Chapter 20: The Year of the False Spring

[Maester Caleotte’s Journal]

 

Before spring began, disaster struck, to me at least, to the family I was serving, it was a trivial matter. Prince Oberyn and Prince Morian came from Oldtown after Prince Oberyn claimed his bastard daughter, Obara Sand. but they didn’t only come home with her, prince Morian brought an exiled maester to Sunspear, Qyburn, known for desecrating human bodies and rumoured to be delving into necromancy, he had no chains, and yet Prince Morian trusts him more than me with his projects, I truly don’t know how long will I live again in this viper’s nest.

 

But a couple of weeks after the princes had come home, two letters came from the Citadel and King’s Landing, three of the twenty one archmaesters had been killed in their sleep, their throats were cut open, their fingers and penises were missing, and there were no signs of break in. The citadel’s letter was just informing me of their deaths, but the one from king’s landing was a notice to me. It was from the master of Whisperers, with the agreement of the grandmaester and the command of the king, I was to help the investigation towards prince Morian and Prince Oberyn, as they were suspiciously there when the murders happened. I didn’t know what to do, on one side, it was the king’s command, on the other side, I doubt any letters would arrive there because of Prince Morian’s tight grasp on letters, If I wanted to report, I had to go to King’s Landing myself, but Dorne was the Martell’s territory, and they see everything in Dorne, I would die a horrible death if they knew that I was betraying the house.

 

But I had to risk it. I will hire men to send those letters to King’s Landing, and just hope that it will not be discovered by the Cloaked Men.

 

—

 

[Obara’s Journal]

 

It was a strange year for me, from getting beaten up by boys in the streets of Oldtown, to being a bastard daughter of a Prince of Dorne. Back then, I hated my skin, people mocked me because of my father whom I never met, because of my mother’s profession, because I came from a place that I never once saw. Old me didn’t know the beauty of Dorne, so it was normal, but once my father brought me to Sunspear, I changed my mind entirely.

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In here, I was treated all the same, bastard or not, the teacher would beat us up all the same if we made the wrong stance. My father gave me a choice, what weapon would I use and to train with, so I chose my father’s weapon, a spear. Father told me to train under the military instructor first, then, if he felt that I was adequate enough, he would train me personally, and so my life in the Water Gardens began.

 

When I had just arrived, my father and his brothers were already fighting for some reason. I had overheard that Uncle Morian had killed three archmaesters, and it made uncle Doran mad. I didn’t know why he had killed the archmaesters then, but now I know. The archmaesters were kidnapping sailors and engineers from Sunspear, and they ‘interrogated’ them about uncle Morian’s inventions, uncle Morian said that nobody spoke, but they had lost their fingers and their cocks for that. One of the lessons that Uncle Morian taught me during my youth is that we Dornish protect our own, and if we can’t protect them, we avenge them, and so Uncle Morian did, he and his men did the same thing to them. 

 

I often questioned why those archmaesters went their way to kidnap poor sailors and state-hired engineers to get a speck of knowledge, but Uncle Morian said that the thirst of knowledge and power often brought the worst out of people, he told me the maesters plan, to bring a world where no gods were worshipped, and magic was forgotten. I understood their thinking, they saw what magic and gods could do to people, wars, madness, power… but a council of old men isn't enough to make that a reality.

 

And so the rest of the year was uneventful, my father oversaw my training, Uncle Doran continued to do his princely duties in the Water Gardens, away from the curious eyes, and Uncle Morian locked himself in his workshop, with his new assistant Qyburn.

 

That was until spring had come, and the Martells was invited to a tourney at Harrenhal, my father was excited to see his sister Aunt Elia, he had heard that she had a daughter last month, but he had also heard that she was bedridden for months after the birth, which worries him a little. Uncle Morian and father prepared to go to Harrenhal, Uncle Doran can’t come for obvious reasons, and I wasn’t allowed to come.

 

And at the start of 281 AC, my father and Uncle Morian departed for Harrenhal, travelling there using their horses, and with them, a couple of retinues.

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