102

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207 AC

Yunkai

Daenerys Targaryen

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"Why do they speak Valyrian if they hate Valyria so much?" Maegor's sudden question takes me by surprise and I turn to look at him with a tilted head.

"Who?" I ask knowing the answer but I still want to confirm.

"The Masters, they all seem to hate Valyria as half the words out of their mouths are cursing our ancestors or calling us foul names such as 'Dragon whore'." I frown hearing him repeat what he has heard from those fools but I shake my head instead of making this about what not to say.

This is a good learning opportunity.

"They speak Valyrian because they themselves were slaves to Valyria until the doom." Maegor tilts his head and I smile before standing up and approaching him on the couch to sit beside him. "Back when the Ghiscari ruled an Empire and Valyrians were but humble sheep farmers, they had their own tongue they used. But after the Valyrians tamed dragons the Ghiscari grew the desire to have dragons as well, and so they fought five wars against Valyria and lost all five of them. The last one ended with Valyria burning all of their cities to the ground and sowing their fields with salt and sulfur so no one could live there anymore while also picking up the practice of slavery." I scrunch my nose up at the thought but nothing can be done about the distant path and Old Valyria.

Only the future and New Valyria can be molded to be better.

"So they moved back after the Doom?" Maegor makes a guess and I nod in confirmation. "Then why did they not switch back to their own tongue?" I snort and ruffle his short hair much to his annoyance.

"Some know it but not all, they stick with Valyrian mostly for convenience as they do a lot of trading with the Free cities who all mostly speak Valyrian." That and a lot of their history was simply turned to ash and forgotten after thousands of years of being slaves to Valyria.

"I see." Maegor nods before looking up at me. "While we see Kepa soon?" His lower lip pouts a bit tugging at my heart, how this sweet boy's dragon can be so untamed and wild I do not know.

"As soon as we finish in the Bay, we will meet back up with your Kepa and you can tell him all about the things you have seen." His pouted lips turn upwards and he nods while crossing his arms and leaning his head against my side. "Are you tired?" He nods and I uncross his arms to take his hand. "Let's go find a nice spot to rest for a bit." We leave in a few hours but I want Maegor to be as rested as he can be before getting on his excitable dragon.

If he is still tired when we leave I will just have him ride on Drogon with me.

Rhaegar has led the ships containing half of the total amount of the Unsullied, an equal amount has stayed behind in both Astapor and now here in Yunkai. Along with the temporary council and the relief rations things will be stable for a few months which gives time for more food to be brought and a future path to begin to be forged.

I imagine a good number of the now-freed people will accept the idea of settling new cities in the Great Grass Sea when that plan is put in motion. With dragons protecting the settlements and likely the Dothraki burned out or brought to their knees the Great Grass Sea will offer them a solid chance at better futures than the sandy coast of the Bay.

However, I am not sure how many of them will be eager to begin mining the mines that Aerion has planned on rediscovering. Many of the Grass Kingdoms of old on the East side of the Grass Sea mined gold and silver and the free people of the Bay are the closest source of 'labor'.

It should be fine, so long as they are paid fair wages and have plenty of time to build up the new settlements they will live in they might even be happy to start mining. With a source of gold sprouting up like a spring then there will be more of it flowing around for their own hands as well as our coffers.

I just hope this does not lead to a push to mine the mines near the edge of Old Valyria... they are said to be cursed.

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207 AC

Lys

Aerion Targaryen

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"These are your books for your coin?" Brynden asks as he sits beside me in his new solar in one of the nicest palaces in Lys that will serve as his new 'Seat' of power.

"Yes they are, at least the coin I have set aside for this Conquest... though it might not be enough if you keep asking me to pad your own coffers." I chuckle and shake my head as he shamelessly ignores my later words and looks over my financial logs with narrowed eyes.

"How in the name of all the known hells did you make this much coin?" He looks up with disbelief clear on his face.

"Soap." A common joke, but honestly this joke has turned out to be a bit of the truth even if only slightly.

"Keep your secrets then." He scoffs and shakes his head making me smile.

"Alright, I will let you in on some secrets, but first hear out the soap story as I am actually quite proud of my wife's ingenuity." My girls at first put a hole in the bottom of my coin purse trying to take over one of my ideas to 'brand' soap and it went horribly. "For the first three years we sold soap we lost upwards of tens of thousands of gold dragons." Free samples and shipments went missing, the samples were needed to draw interest but the blatant theft ended in dragon fire.

