บท 94: Apollo
5th Moon, 259AC
The light was dim, the clouds hid the moon and only a few stars could be seen in the gaps between the gray mist that covered the sky.
"What is that star called?" Mors asked one of the sailors.
"The Wanderer, is one of the brightest stars in the sky." Answered Tom, the navigator's apprentice.
His father, the captain of the ship, was shouting orders to the sailors who were going up and down the three tall masts; and they moved by the rigging to lower the heavy orange sails.
The decks creaked and tilted as the huge ship, Apollo, turned to starboard. Apollo is the first ship of its kind, the first Galleon to sail the seas.
`The first one of the final version` Mors thinks.
As with the caravel, Doran built several prototypes, making improvements and adjustments to each one. This ship is a giant with three masts, 50 meters from stem to stern and 16 meters wide.
In it there are 70 marines (men trained in Progress Town, they have maritime and military training, they are very few of them but they are very capable. They are as skilled as both a professional sailor and a professional soldier), 350 knights, 20 servants and the Martell family (Obella, Lewyn, Mors and Arron).
Mors is in the prow with one hand on the golden mask, the statue of a man who holds a sphere high in his right hand, in the other hand holds a lyra. It is currently night, hours before dawn and his mother is sleeping in her cabin.
The prince is not sleepy, or rather, he can't sleep a wink. Finally they are close to their destination, tomorrow before noon they will moor on an island in the archipelago and Mors is ecstatic. They have been sailing forever, 20 days to be more precise. They would have arrived earlier but they had to change course to avoid a huge storm, during those days the prince heard many sailors thank his brother like he is some kind of god.
"Thanks to Prince Doran!"
"Thanks to the prince!"
That was repeated a lot, when he asked one of the sailors why they did it (his brother was not there, and it was frankly strange) he told him they thanked Doran for the nautical tools that he created.
Doran created many tools to improve navigation.
Davis quadrant is a nautical tool that consists of a sort of stick with two arcs of different sizes, the smaller one above the stick and the larger one below. This tool is used to measure the height in degrees of a star or the Sun above the horizon, which determines the ship's latitude.
The compass is the most revolutionary nautical tool that Doran created. Mors still remembers when his brother taught them the compass for the first time, it was four years ago during a dinner. At first he thought it was some new toy, but Doran quickly corrected him and proceeded to give them a long lecture on this "compass".
As eloquent as the older prince was, all Mors saw was a strange instrument, a glass covered, circular metal rim with a steel needle suspended on a stand in the middle. At the time Mors was only six years old, he didn't see much use for the instrument that always points north, no matter which way you turn it. Although he did find it entertaining and for a few hours he turned it in all possible angles to try to make the needle fail, something he got bored of in half a day and that strange invention was forgotten.
But what for the boy was a passing entertainment for sailors became a lifesaver and creator of countless opportunities. Mors learned, years after the invention of the compass, that most sailors always sail close to shore, and very few are brave enough to dare to sail the open sea regularly.
The few who regularly sailed across the open sea use the stars and constellations to guide themselves, a method that is not very reliable due to bad weather (one day with clouds covering the sky is all it takes for a ship to lose course in the open sea, which in most cases ends in tragedy).
Combining these two inventions, navigation became much easier and safer, sailors no longer fear going into the open sea.
"The sailors who work for us, of course." Mors murmurs.
These two tools are only available for ships belonging to House Martell.
Doran created more nautical tools, of lesser precision, that he made available to everyone who can afford them.
"Did you say something, my prince?"
"Nothing, Tom. Tomorrow we will arrive at Stone Head, the first inhabited island of the Summer Islands," Mors turned his gaze to the horizon, under the veil of night he could not see anything but he knew that his destination was in the distance. "I can't wait to explore it!"
"Me neither! It's the first time I've sailed that far!" Tom tells him more about his other adventures at sea, they are stories that the apprentice already told him several times during the trip but the prince doesn't mind hearing again.
Tom is 14 years old and is very well spoken, has a gift for storytelling and is one of the few children on the ship. Other than Tom there are only a few squires, all of whom crowded around Lewyn.
