Chapter 34: Rhaegar arrives for the Wedding
Skagos, The North, 7th moon of 278 AC
Rhaegar POV
Rhaegar Targaryen, the crown prince, considered himself a complex man. In his mind, he was the prince that was promised and would lead the realm against the dead, or so everything he read and concluded said.
Ever since he "understood" his value and responsibility, he began to prepare himself for the inevitable; he needed to become a warrior, and a warrior he became. He needed to become a good ruler, and a good ruler, he strived to be. He needed strong allies against the evils to come, and so seek the friendship of the strongest warrior in the realm he tried. Apparently, he was successful as he was invited to Skagos to watch Ragnar Dovahkiin's, The Dragon of The North wedding. According to his spies, he was the only no northern person, other than Gerion Lannister, invited to Ragnar's wedding; that has to mean something. It was a rare piece of information, and he only got to know about it because his spies in Winterfell told him so. No one had a spy in Skagos, not even the Spider himself. All information they had about Skagos came from the reports Lord Dovahkiin sent to Winterfell, which, thanks to Maester Willy, became a source of information for the south.
Rhaegar didn't know what to expect from Skagos; he heard that before Lord Dovahkiin, they were a bunch of cannibals living a harsh life. After Lord Dovahkiin's arrival, they became civilized enough to have a City. The second city in the North. According to the Reports sent by Lord Dovahkiin's maester, the city was prosperous and booming with trade; Skagos greatest partner was the Ibbenese, followed by House Umber and Karstark. The Dovahkiin's fleet was the fourth biggest fleet in Westeros, losing only to the Royal Fleet, the Redwyne fleet, and the Iron Fleet. House Dovahkiin's ships were so successful in their ventures that they apparently could feed Skagos, Umber's lands, and Karstark's Land with seafood only, but that wasn't the only thing House Dovahkiin's sold. They began to sell crops and "dried" meat in White Harbor, in abundance, according to his spies in White Harbor.
These changes brought unimaginable worries to the Small Council, and Rhaegar himself. If the north became self-sufficient, the south would have nothing to use against them in eventual war. And with House Dovahkiin joining House Mormont, the MOST LOYAL house to House Stark in marriage meant that it would be useless to try to undermine the Starks by offering power to their now strongest vassals House Dovahkiin. The North was slowly but surely becoming more dangerous than it already was. And this was worrying was The North had never lost a war with the south.
" Your Grace, we will be arriving in Skagossi soil in about an hour. The Skagossi fleet is already scouting us towards the southmost part of the bay of seals. Which according to them, is where Kingshouse town and the biggest port on the Island is." said an unimportant man. Rhaegar nodded and went outside his cabin to see the sea; he saw 20 battleships with House Dovahkiin's Dragon on its sails forming a defensive formation around his 5 DragonStone ships.
" That's most curious; I've never seen such formation before. It looks like a Cyvassi board on the Sea." Rhaegar said as he observed the formation and began to understand how well planned and efficient this formation was. His eyes widened as he turned to Arthur Dayne, who was by his side.
" This is incredible. Look at that! LOOK AT THAT, ARTHUR! Every single ship is protected by two more as the formation goes on; no vessel has a blind spot, and they can all relocate fast enough to meet any attack by any side. This is marvelous! This formation is… how? That's… by the seven! There is no weak spot in this formation! These 20 ships in this formation can easily defeat a small fleet of 40 vessels if they are attacked by one. Amazing!" Rhaegar said to his friend, and the former couldn't be more surprised, Rhaegar Targaryen was many things, but a euphoric person wasn't one of them.
" Yes, your grace! This formation is incredible… Even though I'm not as good as your grace in naval tactics, I can see what you speak about." said Arthur Dayne.
" Who came up with this! This person should be the Master of Ships! This is revolutionary can you imagine the Royal Fleet using this formation? It would mean naval supremacy over everyone!" Rhaegar said, and Arthur nodded but remained in silence
The rest of Rhaegar's trip was uneventful. He kept staring and trying to find a weak spot in the formation for the whole hour remaining. He failed miserably as many before him did it before. Little did he know that that formation wasn't something native to Planetos. It was something Ragnar taught his sailors, and he himself learned it in the history books about the Sea-Elfs of the south of Tamriel. They used this formation for decades before a High Elf scholar from summerset found out the weak spot of the formation. The Formation could be overwhelmed by numbers, but only if the enemy had three times more ships than you.
Once he arrived at Kingshouse Town, Rhaegar could not help to be surprised by the architecture of the place. It looked very northern, but marvelously so. The city wasn't extremely cold as one would think. It was actually mild compared to the sea. The houses were well built, and all had a glass window, which surprised Rhaegar as he had never seen this kind of glass before; it was transparent and clear… way better than Myrish glass. Rhaegar supposed it was the new Ibbenese glass, which, according to Varys, was cheaper and better than Myrish glass, but for some reason, the Ibbenesed didn't want to sell it to Westeros. Lord Lannister even offered half a million gold dragons for a shipment of 500 pounds of glass, he was refused, and the Ibbanese representative said no future offer would be accepted.
