Ch27. Old Valyria

The barrier was breached and Oberyn with Thomas watched as it slowly dissolved in the air. It started to look like a translucent layer covering the city when the pulses the ward experts caused started to rip holes into it. The number of holes increased by the second and Thomas nodded.

Irene returned silently, claiming her place next to Thomas as she entwined her fingers with his. Thomas acknowledged her presence by squeezing her hand and noted the minuscule nod of hers. He smiled in return without turning his head to her and pulled at their connection, returning her magic sensing to her as both their heads were riddled with a mild headache.

"Well, shall we, then?" Thomas asked and led her to Bellatrix that was already way past the ward experts, looking around like a child in an excursion, excitedly twirling her wand in her hand. "Looks like someone is already excited." Thomas smiled.

"She is such a kid." Irene rolled her eyes but as they came closer to the warders, she stilled and her eyes went wide.

"Retreat!" She instantly screamed at them.

The warders were at first confused but nevertheless obeyed as they retreated back to the camp.

"What's going on?" Ellaria asked as she approached them, concern clearly visible on her face.

"It's some kind of clear magical invisible mist causing deterioration of the body. Thankfully it was Bellatrix who went in first and it attacked her, making me able to spot it." Looking at the worried expression of Thomas she continued. "No, worries. She has too much magic to really be affected by it. The spell is really, really weak but would still cause quite a mess among the mages of Belserion Institute." Irene nibbled her lower lip. "I am sure one of the plants around will be a cure for it but... nevermind I will just purge it with my own magic."

Irene started releasing a humongous amount of concentrated magic, completely and ruthlessly smothering whatever spell was in the air as the island trembled from the force just pushed through it.

After a moment if finally smiled, Irene's face lit up with a megawatt smile.

"Here we go." She whispered, mostly to herself, and then shouted at the mages. "Follow!"

...

For the next week, the mages of Belserion Institute rummaged through the Old Valyria, finding many destroyed artifacts, half-burned books, ruins, and quite simply it was a disaster. What little spells they could find were so weak and unusable it was almost baffling.

It was at the end of the week when the group of mages unveiled a sealed door to the basement of one of the more affluent-looking towers that Thomas and the company released a relieved sigh. The door clearly had a type of stasis magic on it, therefore, the contents must have been valuable to the residents of the Old Valyria.

Thomas was kinda pissed for wasting a week so he didn't bother with the protections and smashed through them with his gravity magic, making the door into a pile of scrap.

"Well, let's go." He huffed as the squad of ten mages who were busying themselves with the door looked at him in exasperation. Wasn't this a trip for them to get more hands-on experience? Yet, their boss just smashes everything with his magic...

They entered through the door and a long spiral staircase greeted them. Thomas went first as a precaution towards physical traps while Irene checked for any magical ones.

Fortunately, there were none, supporting their assumption that they just entered some kind of an important storage room.

At the end of the staircase, yet another sealed off door was found as Irene was looking at it with an amused but approving gaze. Stasis in stasis. The casters were quite... resourceful to say the least.

Thomas again smashed through the door and found himself in a room with high shelves filled to the brim with books.

Before anyone reacted, Irene quickly rushed deeper into the newfound library.

"Bellatrix's saggy tits!" One of the mages from the squad exclaimed, earning himself a prompt 'gentle' pat on the head that sent his body crashing into the ground, breaking more than a few bones, courtesy of Bellatrix.

"If you want to curse with my name, at least curse to my beauty! What saggy! Mine are too small to sag!" Bellatrix fumed.

Thomas snickered, amused since it was he who taught them the foul language of wizards from Bella's world when he was bored. Looks like instead of Morgana they decided to use their own Goddess though...

His snickers were cut short when Bella promptly glared at him knowingly, making him gulp and whistle as he looked around.

"Guys, come here, fast." Irene out of sudden excitedly called out.

They followed her voice and found another door already opened by being blasted off their hinges as smiling Irene beckoned them inside.

Entering the room, the entire squad gasped in utter astonishment.

The room was filled with rows of shelves containing dragon egg upon dragon egg, all sorted by their special traits.

"Are they...?" Bellatrix asked, knowing Irene, a dragon, no matter she is basically from a different world, would be able to tell.

"Yes." Irene whispered with glee. "They are still alive. All of them. Just under stasis."

"How many are there?" Thomas asked wide-eyed.

"Three hundred twenty-six eggs in total." Irene said, getting yet another gasp from the squad of magicians.

"By courteous Irene, this is crazy like B-" The mage stopped himself when he saw Bellatrix's glare and gulped, evading her gaze by looking back to the dragon eggs, not wanting to end up like his colleague still laying in the library.

"Why the heck are they coursing at your courtesy while when it comes to me it is craziness?" Bellatrix exclaimed in a fed-up tone.

"Well, you know, dear Bella, it's all in attitude." Irene quipped, making Bella pout.

...

The next week was spent carefully handling the eggs onto the ships.

The sailors and mages were quite indeed attentive since Irene threatened them to enchant them into a worm if they damage even one egg. Her dragon nature showed in full blast and while the eggs were not hers, she was still overprotective. It was in her nature.

Oberyn watched in muted horror mixed with an urge to laugh hysterically at the sheer amount of dragon eggs that now belonged to the Iron Islands.

The treaty was indeed the best move, brother. Maybe we will still get our revenge for our sister's brutal death. Over three hundred dragons... as an Iron Islander would say, oh my beautiful Irene, he thought.

The most stunning fact was that Oberyn knew Irene is a dragon. With her around to teach the young ones...

Fiery times are coming for the world. Fiery times, indeed. I can almost feel Bella-levels of this world getting off the charts. Three hundred dragons… What insanity, Oberyn groaned.

At that moment, he couldn't help but be glad for being on the 'right side of the barricade'.