first. }{ video.

[iwillnotlookback]

 [ The girl on the screen looks younger than her years, and she is still rather young. Only sixteen, the burnt-away stubble of silvery-blonde hair highlights her sharp cheekbones and draws attention to her large violet eyes in a way that makes her look like a doll. A very feral sort of doll. Her expression can be best described as a mixture of irritation, weariness, and childlike curiosity. And over it all a mask of regality. Nearly bald and ragged-looking she may be, she still looks every inch a queen. ]

Tell me, are all our dear hosts so exceptionally skilled in making obeisance and providing obfuscation for their master? I ask the reason for my presence and they tell me that knowledge is the Emperor's. I demand to know where my dragon is and they simper and apologize. Not one will deign to give me a clear answer, only riddles. More riddles. I am weary of riddles.

[ Dany sighs, a certain something in the way her eyes slip briefly closed betraying just how very tired she is. It never ends, does it? At least she is clean now. The first thing she did when the kedan led her to her quarters was bathe, soaking away her aches and pains and scrubbing off the accumulated weeks' worth of filth and blood in water heated near to boiling. Merely world-weary is marginally better than being both world-weary and filthy. ]

Very well. If we are to be companions in entrapment, we might at least know one another. I am Daenerys Stormborn of House Targaryen, Mother of Dragons, a khaleesi of the Dothraki, Queen of Meereen and rightful Queen of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros. I would know you, and whatever you can tell me. [ Pause. ] And if you have seen a dragon, say, the size of an aurochs, colored black and red, I would know that too. You will be well rewarded, I swear. Though I beg you not to approach him, as his temperament is…quite volatile.

Comments

[sophos]

Not at all. Pretty sure a large portion of the kidnapped were.

I was speaking in a general sense, because circumstances vary depending where you are, the nature of the environment, the people, the authority, etc. I've never had the best luck with police, personally. But here, there's an element of obedience to Evandau and thus to Emperor Eshai on top of upholding the laws. Some of the laws are mundane and ridiculous, but there has been evidence in the past of a willingness to use extreme force, against both kedan and foreigner alike.

[iwillnotlookback]

[ Her mouth is a thin line, lips pressed together as she listens. ]

I pray you speak from heresay and not experience.

[sophos]

There were threatened executions for law-breaking in regards to trespassing within the shell of the turtle, though that was more the Emperor's decree than anything else.

Some of the sectors have gangs - of kedan - and back when people first started arriving here, Evandau killed some who were staging a public execution of two of the foreigners. The foreigners were saved.

But the police hold and secure the Emperor's authority. To be fair, many of the kedan are loyal to Eshai, and execution isn't the default. Arrest is more likely. Which, you know, break the law, that's technically how it's supposed to go.

[iwillnotlookback]

Ofttimes a ruler must use threats to keep the unruly and lawless in line, and if what you say is true we unwilling guests are at least afforded her protection. Nothing you say sounds outrageous...yet.

Do you know what lies within the great beast's shell, that the Emperor would forbid any to venture there?

[sophos]

The warning and threats just made people more suspicious and more inclined to see what was down there. There's too much frustration over months, and we have very little say in anything. I'm not sure we have protection exactly either. Just because someone has power, it doesn't mean they're infallible or correct in their choices.

A sewer system and aqueducts. At the least. It was actually damaged, which was part of the reason to warn against trespassers, but no one threatens executions over that without secrets to keep.