Author Note

No action in this chapter. This is more about setting things up the future.

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doug89

I plan for the Dragonborn to visit Westeros to deal with a few people before Daenerys sets sail for the Seven Kingdoms.

Hiring Faceless Men is part of my plans and it could be a good chance to met with Arya. Maybe the Dragonborn could do with a proper apprentice.

Magical healers and battlemages are a good idea. It's not like he'd be short of volunteers and its something he can start to work on.

Dragonborn Gothic 3 - GOT

Part 5

Yunkai. Essos.

From the balcony, the Mother of Dragons looked down into the yard below. In the hours before the sun moved so that it was directly overhead, and it simply became too hot to linger outside, the training took place. Those who had come here to be taught out how to fight, to find out how to defend their own freedom, they came eagerly. A few didn't work up the courage to stay past their first lesson, and that might have something to do with the three dragons who liked to circle the palace.

It was early morning and Ser Barriston Selmy was already hard at work teaching those he deemed worthy of what it meant to be a knight. This involved more than how to wear armour and swing a sword, to be a true knight a man had to be willing to lose his own life so as to protect others. That was a hard lesson for many to learn, and the self-proclaimed rightful ruler of the Seven King couldn't help wondering if these young men would throw themselves into battle to prevent others from coming to harm, or if they would run away should this city be threatened.

The boys below were eager to listen to their teacher, and Ser Barristan made a fine mentor, he mixed in stories of the battles he'd fought with the lessons, showing moves while telling the boys how these moves had cut down an enemy or saved his own life. Ser Barristan was one of the best swordsmen the Seven Kingdoms had ever known, and the young men below were fortunate to receive even a single lesson from him.

Ser Jorah was a fair swordsman, but rather than try to match his fellow knight, he was off teaching the longbow, it had occurred to her advisor that if the Wise Masters did gather an army and attempt to retake the city then the same walls that had protected the rulers of Yunkai could protect its new owners if they had enough archers. The bow could take years to master, but Ser Jorah could teach the basics in a few hours to lads who were bright enough, and with enough practice, they would be able to pass on this skill to others.

Grey Worm trained the militia off in another part of the city, and there hundreds of former slaves learned as much as they could about the spear, shield and sword, as they could while their teachers were here. Some of the militia she ordered created would follow their queen on to her next conquest, but most would remain behind and try to train others so that they could not easily be re-enslaved.

Daenerys couldn't help looking over to where the Dragonborn was working. Despite the coolness of the morning, he had stripped to his waist as he instructed the men, and even women, who he called his Blades. The Mother of Dragons didn't know why they were called that as some of them carried maces or axes, and she didn't even know where the exotic weapons that the warriors carried even came from. She'd figured that Gothic had used his magic to somehow acquire the weapons much like how he kept her supplied with gold made from iron.

Magic wasn't really on her mind right now, she was far more interested in the Dragonborn's body than anything else. He was an impressive figure with a body that had become muscled due to travels in the wilderness and battle, yet he had surprisingly few scars for someone who'd been in so many fights.

Watching him trade blows with those who had joined his Blades or wished to it didn't worry her much that her lover was building his army as even if he ended up with hundreds under his command she had thousands of Unsullied and three dragons. Besides having more skilled fighters in her army only served her. Not that she was too worried about such things she was watching her lover work out. It was a pleasing sight.

No wonder he had so many women willing to try to keep up with much larger men so as to earn a place in his Blades. Hopefully, he wouldn't be taken in by any advances one or more of those women made. She couldn't pay her lover much attention and while it might seem odd she was actually glad that Gothic had taken an interest in Missandei, both sexually and as someone to teach about magic.

While Dany did feel somewhat envious of those who got to spend time with the Dragonborn she was not at all jealous when it came to Missandei. The translator would never try to take the Dragonborn away from her Queen and since Missandei wanted Danerys to be happy she would do her best to keep Gothic happy in turn.

This was good as until her dragons were fully grown Dany was going to need the Dragonborn at her side, at least when it became time to conquer another part of Slavers Bay. Even when her children had become large enough to lay waste to cities as the legends said that they could, she would still need Gothic. His magic made him more versatile than a dragon and he could keep training warriors for her.

If only it was that simple. Her two brave knights had been advising her not to trust too much anyone who used magic, and Dany's past experiences supported the idea of not trusting magic. But she preferred to judge people by their actions not the deeds or words of others.

Still, she was no fool and she knew that despite her feeling for him that he might be using her for his own ends. On the other hand, she needed him. His powers had won her this city with a minimal loss of life for her army, were as a siege could have cost her thousands of the Unsullied. Plus she would need to take Meereen as quickly as possible and for she would the aid of the Dragonborn once again.

