To reach Meereen through the Summer Sea, one had to pass through three bodies of water: the Summer Sea near the equator, the Gulf of Grief between the Lands of Always Summer and the continent of Ghis, and Slaver's Bay, which connects to the Gulf of Grief through the Strait of the Free Maidens.
From the day the sun shattered, the Dragon Queen's "Great Leap Forward in Agricultural Production" was declared suspended. Wheat, corn, and rice that had not yet filled out in the fields were all harvested. After drying in the wind, they were bundled and turned into fodder for livestock.
Once the Great Leap Forward stopped, more than a million people in Slaver's Bay nearly ceased working.
Clearly, any efficient and rational government would never allow its people to remain idle.
It would waste labor and make it difficult to maintain order and administration.
Dany understood this, so she immediately arranged new work for them: nationwide fishing.
When she first took over Astapor, Dany had built several salt fields by the sea. In recent years, the snowflake salt of Slaver's Bay had become a major export commodity.
Because of this, Slaver's Bay had no shortage of salt.
This provided an excellent foundation for a salted fish industry.
While the Dragon Queen had gone to Westeros to fight the White Walkers, the little red dragon left behind in Slaver's Bay went out to sea every day, leading several wyverns to drive schools of fish toward the coast.
That was only coastal fishing. There was also much larger offshore fishing, because relying on just Little Gold alone, it would be impossible to keep more than a million people gathered around him.
As the starting point of the slave trade, Slaver's Bay originally had over a thousand ships of various sizes. After years of continuous warfare, the New Ghis Alliance and its allied forces had gradually delivered more than a thousand additional vessels. Merchant ships and warships together now totaled over two thousand.
Originally, most of those ships would have been left at the docks to be sold cheaply or dismantled for firewood.
Now that the Long Night had arrived, Dany used them to assemble an unprecedented super fishing fleet.
Hundreds of thousands of people in Slaver's Bay took part in this great production campaign: catching fish, killing fish, and salting them.
Ninety-nine percent of them operated within the rarely stormy waters of Slaver's Bay. Some small skiffs with fewer than ten crew members even went out at dawn and returned at dusk, treating ocean fishing as if it were river fishing.
Meanwhile, fishing boats also operated along the upper and lower reaches of the HLJ and the White Dragon River. The Dragon Queen also arranged for groups of elderly people and children to dig for eels and loaches in the rice paddies, irrigation ditches, and riverbanks, and to collect clams and snails.
A day's labor might not yield much, but the people could not remain idle. Once they had nothing to do, trouble was likely to arise.
Of course, the truly massive catches for Slaver's Bay came from offshore fishing in the Gulf of Grief and even the Summer Sea.
The Gulf of Grief lay eighty kilometers from the Smoking Sea.
A small sun hung above the sea's surface, casting a golden-red veil over the Princess Elia.
On the bridge, "Goat" Gisella opened her eyes and sat up from her reclining chair. Pointing toward a direction on the sea, she said to Blackbeard Grolai, who was looking her way, "Mackerel. Medium-sized school. About two kilometers away."
Blackbeard Grolai immediately shouted orders to the sailors below the bridge. "Kurr, turn the rudder twenty-seven degrees to port. Suarez, cast the net. Jimmy, signal the fleet: mackerel, medium-sized school, two kilometers ahead. Prepare to encircle."
"Aye, Captain!"
Half an hour later, Suarez, who was operating the trawl net, shouted excitedly, "Seven gods be praised! This is a mature mackerel school. The average age must be at least four years."
Blackbeard Grolai was delighted. He hurried down the wooden ladder and came to the ship's rail.
Sure enough, as the fishing net was hauled up, mackerel leapt from the dark sea one after another like silver shuttles. Each was roughly half a meter long.
He raised the telescope hanging from his chest and looked across the surrounding waters. More than twenty ships formed a curved arc around the area, and they all seemed to be enjoying a good catch.
