Hello everybody! I really hope you enjoy the chapter! I actually ended up spending a lot of time on this one. I messed up the timeline a bit, but i think i did it in a rather inconsequential way. If there is anything I forgot, then please let me know!

Also, I have the overarching structure of the full story planned out, but I would really appreciate it, if some of you could let me know, what you think I should do in the future.

Chapter 8 - The first step

From the ledge I could hear the vibrant city buzzing below me. My head leaned against the cliff wall and my eyes were closed, but after a few hours I noticed something.

The city was getting quiet, and by the time the sun had gone down, every time one of the soldiers coughed, it could be heard clearly in the silence. I could feel the solemn atmosphere linger in the air, and a tension that kept on growing.
Then without warning, the silence was broken by a bell ringing loudly. The enemy had been spotted, and the city erupted.

Whoever had prepared the defense had been right, because the attack was clearly concentrated on this gate. Soldiers from all over the city streamed to the gate, and the once quiet city was now filled with noise of bells and shouting.

The night was starless and a heavy mist lay above the water. Even so, it wasn't long before I could see the shape of boats appearing in the darkness, coming out in great numbers.

The entire bay became filled with the dark shapes, and I could tell already, that the shivering soldiers on the walls, would not hold for long. But to my surprise, something unexpected happened. From the other side of the bay, a single ship sailed out, and continued towards the incoming fleet.

I suddenly sat up straight and studied it. There was something being steadily poured into the water from the bow of the ship. I was amazed when I realized what it was.

"Nahh, that can't be. How the hell do they have so much of that stuff?" I thought to myself as the ship started sailing into Stannis' fleet.

But sure enough. Someone threw a torch of the wall and in the next instance a fire arrow was sailing across the sky, before it hit the water and a wave of green flames sprang to life and rushed towards the boat.

BOOM!

The explosion was blinding. The entire world covered in the green light. Then the noise died down and was replaced with the screams of men coming from the bay. Dozens of ships had been swallowed by the green flames and even more were still in flames, as burning debris was flying everywhere.

I quickly recovered from my surprise and praised who ever came up with that plan.

"It wasn't exactly an elegant maneuver, but I commend their resourcefulness. It will not win them the battle, but if nothing else, it bought them time." I thought to myself in slight amusement.

The explosion ended in an instant, but the huge green fireball still lingered behind floating over the water. It was almost strangely beautiful to look at. Suddenly I felt an extreme sense of alarm and my body jerked in response.

It was the last thing I expected after I saw the state of the world here, but I could feel an unmistakable chill crawl up my spine. Someone here, was using magic!

And as if on cue, the huge ball of fire started distorting and begun changing shape. It molded itself into a thick green wave and began to slowly move towards the gate.

I was completely taken aback at the development. Manipulating so much fire was no small feat. Luckily, Valyrians didn't have odd looking eyes for no reason.

Mine began glowing brighter, and the world around me lost all colours and shape and turned into pitch blackness, with a few exceptions. In the sky, a small sun came into being directly above me, many times brighter than anything else here.

It was of course my dragon. Even before the doom, Ragni had stood out as a being with an overwhelming amount of magic. I tried to ignore his radiance, and focused on the fleet of ships in the bay.

Wildfire, as it was called in the common tongue, was classified a magical, alchemical substance, but in reality, it contained very little actual magical energy. That was lucky for me, for despite the enormous amount, I was still capable of seeing past it.

To my annoyance, I still couldn't detect whoever was manipulating the flames. I considered sending a message to Ragni, commanding him to fly away so that I could see better, but then I spotted something out of the corner of my eye.

A small and dim red flame, could be seen in the distance. The magic energy was so weak, I thought it was a coincidence the person was here, but as I focused my vision, I began to see the tiny strings that connected the person to the fire.

It didn't make any sense though. The figure possessed an almost negligible amount of magic, not nearly enough to control so much fire.

"Oh right! I know what's going on. It must be like those priests of Rhoynar. Through contact with their gods, they could transform their own body into a vectium of sorts, whilst the god provides and controls the magic itself." I thought as I clapped my hands at the revelation.

"I recall them having some sort of divination ability as well. I suspect my arrival might have stimulated the priest enough to have a vision about today." I thought while I summoned my vectium to my right hand. I then spoke out loud in her direction:

"It is unfortunate for you, that you met me this night, for the might of a Valyrian battlemage shall not be outdone by some back alley god!"