As much as it would hurt her she needed to send the Dragonborn from her side for a time, in part to appease her advisors who worried that Gothic might supplant her since he too had some influence on the dragons and powers that other mortals could only imagine having.

If she was clever she'd be able to send him on some mission that would separate them for a while, but not forever. Perhaps he could do some scouting or recruit for her elsewhere. That would stop him from training too many warriors here and ensure that he didn't feel as if was simply being cast aside.

"Your Grace!" called out Missandei "It is time for the meeting".

While she had more than enough treasure to pay for the supplies and equipment that both the militia and her army needed, there was a limited to what could be provided by the traders and shopkeepers. Gold couldn't make crops grow, or mine ore, or stitch clothes, nor it could forge swords or raise cattle for slaughter. These things took time and effort, and while gold made a good exchange for the services and goods of others even a queen sometimes had to wait, and even barter. This what she be doing for most of the day.

(Line Break)

Yunkai. Essos.

Like the other Free Cities in Slaver's Bay, this city had pyramids, ancient structures made of stone blocks that had been placed here centuries ago by the labour of slaves, much like they had been on my homeworld, assuming that the more bizarre theories weren't correct and aliens were involved, however, they came about didn't matter to me much when compared to what I could use them for, and that was to escape the heat.

My second use of the chamber I had within the pyramid was that with it I had plenty of space to spread out. This suited me as I'd been able to turn the room into a workspace. I'd never really gotten into alchemy as I'd never had time for it until now what with dragons rampaging across Skyrim, but with Miraak's soul now part of me I'd changed and I now had the knowledge I'd been lacking before as well as more of a drive to obtain power, and knowledge was a tool that could be used to obtain power.

That wasn't to say that I just knew stuff that I hadn't before, I couldn't remember Miraak's life, and he wasn't a voice in my head, and that was good as he'd been an insufferable asshole, but all he had been, the essence of the man, was now part of me. As such when I began gathering what I needed for the making of potions I just seemed to know what I was doing. The knowledge was somewhere within me, just not in my head, it was more of a spiritual thing, so I just knew how to do some things.

Between the Dremora Merchant and the craftsmen of this city, I was able to get my hands on what I needed for the set up a full Alchemy lab. The Dremora Merchant as it turned out could get stuff for you that he didn't have in his inventory, but it took time and cost a lot of gold. I could only assume that the Dremora Merchant was in contact with other mortals, who either lived on Nirn or other creatures within one of the Realms of Oblivion.

I'd asked him about who he was in contact with but all he'd had to say on the matter was something about customer confidentiality. Not knowing who else the trade was trading with made it hard to figure what he could offer in trade, but on the other hand, it did mean that he wouldn't be telling anyone about his trades with me. Some Daedric creatures were able to act freely of the Princes so hopefully, this meant that a certain tentacle horror had no idea where I was or what I was up to.

There wasn't much I could about the Prince of Knowledge and Memory if he found me, and it was going to be some time before the army of Daenerys Stormborn would be ready to march, so I had time to kill. While I was spending some of my time training my Blades that only took up part of each day, so I spent my afternoons messing about in my lab, or to be more precise, making a mess of my lab, or at least that had been the case to start with. After a few days, I'd stopped starting fires and covering things with gloop.

If Her Grace had time to spend with me she'd call for me, sending Missandei down here to fetch me if the Mother of Dragons wanted a lesson in magic or maybe a good, hard fucking. If it was the latter she let me take the lead, knowing enough not to bruise my male ego, and she was a good student when it came to the former. If she could have devoted her self to study then she could have made herself in a powerful sorceress.

Missandei would sometimes come down to my workspace, mostly just to watch me work. Only ever asking a few questions and helping me to get what I needed in terms of supplies. Without her, I could not have put all of this together. I had been able to manage a mortar and pestle on my own, not exactly a challenge since they were bowl and grinding tool used for breaking down alchemical ingredients into powders, pulps or juices that could be used in alchemical operations, but she'd help me obtain the other equipment.

Another useful tool I had was called a retort, which was a vessel with a beaked cap or head, this was used to transform, purify, clean or refine raw ingredients into more refined substances used in alchemical preparations. She even got me a calcinator, which is used to reduce metals and other refined substances to ash so their arcane properties can be separated from the ash. It is also used to increase the magnitude of all known effects of the specific item.

