Mist of Shadows
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Dragon King Part 7
🕑 Added 2021-03-20 05:15:38 +0000 UTC"You can't be seen with whores or creatures your grace," the newly elected High Septum argued, looking down his nose at the future king and ignoring Varys shaking his head behind the child.
Myst's forced smile slipped from his face as he glared at the overweight priest that had interrupted his dinner after he'd already had a frustrating day practicing his lines for the coronation, working out the details of what everyone in the royal party was wearing with his mother and where his grandmother would be staying, and trying to figure out where to station Stannis without insulting him as he wasn't going to give him control of Dragonstone. "I'm curious, are you stupid or insane?"
"What?" the man sputtered, not used to the lack of respect.
"I've already explained once that my friends and or servants aren't whores or creatures in human form which means that you either don't believe my word or you're calling me stupid, which is it?" Myst asked, curious how far the priest would take things.
The priest gestured at the girls that were dressed in underwear and robes. "Look at how they dress."
Myst glanced over at the table where the girls were looking over some of the alchemy books that Hermione had recovered from the newly renamed Alchemist guild then looked back at the priest that was interrupting his dinner. "They can dress how they please, they're guests in my home."
"You need to set an example of piety," the man argued.
"Is that the official stance of the church or just your personal opinion?" Myst asked as he looked at the priest's stats with his upgrade ability, curious if he could find any hint of divine favor or powers or anything to justify playing nice with the church.
"Both," the man replied smugly. "Considering your grandfather's actions, you need to be guided by the church to avoid any hint of sin."
"Perhaps you should take some time to reflect on the priest's words, your grace," Varys cut in before the prince could lose his temper.
Myst pulled his attention away from the man's stats and turned to look at Varys, not sure if he should be disappointed that he couldn't find a hint of divine favor or relieved that the man was nothing more than a con artist. "Fair point, it gives me a chance to talk to the Master of Law about the legality of challenging him to a duel for slander."
"Slander?!" the priest sputtered.
"You claimed I was a liar or a fool," Myst replied as he focused on the priest. "Maybe your words were in haste, maybe they weren't but if I let vaguely important people spread rumors that I'm not a man of my word then no one will trust any deals I make. I'm sure that your fellow priests can at least understand the problem that would cause even if you're particularly stupid."
"I'll not be threatened by a child," the High Septum snapped.
"That wasn't a threat, that was a promise and a subtle suggestion that you should apologize to my friends," Myst replied.
The man sneered at Myst. "You're making a mistake, we have the ears of the people and you need us."
"You should leave," Elia spoke up from the door to the other room where she'd just finished nursing Aegon.
Myst gestured towards the two guards by the door. "Make sure he leaves the keep."
Varys grabbed the septum's sleeve and directed him out of the room before the guards had to resort to physical violence, wishing the sept hadn't replaced the old septum with an idiot.
"Sorry for losing my temper," Myst grumbled after the door closed.
"This is probably a reaction to the fact that we're holding the coronation in the Great Hall rather than the Great Sept," Elia pointed out as she walked over.
"The church has a nasty history," Myst replied, thinking about the Faith Militant from the show and the church's less than stellar behavior back home as well as their stance on magic. "The less I have to do with them the better."
"You know you don't have to duel over our honor, right?" Dawn asked.
"I'm aware you can take care of yourselves but if I don't take a stand, they'll continue to spread lies and rumors and try to influence things. If it was anyone else, I'd probably ignore it but he wasn't wrong when he said they had the ear of the people and things are more than a little unstable right now," Myst admitted.
Zara shook her head. "I'm still trying to wrap my head around people following gods that don't exist."
Myst glanced at Zara. "I don't know if they exist or not but I didn't see a connection or ability related to anything divine or magic or much of anything that would indicate some relationship to a divine or magical source of power or even a demon when I scanned the priest. Either way, I'm not going to play nice with a bunch of religious lunatics if I can avoid it."
"Just remember that they have a lot of influence and that most of the nobles outside of the North are followers of The Seven," Elia reminded him.
"I'll be careful," Myst promised. "How close are we to being able to make a viable healing potion with local plants?" he asked in an attempt to change the subject and to get back to their previous conversation before the priest had interrupted.
Laurena glanced at her notes. "We managed to create a weak healing potion that should heal minor gashes, a potion that tries to cure poison and disease every five seconds for thirty seconds and a potion that should give people a jolt of energy but we haven't actually tested any of them. We're just going with what Dawn's heads up display showed us."
"How did you get the cure potion working?" Myst asked, hoping it was something they could hand off to the alchemist guild.
