106
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298 AC
Dorne - Sunspear
Laena Velaryon
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Sitting in the room I was given by Prince Doran I watch my father pace around like a madman, mumbling and rubbing his hands together. Alynna is sitting beside me with a neutral face on but I can see she is worried, she has never seen one of my father's breakdowns.
He gets like this when he is scheming and planning and can even start throwing stuff around if he thinks his way into a dead end. I just wait patiently and take in any information I can so that when he eventually calms down I can try to help him.
"He is not here... They are not here.... Are they hiding them?" We have been here for close to a week and every day my father will meet with Viserys and Doran.
They never answer any of his questions about Eragon, we haven't even seen him or many of the other Targaryens. My father seems to think they are hiding them and it involves the rumors of dragons. I personally don't know what to think about it other than a bit of disappointment about not meeting my engaged.
I expected to meet him and get to know him or at least be ignored and work on forming a relationship and seeing how it plays out.
But not even seeing him and having no answer as to where he is, is even more disheartening than being ignored. I at least could try to close the gap if he was here and just not interested or if he loved another I could do something. But I can't do anything and I am even wondering if he is real, I have never seen him after all and he is not here with the family of his I have seen.
Rhaella is very kind and gives a very motherly feeling from the private talks we have had and she seems to like me. Shaena his older sister who I have only seen a few times because she keeps to her private room most of the time is also nice. His twin is also nowhere to be seen but I have heard quite a bit about her from the servants which makes me feel a bit uncomfortable. I haven't seen any of his four nieces but I have seen his nephew Aegon and he seems fine as well. No problems have been seen with any of his family except the very one that should not have problems, Viserys.
I won't even get into the problems I have spotted within the future king of Westeros, the problem I have locked onto is maybe why he is not here. I talked to a few of the servants who were tight-lipped about anything important except Eragon and his 'habits'.
It seems my potential husband shares a room with his twin and even a few of his nieces.
I am honestly not sure how to take that other than thinking he ran off with them because he loves them or something. He is not here and I am trying to figure out why on my own and I could maybe see him feeling the need to elope. Maybe he is in love with his twin and his nieces so he ran off to wed them and that is why they won't tell us anything.
That or my father is right and they're hiding dragons...
Not sure how to take either of those options if I am being honest with myself, my engaged loving other women, or him having dragons.
"They are real, if not then why would they be so secretive about it? If they were fake and they were just using the rumors to cause fear then they would tell us they are real. I can't see why they would hide it and the whereabouts of the Prince unless there was some actual truth to the rumors." Father turns to look at us and Alynna jolts and sits up straight as I grab her hand to comfort her.
"I believe that to be the case, or he ran off to marry his sister." I look my father in the eyes as I speak and he slowly nods.
"If it was a case of a prince wanting to avoid a marriage then they would surely say something, they have another prince available here right now. Aegon could pick up where Eragon 'dropped' off and marry you and secure the alliance but they are not trying that. I am confident the dragons are real and they are in hiding and sent the prince and princesses to keep the dragons calm. There are no dragon keepers to handle the dragons so they sent the only ones who could control them." He balls his fists and his knuckles turn different colors.
"Then why don't we ask for the marriage to still go through? Either they give us the prince they agreed to or they don't get the Velaryon fleet. You built the fleet up for this war and have been preparing all this time, they obliviously want the ships from what they have been talking about. They have many ways to respond to us but it will most likely come to them agreeing and I could be taken to where he is. I will be a hostage in this situation but I will also secure a tie to House Targaryen and also confirm the situation if they have dragons or not." Father licks his lips and looks around before finding the wine in the corner and making his way over.
"You wouldn't be able to send me a letter, they wouldn't allow you to confirm it to me so you would be just handing yourself over and exposing your neck. They could even have a sham wedding and break it off once the throne is taken." I nod along but I don't think they would hold a sham wedding, at worst I would be wed to him to secure our alliance and he would still marry someone else.
Either way, we will ally ourselves with House Targaryen and their winning will result in our house taking back the master of ships and other benefits that have been promised to us.