`Like flies around a piece of shit.` The prince thinks with a contemptuous look. Lately Mors can't stand his uncle anymore, the boy thinks that his uncle became too haughty and arrogant. `His head is bigger than this ship! And his brain is smaller than a pea.`
The knight and squire's relationship soured during the Casterly Rock voyage, where Mors had a falling out with Tygett Lannister and Lewyn sided with the Lannister. And that was just the beginning, given the friendship between Doran and the older Lannister boys it was expected that Mors would develop a friendship with Tygett (who is close in age with him) but that didn't happen. Every time the two boys get together they end up arguing or fighting. And each time Lewyn chooses Tygett's side.
Mors knows that his uncle only does that to suck up to his future wife but he doesn't care. All he sees is the betrayal of someone he considered another brother. The relationship between the two deteriorated so much that Obella had to intervene several times to separate them, and in the end Mors stopped being Lewyn's squire and became Arron's squire.
`That arse is lucky I didn't tell Grandma anything, if I had told her how her son behaved... Lewyn would be at Sunspear cleaning the stables.`
The reason why Mors decided to shut up was not out of the goodness of his heart, on the contrary, the prince knows that this trip will last more than a year. He also knows that Lewyn hates being away from his fiancée for too long ('Away from her cunt,' he sneers).
***
Naath.
"Dragons," Jamie said as he toyed with an apple.
"Throw it." Regulus told him, the prince drew an arrow from the quiver and held it between two fingers.
"I would love to see a dragon, you don't know how much." Jamie continued as he threw the apple with all his might.
As soon as he saw the apple fly, Regulus pointed with the bow and after counting to five released the arrow. It flies through the air and passes through the apple splitting it in half. Before the apple falls to the ground, two other arrows will go through it, one in each half.
"Not bad at all, Reg. The time it takes you to aim is getting shorter and shorter every day." He is congratulated by Aquila, who is sitting in the shade of a tree with a book in her hand.
"Our ancestors had dragons."
Regulus looked at his younger brother with a raised eyebrow.
"That was ages ago, Jamie. All dragons are extinct."
"That is not true." Aquila gets up from the ground and walks towards them. "In the east, beyond Asshai, there are still a few left."
"Those are just stories, sister. Several of our ancestors tried to go there to tame some of those so-called dragons. None of them returned to Naath." Regulus draws another arrow and takes aim in the distance. "Dragons are dead Jamie, and stop encouraging imagination, sister. It's almost time for him to become a man, he shouldn't waste time on dreams and dragons."
"Hmph!" Jamie crosses his arms and glares at his brother.
Aquila shrugs, looks off into the distance, towards the woods, and hides a smile behind her book which she then puts down. The princess picks up two short swords from a weapons rack.
The two brothers look at each other with panic in their eyes.
"I forgot to finish my homework!" Jamie drops the basket full of apples and runs towards the palace.
"I have to finish the report of the last patrol!" Regulus follows close behind with his bow in hand.
Aquila looks at them with a raised eyebrow and turns to some guards who are training not far away.
They feel her gaze and look at her, they see the swords in her hands and the two princes fleeing.
'Cowards' they think as they resign themselves to their fate.
"You 3, grab your swords and come." Aquila points to three soldiers, all adults in very good shape. Despite the fact that they are at least half a meter taller than her, neither expects to be victorious, they only pray to the gods to allow them to survive this in one piece.
Not far away the king watches his daughter train against 3 soldiers at the same time, the steel dance is fascinating to watch. Aquila dances around the three soldiers, dodging and redirecting their blows with the grace of a ballerina. Each of her blows is calculated, each blow has a purpose and in less than 10 minutes all three men are bruised and disarmed.
None of them managed to even touch the crown princess.
Sirius looks at her with concern, his daughter's skill in any form of combat is inhuman. The same could be said of her strength, speed and stamina. Aquila is able to lift a man twice her size in one hand and throw him several meters (which Sirius saw firsthand during one of the pirate invasions), runs faster than a horse and is able to train for a whole day without barely sweating.
The king remembers the (definitely magical) phenomenon when Aquila was born. It was a beautiful day, the breeze was soft and the sun barely burned. It was shortly after noon when his wife went into labor, as soon as the first contractions began, the sky began to cloud over. Out of nowhere a storm fiercer than any ever seen by any Naathi swept across the island. Hurricane winds, rain and hail, giant waves. Most of the boats were destroyed and many died either from the hailstones, because something fell on them (fault of the wind), drowned or crushed by the waves.
That fierce storm disappeared the moment Aquila was born.
