Godohe lay more than three thousand kilometers from Slaver's Bay, while a raven could only cover six to seven hundred kilometers in a day. After all, a raven was still a bird—it needed food and rest and could not fly for twenty-four hours straight.
Therefore, even if someone sent a message to Matarys, by the time the allied forces received word that the Dragon Queen had appeared in Godohe, at least four days would have passed.
Yet Daenerys had not even stayed in Godohe for twenty-four hours. Before dawn, she had already mounted the black dragon and flown away.
Clinton and Jorah could not ride the small green dragon. They had come on Drogon, but neither of them left Godohe with her.
Even a farmer like Denzel could guess that the range of valyrian steel did not exceed twenty kilometers. Could Daenerys possibly have overlooked that?
Eighteen tons of valyrian steel!
Heavier than all the valyrian steel weapons in the world combined. "Priceless" was not enough to describe its worth.
It went without saying that in the coming months, treasure hunters would swarm around the furnace used to melt the sphinx statue.
River channels, riverbanks, marshes, and grasslands would all become their digging grounds.
But Daenerys had played a clever trick. She had indeed dumped the valyrian steel in hills ten kilometers away.
Yet before everyone's eyes, she had ridden the green dragon carrying one piece, while Clinton and Mormont rode Drogon with two more, all flying southeast toward Slaver's Bay.
Once night fell, however, they immediately circled back toward a hidden valley ten kilometers to the north.
Daenerys departed on Drogon empty-handed. Mormont, Jorah, and the green dragon remained. When night returned, the two men would smash the chains and have the green dragon carry the steel away piece by piece, moving it farther north to the Upper Rhoyne River and dropping it into the river's depths.
That spot lay more than fifty kilometers from the furnace—far beyond the twenty-kilometer range.
No one would believe Drogon could cover fifty kilometers in three minutes.
So when the treasure hunters failed to find the steel, they would assume the Dragon Queen had dug a deep pit and buried it. And they would keep digging, making their pits deeper.
Leaving Clinton and Jorah to continue transporting the ingots, Daenerys flew west, straight to Dragonstone a thousand miles away.
Taking off before dawn, she saw Dragonstone appear on the horizon just as the morning sun rose in the east.
She wasted no time with idle chatter with the Old Crab. Instead, she went directly to Aegon's Garden, where, with the help of Marwyn and others, she constructed a magical deep well that reached into the magma beneath the rock.
The pit was 250 meters deep. Daenerys had prepared three sets, each consisting of six magical "siphon rods," eighteen in total, each fifty meters long.
The opening into the volcanic magma was the width of a bowl, while each magical rod was no thicker than a wrist. Her design had always been to allow three rods to run in parallel.
If one failed, the other two would serve as "backup channels."
Six fifty-meter-long rods were fused together, forming a 300-meter conduit. With 260 meters buried beneath the ground, the forty meters above were meant to become the base of a sky-piercing tower.
The tower itself was not yet built. Daenerys had completed five-sixths of the work. From dawn until three in the afternoon, she labored until at last she carved the final rune.
In a stone chamber ten meters below the surface, she placed a head-sized, pure, colorless magic crystal on the center of a stone dais.
The dark violet dragonglass dais stood half a meter tall, its base connected to the magical conduit—serving as the "socket" for the node.
"Can the node be activated without constructing the tower?" the Old Crab asked suspiciously.
"Yes, though the effect will be weaker. According to Valyrian theory, the higher the crystal ball's altitude, the better it receives signals.
Right now, I only want to test whether the legendary magic node can function." Daenerys spoke with a trace of excitement.
The 210-meter-deep pit had not yet been filled. The group stood on a weirwood floor suspended above it.
With the node completed, Daenerys finally had time to glance around.
"Where is Samwell?" she asked curiously.
"He went to King's Landing to see Randyll Tarly. Randyll is now the regent's Master of Laws, commanding three thousand Goldcloaks—quite a powerful position. Sam intends to persuade his father so that the Iron Throne will believe in the threat of the White Walkers," Marwyn explained.
Daenerys frowned. "I told him days ago to stay here on Dragonstone. I'm very busy. I must leave tonight and cannot delay the war in Slaver's Bay for him."
"Perhaps he can return before nightfall. King's Landing is not far from Dragonstone," Marwyn said awkwardly.
It was his mistake—he had thought "a few days" meant at least a week, so he had granted Sam permission to visit his father.
"Forget it. Since the magic node is complete, we will use the magic web to stay in touch from now on."
Saying this, Daenerys placed her hand on the crystal.
The transparent crystal absorbed her power, instantly turning crimson, as if thick red ink had been poured into clear water—an outward display of the grand sorcerous power she was channeling.
"Hum—hum—hum—hum—"
Fiery runes lit up in successive rings along the purple-black conduit, glowing from top to bottom.
Looking down from the weirwood platform, they could see the glowing symbols spreading deeper into the darkness of the shaft, descending all the way into the magma.
"Boom!"
The volcano stirred like a waking giant, shaking its body. Dragonstone itself trembled with it.
"Ah—is the volcano about to erupt?" the Old Crab asked, pale with fear.
"Do not be afraid. The volcano has only been activated."
Inside, Daenerys was uneasy at the sheer, domineering draw of the node's magical siphoning. Outwardly, however, she wore the calm face of one fully in control.
"Hum, hum, hum—"
A sound like vibrating strings echoed from the depths. The purple-black conduits glowed bright scarlet, like straws sucking the blood of the earth.
"Whoosh—"
In an instant, an ocean of fiery magma-energy surged into the crystal above. The entire Aegon's Garden, half the castle of Dragonstone, was bathed in radiant crimson—red that pulsed with life.