Also, I had an alembic is a double glass container in which the arcane properties of raw, refined, arcane, non-arcane and supernatural substances are distilled from their raw ingredients. The materials are infused, then heated until vapour is produced; then, the vapour moves to and condenses in the other container, precipitating the distilled materials with the desired alchemical and magical effects.

She didn't have time for proper lessons but had learned another spell, that of Flames, which allowed the caster to conjure up some fire, that would come in handy if she ever ran into any Sons of the Harpies or wights, the undead burned better but mask wearing murderers didn't tend to be big fans of getting set on fire.

While the translator wasn't here that often I did some times have another guest. I'd started brewing up some healing potions using local plants that had similar magical properties to plants found on Nirn. A few people with diseases had come to me once word had gotten around. Anyone with something like Grey Scale or leprosy wasn't allowed to stay in the city, they were sent off to die far from here, but not everyone who got sick was exiled, some kids with a coughing disease turned up at my door, with upset mothers holding them.

Whooping cough, a highly contagious bacterial disease took up most of my supply of cure disease potions, I couldn't make them fast enough. The Initial symptoms of that illness are usually similar to those of the common cold with a runny nose, fever, and mild cough, but these are followed by weeks of severe coughing. I'd had this illness myself as a baby so I knew how much it worried mothers as it could prevent a small child from breathing.

The only really annoying thing about becoming a part-time healer was that cure disease potions don't prevent reinfection. They magically clean up any sickness in you within seconds, but they don't boost the immune system, nor could I magically conjure up food for those who seemed to think I was a god and would do anything for them if only they were able to convince me. The amount of offered sexual favours I'd turned out so far was mind-boggling.

While in my world we had vaccines and antibiotics, all they had in Yunkai was me, a few wise women who did have some idea of what they were doing, and the priests who worshipped the Lord of Light, who seemed to be real as those shadow-babies had come from somewhere. At least the folks in red weren't banging down my door and calling me a heretic for helping people better than they could. I suspected that they were all so busy drooling over the dragons and wondering that their return meat, that they had to free time to worry about some guy in a potions lab.

Unlike the Priests, I wanted nothing in return for my favours aside from more raw iron ore to make into gold so I could keep paying The Dremora Merchant with the magically made gold. How that spell hadn't gotten around enough to make the metals silver and gold totally worthless back in Skyrim I simply didn't know, but I was glad that it hadn't or I'd have been a much poorer man.

Some of the wealth and knowledge of the Wise Masters had fallen into the hands of former slaves, and they were happy to pay for my services with treasures but I was more interest in acquiring books about native plant life than treasure. Heck at the rate I was going I could start writing such books.

Of course, it had struck me that the wise thing to do would be to teach others to do what I could do, even if they'd never be able to brew more than a few potions and only do so by simply remembering each step without any understanding of why the process worked. Alas not everyone could perform alchemy as it was partly a magical art, at least the way I did it, but I'd found that I could unlock a person's magical potential by teaching them a novice level spell.

I felt somewhat certain that this only worked because dragons were a source of magic and there were three of them close by. This made me wonder if the spells would stop working once the dragons had followed their mother to the next free city, but it should be okay since Skyrim spells worked by drawing energy from one of the realms with the Elder Scrolls universe and they could do that with the dragons around it should keep working once they were gone. Although the spells might become weaker, that could offset via practice.

Tomorrow I would be leading another class, and hopefully, before I left there would be a thriving potion-making business going on in this city. It might fall under the control of the Red Priests as they claimed dominion over matters of healing, but as long as the art I'd passed on was used then it would ease some suffering in the world. Not a bad legacy to leave behind even if I never got any credit.

I had to wonder how long it would be before I even stopped caring about the innocent. Miraak certainly didn't and he was a major part of the person I had become, and if I was honest with myself I might be helping people just to make myself feel good rather than because I really cared. But I wad fairly sure I did still care somewhat about others. Besides curing illness and gaining the admiration of others did appeal to my ego.

That had all come from the human part of me, the part of myself that felt compassion and pity for the less fortunate. The dragon in me was looking forward to crushing more slavers so that I could prove my superiority over them. Making potions and teaching magic was fun, but at heart, I was a warrior, not a scholar.

Despite this along the way to Meereen I was planning on training up some restoration magic-using healers. Getting the right kind of Spelltomes for that wouldn't be easy, but I'd brought the few my supplier had so far and he would get me more. Thankfully healing, even magical healing, was easily accepted by the forces under the command of the Mother of Dragons. I knew this from personal experience.

I'd even considered training up some Battlemages, but they might be rather limited when compared to their Elder Scrolls counterparts as there weren't many natural magic users around here. However, even Battlemages with weak offensive spells would be intimidating to the people of this world who knew so little of the power of magic. In the Seven Kingdoms, many didn't even think magic existed anymore.

