Apparently, they didn't have anything worth anything to offer. The golden company captain was the one to do most of the speaking and his offer was less than nothing. The city of Meereen was willing to give me five million in gold to turn around and never return.

After I'd already decimated their sellsword army? The offer might as well have been an insult. It was clear that the other sellswords felt similarly. They knew I wouldn't accept. They knew it in their bones. The knew what would be coming from them when today's negotiations inevitably failed.

"No." I said in reply to their ridiculous offer. "Meereen will join my kingdom by the end of the week. The only question is whether you fine men will still have your skulls attached to your heads." At the last part, I allowed the bloodthirsty smile I'd been holding back to take over my face.

The looks in their eyes told me I'd achieved my goal. The new commander of the stormcrows broke first. "Fuck this, I'm done" He said as he marched from the tent. The rest of the sellsword commanders followed his lead.

I knew I could look forward to a lot of desertions during the night. I also had our watch doubled for the night, and that was proven to be the right decision.

I was woken up by the Unsullied at the entrance to my tent before the enemy was even upon us. There was no need for me to do anything. Greybeard had commanded the unsullied into an impressive shield wall and as the sellswords crashed into them, I was reminded of why these were the greatest warriors in the world.

A full heavy cavalry charge and not a single one of them had even flinched. Our enemy's first charge had failed miserably and there was nothing for them to do but try again. Again and again, they rallied and charged. Again and again, they died by the hundreds. Any other army would have given up after three passes but this was the infamous golden company. They didn't even flinch at the knowledge of their certain death.

They kept charging to their deaths while screaming that infernal catchphrase of theirs, 'beneath the gold, the bitter steel' they screamed on every charge.

Finally, they started making headway. One or two knights managing to kill the Unsullied ahead of them turned to tens and then eventually dozens. Even after my attack, they had the advantage of numbers. Those numbers were showing through here. I could see what their plan had been, and it had already failed.

A whistle told Arrax it was time. He swept down from the clouds and set the back lines of their cavalry on fire. He landed right behind their charge and let out a deafening roar. I laughed as I saw the 'knights' of the golden company turn and stare death in the eyes. They probably didn't even notice the way they dropped their weapons and fell to their knees.

The Unsullied wasted no time in capturing and securing them. I walked over to Arrax and got on his back to get a good look at the sellsword encampment. It was pretty much all gone. That explained the golden company's desperate attack. The rest of the sellswords had up and left after realizing there was nothing but death waiting for them here. The golden company couldn't do that though.

Their word was 'good as gold' after all. How would they abandon a contract when that was the very thing their entire reputation was built on.

Even as desperate as they were, they still managed to come up with a reasonably dangerous plan. To attack as night and mix themselves up with my own army in the camp. Slaughter them while I couldn't bring my dragon to bear for fear of killing my own army. I don't think I could have come up with a better plan if I was in their situation.

XXXXXX

With the sellswords taken care of, our march on the walls of Meereen went without opposition. As we got closer, I noticed something off. There was a lot of noise in the city. It sounded like a war was being fought within.

Arrax opened the gate by wiping it from existence and we could only stare in shock at what was in front of us. Death. A lot of fucking death. Even before my eyes, people were dying. Man fought man. Slaves versus freedmen, my mind supplied, noting the differences in attire and health of the combatants.

I had two choices in front of me. I could either send my men in and interfere, unnecessarily risking their lives or I could wait outside with my army for the fighting to be over and risk the lives of the slaves within the city.

It wasn't really much of a choice. The slaves were going to be my future citizens and the members of the army were already my citizens.

Luckily, I was saved from having to make such a choice by a nudge from Arrax. Since the ritual to share gifts, we'd been finding it easier and easier to communicate with each other non-verbally as the days went by.

His idea had merit and would probably work so I got on his back and allowed him take the lead. He marched in, striding through the space formerly occupied by the city's gates like it was all his. His Kingdom. I'd named him Arrax, king of the old Valyrian Gods, and I was now beginning to see the resemblance.

His golden scales gleamed in the harsh sunslight and he let out a roar that ought to have echoed across the gigantic city. All the fighting stopped. No, most of it. A slave and one of the city's guards were still locked in their combat.

A huff from Arrax covered both men in flames and he ignored their screams as he continued to walk into the city. His message was clear. End the fighting, or I will. We continued into the city with much fanfare and made our way through it. My army filed in behind me and seized the weapons of all those that were fighting as they laid them down.