"With this haul alone, we'll get at least two hundred tons of fish," Grolai sighed in satisfaction.
"Maybe there are whales following the mackerel. If that's the case, the harvest will be even bigger," Suarez said with a grin, revealing two huge front teeth.
The small sun in midair seemed to hear them and shouted loudly, "I'm tired. I'm going to rest!"
"Lord Yali, please hold on a little longer. The fish schools are attracted by the sunlight. There might really be whales coming. One whale is worth several days of our hard work," Grolai quickly said, trying to comfort it.
The little sun lowered its altitude, pouring light and heat into the sea as it complained, "It's so cold. I want to go west. It's much warmer there."
"You can't go any farther west. The Smoking Sea lies there, full of reefs and demons," Grolai said.
"After work, I'll go there myself," the little sun replied, then fell silent.
"Captain, have you noticed something? Compared to half a month ago, Lord Yali's color has become much paler," Suarez whispered in Blackbeard's ear.
Grolai stared at Yali for a moment and nodded. "It's not as red as before."
"These days Lord Yali guides fish schools for us during the day, and at night he keeps flickering like a lighthouse to guide the fleet's direction. Could it be too exhausting? Maybe he's sick," Suarez said worriedly.
"I'm not sure either," Grolai said after thinking for a moment. Then he shouted toward the little sun, "Lord Yali, are you sick?"
Yali ignored him.
"He must really be sick," Suarez said with a regretful sigh.
Grolai glanced back toward the captain's cabin. "I'll ask Her Majesty the Queen later."
Another half hour passed before the heavy fishing nets were finally hauled onto the deck.
Immediately, a group of sailors carrying baskets gathered around.
They formed a circle, sitting on small stools with a massive wooden chopping block placed in front of them.
Using the back of a knife, they struck the fish on the head to stun it, then placed it on the chopping block. With two loud chops, they cut off the head and tail.
They reached into the belly, pulled out the entrails, tossed the middle section of fish meat into a bamboo basket, and then stunned the next fish.
When a bamboo basket piled half a meter high was filled level with the rim, another sailor would immediately come and replace it with an empty one.
The filled baskets were carried to a wooden enclosure at the bow of the ship that functioned as a pool. The fish meat was dumped inside, and a handful of white salt was casually sprinkled over it.
At night, someone would bring over huge clay jars as tall as a man. The fish meat would be taken out again, split into two pieces, rubbed with coarse salt, and stacked inside the jars.
Once the jars were filled, they were sealed and carried into the ship's hold.
In fact, the fish heads and tails, and even the fish entrails, were not thrown away. They were all sorted and placed into jars.
The fish heads and tails were sprinkled with a thin layer of salt. After returning, they would be dried and used as feed for livestock, while the entrails would be used to make compost.
While the sailors were killing and salting the fish, Grolay personally went to the kitchen, picked up a tray, and brought it to the captain's cabin.
"Your Majesty, it's time for dinner."
Jiqi stepped forward, took the tray, and lifted the lid. Inside was a steaming pot of red oil hotpot. In it were shrimp balls the size of a child's fist, clusters of golden fish roe, green slices of kelp, and milky white pieces of cuttlefish.
The pot was filled to the brim, and the aroma was rich.
The staple food was several long, golden-brown baguettes.
"Let's eat together." Dany first scooped herself a bowl of mixed seafood stew. She tore the bread into slices and put them into the bowl to soak until soft.
Grolay thanked her and served himself a bowl as well.
Jiqi then took out three glass cups, poured wine for the queen and the admiral, and only after that sat down below the queen to ladle herself some soup.
"Sizzle." A streak of flame flew through the crack in the window and turned into a large crow inside the room.
"Mother, I want to go to the Smoking Sea in the west to recharge," Yali said.
"You're not a battery. What recharge? Turn into a big crow, sleep for a night, and you'll be full of energy again the next day," Dany said with a laugh.
