AN :
Next goal for another extra chapter is 100 power stones.
In the Game of Stones, you either win or you wait. The more Power Stones you offer, the faster the chapters come.
...
( Qyburn POV )
"So." Callum Lannister stood across from him in the boy's study. The windows were open on the upper level of the green wooden room as the Arc Lamp crackled above, hidden away by a mirror hung below it to spread its light about the study, and then cloaked from the outside world by thick curtains that the boy had raised around his lonely tower. "What progress have you made?"
Qyburn frowned slightly, the boy had proven to be a good master, but that did not mean he let Qyburn act without scrutiny. No, while Callum Lannister gave him money, resources, access, and protection to far more than he ever had with the Brave Companions, the waifish child also kept a tight leash about his neck. He had made it clear early in their relationship that he knew Precisely why Qyburn had been thrown out of the Citadel, and he kept a keen eye on Qyburn's work in turn.
"I am-That is, the first volume is nearly done." that was not to say Callum did not wish to make use of his talents, or that he didn't appreciate him. No, frighteningly, the child had a purpose even for Qyburn's more disreputable interests. "I am just finishing the preface, I expect it to take but one or two more days."
"Excellent." Callum smiled, though his eyes were still sharp, his tongue did still manage those compliments Qyburn so desperately longed to hear. "I've said it before, but you're one of the greatest living healers in the world. I'm excited to read the project myself if I can find time…" the boy grumbled the last part, shaking his head.
Qyburn couldn't help but preen at the acknowledgment. For so long in Essos he had gone without it. He'd spent a thousand lonely nights studying the secrets of life and death, wondering if anyone would ever recognize just how far he had come. "It was not of incredible difficulty, in truth, most of it a Maester learns in his first few years as an acolyte."
"Regardless of the difficulty, it's good you've been able to finish it so quickly." The boy glanced over at Ser Ilyn, his silent henchman across the room. The knight was silent of course, his tongue severed long ago now by the blade of King Aerys, another man as wronged as Qyburn was, though by a different master. Still, Qyburn knew the knight was sharper than most men for his silence. Of all the Smith-childs minions, Qyburn thought that only Ser Ilyn knew Callum Lannister's mind better than Qyburn himself. "With this, I'll have something to turn the presses to when we finish printing next month."
Qyburn felt his eyebrows crawl up his forehead. "So… soon?" He had heard that the printing was to take three years in total, to make a million copies of the Seven-Pointed Star. By his math, the boy had started only two years ago. "I had thought it would take six more months at least."
"Our concept of time was off. We didn't plan that the men actually doing the printing would grow better and better at their tasks." Callum said, smiling. "There's always potential for issues, we've been burning through the ink too fast, Ilyn tells me, but if the next order of Ink gets done on time then the millionth book will be finished in 26 days." Callum smiled. "I've not been tracking it as closely since the statue business started, but Ilyn, mercifully, has had his merchant's sons doing the maths." Ser Ilyn let out a rasping, wheezing chuckle at that. "For the second year, I believe that one thousand and eight hundred copies of the Seven-Pointed-Star has been the product of an average day."
"I see" Qyburn replied, swallowing "I suppose you'll want to move to producing "The Standards of Healing" soon then?"
Callum grinned and nodded "Thirty presses will go to the church, but the rest I'm keeping for House Lannister, I think we'll make… probably twenty-thousand copies of your book in the first run. Right now, I can choose how to set demand because I have the only supply."
Ser Ilyn wiggled his hand back and forth noncommittally but Qyburn could only really boggle at that number. He still hadn't grown used to the idea of the press. Books were something that took months to make at the fastest, a creation of artisanal precision and long hours spent writing beside a candle. The idea that they could speak of making them in their thousands by the day…
The thing still hadn't quite settled in his head. It was preposterous on the face of it, world-changing But that was everything with Callum Lannister, wasn't it? There was an arrogance to the boy, an arrogance and a madness. Qyburn knew what to look for, nearly all Maesters went mad eventually, and as a student of necromancy, the man could hardly claim full sanity. Callum Lannister though had a madness of a different sort, one that through all good sense and reason to the side on a whim. Like a legend from the Age of Heroes, Callum bottled lightning to make a candle- apparently entirely without sorcery and built a machine that could do the work of ten thousand Septons every day without fail. Qyburn had his private doubts about the Seven-Faced God. He had peered past the doors to death many times and never found the Stranger. But whatever his feelings on the faith, he knew for certain that there was something supernatural about this boy, something more than human guiding him. It was inconceivable that there was not.
