Chapter 39: The Citadel

(General POV)

It had been another rough night for Rhaenys, but it was quite a bit more bearable with Will beside her, healing her every now and then.

Whenever his glowing hands touched her, she felt as if everything was going to be fine. They were so comforting and warm, and kind of stimulating at the same time.

She would be lying if she said she didn't get pleasure from them, but she wasn't looking for pleasure, she was just looking to hold down the contents of her stomach and finally get some sleep.

Hopefully the maesters of the Citadel could figure out what was wrong with her, and maybe things could go back to normal. Well, as normal as things were for her family these days.

"How are you feeling?" Elia asked as she entered the room with a bowl of water and a rag. Just based on her expression alone Elia knew how she was feeling, but still decided to ask anyway.

"Sick." She answered, not wanting to talk all that much. Talking seemed to make it worse for her.

"There there. Just relax." Elia said softly as she came and sat beside her on the bed, being careful to stay away from the bucket of vomit on the floor in front of her.

Gently pulling Rhaenys down so she was laying on her back, Elia began to wipe her face, neck, chest and arms with the cool rag.

There were a few times where Elia would pause to stare at Rhaenys' prone naked figure, then continue wiping her down, and after the fourth time of her stopping Rhaenys couldn't help but ask, "What is it?"

Elia didn't answer right away as she looked her daughter over for a minute, but eventually she asked, "Darling... when you lay with Will, do you... um... take his seed?"

This was the first time Elia had been hesitant to ask her anything, despite the topics they had discussed before. The fact that it was about Will might have been why, but given how she was never hesitant to talk about their sex life in the past, it might be unlikely.

The question was more than a little personal, but Rhaenys shared almost everything with her mother, and wasn't about to start hiding things now.

"Rarely." She answered, thinking back to all of the times she and Will got together.

Most every time, Will usually finished on her or in her mouth, but there were one or seven times that she could remember him finishing inside of her.

"Did he do it anytime in the last month?" Elia asked another question, clearly having her own suspicion about something.

This question was just as weird as the last one, but not quite as embarrassing, so Rhaenys answered, "I think so... It might have been a little over three weeks ago, maybe four. It's been awhile so I can't remember."

Elia still couldn't be positive, but she now suspected more than ever what was causing this. The symptoms fit.

"Do you remember when I told you how babies were created?" Elia asked with a warm smile. The question had taken a second to register to Rhaenys, but when she understood where her mother was going, she immediately sat upright.

"I-I-I can't!" Just stammered out, her sickened look from before all but gone.

"You most certainly can. I've been with child two wonderful times, so I know what its like. Besides, it all fits. Morning sickness, and your bigger breasts, they're both signs of being with child." Elia stated, causing Rhaenys to stop and look down at her chest.

"They don't feel bigger!" She cried as she reached up to feel if they were any different.

"It's hard to tell, but they are. It could just be that you're still developing, but it makes the most sense." Elia told her.

"But... I'm not ready to be a mother." Rhaenys said dejectedly as she buried her face into her mother's shoulder.

"My silly princess. No one is ever ready to be a mother, but you won't be alone. This is what family is for." Elia spoke in a comforting tone as she stroked her back.

"But what about Will? This changes everything we were going to do. *Sniffle* We didn't plan for this." Rhaenys cried as tears streamed down her face.

"Oh, my sweet girl. Family means more to him than you understand. He will see this for the blessing that it is... Though you might not want to call it a blessing." Elia said, realizing that blessing, might be too close to the Gods to use it around Will.

"Should I tell him?" Rhaenys hesitantly asked, sounding as if she was hoping her mother would tell her to keep it a secret. She really didn't want to tell him.

"Not yet, not all the symptoms fit with a regular pregnancy, your case seems a little extreme. We can't be sure that you are with child, but the Maesters of the Citadel will. They are the smartest men in the world, and they are usually the ones who help the Ladies of the nobility know when they are with child. We're already here anyway." Elia told her warmly as she pulled her back to stare down into her eyes.

"Get dressed and let's go downstairs. Will is waiting with the carriage." She said before they separated from each other.

Downstairs, Will was standing next to the door with Drox as he told him everything that happened last night with the Tyrells. He even told him about the orgy, but other than a fist-bump, Will didn't seem to care too much about that.

"If they already know that much, keep Aegon away from the lunch. I don't care if they know he's close to me, but I wouldn't put it past Olenna to try and put him in a situation where he is forced to answer questions, ones that I doubt he could answer. As long as it's just you, Oberyn, Ellaria and Oberyn's children, Oberyn can deny everything and there's nothing they can say or do about it. Plus I don't want Jon and Daenerys to be alone in an unfamiliar city. Too many criminals." Will said, forgetting the fact that he was arguably the biggest criminal in the city.

