17

Chapter 17 Siege Lines

Morosh has been burned. My only real colony, gone. When I see the notice I have trouble believing it. The report didn't make any sense. Why the hell would Ibben attack me? Especially together with Dothraki?

While Lorath isn't exactly close to Ibben, we aren't enemies. We even share trade agreements with Saath. As for the Dothraki, they fear salt water. How did they even contact Ibben?

The worst part is I can't even check since I never set up a glass candle to let me scry Morosh. The only reason I know about the attack is some of the survivors reached Lorath. They were also still being chased.

At least my dragon ships got to engage in a real battle. I know patrolling is boring. Especially since pirates have been steering well clear of my waters. The samurai will be happy even if the fight was over quickly.

This was the first time anyone has challenged me since I sacked Tyrosh. I need to find out what's going on. Nothing like this happened in the story. Sure I caused some waves, but I figured staying away from Westeros would minimize them. Besides nothing I did was even close to Ibben.

At least I have prisoners to interrogate.

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The prisoners were defiant. They spat and cursed in their odd gutteral tongue. It didn't matter. With healing potions available there was no need to worry about them dying. Torture could be extended for years. It was only a matter of time before they broke. I can wait.

It's too soon to bring out the clans, but I do increase my patrols. I also build more dragon ships. I have twenty of them now protecting Lorath. News spreads fast. Everyone is worried.

I use it. More people want to train now. Everyone wants to be safe. I set up more training, more tournaments. I may even see samurai this generation. A nice silver lining. Might even be worth losing a city.

Over the following weeks I got an idea of the situation. It wasn't just the Ibbenese. I was under attack everywhere. Merchants flying the flag of Lorath were attacked by pirates or suffered accidents. Fleets from half a dozen nations were working against me.

Idiots. I really had intended to try to spare them. Looks like my house words were right. If I'm to survive it'll be through fire and blood.

Villages start being raided by bandits and raiders. I fortify and garrison them. Lorath becomes a nation under siege. No one is reckless enough to openly challenge me. Not after Tyrosh. There isn't any blockade or great battles. Instead they try to bleed me to death.

Everything thinks I'm trapped. Behind closed doors I laugh in triumph. Fear and desperation have done more to aid then any amount of gifts. Patriotism is rising and my support has never been greater. Lorath is now completely and utterly mine.

I start cycling entire villages into the End. I expand my island in the End. I shift entire villages there. I'm careful to make sure they are all integrated into the clans.

The vanishing villages increases fear again. The gratitude when I increase patrols and they stop is enormous. People are even starting to worship me. Not sure how I feel about that. Hopefully it doesn't cause any problems.

My gambit works because they aren't safe. The braavosi actually port longboats just so that can raid across the bay. Almost every village has survived an attack by this point.

Not that I leave them defenseless. I distribute several items my smiths recreated to each village. Chinese repeating crossbows, which they are calling Lorathi crossbows, are my favorite. I make sure every family received one. They're lethal, able to shoot ten bolts before changing magazines.

Better, they pose no threat to heavy armor like my samurai use. I suppose if knights attack I might have problems. But that's what the windlances are for. I didn't enchant any of the equipment I gave out, but they are still leagues better than anything currently available.

I don't just give out weapons. A small wall along with watch towers and signal mirrors and lights are also provided. I'd assign garrisons, but advanced golems still aren't very bright. There is way too much danger of them making a mistake.

It's a waiting game for me now. Soon enough I'll have built up enough to start expanding. In the meantime I keep myself busy.

With so much time on my hands my chain of waypoints has expanded rapidly. I've reached Volantris already. I avoid it. It's harder than it should be. The red priests actively search for me. I don't know why and don't care. I'll deal with them later.

I do hear about my sister there. It seems my example has caused everyone to worry about my family line. The temple of R'hllor is now raising Daenerys as their champion. I haven't heard anything about Viserys. I wonder if he's already gotten himself killed?

I really hope my little sister is alright. And it is my little sister now. Physically I'm already eleven, four years older than her. What an odd thought. At this rate I'll have kids her age by the time we meet again.

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Valyria is bad. I can see why so few survive venturing there. I've already had to deal with clouds of poisonous gas, steaming geysers and landslides. The lava flows and abundance of firewyrms are even worse. For all that though, the ruins there are remarkably intact.

Entire portions of cities still exist. Undamaged and in pristine condition. Not even ash dirties the streets. It's amazing to explore. I wish I could have seen it before the doom.

It's also extremely profitable. I found more than one library and armory. While I don't care about weapons or armor, the discovery of dragon horns are invaluable. Almost as useful as the rituals.

