Barristan explained, "After returning to King's Landing, Ser Kevan's first move wasn't to rescue Cersei. He first worked to become Regent. After securing that, he defused the direct conflicts between the Lannisters and Tyrells, as well as the tension with Dragonstone. Only then did he address the Iron Throne's discord with the Faith.Once he firmly established his authority as Regent, he began attempting to get Cersei out of the Great Sept."
"Cersei is insane. If she regains power in King's Landing, she may not be as considerate of the bigger picture as Ser Kevan. We'll have to be on guard," he added.
"Hmph, so what if Cersei is crazier than Braavos? No matter how mad someone is, I can beat the clarity back into them," Dany said coldly.
The White Knight said, "Perhaps it won't come to that. Like Queen Margaery, Cersei hasn't escaped judgment. She's only been released on bail and still has to face the Church's trial. Also... the Queen Dowager admitted to... to..."He paused, his face filled with shame and anger, struggling to say the next part.
Under Dany's curious gaze, he finally muttered, stammering, "Cersei had relations with the Kettleblack brothers—Osfryd, Osney, and Osmund."
"Sigh, what kind of world is this!" The White Knight stomped and wailed in despair.
But Dany latched onto the wrong detail—three brothers?
Wait, how had such a stimulating scene never made it into Game of Thrones?Could it be she'd watched a censored version?She didn't even remember any Kettleblack brothers in the show's plot.
"The Queen Dowager stands accused of four crimes:
Adultery—with her cousin Lancel, the Kettleblacks, and some others yet unnamed.
Blasphemy—she ordered the Kettleblack brothers to assassinate the former High Septon, the predecessor of the High Sparrow.
Conspiring in the murder of King Robert.
Incest with Jaime, using their illegitimate children to seize the Baratheon throne."
"Cersei is very clever. She admitted only to the first charge of adultery and vehemently denied the other three. Adultery isn't fatal; the Church only sentenced her to a public walk of shame. But any one of the other three could doom her forever."
"However, Lancel Lannister has converted to the Faith of the Seven. He was personally involved in the plot against the king and has already confessed everything to the High Septon.Your Grace, do you remember Lancel?"
Of course she did—he was the one who had humiliated Jaime.How could she forget?
Dany nodded. "The one-armed man in gray rags, leader of the Begging Brothers. He's the one who took me to meet the High Sparrow. A pious, promising young man."
"Uh…" Barristan twitched at the corner of his mouth. Promising? That eighteen-year-old already looked like a frail, eighty-year-old cripple. What future?
"The previous High Septon was murdered precisely because Lancel went to the Great Sept to confess. Cersei silenced him.Obviously, Lancel revealed everything to the High Sparrow. With both witnesses and evidence, Cersei shouldn't be able to escape."
"Why leave a bigmouth like Lancel alive, spreading all her filth? If she was going to silence someone, shouldn't it have been him? Killing the High Septon is treating the symptoms, not the cause," Dany said, puzzled.
"Maybe she didn't have the opportunity. Lancel joined the Sparrows, always surrounded by a group of armed beggar soldiers."
"Even so, it's useless. Even if there's a mountain of evidence, Cersei can still easily escape judgment," Dany sighed.
"Oh? How so? The trial is held in the Great Sept, witnessed by nobles, septons, and the people of King's Landing. Lancel will definitely testify publicly. Unless she uses force to crush the Faith Militant, what else can she do?"
"Sigh… trial by combat."
"Er…" Barristan was stunned.
Trial by combat is perhaps the biggest loophole in Westeros' legal system—or rather, a backdoor intentionally left open for nobles by those who made the laws.
Forget Lancel. Even if Robert were resurrected by the Lord of Light and personally testified, he couldn't convict his wife—as long as Cersei won the trial by combat.
Trial by combat is an Andal tradition, fully recognized by the Faith of the Seven, which even elevated it with a more sacred version: Trial of the Seven—seven champions on each side fighting it out.
They believe the Seven will reveal the true sinner.
The absurdity of this is best shown during the reign of Maegor the Cruel, who burned the Great Sept with dragonfire and slaughtered the Faith Militant like pigs.Yet, in a Trial of the Seven between Maegor and the Warrior's Sons, Maegor won?!
Seven of the strongest and most devout Warrior's Sons commanders all died in combat. Maegor emerged victorious.
And—he didn't even ride his dragon. He fought on horseback, by the book, strictly adhering to the Seven's traditions.
One can only imagine how the High Septon must've lost his mind at that time.
Clearly, the Faith is going to be humiliated again—Cersei has an invincible champion under her command: a fully resurrected Ser Gregor Clegane.
Not even the High Sparrow, in these talent-starved times, nor even Dany herself, was confident she could beat the "true Mountain" one-on-one.
Thinking of this, Dany found Game of Thrones' scene of Cersei blowing up the Sept more and more illogical.
Cersei had every chance to clear her name by "legitimate means." Why blow up the Sept and flee the trial?Doing that only confirmed her guilt.
It's like someone who could easily win a case but still "escapes" while supposedly innocent.
Could it be Cersei awakened her "mad blood"?Maybe madness wasn't a gene—but a virus hidden in the Iron Throne itself?Everyone who sat on it eventually got infected?