"What if they try to get personal information about you?" Drox asked curiously. He didn't know how much information Will was okay with them knowing, and he wanted to make sure where to draw the line.

"If they start to get pushy for information, just say they can deal with me later. From what you heard last night, it doesn't sound like they know I'm here. That should be enough of a shock to them to stop all questions. But if they push back at you or make any threats, let them know just who they're threatening." Will said darkly, showing a little bit of his true colors.

He was far too vengeful to let even the Tyrells get away with moving against his family, and when word spread of what he did to the Iron born, the world would know that too.

It was about that time when Elia and Rhaenys came walking down the stairs, Rhaenys looking oddly nervous rather than the sickly expression she had all night.

"Are you okay?" Will asked, showing a bit of concern for her.

"Y-Yes! I'm fine!" She said far too quickly, and with a bit more volume than usual. Shooting a glance at Elia, Will only saw the corner of her mouth turn slightly upward as she avoided his gaze.

'Something happened.' He thought curiously, looking back and forth between the two of them. Figuring he would just ask about it later, Will helped them both into the carriage before he climbed in as well.

"To the Citadel!" He ordered, getting a 'Yes M'Lord' from the driver.

The carriage ride was oddly quiet, and neither Elia or Rhaenys were all that talkative even when he tried to make conversation, letting him know that something had definitely happened this morning.

Still, he decided not to pry, at least for now. He would get the answers sooner or later, and they all knew it.

When they arrived at the main building of the Citadel, Will had to do a double take. He originally thought it was just going to one super big building like the Iron Bank, but that wasn't the case here.

The Citadel is a complex of buildings in Oldtown that serves as the central home to the order of the maesters. The Citadel lies on the Honeywine, where its towers and domes are connected with arching stone bridges.

There were buildings all around, even on the giant stone bridges themselves, but Will wasn't sure how many of the buildings were actually part of the Citadel itself.

The only building he was sure of that was part of the Citadel was the one where the gates were flanked by a pair of tall green sphinxes with the bodies of lions, the wings of eagles and the tails of serpents. One has the face of a man, the other a woman, and they were way bigger than he would have guessed.

They weren't even close to as big as the big toe of the Titan of Braavos, but they were still bigger than a bus.

Taking note of the structure of a few weirdly designed sculptures and buildings, Will moved on into the gates of the building. He was here for a purpose after all.

Just inside the gates of the Citadel lies the Scribe's Hearth. Here, the citizens of Oldtown come to hire scribes, usually acolytes, to write and read letters for them.

The scribes wait in open stalls for their customers. Other stalls situated at the Scribe's Hearth include those where books are bought and sold. Others offer maps.

When Will saw all the books, scrolls, and maps in the stalls, his eyes lit up in greed. He didn't know what was in the books, or if anything they were selling would even be useful to him, but it had been awhile since he actually stole something worth a damn.

The Kleptomaniac in him was making himself known, and he wanted out. 'Later!' He told himself as he dismissed the urge to begin steal- borrowing things.

Ignoring the Scribe's Hearth, Will, Rhaenys and Elia made their way through a large set of doors, earning the attention of many of the scribes behind them.

They weren't sure why, but people gawked at the stupidest things so they paid them no mind. Instead they continued on into a wide open room that seemed pretty bare given its large size.

There were a few benches for people to sit on along the sides of the walls, but other than that there was a large desk at the far end of the room next to two doors on either side of it.

An old man with a pinched face, wearing acolyte robes was seated at the desk flipping through pages of a book, acting as though he didn't know or care that they were in the room.

Despite this, Will walked over to the desk and stared down at the man who didn't so much as blink away from the book.

"Excuse me, but we've come to see an Archmaester that specializes in healing." Will said respectfully in his kindest voice. He did not sound like himself.

Will wasn't sure of the names of the Archmaesters of Healing, but he knew Archmaesters were the best in their field of study, so he asked for one of them.

It took half a minute for the guy sitting at the desk to look up at Will from his book, but going off of his expression, he wasn't happy about it.

"The Archmaesters don't waste their time on just anyone with a sob story that comes knocking at our doors." The man said in a whiney grating voice that fit his looks perfectly.

Hearing the man, Will wanted to reach over the desk and strangle him, but he decided to be a little bit more forward here.

"It's a good thing I'm not just anyone! My name is William Castian, and you will take me to see one of the Archmaesters that specialize in healing!"

