The personal guard retrieved torches from the military warehouse, and under the command of Balon Swann, they separated the castle's maidservants and attendants.
Wright led the members of the Dragon Cult to the original base of the castle's lighthouse, now the first floor of the personal guard's barracks.
Kana Rogare followed the group here. Wright stood quietly to the side, silently gesturing for everyone to look for the entrance on their own. Kana looked around, noticing only two hallways and stairs leading up, without finding any other passages.
"Isn't this the barracks?" Kana Rogare whispered into Tyene's ear as she wrapped her arm around her waist.
Tyene squeezed Kana's mischievous hand. "There's a secret door here, but the lock is inside. Only someone skilled in alteration magic can open it from within."
Kana asked, "Have you been inside?"
Tyene replied, "Wright took me on a tour when the construction was halfway done. But it was pitch black inside, and since I'm afraid of the dark, I didn't go in."
Kana frowned, "We, the Dragon Cult, are open and aboveboard. Why build such a concealed headquarters?"
Tyene shrugged, "Wright says the Dragon Cult isn't just a worldly sect. It also holds significant responsibilities, like guiding world order and maintaining the balance of magical power."
"World order! Magical balance?" Kana, not being a magician, didn't quite understand the second term.
Tyene explained, "Wright says the balance of magical power affects the entire world, and only master-level mages need to consider it."
At that moment, Wright spoke up, "So many of you couldn't find the entrance, which means its concealment is excellent."
He then walked to the wall, a white light emanating from his hand. The brick seams cracked open, and a large stone door, tall enough for two people to pass, opened. "Everyone, follow me. Tyene, stay close."
Some officers from the personal guard, who had attended the banquet earlier, had changed into armor and donned deer antler helmets. One hand held a newly equipped battle axe, while the other carried a torch. They formed a line, entering the stone door first to light the braziers along the way.
"We should go in," Wright said.
Tyene pulled Kana's hand and followed Wright through the stone door.
Tyene, dressed in a green lace-trimmed skirt, had a graceful figure and a sweet appearance. Kana Rogare wore a tight-fitting white dress that accentuated her curvaceous figure. Her platinum-blonde hair, violet eyes, and radiant red lips made her an irresistible sight. All the men in the room couldn't help but envy Wright's fortune.
Beyond the stone door was a set of downward stairs. The passageway was about three meters wide, with a brazier placed every so often to provide light. Due to the winding path and the walls blocking the view, those ascending the stairs couldn't see the end.
"It's so dark!" Tyene, walking behind, reached out and grabbed Wright's hand.
"Be careful on the stairs," Wright tightened his grip on Tyene's hand, using his magic to cast light. Pure white orbs adhered to the ceiling of the passage, making it easier for those behind to follow.
"My heels are too high; these stairs are difficult to navigate!" Kana Rogare also took hold of Wright's right arm.
Wright stopped and looked down at her heels, which indeed were high. Kana had wrapped her entire arm around him. "How am I supposed to use my magic to light the way like this?"
"Use your feet! Don't think I don't know, all the mages in Tyrosh are learning this—it's called body magic." Kana rested her head on Wright's shoulder.
Wright could still feel the warmth of her body and smell her fragrance. Yet, he remained unfazed.
"Kana, I've never touched you. You're making it too easy for others to misunderstand. You'd better find a man and get married!"
Kana squeezed his arm closer to her body, "You go your way and do your magic. Don't mind me!"
This woman really couldn't control herself. He'd have to wait for Nymeria to return to handle her!
After Nymeria left Tyrosh, the women here had started to make their moves, and Wright had been avoiding them as much as possible. "Tyene, you two support each other. I have some serious business to attend to!"
Wright cast a low-level illusion, slipping free from Kana's warm embrace while she was momentarily distracted.
When Kana came back to her senses, she found that Wright had used magic on her. Pouting, she grabbed Tyene and said, "Cheapskate! Tyene, I'll come to your place tonight, and Margery too. The three of us will sleep together."
"Sounds great!"
"Such familiar magical energy!" Renly said to his apprentice, Sansa Stark, as he jogged into the stone door.
The Dragon Cult was a sect founded by Wright for Odahviing. Sansa had always thought that her two brothers were Wright's disciples and assumed they had already joined. When Master Renly recommended her for membership, she agreed without hesitation, only now realizing that she was the only Stark in the Dragon Cult.
