Game of Thrones: King of Magic

Chapter 51

Solomon. King's Landing.

Walking slowly down one of the streets of the famous capital of the Seven Kingdoms, I was surveying my surroundings and comparing it to other cities I had visited before, while Kinvara and Lavena followed behind me and did roughly the same. Although our group was obviously attracting a lot of attention, each of us was already used to such situations and so we quietly ignored the stares we were receiving.

I must say that King's Landing wasn't very impressive compared to Braavos, though it was similar to it in that it was built by Targaryens descended from Valyria. Same red roofs, stone houses, and European surroundings.

When I first saw the city, I noticed only three places that stood out for their size and grandeur, and also matched the description in the books: the Red Castle, the royal residence and the largest building here, the Great Sept of Baelor, the main temple of the Seven faith, and the Dragon's Lair, a smoldered and partially collapsed building that looked like a kind of arena. Of all these places, I found only the last one interesting, for I could feel the mana from there. Though extremely weak and almost faded.

My nose also picked up the smell of sewage that permeated the entire city, which was consistent with the opinion of the inhabitants of the Seven Kingdoms. The reason for this was that there was no sewage system, and thus the body waste was thrown either into the water, i.e. the Blackwater River, at which the capital was located, or directly into the street. King's Landing in this respect could be called the equivalent of Victorian London.

Besides, one look was enough for me to realize how low the standard of living is here, and what a difference between the strata of the population. While in Braavos the upper, middle, and lower classes were relatively balanced, in this city the vast majority were simple laborers, some of whom probably worked only for food and shelter. And against their background, the rich could be seen from a mile away, as they wore much better, colored and cleaner clothes than the rest.

To summarize, the capital of the Seven Kingdoms did not inspire a good or even neutral impression. And here, walking around the city, of which I was a devotee, was unlikely to bring me peace of mind or satisfaction.

Of course, I understood the appeal of King's Landing to the population of the Seven Kingdoms, for here ordinary people could get a pass into life if they could make connections with members of noble families through the display of some skill or simple luck. However, whether it was worth it was a different question.

I shifted my gaze to my companions, stopping our group at one of the houses.

- "What do you think of this place?" I asked them and gave three copper pennies, one of the three types of coins used in the Seven Kingdoms along with gold dragons and silver deer, to a girl of about ten who was standing nearby, begging for alms. She smiled gratefully at that and ran off somewhere, holding the coins against her chest.

- "I've been here before on my way to Winterfell, and from my experience and the word of our people, I can tell you that it's not a good place to live if you don't have gold. And that smell..." Kinvara said with a slight note of displeasure, "Are you sure you want to be here? I don't think this place is right for you, my king. It is too... dirty..."

- "I understand your feelings, but this is still the capital of the kingdom, the main artery and main trading center of Westeros. And even if I have to give up walking around the city, there are a lot of powerful people here and it is from here that the life of the Seven Kingdoms is dictated. And when you consider what this world has in store..."

The White Walkers that will arrive in a few years will not discriminate people by gender, wealth and all other factors. They will simply come and kill everyone, cleansing the planet in a peculiar way. Their motives are quite similar to Gaia's, but there was no counterbalance to her in this world, namely Alaya, and that meant I had to lend a hand.