The Dragon and the Hawke 5
It took three days for Dany to realize that she had no idea what she was doing.
She had tried to encourage the unsullied to claim their own names, but apparently they chose the ones they were slaves as. If Grey Worm, the elected commander, was any indication, they were very happy, but still stuck in something of a rut.
When she went to Jorah, Barristan, Marian, and Missandei for advice, they hadn't been much help. Her knights reassured her that leading was in her blood and she would get the hang of it eventually, Marian had laughed, and Missandei had given some nice but ultimately useless advice.
After the meeting between her and her advisors, she watched a Marian approached Missandei for something, and the former slave nod. When she tried to talk to her friend about it, the mage had waved a hand and told her that all would be made clear soon enough. Unfortunately, soon enough didn't come soon enough, and she was faced with trying to mediate a dispute by sundown.
Standing before her makeshift throne, stood two former slaves and a child. The ex-slaves, both women, had come to the Mother of Dragons to beg for help in determining who should have the child. The child, one of the former masters, was not old enough to even speak, and both women had acted as his nursemaids and each wanted to take care of the child, whose entire family had been killed by the Unsullied.
Dany, in her throne, was unsure how to proceed, and had no idea what she should do in regards to this. She turned to her advisors, and it was clear that neither Barristan nor Jorah had ever had to deal with something like this before. Missandei turned to the queen and in the common tongue offered, "Perhaps the child should go to the woman with the stronger claim?"
"Yes," Dany nods, "But how could we tell who has the stronger claim?"
"No way to tell," Marian enters the conversation, idly feeding a rat to Viserion who was perched on her shoulder, "We could ask them."
"But how would we know if they are telling the truth?" Dany asks
Marian shrugs, "That's your deal, Dany. I can read body language and stuff, but you're the queen, and you actually understand them."
"You can read body language?" Missandei asks, surprised
"Yep, I'm just full of surprises," Marian nod, winking at the girl.
Missandei blushes, but ignores Marian and turns back to the Queen, "Slaves are told that they can never hide their true selves. None but the Unsullied are trained to be cold. It serves better if they are emotional, and their deceptions can be easily found. These women will not know to hide themselves from Hawke's gaze."
Marian blinks, and leans back, a smile slowly growing over her face. The smile becomes a small, wistful gaze into the distance before Dany manages to draw her back into the conversation, "Can you do that, Marian?"
"What? Tell if they're lying? Sure," Marian nods, and she thinks of Varic, and who knew what adventures he was having by now, "I was trained by the best."
"Good," Dany nods, and turns back to the two women, who had been waiting silently for the Queen to decide who of them would take the child. Looking between them, she then asks which had the stronger claim over the child.
Marian watched as both women began to speak in tandem, then both stopped and the one to the child's left indicated for the one on the right to speak. From the simple gesture, it was clear that there wasn't a distinct animosity between the women, but that they both cared for the child and wished to see him well.
The woman on the right spoke clearly, her answer heartfelt, but it seemed that she was holding something back. Her eyes would constantly turn to look down at the child, then at the other woman. Marian had seen this behavior before, back when that kid had gotten himself trapped in the fade. His mother had cared so much for him, but she also looked to the Keeper of the Dalish clan from the mountains for advice.
If she was reading this right, the woman on the left had about the same amount of wisdom and power in the eyes of the other woman as the keeper. And when she spoke, Marian could see why. The woman was older, taller, and she had the air of intelligence and power about her that many lacked. She looked upon the woman on the right and the child like a grandmother would an unruly child. She seemed to believe that the child should be with the other woman, but that the other woman was not ready.
After she finished speaking, Marian turned to Dany and suggested, "Maybe you should ask them if either have anything close to family."
Dany turns her head slightly, petting Rhaegal's head as he slid up next to her and nods, and turns to the women. As she asks her question, it is clear that the answer for both is in the negative. The queen looks back at her for some indication of where she is going with this, and Marian suggests, "Tell them that they should live together and raise the child as one."
"Like you would do with your Isabella?" Dany asks
Marian blinks, "Not what I was going for, but sure, I could marry them if you wanted to go that far."
"You could marry them?" Missandei asks, an eyebrow raised
"Yeah, there was this beautiful priestess in my home town, Leliana," Marian explains, "Best way to get a look at her was during church ceremonies, so I just kinda fell into the habit of learning all the prayers and ceremonies and stuff. Plus there was this one time I had to actually get inducted as a Mother of the Church…. don't ask me why, I was drunk."
Dany and Missandei shake their heads before the queen turns her attention to the women, and tells them Marian's suggestion. Both women are clearly shocked, and the younger asks something of the queen. Dany furrows her brow, and waves a hand at Marian while explaining something. Marian gives them a smile and a thumbs up.
Both women regard her with caution, then turn back to the queen and tell her something. To Marian, it is clear that they are in no way going to be getting to know each other in the andrastian sense, but she didn't really care.
After that incident, Dany decided that having Marian as her advisor was a double edged sword, as the woman could give some good advice, but at the same time, much of her advice was mad. Barristan could attest to the fact that her father had been a madman, but apparently he had been a different type from Marian.
And then Marian proved she was damn good at being the queen's advisor when she and Missandei dragged an old man into her throne room. Though, in all honesty, it was Marian who did all of the dragging, it was clear that Missandei had a hand in whatever was about to happen. Standing the old man up, Marian happily said, "Dany, may I present to you, your tutor!"
"My tutor?" Dany raised an eyebrow testily
"Yeah," Marian nods happily, "He used to be a slave in one of the noble families of Astapor. He taught the heirs how to rule their households and all that stuff."
"You found me a tutor to help me learn to rule?"
"Well, yeah, you were complaining like two days ago about how you had no idea what the hell you were doing. I thought this would help."
Dany stands, and descends the steps to stand in front of Marian and the old man. The man bowed his head and said something in Valyrian. Marian smiled when she saw the look in Dany's eyes shift, and she smiled even wider when Dany lifted the old man's head and said something to him in that tone that she saved for when something really played at her heart strings.
After that, Marian didn't have much to do with advising the queen. Instead she was busy entertaining the dragons so they didn't start cooking people. To do this, she had managed to convince Missandei to have the Unsullied bring her any murderers.
For the next three weeks, while Dany got the hang of ruling and tried to build some sort of governing body for Astapor after she left, Marian inadvertently became the Queen's executioner. One by one, former slaves and escaped masters who decided to take some form of revenge against someone else in the city found their way in front of Marian, and the dragons. The dragons, the size of ponies now, were eager to fry and devour the men and women that were brought before them.
It took Dany a week to realize what Marian was doing, and less than an hour to decide that she should just let it happen. She was a Targaryen, and she had Dragons, so using them made perfect sense. Plus, her children were far more amenable with full stomachs, and it was an actually useful way to get rid of the murderers. She really didn't like that there were so many murders happening in Astapor, but Jorah's explanation about men and swords still rattled through her head.
In the end, it took a month for Dany to get her army to pull out. The city had settled, a new ruling council was established, she had learned how to use messenger ravens, and Marian had fed most of the more dangerous men to the dragons. Still, things may not go smoothly in her newly conquered city, and she had a force of three hundred Unsullied remain behind to keep the peace. Marian had told her how to word her orders, the mage far better at talking than her.
And so the Mother of Dragons began her march, and as they set off, Marian had to ask, "So where are we going next?"