While King Robert was leading the main force on a hunt, Qyburn and Thoros, together with two mages graduated from the Citadel, were busy constructing a detection tower for Riverrun.
Riverrun Castle was surrounded by water on three sides, and the Riverlands had been experiencing continuous autumn rains. Considering that the Westerlands upstream would soon enter winter, and after calculating the detection tower's range, it was decided to build the tower outside the castle in a residential area to avoid flooding from the rising river waters.
The stone tower had already been completed on the outside with additional funding from Edmure, but the wooden interior structure still needed to wait for the timber to dry before it could be built.
At the top of the tower, Qyburn and Thoros were using Mage Hand to manipulate the Valyrian steel wires at both ends, while the Citadel mages sat at a table, holding a blueprint and checking the magic circle set up by the two for any mistakes.
Fine steel wires, as thin as hair, intertwined to form a complex pattern. Once the first layer of steel wire was laid, the mages carefully stepped back to avoid any mishaps.
Nearby, a craftsman poured hot mortar over the magic circle. Qyburn squatted down and cast a freezing spell to quickly solidify the mortar. Then, four mages began setting up the second layer of the magic circle, repeating the process until three layers were completed.
"I'll test it," Thoros said, squatting down and pinching the loose ends of the magic circle.
With the infusion of magical power, a 10-meter-long silver triangular prism appeared above the tower, with two silver orbs on either side of the point.
Thoros looked up and pointed at the floating triangle. "Qyburn! Don't tell me this thing looks like a silver trout?"
"If Lord Edmure wanted it to look like a trout, we'd need to hire a sculptor from Tyros to adjust it. I don't do that kind of fine work," Qyburn replied, walking around the tower, admiring his own creation. "It works perfectly with a single activation. Try the detection effect now."
Thoros shook his head and continued testing. The two silver orbs turned yellow and shot beams of light toward the tip of the triangle, rotating in all directions before changing to red.
"This seems fine. Now we need to lay the magic circle for the observation room below," Thoros said, stopping the magic and standing up to dust off his robe.
The current magic circle could only detect; it would need another magic circle to connect wires and convert it into a form visible to the human eye. The group began packing their tools to head downstairs.
"Qyburn! Look at the castle!"
As Thoros was about to descend the stairs, he casually glanced at the castle and shouted.
"Where? My eyes aren't that good, what's going on?" Qyburn rubbed his eyes, but the distant Riverrun Castle appeared hazy and unclear.
Thoros walked over to Qyburn and pointed toward the distance. "On the left side of the castle's main gate, the fourth floor. The window is open, and the curtains are blowing in the wind."
"That's the room where Daenerys is being held." Qyburn couldn't see clearly, but his memory was sharp.
"The Silent Sisters guarding her would tie the curtains even if the window is open. Could someone have entered?" Thoros shielded his eyes from the sun to observe closely. The window faced the river, so they couldn't see inside the room from the tower.
Qyburn was skeptical. "Riverrun hasn't even rung the alarm bell. How could there be an enemy?"
Thoros proposed, "Could it be a vampire sneaking in?"
Qyburn laughed. "You really have a vivid imagination! Not only are we here in the city, but there are also a dozen Citadel mages with the king's retinue. Plus, Lord Wright is in the Westerlands, only a day's ride away on his dragon. Which idiot vampire would dare cause trouble here?"
"True," Thoros chuckled as well. Their fame had spread after the Battle of Twin Rivers, and now every dinner table in the Riverlands discussed how they used magic to kill enemies. Their arrival in Riverrun with the king was well-known.
Qyburn tapped his wand on his leg. "I'm slower on my feet than you. Let me handle the work here, you go check the situation at the castle. If anyone's causing trouble for Daenerys, toss them into the river."
Daenerys's status was unique; even though she was a prisoner, not just anyone could see her. Many curious young nobles tried to sneak past the guards to catch a glimpse of her beauty. Over the course of the journey, several had been caught, and the punishment was always a public whipping.
