Dany sipped fermented pomegranate from a silver flute as her servants attended her. She liked to fancy that the court she had formed was unlike any other in the world. Jorah of Bear Island stood to her alongside Grey Worm, Strong Belwas to her right with his elderly squire Arstan Whitebeard, and the free slave Missandei sat by the foot of her great chair. Barbarian, the Masters called her, and perhaps she was, with the pelt of a white lion draped over her bald head in place of hair, and her dragons playing about her shoulders like overlarge cats… but she did not lack for style or elegance.

Grazdan mo Eraz, the Wise Master of Yunkai who had been sent to treat with her had style of a different kind. His hair had been drawn up into a spike that protruded from his forehead like a unicorn's horn, and his silken robes were lined with opals and sapphires and jade. Daenerys wondered whether she or he would be considered more ridiculous on the streets of Braavos.

"Take the gold, whore, and leave Yunkai be. Why should you break your armies upon the yellow walls of our great city, when you might be rich and have peace?"

Grazdan mo Eraz was a man who thought he could buy everything. No doubt he had bought and sold so many persons that he thought he could buy peace as well. But Daenerys had been bought once and she did not intend to be bought again.

"Your gold is mine," Daenerys replied, her voice even. "Your pyramids and your wines and your temples are mine. You offer me nothing I cannot take from you, Grazdan mo Eraz, and then ask me to leave without offering me the one thing I desire. Free your slaves, Grazdan mo Eraz. Free them all and break their chains within the next three days and we will have peace."

The Wise Master spat on the ground. "We will see how proud you are when your armies and destroyed and your court of bandits are made into slaves."

"I am but a young girl and know little of the ways of war," Daenerys replied, "But two thousand slaves of indifferent ability set against ten thousand unsullied seems to make for poor odds. I suppose we shall see the truth of it three days hence."

"Astapor you took through deception," Grazdan mo Eraz replied, "but you will not find Yunkai to be such easy prey. Or did you never consider that Astapor long-held forces as numerous as yours, and never succeeded in breaching our walls? We built our walls tall and we built them strong, whore. How will you breach them? Will you fly on the back of your paltry little pets?" He laughed aloud.

"Dracarys."

Drogon belched forth a gout of flame near fifteen feet in length and the Master screamed. Not in pain, for he was not so near as to be burned, but in pure shock.

"You should not laugh at live dragons," Daenerys said, rising from her seat and walking toward him. The Master pushed himself away from the flames that still played on the floor, before finally standing and attempting to regain some semblance of dignity. His efforts were wasted, as it was altogether too clear that he had soiled his robes. "Neither should you trifle with me, Grazdan mo Eraz. I am Daenerys Stormborn, the Breaker of Chains, and I have come to break you and yours."

After such a statement, no agreement could be reached, and Grazdan mo Eraz retreated without another word. The Wise Masters had proved even more foolish than the Good Masters of Astapor, and Daenerys would be happy to put their tyranny to an end.

"My queen," Jorah began, his voice uneasy, "We should have at least considered the Wise Master's offer. Fifty thousand marks of gold is a kingly sum, a sum that could buy us ships, ships that could see you restored to your kingdom!"

"And what of those who follow us? Are you going to suggest we leave them behind? Are you going to call them 'mouths with feet' again in my presence?"

Jorah looked down, his eyes dark and angry. Three times he had raised this issue, and she had flatly refused him each time. Thousands of poor and beggared slaves had followed her from Astapor. Mother, they called her, and so Daenerys had become. She would never bear children of her own body again, she knew that for a truth, but she could at least live up to the trust that these people had placed in her.

"What of the others," Daenerys questioned. "What of Mero and the Second Sons? What of the Black Eagles? Have they responded to our requests for parley?"

"It would be too soon to expect anything of the sort, My Queen," Arstan replied. "Our runners will have only arrive at the enemy camp an hour ago."

"They say that this Edelgard of Volantis rides a wyvern," Daenerys said idly, "I had thought she might have arrived early. I would like to see the wyverns."

Her courtiers chuckled warmly, and Daenerys felt ashamed. They were laughing at her for being a young girl who wanted to see the wyverns. That would not do. She was happy to play the foolish young girl for the benefit of the Ghiscari, but in front of her court should see her as strong and immovable. Her dragons curled around her neck, wings unfurled as if to hide her from laughing eyes.

