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Sakra95
A marriage alliance also ties that kingdom more strongly to the throne, and that can be useful as the Tyrells are wealthy and have lots of food, that Daenerys will need to keep people in Kings Landing from starving. Plus Royal weddings give people something to celebrate, lifting their spirits. Bread and circuses are important tools for a ruler. I think a tourney will also be in order once things settle down.
Author Note
Next chapter will cover the conquest of Kings Landing and the taking of the Iron Throne.
Dragonborn Gothic 3 - GOT
Part 16
Dragonstone. Westeros.
"I really was not expecting this," I said to the young woman who had been presented before me as I sat in my office.
The girl still standing before me the Princess Myrcella was commonly thought to be the only daughter of King Robert Baratheon and Queen Cersei Lannister. The product of a loveless union as Cersei and Robert married to seal a political alliance between House Baratheon and House Lannister after Robert took the throne by force from the Mad King Aerys II Targaryen, or at least this was the official story of her life.
Myrcella had an older brother, the total prick known as Joffrey, who'd died on his wedding day, and a younger sibling, Tommen, with whom she was close, and who currently sat on the Iron Throne. The real father of all three children was actually Jaime Lannister, her uncle (Cersei's twin brother) a man who had been a member of the Kingsguard until a Faceless Man had caught up with, making them bastards born of incest.
Myrcella had no idea of the truth of her parentage while growing up. From what little I knew about hersShe had a sweet and quiet disposition and was fond of her uncle Tyrion Lannister, who had spoken to her briefly before leaving the island. That was all I knew of her other than that I'd been made responsible for her.
My meeting with Miss Stormborn, that had just ended as she now heading for Kings Landing with the bulk of her army, had left me a little out of sorts. After all, it's not every day that you're given a virgin princess that you can keep locked up in your dark fortress as a plaything. That hadn't been Dany's wording, but I could read between the lines, and I understood that legally Princess Myrcella was my ward. I was to keep her safe and keep her close to me as she too valuable to be set free, as long her brother sat on the Iron Throne then she could be used in bargaining.
I didn't think it likely that Dany would ever make a deal with the Lannisters, as she wanted that family cast into the dirt, but she still made a good hostage. Princess Myrcella had been a gift given to my lover from the Sand Snakes, who'd had some sort of hold over Dorne, and were allies of mine since they were allies of the true queen of Westeros. The Mother of Dragons had decided to regift Princess Myrcella to me, no doubt thinking that I'd enjoy having my own princess.
This seemed odd to me because Arya was a princess, her brother was King In The North, and her other brother had been as well, not that anyone called Arya by that title, not unless they wanted a good glaring at. Also, Dany had spent years trying to end slavery, as such giving me Princess Myrcella didn't much sense, she was treating the Lannister girl as a piece of property. Something that would be awarded to another.
Of course, Dany was smart enough to realise the benefit of having Princess Myrcella in custody, but she also wouldn't want to be needlessly cruel so giving her to me did make some sense. She knew I wouldn't needlessly mistreat her and Dany was well aware of how the other women in my enjoyed my company, so while she'd not actually spoken of it, she must be thinking that I'd try to make Princess Myrcella part of my harem if they could be called that.
What didn't help was that Dany had also told me about one of the Warlocks whose leader I'd killed back when she and I had first met, had turned up here at Dragonstone looking for me along with Sellswords when I'd been over on the Iron Islands. Apparently the man had been spotted in Meereen some time ago, and he'd attacked the castle, or be more precise he'd been stabbed by an Unsullied while trying to barge his way into the castle.
The real interesting thing was that he'd used magic quite like what could be found in Skyrim, the kind of magic that they didn't have in this world, or at least weren't supposed to have, and it made me wonder if the Daedric merchant I sometimes did business with might be making deals elsewhere. Not that was anything I could about it since even if I killed the Daedra it would just reform in some realm of Oblivion. I could try binding it, but I did enjoy the creatures services, they were too useful to give up and he wouldn't tell me about his other customers since he practised confidentiality.