Hearing his words did the trick of making the idiot's eyes widen, but he did nothing else other than change his facial expression.

"So you are the Mummer Magician... I thought you would be more imposing." The acolyte said, referring Will to a title he had never heard before.

Will knew from previous discussions that a mummer was an actor or entertainer in the world, which made him frown at the title he had been called.

Honestly he thought they would just question who he was rather than doubt that he had actually had the ability to use magic.

'The shit I've done and this moron doesn't believe I can actually use magic?' Will thought to himself, finding it hard to believe that the smartest men in the world could be this ignorant.

"I'm not going to stand here and waste my time explaining myself to some old fuck who isn't even a maester! Now tell me where an Archmaester on Healing is, and I'll be on my way!" Will said with authority.

If he had to prove himself to every pompous prick in the Citadel, he would be here for weeks before they actually figured out what was wrong with Rhaenys, and that honestly sounded worse than bending the knee to Robert Baratheon.

"Now see here! You can't-!" The acolyte was in the middle of shouting before the chair he was sitting on suddenly rose into the air, stopping whatever he was saying mid-speech.

"Here's how this is going to go. I'm going to break some of your bones and cause a bit of external bleeding. You will die in 10 minutes if we are not standing before an Archmaester of healing." Will stated, tired with the superiority complex that the people of this world had.

Every noble was trying to one up the others, and now the nerds were trying to fuck with him. If he didn't need them to figure out what was wrong with Rhaenys then he probably would have just killed them.

Better that than try and grovel and beg to get some help from people he honestly wasn't sure would even help him unless he was some high noble.

"N-N-No! H-Have mercy!" The acolyte pleaded from only a few feet off the ground.

"Calm down. I'm just the Mummer Magician, so everything I'm about to do to you is all an act." Will told him without a hint of remorse or feeling.

Ignoring the man's begging, Will walked around the desk so he was standing beside the stone pillar keeping the man in the air, and it was only then that he noticed the uncomfortable looks he was getting from Elia and Rhaenys.

They were mostly okay with him doing things like this, but there was a limit. For one thing they didn't want to be anywhere near him when he ripped someone apart, and they definitely didn't want to see it happen either.

Relaxing his posture, Will lowered the man down so he was back on the ground, and when the man tried to stand he pushed him back down onto the chair.

"This is only going to hurt for a few weeks." Will told him plainly, then stabbed a dagger that appeared out of thin air into the man's arm, piercing through muscle and bone before the dagger that was lodged into the arm suddenly vanished as quickly as it came.

Will wanted to do more, but with Elia and Rhaenys here, he figured this would have to be enough for now. Plus he could always find the fool later. To demean him was one thing, but the fool was possibly putting Rhaenys' life at risk by not taking them to the Archmaester, and Will wasn't going to forget that anytime soon.

"We better get you to a healer as quickly as possible. Preferably an Archmaester." Will said calmly as the man screamed in pain in the chair.

Without saying anything, the acolyte simply nodded his head furiously before he got to his feet and hurriedly made his way towards the door to the left of the desk.

"Let's go." Will said to Elia and Rhaenys, though he spoke much softer to them.

"Was that really necessary?" Rhaenys asked as she began to follow along with Will behind the retreating old man.

"Probably not, but it worked didn't it?" Will said, not the least bit sorry for what he just did.

"Please don't act so brashly. Every kingdom in the world needs maesters, and if you begin killing them there will be a war no matter how you try to justify it. Besides, the Citadel is under the protection of the Tyrells, our allies. It would be best to not act out here." Elia advised, making a good point.

"You're right. I'll be sure to heal the man when we get to the Archmaester." Will told her apologetically, but internally he was thinking, 'I'll just kill him later when no one is around.'

He wasn't sure if he would actually go so far as to kill the man, but the option was still on the table.

Elia and Rhaenys seemed happy with his words, and together the three of them made their way out of the building and into another tall building nearby.

Along the way there were a few people that openly gawked at them, but they were all novices and acolytes, so Will didn't pay them much mind. It was nice that they let everyone see what rank they were by their robes, made it much easier to want to ignore them.

Things were a bit different however when they finally saw a maester, he seemed like he had something to say, and blocked the path of the acolyte that was leading them.

"What is the meaning of this?! Women are not permitted in the Citadel!" The maester barked out with authority.

"Out of the way you old bastard! We're busy!" Will said, ignoring the man as he pushed him aside and urged the acolyte to keep walking.

The maester shouted some things as they continued on their way, but he seemed so trivial that Will had ignored him.

