LIGHTNOVELWORLD Chapter 6: Travel
Lys was within sight after a few more weeks. The men were especially excited about this stop.
"I have saved up a bit of gold for this stop of our journey", said one, a big man with broad shoulders, "I like 'em Valyrian, though they are more expensive. It's as close as I get to fucking a Targaryen. As a wee lass, I fantasised marrying into the royal family, a little dream of mine, not that I would ever get it, no Targaryen would ever even sleep with a lowborn, much less marry one and now, now they are all gone"
"Not all of them", Ryu said, looking out to the sea, "somewhere out there are two dragons left, a prince and a princess… I wonder how long they can stretch their money before they starve? Well, either way, we have a new king now, a better king, to King Robert, first of his name!" Ryu held his goblet into the air, a toast to their king, the others were quick to do the same, only Renly remained without a raised goblet, he was more focused on the Valyrian steel dagger in his hand. No matter how often he tried, how much magic he pushed into it, the flames, the visions, they never returned.
Had the flames died in the dagger? Had he released whatever magic that was inside it? No, not completely. There was still magic in that metal but it was a lot less powerful than before. The blade absorbed magic from the air, slowly refilling, though the magic he siphoned into the dagger dissipated, not sticking. He could speculate that whatever magic which resided in it was draconic in origin, different than the nature magic that resided within him. Of course, his draconic bloodline was another matter but even so, the dragons of this world and the dragons of the DnD world were much different. The Westerosi dragons were overgrown wyverns, yet their flame and blood held a magic unlike any seen in Faerûne, it was native to this world, different from Renly's powers, foreign. Yet his magic still intertwined with that of Westeros, his visions proved that.
"Lord Renly, what do you have there? Is that- Valyrian steel?", the broadly shouldered man asked, looking at the dagger in his hand, "where did you get that? They cost a fortune!"
"I liberated this from the Tyroshi archon", he said nonchalantly, spinning the dagger in his palm. The thing was lighter than it ought to be for its size and wicked sharp too, "I just couldn't resist when I felt the magic within it"
"How did you get one of the archon's daggers? Can you turn invisible or something? His home should be the most heavily guarded place in all of Tyrosh", Ryu frowned, looking at the dagger wearily, "i wouldn't be surprised if he had unsullied in his guard"
"What are unsullied?" Asked one of the knights, he had never been to Essos, so he wasn't versed in the slave warriors known as the unsullied.
"Unsullied are slave warriors, castrated and raised from young on to be unfeeling, totally loyal soldiers, empty vessels and yes, there were unsullied guarding his treasure but I have my ways", Renly grimaced. The training of the unsullied was Barbaric. Cutting off someone's manhood, it was… just wrong. Sure, rapers deserved that kind of punishment, the punishment befitted the crime but to do it to children… just plain awful. The spider was another case of this unfortunate practice. His wasn't cut off to make him a better warrior but in a blood ritual by a maegi, a blood sorcerer. This led to his hatred of magic of all kinds. Renly was more than happy to say that his magic wasn't like the blood sorcerer's or that of the red priests, he didn't need nor did he want to mutilate someone to gain more magic. Sure he probably could do that, start praying to the lord of light and burning alive his opponent to curry favor with him but why would he? He was already more powerful than most red priests. The powers of a 13th level dnd character were nothing to scoff at.
"Really? You saw them? The unsullied, I mean? How were they? What weapons were they using?", one of the knight asked with enthusiasm, "I always wanted to test my might against one of them"
"You would loose", snorted Ryu, "they aren't called the ultimate weapon for no reason. One unsullied can kill three normal knights, five if they aren't wearing too much armor. Confronting one is a fool's errand"
"They were carrying short spears with them" Renly said, "leather armor dyed purple and they were standing there like statues. If you didn't know they were the real deal, you might've thought they were marble statues painted to look like flesh and blood"
"Purple leather armor? Purple dye is crazy expensive, is it not? What kind of money you'd have to have to dress your guards in purple", the knight asked, scratching his head.
"What were you expecting, it is the Archon of tyrosh, the single most powerful man in the city", Ryu shook his head, "he is like their king, enough wealth to dress a whole village in purple, plus the purple dye is native to tyrosh"
"Strangely enough, his servants weren't wearing purple, like the unsullied, they wore simple dresses", Renly told them, remembering back to the girl with the limp, "i don't think he treats his servants especially well either, they were in… pretty rough shape"
"What do you expect? They still have slavery here. That is one of the best things about Westeros, no slavery. I am not proud of what my people are doing over here. If you ask me, King Robert should conquer the free cities and finally bring some proper laws here", Ryu said. He had completely forsaken his prior nationality and embraced the westerosi way of life.
"Not likely", Renly chuckled, "Robert would love it but keeping Westeros together is already a hard job, factor Essos in and the system would collapse in on itself in a few years"