Pre-Chapter A/N: Here we go with another chapter. Here on time! Next five chapters on my patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga)— same username as here and link in bio.
XXXXX- ONE MONTH LATER
Igneel banked to the left, veering away from the ship we had seemed destined to crash into. The crew, once they realised they were still alive, cheered enthusiastically as we passed. My heart was beating a million thumps a minute, my smile was stretching my face so far, splitting it into two halves, and Igneel felt like he could fly to the sun with how joyous he was. Flying was freedom. Here, we were Kings. And at the same time, we did not matter. It was both powerful and humbling at the same time. It was everything, nothing, and all that was in between for me.
But we had not come today just to fly. Sadly, I could not fly for flying's sake on a daily basis as I once did. We shifted headings to make sure we were sure to land on Torturer's Deep. The third largest island in the Stepstones was some distance from Bloodstone by boat, but on a dragon we could spot it in less than an hour. The island itself had changed much since I had torched it to burn the pirates out.
For one, there was now a town right in the middle of it. Not a residential town like one would have first thought-- at least not one in the way most people thought of it. Torturer's Deep was going to be the headquarters of both the Velaryon Legions and the Velaryon Navy. A shipyard was still in construction but the dock was thankfully finished with. Completing all this without Aegon or his Knight noticing was actually much easier than I expected. I did not know what I thought would happen-- that the boy would go around the city poking this and that. But since he had arrived, he had not left the castle even once.
Sunfyre lived in the courtyard and that was the farthest he went. His Knight, an ever-present shadow, did no exploring at all. So it had been easy to manage all the shipments and arrangements. And now milling on the ground were close to five hundred men. Only about 10% of them had any preliminary martial training. 5% were anointed Knights. They were the ones I worried about the most. The legion would thrive on unity but men who thought they were better than their fellows would not be good company for any.
But then their skill would be needed to raise the overall level of the group. And the Knights I'd chosen for the legion were some of the younger and less skilled ones. So hopefully they would have less of a chip on their shoulders.
Igneel landed with a roar that had all the previously scattered and disorganised men jumping to attention. The few that had not spotted our approach looked like they might have soiled themselves even. I wiped the smirk from my face as I slid down from the saddle and to the ground.
Waiting for me in front of the group were five men.
The first one to reach me was a Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. Duncan Stout, a man of the Stormlands. When I had sent out my call for Knights to join my service, I had been only partially surprised when most of them had ended up coming from only one realm, with that realm being the Stormlands. In hindsight, it made perfect sense. They had made a good amount of gold fighting for House Velaryon, we had strong blood and emotional ties to the liege lord so they could even deceive themselves that they were doing it for something other than gold. Add to that the fact that the Stormlands were a pretty shit place to live— third only to Dorne and the North (in that particular order)— and it was a perfect storm of factors in favour of a mass exodus.
"Lord Velaryon," he called, snapping a quick salute with his sword.
"Ser Stout," I returned the greeting. He was a Stormlander man through and through. Black hair, brown eyes, muscled frame, and a demon in the sparring fields. I had a winning record against him, of course. But the fact that he had actually managed to take a few matches against me made him someone I would respect—at least when it came to martial matters. The rest of his tastes were....not exactly appropriate for me to comment on.
"How do they look?" I asked.
"Hungry, miserable, greedy as fuck, and hungry," he rattled off.
"You said hungry twice," I pointed out.
"Well, they look twice as hungry as they ought to," he returned.
"I'll address them and you can lead them to the mess hall to get some warm food in their bellies then," I said, stepping past him to the rest of the group.
The Legions were going to be the best of two very distinct worlds. They would be like knights when I needed knights, and infantry when I needed infantry. At least this first legion would be. Knights were Knights because they were trained to fight as individuals and charge in a cavalry. They were deadly in both ways. Infantry was only deadly together, and there was no infantry more deadly than the unsullied. So I acquired some. Unfortunately, I had had to put some gold in the pockets of slavers to do it.
Trying to steal them off any of the ships that got attacked by pirates who definitely were not members of the Velaryon navy was useless. They fought to the death every single time. So when that hadn't worked, I'd bit the bullet and overpaid for men who had been abused as children, had their cocks cut off, and had somehow become the most disciplined warriors in the world because of it.
"Hullo Igneel," I called.
