High Tide, Chapter 75: A New Tide Rises (Patreon)

First Moon, 205 AZ

Corlys Velaryon

It was a fine and pleasant morning that greeted Corlys on the last day of the first moon of the two hundred and fifth year of the Age of Zaldilaros, or as Westerosi would refer to it, the two hundred and ninety-eighth year of Aegon’s Conquest.

For his own part, Corlys had decided to enjoy the fine morning in the best way that he knew how. Eluding or rescheduling as much of his lessons and responsibilities that he could so he could climb up to the parapets of the highest tower in New Tide and just enjoy the view overlooking the city of Jacaria.

Once he had taken in the view, as he had a thousand times before, Corlys sat down to read. It was a pastime that he had developed when he was very young. He had heard it said once that a reader lives a thousand lives before he dies and the man who never reads lives only one.

It was more true than you would think, especially for Corlys. Whenever he read of certain historical events, he truly felt that he had lived them. Sometimes there would be a strange sense of familiarity, a desire to correct the text and insist that something wasn’t quite right or that they had misinterpreted a quote or decision but he could never quite comprehend why.

At other times he would wake up in the night having dreamt about the things he had read in such vivid detail that he felt as if he had relived memories. He had brushed it off every time, insisting to himself that he was simply that dedicated to his studies that he was imagining how the events he read about actually transpired. Yet he could never explain why he woke up feeling like he had lost something important whenever he had one of those dreams.

Nonetheless his obsession with reading continued and it was especially focused on history, and not just any history, but a particular period of history, one that was of founding importance to his house. Primarily it was the time between 60 and 160 AC if one wished to keep the timeline in the same calendar. As the Age of Zaldilaros only began in 93 AC, and transitioning between BZ and AZ made for quite a messy retelling of history, Corlys generally preferred to remember historical events in the Westerosi dating.

Some might consider that a heretical opinion, especially from the man that would one day rule the Velaryon Empire, but Corlys really could not care less. This was after all simply for his own convenience and in the privacy of his own mind and if it was ever exposed he would use that same position as future ruler of the empire to shut up all dissent. Power did have its perks.

Not to mention, on a scholarly level, one could not deny the intrinsic links that existed between House Velaryon and House Targaryen, their histories and their origins were intertwined and the century and a half since the Dance had done much to dissipate the hatred that had once existed between them.

But he was rambling now. Shaking off his thoughts, Corlys focused back on the text and immersed himself in the ‘The Sea Snake’, the biography of his namesake, Corlys the First. He must have read the book from cover to cover a hundred times already, yet it had never failed to stir those strange feelings of familiarity in him, almost like a nostalgic and wistful recollection of old memories. Though given that he had been reading this book since he was very young if his father told the tale true, he was most likely just remembering deep down that very first read that must have enthralled him so for him to dedicate so much of his time to these historical studies.

The life of his ancestor and namesake were truly fascinating, not just to him but to many across the Empire. Corlys was well aware that an Abridged Edition of the biography had been published for the less learned and dedicated to study for themselves and learn the story of their legendary founder as well but it was very much paraphrased and in Corlys’ honest opinion, failed to truly capture the grandeur and grandiosity of Corlys the First and the incredible story of his life and death.

In truth even the unabridged edition failed at times Corlys thought, especially whenever he was in one of those strange moods. Those strange nostalgic feelings were strongest whenever he recollected on the period of history during which Corlys the First had lived, and at times especially when he thought of particular events in his life.

Or people. If there was anyone that drew Corlys’ attention as much as his famous namesake, it was his namesake’s wife. She had been born a princess of House Targaryen but had lived and died as a Lady of House Velaryon and was crowned posthumously by her son as the first Empress of their house alongside her husband as Emperor. Viserra Velaryon née Targaryen had had as eventual a life as her husband, especially once the pair had married and had shared all events from that day onwards.

Together the two of them had overseen the Conquest of Tyrosh and the Retribution Against Slaver’s Bay, the children they had raised together had overseen the Chimera Cull and the Triunification, and together the entire house had rallied together in the War Against Targaryen Tyranny, the Dance of the Dragons, where Corlys and Viserra had made a legendary last stand in the skies above the burning ruins of their own beloved castle High Tide, the very same castle that they had burned to deny their enemy the satisfaction of claiming it for themselves.

In many ways they owed everything to Corlys the First and Viserra the Sea Dragon. They were the founders of their dynasty, of the House of Zaldilaros Velaryon. Nothing that their descendants had accomplished would be possible if they had not laid the foundation. That was why every year, Corlys’ family and the empire as a whole celebrated Zaldilaros Day on the first day of the second moon.

The date had been intentionally chosen because it was directly in between what history had judged to be the two most meaningful things Corlys and Viserra had ever done. Their triumph over the Morghon Riots in Tyrosh in Second Moon, 92 AC, the event they traced their calendar from, and their legendary last stand at High Tide in First Moon, 132 AC. On that day, they would commemorate the lives and deaths of the founders of the Zaldilaros Creed and Dynasty and along with Empire Day in Eighth Moon immortalizing the Triunification and the Proclamation of the Empire with Jacaerys’ coronation, Zaldilaros Day was the most important holiday in the entire year within the Velaryon Empire.

Of course, it was not just Corlys the Sea Snake and Viserra Seastar that fascinated Corlys. Their children had accomplished deeds he would argue were as great as theirs. After all their four children and their two gooddaughters had been the ones responsible for overseeing the Chimera Cull and the Triunification and had accomplished many other things of note and built reputations for themselves in the years before the Dance.

Jacaerys the Great, Lucerys the Loyal, Laena the Lovely, Daeron the Daring, Baela the Bold, Rhaena the Radiant, each name stirred those wistful feelings of familiarity and nostalgia in his heart, though perhaps a little less so for the latter two. Their deeds while Corlys and Viserra had lived were great indeed but what they did after their parents had perished had always left him feeling the most curious.

For on the very same morning that Corlys and Viserra had laid waste to High Tide and battled with the Targaryens over its ruins, taking the lives of two dragons and one Targaryen and grievously wounding Queen Rhaenys Targaryen, their four children and their two gooddaughters would lead the house into battle slaying first three Targaryens and their dragons at Storm’s End and then again the same number at Bloodstone.

Historians and scholars considered it a master plan, a brilliant strategy which had ultimately brought House Velaryon victory in the Dance of the Dragons. Yet Lucerys the Loyal had fallen in the battle and Daeron the Daring’s dragon Terrax had been slain. At times Corlys felt a strange sense of sadness at that thought, despite the fact that all these people had died centuries ago. One hundred and sixty-six years to be precise.

Nonetheless, to satiate his curiosity, Corlys had long studied the years after the Dance in both Westeros and Essos religiously. In Westeros, the damage done to House Targaryen’s reputation by the so called One Moon War could not be underestimated. In a single day, seven Targaryens and eight of their dragons had been massacred and in the weeks that had followed, much of the Stormlands and Dorne had been razed to the ground before a humiliating peace had been enforced upon them by the victorious Velaryons.

Queen Rhaenys, whom many laid the blame for this disastrous war on and now mocked as the Burnt and Broken, would not long survive the grievous injuries she had incurred in the Battle Above Driftmark. She would perish barely three years later in the year 135 AC, with the Iron Throne passing on to her grandson Aemond, a young man of nine and ten.

Despite riding Vhagar, Aemond was seen as young and untested by many of his vassals, especially due to his limited involvement in the Dance, and with House Targaryen perceived as weak after that war and with years of resentment and anger brewing for his and his predecessors’ attempts to strengthen their centralized rule of the kingdom and their abandonment of the Stormlands and Dorne to the Velaryons’ tender mercies after the first day of the Dance, the realm rebelled.

Elements of the Starry Sept and the Faith of the Seven resentful of blatant Targaryen control and perversion of the Faith’s tenets allied with the nobility fearful of their obsolescence and removal under continued Targaryen rule. It was like the rebellions against Aenys and Maegor come again but even more complex and brutal with lords calling for independence or the deposition of the Targaryens and septons and firebrand preachers splintering the Faith of the Seven into a dozen sects each claiming to be a reformation of the religion to its ‘true form’.

Westeros had burned as Aemond proved that he was no weak king and with the aid of his surviving family members and their dragons, he would bring the continent to heel over the coming decades, attainting many, many lords for their treason and executing many septons to reunify the Faith under his absolute control. It was called the Thirty Years’ War by some who noted that it took thirty years before Aemond had crushed the last embers of resistance though others criticized that name, insisting that it was many separate conflicts with periods of peace and stability in between campaigns and outbreaks of revolt.

Whatever the name you used for the conflicts, by the time the dust had settled and Westeros had submitted wholly to his house once more, so much blood had been spilled and so much time had passed that the window of opportunity for Aemond to take his revenge on House Velaryon had long since vanished as the gap in dragon numbers and magic knowledge between the two houses had grown only greater in that time. Aemond would not go to war with House Velaryon again, and neither would any of his heirs.

Even today House Velaryon still maintained its lead though it was no longer so great of one that they could destroy the Targaryens without blinking an eye at the cost to do so. Such a promise of mutual destruction was useful in keeping the peace between both houses and also to prevent both of them from becoming prone to complacency or infighting so perhaps in some ways, the continued existence of the other was beneficial for both houses. A strange idea after all the devastation their feud had caused but a true one nonetheless.

With the east and south forbidden to them by treaty, House Targaryen had turned its attention to the west and north. They had annexed the Night’s Watch and the Wall formally, giving them over to the neighboring North and House Stark to administer before conquering the frigid Lands Beyond the Wall and placing them under the stewardship of the Thenns, the most civilized of the wildling tribes who had bent the knee to them. House Thenn as they now preferred to be called, still ruled from a castle at the First of the First Men known ever since as the Fist of Thenn.

The Targaryens had bypassed the infamous refusal of Silverwing to pass the Wall for Queen Alysanne by going around the Wall entirely by way of Skagos. Many considered the conquest of the frigid Lands Beyond the Wall to have been a pointless war for nothing but glory and prestige but Corlys didn’t really care what the Targaryens did in their own continent so long as it did not trouble his house and that it seemed had also been the opinion of his ancestors at the time.

If conquering the frozen Lands Beyond the Wall was what the Targaryens had needed to nurse their bruised egos after the Dance of the Dragons, by all means, let them. Better that than them crossing the Narrow Sea for a second pointless round with their own house. That had been the thought of his ancestors at the time and Corlys agreed with them.

