Small Council Chamber

Daeron Pov

Daeron entered the chamber, usually young princes such as himself would at best observe and not take part in the discussions that guide the realm, but his father King Aegon III wanted him to learn, so from a fairly young age, ten name days he thinks, he was allowed into the chamber. This seemed to bear fruit as he had a good grasp of running the Seven Kingdoms, Six Kingdoms if everyone was being honest, however he had plans to remedy that situation.

The topic of this discussion was the usual one and one that has been giving the royal family headaches and amusement for years The North. It wasn't really the North itself that was causing the headaches rather it was nearly everyone south of the Neck complaining about something the North was doing, although most were simply playing the Game. They were trying to curb a rival's influence and power and the North was certainly a growing power. Even in the most pessimistic of predictions predicted that the North would be the undisputed single most powerful of the Kingdoms by the time of his grandchildren.

Unfortunately for those who play the Game of Thrones the North was doing everything by the book like always, so they couldn't accuse them of treason or anything illegal and underhanded, as far as everyone is aware there were few to no skeletons in the Norths closet. It also didn't help that the North was a tight knit community that wasn't fond of traitors, outsiders or the Game. That made sabotage in its various forms such as paying a few Houses in the North to cause problems and bickering distracting and weakening House Stark and the North impossible. And made infiltration difficult as usually your family would have to live there for generations to be considered Northerners and be trusted members of the community, no spy could be maintained for that long.

The best they could do was to send some bandits up North but those were quickly dealt with as people trained in the South really couldn't survive in the wilderness of the North for very long, it was estimated that over half of those bandits died from the cold while the rest were done in by some very angry well-armed villagers. Some tried to insert themselves into the North through trying to negotiate marriage contracts into the now powerful and wealthy Northern Houses, but the North refused and rightly, so he thought. The South had been insulting, taking advantage of them and looking down on them as barbarians for centuries, those negotiators were lucky not to have been challenged to duels when they showed up at their doors. It was also intelligent for the Northmen to refuse as accepting would be the same as inviting spies into your keep, not something he or anyone else would recommend.

The Northerners may do their best to avoid playing the Game of Thrones, but they could still be affected by it and affect it as shown by the Dance of the Dragons, so their isolation is their continued policy of doing their best not to get involved with anything South of the Neck.

"Tell me have you discovered where those Lords were sending their coin and other resources?" Prince Viserys Hand of the King asked their Master of Whispers Borros of House Rykker of Duskendalei.

"I managed to discover that they are sending it to the Iron Islands" he replied.

The Iron Islands why there? As if someone heard his thoughts the question was answered.

"It's obvious they are going to attack the North" King Aegon said "The Iron Islands are mostly barren of trees and other useful vegetation so where do they get the lumber to build and maintain the Iron Fleet? The North that's where, the North has more trees just along its coast than the entire Kingswood, with a lack of a Northen navy and people along most of its coast the Ironborn could log the area at will but now? Now, there is the Northern Navy blocking their way with some large powerful ships and with an increasing population that massive empty coastline will no longer be so empty, if they don't do anything their precious fleet will rot away and every ship, they lose will be irreplaceable".

"Indeed" said Borros "from what I discovered those Lords are providing the necessary materials and funds to maintain and expand the Iron Fleet and better arm the reavers and plan to devastate everything in their reach from Moat Cailin to Bear Island. The Lords who are funding this are either ones who are being negatively affected by the North's recent prosperity and seek to return things to the status quo or at least revenge for their recent trouble. The others are ones who are seeking to reduce a potential rival's power and influence before they get too strong. If the attack is as successful as they hope the North's rise to power might be delayed for another fifty to hundred years" finishing the report.

"Can the North resist such an attack and should we stop it or at least warn the North?" Lord Commander Ser Reynard Ruskyn asked.

"I unfortunately do not how well prepared the North would be for such a massive naval invasion, small scale raids, they were more than prepared for that before they had their own navy but a full-scale invasion by the entire Iron Fleet?" he just shrugged his shoulders "No clue, I have few spies up there and none are in that an important position to give me anything but a general picture of what happens in the North".

Waiting a minute to let the Small Council absorb that piece of information before continuing.

"As for convincing the Iron Born to not attack or stop those supporting them, I don't think it is possible to stop them, even if you threatened them with your dragons, they would just give you lip service then go ahead anyway. It also doesn't help what they are doing isn't illegal, they can "invest" their coin in any way they want, the Iron Born can expand their "fishing fleet" at will with that investment. Until the fleet goes into Northern waters and begins to attack, we have no justification to stop them unless we get our hands on a letter or confession stating that they intend to break the King's Peace" Borros clearly laying out the situation.