"Lord Velaryon," all three men responded. Did I mention that all three of them had independently decided to go as Igneel for some reason and now that was the only name any of them would answer to? Well, that was the case. The final man was neither Knight nor Unsullied. He was something else.
"Well met, my Lord," he said with a flourished bow. I just grunted.
"Coppertooth. I trust you will be on your best behaviour."
"Why not? You pay me quite well, no? You pay me, I do my best. Everybody happy," he said. I grunted again and walked past him. A skilled sellsword, he was here to teach what neither Knights nor Unsullied could teach. Fighting dirty.
"Attention," I called, but it was largely unnecessary. Whether it was the dragon or something else, the group of initiates had quieted down on my approach and had formed up in something vaguely resembling a formation.
"You. You are something special. All of you. Each and every one of you has been given an opportunity. The kind of opportunity that others would kill to have. The opportunity to ensure your children live lives of luxury, the opportunity to make history. You are to be the first of my legions. The beginning of an army created to keep the Stepstones safe and defend her interests both here and abroad. But it will not be easy for you to make it there. The training is going to be arduous. Many times you will be tempted to give up. You will even give up in your heads dozens of times. Maybe even every morning but it will not matter because you will stand up. Those words will never leave your mouths. You will keep going because you are strong. And you are worthy. I know you are worthy. All I ask is that you prove it to yourselves. Show yourselves what it is I see in you. Good luck," I shouted as loud as I could, and stepped back.
The men just remained there until one of them started to applaud and then it carried on to the rest. I nodded in thanks and handed the floor over to Stout. Igneel crawled forwards, and I closed the rest of the distance. Time to get going.
----
"Well, this is a surprise," I said, walking into the dining room and finding both my wife and squire having a healthy spread of breakfast. Not too shocking a sight most of the time, but they were hours early.
"I needed some food in me, and Aegon here was in the middle of some sort of lesson about the houses in the Riverlands and how the lands have changed hands over the years. Decided to save him from it and get some company out of it," Laena said, smiling in Aegon's direction. His face reddened, looking like a freshly picked tomato. The boy had a crush and I had never seen anything cuter. He somehow thought no one could notice how he was always staring at Laena.
Of course, for a child his age, it was only natural. I knew just how beautiful my wife was and had no doubts that the number of men who harboured affection for her in this castle outnumbered those who did not. They did all have the common sense not to proposition her, of course. If Igneel was not a large enough deterrent from such stupidity, then Vhagar was enough. That was if she even let you live long enough to meet the Queen of Dragons.
"I see. Well, I am sure we can afford to make today an exception to our regular schedule and eat a bit earlier. Especially since you seem to be feeling so good," I said, referencing the fact that she was here eating and not leaning over the toilet dry heaving.
"Myriah burned some incense this morning. Whatever was in it, I don't know. I feel wonderful though," she said.
"I must thank her then," I said. I made a mental note to seek out the midwife for that. It was also probably a good idea to get a one-on-one conversation in with the woman who my wife was listening to about the fate of our child.
"Please don't," Laena said, her smile stiffening.
"Why not?"
"You have a tendency to..." she said, but stopped short. A tendency to what?
"To?" I probed.
"To frighten people with your intensity. She said she felt like she was being inquisitioned the last time you spoke to her," she said.
"Inquisitioned? I barely asked her ten questions. I'll show her what a real inquisition looks like," I said. She sighed, covering her eyes with her fingers.
"Please just leave her alone."
"I said I was going to thank her, not put her in a chair."
"And then after thanking her, were you not going to ask her what was in the incense? How she got it into Bloodstone? How she knows it works? How many times she's used it? Probably a dozen more questions. I know you, Laenor," she said.
"Not that well, clearly. Because I only had like four more questions apart from those ones," I said. She sighed again.
"Please just leave her alone," she said.
"I think I have a right to know what is happening with my own wife and child."
"We agreed, Laenor. This one, you leave to me. All the others we let your obsessive tendencies lead the way. And how many children run through these halls now?" she asked. I flinched backwards, feeling like someone had grabbed my heart with a fist and begun to squeeze.
"Prince Aegon is done eating and requests to be excused," Cargyll said from the side and did not even wait for us to leave before dragging the boy out of this room.
"You didn't just say that," I said.
"I did. You always do this. You think you know better than everyone else, and I don't mind it at all, but in this you leave it to me. We have done your method. I have found someone who has birthed double as many children as all your maesters put together. And you will not frighten her to leave with your questions or heavens forbid make her have to second guess herself in her judgement and actions," she said.