Of course north had been but one of two directions left available for the Targaryens. To the west, the voyages of Ryon Redwyne had found success. He had discovered several great islands and archipelagoes in the Sunset Sea, including many that were inhabited by a strange culture of seafarers that resembled the Northmen of Westeros in their coloring and bearing.

After determining that their tongue was like that of the Old Tongue of the First Men, the Maesters of Westeros had eventually concluded that these men in the Sunset Sea were descendants of Brandon the Shipwright’s fleet which had sailed into the west and never returned to Westeros. At the time, the Shipwright’s realm had had a very prosperous population boom after a long summer and with the fears of a long winter coming, many had boarded his fleet in search of new lands to the west.

In the thousand years since the Shipwright’s ill-fated voyage, these distant and seafaring cousins of the Northmen had slowly spread across most of the islands of the Sunset Sea in longships and other boats though they had never developed ships advanced enough to make it back to Westeros. The Targaryens had eventually conquered and colonized these islands after the Thirty Years’ War, adding them to their realm and per their usual tradition, allowing the local nobles to keep their titles if they would only swear fealty.

Further beyond the various islands in the Sunset Sea, Ser Ryon Redwyne would eventually discover the far eastern coasts of the continent of Essos, with his voyages and those of others eventually revealing the true size of the continent; Asshai-by-the-Shadow, far from being in the far east of the continent, was actually in its center. The Targaryens had since laid claim to those far eastern coasts of Essos that were westward across the Sunset Sea from them and their colonies had grown prosperous in those virgin lands.

In the current day, after more than a century and a half of Targaryen efforts, Westeros was quite different to how it had been when his ancestors had still resided there. The regionalism which had once plagued and divided the kingdom was gone for the most part and only Houses Stark, Arryn, and Thenn remained of the so called Great Houses that had ruled the regions. The Baratheons were extinct, the Tyrells and Tullys had been reduced in power, the Lannisters had been attainted for treason, and the Targaryens of Dorne had been reabsorbed back into the main line with a strategically placed marriage of heirs.

The current Targaryen ruler was Aemond, the Second of his Name, the namesake of the famed Aemond the Restorer who had won the Thirty Years’ War and restored the pride and prestige of House Targaryen after its devastating loss in the Dance of the Dragons. Aemond II boasted the titles of High King of Westeros and Warden of the Sunset Sea, King of the Andals, the First Men, and the Rhoynar, Master of the Faith, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms, and Protector of the Realm.

It was a most impressive collection, and one that would have impressed Corlys as well had the collection he was set to inherit not been even grander and greater. One day, he would be hailed as ‘His Imperial Majesty, Corlys of the House of Zaldilaros Velaryon, the Fourth of his Name; By the Light of the Seven, Emperor of Essos, Sovereign of the Summer Sea, King of the Dominions, Lord of the Tides, and Supreme Defender of the Faith.’

What made this collection of titles truly grand was not the titles themselves for they were just words. It was the lands and peoples they represented, the lands and peoples in which his father and one day he as his successor would hold real, tangible power over. From the Narrow Sea and the Stepstones in the west to the Bone Mountains and the Great Sand Sea in the east and from the Shivering Sea in the north to the Summer Sea in the south, the Velaryon Empire stretched over all lands within those bounds, even if the extent of its rule differed.

From the coasts of the Narrow Sea to the Sarne River and the Painted Mountains and including Sarys, Essaria, Tarhor, Tolos, Elyria, Velos, Viserria, the Basilisk Isles, Naath, the Summer Isles, and the Stepstones, was the Velaryon Empire proper, the territory formally labeled on the maps as the Empire of Essos and subject to the magistrates, legations, bureaucracy and direct rule of the House of Zaldilaros Velaryon.

And that was all without counting the Ten Dominions and the ceremonial Dominion Titles that signified kingship, personal union, mastery, suzerainty, and overlordship over them. These titles were only used when the Emperor visited the Dominion in question or they could be compiled together with the Imperial Titles to make a full list that would humble even the Targaryens. If the ten Dominion Titles were announced along with the Imperial Titles instead of the summarized collective title of ‘King of the Dominions’ at every occasion, they would be as such:

High King of Sarnor
Liege King of Lhazar
Great King of Dothrak
Shadow King of Ibben
King of Qarth and Master of the Jade Gates
King of Moraq and Warden of the Cinnamon Straits
Patriarch of Hyrkoon and Guardian of the Bones

Beyond the Sarne and leading all the way to the Bone Mountains and the Great Sand Sea in the Far East were the Ten Dominions in question. Sarnor, Lhazar, Ibben, Dothrak, Qarth, Yinishar, Samyriana, Bayashbhad, Kayakayanaya, and the Cinnamon Isles.

These Dominions were realms in which his father Daemon I, the Velaryon Emperor, served as king, hegemon, overlord, and suzerain all at once. His father held additional titles pertaining to his kingship over each region. In Sarnor for example, he was the High King of Sarnor, King of his other Dominions, and so forth with the rest of the imperial titles. As their monarch, these territories did him fealty and paid him tribute but direct rule was not applied for the most part, with each dominion left to its local elites in the form of regional councils, merchants, nobles, and royals to govern on the Emperor’s behalf.

In theory, the only imperial oversight came in the form of the Imperial Legates, though in practice the Conches, the hidden spies that had served as the Emperor’s eyes and ears since the days of Corlys I, were always hard at work gathering information and watching for treason not just in the Dominions but in the Empire proper and the rest of the world as well. While the Conches served in the darkness, the Imperial Legates would serve in an official capacity in the light as representatives of the Emperor dispatched from Jacaria across the Empire, proper and dominion alike. They would also have deputies or second officers, Lieutenant Legates assigned to aid them in their duties.

All the Legates were ultimately managed by and answerable to a Legate General who sat on the Imperial Council. It was explicitly decreed that the position never be held by the Imperial Chancellor in order to divide powers and responsibilities and keep a single Imperial Councilor from being too powerful.

Within the Empire proper, the legates and their lieutenants served as the primary administrators, arbitrators, and supervisors over the two hundred and twelve magisters, the direct provincial governors, and their magistrates. They also had the right to suggest individuals to appoint as magister in the magistrates they oversaw to the Emperor but this was only a recommendation and nothing more; all were by right appointed by the Emperor directly or delegated to the Chancellor to decide, further maintaining the balance of power in the Imperial Council between the Chancellor and the Legate General. Furthermore, Legates had no individual powerbase of their own, making regular commutes between offices in Jacaria and the major cities of their assigned legations, which were all regularly rotated.

Within the Dominions however, the Imperial Legates served as the Emperor’s main representatives and envoys, speaking with his voice and serving as special advisors in the ruling courts of each Dominion, puppet masters pulling the strings of the Dominion and ensuring their compliance with imperial policy.

In Sarnor, as aforementioned, his father was High King of Sarnor, with his ancestors having long dispossessed the Kings of Sarnath of that title even after the Dothraki Empire had been vanquished. Lieutenant Legates were dispatched to the court of each Sarnori city kingdom and the senior Legate they answered to was attached to the Council of Kings in Sarnath and represented the Velaryon Emperor as High King there.

West of Sarnor, Dothrak was in a similar situation as Sarnor. The nomadic Dothraki khalasars had been all destroyed long ago but their sedentary cousins who had begun farming the steppes had survived. They had mixed and mingled with settlers from Sarnor, including many Dothraki who had settled there during the rule of the Dothraki Empire and had since returned home. Furthermore, cadets of Sarnori royal houses, many of them also possessing Dothraki descent after the rule of the Dothraki Empire, had been granted leave and lands to raise new cities and kingdoms within the region.

The intended result had been the blending of Dothraki and Sarnori culture together to form a stable and prosperous vassal realm and it had succeeded wildly. Much like in Sarnor, the rulers of the individual states within the Dominion of Dothraki were called Kings with attached Lieutenant Legates and there was a Council of Kings in Vaes Dothrak where the senior Legate represented the Velaryon Emperor in his role and title as the Great King of Dothrak.

To the south in Lhazar, his father held the title of Liege King of Lhazar and once again each vassal kingdom, principality, city state, and so forth within the Dominion was attended to by a Lieutenant Legate while the senior Legate sat on the Dominion’s high council in its capital.

The reason why the entire region was now known as Lhazar and not Ghiscar was because Corlys’ ancestors had sought to eradicate the memory of the Ghiscari and their slaving ways from the world and they had destroyed them more utterly than the Dothraki and Valyrians before them had, giving their lands and their surviving peoples over to the Lhazarene they had long enslaved to repurpose into something useful.

In Ibben, Corlys’ father held the title of Shadow King of Ibben to indicate his kingship of the dominion, but day to day rule was left to the Shadow Council with an Imperial Legate and his lieutenants as usual to supervise and oversee them.

A similar story was the case in Qarth where Corlys’ ancestors had restored the Pureborn to Qarth once the Dothraki had been vanquished and allowed them to manage their own local affairs with the Pureborn Council but once again an Imperial Legate and his lieutenants oversaw that council and ever since the Dothraki Empire had been vanquished, Corlys’ forefathers had held the titles, King of Qarth and Master of the Jade Gates, and they had built naval bases all over the region to secure the Velaryon Navy’s control.

In fact, this applied to all the Dominions. They were allowed their own regional armies, divided and disorganized as they were, but not their own navies. Only the Velaryon Navy would be allowed to rule the waves.

South of Qarth, Velaryon naval bases similarly dotted the Dominion of the Cinnamon Isles and each of the local vassal kings and governing conclaves had attached Lieutenant Legates and were answerable to the senior Legate who sat at the High Council that oversaw the region as a whole. Corlys’ father held the titles of King of Moraq and Warden of the Cinnamon Straits within that Dominion.

Lastly in the Patrimonies of Yinishar, Samyriana, Bayashbhad, and Kayakayanaya, all four descended from the ancient Patrimony of Hyrkoon and located in or near the Bone Mountains, his father and all Emperors since Lucerys the Bonebreaker held the titles of Patriarch of Hyrkoon and Guardian of the Bones. Councils of Great Fathers ruled each patrimony, each with an Imperial Legate and their attached lieutenants representing the Empire.

