Special thanks to the folks on pa-atreon for making this possible. Now without further ado let's get into it.
I hadn't really been thinking when I'd promised the Unsullied a feast. Luckily, my uncle was kind enough to provide us with a ship full of supplies. I lost every bit of pity I had for the man and what I would be doing to him when I received Greybeard's report on what they'd found on the ship.
It was clear that my uncle had been highly involved in the slave trade. He hadn't had any slaves on his ship thankfully, but the cargo hold showed signs that humans had occupied it recently. He had enough supplies on him to last an additional six months. Even with the feast. His ship also presented an additional means of transport for our treasure. Now, we only had to wait for the ships being built and we'd be good to go.
I'd come to my final breakthrough during the feast. While the unsullied enjoyed themselves with a larger meal than usual, I remained reading in my tent. I'd gone all the way to the first of the Valyrian civil wars. The one that had unified the warring families into a single unified freehold.
Here, I found that House Baelerys had discovered a means to create dragons more powerful than others. The book didn't describe the ritual clearly but there were enough hints for me to piece it all together. It also gave me the final answer to what was needed to hatch dragons.
The secret was fire and blood. I needed the human sacrifice of course, and this enhanced ritual also used dragon sacrifices. The hints gave me enough information to figure out the ingredients but if I wanted the ritual itself, then it was no use. I would have to design it myself.
Luckily, I'd been studying treatises on magic written by the greatest minds in the freehold for months now. I took a piece of parchment and my quill. The ritual came together in my mind's eye and I had it figured out.
The first ingredient would be the blood. I'd have to draw some high valyrian runes in with blood. The Valyrians usually used slaves as the source of this blood, but a detail in the history book told me Valyrian blood had been used in creating these enhanced dragons. I didn't have a drop of Valyrian blood in me, but I was sure the super soldier serum would be worth even more.
The next ingredient was the human sacrifice. Thirteen lives. Thirteen was the most powerful magic number after all. We had more than enough, in the form of our new prisoners. After that was the dragon sacrifice. I'd need fourteen dragon eggs. Thirteen are to be sacrificed to empower the one.
A powerful ritual all things considered, but I recognized why the freehold had abandoned the ritual. It was just too expensive in terms of dragon lives. Apparently, the resulting dragon wouldn't be thirteen times as powerful, but only three. It would also grow thrice as fast and be thrice as smart.
Good benefits, but the freehold could just hatch fourteen dragons instead. Arguably, I could do the same, but I couldn't ride fourteen dragons. I couldn't ride two either. I wasn't going to take the risk of hatching an extra dragon only for that dragon to be claimed by someone else.
Call me paranoid if you want, but I'd seen too many shows where the main character ended up being defeated because he'd created advantages that could be used against him. I was only going to hatch a single dragon. The dragon I would be riding.
I already had an ideal ritual site. I had Euron to thank for that. I told Greybeard of my plans, and he looked a bit apprehensive but he wasn't opposed. I chose an area at the centre of the encampment and had the unsullied move all the tents out of there.
Drawing the runes was going to be the hard part. I had to create a rune field large enough for thirteen sacrifices. That was a lot of fucking blood. Luckily, the blood didn't need to be fresh or anything like that. So I could draw the runes one at a time.
After a week of rune drawing and bloodletting, my right hand was heavily bandaged and felt dead. I'd lost a ton of blood and I still wasn't done. Greybeard had started to become more hesitant as he saw the toll it was taking on me, but I wouldn't be deterred on this. I would have my dragon.
It took me another week to finish up the runes. I had to switch over to my left hand when my right became almost unusable. I was already healing though. With both my hands injured, I had to direct the unsullied on what to do for the rest of the ritual.
The prisoners were tied to stakes along the circle's circumference. Euron was given pride of place at the center above the eggs. The eggs were dumped together. Magic would decide which of them was the best and would be hatched.
When the full moon was directly overhead, I had them get ready to begin. Another technicality of dragon hatching was that rituals like this required a celestial event of some sort to gain power from. The full moon wasn't the most powerful or rare of events but the quality of my sacrifice should help bridge whatever problems that caused.
I had the unsullied set one of the stakes on fire. The man started to scream as I began to chant in high valyrian. This was simply a prayer to magic to behold my sacrifice and grant my wish. After a minute, the flames moved from the stake and spread along the lines created by my blood.
