Dreadfort Castle
POV of Domeric Bolton
"I did not know that the walls of Dreadfort were this tall," Tyrion commented absent-mindedly as he craned his neck to look at the walls and tall towers surrounding the castle. "Nor that there was a moat around it."
"There wasn't," Mance replied, not offering anything more on the topic and he didn't ask for more.
The portcullis was already down so after a strict identification check, they were allowed to enter the castle, which was once again, filled with Weirwood Trees.
The whole tree with the face thing would have looked creepy if it wasn't so peaceful and calming to his soul.
In fact, after entering the Castle, he felt like a weight had been lifted off his shoulder that he didn't even know he had.
"How do you feel?" Mance's voice brought him out of the stupor, and he realized that the carriage had stopped a while ago.
"I…" how do you explain an experience like this? He honestly had no idea.
"Yeah. I know the feeling." Mance said and he could only nod back at the older man.
"Let's… meet with this Lord of yours shall we." He said with a smile and climbed down from the surprisingly comfortable carriage.
He would have to ask Lord Bolton for a carriage like this. Traveling in the carriage was unlike anything he had experienced before. In fact, he felt that this carriage could lead him to spoil his horses in the future.
But when they climbed down from the carriage, instead of finding Lord Bolton waiting for him in the Courtyards, he found… Varko.
Varko… The man who had defeated his brother not once but twice in melee combat in the past few tournaments down in King's Landing. The man who had won the melee 5 times in a row. The man who had refused the knighthood because of his faith in the Old Gods. The man who had declined King Robert's offer to join the Kingsguard time and time again because of his unwavering loyalty to Lord Bolton.
The man was the undisputed greatest swordsman in 7 Kingdoms and was said to equal Ser Arthur Dayne himself.
He thought he should feel humiliated that Lord Bolton had not come to meet him, but how could he when the Greatest Warrior in the Seven Kingdoms had been sent to meet him?
"Lord Tyrion. Welcome to Dreadfort." Varko said as a beautiful maid came forward with a plate of salt and bread.
As Tyrion took and ate the bread, partaking in the guest's right, he wondered how Lord Bolton got hold of such a beautiful maid. She was even prettier than his own sister, thanks to the pretty smile on her face.
And not only beautiful but also curvaceous and well-mannered.
King Robert would have loved to have a maid like her in the Red Keep.
But he had more important things to pay attention to right now.
"Varko… I do not see Lord Bolton anywhere. I hope he is in good health." He asked cautiously. It would have been considered a great insult for a Lord of a Great House to not even come to greet Lord Tywin's son.
Not by him of course. He would be delighted if Varko had invited him instead of Lord Bolton. But other people might not look at it in the same way when they heard about it.
His father would definitely not.
"Unfortunately, Lord Bolton has gone to attend a personal errand and won't be able to meet you for the time being. In fact, I am not even sure when he'll return to Dreadfort. But despite his absence, Lord Bolton has ordered us to treat you with the full hospitality of Dreadfort. Please come inside and make yourself comfortable."
A lord who is absent from his own castle.
He wondered if Lord Bolton had gone to have a meeting session with the Old Gods or something.
As absurd as this thought was, he was surprised to find that he did not find it completely unbelievable.
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Underground Base
POV of Domeric Bolton
At the time of Tyrion's arrival at Dreadfort, Domeric was working on preparations for his last experiment. At least he hoped it would be his last.
In front of him were the reports of the experiments he had conducted so far and the results of those experiments.
On the one hand, he was analyzing the results of past experiments, and on the other hand, he was noting the changes that needed to be made in the ritual for the areas that could be improved according to the results he obtained.
The improvements and changes he noted were not very big. After many experiments and adjustments, the ritual design had almost reached its full potential, and it was almost impossible to make major improvements, at least not with the knowledge he had. So, he tried to focus on small improvements and to create the best ritual design possible.
After this ritual, he had to wait for the residual magic in his body to be cleared before he could enter another ritual, and a ritual of this caliber would not leave a small amount of residual magic on him. This meant that he could not enter a new ritual for a while. For this reason, he was trying to get as much benefit as possible from the ritual he worked on. No matter how small the benefit.
After a while of laboring and finalizing the final design of the ritual, he rose from his desk and stretched to flex his stiff muscles.
He might have completed the design, but he still needed to draw the ritual matrix to start his final experiment. But before that, he went to see his last subject. Pre-experiment observations and analyses were as important as post-experiment findings for analysis. Otherwise, an anomaly that was not noticed on the subject before the experiment could lead to completely wrong analyses of the results of the experiment.
Domeric approached the area where the subjects were kept and looked at the pirate lying in the glass cage. Yes, he had started human experiments for some time. It would not be wise to perform a ritual on another human being that he was not sure was safe.
If the materials to be used in the ritual were extremely rare, he might have no choice, but, if possible, he would rather play it safe.
The pirate in the glass cage was unconscious. Probably Dobby had cast a sleeping spell on him so that he wouldn't make any noise and disturb Domeric.
Domeric quickly cast all the diagnostic spells he knew on the pirate and left after all the results came out without any problems.
After the last experiment, he would have to monitor the subject for a while, so he wanted to complete the preparations and start the experiment as soon as possible.
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Ch.126: Ritual
Ch.127: Greatest Swordsman in Westeros