"What????"
"Prince Leo is engaged to High Priestess Jeni?!!!!!"
"What kind of move is that?!"
The Great Pyramid of Meereen, the queen's study.
The blood-red afterglow of the setting sun streamed through the wide glass windows, falling on the Dragon Queen's mouth behind the curved wooden desk, so shocked that even her gums were showing.
Morona of the "White Masks," who was reporting in front of the desk, could not understand the queen's reaction. She hesitated and said, "They both said the same thing, so it's probably true."
"Oh gods, that dwarf and Jeni…" Dany pressed her forehead and groaned.
"Although Prince Leo of Elephant Isle is short, his status is noble, and he has awakened a high-level Valyrian bloodline. It seems reasonable enough for Jeni to marry him, doesn't it?" Morona asked in confusion.
"Uh…" Dany froze again and asked, "Zaro told you this? That the dwarf awakened a high-level Valyrian bloodline?"
Morona nodded and said, "Prince Leo has been spreading wild talk, saying that after he cuts off your head and kills you, he will marry Priestess Jeni in the Great Pyramid of Meereen.
"Zaro also found it unbelievable at first. Only after investigating did he figure it out. Leo's bloodline isn't very pure, but its rank is extremely high.
"High Priestess Jeni decided to take Prince Leo as a live-in husband in order to continue the bloodline of House Baleris."
"So that's how it is." Dany suddenly understood, and at the same time realized why the dwarf had gone missing.
Yes, it had already been a week since the last exchange of prisoners. The atmosphere of war outside the city was growing thicker by the day, carrying an urgent sense of an approaching storm.
The decisive battle was about to arrive.
And yet the dwarf had gone deep into the enemy camp, like entering a boundless sea. Dany had been waiting all this time without hearing him pray to the Seven.
It turned out that fellow had become a live-in husband, spending his days in intimate closeness with Jeni. He had neither the opportunity nor the courage to pray to the Seven. Once the seal of the Holy Knight condensed, she would likely discover it immediately.
Dany slapped the table and said in frustration, "A miscalculation!"
She had no objection to the dwarf losing his virginity, but if Jeni ended up gaining something from it, then…
Under normal circumstances, as long as the dwarf did not cultivate fire witchcraft, outsiders would find it almost impossible to judge the type, purity, or rank of his bloodline.
In any case, Dany herself had only sensed that the dwarf possessed an extraordinary talent for cultivating fire witchcraft. It was only after drawing his blood and observing it with a witch's lens that she confirmed that, as she comprehended her own Song of Fire, his bloodline had also gained a certain degree of advancement.
Wasn't Aunt Mei also puzzled as to why she hadn't burned the dwarf to death?
If Aunt Mei had been given the chance to draw blood and cast detection magic, she would definitely have noticed the dwarf's abnormality. But relying solely on eyesight, or even on smell… well, Jeni had discovered the secret of the dwarf's bloodline through instinctive desire.
"Your Majesty, is that Leo very special?" Morona asked, puzzled.
When Dany had asked her to inquire with Zaro and Quaithe, she had only told her to find out what major or minor events had occurred in the allied camp. She had not specifically told her to focus on Leo.
"If I'd known his bloodline was that high-level, I wouldn't have let him go."
Dany brushed it off with that remark and waved Morona away.
Not only Morona, even old Aemon did not know that the dwarf had gone into the enemy camp to play a "spy within a spy."
Because Tyrion was recuperating in the queen's intensive care chamber, everyone could see him every couple of days and even exchange a few simple words with him.
"The engagement news spreading throughout the camp must be because of the dwarf. He's telling me his current situation, but what use is that?" Dany frowned in thought.
Knowing that he was going to serve as breeding stock for Jeni, what could she do besides gloat?
Wait, no. That guy said he would cut off my head and then marry Jeni atop the Great Pyramid of Meereen.
"Is the dwarf warning me that Jeni's trump card really could turn the tide of the war?"
