"You use magic as if it is as easy as breathing to you," Rhaella complimented in genuine appreciation, watching how easily Ignis was reforming the structure of the volcano around them.
"You should see Erebus, my brother, when it comes to rune work," Ignis commented with a dismissive wave of his hand, as if his own impressive rune work were nothing compared to his sibling.
"Oh, and I found these living here," Ignis added before turning his attention to the pool of calm lava moving beside them.
He raised his hand, commanding the molten rock. The lava began to churn and bubble violently before several figures started exiting the magma.
The first ones to crawl out of the lava and the deep crevasses of the volcano were little worm-like beings with sizes ranging from the length of a finger to that of a forearm.
They possessed bodies that seemed to be made of obsidian armor with a faint, glassy shine. Their heads were shaped like a wedge, featuring small heat-sensing pits for eyes and a circular maw lined with tiny basalt teeth that left no gaps.
There were about a thousand of these smaller ones that emerged, skittering over the hot rocks.
They were followed by five worms the length of ships that breached the surface of the lava.
Following them were the bones and carcasses of dead worms in various stages of decay, ranging from the size of a horse to one truly colossal worm that must have been a terror in its prime.
Rhaella recognized the beings in front of her immediately.
They were the Fire Worms of Valyrian legend. They were said to have the ability to breathe fire and were considered the most dangerous beings one could encounter beneath the earth. She inspected them for a moment.
They were currently restrained by the Ignis' magic, and she found that the worms would not try to attack her. They had recognized the power gap and knew they were no match for her.
"This was an unexpected boon," she muttered to herself.
Rhaella and Ignis spent the next hour inspecting the worms while Rhaella asked Ignis for some specific spells and runes to aid in what she had planned.
Ignis left after the hour was up, and with him, the wolves, serpents, and wraiths departed as well, for their work on the terrain was done.
The fire worms remained docile as Rhaella was now using her own magic to restrain them. It was not much of a problem for her to hold them, but she knew she could not stand there forever.
"Let us get on with getting you all to behave, shall we?" she muttered to the restrained fire worms in front of her.
Although the worms were no danger for her, they would be a danger for the population of the island as they were still wild, dangerous animals.
She raised her hand and was about to perform her magic, but she paused in the moment as she noticed the time.
She had spent a significant amount of time on the island, and the training and studying hours of her children must be complete by now.
She thought for a moment before teleporting to the living room in Skoll's mansion.
She found her children and Skoll sitting by the hearth. Daenerys smiled broadly as she noticed her mother before jumping into her arms with a cheer.
Rhaella held her little girl in her arms and kissed her forehead before greeting Viserys and Skoll with a warm caress on their cheeks as well.
"Will you all come with me? I have something to show you all," she asked.
She got immediate agreement from all three of them. Hati exited the shadows as well and nuzzled Rhaella's face with his snout, getting a chuckle from the woman and the girl in her arms.
"You can join as well," Rhaella said and patted the wolf.
Everyone was teleported to the new island formed by Rhaella in an instant. The thousand former slaves were in the initial stages of building a little town for themselves on the coast.
Because of the help of the creatures Ignis had brought with him, they had already made long huts for them to stay in temporarily while the construction of the town would continue.
Skoll and Viserys noticed the tattoos on the faces of the people and had deduced who they were from that alone, while Daenerys was still ignorant of the mark's meaning.
Rhaella had her horns and wings out, which gave the people an idea of who she was immediately, as they had not seen her human form before this.
Two young men ran up to the group and knelt before Rhaella.
"We are at your service, Dāria," they spoke in unison, using the Common Tongue.
Viserys raised an eyebrow as Dāria translated to Goddess in High Valyrian.
He shrugged after a moment when he thought his mother may have shown herself to them in her dragon form, naturally leading to this perception.
"These are my children. Please, show them around and tell them of how we met," Rhaella instructed in a gentle voice before placing Daenerys on Hati's back.
The two men nodded with their fists over their hearts. Their reverence extended to Viserys, Daenerys, and Skoll, whom they discovered were the children and companion of their goddess.
In their eyes, this made the three of them divine beings as well. They looked at Skoll with appreciation and were not intimidated, as his massive size made sense for a divine being.
Rhaella had not specified Skoll to not be her son, so they had made the assumption themselves.
Though, that did not bother anyone present.
Rhaella nodded to Skoll before they both moved toward the volcano, while Daenerys and Viserys were shown around the island.
"I am proud of you," Skoll told her with a soft smile as they walked up the slope toward the caldera.
"It was more of a sudden whim than something planned," Rhaella said with a dismissive wave of her hand.
"I did not say it was planned. I commend your willingness to help those in need even with all you have been through," Skoll said gently.
He had gotten to know what Rhaella had said to Viserys not long ago about her detachment from the people of Westeros, so this act of kindness stood out to him.
Rhaella did not speak. She just reached out and held Skoll's hand, a small smile adorning her face.
"Impressive rune work," Skoll muttered as they entered the volcano.
He had a thoughtful frown on his face as he seemed to be recalling something.
"A daemon named Ignis did all this. Do you know of him?" Rhaella asked.
She chuckled as a look of realization immediately adorned Skoll's face the next instant.
"I know of him. It was in his domain where I met Hati for the first time," Skoll said with a nod as they reached the heart of the volcano, where the fire worms stayed, still bound by magic.
"I was going to perform a ritual spell on them. Will you help me?" Rhaella asked, gesturing toward the writhing mass of worms.
Skoll simply nodded.
She let go of his hand and raised both her arms toward the worms. Liquid, pure Valyrian steel released from her arms, flowing like mercury before forming rune-carved pillars around the worms.
Rhaella had harvested a great deal of Valyrian steel from the body of Doom, which she was using to make the pillars in that moment.
In addition to that, she also had the ability to turn normal steel into Valyrian steel, although that took a lot of time and magical energy.
After the pillars were formed, she looked back to Skoll, who was inspecting the runes on the pillars with a hand on his chin.
He tilted his head before moving toward the pillars and started adding some of his own runes into the metal with the help of Rhaella.
They discussed what she wished the ritual spell to achieve and worked toward making it possible. They used the bodies of the dead worms as materials to draw runes on the ground and even on the living worms themselves.
It took them an hour and a half to draw the runes, transforming the whole clearing into a maze of intricate drawings.