It seems the flesh crafting rituals Valyria was so famous for aren't originally blood magic. The scrolls and notes indicate they stole them from the Rhoynar. Thinking about it, it makes sense. After all they did create gray scale according to legend. Really wishing I had managed to keep in touch with Dorne now.

I've tried sending out agents, but none of them were successful. No matter how many I sent out none of them have managed to bring back any new magic. In fact, most of them never came back at all. I stopped trying when the waypoint I was using was discovered. I ended up in a full scale battle underground and was forced to destroy it. Spy networks here are way too effective.

At sea I've had mixed success. Without a blockade my ships can go where they want. Without friendly ports and hostile ships everywhere there was little point. So I didn't send ships.

The floating fortress was my response to openly hostile waters. Basically a massive sea vessel, it was closer to an island than a ship. It was five hundred feet per side and sixty feet high. It didn't look like a ship. It looked like a fortified ziggurat.

Made of enchanted copper, since I never managed to get my hands on weirwood, they should last for centuries without maintenance. They were fully autonomous, staffed completely by golems. The hundreds of windlances all used ammo hoppers with infinite ammo enchantments.

Their orders were simple. Shoot down every single ship that does not fly my flag. A purple three headed dragon is pretty distinctive. Anyone without it is attacked. Even with the flag anyone getting within a hundred feet is also attacked. No trojan horses for them.

They couldn't really move quickly. In fact they had four anchors to keep them from moving. They weren't supposed to patrol. They were supposed to make sea travel more hazardous. Sure they were large enough to avoid, but took time. They also provided safety zones for my ships.

Not that I had many ships. The ones I did send out weren't traders either. No, for the past few months my own privateers have been going out. No doubt my reputation suffers from it, but I think of it as karma.

The privateers are almost all galleys. I'm reserving dragon ships for now. The galleys are still formidable due to using the advanced golems as rowers.

The advanced golems are also the reason I'm able to create my floating fortresses. They are able to copy the design of the prototype perfectly. They are also able to construct most of equipment. Unfortunately I'm still needed for all of the enchanting.

I've streamlined the process over time. A floating fortress is finished every week now. Sadly I'm the main bottleneck. Enchanting takes so much time! Still, slowly but surely I'm cutting off everyone's access to the shivering sea.

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With access to a dragon horn I finally get around to hatching a dragon. I'm a bit annoyed he turned out red with black markings. I really wanted purple. Purple would have been perfect.

For fun I name him Smaug. With access to essentially unlimited food he grows incredibly fast. I test it, but my magic doesn't seem any stronger with his birth. Still, he'll be useful to terrorize my enemies. My armies might be more effective, but as a symbol he's invaluable.

Not that my ships aren't turning out to be a symbol all on their own. I couldn't bring myself to not retaliate at least in some way for each and every attack. However I didn't have to strength to do more than defend with so many enemies. I wasn't about to risk my new empire.

My answer was fire ships. They resembled my dragon ships although they were actually galleys. They were also almost completely made from purpur blocks. The rich purple color was as much a symbol of my empire as the three headed dragon.

The entire cargo hold was packed with TNT and rockets. Enough to destroy everything within hundreds of feet. They weren't just moving bombs though. A covered top deck sheltered a hundred skeletons with flaming arrows. Despite how fragile purpur blocks are they do have one major benefit. They don't burn.

My people loved them. I could have automated their production but instead had each village build their own. They cheered every time they sent me a new ship made from purpur blocks for me to arm. It let them feel like they were truly a part of the war.

I've been primarily directing them towards Braavos and Ibben. Ibben was obvious. They shared the shivering sea with me and were direct competitors in fishing and whaling. They also burned Morosh.

Braavos was due to the Iron Bank. The prisoners, when they finally broke, knew enough for me to realize what was going on. The Iron Bank was the reason I was facing so many enemies. They coordinated and sometimes even bribed everyone involved.

It helps that they are also close and share the same sea. It helps more that Lorath really doesn't like them. Announcing what the Iron Bank, and more importantly Braavos, had done was enough to practically make this a holy war. Of course I'm not going to march until my army is whipped into shape.

Funny enough on a slightly related note, it turns out you do need whips to train a dragon. Their skin is touch enough you need the added force to even get them to notice. The reach also comes in handy as they grow larger. The sound though might be the most important part. Who new young dragons had ADD?

As he grew I spend quite a bit of time parading him through my small kingdom. My people loved him. To them he was proof that they would eventually win. Even more than the ships and golems. After all Aegon conquered half the world with only three dragons.

