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Pentos
32 YA / 32 AC
Pentos, the capital of the Valyrian Empire, was shaken with a political disaster. Vhamond Targaryen, going against the betrothal his father had created between him and Aleryse, had wed Baela in secret.
At fifteen years old, she was wildly in love and did not care for the issues that would arise.
Having consummated their marriage before discovery, it could not be broken without humiliating House Targaryen.
Visenya was furious upon learning that her daughter, Aleryse, had been sidelined.
Unable to punish his heir in any meaningful way since he did not have a second son, Aegon had to offer his sister-wife a compromise. Qohor was becoming the food basket of the empire as Visenya created more farmsteads each year.
A divide in the House of the Dragon was unacceptable now and forever.
Aleryse herself refused to wed Vhamond now that she would share the same fate as her mother.
Tax breaks, land, or coin would not be enough to sate her anger. There was nothing of substance Aegon could offer Visenya, except for one thing.
He granted her the hereditary position of Magister of Qohor, with Aleryse as her heir.
However, on the condition that Aleryse would take Aerys Baratheon, Orys' second son, as her consort.
Orys was Aegon's champion and his hand in the rule of the empire. This would be a reward for him and a way to ensure Aleryse did not drift away from the main branch of House Targaryen.
Visenya agreed, on the added condition that her daughter would get a dragon for herself. Vaelax had grown in size, but she was not enough to cover the entirety of the farmsteads by herself.
The oldest living unclaimed dragon was a crimson-scaled male, years away from being large enough to carry Aleryse to battle.
She had named him Visenor after her mother.
—
Volantis
While the High Archon was struggling with his family, Volantis was struggling with its own problems. The rivalry between the tigers and the elephants had turned to a full-blown enmity.
The tigers saw it as an opportunity to return the city to old ways, when the money lenders and merchants did not hold so much power. The elephants pushed back, calling on debts and loans to put the tigers in a rough place. The tigers, in return, resolved to create cadet houses that would focus on trade and loans.
Insults were hurled in the streets, with fistfights breaking out. Voices of restraint were drowned by calls for action.
The only reason the city did not erupt in a war for control was because of the Targaryens.
Vhamond, aware of the internal strife in Volantis, decided to act since his father was too weary of war.
He sent a messenger to the tigers, offering them the control of the city if they sided with the empire.
Unknown to the tigers, the elephants received the same offer.
It did not take long for rumors to spread across the empire that the High Archon had made a deal with the tigers. The empire would help them take down the elephants and relinquish control to the tigers as subjects of the High Archon.
The rumors were regarded as a ploy of the Targaryens at first, but when both sides learned that the other had received an envoy in secret, it caused the rift to deepen.
However, that alone wasn't enough for the tigers and elephants to come to blows.
Their greatest defense against the Targaryen dragons, the bombardiers, had been kept a secret for many years, but not forever. The elephants caught a spy who was sniffing around for black powder and the foundries that cast the bombardiers.
When questioned, the man had revealed that he was ordered to find out how the weapons were forged, confirming their worst fears.
The blame for it was laid solely on the shoulders of the tigers, but the elephants did not act rashly. They prepared for a swift assault, moving bombardiers and soldiers in secret.
One ordinary morning, the people of the city woke up to sounds akin to the roar of a god splitting the heavens. They feared that the Targaryens were assaulting Volantis again and hid in their homes.
The sounds continued for hours.
The elephants had caught the tigers with their guard down and did not show any mercy. The mansions, which had stood for thousands of years, were brought down by bombard balls. Stone and wood splintered, bodies were torn apart, and those that survived were buried under the smoldering ruins of their home.
When the bombardments fell silent, the soldiers moved. The ruins were combed for any tiger faction members that might have escaped, and a small number were caught alive.
They shared the fate of prisoners in Volantis, sold as bed slaves or laborers.
The elephants were quick to dispose of the sole tiger triarch and sent criers across the city, revealing the treachery of the nobles. Henceforth, the tigers were no more. The nobles weren't well liked by most, as they saw everyone beneath them, and no one cried for their deaths.
In the following weeks of the fall of the tigers, the elephants received an envoy from the empire. The Targaryens wanted to parley again, without the aggression of the tigers.
