Chapter 2: Dragon's Keeper

When Annalise had taken William's hand, she knew that she would have been the first Fire Keeper that had shared her duty. She, as a Fire Keeper, should have became cinder on her own, yet the selfless Sir William had taken her hand, told her that he would share his duty as knight with her and cradled the fire, embraced her and stood there with her as the fire crawled over them both, licking at the cold iron armour and the warm black cloth of the knight and the keeper respectively.

Then when she awoke in the palace of Illyrio Mopatis, a 'cheese dealer' as she had soon heard, and a wealthy cheese dealer at that. Chatter from other guests around the manse had soon revealed to her that Illyrio Mopatis was not just a cheese dealer, but a dealer in dragon-bone, expensive jewels and even slaves.

The manse was wonderful. When she was in the manse, she had guests, guards and maids to attend to her every whim, and she loved it because it was different. Annalise had stayed inside of the Firelink Shrine, sometimes alone, sometimes with the would-be champions, and sometimes she would just sit and pray, to whatever god would listen to her. Sometimes hope seemed lost, that the fire would finally go out and leave the world in an Age of Dark.

How was the soul of one little Lord of Cinder meant to relight the flame?

William… where are you? Annalise thought.

The fact that the world she was now in was completely different was baffling her. She was used to the roars of dragons or the screeching of drakes, but in Essos it was completely different. The only sounds she could hear from the manse were the heavy footsteps of the guards of Pentos or the regular hustle and bustle of the city's inhabitants.

She was thankful that Illyrio took her in, fed her and gifted her with new clothes fit for the scorching weather of Essos. She could still wear her blindfold, but the new garbs she wore showed her body off to the world. The black capes and clothes she wore kept her pale skin away from the world, and the hood she wore hid her silvery hair.

After a few days acclimatising to the new weather and pondering on what to do now that she was no longer bound by her oaths as a Fire Keeper, she decided to kindly ask the cheese dealer if he would let her stay with him. Thankfully he did, and she spent most of the days helping around the manse. Annalise didn't mind being a regular servant, she had been one for most of her life.

Yet when she met the pale girl with the silver-white hair and the lilac eyes, she knew if she would follow her then she would be on a path similar to the one she took with William. Her name was Daenerys Targaryen, but she was called 'Stormborn' by Illyrio. She was not alone either, and always watching her every mover was her similar looking brother, Viserys Targaryen. Both had long silvery hair and the lilac eyes, but they were completely different attitude wise. Daenerys was silent, always timid and shy in the presence of Viserys, yet when he was not around she was nice and polite. Soon Illyrio had told Annalise that Daenerys and Viserys were the fugitive children of the last dead Targaryen king of Westoros, across the Narrow Sea.

"Ah, I sometimes forget you are not from here, my dear little keeper." Illyrio spoke, before he took another sip from his goblet of wine.

"Daenerys and Viserys Targaryen are of an old royal bloodline, a bloodline that goes back centuries. They are the blood of Old Valyria, and they hold the blood of dragons in their veins, if only dragons still existed. Viserys is hell-bent on getting the Iron Throne, and he will need an army to do it, he wants to be known as Aegon the Conqueror reborn, to restore the House of Targaryen to it's former glory. He will most likely die in the attempt, and he will give up his last living relative in a scheme to get a group of men who will most likely not respect him. I feel for the Targaryen girl, but maybe she will be in better hands if she is with the Dothraki, dear Annalise, but I severely doubt that too."

Illyrio's words had begun to echo in the back of her mind. Would Daenerys be better off the with the savage Dothraki horse-lords she had heard so much of? Apparently the leader of them, Khal Drogo, controlled the largest group of men on the continent. She had heard he would take Daenerys as his bride and lead his warriors to give Viserys his Iron Throne that he wanted so much.

In her free time, as little as she had, Annalise found some tomes written in Braille about the history of the new world she was in. She learnt of Aegon the Conqueror, with his sisters Visenya and Rhaenys and their dragons Balerion, Meraxes and Vhagar and how they escaped the Doom of Valyria. She learnt of the Blackfyre bastards, Bloodraven and Bittersteel. Lastly she learnt of the last true Targaryen king. Aerys the Second, the Mad King.

At first, Aerys seemed normal and sane, but as he aged he began to lose his wit. His poor wife Rhaella had become a victim of her insane husband, and was beaten and raped for no other reason other than because Aerys could. So it was no surprise that when Aerys killed Lord Rickard Stark and his eldest son Brandon in front of each other, the majority of the Seven Kingdoms of Westoros rose up in rebellion, starting what was called 'Robert's Rebellion'.

