"Your Highness, take a look at these sailing logs I compiled myself. They cover the customs and cultures of almost every place from the Shadow Lands in the east to the Sunset Sea in the west, and from Ibben in the north to Sothoryos in the south. Just ten gold coins for all three volumes!"
Just as Danyla had lost the desire to browse any further, a fair-skinned assistant maester enthusiastically pitched his wares to her.
"I'm sure you'll love them. I spent several months compiling and transcribing them, and this is currently the only set in the Citadel."
Danyla's oceangoing fleet had now taken shape, and she was preparing to lead it on a long voyage. So she promptly bought the three thick volumes without hesitation.
Mungo carefully inspected the sailing logs several times before he felt comfortable handing them over to Danyla. After briefly leafing through a few pages, she had him put them away, satisfied.
She had spotted the distinctive secret flame mark of Holy Flame Island's intelligence organization in the second volume, so she knew there was nothing wrong with these logs.
Ever since Danyla had begun secretly building her own power base, she had been buying off people from different walks of life to gradually infiltrate the Citadel and the Faith of the Seven.
By now, more than a dozen members of her intelligence organization had successfully entered the Citadel and become assistant maesters or maesters. Apart from a few closely guarded secrets, every overt move those old fossils made was now under Danyla's surveillance.
Besides monitoring the Citadel's activities, the members of the Secret Guards who had become assistant maesters and maesters mainly worked to transcribe as many precious books from its library as possible, then gradually send them back to Holy Flame Island.