It might be possible that Mora, that tentacle horror, had found this world and was making deals with some of the more knowledge-hungry locals, but if this were the case then he would have grabbed me by now and dragged me back to his realm. Perhaps the warlock had just been out for revenge and had powerful magic because magic was a growing force in this world? He was dead and his body had been burned so I couldn't ask.
"What are you going to do with me?" Myrcella asked.
At this point, I hoped that the Sand Snakes, who'd kept her alive as a sort of hostage, hadn't mistreated her too badly, or it would be a lot of work for me try to make her happy here. I didn't want a miserable ward or one that might stab me in back later, I well recalled what happened with Theon Greyjoy.
"I'm sure that you know that I've been given custody of you," I said to the Princess "So you'll have to stay here in the castle while under guard for the most part".
Judging by her lack of reaction the girl in torn dress had been expecting this. I didn't think she'd been getting out much since the Sand Snakes had taken both her and Myrcella's fiance as hostages rather than killing them. The marriage had been called off and the young prince was supposed to marry someone so as to further alliances between Dorne and those who would see Dany on the throne. He might even become the consort of Miss Stormborn if so it would help to explain why Dany had basically gifted me a virgin princess. I'd been assured that she innocent in that way.
"But you can travel with me if you want to" I offered "I'm going on a quick trip this afternoon".
She'd need more suitable clothes if she was going to come with the rest of us, with that in mind I called for my Housecarl Lydia who would help the Princess settle in. The woman who acted as my castle's steward, a position of trust and authority, soon entered my office.
"Lydia find a room for the Princess and some clothes suitable for travelling in" I instructed, "We'll be going somewhere new this afternoon so make sure everyone is prepared. She'll be coming with us".
Myrcella looked up at me.
"Where are we going my lord?" she asked.
I did my best to smile at her in what I hoped was a reassuring way.
"We're going on an adventure," I told her.
She didn't look at all happy about any of this, but she didn't throw a hissy fit like her older brother or mother might. Unlike Cersei, while Myrcella was raised a Princess, she clearly did not believe that the entire world was meant to bow before her whims. This was good as she was never going to be a queen. Even if she was a Princess, her fate had been, and might still be one day, to be married off to one of the many noble houses in the Seven Kingdoms. As a result, she was not raised as her mother Cersei was, with promises of being a queen filling her head so much that it became impossible for Cersei to see herself in any other way.
"As long as you don't cause trouble I don't think you'll need to be locked up, you can roam around the castle as you see fit," I told her "If you behave yourself I can extend that to giving you the freedom to explore and roam the whole island. And there is more I can offer if you act the role of ward well enough".
My plan was to wow her with a trip somewhere very exotic and then later we could formalise this arrangement, and comprise so that even if wasn't happy with her position in my household, she wouldn't end up throwing herself off a tower or something like that.
(Line Break)
Stormwind. World of Warcraft.
"Welcome to Stormwind. The capital of the Alliance." I said as my girls and I slowly walked towards the massive open gates "The is the largest human city in this world, which is called Azeroth if memory serves".
I'd made the portal to this world appear some distance from the impressive-looking city not just so no one would see it, but also because Myrcella needed some time to adjust to the reality that I could travel to other worlds. I'd decided to help her to make the best of a bad situation as while she had to stay in my custody, at least for the foreseeable future, that didn't mean keeping her locked up all the time.
As soon as we walked between the two watchtowers on each side of the massive gate, we found ourselves on a stone bridge over a water-filled chasm. On the other side of the bridge, there was another large gate. The only cover on the bridge was a pair of large statues. I'd hate to have archers firing at me while crossing over this bridge.
"This place is amazing" I heard Arya mutter.
"Yes. It's far more impressive than King's Landing," I said as we entered through the second gate into the city proper.
The city really was greater than King's Landing. More solidly built. More pleasing to look at. It was much cleaner too. This was a proper fortress city, a safe haven, not some sprawling mess like King's Landing.
