"So, you're a traitor, right? You have a fierce appearance, right? You practice evil blood magic, right?" Before setting sail, Wright made an announcement. He wanted to show the vampires that humans could be far more terrifying when they embraced evil—evil against evil.
"Listen up, everyone! As Lord of Tyrosh and the Archmage of the Seven Kingdoms, I declare that as long as a creature is confirmed to be a vampire, any acts of fraud, lies, violence, slavery, or trafficking against them will be considered lawful! This law will be officially announced by the king soon, and once it is, anyone who captures a vampire will never have to worry about food and shelter for the rest of their lives."
The Wave-Rider Knight, a ship with three main masts, was currently the fastest sailboat, capable of making the journey from Tyrosh to King's Landing in just twenty days, even factoring in the three days it stayed at Storm's End for resupply.
During the voyage, Wright wasn't idle; he kept researching ways to detect vampires.
Just converting the necromancy expert-level spell Detect Undead into a magical array took Wright half a month. Undead creatures are not simply corpses, but magical beings. The magic required to detect them needed almost the highest talent to learn.
Wright combined the craftsmanship he used when creating Robb's wolf-head necklace and designed the array so that when it detected undead, it would cause the irregular rotor in the center to spin, creating a vibration to alert the wearer. In the end, he created three different items to serve this purpose.
The first was a Valyrian steel bracelet, which Wright himself wore. Since he already had a necklace around his neck and ten rings on his fingers for full combat, there was simply no more room for anything else, so he made the bracelet.
The second was a golden ring. This didn't store magic but allowed the wearer to inject their own magic. The detection radius of this ring was about 200 meters. Since high-level magic consumed a great deal of energy, only the most talented mages in King's Landing could afford to use it regularly.
The third item was a silver ring. To make it usable by ordinary mages, Wright sacrificed some detection range to reduce the magic consumption. This allowed average mages, like those graduating from the mage academy, to use it. The detection radius was about 50 meters, which sounded sufficient, but once you considered the vastness of Westeros and the number of mages, it was like throwing a few sesame seeds into a sandbox.
This item could detect both wights and vampires, and to ensure their defeat, Wright generously offered the designs to the Magic Management Committee. Every mage could copy the design and make their own version based on their power and preferences.
As the ship neared Storm's End, Wright stepped onto the deck for some fresh air.
"Lord Wright! That monster seems to be dead!" A guard assigned to watch the vampire came running over.
The guard led Wright to the center of the deck, where the vampire had been bound with silver-threaded ropes since the ship left port. Exposed to the sun and rain for five days without food or water, the vampire now had its head lowered, and no matter how the guards poked it with their weapons, it appeared completely lifeless.
"A vampire can die this easily?" Wright was skeptical. Coldharbour vampires are known for their resistance to sunlight, which typically only prevents them from regenerating their magic and life force.
"Balon!" Wright opened his right hand.
Seeing Wright's gesture, Balon unsheathed his sword and handed it to Wright.
"When vampires die, they turn to ash. This one is feigning death to lure you closer so it can bite your neck!" Wright placed the tip of the massive sword against the vampire's chest and continued, "Since you want to die, I won't waste any more time. Your only use now is to turn to ash and be used in alchemical potions!"
"Lord Wright! You promised me that if I confessed truthfully, you would spare me!" The vampire suddenly raised its head, looking at Wright with pleading eyes and forcing a smile.
Bang!
Wright knocked out the vampire's left fang with the hilt of his sword. The fang flew out, and Wright used Mage Hand to catch it before tossing it to the guard who had called him, instructing her to keep it as a memento.
The guard, a woman from Dorne, took the sharp fang and smiled at Wright, saying, "If you drill a hole in the bottom of a tooth like this, it would make a great necklace. Too bad we only have one. It would be perfect if we had a pair."
"Do it yourself with pliers!"
Wright was also curious to see if the vampire could regrow the teeth. If so, how long would it take?
A golden light from Storm's End's peak shone onto the sailboat, reflecting off the white sails and ship's hull, turning the nearby sea golden.
The people on the ship looked toward it, and there, at the top of Storm's End, was a massive stag's head, its eyes glowing yellow, staring directly at them.
Wright muttered, "What a show-off!"
The core of the magical eyeball was tiny and more of an illusion designed to create a spectacle. Unlike Tyrosh' enormous magical eye, Renly, after receiving the blueprints, had created his family crest—a stag's head. Since the family colors were gold, the magical array on Storm's End showed the golden stag for everyday use. During alerts, the stag's eyes would turn yellow, and in the event of enemy presence, they would glow red.
Once Wright disembarked and found Renly, he learned that Renly had been working on this project for a long time. The top of Storm's End was a massive lighthouse, and with a little modification—drilling holes and digging grooves in the wall to lay down magical lines—he could set up the magical array using Valyrian steel. The orb Wright made was a sphere glowing with magical energy, but Renly had struggled a lot to shape his into a stag.
"So, how's it? More complex and high-end than your old Tyrosh version, right?"
Renly, holding his son Lyonel, smiled non-stop while checking the magic eye with Wright at the top of the lighthouse.
"My design came first, and yours came after, so of course, yours is better," Wright teased, not wanting to lose the verbal sparring.
"I've got something even better. Come to my room and see!" Renly grinned as he lifted Lyonel onto his shoulders and skipped down the stairs.
The three of them entered a spacious reception hall where Margaery and Loras were directing servants to pack Renly's belongings. After a half-year's break, Renly had to return to King's Landing to oversee the selection of the new commander for the royal army—his idle post as the Minister of Law requiring him to make his presence known.
