Prince Reggio Haratis had always considered himself a cautious man.
Not timid. Not weak.
Just… careful.
Careful men lived longer in Pentos.
Careful men kept their heads when magisters quarreled, when sellswords shifted loyalties, and when distant wars threatened to become very close ones.
It was his careful self that navigated all of these and subsequently made him rise to the role of prince.
More of a ceremonial position with a lot of risky intricacies... but Reggio was confident that he could handle it.
Yet for all the caution he had… he still had made many mistakes.
Principle of which was when he chuckled.
Not openly. Not in public where disapproving actions carried weight.
But in private.
When his employed captains and sellers brought him reports from their seafaring travels…
When they spoke of strange happenings in the Narrow Sea… Prince Reggio had dismissed them then.
For they were about a bronze lord beneath the waves.
Some "Bronze of the Deep".
The Bold Bronze's feats were very storied at that point… but something about dredging the seas and transforming into a Deep One was a bit much.
So, Reggio was amused... and a disbelieving chuckle was what he remembered to have let out.
More so when even more absurd matters were being disseminated.
So, he had waved it off as sailor's tales. Or something along those lines.
What caught his attention on a more serious note was actually the Triarchy's intent to go full force on their crusade against Westeros.
For he worried that such a tripartite force would turn its attention to another Free City... especially Pentos.
Who could have imagined that an even greater force would emerge? To the point that it practically submerged the former.
With all that in mind, Reggio exhaled slowly as he stood upon his manse's balcony, overlooking the pale domes and harbors of Pentos.
The usual views he should have seen... has now changed...
Especially when he noted that certain sails and ships that should have been common in their domain... has become rare or gone entirely.
Specifically those that should have been from those three cities.
Those three cities that were as good as gone.
Not entirely destroyed… but taken.
Just recently claimed.
A disturbing reality that made the prince of Pentos fist his hands tighter.
For the Triarchy was no more.
In its place… something arguably worse might have risen.
The Bronze.
Not a myth.
Not a rumor.
Not just some strange force in the sea.
But a man.
Named Ronan Royce.
A name that had begun to circulate more and more in recent time. More so than it had been some years ago.
Back then... Royce was just a young upstart in the Westeros's Vale... some daring adventurer of Northern Essos... a lucky or dubious dragonslayer... a man that whisked away Westeros's Delight... a supposed one-man army... and even that chuckle-inducing "Bronze of the Deep".
To think that with such a list of feats already... there was still more that could go above and beyond.
Through being a master of monsters... and breaker of cities.
Reggio had already begun to hear all of this in a different tune for a while.
These stories truly sounded absurd at first… until they aren't.
And when that acceptance settled in, Reggio could only let out a sigh... and inadvertently churn his thoughts into panic.
Especially when Pentos was not far.
And that was the problem.
Across the Narrow Sea… beyond the shipping lanes… lay Runestone, the seat of this ever-rising power.
And since Ronan Royce had already crossed into an established extent of Essos itself… no longer making do with savage islands… or ghost and secret cities... what's stopping him from going further?
What's stopping him from looking toward Pentos next? Like how the Triarchy could have.
These questions arose... and Reggio's mind raced through possibilities.
Sure... Pentos had walls.
Aye... it had sellswords.
By the Gods... it had wealth.
But so had the Triarchy.
And they had fallen in less than a handful of years.
So, who could blame Reggio for overthinking things? Seeing threats when there's none?
He even dreaded the sight of a bronze-sigiled sails on the horizon and on the docks.
Every delay in trade with those Royce merchants could elicit dissatisfaction that he desperately wanted to avoid.
Even the rumors and gossips of the city, Reggio so hoped to control… so that the wrong words would not make their way to the ears of bronze knights.
Even the silence of the sea itself was no solace... for who knows what waited underneath.
Under these circumstances... Prince Reggio no longer slept easily.
As more waves of worry assailed him ever since...
Fortunately… not all paths were closed to him.
As an opportunity had presented itself.
Strange, unexpected… and perhaps dangerous in its own way.
But...
It was better than waiting helplessly.
It was better than nothing.
For a family of three had arrived in Pentos not long ago.
Travelers and sightseers... by all appearances and intents.
Yet not ordinary ones.
As this family came with a dragon... and that was enough for Reggio to try...
For in bronze-bogged times like these… it was all that a cautious man like him could do.