WILOW-Ch.363: Restocking
Somewhere in Bolton Lands
POV of Domeric Bolton
The next day.
Using an apparition, Domeric appeared in a secluded part of his domain.
At some distance, he could see a dilapidated hut that looked like it had not been used for decades and would fall down with a powerful gust of wind.
He went to the old hut and tapped the door a half dozen times.
After a few minutes of waiting, an old man opened the door.
The old man who opened the door squinted at him.
"Ahh… My lord. Please. Come, come." The man said in a slightly weak yet excited voice.
He entered the hut, which led to a series of stairs down to an underground lab filled with a few dozen people working simultaneously on various ingredients.
On the walls, he could see the runes he had carved to keep the air clean and to give light to the dark underground room.
"Come, come, my lord. You're here for an inspection?" the old man asked.
"No, Wisdom Hallyne. I'm here for more." He said.
"More?" the old man looked at him with barely hidden glee. "What happened to the ones I gave you? Did they not burn as brightly as I promised?"
"They did Wisdom Hallyne." He said, "We used the help of wyverns to drop the wildfire on the Lannister army. The resulting explosion took out their command chain and sowed chaos in their ranks. Victory was easy after that."
The man started to cackle like a madman at that. "I told you. Our time would come. The time will come when people will understand the value of our great work. They will finally realize just how potent the substance is."
He smiled, "That is true, Wisdom Hallyne. But I used up most of it in burning the Lannister army and am here for more."
"Of course you are. The substance is power itself. With it, you can change any battle in your favor." The man chuckled to himself, his raspy voice echoing in the room, before he opened a secret door at the end of the room, which led to another tunnel.
"I believe you, Wisdom Hallyne. That is why I gave you all the funding and ingredients you required for creating the substance all those years ago." He said, "The Long Night is coming, and the substance will be one of the key elements in fighting the Wights and the White Walkers. It would play a huge part in saving the world."
The man laughed once again, a few tears rolling down his cheeks. "I knew that you would understand how valuable my work is. The other fools didn't, but you did."
The old man was getting a little sentimental now.
He could understand why. Wildfire had a terrible reputation thanks to the Mad King's actions of burning down innocent people with it.
So not only did they receive no support from the king, but no one respected them either.
But he really didn't want a sentimental man in his hands right now.
He subtly cast a calming charm on the man and smiled, "You can tell the other Wisdoms and your apprentices how vital their work was in defeating the Lannister army after I leave. I'll even send some more gold at the end of the month for you to celebrate with." He said.
The man wiped a tear from his eye and gave him a bright smile before they reached the end of the tunnel, and the Wisdom used another key to open the door.
Inside, he could see wooden shelves upon wooden shelves filled with wildfire pots for as far as he could see.
"How many?" he asked. He didn't need to, as he read their report at the start and end of each month and kept a close eye on them. But it didn't hurt to ask.
"270,000, my lord." The man laughed, "270,000. The result of years of our hard work. Enough to blow up your city a hundred times over."
His eye twitched at the man's lack of tact. The misplaced enthusiasm of these Pyromancers was why no one invested in them in the first place.
"How many are there here?" he asked.
"10,000, my lord." The man replied, "And 20,000 each in 13 other underground bases like this." The man nodded to himself, "We've taken every precaution to make sure that the substance is kept safely."
And it was.
He had no idea how the Pyromancers did such a good job, but none of the pots showed even a little bit of leak.
Because really. Given how powerful and volatile the substance was, a single leak could be more than deadly, blowing up the entire underground warehouse to oblivion.
"How many of them have been turned into the wildfire bombs I taught you to make?" he asked.
The man looked a little sad at that.
"20,000 pots, my lord." The man said with a sad expression. "The bombs are hard to make. They are. And not many have the skill and precision required to make them. But the lads are learning. Yes. And soon they'll be able to make bombs on their own."
"So, 100,000 bombs?" he asked.
Wisdoms could craft a total of 5 wildfire bombs from 1 pot.
The man nodded and touched a few pots with reverence. "Which ones will you take, my lord. The pots or the bombs?"
He thought about it.
He didn't really plan to use any more wildfire through the rest of his campaign.
If he kept burning the armies he was up against, people would start to fear him. Even his allies. And that was not something he wanted.
Letting them think that he had access to only a small amount of Wildfire would be optimum.
With that said. If using the Wildfire would save the lives of his men, then he won't hesitate to use it either.
"5000 pots." He replied, "And 20,000 bombs. As much as I want to take more with me, we'll need as many of them in the Long Night as possible."
The man nodded frantically, "A wise decision, my lord. Saving the world with wildfire. That comes first."
He nodded, took out his bottomless pouch, and with a wave of his hand, the wildfire pots flew up and began to descend into the pouch slowly.
The man smiled at the display.
"Truly. Arcane arts are the greatest." The man chuckled, "It is only right for the most powerful man to use the most powerful substance."
He nodded and continued to fill the bag with the wildfire pots.
Once it was done, he put the bottomless pouch in his belt and took out another one.
Then they went through yet another tunnel and came out into another large room, filled with wildfire bombs the size of baseballs.
He filled the bottomless pouch with 20,000 of them.
Then he gave another speech to the Alchemists on how important their work was and how vital the substance was turning out to be against their enemies.
He also warned them to continue to be careful with it and wished them luck before leaving the underground room and then the dilapidated-looking hut.
"Till next time, then, Wisdom Hallyne." He said and walked away.
Once he was out of view, he used apparition to travel back to his camp, where the men were having lunch.
He walked up to Ygritte, who was sitting in a circle with other women in the archer and crossbowmen division, sharing war stories with them.
He kissed her cheek and sat down beside her.
"Is it done?" she asked quietly, and he nodded.
"Yes." He replied, "I would try not to use it against our enemies, but it's always good to have another option."
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Next Chapters' Name:
Ch.364: New Ships from Yunkai
Ch.365: Golden Tooth
Ch.366: Golden Tooth Has Fallen