It was one of the bloodiest wars in the history of Westoros.

Robert Baratheon was the close friend of Eddard Stark, the next lord of Winterfell, the main town in the north. At the time, they were wards of Jon Arryn, the Warden of the East, but that did not matter to Mad Aerys, who called for both Robert and Eddard to be delivered to the capital for judgement.

Needless to say, Robert killed the eldest prince, Rhaegar, in the Battle for the Trident, which was the beginning of the end for House Targaryen. Tywin Lannister was allowed into King's Landing with his army, and in the most bloody sack known to man, set Ser Gregor Clegane and Ser Amory Lorch onto the Red Keep, the main residence of the royal family. Amory Lorch stabbed the daughter of Prince Rhaegar multiple times, and Ser Gregor Clegane raped his wife, dashed his son's head against the wall, and finally split her in half with his great-sword.

Annalise was shocked when she read about the sack, Lothric had it's fair share of warfare, but everywhere, the Knights of Astora, or the Knights of Berenike were held to a strict code of honour, to not kill children or women, not to rape, and to respect the prisoners, peasantry or nobility. Westoros or Essos were no such place.

William, maybe he is Westoros… Is he alive? Would he be safe? Would he be looking for me?

She was sat in her room, contemplating what could have happened to him. He was a knight, true and proper, and he could take care of himself, he had defeated the First Flame's guardian, the Soul of Cinder, so he could take on any man. When Iudex Gundyr awoke for the first time in ages, she looked off from the bell-tower by the Firelink Shrine and could see William fight the ashen judge, and he fought against the champion with speed and finesse, yet he could give a powerful strikes too. From what she could remember, Will had parried the former champion of with his shield, took the coiled sword and shoved it through Gundyr's helmet and face.

Despite the brutal killing, William was a true and proper knight, one who treated both men and women with honour and respect. Will had always been kind to her, even when he had seemed to have given up hope of reaching the First Flame.

But that was then, and we are no longer in Lothric any, more, we are somewhere else…

As the sun rose high in the sky, Annalise made her way to the entrance of Illyrio's manse. The guardsmen, clad in their light leather armour with pikes and shields had gone to man the walls, looking for the Khal and his blood-riders. Soon enough, the men had arrived, and the stomping of the horses had made their presence known to all of the occupants of the manse. The galloping sounded like war-drums, and when the horses had entered the manse's yard, Annalise could feel the fearlessness, courage and brutality the moment the Dothraki had entered. Then they left as quickly as they arrived. Prince Viserys was shouting, and Illyrio was responding in his quiet tone of voice.

"Where are they going? Did they like her?" The Prince shouted.

"Trust me, Your Grace, if they didn't like her, we would know." The cheese dealer responded.

Throughout the day, the prince was in an unspeakable state, he did not know if his deal had worked. Would he get his army he had wanted for so long? Would he finally take his Iron Throne?

Doubtful, he does not have the true mettle that makes a king, he wouldn't last….

Princess Daenerys was in a state as well, but it was not anger she was plagued by, it was sadness and worry. Annalise had followed Viserys, Daenerys and Illyrio into the gardens just after Khal Drogo had left and when Viserys had told his sister that he 'would let all of the khalasar and their horses fuck you' it had done more harm than good.

The poor princess, she won't have a clue what to do with herself when it comes to the wedding…

The young princess was very pretty, stunningly beautiful even but behind the beauty was the timid and shy girl, the girl who was shouted down and abused by her brother. Annalise had heard that the Targaryen inbreeding had caused a large amount of madness and insanity in the bloodline. Daenerys' father was mad, yet she wasn't but Annalise was not so sure about Viserys. At one time he could be calm, the next he would ranting and raving about how soon he would have his army of Dothraki.

Annalise had witnessed the fall of cities, and she had felt the cold darkness when she knew of the city of Londor, which was ruled by the Sable Church. It was an odd and uncommon feeling, to know there was a city filled with Hollows, and how they didn't end up killing each other the moment they laid eyes on each other. She had felt a hole in her heart when she realised a member of the Sable Church had gotten into the shrine, and had begun to corrupt her place of worship. It was only until William had killed Yuria of Londor, the spy in the shrine that she felt better.

I was so stupid to not have realised she was there sooner, I was so busy praying to a god that wouldn't listen…

Annalise didn't want to dwell on the subject. It was a time where William's headstrong attitude to fixing the problem with brute force had overcame her belief that fate and destiny would fix itself. Needless to say, Will had fixed the problem himself, and the problem was no more. Annalise soon had the princess to herself.