Some had japed that the Dominions were the Empire’s empire and it was an apt analogy. Through its the Dominions, the Velaryon Empire had stretched its influence over all of Essos west of Asshai. Even if Yi Ti and the other peoples in the Jade Sea were not yet Dominions, they still paid homage and tribute to the Velaryon Emperor. And with that influence, Corlys’ ancestors had seen to the end of slavery across the entirety of Essos, even in Asshai-by-the-Shadow.

Of course, if one wished to truly understand how the contemporary Velaryon Empire and its Dominions had been created, one had to go back to the beginning, and this was a history that had intrigued Corlys nearly as much as the life of his ancestor the Sea Snake. He wanted to know everything he possibly could about what happened after the Dance of the Dragons and how the world he lived in had come to be. His studies had made him somewhat of an expert on the topic, useful knowledge for a future emperor he would say.

Corlys I, the Sea Snake, had been posthumously crowned as the first Emperor of the Empire of Essos after the Dance of the Dragons, but the true first emperor and the one from whose coronation they dated the Empire’s founding was Corlys’ son, Jacaerys the Great. The fearless victor of the Dance of the Dragons.

Jacaerys sadly would be greatly plagued by the grief and stress of the Dance and the years leading up to it. He would live and reign for only five and ten years following the Dance of the Dragons, perishing from a great illness, some say a remnant of the Red Death that had almost killed him in the Chimera Cull years earlier, in the year 147 AC, or 54 AZ. He would not even live to see his youngest son Lucerys, named for his deceased twin and born 133 AC/40 AZ come of age. Corlys could not help but think that that was such a sad ending for Jacaerys.

Nonetheless, despite his short reign, Jacaerys would live up to his epithet within it. In his final years, he oversaw the Empire expanding its borders to the Rhoyne in all directions, overseeing the vassalisation of Volantis to the Empire and its cession of the west bank of the Rhoyne from Selhorys to Sarhoy and the annexation of Braavos, Lorath, and Norvos in the north.

The annexation of Braavos was particularly noteworthy as it removed one of the last true rivals House Velaryon had to contest its fleets in the sea. With the Arsenal of Braavos under its control and added to the shipyards and arsenals already present in the Velaryon Empire, the Velaryon Navy would grow even more powerful. The Fall of Braavos also meant that the famous Iron Bank and its assets were now in Velaryon hands and Jacaerys did not forget it. He would incorporate the Iron Bank into the Velaryon Bank to strengthen the latter and seized the bank’s Valyrian steel collection for House Velaryon as one of his last acts before dying.

Jacaerys’ empress, Baela, and his goodsister Rhaena, Lucerys’ widow, would both similarly die before their time in their fifties. However, Daeron the Daring and Laena the Lovely would both have an exceptionally long and peaceful life, each perishing in the same year well into their nineties. Both of them expressly refused to take part in any further campaigns or matters of state in the years after the Dance and were intent on enjoying a well-deserved rest from their labors.

Neither of them were done making history however. Like his father before him, Daeron the Daring became a truly capable seafarer with his now famous ship the Dawn Treader after the death of his dragon, and in 150 AC/57 AZ at the ripe age of 56, Daeron the Daring would circumnavigate the world by way of the Saffron Straits, denying his rival Ryon Redwyne who had been exploring the Sunset Sea the privilege of such a historical feat.

Daeron’s sister-wife Laena and her dragon Shrykos were flying overhead on that voyage. According to legends, Laena Velaryon had told her brother-husband that they would go to the ends of the world together but she would get there first as she was flying. Many historians insist that this has to be apocrypha however as Princess Laena adored and loved her husband and would not have been likely to rub salt into the wound that was the loss of his dragon with such a quote, beautiful and well intentioned as it might sound.

With his parents, aunts, and uncles all dead or refusing to interfere, none would challenge Corlys II’s vision for Essos when he ascended the Driftwood Throne as Emperor upon his father’s passing in 147 AC/54 AZ. With his siblings and cousins all fiercely loyal to him, and already having heirs with his cousin-wife Empress Jaenara, Corlys was ready to see the Empire through to a greatness his father and grandfather could never have imagined.

Over the course of his fifty-one-year reign, Corlys II would push the boundaries of the Empire to their greatest height yet. It was Corlys II who crossed the Rhoyne River and conquered all of Essos until the Sarne and the Painted Mountains, establishing the formal eastern borders of the Empire proper. And it was Corlys II who broke the Dothraki Empire in the Great Khal Drogo’s old age.

The Zaldilaros Cult had long thrived in the slavery-ridden Dothraki Empire and Corlys II and his house would wage a decades long campaign to break the Dothraki Empire, free the slaves, and establish the Dominions. The reason for their creation was because Corlys II feared that overstretch would be the end of his empire but also believed that the territories had to be freed from the yoke of the Dothraki and thus the Dominion system was created as a stopgap to prepare the territories for full annexation into the Empire of Essos, though none of them had yet been annexed even now. If Corlys recalled correctly, Sarnor and Lhazar were the closest to it.

Piece by piece, Corlys II and his dragonriders destroyed the Dothraki khalasars and installed and uplifted new vassals and elites into the realms they had settled and conquered, many of whom themselves had Dothraki descent but had assimilated into the local cultures and defected to the conquering and liberating Velaryons. By the end of Corlys II’s reign, the longest of any Emperor, the Velaryon Empire and its Dominions were on the foothills of the Bone Mountains.

With all the glory and prestige of his conquests and campaigns, Corlys II became known as the Magnificent. But he was not given that name for making war alone. Corlys the Magnificent’s reign was prosperous and great in peace as well, as he oversaw the rebuilding of Essos from the Dothraki yoke and centuries of war and chaos since the Doom of Old Valyria. Roads and other works of infrastructure were built across the Empire proper and the Dominions, with great cities rising or rebuilding to reap the profits of trade and safe travels.

His crowning achievement however, was the construction of the Imperial City of Jacaria. Built on the northern shores of Dagger Lake to control all traffic on the River Rhoyne and with an architectural motif and layout that reminded many of Tyrosh or even Spicetown of old, the city was named for Corlys II’s beloved father, Jacaerys the Great.

Its outermost walls were a semicircle of double walls known as the Corlysian Walls, supposedly inspired by unfulfilled plans Corlys I had had for Spicetown long ago and there were lake walls and piers along almost the entire east-west length of the city where it met the lakeshore in the south, along with a lighthouse to guide any river ships in the night. Within the Corlysian Walls was a great metropolis of manses, markets, monuments, statues, triumphal arches, fountains, libraries, gardens, homes, shops, and so much more, for in the present day the imposing Imperial City had a population that could rival even the greatest of the Free Cities.

No less than three Dragonpits each capable of hosting forty dragons the size of Balerion of old dotted the city, with a fortified Dragonfort surrounding and protecting each of them. The Dragonkeepers which manned these Dragonpits and tended to and protected the dragons within were now well over two thousand strong.

The oldest of the Dragonpits in the Empire, with the exception of the original and small Myrish Dragonpit which had been repurposed when the capital had moved to Jacaria, was the aptly named First Dragonpit built into a small hill right on the shore of Dagger Lake. Its surrounding Dragonfort and the lake walls that protected Jacaria from an attack from the lake gave it strong security.

Across the street from the First Dragonpit and surrounding it were the government buildings housing the various institutions and ministries that ran the empire, including the Velaryon Bank, the Imperial Mints, the Army Headquarters, the Treasury, Chancellery, Legation Ministry, and even Admiralty Hall for the famed Velaryon Navy, though their operational headquarters were by necessity downstream in Volantis. Even the headquarters of the Conches was somewhere in that labyrinth of ministries as well, officially as a building for housing clerks and storing paperwork but all who were aware of the secretive organization knew that the building’s true name was ‘The Shell.’ All of these various government buildings were shielded by an additional single inner wall known as Viserra’s Wall.

The First Dragonpit was directly on the right of a road that turned into a great white bridge that led onto the lake in the south. On the opposite side of the Dragonpit on that road was a great and imposing sea-green copper-plated statue known as the Emperor Indomitable which was modelled after Corlys the Sea Snake and meant as the pair to Lady Liberty based on Viserra the Sea Dragon in Tyrosh.

The Emperor Indomitable was right by the lakeshore and served as the warden of a fortified gatehouse betwixt it and the Dragonpit. The gatehouse protected the entrance to the bridge and there was another fortified gate to its side that would allow one to directly enter the Dragonfort and the Dragonpit from the bridge without entering into the city beneath the Emperor Indomitable’s eyes.

The great white bridge the gatehouses protected was fortified with battlements and crenellations and raised high above the lake to dissuade attackers from trying to scale it but not so high that a rider on the bridge could not see the crystal blue waters of the lake below clearly. The bridge was adorned with marble statues of Tide Guard, dragons, seahorses, and past emperors and empresses as it led to the seat of the Imperial House of Zaldilaros Velaryon.

In an islet in the lake only a few hundred yards away from the shore stood the castle of New Tide, built in the image and memory of High Tide of old from the preserved plans of the original castle, and its presence in many famous paintings and the recollections of Corlys the Magnificent and his cousins who had had the castle built in the honor and memory of their grandparents.

So dedicated had they been to the project that they had even remodeled and reshaped the islet upon which the castle stood, changing the very shape of the island and the size and height of its hill at great expense and requiring enormous amounts of money, time, and dirt and sand, in order to perfectly recreate the image of their childhood memories. Even going so far as to excavate and build supports for a cave beneath the castle to create a new Dragon Den just like the one beneath the original.

Their work had taken decades but the results were worth it. Even now Corlys IV sat in the parapets atop the highest tower of New Tide, made in the image of the Highest Tide Tower in Old High Tide and overlooking the great city of Jacaria, built at least partially in the image of Spicetown.

Corlys I and Viserra’s legendary sacrifice had been honored, High Tide and Spicetown lived again in spirit as the seats of the greatest empire the world had ever seen, and they would never ever be touched by the Targaryens ever again. They would not be desecrated with imposters like the original ruins had been. The so called Red Tide and false Spicetown that the Targaryens had built on Driftmark were pretenders that did not at all resemble the originals. Not like New Tide and Jacaria did.

As far as possible, the insides of New Tide had been carefully replicated to match those of High Tide, with many of the original castle’s famous treasures, paintings, tapestries, and other furnishings having been saved and placed in the counterparts to their original positions as far as could be remembered, with new ones added to the collection as well to show off the imperial wealth and grandeur the house had since attained.

