I turned to look at the envoy in front of me. Sitting on my throne was one of the last things I'd wanted to do after the afternoon I had, but what must be done had to be done. I was dressed in my Valyrian Steel armour. The message I was trying to clear was obvious. I had no interest in adapting to the free cities. They'd either adapt to me or find themselves consumed in flames.

The envoy, Lisandro as he'd introduced himself, kept giving Arrax nervous looks throughout the introductions. My dragon had grown to frightening size. Now, he could no longer fully fit into the hall. A third of his body was outside as he stretched in from the large opening he'd created into the hall. The stone masons would have to clean that up into a genuine entrance sooner or later. Covering it up would only invite him to create another way into the hall.

I rode Arrax, but I didn't control him. A dragon is not a slave. "Your grace, the Sealord of Bravos offers his congratulations on your victories over the slaving cities,," He was interrupted by a loud shriek from one of Danaerys' dragons. Viserion, I guessed from the voice.

The dragons had been following Arrax around for as long as they'd been here, and now, they were play fighting over a piece of meat on the floor. Now the size of small horses, their fighting was no longer as adorable and was creating an unnecessary distraction.

I turned to their mother to control them and Danaerys only gave me a shrug. She was still being passive aggressive at my refusal of her latest offer. I had a kingdom to unite and no time to expend resources conquering the seven kingdoms. I gave Arrax a significant look and he growled at the younger dragons. They quickly separated in a display of submission, showing Arrax their necks. He only snorted at them before I turned back to the envoy from Bravos. Arrax's name proved to be even more fitting as he established his dominion over the other dragons.

Lisandro continued with his speech while giving glances back to the dragons behind me. "The Sea Lord has sent me to open negotiations for a prosperous relationship between Braavos and your kingdom as it now stands. He believes it to be advantageous to all involved for Braavos to contribute to your reign as she did to your rise. "

I only smiled at his words. The message was clear. Braavos were willing to stand with me, but only if I stopped expanding. I was willing to listen to their offers but I couldn't deny that I'd grown a taste for conquest in the past few months. I'd enjoyed being on the march. Riding Arrax through a newly comquered city was a feeling nothing could quite match. Only the feeling of beingin bed with Tiwa could even come close.

"I see, and what does the sea lord propose. How can Braavos help me?" I asked with a quirk of my lips. At this point, my cities produced everything my kingdom truly needed. The only things we imported were those luxuries we could never quite get perfectly, and even those were being copied.

"The sea lord is not blind to your Kingdom's position. He believes that Braavos can contribute to your reign by providing a stabilizing influence in the international community."

Translation; Braavos sought to help me form alliances with the other cities by convincing them that I had no interest in expanding further. The only question in my mind now, was why. Why go through all this trouble? Braavos was all the way on the other side of the continent. Even if I sought to conquer my way through Essos like the Valyrian dragonlords of old, I'd be hard pressed to make it to Braavos for decades. If I sought to consolidate my new cities as I moved, then I'd never even reach Braavos in my lifetime.

They had little to fear from my continued expansion, so why seek to stop it.

"I must wonder why the sea lord is so intent on providing his aid" The best way to get answers to my question was to simply ask. If he told me the truth, then that was good, but if he didn't, then even that would give me some information on the sea lord's motivation.

"The Sealord speaks positively of you. He says that when he first saw you, you had a spark in your eyes. He says he knew you would go on to change the world. Braavos seeks to be a part of that"

Absolute nonsense. I could almost laugh at the absurdity of his statements. Goes to show me. I thought I could get some information out of a politician. His reply was completely dishonest and gave me no information about what the Braavosi truly want from me.

"And what would the Sealord have of me?" I asked after a few minutes of silence.

"Just assurances, your grace, and a betrothal" He added that last part a bit hesistantly. Not hesitantly enough for the average person to notice but I could tell. Arrax's senses were godsent when it came to telling the truth from lies.

"A betrothal?" I asked in shock. My mind was moving at a mile a minute. I turned to see the rest of my councillors looking equally shocked. Tiwa had a look in her eye that I'd never seen before, and Danearys was observing everything with a keen eye.