I opened my connection with Ragni, and from him, a river of raw energy started flowing into me. I then gripped my vectium tightly and focused on the green flames.

The wave of flames stopped in its tracks completely, as if it had clashed with an invisible wall. The flames then slowly began to gather themselves together again into a perfectly round ball, that began drifting higher and higher.

The ball grew smaller and brighter, until suddenly from the ball, a dragon made from flames burst out. The dragon flew over the ships, lighting up the sky and the clouds as it flew along. It flew into the distance behind the ships until without warning, it exploded and released a shock wave that could be traced over the water.

I leaned back against the wall and made a chuckle under my breath. I figured this would confuse them quite a bit.

Confused or not, the ships still landed in the bay and a battle broke lose. Despite the trick with the wild fire, the defenders were still heavily outnumbered. When the fighting started flowing into the city, it would be too late for me to do anything, without burning much of it down. Even though Tywin could show up any moment now, I decided the second they break down the gate, I would have to intervene.

I signaled for Ragni to fly past the ledge very slowly, and just before he did, I jumped with all my might and cast a levitation spell. He swept me up in an elegant maneuver we had practiced many times in the past. Wanting to get a better estimation of the situation down there, I directed him to fly higher into the sky.

The city was almost broken, but looking down I spotted what I had been waiting for, all night.

"Finally!" I said to Ragni and directed him to move.

Any sorcerer given the title of battlemage, must have fought in at least one conflict of soldiers. Given the evolution of Valyrian dragons and our control of them, battlemages had become rather obsolete as foot soldiers.

In the past, they had been a vital element in conquering major cities without destroying them completely. This slowly changed as Valyria grew in size and military power, and likewise as our understanding of magic developed. It simply wasn't worth risking the life of mages, if slave soldiers could do the job without trouble, because even an official novice mage was worth more than a thousand of the best trained slave soldiers.

Like my father, I was a fully trained battlemage, and I had been in battle before, but this was very different. Tywin had insisted that we charge into battle on horseback. This would deal them a great mental blow he said, but I had never ridden a horse before, so I had to hug the neck of the foul beast just to not fall of.

Looking like a terrified child, I awkwardly tried to keep up with the mounted soldiers. The first thing I did when I reached the frontline, was jump of the horse, and swear to myself that I would never ride one of those dreadful things again!

The fighting here was completely different from what I had experienced previously. Before, I had been fighting with elite slave soldiers, trained from birth to fight to perfection and never show fear or pain.

This was nothing like that. It was chaotic and messy. People were moaning and screaming everywhere. They ran into each other, tussled on the ground, slashed and stabbed without any kind of order. Some of the soldiers charged in recklessly, whilst others could hardly move due to their terror and some even ran away.

The mess didn't cause me concern though. I was in full armor, which also included a helmet this time. It covered my entire head and face, and was equipped with a mask from a mixture of spellforged steel and mage silver. The helmet itself was connected to my breast plate to not leave my neck exposed.

I was actually quite exited. Since I was a child, I had trained with a sword for three hours every other day. It didn't make me a master, but I must admit it has always been a juvenile wish of mine to actually fight with a sword and not just magic in a real battle. My mother had completely forbidden it. I was her only child, and she was not going to let me risk my life to fulfill some childish desire.

For the first time since leaving Valyria, I drew my sword from its scabbard. Its name was Aetherius, the fireweaver. It had the size of a typical long-sword, but certainly didn't look like one. The thin edges of the sword were made from spellforged steel, but the middle of the sword was different. It was made of some kind of white crystal or marble, and looked like it would shatter into pieces after a single swing. On the white crystal surface two lines of black runes were carved.

I gripped the hilt of the sword with both of my hands and raised it. Then something started happening. The previously black runes began changing colour. At first they turned orange, then they became white hot. The crystal in the middle started becoming more and more transparent, until it was impossible to see that it was even there.

Then from the hilt of the sword, a little blue flame came into existence. It almost looked like a small fish, slowly swimming up and down along the length of the blade, where the crystal could be seen before. It was mesmerizing to look at, since both the flames and the glowing white runes looked like they were floating in midair between the thin edges of steel.

The soldiers around me stopped and starred at the glowing blade in my hand, but I didn't let them look for long, before I charged into the mess of men on the beach.