Besides, it was the usual 'You'll regret this!' or 'I won't stand for being treated this way!' He had heard the words enough times to just not care about them.

They ran into a little over 20 more maesters who all tried to stop Will before they finally got to a private wing of the building.

Looking down the hallway, Will saw 6 doors spaced quite a distance from each other, giving him the impression that each room was quite spacious.

There was the odd man walking the hall, making his way towards them from the furthest room from them, but he was clearly lower on the totem pole given how he was pushing a cart loaded up with food.

'Most likely the food for the Archmaesters.' Will thought, taking it as a good sign as he the novice pushing the cart walked on by without even batting an eye.

He probably thought Will was some high noble and that it wasn't his place to question anything.

'It was too bad everyone else in the Citadel couldn't be like this guy.' Will thought, more than happy to let the young man be on his way.

It had taken them almost 30 minutes to get here, but the bleeding acolyte leading them couldn't even be blamed. It wasn't his fault that every old bastard in the Citadel thought it was their duty to get in the way, so Will had actually healed a bit of the stab wound to make sure the man wasn't in any danger of dying. For now anyway.

"Which room is the Healer in?" Will asked the terrified acolyte.

"A-All of them are meant for the healers! This building is where the healers reside, but only 3 of the 6 rooms are in use. The other 3 are for when a new Archmaester specializing in healing is brought into the order." The acolyte said meekly, not daring to meet Will's eyes.

"Who is the best among them?" Will asked, wondering if there was actually a ranking among the Archmaesters. He had never heard anything about such a thing, but it wouldn't hurt to ask.

The acolyte was silent for a few seconds, but eventually he answered, "All three Archmaesters are well versed in the art of healing, but... Archmaester Ebrose is chief among them while Archmaester Edgerran is second only to him. Archmaester Mollos was only introduced to the rank of Archmaester a few short years ago, and rumors have it that he meets with Archmaester Ebrose to check over his work."

Will didn't know how accurate the man's information was, or if it was just the man's opinion on the matter, but at least it was a step in the right direction.

"Which rooms are theirs?" Will asked, looking at the 6 doors for any signs that would indicate who was in them. He thought there would be a nameplate on the doors, or on the walls by the doors, but they was nothing.

"The first door on the right is where Archmaester Ebrose resides, while the first on the left belongs to Archmaester Edgerran. Archmaester Mollos is in the room at the far end of the hall on the left-hand side." The acolyte answered quickly.

Honestly if he was this informative when they first arrived, Will might have actually really liked the man. It was too bad it had taken a punctured arm for him to stop being a cunt.

With the information he needed, Will walked over to Archmaester Ebrose's door and checked to see if it was unlocked. It wasn't. He tried Edgarren's and Mollos' doors as well, but they too were also locked.

Will checked the other 3 doors just to be sure, but just like the acolyte had told him, they didn't look like they were being used. It was probably why they were unlocked.

Each of the rooms did have all of the same equipment, but they still seemed pretty bare compared to what Will was expecting. Looking at the half dozen rooms, in the hallway, Will debated on how to proceed.

Originally he was just going to find the best guy here and have him try and figure out what was going on with Rhaenys, but why settle for one opinion when he could have all three?

Who knows, maybe one of the other two Archmaesters would find something that Ebrose might miss in the check-up.

With that thought in mind, Will went from the first two doors, knocking on them as loud as he could before he seemingly appeared down the hall at the last room before he knocked on it, then walked back to where Elia and Rhaenys were standing to wait.

It took a few seconds, but eventually the door at the end of the hall was the first to open, followed by the door to Ebrose's room, and a few seconds later Edgarren's door also opened.

"What is the meaning of this interruption?!" Archmaester Edgerran asked the acolyte, given he was the only one among them that was wearing robes of the Citadel.

"Ser- L-Lord!" The acolyte corrected himself. "William Castian is here to see the Archmaesters!" The acolyte's announcement took the Archmaester by surprise, as William Castian was the last person any of them expected to see.

It was true they had all heard the rumors spreading throughout the world about him, but the Citadel was a place for science and the discussion of higher learning, and had no place in it for sorcery.

They did not believe magic existed in the world, despite all of the evidence around them. They tried to disprove most things people believed were magic related, and in doing so had completely shut their eyes to all things magic.

It was true that one did have to study the mystic art to attain their Valyrian Steel link on their maesters chain, but here at the Citadel the mystic art was referred to as 'The Higher Mysteries' as the maesters believed that everything would one day be explained with science.

"This is highly unprecedented, and not how a Lord meets with the Archmaesters of the Citadel!" Archmaester Edgerran spoke, not sounding too concerned that he was meeting William.

