Chương 20: Lovely Lys
A shadowy hooded figure walks through an alley, he is hunched and walks with a limp, he stops walking when reaches a certain door in the alleyway, the place smells like shit, the whole city does, he knocks on the door four times and a burly man opens it, he gesture to one of the many doors inside.
Inside many moans are heard as well as the sound of flesh hitting flesh, the hooded figure limps to the door pointed, and he enters the chambers, is a small chamber lit by candlelight a big figure waits by the table.
"My friend took you long enough," the large figure inside the chamber said.
The hooded man approaches the table, his limp gone.
"We must be careful in these dangerous times" he pulls his hood back revealing a bald head.
"Indeed come sit we have much to talk about, many pieces are moving." The bald man sits on the table.
"Why don't we start our little meeting talking about the biggest thing on our list, the sorcerer." the fat man says as he drinks from his cup, the bald man makes a sound of disgust.
"He's growing too fast, his ships are becoming the terror of the narrow sea, Sea dragons are what they are being called, and I've heard rumours that he's building more, Braavos seem apprehensive about him and his ships, what good is to be able to build a warship in one day if the enemy will burn dozens in the next? Also one of his new captains seems to be obsessed with burning pirates on a level that would rival the mad king."
"Yes, where that man goes chaos follows, my little birds in Dorne said that Princess Arianne was locked in the water gardens and supposedly the sorcerer has some involvement in it." The bald man says, he pauses for a moment.
"He is a very unpredictable character, I've tried to put some little birds in his keep, but they were sent away because they were shivering in the cold"
"Perhaps it was some ritual? or the man is crazy, About the princess of Dorne maybe he cursed her, I've heard that a Dornish prince is touring the free cities looking for warlocks, sorcerers, magical books and such."
"I doubt it, he seems like a fervent follower of the old gods he wouldn't break guest rights, and I don't think the Martels would keep the trade if that would be the case, I should try harder to put some birds in the snake pit."
"What about the two beyond the sea?"
"They are in Norvos now, they have been kicked out of their house in Braavos."
"I see, do keep an eye on them, maybe give them a scare, to make sure they are not too comfortable, and to remember them of the risk they are under."
"Will do my friend."
"And about the third head of the dragon?"
... POV:Antares Palestars...
The sound of the sailors shouting and of movement on deck is what brought me out of the paperwork I was studying and signing.
I get up from my chair in the cabin and walk to the door, as I open it I see the deck of the Relentless, the crew is running around doing the jobs, I go to Marwyn's side on the aftercastle, beside the Relentless by the right is the Dauntless and on the left is the Burning Sea.
On the horizon, I see the beautifully made city in the distance, a city clinging to rocks surrounded by stormy seas, with high walls, on a tropical island, with white sand shores, is also possible to see palm and fruit trees, a paradisic place, there is a sunset that is just awe inducing as we sail to the harbour.
"So what is our purpose here again, my lord?" Asked Marwyn beside me.
"I'm here to buy an estate Marwyn, such a beautiful land should be a good escape when I tire of the weather of the north, you are here because I am unfamiliar with their ways, you're here to help me into the negotiation," I said with an innocent tone.
"If you don't mind me asking, our true motives are?"
"We will need the Liseni sails in the future Marwyn, and maybe a bank."
"If you need a bank my Lord, the Iron Bank is the greatest and most influential one besides is close to your hold."
"Precisely."
He stays silent for a moment thinking.
"So you want to undermine the Bravossi! why?"
"Many reasons, they are a powerful city-state at my doorstep, they are a threat to my plan of naval domination, a hindrance to my future overseas holds and... the faceless man, they already tried to enter my castle," I tell him.
The faceless man tried to become one of the new servants but since he wasn't a follower of the old gods, he was shivering in the cold of morning and was sent away, later he tried again by trying to steal the face of an owlguard, that didn't go well for him, now I have one of them to interrogate.
