Conspiracy

 While Rafael was returning from Esmer's house and checking his newest item, a huge tremor occurred throughout Valyria. Although he didn't feel much from inside the carriage, the damage from the tremor could be seen in several places along the way. What caught his attention the most was that the time of the tremor was also exactly 48 hours before the disaster, which made him a little apprehensive, but he knew he still had time. 

After making his way back, he arrived at the Sleeping Dragon. It was already past 2:00 pm and he was very hungry, wasting no time, before even going up he ordered his lunch. Then he went to the main hall and put up a new sign replacing the old one saying that there were only 2 VIP cabins, 1 normal cabin that would only be sold as a full cabin, and 20 regular tickets for the price of 25 silver each. In addition to the higher price for the regular ticket, the remaining cabins also had their prices doubled. He would only stop selling regular tickets because Captain Henry warned all his 28 crew members to take their families away from Valyria.

Among the crew, 15 of the men were single or orphans. The other 13 sailors all had wives, children, siblings, and parents. Of course, not all of them came on the ship because they knew the journey would be dangerous. So they chartered an additional ship and put the elderly, children, and some men who were friends with the crew to take care of them. As for their destination, it was the city of Pentos. The men who decided to send their children put all their money into it and were heading to Asshai with almost nothing. Still, some fearless wives chose to go with their husbands, there were also some children around Ted's age, this made our base crew of 30 men take a total of +13 extra passengers. The women were also bad news for the whore who planned to profit during our trip.

Arriving at the door of private room 3, a huge line was already waiting for me. I didn't waste much time and stuck another piece of paper on the door before entering. This made a good portion of the people leave due to lack of funds.

I had barely sat down when the knocking on the door started. Men and women of different ages started buying regular tickets and soon all 20 tickets were sold in a short space of time. Of those 20, I found a young couple with a baby in their arms no older than 2 years old interesting. They were going to pay for the baby's ticket, but I said that children of that size didn't need to pay. They both shed tears and started thanking me. Saving so much silver would help them when they arrived in the city of shadows. My lunch arrived between the comings and goings of regular ticket sales and I ate it while I recorded all their names, occupations, and faces. I needed to get a feel for the ship just in case. There were ex-adventurers, ex-mercenaries, and other possible reserves for various roles on the ship. As soon as I finished, I stuck a new piece of paper on the door: "Regular tickets sold out!" I heard several sighs and most of them left. Soon after everyone had left Black Cat arrived.

"Mr. Rafael, this first envelope contains everything you need about the Browns. This second envelope is the first list you asked me for today. It contains all the names of the known Bloodmages in the city, and I also included the apprentices, but I cannot guarantee whether they are all real or just frauds who play tricks. Among the Bloodmages, are 33 of the 40 families, but half of them are missing or have not been seen in a long time. Only 4 do not belong to the 40 families. This third envelope contains their current contact addresses, but 1 of them is also missing and has not responded for a long time."

After putting away the Browns' envelope, I took a piece of paper from my inventory and wrote three letters to the three mages who did not belong to the families.

My text is friendly, telling them to leave the city quickly and that something bad will happen soon. I also warn them of the crimes committed today by the Faceless Men and their indiscriminate massacre of any mage, reminding them to seek revenge whenever possible. A sinister smile crossed my lips, with a single letter I not only pitted these 3 against the faceless men but also pretended to be a benefactor concerned for their safety, warning them of the disaster I foresaw, then I signed the 3 letters as the Red Sage. As soon as I finished the 3 letters I looked at the list of Blood Mages from the 40 families and the one with the names of supposed apprentices and made a decision.

"Black Cat."

"Sir?"

"Deliver these 3 letters to the known mages. As for the Bloodmages of the 40 families, just send a simple message: The Faceless Men murdered 2 Bloodmages in the depths of the 13th flame and destroyed dozens of totems. One of the dead mages is a woman named Countess, be careful.

Black Cat's eyes widened and she took out a piece of paper and started writing so as not to forget anything.

"One more thing, don't send the message to Esmer, he already knows."

He nods once more and asks:

"And the apprentices?"

"Just one sentence: Beware of the Faceless Men."

"I will send the messages as soon as possible, your previous request… To investigate the Faceless Men… I'm sorry I don't have anything, these people are very mysterious and everyone is just a suspect, just like Jack Black Face. Still about Jack, he was only found recently so I still don't have any response to the letter you sent."

"No problem, as long as it's delivered, and the books?"

"I bought two more, and I'll bring them to you in a few minutes. One of them came from the same apprentice from before. He asked for 90 gold coins for the book."

"Okay, as long as it's true like the last one."

He leaves shortly after and an employee brings the two books. I sigh when I see that one of them is about religion again, but my face changes when I see that this time it's a familiar name that I've read many times before coming to this world:

"Red God".

The book is a copy of the other religious books I've bought in the last few days. An idea pops into my head when I have a bold thought about these "Gods". I put them aside for now and started reading the other book sent by the apprentice:

"Water Element Spell: Healing Touch."

After reading the description, I see that it's a very good support type spell, it can easily heal superficial wounds and have good emergency healing on more serious injuries. If it's true, I'll only be able to test it after I'm on the ship. When I see that it's almost time to agree with Fatty and Omar, I decide to open the envelope that Black Cat gave me about the Browns... While I'm reading, they finally arrive, it's time for revenge.