21

Chapter 21 Rising Tide

I stare at the report in shock. Of all the things to find out about my sister, having children was not one of them. How did she even manage to have three kids already?

It had been a year since I had received a reply to my letter to my sister. A reply which only demanded that I turn over dragonstone to her. No inquiry about my health. Not even asking about what i'm going with my empire. Nothing.

Afterwards I had begun expending my spy network. It took time. Spies either had to be trained or recruited. Messengers, waystations, ravenries, they all had to be constructed. Even after a year my network was pretty sparse. It was only now that I was even getting reliable intel.

Reliable if I can bring myself to believe it. Believe that my eleven year old sister has children who are all three years old! How is that possible?

Once I look at the rest of the report it makes sense. Flesh crafting. Somehow they had gotten a hold of flesh crafting. They must have used her blood to create a child. Clever. I actually hadn't thought of trying that until now. Of course I'm not sure why I'd want to.

I'm not sure how they learned flesh crafting but given the timing I'm betting on the damned glass candles. The timing fits. I still haven't found a way to block their scrying. I probably should have moved it into the End sooner. Still it's not like I really care about it anymore. It's just annoying.

Volantis seems using it a lot more than I did. According to the report beastmen have largely replaced the equivalent animal in several cases. Elephantmen were being ridden through the streets and sheepmen were now being raised for wool. Even basiliskmen and wolfmen were fighting in the pits.

They were also phasing in other beastmen into their slave castes. Actual birdmen serve as scribes, while gazellemen ran messages. Minotaurs serves as labor, which is confirmation enough for me that they were spying. Not really something I can do anything about. The most unusual were the tigermen.

Tiger soldiers were originally slave soldiers belonging to the church of R'hllor. Now they were being upheld up as true champions and believers of R'hllor. They say they aren't replacing the soldiers so much as improving them.

I'm not sure if the propaganda is right, but if it is they're using some kind of sacrificial reincarnation. Way beyond any blood magic I know about. Somehow I doubt it though. People are sheep, gullible and easily led around. It'd easy enough to fake.

Sadly I can't scry on Volantis. I'd have liked to watch one of their ceremonies. I can scry around it though. I'm impressed at what I find. There is a cluster of new cities being constructed across the lands. They're small right now but expanding rapidly. They're also being built with a variety of techniques that I recognize, including concrete and adobe.

I'm impressed. More than once I rambled about various technologies from my past life, but that was only when I was younger. I didn't think Daeny would remember so much. I wonder if she remembers where she heard about it. Maybe she thinks it's divine inspiration?

It's interesting to see the differences too. In canon Daeny absolutely hated slavery. Now she's part of a religion that actively supports it. Makes me wonder just how much she knows is going on.

Checking on the other cities confirms the reports. The sheer number of beastmen being used is impressive. They really are being used everywhere. Even Myr and Lys have their fair share of them. Looks like New Valyria is doing well.

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The reports from Westeros were a mixed bag. My 'war' against the Wildlings was a fairly slow campaign. The far north is enormous, easily the size of my entire empire if not larger, and sparsely populated. Hunting down everyone is a slow process.

That much I had anticipated. Small fortified towers were steadily constructed to give my troops places to sleep as well as secure land. It'd be annoying to just chase them around in circles.

The ambushes and skirmishes were quickly hardening my troops. When I cycled the first group back to rest they were clearly veterans. I even gained the children of the forest as allies. No the war had progressed exactly as I wanted.

The problem was the white walkers. They weren't supposed to be active yet. Clearly no one had told them that. My guess is that they were upset that I was removing all of their future troops, either by burning the bodies or shipping them south.

Only a handful of them had been encountered, but their effects were everywhere. It was constantly snowing and short intense blizzards sprang up out of nowhere. Wights had also begun being encountered although they were easily dispatched. Having my samurai train against zombies had it's uses.

South of the Wall, or walls now, the kingdoms were in chaos. The North was busy dealing with all of the Wildlings, who despite kneeling to me, still refused to kneel to anyone else. They also kept trying to retake Skagos.

Every attempt ended up a slaughter. They don't seem ready to give up though. Ned Stark is many things, but from my point of view he's an idiot. He has Iron Born, Wildlings and pirates from the Three Sisters ravaging his land and he's worried about an island that's trying to ignore him.

In canon the Stark family was torn apart and it was presented as a somewhat tragic tale. I wonder now if they're all just insane.