"I understand some of your points, but the Bravossi didn't have much of a problem with the Velaryon's sea power at they high, they seem content to share, why they would bother with you, my lord? I don't mean to insult." he raised his hand in a placating gesture.
"And your last point, why fear the assassins? sure they do possess some semblance of magic but someone of your power... is far above them no? you already proved to be able to detect them?" he asks with an uncertain voice, I look at him and start my explanation.
"The Velaryons didn't have my weapons, a small fleet of 13 ships is making them nervous because they know it will not stop on that number, what if I raised the number to dozens or perhaps hundreds?
They are not stupid, if I continue to build warships of that quality and at the speed as I am doing now, they will interfere or risk loose their unmatched naval dominance." I explain.
"About the faceless man, yes, they are not a problem to me, individual me, all that is around me can be at risk, tell me did you know that is very possible that the doom of Valyria was man-made and not a terrible natural disaster?"
"...I've heard rumours about it yes, about the houses of Valyria that planned a grand ritual, sacrificing thousands to achieve godhood, the gods seeing such audacity and prepotency, punished them by exploding the 14 flames, the pride and arrogance of men caused their fall, but seems excessively fantastical." he waves his hand as if dismissing the notion of such thing.
"That is quite an interesting theory, but the one I heard was a lot more simple, about a cult of slave assassins, they started as merciful killers, following a faceless god.
They would share the "gift" to those who wanted relief from the infernal volcanic mines of Valyria, and they grow and grow until they reach a point of killing not only poor slaves but fire and blood mages controlling the unstable volcanos, and without them, well, boom."
"So you think they will do the same with you because of your growing power and magical background?"
"I think they will try to do the same with me because I will be putting my nose in a place they prefer to be left forgotten and untouched, Braavos will support them because they do not want to lose the Narrow sea, they do not have a standing army, they dominate and influence they neighbours through the powerful navy, money and Assassination, when I overshadow the first and the second the third will be the default."
"About putting your nose where it shouldn't be you mean..." I see his eye shine.
"Yes, as soon as we have the narrow sea under our control, we will be scavenging Valyria for its secrets."
"That could take a long time my lord, should not be better to focus on Valyria? Its exploration would bring you unprecedented power, it would be easy to deal with anyone that brings us grief!" he says eagerly.
I shake my head to him" You are letting your lust for magical knowledge blind you Marwyn, it will take heavy preparations to explore Valyria if what you told me is true, and once the news of our successful journey leaks, and it will, things will be complicated."
"Our convoys coming out of the freehold will be the biggest target on the seas, even if it is suicide to attack my ships, fools besides water is what the sea is full of, the Volantise will also become a problem, but that is for later."
"I see, then how do you plan on achieving it, my lord?"
"By aligning myself with the right people and pushing the right buttons in certain others."
I look at the city" As soon as the Braavosi lose their overwhelming naval power, they will lose Pentos and Lorath as well, without them Braavos becomes vulnerable and alone, and that is how I need them, there is no necessity for war, just make them remember they are not untouchable" I look back to the port we are entering.
...Pov:?
The black sailed ship sails smoothly into the waters of the harbour, I look together with the crowd as these war beasts anchor on the docks, from my view above the wall in the docks, I can see inside the ship, many men working around the ship on the deck, all with the same black and white clothing, they give a sense of... I don't know unity or belonging.
I see the black armoured soldiers start to leave bellow deck with many chests, the planks hit the ground and they start to march out.
On the second ship, I see something different, horses, black as a moonless night, the same colour as the armour of the Knights on top of them, it's a little unsettling how they look exactly the same.
In that ship is where I see him, the famous sorcerer from northern Westeros, he is a tall man, clad in black robes the same colour every soldier around him is wearing, he doesn't seem adorned like the Liseni nobles, the knights start to trot down to the street with the soldiers following behind they, stop in a tight formation.