After getting on of my Unsullied guards to send everyone home, as I simply couldn't help everyone, I was surprised by a visit by the Breaker of Chains herself. She was spending most of her time in meetings with her advisors. While she'd made me part of her small council she rarely bothered to call us all to her chambers unless a very important matter needed to be addressed.

Her Grace let me get on with my teaching, knowing that it all benefited her, I trained warriors for her and every cured child would grow up hearing about how it was Miss Stormborn who freed the slaves and brought about the changes that made their lives easier. Assuming that they weren't re-enslaved once we were gone, although the Masters would have a harder time doing that in this timeline as Grey Worm was having his fighters train a decent city militia.

"Daenerys" I greeted "How are you this evening?".

Since she was okay with me calling her Dany in private using her first name was fine with her even if it did feel a little strange to me to be saying it.

"You have been busy," she said while looking around my lab "It's going to take a few wagons to move all of this".

That wouldn't be an issue.

"Oh, I'm leaving this all here," I told her.

My students would need everything if they ever hoped to expand on the work I had begun here.

"I can set all of this up again somewhere else if I need to," I said, "I prefer to travel light".

Since I knew that it was likely that Daenerys would want to spend time in Meereen, because if nothing else she needed to gather enough supplies to fuel her future conquests and to build ships she could use to transport her growing army to the Seven Kingdoms. I should have time to set up all of this in the next city and spread the knowledge even further. At the rate I was going with this I would have directly and indirectly saved far more lives than I'd ever taken. If there was someone around waiting to judge my soul after death then hopefully she/he or it would take this into account.

"I want to move on soon" Her Grace let me know "We have done good work in this city, but this is not my home".

She was thinking of that silly sword chair in Kings Landing. I really didn't think Westeros was worth dealing with. The Seven Kingdoms were ruled by people all intent on killing each other, there was a right bastard on the throne (both literally and figuratively) the country was massively in debt, and in just a few years an army of the undead would be making an appearance south of The Wall.

If not for the fact that the Night King's power might one day cover the planet, like some sort of magical Ice Age, I'd steer clear of the place. Heck, I might risk running any way since I didn't actually know if I could end the Night King. I didn't know if my sword Brisingr could kill that fucker. But I really wanted to find out. My dragon desire to dominate was motivating me to go see which of us could crush the other.

"I have news," Her Grace told me "Robb Stark, Catelyn Stark, and much of the Northern army have been massacred at the Twins during the wedding feast of Edmure Tully and Roslin Frey".

That event would become known as the Red Wedding, or it already had as news of it would have taken some time to reach our ears.

"If the war in Westeros is winding down then we might not have as much time as we thought," Dany said to me.

I knew what she was thinking.

"You want to march on Meereen and seize its navy" I stated.

Meereen was the northernmost and greatest of the three great city-states here in Slaver's Bay, it was north of us here in Yunkai. I also knew that it was located at the mouth of the Skahazadhan River, which flows from its origins in Lhazar through the mountains separating Meereen and the rest of Slaver's Bay from the Red Waste. The Dothraki Sea, which isn't actually a body of water but rather vast grasslands, lies to the north, beyond the river.

Like in Yunkai the wealthiest residents live in pyramids. Ones that are even larger and more lavish than those here in Yunkai according to one of the books I'd had the chance to read. It also had a rather large navy, perhaps even enough ships to set sail to Westeros along with the supplies needed. If the army she had was both big enough and well-armed enough to take Kings Landing, and then hold it? That was something I really didn't know.

I did know that in the show following the liberation of the slave population of Yunkai, Daenerys Targaryen and her army march towards Meereen. Along the way they, and it seemed that we would too, see that the Great Masters had crucified 163 slave children along the road towards the city. I found this to be insane, and even people who didn't come from nations like the one I had originally, were we didn't even have the death penalty for murderers, it was a truly horrible thing to even think about. Back on Nirn, I didn't even think the Thalmor would have something that horrible.

"Yes," she confirmed "and we'll be going soon. I want to take Meereen and make the preparations to invade the Seven Kingdoms from there".

If things played out as expected she'd ended up staying in Meereen for quite some time as she tried to put an end to slavery while training more fighters and trying to obtain the vast amount of resources that would be required to fund her planned invasion of Westeros.

"Once we've taken Meereen" Dany was now saying "and you've set up a workplace like this, and trained enough people to make these potions for you, I'll be sending you to Westeros by way of Braavos ".

Now I was surprised.

"Why are you sending me away?" I asked.

