Interlude 2

Cercei wiped her face and stood up. She had been crying for a good ten minutes. The weight of a new and seemingly real threat ready to kill her at an undisclosed time was too much for her to bear. Eventually she walked over to her dresser and used a cloth to wipe her eyes. She was angry at herself. She wasn't some little green girl from the rural countryside who didn't know how to keep her emotions in check. She was a queen, and she needed to act like one even when others were not looking.

She had her handmaidens draw her a bath and took her time getting ready for the day. She dressed herself and was heading towards the throne room with the Queensguard in tow when visions of her dream came back to her. They were so real she lost her breath and almost stumbled. One of her watchful Queensgaurd ran up to steady her, which annoyed her. She hated looking weak in front of other people. She waved him away with a stare that would melt iron. He backed away and she continued towards the throne room when suddenly she had an idea. She turned around quickly and headed towards the chambers of the Hand of the Queen, Qybern.

She still didn't know what to think of the old man, but one thing she did know was the effectiveness of his methods. Also, he was probably the most loyal of all those on her court. But the main reason she was heading in his direction was because he knew about dark unnatural things. Maybe he could shed some light on her situation. She walked up the tower he resided in and quietly knocked on the door to Qybern's room. A few moments later, Qybern himself stuck his head out of the door to see who it was.

"Oh! I was not expecting a visit from Your Grace this morning." He said. "Forgive me. I need a moment to change."

"Do not worry. Take your time." Cercei tried to keep the worry out of her voice but was failed to do so.

"Is there something wrong Your Grace?" Qybern asked.

Cercei looked around as though she was being watched. "Maybe. I don't know. Let us talk about it in your chambers, shall we?"

"Of course." Qybern said. He shut the door and was back in a matter of minutes with new robes. Together they descended to Qybern's "workshop" as he liked to call it. When they reached the door his workshop, Cercei turned to her Queensguard.

"Wait outside." She ordered. Several looked like they were going to protest, but one look at the Mountain, who obeyed without question, told them that that would be ill advised. As Cercei and Qybern entered the room, Qybern gestured to a carafe and two cups.

"I know it's early, but would you like some wine Your Grace?" Qybern asked.

Cercei's already frayed nerves were being pushed to their limits, so she accepted. After the wine was poured they both sat across from one another at a small wooden table and drank in silence. Qybern was the first to speak.

What is troubling you Your Grace? He asked as he poured her more wine. A Dornish Red that the queen had been ever so generous to supply him with.

"I had a dream last night. A nightmare." Cercei said.

"Well, you have been under an enormous amount of stress lately, what with the war and your son's passing. It is normal to have nightmares in troubled times Your Grace." Qybern said. He neglected to fill his own glass again. He was never one to let alcohol cloud his vision, and he had a strange feeling that what he was about to hear was important.

"It wasn't just a simple nightmare though. I believe that it was partially real." Cercei looked down, almost embarrassed.

"What happened in this nightmare?" Qybern asked.

"One of the Stark children, Arya, visited me in my chambers. She floated through the window on what seemed like thin air." Cercei recounted. She had no trouble remembering the dream, it was just that, now that she was saying it all in the daytime, it felt quite foolish. Although, that still didn't explain the writing on the wall.

"Is that all your grace? Qybern asked.

"No. She talked to me. She told me she was still alive and that she was coming to kill me and everyone close to me. And then she used a sword to etch the phrase "Valar Morghulis" on the wall of my chambers. Do you know what that means?" Cercei looked up at Qybern, who didn't seem the least bit worried.

"It is a common expression uttered in Essos. It means "All men must die" in High Valyrian. You have probably heard it in passing, or in your studies as a child Your Grace." Qybern assured her.

"But the phrase wasn't the odd part. The odd part was that the words were actually etched into the wall when I woke up." Cercei looked at Qybern trying to gauge his reaction. He seemed a little more troubled at this.

"And you're sure they were not there before Your Grace?" he asked.

"No. Well, I don't know. There was a portrait covering up the words. So, maybe they had always been there and I remember them from before they were covered up?" Cercei said.