"So he is the new northern lord, stories say he is powerful and ambitious, it would be wise to remember him, boy." I look at the man beside me, he has dyed blue hair like mine, though his eyebrows are still red and his red roots, he is clean-shaven with a lined leathery face.
"Do you think he would help us?"
"I know not, he is a new noble in Westeros, with one right promise we could probably have him, his soldiers and more important his growing navy by our side." the man said.
"Come young griff, those things can wait until a later day, now you should focus on your studies." I give one last long look at the soldiers leaving the ships. "Yes let us go".
...
I look at the fascinated sailors as they observe the women on the port, I do share some of their fascinations, not only the women, everybody is a beauty here, I feel a pang of regret for not building my house here, but now I can have both, so no regrets.
I look to the three captains, Bradburn captain of the Burning Sea and Stafford captain of the Dauntless, now united with me on the port in front of the ships and say.
"Nobody, and I mean it, board the ships, did my order was made clear?"
"Yes milord" the captain's chorus.
"Also keep the sailors away from the whores, I don't pay them to fuck around."
I can see and feel their disappointment, but better be safe than sorry, a sailor approaches us makes a salute and say.
"My lord someone is here to see you" I look and see a group of well-dressed people, all of them with the typical valyrian looks, behind them even more people, they are more varied in appearance, but all carry a exotic beauty, another detail is the bronze collar they wear on the necks, slaves.
As I approach the owlguard opens a path for me to walk through, I stop in front of the man that was leading the group, he is at least a head smaller than me, his features are soft and he has the white hair and purple eyes combo that made the valyrians famous.
He makes a respectful bow and says.
"Welcome, welcome honored guest, to lovely Lys, I am Tregar Ormollen and I shall be representing the conclave of magisters that rule this magnificent city, if I may ask what bring you to our beautiful shores," he speaks in his low valyrian variation, is musical, flowing, as he finishes talking one of the slaves starts to translate but I interrupt him.
"There is no need for a translator, I can speak low valyrian myself, I am quite the cunning linguist." the joke doesn't work in low valyrian unfortunately.
His eyebrows raise a bit he smiles and say.
"I must say you speak like a native you must had have a wonderful teacher, come my good lord let me present you to my fellow magisters."
He then presented me to at least 10 other magisters and an hour later we were all partying in one of the mansions they have.
Sensual women and men dance at the sound of the delicate instruments at the centre of the open country yard, servants serve wine and fruits, and diverse other delicious and exotic dishes,there are jesters and fools, and animal handlers showing exotic birds and the smells of the hot night mix with the sweet perfumes of the people.
"Lord Palestars, I hope our welcome is of your liking."
Said Tregar as he drink from a golden cup.
"Only a madman would not enjoy such a welcome Prince Tregar, but as much as it pleases me, I would like to discuss business, I know the Lisene enjoy a good business as much as a good lover."
"Ha,"he slaps his thigh" That we do, my lord, and what good business you have to discuss with us? We of the lovely Lys have some business we like to discuss with you as well, we heard of your fame of having a golden touch, everything you touch works." He smiles while looking at one of the dancers.
"Exaggerations I assure you, first things first, I would like to buy an estate in this wonderful city of yours."
"That could be easily arranged, in fact, take this one we are right now, as a gift." I narrow my eyes.
"A very hefty gift, but a gift between strangers always has interior motives, what is yours?" He smiles wide.
"True that is my lord, you saw the beauty and prosperity of our lovely city, jealous Tyrosh knows of it as well, we heard rumours of the hiring of many sellsword companies, and there is a war on the horizon, once again."
"And you want me to help and defend your lands?"
"No, we are more than capable of defending ourselves, but the three sisters have been in a deadlock for generations and no end to the struggle is in sight." He looks me in the eyes and says.
"We want you and your ships to help us conquer Tyrosh."
"A tall order" I take a piece of the cut meats on the table, roasted until medium-rare, covered in a thick sauce.