The Game of Thrones was a tricky business where everyone who did things openly had to wrap their actions in the cloak of law, religion or righteousness in order to not be called out, which at best would be them disgraced or at worst the end of their family line if they were caught. That's what exactly they did, they wrapped their actions in law making them publicly unassailable.

"It also doesn't help that the Ironborn are supported by nearly the entirety of the Reach, Westerland's and Dorne, including the Lannister's, Tyrell's and Martell's. We can't punish Dorne as it is outside our control and trade sanctions against them would damage us as much as them and your ancestor Aegon the Conquer showed the futility of a war against them. While if we get the evidence, we can punish the other three Kingdoms, but we would be punishing virtually the entirety of those three kingdoms perhaps leading to a rebellion or another civil war!" Borros exclaimed, showing the seriousness of the situation they found themselves in.

If they tried to do something at best they would be seen as tyrannical as they had a lack of evidence, at worst they would cause a rebellion by Three kingdoms, the one with the largest army the Reach, the one with the best equipped army from the Westerland's and the one with the single most powerful navy the Iron Islands. And while unlikely Dorne could also potentially join in although they would most likely support the rebels in discrete ways.

If they did nothing, then it would lead to open warfare between the North and Iron Islands and perhaps the other three Kingdoms if the North discovered that they were involved. Again, leading to a civil war between the various Kingdoms with the Royal Family having no choice but to support the North as they weren't the ones to break the King's Peace. Damned if they did, damned if they didn't, they would win the war eventually they had dragons, but the cost of the war would probably equal or exceed the Dance of Dragons something few who lived through it had the stomach for, especially King Aegon.

The best solution to end this as peacefully as possible would be to find evidence and blackmail all the supporters to stop, without their support, the Ironborn would be crippled. However, that was an unlikely scenario as it required them to find enough tangible evidence to blackmail enough of the participants and if those participants realized they were all being blackmailed instead of individually they would unite and probably threaten to summon their banners. Perhaps leading to the scenario, they wanted to avoid.

"We have only one option if we are to avoid war consuming the Seven Kingdoms on the same scale as the Dance of the Dragons" Viserys said "and that is go North and inform the Wolves. Then we need to convince them that it is in their best interest and the rest of the Realms interest for them not to hunt down everyone involved in the plot to attack their Kingdom once the invasion is dealt with" he sighed "to do that we would probably have to offer a lot of concessions and favors and it will be a lot as they hold grudges for a long time as the saying goes The North Never Forgets" almost whispering out those last words and everyone in the room felt a slight chill as if the North came into that room for a split second once those words were uttered.

"Yes, but how should we warn them without giving anything away, I mean we know that there aren't any spies here thanks to him" Ser Gedmund Peake Master of Ships nodded his head towards the door where outside it with other members of the Kingsguard was a warrior from the North. It was decided by Viserys after Oldtown to see if he could find somebody who could repeat what Cregan had done to the spies. The Warden of the North obliged and sent someone down with both swearing that he wouldn't replace the spies and report nothing of the Kings and Small Council's secrets to anyone. Oh, the spies learned after the first fifty were caught.

"But once outside the Red Keep any message we send could be intercepted or the courier bribed, and the Raven's messages are not large or secure enough to hold a discussion of this importance and one of the Small Council going up North would be too obvious" he finished.

Unfortunately, everyone thought including Daeron he was right they were stuck between a storm and a kraken. Then an idea hit.

"What if I go" everyone looked at him "a prince even a crown prince going on tours of the Kingdoms isn't unusual and is almost expected and we can claim that officially my trip to the North is to strengthen the bonds between the Targyaren's and the now powerful North while we can spread rumors that unofficially I am trying to get a better understanding of what is happening in the North as our spies are unable to tell us what we need to know, to satisfy the more suspicious Lords, as we would be seen to be playing the Game" I finished.

Everyone suddenly got contemplative looks on their faces "That could work" Aegon said slowly "we would have to ensure that the rumors are spread in a way that doesn't make it look like we were doing it on purpose as that would make everyone suspicious, but it would work".

After a few minutes of discussing the pros and cons of this idea it was decided to go ahead.

