The Mountain of Ice and Fire

On the western bank of the Honeywine River, a row of dense buildings was enclosed by towering stone walls, this was the famous Citadel.

The Starry Sept, the heart of the Citadel, was located at its very center.

Within the Citadel, the towers of the maesters stood tall and majestic.

Several of these maester towers were situated on islands in the Honeywine River.

The estuary of the Honeywine River was vast and boundless, containing numerous islands. Every island was either a hotel, a house of pleasure, or belonged to the Citadel. On one of the islands belonging to the Citadel, the only task of the maesters and novices was to train talking white ravens: white ravens.

While crows were generally black, the Citadel possessed pure white ravens that were intelligent, fierce, and capable of human speech.

When the dragon appeared above the Citadel, the bustling Citadel Square fell silent.

Maesters in robes, assistant maesters, novices, merchants, commoners seeking names, captains and wealthy merchants from around the world visiting to study, travelers of all kinds… all looked up at the sky, frozen like wooden or stone statues.

The Mountain rode on the dragon; Arya did not appear with him simultaneously.

Arya and Lord Leyton Hightower rode on horseback via the land route, entering through the Citadel's gate.

For years, the Hightower family had devoted themselves to the construction and maintenance of the Citadel. The initial construction of the Citadel began with the full support of the Hightower family. The Hightower family had always been the Citadel and the maesters' important patrons and protectors.

Lord Leyton's influence within the Citadel was extremely high. Even if he hadn't visited the Citadel for decades, his influence wouldn't diminish in the slightest.

A significant portion of the Hightower family's resources was spent on the Citadel. The Citadel seemed like the Hightower family's private property, but in reality, the Citadel's administration and finances were completely independent. The Citadel held the supreme power to arrange, appoint, promote, and demote maesters throughout the realm. It was also the sole and exclusive authority.

From the low altitude, the Mountain saw the huge stone sculptures on either side of the Citadel's gate: green sphinx statues. A sphinx was a monster with the body of a lion, the wings of an eagle, the tail of a snake, and the face of a human. The face on the left was male, while the face on the right was female.

The dragon didn't roar; the Mountain knew that the Citadel had two towers specifically for raising ravens that carried messages throughout the Seven Kingdoms, one was black ravens, and the other was white ravens that could speak human words. A dragon's roar at low altitude would scare the ravens away and disrupt the care and training of the young ravens.

The Mountain was a man who paid attention to detail; he wasn't here to antagonize the Citadel.

The dragon's outstretched wings blocked the sunlight, casting a huge shadow over the Citadel.

All the tower windows, stone archways, and ground of the Citadel's center – the Starry Sept – were filled with people, densely packed like ants. The archmaesters, rarely seen, seemed to have emerged from underground.

The Citadel was a city within a city, and the whole city was silent.

The oppressive aura of the dragon was overwhelming and unstoppable.

Everyone was witnessing a real dragon for the first time. The dragon's golden-red scales emitted a faint light, like a dimly burning flame about to explode.

The dragon's shock struck the heart of everyone present.

It was a great moment, and some were so excited by witnessing a real dragon that they trembled.

The dragon that had only appeared in the lyrics of wandering singers, in mythical stories, and displayed in relief works had truly appeared. Its dazzling scales, ferocious and terrifying dragon head, wings so large they seemed boundless, long dragon tail and streamlined neck, terrifying dragon claws – everything was so real and shocking.

Everyone felt the overwhelming aura of death and their own helplessness and insignificance.

Compared to such a huge dragon, a person's strength, such as a bow or a sword, seemed very humble and laughable.

Suddenly, the thunderous sound of hooves shattered the suffocating silence.

Lord Leyton led the most elite cavalry of Oldtown. In the Honeywine River, ten warships and a dozen patrol longboats appeared. The steady drumbeats controlled the naval soldiers, moving them at a uniform speed towards the Citadel's riverbank and the island docks in the river. In just a short while, the navy would control all the Citadel's waterways.

The naval soldiers knew the water conditions, waterways, islands, and docks of Oldtown's harbor and the Honeywine River estuary like the back of their hands. At a single command, the waterways would be completely blocked in a very short time.

A Hightower family banner fluttered in the wind. Seeing this banner, the Citadel's stewards knew that a nobleman from the Hightower family had arrived. This formation puzzled the Citadel's stewards, but they all knew that for thousands of years, the Hightower family was the nobleman they least needed to defend against. Without the full support of the Hightower family, the Citadel would never have achieved its current glory and scale.

The Citadel's gate was opened with a loud rumble. The soldiers responsible for the Citadel's defense were also Hightower family soldiers. They served the Citadel and received military pay from the Hightower family.