I was smart enough to know that her two knights, who were Andals, worshippers of the Seven who are One, a faith that had the whole 'burn the witch' vibe going on, would be advising her to keep me at a distance, but I hadn't expected them to convince her to order me to go somewhere far away.

"Because I need someone I trust to get me first-hand information in what is happening in the Seven Kingdoms" The Mother of Dragons explained to me "and to find out who would be willing to support me and try to win them over. I also need you to take care of a few enemies for me, not directly, I want you to hire the Faceless Men. I'll leave it to you to decide who must be removed as you'll have the most up to date information".

I knew that the Faceless Men are a guild of assassins based in the Free City of Braavos, though their members range far and wide across both Essos and Westeros. They command exorbitant fees but have a reputation for success that is unparalleled by any comparable organization.

These Faceless Men are based at the House of Black and White, a temple in Braavos dedicated to their "Many-Faced God". While they are indeed a guild of assassins, they have philosophical and religious motivations that will lead them to reject commissions that clash with those motivations. Interestingly The Faceless Men possess the ability to physically change their faces, shapeshifting so that they appear as an entirely new person.

They consider themselves servants of the Many-Faced God, a god of death who is unknowingly worshipped by all religions in the world, in the form of one god or another. The Weirwood Face for the Old Gods of the Forest and the Stranger of the Faith of the Seven are two such deities. Faceless Men are trained to relinquish their former identities and become "no one", a process which allows them to become entirely different people, all in service to the Many-Faced God. They also believe that, as servants of death, they must serve above all else and that they must deliver upon certain people the "gift" of death.

I knew The Faceless Men are a fairly old organization, predating even the Doom of Valyria. Their founders were slaves who worked in the mines under the Fourteen Fires, the great volcanic mountain chain whose eruption destroyed the Valyrian Freehold about four centuries ago. The thousands of slaves from a hundred different lands faced death on a daily basis, and over time, the belief developed among some of them that while they came from many different lands and followed many different religions, all of these religions were fundamentally the same, because they all worshipped death in some fashion as it was the only freedom from their sorry excuse for lives.

They were either polytheistic religions that had a god devoted to death, or monotheistic religions with a deity that had dominion over death. In time this turned into a syncretic belief system worshipping the Many-Faced God of Death, holding that Death has appeared to humans under many different faces as many different gods, but they are all fundamentally one god. If they knew about the Grim Reaper they'd worship him too.

At some point, a young Arya Stark would come to Braavos to join the Faceless Men I didn't know exactly when as while I'd read the books and absorbed a lot of lore, that until now had been rather useless information, I couldn't recall the exact order of events, but if I did find her I would try to recruit her. She was too young for me to take to bed, but I could teach her to become a fearsome Battlemage, or a Nightingale thief type with some assassin skills, and maybe develop the relationship further when she was older. If it so suited me.

As for the people who needed to die. Well, I could make a list as long as my arm for the Faceless men to give their gift to, and thankfully I could afford their services. They might refuse to go after certain targets, like the sadistic guy who was sitting on the Iron Throne as he was a still a child my some measure, but he'd be dead soon enough given the number of people he'd pissed off.

There were people I didn't want dead. People who would be needed to secure the North when the Night King marched past the wall (or possibly flew past it) there was no rush as the thorn headed guy was moving with glacial slowness, appropriate given that was an ice demon/necromancer. So, for now, I could focus on removing from life some of the gits south of the wall.

If memory served Sansa would be stuck with Ramsey Bolton soon enough. Maybe I could save her, not because I desired her, although I'd say yes if she offered, but because she'd make a useful ally in securing the North when the time came. Something to consider.

"I can't send Ser Barriston or Ser Jorah" Dany was now saying "they'd be recognised, but your face will not be known to anyone in the Seven Kingdoms".

While I would have to be careful about the armour, as dragon-plate armour wasn't exactly well known, in fact, this set that had been made for me in Whiterun, could be unique. I'd have to equip myself to blend in with the Westerosi, but that wouldn't be too hard since I'd lived in Skyrim for long enough to know how to look and behave in a feudal society.

I could take some of my trained fighters with me, and travel as a small sellsword company. Given all the fighting going on in the Seven Kingdoms, such people wouldn't be an odd sight. While travelling I'd spend my gold on getting them the most powerful enchanted items I could buy from my Daedric contact for the warriors travelling with me and for bribing people with.

"Very well," I said the Breaker of Chains "Once we've set up in Meereen I'll head to the Seven Kingdoms and do my best to prepare the way for you".

Me saying that greatly pleased her and very soon we began kissing. More fun stuff would follow this.