"Strong Belwas is eager to be seeing these wyvern riders himself!" Belwas near-shouted. "He has seen beasts of every sort from every corner of the world, but never has he seen a man crazy enough to ride a wyvern!"

Arstan smiled indulgently. "Certainly, I am eager to see them as well, and not only for the spectacle of it. I am confident we can find victory against the slave soldiers of Yunkai, but these Black Eagles make me nervous. A group of their… nature should have a reputation, should have a history, but this Edelgard seems to have spawned from the streets of Volantis itself with gold and wyverns and soldiers complete."

"Have you ever seen the Black Walls?" Jorah asked, his voice sharper than his question required. "Do you know what sort of city it is? It could hold twenty Edelgards and a thousand wyverns without it being anything of note."

Not for the first time that evening, Dany felt her brow crease. The standing feud between Arstan and Jorah had become tiresome to her. Was it not enough for Jorah to have her ear, to know that she heeded his advice? But increasingly she felt as though he would tolerate her taking advice from no man except himself.

Sounds came from the antechamber. A disagreement. A fight? Every guard in Dany's presence readied their weapon and looked between each other in confusion.

Finally, Irri entered, her face flush and angry. "There is another to see you here," she stated hotly. "She claims to be the Volantene, the leader of the Black Eagles, and she says."

A woman entered, mere moments behind Irri, and Daenerys' heart lurched in her chest. Lilac eyes and whitened hair… she could have been Daenerys' sister! But no. Daenerys' skin had turned bronze in the Ghiscari sun, and her hair had never been that white. Edelgard (for who else could this be?) was a ghost by contrast, pale and drained of color. Thick plates of steel encased her entirely, and Daenerys found it to be a wonder the woman could move at all.

"I am Edelgard Von Hresvelg," she stated the obvious, seemingly oblivious to the guards who had drawn their weapons around her.

"We guessed at that much," Jorah growled, his anger obvious. "What I want to know is what makes you think you can come in here, unannounced and bearing arms?"

"What makes you think you can stop me?" The woman replied as if daring Jorah to strike her. Daenerys sat upright in her seat. Edelgard barely came up to the bear knight's chest. Could she even wield that ax she wore on her back? The idea seemed laughable, and yet…

"Peace, Jorah," Daenerys said. Jorah scowled and paced back to her side. She found herself immediately wishing that she could have seen them fight. But such amusements would keep for later. "Lady Edelgard was invited here with a promise of safe-conduct. We should be grateful that she has come so quickly."

The tension in the room slackened a hairsbreadth. Edelgard did not step back or even bow, but she did give a slight nod. "I came quickly and came in secret. I have no interest in allowing my current employers to know that I am meeting with you."

Her current employers. Daenerys smiled. She had expected that threats and promises would have to be made before any of the mercenaries switched sides but it seemed Edelgard was already aware that her arrangement would be temporary. Good.

"Then you are already aware of what I offer you?" Daenerys asked. "I mean to offer you a place in our army. Not because we need your aid to take Yunkai, after all, we outnumber the forces of the Yellow City five to one. I am a but a young girl and know little of the ways of war, but these seem like good odds to me, with or without your help."

"But you don't intend to stop at Yunkai, do you? You can't mean to break the chains of Astapor and Yunkai and not go onto Mereen, and against them, you will need a much larger army than you currently field… and besides that, you're a claimant to that distant western kingdom, aren't you?"

Daenerys smiled. "You show more understanding than Grazdan mo Eraz did. If you would follow me as far as my throne in Westeros, I would see you and yours raised to positions of power in the Seven Kingdoms with Lordships and high honors."

"I have no interest in titles."

"Then what would you ask in exchange for your service."

"I would ask you for an answer to a question that's been troubling me for some time. I heard that you killed even the children of the Masters of Astapor, as young as ten years old. I heard that you spread their corpses over the wall for the sport of crows." Edelgard paused. "Why did you do this?"

