As expected, once she went to the library, she understood the purpose of the key.
Three large buildings connected to form a giant "H"—a four-story brick-and-stone structure. Soft lawns stretched before and behind the main hall; one could imagine many apprentices sitting on the grass reading during the day.
Entering the first-floor lobby, she saw a map on the wall indicating room numbers and their corresponding book categories.
The guard on the first floor merely glanced at Dany and let them through without even checking their identity plaques.
The individual reading rooms weren't very large—certainly nothing like the massive reading halls of modern provincial libraries, which span thousands or tens of thousands of square meters. According to the books' age, genre, and rarity, the library was divided into 225 spacious stone rooms. If you wanted to read a book, you had to unlock the door with a key and retrieve it yourself.
The books that scholars and apprentices could borrow were all copies, not originals.
Along the corridors, beneath the eaves, and inside the halls—even though night had already fallen—several senior apprentices had lit oil lamps and were hunched over their desks, copying books by hand.
Dany felt a strange illusion, as if she had returned to a university study hall.
The first stop was the archives on the third floor. Iron boots echoed across the marble hallway. There wasn't a single apprentice nearby. She opened a thick wooden door with a brass key. A rush of ink and tanned leather scent greeted her. The 200-square-meter stone room was so silent and dim that it resembled a tomb.
Lifting the oil lamp, she saw seven or eight tall wooden shelves taking up three-quarters of the space. They were piled high with bound volumes of books. Following the dates marked on the shelves, she retrieved copies of the past two years' "Imperial Gazettes" and "Official News"—summaries of letters sent to the Citadel by scholars in various lords' households.
The White Knight carried a thick stack of documents down to the first floor, while Dany stayed behind, locked the door, drew the curtains, sat cross-legged with her back against the bookshelf, and unfastened the long narrow case hidden in her heavy cloak, pulling out a glass candle.
Moments later, a gray light glowed. Dany immediately located the aimlessly wandering Rhaella and Marwyn.
Just like before, Dany could find them, but they couldn't detect her.
Her mental strength entered the gray light and arrived several kilometers away at the rookery, inside the tower of "Magister" Marwyn. The glass candle suddenly flared, bright and intense, and a gray shadow emerged from the snowy-white flame.
"Ah! It's Grand Mage Xiquei!" Marwyn exclaimed.
"Phew, thank goodness it didn't crawl out of my mouth this time," Rhaella patted her chest in relief.
Under everyone's gaze, the gray light molded itself like clay, stretching into a vague feminine figure—a bit like a low-budget 3D projection.
"When I left last time, Marwyn and I swapped beacons. Naturally, I no longer need your mental space as a relay station," Dany explained, then frowned at the presence of two additional people—Leo Tyrell and "Pig Boy" Pate.
How did these two end up together?
"Who are they?" she asked directly, pointing at them.
Leo stood there dumbfounded, seemingly shocked speechless by the sight. In contrast, Pate, though his brown eyes showed surprise and doubt—and the freckles on his nose twinkled with excitement—remained composed in the face of this fantastical scene.
"I'm Pate, Dr. Marwyn's assistant," Pate stammered.
Dany's pupils narrowed as her gaze dropped. Sure enough, hanging from a coarse rope around his chest was a silver link (medicine).
That afternoon, his neck had still been bare. Now, not only had he earned a chain link, but he'd also changed mentors?
The blond youth recovered and gave a graceful bow, introducing himself, "Greetings, Grand Mage Xiquei. I'm also Dr. Marwyn's assistant—Leo Tyrell."
"I didn't see these two apprentices before," Dany turned to Dr. Marwyn, deliberately adopting a suspicious tone. "Don't tell me you couldn't find anyone else and dragged these two little Muggles in to fill the numbers?"
"Muggles?"
"Ordinary people with no understanding of arcane knowledge."
"Oh!" Marwyn, thick-necked as ever, nodded and explained, "Leo's been my assistant for quite some time. Pate was introduced by Rhaella this afternoon. I found him rather clever, so I kept him around to help with odd tasks."
The dark-skinned girl also nodded, "Dr. Volgrave is so old he can barely recognize people anymore and can't teach Pate anything. After he got his first silver link this afternoon, I introduced him to Dr. Marwyn."
"Have either of you obtained a meditation technique from the glass candle?" Dany asked again.
"Not yet, but I've started studying the '32 Valyrian Character Table,'" said Leo.
"I haven't even lit the candle," Pate answered shyly.
Very few people could ignite a glass candle on their first try, though studying could indeed enhance the brain and improve the quality of mental strength.
Perhaps someone who couldn't light the candle in youth might become qualified to be a sorcerer later in life, after maturing physically and significantly boosting their intellect and learning.
Of course, it was far more likely that Leo and Pate were just Muggles.
"How many sorcerers have you found this week?"
"Around five."
Dany frowned. "Around?"
Marwyn awkwardly explained, "I found a Red God priest in the lower city, a scholar with a Valyrian steel link at the Citadel, and a bishop at the Starry Sept.
I may have made too much noise, and the Elders atop the Hightower caught wind of the gathering. Now they, and that 'madwoman' Moroa, want to join as well."