However, one question remained "What are they waiting for?" everyone turned to look at Reynard "Why haven't they attacked? I mean everyone knows the North is getting stronger by the year and from the sound of things they are more than prepared to attack so why are the Ironborn restraining themselves?".

It was a good question and one they didn't have an answer to but if they wanted to properly warn the North that question would be essential in predicting when the attack would take place.

…...

At the same time Essos, The Five Forts

Ranma Pov

I walked towards the middle of the Five Forts, massive structures able to house ten thousand men each, the Wall of the East, she looked behind her and with her eyesight she could look at the Land of the Shrykes, a race of primitive tribal lizardmen, beyond that there were three other bastions of civilization though to call them civilizations would be a stretch to most people. Bonetown, a settlement made entirely of bone situated north-east of the Five Forts, its human inhabitants trading the bones of the creatures that are found in the Dry Deep, a massive canyon filled with strange creatures.

The Cities of the Bloodless Men existing on the opposite side of the Dry Deep, a civilization of extremely pale humans that many believe don't have blood going through their veins and many believe that they were corpses brought to life because of how deathly pale they were. She nearly laughed at that, those who started and believed such rumors obviously had never seen a Wight before.

Then North of both Bonetown and the Five Forts lay K'Dath her mouth twisted into a grimace at the thought of that place. That was a dark and evil place filled with black magic and sacrifices of intelligent beings to gods that makes the Black Goat of Qohor look tame in comparison and the Black Goat is offered blood of thousands of animals and humans every year! She will have to see if they could be turned to a less bloody path if not, she would erase that city off the map and put an end to such cruelty. In her younger days she would be horrified to have even considered ending a life no matter how evil they were or what crime they committed let alone a city full of them but that was before, before the loss of so many people she knew, before the world burned, flashes of the devastation appearing before her eyes.

There were others living in the land between the Five Forts and that frozen desert, the Grey Waste, but they were closer to the smaller tribes of Free Folk in Westeros, small primitive groups that are trying to survive with several cannibal tribes among them.

Then she looked at the Grey Waste, a blanket of white that stretched as far as she could see, it's from there that the Night King or as he is known here the Lion of the Night would send his Essos invasion force. How the legends changed so much that she became his wife and was named Maiden-Made-Of-Light and had a child together was beyond her comprehension, they were sworn enemies, trying to kill each other not flirting shaking her head in amused despair, humans really can believe anything she thought. But how they turned the Night King into the father of their nation and justified his actions when he destroyed the Empire of the Dawn during the Long Night was certainly an amazing case of mental gymnastics by whoever made all those stories.

Looking ahead of her she looked past the Five Forts to the North-West she could see the Plains of Jogos Nhai, a flat windy, drier version of the Dothraki Sea, it was inhabited by a race of human nomad warriors, the Jogos Nhai and their Zorses and she was fairly certain them and the Dothraki are related somehow considering how similar in culture and way of life they were.

To the south of the plains lay the Golden Empire of Yi Ti, the largest, most powerful, advanced nation in the world or its carcass at least she shook her head with disgust. Why was it the more advanced a civilization was the greedier and more corrupt it was? The empire currently only existed in name only, in truth it was now a collection of hundreds of petty kingdoms with various Emperors, nobles, sorcerers and even powerful tax collectors vying for control tearing the realm apart in a destructive and petty war that made the Dance of Dragons look small in comparison. Even now hundreds of thousands of people were raging war all over the Empire, while its external enemies took advantage of the situation, raiding deep into its territory extracting wealth, slaves and tribute from the petty lords.

She then turned her attention towards the fort in front of her, a massive oily black wall that surrounded the fortress proper, the walls were even taller than the Wall, almost a thousand feet high, made out of the same nearly indestructible stone as her old home. Her students she sent to Essos did good work. The fortresses themselves were nearly impregnable as long as there were enough men to defend it. Though there could be improvements she thought looking at the massive gaps between the fortresses. She face palmed, why on earth did they not build a wall to completely block off this route?