I ignored the gasps of the unsullied behind me and continued my chant as the fire went around the entire circle, setting all the men on fire and then converging on the center where it set Euron's stake alight.
I felt my voice rise as the flames did. Until there was such a bonfire that we couldn't even see into the ritual circle. Then, I made the final sacrifice. I walked into the flames and chanted even more. The flames felt cool to the touch. I smiled as I watched one of the eggs begin to crack. My smile became brittle as I saw another one also do the same.
The fire let out another explosion as it grew to new heights. The two new hatchlings looked at each other and then began to battle. Something told me not to intervene and I listened. The gold one quickly gained dominance over the silver one and overcame it. It latched on to the other one's neck and snapped it. The next thing that happened almost made me sick. It began eating the silver dragon. Another egg cracked and a pale white dragon came out that also got eaten by the gold one.
The same thing happened eleven more times till the flames died down and I saw a bright gold dragon staring up at me. It was already bigger than it had been when I'd first hatched it. I looked at its black eyes and I felt a bond snap into place as it jumped at me before crawling up to my shoulder and beginning to nip at my ear.
I ran my fully healed hands on its scales and marveled at how smooth they felt. I heard the sound of metal and turned to see the unsullied dropping down to their knees. Greybeard was the last but even he fell to his knees as I stepped out of the fire. "King" He shouted in Astapori and the rest of the unsullied followed suit.
I smiled in pride and ran my hand through my dragon's scales again. I was tired and naked, so I dismissed the unsullied with little ceremony and went to my tent to put on a new set of clothes.
A few weeks later and my dragon had grown even more. Now, he could breathe fire and manage to fly short distances. I hadn't come up with a name for him yet. He'd rejected all my ideas so far. I even had some very good ones like Igneel, Acnologia, and Smaug. Yes, I knew they weren't the most creative of names, but they were still badass.
We were at the lake and I watched him swoop into the waters to grab a fish and cook it with his flames before digging in. Like he always did, he left a piece of the fish and gestured towards me to dig in. Like I always did, I stuffed it into my mouth and spat it out the moment he turned back to his food. I'd originally tried saying no but he never took it for an answer.
The issue of his name was still pressing on me. I'd have to cave and find him a Valyrian name soon if he was going to remain insistent on rejecting all my ideas. The first ship we'd built had come along nicely and we were now working on the second one. We'd also begun moving the things we would be taking with us to the ships. We'd be leaving in a month, and I wanted us out of here as quickly as reasonably possible.
I'd accomplished my goals in coming here and I didn't feel like staying any longer. After the dragon finished the meal, we went back to my tent. He'd claimed a corner of the floor as his own and he huddled in there to sleep. I started thinking about my next move and I was invariably forced to consider Greybeard's idea.
He'd come up to me in the tent yesterday. "My king" He began. The Unsullied had taken up the habit of bowing before speaking to me.
"How many times must I tell you you don't need to bow to speak to me or even to call me that?" I asked with a sigh.
"At least one more time, my king" Cheeky. Very cheeky. At least he could still be his usual smart-mouth self around me.
"What brings you here Greybeard?" I finally ended the silent stare-off we'd started.
"I know you plan on going to the Stepstones as we leave to set up your kingdom, but I have another idea." He looked at me to see if I was interested and I gestured at him to continue. "Astapor. The masters continue to commit injustice against my people every day. If you go to Astapor, the Unsullied will rally to you. If you free my people, we will fight for you till breath leaves our bodies"
He'd left after I told him I would consider his proposition, and that was what I was doing right now. Going to Astapor would give me a lot of advantages. I had no doubts that I could swindle the masters out of their entire army. I didn't even have to pull a Danaerys and attempt to sell my dragon or even pretend to do so. With the wealth of Valyria at my fingertips, it would be easy to actually buy all the unsullied with pure gold.
The best part would be that I would be seizing the city itself after I took the army. I wouldn't lose any money in reality. It also came with a lot of advantages. The first was, of course, a loyal, trained army for whatever purposes I chose. The second advantage was less obvious but no less important. My dragon was growing quickly. I had no doubts that in three months or even less, he'd be too big to be on a ship with me. I didn't know if dragons could swim but I had little interest in finding out.
Taking Astapor would give me a stable base to allow my dragon to grow. It would give me a headquarters to run everything out of, which was also important. I'd get a powerbase very early in the game.