Clearly, the Targaryens ruled Valyria for over six thousand years before Westeros—and not a single one was mad.In Valyria, faced with mighty sorcerers and the families of the Fourteen Flames, who dared go mad?
But once they sat the Iron Throne, nearly every generation of Targaryens had someone lose their mind. Why?
"When is Cersei's walk of atonement?" Dany suddenly asked with great interest.
"Three mornings from now. Do you plan to go?" Barristan asked with an odd expression.
"A naked Queen Dowager—you don't want to see that? Cersei was once known as the most beautiful woman in the world!"
"No! No! I don't want to see that at all!" Barristan waved his hands frantically.
"It's fine. Just ride Little White, bring a spyglass, and go quietly," Dany encouraged.
"I—" The old knight's face turned red, and he quickly changed the subject. "Your Majesty, the first batch of dragonglass has been mined. Would you like to take a look?"
As he spoke, he walked to the narrow eastern window and pointed to a windowless stone building below, lit from within. "We captured more than thirty Lannister soldiers. The ransom price was too high—ten gold dragons per soldier—so Kevan didn't redeem them.
Earl Bronn threw them into the volcanic cave to dig for dragonglass.
Counts Velaryon and Celtigar brought five master blacksmiths and over thirty apprentice smiths from their territories. They've been forging dragonglass weapons day and night."
Dany's body vanished like a mirage from the throne by the map table and reappeared beside the white knight.
The castle buildings on Dragonstone were all shaped like dragons.
For example, the kitchen resembled a curled-up dragon; smoke and steam from the oven vented through its nostrils. The great hall was shaped like a dragon lying flat on the ground, with people entering through its open jaws.
The Stone Drum tower stood atop Dragonmont like a proud, upright dragon. The tower itself was the dragon's torso; the map room sat in its head, and its outstretched wings housed the smithies, stables, and granaries.
At this moment, the smithy on the dragon's left wing was brightly lit and steaming hot. The continuous clanging of hammers echoed, occasionally interrupted by the loud scolding of masters berating their apprentices.
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Opposite the dragon-shaped Stone Drum was a circular stone tower over ten meters tall, shaped like a coiling dragon wrapped around a stone pillar—that was the dungeon tower.
A high arched stone bridge suspended in the air connected the Stone Drum and the dungeon tower.
Lights also flickered in the dungeon tower, and now and then came the sound of metal wheels grinding along iron rails.
Dragonstone Castle was built atop a low volcano known as Dragonmont.
Inside the dungeon tower was a passage that led deep into the heart of the mountain.
The Targaryen ancestors had built a full set of mining facilities—mineshafts, railways, and manual minecarts.
The entire Dragonstone Castle was constructed using Valyrian stoneworking techniques, and the mining system was modeled after the pits of the Fourteen Flames.
It was absurdly sturdy and still operated smoothly even after three hundred years.
No one really knew what the Targaryens had hoped to dig out of Dragonstone. They had been excavating for a hundred years, tunneling all the way from the mountain to the seabed.
Half of the mountain beneath the castle had been hollowed out.
The Stone Drum got its name because every time a storm hit and the sea roared, it would echo through the castle like the beating of a massive drum.
Because of the hollow space underneath, it was like turning a bowl upside down in a basin—the water's motion would cause a deep, muffled resonance inside the bowl.
The sea was drumming on the Stone Drum.
Dany had also been to the bottom of the mine. Most of it was dragonglass and iron ore—about a 60:40 ratio, with dragonglass making up the majority.
Precious metals like gold and silver were almost nonexistent.
She couldn't understand what the Targaryens had hoped to find in the mine. Even Maester Aemon didn't know.
Without the threat of the White Walkers, Dragonstone's mines would have been completely worthless.
"Do we have enough miners?" Dany asked.
"Enough. Earl Velaryon also recruited a hundred farmers from Tidehead Island. The key is, dragonglass doesn't need refining. Whatever amount is mined can immediately be forged into weapons. The blacksmiths can't keep up—that's why they've had to work night shifts."
"What's the daily output of dragonglass weapons?" Dany asked again.
"The standardized molds you designed are perfect for forging dragonglass. After melting it down and pouring it into the molds, it cools and solidifies quickly.
If we focus solely on arrowheads, we can produce at least 2,000 per day. If we focus on weapons, around a hundred short swords daily."
"That's still a bit low. Send people to King's Landing to recruit more blacksmiths and expand production."
Dragonglass weapons were brittle and had short lifespans. When the Long Night came, their rate of consumption would be staggering.
"Oh, right," Dany suddenly recalled a very skilled blacksmith in King's Landing who knew how to reforge Valyrian steel swords. "Do you remember Brienne's Oathkeeper?"
"Yes. The Stark family's 'Ice' was reforged by Tywin into two longswords—Joffrey's 'Widow's Wail' and Brienne's 'Oathkeeper.'"
"Heh, Widow's Wail—so fitting. Catelyn at the Red Wedding, Cersei at the Purple Wedding—both widows, both let out the most heart-wrenching, hopeless wails a mother could make," Dany said with a strange expression.
"Your Majesty, you're thinking of bringing Master Tobho Mott here?" Ser Barristan asked in surprise.
"Tell Bronn—whatever it takes—bring Blacksmith Tobho to Dragonstone. I want a set of Valyrian steel armor too!" Dany said with a smile.
(End of Chapter)
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