As the men began to board the ship, Aiden stopped Gerion, "What is it lad?"
"Might I ask the real reason you came this far east?" Aiden asked, tho he knew he had probably already guessed the reason.
Gerion let out a sigh, "Well me and my oldest brother had a large fight. I didn't agree with the direction he is taking the family. So after ensuring my daughters safety I left."
Aiden looked thru the man's mind and saw the truth in his words, he saw hate for his older brother within Gerion's thoughts. He blamed Tywin for their brother's death, which surprised Aiden greatly.
"I see, I must say that I am surprised. If you don't mind me asking, what direction would you lead the Lannisters in?" Aiden asked, he wanted to confirm what he already felt from the man.
Gerion didn't answer right away, but after about a minute he answered, "Well I wouldn't have sided with Robert if that's what you're asking. Our ancestors gave an oath to the Targaryens, that our house would always be loyal, but my brother let his pride get the better of him. He could've stopped the rebellion before it even started, all he had to do was back the Targaryens and the others wouldn't dare have rebelled. But he let his anger for the King have him go against him, all because he refused to marry my niece to Prince Rhaegar. It didn't help that he made Jaime a Kingsguard, but the lad wanted it, so there was no issue."
Gerion paused, a hint of anger flashed across his face momentarily before he continued, "Then what he did in sacking Kings Landing, sending that fucking cunt the Mountain into the city, he was a true demon in human skin, to go after Elia and you kids was abhorrent."
Aiden patted Gerion on the shoulder, "You truly are a honorable man. You have gained my respect. I wish to ask something of you my friend, return home, take your brother's place as head of your house, help my brother take his throne back, give the Seven Kingdoms hope again, hope for a better tomorrow. I will back you, also.."
Aiden then called out Brightroar, the Lannister ancestorial sword, from his storage space, which surprised Gerion. When he got a good look at the sword, that surprise turned into shock.
"Where? How?" Gerion stammered out shakily, his eyes threatened to pop right out of his head.
"While I was getting the materials needed to rebuild your ship, I explored the other shipwrecks at the bottom of the sea. I came across an old ship, this was amongst the wreckage. Take it, it belongs to your family, I hope you put it to good use." Aiden responded with a smile.
Gerion shakily took the sword, removed it from it's scabbard, the wavey pattern in the metal clearly evident in the blade, proof that the sword was in fact the genuine greatsword Brightroar. The sword was still in pristine condition, razor sharp, as if the sword was just crafted.
"I don't know what to say.." Gerion stated emotionally.
This was something he had always dreamed of, to find their long lost blade. It was a stain on their house to have lost the blade, not in combat or during a war, but out of greed. Tommen had took it with him when he planned to raid Valyria, he was after all the Valyrian steel and sorcery left by the Valyrian civilization, he had planned to plunder the land of it's riches and knowledge.
Unfortunately they were never heard from again. Many ships were sent to find Tommen and his crew, but no clues were ever found of what happened to them for many years. So they had no choice but to call off the search for them, since then Gerion's father Tytos had given up on retriving their ancestorial blade.
Tywin then took over and had made multiple offers with several houses that were hurting for money, he tried to buy their families Valyrian steel swords, but none would sell it to him. They would sell their daughters before selling their Valyrian steel family heirlooms.
"Say that you will use the sword for the betterment of the realm, that you won't turn that blade on anyone who doesn't deserve it, that is all I ask. Now go on, return home to your daughter. I am sure she misses you dearly." Aiden replied.
"Aye, you have my word, my friend. I owe you my life and the lives of my men, and a Lannister always pays his debts." Gerion answered back as he placed Brightroar on his hip.
"Good man. I look forward to our next meeting. Oh, and before I forget take a couple of these, one for yourself and for your daughter, they will keep you both safe." Aiden then pulled out two more bracelets and handed them to Gerion, he then turned and began making his way back into the forest of Ulthos.
"Wait, your not coming with us?" Gerion asked as he watched Aiden head back into the dangerous jungle.
"Not yet, there is something I need to handle before I head back myself. Don't worry, I'll be fine, enjoy the new ship." Aiden answered as he looked back over his shoulder.
