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Rating:
Teen And Up Audiences
Archive Warnings:
Graphic Depictions Of ViolenceMajor Character Death
Categories:
F/FF/MM/MMulti
Fandoms:
A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. MartinA Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms
Relationships:
Rhaenyra Targaryen/Laenor VelaryonJoffrey Lonmouth/Laenor VelaryonCorlys Velaryon/Rhaenys TargaryenDaemon Targaryen/Laena VelaryonRhaenyra Targaryen/Laena Velaryon
Characters:
Rhaenyra TargaryenLaenor VelaryonLaena VelaryonHelaena TargaryenAlicent HightowerAegon II TargaryenAemond TargaryenRhaenys Targaryen (Daughter of Aemon)Corlys VelaryonJoffrey Lonmouth
Additional Tags:
Self-Insertdance of dragonsAlternate UniverseTechnologySelf-Indulgent
Language:
English
Series:
Part 1 of The Blacks, the Greens and the Reds Next Work →
Stats:
Published:2019-09-19Updated:2026-06-17Words:1,084,451Chapters:467/?Comments:4,066Kudos:6,016Bookmarks:1,174Hits:557,693
The Blacks, The Greens and The Reds
Loke_Lyon
Chapter 7: Opening Moves - Chapter 6
Chapter Text
Painfully awkward dinner finally over with, Laenor and I slunk back to our rooms after promising that gifts would be following us via boat. Awaiting us were too notices in reply to my earlier messages. One from the Alchemists Guild inviting us to tour their building tomorrow and discuss whatever business I had with one of their Wisdoms. The second was from the Strong brothers accepting our invitation to dinner.
Laenor opted to stick to his own rooms that night. It was all well and good for him to sleep in my bed some of the time but too much was considered unseemly which I honestly considered an odd double standard. Sleep didn't come easy and found myself awake as dawn broke over King's Landing feeling as if I hadn't slept at all.
The maids, likely Alicent's creatures as my own had not yet arrived, clucked over my dark, sunken eyes and brought out a range of cosmetics I was forced to sharply order to be put away as I was fairly certain it was full of fun and exciting poisons that I wasn't keen to rub into my face.
Instead I settled for a quick, relatively speaking anyway, bath and several cups of Mint Tea to pull my mind into the present and out of the longing to go back bed. I still didn't look my best when Laenor presented himself at my door but I couldn't afford to put off a visit to the Guild. Not if they could help me get the Black Powder working.
I opted for a litter instead of riding through the city. I was too tense to smile and make it look convincing and too tired to play the beautiful flawless princess of the people. Laenor sulked about it as it turns out he genuinely didn't like the litter but he took pity when faced with an expression that I had hoped conveyed the possibility of impending wrath but according to him made me look like I was about to cry.
The city was awake around us. I heard pedllers and stall owners hawking their goods, two men arguing about a broken cartwheel, a gold cloak hauling a thief off to the barracks and more as I dozed the entire way to the Guild. Laenor left me alone the entire way, which was something I was grateful for.
The Wisdom that greeted us was a tall man with dark hair turning grey and eyes that betrayed a First Man origin. His bow was deep and respectful and seemed genuine. When he straightened up, he had a smile on his face that had his eyes twinkling.
"Your Graces, can I start by saying how honoured we are that you are visiting today," he began. "I am Wisdom Jerrett,"
"I'm honoured to be invited to visit, Wisdom, I've heard much about the Guild," I replied. Keep back the main flattery for later if they got stingy with secrets. Laenor echoed my sentiments but seemed happy for me to take the lead, so I did.
Jerrett gestured us to follow. I allowed him to show off the buildings and the labs. They were impressive for a medieval guild. He seemed especially proud of the custom-made glass implements they imported from Myr, expanding on their uses. I managed to understand every third word but I think the gist was that they were used in distillation, something that surprised me. From what I'd seen, the idea of distillation didn't seem to well known in Westeros at large.
I made sure Laenor and I made all the appropriate noises of awe and shock and Wisdom Jerrett only swelled further with pride. Here was a man who lived and breathed Alchemy and the Guild. Any compliment for them was compliment to him. I dread to think how he would have reacted had I accidentally insulted them.
It was a very happy Wisdom that led us into a bright and airy office and seated himself behind the desk as we placed ourselves in front of it.
"Truly well worth the visit, do you not think, Rhaenyra?" Laenor began. The Wisdom puffed up even more.
"Oh indeed. Forgive me , however, I did not come entirely for the tour," I made sure to inject a note of apology into my tone. I did not want the Wisdom to suspect he was being used. I needn't have bothered. Jerrett leant forward in his chair, looking fascinated.
"We had heard rumours of Her Grace's interest in Alchemy. They were not wrong?" He sounded thrilled at the thought of a royal alchemist.
"I fear I do not understand most principals of Alchemy but I had been attempting to recreate a recipe I found in an old book. I confess, I have only found failure," I 'admitted'. Jerrett looked thoughtful before pulling a battered and already scrawled on piece of paper towards him.
"Could you describe the recipe? And the book?" he asked, preparing a quill and ink. I relayed the main points of Black Powder to him. After jotting it down he summoned an apprentice and ordered the young-looking boy to see if the Guild had anything similar in their records.
"The books itself… I remember it didn't make a a lot of sense, it was in poor condition to start with. The language was confused and imprecise, I suspect now of course, that it was a poor translation of an earlier work. I'd thought it Valyrian in origin. I know that it was likely worth it weight in gold but as a child it was merely an interesting prop to practise my hand with."