There was one notable exception, the rightful place of which all remembered for sure unlike the other furnishings, and yet it was not placed there. The Driftwood Throne. While the throne was still perfectly preserved and intact, having survived the centuries and the journey from Driftmark to Myr and then from Myr to Jacaria, it no longer had its rightful place in the throne room of House Zaldilaros Velaryon as the official throne of their house. It now served as the Emperor’s seat in the Imperial Council room instead. And the reason for this was simple. It had been replaced with something even greater and grander.

With his father’s conquest of Braavos, and his own conquest of Volantis and all Essos unto the Bones, Corlys the Magnificent had gained possession of an enormous collection of Valyrian steel that dwarfed utterly all others in the world, even that which their house had possessed before the Dance of the Dragons. And thus he had decided to forge something that would enshrine his own legend for all time. The symbol that represented his rule over all of Essos. The Sea Dragon Throne.

It was a great chair forged entirely out of Valyrian steel and adorned with silver, gold, and jewels, and cushioned with feathers and wool sheeted in blue velvets and sea-green silks. The throne itself was shaped in the form and motif of a sea dragon, with its armchair rests resembling sea dragon heads, its legs sea dragon claws, and its backrest sea dragon scales. It was the perfect throne for the Emperor of Essos and the perfect companion to the Three Great Crown Jewels that Jacaerys I had had forged in his own reign.

All of these great artifacts and accomplishments added to the magnificence of Corlys II’s reign and it was why he was generally considered to be one of if not the single best emperor the Empire had had to date despite the fame and legendary deeds of his father and grandfather. Yet despite his greatness, all men must die and Corlys the Magnificent was no exception. In 198 AC/105 AZ, having outlived his eldest son Crown Prince Jacaerys whom had been named for the Great, Corlys II would be succeeded by his grandson, Daeron, whom history remembered as the Dauntless.

Daeron the Dauntless proved every inch his grandfather’s heir. He acquired his epithet in his youth for his fearless mastery of magic, even with the risks and dangers, and how he had used his mastered magic to venture into and explore the depths of Sothoryos including Yeen and return to tell the tale. Daeron the Dauntless would go on to establish the Anogrion Academy and the Mages Guild in Jacaria during his grandfather’s reign to finally fully assimilate all the magical lore of Gogossos and begin improving and advancing on it and teaching it to the Zaldilaros Velaryons and their trusted servants for the service of the Empire and its goals.

It was Daeron the Dauntless who created the first chimeras in the world since the Chimera Cull, wholly under the control of Imperial Mages and bred to serve as sacrifices in blood magic, with their part-human blood and flesh serving as acceptable substitutes for true humans, ensuring that the Velaryon Empire would not go down the dark path that Valyria had.

Daeron’s advances in blood magic led to treatments and cures for many diseases, ailments, and injuries, especially when combined with advancing medicines and surgical methods, leading to a population boom within the Empire. It also led to the curing of the Butterfly Fever, allowing for Naath to be annexed directly into the Empire and made a magistrate.

Paradoxically enough despite the dark magic he mastered, Daeron the Dauntless was also a fervent and zealous believer in the Zaldilaros Creed. He took part eagerly in the wars against the Dothraki and slavery that his grandfather had carried out and when he became Emperor he continued them, expanding the Empire and its faith to new territories and establishing Dominions over Ibben and the Cinnamon Isles.

He was also the Emperor that ended the religious tolerance that had been the norm within the lands of the Empire proper since the days of Old Valyria, decreeing that from his rule onwards, the only recognized faith within the Empire of Essos’ formal borders would be the Zaldilaros Cult. By some wisdom that had prevailed in his council and perhaps the forceful convincing of his family members, Daeron would not enforce this decree on the Dominions as well like he had originally intended, instead formally proclaiming that they may still keep their freedom of religion since they were more loosely under Velaryon rule.

He would not budge however on the Empire proper. All direct Imperial subjects would be Zaldilaros faithful by the end of his rule he swore. And so it would be, regardless of the dissent it caused to make it so. When Daeron had taken the Sea Dragon Throne, the Zaldilaros Cult had long since become the dominant majority throughout the Empire proper as a whole due to the massive fervor of loyalty to the ruling Velaryons for their liberation of the slaves and the various economic and political incentives and advantages to conversion, such as the religious tolerance tax that had been in place since before the Empire had even been founded.

Nonetheless very sizeable minorities of other religions had still existed, especially in the Summer Isles and Braavos which, without slaves to proselytize to in the beginning, had been far more resistant to the encroaching Zaldilaros faith. Religious revolts and dissent broke out over the course of Daeron’s rule due to his decree with clashes and fights between Imperial authorities and Moonsingers, Bearded Priests, Black Goat Priests, Priests of Love, Red Priests and Shadowbinders, and so many more, but in the end the Dauntless could not be stopped as the Zaldilaros Cult and the Zaldilaros House both had grown too strong.

Many with the means who did not wish to convert moved to settle in the religiously tolerant and still sparsely populated Dominions to the east but the remainder of the population was converted, willingly or not, to the Zaldilaros Cult. By the time Daeron’s reign had ended, the entire population of the Empire of Essos proper was, officially at least, an adherent of the Zaldilaros Creed.

This single religion and its fanatical devotion to the ruling House Velaryon had thus been and was to this day a powerful unifying force that brought together many languages, cultures, and races into a single Velaryon Imperial identity and culture and helped further the continued propagation of High Valyrian, already the language of trade and diplomacy, as the common and official language of all Imperial subjects both within and without the Empire proper.

The Zaldilaros Cult had also long since spread beyond the Empire proper. As aforementioned, many of the lands of the former Dothraki Empire had come to boast large numbers of Zaldilaros faithful due to the Dothraki yoke and even with the influx of immigrants from the Empire proper that were of other religions due to Daeron the Dauntless’ decree, each of the Dominions still had the Zaldilaros Cult as either a plurality or a simple majority within their population and the number grew every year. As soon as the entire populace within a Dominion had converted it would be ripe to incorporate into the Empire proper some had proposed.

But even beyond the borders of the Empire as a whole, the Zaldilaros Cult had spread into Yi Ti and the other lands east of the Bones and the Great Sand Sea, gaining greater and greater numbers. The adherents of the Creed could not be persecuted or restricted unless the rulers of those realms desired the ire of the Velaryon Empire but at the same time those faithful were by their very religion more loyal to the House of Zaldilaros Velaryon as the Supreme Defenders of their Faith than their home countries, greatly strengthening the influence the Velaryon Empire had over those regions.

Perhaps in the future Sarnor and Lhazar might be incorporated into the Empire proper and Yi Ti or N’ghai might become Dominions with the Jogos Nhai vanquished just as the Dothraki had been. Only time would tell.

Regardless of his controversial reign and methods, Daeron the Dauntless’ contributions to the Empire’s success and unity could not be understated and he was in many ways as capable as the three emperors that preceded him even if he had been far more faithful and pious than any of them had been. Daeron the Dauntless would reign for thirty-nine years until 237 AC/144 AZ.

He would be succeeded by his son Lucerys, known as the Bonebreaker. Upon becoming Emperor, Lucerys would expand the Empire further and form Dominions over the three Hyrkoonian patrimonies of Samyriana, Bayashbhad, and Kayakayanaya in the Bone Mountains and the Great Sand Sea, hence the reason for his epithet of ‘Bonebreaker’. He took for himself and his heirs the Dominion Titles of Patriarch of Hyrkoon and Guardian of the Bones within these three patrimonies in addition to Yinishar which had been under Dothraki rule and liberated by his great-grandfather, the Magnificent.

In the local culture, only one in a hundred boys, the largest, strongest, and most handsome, were allowed to mature and breed as men, with the rest being gelded and made eunuchs and servants. Those allowed to breed also ruled, as ‘Great Fathers’. The vast majority of these Great Fathers were killed during Lucerys’ conquest and his armies took advantage of the local traditions to lay with many of the local women since their conquest and defeat of the local warriors proved their strength. According to legend Lucerys the Bonebreaker partook in this as well though it has never been proven conclusively either way.

As a result of this, the vast majority of the new generation of people born in the three dominions after the war were descendants of Lucerys’ army and by new laws put in place by Lucerys, the ‘unworthy’ males were no longer gelded and the polygamous harem culture of the Great Fathers began to lose sway as the Zaldilaros Cult took root in the Hyrkoon dominions. Nonetheless the Zaldilaros Cult had not yet attained a majority in any of those dominions. The title of Great Father still remained for those who ruled the dominions on behalf of the Emperor and many of them still informally kept harems or polygamous marriages for though other males were no longer gelded, old traditions and customs that many Hyrkoonian women still gravitated particularly strongly to men of greater status, stature, comeliness, and wealth.

After subjugating the Hyrkoonian patrimonies, Lucerys also made tributaries of the realms to the east, including Yi Ti, the Jogos Nhai, N’ghai, the Thousand Isles, and Leng. Most of the rest of Lucerys’ reign was spent on further consolidation of the Empire and its Dominions with new infrastructure, great works and trade routes and the continuation of his father’s work in magic development and the proselytization of the Zaldilaros Cult.

After Lucerys there was Viserys, whom some call the Vain and others call the Brief. As the heir of a great line of emperors, Viserys was very proud, to the point of hubris and vanity many said, and he was brash and discourteous to those whom he perceived to be insulting his lineage or casting aspersions on his worthiness to be its successor.

Indeed, many had whispered that Emperor Viserys was a lesser son of greater sires, saying that he seemed to lack the skills or the will to continue the great work of his forefathers, instead being content to enjoy the pleasures of life and allowing the Empire to become decadent, complacent, and hedonistic.  He would end up enjoying life a little too much, tripping on one of the staircases in New Tide and breaking his neck when he was drunk one night barely four years into his reign in the year 263 AC/170 AZ.

Despite his mixed reputation, it was and still is considered a great tragedy, for though Viserys the Vain was no great ruler, he could not fairly be called a truly poor one either. The Empire had thrived under his brief rule, even if much of this could be attributed to the councilors and institutions that Viserys had inherited from his predecessors. Viserys was himself quite affable and charming to those he considered to have given him the proper respect and dignity befitting his status and despite his often brash attitude he was well-liked by many, though in hindsight perhaps this was due to the favors he showered upon those who were adequately obsequious to him.