Xxxx

Meereen was a mess. It was almost impossible to figure out who was innocent and who was guilty. Everyone accused everyone of being a slaver or of contributing to the unrest in some way. At the end, after I'd grown tired of spotting lies and inconsistencies, I'd decided to kill everyone who didn't bear a slave brand and couldn't provide evidence that they hadn't been a slaver. It was an extremely unpopular decision and one that gave me pause, but it was the best I could do in the circumstances.

The deaths of the slavers had been used to power a ritual to increase the martial ability of those who trained here. I had no idea how the ritual worked, biut it created some form of effect that made warriors of Meereen stronger, faster and more durable than their counterparts. It would only affect people who began training after the ritual was over and done with. While Meereen was the strongest and largest of the cities of slaver's bay, Astapor was my first. Astapor would always be my capital. Even a city as large and developed as Meereen would never be able to supplant it in my eyes.

The process of integrating Meereen into the rest of the empire was a very short one. With most of the slavers and the city leaders dead and gone, there was barely anyone to create trouble from me. The slaves had no idea what to do with their lives, so I had little trouble recruiting most of them into the army. In my head, I'd already come up with a division for all the cities.

Astapor would be the agricultural centre, Yunkai, the industrial centre, and Meereen, the military centre. That meant I'd have to convince Greybeard to make his way from Yunkai to Meereen so he could continue his role in charge of the army. I predicted very little trouble.

The only issue had come up when I was thinking of the divisions of cities. I had no political capital. I could have Astapor double the functions and serve both purposes but the city wasn't well designed for receiving hundreds of visitors, and I didn't even live within the city itself. As the ruler of this kingdom, that was unacceptable.

I'd been content to ignore the issue till Greywater, one of the unsullied guards in my personal legion pointed out an obvious solution. "Why not build another city, your grace?" He'd asked, and I'd reflexively answered "Because we can't"

The question stayed with me though. Why couldn't we just build a new city to be the political capital of the kingdom? An easily defensible city with a proper castle at the center for me to rule from. My very own King's landing. I already even had a name for it.

There were problems with this course of action though. The first was the most obvious, money. I was rich, don't get me wrong, and with wealth from three cities flowing into my coffers, I was more than rich enough to build the city I was planning. But only if I decided not to build anything else in that same period. I'd have to put all my infrastructure projects on hold. The free water, housing, schooling. All of it would have to stop to fund the vanity project that would be my very own city. A city built from the ground up in my own image and likeness.

Even if I could secure the funding, manpower would be another issue. I needed to have my army on standby, so I couldn't draft them into the building efforts. The rest of my citizens were already occupied in essential industries. This society wasn't technologically advanced enough to mechanise most of the process, so building a city would be heavily labour intensive.

I didn't want to have to drag people out of their jobs to construct something for me so that issue was also near impossible to solve.

The final issue was also raw materials. Slaver's bay was a fucking desert. I'd have to start calling this place New Valyria in my head. The name was a bit crappy but nothing we couldn't deal with.

XXXXXXX

300 AC

The new year turned with me still busy trying to settle the new entries into my empire. Yunkai and Meereen were already beginning to produce results and show their worth. Our finished products had reached new heights after moving all manufacturing to Yunkai. The training of new soldiers happened in Meereen. The people there were more rebellious than the Yunkais but they were also more governed. With Greybeard's iron fist over them, and the bulk of my military might in the city, I had no fears of them getting any brave thoughts.

I'd also been forced to do some more negotiations and international relations in the last few months. Braavos, Pentos, the three whores, they were all circling. Things rarely changed in Essos, and in the last few years, a lot of change had happened with me at the helm.

I'd crippled Volantis on the world scales and taken over the entirety of slaver's bay, turning it into a kingdom and styling myself as King. The Essosi saw themselves as more civilized, and they weren't exactly fans of the monarchy or feudality found in Westeros. I'm sure that it must look like I was interested in bringing that over to Essos here.

Speaking of Westeros, things were still developing over there in interesting directions. With Danaerys Targaryen in my castle, I had Tiwa concentrate more efforts on finding out what was happening in the sunset kingdoms. So far, Robb Stark, the king in the North, was marching through the Westerlands, while Tywin Lannister and Mace Tyrell were working together to put down a rebellion in the stormlands. Even Davos Seaworth had appeared in a few rumours and was said to be burning through the stormlands in response to the Lannister and Tyrell forces. Both Renly and Stannis Baratheon had fallen in battle.

