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Chapter 14 Part 3

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291 AC

Yunkai

Maester Marwyn wondered how many of his fellow Knights of the Mind in the past, or present, for that matter, knew they were part of history in the making at the moment that it was created. Looking back with hindsight, when memories had begun to fade, it might be easy to figure it out. But at the very moment people's decisions forged history?

It was incredible, if in some ways disturbing. Marwyn had to admit to himself that it took him painfully long to figure out that some of what Prince Viserys was doing at Astapor and presumably planned for Yunkai and Meereen would infringe upon, if not outright challenge the Citadel as the undisputed center of learning and scholarly in the whole world.

In hindsight, it was easy to see that the lack of centralization and the focus on military matters, among other things, disguised the truth. Marwyn was sure it was unintentional. The Naval and Military Academy, the work expanding what used to be a school for learned slaves into a quasi-citadel to train administrators for Astapor, now Yunkai, and eventually Meereen? When Viserys combined and expanded these new institutions, as would inevitably happen when this city was secured and put to order, the Citadel would rapidly find itself with a rival.

Marwyn couldn't help but think that such rivalry would be good in the long run. Too many of his fellow Maesters were stuck in their ways and resistant to new ideas. They were the pinnacle of learned men in the world, and it has been far too long since anyone challenged them, not since the Doom of Valyria.

It was fitting then that a reborn Valyrian Freehold might provide the challenge the Citadel needed to excel, Marwyn decided. His Prince offered a glorious future, and he would chronicle it all!

However, first, the Maester needed to ensure that his Prince and Princess lived long enough to achieve their vision. That was why he rode through Yunkai's empty streets surrounded by guards. Marwyn spent most of the day treating wounded Unsullied and asking those capable of speaking about their experience in taking the city. The Maester was determined to write the most comprehensive history of the ongoing Targaryen resurgence, and that required as many first-hand accounts as possible. There would be no ambiguity! Future Maesters shouldn't be wondering what was true and what was tall tales everyone knew but couldn't prove.
Marwyn finally found his charges sitting at the docks, talking. It quickly became clear that his Prince had taken the time to educate the Princess on why they took the city the way they did. The young man's dedication to the quest for knowledge was commendable.

"My Prince, Princes…" Marwyn frowned after he got a good look at the young royals. They both looked like they'd bathed in blood.

"May I suggest you two clean up so I can examine you and ensure you are both hale? For an old man's peace of mind, if nothing else."

Princess Daenerys looked down at her bloody armor and clothes. She adorably scrunched her nose, reminding Marwyn how young she was.

"I'm all gross, and it's your fault!" Daenerys accused the Prince.

"Little Dragon, I clearly remember leaving you safe and sound beyond the city wall with a group of loyal Royal Guards," Viserys looked pointedly at his sister. Evident amusement rang in his voice. "You were far away from gross bloody messes."

The Princess huffed at that and shook her head.

Viserys jumped off the crate he sat on beside his sister and picked her up, ignoring the Princess' half-hearted protests.
"We are going back to camp to get cleared up. Ser Lonmouth, you are in charge of the city. Make sure it is properly secured like we've discussed."

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Marwyn happily followed his Prince and Princess back into the city early the next morning. He was glad that his examination last night revealed nothing out of place. The blood on them wasn't theirs, which was a relief. Everyone but the slaves being liberated in Yunkai was already in deadly trouble. If the Princess had been hurt, the consequences wouldn't have been bearable to think about, for Marwyn was sure the local nobility was already in deadly trouble.

There was also a selfish reason for the Maester wanting his charges to be hale as horses. That way, he would have more time for his experiments and write down the history in the making he was now part of. Instead of spending most of the night treating the Targaryens for wounds they received in the assault on Yunkai, Marwyn got to write down his impressions and the stories he got from the Unsullied he treated.

Hopefully, tonight, he would be free to put his thoughts and impressions on parchment while they were still fresh in his mind.
Eventually, they reached a vast plaza under the shadow of Yunkai's two largest pyramids. At least a thousand Unsullied held the area, with about two thousand regular soldiers providing further security. Despite these numbers and hundreds of highborn prisoners huddling in the plaza's center, the area was far from crowded. It could have comfortably held at least a few thousand more people. If they were packed together, perhaps tens of thousands.

Marwyn kept walking behind his Prince and Princess, taking stock of the situation until they reached a wooden podium constructed so that it could be seen from most plazas and offered a great view of the area. The Maester was suspicious that this place was made to display and sell slaves.