"The Mummer Magician? What does he want?" Archmaester Mollos asked as he slowly hobbled his way from his door so he was standing next to the other two Archmaesters.

At his words, the acolyte shot Will a worried look, fearing he was going to take offence to the Archmaester.

"You're wounded!" Archmaester Ebrose stated, ignoring Will for the moment as he looked to the acolyte's blood soaked arm.

"Ah! Allow me to fix that!" Will interrupted, having actually forgotten the acolyte was still bleeding. Despite forgetting about the wound, he would have probably left it, but he didn't want to pull any attention away from Rhaenys.

Moving the two steps to clear the distance between the two of them, Will pulled water from the air to coat his right hand, then brought it to the acolyte's arm where he had stabbed the man.

Before everyone's eyes, Will healed the wound in a matter of seconds, even going so far as to pull the blood from the man's robes. He still struggled to blood bend someone from a distance, but as long as he was touching them then it was actually pretty easy.

There weren't too many people he was willing to practice on, and it was rare to find any criminals in Asteria, so it was kind of hard to practice the art.

Usually he just used it to help keep the blood in someone that was bleeding out from an injury, doing his best to not drag out the healing process too much longer than needed, but long enough that he could possibly learn something.

Kind of a dick thing to do, but the injury was usually healed up days or even weeks sooner than it normally would have taken, so no one ever actually complained about it. Not that they knew what he was doing to begin with.

When the healing was finished, the Archmaesters gawked with their mouths agape, not being able to believe what they had just witnessed.

"You can go now." Will dismissed the acolyte, who didn't hesitate to scurry away as quick as his legs could carry him. With the acolyte gone, Will turned his attention back to the Archmaesters.

"I've come here today to get your help on a matter of urgency. If you can actually accomplish the task, I will reward each of you with a thousand gold dragons!" Will stated, stopping any protests the Archmaesters might have been ready to give him. A thousand gold dragons was no small sum, even to them.

"What is the task?" Ebrose spoke up while the other two Archmaesters were still stunned at the magic healing they had just seen moments earlier.

"My wife has contracted an illness unknown to me. I myself am somewhat of a healer, but even with magic I cannot seem to cure it. You all use science as the base of your healing, and I'm hoping it can find the cure that magic cannot. I have a deep appreciation for the field of study, so sought out the men with the most knowledge on the matter." Will said as he turned to the side to grab Rhaenys by the hand.

Looking at her, he could see her eyes wide in surprise. Most likely it was for referring to her as his wife, as this was the first time he had done so, but at this point there was no denying it.

They spent every night together, took care of one another, loved each other, and pretty much did everything together.

The only thing that would make it more official was if they actually did a ceremony, but Will didn't see the point in that. Marriage was saying vows in the eyes of the gods, but seeing as how Will would rather stab the eyes of the gods, it was kind of pointless.

Will smiled at Rhaenys as he gently gave her hand a comforting squeeze. She must have zoned out because she began to blink several times before she returned the hand squeeze and the smile.

She genuinely loved him, and no matter what happened, she always would, this she believed with every fiber of her being.

"She doesn't appear to be ill." Edgerran stated as he stepped forward to examine Rhaenys. His words had ruined the moment between the two of them, but it didn't matter.

So long as they helped her, Will would have been willing to pay them even ten times the price he had stated before.

"Come, My Lady. Let us all enter my chambers so we can get to the root of the matter." Ebrose said as he turned and walked into the door behind him.

The other two Archmaesters didn't need any further prompting and also followed after him. Rhaenys looked a bit nervous, but eventually she too walked into the room with Will in front of her and Elia at her back.

The room was designed just like the three unused rooms down the hall, but unlike them there were quite a bit more tools, that lined the shelves, books and scrolls littered the table and parts of the floor, and there were a number of devices that Will had never seen, even in his previous life.

When they all got settled, Will began to explain Rhaenys' symptoms, how long they've been going on, what he's been doing to try and cure her, and where they've been recently.

He figured that maybe there were places where she might have been bitten by a bug or eaten some strange food that might have caused this, so he felt it was best that they knew where they had travelled from recently in case it helped them find out what was wrong.

The three Archmaesters asked a few more questions that Rhaenys answered, then Ebrose went over to a shelf and grabbed a weird thing connected to a tube.

Will watched carefully as Ebrose put the flat piece connected to the tube on Rhaenys' stomach and the other end of the tube in his ear, then began moving it around.

For a little over a minute everyone remained completely silent as per Ebrose's request. He moved the instrument up to her chest, then back to her stomach a few times, but eventually he finished with what he wanted to know.

