Beginning

Jaime stood up and stared at his captors with a look full of hatred and boundless malice, but no one cared about the emotions hidden behind them, the entire Vargo Howth squad saw only red, glowing eyes.

Then a wave of his whole arm and all the weapons that the jailers had, whether visible or hidden, escaped and flew to the ground at his feet.

A slight movement of the fingers, as if inviting everyone to come to him and the thugs fell forward right on their knees in a semicircle in front of Lannister.

- Thank you for the chance, the former prisoner croaked softly and with the last movement of his hand - with a clenched fist, which slightly tilted sideways, everyone's necks broke.

The gaze of these so unusual eyes moved from the victims to the cult of this body.

The body relaxed, it seemed to become calmer, more serene, even the eyelids slightly lowered and looked at the weapon at his feet, a second, two, three and it lifted. All metal parts were smoothly and carefully detached from handles, scabbards and everything that was not metal.

And then... All this metal seemed to come to life, and became liquid, neither glowing nor heating up even a little, but simply became a liquid that merged into one perfect ball.

The first heartbeat, the second, the third, and a tremor went through the bubble, different shades and inclusions that stand out against the general background merged with the surrounding amorphous mass, and after that everything else began to turn silvery, and then it became indistinguishable from mercury altogether.

Inhale, exhale, inhale, and this liquid from the ball flowed onto the stump, from which all the rags and dirt from the stump began to fall at the same time. This metal gradually began to take the form of a missing hand. Details appeared: first the nails began to appear, then the veins, and then very small folds and a pattern partially resembling the skin, while remaining the same brilliant silver.At this, Lannister seemed to have taken off his meditative trance, and his gaze purposefully turned to a man in a black robe who was beginning to turn gray, the only survivor of the mercenary squad.

- You will come with me, - Jaime said in a tone that does not accept any disobedience, a bag with food and other things necessary for the journey jumped into his hand and walked out of the courtyard of Harrenhal.

Towering melted towers and walls, which have seen a huge number of murders of cruelty and even magic, Aegon the Conqueror himself, his sisters and the most powerful dragons, looked at the next fall of man or his rebirth?

***

Qyburn

The last week of the trip to King's Landing was hard for me, although I can hardly complain, my dream has come true. I witnessed real magic, which I have been dreaming about since the days of The Citadel with the wizard Marvin. The miracles that Jamie Lannister did, or rather, the one who settled in him, terrified and admired at the same time, one could not be without the other. The simplicity with which each group of robbers or patrols of various warring lords were destroyed was an example of just such a miracle, like everything else... Replacing his hand, which was perfect, although I still didn't understand if he could feel anything with this hand as real or not.

However, when we met a detachment of Lannisters who did not recognize my lord, he killed them in a particularly sophisticated way, they swelled and burst like overripe fruit, only the pieces flew much further, splattering everything in the nearest radius, only the area in which we were standing remained untouched. So far, this demonstration has been the most delightful, in my opinion, on a par with the creation of his hand.

All this time, we gradually acquired possessions: there were horses for traveling and food supplies. All the valuables that the bandits we met had also been taken away. At first I thought we weren't searching them, but Lannister's bag kept filling up and filling up, and when inns and taverns began to come across, he had coins to rent a room for each of us and buy fine food, by wartime standards, of course, but even that could be considered a luxury.

After each stop, he also transformed, thinness and the experience of imprisonment began to pass, the color gradually returned to the face, the clothes hung less freely on the body, wrinkles were smoothed out, and single silvery hairs disappeared, it is worth noting that the clothes also underwent changes, not like a living metal hand, but also impressive.

I need to do everything to stay in the service of the master, to demonstrate my importance, and then, I hope, he will share with me his knowledge and my experience in necromancy in order to advance further than anyone before me.

King's Landing was not impressive: stench, filth and obscenity, a few poor golden cloaks walking aimlessly back and forth. Only the Red Castle was worthy of mention. Towering above all other squalor, one of the few islands of prosperity in the largest city of the Seven Kingdoms.

The fortress walls, gates, dry moat and the fortress itself were admired: elegant high turrets stretching to the sky, like the shoots of some pale red plant, striving to be as far away from the stench of the capital as possible, like an escape that survived, despite all the difficulties, in the middle of masonry, gradually winning its place under the sun. Each building was in perfect condition and was part of the overall composition, occupying its rightful place, but inside everything sought to demonstrate luxury. All kinds of patterns on the walls, the decoration of the corridors with expensive tree species, artful tapestries and ubiquitous symbolism were just part of it.

The couple had already penetrated into the fortress itself, the surrounding people did not seem to notice them and continued to run about their business, without even stopping and greeting the former royal guardsman. So they walked until they came to the small council hall.

The guards guarding the door tensed when a couple of people came out of the corridor, a tall blond man with sparkling red eyes, dressed in the best clothes they had ever seen: a black vest with the smallest scarlet and gold elements forming the neatest and most bizarre pattern, as if moving with every movement. One of the man's hands was wearing a glove made of the finest leather, perfectly fitting the hand like a second skin, completely without any seams, trousers of an absolutely black shade of a bizarre but beautiful shape, they clung to her legs, smoothly tapering to the bottom, and on her feet she had thin leather shoes up to her ankles with a muted pattern, but there was a floral motif in this pattern. None of the guards had ever seen anything like this before, even among the richest aristocrats.

As the figure filled with power and dominance gradually approached, the details became more and more distinct, so that their gaze noticed an inconspicuous man walking some distance behind the left shoulder...Sira Jaime?

Frozen with shock, one of them entered the room laughing to warn the Small Council, while the other froze, preparing to greet the new arrivals.

- Sir Jay... Even before he could finish the greeting, an invisible force threw the guard back, hitting the back of his helmeted head against the stone wall.

Qyburn remained standing at the entrance while Lannister entered the door, which was opened by a second guard in standard Lannister armor, who hurried out of the room as quickly as possible.

Instantly there was a silence that could be cut with a knife. Cersei and Tywin Lannister.

They turned to Jaime, who was standing in the doorway, and began to carefully examine every detail, instead of the expected haggard dirty look of a recently captured survivor, they saw a completely different picture and were completely knocked out of the rut.

- Sis, are you at least not fucking with him?- looking from one to the other, our mysterious hero asked.