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Lannister : Chapter 28: In the Pyromancer's Den I
🕑 Added 2025-04-28 21:06:01 +0000 UTC
( Acolyte Hallyne POV )
Long pallid fingers scraped the powdery crystals into the granite bowl, silver shavings and dust of blue cobalt had to be ground together ever so carefully.
The chamber was cool and dank with the sweat of the stonework beneath. The air was always being pumped with small amounts of water that congealed on the ceiling and dropped down the walls.
Hallyne was used to the sensation, it was comforting being in the dark and the cold. That wasn't the impression he knew most of the city had of Pyromancers, but it was true. An alchemist's life was full of long periods working silently in cool dank chambers beneath the earth, punctuated occasionally by bursts of roaring green fires and glorious explosions. The actual chance to use the substance was akin to a holiday, while the dark of the cells was home.
"Tik-tik-tik-tik-tiktiktiktik" Hallyne clicked his tongue in a long-practiced rhythm and waved his hand over the blue mixing bowl in front of him, feeling for the flames-to-be. It was a sensation that only a true student of Pyromancy could hope to look for or to find.
It was an ancient magic, one passed down from even before the Valyrians mastered their fourteen flames, or so the old tomes of the order said. Its origin was not quite known, but men thought it had come out of the far east, from Asshai or Stigai, or the first city of K'Dath. The sorcery was as old as men themselves, perhaps even older. Whatever the truth, the old spell let the user perceive the potential fire that a given mixture of the substance could create.
The potential had many names, Flames-to-be, Ploghiston, Permethrin, Flammum, and more, for there was always some clever pyromancer who wished to leave his own academic legacy in the art, but it was all the same sorcery. Hallyne continued to click his tongue as he felt around the properties of the mixture before him. Its potential flickered at the edges of his senses, like an insect crawling in his hair, or a surface separated from his fingertip by the width of a blade of grass. It was an imprecise feeling, a tingling here and there, sometimes merely a figment of the imagination, but others all too real.
The magic had been stronger, his grandfather had once told him, when the Targaryens still had their dragons, and stronger still than that before the Doom of Valyria, but Hallyne wasn't sure if he trusted the old man's words. The old so often lied to the young. Whatever the case, the spell only gave him a distant sensation.
only long application and careful effort let him now establish the contours of exactly how potent this batch would be. It was an arduous process, but one that he had been learning since he was a child. These days, it only took him a few minutes of focus to understand the potential fire in his mixture and to assess whether he needed to add any more of the component parts to bring it to the correct ratio.
He was in the midst of determining just how much more cobalt was needed when a knock at the door of the cell he was working in broke him from his thoughts.
"Hallyne!" Jeyce Another of his fellow acolytes called from the door. "Hallyne, there's a problem."
"What is it?" Hallyne wiped the sweat from his forehead, marching over to the door after carefully placing down the bowl of Cobalt dust on the stone table where he did his work. He pulled open the Heavy Oaken door, which was soaked with water every morning. "What's going on Jeyce? Did someone light themselves on fire?"
"No-not like that, we've got a visitor," Jeyce said quickly, the short man's eyes darting back and forth. "An-ah, noble, visitor."
Hallyne blinked. A customer then. "I take it none of the Wisdoms are here?" he asked, but he already knew the answer. Jeyce coming to him said as much.
"No, they didn't come in today."
Hallyne sighed, going to wash his hands in a basin of water and dry them with a rag. "Alright," he said, fixing his thick black cloak and sighing. "Did they say what their name was?"
"Callum, I think it was," Jeyce said quickly. "Was a young boy accompanied by a knight, probably a lord's son here for the tournament."
"Oh, a potential aspirant?" Hallyne smiled. Every now and again the third or fourth sons of lords would come to join the Pyromancers. They were looked down upon by many as wizards and charlatans, but on the other hand, one didn't have to be chaste to be an alchemist, not like the Maesters or Clergy, and it still gave some level of status. Hallyne nodded, in that case, it would probably be best if he took his time answering, to confer an air of superiority to the guild maybe bring out a bit of wine from their somewhat sparse cellar… "Did you catch their house?" he asked, there were some that would need to be handled differently from others.
