A month had passed since Daenarys first arrived at Astapor. While we'd had breakfast together a couple of times, the subject of her decision didn't come up a single time. Until today, that is.
"Are you sure about this?" I asked while giving her a serious look.
"Yes. I've been in your castle for a moon and seen a better life than I've ever had. My children have another of their kind to relate with, and they've even been growing faster. But I must still leave. I've stayed here long enough, and my throne won't wait for me."
I hummed non-committedly as I kept appraising her. While her decision didn't shock me, I was still surprised that she was willing to leave so soon. I knew a little of what she'd been going through for the past few months, and I expected that she would want to rest even longer.
"And where will you go from here?" She gave me a suspicious look at the question and seemed hesitant to answer.
"You don't truly know, do you?" I continued over her objections. "You have ideas. Perhaps a hundred of them for who might be willing to give you an army to aid your conquest. I won't stop you from leaving, it is your right, after all, but I will ask you to think things through before you do. Speak to your children. Discuss with your knight. When you finally have a destination, leave and accomplish your goals."
She left my solar a few minutes after that, and I lost myself in my thoughts again.
XXXXX
I rode at the head of an army larger than any city on its own could muster. The past few months had been dedicated solely to training my army. To prepare my soldiers for the war, we were heading to wage. I wasn't as arrogant as the Volantenes, so the people of Yunkai would only know I desired war with them when they woke up and saw my army at their gates.
Not like those gates would stop me, though. I'd thought for a while and concluded that it would be better for my goals if these people surrendered and accepted my rule without much fuss. I'll be removing whatever command structures they already had and reorganising the city. Still, most of the people would get to keep their heads.
When we arrived at the gates of Yunkai, I wasn't surprised to find them already shut. There was no way we could have marched across their lands without being noticed by anyone. I looked up at Arrax, and he seemed to understand my intentions without me even needing to vocalise them because of what he did next.
He dove towards the city and blew the gate to smithereens in one breath. The explosive power of his flames had seen much growth over the past few months. His body continued to grow, and I already figured that my present castle won't be large enough for him to lounge around inside when he truly finished growing.
The defenders on the walls could only watch in shock and horror as my cavalry began to ride through the space the gates once occupied. Another bolt of fire scorched off the banner that displayed the city's golden harpy above the gates, and Arrax let out what sounded like a roar to others, but I knew was actually a laugh in amusement.
The soldiers behind the walls were so shocked by the sudden disappearance of the gate that my cavalry had a quick and easy time cutting through them like wheat. It was sad to watch. The slaves, for they could be nothing less, broke ranks a few minutes into the massacre and ran into the city itself. The Unsullied flowed around me to join the cavalry in making their way through the city and killing everyone with a whip.
I knew this was only so easy because I'd allowed them to drop their guard and waited until they wouldn't expect me before I attacked. If I had bothered with a declaration of war like Volantis had, I would find the city walls well manned and several sellsword companies outside. That wasn't the case for today, though, and I sat on my horse and watched as the so-called wise masters were dragged in front of me.
"Imprison them in one of the pyramids" was all I said. I did the same to all the masters that survived the city's sack. It wasn't a real sack though. My soldiers didn't rape or loot. The punishment for that had been hammered into their heads over the last few months of training.
With Yunkai in my hands, I could decide whether to stay and consolidate my rule or march straight on Mereen. There were pros and cons to both options, to be completely honest.
If I stayed to consolidate, then that would give Mereen time to prepare for my own attack on their city. Time to hire as many sellsword companies as they could afford. There were advantages to waiting, though. It would be much easier to consolidate my rule now while the memory of my conquest was still fresh than to give the citizens of Yunkai a few weeks to entertain foolish ideas like independence.
Allowing Mereen to hire sellsword companies might also actually be to my advantage. I doubted the rest of Essos would sit by and allow me to confirm myself as King of the entirety of Slaver's bay; after all, what was to assure them that I would stop here. So taking out the soldiers they would prefer to hire ahead of time had nothing but upsides for me.
I gathered the people to the largest pyramid and delivered the speech I'd prepared for this event. "People of Yunkai. I am Theon Dragonborn, King of Astapor and now King of Yunkai as well. From my seat in my Kingdom, I saw your suffering. I heard your cries, and now I am here to tell you one thing. No more. Your freedom is guaranteed under my rule. There is no more slavery in Yunkai. Rejoice, for you are now free men." At the end of the speech, I rose my hands and basked in their cheers. The people of Yunkai had been through a lot in the last two years.
It was actually my fault, to be completely honest. When I took Astapor, the slavers of Yunkai felt they had to be even harsher to their slaves to prevent them from getting ideas of freedom. Their suffering was a consequence of my actions but they didn't need to know that.