There was also Ashara, but she was a Dayne, so she couldn't really be considered part of the Stark family. Sansa remembered the scene from a few days ago when she had joined the faith, thinking she had been deceived. But now, seeing the people around her—mages, nobles, and wealthy merchants—she felt that she had joined an extraordinary organization.
Just as Sansa was about to follow Renly into the stone door, the direwolf beside her suddenly picked up on something strange. Sansa asked, "Lady, what's wrong?"
Despite her large size, the direwolf Lady had a temperament quite similar to Sansa's. When she was with her siblings, she would play around, but when alone or with strangers, she became very quiet. Today, she had been obediently following Sansa. But after the hidden stone door was opened, Lady had retreated behind Sansa's legs, frightened by the dark tunnel ahead and unwilling to move.
Sansa's magical talent wasn't much better than her siblings', and her shapeshifting ability was the weakest among them. She could only vaguely sense Lady's emotions and couldn't communicate with the wolf through shapeshifting. Unable to speak with Lady, she kept petting her head to comfort her.
"There's a faint smell of sulfur in the tunnel, a scent only dragons have. Your direwolf is scared," said Qyburn as he approached Sansa.
Sansa looked at the stone door and asked, "Master Qyburn, are there still dragons below?"
"There are dragons, but they're the skeletons of dragons. They're trophies that Lord Wright brought back from Meereen. Come on, follow me."
Qyburn summoned a purple skeletal horse, without bothering with a saddle, and climbed onto its back. The tunnel was about three meters high, and for the undead, there was no difference between light and dark. Qyburn leisurely rode down the stairs, allowing his skeletal horse to carry him.
Tales of the region being close to the sea were evident, as some water seeped through the cave's entrance. As Sansa was about to descend, she almost slipped a few times, and Qyburn called, "Hold onto my horse's leg!"
"Alright," Sansa replied, grabbing the skeletal horse's thigh bone, feeling its icy cold.
Hoo!
Sansa felt a sound coming from deep within her mind.
After walking through the winding tunnel for a while, they finally reached a small room carved out of the rock. Sansa saw that behind Wright stood Terenni and another woman in a seductive white dress. The three of them were waiting at a closed round stone door.
With so many people gathered, once the small room was filled, Wright took an item from Terenni's bag and walked to the stone door.
"What's that? A black dragon's claw?" someone in front asked as they blocked Sansa's view, turning to Qyburn who was sitting on the horse beside her.
Qyburn, an elderly man with a long beard and a luxurious robe embroidered with golden threads, looked every bit the sage. Despite the crowd, no one dared to complain about him being on horseback.
"It's a dragon claw made from Valyrian steel! It's also a key!" Qyburn explained. He saw that the black dragon claw had nine distinct marks on its palm, and Wright was aligning these marks to turn the mechanism on the stone door.
The headquarters of the Dragon Cult was nine stories tall, corresponding to the sacred number nine. The stone door's mechanism also had nine concentric rings. Each ring was divided into segments, each inscribed with different animal symbols. Qyburn carefully examined the images—there were dragons, direwolves, ravens, and stags—creatures that were closely connected to Wright.
Once Wright arranged the marks correctly, he placed the black dragon claw into the central hole of the tenth ring. The stone door vibrated slightly and slowly lowered into the ground.
VII~
Sansa felt her heart beat in rhythm with the sound in her mind.
Wright waved for everyone to enter and led the way inside.
"Alteration magic combined with mechanical structures—any interested mages can look at the books I left at the school. Everyone, come in! This is the true headquarters of the Dragon Cult!"
Riding horses into such a sacred place would be disrespectful, so Qyburn dismissed his skeletal horse and walked in with Sansa among the crowd.
The first round stone door opened to reveal a rectangular corridor about five meters wide, with a relief sculpture on each side. Wright had already used magic to light the fire basins for illumination.
On the left, the relief depicted the proud Odahviing with his wings spread wide, the inscription in Dragon Tongue: There is nothing higher. On the right, there was a relief of Wright wearing dragonbone armor, his dragon-soul awakening magic activated, holding the Bloody Scar Blade. The inscription at the bottom read: "True Dragon Blood."
Upon seeing the two murals, everyone stood tall, placing their hands over their hearts. The followers of the Dragon Cult were unwavering, and Wright demanded that this belief be reflected in their everyday rituals. Thus, when he designed the rituals for the Dragon Cult, his cousin had borrowed elements from the knightly customs of the Seven Kingdoms.