The triarchs agreed. After all, peace was more profitable in this instance.
The Targaryens renewed their offers of lower taxes and other compensations for the freed slaves, including something new. Volantis had five slaves for each free man, and the High Archon proposed a solution. The freed slaves, those that couldn't find work in Volantis, would instead be offered work in farmsteads.
Qohor was claiming more land from the Dothraki each year, and if Volantis joined the empire, they too could have vast farmlands.
That caveat was extremely alluring. Volantis was the most populous of the Free Cities and, with the war, had to buy more food from across the Narrow Sea. They would usually buy from the rest of Essos, but the empire had been blocking the trade for years.
The Targaryens also wanted the weapons used by Volantis but had met with a resolute refusal. The bombardiers were too valuable to give up. The power to kill a dragon was not one that could be given up for any amount of coin.
Especially to the dragonlords.
House Targaryen did not push the issue overly much. If Volantis joined the empire without a war, the weapons could be acquired in time.
The details over the tax amounts and other privileges that would be granted to Volantis took months to finalize. A large swath of farmland, including several farmsteads that would be given up by Qohor, with no taxes for the next twenty years. After twenty years, the amount would be decent, so neither side would appear to have lost.
And of course, immediate continuation of trade.
Volantis joined the empire, not with a war, but on the parley table.
—
Braavos was disturbed by the destruction of the tiger faction in Volantis and even more by the city's willingness to become a part of the empire.
With Volantis out off the board, Braavos was the last free city in western Essos.
It made the relations with the Storm Kingdom even more important.
—
The Targaryen conquest, which had been stalled for years, picked up its pace after Volantis. Saath, one of the two small cities on the shore of the Shivering Sea, had surrendered easily. Merely a port, it traded with Morosh, a colony of Lorath that had bent the knee way at the start of the conquest.
Not that either city offered enough to be important.
The High Archon intended to finish the conquest with Meereen, Yunkai, and Astapor. Once Slaver's Bay was under their control and the center of slave trade was gone, Aegon would rest.
Already, his empire was too large and required nonstop work to keep everything under control. It would only require more work after those cities fell.
Mantarys was their next target, but a rather problematic one. The city was shrouded in mystery, with rumors that it was inhabited by monsters.
It wasn't entirely unfounded. There were people with twisted and misshapen bodies from Mantarys in the empire. A two-headed girl, a man with eight limbs, and a hulking monstrosity that could crush a man in his hands.
They were merely treated as attractions, earning a livelihood by displaying their unnatural bodies.
A city founded by the Valyrian Freehold, it was entirely possible the misshapen people were a result of blood magic. Aegon sent envoys to the city to ascertain the truth.
Their heads were returned in jars.
Calling his banners, Aegon flew to Mantarys with Balerion. The city itself did not have great walls like Volantis, nor weapons that could slay a dragon. When Balerion's shadow darkened the city, the battle was already decided.
The walls melted under dragonflame, and the host marched in without any serious opposition. Until the monsters attacked.
They were all misshapen and monstrous, either in looks or in size, and did not seem to care for their lives. Aegon scorched them to ashes along with a quarter of the city.
Not all inside were monsters, however.
People, ordinary, hale, and sane, hid in their homes. None were willing to test the soldiers nor defend their city.
Aegon guessed they weren't very fond of the rulers.
While most of the city was bare of anything luxurious, there was a palace in the center, with pristine walls, gilded halls, and towering statues of a single man outside.
Orys ordered the men forward. The palace itself did not seem to be defended, or if it was, the monsters that Balerion killed must have been the guards.
He waited on top of his dragon and slowly started to worry as it dragged out. He was about to send more men in when Orys came out, with the soldiers dragging a chained creature behind.
"What in the name of everything holy is that?" Aegon asked, throat tightening. It was several human corpses fused together, with different colored patches of skin, unnatural growths all over the body, and different-sized limbs poking out of its back. Twice the size of a man, its eyes, mouth, and nose were all twisted across its face.
"The ruler of this place. A Valyrian sorcerer from before the doom," Orys explained, his sword gripped too tightly.
"It speaks?" Aegon asked, voice rising in pitch.
"Of course I do," the creature replied with a voice as if more than one person were speaking.
"What are you?" he demanded. What madness had this sorcerer committed to end like this?