"You're a tall man, if you excuse the joke." I smile and sip from my wine.
That is actually good, if Lys conquer Tyrosh with my help I gain an ally in a very important place, the Lisene grow in power, probably enough to rival Braavos, I might not need to raise a bank from nothing, and I gain a foothold in Essos for my future endeavors.
And the little cherry on top I gain a mansion on a paradisiacal island, I look at him back.
"What is in for me?"
"This mansion, of course, the friendship of lovely Lys and a sizeable hold in the disputed lands once it belong to us."
"There still Myr and Volantis to intervene."
"Crafty Myr doesn't have the strength to oppose us, and we will handle the mighty Volantis." Why Myr doesn't have the strength to oppose them?
"I am not a historical expert but aren't the disputed lands a wasteland? why would I want a hold there? I already have a hold in the north." I know I can fix that land but let us probe for a better deal.
"Hardly a problem for you, if what I've heard is true. You won't be the only new noble to lord in the disputed lands, you could also sell your service to fix their land, and why wouldn't you want more land, is it not like your allegiance to Westeros will conflict with your lording lands on Essos"
These guys are very well-informed and they seem to have everything planned out.
"And Braavos? Last time Lys flew too high the Braavosi send their faceless blades to cut off your wings"
"That is another point we require your eh... Expertise, we want a way to deal with the magic of the assassins or at least a way to detect them."
Huh, how would I detect a faceless man, I mean I have to give them something to detect the faceless man, my owlguards have blindsight but were not able to see through the disguise. So probably is something magical, I do have one of them to interrogate.
"How much time do I have?"
"Probably a year"
"That much? Do you not fear to assassinate before?
"Oh no, they have no reason to attack us, we only hiring sellsword companies because jealous Tyrosh is as well, after all."
"I can certainly think of something to deal with them."
"Excellent most, excellent" he picks up his cup and rises in the air.
"To a new spring in the lovely Lys! And to our new ally, Antares Palestars the Owl lord!"
"To commemorate this deal I shall give you another gift my lord, this time between friends and not strangers." He gestures to someone to come over and a beautiful woman in a revealing dress approaches.
"You spoil me, magister Tregar." I see and look if the woman is carrying something.
"So what do you think?" he asks.
"Excuse me?" I answer.
"Your gift" he points at the woman who is smiling gently.
"I don't deal in slavery magister Tregar, even if her beauty is baffling."
"Bah, nonsense, why wouldn't you, the greatest civilizations were built around slavery." he shook his hand in a dismissive motion.
"Let me tell you something, she is an excellent bed slave and she was taught by the best" She approached and sat on a cushion on the feet of the low table" Besides, is the life that she knows, if I were to free her right now, she would still be doing the same things she does for me but to another man." He holds her chin up and looks at me.
"It would be her choice though."
"A bedwarmer slave or a free whore, is the same isn't it? let me tell you an absolute truth of this world, the only freedom that exists is the one given by power, and she holds none, that's simply how it is,my slaves and your smallfolk do as we command when we command because of our power." He gently brings her hand in my direction, she then raises from her pillow and sits on my lap.
"Don't lose your treasured time with the misconception that your slaves are better than mine because you lie to them."
...
The rays of daylight enter through the balcony doors, and the morning breeze also comes through, Haella in my arms stirs her white hair ticking me.
"Good morning," I say to her
"Good morning, mas... Antares," she answers, resisting the urge to call me master.
"How is your first morning as a free woman going?"
"baffling." She says looking at me with her purple eyes and smiling face, uh dejavu.
"Oh? Such a complex word for a morning, why is it a baffling morning?" She raises from my arms and mounts me.
"How you did do that yesterday? I beaded many men and woman but never felt such intense pleasure, it was magic wasn't it, if not I would know how to do that." I chuckle at her indignant complaint.