"I take it that things turned around for the better?" Brynden reaches out for his glass of wine and I nod.

"From losing tens of thousands into earning a couple hundred." He raises a brow.

"You made hundreds of thousands of gold dragons selling soap?" I shake my head quickly.

"The first year we profited we made like two hundred and thirty gold dragons once all expenses were taken into account." I remember how sad Shiera and Mya were when I told them they profited and they got happy only to hear the meager amount they profited.

"Ah, I see... so it's a joke when you say you make a lot of gold off selling soap." He lifts his glass musingly shaking his head.

"That was the first year, more than ten years later of slowly climbing profits and even during the heavy winter they made an actual hundred thousand after expenses were paid." It's a small amount in the grand scheme of things but it makes the wives happy and keeps a bunch of women employed actually making the soap. "They send out letters along with the soap and respond a few times to the buyers almost as if they are 'friends' and I think that is one of the main reasons the Ladies of Westeros keep buying it." I don't get into the gossip and I just let Gwenys handle that side of stuff but it seems like to me the 'branding' of soap has somewhat worked all things considered.

"Wait... are the bars blue and have those pinkish swirls in them?" Brynden seems to have been struck with realization.

"That is the Fairy Berry edition and if you are wondering it was named by Rhaella when she was younger and always loved to be bathed with that one specifically." Most of the soaps are the exact same thing just with different dyes in the mix, but I guess the placebo effect has taken root and lots of people have different 'favorites' that are mostly the same thing.

"Dear Gods... my Wife uses that one." He shakes his head bringing a gloved hand to his face with a heavy sigh.

"Don't worry I am sure she is getting the family discount." He deadpans and I lift my own glass to hide a smug smile.

"What other means of income do you have besides the Gift that I know brings you a substantial amount through selling not only food to the rest of the North but also wood to Braavos." Honestly, half of Braavos new fleet is Iron wood thanks to me and me alone and they paid me a handsome amount, it's not surprising he knows of this as I know a boatload of people are mad I kept the rest for myself.

Well, not all of it, the Gift was divided fairly after the 'renting' deal with the Night's Watch was made. The Starks got a fair share along with some other Houses and I know the Starks have the first fleet they have ever had since the 'Burner' torched their last one. I know this stirred the pot with the Iron Born seemingly taking it as a challenge but I have stayed out of that mostly.

Though I would torch the Iron Islands for the right price.

"Well, the biggest money makers are the shipyards I made, the one in the Gift, and the one outside the Whispers on Crackclaw Point. The trading fleet I made over the years has paid off massively and has been my steady source of income minus during the winter when I lost ships that were docked just too poor 'maintenance'." I wave that train of thought off not wanting to dwell on bad memories, I am certain it was sabotage but when I dug into it nothing was found. "Selling thirteen Valyrian steel swords also helped out, the one I sold to the Lannisters went for a million and a half on its own." Brynden sets down his cup while looking over at the sword I had made for him.

A blood-red blade with black smokey ripples with a blood-red raven pommel that I remember him holding up with obvious glee when I gave it to him.

"I see." He seems lost in thought and I lean back in my chair getting comfortable as we both wait for some food to be served while we 'go over the books'.

I am investing quite a bit into Lys compared to Tyrosh and Myr which I left mostly to Daemon and Aegor as I need to save as much coin as I can for the other Free Cities. They did not care, in fact, they seemed pleased to not owe me anything more and instead are focusing on building a network of support within their own cities. This in my opinion will give too much power to other people but it's their cities to rule and so long as there are no uprisings then I will let them rule as they see fit.

My goal is to keep this Conquest under ten million gold dragons, but so far I can see it blowing past that within the span of another year. I thought with Pentos supporting and Braavos pretty much taking a back seat while 'tentatively supporting' that I would have less coming out of my own back pocket but I was wrong.

It's fine though, coin is meant to be spent and I can make more in time.

My main focus is on moving on to see what my Son is getting up to with his damnable River Wife. I also have my first Grandchild soon to be born and I will be a cold corpse before I miss that or let myself get distracted from it. Daenerys might miss it but she knew that going into splitting our forces and did so with a heavy heart.

More baby snuggles for me.