" It seems the relationship between Skagos and the Ibbenese is strongest than we initially thought, Arthur. Do you see the houses here? They have Ibbenese glass." Rhaegar said to his friend, who nodded and said
" It seems so—your grace. But if you pay attention to the people, several Ibbenese live here. They are actually the majority here in this town. They seem to follow the Northern customs; they even pray to Heart-threes. I've seen it twice." Arthur said, and Rhaegar nodded.
" The town smells good. It smells like the sea but with something else… frost-berries, maybe? No, it's something else… it's pretty pleasant." Rhaegar said as he approached the people gathered by the Large Keep. Lord Dovahkiin wants there, which made sense as his seat of power wasn't Kingshouse but a Keep on Winterhold. The city of Skagos
"Welcome to Skagos, your grace! I'm Sven of Kingshouse. The Steward of Kingshouse in Lord Dovahkiin's name! He instructed me to offer you a place in the Keep if you wanted to rest or a wagon to take you to Winterholf if your grace wishes so." the man said as he knelt to Rhaegar.
Rhaegar looked at the man and told him to stand; he then told the men.
" I wish to proceed to Winterhold, as the wedding will occur tomorrow, and I don't want to be late," Rhaegar said, and the man nodded.
" As you wish your grace. I will send a Raven to Lord Dovahkiin informing him of your presence; he would want to greet Your Grace himself." Sven said calmly, and Rhaegar nodded
" That is acceptable, Sven of Kingshouse. My Kingsguard and I will rest a bit in your Keep. I hope it's not a problem. We are tired from the trip," Rhaegar said, and Sven nodded
" It's an honor, your grace! We will prepare everything for your grace and his Kingsguard!" Sven said excitedly.
It didn't take long for Sven to tell them it was time to go. Rhaegar felt bad about leaving this pleasant-smelling town to go to a city that would probably smell like any other city in the Realm. Whoever designed this huge town was a genius. It was bigger than White Harbor but way cleaner.
The way to Winterhold was smooth; the road made it so; Sven told Rhaegar that Lord Dovahkiin ordered a road like that to be built around skagos connecting all and each one of the villages and settlements; this made moving around the island way more accessible than before. Rhaegar also saw that the road was well guarded, with two guards outpost every 2 miles. All guards well-armored.
Once Rhaegar got to " The Gate" he couldn't believe his eyes… or his nose. The City was big, not as big as Kingslanding or Oldtown but as big as Lannisport. The architecture was beautiful, large roads and northern houses. The river that cut the city was painted red by the Wairwood tree leaves. The two castles in the city were magnificent, even though one of those was undergoing construction, the Statue of a mage got Rhaegar thinking about it, but then the smell of the city hit him. It smelled of Gooseberries and lilac; Rhaegar almost cried but instead made a vow to himself that once he became king, he would ask Ragnar Dovahkiin to rebuild Kingslanding in the same way he did here. Or at least make the smell of shit go away. He would offer whatever he wanted.
Rhaegar and his household were guided to a crown of more than 50 people waiting for him, without counting the guards. Rhaegar recognized some of them as the Lords of The North, such as Umber, Glover, Manderly and House Stark, Mormont, and Dovahkiin. They all knelt except Lord Dovahkiin, who looked at him and said
" Wellcome to Winterhold, Your Grace. I hope my city is of your liking. Gods forbid you to like it less than you like Kingslanding. House Dovahkiin is happy that you accepted my invitation. I thought you wouldn't." Lord Dovahkiin said, his voice as impressive as ever, his built as massive as ever, his eyes as sincere as ever, and his words as truthful.
Rhaegar thought that if this man was lying about something, it would be almost impossible to find out.
" You should kneel before Your Grace, Ragnar. It's tradition to do so. I hope it was just a mistake of yours," Arthur said before Rhaegar could reply Lord Dovahkiin's welcome.
" It's no mistake, my friend. It was an order from the King himself. He said, "Dragons don't bow on their seat of power," he said that in my seat of power, I bow to no one, even himself, as the Valyrian tradition demands." Lord Dovahkiin answered calmly.
" Are you Valyrian, Lord Dovahkiin?" Asked Rhaegar surprised
" No, Your grace, I am a proud Nord! Born in the Snow! But I do have the blood of the dragons. That was probably why your father demanded me to follow a Valyrian tradition," Lord Dovahkiin said. That surprised Rhaegar even more; he was a Northerner with the Valyrian blood, the son of Ice and fire, as one would say. Rhaegar didn't understand the word game Ragnar did, and even if he was the most intelligent man of Planetos, he wouldn't.
" Well. I thank you for your welcome, Lord Dovahkiin. I hope you forgive Arthur here for his lack of decorum. Let us go and eat something my friend. I find myself looking for something to eat" Said Rhaegar, and Ragnar nodded.
" There's nothing to forgive; I would've done the same if I thought someone was disrespecting my Liege." Lord Dovahkiin said and Rhaegar smiled while Arthur inclined his head slightly to show his tanks.
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A/N: We are back my friends!!! The next chapter is the last one about the wedding. Dacey will bond with the Ice Dragon after they recruit the giants. I'll go with a number of 3000 giants and 400 Children. After that, they will go to YI-TI to get Rice!!! Thanks for the support, and see you soon
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