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Chapter 54 - The City of Sorcerers
🕑 Added 2025-12-02 19:33:52 +0000 UTC6 YA
Storm Kingdom
Storm’s End
Ei looked at the plate before her in anticipation.
It was not the same as the ones in Inazuma, since matcha did not exist in Westeros, but there were three plates of dango before her. One, plain white; the second, strawberry-flavored pink; and the third, peach-flavored light brown.
Floodplains of the Riverlands, used to grow rice, the result of five years of work, had finally concluded at this moment, for personal desire, of course. Rice was already making its way across the kingdom, inspiring new dishes and giving a lot of smallfolk jobs.
Saiguu snatched a strawberry-flavored one, taking a tentative bite, savoring the taste. They waited for the verdict while the kitsune kept chewing slowly.
She finally swallowed, and the trio leaned awfully close. “It’s good. Could use a bit more sugar, though.”
Those words broke the tension, and two gods, one tengu, and an oni tore into the dango like starving beasts.
“Your Excellency, may I come in?” Jocelyn, her secretary, knocked on the door, waiting for permission.
“Jocelyn, come in.” She had just become eighteen, but rather than searching for suitors, she was managing some of the affairs of the crown, arranging meetings and timetables while keeping track of her plans.
Her parents had not pushed for her to wed, seeing how valuable her position was, and the young lady was in no hurry as well.
“I have brought the latest reports from Dorne. Governor Stevronne reports that nothing is out of the ordinary in the Dorne Prefect.” She reported.
Stevronne Mooton was the second son of the Lord of Maidenpool and a highly capable individual that had taken to work in the canal administration. His sharp mind had quickly seen him rise through the ranks, and appointing Stevronne, a well-learned man with no preconceptions against the Dornish, as the governor of the Dorne prefect made sense.
“Anything else to report?” Ei asked, taking the papers from the young woman.
“None at this time.”
“Thank you, Jocelyn; you are dismissed for now.”
Sasayuri glimpsed at the top of the stack and turned to Saiguu. “How is the training of the female officers going?”
It was an effort on the kitsune’s part to change the status of the females on this continent.
Saiguu sighed. “Don’t remind me. The girls are fine, but their parents? “Ei, help me, I am going to transform one of them into a frog at this rate.”
“Are they still giving you trouble?” Ei once had given a stern warning to the parents of those girls, though perhaps it hadn’t been enough.
“Me? No, they aren’t brave enough for that. But they are sending letters for the girls to quit. Don’t worry though, I know just what to do.” Saiguu tapped her fingers against each other, a sinister smile on her face.
That was never a good sign, but since they weren’t the target, her friends didn’t care beyond watching the chaos unfold.
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They could not, unfortunately, spend all their time lounging around since there was a kingdom to rule.
Ei and Saiguu were holding court, while Sasayuri was training the guards of Storm’s End, while Chiyo was handling the work for the local courts.
As usual, it started with petitions, from something as simple as grazing rights between farmers to fights between the nobles that threatened to become more than a nuisance. Each and every single one had to be addressed, because it affected the livelihood of the people.
Which is what made Chiyo’s work important. Judges, to be appointed to each region, would solve these petitions in her name, because even if she worked nonstop, the petitions were piling up.
These courts would be even more necessary due to the growth in population due to the prosperity her lands were facing.
It was slow for now, but her projects across the kingdom were slowly picking up speed, and the smallfolk were living better than ever. Fairmarket was developing into a city since it saw a lot of ship passage due to the canal, and there were plans to develop a city around Storm’s End as well.
Especially since there were no more storms to plague the land, which had the added effect of making the nobles more interested in developing their lands.
Without storms to delay or destroy the progress, the Storm Prefect was seeing incredible growth, only stifled by the speed of the planned developments and the lack of an educated workforce.
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Several blacksmiths with long family histories were chosen to be taught by Her Excellency so they could forge weapons and tools beyond what other kingdoms and the Free Cities were capable of.
Once they had learned the ways of Her Excellency, a blacksmith guild would be created to preserve, improve, and teach these ways to the future blacksmiths.
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The Great Library of Argella
Within the outside adjacent house of the library, countless clicks of the typewriters could be heard, as the clerks hurried to finish copying the books. Built just five years ago, the library itself already housed thousands of books, all rented for a modest fee, copied by the clerks, and sent to the library near Storm’s End.
