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

[iwillnotlookback]

Tell me of this trouble and the cause of the famine. What turtle do you speak of?

[virginprice]

This city rests on the back of a giant turtle, far larger than any such that exists in my world, and perhaps in yours too. It is called Tu Vishan, and they say that it is ill and thus... I do not know why its illness affects everything, but it is making it more difficult to grow food and to make other supplies. Even the buildings in which we live have come under stress.

[iwillnotlookback]

[ Dany has seen such wonders in the vast wide world, from Braavos to Qarth. A city on the back of a giant turtle is strange, no mistake, but so must dragons be to those who have never known them. ]

Another girl tells me we have been brought here to be heroes, to save this city of Tu Vishan in its hour of peril. Likely whatever ails the great beast is related to our task.

[ Or perhaps it's only a distraction, and the true task is something else entirely. A grim thought. She needs to be home with her people. ]

[virginprice]

[She takes that quite a bit more calmly than many would. He wonders what she's seen that makes it so.]

I am a scholar, not a warrior- and certainly no hero. [He says it without any sign of bitterness.] I do not see why I was taken, in that case. But you may be right, though they have said nothing of our task in relation to its illness if that is so.

[iwillnotlookback]

You do yourself little credit to speak of your profession so ill. Are scholars not warriors of the mind, after a fashion? Without your wisdom cities would crumble into dust, men and women would die of any passing illness, and history would be lost to us.

That very wisdom may be the reason for your presence.

[virginprice]

[He smiles a bit.]

You speak with a monarch's diplomacy, your grace. I shall hope that what you say is true and that the history and poetry of my homeland can assist in some way so that we may return to whatever fate awaits us.

[iwillnotlookback]

If the gods are good, our wait will be a short one.

[virginprice]

We must have faith in them, I suppose.

[iwillnotlookback]

[ Dany supposes far less. Whatever gods have dominion here, they are as alien as this city and the beast upon whose back it resides. They are no friends of hers or of his. ]

Do you have faith, Alcuin?

[virginprice]

I... do not know. I try. I know that the will of the gods is not always easy, and they do not always show themselves directly. If I am here and not where I ought to be, Blessed Elua must have a reason for it.

[But he was cruelly served by his gods, and though he tries to tell himself that they do not interfere in mortal events unless there is great need, it is hard to persuade himself sometimes.]

[iwillnotlookback]

May that bring you comfort.

But I am the blood of the dragon, and my place is with my people.

[virginprice]

I wish it brought me more than it does.

I understand- I am d'Angeline, and I belong in my land. We are not meant for exile.

[iwillnotlookback]

No man or woman is.

[virginprice]

[He hesitates like he's going to say something else, and then nods, his face rather chagrined.]

You are right, of course.

[iwillnotlookback]

You disagree? Speak freely, I give you my leave.

[virginprice]

I was going to say somewhat foolish, and I would prefer to retain an appearance of sense.

[His tone is rather self-deprecating, wryly amused at his own prejudices.]