"We used a palm sized cutting of a rose bush as a replacement for goldthorn, a ladle full of composted soil to replace the elemental earth and a glass vial," Hermione admitted. "It would probably work better if we had some magical plants."
"Better than nothing, he can always upgrade it," Dawn pointed out. "At least you had more luck than I did, I'm still trying to figure out how to duplicate your ring with a useful amount of space."
"Does that mean you've managed to make a working knockoff?" Myst asked hopefully, feeling slightly guilty that he'd had official and boring stuff to work on so he hadn't been able to help or at least provide moral support.
"Hopefully, take a look," Dawn replied as she pulled a silver ring out of her belt pouch and set it on the table. "This is the only one the HUD considers an actual spatial ring, the rest are listed as failed spatial rings."
Myst grinned when he looked at Dawn's ring with his upgrade ability and realized that she'd managed to make a halfway decent copy or at least a reasonably decent knockoff that he could upgrade. "It's a rather small box, four by one and a half inches by eleven but I should be able to fix that." He spent the mana to boost the ring's storage limit up to a warehouse sized container then used the rest of his mana pool to increase the ring's durability to make sure it wasn't destroyed or damaged. "That should be plenty of room and it should be nearly indestructible."
"Thanks, you're the best," Dawn replied as she picked up her ring and slipped it on her finger.
"Where did you leave the rest?" Myst asked, curious if he could fix them.
Dawn pulled a handful of rings out of her belt pouch and set them on the table. "Most of them don't have a large enough storage box to test or they don't have stasis fields. The gold ring with the ruby that Hermione created causes things to age faster which might be useful for cheese or wine if you boost it to a reasonable level."
"It's worth checking on," Myst agreed as he picked up one of the rings and examined it. "The storage box is about the size of a pea." He spent mana to improve the size of the ring until it could hold a vault's worth then handed it to his Mom. "One newly expanded storage ring."
"Thank you," Elia said as she gave her son a hug. "This should make carrying supplies and hiding records easier."
"That's the idea," Myst replied as he picked up another ring and looked it over. "This one is already locked to Hermione. I'm not sure how that happened."
"I sneezed when I was enchanting it," Hermione admitted.
"Good to know we can lock them," Myst replied with amusement as he spent the mana to increase the ring's storage capacity to the size of a warehouse. "Perfect." He tossed the ring to Hermione and grabbed the next one. "Have you had any luck making wands?"
"I made a couple of basic wands but we're going to have to find something more impressive than oak if we want a good wand." Zara glanced at Myst. "Short of having Myst cheat."
"Give me a minute." Myst finished upgrading the next ring and tossed it to Zara then pulled one of the pieces he'd cut off the weirwood plank out of his storage ring. He spent the mana to upgrade the length of the small piece then pulled out a knife and started carving on the stick.
"We have a workroom for a reason," Elia pointed out.
"I'll clean everything up," Myst promised as he spent mana to upgrade how round the 'stick' was then how long it was. "I need a saw."
Dawn pulled a jewelry saw out of her engineering bag and handed it to him. "Just make sure you upgrade the condition when you're done."
"Thanks." Myst upgraded the sharpness of the blade and the durability then worked on cutting the wand to length. He spent a touch of mana on upgrading the ends and the grain then handed the weirwood stick to Zara. "Does that help?"
"It should but can I have enough for everyone?" Zara asked, knowing she'd feel better if everyone had a backup weapon.
"Sure, let's head to the workshop," Myst said as he stood up.
"Don't get carried away, you have a long day tomorrow," Elia warned him.
"No promises," Myst teased as he headed for the door to the hallway, trying not to think about his grandmother's arrival or the problems Viserys was bound to cause because he was getting 'skipped' over. 'Hopefully I can upgrade his mental stability.'
Elia shook her head. "Try to keep him out of trouble."
"We'll do our best," Laurena promised as she headed after Myst, curious if he could carve a weirwood bow then upgrade it so she'd have something decent to use.
Hermione smiled as she went back to reading through the alchemy book she'd 'borrowed' from the guild, trying to figure out if any of the recipes were worth testing.
0o0o0
Selena yawned and turned her head on her fluffy pillow so that she could check on Myst, a touch surprised to find him dressed for walking around town rather than bed. "Going somewhere?" she asked in a whisper so she didn't wake up Rhaenys, not that it was likely considering the princess slept like a log.
Myst glanced up from the alchemy book he was skimming while he waited for his gacha wheels to stop spinning. "Maybe."
"Maybe?" Selena asked as she tried to extract her arm from Rhaenys' grasp without waking the girl up.
"I was thinking about the priests," Myst said as he watched his magical boots wheel start slowing down. "They're not going to stop pushing."