"Halt who goes there!" one of the two guards outside of the gates yelled. Well maybe guards would be stretching it as I snorted when I looked at them. Their weapons and armor were chipped and badly maintained, their clothes worn, filled with patches and the color fading, they were dirty and unshaven, and it was clear that they spent most of their time laying about. Judging by how well their muscles were and their stance and way they were holding the weapons they never practiced or drilled. They were also leering at me as undisguised lust was on their faces as they stared at my chest. No discipline whatsoever, I sighed I would probably have to beat all the perverts in the fort up. These two didn't look like they could guard an egg let alone a fortress. The only bright side was that they weren't drunk (probably because there was no drink available, I thought)

The Wall before I got involved was slowly turning into a penal colony where scum of all sorts was sent but at least they had their oath and traditions that ensured those recruits were trained and turned into something resembling soldiers. Here there was no such thing as the forts had been abandoned and reclaimed many times over the course of their history and unquestionably affected by politics while the Night's Watch managed to mainly avoid dealing with Westeros politics. Now with the civil war going on the real soldiers were fighting each other so the dregs were sent here to protect the local lords' flanks from the occasional small raid from the "Barbarians of the East". In fact, at least ten lords claimed at least one of the forts, but truth be told all the lords that were bordering the Five Forts decided to have an unofficial neutral zone where they work together while trying to kill one another on all other fronts. As the Five Forts were little value other than defense, no important resources, the small bit of trade not worth much and the forts had no strategic position or importance in a Yi Ti civil war.

"I want to see the person in charge" I said keeping my tone and face fairly neutral despite wanting to slap these two pigs (I refused to call them men) in the face.

"Oh, why would a pretty thing like you would be allowed to see the commander" the one on the left said trying to make himself look impressive and manly (notice the word trying, Ranma pet kraken was more handsome and manly than him).

"I have business with him, I have no time for tenth rate men" she responded eyeing the two disdainfully.

Both men froze, then their hands tightened on their weapons, their faces red and you could almost see the steam coming out of their ears.

"HOW DARE YOU, YOU LITTLE BITCH" and proving their undisciplined nature they, both charged with their badly kept spears aiming to pierce her body, to the astonishment of the two brutes their weapons shattered instead.

She then grabbed them both by the throat and lifted them up, their legs kicking and their hands trying to pry her hands off their necks.

Her eyes then glowed stopping the two men from struggling as they realized they were not dealing with an ordinary person "Tell him I desire to speak with him, tell him the Maiden-Made-Of-Light has returned" then dropping the two on the ground. They stared at her as if she was some alien that came from the stars or an unbelievable or mythical creature that shouldn't exist, though in a way she was an unbelievable being.

They began to scramble on the dirt and then ran away either to tell their boss or to piss themselves in fear she mused as she kept her glowing eyes on the backs of the terrified retreating pair, before turning them off. Most of the legend regarding the fall of the Empire of the Dawn and the creation of the Golden Empire of Yi Ti may mostly be fiction with a few facts thrown in but that doesn't mean she can't use the truthful bits to her advantage.

A few minutes later they returned with over two dozen men and ahead of them were three better dressed and kept men, they were by no means magnificent examples of military gear and clothing, and they didn't look all that impressive but at least they were presentable.

They were probably nobles, disgraced nobles at that, probably unofficially exiled here because of political maneuvering back home. They looked at me and then at the shattered spears on the ground, clearly their subordinates informed them what took place here and they decided to see what happened for themselves instead of dismissing such an unbelievable report.

There was a minute of awkward silence between them that was broken by the leader with the most subordinates judging by the badly painted and faded symbols on their armor. I suppose having the most "soldiers" (one could almost hear the sarcasm despite this being an internal thought) would make him the commander of this fortress.

"I am Liu Bang commander of the Golden Dragon Fortress, you are the one who claims to be the Maiden-Made-Of-Light" he said, with an eyebrow raised, it was clear he didn't really believe her claim but was humoring probably what he thought was a mad woman or a charlatan.

"Yes" I said and then not just my eyes, but my entire body started glowing and the wind around me was raised buffeting my hair and clothes in a very impressive display. The clouds above us thickened and darkened, with giant lightning bolts now flashing across the sky in a way that looked like Eastern Dragons. The ground around seemed to be distorting and shifting and the many pebbles that surrounded her were now floating around her.

"Is that enough evidence for you?" my voice firm and commanding, the response was a bunch of whimpers, two people fainting and several people losing control of their bladders and bowels and now a disgusting odor wafting through the air. I decided to end the show before more people could lose control of their private parts.

"I would advise to have our discussion in a more secure location after you wake those two up and your men get a change of clothes" I said trying to ignore the smell, that was one of the downsides of having superhuman senses, something that smelled iffy to a normal person was downright horrible for her. Ironically enough no army in the world could defeat her or drive her off but a terrible smell would perhaps be capable of that.