All they needed to know was that their suffering was over. I went into the central government building and started planning what I would do next. Like Astapor, Yunkai's entire economy was based around slavery. Pleasure slaves, to be precise.
Since I was ending the entire practice, I would have to find a replacement for the trade. The good news was I could do the same ritual I'd done in Astapor, but something told me to hold off on that. Astapor already produced more than enough food to feed the entirety of Slaver's bay. At this point, it would be a waste to perform similar fertility rituals here when one part of my Kingdom has already produced more than enough food.
I had the slavers though and I needed to come up with a use for them lest they end up dying before I come up with anything. Since fertility wasn't ideal, there were other options I could explore. Luck, durability, maybe even a minor blessing for increased quality. I stopped at that last thought.
There was a ritual that could make everything produced in this city of a higher quality than things produced elsewhere. It was a minor improvement, but it could be very useful. It led to an increase in every observable quality of the final finished product. With a ritual like this, I could have Yunkai as the production base of my new Kingdom.
This thought made me reconsider the place of Astapor in this Kingdom of mine. Would I be satisfied with keeping it as the breadbasket? Something told me I would always want Astapor as the capital of my Kingdom. I had nothing but fond thoughts of the city and it was the first city in the Kingdom. I couldn't deny that Mereen would be more suitable for the role, but I was a sentimental being at heart.
No need to think about that right now though. I had a ritual to perform and things to do for the city itself. My personal company of unsullied followed me as I marched into the pyramid where the slavers were stored. This ritual would be more complex than the fertility ritual so I'd need their help.
These were the same unsullied that had followed me all the way to Valyria and back. They knew the secret of Arrax's birth. They would never betray me. I was sure of that. They got to work as we entered and bound all the slavers in short order. I took a knife and started the bloody work this ritual required. I had to carve the runes on their skin. This ritual wasn't an easy one. Holding them still while I essentially maimed them was a tall task, but I was more than strong enough. Keeping my hand steady even as they screamed in pain and begged was the more difficult thing, though. It pulled and dragged at me in different ways.
I comforted myself with the knowledge that these were slavers. They were the most despicable kind of people. They'd chosen to stand against me. They deserved this. Even this knowledge didn't stop my hand from shaking and dropping the knife as I retreated from the last of them. I'd just carved into the skin of almost two hundred people. I couldn't tell how much time had passed, but it had to have been hours.
I stepped back from all of them and lifted my hands into the air before I started to chant. It didn't take long for me to realise magic had accepted my sacrifice. They all became consumed in flames, one after the other. The flames showed their magical nature as they didn't produce any smoke or smells.
When I left the pyramid, it was to a moonlit night. I'd gone into the pyramids in the late morning. Luckily, I'd had the forethought to imprison the slavers in the farthest pyramid from the population centres and still store them in the lowest level to ensure their screams didn't spread.
It clearly worked since no one gave my guards and me a suspicious look as we returned to the government building. Now, I had to set up a council of some sort to rule the city in my absence.
I couldn't be bothered, though; Greybeard had been my side from the beginning. He needed a reward, and I didn't want to have to do the work of settling the city myself. Two birds and one stone, as the saying went.
I called him to my office and prepared my speech to get him to accept. I found myself making more speeches than I ever expected to these days. A speech to the citizens of Astapor before I left, one to my army and another to the people of Yunkai.
Greybeard's knock on the door brought my attention back to the present, and I shouted for him to come in. As he walked in, I unsheathed my sword and spoke before he could get a single word in. "Kneel"
He obeyed instantly. I smiled at his passing my little test. In truth, I'd never expected him to fail it but the final confirmation of his loyalty gave me some much-needed peace of mind.
I walked over and rested my blade on one of his shoulders. "Greybeard of the Unsullied, I, Theon Dragonborn, King of Slaver's bay, name you Governor of Yunkai. Your loyalty to me is unquestioned and you have served me in every capacity I've ever asked. Will you serve me now?" I asked after tapping my sword on both his shoulders like I was knighting him.
Xxxxx
Meereen was clearly prepared for our eventual attack. The few months spent in Yunkai hadn't done our campaign any favours. There were hordes of sellswords arrayed against us outside the city's walls.
I looked at the armies and could only laugh. They'd hired second sons, storm crows and even the fucking golden company. The army in front of me was large enough to give any sane man pause. Good thing I wasn't just a man.
Looking at them gave me the beginnings of a plan to take them all down. Every person in this world has forgotten what it means to fight a dragon, and I'll take it as my solemn duty to remind them.
