Chapter 20: Iron Bank
The place looks like it is a home of the giants. 8 feet tall buildings, are they necessary? In her heart she is resentful of the fact that her new white castle she was proud of can not compete with one floor of this building.
"Curse rich people." She said in a soft voice.
"Miss Olivia Snow? I have been task with escorting you inside." A guard came to her side as soon as she came up.
"Here I am." She pretends to smile but her smile comes out uglier than crying. 'Was he waiting for long?'
Their steps echoed as they made their way through the very long corridors. "Gods, is there an end to this path." Luckily she is not wearing uncomfortable shoes.
"We have arrived." The man said with a stoic expression. "You look like you're sending me to death."
The man just opened the door and then closed it. "So grumpy." She turned around and found a long table with men wearing long robes.
"Hhu aaaaah!" She jumped in fright. "God dammit! Why are you all just silently waiting like death in a corner?!" She shouted before seating down and reaching for the cup with water but before she could drink it, she sniffed it and put it back.
There is still no movement from the 8 or is it 10 men seated across from her. "Alright, I am here. What do you creepy people want?"
One man became enraged and his cheeks shook. "At the very least we are elders."
"Right." She stood up and did a curtsey and recited a perfect lady like greeting. "Now, what do you all want?"
"I am Guacharo and these are my colleagues, we were hoping to interest you in selling your recipe for the hard c..." He didn't finish.
"No."
"The indestructible gl..."
"No."
"The warm sto..."
"No."
"The cold glass..." He waited but she didn't object to this one.
"How much?" She smiled.
"You agree on this one? Why?" One of the men asked with a raised eyebrow.
"You were being greedy on the others, but after arriving in this place I agree with you that the cold glass is a big business in these cities. So, how much? It better be good because I can tell that it will make you guys trillions."
"That is and exaggerated figure." A man said.
"Shops looking to make their products fresh, alcohol establishments, hotels cooling down the residential area, the food at home, the drinks and basic bathing water."
"Not to mention frozen meat. It will remain as hard as stone for a long time so when a bad harvest comes, just open the cold storage room. Think about iced tea, brandy on ice, so many possibilities and then multiply that for the magistrates, princes and princesses, the wise masters all these wealthy people will order an entire floor of a building to be filled with frozen water and food." She concluded.
The robes looked at each other and seem to come to a conclusion. The one conversing with her made a sharp knock on the table making a dull sound. Three people with fierce appearance holding whips entered the room and stood firmly by the door.
The man smirked at Olivia and spoke with a more flamboyant tone. "We can always enslave you and have you tell us the formulas for free."
"But then where would you get the antidote for the poison I released as soon as I entered?" Olivia showed a relaxed expression, leaning forward she sneered at the boring men.
Right on cue, one men looks to have lost all of his strength. His previously straight upper body sagged and his head fell on the table. "It will put you to a brief sleep first just to thoroughly infiltrate your body but it will only start working the next time you go to sleep."
"People's bodies are different. They will react to my poison at different levels but they will all react. Do you feel like your throat is tightening, your chest is burning and does your stomach feels wrong?" She asks the man in front of her who was the one talking.
"First your memories will become hazy and you will forget this meeting. Then you will forget what you ate for lunch today. Then you will forget your house address.
"The color of your eyes or the name of your favorite child. Soon you will all turn into very kind and simple people who only say please and thank you with a foolish smile of your face. Others will look at you and remember the man you once were and they will have pity on their expressions but you will be happy." The mood in the room became suffocating. Olivia sighed.
"I was ready to have a civil conversation with you peacefully but you want to enslave me just because you think I have no backing? How do you all think I came up will all these things? If my master ever finds out about your little ploy, each and everyone of your bloodlines will cease to exist."
"Wait!" The man became flustered as his throat and chest tightened making him feel very uncomfortable.
"That was just a test to see if you are easily bullied we are respected businessmen. Of course we would never harm a valuable asset such as yourself. You...cough cough...you have to believe me." The man banged the table in desperation.
"I was initially making this pill for the scheming and traitorous Southerners but to bring down a group of giants like yourselves It should be good enough to earn me a nickname." She said flatly.
"This poison is airborne like a virus so as long as you are inside this building for the next two weeks you will be affected. So from now on, this is ground zero breathing ground for the new disease called the simplicity virus. The right side of the brain will be paralyzed for ever."
The men all started falling on the table one by one until the only ones remaining are the strong men by the door. Olivia stood up facing them, they took a stance and she knew this will not be an easy fight.
The first to attack is the one with a slightly taller body. He brandishes his whip with excellent practice. Olivia doesn't dodge but grabs the whip even as it ripped her hand open in a form of a large gash.
She didn't even groan as she pulled the man along with the whip, to their surprise the little girl's strength is amazing. The pull made the large man fly towards her, Olivia is waiting. The man's head which is the first to reach her gets a solid punch to the skull making the entire body drop like a sack of potatoes in front of her.
The next man didn't use the whip and attacked her with a fist directly. A small fist and a large fist met in the air and a sickening crunch sound of breaking bones sounded. To his credit, the man didn't even flinch and immediately used the next hand
Olivia is tall enough to pull the hand even as it hasn't reached her and with a slight movement she subdued him and dislocated his shoulder bringing him down with a swift movement smashed his head on the ground knocking him out which is more than what can be said about the other one.
When the iron bank share holders woke up and found the two men on the ground they became apprehensive. "Now, lets all be honest people when it comes to me from now on shall we?"
"Yes!"
They all agreed without any hesitation. The poison in the air doesn't turn them stupid but it makes a person susceptive to every command the first person you see after waking up gives you.