The reason I hesitated to choose that option was the disadvantages it also came with. First of all, I'd be stuck in one place. If I took Astapor, then I would make it my kingdom. My name is not Daenerys Stormborn of the House Targaryen. I can't just throw a city into chaos and be on my merry way. I was also a control freak in some aspects. If I took Astapor, I would remain there. I would govern it to the best of my abilities but I would lose out on a lot of options.
As King of Astapor, I'd be forced to say goodbye to all my dreams of becoming the greatest pirate King of the Stepstones. The other disadvantage was the fact that I'd suddenly have a lot of people after my head. The cities of Slaver's Bay didn't enjoy seeing change. I'd studied the history of Essos in Winterfell, and if I did something like abolish slavery in Astapor (which was non-negotiable), then they would all be after me.
Westeros was also a factor to consider. I'm not self-absorbed enough to pretend that the seven kingdoms had spared any thought for me after my escape. I still had to consider the possibility that this would be viewed as an incursion by Westeros itself which might lead to more resources being amassed for my downfall than would be normal.
My dragon growled a bit in his sleep. That was the reminder I needed to know that in a few months, my position would be near unassailable. Three regular dragons conquered seven kingdoms. I had one super dragon. If I didn't manage to hold a single city with his help, then I'd deserve to lose.
The point on my freedom was still relevant though. I was still going to be tied to Astapor. But I was never truly free in the first place. From the moment I hatched a dragon, being a single pirate king and ruling the seas stopped being an option. I'd still find myself tied down to a castle or kingdom eventually. Astapor could also easily be remoulded in my image.
The economy of the city ran almost exclusively on the backs of slavery. Their greatest export was unsullied. When I took over, I'd have the opportunity to overhaul that. I knew rituals to enhance virtually every aspect of a city. Fertility was a huge one. Both for humans, cattle, and land. The masters would be excellent sacrifices for that kind of ritual. Huh. Already planning my rule, am I?
It seems like I'd already made my choice. Both of my choices apparently. I turned to my dragon. He'd woken up sometime during my pondering. "Arrax," I said to him and the way he leaped towards me told me I'd gotten it. Arrax. King of the Valyrian Gods. Was there even a better name out there? I highly doubted that.
He continued to snuggle and nudge my head affectionately as I walked out of my tent. I called over the first unsullied that came towards me. "Tell Greybeard that the moment all the ships are ready, we sail for Astapor." He tried to hide the joy he felt at my proclamation, but the eyes always gave it away. I turned back to my tent to prepare for a nap. I felt tired.
The last month we spent in Valyria passed in a blur. The ships were prepared, and we set sail with as much of the treasure we could carry. Arrax had grown to waist height already. So he was more than big enough to set some of the things we'd be leaving behind on fire. The Unsullied helped with the remainder.
I took all the knowledge and gold. The armour and weapons were also taken. I destroyed the remaining dragon eggs though. Arrax couldn't eat them in his present state, and I had the feeling triggering a different ritual to increase his strength by consuming more hatchlings would be unwise. Why did I destroy it all? Simply because when it got out that I succeeded, dozens of people would attempt the same thing and I wouldn't take the risk of them succeeding. I never managed to find the dragon horn Euron was rumoured to have so I just had to hope it didn't exist. The way people who read the books spoke about it; he'd be able to use that thing to take control of any dragons that heard him blow it.
I stood at the helm of the ship with Arrax at my side. We were going forward without looking back. I also had a crown. No idea why I'm mentioning that right now but Greywater, one of the unsullied, had come up to me with a Valyrian Steel crown inlaid with fourteen rubies. It was a true beauty. I kept it hidden away though. No need to make it public knowledge that I'd crowned myself as king. Not yet at least.
The journey to Astapor was shorter than our journey here to Valyria. My ships cut through the water like blades. The storms barely even disturbed us. If you haven't figured it out yet, I'd used the last of our prisoners as sacrifices to enchant the ships with durability and speed. I wasn't just going to trust my treasure and citizens to ships built by complete amateurs.
I'm crazy, not stupid. I watched Arrax fly through the sky. We were only a few days away from Astapor at our present speed and he'd grown even more in our short week at sea. He'd not gotten much taller, still resting at waist height but he'd grown much wider and 'musclier' (Is that even a word?). At his present size, I had little doubts that he'd tear through a man in plate like wet paper.