The scene of Lord Leyton's personal visit surprised the soldiers guarding the Citadel. The Lord was obsessed with witchcraft research and hadn't descended from his tower in over a decade, but they quickly understood the reason: the dragon gliding slowly in the sky was the real reason. The person in the Seven Kingdoms who could control this dragon was unique: the new King of the Seven Kingdoms – Duke Gregor Clegane, known as the Mountain.

The archmaesters and stewards of all levels in the Citadel appeared from various places.

His Majesty the King suddenly arrived at the Citadel riding a dragon, and Lord Leyton, the lord of Oldtown, also led his cavalry. This atmosphere and momentum were unsettling.

What had happened that would cause the King and the Lord to personally lead troops here?!

It would have been enough for the King and Lord to bring their attendants; there was no reason to lead a cavalry force.

What was about to happen at the Citadel? Every archmaester in charge of the Grand Maester's underground chamber felt something unusual.

The archmaesters of the Grand Maester's chamber each held a key to open the underground chamber, and in that underground chamber, the dragon glass candles, which had been regarded as magical relics, had suddenly ignited a while ago.

This foreshadowed the formal revival and arrival of the age of magic. And in the Citadel, on the surface, all the archmaesters despised the occult, but in private, most of them were conducting tacit research and experiments on the occult.

Was the sudden arrival of the dragon and the Lord's leading troops related to the dragon glass candles in the Grand Maester's underground chamber?

Lord Leyton hadn't left his tower in over a decade, obsessed with the study of the occult. His not coming out didn't mean that the archmaesters of the Citadel didn't recognize him. When repairs and the construction of new towers in the Citadel were needed, the stewards of the Grand Maester's chamber would go to the Hightower to meet Lord Leyton.

Every year, the archmaesters of the Citadel would go to the Hightower to celebrate the New Year's blessings with the Lord.

It could be said that all the archmaesters in the Citadel knew Lord Leyton.

Lord Leyton led his troops straight into the Citadel's gate. Knight Ervis led a company of a hundred men to stay and guard the gate's exit. Several other cavalry companies detoured along the Citadel's walls, guarding the other small exits.

The only exits left in the Citadel were the city's sewers.

The terror of an assassin lies in the darkness, just as the terror of the night lies in its darkness. Once there is a defense, even the Faceless Men would be constrained.

Arya Stark and Lord Leyton led their troops into the city.

This was the first time that a large, organized military force had entered the interior of the Citadel.

It was Arya's first time in this great place.

The Citadel's grandeur and majesty filled her with awe.

In addition to the towering, dense towers, there were also stone archways that wound and twisted between the towers. Above the stone archways, a passage was left in the middle, and on both sides of the passage, small box-like square houses were built, uniform, symmetrical on the left and right. And on the surface of the towers and stone houses, many places were covered with dense, verdant vines.

The first building in front had a huge plaque with a name written on it: Scribe's Court.

The Scribe's Court was where assistant maesters in the Citadel provided writing services to the public. Residents of Oldtown, including merchants from across the Narrow Sea or illiterate mercenary sailors who had come from afar, would come here to seek assistant maesters to help them. The assistant maesters could interpret documents, read letters and contracts, write letters, and send letters.

Most people in Oldtown had their wills written by assistant maesters here. The scribes sat at open stalls waiting for any customer to visit. Arya noticed that there was also a long row of stalls filled with books, and some stalls were selling all kinds of maps.

Lord Leyton left a company of a hundred men to guard the Scribe's Court and continued to lead his men forward.

They soon arrived at the Grand Maester's chamber.

The Grand Maester's chamber was a cluster of buildings composed of several towers.

If the Faceless Men wanted to enter the underground chamber and steal the dragon glass candles, they would need to enter through the Grand Maester's chamber.

Lord Leyton and Arya dismounted. Outside the gate of the Grand Maester's chamber, all the archmaesters of the Grand Maester's chamber were already waiting.

"What's going on, Lord," Grand Maester Munkun said in a low voice. He and Lord Leyton were very familiar, and the two were close friends in private. Grand Maester Munkun always secretly took the treasured editions of occult books in the Starry Sept out of the Starry Sept and secretly lent them to the Lord for reading, research, and transcription.

The Lord looked up at the sky. In the sky, the dragon glided, its wings spread, and from below, due to the angle, there would be the illusion that the entire Citadel was covered by the dragon's wings.

The Lord said in a low voice: "His Majesty the King has brought reliable news that the Faceless Men have entered the Citadel. They have come to steal the dragon glass candles."

Grand Maester Munkun was shocked and stunned. The news that the dragon glass candles in the Citadel had ignited had been tightly sealed.

"What, haven't you received the news yet?" the Lord asked warily.

"What news?"

"Maester Merdon had already released a raven to Archmaester Voggrave, reminding him that the Faceless Men were approaching his apprentice Pate, with the aim of obtaining the key in his hand."

"Archmaester Voggrave? He has been having trouble with his speech and actions for a long time."

"What about his apprentice Pate?"

"Pate, I don't know."

