9.05.275 Braavos.
After a long voyage, which turned out to be easy and carefree for everyone, we reached the local Venice - Braavos.
Only after this voyage Victarion, Hoar and Edward, who for a month had seen how, thanks to our two ship werewolves, "Black Panther", "White Tiger" and "Purple Rhinoceros", like leaves in the wind, we skirted all oncoming storms and pirates, catching a favorable wind with our sails, admitted that my plan had fully justified itself.
I stayed in Braavos itself for a long time. Even here, in the trading capital of Westeros and Western Essos, goods from Yi-Ti were a great rarity.
Until all the checks for authenticity had been carried out, all the hands wishing to simply take my goods had not been beaten off, and all the issues regarding taxes had not been discussed, it was not possible to start trading. But when, finally, the counter was opened... I had not seen such queues, during the times of shortages. The line of rich people wanting to buy silks, velvets, incense, mirrors and ivory statues was lost in the alleys of Braavos.
It turned out that I had sailed just in time - the previous Sealord, Merua Boparo, died a few days ago and now everyone in the city is preparing for new elections. According to rumors, the future lord of Braavos has long been known. Ferrego Antarion was a member of a very ancient founding clan and one of the richest men in Braavos.
It was said that their family had managed to grow significantly richer in recent years and now owned approximately 20% of the Iron Bank shares. If you do not know that the average share among other Keykeeper families rarely reaches even one percent, then the numbers may not seem very significant, but this is not so.
As one of the merchants who bought several rolls of velvet and silk from me for his daughter's dress told me "in secret", even owning a tenth of a percent of the Iron Bank's shares guarantees you an annual income in the form of dividends of tens of thousands of gold Valars. And when I asked how much the Antarions get with their one-fifth share, he just laughed and said that I simply do not know such figures.
So many bought my goods for clothes, jewelry and gifts, with which they would soon go to the Palace of the Sea Lord, to choose and celebrate the appointment of the new ruler of the city. The only thing that went wrong was with spices. Braavos had its own Dyers' Guild and Spice Guild, which had a monopoly on the trade in any spices and pigments. They could only be sold to them. In the end, they wanted to buy my spices for next to nothing, saying that they would not be bought anywhere in Braavos.
In the end, I sent them far and for a long time, saying that I could easily sell them either in Gulltown or in King's Landing, where the locals simply have no power, like Pentos and Lorath. These extortionists, of course, got angry, began to assert their rights, yell, insult and even hint at a possible visit from the Faceless, but as soon as I showed my invoice form, with the seal of the Iron Bank, where in the line for the amount of storage there were 6 different numbers, they immediately shut up.
No matter how loudly Braavos claimed that the Palace of the Sea Lord, the Iron Bank and the House of Black and White were not connected, all people with at least a drop of reason and logic understood perfectly well that no government would keep an uncontrolled organization of professional killers at its side. So everyone who was even a little bit involved in the merchant circles of Braavos knows that in addition to the famous "black" list, where the Faceless Men's targets are indicated, there is also a "white" list, people from which are untouchable for the servants of the Many-Faced God (except for special circumstances - when the Palace of the Sea Lord and the Iron Bank suddenly wanted someone to die).
And the easiest way to get on this list is to have a deposit in the Iron Bank exceeding 100,000 gold dragons. And I, thanks to successful deals, already had such a sum. In the end, we parted ways with the guild representatives almost amicably - they bought the spices from me at the standard markup (exceeding their original cost five times), and I did not keep anything for myself and take them to Westeros. I am sure that these tightwads will get much more out of them than they spent, because a monopoly is so... profitable.
14.05.275 Braavos
Today, standing on the bow of my new ship, I left hospitable Braavos. It was beautiful. Four decks, with special cages for animals and compartments for transporting rare and moisture-sensitive cargo, three high masts holding a whole system of oblique sails made using the latest technology, a hidden underwater ram that can split an average galley in half with one blow, special nests for archers and scorpions, allowing you to shower the enemy with a hail of arrows ... And much, much more.
