Chapter 36: Act III: Chapter 17

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"My King."

I looked up from the chessboard in front of me, to where Davos was standing at the helm of the ship. He pointed a finger to his right, over my shoulder, towards the starboard of the ship. From my sitting position, I couldn't see what he was pointing at. I wasn't in a great hurry to stand up, as nobody else on the ship was panicking just yet, but I did it all the same.

When I looked out to the sea, I saw two ships with blue striped sails within a thousand feet of our own ship. The blue stripes were indicative of Lys. I frowned when I realized we weren't attacking and neither were they. Then I realized why.

There was a white flag hoisted up, and the chain to their anchor was already in the water. They were either not fighters, or they didn't want any part in the fight anymore.

"That's the seventh ship we've crossed with the white flag in two days, my king." Davos told me. He wasn't wearing a smile, but instead a contemplative look on his face.

I turned around, and began counting my own ships. Eventually, I discovered that we weren't missing any, which told me nobody had been sneak attacked in the back of our fleet. My gut was confirming what I was seeing. These ships didn't want any part of the war.

"Keep an eye on them Davos." I told him as I sat back down to the chess board in front of me.

It was the only thing I could do to keep my mind occupied these days on the open sea. In the mornings, I flew with Weirña in the mornings and then let her hunt in the water after that. Then I would retreat into my quarters where I would check on the state of my growing kingdom, and my current enemies. In fact, the Gonfaloneire had just docked at Lys, and the preparations to defend the city against us would begin. Futile as that would be. After that, I would enjoy myself as much as I could on the boat, playing chess with myself and sometimes Davos. Although my boredom was growing.

I could have already burned Lys to the ground if I wanted.

I looked up to where Weirña was flying and sighed. Being up there would be better than this. Flying was one of the most blissful experiences there was in this world. I was literally on top of the world up there.

I moved a piece that I knew would lead to another draw between myself and stood up from the chessboard beneath me.

My mind went to Ben's new Valyrian Steel sword. And then my boredom took hold. There was something that I had always wanted to discover through Greenseeing. Something that I had never taken the time to do, because I had been so busy recently. Now was the only time I was really getting down time.

I found myself back inside my quarters quickly, and I grabbed my small weirwood before sitting down. I made sure to lock the door and got comfortable before I actually began.

With a quick command, I was floating above my body. I turned around and flew towards the sky. I fazed through the boat, and passed right beside Davos as I rocketed up. I paused in the air for a moment and looked to the location of the sun, before finding the direction that I needed to go. I kicked off an imaginary surface and raced over the sea.

It took longer than I thought it would to reach my destination. But eventually I did find it. It was hard to miss actually with its tall towers barely visible through the smoke bubbling up from the sea.

Valyria, show me your secrets.

With a thought, time reversed. The sun began rotating around the planet in the opposite direction and the smoke fell into the sea below it instead of rising upwards. With another command, this process sped up so quickly that it looked like the sun was just a permanent bright line in the sky.

Eventually, I stopped the process when my body was enveloped in a black smoke. I frowned as I knew what it was, but I thought I was far enough away to not be in the blast radius of the Fourteen Fires. I flew upwards a little more, and the smoke cleared slightly. It cleared just enough for me to see through the disaster.

I had stopped at the end of the Doom of Valyria. Everything was already destroyed, and there were no signs of life at all. Although I did see a massive wing, detached from its main body laying on the blackened ground beneath me.

I slowly reversed time again, and just watched.

It took it a minute for anything to really happen, but when it did it was epic. Boulders, the size of which would flatten Weirña, rose out of the ground and lifted themselves back into the air. Some of them had dragons attached to the bottom of them. And there were so many of them that rose, it would have been impossible to fly through the air at all. It was as if 50,000 gods threw them from the heavens at once. There were more in the air than I had ever seen arrows fly, and I had seen countless fly before, enough to block out the sun above me.

Once time rewound itself enough, I saw hundreds of dragons in the sky, with riders on their backs. Some dragons were smaller than Weirña, and yet they carried four or five people on their backs. People of silver-gold and white-platinum hair that had otherworldly beauty and silk robes of white. The clothing looked more advanced and comfortable than what I myself had access to as a King.

Time continued to flow backwards, with the smoke and boulders in the air returning to the mountain tops that overlooked Valyria. Land rose up from the water that separated the islands at my feet and turned it into a solid land mass again. Towers rebuilt themselves from the rubble on the ground beneath it. Soot and smoke disappeared along with the clouds to show a bustling city of surprising technology.