"The Sealord wishes to bind your kingdom with Braavos even tighter than by mere words on parchment. He seeks a blood binding between your dynasty and the city of Braavos by marrying you to his only daughter"

I kept silent as I watched the reactions to the envoy's offer. The only one that managed to surprise me was Daenerys. She looked afraid. After months of knowing her, it wasn't difficult to intuit the reason why. She felt that she only held value to men as a possible wife, and probably thought that if I found a different bride, then I'd quickly toss her out on her arse.

"And what assurances does the sealord want of me?"

XXXXXX

The Sealord's offer was quite tempting if I was being honest. My Kingdom was still in its early developmental stages so we had little protection from the other cities. I'd suddenly expanded and the rest of Essos were still reeling from my actions. I'd broken the rules of engagement in every way possible.

At this point, I was certain the only thing keeping the other cities from marching in full force and deposing my 'tyrannous regime' was Arrax. I had no idea how long their fear of the largest dragon the world had seen in centuries would stay their hands and prevent them from doing something we would all come to regret.

Braavos offered to stop that by interceding on my behalf and essentially convincing the other cities that I was no threat to them or their citizens. All they required from me in exchange was a marriage, and a promise to stop my expansion. The marriage was the least attractive option, to be honest. I'd just started whatever I had with Tiwa and I wasn't comfortable with letting that go. Besides, I still needed to keep my hand available just in case. I knew exactly why the Sealord intended to marry his daughter to me. He sought to ensure his grandchildren would ride dragons, or failing that, rule my kingdom after me. The situation shared too many parallels to Robert's marriage with Cersie for me to be completely comfortable, especially since I was yet to meet her and was being given only a few days to consider the offer.

The Sealord's intention was obvious. Prevent me from actually getting enough time to think things through by creating artificial scarcity and haste. I could just as much ignore the offer as I could decide not to eat. Both things were technically possible, but not all that likely to turn out well for me.

Tiwa moved a bit and wrapped her arm around me. I looked down at her and was taken off guard by her beauty once again. Dark skin, hair as smooth as silk and skin that felt prefect in my hands. I pulled her even closer to me and breathed in her scent. We hadn't spoken about the Sealord's offer in private, beyond the conversation with the entire council A conversation where I was doubtful that she got to truly express her opinions on the matter.

We hadn't even spoken about our relationship- whatever this was. She was keen to avoid the topic whenever I'd brought it up yesterday or even the day before. There was nothing I could truly do, and this was, perhaps, what made me decide on an admittedly foolish course of action.

I extracted myself from her arms and went to the privy to freshen up. THis was one of those plans that practically ensured negative consequences. I wasn't scared to deal with them though. All I wanted to do was move. To get this over with.

I dressed in my armour and went to the kitchens to pack up some rations. The number of servants in the Kitchen seemed to be on a constant decline and while I had no idea why that was, I hadn't felt the decline so steeply as to be worried about it. THey were probably finding new avenues for employment within the rapidly developing city that was Astapor.

Speaking of Astapor, we'd recently seen huge spikes in immigration from other cities in the Kingdom. Not enough to be worried about, but enough to notice if one was attentive enough.

I arrived at Arrax's den and turned around to my followers. A group of unsullied had taken to following me around the castle to ensure my safety, and now I was going to ask them to do something unsullied seemed to hate more than anything else.

"Leave me. I'll be going on a flight on Arrax." I said in Astapori. The Unsullied looked to each other in confusion. I mean, it was probably obvious to them that I wasn't planning on just going flying. The armour and the rations I had were signs that I had a bit more than that planned.

"My king, allow us to guard your back as you travel." One of the unsullied, Timothy, replied to my request. His chosen name had made me give him a few weird looks but he didn't seem to know the significance of what he'd chosen so I'd let it be. It wasn't everyday you got reincarnated and had to meet someone bearing the name you'd cast off was it?