"Princess Daenerys, I don't believe we have had the pleasure of speaking to one another." Annalise began.

"Oh, I am sorry for not conversing with you, I thought I had already met with everyone in the manse." Daenerys responded. "Who are you?" she asked.

"I am Keeper Annalise, Princess Daenerys. I am an advisor of sorts to Magister Illyrio. I should have introduced myself to someone as royal as yourself."

"It is no bother, Keeper Annalise. I won't be a royal for long anyway..." Daenerys mumbled, her eyes looking towards her feet.

"Is there something wrong, Princess?"

"My brother is being… my brother. He has told me I am to be married to this… Khal Drogo and he will be able to take back his throne. He was saying this to me since I was a babe, he has been telling anyone who would let us under their roof and now he is getting his wish."

"Princess, may I be honest with you?"

"Of course."

"Prince Viserys will not win the throne. He will not even gain an army."

"How do you know this? How do you know he will not gain his army? He is going to give me to the Khal, and he will have his army."

"I know this because I have known men like your brother. I have watched men like Viserys try and fail to win a kingdom. I have watched men and women just like him crash and burn and die trying to do what he has done. I know men who are greater than him, I know that someone like Viserys will never gain an army if he has no respect for the army that he wants."

"And if I were to tell my brother of what you just said?" Daenerys asked her.

"Then he may try and kill me, but I shall not bow down to a man like him. I am a Keeper, and I will only bow to the man who has defeated the Lords of Cinder, and rekindled the First Flame, and your brother is not that man. If he does try to kill me, then he shall burn."

"Spoken like a true Targaryen. Maybe you and I should swap places."

After an afternoon of polite discussion, the Princess and the Keeper had begun to gain a new-found trust in one another. To say that Princess Daenerys was curious about what had happened in Lothric and before that, Lordran was an understatement. She wanted to know about Gwyn, the Lords of Cinder, Nito, Seath, the Furtive Pygmy and the Dark Soul.

"Keeper Annalise, when you said if Viserys were to kill you, you said you would burn him. How would you do this exactly?"

"I have never wielded a sword in my life. I have always been one to deal with my problems via prayer."

"I don't think prayer can burn people alive, Keeper Annalise." Daenerys responded.

"Oh, I know. It was also what my champion told me before I showed him some pyromancy."

"Pyromancy?"

"Pyromancy is the ability to create and manipulate objects that are made by or can be affected by fire. If your brother does try to kill me, he will burn."

As if by some kind of magic, Annalise's hand was open and just above her pale skinned palm were a ball of flames. A smile was on both of the girls' faces, and the flame then crawled over Annalise's shoulders and onto her other hand.

"Amazing, Simply magnificent!" Daenerys exclaimed in excitement, watching as Annalise began to make the flame dance around her, first around her head, then her shoulders and then her body.

"It is, isn't it? A pyromancer named Cornyx had taught me to do it, and he even allowed me to learn under Karla the Witch to learn the magic of Quelaag and Quelana!"

Annalise had begun to get excited once more, just like when she was a little child, just like when William had offered to share her duty with him. She was happy and she felt amazing.

"Do you… no, ignore it." Daenerys sputtered out, half-heartedly.

"No, please my princess, continue."

"Do you… think you could teach me how to be a… a pyromancer?"

Annalise and Daenerys were staring at each other for a long time, longer than normal. Annalise was a competent, even exceptional pyromancer, both Karla and Cornyx had told her that to her face, but she had never taught anyone how to become a pyromancer.

I am a simple Fire Keeper, meant to become kindling for the First Flame, not teach people how to become pyromancers!

"I suppose I could try… Where we are now, the world we know so far, it doesn't have much magic in it. I could try and create a gauntlet infused with a fire gem so I could teach you some simple casts but I am not so sure about the more complicated ones."

"Thank you, Keeper Annalise. I must tell you, will you tell my brother of these lessons on pyromancy?"

God, of course not, there is no telling what he would do to the both of us if he found out…

"My princess, I would never jeopardise both of our safety like that. I will not tell a soul, not even the Magister."

"Thank you, a thousand times, thank you. I do not know how to make this up to you, Keeper, but I will try to do it one day."

"My princess, there is no need to do that..."

"On my honour as a Targaryen, I will promise to repay you somehow. I should probably take my leave now, I wouldn't want to keep you up all night, Keeper Annalise."

"Oh, of course. Well, it has been wonderful meeting you, Princess Daenerys."

"It has been a pleasure, Keeper Annalise."