"Six thousand years of Valyrian history show that warfare was always fought with dragons. If one dragon wasn't enough, they used a hundred; if a hundred weren't enough, they used three hundred. They never used forbidden spells!"
"So the trump card must be related to dragons! And the dwarf's disappearance from the surface camps also proves my earlier guess was correct. Jeni is very likely controlling dragon worms to dig underground palaces outside the city.
"If I put myself in her position, I would even dig tunnels into Meereen itself, collapse the Great Pyramid, strike in multiple places at once, and Meereen would inevitably fall!"
Dany's heart stirred. She began issuing orders to investigate the depth of all wells within Meereen and within a five-kilometer radius outside the city.
When night fell over the land, hundreds and thousands more people left Meereen. In teams of five, according to the areas designated by the queen, they began digging wells in an orderly manner. They did not need to dig very deep. They only needed to measure one piece of data: how deep they had to dig before reaching groundwater.
Another day passed. As Dany was drawing a "Meereen Underground Waterway Map" in her study, the fire sprite Little Mist flew in to inform her that Ser Clinton had returned.
Yes, the dwarf's injuries had yet to heal, and he was isolated in the "intensive care chamber." As for Margaery, she had already been sent back to Westeros by Old Jon before the dwarf went undercover in the allied camp.
Old Jon had left with a mottled dragon and the She-Bear, and he did not return alone.
Barristan of Queen's Corner chose to return and take part in the decisive battle.
Margaery also fulfilled her promise to the Dragon Queen before leaving, sending her three daughters over.
"Ser, welcome back!" Dany offered Old Barristan a broad smile.
Although they had met many times through spiritual projection, the two had in fact been separated for more than a year. Seeing each other now, they could not help but feel deeply moved.
"Your Majesty, you should have brought me back long ago," the old knight complained.
"In fact, your work at Queen's Corner was more meaningful. Nearly eighty thousand wildlings lived because of you.
"Jorah and I transported them there, but you were the one who managed them."
"Sigh, I am a White Knight. I should always accompany you into the final battle!"
When Dany shifted her gaze to the three women standing beside the Great Bear, they immediately stepped forward, knelt on one knee, and introduced themselves in order from eldest to youngest.
"Your Majesty Daenerys, I am Leila Mormont. My blade is willing to serve you."
She was a chubby girl of eighteen or nineteen, about one meter sixty tall, with a round head, round red cheeks, a barrel-like plump body, and thick, solid arms and thighs like wooden posts.
Very Mormont, very much like her second elder sister, Mother Bear Alysanne.
"Your Majesty Daenerys, I am Joriel Mormont. Your will is my mission!"
The fourth of the Bear House seemed to have undergone a bit of genetic mutation. At seventeen or eighteen, she was over one meter eighty tall, slender, with a high nose, deep-set eyes, a slightly square face, and brown curly hair.
"Your Majesty Daenerys, I am Lyanna Mormont. I am willing to be your loyal knight!"
The fifth, Lyanna, was also unlike her mother and second elder sister in not being very "bear-like." She was one meter fifty tall, eleven or twelve years old, with a chubby, rosy face that still carried baby fat, yet wore a solemn, mature expression. A very cute girl.
Clang! Dany drew the black-bladed magical sword from her waist and tapped each girl on the shoulders, accepting their fealty. She knighted the third sister, Leila, as a landed knight, and granted the other two the title of honorary knights.
"There is also a Leila in Meereen. Her ancestors were likewise from the North, Leila Umber. There will be a banquet tonight. I will introduce you all to each other."
After exchanging a few polite words with the Mormonts, Dany had the Great Bear take his cousins away to be settled in.
"You both know my situation here. I can never have too many well-mannered knights. If any noble houses have younger sons with nowhere to go, they can all be sent to me," Dany said with a smile to Old Barristan and Old Jon.
"I have no children. My cousins do not like me, and I do not like them either," Old Jon said, shaking his head.