Of course the problems are confined there. The Iron Born are also attacking three other kingdoms. The rebuilt Redwyne fleet is busy protecting a handful of still open ports. The Mountain Clans, much like the Wildlings are rampaging unchecked through the Vale. Not to mention how pirates have taken to raiding them as well.

The Crownlands of course have the problem of my holding Dragonstone. The only two kingdoms that weren't facing problems I caused were the Stormlands and Dorne. Not to say things are peaceful there.

Aegon Targaryen, sixth of his name, had made his move. I suppose I can see his reasoning. Westeros has never been weaker and with my taking of Dragonstone and Skagos it might look like I have ambitions towards the seven kingdoms.

Truthfully if he can take them he's welcome to it. Besides with Daenerys building her own empire my family will rule most of the world between us. Maybe I should expand eastward and take over the Thousand Islands? Something to consider later.

Aegon didn't land alone. He brought with him a number of mercenaries including the Long Lances, the Second Sons and the Windblown. His strongest allies by far was the Golden Company which had swelled enormously with the addition of hundreds of war elephants.

He wasn't just invading the seven kingdoms either. He had declared that he was back to retake his throne. Dorne had already welcomed him and rallied in his support.

Thanks to his efforts against me, King Robert already had rumors of madness spreading. The additional rumors that all his children were incestuous bastards was the tipping point. The Lannisters rioted and the Sept of Baelor was burned with wildfire.

After that the faith of the seven had rallied to Aegon and the Faith Militant had reformed in support of him. In a beautiful political move he handed out thousands of weapons to the Poor Felllows. The order, whose symbol was a star, loved the steel morningstars made with exactly seven spikes. They were already calling him Aegon the Blessed.

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Seeing everyone else expanding inspired me. I began preparing to conquer the Thousand Islands. Most of the islands there are fairly small, only a few square miles apiece. The problem came from the fact that there were hundreds of them, maybe even an actual thousand, and all of them were inhabited.

I'm not sure how much to trust rumors so I sent a small fleet. I have quite a few extra floating fortresses since I never got around to stopping their production. I had been scattering them regularly along the coast, but this seems like a much better use.

I also began pulling my troops out of the north. The white walkers have made it incredibly dangerous and I wasn't about to get sucked into an equivalent of Vietnam. No, a quick decisive campaign against possible cannibal islanders seems much better.

While this is happening I keep an eye on Aegon. I watch with glee as he seems unstoppable. Renly Baratheon actually ended up defecting to him. He brought with him most of the Stormlands as well as a chunk of the Reach. With the only two kingdoms not being attacked backing him the rest of the Reach was quickly being overrun.

Aegon's progress was astounding and at first I wondered where all his support came from. Surely it wasn't all due to the instability in Westeros? I finally got my answer when I saw his mount.

Aegon was riding a griffin! A bit ironic for someone once named 'young grif'. I can guess where he got it too. Daenerys is backing Aegon. Although I wonder why I haven't seen any when I spied on New Valyria. Unless he's using blood magic too. Just how far has it spread?

The rest of the army is what convinces me he's being backed by Daeny. The Golden Company normally maintained around thirty war elephants, not the hundreds I can see. I guess this is what Volantis had done with their elephants.

Does that make us the three headed dragon? Yeah, not sure how comfortable I am sharing a wife with another guy. Hypocritical of me, but still true. I was more than happy to leave thoughts of Aegon behind and join my fleet as we sail for the Thousand Islands.

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The Thousand Islands conquest did not go like I had thought it would. When we arrived I noticed the area was very green. The water was filled with sea week, almost choked with it. Despite the sea weed you could still catch glimpses of the sea floor. The water was never more than twenty feet deep.

The islands were shallow and made of some kind of greenish rock and sand. All of it was covered in a dense layer of ferns and reeds. It seemed odd there didn't seem to be any trees.

What the islands did have were people. They were packed with them. They had an insane population density. I actually don't see how they sustain numbers that high in such a small space.

As soon as the first samurai stepping on the shore they seemed to erupt from everywhere. Almost without pause they formed a screaming horde and just charged. It was like they were rapid animals or something.

Their appearance didn't really help there. They were completely hairless with greenish leathery skin. They didn't have teeth, they had fangs. They also seemed to only be using stone age technology.

Of course my troops reacted smoothly. Like the veterans they are they flowed into formation. The front ranks braced even as arrows were showered onto the enemy. Despite their obvious lack of skill, their mindless ferocity was effective.

Step by step my samurai were forced back by sheer weight of numbers. They didn't seem to feel pain, ignoring all wounds to press forwards until the dropped dead. The samurai didn't panic though. They knew how to react.

