On the third day of their arrival in Oldtown, Lord Linde and Velas went to the Starry Sept in Oldtown early in the morning.
The Starry Sept is located on a cliff at the mouth of the Honeywine River, facing the Citadel on the opposite bank and the Hightower on Battle Isle across the water, forming one of the three iconic buildings that dominate Oldtown.
This is the starting point of Oldtown's religious district, extending all the way to the end of the dock area, where religious buildings such as the Sailor's Sept, Lord's Sept, Seven Gods Hall, Mother's House, and exotic temples brought by sailors and sea merchants are located.
The entire religious district encompasses the dock area, and anyone returning from the sea will immediately go to the corresponding temple, sept, or shrine to pray, thanking the gods for their safe return to land, while those leaving Oldtown by water will also pray in these religious places for a smooth journey.
As the former religious center of Westeros, the Starry Sept, even though it is no longer the seat of the Archbishop, its influence has not diminished much, and because it is far from the center of power in King's Landing and not entangled in worldly affairs, it has become a holy place for the devout monks and believers of the Seven Gods Church.
Because of this, the religious laws here are also very strict, almost like the Citadel, where knights like Lord Linde, who carry swords, are not allowed into the sept and can only wait in the square outside.
Due to prior arrangements made by the sept's monks, there were no other people inside the Starry Sept besides the monks accompanying Velas in prayer; even believers were directed to other septs. The entire day, the Starry Sept served Velas alone, showing the importance the Starry Sept placed on him.
Whether Velas himself is a devout follower of the Seven Gods is still debatable, but he presents himself to the outside world as a very pious follower of the Seven Gods.
For example, during this prayer at the Starry Sept, he removed all his luxurious clothes at the Hightower, changed into the robes of the lowest-ranking priests of the Seven Gods Church, and walked barefoot from the gate of Black Stone Fortress, through the arch bridge, into the dock area, all the way to the Starry Sept. Throughout this not-so-short journey, he consistently followed a very ancient monastic ritual of the Seven Gods Church: for every seven steps he took, he recited a chapter and prayer from the 'Seven-Pointed Star Bible'.
The people of Oldtown are almost all followers of the Seven Gods Church, and when they saw Velas, the heir to The Reach and future Duke of Highgarden, acting so devoutly, they were all incredibly moved. They stood on both sides of the road, quietly reciting prayers with Velas, a scene as if they were welcoming a saint.
It was not until Velas was welcomed into the sept by the Bishop of the Starry Sept and the sept doors slowly closed that they dispersed, still wanting more.
This prayer will continue until the first ray of sunlight illuminates the seven-pointed star holy emblem at the top of the Starry Sept tomorrow morning. Before then, Velas will remain inside the Starry Sept.
Lord Linde divided his knight-guards into two groups, guarding the various street entrances and exits of the Starry Sept square, while the others were sent to rest in the house next to the Starry Sept, specifically used to care for poor believers.
Afterward, he told Jon to go to the camp outside the city to prepare for their departure from Oldtown tomorrow, as there was no need to stay idly outside the Starry Sept.
Although Lord Linde knew that Velas was safe in the Starry Sept, he still checked around the Starry Sept, then found a place near the prayer room to sit down, leaning against the wall, concentrating and listening to the movements on the other side of the wall through his superhuman hearing to ascertain the situation inside the sept.
Glory, meanwhile, took Lord Linde's place, constantly moving around the Starry Sept, checking for any activity.
Everything went very smoothly and boringly; the entire day passed like this. As the sun set into the western Sea of Sunset, the sky gradually darkened, and Oldtown's municipal workers lit the braziers throughout the roads, illuminating the entire Oldtown.
Lord Linde, who had been sitting outside the prayer room wall all day, had listened to prayers for an entire day by eavesdropping. He could almost recite the entire prayer text of the 'Seven-Pointed Star Bible' by heart. What impressed him was that Velas had been silently praying on the other side of the wall for the entire day, not even stopping when the monks next to him left.
If it weren't for his conversations with Velas these past few days, where he learned of Velas's attitude towards the gods, he might have already believed Velas was an incredibly devout follower of the Seven Gods, much like Beller Targaryen, the Blessed of the Gods, who is revered as a saint by the Seven Gods Church.
