrupted by Margaery, who had finally finished eating.

"Grandmother," Margaery said.

"Oh, yes, sorry. What is it? Shall I ask the servants for more food? Wine? Water?" Olenna was about to ring the bell to summon the servants, but she was cut off.

"No need, we're already full and watered. Father is probably too much," Margaery replied.

As if to confirm Margaery's words, Mace Tyrell burped. He had gone two weeks without wine, a significant amount of time for any lord of the local lands!

"Then can you tell me how you escaped?" Olenna asked.

"Alright, it all started when those fanatics were maiming Loras." Olenna turned her head and examined Loras, but she found no scars, except for being a bit dirty after two weeks of riding, but nothing more.

Margaery noticed Olenna's gaze and said, "Grandmother, listen to the story first."

"Alright, go on," Olenna relented.

"When we started waiting for Cersei, who didn't show up for the trial, I felt a touch from behind. It was a man named Salazar Slytherin... Then we appeared on the outskirts of the city, and he gave us supplies and three horses, which he pulled out of this bag, and after healing Loras, he vanished... Then we rode for two weeks. On the twelfth day, our food ran out, but we had water... We stopped at Cider Hall to send a raven, but we didn't linger to avoid possible detection by Lannister men."

After finishing her story, Margaery stood up and placed her hand on her granddaughter's forehead.

"Hmm, seems like there's no fever... maybe poisoned with a hallucinogen?" Olenna speculated.

Margaery realized that Olenna didn't believe her, perhaps thinking she had gone mad from the pressure of the escape. So she pulled out the bag that Lord Salazar had given her. Handing it to Olenna, she said, "Grandmother, here's the best proof. How much can this little pouch hold? Stick your hand in and check."

Olenna looked at the small leather pouch in her hand and decided to check after all.

She began to insert her hand into the bag until she realized that her hand had gone all the way up to her elbow, yet she couldn't feel the bottom of the bag... Then she felt something push back against her hand, thinking it was the end of the bag, she wanted to turn it inside out to understand how the bag could be so deep. Grabbing what she thought was the end of the bag, she pulled.

"Yikes!"

A second later, a displeased horse stood before her...

Olenna looked at the horse and then at Margaery, at the horse and then at Margaery...

"Ahem, well, um. This is Jack, he likes to sleep inside the bag. I let him in when we arrived at Highgarden, there's still hay for him there..."

Let's forget about the fact that there was a horse in the bag; Olenna had a question about why she didn't feel the weight of the horse when she pulled it out.

"Grandmother, did you feel it too? The weight of things while they're in the bag is almost nonexistent. You could transport supplies for an entire army without any effort!"

Hearing Margaery, Olenna nodded in satisfaction. Well, she hadn't lost her sharp wit during her time in King's Landing.

But she pondered something else. So she asked, "Margaery, what did that man look like when he gave you this bag? Did he hesitate to part with it?"

Margaery understood that her grandmother was asking her this to determine the difference in perception of such things. For example, for Salazar, it was just a convenient purse, but for the Tyrells, it was a strategically important item. So she replied clearly.

"There was no hesitation in giving it away. In fact, he took out this bag from one that looked the same but was more expensive and beautiful, made of leather with strange scales on it. Lord Salazar simply tossed it to me as if it were nothing more than an ordinary cloth bag..."

Olenna sighed heavily. If this thing was important to Salazar, it would mean they had some sort of balance in terms of combat potential, but Margaery was sure that for this man, Salazar, such a magical bag meant nothing...

"The Council of Wizards... Salazar Slytherin..." Olenna sat and pondered, tapping her fingers on the table until there was a knock on the dining hall door.

"Who's there?"

"Madame Olenna, a raven brought a letter addressed to you. It says it's from the Supreme Council of Wizards... We wouldn't bother you with a letter from a sender with such a silly name, but Lady Margaery, upon her return, immediately ordered us to pay attention to anything with the name 'Supreme Council of Wizards'..."

"Alright, you're talking like a dog with diarrhea, give me that letter and get out."

"Yes, madame."

The servant handed the bundle to Olenna.

She read it and looked up, a cunning smile on her face as she said, "Looks like we'll have to go somewhere soon."