With the passage of time however, some historians have cautiously suggested as much as they could dare that perhaps it was not all bad that Viserys’ reign would be a brief one for his son and heir Corlys III was considered far more molded from the same cloth as the great emperors in the past than his father was. Indeed, many wonder if Viserys the Vain and his haughtiness and pride would have guided the Empire smoothly through the coming crisis had he lived to oversee it.

For in the very first year of Corlys III’s ten-year reign, barely a scant few months after his father’s death, there was an incident in the Stepstones where Targaryen dragonriders supposedly flew too close to the islands on their way to Dorne and they were confronted by overeager Velaryon dragonriders. None of the riders in question died but many of them and their dragons were injured to varying degrees, with one at least receiving serious and life-threatening wounds.

Had Viserys the Vain still been Emperor, many believe that a Second Dance of the Dragons would have been inevitable for the proud and infamously short-tempered emperor would have seen this as the Targaryens overstepping their bounds and escalated matters unnecessarily into a new war between the two houses.

Fortunately, Viserys’ much more even-tempered son Corlys III was Emperor at the time and he negotiated with his counterpart, High King Baelon of Westeros, in order to reduce the tensions and prevent a disastrous war that was in the interest of neither house. At the time both families had had dozens of dragons, with the exact number being eighty-nine for the Velaryons and sixty-three for the Targaryens. A war between them would have crippled both realms and their ruling houses and undone a century of progress since the original Dance.

And so despite calls for aggression from members of both houses, the Targaryen High King and the Velaryon Emperor would successfully calm the storm with reparations, compensations, and negotiations to further clarify the demarcations of the exact border between the two realms in the Narrow Sea and the Dornish coastline. Unbeknownst to the general populace of both Westeros and Essos, both houses would also privately admit to each other the existence and usage of glass candles.

Corlys IV himself, as the heir of House Velaryon was privy to this information that few others were. In the original Dance of the Dragons, his ancestors had used the glass candles they had retrieved from Gogossos to slay half of House Targaryen’s dragons in a single day, effectively winning the war. The Targaryens had over decades come to suspect this was how they did it and through painstaking trial and error they had eventually learned how to use the four glass candles they had requisitioned from the Citadel.

Nonetheless the balance of power remained firmly in House Velaryon’s favor. They had hundreds of glass candles while the Targaryens had only four. They had mastered the glass candles to their highest potential and knew how to make more while the Targaryens were still beginners and wouldn’t know where to even begin when it came to making them.

Corlys III chose to finally admit earnestly the open secret both houses were long aware of (they could detect each other’s usage of glass candles with their own after all), in order to establish a secret and instantaneous line of communication between the Red Keep and New Tide to ensure that future rulers could negotiate and resolve crises between the two houses easily without risking escalation in any future incidents.

For his successful and peaceful resolution of the Second Stepstones Crisis, Corlys III would forever be remembered as the Negotiator and for the remainder of his decade long rule, he would put that diplomatic reputation to work in strengthening Velaryon influence over the Dominions and tributaries through peaceful means before he died of an unfortunate stroke at the age of fifty-four in 273 AC/180 AZ.

Perhaps his most successful accomplishment was that he gained some influence over Westeros and House Targaryen as well. Though the Treaty of Storm’s End which had ended the Dance of the Dragons had bound both houses to an agreement of non-interference in each other’s realms, Corlys the Negotiator and his counterpart in Westeros, High King Baelon, mutually agreed to bend this clause of the treaty in order to create the first intermarriages between the two houses in well over a hundred years.

The two rulers both married their youngest daughters to the other’s eldest son and heir, choosing the youngest daughters as their dragons were smallest, they knew the least about important matters of state and family magic in each respective house, and their claims were weakest out of all their children to prevent any complications in that regard especially with so many watchful cadet branches of both houses extant.

Corlys the Negotiator’s youngest daughter Visenya married Aegon, the Prince of Dragonstone, the man that would be the future High King Aegon III, and their son Aemond II was the current ruling High King of Westeros as Corlys had noted to himself earlier when he reminisced on the Targaryens’ history after the Dance. Aegon III’s youngest sister Taena Targaryen would marry the Negotiator’s eldest son, Jacaerys, Corlys’ grandfather.

At long last after such a long history and retelling, the line of emperors had finally reached someone that Corlys had known personally. His beloved grandfather had been born in 240 AC/147 AZ and he had married his grandmother, Taena Targaryen, in the year 263 AC/170 AZ. Their son, Corlys’ father, the current reigning emperor of the Velaryon Empire, Daemon I, had been born the next year in 264 AC/171 AZ.

Upon the death of his great-grandfather and namesake, Corlys the Negotiator from his tragic stroke in 273 AC/180 AZ, Corlys’ grandfather Jacaerys would ascend the throne as the first Jacaerys to reign as Emperor since Jacaerys the Great. Following in the likeness of his Negotiator father and his more diplomatic approach to governance, his grandfather had become known as Jacaerys the Just for greatly modernizing and reforming the justice system in the Empire.

He had taken a great interest in remaking and updating the ancient law code that had been present since the days of the Velaryon Triarchy and the Archonate of Tyrosh and he had personally overseen many trials and cases in his role as Emperor that would normally have been delegated to the High Justiciar and his ministry. He also had a rather Northman view to justice, coming to believe that the man who passed the sentence should swing the sword. The ancestral Valyrian steel sword held by all heads of house since Corlys I himself, Riptide, would be used by his grandfather in many executions over the course of his twenty-two-year reign.

Corlys had been three and ten when his grandfather had passed away barely three years ago from a sudden burst belly that not even their blood magic and medicine had been able to heal in time. He remembered mourning him and crying for his loss and the rest of his family and the Empire had mourned with him for the Just had been perhaps the most beloved and popular emperor since Corlys the Magnificent. He had won many friends and admirers for his personal attention to the disputes of the peerage and the plights of the common people and his reforms of many unpopular and outdated laws, including the Dauntless’ edict that only the Zaldilaros Cult could be legally practiced within the Empire of Essos proper.

While the Zaldilaros Cult was now the religion of pretty much the entire direct imperial population in every region, including the Summer Isles and Braavos, some holdouts did remain, those who professed the Zaldilaros Creed but kept their own religions in secret or groups of merchants and foreigners from the Dominions and elsewhere who wished to worship freely when they were within the Empire.

In the pursuit of fairness, to prevent any hindrances to trade, and to appease the increasingly nervous Dominions who feared that the ban on other religions would be inevitably extended to them as well, his grandfather had abolished Daeron the Dauntless’ edict and restored the old religious tolerance tax in its place, believing that a lighter hand would prove more effective in finally converting the last holdouts in the Empire and eventually the Dominions as well to the true faith now that the Zaldilaros Cult was so dominant in Essos.

Time would prove whether his grandfather was right or wrong in this belief and one day it would be Corlys’ decision to decide on the matter again. Until that day came however, he left such matters to his father, Daemon, who had reigned for the past three years since his grandfather’s passing.

His father was still very young and strong and likely had many decades to rule still. He had also been placed in a very advantageous position by the actions of his well-beloved father and grandfather who had made their house the most popular among their people that it had ever been and who had finally broken the long years of distance and distrust with House Targaryen and reforged at least in part, their old alliance.

His father was the first Velaryon Emperor to have a Targaryen mother since Corlys the Magnificent and unlike the Magnificent who had slain his Targaryen kin in the Dance, his father was exceedingly close to his first cousin Aemond II, High King of Westeros. Peace and prosperity seemed guaranteed for his father’s reign.

Inevitably however, his father would die and Corlys would be the Emperor one day. As he looked back on the line of emperors he had annotated on the last page of the biography of his famous ancestor and namesake, Corlys wondered what his place in this lineage would be.

1)      Corlys I, the Sea Snake, born 53 AC/40 BZ, reigned 86 AC/7 BZ to 132 AC/39 AZ [46 years]. (Posthumously crowned Emperor by his son Jacaerys)

2)      Jacaerys I, the Great, born 89 AC/4 BZ, reigned 132 AC/39 AZ to 147 AC/54 AZ [15 years]. (Son of Corlys I)

3)      Corlys II, the Magnificent, born 116 AC/23 AZ, reigned 147 AC/54 AZ to 198 AC/105 AZ [51 years]. (Son of Jacaerys I)
Jacaerys, the Emperor Who Never Was, born 137 AC/44 AZ, died 190 AC/97 AZ and was never Emperor. (Son of Corlys II)

4)      Daeron I, the Dauntless, born 160 AC/67 AZ, reigned 198 AC/105 AZ to 237 AC/144 AZ [39 years]. (Grandson of Corlys II, son of Jacaerys, the Emperor Who Never Was)

5)      Lucerys I, the Bonebreaker, born 180 AC/87 AZ, reigned 237 AC/144 AZ to 259 AC/166 AZ [22 years]. (Son of Daeron I)

6)      Viserys I, the Vain, born 201 AC/108 AZ, reigned 259 AC/166 AZ to 263 AC/170 AZ [4 years]. (Son of Lucerys I)

7)      Corlys III, the Negotiator, born 219 AC/126 AZ, reigned 263 AC/170 AZ to 273 AC/180 AZ [10 years]. (Son of Viserys I)

8)      Jacaerys II, the Just, born 240 AC/147 AZ, reigned 273 AC/180 AZ to 295 AC/202 AZ [22 years]. (Son of Corlys III)

9)      Daemon I, born 264 AC/171 AZ, reigned since 295 AC/202 AZ [3 years and counting]. (Son of Jacaerys II)

10)   Corlys IV, born 282 AC/189 AZ, eldest son and heir of Daemon I.

Ten glorious and storied generations had come before him since their Zaldilaros dynasty had been founded and before them there were dozens more since House Velaryon had even left Valyria and settled on Driftmark. When Corlys finally ascended as the Fourth of his Name and Emperor of Essos, he would be the tenth in his line to be named emperor starting with Corlys I and his posthumous crowning.

In his lineage there were many great and notable men, many of whom had serious flaws and vices, and yet all of them had made their mark on the history of their house and empire, and Corlys felt the weight of the expectations upon him to do the same. At times he wondered if his name wasn’t a curse. The previous three with his name had all been incredibly remarkable and noteworthy individuals and Corlys knew the Empire expected much the same out of him.