"Yes it was, it's good to know that even a experienced lady like yourself melts to such a thing." She sulks, adorable, and then she grins.
"Maybe you could show me again, I surely would like to feel it once more." She starts to sway her hips.
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK
The deep voice of the owlguard comes through the door.
"My Lord, the servants are here with the food you asked"
I smile at Haella.
"Seems like you gonna have to wait."
She pouts and gets off me and I dress myself, she does the same, with a confused face.
"Why dress yourself to call in the slaves? You got nothing to be ashamed of and they belong to you."
"Not slaves anymore, and is common courtesy to not be naked in front of others," I yell to the servants to enter.
"Yes, but that's for you and other nobles no? Sla... servants do not count, and why free all of them?" She seems genuinely confused by my actions.
"It's the common courtesy of where I am from, don't get naked in front of someone you're not sleeping with, and I freed all of them because I don't really need them, it's a surprise they all decided to stay."
The servants enter the room and start putting all kinds of juices and fruits, and dishes for us to break our feast, but also very specific ingredients for a certain tea.
"Well, let us talk about you, do you intend to stay by side then?" I ask her, while I prepare moon tea, I already checked her mind, she is not a spy, just a gift,a gift between friends like Tregar said, she only knew that she was going to be given to me when it happened.
"How could I not after what you did to me last night?" She giggles a little.
"Don't you want to live another life, go somewhere else without someone telling you what to do?" I am really interested in why.
"No, not really, I have the impression that we will travel a lot anyways, and Magister Tregar was right, this is the life I know." She eats some grapes and fills the cup with juice.
"I know how to bring pleasure to people, and in my view, it's not something to be ashamed of, some know how to craft, to sail, others how to kill, I know how to please, if you have me, my lord, that is what I shall do." She ends her speech with a proud air.
"And when I get a wife, what you shall be doing?" let's see her solution for replacement.
"I don't quite understand the question, my lord. I shall then,please you and your wife of course." It's another culture.
"So be it then, here drink this." I give her the moon tea, she takes the tea and drink making a sour face.
"I hate the taste of it." I laugh at her response.
...four days later...
I am sitting in a room in my new mansion, I searched every nook and cranny of this place for secret passages, spy holes and things on that spectrum, and found quite a lot, I sealed many and put guards on others.
I made the guards of those doors out of rock instead of my normal owlguard, they look like normal statues, they are heavier and slower than the olwguard but they are more discreet since they don't look like my guards.
I also decide to take a peek inside everybody's mind to make sure of who I am keeping inside my house, from the 100 ex-slaves 20 were spying for the magisters, more than I expected, I send them away.
The rest stayed because they have nowhere to go or have other prospects in life, is not like any other will pay for their services when they can buy slaves, So even if they are now "free" nothing changed,they don't have to use the lead collars now at least.
It's a fucked up system, and too spreaded to eliminate,to fix it would take more than I really care about to give, so I am going to save who I care to save and the others are just that, the others.
And now that I feel safer inside this place, Marwyn and I start to plan our next voyage, to deal with the faceless man I need some new spells and for new spells I need to find new magical places I look on the map on the table an put my finger on the place I want to go next.
"I have been there before my lord, looked through the ruins, studied the inscriptions on the walls and artefacts, talked with many scavengers and pirates but much of it is out of reach, the real important parts are too deep into the waters, and the waters guard it with jealousy," Marwyn says
"I will will deal with the waters, you just have to tell me what else we are expecting to face."
SUY NGHĨ CỦA NGƯỜI SÁNG TẠO 
XAkarrinX
XAkarrinX Hello there fellas, I know, It's been 84 years, missed me?
Here is the start of the Essos exploration, many pieces moving, many plots ensuing, a new companion, some philosophical debate, and a lot of setups.
The next chap will have more action and now question time.
Are any magical places in would like to see in Essos?
And as always suggestions, corrections, memes, and opinions on the comments.
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