Lynd and Nymeria soon arrived outside a restored stone house in the garden. Augustus, surrounded by a few attendants and guards, was standing at the door, peering eagerly inside like a child watching something curious. He was so captivated that he didn't even notice when Lynd and Nymeria approached from behind.
Just as Lynd was about to walk over to see what had caught their attention, a few strange screeches erupted from inside the stone house, followed by a sudden jet of fire shooting out through the doorway, sending Augustus and the others scrambling back in fright.
"Dragons?" Lynd turned to glance at Nymeria.
Nymeria nodded.
Only then did Augustus realize Lynd was behind him. He froze for a moment, then quickly stepped forward as if to embrace him—only to stop short and bow awkwardly, a faint unease in his posture.
"Father, you've returned!"
Lynd looked at his son, who was clearly still distant with him, and sighed softly. He reached out to ruffle Augustus's hair and said, "I'm your father. There's no need to be so stiff with me."
"Yes, Father." Augustus relaxed a bit, though tension still lingered in his expression.
Lynd didn't press the matter. He pointed to the stone house and asked, knowing the answer already, "What were you looking at just now?"
"Dragons, Father! Real dragons!" Augustus became much more animated. Grabbing Lynd's hand, he pointed excitedly at the building.
Led by Augustus to the door, Lynd looked inside. While he had already guessed that dragons were involved, he hadn't expected what he saw—five young dragons, each about the size of a puppy, were chained in separate corners of the stone house. They hissed and lunged, yanking at their chains, each one snarling at the others. If not restrained, they likely would have torn each other apart.
Each dragon was a different color: black, red, blue, green, and white. The sight reminded Lynd of something out of another world—like he'd stumbled across the legendary five-colored dragons of some other realm.
"Where did these dragons come from? Why didn't I know about this?" Lynd turned to Nymeria.
She explained, "When Elizabeth and Alexander were born, some refugees from the Kingdom of Sarnor whom I had once sheltered brought gifts. Among them were five petrified dragon eggs. I didn't take them seriously. The old man by the river had already sensed no life within them—he said they were dead eggs. So we let the children each keep one as a toy. But then, on the day the red comet appeared, all five suddenly hatched."
Lynd thought for a moment and asked, "Did you perform any live sacrifices on the day the red comet appeared?"
"Live sacrifices? Of course not," Nymeria said, shaking her head. Then, after a brief pause, she added, "Although… that day, in front of the Temple of the God of Calamity, we did execute five Dothraki Khals who had crossed our borders, along with some bandits. Are you suggesting that has something to do with the dragons hatching?"
"Maybe." Lynd wasn't convinced, but the coincidence was hard to ignore. Still, he didn't dwell on it. Instead, he pointed to the chains and asked, "Why are they locked up?"
"They're extremely aggressive," Nymeria said. "Not long after they hatched, they attacked Caesar and Alexander. So we locked them in the stone house."
"They were injured?" Lynd's expression darkened.
"It was nothing serious," Nymeria assured him with a smile. "Just a few bites on the arm. The dragons were still tiny then. The wounds weren't deep and healed quickly. In fact, the boys didn't even cry. They said they got bitten because they hadn't bonded with the dragons yet, and insisted on feeding them personally to earn their trust—so they could one day ride them, just like you."
"Will that really work?" Lynd asked, skeptical.
"It will! It will!" Augustus chimed in excitedly before Nymeria could answer. "Now when I feed Balerion, he doesn't hiss at me anymore. He just eats what I give him, nice and quiet."
"Balerion? The Black Dread?" Lynd chuckled. "So you've already named all five?"
"Mm-hmm." Augustus nodded eagerly and pointed to the black dragon in the corner. "That one's mine—Balerion. Mother told me there was once a black dragon with the same name, the strongest of them all. They called him the Black Dread."
"What about the others?" Lynd asked.
Augustus pointed to each dragon in turn. "The red one is Katarina's. She named her Meleys. The green one is Caesar's—Vhagar. The white one is Alexander's—Vermithor. And the blue one is Elizabeth's—Tessarion."
Just as Augustus finished introducing the dragons, the sound of approaching footsteps echoed from the nearby corridor. Moments later, Katarina, Caesar, Alexander, and Elizabeth appeared, each of them holding the handles of a large wicker basket overflowing with fresh meat, leaving a trail of blood as they came. Servants, maids, and guards followed nervously behind, watching every step closely, as if terrified the children might trip.
However, even with protection, the four little ones were still prone to accidents. As they walked down the corridor into the garden, Alexander and Elizabeth—who were in the lead—missed a step and stumbled forward, falling headfirst along with the meat basket onto Katarina and Caesar in front of them.
The attendants nearby didn't have time to react, and both Katarina and Caesar thought they were about to get hurt, crying out in alarm.
But then something strange happened. The four little ones and the meat basket suddenly floated into the air, as if they had become weightless, and drifted toward Lynd and the others.
After their initial panic, the four of them spotted Lynd standing beside Nymeria. At first, they didn't recognize the armored figure—until they saw the dragon-head helmet in Lynd's hands and realized who he was.
Lynd gently set them down and released the telekinetic force around them. The four quickly scrambled to their feet and gave a respectful bow.
"Father," they said in unison.
Watching their overly formal behavior, Lynd could only shake his head with a wry smile. He didn't bother correcting them—he knew that even if he did now, the next time they met after a long absence, they'd still be just as awkward and reserved.
Lynd crouched down, looked at his children, and asked, "Would you like your dragons to always stay by your side?"
Their eyes lit up as they nodded eagerly. Even Augustus, standing behind them, couldn't help but ask, "Do you have a way to stop the dragons from attacking us?"
