Game of Thrones: King of Magic

Chapter 69

Solomon. Old Valyria.

At dawn the next day I stood on the scene of a structure once grand and magnificent, but now dilapidated and covered with dirt, dust, and cracks, apparently having served as an amphitheater before the fall of Valyria.

It was not far from the palace where we found the egg, and its time had long since passed and its usability was exhausted, as was the entire capital of the ancient empire. But now, at this very moment, everything had changed.

The dead amphitheater of the dead city was filled with glowing eyes, chest-full breathing, anticipatory whispers, and rhythmic beating of hearts. Thousands of people of all ages, sexes, and races occupied every inch of available space in both the surviving and ruined stands of the ancient structure.

They whispered with each other, got acquainted, told about their lives, empathized, supported, laughed and rejoiced, making the amphitheater itself seem to blossom because of the flood of feelings. But the eyes of every one of them did not take their eyes off my silently observing figure in the center of the arena.

- "You've already subjugated all these people," Lavena said, standing behind me, still holding the dragon egg, "I feel sorry for them already."

- "As soon as you forget for a moment, you've forgotten the kindness of my king," Kinvara parried beside her, "I already feel sorry for you."

- "Be that as it may," I stopped them, "How many of them do you think are here?"

- "More than we should," Lavena said.

- "If you count the ones who didn't have seat? About a hundred thousand, maybe more."

- "I see."

So, as I understand it, the particle of the Many-Faced God has brought here almost all, if not all, of the people infected with the Gray Pestilence from all over Essos. And that's quite a lot, since the mortality rate for the disease was quite low.

Yes, the disease was highly contagious, and a single touch was enough to transmit the pathology, but people kept a relative quarantine, where they exiled the sick away as soon as they noticed symptoms. And for this purpose, they mostly used the ruined cities of Valyria and the Rhoynar, which were far away from the rest of the settlements and could not be rebuilt.

- "So, what do you plan to do?" Lavena asked.

- "The right thing to do, I suppose. No, not like that. What I would like to do."

I slowly raised my hand above my head, and the people, as if they were robots with a perfectly fine-tuned program, were instantly silent, focusing all their attention on me.

Taking a deep breath, and then amplifying my voice with magic and lowering my hand, I smiled softly and looked around at everyone present.

- "Greetings to all who are here now. My name is Solomon, simply 'Solomon', no titles, lands or lineage. And even if I don't know you and you don't know me, it is a pleasure to meet all of you who have gathered here at my request."

The people nodded as if to greet me in return.

- "The reason for this gathering indulged my selfishness. A tiny idea that had settled in my thoughts only recently, and issues that existed even before it."

I paused to allow everyone to catch their breath and get their thoughts in order.

- "What could be called "home"? Was it a particular piece of land or the people that inhabited it? Undoubtedly. For some it is a homeland, the land where they were born and raised. For some, it is family, friends, or just acquaintances waiting for him to return. Any criterion is true, but it is different and has no measure, like gold or grain. And so my next question goes like this...."