"Sigh, extraordinary gatherings… Priests of the Seven and dogs shouldn't count. Let's stick with these five. Have you settled on a meeting place? Preferably somewhere remote—high-level magic has minor harmful effects on ordinary people."
"Is the Skyreach Tower okay? There are many vacant rooms inside."
Dany nodded and asked one final question, "Shall we meet beneath the Skyreach Tower at midnight, three days from now?"
"Agreed."
Just as Dany was about to end the conversation, Rhaenys suddenly stepped forward, bowed, and asked, "Master Xiqi, I've encountered some difficulties in my training. Not only can I no longer construct meditation runes, but even the quarter of the rune sequence I had completed shows signs of collapse. What's going on?"
"You actually have decent talent, but your foundational knowledge is poor. The meditation technique in the glass candle involves 64 runes, but you recognized only 32 of them, and seven of those were incorrect. Your combinations are flawed too," Dany said with a sigh and a shake of her head.
"What should I do then?" The dark-skinned girl began to panic.
"Stop training for now. Either search for the Valyrian Codex in the Citadel's library, or find a fire mage to teach you."
"Since the Citadel brought back four glass candles from Valyria, they must also have the associated arcane knowledge. With Archmaester Marwyn's access, we should be able to find something," Dany said confidently.
"That… might be difficult," Marwyn shook his head, smiling bitterly. "In theory, an archmaester's black iron key grants access to all the library chambers.
But the true tomes and secret knowledge are stored in the vault beneath the library, which only the Grand Maester can enter freely. In these sensitive times, I wouldn't dare petition the Conclave for access to the vault."
Petyr, who had been silent all this while, suddenly asked, "The vault? You mean the basement of the library? I've seen several archmaesters coming and going down there."
"No, the library's basement holds original manuscripts of rare books. The true codices are in the secret archive beneath the Grand Maester's quarters," Marwyn corrected him.
Dany glanced thoughtfully at Petyr and asked with a frown, "Why do you say these are sensitive times?"
"Dragons!" Marwyn's expression turned grave. "Master Xiqi, are you aware of the Targaryens and the dragons?"
Dany's eyes lit up. She nodded, "Of course. Everyone in the Free Cities knows that the last Targaryen princess hatched four dragons."
"Four?"
"There was a new one recently."
"Ugh, whether three or four, it makes no difference," Marwyn shook his head and sighed bitterly. "Because of her and the dragons, the maesters have become extremely wary of the arcane arts. I don't even dare conduct magical research openly anymore—how could I possibly request access to the vault for the Valyrian Codex?"
"Why not?" Dany asked, puzzled.
"Heh, over thousands of years, as understanding of the world deepened, the Citadel began to develop its own vision—a world without magic or sorcery, a real world," Marwyn said with a pained smile, red sap from the sourleaf between his teeth dripping down his wide chin.
"A real world… the end of magic?!" Dany was stunned.
"Exactly. They want a world without dragons, without glass candles, without prophecy or sorcery, without any mystical powers—and without gods. A world ruled solely by mortals. The maesters call it the 'real world.'"
"That's insane! So the Citadel does know about the tides of magic?" Dany murmured.
"The Citadel knows everything. Precisely because they know, they've made their decision—"
At this, Marwyn shook his head and sighed, "There are some secrets I can't reveal. If I spoke them aloud, not a soul in this room would survive—not even me."
"You should leave the Citadel," Marwyn turned to Rhaenys and said kindly, "You have talent. If you had a worthy teacher, you might become a great fire mage—just like Master Xiqi."
As he spoke, he cast a sneaky glance at Dany. The dark-skinned girl picked up on his meaning instantly and gazed at her longingly.
It was clear: if the Valyrian Codex was out of reach, becoming the apprentice of the Valyrian successor "Xiqi" was Rhaenys's best option.
"Let's talk about that after the gathering," Dany wasn't in the mood to take on disciples right now.
In the library, on the third floor in the archives, the gray light from the glass candle extinguished in an instant. Dany furrowed her brows and sighed, "No wonder the Citadel is targeting me. Without dragons, they might have tolerated a Targaryen restoration. But dragons bring the return of magic—and that goes against their dream of a world without it."
Her feelings were complicated. She didn't know whether to admire the maesters… or mock their futility.
Dragons could stir the tides of magic into the world—but where did the tide come from?
The tide came from the sea.
Dragons were like monsoons, stirring waves in the magical ocean. But whether that ocean existed or not was not up to the dragons. Even in a "magicless age" without dragons, divine power still stirred in the world.
Knock knock knock — Just as her thoughts were in turmoil, someone knocked firmly on the thick wooden door.
"My lady, it's me," the old knight called out, a hint of urgency in his voice. "I've discovered something terrifying in the records!"
Dany placed the glass candle back into its wooden box, unlatched the bolt, and opened the oak door. "What is it?" she asked curiously.
"White Walkers!" the old knight's face was pale with horror. Gasping for breath, he blurted out, "A dire message has arrived from the Wall in the North—White Walkers have appeared! The wildlings are fleeing south in great numbers, the Night's Watch is short on men, and they can't hold the Wall!"
(End of chapter)
Want to read the chapters in Advance? Join my Patreon
https://patreon.com/Glimmer09