"I am Daemeryx the Immortal."
"There were people inside, ones he turned to monsters centuries ago," Orys added, glancing at the palace and shaking his head. "They say he turned himself into this creature in a bid to become immortal."
Aegon closed his eyes. "I see."
"Do you not desire it, Conqueror?" the sorcerer asked, grinning as saliva leaked between his crooked teeth, and the growth on his forehead twitched. "The chance to live forever? I only require specimens," he said.
Aegon gestured for the men holding Daemeryx to move aside.
"You see the value of…" he began.
"Dracarys," Aegon ordered. The monster's eyes widened for a mere moment before the fire touched his skin.
There was no scream as the air in his lungs burned, and Daemeryx was ashes in seconds.
"Orys, find all the people that were his victims. Put an end to those too far gone," he ordered.
The ancient glory of Valyria did not look so enticing anymore.
"As you command."
—
Mantarys fell, along with the blood sorcerer responsible for its sinister reputation.
There were texts inside, concerning Daemeryx' attempts to fix his body after the attempts at immortality had turned him into a grotesque monster. He must have succeeded to a degree to live for centuries, but to Aegon, the cost was too great.
Twisted humans across the city were gathered, and the feeble-minded were put out of their misery, for there was no other mercy Aegon could show them. Those that were not would be confined to Mantarys.
He did not know if their state could be passed onto other people, but he did not wish to find out.
Everything that mad sorcerer had done would be eradicated so none could attempt to do what he did.
Mantarys would be their staging ground for the conquest of Elyria, Tolos, Meereen, Yunkai, and Astapor. He ordered soldiers and supplies to be brought to the city. Repairs would also need to take place.
Fleets would sail and blockade the Slaver's Bay. No more slaves would come in or leave by the sea. With even Volantis slowly setting their slaves free, the flesh trade had already taken a great hit.
Soon, it would end completely.
—
Elyria fell with ease.
The fleets of the empire, aided by Meraxes, took the city after a quick battle. A small haven in Slaver's Bay due to its pristine waters and colorful forests, it was a rich settlement. As custom, a certain amount was taken as spoils, slaves were set free, and any feeble-minded grotesques were granted the mercy of death.
Tolos was dependent on slavery and, except for producing the finest slingers in Essos, did not have much to offer.
While the lead balls of the slingers did great damage to human flesh, the same could not be said for armor.
Nor dragon scales.
The honor to take the city fell on Visenya's shoulders, and she was successful in convincing the rulers to surrender. While not as wealthy as Elyria, its slingers had joined the host, and the port saw use to resupply the fleet.
Irrelevant compared to the great slave cities, they would nevertheless prove to be useful.
—
Yunkai, Astapor, and Meereen were not worried about the Targaryens until Volantis joined them. With the largest slave-buyer city a part of the empire, they were forced to rethink.
Sorcerers were mostly employed by the empire, and the rest did not pose a threat to the dragons.
The three rivals did not have any means to fight the dragons, yet giving up slaves was impossible. It was their main source of coin, and they might as well start begging on the streets.
—
Months after his conquest of Mantarys, High Archon Aegon I Targaryen, the Conqueror himself, was dead.
It was old age and the weariness of harsh battles, the healers said.
The conquest was put on hold again until the mourning period for Aegon was over, and Vhamond was crowned.
While Rhaenys, Vhamond, and Baela were devastated, Visenya and Aleryse were not as concerned. Mother and daughter still shed tears before the people, but they did not forget how Aegon had sidelined both of them.
The new High Archon, unwilling to grant the great slave cities any more time, bonded with Balerion and prepared for war.
—
In the next chapter:
The constant stream of smallfolk into the kingdom from their neighbors had come to an end. The kings of Vale, North, and the Rock had forbidden the smallfolk from leaving the lands. The effects of losing so many became apparent with the lack of labor force.
Farms, forges, and pastures were left empty as people sought out better lives. Checkpoints had been created on borders, and none without a good cause were allowed to leave. Even the local merchants could not bring their families out of the kingdom.
The smallfolk, in return, resorted to abandoning the kingdoms in secret. In the dead of the night, they would cross the border on the more dangerous parts. Hiding in barrels and crates, the smallfolk had created trafficking rings.
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