King's landing

Ser Davos pov

Davos sat enjoying his tea as Prince Aegon and Princess Rhaenys played a game of cyvasse in the Princess's solar

As he sat there and watching the prince and princess play their game Davos wonders how it all came to this,now he a former smuggler and low born from fleebottom regularly sits among them and serves the crown prince and princess of the seven kingdoms

"And there goes your dragon Rhae" the prince said as he removed a black dragon shaped piece from the board

Cyvasse,a board game from Volantis,this game has become a craze among the lords and nobles after Princess Rhaenys brought back a few sets from her travels to volantis five years ago

Soo much so that all the great cities now have cyvasse game parlors,there are many such parlours in king's landing alone,the most popular and biggest one being 'The Dragon's Board' owned by Princess Rhaenys right next to the Arena

While a the big Arena is a place for mighty warriors to show off their strength and martial prowess,The dragon's board has become a place for learned men to show off their intelligence and strategic mind,and lords and nobles can show off their mind for warfare without actually starting wars with each other

This game has become soo popular that for the last three years during princess Rhaenys's nameday tourney a cyvasse tournament is held,with exorbitant rewards such 50,000 gold dragons for the winner,25,000 for the runner up and 10,000 gold dragons for the third place

Cyvasse master from all over come to king's landing when Princess Rhaenys's nameday is near,even the royal gardens now have tables set up with cyvasse sets,from where this is going Davos is sure that a few years the lords will make sure that their childrens get cyvasse lesson among their regular teachings

But the cyvasse won't become something just for the rich and powerful like other things,because while the parlors in inner city are luxurious and with their expensive sets there are bigger parlors in the outer city with cheaper wooden sets where anyone can try a game of cyvasse just for a few coppers

So Davos also bought a set for his children,he brought one of the expensive one's,Davos is not shy for gold as he serves directly under the prince,he is payed well with other luxuries that even gold can't buy,like expensive teas,exotic fruits,there is always a flagon filled with Dracarys wine nearby,this wine that whose shipments are sometimes auctioned instead of being sold because of low supply,he even has a big house in the inner city where his family lives,this is something that not even minor lords can afford

But all of these is still nothing campared to the royal family,take the cyvasse set on which the prince and princess playing, traditionally the pieces are only made of two colours,but these pieces are all differently coloured made from all kinds of rare and expensive materials like jade,ivory,onyx etc but you won't confuse the pieces because of their colours because each piece is distinctly decorated with rare gemstones like rubys, diamonds, emeralds,moonstones,embers,etc and the board itself is made from wood from the dead and dried branches of a Weirdwood tree,the most expensive and rare wood in the world as no one is allowed to cut these tree

These cyvasse set was specifically made by the orders of Princess Rhaenys,Davos is sure that the set alone is worth two or three big castles at least,Davos knows the game as he plays with the prince from time to time,but he doesn't know how good or bad he is at the game,because Davos only played against the the prince and he always lost but so does everyone to who plays against the prince

Even now the princess seems to be losing, and princess Rhaenys is renowned master of the game,for the last three years the first place winner of the cyvasse tournaments gets the honour of playing against the princess but all three of them who defeated everyone else to win were defeated by the princess

The princess took her fallen dragon in her hands,"whoever made the rules is a fool if they think they can take down a dragon by just placing a few trebuchets and catapults on the board,our ancestors conquered all the Westros just with three dragons,and even if they shot a thousand scorpions at Balerion most of them won't even make it,and those that do would just bounce of his scales"she said in a huff

"Don't get grumpy just because you are losing,If one of the pieces is all powerful and invincible than what's even the point of playing,and you know winning this game doesn't mean much anyway,Robb loses to me everytime but when it comes to real world I am no where near his level when it comes to warfare and strategy,Robb loses because he focuses too much on the pieces and forget the person who he is playing against,you Rhae are the opposite you are great at strategy and pieces but you play the player instead of the game,that doesn't work on me because I don't have some grand plan or big strategy to defeat you that you can foil,I just play to win and adapt to whatever is in front of me"the prince replied

"And Queen Rhaenys's dragon did fell from a scorpion bolt to eye"Davos said to the princess

The princess gave a small laugh,"Ser Davos do you really think that Meraxes the dragon really died from being shot down by a dornishmen with godly marksmanship,tell me Ser Davos how fast can you blink ?"

"I can't be sure how fast exactly but I would say very fast your grace" Davos answered

"Dragons can also blink very fast Ser Davos,and unlike you they have scales covering their eyelids,these scales are softer than the rest of the scales but they are still dragon scales,then tell me Ser Davos how can a scorpion bolt which released from the ground and losses more and more power as it goes higher can still pierce through the dragonscales with enough strength to actually reach the brain"the princess asked

"That does seem very unlikely your grace"he sincerely answered

"Nothing is as it seems in this world Ser Davos, Meraxes had to land because the dragon couldn't fly with Rhaenys on his back because of bad weather and a big sandstorm,the dornish took advantage of the fact that the dragon was grounded and attacked from all sides,Meraxes got a bolt through his eyes trying to protect Queen Rhaenys,even injured and dying the dragon knew that the injured Rhaenys would have a fate worse than death if she got captured so the dragon gave her a quick and clean death by dragonfire and burned her to ashes,even after that the dragon had the energy to destroy most of the castle before finally dying, that's why the dornish couldn't return queen Rhaenys's body even after they bent the knee to the conqueror,if the dornish could really kill the dragons with scorpions then why didn't they kill Balerion and Vhagar,and believe me if the dornish really had Rhaenys's body they would have paraded that corpse around the entire dorne like a trophy"the Princess told him shocking Davos