The Maester focused his attention on the prisoners below. Their clothes gave away their station. The style of their clothes and hair further reinforced Marwyn's conclusion. Many of the prisoners wore tokars – and as far as he knew, that was a status symbol here in Slaver's Bay, one worn only by the wealthiest and most powerful of Masters.

"You've had the sheer gall to launch an unprovoked war against us," Viserys' voice suddenly echoed loud and clear across the plaza and beyond. "You had the temerity to torture and murder my people, and for that, your lives are forfeit. The only question is how long it will take you to die."

A rumble of approval spread throughout the assembled soldiers. Only now, it dawned on Marwyn that there was no need for so heavy a security – neither for the plaza itself nor the prisoners. Much less for his Sorcerer Prince. This was a mummer's performance, the Maester concluded, and the audience wasn't meant to be the prisoners but the soldiers.

"All the Wise Masters will be crucified. Magic will keep you alive for as long as feasible at the expense of the lives of your families and allies," Viserys pronounced in his judgment. "The deaths of a few of you will be slower and more useful," the Prince continued.
Marwyn felt unease when Princess Daenerys preened at her brother's last words.

The Prince looked away from the prisoners and nodded at Ser Richard.

"Lord Commander, make sure that the prisoners don't kill themselves. I still have a use for them. Sort them out. Their slaves should know who their family members and allies are."

"Your Grace," Lonmouth saluted and left the dais.

At that point, Viserys ignored the stunned prisoners and focused on the assembled soldiers.

"I promised you a new future. Freedom through power," the Prince paused while thousands of throats shouted the slogan that all liberated slaves took to heart.

"Freedom Through Power!" the chant thundered throughout the plaza in ever-increasing volume, followed by spearbutts slamming into cobblestones.

"Those who wish to bind us all in chains again will pay for it in blood. All those who dare to torture our people will die screaming, this I pledge!" Viserys waved his hands grandly while his sister beamed beside him.

This was the beginning of something different, something new, Marwyn understood. However, he had no idea what kind of inferno his Prince was busy lighting up.

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Chapter 14 Part 4

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Cities exchanging hands in war is a common enough occurrence. If a sack could be avoided, little change save for potentially the ruling House. At least, that has been the way of war in Westeros for a long while. Aegon's Conquest was no exception. If anything, more often than not, the ruling houses of cities, keeps, and fortresses alike retained their positions after they bent the knee. Little, if anything, changed in the day-to-day lives of smallfolk and most nobles alike.

This was not the case when Prince Viserys took Astapor and later conquered Yunkai in the span of a single day. Slavery was interwoven in the very fabric of society across the "Free" Cities in Essos save for Braavos. Rooting out that vile institution, while commendable, came with inevitable consequences. Ending slavery destroyed the economy overnight, demanding an immediate restructuring and a vast amount of treasure to tide it over until it could recover. Indeed, the way the very societies of Astapor and Yunkai were set up simply couldn't function without slavery unless changed beyond recognition. Thus, when the dust settled, and Targaryen banners flew above Yunkai's pyramids, the real challenge began...

The Conquest of Yunkai was a stepping stone, not an end in itself. When Princes Viserys busied himself with consolidating his hold upon the city, it was with a singular goal in mind – a campaign to take and hold the whole of Slaver's Bay, thus securing a firm foundation for the Second Freehold he intended to announce to the world at large at the end of the ongoing conflict.

Reforged in Fire and Blood: The Foundation of the Second Freehold, by Maester Marwyn

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291 AC
Yunkai

Taking stock of the situation in Astapor was faster and easier, not just because that city was much smaller but because Viserys wisely allowed a chunk of its ruling class to defect. Those people brought knowledge and expertise with them.

The same couldn't be said about Yunkai. The Wise Masters proved themselves anything but wise and thus condemned their kind to die screaming. Making an appropriate example of their death further bound the loyalty of the army to the Targaryens. That was also the first string of the strategy to earn the undying loyalty of all slaves in Yunkai now that the Targaryen soldiers were busy liberating and processing them.

Nevertheless, the current state of affairs left much to be desired.

Viserys gathered his principal commanders and advisers on a large terrace overlooking much of the city. He commandeered one of the two massive pyramids dominating the city's highest points for his base of operations, allowing a modicum of security, not to mention a great view. Considering that until very recently, this place was the residence of one of the most powerful and influential families ruling Yunkai, the records within the building were going to be invaluable going forward, which was another factor in securing the place ASAP.