Normally only someone very superstitious would link Aquila's birth to the storm, and Sirius is not that kind of person. But the immense amount of mana in the air and especially around the newborn baby convinced him.
Aquilo is not only someone very magically powerful, she was also blessed by some divinity. What Sirius doesn't know is what god blessed his daughter, or what it expects from his daughter.
If life taught him anything, it's that gifts never come without expectations. And that's what worries Sirius, that some god will demand something of his daughter, something that will separate her from his side, from their home, something that will put her in danger.
In fifteen years that mysterious god did not appear or send any sign, Daena forgot her husband's warnings and called him paranoid every time he brought it up. She told him that ferocious and spontaneous storms are nothing out of this world, that they are very common in some parts of the world. She also told him that Aquila's immense martial talent and inhuman gifts are rare but not unheard of in Valyrians.
Some call them Dragonborn, most Dragonkin. Humans much more powerful than most, strong as ten men, fast as cheetahs and agile as a cat. They were the warriors blessed by the gods, adored and revered in the Freehold.
Sirius met a Dragonkin during a trip to Volantis many years ago, a monstrous man in both appearance and character. Maelys Blackfyre, the king, remembers how Blackfyre grabbed a man by the neck, and just by squeezing, he broke his neck. He then threw the corpse a dozen meters with that same hand, it seemed that he was throwing a straw doll and not a man of two meters tall and over one hundred kilos.
But the magical power Sirius felt inside Maelys is minuscule compared to Aquila's.
In this world, magic is everywhere, all beings have a bit of it, from plants to humans. It is also more powerful than on Earth, also much more wild and capricious.
At first Sirius had his wand, but unfortunately in one of the battles against the pirates his wand was broken. Without a wand, with no means of channeling his magic, Sirius had to learn how to use magic without a wand, which was very difficult at first but as he got the hang of it it became easier. It was a slow and tedious process, Sirius was filled with frustration and anger, having to practice for weeks to be able to cast a simple one year spell drove him crazy. Over time he learned which branches of the magical arts were easier and which were nearly impossible.
Elemental magic was the easiest of all, and it was the first that Sirius mastered. Transfiguration, on the other hand, was almost impossible, it took him a decade to use the simplest spells and they only last a few moments. Charms were a bit more difficult than transfiguration at first, but when he learned the trick (concentration and will force, lots of both) it became pretty easy.
After twenty years Sirius became even more powerful than he used to be, and best of all, his magic doesn't depend on any tool (like a wand or staff).
One skill he learned in this world was Mage sight, or something close to it. Sirius does not remember all the details of this rare talent; what he learned is to feel the amount of magic that a person or object has, it requires a lot of concentration and it is not 100% accurate (approx 80%) but the king does not doubt what he saw in Volantis. Comparing Maelys's magic to Aquila's is like comparing the moon to the sun.
Taking into account the words of his wife Sirius traveled to some cities of Essos to find more Dragonkin to prove his theory. He found two others, a son of one of the Triarchs in Volantis and an orphan on Valysar.
None of them had as much magic as Aquila.
"Aquila." Sirius calls her name, the princess turns to him and without looking she blocks a blow. She spins the sword and disarms the guard in moments.
"Yes father?"
"Come to my solar, your mother and I have something important to discuss with you."
"I should clean up first."
"Dont bother, you didn't sweat a drop." Sirius looks at her with a sad smile. `I hope I'm wrong, please let me be wrong. I don't want anything to happen to my little girl`
***
NOTE: The feud between Lewyn and Mors is not irreconcilable. Lewyn, driven by his hormones, wants to be on Genna's good side (to get in her pants) and doesn't think about his nephew's feelings. Mors and Tygett simply don't get along (sometimes two people dislike each other for no real reason) so they end up fighting when forced to socialize with each other (which happens a lot). Teenager and Kids stuff, they will get over it someday.
In this chapter I introduced the Dragonkin, much more powerful humans. In Canon Maelys is called a monster for many reasons, one of them being his inhuman strength. He killed his cousin (Daemon) by ripping his head off his body using his bare hands, he also killed a horse with a punch to the head. Since in this story the gods are real and will play a more active role in the future, inhuman beings will appear (it would be quite boring if Doran did not have any dangerous adversaries before the Ice Zombies).
And no, I'm not nerfing Doran. He's still someone very powerful and dangerous (remember how OP HPverse magic is, Doran is re-learning a lot of those spells and he's fucking talented).
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