"We could always just leave, I could marry someone else and make Velaryons without any prince involved. If the dragons are real it would end up being a horrible decision in the end but we can only work with the facts we have." I would rather marry a Targaryen, the best scenario for us is Targaryens winning after all. I don't want to settle for something lesser and a shit deal when we are already involved in the coming war, we might as well go for the best for our house.
"No, you are right about pushing for the marriage regardless as we actually have a foothold to stand on with the contract. The contract is binding but it could also be thrown out once a certain point is passed, if we risk everything now and join up with the Targaryens we stand the best chance of actually securing the marriage alliance. They will add harsh conditions to ensure we are loyal to their side such as blackmail to use against us. Taking you off or even keeping you here will also be a guaranteed thing to use you against me as a hostage. But out of all our options, this has the most gain, joining the Blackfyres is second as we could likely squeeze out a good deal and maybe marry into them in a future generation. Staying with Robert will do us no good, we will never recover to what we were under the stag." Father nods and then downs his drink.
It seems our stay here is about to get a bit more tense.
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298 AC
Volantis
Cirilla Blackfyre
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We are riding some horses through the streets of Volantis while being escorted by over two thousand men of the Golden Company. We are heading to the black walls of Volantis, inside the giant walls circling the rich of Volantis we will find who we are here to meet.
The walls were built by Dragonlords of Valyria and are fused dragon stone, looking up at the walls I admire the massive size. They have all the entrances blocked off so the Tiger cloaks can't get in and slave soldiers are manning the blockades.
We are being let in so we can discuss with two of the Triarchs to accept a contract from them to clear out the red temple. They want all the red priests put to the sword so they will regain power in Volantis. The tiger cloaks are followers of R'hllor and joined the red temple in seizing control of Volantis, looking around it is hard to tell if the city is at war.
People with tattoos marking their faces are everywhere I look, each tattoo a job they are bound to for life. Some even if tattoos of flies to indicate their sole purpose is to clean up shit from the elephants.
A horrible life, all of these people are living such horrible lives.
I feel regret having been looking forward to some fighting against real opponents and not farmers the Dothraki tore apart. But this isn't a real fight either, we are coming to ensure these people stay in their 'place' and do not reach for more than they are allowed. The looks on their faces as we approach the black walls make my stomach twist.
I look over at Daemon as he looks at the black walls with a bit of awe, does he even see these people around us? Is he fine with cutting away these people's last hope of being free, the high priest Benerro is trying to free these people and we are coming here to stop that.
We are supposed to meet Benerro after the meeting with the two Triarchs, the Triarchs we are meeting are two elephants so they are merchants. The one who is actually supporting Benerro and is also in the giant red temple is a Tiger and so he supports war and expansion.
There are so many conflicting sides to this, I am not sure what to feel about this anymore. I am hoping we don't accept the contract immediately and instead meet with Benerro to hear out their side as well. If we take the deal from these two Triarchs we won't even meet with Benerro and instead, we will attack the red temple.
It is the largest structure here in Volantis and the biggest I have ever seen, its red and orange walls with yellows make the building look like it is built out of fire-turned stone. Smoke billows up all around it adding to the idea it is made of fire.
I am glad Helaena stayed behind with the bulk of our force and didn't have to see all of this. Our father even though is a magister of Pentos a place outlawing slavery still managed to have some. But they were treated more as servants and given a good life, this is just abhorrent in how these people are treated.
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Making our way into a massive palace within the black walls where everything is clean and tidy we can see two well-dressed men standing Infront of a group of guards. We make our way toward the two men who should be the Triarchs and I can see their hands from here shining with different rings of gold and silver.
The guards behind them are slave soldiers and I wonder why they don't just kill the triarchs, do they not believe in the words of the red priests?
The dead look in their eyes tells the story though as we get close enough I can see them better. They have no fight left in them, it seems they are more puppets than men at this point.
"Welcome leaders of the Golden Company and Blackfyres, we welcome you to Volantis." One of the men steps forward and begins talking grandly and I ignore him as I look around at the palace.