I could see the logic in it. Having guards with me meant I had less of a need to look over my shoulder constantly. The only reason not to was that it meant Arrax would have to go slower than planned so their bodies didn't turn to splat during the flight. A quick look at the sun told me it was only an hour after dawn at the most, and we were still going to make it to Braavos by dusk even with the reduction in speed their presence would necessitate.

"Fine. I'll take four of you." I said and moved in to see Arrax. By the time I was done preparing my best friend for the journey, they'd chosen four guards among themselves. Timothy wasn't one of them unurprisingly. He was notoriously afraid of heights. Unsullied didn't feel fear but Timothy wasn't a fully trained one when I'd taken over the city and I'd banned most of the methods used to ensure their fearlessness because they were simply too barbaric to be allowed to continue in a 'civilized' nation.

Arrax took off in the space between heartbeats. I noticed the unsullied clench even tighter to the saddle as my friend began to accelerate. I tapped him on the back, my intent clear. 'Slow down, we have guests' I said with words that weren't words. Our silent communication was a notable innovation in our bond that hadn't shown up until a few weeks ago.

His speed reduced to a manageable level for the men behind me and we made good time to Braavos. This was probably one of my more irresponsible actions so far but I felt good about it. I felt confident. It might just have been me getting antsy at staying in one place for so long but it wasn't so bad in my opinion.

We waited for less than an hour for the Sealord's procession as he made his way to our position on the outskirts of the city. It was easy to get a meeting with one of the most important men in the world when you rode the most dangerous creature on the planet. We made a few passes around the city before we landed and began to wait.

I reclined against one of Arrax's wings while the Unsullied stood in formation around me. My attempts to get them to relax had been politely, but firmly, brushed off.

The Sealord looked quite differently than he did all those years ago. His hair had begun to grey in some places and I could see the fat clinging to a previously muscular form. The years hadn't been kind to him.

He might have aged a decade, but that did nothing to dampen his boisterousness as he got down from his paladin and shouted my name across the empty field.

"Theon Greyjoy" He said with a bright smile on his face that almost brought a crack to my impassive facade. What he was trying to do was clear to me. "It's a joy to see you grace Braavos again. You must come inside. A feast. A massive feast is the least we can do for such a great friend."

If Arrax couldn't smell the fear wafting off the man then I might have never even noticed thjat the entire thing was an act. He was a frighteningly good liar. Good enough to bury all the minute twitches and body-language tells. A politician to the bone.

"My friend. Good to be back and see Braavos again. I'd love to come inside, but I'm in a bit of a hurry right now. Places to go, I'm sure you understand" I paused to allow him to nod in agreement. This was fun.

"I received your envoy, but I felt it would be better if we did the negotiations in person, you see?" He nodded again. Even though he hid the fear well, there was no doubt that the massive dragon in front of him was influencing his actions. Good. At least, he wasn't one of those idiots so comfortable in their positions that they legitimately believe that no one would kill them for fear of retaliation. After all, what good would the revenge of Braavos do for a man who was already dead as a doornail.

"Yes. Yes. A splendid idea" He replied when I didn't continue talking. I did my best to prevent myself from chuckling at his words.

"I got your offer, and I am here with a counter-offer of my own. Braavos will provide the Kingdom of New Valyria with two dozen shipwrights and will also mediate between Valyria and the rest of Essos." His look was glorious.

"And what will Braavos be getting in return?" He asked hesitantly and I smiled a feral smile.

"I won't burn your city to the ground." Arrax opened one massive reptilian eye and brought his head closer to me at my threat. What need did I have to negotiate with people so far below me they weren't even fit to lick my boots?

The threat seemed to have helped the Sealord find what remained of his mahood since he reared up at my words and replied acidly, "Braavos does not take kindly to threats. We were the first of the cities to assert independence from Old Valyria. We have seen dragons before. We have survived Dragons. Every would-be conqueror that has set his eyes on Braavos has fallen. You won't be the first nor the last, my friend"

His words sent a fire of indignation through my soul, and I prepared to utter the words that would doom my kingdom to another few years of war when I suddenly stopped. Arrax had covered my body with his wing to prevent me from saying or doing anything. I could onll thank the gods for that. My best friend had saved me once again.