"There might be a way," Lynd replied with a smile, without giving a definite answer. Then he motioned for the guards to open the door and stepped into the stone house.
As soon as he entered, the five young dragons shrieked at him in high-pitched cries. They looked hostile, ready to attack. But from outside, Augustus and the others could clearly feel that their dragons weren't being aggressive—they were terrified of Lynd.
Lynd looked at the five dragons and deliberately tapped into his mental link with the Lava Dragon, Deltos, and the Cannibal, channeling the combined spiritual pressure of the three great dragons into a mental storm that instantly engulfed the entire stone house.
Everyone within the storm, human or dragon, suddenly felt as though a three-headed dragon was looming over them with icy, terrifying eyes. Fear surged from deep within and flooded through their bodies.
Those outside the stone house were relatively unaffected—they weren't the targets of the spiritual pressure. But inside, the five young dragons were completely terrified. They collapsed to the ground, not even daring to look at Lynd, let alone hiss at him.
Lynd ended his connection with the three dragons, and the overwhelming spiritual pressure vanished. Everyone gradually returned to normal, though the servants and guards still stared at Lynd in fear. Some of the followers of the God of Calamity even dropped to their knees and began praying to him.
Lynd paid no attention to the commotion outside. He walked over to the young dragons, unfastened the chains around their necks, then turned to the children.
"Come in," he said. "Each of you, hold your dragon."
Augustus and the others hesitated for a moment, but under Nymeria's urging, they entered the stone house and each picked up their own young dragon, then approached Lynd.
Normally, getting that close to the dragons would've resulted in an immediate attack. But Lynd's earlier display of spiritual might had shaken the dragons so deeply they were still in a daze, with no desire to lash out.
Lynd had the five children stand before him, each holding their dragon. Then he used the power of the Nameless King to swiftly draw five identical, intricate runes in the air. These weren't the dragon runes of the Banished Knights, nor the special runes known only to the Nameless King. These came from the Dragon's Horn—runes whose effects had already been studied and confirmed by Maloxin and Marlos.
The effect of the rune was simple: to establish a spiritual link with the dragon, thereby taming it at the mental level.
However, for this rune to truly take effect, the recipient must already have some form of spiritual connection with the dragon. Without that, the rune's influence will only be temporary. Once its power fades, the mental bond will break, the dragon will slip out of control, and it will stop at nothing to attack the one who used the rune—continuing until that person is dead.
That's why using this rune to let an ordinary person control a wild dragon is nearly impossible.
The reason Lynd chose to use it on the five little ones now is because he could sense that each of them had already formed a faint mental link with their respective young dragons. It was just too weak for them to sustain, which was why the dragons would occasionally turn on their handlers.
What he was doing now was simply reinforcing that bond using the rune's power—making sure the spiritual connection wouldn't snap. As long as the bond held, the young dragons would always see the little ones as their masters and wouldn't attack them.
As the power of the five runes flowed into the bodies of the children and their dragons, their mental bonds grew stronger and more stable, just as Lynd had expected. The dragons gradually began to show signs of affection toward their young masters, and their aggression noticeably subsided.
"Alright, go feed your dragons," Lynd said, dispelling the power of the Nameless King. He reached out and gently patted each of his children on the head. "From now on, you'll need to take care of your dragons yourselves. Keep them in check. You can't let them attack people whenever they want. If anyone loses control of their dragon, your mother will have it chained up again. Got it?"
"Yeah!" the little ones replied, hugging their dragons tightly. They shot a nervous glance at Nymeria, then quickly ran past her toward the meat basket, clearly afraid she might lock up their dragons again.
Nymeria frowned at their reaction, walked over to Lynd, and gave him a hard nudge on the shoulder.
"You went too far," she said, displeased. "You made me play the bad guy just so they'd warm up to you."
"You're misunderstanding me," Lynd said, looking completely innocent. "If those little ones couldn't control their dragons, wouldn't you have locked them up anyway?"
"You..." Nymeria pointed at him, at a loss for how to argue back.
Lynd chuckled and took her hand.
"It's alright. This won't change anything between you and them. I'm only staying here one more day. Tomorrow, I'm heading to Asshai. If I don't use this chance to strengthen my bond with them, the next time we meet, they might treat me like some random uncle who broke into the palace."
"What are you even saying?" Nymeria gave him a firm thump on the chest, then asked, concerned, "Didn't you say you were staying on the continent to observe how things are shifting in the Seven Kingdoms? Why are you suddenly going to Asshai?"
Lynd didn't answer immediately. He had the attendants and guards stay behind to look after the children, then brought Nymeria to her study. Once they were alone and the others had left, Lynd told her everything he had discussed after meeting Willas at the Wall—especially the part about Euron.
"Euron?" Nymeria froze for a moment. Then she walked over to a cabinet, pulled open a drawer, and retrieved a piece of intelligence that had arrived not long ago. She skimmed through it and handed it to Lynd.
"You were right to be suspicious. Euron really might have gone to Asshai."
Lynd took the report and read it over. The information came from a tavern in Ny Sar. A few seafarers had been chatting about an encounter they'd had in the waters near Qarth. They described being attacked by a brutal pirate sailing a jet-black galleass bearing the kraken sigil. He looked strange—one eye black as ink, the other glowing silver-blue, his lips the same dark purple as the warlocks of Qarth. His ship was crewed by monsters that feared neither pain nor death, and almost no vessel managed to escape once he attacked.
The last time the pirate's ship was seen, it was passing through the Qarth Strait, heading toward the Jade Sea.