He dove down towards the sea at incredible speeds and snatched up a fish with frightening precision. His dives had gotten very smooth with all the practice he'd been getting. He tossed the fish further into the air with his mouth. He then set it on fire and swallowed it in the same motion.
I applauded the display when he turned to me. He loved to show off whenever I was on deck. I was truly impressed with him, so I didn't even have to fake any of my excitement. Fire made flesh indeed.
We arrived at Astapor to bustling docks. Thankfully, there seemed to be enough docking space for my fleet of five ships. With Arrax flying through the air, the dockmaster was the one who came to me this time. He was escorted by a small legion of unsullied and when I took a closer look, it was clear to see that there were even more unsullied at the docks. We'd been expected it seems.
"I am Lord Theon Greyjoy. Bring me the good masters. All of them. I would have words" I shouted to him once he got within earshot. If I'd done this when I first came here then I'd have been laughed out of the harbour. With a dragon flying above me and a fleet of five ships, my demands were going to be taken a bit more seriously.
The fact that I'd previously made a purchase from one of the masters made it even more likely that they'd show up. They were traders first and foremost and what trader turned away the possibility of profit?
It took me close to four hours of waiting before the masters came down to the harbour. I'd had to decline the dockmaster's request for me to go into the city to meet the masters twice. I'd even had to hand him a valyrian steel sword to show the masters to show them that I was being serious. It was a blow to my pride to have to go through all these hoops, but I sated myself with the knowledge that they would be dead sooner than later.
When they finally arrived at the harbour, they chose Greizhan to be their spokesperson. I didn't bother with the translator this time and I replied to his greeting in native Astapori. I could have tried to make them underestimate me, but it was much too late for that. They'd never fall for such a ruse.
"You speak our language well for a foreigner. You've only had about a year to learn it haven't you"
"It's been a bit less than a year. It's good to see you again old friend" I began the ass-kissing and ignored the part of me that balked at the thought.
"Yes. Yes, it has. Things have clearly improved for you since then. A trip to Valyria. A prosperous one if the weapons I see in your slave's hands are any indication."
"A very prosperous one indeed. So prosperous that I have gold aplenty and I wish to purchase replacements for the flesh I lost in my journey" I hated speaking of my crew like this but it was necessary for the moment at least.
"Ahh. If all you needed was to purchase more flesh, then you should have had the harbourmaster call for me alone. No need to involve the entire council in such a trivial matter" Trivial matter? This man was clearly skilled in the art of subtle instincts. I felt my anger grow at the audacity before I checked myself.
Why the fuck was I getting so upset about a relatively minor insult like this one? Had I truly become so prideful in less than a year? I turned to look at Arrax and wondered if this was somehow related to him. The Valyrian dragonlords were known to be incredibly prideful after all.
"I don't simply desire a single Unsullied, or even a hundred. I'll need thousands."
"Thousands of unsullied?" He looked shocked.
"Yes, thousands. Do you not have that many?"
"Of-of course we do. Astapor boasts a store of fifteen thousand unsullied." Seems like I'd hit at his pride with that one. Very odd. Wasn't he some sort of businessman?
"That's good. I'll be needing all of them. Along with the boys in training."
"All of them? Even the boys? I must consult the rest of the council on this"
"And now you can see why I requested for all of you to be present"
He was too flustered to respond to my bait and walked away to discuss with his fellow masters. They did a lot of talking before Greizhan returned, accompanied by another man. This one carried himself with a different sort of swagger. The way Greizhan seemed to defer to him with his body language also gave a hint as to his identity.
"Lord Theon Greyjoy, this is Kraznys mo Nakloz. He serves on the Great Council of Astapor as the first chair."
"It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance," I said with a bow that galled me to perform.
"I feel much the same way" He spoke in a high-pitched voice while reciprocating my bow.
"I've heard much about you. Greizhen mo Ullhorhas told us of your intention. You have to understand that selling off our entire stock of Unsullied will be very inconvenient. If not ruinous. Your request for the boys in training is also one we can not accept. The boys in training are not true unsullied yet. We can not send them out for they might bring disrepute to the name of the unsullied."
"You are the good masters. You hold the secret of training the unsullied. Sell me your stock and simply train more. As for the boys, I intend to complete my father's dream. I will take revenge on Eddard Stark of Westeros. To do that, I'll need an army at my back. When the Unsullied fall to battle, the boys will pick up their spears and continue."
