Lord Esmer

 Before leaving, I try to calm down first. I can't start a blind revenge against the faceless men. I still have two important things to do in the city before leaving tomorrow night. I go to Fatty Zhang's cabin and give him the last bag I kept. Seeing his face fascinated by the effects of the magical item calms me down a bit and makes me smile.

"Rafa, that method in the book is really something magical. After I finish meditating, I feel my whole body tingling for a few seconds. Do you feel that too?"

"No, Zhang, I just feel something really quick when I finish and my sense of time is a little different. Unfortunately, I don't know why this happens to you. Does Omar feel something similar? I ask.

"No, he gave a description similar to yours, but it's okay. I must be more talented with magic than you two, hehe. I must find a good teacher when I get to Asshai."

—Yes, we must all find one. Meet me with Omar today at the Sleeping Dragon at 6:00 pm and tell him that revenge against the Brown brothers must be done today.

He nods and goes back to rummaging through his new bag, still fascinated.

I have the poison that Jack gave me, so it shouldn't be difficult to take care of the brothers, the problem is how many servants and guards they have in their house. I already ordered this information from Black Cat a few days ago, today I should know the details.

I take my carriage and get to the Sleeping Dragon as quickly as possible. A trip to the central district may take a while, so I should let people know that I'll be late. I talk to Black Cat saying that I want the information about the Browns today when I get back, and I ask for two more pieces of information to be delivered this afternoon. He looks up startled by the two new pieces of information I need, but my serious look makes him refrain from asking unnecessary questions. Finally, I ask to deliver a letter to Jack, and I warn him about my possible delay today.

The carriage moves at its fastest speed, but it still takes more than an hour and a half to reach the edges of the central district. Luckily, the Cipele mansion is on the outskirts; it would be very difficult to enter the central area, which is dedicated only to the 39 families and their powerful vassals. The entire structure of this district is spacious and even more beautiful than any other district in the Valyrian city. The number of dragons I see flying freely in the sky easily exceeds 100. Their sizes and colors are varied, and they land on mountains and on top of structures that resemble buildings, then take flight towards the sea or simply land on the huge lakes and gardens of the mansions. This fascinates me and makes me feel like I was before I came to this world, just a fan and admirer of these beautiful creatures. After stopping a few times to ask for directions, my coachman and I arrived at the wizard's mansion. I realize that I don't know his name since the undead wizard never said it, maybe he was afraid that I wasn't friendly or even his enemy.

I ask the guard who lives in this mansion and he refers to someone named Lord Esmer. I notice the word "Lord" a title used only by Valyrian nobility, but without any surname, this proves that the man can only be a Blood Mage or he wouldn't use such a title.

"I am a messenger and I am here to deliver a message from another Lord to Lord Esmer, can you notify me of my arrival?"

The guard sends another man to the mansion, I wait for 10 minutes until our entrance is allowed.

Our carriage follows a slow pace inside the gates and soon we arrive at a huge 3-story mansion with a huge and eclectic exotic garden that fascinates me a lot, even with all the books on Valyrian flora and fauna that I obtained I don't recognize most of these plants and flowers. I am guided to a waiting room before another 10 minutes pass and I am finally taken to another larger room that appears to be a living room, a young man with short black hair, a luxurious dark green robe with gold embroidery and also green eyes. He stares at me sitting in his central armchair.

As soon as I approach I bow in a manner known to commoners as to how they should behave when meeting Lords, after which I remain silent and wait.

"You can now deliver the message, which Lord sent you?"

I think for a moment and decide to deliver the message first before saying how I got it:

"I'm sorry, Lord Esmer, I don't know his name, he was an old man in an extremely elegant black robe and was accompanied by a woman in a brown robe and the message said: "Me and the bitch countess are dead, tell the mage who lives in the Cipele mansion." After his death I was able to confirm that it was the faceless men who were responsible.

The man places his hand on his chin, then asks two questions:

"If he is dead, how did he send the message? And what makes you think it was the faceless men?"