Unfortunately, before I made it to the enemy soldiers, they had already started gathering together in apprehension, all looking at the man with the strange sword. I was fast though, even in armor, and I caught up to a group of three that had been preoccupied and noticed me a little too late.

A man without a helmet, raised his sword and roared whilst he swung at me with all his might. I met his sword with mine, but to my surprise, I hardly felt a thing and almost lost my balance and toppled forward.

I had forgotten something. The men I was fighting didn't wield our famous spellforged steel, or Valyrian steel which it had come to be known as. Aetherius cut through his steel sword like a hot knife through soft butter. The man was left dumbfounded with half a sword in his hand, still glowing a bright red from where mine had cut through. Before he reacted, I swung again, and this time it was his torso that was cut in half.

The other storm landers around me looked at me like I was a monster. To the defending soldiers I was a knight in shining armor with a holy sword of light, that would lead them to victory and save the city. At least that was the plan.

Seeing that I had become the center of attention for the men around me, I held my sword in the air and roared a battle cry, before I charged at the two unfortunate storm landers who was still left alone.

The Lannister soldiers were shaken out of their stupor and roared with me, as they too charged into the fray.

Everywhere I went, the ground became littered with sizzling corpse, that had been cut clean through in various manners. The air was filling with a sickening scent of roasted meat, but I continued cutting into the bulk of their men, cleaving anything that tried to stop me.

My "fellow" soldiers were completely ecstatic and fought feverishly, even those from the city who had never see me before. It was like a god had descended from the heavens to strike down their enemies with them. Aetherius was a beacon in the night, and more and more soldiers began following me, as we drove the storm landers further back.

The downside to being the center of attention was, that I soon found myself getting pummeled by arrows. Stannis had taken large sections of the wall and after a while of fighting, practically all the enemy archers up there were aiming their arrows at me.

Arrowheads made from normal steel was no match against my armor of course, but an arrow still carried a certain force, and the constant clinking of metal hitting metal was deeply unsettling to listen to. I looked at the men on the wall with fury in my eyes. With a flick of my hand I could turn them to charred bones, but then I would lose the title of shining hero, and gain the one of an evil wizard in an instance.

It almost amazed me how thin the line between hero and villain really was, to a people whose only source of information is rumor. I gave the archers one last deadly glance and ignored them. I then grit my teeth and grasped my sword tightly again, before I charged further into the fray.

It wasn't long before I stood in front of the tall doors that lead into the throne room. Tywin had joined up with me before we reached the red keep. He was the only one who dared stand close to me at all. Both the officers and soldiers had started keeping a certain distance from be, even after I sheathed Aetherius again. I couldn't tell if it was fear or reverence they held towards me. Probably both.

Tywin commanded them to push the doors open, and the huge hall revealed itself to me. It truly was very large and beautifully constructed as well, when one considers this was all done by hand. By the end of the hall stood what could only be the famous iron throne. It was larger than I expected but it was extremely ugly. Even so, I could see why this was such a symbol of power. To sit upon a throne of a thousand swords from defeated enemies was a gesture few didn't understand.

Upon the throne sat a woman with a child on her lap. The moment we entered, and the woman saw Tywin by my side, she cried with relief and hurried down the steps to greet him. She ran up to Tywin, but he completely ignored her. He and his men starred at me with intense anticipation. Calmly, I walked up the malformed steps of forged swords and sat down on the cold throne of iron.

More and more soldiers kept spilling into the hall, and before long it was almost full. The woman who had sat here before, went from being confused, to annoyed, to worried, as her father refused to tear his gaze from the stranger sitting on the throne.

I was still wearing my helmet when I came into the hall. I grasped it with both hands and slowly removed it, revealing my Valyrian features to the people in the hall. Tywin didn't waste any time. He walked up the concrete steps that led up to the throne itself and then kneeled for all to see.

He then spoke out loudly:

"I now proclaim Aerios of house Batorion, First of his name, King of the Andals, the Rhoynar and the First Men, and protector of the Seven Kingdoms. Long may he reign!"

"LONG MAY HE REIGN!" Was loudly echoed by all the soldiers in the room and all the men in the room fell to their knees.

I smiled slightly to myself and leaned forward in the throne a tiny bit.

I then thought: "Alright. The first step is done."