"Can you blame them?" Selena asked with a touch of sarcasm. "Churches are always looking for more power and they think you're five."
Myst caught the soft leather boots. "Just because I understand why they're pricks doesn't mean it's acceptable behavior or that I have to put up with it."
"Considering the state of the city and country, do you really need to push the issue right now?" Selena asked, wanting to make sure he considered the long term effects of whatever he was planning.
"Probably," Myst admitted as he equipped his new boots after double checking that they weren't cursed. "If I toss them a bone, they'll use it to dig for more. Besides, their stance on magic hasn't changed, once they realize I'm using magic, they're going to try to stir up problems or lead a revolt so yeah, I need to cripple them. I'm just trying to figure out a way to do it that won't cause a revolt or a lot of trouble."
"You could always use assassins…" Selena trailed off as six fist sized purple crystal spheres dropped out of the air in front of Myst. She stared in shock when he reflexively grabbed one of the orbs and vanished, causing the sphere to continue falling. She winced when the spheres hit the ground with a series of nerve wracking clunks. She scrambled out of bed and sighed in relief when she saw the six spheres rolling on the ground without any obvious marks on them. 'Take a breath, you're still here which means that Myst is fine or at least alive.'
Myst blinked when he found himself facing a stone wall with his hand resting on a purple crystal sphere embedded in the wall at chest level. He turned and stared at the water garden filled with brightly colored tropical plants and the sound of flowing water. He glanced up at the massive glass and metal ceiling then at the various stone walls he could see in the distance. 'Maybe two hundred feet to the opposite wall?'
He checked the dimensions of the ceiling. 'Yeah, close enough,' he mused as he glanced at the twisting stone path that disappeared behind some flowers after twenty feet. 'Screw it, I don't need her worrying Mom.' He turned his attention back to the crystal sphere he was still touching and checked the details with his upgrade ability. 'Okay, I just have to let go then touch it again and it should send me back.' He let go of the sphere and touched it, reappearing in his bedroom. "That was interesting."
"More like terrifying," Selena argued. "You vanished."
"Sorry, I saw something that looked fragile and I tried to catch it," Myst apologized as he glanced between the six spheres on the floor, checking to make sure they functioned the same as the first sphere.
"You need a better system," Selena grumbled. "Where did you go?"
"It looked like a giant greenhouse with six stone walls and I could hear flowing water, either a stream or a fountain. The crystal was linked to a second crystal embedded in the middle of a stone wall and there were five other walls which lines up with the number of other crystals so there's a decent chance that they're all connected. With any luck we can use the stones to teleport around Westeros."
Selena glanced between the crystal spheres. "That would be nice but I'll take having multiple gardens or pocket dimensions."
"Either works." Myst reached out and caught a book when it dropped from his skill book wheel. "X-ray vision, I think I just figured out how to deal with the church."
"How does seeing through walls and clothes help?" Selena asked.
Myst grinned as he reached up and a floppy hat when it dropped from his hat wheel. "It makes apparating into a room a lot safer and I have a storage ring and the ability to knock people unconscious with a spell thanks to Hermione."
"In other words, you're going to capture some of the priests?" Selena asked in a whisper.
"It gives us a chance to question them about crimes and secrets once Hermione figures out how to make a truth serum with local materials." Myst laughed when he examined the hat and realized what it was. "There's luck and then there's that. That makes my project so much easier."
"What does it do?" Selena asked.
"It's a hat of disguise," Myst replied smugly. "Which means we can use it to look like priests so we can show some familiar faces getting on a boat for essos with a bunch of crates."
"In other words, you're going to frame the leadership for cleaning out the vaults and fleeing?" Selena asked with amusement.
"Pretty much. Just stabbing them turns them into martyrs, if people can point to them leaving like rats, it should damage their reputation and with any luck the faith itself," Myst said, looking forward to destroying the church or at least crippling it since they'd object to him spreading magic and education that wasn't in line with their views.
"I don't think we'll be able to grab everyone by ourselves, we're going to need help," Selena pointed out.
"Zara and Hermione should still be in the lab," Myst said as he headed for the door with a smile on his face and a spring in his steps.
Rhaenys waited until her brother and new friend left then opened her eyes. 'Rhaenys, princess hero to the rescue.' She wasn't all that clear on who she was rescuing or what a proper adventure involved but her brother had mentioned a garden and she was tired of being stuck in the tower. She quietly slipped out of bed and poked at one of the crystal balls that she'd seen fall out of the air earlier and vanished, reappearing in a garden.
She giggled as she looked around at the pretty flowers then glanced at the flat stones that made a path. "Can't step on the grass," she told herself as she jumped to the next stone then the next.