Gerion stood there and watched as Aiden dissappeared into the dark jungle, he wondered what Aiden was trying to accomplish going back to that hell but knew it must be important.
Gerion then turned to go board his new ship, his excitement was palpable, he got his families sword back, a new ship, and a new course for his life. One that he himself believed in, a future worth fighting for.
Aiden walked deeper into the jungle, he was following his gut, ever since he came to this land he felt the place was off. He felt a powerful force hidden deep within the land, a dark presence that shouldn't be there.
He ran into several monstrous creatures, killer wasps the size of small birds, spiders the size of dogs, a variety of carnivorous plants, snakes with a length that matched large ships and with a width of a oak tree, not to mention the wyverns, ape-men, Lizard men, and a eyeless group of humanoid cave creatures that looked like the undead.
They were pale white like a skeleton with empty eye sockets and sharp teeth and claws, instead of being boney and thin like a skeleton, they were lean and muscular with long claws.
As Aiden got deeper into the jungle, he came across old ruins built out of black stone, evidence that intelligent people once inhabited the land. What was strange with these large settlements was that not even the jungle had taken the land back even though they hadn't been maintained.
It was as if the trees and plants feared the areas around these ruins and didn't dare to grow within a certain distance to the ruined cities.
He looked for books or scrolls of any kind but hadn't been able to locate anything of any use to tell him what kind of people lived within these ancient cities.
Observing the ruins he noticed a large ritual area, carved into the stone were several depictions of a large ritualistic sacrific of thousands of peole. Each pearson was shown chained or tied to poles.
Instantly Aidens eyes narrowed greatly, this reminded him of only one thing.
"R'hllor." Aiden mused to himself as he continued to study the murals.
It showed the sacrifice, then all the flames that had engulfed the thousands of safrifices that had been placed in a pattern reminiscent of a spell circle, all combined into one. This created a large flaming bird, similar to a phoenix. Then it showed several other similar fire creatures showing up in other locations across the land, these phoenixes then merged together. This told Aiden that several thousands of people were sacriced to accomplish this.
Aiden continued down the wall and saw the phoenix fly over the ocean towards a series of volcanoes, the next mural showed the flaming bird split back into several smaller birds and enter all the volcanoes simultaneously.
'Didn't Valyria have several volcanoes within it's region? Is this the Doom that occurred?' Aiden thought to himself as he continued on towards the next one.
It showed all the volcanoes erupt violently, a large city was set in the middle of these volcanoes, it showed several dragons being killed, atop most of those dragons, it had depicted riders.
"Sure enough, this has to be showing the Doom that happened on Volantis. So it wasn't a natural disaster that destroyed Valyria, but an attack from R'hllor. He sacrificed the inhabitants of this land and used it as a weapon to destroy Valyria. But why? Was he threatened? I do know that the Valyrians had attacked Sothoryos and had even built settlements on the land, but did they also attack Ulthos as well? But isn't R'hllor's main religion in Essos?" Aiden muttered as he had studied the mural intently.
"Is this where R'hllor originated from? Is he still here? I guess there is only one way to find out." Aiden decided to continue ahead and investigate.
He knew R'hllor was a real being, now as far as if he was born a god or if he was once mortal and gained god-hood was unknown, the reason for this was the religion is fairly new compared to the Great Stallion worchipped by the Dothraki, the Seven, Old Gods, and Drowned God.
Aiden put his questions to the back of his head and continued further east, but rather than walk he flew up into the air, he wanted to see just how far the land went.
He remembered a book he had read within the library of Kings Landing, it spoke of a story from the time when Valyria was at the hight of its power, a female dragon rider wanted to see how big Sothoryos was and left Valyria and flew above the island. She returned home three years later stating that there was no end to the land when she turned around and headed home.
Aiden wondered if Ulthos was the same, tho he didn't plan to take three years to investigate it. Aiden flew into the air high enough to be left alone by Wyverns, however something caught his attention, a powerful spell had been activated, followed by a deafening blast of a horn being blown.