The Wisdom nodded along with my explanation, face solemn.
"A sad but common tale. Have you given thought that it may have been fake? Some sort of joke?"
It wasn't and I knew it wasn't but I could hardly tell him why. I shrugged in response and he stroked his chin before shrugging himself.
"No doubt, Your Grace, we shall discover the truth when young Harald returns from his search. If it is legitimate however, I would be very interested to see it," his tone was light but a book on ancient tech probably had him drooling internally.
I had an idea.
My understanding of the tech I'd written down had been shaky at best, mostly half remembered from a satirical book on rebuilding the world if you got stuck in the past somehow. I wouldn't have the time to interpret that half understanding of my younger self into real world tech if I was going to be getting political and I certainly couldn't trust Maesters to help.
"Of course, Wisdom Jerrett. It may be selfish but I had hoping to use anything newly discovered to improve Dragonstone."
The Wisdom got my hint immediately. He nodded.
"Should in turn out to be worth looking into, perhaps we could discuss setting up a small campus there. You would have the finest minds of the Alchemist's Guild on hand to sort the wheat from the chaff."
Got you.
I was feeling indulgent enough not to point out that being involved in my pseudo-tech uplift from the beginning would massively boost their prestige in relation to the Maesters.
It took 'young Harald' another half and hour to appear with an old leather bound book. Jerrett immediately flipped it open, sending a cloud of dust into the air that had me sneezing and Laenor coughing.
"Apologies, apologies, Your Graces. A hazard one gets used to when working with old tomes. Now, lets see… Powders, powders… hmmmmmm, how interesting." After that he was silent for a few moments but I could see his grey eyes flickering back and forth across the page. Finally, he shut it and handed the tome back to Harald.
"Take this back to the archives and have a room set up with a supply of Niter, Vitriol and Charcoal," he barked. Harald all but dematerialised from the mans room. Jerrett then smiled at us.
"It seems this book may well be the real thing. The Black Powder you have described is known to us. Although I suspect it is not Valyrian in origin but somewhere further East," he explained.
I was forced to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from grinning. So it was me, I had gotten the recipe wrong. My dream of shooting Otto in his stupid knees could still come true!
"The East? Like Yi-Ti?" he asked, barely constrained excitement. Of all of the Sea Snakes legendary journeys it seemed that Yi-Ti excited Laenor the most, I would have to remember that. The Wisdom was nodding.
"Indeed. I have often said that at it's heart, Alchemy is the scientific study of magic. In the West, this method has only been in use for a few hundred years. We are too eager to rely on superstition and belief. The East are far more enlightened than us in this regard. The understand the need to study magic and have since before the fall of the Great Empire of the Dawn." He sounded like he was lecturing but not even my internal glee at the thought of Black Powder could distract me from that name drop.
"The Great Empire of the Dawn. I thought it a myth?" The Wisdom shook his head so hard I was worried he was going to make himself dizzy.
"Not at all. We have a lot of evidence that it very much existed although perhaps not ruled by God Kings." We all gave an indulgent chuckle at that.
"What is this evidence? How does it relate to Alchemy?" asked Laenor. Talk of the East had definitely made this visit way more interesting for him.
"Oh, there's the obvious evidence such as the Five Forts and other such buildings dotted about Essos but if we're talking Alchemy then nothing is more proof than the Tablet of Stars." He said it with such reverence that both I and Laenor found ourselves leaning forward.
"Found in Asshai, few Westerosi scholars have ever managed to get close enough to describe it. They say it speaks of the Great Empire's fall into anarchy and the first Long Night."
Oh. Oh no. Oh god no. No white walkers please.
My face must have reflected my horror because he chuckled and leant back.
"I wouldn't worry, Your Grace. Many civilisations from that time have records of the Long Night. It's been accepted by scholars all over Westeros and Essos that this was some sort of super winter. Keeping an Empire together in those circumstances would have been next to impossible. Why, what records we have from the North in that same time period says that even a much smaller kingdom shattered into independent tribes."
Why did today keep going from bad to good to bad? I was interrupted from my brooding and Laenor's total fan-boying over Yi-ti by Harald's reappearance to let us know the room Jerrett had requested had been prepared. We dutifully followed him through the halls to another surprisingly well lit room. Laid out were three jars of powder I recognised, a mortar and pestle, measuring implements, a candle, wooden splints and for some reason a knife.
We watched in silence as Jerrett pulled on a pair of gloves and began grinding the three ingredients into a fine powder. He measured out a mixture that looked roughly like my own before mixing to Black Powder itself. Finally he took a small pinch of the finished powder a placed it on a ceramic tile.
"It does look like yours," Laenor hazarded after a moment.
"Eastern books refer to this as Burn Powder. When properly prepared, it will burn and explode readily," explained Jerrett, lighting a wooden splint. Then, as we watched, he placed it against the powder. Nothing happened.
"I see your look of confusion. This powder is not the finished product. You likely stopped here thinking it finished but there is one more step." He pulled of his glove and picked up the knife. Then whilst holding his hand over the small deposit of powder he pricked his finger and bled on it. Using the kife he ensured the blood was soaked in before retrieving another splint.
This time, when he pressed the splint to it, it burst into flame.
I stared in horror, not bothering to smother it in a mask of politeness.
"I understand your horror, Your Grace. We try not to use blood in our practises here. I take it the original manual did not go into detail about this part."
I shook my head. I had no words. Beside me, Laenor looked similarly pale. Looking sympathetic, Jerrett steered us back to his office, leaving Harald to clean up.
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