It didn't take all that long before she reached an area with pools, fountains and plants with berries that looked tasty. She frowned as she remembered her Mom telling her that not everything that looked good was really good. 'I'll ask Myst,' she told herself before she continued skipping down the path. She paused when she got to a raised pool that came up to her waist. She reached out and poked at the lilypad on the top of the water then stuck her finger in the water.
"Too cold for a bath," she said as she continued on her way, skipping past the people-sized stone statues until she got to an area with a bunch of benches around a pond. She glanced around until she found another path of stones and walked over then started jumping from one stone to the next, following the path and looking at the pretty flowers she could see when her legs got tired from jumping.
Rhaenys was getting a bit tired by the time she made it to the crystal in the wall but was feeling pretty good about her first adventure. She reached up and touched the crystal and found herself back in her room. She glanced around the room then quickly crawled back in bed and closed her eyes, going from a heroic princess to a sleepy princess.
0o0o0
Myst paused as he walked out into the main room and saw a strange collection of people talking with his mother, several of them unfamiliar or at least unfamiliar outside of his memories of his younger self. He glanced at the young woman that looked a fair amount like Eddard Stark that was holding a baby then looked at the man standing by the door that was dressed like one of the Kingsguard and glaring at Eddard Stark and the slender man he was guessing was Howland Reed judging by the way the other two were looking at him and his size. "I'm glad to see you were in time Lord Stark."
"I almost wasn't," Eddard admitted.
"He wouldn't have been other than your gift," Lyanna spoke up.
"A most curious thing considering Rhaegar never mentioned such family secrets," Arthur Dayne spoke up.
Myst turned to look at Arthur. "They wouldn't be secrets if people talked about them, now would they?"
"You have a point," Arthur admitted with a laugh, figuring he'd ask the prince about it later.
"Are we discussing anything important?" Myst asked as he walked over to grab some bread off the tray on the table.
"Just your confrontation with the septum and how everyone in the sept decided to flee the city last night," Varys said, speaking up.
"They decided to flee the city over an honor duel?" Myst asked in 'surprise', doing his best to look surprised, which was helped by the fact that Varys already knew about the priests' vanishing which was a touch surprising as he doubted the girls had finished cleaning everything out until close to dawn.
"I'm not sure, your grace," Varys admitted. "Several captains were paid what had to be a substantial amount of gold by several septums in plain clothes to set sail during the night after being loaded with a large number of heavy crates, all bound for Essos. One of my little birds found a side door that was open and looked around, he said everything was empty."
"That's a bit disturbing, I didn't think I was that scary," Myst replied as he grabbed part of a loaf of bread and smeared it with butter.
"Who would you have asked to fight?" Gerald asked.
"I was going to ask for volunteers, I don't appreciate my friends being insulted, especially by a bunch of hypocrites," Myst replied as he turned to look at the knight. "Can you figure out where in Essos they went?"
"I have some contacts in Essos, I'll send some messages," Varys promised.
"Did they steal anything else on the way out?" Myst asked, figuring that was a valid question considering how greedy some of the priests were.
"I have some people looking into it," Varys assured him.
"Thank you." Myst worked on eating his piece of bread.
"That's it?" Arthur asked with a raised eyebrow.
Myst finished chewing his bite of bread. "Unless someone can prove the priests stole the gold and treasure, it was theirs to take. I'm not vindictive enough to send someone across the sea to hunt the High Septum down over insults."
"For the best," Elia said, speaking up. "We were also talking about the details for the coronation."
"Do I need to hear them?" Myst asked, not all that interested in the details beyond making sure that no one could complain about his conduct.
"Of course, it's your coronation," Elia replied with amusement.
"Rats," Myst replied with a grin.
Lyanna laughed. "I can't say I blame you, I'm looking forward to getting back into shape."
"Maybe after the boring bits, you can show me how to fight?" Myst asked hopefully.
"On second thought, why don't we take this to the courtyard, I think we could use the entertainment, it's been a strange morning," Elia suggested.
"I'm game," Lyanna said cheerfully.
"I don't have any objections," Eddard said as he stood up, figuring his sister would go easy on the prince.
Varys nodded his head. "If you'll excuse me, I need to make some inquiries."
"Best of luck," Myst offered, fairly sure Varys wouldn't find anything to link him to the missing priests considering the disguise hats and the fact that the girls had teleported into the sept then left through a side door to set everything up.
"You should invite your friends," Arthur suggested, wanting the chance to talk to them.
"Sounds good," Myst replied, figuring it was a decent chance for everyone to get some practice and for the kingsguard to meet the girls.