"Ah, I see. You're right of course. We can be tempted to sell off our entire stock to you if you can tempt us with the right price." He spoke while staring at Arrax with greed in his eyes. Nice try buddy but not happening.
"State your price in gold or valyrian steel. The wealth of Valyria is now mine and I'm more than willing to give it all for my revenge."
"What of the dragon?" His question made Arrax land at my side and let out a threatening roar. Greizhan scrambled back in fear but this man just remained standing. I could see he felt fear but he was determined not to show that fear. I'd admire him for that at least.
"As you can see, Arrax will not be traded."
He said he'd consult with the other masters and return to me with an answer in a week. He also invited me to stay in his manse for the waiting period but I politely refused. I cited my desire to stay connected to the sea as a Greyjoy.
It was hogwash but Essosi had low opinions of the citizens of Westeros and didn't even act surprised. We were all viewed as uneducated barbarians to them and even showing that I spoke their language or that I'd been smart enough to survive Valyria didn't make them change their opinions. Bias was a really interesting thing.
He left and I spent the week on the ship like I said I would. I trained with the Unsullied. Since my decision to stop holding back and start actually pushing my powers to their limits, I'd begun to duel over ten unsullied at the same time. Once we got to numbers more than that, the fight became too impractical and chaotic.
I also started doing exercises I remembered from my first life. Push-ups, sit-ups, handstands, pull-ups, all of it. Arrax had tried joining me during my exercises, but he was only able to do push-ups and even that was a comical sight.
The Astapori sent a messenger to give me their price. A truly staggering amount. Fifteen million gold pieces, Seven valyrian steel swords and suits of armour- one for each member of the council, and several choice pieces of jewellery. Counting out the money for payment took another two weeks. Even the army of slaves and accountants the masters had in their employ couldn't make the process go any further.
Eventually, it was all finished. I handed over the gold first as a display of good faith and I had to come to the centre of the city to receive ownership of the unsullied. As I walked there with my crew at my back and Arrax flying overhead, I was forced to recognise that this might be a trap. The Masters had every opportunity to betray me. My only protection against that was a small army of about two hundred unsullied and a dragon. A big dragon though.
Arrax had grown even more in the last three weeks and was now my size. Considering I was a giant among men, he was plenty big already. Not big enough to ride, but big enough to cause some serious damage.
When I got to the stadium and was met with the full council, AI let out a sigh of relief. If they were going to betray me, they'd never be foolish enough to show their faces here.
I walked up to them and zoned out Greizhan's weird drivel about how this was the start of a very prosperous relationship between Astapor and the seven kingdoms. That gave me the answer as to why they weren't betraying me. They thought I'd go to Westeros and pull another Aegon Targaryen.
I could even see it from their point of view. With a dragon that grew larger by the day and thousands of the most disciplined soldiers in the world, I actually had a very good chance of conquering Westeros. Kraznys mo Naklozhanded over the whip that symbolized my ownership of the unsullied and then gave me the stage to speak.
"Unsullied, Kneel" I shouted at the top of my voice. They obeyed with less than a second's delay. Now, rise as free men. Kill every master. Kill every man who holds a chain. Kill them all in my name and let Astapor be ours" After I finished speaking, I turned to the shocked masters.
Kraznys mo Naklozdidn't waste any time and ordered his personal guard of unsullied to attack me. I unsheathed my sword and grabbed my Warhammer that was strapped to my back. The first unsullied that rushed at me with his short sword had his head crushed into fine pulp with a single swing of Stormbreaker. Yes, I'd named my hammer. Yes, I'd named it after an axe. Sue me.
Gram lashed out in my right hand and went through another unsullied's throat. There had only been three unsullied on the stage with us and the third one had been roasted alive with a single blast from Arrax.
"It would be wise of you to surrender to me, right now," I spoke to the masters who looked at me in fear. I smiled as they all dropped to their knees.
It took a whole day for all the chaos to end. Greybeard had taken command of my new army. A few of them had perished when fighting against the household guards of unsullied owned by a few merchants within the city.
Luckily, the unsullied that had been under the command of the council were transferred to me after I killed them. I'd set them all free. Astapor was mine.
A/N; Did you enjoy reading this? How do you feel about the longer chapters?
Thanks for reading. We're already halfway through with chapter 27 on the pa-atreon page. Feel free to join me there if you can. Same username as up here. The link's on my profile.