In truth he hadn’t just escaped his lessons and responsibilities for the day simple because it was a fine morning. It was because it was the last morning that he could still be free of the expectations. As he had recalled earlier, tomorrow was Zaldilaros Day, the first day of the second moon, and one of the two most important holidays in the entire year alongside Empire Day in the Eighth Moon. It was also his sixteenth nameday, a most auspicious day of birth for the future emperor he had heard many say, but he felt the weight of the expectations all the more because of that auspice.

Tomorrow Corlys came of age and his father intended to formally name him before the eyes of the entire world as the Prince of Tyrosh, the title bestowed upon all the heir apparents of their house at their coming of age since Jacaerys the Great had bestowed it upon Corlys the Magnificent at his own coming of age shortly after their victory in the Dance of the Dragons.

Once he was of age, once he was formally confirmed as the heir of the Empire and named Prince of Tyrosh, there would be no more running away from responsibility for Corlys and no more long hours spent with his nose in the history books. It was not uncommon for Princes of Tyrosh to serve as Legates, Magisters, or even both in the Holy City of Tyrosh and once he had had a few years of experience, he would not be surprised if his father called him to serve on the Imperial Councilor as Chancellor, Legate General, or some other position.

His childhood was swiftly coming to an end and Corlys didn’t know if he was ready for it. Whenever he read of the adventures and legends of his ancestors, he felt torn. A strange sense of fear that he could not live up to their accomplishments just like Viserys the Vain could not, and yet whenever that strange familiar feeling of nostalgia and wistfulness came to him, it made him feel strengthened and confident.

It was why, despite him being one of the most legendary figures in his ancestry, Corlys had never once felt like he was in the shadow of Corlys the Sea Snake despite very much feeling the shadow of the Sea Snake’s successors. He could relate to him in a way he just couldn’t anyone else and his story most evoked the feeling of familiarity and surety in his heart, more so than it did with Jacaerys the Great and Corlys the Magnificent and in a way that none after them could evoke at all.

He sometimes found himself pondering what his ancestor would do if he found himself in his place and though the answer was not always forthcoming, when he did manage to find it, he felt utmost surety and confidence in his decisions.

Yet tomorrow would also bring one decision where no turning to history or ancestors could guide him. On the morrow, dignitaries and envoys from every single nation in the world would be in attendance, as would all the peers of the empire, the Targaryen ambassador, and most importantly of all, every single member of the House of Zaldilaros Velaryon.

As if in response to his thoughts, a series of deafening roars cut through the morning sky as dozens of dragons descended upon the city of Jacaria, landing at its three Dragonpits. They had been coming for weeks now and these would be the last arrivals Corlys thought. There were over a hundred Zaldilaros Velaryon dragonriders within the empire, divided into almost twenty cadet branches and holding great estates, peerages, honors, court positions, legations, and magistrates as befit their status.

With the exception of his grandfather, not a single Velaryon Emperor had married outside their house since Jacaerys the Great had married Baela Targaryen. In fact, the blood of all four of Corlys the Sea Snake’s children flowed in every Zaldilaros Velaryon alive today, the result of decades of cousin incest and intermarriage between the cadet branches that had not only ensured the blood of the dragon remained pure but had also helped to create alliances between the various branches, strengthening their family ties and consolidating claims, inheritances, and dragons.

All of those cousins and relatives would be present at the celebrations on the morrow and they would all be wanting to secure his hand for themselves. His father had impressed upon him the importance of choosing his bride well, emphasizing that her dragon, her branch and its influence and claim, and so many other factors all had to be taken into consideration.

The Empress he chose would be of paramount importance to his reign Corlys knew, but he had no idea where to even begin in truth. He had always admired women and their appearance but none had ever held his attention for very long, making his parents worry and despair at times. He didn’t know why exactly, but he had always imagined that his future wife to be a perfect princess endowed with grace, beauty, wisdom, and just a little bit of vanity and haughty pride.

Whenever he tried to think on why it was he had dreamed up such specific traits, his heart would give no answer but the strange feeling of wistfulness and familiarity once again. And with the vast amount of choices among his many, many female cousins, one would think that Corlys would have found someone who matched those traits perfectly but he hadn’t. Even when they resembled it almost perfectly, there was just something not right, and his disappointment was even more immeasurable when it was just that little bit that was wrong.

Whether he liked it or not however, he would have to choose, and soon. His father had given him until the end of the year to choose a betrothed from among their house and he had impressed upon him that all of his options would be at the same place at the celebrations tomorrow. He would have to dance and make merry with as many of them as possible and hopefully his perfect empress and wife would be there. No pressure.

He was dragged out of his thoughts by the call of his Tide Guard informing him that his father had ordered him to see to his responsibilities and greet many of their kin who had just landed in the Dragonpits. Corlys sighed but obeyed. It seemed that his last morning free of expectations had come to an end.

_____________________________________________

Second Moon, 205 AZ

“You need to stop fidgeting Your Highness,” his ever loyal Tide Guard told him.

“Can’t help it Jarod, I need to look perfect,” Corlys replied.

He adjusted his outfit in the vanity, an impeccable doublet and pants in dark blues, golds, silvers, and sea-greens, before he turned to the portrait of Corlys the Sea Snake that hung to the side.

Perhaps it was due to all the incest and inbreeding in his family, or some strange coincidence and chance of fate, but many said that he looked exactly like all the portraits they had of the first Corlys Velaryon and he could not help but agree. With any luck, he had inherited more than just his famous ancestor’s looks but if he hadn’t he could at least be content that he looked the part of the dashing future emperor.

Turning back to his Tide Guard, he asked him. “How do I look?”

Resigned but loyal, the man answered. “Like a prince,” he said with a gracious bow.

“Thank you Orange,” Corlys said, looking at the orange badge on his belt buckle.

The service of Lord Commander Jaremy Gottwell had proved so inspiring that from the reign of Corlys the Magnificent onward, all Tide Guard would wear an orange badge as their belt buckle to commemorate the example and loyalty of Jaremy Gottwell. It just so happened that Jarod was more than just a Tide Guard like Jaremy was, he was his direct descendant as well, having been born the second son of Lord Gottwell.

It had also been starting from the reign of Corlys the Magnificent that Imperial Tide Guard protection, as the unit was now formally named, was restricted to only the children and male line grandchildren of an Emperor, past or currently reigning, as was the definition of the immediate Imperial Family, the styling of Imperial Highness, and the titles of Prince and Princess.

His future bride could be a Princess, one of his first cousins, the daughters of his father’s brothers, or it could be a more distant cousin, a lady that was the daughter or some other relative of one of the many Dragonlords within the Empire. He knew his father would prefer the latter though his uncles would certainly be pleased if he married one of their daughters. Technically speaking it could even be one of his younger sisters but though that was technically allowed, most everyone would think him a fool for doing so and wasting the potential alliance.

Regardless of who his bride would be, she waited inside that ballroom. The herald walked into the room, calling out to him. “It’s time Your Highness. I can’t delay any longer. His Majesty’s orders.”

“Well if my imperial father summons me, a good and loyal son can only obey,” he answered with a nod before walking with the herald and Jarod to the great ebony doors that were all that stood between him and a pack of jackals. He had already been invested as the Prince of Tyrosh that morning and confirmed as his father’s heir apparent. Now it was show time.

The doors swung open and the herald proclaimed. “Announcing His Imperial Highness, Crown Prince Corlys of the House of Zaldilaros Velaryon! Prince of Tyrosh and Heir Apparent of the Sea Dragon Throne! Heir to the Empire and eldest son of His Imperial Majesty, Emperor Daemon!”

There was a thunderous applause as he walked down the luxuriously carpeted stairs into the ballroom, but Corlys could see the hunger and ambition in the eyes of all who stared upon him. For the next hour he helped himself to some food, and greeted and schmoozed with all the various dignitaries from the Dominions and other realms and with all the peers, legates, and magisters of the empire.

Chief among them were of course his own relatives and kin, namels the Imperial Family and its Princes and Princesses followed by the Dragonlords, all of whom were Zaldilaros Velaryons. And then came Sealords, Marshalls, Protectors, Wardens, Keepers, Magisters, Legates, and so many more. It got a little hard to distinguish them all after a while too; the room was filled with silver and gold hair and blue and purple eyes as the vast majority of the peerage and the bureaucrats were all blessed with Valyrian descent, with many hailing from the old Valyrian noble and merchant families that had dwelt in the Free Cities before the Velaryon Liberation.

Apart from those within the Empire proper, he was also greeted by those who came from without, meeting with kings, lords, merchant princes, and councilors from the Dominions and tributaries, the Targaryen ambassador, and resisting the urge to chuckle when he saw the dignitaries from the once proud Golden Empire of Yi Ti humbling themselves before him and currying for his favor like bootlicking dogs.

The strangely nostalgic feeling had been quite strong when they had done that, almost like some part of Corlys felt pleased that they were bowing to him instead of the other way around. That had confused him a little since it was only natural that things were the way they were. No Velaryon had ever bowed to a Yi Tish in well over a hundred years and even the God-Emperor of Yi Ti himself would have no choice but to fall prostrate and kowtow if Corlys or his father ever deigned to journey to Yin.

Eventually as the music started, and he felt his father’s watchful eyes on him, Corlys sighed and began asking some of his prettier female relatives to a dance. Corlys was dancing with the third girl of the night, his second cousin Daena if he recalled correctly, when the doors opened again and a new cadet branch entered into the room.

“Announcing His Excellency, Aethan of the House of Zaldilaros Velaryon, Dragonlord and Magister of Tarhor! His lady wife and consort, Her Excellency, Lady Maella, and their only child and heir Lady Viserra of Tarhor!” the herald proclaimed.

The Tarhor branch? If Corlys recalled correctly, Lord Aethan was quite well liked among the other Dragonlords, though there were others more influential, and he had many connections, business and political, in Sarnor and Lhazar, having long championed the incorporation of both Dominions into direct imperial rule. He was also well trusted enough by his father to have been appointed as the Magister of Tarhor in addition to having a hereditary peerage and estate in the city’s environs, a concentration of power that could potentially make the Tarhor branch kings in all but name if they did not remain watchful.