Renly handed Lyonel to Margaery and took Wright to a wall where a rectangular golden box was set into it, studded with several gems. Four golden buttons adorned its front.
"Press this to activate it!" Renly said.
Wright followed his instructions and pressed one of the buttons, immediately lighting up the room. He looked up and saw a rose-shaped magic array the size of a table glowing with white light on the ceiling.
Renly grinned. "This is a light magic array I set up using metal threads for the core."
Wright smiled and pressed the second button. The air, which had been still in the normally windless room, began to stir with a soft breeze.
"Here! Here! You've just activated the wind magic array. Now press this to turn on the fire magic array, for warm air! The one next to it activates the ice array for cool air! You've never experienced anything like this, right?" Renly proudly displayed his high-tech creations.
Wright chuckled again, closing his eyes and focusing his magic on probing the array buried within the walls.
This kind of magic couldn't be widely adopted. Only wizards could enjoy it, and noble lords who employed wizards could too. But not all wizards were like Wright and Renly, with endless magic reserves. The nobles would have to hire several more wizards for these systems to function properly.
"Let's go check the vampire!" Margaery, holding her son's hand, called for Loras to join them as she left the hall. She felt Wright had something important to discuss privately with Renly.
"Goodbye, Father. Goodbye, Uncle." The little boy was now able to express himself clearly.
Wright intended to brief Renly on the Stannis situation. Though it was still just a guess, he felt it was best to keep the Tyrells in the dark.
"Are you sure? Where do you think we should start investigating?" Renly's usually cheerful expression dropped, turning serious after hearing Wright's explanation.
Wright settled into the soft couch. "How do we investigate? Everyone who saw the assassin who killed Trystane is dead. The servants who were with him are also mysteriously gone. Everything I said is based on who benefits. If we don't want Stannis to become king, then the Tyrells benefit the most from you becoming king."
Renly looked frustrated. Handling a situation like this poorly could put the Baratheons and Tyrells at odds, but it had to be investigated. After all, it involved the succession to the throne. "Have these masterminds forgotten one thing? King Robert is still alive!"
"How much longer can Robert live? Neither the maesters nor the mages can say for sure. But it's better to be prepared than not," Wright replied, walking over to the wine cabinet and pouring two glasses of sweet wine. As he handed Renly his cup, he continued, "I'm always in Tyrosh, and you know the nobles of Westeros better than I do. Help me think—who else might stand to gain from this?"
"Who else?" Renly mused.
"Sometimes, the ones who stand to gain the most are in the open. Everyone knows they benefit, so they don't dare act. But the ones who stand to gain second or third place can act without hesitation, and if they're lucky, they might even take down the top dog!" Wright reminded him.
Since Wright became an adult at sixteen, he had either been active in the nine free cities or in his own territory, the Stepstones, with his trips to Westeros always being quick visits. He had encountered many nobles whose names he could easily recall, but he only learned about their daily interactions through limited information.
"How could anyone have thought of this?" Renly said. "Besides, if we just accuse someone without evidence, we'll never be able to trust them again. Anything they do will seem like part of a conspiracy!"
Wright immediately understood the flaw in his own reasoning, a cold sweat forming on his back.
At the moment, all of this stemmed from events in Dorne. Based on his own intel and the statements from Doran and Oberyn, he had settled on the Tyrells as the main suspects—or at least someone with a similar agenda. However, Wright hadn't considered another possibility. What if Doran himself had staged the assassination attempt on Trystane? The assassin might have accidentally killed him, and Doran could use that as an opportunity to blame Stannis or the Tyrells. The Tyrells, as the Baratheons' most powerful allies, stood to gain immensely from such a scheme.
Renly noticed Wright's sudden shift in expression. "What's wrong with you, Wright?" he asked, his voice sharp.
Wright snapped back to reality. "I just realized something! Damn it! Everyone's a suspect, and yet no one is a suspect!" He stood up, anger written all over his face. "If we confront them directly, no one's going to admit to anything. There's nothing to investigate! All they want is to prevent Stannis from becoming king, and I'm going to help them with that!"
Renly's eyes widened. "What are you saying? You're going to kill Stannis?" He had never seen Wright this furious and was genuinely concerned that he might act on his words.
Both Stannis and Renly, being typical Westerosi nobles, still held onto traditional values such as family honor, knighthood, and lordly duties. Despite Wright's influence on their daily lives, they wouldn't resort to fratricide while Robert was still alive. Renly had no intention of claiming the throne either, and if Stannis were to ascend, no one would oppose him.
Wright chuckled, amused by Renly's worry. "Where are you thinking I'm going with this? The only way Stannis becomes king is if Robert dies, and I won't let that happen. I'll make sure Robert stays alive!"
Renly stared at him, stunned. "You have a way to heal Robert?"
Wright shook his head. "No," he said, then performed a summoning spell, causing a purple skeleton to materialize from the ground.
"I can't extend Robert's life, but after he dies, I can use his body for something else!"
Renly looked horrified. "What? You're going to use Robert's corpse to lure out those behind the scenes?"
Wright nodded. "You know I always explain things to Robert ahead of time when I need to use him for something. I'll have to get his consent for using his body after his death."
Renly seemed reassured. "But Robert is a devout follower of the Seven. How could he ever agree to that?"
Wright replied confidently, "He'll agree, Renly. This concerns all Baratheon branchs! But if the masterminds reveal themselves before that point, I won't need to use Robert's body. I'd rather not go that route."
Renly thought for a moment and then spoke seriously. "Alright. Robert's caravan left Oldtown and is heading north along the western coast. He's now entered the Westerlands, Tywin's territory. Once the situation in King's Landing is handled, we'll go to the Westerlands and find Robert."
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