"So many people" Meera was now whispering to me "And not people"
The place was buzzing, there were people everywhere, trading, carrying goods. Talking and walking. Not just humans either, there were gnomes, dwarves, and those Night Elves. Plus the blue people who I couldn't remember anything about. Lydia and Aela, who'd I'd brought along as well were more used to having different races around, but Meera and Arya looked rather shocked, and they'd seen the Children of the Forest as well as White Walkers. As for Myrcella, we had to stop for a while because she just stood stock still at stared at all the alien beings around us.
"They are people," I said to Meera "just not humans, but that doesn't make them our enemies. Remember the Children of the Forest. You got used to them before long".
I watched as Arya glanced wearily at the large crowd of strangely dressed folks, not all of which were human, moved around us. The younger Lady of Winterfell had been keeping her hand on the handle of her sword ever since we had arrived through the gate. It was like she expected everyone we met to attack us. That might have something to do with the warlocks walking around with pet demons, thankfully Arya had not attacked anyone while we waited for Myrcella's brain to finish rebooting.
"Why did we come here?" my werewolf lover asked me as I'd not taken the time to explain.
Mostly because I'd wanted to visit more worlds, and I had promised my girls that we would. My plan was to spend only a few hours here as we had things we needed to be doing back at Dragonstone before the siege of Kings Landing began and I lead the attack on the Red Keep. Now that Myrcella was one of my girls, even if she didn't wish to be and I wouldn't let her go as she was mine, but I didn't want her brother killed. It would be better if he was sent to the Citadel to become a Maester, that organisation still existed despite having its leadership removed by assassins, or to serve on the Wall.
"Stormwind is the capital of the human kingdom in this world," I said to everyone "But its also a place where people are used to having visitors from far off lands so hopefully we won't draw too much attention to ourselves".
I'd made sure that everyone dressed in traveller's clothing and that we all carried normal steel weapons.
"There are several skill and class trainers that might be useful if we can afford to pay them" I mentioned.
"Are we going to be here long enough to learn new skills?" Arya wondered
Normally it would take far longer than we could afford to spend in one place but this was the World of Warcraft so the skill learning might work via magic somewhat like it did the game. In the Elder Scrolls world Spell Tomes imparted knowledge very easily so it wasn't impossible that other civilizations with access to magic could have figured out other ways of quickly sharing knowledge. For a price.
"It's possible that they use some type of magic to instantly grant people skills," I told him "From what I can recall these so-called professions fall into one of two categories: Gathering, those who gather or harvest items from resources throughout the world to supply ingredients and materials for crafting professions. The gathered materials can be sold in the auction house or traded between people".
With some effort, I was able to explain it more clearly.
"It's sort of like how if you killed a bear while hunting and then had its fur made into a cloak by someone else" I explained "Those who have two Gathering professions are said to be the 'Supply and Demand'. They supply the people with Crafting Professions with materials and get paid for it. Like how you can hunt and then sell the fur of the bear to someone".
So far they all seemed to understand me. Doubtless, because that was how things worked in their worlds. Their worlds people had folks who hunted, fished, gathered herbs and worked in mines. None of that was very odd to them, learning how to do those things with magic would be strange, assuming it could be done that way.
"People with crafting professions make items from ingredients and materials, herbs, bars of metal, meats, furs etc" I was now saying "Most of the items produced can be sold in the auction house here in Stormwind or traded, and I guess shops may buy them. We'll soon find out".
My girls all gave me odd looks.
"What's an auction house?" Lydia asked.
I soon answered her question.
"A place where people go to bid on items," I told him "The people offering money are called bidders the person who bids the most money then will get the item being auctioned".
We could discuss such things, later on, right now I didn't even know if skills could be taught via some magical means or if that was purely a game thing.
"Before anything else, we're going to need gold if we want to buy armour, weapons and training. Considering there are some nice spells available here, I'd like to see what we can learn before we leave" I said to the group "And that means finding the city's bank".