"Lannister, I think it was. They're the ones with the lions right?"
Hallyne blinked again, then started walking faster. It probably was only one of the Lannister side branches, Seven knew there were half a hundred cadet houses, but one thing that held true of nearly all of them was their wealth. It was quite possible that such an aspirant could be a boon to the order.
He reached the Hall of Iron Torches, which served as the entrance hall to the guild house, at a hurried pace, seeing the knight and the boy standing next to him in one corner. He nodded his head in greeting. "My lord Lannister, Good ser, I apologize for the wait." Hallyne put on his best winning smile, though his wife always said that his pale skin made his smile look ghoulish. "My name is Acolyte Hallyne, and I welcome you to the hall of the honorable guild of the pyromancers."
"Good day to you, I appreciate the welcome." The boy nodded, while the knight stood by stoically, his eyes scanning the room carefully. "I'm here with Ser Clegane here to ask for a tour, and to understand the capabilities of the guild a bit better. I'm potentially interested in your services."
Hallyne blinked again, recalculating for a third time in as many minutes. This boy might be a customer after all.
"Of course my lord, I'd be delighted to give you a tour of our guildhall, and to inform you of the services that a skilled alchemist can provide." he bowed slightly. "You are currently standing in the hall of Iron Torches, here, on special occasions, the many torches you see on the walls are lit with the substance, that is, wildfire, and cast marvelous emerald reflections off of the polished black marble of the floors, columns, and walls."
Hallyne left off that if they'd known a noble was coming to visit they would have lit the torches up, but the substance was simply too expensive to waste having them going every day.
"Interesting, how much is inserted into them and how long are they kept burning by it? Are they more or less efficient than candles?" the boy asked, and Hallyne smiled, ah, this was the type of question he could answer. "A tablespoon of the substance burns for about three hours with a light much brighter than a candle's. Only, it is a very hazardous sort of fire, so I would not recommend it to say, light a study at night."
"Does it consume the air around it when it's burning, like a normal fire?"
Hallyne turned his gaze towards the child, raising his eyebrows in surprise. "Yes, yes it does, you're a very clever lordling, aren't you? Have you considered joining the guild?" he asked honestly. While many men would notice the way fire loved to breathe if they paid any attention to it, very few actually did unless they were a blacksmith or such. "The substance is a fair bit less hungry for air than the fire you'd find in your fireplace, however. Only parts of it need to breathe."
"I suppose I wouldn't be opposed to it in practice, but my father would likely object. He'd see it as below my status. I doubt my betrothed would love it either."
"Oh, actually we don't have any vow of chastity, we're not Maesters." that part of the speech always got the initiate's attention. "In the end, we are a guild of skilled practitioners of alchemy, not some stuffy old men reading books."
Unfortunately, this particular Lannister seemed unimpressed by his words. "I really doubt that they'd be happy with it anyway." he said, giving Hallyne about as polite a 'no' as he could expect. "However, I am indeed interested in the potential uses and capabilities of the substance, as you call it. Please, lead on."
"Right." Hallyne nodded. "Well, the rest of the guild is broken up into three parts, if you'd like to see them. There is the library, the vaults, and the cells. I would be happy to take you on a tour of any of them."
"I'd like to learn more about the substance, how it behaves, and how it interacts with other materials." The Lannister child said, and Hallyne caught a glimmer of something greedy in his green eyes. "Would the library be best for that?"
"The Library is certainly a trove of mystical knowledge, much of it about the substance, but most is reserved for members, to preserve the secrets of our trade. I'm sure you understand."
"Oh, I certainly understand." the boy nodded. "But I'm not interested in stealing your recipe for the substance, or anything of the sort. What I'd like to learn is how it interacts with other materials. Iron, steel, various types of wood, and paper. Sand and stone. Is that something you're able to share?"
Hallyne mulled it over, pressing a hand to his chin. "Well… I suppose we could share it with a customer…"