_______________________________________

Meanwhile, as Highgarden prepared ships for the journey to Dragonstone, Bellam headed to Meereen. Currently, he was sailing on a silk merchant ship. He paid three coins and cast a certain magic to become unnoticed.

In Meereen, he sailed because beast tamers existed in the records of ancient mages, and they were supposed to be powerful...

Perhaps if he gathered enough strength, they would have a chance to defeat that bastard...

Bellam sat in the cabin, his eyes vacant, as he embarked on a journey into memories...

Once upon a time, long ago, right after the continents split, his tribe found themselves in the midst of a snowy wilderness due to spatial ruptures...

Surrounded by nothing but occasional scraps of food, his group of wizards planned to embark on a search for a better place to live...

But then, an unknown sorcerer appeared.

Unlike them, he wielded a vast amount of magic and seemed like a great wizard.

He proposed to enhance the bodies of the settlement's inhabitants, to make them no longer need to eat or warm themselves...

A couple of people, mostly wizards, doubted the wisdom of such an approach. Why not head south in search of new lands?

But not all of them were wizards. On the contrary, there were about a thousand villagers and no more than ten wizards...

The non-magical folk decided to listen to the unknown sorcerer and pulled the wizards along, explaining that there was no certainty they would find fertile lands before they died of hunger...

So the unknown sorcerer began his ritual...

The non-magical folk, and even the wizards themselves, fell into a coma. They didn't know how much time they spent unconscious...

But upon waking up, they found no trace of the sorcerer...

After the ritual was completed, life did indeed become easier for the people. Though their bodies had changed slightly, they now resembled some sort of magical beings. The sorcerer had not deceived them; they no longer needed to eat, drink, or seek warmth. They could peacefully live in this tundra.

However, with time, the non-magical folk began to lose their minds. They incessantly spoke of hatred towards those who needed to eat, those who needed warmth...

Those who were once wizards resisted this strange erosion. At least, that's how it seemed at first. While the wizards tried to heal each other and the other residents, they noticed that people had begun to attack all living beings. Not to eat them, but to turn them into walking corpses!

The wizards realized that the problem lay with the ritual of the unknown sorcerer!

The group of wizards began to seek a solution, to prevent themselves from turning into aggressive monsters. They attempted to do so until they noticed that the former residents had started to divide into two factions: builders and hunters...

The builders began constructing something akin to a fortress out of ice, while the hunters began raiding nearby inhabited territories.

The wizards were shocked by what they found upon returning from those territories... They were corpses, walking dead! When the wizards, led by Bellam, attempted to intervene and stop them, they were attacked! Two wizards with the most limited knowledge were quickly killed... Or rather, recruited into the army of the dead. They became as silent and aggressive as those in the ice fortress...

The wizards had to hide, periodically raiding and killing individual madmen. This continued for half a year until one of them succumbed to the erosion, attacking his former comrades. The wizards managed to seal him away, separating his senses from reality and encasing him in an icy tomb.

Realizing they couldn't handle this alone, and if they didn't stop the spread of this plague, seven wizards headed south. But before they even saw the first village, the wizards felt the mana in the air rapidly disappearing! They were weakened to the point where they could barely cast any spells!

Deciding this wouldn't do, they exerted all their strength to push further south to warn those who lived there.

But alas, in the absence of external mana support, the erosion of their minds accelerated. By the time they reached lands where at least something could be grown, they were already dragging three ice coffins behind them... Bellam decided that he needed to preserve himself and his friends before they went mad. Therefore, he chose to seal away the remaining three comrades and hid them in a city called Winterfell.

Why in a city called Winterfell? He met a man there named Brandon Stark who believed in his tale. When he ensured that Brandon indeed began taking measures, such as strengthening the army, Bellam decided to enter hibernation and sealed himself away, asking Brandon to protect them until magic returned to the world...

But Brandon didn't know that after he fell asleep, a family from Valyria began their conquest of Westeros... Somehow, someone managed to steal the coffins buried in Winterfell and sell them as works of art all over the world...

Well, at least the lad Stark, thanks to a book on magic, built a wall that should prevent further incursions of the White Walkers to the south. With these thoughts in mind, he sailed on the ship...