Half an hour later we were in the fortress proper in what looked like the main hall, it was unimaginable named the "Black Hall" and she mused the other four of the Five Forts probably also named their main hall the "Black Hall". Every man in the fortress all 312 of them were in the hall and she must admit that a more disgusting, disgraceful display of men would be difficult to find. At least some of them were looking at her with a healthy degree of fear and respect instead of leering at her, the ones at the gate realized she could probably kill them all with a lightning bolt if she felt like it after her display in front of the gate.

The commanders were at a table which was on a raised dais at the end of the room but by the looks on their faces, they would rather be anywhere else but here whether that is because of her or their post she wasn't sure.

"While I can't say for certain that you are Maiden-Made-Of-Light, I will acknowledge that you are a powerful magic user and not a charlatan in that regard but the question whether you are the Maiden-Made-Of-Light or not is not important. Why you are here and what you hope to gain is a much more important question to me" Liu Bang stated, getting a nod from the other two commanders.

"I am going to reclaim the Empire of the Dawn and beyond" she announced causing noises of surprise "from the Grey Waste to the Bone Mountains, to do that I am going to have to declare war on all the various claimants, warlords and other nations and then crush them. I decided rather than do it one at a time, I would declare war on them all at once. To do that I need to summon them using the Five Forts" she explained.

There was silence, a silence that carried disbelief in it and that could be reflected in their faces, I admitted I probably sounded pretty insane to them, declaring war on everyone East of the Bone Mountains and win should be impossible and only an insane person could think to try let alone think they could succeed.

"Tttthhhats impossible, your mad" a stuttering voice rang out.

"When it comes to me nothing is impossible, as for being mad I suppose I can be called mad since I think so differently from an ordinary person but then again, I am not an ordinary person" she shrugged her shoulders.

"However, I am going to light the beacon to summon them here, if you want to try and stop me, then go ahead" she then turned around and walked out the door.

As I walked up the stairs leading to the top of the fortress, I could hear people following me although they didn't take me up on my offer to stop me. I just walked up the thousands of steps that made up the stairs, the black stonework surrounding me. Although if one looks carefully, they could see numerous runes etched into the stone, worn and faded but still there. Like Winterfell these runes were not just merely decorative but also served a function, to help protect and preserve the impressive structure that they were currently in.

In took over an hour to walk to the top of the fortress and I could hear the labored breathing behind me. At the top of the fortress was a massive beacon, like the one at the Hightower, except much bigger and it wasn't lit.

One of the guards had a smug look on his face, or as smug as it could be when you're panting for breath "It takes dozens of men to work it and the magic used to turn it on and convey messages has long been forgotten, no way you can do it" he said.

Not saying anything I walked up to the giant levers and then began to push with one of my hands causing the old machinery to move and groan. It was quite clear that it needed oil to move properly and dusting, she thought as over a thousand years' worth of dust began to fly in the air.

The men behind her looked in awe and fear as she moved something that no single human should be capable of moving. She continued moving the various levers until everything was in position. Then she walked up to a table that had numerous runes etched into it, it was the control panel for the beacon, it controlled which direction the light would travel and the color, as the color would differentiate what the light means. Green was for summoning a meeting of the Living, while red was for telling everyone the Others were back and now attacking the Forts, there were various other colors, like orange and purple which conveyed different messages but green and red were the more important ones.

However, the runes were drained long ago, and nobody knew how to restore them, nobody but her she thought with a smirk. As she placed a glowing hand upon the table it lit up, the runes glowing and then the light spread, from that table to the beacon and then down. Down and down the light went the runes etched all over the fortress, now shining and clear, no longer worn. This surge of magic and light didn't go unnoticed.

…...In another of the Five Forts

"Hhheeey, Captain you may want to have a look at this" a sentry shouted.

"Yes, what is, what in the name of the Lion of the Night is going on over there?!" he shouted as he looked at the now glowing fort and then he looked down as he saw his own Fort now glowing as well.

For miles around people stopped what they were doing and stared, stared at something that shouldn't be possible but those with greater abilities could sense something even if they couldn't see it. Sorcerers, mages, shamans and priests and priestess as far as Yin could sense the surge of magic. And they could tell it was exactly the same magic that caused the Shift, except on a smaller scale.

In the mountains in a hidden valley that survived the destruction of the world tens of thousands of years ago a being also sensed.

"So, she has returned, I always thought her death was too easy, there was no way someone who could defeat me would be done in by a mere landslide" he said aloud upon his throne.

