Game of Thrones: Viserys the Three-Headed Dragon.

Chapter 178: Secrets of the Academy
After seeing Willas off, Viserys and Daenerys meet with Marwyn alone.

Viserys asked, "The secret of the dragon? You said you wanted to see me before the other old men of the Citadel? What did you want to tell me?"

Marwyn laughed bitterly and said, "Your Majesty, what I want to tell you is that the Citadel is trying to build a world without witchcraft, prophecy, and glass candles. Some of the doctors have formed a secret society that is very hostile to magic and dragons. They are committed to destroying prophecies, dragons, witchcraft, magic, gods, and all mysterious forces. They hope to create a world dominated by mortals, where there is no world that cannot be explained by the "knowledge" they know. The most stubborn and poor old guy among them will want to assassinate you with his own wrinkled hands, and get rid of your dragon."

Viserys and Daenerys looked at each other, frowned and asked, "Is there any basis for this accusation?"

Marwyn confessed, "Of course, I brought the evidence. So when I first left the Citadel, they tried to kill me at the hands of the 'bandits' on the road. I faked my own death and escaped, and was able to be safe. I wanted to come here as quickly as possible by land, but Lord Willas of High Court discovered my disguise, so I had no choice but to agree to take his ship, which resulted in a lot of unnecessary journeys."

"Aren't you a doctor of the Citadel? If the secret society you mentioned really exists, and if I want to destroy the Citadel out of anger, then wouldn't you be the sinner of the Citadel, or is it that you want me to destroy the Citadel?"

"I don't deny it, Your Majesty. If you really want to destroy the Citadel, please keep the books." Dr. Marwyn even nodded very seriously, "But I suggest that it is better to get rid of a secret society full of stubborn people than to destroy the entire Citadel. Those who learn knowledge in the Citadel and become pedantic and stubborn are the rotten sores that the Citadel does not need the most. They are the cancer that prevents the Citadel from understanding the origin of the world. Your Majesty, those gray sheep are just a group of self-righteous old stubborn people hiding in the dark. When you unify the whole country, you only need to move your fingers and countless people in the Citadel will get rid of them for you and take their place. You don't have to dirty your hands."

"They hold high positions in the Citadel? Do you know anything about the members of this secret society?"

Marwin said bluntly: "I am not trusted, but all doctors in the Council of Cardinals are worthy of suspicion. When I first became a doctor, the previous head of the Council of Cardinals contacted me. They despised people who studied the occult, but they had to take the doctor seriously. He tried to pull me into the society and took me to several secret gatherings. They were all shameful and wore masks, but I knew a few of them. Unfortunately, they never trusted me, and when they found out about my persistence in magic and the occult, they excluded me."

"It is strange, if what you say is true, why the Citadel and the Cult of the Seven have coexisted in harmony for thousands of years. Before Aegon's conquest, Oldtown became the center of the Cult of the Seven because of the Starry Sept."

Marwyn explained: "The essence of the Seven Gods' Doctrine is human beings, and the Seven Gods represent the seven virtues of human beings. The spread of the Seven Gods' Doctrine is beneficial to the Citadel, because in order to build a world dominated by mortals, mortals need to use a faith that belongs to 'humans' to resist the 'gods' and 'mysterious forces' they hate, giving mortals spiritual sustenance and courage to fight against those mysterious things."

Viserys was even more puzzled. "According to what you said, since the Citadel knows that magic and mysterious powers are real, why does it deny their existence and prevent their spread?"

"That's why I came to you. They believe that the dragon brought magic, and over the past hundred years, they think they have proved it. They thought that the dragon disappeared and took away the magic. Now they believe that the dragon's appearance has caused the magic to revive, so they will try every means to get rid of your dragon."

"'The dragon brings magic'?"

"This is nonsense!" Doctor Marwyn said with disdain. "That group of self-righteous old stubborn people never knew the truth of the world. They refused to admit that even though the dragon disappeared for more than a hundred years, magic and mysterious power have never been cut off in Essos. The Easy Walkers outside the Wall, the Shadowbinders and Pyromancers of Asshai, the Moonsingers and Red Priests of the East, the witchcraft and black magic of the East, and the Valyrian magic and sorcery in you. Your Majesty, you should know better than me that it was not the dragon that brought magic, but magic has always existed, it just rises and falls like the tide. It was magic that brought the dragon back."

Viserys narrowed his eyes. Marwyn's understanding of magic was still based on the theory of magic tides, which was the best explanation for the low tide of magic.

Viserys asked, "Master Marwyn, you have spoken so much about magic. I believe you are very knowledgeable. I want to ask you, what do you think the nature of magic is?"

"I'm sorry, Your Majesty, I haven't studied its essence yet, but I know the general manifestations of magic. Whether it's a wizard, a shadow binder, or a fire wizard, they all learn through meditation and use special movements and language to activate mysterious powers. There is a deduction, which is also an inference from the magic books of the Academy. There is a medium in the world that we tentatively call magic. It is in the air and distributed in every corner of the world that we cannot perceive. This medium can be used through meditation corresponding runes and special movements to respond to it. The power that erupts is magic and witchcraft. Blood magic is another way to use this medium."

"You've been to Asshai? Do the magicians and sorcerers there think so too?"

"No, Your Majesty. Many of the magicians and sorcerers in Asshai that I have come into contact with believe that magic comes from the gift of God. More than half of those with special abilities believe that their magic and witchcraft are the power bestowed by R'hllor on mankind. Others believe that magic is like words and knowledge. As long as you learn how to use it, you don't need to care about where it comes from. Of course, there are also people who don't believe in God. They think that God is just a more powerful sorcerer. They believe that they can gain the same powerful power if they explore in depth. These people are usually very powerful, but generally have a perverse and eccentric personality. They live in isolation and live in some special places in Asshai. It is very dangerous to contact them, but I think their ideas are closer to the truth. Once I wanted to visit an old woman who was said to be more willing to communicate with others, but on the way to visit her, I was unfortunately trapped in a cage for half a month by her magic trap. I almost starved to death. In the end, I was almost killed by the old woman. As it turned out, she was a necromancer from the Far East who was not willing to communicate with people at all. She just needed the corpses of some adventurers."