When he finished, he gave the instrument to Edgerran who did the same thing while Ebrose began writing notes in a large book. Mollos eventually did the same thing before they all seemed to begin discussing something.

Will could hear a few things here and there, but most of it sounded as though they were babbling and he found it hard to eavesdrop, so he just stood there waiting to see what conclusion they had come to.

"Have you noticed your breasts growing bigger since the sickness first began?" Ebrose asked abruptly, completely derailing Will's train of thought.

"Y-Yes." Rhaenys confirmed. She actually hadn't noticed herself, but clearly her mother had, so it was safe to say that they had in fact gotten bigger.

Ebrose wrote something else down in his book before he turned and asked, "How many days has it been since you last bled?"

It was only when the question was asked that something clicked in Will's mind.

'Wait a minute...' He thought, realizing why Ebrose would ask such a question. Will had never been a doctor in his previous life by any means, nor did ever deliver a baby, but he knew a few things about pregnant women that he had learned in school and from television, and one of them was exactly why the Archmaester was asking his question.

Upon getting his answer, Ebrose made another note in his book before he put the quill down and stared pointedly at Rhaenys.

"I do believe congratulations are in order, My Lady. You are with child." Ebrose said with such assurance that Rhaenys didn't doubt him for even a second.

"Are you certain?" Will asked, his eyes focused on Rhaenys' stomach.

"The sickness is more severe than normal, but the rest of the symptoms fit perfectly. I would stake my reputation on it." Ebrose stated, not the least bit unsure of himself.

"I would concur with my colleague. The symptoms confirm she is showing the early signs of motherhood." Edgerran agreed.

Mollos also agreed with Ebrose's conclusion, but he didn't sound nor look as sure of himself as the other two Archmaesters.

Still, they answered the question as to what was wrong with her, and Will already knew what she had to do to get better. Only it would take another 8 months, and involve Rhaenys pushing a human out of her vagina.

'Fuck!' Will cursed internally. He wasn't upset that she was pregnant, but he had known guys whose wives were pregnant in his previous life, and according to them it was almost hellish.

If they were to be believed, Rhaenys would get all emotional at random times, and would demand things at random hours of the night. Her feet would swell up, and she would balloon up to the size of a hippo.

That last one had been told to him by a guy named Keith, but in his defense, Keith was a raging cunt.

Anyway, just based off of those things, Will could more or less kiss his easy going fun sex life good-bye.

'Things can't be all bad though.' He reasoned to himself. After all, if it was so bad then why did people have more than one kid?

Even in his previous life, his mother had talked with his father about having another child, and his father actually seemed excited at the idea. He wasn't sure what his parents did to make the experience worth it, but clearly there were ways around the misery.

'Who knows, maybe Rhaenys will be different from what I'm expecting.' Will thought as he slowly came to terms with what he had done.

He must have been lost in thought for some time, because when he looked up from Rhaenys' stomach, the five other occupants in the room were all staring at him.

Shaking the depressing thoughts out of his head, Will looked first to Rhaenys before he closed the distance between the two of them, locking his lips to hers as he pulled her in close to him.

When they separated, Will stared deeply into her eyes as he spoke, "I can't say I'll be the best father or husband in the world, but I'll always be there for the both of you, and do everything in my power to love and protect you with all my heart. I love you."

Beside them, Elia made a strange sound, but Will was too focused on Rhaenys as he watched tears stream down her face.

"I-I love you too!" She cried even as her arms came up and wrapped around his neck before she pulled his head down to meet hers so she could reciprocate his earlier kiss.

This time when they finally broke apart, Elia couldn't contain herself as she hugged them both, all the while letting out quiet muffled sobs of joy. The family moment lasted a good few seconds, but eventually all good things came to an end.

"Our payment?" Mollos asked expectantly, not caring about whatever moment the three of them were sharing. He did his work, and now he wanted to be paid.

"Right." Will said. He kept one arm wrapped around Rhaenys' waist as he leaned over the table, then made three golden trays appear before their very eyes.

Each tray had ten slots with a hundred gold coins in each slot. The trays themselves were used by nobles all over so they could keep an accurate account of their wealth without spending hours on end counting coins all day. The trays worked for gold, silver, and copper coins, so even the minor nobility used them.

Having paid the Archmaesters, Will grabbed Rhaenys by the hand before he nudged her and Elia towards the door.

"Well this was certainly a helpful visit, so thank you all. We would stay longer and chat, but I really don't want to. You three have a wonderful day. Good-bye!" Will said, then without giving the three of them a chance to speak any further to them, he closed the door and the three of them began walking back the way they came, leaving three stupefied Archmaesters to stare dumbly at a door.

