Darken Rahl in Game of Thrones

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***

Darken Rahl.

284 A.D. Tolos, shipyard.

It had been a little over a year since my last major sailing anywhere.A lot of important things have happened. Especially in the last month, but I think we need to start over.

I spent the first six months expanding my network of informants and trading interests. Unofficially, I'm already the richest man in Essos. And thanks to my capital, I can already safely build up my own army. I already have an entire legion under Darstein's command. But in addition to him, two more are being formed. Most of the commanders of my first legion are from Essos, or former mercenaries from Quochor, and there are even a few Dothraki as cavalry commanders. I have not yet fully formed my Guard. So far it includes a small number of warriors just over a hundred. So it's a long way from the First Cohort. Though they are well trained.

My Mord-Sith have also begun to show themselves. In between training their new future Agiel sisters, they've been helping the city guards with interrogations. But so far their numbers aren't as large as I'd like them to be. Besides Nyssa, I only have six Mord-Sith. And they are not yet at the level of my true servants from the past. But Miriam and I are working on it.

By the way, I think Miriam has fully settled in and regained her former form. The envy of most warriors. So far she remains unbeatable in a fight with anyone, even with the giant Boros, she prevails, albeit with difficulties, but he still ends up on the dusty ground. Moreover, after that "revenge" on the trader, she gathered a small group of former slave girls and began to train them as warriors. At first there were only a dozen of them. But then other already free women and even young girls joined. And as a result, today she commands her own company of exclusively female soldiers. I smiled at first. But when they won an unequal battle against a mercenary force that outnumbered them three to one, I decided to take a closer look at them and allocated additional funds to staff their company and even sent a couple of teachers from Braavos.

Mantaris and Aelyria. These two cities are also now under my full control. The councils have been bought or my men have been promoted to city councillors. Their trade also goes through me. Aelyria supplies me with new ships. There, old man Mathis, who has become "their" admiral or master of the city's ships, is now held in high esteem and respect, though he actually serves me. Piracy in the Gulf has already been eradicated, and no other ships than those of the cities that are located in it can sail through it unhindered. That doesn't please the other Free Cities and the Giscarians, but they don't have much choice. Mantaris, on the other hand, is interesting to me as a trade centre that connects me to the Free Cities. And besides, I get some very interesting specimens from there for testing.

Speaking of experiments. I finally figured out the skull I got in Bhorash. It was a rare artefact that held human souls. Although they weren't whole souls, just imprints with the memories of those individuals. Which I now use to research the history of Valyria and learn their knowledge. After all, among those soul imprints were a couple of generals, archivists, and even a blacksmith who was involved in re-forging and Valyrian steel in particular. And through this I learnt a curious fact about this steel. It was forged most often by the same "recipe" - purified steel that was infused with magic and tempered in dragon fire. But there was another way, but it required a lot of magical power. Which the Valyrians had little of, no matter what. But the steel that was obtained by the second method needed re-forging about once every twenty or thirty years.

And as for the secret of re-forging, I also learnt it thanks to the artefact and thanks to spying on the master of their Quahor. And now I'm practising my blacksmithing skills. But I still have one forged sword, and I gave it to Darstein as my first commanding general. But I will soon be making similar swords for myself and Miriam.

What's also rather amusing is that I was still able to recognise the name of my 'father' - Prince Oberyn Martell. The younger brother of the ruler of Dorne and a famous warrior of Westeros. What's more, I was able to overhear my "bird" in the tower where my mother was being held talking to her cousin about me and Oberyn. They met at Stromest. At the time, Alice was with her older brother visiting the Hightowers, and Oberyn was studying, or rather, finishing his studies at the Citadel of Maesters. And the love that erupted between them didn't let go for months, until Oberyn managed to get her into bed, and then they were secretly married a few days later. So I am not a bastard, but a full-fledged prince of Dorne. But very soon, what is known as the "unhappy ending" happened. My mother's older brother was against the union and intended to separate them.