"Food stocks, water, wine, anything related to preserving and increasing their reserves are of the utmost importance," Viserys again stressed.

"We might have more than two hundred thousand slaves by the end of it," Maester Marwyn offered without looking up from a stack of parchment he was browsing. "This city can't sustain itself for long."

The same was true for Astapor, though Viserys had a buffer to work with there because the place was well-stocked and smaller. However, the size of Yunkai meant that this place might very well hold more slaves than Astapor's combined population. As if that wasn't a headache enough…

"While Astapor was infamous for training the Unsullied, it also trained slaves as all kinds of craftsmen and scholars," Marwyn reminded everyone.

That fact was invaluable, giving Viserys a foundation upon which to build. While expanding the schools to teach slaves all kinds of skills was a painstaking process, the payoff would be tremendous in the long run.

"Things here are different. We all knew it, though I am not sure that any of us really understood what it meant," the Maester announced.

"I am not going to like it, am I?" Viserys looked expectantly at his adviser.

"Astapor was self-sufficient in many regards," Marwyn noted. "The primary imports besides slaves to be trained were food, raw resources, and luxuries."

The nature of the slaves Astapor sold besides Unsullied made sure of it. Viserys had to grudgingly admit that it was wise to use the slaves in training as the backbone of a cottage industry sufficient to feed most of the city's needs. That was yet another vital foundation that came in incredibly useful after he took the city.

"Things are different here, I take it?" The Prince inquired.

"It will be days, perhaps a few weeks, until we know for sure. However, the preliminary conclusions I can reach based on everything the administrators have seen and reported are grave. There was a saying among the Maesters back at the Citadel. 'In Yunkai, swordsmen are cheaper than their blades,'" he quoted someone. "I shouldn't have to explain why that's the case. And I am sorry to report it is true."

"Some of us have fought the sorry excuses for swordsmen and slave soldiers Yunkai produces," Ser Lonmouth interjected. "They're shit. Little better than green boys and graybeards who have never swung a weapon in anger. They are cheap because their equipment is shit, and their training is practically non-existent. We'll have our hands full trying to turn them into proper soldiers."

"That covers a large part of the slaves the Wise Masters trained. The other, larger group is pleasure slaves. They have extensive and comprehensive training," The Maester grimaced at that. "it's not really useful for our purposes."

"The Temple of the Graces has us covered in that regard," Viserys noted. "Any brothels that will remain open in my realm will be staffed by free people who want to work there."

"Flesh-peddlers tend to have other ideas, Your Grace," A member of the Royal Guard interjected from his position at the entrance.

"No one likes flesh-peddlers. I really dislike flesh-peddlers, for that matter," Viserys stressed. The very thought of those bastards got him in a murderous mood, for it reminded him how close Dany got to ending in their hands not so long ago.

Marwyn wondered if there would be any flesh-peddlers left alive in Yunkai after news of the Prince's mislike of them spread throughout the army.

"What are we going to do with all the pleasure slaves our soldiers are liberating?" Ser Lonmouth asked. "There are tens of thousands of them, likely more."

"We'll be shipping many of them in batches back to Astapor for training in various useful crafts. Either way, I believe that most, if not all, of them, might be eager to learn how to defend themselves and be part of their new home's garrison troops," Viserys suggested.

"Freedom through the power it is," Ser Lonmouth nodded happily. "If that was all, I don't think we would have that much of a problem, Maester."

"Yunkai is far less self-sufficient than Astapor, and not just because of the size. If anything, it is only because the city is so big that it has a minimal number of craftsmen in most trades. All indications available point at them being anything but sufficient to meet this place's needs. That will be an issue when expanding the army and overhauling the economy to work without slaves."

"We'll train training cadres at Astapor, then move them here to establish schools of various kinds. If you are correct, the local guilds will be far weaker and of less consequence," Viserys looked over the city. "Their inevitable opposition to the idea will also be of no consequence. But we've gone away from the most important topic. Do we have the food and water to keep the people of this city alive until we can take Meereen? If push comes to shove, we'll raid and sack that city to buy ourselves time."

"Despite your fears, my Prince, it seems no one thought of torching granaries or poisoning wells. Many warehouses and granaries are full of foods of all types. However, considering Yunkai's sheer size, I can't begin to estimate how long it will all last or how much food we have available in total," Marwyn reported.

There would be no regular shipment of food coming over sea until the war was over and enemy fleets ended their blockade. Even then, it would take time to cut deals, buy food, and ship it to where it was needed.