"Maester Munkun, please take us to see Archmaester Voggrave immediately. The current Pate is very likely a Faceless Man. The Faceless Men are here for the dragon glass candles."

"No need, the dragon glass candles are in the underground chamber of the Grand Maester's chamber. Let's go see if the dragon glass candles are safe first," Lord Leyton said.

"Lord, the dragon glass candles have been transferred to the underground chamber below the library of the Starry Sept."

"When did this happen?"

"It's been a few days, about seven days ago."

"Then what about the key to open the door?"

"Each of the elders of the Grand Maester's chamber has one."

"Could Pate have had the opportunity to get the key?"

"Yes, he could. He is the only apprentice serving Archmaester Voggrave. He is responsible for the diet and daily life of Archmaester Voggrave, who has difficulty moving and speaking. It is too easy for him to steal Archmaester Voggrave's key."

"Lord, we must go to the Starry Sept immediately," Arya said urgently.

"Grand Maester Munkun, I need your help, we must go to the Starry Sept immediately," Lord Leyton said.

"Alright."

Immediately, knights led over warhorses. Grand Maester Munkun mounted his horse and, together with Lord Leyton and Arya, galloped towards the Starry Sept in the center of the city.

The sound of hooves shattered the peaceful and harmonious atmosphere in the Citadel.

Arya raised her hand to the Mountain in the sky. The Mountain saw it, and the dragon descended, its huge body seeming about to crash into the towering, spear-like spires of the towers.

Arya shouted: "Your Majesty the King, it is possible that the Faceless Men have already succeeded."

"Understood," the Mountain replied in a deep voice. His voice was thunderous, and the maesters, novices, and assistant maesters on the ground were all terrified.

The cavalry galloped through the city streets, heading towards the Starry Sept in the center of the city. In the sky, the Mountain also followed them, riding the dragon.

The most prosperous and largest city in Westeros was Oldtown, and the Citadel in Oldtown was a huge city within a city.

Suddenly, a thunderous voice fell from the sky, resounding throughout the city: "Someone from the House of Black and White in Braavos, I am the Mountain. Roshi and Emma in the Quill and Tankard have been captured by me. If you choose to stop, I will spare Roshi and Emma."

Pate, who was walking under the dome of the library in the Starry Sept, stopped and looked up at the sky. He only saw the ceiling, which was covered with reliefs, depicting various strange and unseen beasts and images of gods.

Any action by the Faceless Men was top secret. No one knew their action plan, and no one could identify their outposts in various places. They were determined to obtain the dragon glass candles in the Citadel, but it had to be kept secret and couldn't be exposed. If the secret was known, then the House of Black and White in Braavos would be in endless trouble.

As the top assassin organization, they never killed innocent people indiscriminately.

They were not mercenaries or bandits; they had their own beliefs and would not draw their narrow swords to kill the Citadel's maesters who came to the House of Black and White to reason with them.

Pate held the key in his hand. The door to the underground chamber of the library was only two spiral staircases down.

But their actions and secrets were publicly shouted out by the Mountain in the sky.

This was a failure that caused the House of Black and White to lose all its glory. Throughout history, the Faceless Men had never encountered such humiliation and failure.

If the secret was known to the Citadel, if he brought back the dragon glass candles, the Citadel, which was good at eloquence, would definitely send maesters to the House of Black and White in Braavos every year to ask their elders to return the dragon glass candles.

This was trouble!

Pate's face turned pale green, as if a narrow sword had been stabbed into his heart.

He simply couldn't believe that such a secret operation would be completely known by the Mountain. Even within the Black and White Yard, only a very few people knew about this operation. Yet, the Mountain in the sky was directly addressing him.

This was too astonishing for him!

Could something have happened within the Black and White Yard?

How did the Mountain in the sky know about their top-secret operation?!

The Mountain, he was the legendary envoy of the gods, the Lightbringer who had slain the Night King. Could it be that the gods had given him divine revelation, inspiration, guidance?!

Pate's heart was completely collapsing!

He turned around, lowered his head, and when he raised his head again, his face had completely transformed. He turned and quickly left.

However, the voice in the sky made him stop abruptly again. He looked up once more at the dome above him, and he heard that arrogant voice continuing to boom: "Someone, I know that your Black and White Yard has been waiting for a burning dragon crystal candle for six hundred years. I promise you in the glory of the Andals, the Rhoynar, and the First Men, in the name of the old gods and the new, if you reveal yourself, openly, righteously, I will gift a dragon crystal candle to the Black and White Yard, so that the sacred object in your hearts may eternally burn before the statue of the Many-Faced God."

The Faceless One was completely stunned, unable to believe what he had heard. His body stiffened as if struck by lightning.

The Mountain, in the name of the king, promised to give them a priceless treasure: a dragon crystal candle!

But, the dragon crystal candle did not actually belong to the king.