Within in our pouches of holding we all had coins from Westeros, raw gold ore, and gemstones that I'd created with magic or trade for. I had no idea what the value of such things was here, but gold tends to be used as a currency in most fantasy settings so it seemed like a good thing to start with.
As for the local magic, fire spells would be very handy once I got around to dealing with the armies commanded by the White Walkers. I hoped that they had spells more effective than the ones I currently knew.
"What happens if we can't use any of the magic once we leave?" Arya Stark asked "Maybe their magic only works here"
That was a very good point to raise it was easy to forget that she was smarter than she let on, and sure the stuff from Skyrim worked find in Planetos, but that could be due to the strange nature of Spell Tomes or because enchanting required an exchange with the Soul Carin, rather than drawing power from the natural forces of a single world.
"Then we can't use it, but we won't know until we check," I said "It should be worth it to learn one spell, and then test it in your world. If it doesn't work then we didn't waste too much time and money".
My warrior girls were still not relaxing, but at least they didn't seem so hostile now. I knew that they were just trying to keep the group safe so I didn't judge them.
"Why are all there so few smallfolk here?" Meera asked me.
For the most part, we were surrounded by adventurers, who were all dressed rather well, and most of them carried weapons of some sort. Arya was used to only lords, knights and guards being armed, and everyone dressing in little more than rags. They seemed to have a higher standard of living in this city than other places I'd been to.
"Here people are divided by the jobs they chose more than who their parents were" I did my best to explain "For example, warriors hit things with weapons and wear lots of armour as their more likely to be hit. They tend to do most of the fighting and successful warriors get better equipment. Then you have priests, druids and shamans who can do stuff like magical healing. They can do some other things but basically they're healers, they dress in robes mostly. Then you have hunters which are ranged weapon users, bows and crossbows, they're the people in leather".
They had some firearms here, but mentioning them would needlessly complicate matters, and they'd wouldn't help with the army of the dead as Dragonglass couldn't be made into bullets. I'd already spoken with the Dwarven clans about such things and with their magical ways of strengthening materials, it just wouldn't work. Their solution to the army of the dead involved building even more cannons.
"Still with me?" I asked the daughter of Howland Reed.
Meera nodded.
"Yes," she said.
I carried on talking.
"Then you have rogues who are the stab people, they also sneak and open locked boxes, they also wear leather, but less over it" I was now saying "Mages and warlocks cast spells, they're the people with the staffs who wear robes. Again the quality of their clothing is more due to their success than their family's station".
Aela and Lydia more easily accepted this as in Skyrim your family history doesn't always define your role in society. Sure a blacksmith is most likely to pass on his knowledge to a son, but there's a lot of freedom of choice in Skyrim when compared to Westeros. At least in my view.
"So here they can learn things by magic, and they dressed depending on what job they have chosen" Arya summarised "They don't learn to do the things their mothers and fathers did".
It would explain where all these adventures came from.
"That's my guess anyway," I said to the group "You can only learn so much from observation. We'd have to ask some people how life works around here, and maybe find some books on the subject. I could be totally wrong"
Learning how to enchant weapons without using soul gems mattered more to me that my interest in the social structures of alien societies, so I got directions to the bank and we moved on. This wasn't really a sightseeing trip.
(Line Break)
Ironforge. Warcraft
The arrival of myself and my girls here in the Dwarven city was met with indifference by the locals, the people of this city were too busy to concern themselves with us. The stocky and heavily armed warriors rushed about with their business while workers carried on with their toil. Somewhat familiar sounds filled the air, the noise of steel clanking against steel, of water hissing and even the odd curse when something went wrong. I could understand all that was being spoken of around me thanks to certain magical spells and I was grateful for it.
There were a variety of people standing by the forges, some asking for help from master smiths, others begging permission to work on the anvils themselves, many simply got on with their work with any talking. I might be joining them soon as I'd come to here to learn enchanting and blacksmithing skills from a trainer here, they could indeed pass on knowledge here magical, but the people who knew how to do such things were few and far between so the service was expensive. Thankfully we'd gotten decent amounts of local coins for the treasures we trade for currency at the bank.