A city of close to a hundred thousand at least. None of them had a clue of what was to come for them. But that wasn't what I was here for. I wasn't here to watch the Doom of Valyria. I was here to learn something.

I rewound time a couple of days till midday and then I let it play out at normal speed.

Sounds of a city immediately hit my ears, along with the roaring of dragons. I looked up to see no less than ten flying around in the sky. In fact, two were having a bit of a disagreement. I looked back down at the city and searched for a source of smoke with the ringing of a hammer on steel.

It took a bit of flying around and waiting, but eventually I did find what I needed. And it was a magnificent sight to behold. There was a massive domed structure with a chute on one side of the building that puffed out smoke constantly.

A factory of some sort.

I began to float down to the structure, and whenever I got to about a hundred feet away from it something unexpected happened. Something that I had only seen happen while I was Greenseeing a single time.

The people in the streets, and the natural sounds in the air from the city disappeared.

Ritual Activated!

Oh god no…

The black metal structure of the dome lit up red and blinded me for a moment. I looked away for the briefest second before looking back at it.

All along the dome were thousands of Valyrian Runes glowing red.

The light from the runes slowly started rising up into the air just above the dome, almost like a smoke. The light, or smoke, began coalescing into a singular point above the dome.

Another bright light caught my attention, and I looked towards it. A translucent sphere had formed around this domed structure beneath me, and once again there were thousands of Valyrian Runes carved into it. There was a similar rune that was repeated a lot, and it was the same one that I saw in the tunnels underneath Myr. It extended far enough into the sky and far enough around the structure that I could still fly around comfortably.

Dread pooled in my stomach.

What have I done?

I looked back down to the smoke on top of the dome, and it was slowly taking shape into something familiar and terrifying. The early stages of a dragon began to become obvious. First I saw the wings form, and then the head.

I don't know what the fuck is going on, but I am leaving!

I gave the command to return to my body, the same command that I always used to stop Greenseeing.

Nothing happened.

Panic gripped me as my fears were realized. I tried to return to my body again, only for nothing to happen. I looked up to the sky again and a theory formed. The dome around me was holding me here, and not letting me return to my body. I was trapped inside of it.

A roar shook my bones, even in my greenseeing form and I looked back down to where I knew it came from. On top of the dome, the smoke had finished taking form, and it was no longer smoke. There in its place was a black dragon, about the same size as Weirña. I could see the sun glint off of the scales of the dragon, and it's beady black eyes.

It was staring straight at me.

It roared another challenge, as I was paralyzed there in the air, unable to return to my body. The dragon braced itself on the dome of the structure I was getting close to, and then it pushed off. Its wings caught the air and it flapped them harshly towards me.

As I wasn't that far away, it crossed the distance in a couple of seconds. About twenty feet away from me it opened its jaws like it was going to eat me, and that's when I decided that I needed to move.

Luckily the runes in the air above me didn't stop me from instinctively flying away from the dragon and avoiding the jaws that snapped over where I was floating.

My eyes widened again when the dragon immediately turned to pursue me.

"Holy shit!" I said as I flew away from the dragon again.

I made it to the other side of the dome before I turned and looked back again. The dragon was much slower than me, but even still I only had about fifteen seconds before it would close the distance again.

What do I do?

I had never been in a situation like this before. I needed to get out of the dome, but I was afraid to touch the translucent walls. What if it was sci-fi shit and I exploded or something. That led to another thought.

I've never been hurt while Greenseeing. Can I be?

I didn't want to test the theory though, especially not in my current circumstances.

The dragon had crossed the distance while I was thinking. This time though, when it opened its mouth it wasn't to try and eat me. There was fire that exploded out of it and towards me. Unfortunately I didn't react in time. I descended quickly and turned in the air to avoid the fire.

And still the dragonfire touched my left shoulder.

"Ahhh fuck!"

My shoulder exploded in pain. It was just as bad as you would think getting touched by dragonfire would be. And then most of the pain disappeared quickly, even though I could feel the tenderness around the area. Some of the area towards the outside of my shoulder still had pain, telling me that not all of it got hit evenly.

That's the sign of a third degree burn…

Just like that, I had permanent nerve damage in my left shoulder. Luckily for me, I had enough sense to keep fleeing from the dragonfire and the dragon that was chasing me. With a thought I increased my speed and I rocketed to the other side of the dome where I stopped and turned around again.