---
In a room on the fourth floor of the tower, Daenerys, wearing thick gray linen clothes, sat on the edge of the bed, slowly stitching two pieces of satin together with a needle and thread. Having never done needlework before, Daenerys was making small clothes for the baby she was about to give birth to, clumsily but with great enjoyment.
The satin was a gift from Edmure. As a woman with a criminal record, Daenerys was only allowed to wear linen, though the child in her womb was Robert's.
Daenerys tied a knot in the thread, set the needle and thread down, and walked over to the window, holding up the small clothes to the sunlight. As she examined the crooked garment, it seemed like it was meant to hold a child, and Daenerys smiled happily.
The faint sound of movement outside the door made the Silent Sister, who was wiping the table nearby, put down her cloth and approach the door to check the situation.
Bang! A thick arm suddenly broke through the wooden door and grabbed the Silent Sister by the neck. With a twist of the wrist, she was thrown back into the room and slammed onto the floor.
The arm was as thick as a human thigh, with bluish skin, sharp claws, and bent in an unnatural angle. The door lock was undone from the inside, and the wooden door opened. Several tall vampires ducked under the doorframe and slowly walked into the room.
"Quick, Joffrey! Qyburn and Thoros are not far off, we don't have much time!"
One of the vampires spoke, throwing the corpse of a guard to the floor. After glancing around the room and finding it too small, the vampire's body morphed into a human form— it was Lancel.
Daenerys, filled with fear, looked at the monsters before her, her hand resting on her belly as she slowly backed away. Everyone knew the appearance of vampires— once you were in their hands, there was no way out.
"Silver-blonde hair, not tall, and with a big belly." Joffrey, walking at the front, was uninterested in the woman's beautiful face. He raised his right hand, and a flash of red light appeared. A drop of blood flew from Daenerys's nostrils to his fingers.
Savoring the blood in his mouth, Joffrey shouted excitedly, "The bloodline is indeed pure! You're Daenerys! But why does this blood taste so strange?"
"Hurry up! Our people are waiting outside!" Another voice urged.
The fallen Silent Sister struggled to get up, but blood poured from her skin. Within seconds, she was nothing more than a dry corpse, and the blood flew into another vampire's mouth.
"These vampires were after me— they want to turn me into one of them!" Daenerys didn't want to become a monster. She turned to open the window, hoping to jump and end it all, but her pregnant belly made it impossible to lift her legs. She tried another position, but before she could climb over the windowsill, Joffrey grabbed her by the neck and threw her onto the bed.
Daenerys covered her abdomen with one hand and her neck with the other, staring in terror at him.
"You think I want to turn you into a vampire?" Joffrey smirked, shifting back into human form.
"Heh, you're thinking too much." He said, before looking down at Daenerys's belly, slowly raising the blue longsword in his hand.
---
In the castle hall, the servants were busy, unaware of anything unusual. As soon as Thoros entered, the detection amulet in his pocket began vibrating.
"Enemy attack! Vampires!" Thoros shouted without hesitation, drawing his longsword and rushing towards the fourth floor of the tower.
Hearing the vampires had entered, the servants panicked. Most of the knights and elite soldiers were out hunting with the Lord, leaving behind only the injured or young attendants. It took a while for them to organize a defense and close the main doors.
Running down the corridor, Thoros didn't see any corpses or blood. When he reached the third floor, he finally noticed something unusual— a cupboard door wasn't properly closed. Thoros approached and nudged it open with the tip of his sword. Inside, the bodies of several guards, now shriveled and lifeless, were stuffed into the cupboard, piled up in strange positions.
"Guards! Anyone here? Where are they!"
After tossing a fireball out the window, Thoros felt the vibrations in the amulet cease.
"They're trying to escape!" With a flash of lightning, he quickly moved towards the fourth floor, kicking open the bedroom door.
The Silent Sister who had been tending to Daenerys was already lifeless on the ground. Daenerys lay on the bed, her arms splayed out, her abdomen slashed open along with her clothes. Blood poured from the wound, staining half of the bed, and her eyes stared at the ceiling, tears covering her face.
"Hold on!"
Daenerys still had faint breaths left. Thoros stopped his magic and rushed to her side, pulling a healing potion from his belt. He twisted the cap off and held the bottle to her lips.