Corlys had met both Lord Aethan and his wife Lady Maella before but he had never had the chance to meet their daughter Viserra. She was greatly pampered and sheltered as their only child he had heard, which would explain why he had never seen her before now and what a shame he had not because Viserra of Tarhor was the most beautiful woman he had ever laid his eyes on.

Considering the family and privileged position he had grown up in, that was an incredible statement to say the least, but it was no lie or tall tale and he was sure that everyone else in the room would agree as well, the men as awestruck as he and the women jealous and insecure, for Viserra of Tarhor put them all to shame.

She was slender and slim but had more than enough curves and thickness in all the right places. Her bottom was shapely, her bust was divine, and her deep purple dress had been cut in just the right way to show off enough to get men’s attention but not too much to make her seem like a loose woman. The slightest slits along her hips showed off her sinful legs.

Her hair was of the purest silver-gold, a perfect shade that was not too much of one or the other but a perfect union of the colors. Her face had an aristocratic sharpness and tilt to it that made her look elegant but as she noticed the speechless eyes of the crowd on her, a smile found its way onto her face and it changed how she looked entirely, making her face heart-shaped and sweet. Corlys could have sworn that their eyes met for the briefest of moments and a mischievous smirk replaced her sweet smile in that moment as she stared at him in hunger but when he blinked his eyes it was gone.

Turning back to his dance partner, he could see that Daena was remarkably unimpressed by him all but drooling over another woman and while he did not regret being captivated by Lady Viserra’s beauty, he did regret the impropriety and discourtesy with which he had treated his current partner. With a charming and disarming smile and a whispered apology, he nursed her hurt pride and had a lovely dance with her and when they had finished, he immediately went in search of one Viserra of Tarhor.

He found her surrounded by a whole crowd of suitors each hoping to get her for a dance but as he approached, that smirk of hers returned and she looked at him expectantly and waiting. Coolly and firmly Corlys made his way through the crowd of other men, all of them forced to back down now that the Crown Prince had chosen his prey.

As he finally reached his prize, Corlys bowed dramatically. “May I have this dance my lady?” he asked as she gave him his hand to kiss.

She giggled then, inappropriately for a lady perhaps but Corlys found that her laugh was as perfect as the rest of her was. “Of course, Your Highness.”

All eyes were on them as they moved to the dance floor and vaguely from the corner of his eye he could see the impressed and hopeful look on his father’s face but Corlys paid their onlookers no attention. All of him was focused on the beautiful woman in his arms.

Now that they were so close to each other, he could say that she honestly looked even more beautiful up close than from afar. There were many, many other Viserra’s in their house but none quite like Viserra of Tarhor. He realized now that just as he had inherited perfectly the looks of his namesake, so had she, looking exactly like Viserra the Sea Dragon had walked out of the portraits and into their time, right down to the exact shade of her eyes.

Her eyes… Seven save him. They were a purple so deep he could get lost in them and made her slave and he would care less. And they dilated as she stared at him, taking in every inch of him as he did her, deepening and darkening with a lust and longing so strong Corlys had to resist the sudden urge to ravage her right then and there.

As the instruments of the band began playing the familiar anthem of Rule Velaryon, they began their dance in earnest, twirling and twisting, matching the other’s every move seamlessly, like they were two old partners who had finally reunited after decades apart.

“So, tell me about yourself Lady Viserra,” Corlys asked as he twirled her around to the tune of the song’s second verse. “How old are you?”

The lady stared at him with mock offense. “Did your mother never teach you that it was bad manners to ask after a lady’s age?”

Corlys could not help but chuckle. She was a bold one he’d give her that. No other woman save his close family members would have dared to speak to him like that. The title of Crown Prince was too intimidating for most of them to be so frank. “She did,” he answered. “But my father also taught me that good manners were secondary to good governance.”

Lady Viserra was very amused. “Eight and ten,” she said at last.

“So you’re older than me,” Corlys said, a little surprised. He really didn’t know why he was. With how… developed her body was, it only made sense. Some part of him had just expected that she would be younger and he didn’t understand why.

“Is that a problem?” Lady Viserra said, with some challenge in her voice.

“Not at all,” Corlys answered truthfully. “I think I quite like it,” he said slyly.

“Oh? Does the Crown Prince and future Emperor enjoy the idea of an experienced and beautiful older woman giving him some… lessons?” she said sensually, leaning in to let him get a good look down her cleavage.

He fought the urge to blush at her forwardness and he was about to reply when she suddenly pulled back, looking insecure all of a sudden.

“I’m only japing of course Your Highness. As expected, I am a maiden,” she said, perhaps worried that he would think lowly of her.

He couldn’t deny the thrill and pleasure he felt at hearing her words. He liked to think that she only acted this way for him and he hated to see her so insecure and down. He rushed to reassure her.

“Think nothing of it. I would not dare to cast aspersions on a maiden’s virtue though I will not deny it pleases me to hear it. As I’m sure it will please you that I am much the same,” he told her.

She looked a little surprised at that. “You… you’ve never had anyone?”

“Not one,” he answered with a smile though he was hiding his own worries now. He knew that ladies often expected that their men came into marriage experienced and able at least to give them a good time in the marital bed.

His worries were for naught it seemed because a genuinely happy smile and not some sultry smirk adorned her face now. “Perhaps we might learn it then, together.”

It was Corlys’ turn to smirk. “Is that a marriage proposal my lady? Why, I must say, that is awfully forward of you,” he teased, taking pleasure in seeing her flustered and speechless for once.

Feeling a sudden fear of what her answer would be however, Corlys cut off her response. “There are more complicated considerations than just the two of us and our mutual attraction to each other of course.” At least he hoped it was mutual.

“Such as?” she asked, eyebrows raised.

“Well we have only just met for one,” Corlys pointed out. “And then we must consider the political requirements. Your place in the line of succession for one, your cadet branch’s influence, and your own dragon would all be taken into consideration as well.”

At that Lady Viserra became a little proud and overly defensive. “I am the 35th in the line of succession, I may not be a princess but I am no pauper either. My father is the great-grandson of Lucerys the Bonebreaker and he is the Dragonlord and Magister of Tarhor, wielding great influence in both the Empire proper and the Dominions, and I am his only child and heir. Furthermore, I am the rider of Starflame, a fearsome and large dragon one hundred and eighty years of age. You would only benefit should you marry me Your Highness.”

“You raise fair points my lady, but as the Emperor in waiting I must do more than simply accept your points. Some would criticize if I were to marry you. Your place in the line of succession is too low they might say; others would point out how your family branch has but three dragons to offer mine own,” Corlys countered but he felt his will faltering when the lady almost began to pout.

“Fret not my lady. It is no slight or insult to your person or your family, nor is it an outright rejection. I am simply warning you that there is much I must consider and I cannot act hastily on a matter such as this.”

“Fair enough. Shall we turn then to a more pleasing topic?” she asked.

“Whatever you wish it to be.”

“May I inquire after your dragon then Your Highness? Why did you decide to claim Tessarion? The Azure Empress may be the largest living dragon left in the world but is she not also one of the oldest? Are you not afraid that you will outlive her by far?”

“Not really. She may be two hundred and nine years old but she is still healthy and hale, and as strong as a dragon fifty years younger. I have little doubt that she has decades more in her and though I know I will for sure be her last rider, it worries me not.”

“And is there any reason in particular that you chose her when there are many dragons younger and with less concerns for their age regardless of the Azure Empress’ ability to live decades more or not?” Lady Viserra asked.

“I’m not sure to be honest. I’ve always had a great admiration and love for Jacaerys the Great I suppose and I’ve felt a strange affinity for Tessarion ever since I was young. It just felt right,” he answered earnestly.

Lady Viserra looked thoughtful and impressed at his words though it wasn’t long before a teasing smile found its way on her face once again. “And are you sure that all of this is not simply the excuse you give for choosing the largest dragon alive, one that has surpassed even Balerion the Black Dread and Vhagar in size? Are you perhaps compensating for something Your Highness?”

Why this little lady was becoming a little too bold wasn’t she? “I can assure you my lady. I have absolutely nothing that I need compensating for,” he said, with the slightest trace of warning in his voice.

To her credit the lady knew when she had gone too far and she took the rebuke well, apologizing for her words. For his part, Corlys was magnanimous and he accepted her apology quickly and soon they had moved on to other topics of conversation. Rule Velaryon was almost coming to an end now but he had little desire to change partners.

Though her words irked him at times when she went too far, Corlys found that it was a minute flaw he was more than willing to forgive her. He wasn’t sure why but he had a feeling that her overly forward and teasing demeanor was an attempt by the sheltered Lady Viserra to form a lasting connection and impression on him and make her remember him, even if it did not go entirely as she intended at times.

If he was to put it simply, she was trying to seduce him. Quite successfully too if he might add. Normally when women tried overly hard to seduce him Corlys grew distrustful of them. It was never him they wanted but the crown after all. Yet something told him that despite her vain and haughty demeanor, Viserra of Tarhor could never be so shallow as to pursue him solely for his crown. There was something else motivating her.

He could feel it in the way she clung to him while they danced like she would lose him forever if she let go. He could sense it in the way she watched his every step. Yes, there was lust, there was desire and hunger, of course. But more than just a carnal craving for something purely physical or an attraction to his power, there was a true yearning and longing in the way Lady Viserra carried herself. If Corlys was more experienced, he might even call it love.

And that was a mystery he desired deeply to solve. Because this was the first time that they had ever met and while he could very much see himself falling in love with Viserra of Tarhor and she him and he would understand if she lusted for his throne and his body, he really couldn’t comprehend why she would love him right now when before today she had never known him at all.

Soon the song shifted from Rule Velaryon to The Seafarer and his Seastar, a famous ballad that had been inspired by the legend of Corlys I and his wife, Viserra the Sea Dragon. In the ballad, the man, based on Corlys, is a seafarer who is lost at sea and trying desperately to find his way home when he sees a star over the sea that guides him home and finds that it was the woman of his dreams, said woman of course being inspired by the historical Princess Viserra.

It was quite a romantic song altogether, just one of many that had been inspired by the legends of the original Corlys and Viserra. It fit almost too well given that they, the namesakes of the pair that had inspired the song, were still dancing, to the point that he wondered if his father had intentionally ordered the band to play it.

He had thought that the song would amuse Lady Viserra and that perhaps she might tease him about it but he found that her mood had become increasingly somber and desperate as the song continued. Trying to uplift her spirit, he asked after her dragon.

