Chapter 6: VI: Of Bells and Blades

VI: Of Bells and Blades

The Great Nervos, nested among its hills was sooner heard than seen, as the sound of its famed three bells echoed long and far - the deep sound of Noom, the strong sound of Narrah, and the higher pitched one of Nyel.

They entered the lower city with purpose in mind, having already settled lodging in it. Aerys had met in the Great Caves a historian from the city, by the name of Doro Golathis, of noble persuasion, who had offered them his family's hospitality.

They had discussed much of the history of Norvos on their way towards it, from the ancient religious schism in the days of Old Valyria, when the bearded priests founded the city as a theocracy, to the days of Qarlon the Great, when a hundred dragons had saved the city from siege. They talked about the days of the Century of Blood, when Norvos and Qohor had allied against Volantis and of the wars and peaces between the two cities.

Doro was the son of one of the magisters, so their lodgings were more than adequate. Beyond their discussions of the history and customs of the city while eating wintercakes and drinking nahsa, he had offered his service as guide, and had taken them to see its many bazaars and other such things of note. They had even climbed down the Sinner's Stairs in the lower city, which was altogether more lively than the upper one.

Aelinor had made use of these trips to buy as many tapestries as she could for Summerhall, and had arranged for those to be delivered to Lorath, and from there, by ship, to their new home. But those were already made, and he commissioned others, which most likely would not be finished by the end of their stay here - one in particular long enough to cover all sides of his feasting hall in Summerhall, depicting the entire history of his house from their coming at Dragonstone in the years before the Doom, depicting Aegon's Landing into Westeros and the great deeds of Aegon's Conquest - the Burning of Harrenhal, the Last Storm - with Argella wrapped in a banner and delivered to Orys, the Field of Fire, the many Dornish castle burning in the Dragon's Wroth. 

Next was the beginning of the construction of the Dragonpit, followed by events of the Third Dornish War in the reign of the Old King, where Jaehaerys was to be depicted as cutting down the traitor Borys, as by his side Rogar slew the Vulture King. That was to be followed by a depiction of the king and his sons burning the ships of the Prince Morion, and then by the Rogue Prince burning pirates in the Stepstones.

The events of the Dance followed, where Aerys ordered to be depicted only the victories of the Blacks - the Battle of the Burning Mill, the Fishfeed, the Butcher's Ball and the great dragon duel between Aemond One-Eye and the prince Daemon - the Battle above the God's Eye.

The last parts of the tapestry depicted the Conquest of Dorne, with Daeron's armies advancing through the Boneway and the Prince's past, the Oakenfist's fleet breaking Plankytown, all culminating in one event - the Submission of Sunspear, were the prince of Dorne and forty of its lords paid homage to their new king.

Yet all they did was governed by the three bells, by whose sound the Norvoshi knew when to rise and when to sleep, when to work and when to rest, or when to pray. Their strange customs did not stop here, for their women shaved all of their hair, and those of the Golathis household only wore wigs as a courtesy to their guests. The rumours of the dancing bears had been proven true, but as the Golathis had assured them, those of slave women mating with wolves were only falsities and the slanders of their enemies.

Aerys was more interested in the three great bells than the tapestries, and had the occasion to see them from up close.

"Are there any bellmakers in the city that can make bells of equal craftsmanship?", he had asked Doro. "Or would that be considered blasphemous?"

Daro had laughed before he answered: "It is the sound of the bells that governs our lives, but the bells in themselves are not considered sacred, only our god. It was your Lomas Longstrider that called the bells a wonder made by man, but it is only a wonder in the eyes of men, not gods. But it is not likely that you shall find craftsmen to make bells their equal."

Relieved he had not conceived of committing a grave insult against the bearded priests, he had sought out those in the city that made bells, and gave them a great commission - that of seven great bells, each with a distinct sound to it.

He planned those as a gift for the Great Sept of Baelor, an overt act of piety, even though in his own heart he did care much for the Faith. He attended the sept regularly, and sang the hymns and prayed aloud with the rest. But to him, the Seven were but carved stone, staying motionless, silent, and they did not hear the many prayers addressed to them daily - they were but graven images, idols. He had known a God, and He Was, and the Seven were not.

Their stay in Norvos ended when one of their great religious holidays or feasts was near - for then the bearded priests liked to keep hidden from stranger's eyes the rituals to their mysterious king - held in the upper city. And nothing in the lower city was fit for a prince and his household, so they departed towards Qohor.

If he were to ask his Norvoshi friend of the City of Qohor, he would have told him it was a city of idolaters, who worshiped an ancient demon that had the shape of a black and sinister goat.

Qohor was a city with a strange and sinister reputation, sitting at the very edge of a forest. Yet it was not all strange tales, told to frighten children out of their rest. For it was the first of the Free Cities to receive the trade from YiTi, for the Sarnori cities were not counted among their ranks.

They did believe in a god called the Black Goat, to which they sacrificed calves, bullocks and horses daily, and condemned criminals in holy days. But of sorcery and dark arts, they had not witnessed any of its workings.

The city extracted its wealth from the exotic trade they received, but also from its forest, from which timber was shipped down to Volantis and its daughter cities. They also had tapestries, though both Aerys and Aelinor preferred those of Norvoshi make.

Their wood carvings were exquisite, and Aerys had commissioned such carvings for Summerhall, though of a different sort - great panels of wood intricately carved with plants and animals, to decorate the wall of his solar and study.

Beyond their concerns for decorating their home, Aerys had commissioned from Qohorik smiths, reported to be the best in the world, the best armor and two weapons. The armor was to have engraved upon it the shape of his sigil, with a deep red infused in it. While one of them was a sword in the usual shape of a longsword, the second weapon's shape was more peculiar - its blade was curved, about three feet long, with a wooden shaft of the same length. 

The blade was sharpened only on the inside, and Aerys had taken inspiration from a weapon of another world, called the falx, a weapon which could pierce helmets with its point, and was said to be capable of splitting a shield in two at a single blow, or it could be used as a hook -to pull away shields and strike at limbs. Of course, being two handed, one could hardly use a shield with it, and Aerys was not sure he would use it much for that reason, unless he faced routed or fleeing enemies.

He left the master to his work though - he had read of Maester Pol's misfortunes when he had sought to find out the secrets of Qohorik metalworking - thrice publicly whipped, and his hand removed, though he did not give credence to his tales of blood sacrifices - likely the words of one disgruntled, inked down in a place were none could gainsay him, having not visited the city.

They had also gone often in the Forest for hunting: great elk and deer and spotted tigers, huge boars and spotted bears, and admired its golden canopies, though Aelinor was more likely to admire the silver-furred and purple-eyed lemurs in the Forest, called Little Valyrians.

When their commission had been finished, they left the city and headed towards Volantis, for Aelinor did not wish to linger, having been disgusted once she had unfortunately been forced by a sudden forming crowd to witness a human sacrifice.