Last night, many were summoned by Aerys to witness the burning of the Grand Maester.
As a result, a good number of people were listless the next morning. But Aerys was never the kind of king who cared about the exhaustion of his subjects.
Pycelle's act of treason only heightened the sense of urgency gnawing at Aerys.
The night before, he had already given orders: arrange for Rhaella and Viserys to flee the city. Ships, carriages, guards, and supplies were all being hurriedly prepared.
Yet a royal escape was never a simple affair.
It was estimated that they could only depart by tomorrow.
Viserys made his way to Pycelle's quarters.
The place should have been sealed off.
But now, not only the Red Keep, but all of King's Landing was gripped by fear and confusion. No one paid much attention anymore.
Given Aerys' current state of mind, meticulous arrangements were beyond him.
All he could think about was keeping Elia and her children as hostages to force Dorne to send their armies to his rescue.
This chaos gave Viserys the perfect opportunity.
He entered Pycelle's rooms, which had been thoroughly ransacked. Chairs and tables were overturned, papers and books scattered everywhere. It looked like a storm had torn through.
Broken vials lay shattered on the floor.
Viserys gave the mess a cursory glance, ready to move on—until something caught his eye: one vial that had not broken completely, still holding some liquid.
He picked it up and realized it was a vial of pre-prepared poison—[The Heartbreaker].
Just one drop could kill a man.
He wasn't sure how useful it would be, but he carefully collected the remaining poison into a better bottle.
The rookery was upstairs.
As he climbed the spiraling staircase, the strong stench of bird droppings assaulted his nose.
Entering the rookery, Viserys saw rows upon rows of wooden cubbies. The walls were packed tight with them, like a massive honeycomb. It reminded him of the package lockers he had seen in his past life.
King's Landing was, after all, the capital, needing to maintain communication with almost every castle across the realm.
There were easily over a hundred ravens housed here.
The cubbies were divided into eight regions: The Crownlands, the Stormlands, the Reach, Dorne, the Westerlands, the North, the Riverlands, and the Vale.
Each cubby had a small label with the name of the corresponding castle.
Important castles, serving as regional capitals, were assigned several ravens. For example, Sunspear in Dorne had an entire nest of its own.
Each raven wore a copper ring on its leg, used both to carry messages and to identify its origin.
Viserys didn't waste time looking closely. Right now, the urgent task was relocating Arthur Dayne. He remembered Rhaegar had hidden Lyanna at the Tower of Joy.
Viserys quickly went to the Dorne section—but after searching for a long while, he couldn't find any "Tower of Joy."
He slapped his forehead.
'How could there be a maester stationed at the Tower of Joy? Without a maester, there would be no raven!'
Realizing this, he instead targeted nearby castles, like Starfall, Skyreach, and Yronwood. These castles were all under Dorne's loyalist control and had not yet defected.
He wrote urgent messages asking them to search for the Tower of Joy and, if found, to escort its occupants to Dragonstone.
He also sent a message to Starfall, Arthur Dayne's family seat.
Though it was far, family loyalty made betrayal less likely. After writing the letters, Viserys carefully followed the procedure he had learned from Pycelle to release the ravens.
The birds leapt from the windows, shooting into the sky like arrows. Watching them disappear into the distance, Viserys felt he had done all he could.
If they survived, good.
As for whether Lyanna surviving would cause future trouble… that was a problem for another day.
If he wanted Arthur's loyalty, this was unavoidable.
After a long night's thinking, Viserys had concluded that Dragonstone would eventually fall. They would have no choice but to flee to Essos, taking family and loyalists with them.
If Lyanna came along, so be it. It wouldn't make much difference.
Just as he was about to leave, a raven suddenly returned. He caught it and checked the copper ring: Casterly Rock.
'A message from Tywin?'
Viserys was surprised. He hadn't expected an unexpected harvest.
Opening the letter, he found it instructed Pycelle to secretly inform Tywin once Rhaella and Viserys set out.
Tywin would dispatch men to ambush them en route. The assassins were already hiding inside King's Landing!
[Objective: Eliminate the Ambushers]
[Participation: 0%]
Noticing the prompt from his golden finger, Viserys sneered internally, 'Why not make it "Kill Tywin"? Does it think I can't manage it?'
Well, he couldn't—at least, not yet.
Another problem was figuring out who he could trust with this information. The Red Keep had been infiltrated like a sieve.
Leaving the rookery, Viserys ran into Ser Willem Darry, the captain of the Red Keep's guards.
Willem had selected about five hundred elite men to escort Viserys and Rhaella. These were full-armored soldiers—night and day compared to common footmen.
A single armored knight could defeat twenty unarmored soldiers. With these men escorting them, the road should be safe.
Perhaps sensing Viserys' gaze, Willem approached and bowed.
"Your Highness," he said respectfully.
He had already heard that it was Viserys who exposed Pycelle's treachery the previous night.
"Ser Willem, I would like to show you something," Viserys said.
"What is it?"
Viserys knew that Willem was one of the very few people he could truly trust. His brother, Jon Darry, had just died fighting alongside Rhaegar at the Trident.
In the original timeline, after Dragonstone fell, it was Willem who spirited Viserys and Daenerys away to Braavos and cared for them for five long years.
In the end, disease took him.
And he had lost an eye before dying—could it have been because of this very ambush?
Viserys handed him the letter.
Willem's brows knitted tightly as he read.
"Your Highness, I must report this to His Majesty at once!" he said in a low voice, preparing to leave.
"Wait!" Viserys stopped him.
"My father must focus on defending the city. He's surrounded by too many spies. Instead, let's bring this to my mother. You can act under her orders to arrest the traitors."
Willem was visibly stunned.
He hadn't expected the young prince to be so sharp and decisive.
And his luck—this was the second time Viserys had managed to avert disaster before it struck. Could it be that he would lead House Targaryen back from the brink?
Pushing aside such thoughts, Willem followed Viserys toward Queen Rhaella's chambers.
Viserys nearly broke into a run to get there faster. As he hurried forward, another update flashed across his mind:
[Objective: Kill the Ambushers]
[Participation: 40%]
Viserys was starting to understand how his golden finger worked. The participation bar indicated how much of the final reward he would earn.
Though it was only at 40% now, there were surely multiple ambushers hiding.
Hopefully, among them, there would be some truly skilled fighters. What he needed most right now wasn't scholars or advisors—it was warriors!
Before long, the two reached Maegor's Holdfast.
"Uncle," a timid voice called out.
Viserys turned around.
It was a little girl with brown hair hugging a black kitten to her chest—Rhaenys, his brother Rhaegar's daughter.
In the original timeline, when King's Landing fell, this small, delicate child was stabbed over thirty times before dying.
Now, she was looking up at him with wide, tearful eyes.