—When he sent the message, his body was headless. He spoke directly to my mind, before several men burned his body. He told me that you would reward me well if I delivered the message to him…

I make it clear that I will not tell everything, not before seeing the supposed reward. He smiles and calls a servant who is outside the room. When the servant approaches him, a box is taken from his storage bag. It is given to the servant before he brings it to me. The box looks ordinary from all sides, having a brown color, perhaps being made of copper due to its weight. I open it and see a kind of red, shapeless pearl, its size no bigger than a fingernail. I do not know what it is, but I decided to keep it in my space. The item was inside his personal bag. He would not keep it with him if it were not something of value. He smiles as he sees me quickly put the item away and then says:

"It's a dormant egg, take good care of it when you decide to hatch it. It's been modified, but not tested. Now tell me, how did you see them dying and how did you confirm that they were faceless men?"

"The old man and the woman were in a cave, with several strange sculptures on one wall. There was a dragon tied to another wall, it was then that a group of people invaded the cave. Most of them were poorly dressed slaves. I didn't see when they arrived, I only saw the woman flying in the sky full of arrows in her body while spitting blood and the headless old man fighting with several of them on the ground, while a figure similar to him in transparent form controlled the headless body. It was this figure that looked at me and sent the message to you. After the two wizards died, one of the men removed his face as if it were a mask and another went straight to the old man's head, cutting out his face as if it were a trophy. Finally, they killed the chained dragon and destroyed the strange sculptures on the wall, that's when I lost my vision."

"I see... You've already delivered your message and received your reward, you may go."

As Rafael stood up and was about to leave, Lord Esmer asked another question:

"Oh yes, you didn't say your name was 'messenger'."

I stopped in the middle of the walk, and thought for a moment before answering:

"Most people call me the Red Sage."

He nodded one last time, so I left the mansion again, accompanied by the servant who had guided me here.

***

 Esmer's face became serious, as if he was making a decision. He didn't take the messenger's nickname seriously, nor did he remember hearing such a name, but he didn't let the information that the man had or has a totem slip by. He must be very angry about his loss or he must not even know the value of such an item since he seems to be very young... Luckily I never put any of mine in that place or I would suffer the "loss of an army".

This expression was used because each totem cost a lot of money and it could take a wizard a lifetime to create a single one and its value could easily buy an army. After seeing the ingredients in his inherited memories Rafael also knew the value of the totem since he now had the recipe for one of them.

After thinking for a few more minutes Esmer wasted no time and got up from the armchair, he jumped out of the second floor window, landed gracefully in his garden before jumping again as if he were light as the wind. Each jump took him over 100 meters away, as if he was gliding on air. Soon he arrived at a 9-story tower-like building with a mansion on the grounds nearby. He entered through one of the windows on the first floor of the tower and soon arrived at the basement where an old mage sat meditating.

"Esmer, didn't I warn you not to enter here without permission last time? You better have something important to say or I won't let you off so lightly this time."

"I'm sorry Old Tian, ​​I came in a hurry because I heard some very bad news…

Old Tian raised an eyebrow before asking,

"What happened?"

"The countess is dead!"

As the words reached Old Tian's ear, he desperately tried to reach for the small, weathered twig at his waist, but Esmer was faster. With a wave of her hand, a green flash severed Old Tian's entire arm. After losing an arm, the old man let out a loud scream and began to cast a spell that caused the entire ground around him to turn muddy. He stood up and used his remaining arm to point towards Esmer. Before he could complete these actions, Esmer slid forward with a green glow on his shoes and, unaffected by the mud, used a Valyrian Steel sword to cut off his head. Blood sprayed from Old Tian's neck for a while as he collapsed.

Old Tian's body had barely collapsed and a great tremor was felt throughout Valyria, lasting almost 30 seconds. Esmer didn't mind the tremor, they were rare, but they still happened from time to time in Valyria. He went ahead and stored Old Tian's entire body, his wooden wand, and finally grabbed his storage bag. He then descended another floor of the tower before opening a hot room where several flames shone, keeping the temperature of the place quite high. He reached the center of the room and saw 2 dragon eggs, then he also stored both eggs and quickly left the tower, returning to his mansion.

Meanwhile, the tremor that lasted almost 30 seconds that was felt throughout Valyria caused immense chaos among the population of the northern district.