Gendry rose and looked down at Baelor Hightower. Leyton had made everything perfectly clear in his letter, confessing every secret to save his son Baelor.
Baelor Hightower's face twitched. "Your Grace, I only wish to know why my father was obsessed with magic for so many years."
"Ser, Earl Leyton explained it quite clearly. Dreams and prophecies. The ancestors of House Hightower wrote in ancient scrolls that Oldtown would be destroyed by magic, Magic Dragons, and sea dragons. Oldtown's Stone Beasts and Sphinxes were also built because of this prophecy, at an enormous cost in resources and manpower.
"Later, Earl Leyton discovered the scrolls and became absorbed in them as well. Your sister Moroia had some talent for prophecy and magic, and she became your father's helper."
"So that was it." Leyton's face was pale.
For an unpredictable future, his father Leyton and his sister Moroia had both become deeply entangled in it.
"Garth of the Ghiscari Empire once wrote that prophecy was like a deceitful woman. One must not place too much faith in it," Maester Marwyn said softly.
Leyton Hightower and Rhaegar Targaryen had followed much the same path, both becoming obsessed after stepping into some prophecy.
"Leyton revealed more facts than we knew." Gendry swept his gaze over them, his words even more startling.
"It concerns more than this battle for Oldtown, more than House Hightower. There is also the construction of the Stone Beasts and Sphinxes, what these monsters were meant to resist, and how to guard against Magic Dragons. Even the web of marriage alliances the Starks forged in their move south years ago involved the Citadel."
Everyone stood solemnly in place. This was the third blade.
The Conclave had leaned toward following House Hightower and had nearly surrendered to Euron Crow's Eye as well.