"You can't blame me for losing our children," I said. It felt like nothing she said after that even mattered. Her face softened, the harsh lines that had marked her rage faded like they had never even been there.
"I don't. I don't, Nor. I really don't, but I also just want you to take me seriously here. I care just as much as you do about this child in my stomach. About all the ones we've lost before now. And we have since approached things like they were your project and yours alone. So I want this one to be mine. We agreed, Nor. We agreed, and more importantly, you promised," she said softly, but the fire in her eyes could not be dimmed. I sighed, feeling the tension drain from my body. I released it with my breath and tried my hardest not to feel the pain of the situation. Not to allow what I felt to determine how I acted.
"It's fine. I won't talk to her," I said.
"Thank you," she said.
I turned my attention to the spread of food. There was bread, sausages, and then a wide variety of what I would have referred to as dessert options. But nothing appealed to me. It all just looked like it would taste like ash in my mouth. I pushed the seat back with the back of my knees as I stood.
"Nor?"
"It's nothing. Not hungry. My body doesn't seem to want an early breakfast," I said, leaving the dining room right after, before she could respond.
Now, where to go. Not the office. I shared it with Laena and I did not particularly want to see her now. She hadn't meant to hurt me, but that did not change the fact that her words had felt like blades in my chest. It was my responsibility to get over it but not now. Not when it was so raw.
It was only now that I realised just how few spaces in the castle I owned were mine and truly mine. Aegon should have a session with Bernard this afternoon so there was no point heading there. I didn't even want to be in the castle. I wanted to get work done. To find something to keep my hands busy, and there was only one place I could think of.
--
"Either I've done something very wrong or very right," Parvella said as I walked into her office. We were in the Velaryon Bank. The large building with deep underground vaults had been fully completed about three years ago, and Parvella had been given the office of the Bank's General Manager. An office that put my solar to shame both in terms of its size and opulence. But it was this way for a reason. Parvella would have to deal with Magisters from all sorts of cities, and signs like this were the easiest way to get them to take what they would have seen as a former slave, and a woman besides, seriously. I needed nothing to be taken seriously. I was me.
"Neither. Nothing to do with you even. I want to get some work done here," I said.
She looked like she wanted to push but I just shook my head.
"Alright then. I did have quite a few ventures that needed your final stamp of approval. I would have had a runner send them over to you in a few days once I had a more substantial set, but since you're here now. You might as well get a headstart," she said. I nodded gratefully and moved to seat in the chair across from her.
She passed me a stack of papers and I began to leaf through them. Just as she had said, they were loan applications. Each one for a different sort of project. She had done or had someone else do all the requisite due diligence and feasibility studies. Each one was rounded up with her own remarks. As the bank manager, Parvella had the authority to grant a good amount of loans, but we had capped that at five thousand dragons.
Anything that needed more gold than that would need my own approval. The first request was from a merchant in Braavos. The fact that a Braavosi had come to us instead of the Iron Bank made me pay even more attention to this one. It did end up being a fairly boring request in the end. Gold for expanding an already existing mapmaking business. The only issue being that there was only so much profit to be found in making and selling maps. He wanted to educate a whole crew of cartographers and then hire a fleet for them to go across the known world and be making maps.
I flipped through to see samples of his own work and near gasped. The detail, the scale, the way the subject area seemed to come to life at his hands. A rare talent. And it was clear that he was not like most cartographers. He didn't just find old maps and copy them. This kind of detail? You needed to have been there yourself.
But the business fundamentals just were not there. His numbers were the genuine best Parvella could find, and while they said he was profitable right now, they did not indicate that he would remain so after such a massive capital investment. Because he would have to still deal with his day to day costs while servicing a loan that far outstripped his combined profit across near a decade of doing business.
Parvella's recommendation was simple. "Deny the loan." I wrote down next to it. "Loan denied. Offer Cartographer job under the Velaryon navy. Pay to be commensurate with half again average profit accrued in the past eighteen moons. Make clear that mission to map the whole world would be well supported." I nodded, satisfied with that, and went on to the next request.
A/N: Well, here we go with this one. If Laena seems unreasonable, think of what multiple miscarriages could do to a person. Neither she nor Laenor are fully in their right minds when it comes to this subject. Grief, especially unhandled grief, does that to people. Next five chapters up on patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga) (same username as here and link in bio), support me there and read them early.