Celestial Hymn 52 (Patreon)

Celestial Hymn

Chapter 52

-VB-

Alan Marris

With Varys dead and one of my own men temporarily filling in the spymaster’s position, the Red Keep and King’s Landing were, by no means through my intention, completely in my hands and control. Hell, most of the Small Council seats had been left open with either death or abandonment, and I had to do a lot of filling in!

The only position that I didn’t have to fill?

“Man, it’s like you like to ignore me.”

I looked down at the Hand of the King, Tyrion Lannister.

Yes, just like in canon and how a lot of details of canon had played out, Tyrion had become the Hand of the King.

I just never thought to even interact with him because he held neither the power nor the influence necessary to carry out his own position. There was always (well, almost always) a reason why the position was given to someone of power and influence.

Unfortunately, Tyrion was a Lannister with the least amount of power and influence, and he had arrived only after Myrcella was initially poisoned, and most of his job involved taking care of the business that I didn’t care to take control of.

I sighed. “I apologize if that’s what it appeared like. Between my experiments and the few really important incidents, it just played that way.”

He waved his hand dismissively. “Oh, I’m not complaining. You apparently left an instruction to allow me to observe your apprentices and any books you had on the subject. Sufficed to say, I liked how much free time I have,” he grinned.

But I could tell that he was still upset at the “disrespect” I’ve shown him.

Tyrion was neither my favorite nor hated charact- person. He was a person, not a character.

“... If you pass any test I give out to my apprentices, then I might see if I could grant you magic of your own. Good day.”

After saying that, I turned around and left, leaving a stunned and stuttering Tyrion standing in the middle of the hallway.

---

As time passed, other Lord Paramounts and their retinues arrived one by one. Some came as if they were the conqueror army. Others came with a much more humble fare.

And one I had to browbeat.

“You think your itty bitty magic can win against the might of the Iron Islands?!”

Swarming the coast next to King’s Landing was none other than Balon Greyjoy. I stood on the top of the wall, sighing at the stupidity of humans everywhere. Did this man really not have any intelligence network of his own? Was he blind to the turning wheels of the world?

Maybe I should have paid attention to him, too, and not just ignore him completely.

It … just happened.

Kind of like how I ignored Tyrion because I had other things to do. Unlike Tyrion, I intentionally ignored him and that was what got me this.

In essence, the squawking and sword rattling of the ironborn.

“Are you sure you want to fight me?” I asked him loudly so that he can hear me. “The aftermath is not going to be pretty.”

“Hah! I’m not afraid of you!”

Should I have expected Greyjoy to pull something like this? I thought he would, at best, harass the Westerlands and the Reach. Maybe the North, too, but North’s kind of poor, you know?

Stannis stood next to me, and I could tell that he was raring to go out and stab Balon’s face. Rob Stark looked about the same. The only one not taking this seriously was Tywin Lannister.

“Well,” I said as I turned to them. “There you go. He is declaring war. Want me to take care of it?”

And myself, of course. I wasn’t taking this seriously at all.

The three Lord Paramounts, the first three to arrive, looked at me with varying degrees of suspicion and wariness. Rob knew the best what could happen; I had already shown him what I could do. Stannis was wary but he was also curious. Tywin was simply curious.

I knew what was going on in the old lion’s head. As far as he was concerned, his granddaughter was going to marry me. It didn’t matter how much power or influence I had; I was “his” through marriage and thus something not to fear but to “guide.”

If only he knew what I could do if I had a little bit more time…

Speaking of which, the Celestial Forge metaphorically knocked on my doors again when it began to spin up. The galactic arm of Magical Knowledge passed by but dropped nothing. Hmm. A shame.

“Go ahead,” Tywin said as he turned to look back at the ironborn preparing to besiege the city. “I assume it has to do with that weird mace you have in your hand.”

I held up the “mace” and smiled. “It is.” I took a deep breath and began to inject some gravitas into this. “When the universe was born, a single tree of truly unimaginable size grew out from it,” I began and saw many of the people around us listen to me. “This tree was named Yggdrasil by the first people who came to live upon its leaves because, you see, each of the leaves of Yggdrasil was a world upon itself.”

I held the mace up and a small iron ball sitting at the top of its ornate “head” slowly floated up.

“But a parasite came to dwell under Yggdrasil’s roots. It ate away at the tree and began killing it. As the tree began to die, the world leaves began to fall and die. The surviving worlds tried to find ways to slay the parasite so that they can live. In their desperation, they cannibalized their dead siblings,” I said with a smile at all of the bullshit I was spewing.

And the World Item in my hand, Ginnungagap, began to dimly glow as I poured my magic into it.

“Ginnungagap was the name given to this mace for the name of the world that this mace was forged from was lost in the void of creation that was Ginnungagap!” I declared, and my voice reverberated through the city and the coast. Huh, didn’t know that was a thing. I took a stance as if I were using a war mace. “Now, feel the weight of a world as it crushes you!”

And swung down toward the ironborn fleet and army.

For a second, nothing happened.

Then almost comically, each individual and ship all caved in like they had all been struck with iron balls as big as they were.

One swing.

Almost three thousand man-sized craters and over a hundred ships sunk.

It was pretty strong, especially since, even if it didn’t look like much, it more or less bypassed any defense.

I straightened myself back up and looked around.

All three Lord Paramounts looked in shock at the dead army outside the city walls. I instead turned to the rest, many of whom were also staring in shock.

“Someone go clean that up!”

It took a moment but a lot of the soldiers and civilians quickly scampered away, not wanting to test my patience. I snorted at the sight of their running forms.

Yeah, I was the big boss now, and only the stupid would -.