Then several wyverns from Ulthos began to go into a frenzy, like a swarm of bats, they began to take off to the west. Aiden felt a powerful magic, a command type spell, one that uniquely targets dragons.
Aiden focused westward and saw thousands of Wyverns, not just those living on Ulthos but also those from Sothoryos as well. This magic was beginning to show signs of being amplified thru dark magic as its sound waves increasingly got stronger, it was getting louder, as if it would soon engulf the entire planet.
Aiden knew this was related to Flamebird and Nightwing, then he quickly thought of his siblings dragons, if they were visiting somewhere in Westeros with their dragons, they could be affected. Especially since the magic was specifically targeting them.
Wyverns, although not true dragons themselves, did come from the same heritage, they had a sliver of the dragon bloodline. A wyvern could in fact birth a true dragon, though this was extremely rare it was a possibility.
Dragons and wyverns could breed and produce offspring, tho this only happened if the dragon chose to. A wyvern male had no chance if a dragon female didn't wish to allow it to mate with her. She could easily kill the wyvern, usually the two didn't intermingle with each other, but they weren't exactly hateful to the other as well.
Dragons were prideful and intelligent, also much larger than wyverns, so unless the female or male dragon was in heat and no other dragon of the opposite gender was available at the time, they usually just left them alone.
"Kelex, where are my siblings and their dragons now?" Aiden asked quickly.
Rhaenys and her brother are currently in Kandor, Daenerys is in Highgarden, and Aegon VI is in Winterfell currently." Kelex reported back.
"Do they have their dragons with them as well?" Aiden asked.
"Affirmative. Daenerys is playing with Margaery Tyrell, while Aegon VI is training with Robb Stark and Theon Greyjoy." Kelex answered.
'Shit. I need to stop the spell before it can engulf Westeros. Although they wouldn't lose their bonds with their dragons, it will still cause them to lash out, many will be killed in both the Reach and Winterfell, especially if it continues for an extended period of time.' Aiden thought.
His quest to search for answers would have to wait, if he doesn't do something, the alliance between the Targaryens and both lands could be endangered greatly. Even if Robb and Margaery aren't killed, the two dragons would cause so much death that the lords of each kingdom would no longer trust them.
Even if he told them that it was due to external forces that caused the dragons to go into a frenzy was a magical horn, they wouldn't believe it. The reason is because humans wouldn't be able to hear the trumpeting call, the sound frequency is undetectable by human ears, only a dragon can hear it as well as their riders since they are bonded.
Aiden rushed towards Qarth, his speed caused a sonic boom that shook the ground on Ulthos, it even killed several wyverns as he flew passed them in the air. He saw several wyverns attacking the Laughing Lion as they were sailing west, although they wouldn't be able to sink the ship once again, Aiden knew that they didn't have weapons that could deal with them at a distance from above.
When he rebuilt the Laughing Lion, he had put several scorpions along the starboard, port, and stern of the ship. There was one on the bow of the boat, but it couldn't aim too high in the air, they were designed to attack ships that were in the water.
Aiden quickly began to use his heat vision to kill the wyverns that were swarming the ship, he also sent a message to Flamebird and Nightwing to try their best to stop the horn blast as soon as possible, or at the very least to slow the increase of strength and to make sure that the spell was focused eastward.
This was why Sothoryos and Ulthos were affected already and not Westeros, the horn was focused eastward. Had it been focused westward than it would've been a completely different story, but no matter what, eventually it would reach Westeros if it continued to be amplified.
Aiden heard the men cheering on the boat as he decimated the wyverns attacking it, but he ignored them and began to wrap the ship in his power, flew to the stern of the ship and directy pushed the forward.
He would be able to easily get them out of danger while still heading to Qarth. Those cheers quickly turned to fearful screams as the boat flew forward at extremely high speeds, many had latched onto the railing or the mast thinking they were going to die by falling out.
They hadn't realized that they didn't even feel the wind velocity thanks to the bio-electric field Aiden was using to keep that exact thing from happening.
'Almost there, the House of the Undying has to be stopped.' Aiden thought as he began to feel the horn beginning to slightly affect both Flamebird and Nightwing.