"Welcome to Ironforge," I said to the ladies with me, who was currently staring at the bustle going on around us "Ironforge is the capital city of the dwarves, and part of the Alliance, that is to say, its part of an alliance of races not just kingdoms".
I didn't think that any of them were really paying attention, as they were too busy staring, but since I'd started talking I decided to keep going.
"This city is the ancestral home of the Bronzebeard dwarves" I went on to say "King Magni Bronzebeard rules his kingdom of Khaz Modan from his throne room within the city. The High Tinker Gelbin Mekkatorque, leader of the gnomes, had to settle down in Tinker Town after the fall of the gnome city Gnomeregan".
Carved into the stone heart of Khaz Modan, the mighty city of Ironforge was a testament to the dwarves' strength and resilience. I knew that this city had to be the most intricate of the Alliance cities, boasting many small passageways, shops built into the rock walls, and cavernous rooms.
"Mainly because of the Deeprun Tram, that thing we used to get here, that links Ironforge and Stormwind City. Ironforge is one of the most racially diverse cities in the world" I told my harem "Here you get dwarves, humans, gnomes and...".
Looking around I stopped as I saw no Night Elves at all. Which was odd because I'd seen plenty of them in Stormwind. They probably preferred the more natural and open spaced environments. Also, there didn't seem to be many humans around right now. However, I sensed no hostility directed towards us so perhaps the human smiths were simply busy elsewhere.
"When you promised me that there were dwarves here," Myrcella said, "I thought they'd be like my uncle, but these tiny people are different".
Her words made me wince.
"Don't call them small or tiny or anything like that" I urged the princess "If they take offence they might cut your legs off at the knees so you know what it's like to be short".
Her royal highness frowned, and I decided to change the subject, only one of the natives of this city did it for me.
"Ye here to admire the great forges?" we were asked.
That was part of the reason. The Great Forge (situated in the Great Forge District) could be considered to be the heart and soul of dwarven culture in this world, where ingenious creations and weapons are made. Located at the centre of the city, it gave the ancient dwarf capital its name. At its centre is the famed Great Anvil, where most of the best dwarven blacksmithing trainers can be found. Ringed around the Great Forge are several foundries pouring molten slag and many shops and guild offices, including trainers for cooking, mining, first aid, tailoring and leatherworking, as well as the High Seat, the court of the King Magni Bronzebeard. The trainers were the main reason we'd come here. I wanted to be able to smith and enchant some weapons for the use against the dead when the time came to defeat the Night King.
"And to do some shopping," I told the dwarf "I have friends in need of good swords, and there are none finer than dwarven made swords".
The local smiled and then pointed out a merchant who had fine stock before going on his way. We had dwarven allies back in Westeros, but so many of them were busy working for the lords of the northern kingdom in work involving adding cannons to their defences and magically reinforcing their walls, that only a few of them spent any time forging weapons. If they survived the Long Night and settled down in the north as planned I figured that dwarven clans would have work for centuries to come.
(Line Break)
Dragonstone. Westeros.
Myrcella only been back in the castle for a few hours, but already she hard at work making use of the skills she'd been granted to sow, not an odd thing for her to be doing as she'd been stitching things for as long as she could remember, only this was different, now she could make more than pretty clothes. She would be able to sow cloth armour and many kinds of bags using dye, thread and cloth that the Dragonborn had promised to keep her supplied with.
She'd brought many recipes with the gold given to her by the Dragonborn, and they were instructions on the sort of things she'd be able to create if she practised her new skills enough. Tailors could fashion nets to slow enemies with and work with magical threads which empower items they are stitched into. There was even an advanced recipe for a rideable flying carpet, and while so far her time here in Dragonstone had been very enjoyable she wanted an escape plan. A flying carpet seemed like something out of a children's story, yet she'd seen much stranger sights just this day.