In the world of ice and fire, even the magic sea of the void rippled with a small magical tide.
At that moment, Daenerys felt as though she could crush the earth with one hand and blow away the clouds above her with a single breath.
"Too powerful. Human strength is finite, yet the power of heaven and earth is limitless."
The sudden flood of flame-magic dyed her violet eyes blood red.
Compared to this, Pyromancer Belwas's magic was like a mosquito, Qyburn's like a cat, and Daenerys herself before the Battle of Meereen like a hunting dog.
After that battle, her inner magic had been like a tiger.
But compared to the force now being drawn from the magma, she was like a shark in the vast ocean.
No matter how large, a shark was still less than an ant before the endless sea.
Such was the terrifying might of a Valyrian magic node!
Now Daenerys finally understood why the Valyrians had been able to build a superlative magical civilization.
The foundation of every civilization was energy, and the nodes had given the Valyrians limitless energy.
The Old Crab covered his face with his sleeve, shielding himself from the wild outpouring of power, and cried out miserably, "Your Majesty, please restrain your divine might!"
"Buzz…"
With a thought, Dany made the red light that had spread across half the island vanish in an instant. The crystal ball in her hands shifted from pale red to pink, then from pink to crimson.
Next came orange-red, deep red, dark red, the colors growing ever darker until, in a sudden change, red turned into light blue, and finally stabilized into a faint azure.
To her amazement, Dany realized that the light blue magic was still fire sorcery, only its energy level had risen by a tier.
She could not help recalling that day in the House of the Undying, when she dreamed herself four hundred years into the past and saw the great sorcerer holding a massive, deep blue sphere of magic.It was clear that his energy level far surpassed hers, and the total power he wielded was many times greater than that of this little sphere.
"So beautiful. I can almost see the entire world inside the crystal ball," Marwyn murmured in fascination as he approached the stone platform.
"And so dangerous. Didn't you feel it? The whole of Dragonstone was shaking just now," the Old Crab said worriedly.
"Don't worry. It only drew on the earthfire within ten kilometers. That's normal," Dany replied casually.
"Ten kilometers?" Borem exclaimed.
Thinking of the Valyrian histories he had read recently in Dragonstone's library, his heart began to tremble. "So, if a catastrophe like the Doom of Valyria occurred, it would affect ten kilometers?"
"At the very least ten kilometers," Dany said calmly.
"At least… ten kilometers…" Borem's face twisted.
So from now on, he was to live atop a giant powder keg?This place was far too dangerous. He wanted to leave the island!
Dany saw through his thoughts and said irritably, "Do you think a cataclysm is so easily triggered? The Valyrians lived in extravagance and excess, tormenting their fourteen fire-mountains for six thousand years before retribution struck. We are careful and frugal. We can last at least six hundred thousand years.
According to the power limits I set, the fire sorcery drawn daily is only half the energy of a hot spring.
In emergencies, aside from me, no one else can overdraw more than five hundred percent, which is only two and a half times the loss of a hot spring."
The Valyrians had used their magical network to reshape the world. Dany used it only for communication.
Think of the proportion of household energy taken up by charging a phone.
Almost negligible.
"Oh, Your Majesty is wise!"
The Old Crab's worries melted away. Once relaxed, he instinctively offered his flattery.
"Your Majesty, try it—see what the magic sphere can do," Marwyn urged eagerly, pointing at the crystal ball.
"What can it do?" Dany placed her left hand on the sphere, formed a sword seal with her right hand, and slashed lightly at the sky.
"Szzzz!"
Like the sound of silk tearing, a hundred-meter-long, palm-wide line of fire burst forth, tearing through a ten-meter-deep pit and striking the stone wall, leaving behind a scorched black scar.
"By the Seven, that's true magic!"
It was the first time Borem had seen fire conjured from the void. His eyes went wide in shock.
"Compared to you, the fire mages of the Alchemists' Guild aren't even on par with children," the well-traveled Old Crab muttered in awe.
Hearing mention of fire mages, Dany asked curiously, "I told you to recruit alchemists. How did that go?"
"More than twenty fire mages came. I placed them on Tideshead Isle. They can produce a few dozen pounds of wildfire each day."
"That's a bit little," Dany frowned.
Marwyn, uninterested in fire mages or wildfire, asked urgently, "Your Majesty, aside from fire sorcery, how does the magic network enhance other forms of sorcery?"
"Other sorcery…" Dany's mind stirred. Closing her eyes, she fully engaged the Green Seer's meditation, entering the state of the Song of the Wind.Her soul seemed to transform into a breeze, flowing along a trace of Green Seer magic into the crystal ball. She encountered no resistance. The fire sorcery was instantly transformed by her spirit into a vast Green Seer magic.
"Whoosh!"
Like a spirit of the wind, her vision soared. It was exactly like when she once entered a weirwood tree beyond the Wall. She merged with the sky, the earth, the trees, the stones. She heard the grass and forests singing with the world.
She was like the wind itself, passing through the castles of Dragonstone. She saw guards on duty, servants at work, blacksmiths hammering iron.
Then she drove the wind toward the docks. She saw the Laurel Wind, and with it, the familiar figure of Qohor.
She tried again, and found that the wind could pass even through the deck and seawater. She saw—By the Seven, what did she just see!
Shocked, Dany instantly withdrew from the state of the Song of the Wind.
"Huff… huff…" Her face was pale, her breathing ragged, her eyes flickering with shock and confusion.
"What happened?" Marwyn asked when he saw her strange expression.
"Go to the docks at once. Surround the Laurel Wind!" Dany snapped back to herself and commanded sternly.
(End of chapter)
Want to read the chapters in Advance? Join my Patreon
https://patreon.com/Glimmer09