"It would have to be Your Grace." Quybern said. "The alternative explanation that your dream was actually real would be quite troubling indeed. Was that the whole dream?"

"No, there was one last bit, and it was the most disturbing part." Cercei filled her cup up one more time and then continued. "She picked me up without having to touch me. She lifted me out of bed and strangled me in thin air."

Qybern was at full attention now Cercei noticed as she continued.

"After I struggled in the air awhile, she pulled out a curious blade and slit my throat." Cercei shuddered as she finished recounting her dream.

"What was curious about the blade Your Grace?" Qybern asked.

"It looked like it was made of fire. It was red and bright, and made a low humming sound."

Qybern nearly fell out of his chair.

"What is it?" Cercei asked, both worried and hopeful.

"Your grace, I may have some answers, but I need to know that you can handle them." Qybern said. He was acting strange to Cercei. Well, strange-er.

"Know that, if you have information that could help me, and fail to divulge that information, it could be seen as treason." The wine was helping calm her and as she grew calmer, her usual confident self seemed to emerge.

Qybern seemed unfazed at the thinly veiled threat much to the annoyance of Cercei. It was an empty threat anyways. Cercei knew that her list of allies was growing thin, and it would be stupid as well as wasteful to remove Qybern, one of her few unfaltering allies. Especially when she had just put him in his position of power.

"Your Grace, I only aim to serve and protect you." Qybern said. "But the knowledge I am about to share with you will lead down a dark path. A path that, once traversed, cannot be untread."

Cercei raised an inquisitive eyebrow at her newly appointed Hand and scoffed.

"What would you have me do?" she said. "Our list of allies grows smaller by the minute. My last blood-borne son has killed himself. And, if there is any truth to the nightmare I just had, then the Stark child is on her way here, wielding a set of unnatural powers with the sole purpose of killing me. I don't see what other options are available to me. Also, I have tread dark paths before and come out unscathed on the other side. So, I command you. Tell me your secrets." The look in Cercei's eyes told Qybern that to disobey would mean his death.

"As you wish, Your Grace. Follow me, if you will." With that Qybern stood up and walked to the back of his workshop towards a space of bare wall with a single sconce. Cercei stood next to him confused. Qybern pressed his hand into one of the stone blocks and to Cercei's surprise, an entire section of wall opened inward.

"What is this?" She inquired.

"When you first brought me into your service Your Grace, I did some rather extensive research and was able to locate some of the plans used to build the Red Keep. Apparently, Meagor the Cruel failed to kill every single architect who had a hand in building this place. Anyways, there are many secret passages and rooms that have not been used in hundreds of years because they were simply lost or forgotten. This passage is one of those. But I must warn you, what you are about to see will most likely change your opinion of me, whatever that may be. Just know that the answers you seek are related to what is inside here."

For the first time since she had known him, Qybern made her uneasy. But she didn't doubt his loyalty, so she nodded for him to proceed. She was happy that she had left her Queensguard outside of the chamber so that this secret passage could remain just that…a secret.

Qybern grabbed the torch from the sconce on the wall and led Cercei down a narrow passage. He turned a corner and eventually the passage opened up into a dark room. Cercei could hear strange sounds, almost like whispers, in the dark. Her level of unease was bordering on panic now.

"Brace yourself your grace." Qybern said as he lit a sconce on the wall with his torch. That sconce in turn lit a trough that circled the room and lit it up as clear as day.

Cercei almost vomited. She turned away quickly and put her hand over her mouth, gagging slightly. She slowly turned back around and took in the grisly scene. Delimbed corpses hung from chains connected to the ceiling. Heads sat on workbenches with their eyes still looking around and their lips still moving. These were the sources of the whispers, apparently. There were also limbs pinned to the walls with their grayish hands opening and closing. The smell was almost enough to knock Cercei to her knees.

"What in Seven Hells is this!" she roared at Qybern. He flinched just ever so slightly at her wrath and was quick to explain.

