The Asshai's Bloodmage

 Laila was just 15 years old, since she was little she always helped her family in their own family business. This business was an inn, despite being located in one of the poorest areas of the northern district, it had already belonged to his family for three generations. Despite being a simple and humble place, they still had a good clientele that always guaranteed the family's livelihood during these three generations.

During the night, Laila's older brother and her mother took care of the inn's business. While Laila and her father were responsible during the day. Today it was past 6:00 am and she had taken over the new shift with her father, while her older brother and mother were resting after the long night shift. His father, who had gone to the corral to milk the goats in preparation for the customers' breakfast, came running back with his linen shirt pulled up to his neck forming a makeshift cloth bag that was full of coins falling from the sides.

"Quick Laila, go outside and help me get everything!"

She didn't understand what her father said, but as soon as he threw the coins from the linen shirt onto the floor of the small pantry she ran and followed him outside. When he saw the amount of coins around the inn his eyes widened, this was easily 1 year or more of profit for his family inn.

Before she could get anything else, two men who were staying at the inn came down and started taking the coins too, her father tried to shout at them saying they were stealing from him, before a mother and her 8 year old son also arrived from outside the inn and began to take away the coins that formed piles on the floor. Laila can do nothing but grab as many coins as possible and help her father. During this time, two other people came out of the inn hearing the shouting and began to crowd everything. His father once again tried to say that they were robbing him, before one of the men called him a liar and pointed to the white wall of the inn. Only at that moment did Laila stop looking at the ground and saw written in red:

"THE END IS COMING! THERE ARE LESS THAN 30 HOURS LEFT THIS IS THE FINAL WARNING FROM THE RED SAGE."

A chill passed through Laila, she had already warned her parents about the rumors, but they were too stubborn to abandon the family business and even said that this Sage was a fraud who was scaring everyone into selling their most valuable items for higher prices. . But now the person who wrote the message left so much money behind, wasn't this a warning that he didn't need money and was just trying to save the commoners as they said? She was then attracted by screams in the street before seeing people running around picking up coins from the ground. There wasn't just money in his house, he seemed to have money all over the street.

One man shouted running after another saying he picked up his gold coin that "fell out" of his coin purse. She saw that there were some papers with the same message all over the street. At that moment she realized, she needed to escape! His life was not worth any money or worldly possessions. She quickly returned to the inn and prioritized the few silver coins that were hidden among the many copper ones. Furthermore, she was not taking it inside the inn, but keeping it in her own bag in preparation for leaving the city today!

***

The situation in the city on Sunday morning started to be extremely active. In the small ports in the east and west where most of the fishermen used to go, many people were trying to buy small boats by trading with each other, and some were just trying to rent small boats to get out of the city as economically as possible.

Meanwhile, the common nobles, merchants, and other wealthy people were just trying to profit from the situation. Some were holding on to supplies hoping to raise their prices even further, while others were selling everything trying to make a big profit quickly.

In the northern district where the largest port was, the day had barely begun and there were already many auctions taking place to buy tickets. People who came from the old Rafael neighborhood spread the latest words of the Red Sage and also told about the rain of money he had thrown at a poor place trying to help the commoners. In addition, the repercussions of what happened in the east with the death of Kulan and his eldest son shocked the entire Valyrian Freehold city.

***

Something unprecedented happened at the Sleeping Dragon. The entire place was closed and they didn't open, even though Sunday was the tavern's most profitable day. At the northern port, Black Cat boarded and fled with all his employees and their families. As an information peddler, he knew what was rumor and what was truth. He had been planning this escape ever since he discovered that the rumors could be true. One of the reasons that made him decide to flee was when he realized that a war was beginning between faceless men and Blood Mages. In addition to Kuzar's new war against Magnus, the second one made him even more scared. As a known and confirmed informant of Magnus, he would be one of the first targets of this long war. Since everything was already arranged, and with his ship fully stocked, he left in the dead of night while summoning his men, informants, and families to do the same. His destination, after careful thought, should be Asshai.

The reason, of course, was Rafael. Even though he had worked in the espionage and intelligence business for two decades, he had never seen someone so cunning and sinister. If the rumors created by Rafael were true, it meant that everything this man did in less than 7 days was all meticulously planned: The actions of borrowing money from his boss and probably the bank, preparing a ship, having Jack steal several items for him, his scheme with Captain Shang and finally creating a grudge between all the apprentices in the city and the Faceless Men with just a single sentence. 

