35 Chapter - 35

Now, if I went about it the old-fashioned way, it would probably take me a few years before I found anything interesting. 

So, I went with the most obvious solution: lots of rats. 

It seemed like they were going to be the solution to most of my problems in life.

I also created a few small insects, mostly to keep track of everyone in the castle while the rats dig through every nook and corner.

After unlocking my magic, I had figured out how to warg into my animals. 

I had gotten the template for it years ago from the Stark children, but I hadn't been able to figure it out completely because it had a magical component that was responsible for transmitting and receiving data through the air. 

Now, I could finally use it to send commands and receive data directly.

Initially, I had been using pheromones and gestures to give commands based on the instructions I had programmed into their brains. 

Skitter and Fenrir were the exceptions to that, as they had beyond basic intelligence. They had the ability to learn.

While walking aimlessly in the castle, I gradually created about a hundred rats and let them run loose. 

Once I decided that I had created a sufficient amount, I decided to warg into all of them, and immediately regretted it. 

The visual data of a hundred rats was way too much to handle at once, and I instantly got a headache. 

So, I canceled the connection, took a moment and started to do it slowly, one by one, instead.

I picked a nice spot to sit and continue to look around the castle from a hundred different points of views.

After scouring through various rooms for almost an hour, I finally stumbled upon something intriguing. 

I stood up and traced the rat's location until I reached some sort of store room.

But there was a wall between where my rat was, and I couldn't just go around breaking open some walls or crawl through the tiny hole my rat had used to get in.

So using my resourceful rats, I scoured the area for any clues that could lead me to a mechanism capable of unlocking the wall. After some intense searching, one of my furry companions discovered a tile that triggered the hidden door.

As I entered the dark, foreboding hallway beyond the wall, I realized that my enhanced vision was barely enough to pierce through the gloom. Nonetheless, my curiosity drove me forward, eager to unravel the secrets that lay ahead.

As I cautiously made my way inside, I immediately felt that something was off about the place. There was no breeze, no sound, and no light. 

Suddenly, as I took a step forward, I started to fall. I landed on some spikes meant to skewer me, but they bent on contact with my skin instead.

"That's embarrassing. It's literally the oldest trap in the book," I muttered to myself, realizing how easily I had fallen for such a simple trap.

As I surveyed my surroundings, I realized that I wasn't the only one who had fallen for this trap. There were a few skeletons scattered on the floor, clearly ancient and aged beyond a century.

There was nothing else to see in the pit so I easily leapt out and continued onward. 

Pretty soon It was obvious that I was in some sort of Indiana Jones movie, complete with wire traps, arrow launchers, and boulders. 

I had fun setting off every trap in my path.

However, as I approached what I hoped was the final room, I noticed that the trap was different. 

It had a magical essence to it, and I figured brute forcing my way through this trap was maybe not the smartest idea. 

I couldn't wait to find out what was waiting for me at the end of this obstacle course. It had to be something significant, given the effort someone took to hide it.

I walked closer to the door and studied what appeared to be runes written on the ground surrounding the door. I had no clue what language they were written in, but they looked menacing enough that I didn't really want to stick my hand in and find out what they did.

I looked down at the rat that had found this place, and it looked back at me innocently. I sighed and said, "Well, I don't really need you to walk into it. Just flick your tail past the line, and I'll grow you a new one if something bad happens."

While I could just command the rat to yeet itself into possible death, this way, I wouldn't feel bad about it. 

The rat walked towards the rune line, and flicked its tail above the runes and a blood-red wall flared up and disintegrated the tail. 

The rat squealed and ran straight behind me.

I grabbed the little guy to study what had happened, and I realized that the tail had been completely disintegrated.

Now I found myself in a pickle, as I had no magical knowledge to intellectually poke at the problem, and there was no way I was leaving whatever was behind that door alone. 

So, I started doing what I do best, trying to find dumb solutions to serious problems. 

After a couple of minutes of me throwing random things I got my hands on towards the invisible barrier and getting the same result, I got an idea. 

I looked at the stone floor and thought,

"There's no way they didn't think of that, right?" 

"...I don't really have a better idea so might as well."

I called all the rats I had created and had them start digging. They were progressing very slowly, so I helped them out by punching the rocks and softening up the floor. 

To my delight, and a little disappointment at the simple loophole I had found, it worked. 

The barrier didn't extend underground.

So after celebrating my genius with a little dance, I waited for the rats to finish digging the tunnel and crawled my way to the other side. 

I braced myself for some grand discovery, but instead found myself in an empty room with nothing but a solitary pedestal in the center.