After giving myself a few minutes to calm down, I tapped Arrax, and he moved his body aside. I walked from his protection to find the Sealord close to pissing himself in fear. I guess he finally understood his words.

"I apologise. That was poorly done. To begin a partnership with threats was ill thought. What would Braavos like from New Valyria."

He calmed significantly at my words and seemed to be considering things.

"Am I right to assume that the terms I relayed to the envoy will be unsatisfactory?" I only nodded at his astute question.

"We have heard tale of a new miracle material that is liquid and hardens to become strong as stone. We want the secrets to that material, and a marriage to seal the agreement." I smiled at him as I thought things over. Cement was the secret to Astapor's rapid development, but I never planned on exporting it. It was too finicky to trade over long distances with the present technology, and there was no assurance of demand. Telling them how to make their own cement would cost me nothing and gain me an invaluable ally. The marriage though?

"I agree to your first term, but a marriage will be more difficult." I said after a few minutes of careful consideration.

"You seek to keep your hand free to get a match in the sunset kingdoms" He correctly deduced and I smiled in reply. I had no idea who I wanted to marry at this point, but with the threat of the others I would need a way into Westeros eventually, and marriage would be useful for that.

"Take my daughter as your first wife, then. Guarantee that her children will be your heirs and will ride dragons as you do, and I will not oppose you seeking another match at a later date." A very tempting offer.

Polygamy wasn't well thought-off in Westeros, but my kingdom didn't really have any rules or precedent on that. The only thing holding me back from saying yes on the spot was Tiwa. I could tell that she would be opposed to the match, but it was just too good a deal to pass up at this point in time.

"Before I agree, we must discuss the dowry" His smile could have beaten out the sun in a contest of brightness. He knew he had me.

XXXXX

"Do you really care so little for your advisors that you would fly to Braavos and negotiate an entire alliance with none of us being any wiser to it?" Tiwa didn't shout, the dark-skinned beauty didn't have the voice for it, but her acerbic tone conveyed her displeasure exceptionally well.

I kept silent as she continued to lay into me for my actions. "You put not just yourself, but the entire Kingdom at risk when you so recklessly flew to Braavos. You put our interests at risk when you negotiated with the Sealord with no advice. He's a seasoned politician, and played you for a food. I can't beleive you would be so careless."

Alright. THat was enough. I stood up, and she swallowed her next words fearfully. I'd never tried to foster fear with her, but she would be foolish to not recognise that she'd crossed a line.

"I will only tolerate talk like that once. Consider it your first and last warning. I will not warn you again. You advise at my pleasure, but I am King. Do you understand this?" She nodded frantically at my question and I walked towards where she was standing after she'd barged into my chambers after the council meeting.

"You aren't upset at the deal with the Sealord. You know it was a good one. Our shipbuilding facilities don't match the arsenal yet, and our international position is tenuous. What upsets you is the marriage. You think a marriage with the sealord's daughter will make me forget you and what we share." She looked to the side, chastised and ashamed at me calling her out.

I got to her position and used a finger on her chin to make her look me in the eyes. "We share a bond, you and I. No marriage will change that." I leaned in and kissed her with a burning passion that she returned fervently.

Her legs wrapped around my waist and I guided us to the bed.

A/N;To be completely honest, I have no idea where to take this one anymore. I don't want to spoil things by having the ending be a complete disappointment, so I'll take a break from it. I'm sure some of you already saw the signs in how long it was taking me to even finish a single chapter.

Now, the question is, where do we go from here?

I'll be starting a new story in this same universe, but instead of present-day Westeros, we'll be taking a trip all the way back to the dance of the dragons.

There were three choices for our insert.

An OC son of Daemon, A son of Viserys, or a son of Rhaenyra. I'll be posting a poll on the page. Since this chapter was uploaded up on , we've gotten an answer to the poll so the prologue of my SI into the son of Daemon Targaryen is now up.