The Conclave had clamored for the books to be sent to the Citadel, the greatest house of learning on the continent, but Her Excellency had denied it, citing their previous refusal to send her several tomes.
In addition, she had ordered all the books in the Citadel’s libraries to be copied and sent to the Great Library, adding salt to the wound.
There were grumblings, but none had dared to go beyond it.
And today, builders, masons, and workers gathered to carry out the queen’s latest decree. A place of learning, named the Academy of Transience, would be built around the library, challenging the Citadel’s place as the sole place of learning.
Unknown to the people, letters had flown to the Crown, with assurances that the Citadel was more than able to serve the needs of the kingdom, but they went unanswered.
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Essos
While Essos was embroiled in chaos with the conquest led by the Targaryen siblings, there was something happening in the background that they did not notice.
Westeros was not buying as much as it used to.
Each year, less and less silk, glass, spices, fine armor and weapons, exotic clothes, dyes, gold, silver, and expensive wines were sold to Westeros, while, astonishingly, the Storm Kingdom began to sell those goods to the Free Cities.
The amount was small, but not insignificant, as most of those goods were sold to the other kingdoms, chief among them the Kingdom of the Rock, but each year, the amount grew, while Essos could not produce as much as before. Artisans were decreasing in number, either dead or having fled to Westeros, and the High Archon was too busy with conquest to realize it.
What was more, the Storm Kingdom sold never-before-seen goods. Typewriters, devices that all but rendered quills obsolete in places where the work had to be done quickly. Paper, cheaper and higher quality than seen anywhere, and of course, the vaunted Iron Works produced a great deal of steel for such low prices.
The divine steel, claimed to be even better than the legendary Valyrian steel and capable of cleaving any metal in half, was a highly sought-after good for its magical properties, but the only known source of it was Victory, the sword gifted to Prince Argilac by his daughter.
The God-Queen herself had refused to entertain the idea of selling any weapons made from the metal, no matter the wealth offered.
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Qohor, the City of Sorcerers, had prepared well for the Targaryen invasion. They had bought thousands of Unsullied to protect the city and brought sorcerers from all corners of Essos together.
The dragons of the Targaryens were the sole reason they had even conquered six of the Free Cities so quickly. The ruling class of the city, mostly composed of the priests of the Black Goat, merchants, and guilds, knew their salvation lay in repelling the dragons.
To that end, a sorcerer from Asshai had offered to lend his shadowbinding. When the Targaryen host showed itself in the distance, a black smoke rose to the sky, taking the shape of a skeleton covered with black robes. It flew at Balerion the Black Dread, the most fearsome of the dragons, and disappeared after striking the creature.
Their flames did nothing to the product of sorcery, and Balerion screamed in agony, almost throwing Aegon Targaryen off his back.
The Black Dread crash-landed, alive, but wounded by the fall and poisoned by the shadowbinder.
Aegon was also wounded, breaking his right arm in the fall, a light injury compared to what could have been, and the first siege of Qohor ended before it could begin.
Visenya and Rhaenys did not wish to risk their dragons, and Qohor was too well defended for an attack with their meager host, and the Targaryens retreated.
The First Battle of Qohor had ended in Targaryen defeat, with only Balerion and Aegon wounded.
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By all rumors, Balerion was too wounded to fly, let alone walk for long distances, and it took the Targaryens months to return to Pentos.
Once they had the word that a shadowbinder from Asshai was the culprit, they first sought the means to break the curse on Balerion. Sorcerers that were brought to the court proved to be useless, and Visenya reached out to the sorcerers that they had not recruited, going as far as to send ships to Asshai.
Eventually, another shadowbinder, a new priestess of R’hllor, offered her help, with a caveat.
The Targaryens would convert to the God of Light.
It was not something the Targaryens were averse to, as they already planned to follow the Faith of the Seven for their conquest of Westeros. However, the Red God was a different matter.
Unlike the Faith of the Seven, R’hllor demanded sacrifices, mostly in the form of beautiful humans.
However, when their search led nowhere, High Archon Aegon I Targaryen eventually agreed to convert, should the priestess succeed in breaking the curse.
Which required a sacrifice.
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The Storm’s End
“What kind of a god requires sacrifices to display his power?” Ei’s face scrunched in disgust at hearing the latest news from Essos.
A priestess of R’hllor had burned a child alive to break the curse on the dragon of Aegon Targaryen.
