Chapter Forty-Six

The Freehold. Valyria.

Since I'd wished to profit from this world it was only natural that I'd want to explore the ruins of this planet's most advanced civilization at some point, however that hadn't been possible until now as the Inquisitor had banned on pain of death any travel to what remained of Valyria. He'd lifted the ban rather suddenly and left behind a set of very clear instructions on what to do if the ruins were to explored.

If there had been any danger of a supernatural kind I suspected that the ban on travel here would have remained in effect even if that danger had been removed so I could only assume that the Inquisitor had found nothing worth keeping the ban in place for and had taken from the ruins anything he deemed unsuitable for others to have. I knew that the Inquisitor was more concerned about matters elsewhere as he'd ordered an orbital bombard of a place I knew to be called Asshai by the Shadow.

Following the instructions had been very important because around here much of the air was toxic and the few people who lived around this part of Planetos were called the Stone Men because of a disease called Grey Scale which hardened the skin and drove people mad. While the disease was treatable by 40k medical technology (in fact 20th century anti-biotics would likely be enough) the natives could only kill or exile those with the sickness.

During my time here my team and I, which was just me and my battle harem, had found no written records of anything kind, not so much as a stone tablet, so if anything of their ancient knowledge had survived The Doom then the Inquisitor had either taken it or destroyed it. I didn't really mind as I was out to profit not to learn more about this world's history. If I cared about that I'd be at the Citadel with all the Maesters.

We'd been here for nearly a week and, so far at least, I was very impressed by what we'd found during our looting of the ruins of this once mighty nation. Much had been lost during the volcanos' eruptions, but what survived, had lasted until now as objects made from Valyrian steel could endure for centuries, perhaps thousands of years. This was proven by the existence of Valyrian steel weapons belonging to Westeros' noble houses centuries after The Doom.

Within only a few days of searching, we had found a hordes worth of gold and other treasures, more than enough to bring the Seven Kingdoms out of debt. This was important to me as I needed something to pay off the debts Westeros had with the Iron Bank before they could start paying tribute to the Imperium and I needed to buy allies. Selling manufactured goods was helping to fill my own coffers, but a Rogue Traders expenses were great so having lots of treasure was good.

"My lord, we found this complete set of Valyrian steel armour in an armoury" one of my battle harem was telling me as she and her sisters wheeled a container into a large empty room that were using as meeting place while treasure hunting "It was in the lowest level of a massive tower at the centre of the island of Valyria. We managed to open a vault that has remained intact even after hundreds of years".

Given that I could have a suit of power armour made for me if I really wanted it I had no need for this set of armour. Better to give it to Viserys along with a good sword. I needed him to look the part of warrior as well as a king, he wasn't either of those things, but he was still learning and he could fake it until he made it.

Another member of the battle harem brought over a longsword and handed it to me. I had no idea which guard was speaking since we all wore rebreathers and the Imperium's version of hazmat suits as per the Inquisitor's instructions. Even after more than four centuries, the air was still highly toxic across many parts of the Freehold.

"While we were clearing out one of the vaults I found you a good sword" she reported

All this stuff must have belonged to an important noble, someone who knew what he needed to secure. I unsheathed the sword looking at the blade just from looking at it. I could see it was a masterwork weapon as the balance was superb, I could see faint runes that had been etched into the blade, and I could feel something from it as I ran my gloved over the metal.

"This will do nicely" I said.

While this was by far the best sword we'd found it wasn't the only one my group had recovered during this trip. We'd found three full blades, a dozen knives, and even a few spear tips. As planned I would keep one sword for myself I'd give the others to my allies. A king needed a proper magic sword and House Tyrell loyalty could be brought further by gifting them a family sword.

"Anything dangerous down there?" I asked.

While talking I'd decided to take a longsword with a dark metal blade as my own and I decided to call it Shadowsteel. If possible I'd have one of the cogboys install a powerfield generator into the handle of this weapon so that I could have a Valyarian steel powersword.

"The Stonemen keep to the outer edges of what is left of Valyria" one of my guards let me know "Even if they could stand the toxic fumes for a time they'd suffocate long before they made it to the parts we're exploring, and we can keep dropping straight down so as to avoid most of the nasty fumes".

While the Inquisitor had lifted the travel ban for reasons that I felt sure made sense to him only myself and the Lord General would be able to send a shuttle here since no one else had the authority to go off treasure hunting. Not that there was really much to take now that I'd come here and looted what was left. The passage of time and The Doom had left little behind other than ruins, and what my battle harem found was at the bottom levels of buildings that had collapsed. Perhaps there was more buried here, but it would take a large operation to uncover it.

"We should load up what we can and get moving" I decided.

Perhaps we would return one day.