This is similar to the brainwashing program her master use to do for the school. When a top talent appears andthe school is not sure about their loyalty they use this medicine to plant a suggestion in their subconscious mind so their default thinking is to beloyal to the school. The effects are subtle which is why it's dangerous.
Because Olivia has a strong mental power, her commands are even more compelling as they are imbued with psychic power. The important thing is that it will not feel wrong even after a long time later unlike most compulsion medicine. Olivia has thought about using it on her group of council members more than once.
"Lets all forget about our earlier conversation and have an honest business meeting. Why don't you give me the offer that I deserve for my products?" She smiled and sat down again. "Those two just started going crazy for no reason and attacked me."
"Right." The man spoke. "How about a hundred million gold coins?" Amelia thought it through and decided to take it. In the end she walked out of the colossal building happy.
She will probably never come back there for those meetings again. Meanwhile the iron bank share holders breath a sigh of regret they couldn't scare her into coughing up the recipes but at at least they went with a cheaper option.
"She was right, this cold glass will bring tremendous profits." Another one said, the two people on the ground ignored as if they don't matter.
"I suspect she will be one of us in the future."
"Or the best of us."
They continued talking in a good mood not knowing their negative thoughts about Olivia were eliminated and since they won't be meeting everyday it will be hard for them to suspect something is wrong.
A week later, Olivia is seated in a meditative position surrounded by her light green flame together with the two stone dragon eggs. She has each her hand on an egg bleeding from her pulm and the eggs greedily sucking on her blood and flame.
She has been doing this every day before going to sleep. The annoying thing is that she is so tired at night as is even having wiered dreams about a man in a tree watching. It's unclear but he is watching everything like a bored wanderer.
For some reason she keeps feeling woosy and she knows it is probably because she has been weak mentally which is allowing all sort of spiritual and magical nuisance to infiltrate her mental space.
"It has been a week and you are still dead." She frowned and then remembered something. Taking out the newest blood awakening elixir she chucked it in her mouth.
Her body heated up gradually until it became hot to the touch. Olivia became scared that she will become stupid. Before she can think too much about it her healing power kicked in and she felt like it has advanced again.
However, her body temperature became stubborn again and blood red flames erupted from her body like a tornado burning everything in her chambers. She released a powerful mental wave that swept the entire city with her as the center and dispersed out wards.
The flames burned in the room but did not get out because of the fire resistant feature of the castle. She passed out naked hugging two eggs. Her hair, eyebrows and eyelashes has turned completely white while her eyes are now deep purple gray.
The two small dragons have hatched by morning. No one was able to enter her room all night even when they finally felt the Intense flame coming from the royal chamber.
The entire night everyone has been worried sick but helpless on what to do. On the other hand, Olivia woke up surrounded by ash and two small dragons making soft roaring sounds around her body.
Olivia grimaced seeing the state of her room. All her luxurious furniture has been turned to ash. The good news is there is fire magic in her bloodline which expedited the activation of her fire spirit root. At least that is what she thinks happened, the thing she is looking forward to is the concoctions of high level elixirs that require fire control.
Seeing her hair, she stood up and went to the bathroom. The tap works fine, it appears the fire couldn't even affect the inside wall.
She dyed her hair a deep shade of red
and left the eyes as is before looking at her little dragons. It is not that she hasn't seen a dragon, she once saw a flood dragon guarding a precious herb but she has never had a mental connection with others before and it is a bit disorienting.
They are small all they are communicating now is hunger. After wrapping herself in a towel, Olivia came out to find many people outside her door.
The two babies hissed and snapped at everyone. "Why are you all sullen outside my door?"
"Leader!"
"Lasy Snow!"
"Aaaahh."
Someone called her while someone else just began crying. "Dixon?"
Then it hit her, they probably thought she was cooked last night. "I am very sorry to have worried you all. I took something and it had consequences. I am fine but my room is torched." She smiled embarrassedly.
"You scared me so bad!" Arkar eushed too check her body. "You don't seem hurt. That's good. Because we have a problem."
The people started coming down and then began blaming her for making them worry.
"Excuse me but what are these creatures?" Seun asked bringing the conversation to a new topic.
"Right now, hungry." She ran away from the encirclement and looked for tha farm. This is the third floor where cattle is kept.
She took a live chicken to the kitchen. There she used a side kitchen to kill it, prepare it into pieces and then practiced her new power of the flame.
Fire power would normally come from a spirit root but the plant power she has comes from her spirit root, the fire comes from her blood. Not only that but here is now a massive amount of the mysterious energy in her body, particularly her blood is full it.
This is magic, the power of this world. There is a call to the south in a large tree. She wonders if it is another dragon.
"You are my most dedicated and hardworking people since we established our home and before. I have something to tell you all and I don't want you to freak out but I have Valarian heritage." She said but saw no movements even from the Northmen.
"That's it? No response?" She is surprised by this. But the people just looked at each other with non of them speaking. A while later, one of the Northmen stood up and bowed.
"We figured as much when your eyes started changing colors. It matters little to us you are our lady Snow, our saviour and undisputed queen of the frozen lands." Such words moved her deeply but them she remembered something.
"Arkar you said we have a problem?" The others also tensed up.
"There are several unknown creatures outside our gates demanding to see Olivia Snow of Winterfell."
"Creatures?" Olivia asked incredulously.
"They call themselves children of the forest." DIxon said in response.
"Oh? Children of the forest huh?" Olivia didn't seem fazed. She comes from the cultivation world what creatures has she not seen before?"
"There are legends avout such creatures before the first men came to Westeros. They have very strong magic. You need to be careful Mistress." Bellamy warned.
"Alright I will be on my best behavior." She agreed and walked towards the main gates.
...