“Which dragon do you ride again my lady? I believe you mentioned it earlier but I find myself forgetting,” Corlys said.

That was a lie. He had not forgotten a single word that Lady Viserra had spoken all evening, but he wanted to lift her mood if he could. In his experience, asking after a dragonrider’s dragon never failed to make them happy.

“Starflame Your Highness,” she answered with a slight smile and Corlys felt pleased at having lifted her mood, even if only just a little.

“If I recall correctly, that is the she-dragon that Princess Serra rode into the Dance of the Dragons, am I wrong?”

“You are not. My beloved Star’s first rider was indeed Princess Serra, the daughter of Lucerys the Loyal and Rhaena the Radiant.”

“Our dragons have something in common then,” Corlys said.

“Hmm?” Lady Viserra was confused.

“They may be thirty years apart in age, but they are both daughters of the Blue Queen,” Corlys clarified.

“Ah. Yes, I see what you mean now,” she replied.

“I must say Tessarion looks quite a lot like her, at least from what I can tell from all the paintings and descriptions we have. Her coloring is wrong with the bronze and her shade of blue is completely different, but the way her head and body is shaped is exactly like the Blue Queen. Her blood ran strong in Tessarion,” Corlys said, though he wondered why he felt that strange feeling of wistfulness again when he thought of the Blue Queen.

“Starflame as well. Her shade of pale blue is exactly the same, and if not for the white instead of silver and the presence of violet where the Blue Queen had none, it almost feels like Dreamfyre has come to life again in Starflame.” There was a bittersweet note in her voice as she spoke, one that reminded Corlys almost of someone having a fond but wistful recollection of their beloved childhood pet. Why would she be like this over a dragon that had perished well over a hundred years before she was even born? It confused him as much as it felt right to him.

“She was an exceptionally beautiful dragon,” he said, lost in his thoughts.

“Dreamfyre?” his dance partner asked with what almost seemed to be hope in her enthralling eyes.

“Starflame I meant,” he clarified, crushing the corner of his mind that insisted he had actually been referring to Dreamfyre. “All white-blue and violet. She must be stunning to behold.”

“She is.”

“Though not quite as stunning as her rider I am sure,” Corlys flirted.

Lady Viserra blushed at the unexpected compliment. “Would you like to see her for yourself to do the comparison then?” she asked him once she had recovered.

“I would. Where is she anyway? You did bring her here to Jacaria yes?”

Lady Viserra sighed. “The Third Dragonpit.”

“The Third?” Corlys reacted, aghast. “But that is all the way on the other side of the city!”

The Third Dragonpit had been built during his grandfather’s reign in order to prepare for the future when their house had even more and even larger dragons but Corlys had never anticipated that it would be used so soon. At the last count, there were one hundred and seven dragons in the Velaryon Empire, all of them ridden by members of his house, the House of Zaldilaros Velaryon and its various cadet branches, and all of them currently present in Jacaria for the Zaldilaros Day celebrations.

The Dragon Den beneath New Tide could hold up to twelve dragons and the stables and courtyards in the castle above could hold another eight easily with room to spare if they wanted to cram even more, though it was normally reserved only for the dragons of the immediate Imperial Family. The Three Dragonpits were each supposed to have forty vaults large enough to host Balerion or rather Tessarion-sized dragons and Corlys knew for a fact that not nearly all of their one hundred and seven dragons were anywhere near that large.

If the dragons were not Tessarion-sized, bonded pairs, mates, siblings, friends, and so forth could be kept in the same vaults to save on space, especially for short durations like this celebration would be. When combined with New Tide’s own capacity, if his calculations were correct, there should have been absolutely no need for Starflame to be housed in the Third Dragonpit.

There was the slightest trace of bitterness… or was it annoyance in Lady Viserra’s voice when she spoke next. “Well we can’t all be so fortunate as to have the Dragon Den reserved for our own usage Your Highness. I assume that is where Tessarion is? It’s very convenient I am sure.”

“Still I would have assumed that a prestigious and large old dragon like Starflame could have been hosted in the Second Dragonpit at the very least, if not the First. Both of those are much closer to New Tide than the Third, all the way up near the north gate as it is,” Corlys said.

“As you yourself pointed out Your Highness, my parents and I are but three, as are our dragons. There are other branches with more dragons than us and they received higher priority in the placement of their dragons for this celebration. It’s not all bad. At the very least our dragons do have housing for themselves and the Third Dragonpit is extremely roomy and open and I’m sure they like it there much more than they would have in the crammed vaults of the First and Second,” Lady Viserra said, trying to be positive though Corlys was sure she too was unhappy about the long distance between herself and her dragon.

“Tell you what. Tessarion is indeed below us in the Dragon Den right now. Whenever you or your parents want to see your own dragons, just let me know and I can fly you over to the Third Dragonpit. It would be good I think to exercise Tessa’s old wings a little and to see how things are over in the Third pit, and I do want to meet Starflame and see her for myself as you suggested.”

“Oh Your Highness, did you just offer me a ride on your dragon?” she asked in a husky whispered voice, batting her eyes with deceptive innocence and a mockingly scandalized expression.

This damn woman and her innuendos! Two could play at that game Corlys decided.

“Yes,” he replied in a husky voice of his own, cupping her perfectly round bottom with his left hand to make his meaning perfectly clear. He meant it too. If Lady Viserra of Tarhor wished to tease him so much then he was perfectly willing to make her answer for it, make her walk the talk so to speak. He imagined that it would be a very enjoyable first time with such a beautiful woman.

“And what is your reply to that?” he asked.

To his slight surprise and his immense satisfaction, Lady Viserra blushed furiously. She averted her eyes and almost fanned herself with her fingers. “You have to marry me first if you want to do that,” she finally managed to say.

“And do you want me to?” he asked her, finally getting to the point. They had discussed the merits of marrying already but Lady Viserra had never made her intentions explicitly clear though anyone could have guessed them long ago. He wanted to hear it from her own lips. He wanted to know why she looked at him as if her very soul was yearning for him and his love.

Instead of answering him, she asked him a question of her own, summoning all the courage she had. “Tell me my prince, do you ever have incredibly lucid dreams that make you feel as if you are reliving certain events in history? Are you ever struck by these strange feelings of familiarity, nostalgia, or wistfulness whenever you think about certain things? Do these feelings and dreams come to mind particularly about our namesakes; Corlys the Sea Snake, Viserra the Sea Dragon, and their children?”

Corlys froze. He had never told anyone about his strange experiences, not his parents, not his siblings, no one. He knew that he would never be able to truly explain them enough for anyone to understand and so he had simply accepted them and did his best not to dwell on it too much.

“How do you know about these? I have never once told even a single person about these experiences,” Corlys demanded, growing angry and fearful.

And yet despite his raised voice, Lady Viserra did not shrink away in fear nor did her own temper rise up to challenge his. Instead she almost burst into tears and Corlys panicked and held her closely to himself, trying to hide her distraught as part of their dance lest he be lectured by his father for making a maiden cry.

“Forgive me,” Lady Viserra choked out. “These are tears of relief, of joy. I had almost lost all hope, cursing at whatever higher beings there are for condemning me to a life without you, but at last after eighteen long years I’ve found you again my love.”

Her very voice had seemed to shift entirely, making her sound like someone else altogether. The vain mask that Lady Viserra of Tarhor had worn had all but vanished, replaced with someone open and honest about their heartfelt yearning for him. But why? The answer was right in his face, pressing her face desperately into his chest to hear his quickening heartbeat but Corlys was still in denial. It was insane to even consider it!

“Marry me again darling. Then we can make the most of this second chance of ours. Here in this wonderful world that our descendants have made, we have a chance to be peaceful and carefree. Together.”

“Who are you?” Corlys begged, desperately wanting to know but deep in his heart he knew the answer already.

Viserra looked up at him from where she laid on his chest and snaked his way up to whisper in his ear, making him flinch. “I’m someone special to you in a way that cannot be put into words,” she said before she kissed him.

Her red rosy lips were full and lovely. She tasted sweet and intoxicating, she tasted of chocolate and wine, of love and longing. She tasted of home. As Viserra deepened the kiss, Corlys remembered, almost like her very touch was stirring up the memories in him.

He remembered voyages upon the sea, great storms, adventures, and conquests. He remembered loving her. He remembered the children they had given each other, the children they had raised and taught how to be good and great. He remembered a lifetime at her side in a pale fortress they had destroyed. He remembered the way they had died together in fire and water, a legendary last stand immortalized in history.

When they finally broke the kiss, the entire ballroom was staring at them in shock, with some more prudish individuals even sporting scandalized expressions. Viserra looked at him nervously, perhaps fearing that he still did not remember her. “Corlys…”

He held her tightly, never wanting to let her go again and she smiled and tightened her own embrace around him. And all the Empire knew then that the future Emperor Corlys IV Velaryon had chosen his bride. What they did not know was that he had chosen her over two hundred years ago and now he was renewing his commitment to her in a new life. A wonderful final conclusion for the Legend of Corlys the Sea Snake and Viserra the Sea Dragon.

The End

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Author’s Note: And that’s a wrap for High Tide! Sorry if the exposition dump was too long but I hope I was able to convey it in a way that did make sense, being Corlys’ thoughts on history and his past self’s subconscious obsession to know everything he could after his death. Did any of you see the twist coming before this chapter? Was it a nice surprise? I laid the groundwork for this epilogue back in 71 and have been planning it for years so I hope it has delivered on expectations!

Honestly it feels a little surreal that High Tide has finished at long last but I can’t deny the feeling of pride and accomplishment and some bittersweetness that I am now left with. When I started this story as a sideshow to Land of the King way back in 2020, I could never have imagined what it would have grown to become, or how it would become what is truly I think, my magnum opus so far.

Lmk all your thoughts in the comments below or over on the Discord. If you have any questions about any of the worldbuilding or so forth for the world in the epilogue, do ask them in the comments or on Discord as well and I will be sure to answer them! https://discord.com/invite/NSEwuzpcWm

Reminder that this exists. Any of you have the time and knowledge to really make it pop? Please do contribute if so now that the story has come to a close! https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/HighTide

Stay tuned for Divide and Conquer!

Also some maps for this chapter on Imgur!
https://i.imgur.com/Y4rS9iO.png
https://i.imgur.com/CWs40Mb.png