Alice resisted her brother's wishes and tried to run away with Oberyn, but here's the rub. She wanted to escape to the Free Cities with him, but he refused her request and offered to go secretly to Dorne where they would live. But in doing so, she would not be his wife, but his mistress. Although they had entered into a secret marriage, he wanted to dissolve it, for he felt he had rushed into it. She was defeated and fled Westeros with little savings and jewellery. She lived first in Lys, where I was born. Then she moved to Tholos, where she tried to escape her brother's search. She didn't tell me the details of her life in Tolos, but the only thing she said in that conversation was that when I was about five or six years old, my uncle found her and took her back to Westeros. He refused to take me with him because he didn't want the "Martel degenerate" to be part of the family and disgrace it, although he said it in very different words, but she got the point, or she got it too offensively. Anyway, it doesn't matter...

To be honest, it made me sad and even angry in a way. I mean, what Oberyn did. And now he cares very much about his bastard daughters, that he has formed from numerous mistresses. And that offends me even more. ME! HIM! LAWFUL! SON - thrown out like a leper, and the woman he swore his love to, he also deceived. So much for the passion of a Dornishman....

I was brought out of my anger by Rhys, who entered my office with a broad smile, wearing a new black and red dragon armour. Sometimes I still get annoyed with that perpetual smile and wonderful mood of his.

I can't say that he is idle or doesn't care for anything in this life. But it's his behaviour that surprises me a lot, and as I said, annoys me. He's got a lot to gain from it, though. He has the makings of a pretty good warrior, perhaps a general, for he has a strategic mind, according to Darstein and Miriam, who has taken him under her wing, he is loyal to me, honest with me, and he has a little magic gift. It's quite small, but it's quite possible to develop it into something. Although I never told him that.

- So when are we leaving? - He asked me with interest.

- Where to?" I asked, not taking my eyes off the reports.

- To the ruins of Valyria.

- As soon as the new ship from Mathis arrives. I'm going to pick up as much useful stuff as I can. I also want to make sure the Dothraki hordes don't attack my cities.

- I doubt that will happen. Okris's wife says a few hordes have gone in the direction of Tyrosh and Myr. If anything, it will be small raids by individual chieftains on the borders of the cities' holdings at most.

- Possible.

A journey to the ruins of ancient Valyria. I've waited a long time for this. Only now, when I have the means for this expedition, the men and the time free from studying important matters, I can go there. With me will go Miriam, Rhys, Nyssa, Boros, Matis and his grandson, and a hundred warriors who have expressed a desire to go. And slaves as labour and rowers on the ships. Four, not counting the fifth, which will arrive in larger galleys than my past designs.

Few people wanted to go there of their own free will, because it is believed that those lands are very dangerous and from there, according to rumours, no one has ever returned, and if they have returned, then barely alive. And it's all the fault of sulphur that comes out from under the water, or the rifts in the ground. The rock of Valyria is not a mythical "punishment of the gods", but a natural phenomenon that was determined by the shift of the earth's crust and volcanic eruption. But superstitious people write it all off as magic and curses.

People are such people.

And they do not know (most of them) that I am a magician and can protect us from harmful fumes, and even on each ship will be installed amulets that will purify the air within a radius of two hundred metres from the ship constantly.

- What are you smiling about? - Rhys asked.

- I'm just looking forward to walking the land of Ancient Valyria. How I will write my name in history and be enriched thanks to this expedition. And finally get to phase two of my plan to take over Essos.

- Yeah, I can't wait for that day to come.

- But it won't come tomorrow. Everything, my friend, takes time. And I think you have a couple of years to become a true warrior.

- And you're finally in the light as an official with authority.

- That's right. - I nodded to him. - How is Westeros?

- The information we were given by Mopatis's servants has been confirmed. Prince Viserys and Princess Daenerys are in Pentos. Ilirio eventually wants to take the poor orphans into his care. He and Spider are scheming. Though not as freely as they used to. They've lost many of their loyal men and birds. All thanks to the fact that we should have just presented information to some of the lords and merchants of the Fox.

- That's good. So, what exactly is going on in the King's Lands right now?