This time the dragon had to cross a significant distance.

As I floated there, I inspected the damage quickly. My left shoulder was blackened and my shirt had melted into it. Just looking at it made it hurt. But beyond that it pissed me off. The panic that gripped my chest disappeared quickly and was replaced with anger.

Instinctively I reached down and drew the sword on my waist. I had never done that while Greenseeing before and didn't know that it was even possible. Although I did know that whatever I was wearing in the real world translated over into the astral plane with me.

As soon as Heartsbane graced the air in the astral plane, the blade glowed with an unnatural white light.

The dragon flapped its wings and paused its momentum for just a moment while it regarded the blade I was wielding. It narrowed its eyes at me.

"Oh this? Just something I picked up on the side of the road." I said while holding it in the air for him to see. Then I brought it down to point at the dragon. "And the weapon that I will kill you with for doing this." I told him as I shrugged my left shoulder.

He roared at me, almost like he understood me and then immediately started back towards me.

I mimicked him and flew towards him.

Different strategy then. Fleeing will not work.

When we got within a hundred feet of each other, I immediately changed trajectory and ascended quicker than the dragon could react, even though it tried. I got above it quickly, and wrapped around to its back. Even though it couldn't flap quick enough to follow me, it's head did follow me and it watched me.

I quickly maneuvered myself to where I was above it, and then I rocketed downwards, with Heartsbane poised to stab it in its back. The fucking dragon tucked in it's wings and rolled causing me to pass right beside it's body without touching it with Heartsbane.

On top of that skillful maneuver. When I was beneath the dragon, it's wings tilted slightly, and it fell into a dive to chase after me. Luckily for me, it was moving too quickly to use dragonfire, as it would have never reached me in time. I dove quickly again and barely managed to avoid the jaws of the dragon.

After that though, I picked up speed before banking around and above the dragon once again. The dragon eventually rose in the air again, although much slower than I did. Apparently it was influenced by gravity and it's anatomy where I wasn't. And I was going to take advantage of that.

Without a warning, I shot straight towards it with my sword held by my side. It was obvious I was going for a slash. The dragon mimicked me and flew straight at me, inviting the challenge. Although it had another trick up its sleeve. A trick that I was expecting.

The dragon literally did a frontflip in the air just before we reached each other and used the momentum to throw its tail at me. A tail that, if it would have connected, would have killed me from the force alone.

I slowed down, and flew to my left slightly, allowing the tail to get dangerously close to hitting me, before I raised my blade up and met the tail in mid air. I held on to Heartsbane with all of my might, expecting it to be knocked out of my hand from the force of the tail.

And yet, it met nearly no resistance. In fact, it was such a smooth cut that I was convinced I somehow managed to miss the dragon's tail. However, my eyes told me that I had cut through it so much that the massive appendage was barely hanging on to the body, by maybe a foot of flesh on the opposite side.

The dragon screeched in the air. It was an unnatural sound that sounded like two Valyrian Steel blades crossing. It was full of pain. The dragon plummeted out of the sky, and did its best to stay aloft. It could not though as the tail was very useful for keeping the dragon balanced and its maneuverability in the sky.

Ironically it landed on the top of the domed structure where it was formed from the smoke of the runes. It had somehow managed to land feet first instead of crashing. Blood was pouring out of the wound, and coating the domed factory in record amounts. At first I thought that I would have to pursue and fight the beast on the ground.

But now I could see that I would only have to wait for the dragon to bleed out, which would be in a very short amount of time. The dragon looked up to me and bared its teeth at me before it whimpered and looked behind it to where more and more blood was leaking out of it. Before I knew it, the dragon's head dipped towards the ground quickly before it leapt back up.

It looked like a baby trying not to go to sleep in the car. It's head dipped, and then it woke back up. This process repeated itself for a while before it became too much. The dragon's legs gave out from underneath it, and it went limp causing it to roll on the dome and eventually slide down on its belly. Somehow, it didn't slide down the dome to the ground though.

I slowly floated down to the dragon's corpse with Heartsbane in my hand. I positioned myself right above his eye, where a slight amount of intelligence still gleamed.

Without warning, I lifted my blade up, and stabbed down through its eye, into its brain, and eventually stabbing into the dome beneath me.