I'd hatch more dragons, but I currently lack Targaryens to ride them. And it seems I do need Targaryens. Testing has proven anyone else trying to use a dragon horn dies. They aren't even able to influence my dragon beyond a mild compulsion to show up. Not obey, just arrive.

I may try to breed my own eventually, but for now I'm way too busy to spend enough time in the End. I'm also not patient enough to wait that long in what feels like hiding.

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I never found out if Braavos or Ibben tried to surrender. I don't even know exactly when they fell. Both were coastal powers and I had an endless supply of suicide ships. I only found out when a few of my raiders reported the complete lack of life.

Given their hatred of Braavos I took that as a sign to attack. I didn't want to deprive Lorath of their victory. Besides, it was a good training exercise. Every samurai currently trained was shipped over to scour Braavos. There were remnants, but they were easily taken care of.

I couldn't do the same for Ib. For one thing the main island was massive. Hunting survivors could easily turn into a messy guerilla war. Instead I unleashed golems.

I sent a ship over with enough parts stored to assemble thousands of obsidian golems. Their numbers were split evenly between dragon-headed harpy and full dragon models. All of them though were given the same command when unleashed. Kill every creature on the island.

Even though it was supposed to be completely automated I follow along to keep an eye on it. Despite testing I was still nervous about unleashing an essentially uncontrolled drone army.

I had safeguards though. There wasn't a golem crafting station on the ship or even the supplies to make one. Also, besides the very small group used for assembly and piloting, there were no advanced golems. I wanted no chance of a von neumann style machine being formed.

I kept watch as it pulled ashore and golems began leaving the ship. Eventually golems stopped leaving and the ship destroyed itself. Perfect. Not a single problem.

I was pretty happy with my solution. That should take care of the problem and keep anyone else from settling there. Since golems are deactivated by water, they can't even escape to cause problems elsewhere.

In a few years I can send in samurai to clear the island. Then I can colonize it myself. I might have to replace a few species, but it's not like they have anything I care about.

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I play with flesh crafting using some of the lore I pieced together from Valyria. I merged dozens of creatures together in various ways. The only thing I avoided was creating beast men. Something about the idea of forced bestiality just seemed too much. Besides I already have my samurai.

My golems actually make it pretty difficult. They set the bar incredibly high for anything I want to actually be used. Combined with the very limited selection of animals I have to work with and I haven't had any successful results so far.

That is likely to change soon. With both Braavos and Ibben no longer a threat I can consolidate. Already my floating fortresses are moving to sever all access between the narrow sea and the shivering sea.

When they arrive Westeros will be almost completely unable to attack me. Only the North will have access to the shivering sea. I have plans in place to fix that though.

I've already been retasking most of my raiders. Sure some will want to keep reaving along the narrow sea, but it will be much more dangerous there. Especially without support. The ships I'm sending out are once again cargo ships. Although they still aren't merchants.

Instead of trading, most of the ships are just dropping off supplies. The mountain clans of the vale, the island of skagos and the pirates of the three sisters. All of them received shipments of weapons and other supplies. Only from skagos did I bargain at all and even then only for a small herd of unicorns.

It was a gamble, but a minor one. They may turn on me, but distance and history makes it much more likely they'll attack my enemies. Besides, it's not like they can really hurt me. Lorath is a death trap. Floating fortresses, dragon ships, even local defenses all mean pirates will have a hard time of it.

For the far north I don't provide supplies. Instead I actually trade. I trade for help. The lands north of the Wall are vast. It's also very sparely populated. If I'm to collect what I want I need help.

Aid is easy enough to buy. Steel weapons, leather armor, even food are all in short supply. I pour supplies and men into the far north with only a single goal. People.

The main people I want are giants. Out of everything resource I can use, the skulls of giants are the only one I lack a source for. Given how useful twenty foot high golems would be I need a source. So I'm offering enormous rewards for giants.

I dislike how I'm essentially going to enslave them, but pragmatic at the same time. When the Long Night happens the giants die out. Less than two hundred is not a viable population base.

Raised and trained in both the End and the island of Ib, their numbers will flourish. In the end I'll save their race like I did the unicorns. I'm not sure how closely linked they are to magic, but I'm not taking any chances.

Ideally I'd like the children of the forest. I don't have any real hope of that happening. Instead I want the next best thing. Wargs.

Wildings are occasionally born with the ability to possess animals, which they call skinchanging. They tend to shun them, making their survival less likely. They are literally breeding the magic out of themselves!

If the wildings don't want them I'll take them. I won't even force them to do much. With abundant supplies and companionship, if only with other wargs, their numbers are bound to grow. I might even try having a kid with one. Maybe the kid will end up able to possess dragons.