- Silence. Though many of the knights who served the Targaryens faithfully have decided to go to the Wall. A few have been lured into our service, and some have gone to the Golden Swords. But there is still discontent, even among the great lords. The Iron Islands have begun to make noise and may well, if you believe what Mistress Vayserion says, rebel if Baratheon falters. Dorne did reconcile themselves to the loss of their dear Elia's princess, her children, and swore an oath to Robert. Wretches! - Rhys spat out in disgust.

I raised an eyebrow in surprise, quite sincerely at that. I hadn't expected there to be regret in my red-haired friend's face toward distant Dorne. And he is the one who does not yet know of our kinship.

- What do I hear? Is that pity? Rhys, you're bothering me, are you ill or mad?!

- Not at all. - He waved it off. - It's just that given the legends of their 'defiance, pride and honour' and the fact that they 'value their blood', I thought they would continue the war. After all, they have the resources to even single-handedly spoil the blood of all the other kingdoms combined for a few years. Even more so they are true masters of the dagger and cloak, with poison by the scruff of the neck.

- That surprised me just as much at first. - I agreed with him. - But Doran Martel is a strong moral man and a great politician. He knows how to wait and hold his own. And he probably has his own plan for revenge against the Lannisters and the Baratheons. The other thing is the rest of the Martels and their bannermen. They're not such forward-thinking people. Can't blame them, though.

- Hmm. We'll see, we'll see. Well, I've learnt what I need to know, so I think I'll go and have an ale with Ocris. Don't stay too long, you should change your chair for the pleasant company of your friends. Otherwise you risk becoming a typical archivist or a lowly bookkeeper.

- Go to the spirits!

- I will, and you sit there wiping your arse in your dusty office. - and walk away.

Hmm. It is a bit dusty, isn't it? What are the servants doing?!

***

Three days after my conversation with Rhys, my small squadron of five ships sailed out of Tolos harbour.

The first day's sailing was rather uneventful.

We reached Aelyria harbour in the evening and took Mathis and his grandson on board, along with a few new volunteers who wanted to become adventurers and become famous as those sailors who had travelled to such far and dangerous places.

After that we sailed westwards along the coast. And for the first four days we sailed along the Land of Long Summer, observing the beauty of nature that opened up before us. The local mountains were higher than those to the north of Tolos, and the Black Rocks are so inconspicuous that they are always in plain sight. These ones are somewhat untouched by man and little explored.

According to the map we had, on the fifth day of our journey we had about three hundred miles to go to Oros, the first place on the Smoky Sea that might be normally inhabited. So we would arrive there on the sixth or seventh day of the journey. But towards lunchtime on the fifth day, one ship needed to make some repairs and managed to run into a small shoal. And to make sure there was no serious damage, we decided to dock closer to shore and examine the damaged vessel.

While Mathis and his subordinates were hanging around the ship, Rhys and I were trying to defeat Miriam in a sword fight. I did not use magic as a matter of principle and tried to show the maximum of my skills as a swordsman. The 'way of iron', though, I didn't really need that much. It wasn't really my thing.

Most of the warriors were either training or drinking, except for the ones on watch.

After half an hour of tormenting Miriam, Rhys and I rested while she moved on to training her subordinates.

At that moment, I noticed Nissa, who was acting strangely.

- Don't worry, it's just the magical background of these lands. - I reassured her.

The Valyrian lands were indeed much more saturated with magical energy. Which surprised me a little. Of course, I suspected that this background would be much higher here, but not to this extent. So those who don't like magic, like Mord-Sith, would feel uncomfortable.

- Master Rahl, I am not worried, but my sense of danger says that something is not right here.

- I've already sent the spirits out to scout and they tell me that these lands are inhabited only by bunnies and small rodents....

- AAH! Demons!!! - shouted someone on patrol. - Help...

What happened there?

But as soon as I got to my feet, I had to dodge a man who came at me... But was it a man?

He was a strange-looking creature that smelled of magic and was covered in grey bark, similar in appearance to stone. At the same time, this person was actively releasing saliva and grinning.

And after a few seconds of looking at each other, he rushed towards me.....

Continuation follows...