Her question surprised Daenerys, threatened to break her composure. She had not expected a mercenary to ask her about such a thing. The breaking of the chains at Astapor had been a glorious and great thing and she did not regret it even for a moment… but in the chaos of the slave rebellion, the Unsullied and others had taken her commands more literally than she had intended. In Astapor, as in Yunkai, every person of wealth owned slaves, and by necessity, some of them had been children. But she would acknowledge no weakness, show no doubt. Daenerys had promised that to herself long ago.

"These slavers have thick heads, and I cannot make them see reason without violence," Daenerys said, "Even now when I am at their gates with ten thousand Unsullied, they mock me, seek to buy me off with chests of gold. They call me a whore, they call me as if I were a bedslave and not a Khaleesi. I was not lenient in Astapor, in hope that I might be merciful in Yunkai, and in Mereen, and in all of the places I go to next."

"What it sounded like was that the situation got out of hand," Edelgard replied. "I am willing to support your cause to an extent, but not if your goals remain so openly bloodthirsty."

"Things are different now. I have an army, and so I may choose to show mercy." Daenerys said, "I will take Yunkai and I will force the masters to release their slaves, but I will not slaughter them to the last man as I did in Astapor. I have shown myself to be ruthless when tested, now I will show that I can be merciful in victory as well."

"My Queen," Jorah urged, his voice low and harsh, "This woman is from Volantis, which is nearly as much the heart of slavery as this place, and she looks to be of the Old Blood. I promise you that slaves have waited on her hand and foot since the day she was born. Do not trust her."

Daenerys nodded as if in agreement, but in her heart she had already resolved to trust the mercenary. The woman was strong, she could feel that. Strong and refined and intelligent. If she was loyal, she would stand with Jorah and Belwas and Arstan and Missandei around her throne. Jorah always counseled her against trust, but she needed allies.

"If your retainer has anything he wishes to ask me," Edelgard stated, "He can ask me himself."

"We have heard you are of Volantis," Daenerys asked. "Is this true? You must understand that as far as we know you and your entire mercenary company seem to have sprung from a hole in the earth. We are curious as to who you are and why you seem so eager to join us."

Edelgard's eyebrows rose. "I could say much the same to you. The last scion of a failed dynasty, coming into an army of ten thousand and hatching eggs of creatures that have never been seen before in a hundred years? That's the sort of thing that… that people write songs about."

"But since you asked, I will answer: I am not of Volantis. Any resemblance I bear to the people of that region is purely coincidental. I found myself near Volantis by accident several moons ago but you would not recognize the name of the nation from which I hail. My story is a long one, and I have journeyed far. For the moment it is sufficient to say that I despise slavery and that I have come this far only because I believe in your ambition."

"And this is where she lists her demands," Jorah muttered, just loud enough for Daenerys to hear him. "The talk of high ideals always comes just be-"

"What would you ask of me, in return?" Daenerys stated, interrupting Jorah before he could say more.

"Yunkai." She stated flatly.

Arstan, Jorah, and Belwas all shared a hearty chuckle.

"Just that?" Jorah asked, "You ask only for the city of Yunkai as your personal fiefdom?"

Belwas slapped his belly as he laughed, "Strong Belwas should have been bolder when negotiating for his pay!"

Edelgard seemed little perturbed by their laughter, her lilac eyes bearing down on them with the force of a battering ram. One by one Daenerys' court ceased their mockery, and then she spoke.

"When you take the city, you will make them give up their slaves. You will break the chains… and then what? What follows? You will leave this place and go onto Mereen, go on to that Western Kingdom you claim to be rightfully yours... and these Wise Masters will still be wealthy, they will still be powerful. They will still have the gold and the steel, and the loyalties of their slave soldiers. They will swiftly seize power again and forge new chains. When all is done, nothing will be any different than it was before you came."

"I can change that. The Black Eagles can change that. We can stay in the city, and keep the chains broken, keep Yunkai free of oppression and slavery."

Jorah scoffed. "You are a sellsword. Do not act as though you would rule Yunkai out of some sense of benevolence. And even if we did believe you, your company numbers only a few hundred. Do you take us for fools? A force your size could never hold the Yellow City!"

"My force is capable of taking and holding Yunkai," said Edelgard, "If you will give me only a little support I can prove it to you."

Daenerys leaned forward. "How?"

"Defeat the enemy in front of the walls, and I will bring the Wise Masters out through the gate to stand judgment before you."