In addition, he confirmed that after receiving Rafael's letters, all 3 wizards who did not belong to the 39 families left the city. Whatever Rafael said, all 3 left the city immediately. Rafael also made it clear in some more recent conversations that he was the Red Sage himself. For someone who had lived his entire life collecting scraps to survive, Black Cat raised two hypotheses about Rafael's fate: The first was that he would go to Asshai only to study magic, the second was that he knew that after the end of Valyria few places would be safe, or it could even be both. So his first step was to get away from Valyria by going to Slaver's Bay before the final decision to follow him to Asshai.

***

It was now 7:30 in the morning, and after Rafael woke up from a night where he barely slept, he mysteriously felt fine as if even 3 hours of sleep had been enough. He soon went to see his visitor who had scheduled a meeting earlier today. It was Shang the pirate from Yi Ti who would carry out tonight's robbery as his partner. After discussing the final details they said their goodbyes. The ship would arrive at 11:00 in the morning and soon they would know all the details they needed. After that he met Ted and Aisha, she handed him 2 letters and Ted started giving some reports:

"I finished your order for the coin purses last night, they are all in the same cabin the Boss left."

"Two hours after you fell asleep, your blacksmith freed all the slaves who came, he also left in your personal safe in the cabin one of the items the Boss ordered."

"The last two VIP cabins were sold yesterday for 40 gold each, the buyers came to the ship. The gold was divided and also placed in your and Mr. Omar's safe. The two did not fill out the registration but promised to do so as soon as they boarded."

"We have relocated the 6 single men as instructed in a single cabin. This leaves one normal cabin unsold."

"Someone named Jack arrived early on the ship today, he said he came to help you with something, he also proved to be a passenger. He is currently in the cabin he purchased while he was forbidden to leave it."

"The spare parts for the greenhouse desalinator arrived last night and are already on the cargo deck." Two of these desalinators are fully functional and have been placed on top of VIP cabins 1-2 and 3-4 so as not to affect the masts. The largest coal-powered vessel was dismantled and stored on the cargo deck."

"The rainwater collection system has been improved as per your instructions."

"Mr. Omar asked me to let you know that the egg problem has been resolved by reducing the protein burden on the menu. He said he will show you the details when we are at sea."

"Finally, the cargo report."

"We have about 100 passengers who, with their luggage, weigh around 10 tons.

"We have: 50 tons of grains, 25 tons of canned and dried fruits, 20 tons of sun-dried, jerked and smoked meats. 4-5 tons of live animals and feed. We have +10 tons of other miscellaneous items such as spices, seeds, hygiene products and luxury items for VIP passengers, in addition to coal and fertile land as you and Mr. Omar instructed us to collect as well."

"We have a little ale, enough for some crew celebrations, sustenance for the VIP cabins with a slight surplus for the regular cabins."

"Including water for 2 months and about 10 tons of special cargo we will get tonight, we will need to make 2-3 stops to replenish the water. Captain Henry said that the Valyrian sailing ships can handle twice the cargo we are taking, but that would affect our speed in the first few months."

"Okay, we can refuel in New Ghis, there we will decide whether to go with a full load or not. Tell Jack that he needs to help me monitor the operation of the special cargo port, I want a list of how many men will be there and how many are on the ship Golden Dragon. Remind him that he cannot stay on the ship yet. We can use the remaining cabin as an armory or smokehouse. Include some charcoal or fruitwood in the cargo today, it will be beneficial to help preserve the fish caught and keep it tasty."

After the instructions, I go to my cabin to check my item. In the meantime, I see if Omar has woken up so we can start gathering the entire crew for a meeting. On the way to my cabin, I stop at the cabin where I left the coins and collect the dozens of bags. Before putting them away, I add some silver coins to 30 of them.

When I enter my cabin, I check the safe and find my flintlock pistol. It is in a leather holster. There are about 30 rounds of ammunition in a small bag along with a "pusher". After confirming the existence of the lock, I take out the gunpowder that was measured and placed in several paper bags and pour 1 gram straight down the barrel before putting the ammunition in and using the pusher to push it all the way in. After confirming that everything is done correctly, I put it in the holster that is now on my waist and leave the cabin. I join Omar and we go to the deck area where the crew is waiting for us to begin our announcement.

(Below, many new features in the author's note.)