"I'm so happy for you!!" Elia cried cheerfully as she pulled Rhaenys close to her.

"Thank you, mother! You were right, I was worried about nothing." Rhaenys said, her words making Will stop and look at the two of them.

"You both knew she was pregnant?!" He was shocked. They knew and didn't tell him.

"It was more like a suspicion. This morning we talked about it, and the idea that she was with child was brought up. The symptoms fit, but the sickness has been much worse for her than anyone else I can remember." Elia said defensively.

She couldn't be certain that she was right, but now that the Archmaesters themselves confirmed it, she felt better.

"Fine, but next time you suspect something, please tell me." Will said tiredly, brushing away the whole not knowing situation.

When they walked through the gates guarded by the two sphinxes, Will was slightly surprised to see a large group of soldiers lined up in formation with weapons at the ready.

Behind the armored knights, Will could see a number of the maesters that had tried stopping him from going about his way in the Citadel, and could more or less figure out what was happening. The nerds had whined to the cops, and now the fuzz was out to get him.

"Don't worry, guys! We got checked out by the healers and they said we were good to go!" Will shouted to the guards who made no move to lower their weapons.

Without warning, wind began to swirl around Elia and Rhaenys, picking up to the point that it looked like a miniature contained cyclone. It was awesome and terrifying to behold.

Stepping away from the growing cyclone, Will walked towards the guards at a slow easy pace.

"You sure you wanna do this?" Will asked calmly as two long thin blades appeared in his hands.

----------

(Willas Tyrell POV)

"Are you sure I can't get you another drink? I can promise you that you wouldn't feel a thing!" Olenna said to Oberyn, who was smiling broadly at the Queen of Thorns.

"Only if you let me demonstrate how to kill a pig first!" Oberyn shot back while not so subtly looking at Mace.

The lunch was going about as well as Willas expected it to go, given present company.

The lunch didn't get off to a very good start when Oberyn's 'squire' didn't attend, but it wasn't all that bad. Drox had still shown up, so it's not like they couldn't get some information out of the meeting. At least that's what Willas thought.

Despite coming as a lowly servant for House Martell, Drox was oddly at ease when speaking with them, and he wasn't afraid to change the subject in the middle of a discussion that would have led them to asking the questions they wanted to ask.

He wasn't good at making the change in conversation seem natural, but when he changed topics he didn't bother going back. It was so much like dealing with a child on that front, that it was actually adorable.

Even when his grandmother prodded the boy he didn't budge, much to Oberyn's obvious amusement. Willas knew that it wasn't Oberyn that was giving Drox the confidence, so he could only attribute it to Castian.

He wasn't sure what assurances Drox had, but they must have been overwhelming if he was willing to treat the Tyrells this way. But it made sense to Willas. If he had to put gold on who would win between House Tyrell and William Castian, he would pick William hands down.

Anyway, things weren't going too bad for the first bit of the lunch, but then Oberyn's four eldest children, the Sand Snakes, had decided mid-way through the meal that they wanted to have some fun.

That wouldn't have been too bad, except that the 3 eldest wanted to spar with weapons, while the fourth eldest, Sarella, decided to prod a few people into joining the spars with her sisters.

Despite being only 12 name days old, she was very good at getting under other people's skin. She even managed to get Garlan and Loras to fight, despite the objections from their grandmother, and it hadn't been a pretty sight.

Garlan was exceptional with the sword, thus it wasn't a surprise to Willas when his brother beat the two eldest Sand Snakes, Obara and Nymeria in a two on one duel, but things weren't as cut and dry as they seemed.

Even when Garlan won, he still lost. The two women milked their loss for all it was worth, making it look as though Garlan had mercilessly beat two helpless girls.

There were a few guards that had watched the fight and would subtly look at Garlan as though he was a monster when they thought no one was looking, and Willas could already hear the rumors that would probably be going around after today.

He knew he would have to make sure to halt the rumors before they had a chance to spread, and to his relief, Oberyn actually helped out with that.

He would still need to make sure the guards understood that he knew of everyone who was present so if rumors did start spreading then he would know who to look at, but he could do that later.

Unlike Garlan, Loras actually sparred with their great uncle, Ser Moryn Tyrell, the Lord Commander of the City Watch of Oldtown. There wasn't anything too bad that went wrong with the duel, other than the fact that Moryn lost.

Willas knew his brother was an excellent swordsman for his age, but he wasn't that good. It actually wasn't until Margery whispered in his ear that she had seen Sarella pour something in Moryn's glass that the truth came to light.

