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Chapter 38 - Veni, Vidi, Vici
🕑 Added 2025-07-09 19:32:38 +0000 UTCValyria
Robert effortlessly lifted the horn, in stark contrast to the four men who struggled to even carry it. It was half a foot shorter than he was tall, warm to the touch, and banded with red gold and Valyrian steel. Whatever dragon it was taken from, the beast was far larger than any of his own.
The surface was shiny and reflective, though it distorted his image, making him almost evil with a twisted grin, and he could swear it added horns to his head.
A Dragonbinder.
Just like the one Euron Greyjoy had, or would have.
He should have killed that bastard on the spot.
Stannis looked at the horn, wondering why Robert was frowning. “Brother, what is that?”
“A Dragonbinder.” He put the horn down, covering it with a cloth. “As far as I know the Valyrians used them to bind the dragons to their will.”
“You know of these?”
“I heard some sorcerers from Qarth had one in their possession, though I was never in one place for too long, and if they wanted to use it against me, they had no chance to do so.” Since the next book was not out by the time he died, that plot had not been resolved with the show ending way differently, so Robert couldn’t be sure if it was even going to work and had no intention of blowing the horn, since Cragorn, a crewman of Euron Greyjoy’s ship, did die rather gruesomely after doing so.
He turned to Sandor. “Were there any more of these?”
Sandor nodded. "Yes, but this was the only one we found in one piece. The rest were all crushed by something.”
“Alright, take the horn to the Pioneer, and keep it secure.”
Sandor left with a nod, shouldering the heavy horn, and Robert ordered all other pieces gathered and thrown into the sea, and a wider search for any more Dragonbinders.
He should definitely secure that other Dragonbinder, provided Euron has it; if not, then from those Qartheen sorcerers.
And kill that insane bastard in the process.
His father approached, concerned at Robert’s frown, since if something made his usually carefree and laid-back son worried, then it was important. “You seem concerned.”
“I’ll be fine, just making a list of people I need to kill.” There was Euron Greyjoy and the Ironborn in general, those sorcerers perhaps, Volantis had been silent since he burned down their fleet, and the Targaryens and their allies, of course.
Steffon’s left eye twitched at the answer.
—
His father and Stannis did not stay for long, having work to do back at Storm’s End in preparation for the winter, and boarded Windproud after three days, having seen all they intended to.
Robert didn’t want to stay idle and was helping the workers empty more houses and workshops. Their discoveries were getting slower, each house and vault yielding less gold and other valuables, though it wasn’t surprising, as they had been working with a fever for months to plunder Valyria’s wealth.
Maester Olivar was working to decrypt the books back at Asgard, with special orders to focus on discovering how Dragonstone was made and shaped by the Dragonlords of old. With those secrets at his hand, Robert could build castles and homes that would be nigh indestructible by the capabilities of this era.
Tobho Mott had arrived with Davos, and after falling over himself in his attempts to praise Robert, started to work on removing every single bit of Valyrian steel the workers could not.
—
Asgard
It was another month until Robert was satisfied with the exploration and left Ra in Valyria to guard the workers who were combing the dead city for more riches to return to Asgard with the corpse of the demon, which still wasn’t rotting, so he didn’t have to worry about an epidemic or something worse.
The journey back was slow because carrying the corpse required patience to avoid an accident. He was sure if he pushed the dragons, Robert was sure he could be there from morning to evening, perhaps even sooner.
But eventually, his home was in sight now, and even from this height, Robert could see the people gathering in the streets at seeing him and Obelisk. The ship carrying the corpse was slowly moved to the docks, with Davos ordering all the other ships pulled away.
Robert flew to the docks on Obelisk as the people flooded the place to get a good look at the demon. After letting them inspect it, Robert gave his speech. “People of Asgard, I could make a grand speech about this, but I just have these words for you: I came, I saw, and I conquered.” He ripped off Julius Caesar, and the gathered crowd erupted into screams.
He rose from his saddle, standing on top of Obelisk, and raised his fist in victory.
It was great to be back home.
—
Maybe it wasn’t that great, being back home.
His mother, Cassana, joined by his grandmother, Rhaelle, was busy tearing into him right now, and he sat there like a child caught stealing cookies.
Rhaelle was literally screaming in his face now, and Robert had to stay there and take it. “Of all the irresponsible and foolish things to do, you went to Valyria to confront a demon?! Have you lost your mind, Robert?”
“In hindsight, I didn’t know it was a demon.” His excuse was more fragile than Tywin Lannister’s ego, and his grandmother scowled in return.
“And why didn’t you turn back once you learned what it was?” His mother joined the fray, looking at him with her arms crossed across the room.
Robert actually had a good reason for not leaving. “That thing signed its death warrant when it invaded my dreams. Also, what if an idiot went in there and released that thing? The whole world would be fucked beyond anything it had ever seen.”
His words silenced the two women, whose grave expressions meant they understood the danger that thing possessed.
“I mean, it offered me anything I wanted, not that I need anyone’s help to get what I want, but what if it was someone with more greed and less sense than me?” They would have to have dragons first, so it would be fine, mostly, but you couldn’t know it with the Targaryens.