"Well, I better go and greet my queen" smirking in amusement as he knew she hated that title, he sat up and spread his wings, it was time for him to reveal himself and his people to the wider world again.

…...Back at the Fort

As Ranma now looked over the now working runes, she smirked and looked behind her for a second at the now gaping men behind her as she once again did the impossible.

"It shouldn't come as that a great of a surprise, after all it was my students who built the Five Forts of course I would know how it works and how to fix it" she commented earning numerous exclamations behind her.

"Now let's see who comes and who doesn't" as she pressed numerous runes.

There was a humming noise and then from the panel a green light emerged that went along numerous carved lines into the beacon and then like a great light house green light burst from it in all directions.

…...

Yin

"Emperor, Emperor" an attendant shouted as he ran into the throne room nearly tripping over his own feet and crashing into half a dozen people on his way before prostrating himself in front of the emperor.

Holding up his hand to stop his guards from apprehending the less than composed attendant as he broke the traditional way to approach the Emperor, however the Azure Emperor knew he wouldn't commit such a blatant act of breaking protocol if it wasn't some sort of emergency.

"The Five Forts, the Five Forts" the attendant panted "their beacons are lit, the green light shines, you are summoned".

"WHAT" and ignoring his own breach in protocol he rushed outside and saw it was indeed true the beacons were lit, he was summoned to the Five Forts. That was supposed to be impossible, the beacons hadn't been lit for nearly two thousand years! Yet he couldn't deny what he was seeing, as of now all hostilities were to cease as anyone calling themselves a ruler would have to go to the Forts or risk angering the Gods.

…...

Plains of Jogos Nhai

The tribes of the plains which were once moving in all directions in a seemingly random way completely independent of each other but now they were all moving south-east, towards the light towards the Five Forts.

As a tribal leader looked on over the arid plains and over his people as their yurts moved, moved towards the light and with a sigh he wonders what that light will signify and change.

…...

The Great Sand Sea

The female warriors of the Great Fathers are not ones to usually be surprised as they constantly faced danger whether from the elements and skirmishes with the numerous people that surrounded their borders but today, they were surprised.

The Five Forts called and for the first time in thousands of years they were to leave The Great Sand Sea and march outside their borders. For they had a commitment handed down by their ancestors to answer such summons.

…... The Land of the Shrykes

The endlessly warring tribes of Lizardmen for the first time in thousands of years stopped, their attention now focused on that light, it called to them and something deep inside them responded and so the tribes moved and for many a generation they were united.

…...Bonetown

The inhabitants didn't know what that light meant but already the town leaders were organizing an expedition to investigate it and so preparing to cross the dangerous territory between them and the Five Forts they set out.

…...

The Cities of the Bloodless Men

Long had their priests predicted the day the light would shine upon the world again, long had many derided such claims as superstitious nonsense but now that light had shined and the prophecy had begun, the world was going to change, and they knew the change only had two outcomes their survival or destruction. So, they sent emissaries, all the cities did, hoping that only the light was the true part of the prophecy as the rest predicted that even in victory, there would be a price to pay.

…... K'Dath

The light meant death, they knew that, all their powers were used to try and decipher what that light meant for them and all they could see was their city burning and a single red headed figure standing in its ash's holding a blood-soaked staff. They sent their best sorcerers, warriors and assassins, to the Five Forts they went to stop the annihilation of K'Dath, to the Five Forts they were going to.

…...

Numerous other tribes were also undertaking the journey but out of all those people and leaders who were answering the summons only one truly understood what it meant.

In the Mountains of Morn, the ruler of those mighty peaks and the Hidden Sea and all those who reside within it stood, his wings spread out.

"My Lord it is as you say, the beacons are lit you are called" as the leader of his royal guard kneeled before him.

"Yes, she has returned as I said" he responded gazing out on a valley filled with numerous springs.

"Kiima prepare the royal guard for escort duty" he ordered after a moments silence.

"Yes, my Lord" Kiima bowed and then left to fulfill the order.

He stood there gazing over the pools that introduced Ranma to magic. He was the oldest living thing on the planet, even older than Ranma. He was Pheonix King Saffron, Ruler of the Inland Sea, Guardian of the Mountains of Morn and Lord of Jusenkyo and he gazed upon the cursed springs that tied him and Ranma's eventual meeting all those years ago. Wondering what fate would introduce him to this time.

i I know this is not canon but there is no information regarding who was the master of whispers during Aegons III's reign.