FIRE & BLOOD | 𝐑𝐇𝐀𝐄𝐆𝐀𝐑 𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐆𝐀𝐑𝐘𝐄𝐍✔

EPILOGUE II

-SECOND ACCOUNT-

THE HISTORY OF A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE

Reaching the dry lands of Essos upon Redwing and with prince Daemon by her side, the masters had ensured a grand welcome in honour of the prince and princess was prepared.

It was a decision they reportedly regretted for, upon seeing the youthful visages of Daenerys and her nephew, the masters felt as if they had been slighted. Truly, did the matters of the Essosi mean so little to the Targaryen King that he'd send children to broker peace talks?

However, such words were not voiced before their silver-haired guests. They were Targaryens, after all, and with the resurgence of the power of Old Valyria, they could end their petty squabbles with a single command.

So the masters of Astapor treated princess Daenerys and prince Daemon to many a night of meat, mead, and music - only the finest and richest in their city.

Perhaps their intent was to sway the Dragonlings to their side by showering them with favours, for they saw they were but children and assumed the folly of youth would win them the war. Or perhaps it may have been that, witnessing Daemon's outgoing nature and confidence towards wine, they plotted to have him persuade his aunt to fully lend them their aid.

Whatever their hopes may have been, the masters of Astapor were gravely wrong.

On the seventh day, as peace talks were finally underway, gathered with the masters of Yunkai, Astapor, and Meereen, princess Daenerys and prince Daemon lay before the bejeweled old men their terms of a peaceful and egalitarian resolution, of which it was stated that in hopes of avoiding unnecessary lengthened conflict at the cost of their coffers and their people, the land upon which the dispute began would be divided into three equal zones for each city.

The Masters would not accept that, for each one in their hearts believed the truth to be simple: They were wronged in a territory upon which no man should be touched, and yet there it so happened that a tenth of each of their men were butchered by one another.

"The Griffin Lord suggested the very same," spoke up one balding man draped in velvet blues and Myrish silk golds. "I do not seek compensation nor do I want it. My brothers who were slain on that field deserve but one thing in remembrance of their name, and that is nothing less than the flesh of their murderers."

The other masters voiced their agreement to this statement. However, Daemon paid this man little heed as he turned to the quietest of those present: a tall man, dark of skin and stoic in build and weight, had not yet spoken a word. It was he, he assumed, who had called for an outside intermediary to begin with.

And he was right.

However, that soon did not matter, for the man he might have had spoken was pierced through the neck by a flying bolt. In the next instant, another pierced his shoulder and the bolt sent towards Daenerys's heart might have succeeded in its journey had it not been for the guard who had jumped in front of her. Soon, the chambers were flooded by a troop of Unsullied soldiers. They were quick to surround certain masters of Yunkai and Astapor, as well as their Targaryen guests.

"We will make our own peace," said a master of Meereen, standing behind the Unsullied with the Yunkai'i and Astapori masters who had not been surrounded. "And we cannot have it without war."