"If I may ask" Qyburn paused, "What will you do with the rest of the presses? Surely you won't need all of them to-"
"CAAAALLUM!" Qyburn blinked as a young woman's voice echoed up through the tower. "I KNOW YOU'RE UP THERE, THE SERVANTS TOLD ME."
The former Maester watched as that domineering, arrogant child seemed to physically recoil, his hackles raising and his slender shoulders curling inward. "Cersei…" he whispered, the boy's face suddenly growing a little pale. "Back so soon- no I suppose it's been long enough-" he looked around, a bit panicked.
"IF YOU WON'T COME DOWN I'LL COME UP!"
Callum blanched but quickly turned to Ser Ilyn "Ser Ilyn please bar the hatc-"
He hadn't even finished giving the order when the hatch flipped open and a grinning blond head popped out, smiling brilliantly. "Hello!"
Qyburn glanced at her, then back to Callum. The girl must have been between ten and fourteen years old, with brilliant blond hair and a figure that was clearly already starting to fill in, though she was somewhat gangly. She wore a red velvet dress that bore some obvious smudges from her hasty climb up, but, contrary to most noble girls Qyburn had encountered, she seemed to barely care at all as she bounded over and dragged her younger brother, Qyburn's eccentric master, into a hug.
"Callum it's been so long! I think you've gotten shorter!" Cersei Lannister said cheerfully as she squeezed her younger brother in her arms. For his part, Callum looked to be distinctly uncomfortable. Actually, he was getting pale enough that Qyburn thought he might be at risk of fainting. She moved to hold him a bit away from her and looked the boy up and down. "Well, you've gotten prettier too, so that's alright." she giggled.
"G-good to see you too Cersei… Can you uh, can you let me go now?" Callum asked, clearly tugging away from her, which unfortunately prompted her to pull him into a hug.
Now, typically, seeing the dismay this action caused Callum, Qyburn would think that the older girl was intentionally putting her brother into an uncomfortable situation to get a rise out of him. However, Cersei Lannister's body language actually screamed of sincerity. She was clearly just an affectionate sibling who missed her brother, which made Qyburn wonder why Callum was reacting so badly to it. He glanced over at Ser Ilyn, who shrugged and began to scribble on his notepad.
"What do you mean? Why aren't you hugging back? Have you come to hate me while I've been gone, Callum? Your poor sister?" Cersei asked, now adding a bit of actual sarcasm to her tone, which Qyburn could hear quite evidently. "Or were you not expecting me? Did my letter not arrive?"
"No, I got your letter Cersei. I'm just, uh, shocked to see you home so soon…" Callum's words sounded forced, just like the motion as he wrapped his arms around his sister. While the Mummer's show was going on, Qyburn just read the note Ser Ilyn had passed him. 'Callum's afraid of his sister doesn't know what to do with her, doesn't like being around her.' Qyburn snorted glancing over at the girl who had only now finally released her younger brother, talking to him excitedly about what she'd seen in Oldtown and the adventures she'd been on in King's Landing.
All dreadfully boring by Qyburn's standards, and quite typical for a girl her age. He glanced back over at Ser Ilyn, asking with his eyes if the man was serious. Callum Lannister was afraid of her? The boy who seemed to want to single-handedly reshape the world was afraid of a typical twelve-year-old noble girl.
Ser Ilyn just shrugged at the implicit accusation.
Qyburn snorted and turned back to the ongoing explanation of… some tunnels in the Red Keep. Fascinating he was sure, for a child, but not particularly important to Qyburn. He hoped that this girl and the strange effect she seemed to have on her brother wouldn't seriously impair Callum's ability to direct the goings on of his various projects. Qyburn was actually quite interested to see the statue business completed after all.
"Apologies Lady Cersei, Master Callum, but I think I will take my leave for tonight." Qyburn cut in when the girl finally stopped to breathe. "I will let you know of course when the book you requested is complete." he nodded to Callum and headed for the stairs, uncaring of the squeal of excitement that followed his departure, accompanied by fervent questions of what exact sort of book the boy had commissioned.
Qyburn could still hear her from the bottom of the rookery in the tower, idly feeding a bit of bread from his robe to one of the Ravens as he headed out into the cool night air.
Perhaps what Callum was afraid of was the damage to his ears.
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