“Obviously one that is not a god.” Saiguu was equally disgusted and furious. Archons in Teyvat took offerings in the form of food, wine, or expertly crafted statues, not the life of an innocent child.
For example, the Electro Archon was fond of sweets, and Barbatos preferred alcohol.
Ei pointed at the scribe. “Henceforth, the followers of R’hllor are not welcome in my lands. Any that are caught will be stripped of their belongings and sent back to Essos. Should they be caught trespassing again, they will be executed.”
“Have a copy sent to all our ports and lords.”
“As you command.”
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Essos
With Balerion healing, the Targaryens turned their attention to the other matter at hand.
The shadowbinder who had cursed the dragon in the first place.
For that end, they contacted the Faceless Men to send a knife in the dark after him. Their price, however, left the Targaryens bewildered.
A man capable of cursing a dragon required a great deal of coin to kill. With furious gazes, the High Archon paid the price and waited while his champion, Orys Baratheon, found more men for the host and engineers for the siege engines.
The Priests of the Black Goat were attempting to do the same, to hire the Faceless Men to kill the Targaryens, but the Valyrian Empire controlled Lorath, Norvos, and Pentos, stopping the Qohorik merchants and envoys from reaching Braavos.
The Stepstones were patrolled by the fleets of Myr, Tyrosh, and Lys, making it impossible for any Qohorik ship to pass. The Targaryen host had swelled to ten thousand men, all waiting for the command to march, and it came on the tail end of winter.
The Faceless Men, after much tribulation, had finally sent the shadowbinder to the Many-Faced God. Qohor was in an uproar, seeing their only line of defense fall, and rushed to find a sorcerer just as mighty to repel the Targaryens.
They did not succeed, however, and were left with no choice but to prepare for battle.
However, just because the sorcerers weren’t strong enough to kill or repel the dragons didn’t mean they were useless.
Commanders of the host fell ill, their engineers were cursed to rot away, and Orys Baratheon barely escaped from an unnatural, black fire that consumed his tent. The sorcerers wore down the host, but not enough to stop the enemy.
The Second Battle of Qohor started with dragonfire melting the walls, under constant arrow and scorpion bolt fire. Balerion, furious at the previous attack, made sure the Qohorik felt it, starting a fire that burned a quarter of the city.
The sorcerers of Qohor, however, had one last trick up their sleeve. The sound of a horn was heard, cutting through the noise of battle, and drove the dragons mad.
Balerion, Vhagar, and Meraxes abandoned the battle, flying away with their riders.
Baffled by the unexpected sight, the Targaryen host was dispirited, but Orys ordered them to push forward, charging through the breach first.
Fighting through the fire, the Targaryen men faced the Unsullied firsthand. Due to the way they were trained, the Unsullied fought to the end, complemented by the sellswords.
Even with their numbers decreased by the fire, the Qohoriki defenders managed to push the enemy out of the city, though at no small cost.
Cutting their losses, Orys ordered a retreat, and the Second Battle of Qohor ended in a stalemate.
While Qohor had suffered great losses, the Targaryens had as well.
The effect of the dragonbinder had faded quickly, given that a single horn was not meant to be used on three dragons, much less one as great and powerful as Balerion.
However, without men to hold the city, it was no use to resume battle, and Aegon ordered the host to return home to Pentos.
It was evident that unless Qohor could pull another miracle, they would be defeated next time the Targaryens came and the priests sent envoys of peace.
Aegon refused the offers of anything short of surrender by the Qohorik, but preparations for the next battle would take longer due to the state of the coffers and the discontent in the Valyrian Empire.
Several nobles and merchants, seeing that the Targaryens were not so infallible, were making plans to rebel. Catching wind of betrayal, Visenya acted quickly. Nobles and merchants were whipped to death in the streets as an example, their manses, goods, and wealth seized.
While it filled the coffers to a degree, the trade between the Free Cities and Westeros plummeted. The common people were having a hard time because of it, and Aegon had no choice but to spend the coin to increase the means of production.
Farming, glassmaking, and all other trade goods would have to be produced in great numbers again to stop their fledgling empire from failing before it even began.
Comments
EaglePilot Exarch
Converting from the 14 to r'hllor, is a way smaler jump, than the one to the seven. Their are legends that the red god is the child, or incarnation, of the 10. flame Onixa.
Falyn Frost
Even if/when he conquers Essos, it'd be hard to unify the continent given how big it is
