The next day.
"Lord Peverell." Barristan greeted the mage with a frigid expression; the old Kingsguard knight rarely showed any emotion; perhaps the years of assassination made people quieter and colder. "The Blood has been prepared."
As soon as Barristan spoke, Cadmus, who had been locked in his room for three days, nodded. His green eyes narrowed, and he looked at the Kingsguard with a calm gaze. "Who won the tournament?"
"Ser Arthur Dayne, who crowned Lady Margaery as the Queen of Love and Beauty." Barristan spoke while gesturing for Cadmus to follow him, something the mage did while showing a bored reaction to who won.
"It seems the king wanted Arthur to win to make the betrothal even more legendary for the people." Cadmus said with a laugh; Rhaegar was truly shrewd, doing everything to improve his son's image in the eyes of the commoners and nobles.
Barristan did not respond, but his silence was more than revealing, showing that Cadmus's words were correct. Although there were knights as skilled as Jaime Lannister or Brynden Tully, facing Arthur wielding an unbreakable sword was a completely unfair fight.
When Cadmus arrived at the king's chambers, he was surprised to see Queen Rhaella present. After four days, the queen's appearance was very healthy; she showed no paleness or sadness in her gaze.
However, looking into the queen's lilac eyes, Cadmus seemed to see an unquenchable flame burning. It was such a strong feeling of revenge, anger, and resentment that Cadmus could feel that the room's temperature was slightly warmer than usual.
It was the first time Cadmus had seen a person manipulate magical energy without any training, based only on feelings.
'Emotion has always been a quite mysterious aspect of magic; a mother could conjure a protection spell so powerful that it killed a dark lord. The queen, who knows nothing about magic, is using her own will mixed with feelings to perform a miracle that only mages could.' Cadmus thought with a great emotion bubbling in his chest.
What he was seeing was so extraordinary that it made him wonder if he could unconsciously manipulate magic using only his own feelings. And after thinking about it, he found it impossible. Not that he didn't have emotions, but he simply had no reason to have such a great emotion.
Averting his gaze from the queen, Cadmus greeted the king. "My King, as I said before, I have made all the magical items."
With a wave of his hand, three rings, two pairs of earrings, and two bracelets flew towards the king and landed on the dark wooden desk.
"Each magical item is enchanted with a protection spell called Protego. The spell creates a barrier around the user, protecting them from all physical and magical attacks." Cadmus explained in a calm tone with a touch of pride in his voice. "The spell lasts fifteen minutes and takes a day to be used again."
Rhaegar looked at the items on the table with a satisfied expression; this was a legacy that could protect all future kings and queens; this was so important to House Targaryen that he couldn't help but be moved.
Looking at the young man with black hair and green eyes before him, Rhaegar showed a solemn expression and spoke with a tone full of majesty. "I will not be stingy, Cadmus. From this moment on, you are the Lord of Harrenhal."
Cadmus seemed to have misheard; he looked at the king with disbelief. "What about House Whent?" He asked with a confused tone; Harrenhal Castle was the property of House Whent, which served King Maekar I Targaryen.
Rhaegar sighed and spoke with a tone full of regret. "Didn't you notice that there are no members of House Whent so far? Lord Walter Whent passed away without direct descendants, and his wife had died giving birth to the stillborn child."
"And the secondary branch?" Cadmus asked, frowning. Although he didn't care about the problems, if he wanted to control this huge castle, he would have to make the branches of House Whent meet their maker beforehand.
"They are too close to House Tully." Rhaegar said with a particularly cold tone. He deeply detested House Tully, filthy traitors, who didn't even have reasons to rebel during Robert's Rebellion.
"Besides, those with the best chance of inheriting are Edmure Tully, since he is the son of Minisa Whent, who was married to Hoster Tully." Rhaegar said calmly; he would never allow House Tully to get Harrenhal, much less the branches of House Whent that were too close to House Tully.
Cadmus finally understood why Harrenhal fell into his lap; however, he didn't complain at all. He was more than happy to get this huge castle. He was already planning to rebuild the castle the way he wanted.
At the same time, he also wanted to kill those members of the secondary branch of House Whent. He didn't want to wake up and hear furious screams from some stupid descendants of House Whent.
"Your Grace is certainly the best king a vassal could have." Cadmus said with a laugh and praised Rhaegar without sparing compliments.
Although he knew that the king wanted him to serve as a wall on the Trident, preventing House Tully's advance. However, he didn't care about that, as he was also using Rhaegar to get what he wanted.
Rhaegar rolled his eyes but really didn't deny Cadmus's words. If he hadn't been quite generous, things would have been very different. After all, loyalty was a good thing, but loyalty linked to a network of interests was more solid than any loyalty based on words.
Losing his smile, Rhaegar looked at Cadmus and spoke in a calm tone. "The blood for the ritual has been prepared; we killed about one hundred and forty pigs and sheep; the blood is stored in a part of the dungeon."
"My mother will be the first, then me and my whole family." He said, then looked at Rhaella with a complex gaze. He managed to calm his mother, but he knew better than anyone how complex the feelings his mother was experiencing at that moment were.
His concern was that Rhaella's eyes resembled his father's eyes, a calm and deep gaze that hid a madness about to explode at any moment.
According to the report Rhaegar received, Viserys's former wet nurse, who always accompanied Rhaella, was found dead on the first day the truth was revealed by Cadmus. There were hand marks around the wet nurse's neck, while her eyes only presented two empty eye sockets... this shows how unsustainable his mother's mind was.
Not only that, anything that involved the Faith of the Seven was destroyed, including the people. In three days, dozens of people died, including two Septons, who committed suicide with seven stab wounds in the back...
Fortunately, Rhaegar was quick and covered everything up, so no one noticed the lack of dozens of servants in this huge black castle.
Rhaella, who had been silent until now, looked at Cadmus with a calm gaze, although Cadmus felt that her eyes resembled those of a wounded animal pretending to be strong.
"I will take care of you for the next few hours, my Queen." Cadmus said in a gentle tone; he truly felt sorry for this woman who had suffered her whole life. At least at this moment, he wanted to give this strong woman some peace.
"Thank you, Lord Cadmus." Rhaella finally spoke; her voice sounded hoarse, as if she hadn't spoken for some time. However, looking at Cadmus, her gaze was gentler.
"The ritual is private, so no one other than me and the queen will be present at the location." Cadmus said in a calm tone to Rhaegar; anyone else could disrupt the blood ritual, as it was a meticulous and extremely delicate process.
He didn't want to risk the widowed queen's life or even risk turning the king's mother into an insane and mad monster. He had just gotten a big promotion and didn't want to destroy his career because some idiot couldn't keep quiet during the process.
Rhaegar didn't show much reaction and just nodded. With the Unbreakable Vow, as long as his mother didn't attack Cadmus, her safety was guaranteed.
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Read my other books:
Game Of Thrones: The God-Emperor of Planetos (500,000 words written).
Percy Jackson: Godwyn the Golden.
Game Of Thrones: The King's Court Wizard