"."

Viserys felt that Marwyn's experience in Asshai was a bit like a foreigner entering Yharnam. He seemed to have come into contact with a lot of magic and sorcery, but in fact, he might not have known the more essential things until he left Asshai. He may have seen a lot of magic and sorcery in his travels in the East, but he was still at the stage of knowing the facts but not the reasons.

"The Citadel has thousands of years of history, but there has been no in-depth research into magic and witchcraft? You said that the Citadel is hostile to magic and witchcraft, but has no one ever studied it?"

"Of course, Your Majesty. For thousands of years, the Citadel has collected almost all the magic and witchcraft that can be collected from all over the world, but this knowledge has never been made public. I once thought that I could browse these contents by becoming a doctor. The Citadel claims that every doctor holds an ancient and heavy key made of black iron, which can open every door in the Citadel and read all the books in the Citadel. However, the facts prove that this is not possible.

I knew that the Cardinal's Pavilion, where the Cardinal would be, had a small weirwood door, and there was no key that could open that door.

I wrote a manuscript about my experience in Asshai, and it passed the assessment of a jury composed of many old doctors from the Citadel. The manuscript is called "A Study of Asshai Magic", which records the geographical location, language, spell language of independent witchcraft and magic, a rough map of the city, its iconic buildings, the hydrology and flow direction of the Ash River, some of the witchcraft and magic I learned, and Asshai's rumors about the corpse city of Stya in the center of the Shadow Land.
Then, through some means, I saw that my highly praised manuscript was copied into two copies. The original manuscript was placed in a corner of the magic and mysticism area of ​​the library of the city, and the copied copy was taken into the door that could not be opened by a masked doctor. My sight could not pass through the door, and everything inside the door was blurry and dark. "

Viserys noticed it and asked tentatively: "Your sight, can you use a glass candle?"

Hearing this, Daenerys couldn't help but narrow her eyes.

Marwyn was suddenly excited. "You do know, sire! Yes, four glass candles were brought from Valyria to the Citadel before the Doom of Valyria. The wizards of the old Freehold used these glass candles to allow their vision to pass through mountains, seas, and deserts. I have only just begun to learn how to use them from Asshai.

The night before each assistant maester of the academy takes the oath to become a maester, he must keep vigil in the cellar and cannot carry any light except an obsidian candle. He must spend the night in darkness unless he can light the candle. The academy preaches this to warn the new maester that even if a person is full of knowledge, he is not omnipotent.

However, after I came back from Asshai, I learned how to light it. As the only doctor of occult studies in the Citadel, I asked for a glass candle, lit it and used it to spy on the secrets of the Citadel. That's how I found the fish beam wood door. But my mental power is not strong enough and cannot be used frequently, otherwise I would definitely be able to find out all the members of the secret society." "Dr. Marwyn, I want to know why you are so hostile to the secret society and wish them dead? This is not a pure dispute of arrogance or because they hinder your way of exploring magic? Even if they want to frame me and my dragon, it seems to be none of your business?"

"The Citadel should be an organization that is detached from politics and disputes, and is dedicated to studying the truth of the world and spreading knowledge. They have deviated from the original intention of the Citadel. They are the cancer of the Citadel, Your Majesty. They are the rotten sores that must be dug out of the Citadel. They are preventing all those who want to explore the origin of the world from understanding the real world!"

That's not true.

"You said you had evidence?" Viserys asked.

Marwyn answered: "Please allow me to bring you the chest I brought with me. It contains evidence of the threat the Citadel poses to you and your dragon."

Viserys's eyes signaled Daenerys to be on guard: "Of course, go and get it."

Marwyn bowed slightly and stepped back, passing Nightfire who was guarding the stairs, and took his box from the servant in the stairwell.

He took out a thick book written on parchment from the box and handed it to the king respectfully. "This is just one of the books that best represents the Citadel's in-depth research on dragons. Your Majesty, there is an entire section of books about dragons in the Citadel. They are all about giant dragons, from the Valyrian era to the Targaryen era, and there are countless of them."

Viserys took the book in his right hand.

The title of the book is "Legendary Creatures: Dragons".

He flipped over and Daenerys looked over warily.

The catalogue alone is several pages long.

"Section 1: Overview of dragons, dragon eggs."

"Section 2: Taming of a Baby Dragon"

"Chapter 3: Bloodline and Dragon Riding"

"Section 4: Dragon's body structure, dragon scales and dragon organs"

The first few quarters were all normal, but by the fourth quarter, Viserys couldn't help but look at each section.

"The first section of the fourth section: The dragon's weakness."

".Dragon Shooting Crossbow."

".The Anatomy of a Dragon"

".The structure of the dragon"

".Dragon's organs and magical conjectures."

".An attempt to make the blood dragon dance wildly, exploring the method of inducing dragon madness"

".The correct way to slay a dragon."

".Research on inducing deformation in the offspring of giant dragons."

".Verification of the correlation between the extinction of dragons and the disappearance of magic."

Viserys felt sick just looking at the catalogue.

Daenerys was so shocked by the catalog after just a glance that she couldn't help but grit her teeth. She had an extremely absurd feeling: the Citadel had quietly studied dragons almost thoroughly, and there was even a conspiracy to exterminate dragons, and the Targaryen ancestors were completely unaware of it?
(End of this chapter)