In fact, Velas probably just wanted the Seven Gods Church to believe he was someone like Beller Targaryen, so that they could give him additional support when he becomes Duke of Highgarden in the future.
It should be known that in The Reach, even though the Seven Gods Church has no armed forces, their influence among the common people is still extremely strong. Gaining the support of the Seven Gods Church is equivalent to gaining the support of the common people.
These were also the two things Velas had decided to accomplish before coming to Oldtown: one was to win over the Citadel to gain its support and control influence among the upper echelons of The Reach; the other was to win over the Seven Gods Church to control influence among the lower classes.
However, things at the Citadel yesterday seemed not to go smoothly, but the Citadel later sent three valuable books to show goodwill to Velas, which also represented another kind of neutral stance from the Citadel.
As for the situation at the Starry Sept today, it was much better. From the attitude of the Starry Sept monks, things seemed to have progressed very satisfactorily, because Lord Linde heard the Bishop of the Starry Sept, outside the prayer room where he thought Velas couldn't hear, praising Velas's piety more than once to his subordinate monks, and also implicitly indicating that the Starry Sept needed the support of a powerful noble to continue to contend with the Great Sept of Baelor in King's Landing.
After nightfall, Lord Linde stopped eavesdropping on the movements inside the sept and returned to the square in front of the sept.
Jon then ran over from the camp outside the city and informed Lord Linde of some situations at the camp. Lord Linde couldn't help but frown after hearing it, feeling a subtle sense of unease in his heart.
It turned out that the noble sons and knight officers responsible for military affairs felt that they would be going to sea tomorrow, and would be drifting at sea for almost half a month, so they thought they should relax tonight. Thus, they all ran to the brothels and taverns in Oldtown, planning to play until dawn.
All these knight officers had left the military camp. Now, there were only some knight attendants without authority and low-ranking officers in the camp, with no commanding officer present.
Although Oldtown is Hightower territory and there are no enemies around, Lord Linde found this practice of the entire army command leaving the camp inappropriate, and he also had a subtle sense of unease, feeling that something would go wrong.
So, he immediately, using the special army command authority granted to him by Velas before entering the Starry Sept, issued an authorization letter. Then, he ordered Jon to return to the military camp with ten knight-guards and some ordinary soldiers, instructing them to temporarily manage the army until the knight officers returned.
One of the knight-guards asked with some concern, "Lord Linde, will this cause you trouble? What you are doing already shows signs of overstepping your authority."
"As officers, leaving the military camp without the Commander's permission already violates military law," Lord Linde replied with a cold face. "If nothing happens, it's fine; they'll shut up, and I won't cause trouble. But if they dare to speak out, I'll let them know how I enforce military law in Tengshi Town."
Seeing that Lord Linde had already made his decision, the knight-guard said no more. Although in their eyes, Lord Linde's status was not enough to contend with those knight officers who had great nobles and lords behind them, they vaguely felt that if those knight officers really blamed Lord Linde for overstepping his authority and sending people to take over the army, it would definitely be those knight officers who would suffer in the end.
Time passed little by little, and soon it was already late at night. In Oldtown, apart from the areas where taverns and brothels were located, most other places were quiet, and everything seemed very calm, just like last night.
However, the unease in Lord Linde's heart did not disappear; instead, it grew stronger and stronger.
Perhaps it was a premonition, he walked to the cliff at the edge of the Starry Sept square and looked towards Whispering Sound.
Due to cloud cover, there was no moonlight in the sky, and the sea was pitch black. A normal person would not be able to see anything, but Lord Linde's superhuman vision was not within the normal range. He could vaguely see many things moving on the sea.
After realizing he couldn't clearly see the moving objects on the sea, he immediately shared his vision with Glory beside him. Through Glory's thermal imaging vision, he clearly saw hundreds of small longships sailing at an extremely fast speed on the sea of Whispering Sound, and their direction was towards Oldtown's dock area.
However, the Hightower seemed not to have detected these hundreds of small longships, so no alarm was sounded, which was clearly not right.
Lord Linde was almost certain that hundreds of ships were pirates, and the only force capable of gathering so many pirates was the Ironborn from the Iron Islands.