"Sigh, I like places with fire."
"Then go sleep in the furnace," Dany said.
The large crow nodded and sighed. "I used to sleep in the charcoal stove, but that little bit of charcoal fire doesn't have the same flavor as the fire in the west."
Now Dany grew interested. "The Smoking Sea is dozens of kilometers away. You can sense it?"
"It seems the fire in the west makes me feel very comfortable."
The fire in the Smoking Sea came from beneath the earth. It was fourth-tier earthfire, naturally far more "flavorful" than ordinary first-tier fire.
If possible, the best resting place for fire spirits would be volcanic magma. Absorbing earthfire for a long time might even allow them to evolve into… R'hllor?
"You can go, but remember not to go deep into the interior of the Smoking Sea," Dany said.
After Yali left with cheers, Grolay said, "I think Yali's firelight is not as red as it was a few days ago. Could it be sick?"
"Then do you feel the light around it has dimmed?" Dany asked with a smile.
Grolay thought carefully for a moment, then said in surprise, "Not only has it not dimmed, it actually seems brighter than before."
"Yali is transforming from a fireball into a light ball," Dany said.
"Isn't a fireball the same as a light ball?" Grolay looked confused.
"Is it brighter under the sun or beside a fireplace?" Dany asked.
"Of course it's brighter when there's sunlight."
"Then which is hotter, under the sun or beside a fireplace?" Dany asked again.
"The fireplace…" Grolay frowned.
Something stirred in his mind, but he still could not understand.
"Just think of Yali as growing from a fireplace into a sun," Dany said with a shrug, offering no further explanation.
If Blackbeard were a transcendent, she could explain it in a single sentence: during these recent days of secluded cultivation, she had comprehended a Song of Light that belonged to her.
Because there was no meditation method aligned with the light attribute, Dany had never expected the "Destiny of the Daughter of Light" to bring her benefits beyond the growth of her divine soul.
In fact, she had not deliberately tried to comprehend the Song of Light.
Its appearance was purely an unexpected delight, or perhaps a shock.
Dany had been startled.
Ever since Little Gold entered the space within the Wall that she had named the "Source of the World," every time she cultivated she would link her consciousness with the little golden dragon spirit while in the state of the Song of Wind.
It was as if at the birth of the world itself. Within the Source of the World, songs of all kinds of laws opened themselves to Dany, making her cultivation twice as effective with half the effort.
At that time, she was listening to the Song of Fire sung by the world and gaining new insights when the nine-colored meditation vortex in her sea of consciousness suddenly "expanded" by a circle.
The foundation of her meditation had not truly expanded. Instead, starting from its base, it emitted brilliant white-gold light throughout. That white light formed the phantom of a larger vortex around the nine-colored vortex.
It was as if two vortices were layered together.
The inner vortex was a solid entity of nine colors rotating counterclockwise, while the outer one was a golden phantom rotating clockwise.
Dany, filled with uncertainty, sank her consciousness into the newly formed golden vortex.
Then she discovered in confusion that she had gained a Song of Light with a completion rate as high as 36%.
In other words, just like Yangdan, R'hllor had begun losing his Song of Laws, and this time nearly forty percent of the Song of Light had been lost all at once.
Perhaps that unlucky fellow who had been sitting quietly at home when disaster fell from the sky had already lost the status of a true god.
She was overjoyed, but she did not understand why.
It was only when she noticed that, because she had burned hundreds of fire crows, her own Song of Fire had also risen to 36% that she began to grasp the truth.
She seemed to understand something.
After several more days of research, she finally realized how R'hllor had managed to maintain the Song of Light even after the sun had gone out.
When the world had just been born from the First Fire, everything was darkness. There was no sun, and naturally there was no Song of Light.
When the first sun appeared, the Song of Light appeared with it.
But what is the essence of the sun?
Fire.
(End of Chapter)
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