The effects were immediate. The dragon began to dissolve back into smoke before disappearing back into the runes. Then the translucent sphere with the runes carved into it, the thing still keeping me here, disappeared. The natural sounds of the city returned. People walked all around the structure that I was now on top of.

With a thought, my mind teleported years into the future and miles back towards my body.

I opened my eyes to see my quarters had changed significantly since I had been Greenseeing. The door that I had so thoughtfully locked had been kicked in, and Davos was standing on the other side of my desk, along with a couple of random sailors.

"My King?" Davos asked with a panicky voice. He was staring at the left side of my body, and I followed his gaze. There, where my normal shoulder should sit, was a blackened and burnt version of it.

No fucking way… I thought, incredulous as I realized that the dragons wound had translated through space and time and affected my real body.

I could have fucking died in there.

"Everyone but Davos out!" I yelled, in a voice that I rarely ever used. The sailors knew that too, and they responded immediately. The sailors shuffled out of the room as if their lives depended on it. They even tried closing the door, but because it was in splinters, it only halfway closed.

"And if someone eavesdrops on this conversation I will fucking gut you!" I yelled out again.

I stood up, and pain lanced down my arms, my back, my neck, and even into my chest.

"What the fuck happened?… my king?" Davos asked, before realizing his place.

"You know that I'm a greenseer, yes?" I asked rhetorically. He nodded his head at me even though I didn't want him to. "Well I traveled to Valyria, to try and uncover some of their secrets." I told him truthfully.

I paused then as I pondered whether or not I wanted to reveal this information to him. But then a flashback of Robert carrying me to a weirwood tree and witnessing it save my life through magic hit me.

"We've never talked about it you know, that night we sparred and I caught you on the ribs… I saw something I can't explain."

Robert's voice bounced around my skull then. That was one of the main reasons for him betraying me. He was scared of my magic, of what I could do. What could have been if I had just explained myself to him that night, or any night afterwards. What might have happened.

No, I will not lose another friend. I decided.

"A haunted place." Davos told me, once I revealed Valyria.

"And protected by magic I've never seen before Davos. It trapped me, and I had to kill a fucking dragon to return to my body." I spoke bluntly. This was a man that appreciated bluntness and I would give it to him. I was also in a lot of pain and didn't really feel like babying him.

"Magic…" Davos muttered before pausing. "You killed a dragon from Valyria?!" Davos practically yelled.

"Shhh!" I quieted him and pointed outside. "Yes I did. I know it's hard to believe but the Dragonlords of old must have encountered Greenseers sometime in the past and taken steps to make sure their secrets remained secrets." I explained, as the pain in my shoulder flared up.

I grunted long and hard at the pain. "Mmmmmmmm."

"You need a healer, your grace." Davos said as he moved to my side of the desk.

I waved him off. "Speak nothing of this Davos. The Dragonlords aren't the only ones with magic. I just need rest, and I'll be healed before tomorrow." I told him through gritted teeth as I moved over to my small cot on the side of the room.

Davos frowned and made to talk again. Most likely to tell me that was impossible.

"It was not a question Davos!" I grunted at the man. My patience was wearing thin as the pain increased.

He took a deep breath and turned around, before leaving my room. "Call if you need anything, your grace!" He called out before he was out of earshot.

I reached down and began rolling my shirt up and over my body. It took a lot of willpower just to get my right arm out of the shirt, and over my head. Yet I paused when it came time to peel the shirt out of the wound. I paused a moment before I went into my inventory and grabbed a meal out of it.

I quickly drank the stew with meat and veggies quickly.

Ping! You have eaten and gained the following…

I dismissed the prompt and yanked the shirt. I didn't even have time to cry out from the pain, because darkness overtook my senses. The last thing I remembered was my head hitting the pillow beneath me.

Hundreds of years into the past, a single Valyrian slave could be seen looking up. He was supposed to be hammering on the long steel beam in front of him, and yet his gaze was captured by a glowing white blade that had just been stabbed into the ceiling of the factory.

He would get a whip to the back for his laziness, and he would never think about the white blade again. For in a few days time, the Doom would come for them all.

A/N: Boom!

So Petyr had some downtime between Tyrosh and Lys. He should have known better than to be productive in his down time. Yet I'm sure nobody could have predicted the intricacy of the magic the Valyrians displayed.

What do you guys think about the little trap that the Valyrians employed? I personally couldn't imagine it being anything other than a dragon that protected their secrets.

Let's talk about it in the reviews.