One of them could get a dragon and just be insane enough to make a deal with the demon.
His grandmother groaned, annoyed. “I hate to admit it, Cassana, but he might be right.” The Targaryens were getting desperate. They had begun to construct scorpions all over King’s Landing, which in itself was amusing: the house of the dragon building weapons to defend themselves against dragons.
King Rhaegar was also rumored to be secretly consulting sorcerers to discover how to hatch dragons and was going through every single book and manuscript they had that belonged to Valyria, so much so that it was the Hand of the King who was overseeing much of the petitions for the last few months.
Her own father almost extinguished House Targaryen in a bid to resurrect the dragons, even if it was unintended. Aerys wasn’t right in the head, and her siblings were fools. Aerys and Rhaella’s parents were fools of the highest order.
Robert sat upright now, resting his chin on his hands. “Father told me there was something you were supposed to tell me.”
Cassana grinned mischievously. “Perhaps I should not and let you stew over it.”
Rhaelle rolled her eyes. “Your mother is pregnant, and you are going to be a big brother again in four months.” She was just too done with Robert to consider teasing him by keeping Cassana’s pregnancy a secret.
“Holy shit.” Robert’s exclamation caught them off guard, since it sounded so foreign to the tongue, though it was forgotten as he got up to hug his mother, taking great care to be gentle.
“Another sibling, huh? I didn’t see that coming.” He stopped hugging his mother after her protests. “Did you have the doctor check you over?” Cassana nodded gently, smiling involuntarily.
At least her eldest was safe now.
—
His mother’s pregnancy was unexpected, since women at her age rarely tend to be pregnant in this era, though it was a welcome surprise.
The only problem with it was the gender. If it was another boy, it was fine.
But if it was a girl, suitors from all corners of Westeros and the Free Cities would be lining up for the hand of Robert Baratheon’s sister. His father wouldn’t force a possible daughter to marry someone she did not like, and if anyone forced her to, Robert would step in and stomp heads.
But if she fell in love with someone undesirable, at least by him, then that would be a problem. Hopefully, she would not fall in love with a Stark, a Tully, a Lannister, or, for the love of all that is sacred, a Targaryen.
Robert would rather extinguish them one by one than risk his sister—if the child was a girl—falling in love with a child of those houses.
As long as the baby was healthy, Robert would find a way to deal with it.
—
Gold he had looted from Valyria had naturally meant an army’s worth of VIPs were interested in Asgard, from Westeros itself all the way to Asshai, and he had a list of petitioners as long as his arm, perhaps even longer.
His grandmother couldn’t deal with them all while overseeing the work, so they had to wait for Robert’s return.
Sitting on the Valyrian steel throne that belonged to Valyria’s senate, with a cushion below since he wasn’t fond of the idea of sitting on metal, Robert accepted the first petitioner.
Lyseni envoys had brought gifts of silk, perfume, and jewelry, conveniently forgetting the fact that Robert burned down their fleets in the Stepstones. Dressed in a rich purple robe and red trousers, and handsome in the way most Lysene were, the noble bowed deeply, followed by the rest.
The noble began to speak as the interpreter translated. “Lord Robert, I bring you Lys’ deepest gratitude. We are in awe of your exploits in Valyria and have prepared humble gifts to commemorate your victory over the Demon of Valyria.”
“My, it is great to see your attitude towards me change. I only wish it had happened before I had to burn your fleets down.” The noble barely winced as the words were translated to the Valyrian dialect Lysene spoke.
“May I assume Lys’ stance on the Stepstones changed as well?” Which was a more diplomatic way of saying, “Did you have enough?”
“Yes, as you wished, we will no longer demand tolls in the Stepstones nor assume ownership over them.” It would be a loss in revenue, no matter how small, but Stepstones wasn’t worth crossing the Demon Slayer.
“Excellent. In return, Asgard will guarantee safe passage of all ships from Stepstones to facilitate trade.” It was a move made to extend Asgard’s influence in the region, both in coin and politically.
The Lyseni noble bowed and left, his gifts taken away by the workers of Valhalla.
Next was Tyrosh, who, much like Lys, agreed to stay out of the Stepstones and brought gifts to stay on Robert’s good side.
Remaining petitions for the day were similar in nature. Free Cities would bring in gifts and kiss up to Robert with various business offers now that he had Valyria’s wealth in his hands. He requested the petitioners bring forth their offers in a written form so he could review them later.
Some of the gifts were impressive, especially the Braavosi envoys who had brought rolls of silk and spices from Yi-Ti, which were very expensive commodities.
Here he was, living the dream of every person by getting rich without doing anything but being badass.
—
Done with the petitions for the day, Robert started his inspection of Valhalla. A massive, hexagonic castle, it was finished much earlier due to the wealth he funneled to the construction. Made of great stone blocks and mortar, it was a good keep, but not the best, though if he could make Dragonstone, it would be one of the best.
And he was on his way to see Maester Olivar to see if he had discovered something.
Comments
Aeden Emrys
Thanks for the chapter! I'm looking forward to reading much more of this interesting story!
