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[MEEREEN - GREAT PYRAMID]
"The mission to Yunkai was a resounding success. The Wise Masters of Yunkai have agreed to cede power to a council of elders, made up of both the freedmen and the former slaveholders. All matters of consequence will be brought to you for review."
"A victory... finally" Daenerys muttered softly.
"They did ask for some concessions."
"Concessions?"
"Politics is the art of compromise, your grace."
"I'm not a politician. I'm a queen."
"And a queen must understand the art of politics if she wishes to rule true and proper and keep her people in line. You can't win all the battles with just your dragons. Politics will bring you just as many victories if done right, and with fewer men lost" Jon Arryn explained.
He was a Hand to a King. Daenerys nodded and kept his advice tucked in close. She would use it, she made that promise to herself.
"Forgive me. You're right, of course. Still, it's easier to rule happy subjects than angry ones."
"I don't expect the Wise Masters to be happy. Slavery made them rich, I ended slavery."
"They do not ask for the return of slavery. They ask for the re-opening of the fighting pits."
"Fighting Pits?" Daenerys asked.
"They are arenas in the Slave Cities of Astapor, Meereen and Yunkai. Within the pits, beasts are pitted against beasts, pit fighters against fellow fighters, beasts against fighters, and even beasts against slave children, dwarfs, or crones, all for the entertainment of onlookers, which includes nobility and the general populace" Varys explained.
"Of course, they'd want this thing back" Robb muttered in disgust.
Daenerys did not look too pleased either.
"The pitfighters that you liberated plead for this opportunity. Bring some here and ask them yourself."
"That is because that is all they know" Varys sighed. "As I mentioned, children fight as well. Some of these pit fighters have been doing it since they were children, it is all they know."
"Opening them would show the people of Yunkai and Meereen that you respect their traditions."
"I do not respect the tradition of human cockfighting."
"As it should be," Sansa said hotly. What was there to respect in such traditions and customs? Where people were reduced to such levels for entertainment and nothing more?"
[GREAT PYRAMID - BEDROOM]
"Whatever he wants from me he's not going to get it. If he really believes I'm going to reopen the fighting pits..."
"You should reopen the fighting pits."
Many were surprised by the response.
"My mother was a whore, I told you that. She liked to drink pear brandy. The older she got, the less she made selling her body, the more she wanted to drink. So one day when I was 12, she sold me to a slaver she fucked the night before. I was a bad child. I wasn't big, but I was quick. And I loved to fight. So they sold me to a man in Tolos who trained fighters for the pits. I had my first match when I was 16.
"You were sold into slavery, forced to fight to the death for the amusement of the masters, and you're defending the fighting pits?"
"It doesn't make sense" Shireen frowned.
"I'm only here because of those pits. I learned to fight like a Dothraki screamer, a Norvoshi priest, and a Westerosi knight. Soon I was famous. 10,000 men and women screamed my name when I stepped into the pit. I made so much money for my master he set me free when he died. I joined the Second Sons, and then I met you."
"I still see no reason here" Myrcella muttered.
"You're the queen. Everyone's too afraid of you to speak the truth. Everyone but me. You've made thousands of enemies all across the world. As soon as they see weakness, they'll attack. Show your strength here, now."
"That's why I have the Unsullied patrolling the streets."
[DAARIO scoffs]
"Anyone with a chest full of gold can buy an army of Unsullied. You're not the Mother of Unsullied. You're the Mother of Dragons."
"I don't want another child's bones dropped at my feet. No one's seen Drogon in weeks. For all I know he's flown halfway across the world. I can't control them anymore."
"Don't give up on them" Rhaegar sighed. "You're the one that hatched them, you're connected to them in a way no other would ever be. Reach out to them, reach out and they'll reach back."
"How do I reach out?" Daenerys asked.
"That... I'm unsure. I was never a Dragonrider, and the Dragonriders just knew how to reach out. They never explained."
"Of course... why make it easier for me..." Daenerys huffed.
"A dragon queen with no dragons is not a queen."
Daenerys flinched at the harshness of the words. But they were not wrong. What was she without her dragons?
[DRAGON PIT]
[DAENERYS walks into the room where the dragons are being held. She hears chains rattling.]
"Viserion? Rhaegal?"
[The two fully grown dragons start snapping, screaming, and breathing fire at her.]
"Easy. Easy. Easy."
[They keep breathing fire and roaring so she leaves the room, terrified.]
"I've lost them," Daenerys said sadly.
"You've hurt them" Rhaegar corrected. "You hatched them, they trust you more than they trust anyone else. And you chained them."
"Drogon killed a child."
"Drogon needs to be trained. For all intents and purposes, he's a wild dragon and nothing more. You must be brave and train him, not lock him up, lock any of them up. Dragons are creatures of the sky, they love freedom more than anything else. They grow best when freed and they hunt like any animal. You must train them to not overpower their nature but to tilt it slightly so they're looking where you want them to look. You must connect with them, lead them, and make them understand right from wrong."
Daenerys looked away. How would she do all that? She had nothing to help her, no one to help her. How was she going to be a Dragon Queen if she never understood her Dragons?
[CASTLE BLACK - MANCE'S CELL]
[JON SNOW enters the room.]
"When we first met you were my prisoner. And now, for our last meeting...
"This doesn't have to be our last meeting."
"No, but it will be."
"You know what Stannis wants?"
"He wants me to bend the knee. And he wants the free folk to fight for him. I'll give him this much: he's bold."
"Shouldn't a king be bold?"
"Oh, aye. I respect him. If he gets what he wants, I expect he'll be a better ruler than the fools sitting on the Iron Throne the last hundred years."
Stannis lowered his head to hide his smile. People still believed in him... even if he didn't believe much in himself.
"But I'll never serve him."
"You told me you weren't here to conquer. You told me your people have bled enough."
"That's right. But I don't want them bleeding for Stannis Baratheon either."
"You spent your life convincing 90 clans to come together for the first time in history. Thenns and Hornfoots, the ice-river clans, even the giants. A life's work uniting them. You didn't do it for power.
You didn't do it for glory. You brought them together to save them because none of them will survive the winter, not if they're north of the wall. Isn't their survival more important than your pride?"
"Pride? Fuck my pride. This isn't about that. They followed me because they respected me. Because they believed in me. The moment I kneel for a Southern king that's all gone."
"Would they all abandon him if he bends the knee? Or is it something he thinks?" Bran asked.
"The Free Folk are proud people, with their beliefs and customs" Ned explained. "Mance has the right of it, if he kneels then none of them will follow him."
Which meant Ned's initial plans were for nought. Now, he must think from scratch.
"How will they do it? Beheading? Hanging?"
"They'll burn you alive."
"Bad way to go. I'll be honest with you, I don't want to die. And burnt to death, I don't want people to remember me like that. Scorched and screaming. But it's better than betraying everything I believe."
"And what happens to your people? You preserve your dignity and die standing, and they'll sing songs about you. "You'd rather burn than kneel. The great hero." Until winter comes, and the white walkers come for us all, and there's no one left to sing."
"You're a good lad. Truly, you are. But if you can't understand why I won't enlist my people in a foreigner's war, there's no point explaining."
"The Free Folk are people who pride themselves in being free from all reigns and rules of those they do not deem to be a good fit to lead them. They would never bend, bow or break for anyone" Oberyn spoke, his voice hoarse and his tone lacking the usual amusement. "They are like Dorne in that regard, I suppose."
"Unbent, unbowed, unbroken" Robb muttered. How do you bring such people into the fold?