"This is my real workshop Your Grace. I told you that your opinion of me would change when you saw my real work." He stood tense, as if he expected Cercei to storm back up the passage and tell her Queensguard to seize him. After all, what he was doing down here was in violation of several Citadel laws and carried a death penalty. But Cercei didn't move.

"Explain what is happening here. Your life may depend on it." Cercei found she couldn't take her eyes away from all of the horror the room contained.

"Of course, Your Grace." Qybern bowed slightly and then began. "I presume you were told that I was removed from the Citadel for practices deemed to dark and sinister?"

"I was made aware." Cercei said through clenched teeth.

"Then I must explain where my practices started from. When I was younger, my pursuit of knowledge lead me to many places before I entered the Citadel to become a Measter. One of those places was Asshai." He paused and looked at Cercei to see her reaction. Just as he expected, her eyes got a little wider at the mention of the ancient city.

"Ah, so you have heard of Asshai and the Shadow Lands beyond. Good. Well, while my team of explorers and I were in Asshai, I befriended a Shadowbinder who promised to be our guide into the Shadow Lands. While traveling these lands, we can upon the gates of a ruined ancient city by the name of Stygai. The Shadowbinder would go no further as her and her kind feared what lie beyond the gates. My companions and I however, had a thirst for knowledge that trumped any fear of entering the city. So, we ventured inside. What we found there I cannot describe very well with words. For starters, it was built by a race of beings much more advanced than our own. There were wonders that your eyes would fail to comprehend. But while we were exploring the city, a dread fell upon us, and we started to get the sense that the city was a place of great evil. The happiness in our hearts from this great discovery was matched by an all-consuming terror. Because of this, me and my companions did not spend long in the city. But, while we were there, we came across a building that must have been this strange race's version of our own Citadel, for it held vaults filled with tomes of knowledge and artifacts of great wonder. My companions and I gathered as much as we could carry and fled the city before night fell. Eventually we split up what we had recovered from the city and parted ways. When I was able to finally settle down, I began to study the texts from the ancient tomes in my possession, and what they contained fascinated and astounded me." Qybern paused for a moment to let Cercei process what he had just told her.

"Continue." She said.

Qybern nodded. "As I was saying. These texts were full of knowledge from a race much more advanced than our own. I found details of medical experiments far past the capabilities of even the most adept Measter at the Citadel. It was from these medical texts that my work as a healer began. Though the methods described in texts were dark and disturbing, they were also effective. You can see some of my work here in front of you." Qybern gestured to the moving limbs and heads. "These medical texts were also responsible for the revival of The Mountain. Something our common medicine would never have been able to do. And, while the medicinal portions of text were the ones that fascinated me the most, there were other things in the texts that proved just as facinating. There were descriptions of the ancient beings possessing abilities that should not be possible. I also found histories that dated back farther than our own. Much farther. As well as taking place on worlds that were not our own." He looked at Cercei. He could tell she was curious, but still skeptical.

"What has this got to do with my situation?" she said.

"The abilities that you described Arya as having in your dream match up with the abilities I found in those ancient texts. Being able to pick up objects with one's mind. Projecting images and visions to another person. These were all described in detail. Also, these tomes of ancient text were not the only things I obtained on my journey into Stygai. The weapon the girl carried. You said it was a blade made of pure red light, yes?" Qybern could tell that he had her full interest now.

"Yes." Cercei said.

Without a word, Qybern walked to the back of the room where a small door was inlaid into the wall. Qybern pulled out a large ring of keys and selected one which fit the door's lock. He opened the door and inside were a series of shelves, all littered with curious objects Cercei had never seen before. Qybern pulled a six-inch metal cylinder off one of the shelves and then walked back to her.

"Stand back, if it would please Your Grace." Qybern said.

Cercei did as she was asked.

"Did Arya's blade look anything like this?" Qybern said. He pressed a button on the side of the cylinder and with a loud hiss, a large red blade of light slid out. The blade hummed with power.

"Indeed, it did." Cercei said through her first smile in what seemed like ages.