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Post by The Forgotten God on Mar 6, 2016 9:21:37 GMT -5
The seas below boil in anger, as though stirred by the rage-filled hands of a furious god, but overhead, the great black dragon Drogon is unfazed. He carries a great steel cart, windows of glass letting the passengers see below. The cart keeps the whistling of the winds propelled by the hundred fifty mile an hour flight from being deafening, and Sara and Olyvar are staring wide-eyed below. "I've...what have we gotten into this time?" Sara said with awe.
Ahead of them are ruined spires, but in the distance Morgan sees a pristine tower, unaffected by the chaos about it, and the black dragon is flying directly towards it. "That must be it," Olyvar said, obviously but seeming profound with the awe of the passengers. Whoever their pilot is, he knows his job.
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Post by Leona Redwyne on Mar 6, 2016 9:30:57 GMT -5
Morgan's heart felt suffused with excitement and wonder. She had always been a bit worried that Valyria would not live up to their expectations yet already everything was wonderfully exciting.
"It looks magnificient, truly. And this contraption, I would never have dreamed of it." She gazed outside, marvelling at their current situation. She was a little afraid but the strange, ruined beauty oustripped her fear.
"We will have many tales to write of this time."
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Post by The Forgotten God on Mar 6, 2016 9:37:32 GMT -5
"Many," Sara breathed in agreement. They come to the tower, several hundred feet high and stepped a bit, and the dragon lands on a open field. Black-clad soldiers are about, and one opens the door to let them out. A woman with blue-dyed hair greets them with a cheerful tone.
"Welcome to Valyria," she said. "I'm Illarosa Erastes, but please call me Rose. I'll be your guide here for now. The Emperor wants your expedition here to go as smoothly as possible." A sudden bursting sound is heard and the ground cracks about three hundred feet away, sending up a geyser of superheated water forty or feet feet high. "The land here takes some getting used to," she continues, ignoring the noise. "We are on top of a rather angry magma field, I fear."
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Post by Leona Redwyne on Mar 6, 2016 9:49:38 GMT -5
Morgan genuinely didn't know whether to look at the woman or the water. Everything was so strange and different.
"I am not quite sure what magma is," she confessed. "But the landscape is so different to Westeros. This thing you call magma, could it be the cause of the Doom?"
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Post by The Forgotten God on Mar 6, 2016 10:13:57 GMT -5
"Molten rock," she said. "It keeps the whole world warm, underneath. When it erupts from volcanoes we call it lava." She nods. "I'm not a geologist though. Please, come with me to your rooms." She leads them to a small house. It has a half dozen bedrooms, a kitchen and a dining hall. "I hope it's sufficient. Space is at a premium here. I shall be back in an hour so you may meet the Emperor."
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Post by Leona Redwyne on Mar 6, 2016 10:19:00 GMT -5
"It looks perfect, thank you." Morgan's smile was genuine. "Can you offer any tips on how we ought to behave before we meet the emperor? We brought our finest gowns, of course. Will that be appropriate?"
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Post by The Forgotten God on Mar 6, 2016 10:24:08 GMT -5
"Of course," she said. "I hope you brought some practical clothes too; you see this isn't the finest place for a court," she said with a smile. "He speaks perfect Westerosi so don't fear any sort of language barrier."
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Post by Leona Redwyne on Mar 6, 2016 10:50:01 GMT -5
"Good. I brought quite a few sets of practical clothing," Morgan promised. "But I was raised to believe that a first meeting with a high lord or monarch should always be treated with the utmost respect, and that means dressing well. I had assumed our first meeting with the Emperor would be a formal presentation, which suggests formal clothing."
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Post by The Forgotten God on Mar 6, 2016 10:57:31 GMT -5
"Formal?" She grinned. "Maybe not by royalty's usual standards," she said. "Dinner in an hour and a half. I hope you like roast boar, potatoes and green beans with red wine."
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Post by Leona Redwyne on Mar 6, 2016 11:18:33 GMT -5
"Of course we do. Thank you for your assistance. We'll be ready," she vowed.
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Post by The Forgotten God on Mar 6, 2016 11:32:14 GMT -5
An hour or so later the woman comes back. Morgan can see a volcano erupting on the island about five miles east of them, smoke coming out of the top of it and orange lava running down the mountain. "Follow me," she said. sara and Morgan are dressed to the nines and Olyvar has something approaching respectability.
Vhagus Targaryen's dining hall is smaller than probably expected; maybe a hundred could fit in there at one time, less than a third the size of even the citadel's. The man is seated and rises as they enter. "The Citadel representatives," he said, smiling and kissing the ladies' hands, "how excellent. Hearing that old dusty fort allows women in made me feel Westeros is entering a new era," he said. "Most of my own chief advisers are women. So much less desire to resort to violence as a first option." He and Olly pull the seats out for the ladies and then he takes his own and a servant cuts off thick juicy slabs of boar. "Sara has written plenty of herself," he said. "But I know little enough of you, Lady Morgan. Do tell."
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Post by Leona Redwyne on Mar 6, 2016 11:55:02 GMT -5
Morgan smoothed out the skirts of her violet dress, which had unicorns sewn on the skirt.
"Your Grace is too kind. Or do you prefer another form of address? I am not familiar with the proper term for an Emperor."
She smiled and said "I was born at Hornvale, the same region Sara comes from. I had a few difficulties getting myself accepted at the Citadel, and a few adventures along the way, but I'm sure a man with dragons at his disposal might find my adventures a little dull. I've been called wicked and unnatural for preferring a life of study to marriage and children, but I made my choice and I'm happy with it. Besides, I fought hard enough to get it. I thought coming here would be the ideal opportunity to see an ancient wonder of the world. Even our predecessors at the Citadel were not lucky enough to come here. Most everything we know about Valyria comes from rumour and the words of people who lived long after the Doom."
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Post by The Forgotten God on Mar 6, 2016 12:06:17 GMT -5
Vhagus nodded. "I'm no stranger to being called wicked and unnatural," he said. "Words can make us bleed as surely as swords. Perhaps that's why their spelling is so similar," he considered. "This is a land that the gods have cursed," he admitted. "The city is beneath our very feet. This tower is filled with seawater below here, but we believe it extends hundreds more feet into the ground. A bottomless building," he said.
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Post by Leona Redwyne on Mar 6, 2016 12:12:15 GMT -5
"Interesting. So the sea levels rose during the Doom?" Morgan queried. "And that made the tower fill with seawater. Interesting. I'm curious how much investigation has been done into the architecture and any ancient artifacts that might have been found here."
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Post by The Forgotten God on Mar 6, 2016 12:16:07 GMT -5
Vhagus nods. "Maybe, but we find it more likely that..." he thinks of a way to illustrate the point. He takes two napkins and puts an apple between them. "Here is Valyria before the Doom," he said, then he spread his hands apart and let the apple fall, then brought the napkins back together over the apple, only the stem sticking up. "Here it is after. I believe some sort of sinkhole absorbed the city, perhaps causing by over-mining or some such, and the city was simply...swallowed by the earth," he frowned. "We are barely at the first layers of the old city, and it is quite dangerous, but I will show you what we have found so far after dinner."
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