Prologue

/

Maester Korwyn was bored. Somehow he had been chosen to man the entrance hall to the citadel. Boring work if there ever was. It was a waste of a Maesters time, especially one with as many links as he held!

Surely one of the Initiates could do such a menial task? He thought irritably.

A shadow passed over his desk, startling him out of the book he had been reading. He hadn't even heard the person's footsteps! In such a large empty hall, one's footsteps would echo like the march of an army.

When he looked up, it was only to realize that the person hadn't even stopped at his desk, they had kept going right past him towards the doors.

"Excuse me! You cannot go in there until I-" He choked mid sentence once he got a proper glimpse of the person.

The person was completely naked and was most definitely a woman. All of that would have been enough to tie his tongue, but none of that was what had caught him so flat footed, what had done it was the fact that she was floating. Her feet were at least a full hands length away from the floor, and she drifted along as if she were a flying lantern from Yi Ti.

She hadn't even spared him a glance, just kept silently floating towards the door.

Maester Korwyn licked his suddenly dry lips. Was he supposed to stop her? "My Lady?" He said cautiously as he followed along behind her. Her long black tresses flowed down her back… and what a back she had. He marveled. His eyes trailed down, his lips now dry for an altogether different reason.

Maester Korwyn shook his head. She was undoubtedly beautiful, but he had a job to do. With new resolve, he grabbed her shoulder and pulled her around to face him. Or at least that had been his intention, his hand had closed around her shoulder yes, but she did not yield or pause under his grip.

He stumbled forwards, nearly getting yanked completely off his feet. Maester Korwyn stared at his hand in astonishment, it had been unlike anything he had ever felt in all his life. Her flesh had been warm, but hard and unyielding like stone. And when he had pulled on her shoulder, it had felt like he was trying to pull a mountain. There had been zero give, and it was him that had been moved instead.

With a furrowed brow, he tried once more. Surely it was a fluke and he had just not set his feet properly? This time with his heels digging into the stone floor, he grabbed her shoulders with both hands just as she reached the doorway.

This time, he didn't stumble forwards, his set feet simply slid along the floor. He strained against her with all his might, but it was useless. He didn't understand how it was possible. In his youth he had once tried to pull his family's draft horse, the beast had undoubtedly overpowered him, but he could still at least feel some tension, some sign that his efforts at least slightly impeded the animal.

But with her, there was none of that. It was as if he were trying to stop the heavens themselves from turning.

He was dragged for a few more steps before he gave up his task. Korwyn decided that whatever was happening was well beyond his duties. Still following the floating woman so that he would not lose her, he grabbed a gawking initiate and ordered him to inform the Archmaesters of the situation.

The woman was grabbing books, balancing a tower of them on one flat palm. Within moments she had a stack nearly as tall as he was, yet the tower remained perfectly steady as if they were simply sitting on a desk. Impossibly steady. Maester Korwyn had a Silver link and so knew precisely what the body could and could not do, and with the position of her arm and hand, it shouldn't have been possible to lift even a few of the heavy tomes, let alone the massive stack she currently held.

Korwyn followed her until she set her burden on a nearby table and took a seat. She picked one off the top and began to rapidly flip through the pages. He frowned, she clearly wasn't reading, she turning the pages much too fast. Mayhaps she was familiar with the book and was looking for a particular illustration or passage?

He moved so that he could see past the curtain of dark hair obscuring her face. Her cheekbones were sharp and her face would have been perfect, if not for an ugly and deep scar over her right eye, its socket empty. Her remaining brown eye was rapidly darting too and fro, focused entirely on the book in her hands. With her tanned complexion and features, he tentatively placed her as dornish, though even that guess didn't sit entirely right with him.

He glanced around at the growing crowd of onlookers, initiates and Maesters alike. It wasn't every day that a naked woman sat in their vaunted halls… at least not where an Archmaester could see them.

"What is going on here? Maeaster Korwyn, why have you allowed such a woman into the library?" Archmaester Ebrose stood behind him, looking more than a little angry, he had two guards with him.

"Archmaester Ebrose, I didn't let her! She overpowered me with her magics." He defended himself, cringing as he realized what he had just said.

"Magic?" Archmaester Ebrose scoffed, shaking his head in disbelief. "Maester Korwyn, we will be having words later. Guards, escort this woman out of the Citadel."

Korwyn backed away, wary of what he thought might happen next.

The first guard grabbed her shoulder and stumbled backwards, much like he himself had, the man had not expected such impossible resistance. His grip and stance completely wrong.

The second guard laughed at his friend, no doubt thinking he had slipped or something. He grabbed her arm and made to pull her up and out of the chair. The guard grunted as he strained, his face going red with effort before he let go of her arm and stepped away from the woman in confusion.

Both the guards looked much more wary now, their hands resting on their cudgels.

Archmaester Ebrose still did not understand. "Enough with this mummer's farce, I said grab her!"

Maesters and Initiates were learned men, they understood the impossibility of what happened next.

Much more cautiously, both guards grabbed each of her arms and heaved upwards in an attempt to lift her into the air. They could all see the veins of the men's necks begin to bulge with the strain, yet the woman did not move. Instead she continued her rapid page turns, completely unbothered by the forces being applied to her.

Even the strongest men could still be lifted, after all, a person could only weigh so much. Yet this woman who by all measures should have weighed less than one of the guards, remained entirely unmoved. It was as if they were trying to move a statue.

Korwyn noted Maesters bending over to check her legs, they hung freely over the chairs edge. No doubt they were trying to see if she was holding onto the much heavier table with her legs somehow.

A hushed murmur filled the air.

Archmaester Ebrose's eyes went wide at the display. He was one of the smartest men in the citadel, and so he was more than capable of making inferences on what such a feat implied. Korwyn could almost see the fear and interest battling behind his wide eyes.

Shakily, Archmaester Ebrose told the guards to go back to their posts.

Archmaester Ebrose all but dragged Maester Korwyn off to his office for information on the woman. Korwyn really wished he had more to give.