Rows of spikes ripped through the horde even as walls rose up. With the bulk of their numbers cut off the closest islanders were swiftly put down. Then the samurai reformed their line and marched forward again.

I was so proud of them. This was exactly what I had been aiming for when I first created the samurai. They were everything I wanted. Each one a juggernaut on the battlefield. I was almost disappointed when I realized there weren't anymore enemies.

A quick search confirmed it. The island was empty now. Not a single one had held back or retreated. I give everyone a quick rest before moving to the next island.

It wasn't until the fourth island that there was problem. There was a large sucking sound and the water level began rapidly sinking. Even as I looked around I could see the water flowing through holes in the sea floor. The tide was going out.

We turn and retreat with a speed that only magic can explain. Unfortunately it wasn't enough. The water level was sinking so quickly we had barely traveled a quarter mile before being grounded. It had lowered too quickly to be natural.

The islanders had magic.

As if in answer to that thought I could see large stone statues rising out of the receding waters. They were ugly misshapen things, covered in scales. They were also recognizable. I hadn't seen any personally, but I had seen those images before. Deep Ones.

This place most likely has an ocean monument nearby. An active one too if they way the islanders act is any indication. Even now with us trapped and only a foot or so of water they hadn't charged. Instead they crowded forward, following the very edge of the water, straining towards us.

We didn't wait for them. The samurai streamed off the ships to surround them. The archers stayed on board and got ready. Normally I'd just watch to see how my troops fair, but I could see islanders from some of the distant areas already crossing where the water had lowered already. It looks like I'm going to get a final climactic battle.

I open of the chests in my cabin and assemble a golem assembly team. I set them to creating as many harpy golems. They weren't very tough, but they can glide from the ships over the samurai. I was setting up a second team when I heard the screams.

I bolted out of my cabin. The screams had come from the wrong side. Most of the samurai were set up protecting the rear of the ships since that was the side facing the islanders. The screams came from the front.

What I saw horrified me. Not for my safety. I can always rocket away. No I was afraid for my samurai. Losing this many would not help their reputation.

From the edges of the continental shelf were crawling thousands of pale white shapes. Undead octopods. Looks like I have confirmation on there being an ocean monument nearby.

The worst part was they didn't burst into flames immediately. I could see them steaming slightly but the water soaked into their bodies was protecting them. They eventually dried and burned, but the steam and smoke from the bodies seemed to also offer some protection. Each wave made it that much further.

Damn, this is a horrible position. It's already later afternoon. In a few more hours I won't even have sunlight. Truthfully I'm not even sure if the ship will be able to move if there are enough bodies in the way.

I quickly build a dozen advanced harpy golems and let them loose. They have a single order. Collect skulls. We had cleared out hundreds of not thousands of natives already. They should be more than enough to fill the backpacks they carry.

I frantically lay down dirt and pour out bone meal in order to generate enough pumpkins. I'm just thankful I have so much redstone stored. I really don't have time to try to make it, especially considering it requires energy.

I don't see much of the beginning of the battle. I was too busy building more golems. I couldn't even hear it. The thunderous roar of countless islanders continuously screaming as they charged drowned out everything else.

It was nerve wracking, having to wait for each group of harpy golems to arrive and drop off their load of skulls. Then a few frantic moments of building as quickly as possible. Spend a moment to tend the impromptu garden and repeat.

Nightfall was both a blessing and a curse. The undead from the sea no longer were weakened by the sunlight, but I could now deploy my own undead. I had been steadily accumulating a giant pile of discarded flesh from stripped the heads down for their skulls.

I go through it all within a minute. I smash out the back wall and let the zombies I'm creating pour out to face the islanders. A horde for a horde. My samurai are more than happy to catch a breather.

Fortunately the islanders are terrified of undead. The zombies barely reached them before they panic and turn on each other. The ones in the back can't see the zombies and keep trying to press forward. Their screaming works against them now and the front ranks actually attack the ones behind them.

I use the golems to start collecting as many bodies as possible. The new zombies are all directed towards the octopods. I continue until the flow of bodies abruptly halts. The rising tide has raised the water level high enough to disable the golems.

Normally a bad thing I am more than happy to leave them behind. I immediately order the dragon ships forward. There is a crunch and we slow a bit when we slam into the battling undead and then we're through.

That was intense. I am definitely rewarding all the survivors extremely well when we get back. As we sail I redirect a lot of my floating fortresses to the Thousand Islands. I'm going to need them to help me exterminate everything in that area. Much more productive use for them then just patrolling empty coastlines.