Old Barristan also shook his head and declined politely. "I only have one grandnephew, Arstan. He is the Earl of Harvest Hall."
This time, the Great Bear really struck gold.
Fortunately, his aunt was prolific. She had five daughters. The eldest died tragically. The second became the heir and had a son and a daughter of her own. The remaining three daughters had nowhere to be placed, so they were all sent off together to Slaver's Bay to become landed nobles.
Dany then looked at Old Jon again and asked with concern, "How is Aegon? Ser, why were you gone for so long?"
Old Jon's face was full of worry as he replied helplessly, "By the time I reached Winterfell, Stannis had already sailed away from White Harbor.
He had two thousand Northmen cavalry and two thousand five hundred sellswords with him.
I also heard that another five thousand sellswords set out from Braavos. Nearly ten thousand men in total, sailing in great force toward Storm's End.
But I searched at sea for more than a week and never saw any trace of them. With no other choice, I left the wyvern with Sansa and returned myself."
"Aegon's leg injury has not even healed, and he has to sail on a long voyage. What if something goes wrong? Stannis has gone too far!" Dany's aunt said anxiously and angrily, her face flushing red.
"Your Majesty, please do not worry. We did not refuse Stannis's terms. Given his character and principles, he will certainly ensure the safety of the hostage," Barristan hurried to reassure her.
Old Jon also forced himself to rally his spirits and comfort the poor aunt. "Aegon is not alone. Northern nobles are protecting his safety, and Illyrio is taking care of his daily needs."
"Oh, with Illyrio there, I am relieved."
Dany's aunt let out a long breath, and her complexion improved considerably.
As if remembering something, Old Jon added, "Duke Stark has uncovered the traitor who caused the collapse of the True Dragon Alliance."
"Who?" Dany asked curiously.
Aegon's capture was indeed a matter of bad luck on his part, but at the time, the True Dragon Alliance had still been barely holding together.
Then the Second Stag inexplicably demanded command authority, and King's Landing seized the opportunity and charged in like a cheat code, giving Sansa and the others no chance to adjust at all.
"Maester Theomore of White Harbor."
Old Jon then recounted how Theomore passed information back and forth between the Second Stag and the Iron Throne, ultimately sabotaging Aegon's True Dragon Alliance into collapse.
"If things go on like this, who will dare to treat maesters as trusted confidants in the future?" Barristan frowned.
Dany said oddly, "What about Varys? What has he been busy with lately? He is the Eight-Legged Spider. How did he end up being completely outmatched by Cersei in intelligence?"
"Varys?" Old Jon was taken aback, then shook his head. "I have heard no news of him at all."
"It feels like that guy is a bit overrated," Dany muttered.
Well, she misunderstood the bald eunuch. He had actually been working hard all along and had indeed been playing his part.
For example, before the Battle of the Blackwater, Varys warned the Golden Company and the Dornish in advance that King's Landing was about to make a major move. He advised them to withdraw first to the Stormlands and wait until matters concerning King Aegon were settled before making further plans.
Unfortunately, he did not know Euron's full plan. His own reputation was also not very good, and his words were vague. The Golden Company and the Dornish did heighten their vigilance, but they did not withdraw.
For another example, when the True Dragon Alliance had just been established, he secretly infiltrated the Great Sept several times. Representing King Aegon, he met the High Sparrow and said, "There are only three kings left in the Seven Kingdoms. You do not support Cersei, and you certainly would not support the blasphemous Stannis. Why not mobilize the people and lead the Warrior's Sons to support the true dragon, Aegon?"
The High Sparrow firmly refused.
After the True Dragon Alliance collapsed, Varys sent countless private warnings to the High Sparrow: Be careful, you must be careful. Cersei's tolerance toward you has reached its limit.
The High Sparrow replied, "I will not listen. I am not afraid!"
Then the High Sparrow met the Mother again.
(End of chapter)
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