The plan had gotten unanimous agreement from what was beginning to look like my very own war council. We waited till the break of dawn before I got on Arrax's back and prepared to handle our part.
A single dragon, no matter how large, would never be able to take out an army this size. Contrary to what most people thought, dragons weren't army killers. The field of fire was a fluke. The Gardener King had been stupid enough to face dragons on a grassy field. Even though unembellished accounts of the battle were few and far between, it was common knowledge among the maesters that the bulk of the reach and Lannister armies had actually died due to suffocation and not actually burning.
There wasn't any grass here, so I wouldn't be attempting anything similar. Our plan was a bit different. We'd been here for almost three weeks now, and we allowed them to let their guard downs. They didn't do anything stupid like throw a party or forget to set up patrols and watchmen. Still, the fact that we'd been here for weeks and hadn't done anything meant the watchmen would be less high-strung and alert than they would have been weeks ago.
Arrax and I flew straight up until we were covered by the heavy clouds. It was a cloudy night, so it was even more perfect for our plans. The goal today was to set most of the tents on fire. Their Scorpions weren't displayed anywhere I could see them. They'd learned Volantis' lesson. The only problem was that they'd be unable to quickly equip them if I attacked by surprise like I would be doing now.
Arrax dove straight down on my signal and set fire to the first few tents in our sight. A barrel roll later, we were off towards a different set. The goal wasn't to set every single tent on fire but to set enough of them so that their nights would become uncomfortable. We also endeavoured to take out any obvious command tents.
Unfortunately, the only people stupid enough to set up a giant command tent with their flag were the storm crows. I took pleasure in commanding Arrax to incinerate it with a muttered, "Dracarys". The golden company tents all looked the same, and the same could be said for the other sellsword companies. We just set fire to the ones towards the centre of their encampments.
With the entire camp on alert and running around like headless chickens, our mission was almost complete. We went for the elephant stables next. The golden company was especially proud of those mounts of theirs, so it was only logical for us to take them down now that the opportunity was in front of us.
The guards in front of the stable were turned to charcoal with a single burst of flame, and Arrax turned to the elephants inside before doing what he did best. He set them on fire, but given how fat they were, they didn't burn instantly. Instead, they were startled and broke out of their chains before rushing about in panic. A few more blasts of flame ensured they went straight towards the camp.
With my mission accomplished, I smiled in joy and prepared to take off back into the skies before my hearing picked something up. I was barely able to lean out of the way of the scorpion bolt sent my way.
Arrax's excellent night vision picked up the unlucky bastard and his weapon. We were right in front of him before he could even start reloading the weapon. Arrax could be fast when he wanted to. A swipe of his tail shattered the weapon to pieces, and another burst of fire set the pieces to fire. The idiot aiming it tried to run, but an arrow punctured his skull a second later. Having my bow with me while I flew on Arrax's back could come in clutch at moments like this.
Arrax flew off from the camp, not interested in causing any more damage since we'd already done all we came for.
Xxxxx
It took three days for the sellswords to ride towards us under the flag of parley. We'd known it was coming, but apparently, they'd had things to put in order first. It was decided that we'd hold the talks in my tent. While allowing them to ride through our camp and scout our defences was a risk, it was negligible since they weren't in a position to do much of anything.
The leaders of the various sellsword companies came walking in with confident strides. The golden company commander, Harry Strickland, led them in with his head held high. Something about that posture tickled me the wrong way. My draconic instincts hated the sheer arrogance on display.
"You stand in the presence of Theon Dragonborn, first of his name, King of New Valyria, breaker of chains, protector of freedom." The announcer I'd acquired in Yunkai spoke out. New Valyria was what I'd decided to call this fledgling kingdom of mine. While the name had some bad connotations and history, it was nothing I couldn't deal with given time. It also had the advantage of being recognisable in people's minds. When they heard the name Valyria, certain thoughts would come to a person's mind. Some of these thoughts were favourable, like thinking of industrial advancements and dragons, but others, not so much. Having my new Kingdom associated with slavery and blood magic was less than ideal, but it was well worth it. At least, that's what the council had argued.
I personally feel they just didn't want me coming up with a ridiculous name on my own. The name would cause problems. That fact was obvious. I'd just have to deal with those problems when they inevitably came up.
The sellswords did their own introductions and sat on their offered seats. They'd also avoided kneeling to me as they entered. The disrespect had my blood boiling. Assuming Arrax's senses and instincts, like I did, might not have been a completely good idea as I'd previously thought. I patiently watched them, waiting to see what they had in store for me.
A/N; I know this is coming extremely late and I'm sorry for that. Uni just has this habit of fucking up all your plans.