Aside from the two relief sculptures, at the end of the corridor was another round stone door. When Wright approached and cast a spell, the stone door also descended.
It was another relief room, depicting Odahviing's status within the dragon race. The inscription on the relief stated that Odahviing was the supreme being in this world.
As Wright advanced, nine identical round stone doors descended in succession as he approached, revealing a grand passageway divided into nine rooms.
"Such brilliant ideas!"
"Invincible Dragon God!"
Sansa followed behind the crowd, admiring one relief after another. The first two depicted the beginnings, and the others were all battle-related, showing scenes of Odahviing fighting dragons of the same size.
"That dragon... it's the venomous dragon Durnehviir, right?" Sansa asked Qyburn, pointing at one of the murals.
"I've never seen it," Qyburn replied. "Meereen is too dangerous now, with the plague. We can visit its bones in a few years, though."
"Follow me, Lady!" With each step they took, Sansa's direwolf grew more uneasy.
Sansa and Qyburn passed through the corridor formed by the nine doors, and the space instantly widened.
What appeared before them was a vast area, a natural cave modified to be nearly eight meters high and nearly ten meters wide, with an indefinite length. The cave was irregular, with natural stone pillars and stone steps that had been altered.
The personal guard quickly ran up the stairs, lighting the fire basins on each side. As the flames ignited layer by layer, Wright led everyone up the steps.
"Dragons!"
Sansa pointed to the top of the stairs. "There are two!"
"Rhaegar and Drogon's bones, no doubt about it!" Qyburn exclaimed with excitement, rubbing his hands together in glee.
The two dragon skeletons were placed at the highest point of the stairs, their skulls filled with sharp teeth and wings spread wide, guarding this place, one on the left, the other on the right.
"Forget it, Qyburn. If resurrection magic could summon bone dragons, Lord Wright wouldn't have left their skeletons here," Thoros said, catching up as Qyburn climbed the stairs slowly.
Qyburn sighed. "True, the more powerful the creature, the greater the magical power needed. Not to mention the strong souls of dragons. Looks like I'll never have a chance at that in this lifetime."
"Master Qyburn's skeletal giants are powerful too!" Sansa offered comfort from the side.
"Haha, don't let Qyburn fool you. Back when we were learning magic, we were tortured to no end. The whole school smelled of rot!" Thoros laughed.
Qyburn reflected, "Who doesn't have a past? I've rested enough. Let's go to the top and see what's next!"
They climbed to the top of the stairs.
"Lord Wright must have hollowed out all of Tyrosh's underground!"
"This is truly magnificent!"
"I never imagined there would be such large caves beneath Tyrosh!"
"You didn't know this? Many cliffs by the sea are eroded by seawater, creating caves of various sizes!"
Sansa saw that this place had been constructed into something resembling a theater. In the center was a small square, surrounded by seating, with a podium facing the stairs, complete with large-backed chairs.
"Over there!" Sansa raised her hand. On the opposite side of the 'theater,' there were three semicircular walls, each seemingly covered in inscriptions.
"It's too dark to see clearly," Qyburn remarked. A master of conjuring magic with an aptitude for destruction, Qyburn could use low-level magic from other schools, but he had always been frugal with his magicka. He felt it was wasteful to use the power needed for three Fire Elementals just to cast a single Light spell.
Seeing that Wright hadn't asked the crowd to sit but allowed the followers of the Dragon Cult to explore, Sansa turned to Qyburn and Thoros and said, "Teachers, I think those inscriptions are magic left by Lord Wright. I'm going to take a look!"
"Let's go together! We've already seen so many strange things today!" Thoros tightened the scabbard of his sword and grabbed Qyburn's arm, pulling him forward.
The discovery of the three semicircular walls wasn't limited to just a few people. Many of the Dragon Cult followers, having finished admiring the theater, also made their way to the walls.
Qyburn gasped. "Lord Wright's secret Dragon Shout!"
Thoros ran his hand over the inscriptions. "This isn't just childish nonsense; this is true untapped power!"
Wright and Renly stood at the podium, observing the crowd. Renly asked, "Are you really going to reveal all this?"
Wright crossed his arms over his chest. "I've made the complete set of magic public. Why not allow the followers of the Dragon Cult to learn Dragon Shout?"