Oberyn had forced the girl to give the man the antidote to the concoction that was making him quickly lose feeling in his body.

Needless to say, everyone had been wary of the girls after that, and Willas had even opted out of drinking anything else for the afternoon. At least while Oberyn's children were there.

Anyway, things progressed a bit better after that, until Oberyn made a comment about Mace, and Olenna decided to defend him, thus resulting in the back and forth banter between the two of them.

It wasn't the extremely horrible lunch that Willas had envisioned when he imagined Oberyn and his grandmother together, so he was decidedly happy with the way things were going. That's how he felt up to the point where 6 knights walked into the room with 3 children.

Willas didn't know who the little girl was, but he recognized the dark-haired boy from last night as being part of Oberyn's group, even though he was more in the background.

The other young boy was all too familiar, and had he showed up under better circumstances, Willas would have been thrilled.

Seeing the frightened look on the little girl's face and the cold looks the two boys were showing, Willas could guess that they hadn't shown up of their own volition.

Almost immediately were weapons drawn from both Oberyn and Drox at seeing the three children, and as a sort of dive for higher ground, Drox moved quickly to the other side of the table where he held a knife to the throat of Lord Mace Tyrell, the Warden of the South.

"What is the meaning of this?!" Oberyn growled angrily, looking pointedly at Willas, who was actually just as confused as he was.

A bit hurt that Oberyn suspected him of going behind his back like this, Willas looked across the table to his grandmother, who looked just as surprised as Oberyn and himself.

"What's going on here?!" Olenna shouted at the guards leading the children, who all had their weapons drawn.

Looking around the room, Willas saw that all of the guards, including his great-uncle had their weapons drawn.

Oberyn, Ellaria, and their children were now standing against the wall a few feet from the table, while Drox was holding his father with guards standing all around him.

Margery, Loras and his mother were standing behind a row of knights, with Garlan in front of them with his sword drawn.

The only ones who hadn't actually moved from the table were him and his grandmother. Drox was holding his father right where his father had been seated, so he too could be said to be at the table.

At Olenna's question, everyone looked to the guards holding the three children.

"We just followed Lord Tyrell's orders!" The lead guard among the six spoke loud and clear.

"Which, Lord Tyrell?" Willas asked as he got to his feet, looking straight at the guards.

"Lord Mace!" The same guard shouted loud enough for everyone present to hear.

"Someone's going to die today!" Willas heard Drox growl to his father, making his eyes widen in panic.

"Wait! Everyone just calm down! Release them and put away your weapons!" Willas ordered quickly, hoping to save his father from gaining a permanent ear to ear smile.

"Gods damn it, Mace! Do you ever think?! I told you to not do anything against that boy!" Olenna shouted angrily as she too got to her feet, but rather than just stand there she walked over to where Drox was holding Mace, then slapped him right across the face.

Despite letting out a bit of her anger, Olenna was still fuming as she stared at Mace, looking as though she regretted ever giving birth to the man.

"You might feel a bit better if you slap the other cheek." Drox suggested, sounding far calmer than he had only seconds earlier, which Willas took as a good sign.

He turned to walk towards the three children, and when he heard the smack, he didn't need to turn around to know that his grandmother had in fact slapped his father again.

"Please accept my humblest apologies for what happened here today. You have my word that it will not happen again." Willas said to the three children, though he kept most of his attention on Aegon.

"Of course it won't!" Drox's voice echoed around the courtyard.

Turning to look at the man, Willas was surprised to see Drox kick the back of his father's knee before he pushed him face first into the ground, but that seemed to be all the action he took as he put his dagger away and began walking towards Willas, or more accurately the three children behind him.

Drox didn't even look at Willas as he walked past him, treating him as a nobody, and his next words made him understand why.

"Do you really think, William Castian, is just going to do nothing when he learns that you took his brothers and sister against their will? He is currently in Oldtown, at the Citadel in fact. I don't imagine the peace agreement between him and House Tyrell stands anymore!"

Willas' face paled at the words Drox spoke, despite the hopes that this was all just a bluff. There had not been any news about Castian entering the city, at least not that Willas had heard.

Turning to look at his grandmother, Willas saw her sitting in a chair with a scowl plastered on her face, her eyes looking pointedly at his father.

Despite how bad the situation seemed, Willas knew he could fix it if he was just given time to talk with them, but any time he had left sadly disappeared the moment a servant ran into the room with a look of horror on his face.

"MY LORDS! THE MAGICIAN, WILLIAM CASTIAN, IS ATTACKING THE CITADEL!"