"Drink it! Quickly!" Thoros shouted urgently, but Daenerys's lips remained still.
Seeing that she had given up on life, Thoros forced her chin open and shoved the potion bottle into her mouth.
The potion flowed down her throat, and if she didn't swallow, she would choke. "Cough~~"
The intense pain in her abdomen and the blood loss made Daenerys feel terribly unwell. She accidentally choked on the potion, with only a small amount swallowing down.
The guards had arrived at the door and looked at the large pool of blood on the bed. They were unsure of what to do next.
Daenerys's face and lips were pale. Thoros hurriedly cast healing magic, but since he didn't possess restorative talents, only the most basic form of healing magic, his internal mana was rapidly depleting.
"Qyburn! Hurry!"
The wound had healed halfway, but Thoros' mana was exhausted. He anxiously shouted, then drank a mana-restoring potion and waited for Qyburn.
A strange sound came from outside the window. A giant skeletal hand reached through the window, lifting Qyburn inside, before slowly disintegrating and vanishing.
"Guard, send a message to the king! Go now!"
Qyburn ordered the guard, who was standing dumbfounded at the door. After feeding Daenerys another potion, both men used healing magic in tandem, barely managing to close the wound on her abdomen.
"Qyburn, she's not looking good," Thoros said quietly as he and Qyburn stepped aside to talk.
"Her abdomen was forcibly torn open, many of her internal organs are damaged, and she's lost too much blood. Even if the wound barely heals, she won't last long."
Daenerys was fully conscious and understood that both men had exhausted their mana to save her. She slowly raised her arm to signal them.
"What do you want to say?" Thoros asked as he moved to her side.
Qyburn helped her sit up on the bed. Seeing her remain silent, he finally realized: "Get paper and a pen!"
"Oh! Right! Paper and pen!" Thoros hurriedly grabbed some paper and a pen from a nearby desk.
Unable to speak since her tongue had been cut out, Daenerys placed the paper on the bed and slowly began to write. Her normally neat handwriting was shaky and distorted due to her weakness.
The vampires took the boy! The boy is the Holy Son.
"He's the Holy Son?" Qyburn paced back and forth in the room, deep in thought. "I see now! If a person with superior magical talent is turned into a vampire, they retain that power. They want to cultivate a strong leader!"
"Then why not just turn us magic users?" Thoros asked.
"Take me for example," Qyburn replied seriously. "First, I'd resist, and before they could turn me, I'd be killed. Even if I were turned, my mind wouldn't change. I'd probably betray the other vampires to further my own gain."
Daenerys wrote another line: They are traveling down the river.
"I'll go after them!"
Qyburn's white robe was stained with blood. He stood up and set it on fire, burning it clean. Small fragments of bone appeared out of thin air, assembling into a terrifying white bone armor.
"You'd better not engage directly. Signal along the way, and the reinforcements will catch up soon," Thoros handed Qyburn the last mana-restoring potion from his belt.
Lying on the bed, Daenerys had written a few more words before exhaustion took over. She stared blankly at the ceiling. She hadn't written that the child in her womb was deformed— a creature covered in scales, with a short tail growing from its rear and bat-like wings on its back.
Thoros, a warrior into his middle age, was no match for Qyburn, who was much older and had the advantage in long-distance pursuit. The summoned skeletal horse had great strength and endurance, and didn't require food or rest like regular horses, allowing it to run relentlessly. Thoros, even if he ran until his legs gave out, wouldn't be able to catch up.
With the king and many nobles staying in Riverrun, many ships were coming and going, from small fishing boats to large merchant vessels. Qyburn, riding the skeletal horse, advanced along the riverbank. The Fork was wide, far beyond the detection range of his amulet, so Qyburn could only rely on his eyes to search.
He bypassed the small fishing boats without roofs. Given the arrogance of the vampires, it was unlikely they would hide in the narrow cargo holds of merchant ships. The only remaining possibility was the cargo ships. Qyburn, noticing he was already far from Riverrun, shot a fireball into the sky, then continued downstream along the river.