Myrcella didn't know where she'd gone even if she could fly away from Dragonstone, to Kings Landing perhaps, it was just that from what she'd heard the people who didn't like her family would soon attack that city, so perhaps Casterly Rock, the home of her family? She had no idea how to fly there, or anywhere really, it was just fun to imagine even if she might actually be safer staying here at Dragonstone.
She might fall off the flying carpet and plunge to her death, or be captured by one of the many people who hated her family, and there were many out there. The Dragonborn had plenty of other girls around so Myrcella did not think it likely that the Lord of this castle would force himself upon her, however, the princess, if she could still be called that, wasn't a fool, she knew why she'd been given to the ruler of this island, and what he could be doing to her right now if he wished.
Those horrid women known as the Sand Snakes had treated her badly and she'd been expecting more of the same, but so far it seemed as if the Dragonborn was going to treat her well. He'd certainly gone to a lot of trouble if today had been some sort of trick and he'd promised to teach her some magic. Her old Septa would have highly disapproved of such, but the princess had seen enough of the world to know that not everyone shared the same view about everything. Besides, in the eyes of the Seven, she was an abomination a bastard born of incest.
Lord Gothic had told her that she had to stay in the castle, but that was free to wander around now that so many people had left to go assault Kings Landing. The Dragonborn would be leaving in the morning and could be gone for some time so the princess decided that she would go and talk to the sorcerer, she wanted to settle this arrangement between them. Perhaps he would take her on more adventures to far off places in exchange for her playing the role of his ward without any trouble. She wasn't totally naive, she knew there were ways for women to get what they wanted from men, and she could use that to ensure her good treatment.
Myrcella knew what sex was even if she'd never performed the act. The people in Dorne weren't so shy about such things as people could be in other parts of the Seven Kingdoms, so when she arrived at the chambers of the Dragonborn, which she knew were close to her own she wasn't too surprised to find Lord Gothic with a woman in his bed. Since there were no guards about, they were busy preparing for the battles to come, she was able to spy through the keyhole and saw Arya, the younger stark girl who was bent over the bed with her perk ass lifted up into the air.
"Are you going to come into my castle?" she heard Arya ask.
As a child, Myrcella played come-into-my-castle, monsters-and-maidens, and hide-the-treasure with the children of other important people, as such she knew that this wasn't how you were supposed to play such games. The Dragonborn expressed his opinion on the matter, about how this wasn't the same game.
"Just fuck me, already, stupid" demanded Arya.
That got her a slap on her backside, and Myrcella got the impression that the Stark rather liked it.
"Beg for it" the ruler of the island demanded.
There was more slapping.
"Fuck me like a wolf. Make me your bitch" Arya pleaded "Come on you know you want me to howl for you".
Myrcella couldn't help what she was now feeling between her thighs, and since this castle was very warm, even with winter having come, as the Starks always promised, the princess's dress was light, more like something she'd have worn in Dorne rather than when in the Crownlands. As such it wasn't too much work to get a hand to that wet spot down below. Doing this was very unladylike and Myrcella simply didn't care.
She'd only known the Dragonborn for less than a day, but she found herself rather envying the plain-looking girl who shared the bed of Lord Gothic. Myrcella was hardly a prideful person, not like her mother had been, yet she couldn't help thinking that it should be her in that bed and she was much prettier than Arya.
Maybe she would soon be in the Stark girl's place. She'd been planning to formalise some sort of deal with the Dragonborn, she was still willing to offer to share his bed at least some nights and to do so willingly, without fuss so as to avoid getting forced into it, and she wanted to avoid the physical violence she'd suffered at the hands of those sand bitches. She'd like to think that the Dragonborn would not do such things to her, but she wasn't going to depend on, so it would best to make the best of this situation and try to do so on her terms.
Myrcella stopped watching as a crash of thunder filled the air, scaring her half to death, and she decided that it would be best to return her room and to speak the Lord of Dragonstone in the morning. The shock had sent all desire to keep touching herself from her mind, but as she left she felt certain that he dampened the spirits of the two lovers in the bedroom.