Lord Linde didn't think much further. He immediately disengaged from Glory's shared vision, quickly walked to his knight-guards, and ordered with a serious expression: "Ironborn pirates are already heading towards Oldtown. The Hightower hasn't detected them, so no alarm has been sounded. We cannot wait here for the Ironborn to land. You two, go immediately to the beacon tower at the city hall and light the alarm torch. You two, go immediately to the Hightower and explain the situation to Lord Leyton. You and you, go immediately outside the city and have Jon and his men bring the army into Oldtown to cooperate with the Oldtown garrison in resisting the Ironborn. As for you two, immediately notify the Oldtown garrison to rush to the dock for defense as soon as possible."
Although Lord Linde gave the order, the surrounding knight-guards remained stunned, looking at Lord Linde, with no intention of carrying out the order.
It was no wonder these knight-guards reacted this way, as they had not detected the Ironborn pirates Lord Linde spoke of, and Oldtown was completely quiet. Lord Linde's sudden action seemed baffling to anyone.
"Do you want to disobey my orders as captain of the guard? Or have you forgotten Lord Velas's instructions when he entered the Starry Sept?" Lord Linde was not angry at the knight-guards' reaction, but merely emphasized his authority.
At Lord Linde's reminder, the knight-guards remembered that Velas had indeed told them not to disobey Lord Linde's orders. However, they felt that Velas's orders only pertained to security, and Lord Linde's current actions were too out of line, especially the request for the army outside the city to enter the city. This was practically an invasion of Oldtown, and if not handled well, it could easily lead to a rupture in the relationship between House Tyrell and Hightower.
Seeing that these men still did not move to carry out his orders, Lord Linde did not continue to persuade them. Instead, he walked to the door of the Starry Sept and knocked hard a few times.
The main door did not open, but the window of a small side door opened, revealing a monk's face, looking at Lord Linde with confusion.
"I have an urgent matter to see Lord Velas about," Lord Linde said in a deep voice.
The monk frowned and said in a deep voice, "Lord Velas is praying. According to the ritual, he can only be disturbed tomorrow morning..."
Lord Linde interrupted the monk and said very directly, "In a little while, thousands of Ironborn will land at the docks and plunder Oldtown. The Starry Sept is too close to the docks, and Lord Velas will be in great danger here."
The monk was stunned, then looked at the quiet Oldtown outside, which showed no signs of being attacked, and displayed a look as if to say, "Are you an idiot?"
"This is not something you can decide..." Lord Linde continued.
"Lord Linde." Just then, a calm voice came from inside the sept, and then the Bishop of the Starry Sept appeared behind the small window and said to Lord Linde, "Lord Linde, please believe that Lord Velas is safe here. Even if the Ironborn you speak of truly land and attack Oldtown, we will be fine here. The Ironborn cannot break down the sept's main door, so if the Ironborn truly come, Lord Linde, you are the ones who need to be careful."
"I understand, Archbishop," Lord Linde said, no longer trying to persuade him. He knew very well that for these religious people, completing a religious ceremony was more important than their lives.
Since everything that needed to be done had been done, Lord Linde saw no need to waste more words. He walked to the main door and stood there, waiting for subsequent events to unfold.
Glory also seemed to sense Lord Linde's somewhat irritated mood and became active, walking around the square a few times, then disappearing into the shadows of the surrounding buildings, seemingly vanishing.
The knight-guards were puzzled by Lord Linde's somewhat frantic actions. They looked at each other, and several of the more observant knight-guards even walked to where Lord Linde had just stood and looked out at the sea of Whispering Sound. Unfortunately, their eyes could not clearly see the specific situation on the sea; they only saw a dead, dark expanse.
"Should we send someone to the outside of the city first to notify the people there, just in case something happens here, so that the people outside can react in time?" One knight-guard, perhaps feeling that Lord Linde was not the kind of person who would issue arbitrary and overreaching orders, tentatively suggested.
Everyone thought this was also a good idea, so they immediately sent the two people Lord Linde had previously designated to ride to the outside of the city.
About ten minutes later, the raging fire in the dock area instantly drew everyone's attention, and shouts came from that direction.
The eight knight-guards outside the Starry Sept showed looks of shock and immediately ran to the edge of the square, looking towards the dock area.
By the light of a burning ship in the dock area, they saw hundreds of ships densely gathered on the sea in the dock area. These ships were filled with Ironborn, who were rapidly rushing towards the dock area. Many of the ships had already reached the dock's mooring points, and large numbers of Ironborn pirates were rushing off the ships and charging towards their prey.
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