"Huh, that's unexpected. I was honestly expecting mountains of gold, Valyrian steel, or even, dragon eggs" I muttered to myself.

Looking at the only object in the room, I made my way towards the imposing pedestal at the center.

As I drew closer, I could feel an intense energy emanating from the ancient tome that rested upon it. The book seemed to pulse with an eerie, almost hypnotic power that both intrigued and unsettled me.

I approached it slowly. Though the book was clearly ancient, its pages were pristine and unblemished, as if it had only just been bound.

Despite my curiosity, I could not decipher the strange symbols that adorned the cover, save for a few characters that bore resemblance to the archaic High Valyrian script. The rest remained a mystery.

I reached out to touch the Grimoire, and as my fingers brushed against its surface, I felt a sharp prick on my finger, and a drop of blood was drawn into the cover. 

Suddenly, the book violently opens and pages start fluttering by before stopping abruptly and a silky voice echoes through the chamber. 

"Who might you be?" The voice sent a shiver down my spine, and I slowly lifted my gaze to behold a figure floating before me.

<Image >

I was taken aback by the sight before me. Floating there, draped in a flowing robe of deepest black, was a woman of sinful beauty. Her skin was flawless, her curves seemingly crafted by the gods themselves, lending her an almost otherworldly appearance. But it was her striking features that held my gaze captive - those playful eyes, glinting mischievously as if they held the secrets of the universe, seemed to peer directly into my soul.

For a moment, I was transfixed by her presence, unable to speak or even move. I could feel the weight of her gaze upon me, and I knew that I had stumbled upon something far beyond what I was looking for.

But before I could fully process the situation, she cleared her throat, drawing my attention back to her face.

Seeing my stunned expression, she continued, "You are not a Targaryen, but your veins run thick with powerful dragon blood."

"It's polite to introduce oneself before asking for their name," I replied, trying to buy some time. My mind was running a hundred miles an hour trying to figure out what sort of situation I had ended up in.

With a hint of amusement in her eyes as she noticed my still distracted state, she answered, 

"My name is Vaylara".

That didn't really help me figure out who she was at all.

"Greetings, Vaylara," I said. "You can call me El."

"Hello El, You have no idea how long it has been since i spoke to someone"

I really wanted to ask her what the fuck she was because she was clearly not human given how much magic i felt was coming off her, and there was something very odd about the way she spoke so I had to be a bit careful here.

"So what led to… you know, you're living in a book situation?" I ask her hoping to get more information.

"Oh, it's a typical story," she sighed. "One moment, you're pulling a prank on an asshole who doesn't know how to take a joke, and the next, he seals you away and forgets about you." 

"Must've been boring." I say distractedly.

"At times, but eventually some idiots stumbled upon my book and I taught them how to build a civilization until some idiot ended up setting everything on fire." she said in annoyance

That answered some of my questions but gave me a million more "So you're telling me that you taught the Valryians everything they knew?" I asked her with a hint of doubt in my tone.

"Yes, But I didn't really teach them anything important, The idiots' would have destroyed the planet eventually if I did, that would have just left me to drift off into space without any source of entertainment."

That had a lot more implications than what I was ready to deal with for now so I settled on asking simple questions, "So how did you end up sealed in this room on Dragonstone?"

"Even though the Targaryens were not a prominent family in Valriya they did know about my existence so after the doom they came back to dig through whatever they could find and brought me here. Visenya Targaryen was the last person I spoke to," she explained. "Her son wasn't interested in magic and had little capability to use any. And she would have sooner destroyed my book before giving it to anyone else," she added with annoyance.

"So, I take it that you're not a fan of the Targaryens. You'll be thrilled to know they don't rule the Seven Kingdoms anymore," I said.

She looked genuinely surprised, but her expression quickly turned to one of intrigue. "Huh, what happened to them?" she asked.

"In short, they lost their dragons due to a succession crisis, then went batshit insane," I replied.

She took a moment to process what I said before bursting into maniacal laughter. 

It took her a few moments to eventually stop laughing.

"Please tell me everything!" she begged.

I was happy to oblige "The Targaryens ruled for around three centuries, thanks to their dragons. But when the dragons died out due to infighting between half siblings? Cousins? whatever I don't really remember, over who could sit on the pointy chair. It eventually led to all out war when Aerys Targaryen also known as the Mad King went insane and burnt a Lord Paramount alive" I sat down on the floor as I narrated the story till the present status of Targaryens.

"So you're telling me the only Targaryens alive are three kids one of who is insane, one is eventually going to go insane and the other one doesn't even know who he is and thinks he is a Stark bastard" She asked in disbelief.

"Yup."

She continued laughing.