No matter how much the Iron Islands boasted about their unsinkable drakkars, the Summer Islands about their graceful swan ships, the Ithian craftsmen about their super-capacious barges, and Volantis about its invincible dromons, but Braavos cannot be surpassed in the mastery of shipbuilding. As long as the Arsenal and the entire dynasties of craftsmen working there exist, assembling one fast and deadly galley or one heavy merchant galleon in one day, no one will be able to overthrow the sea ruler of the Western ecumene.
This beauty, which became the flagship of my small fleet, was named the "King of Beasts". The reason is simple - all my ships were named after some animals, and the new one was the main one among them. Edward became the captain of the "King of Beasts", who proved himself a good sailor and a responsible subordinate.
On the "Black Panther", his deputy remained in charge, becoming the new captain, and the rest of the crew was recruited in Braavos itself. After all, this is a city of sailors and people who are ready to kill their neighbor for a permanent job, there are a lot of them here. And now we are heading northwest, towards the legendary Neck, where the First Men were able to repel the Andals, stopping their advance to the North.
There, the swamp dwellers with their secrets and mysteries, the lion-lizards, strange hybrids of crocodiles and lions, who manage to survive even in the most severe frosts, and communities of werewolves, hiding from the world for millennia and developing their talent, are waiting for me.
05/26/275 Isthmus, the shores of the Past Bay
The isthmus turned out to be exactly as it was described in the books - a narrow swampy place connecting the North with the southern regions of Westeros. These wooded lands, abundant with lakes and swamps, greeted us with large and dangerous creatures, similar to a hybrid of a crocodile and a lion, huge snakes, reaching several meters in length and possessing very strong cadaveric poison, and giant multi-colored flowers, from the pollen of which a person can suffocate in a few hours.
The latter was found out by the example of Oberyn, who hid several skins of wine somewhere and managed to get drunk right before landing. And this world would have lost the second prince of Dorne, if the locals had not come to the rescue, pouring several multi-colored bottles of some kind of swill down his throat and hitting him hard on the head so that he would not kick.
After thanking the locals with a small gift in the form of a sack of good flour (judging by their looks, it was worth its weight in gold for them) and telling them the purpose of our journey, Oberyn and I, in the company of a small retinue, were invited to stay in the village of the Horei family, living half a day's journey from the coast.
05/27/275 Isthmus, the village of the Horei family
Shock. Disbelief. And subsequent fucking. That's how you could describe my state when I saw the local settlement. Although similar emotions were on the faces of everyone who accompanied me. Instead of miserable huts, on makeshift rafts or on rare patches of stable land, which were described in Maester Pronz's book "The Wild North and Its Barbarian Peoples", written before the arrival of the Targaryens, I saw a tree.
A gigantic, motherfucking, thirty-meter tree, on the trunk of which the houses of the swamp dwellers were located, and at the top, in the very crown, on a hollowed-out area, a bright fire was burning, on which, judging by the silhouettes visible, food was currently being cooked. The locals' meal, to which we were invited, consisted of a large amount of bland boiled fish, some strange seaweed, very similar to Japanese nori, and small loaves of very shitty bread made from first-milled flour, so that our gift of a whole pood of good flour was ready to be kissed. Now it became clear why most of the locals were a meter tall with a cap on a stool. Here, as in earthly Japan, from a lack of food and a fairly damp climate, people's height had been decreasing for generations.
A kind of adaptation mechanism - those who eat less and are harder to notice will live better in these swamps. After a meal and a conversation with the local elder, I learned that simply hunting lizard lions without killing them is a very original way to lose half of your team. But there is a way out - a special paralyzing poison, which is made from decoctions of several local plants. It can plunge these dangerous creatures into a kind of lethargic sleep, giving a chance to tie them up and drag them into cages without unnecessary casualties.
But there is one small problem - only the Reeds, the main clan on the entire Isthmus, have the knowledge of how to make and produce this poison. According to the elder, we are very lucky. In a few days, the Watch in the Greywater will be sailing near these places.