The Iron Islands had attacked the entirety of the Kingdom, making war with anyone and everyone. Even Dorne wasn't spared their reaving. It was said that Balon Greyjoy sailed with a thousand ships and brought despair to everywhere his fleet touched. I was grudgingly impressed and more than a little bit wary. This was the book universe, but things had gone so far away from the canon universe, that I was firmly in AU territory.

I looked up as Tiwa walked into my room with the tailors behind her. I was to meet the Sealord of Braavos, or one of his envoys today, and I had to look my best. I felt like showing up in my usual riding leathers would be enough, but Tiwa would hear none of it and she had the support of the rest of the council, so I grudgingly bowed to their wishes.

I stood still as the tailors put on the complex robes they'd prepared. I was dressed in multiple layers of silk. It all felt too much and I was uncomfortable in the robes they'd brought. Uncomfortable and hot. I turned to my balcony, and could spot the carriages bringing the Sealord's envoy to the castle.

I pulled at the collar of the robes and found that it had little give. "Out" I commanded the tailors as they tried fixing some of the wrinkles I'd put on the robes with my sudden movement. They looked confused and I was spared the effort of having to repeat myself by Tiwa ushering them out.

With them gone, I finally let out a breath and ripped the silks form my body with quick applications of strength. "A few thousand gold dragons, ripped apart like paper" She said sarcastically as she walked over to the wine on the table and poured out two glasses.

I took the one she passed me and drank of it greedily before I turned to her and said, "It felt off. Wasn't me."

"I agree." My shock must have shown on my face because her next words were, "Oh, don't be so shocked. You're a dragon. A dragon does not dress to please sheep. I see that now, forgive me for my mistake."

I smiled at her words before throwing my goblet oer my shoulder. I ignored the sound of the gold clattering on the floor behind me, or even Tiwa's surprised gasp as I pulled her over to me and consumed her lips in a heated kiss.

I pulled away after a minute and looked into her eyes. Giving her time to decide not to this. To go back. To hesitate. To avoid taking this step. She did none of that. She moved forward and captured my lips with hers. Her gown was the first thing to go. Ripped up with a flex of my hands.

I lifted her up, and her legs wrapped around my waist and I guided us to the bed. We fell together in a tangle of limbs, and my lips claimed hers once more. From her lips, I koved to her neck. She pushed my head down and I obeyed her request as I replaced my groping hands with my lips.

I swirled my tongue around her brown nipples and basked in the quiet moans she let out. Quickly getting bored of that, I continued my exploration. I laid kisses across her stomach and felt her legs shiver in anticipation as I trailed southwards.

When I was at waist, she tired of my teasing, and pushed my head down. Now at her nether lips, I allowed myself enjoy the view, and for my breath to excite her for a bit before I dove down and enjoyed my meal.

Her gasps and whimpered envouraged me to continue as I teased at her clit before moving down. The taste excited me. It did things to my body I didn't know where possible. When she finally came, I was so hard that it was beginning to hurt. I moved back up from one set of lips to another. My dick lined up to take her and make her mine in the only way I knew how. I looked into her eyes again. Giving her the opportunity to stop things here.

She ignored that and reached down to pull me into her. I sank into her folds with a gasp. Sex was nothing new to me. Even back in Winterfell, I'd gotten carnal knowledge of the fairer sex. I was an old hand at the oldest of human sports, but Tiwa blew everything out of the water.

She was no virgin; I'd never expected her to be. A female slave above the age of ten and two was practically guaranteed to have some experience, but she still felt tight enough to hold me in a vice.

Her folds were wet and slick and I slid in with a lewd sound that brought a blush to her face. I allowed her adapt to my presence for a bit before I started pumping in and out of her with quick sharp motions.

A few minutes of letting her adjust to that, and I changed things up as I started deep, slow thrusts. It was a technique I'd come up with to prolong the experience. With my otherworldly endurance, very few women could keep up with me till my climax so I'd picked up this trick to delay her own climax for as long as possible.

She screamed and mewled and moaned as I ploughed her fields with reckless abandon as I felt my climax begin to approach. We'd been at it for close to thirty minutes already when she finally came, and her climax was the final push I needed to arrive at my own.

A/N; Sorry this took so long. I wrote and rewrote the smut scene for days, but I just ended up saying, 'fuck it'. I can only learn by doing so please endeavour to let me know everything I could improve about this.

Once again, I apologise for the wait.