24 Chapter 24: Night of Terror. 121 AC

A Lyseni Fleet was traveling through the stepstones to quickly regroup with the rest of the Triarchy fleet in Tyrosh, but they were caught up with the storm. It was a strong storm, the waves swallowed the smaller ships whole, thunder sprang from above, hitting the sea below, and the wind almost tore off the masts and sails if not for the steadfastness of the sailors.

To put it simply, they were fighting for their lives.

The admiral was in a bit of a panic as he saw the smaller ships were swallowed by the sea, every hour, one or two ships sunk, decreasing the total ships that would hold the Triarchy's grand fleet. He was afraid that Lys will be mocked as the ones who contributed the least, as when they will reach Tyrosh, a grand admiral will be chosen, and he didn't want to be not picked.

Suddenly, in between the thunder and the loud winds, he heard something. He didn't know what it was, but it sent chills down his spine. He was looking at a map of the stepstones, trying to locate where he actually was, but that noise broke his concentration.

Not a second later, he heard shouts and screams from the outside. While it was a normal occasion in this situation, something deep inside him thought that it was a different kind of shouts and screams.

So finally, he turned towards the exit of his room, and saw what was happening outside.

A strong wind hit his face when he opened the door. Seawater came into his mouth, and saltiness filled his tongue. The sharp raindrops then hit his face like needles, and he tried to minimize it by covering his face with his palm.

"DRAGON!!!!!" a shout entered the admiral's ears, which made his eyes widened.

A dragon in a storm? He could not possibly think of it. He turned towards the sky, and saw two dragons diving towards the fleet, unleashing their fire to the ships. The admiral then turned towards the scorpion in front of him, and ran towards it.

The floor is slippery with all the water entering the deck, but he kept going. In the meanwhile, he kept shouting to the rest of the ships to use projectiles to attack the damn thing, and to relay information to the rest of the ships to use the scorpions that had been given to them.

The admiral quickly loaded the bolt to the scorpion in desperation as he stumbled every now and then from the waves crashing to his ship. When it was loaded, he turned the mechanism, pulling the string that would launch the bolt.

After all is said and done, the admiral turned the scorpions towards the dragons that were burning the ships, and he tried to aim it.

But the ships were constantly shaking from the unstable waves, and he couldn't get a good shot.

Tons of bolts were flying around the sky, but none hit the dragon, instead, some hit their own ships, tearing a hole in their hulls.

The admiral could only despair as the fleet crumbled, many sailors jumped to the sea, hoping to drown instead of vaporizing by dragon fire. The admiral decided to do one last attack, before dying a sailor's death. He aimed his scorpion bolt towards the silver dragon above the sky, and released the mechanism.

The bolt pierced through the heavy wind and rain, but then, the silver dragon released a silvery breath, melting the bolt that was still in the air.

The admiral dropped down to his knees, before the silver dragon released her retaliation towards him.

By the time the Dragons left, the entire fleet had been swallowed by the sea, never to be seen again.

—

[Tyrosh]

A stormy night came to the Mercantile city, the strong wind and heavy raindrops swallowed the entire city, shutting off any fire and light source that is outside the protection of a building.

A blue haired Tyroshi was sitting in front of his desk, in his rather luxurious house at the outskirts of the city, just beside the black wall. He was a high councilor of the triarchy, with an aura of arrogance and pride around him.

In front of him were the other councilors, and they were staring at him, seemingly thinking the same thing as him.

"Those Lyseni whores, I wouldn't be surprised if they betrayed us." the high-councilor practically spat. "This is our only chance to kick those Targaryen bastards out of the Stepstones, yet their fleet hasn't arrived yet."

"A storm has consumed the stepstones, high councilor, what else can they do?"

"So?" the high councilor scoffed. "They should have sailed earlier, we're wasting time here, the stepstones continued to be occupied, our lands will not be reclaimed on their own."

"The stepstones are barren lands." a councilor pointed out. "Is it all worth it to wage a decade long war for that? No! I will not waste money on this lost cause anymore!"

The high-councilor snapped his head on the councilor that said that. He stood up, and he walked towards the counselor, putting his hands on his shoulders.

"Think of the gold we're able to make, councilor." he whispered. "The narrow sea will be in our control. Braavos and the west would need to pay tolls to pass the stepstones, and we'll be even richer."

"And made an enemy out of every Free city that has trade routes here?" the counselor scoffed. "Volantis, Pentos, Braavos, and don't forget our ally Dorne. We cannot risk their enmity, even our fleet—"

"Our fleet will crush them." the high-councilor pointed out. "They only occupied 1 city each. We? We are an alliance of three cities."

"And what if those cities allied with each other to extinguish us?" the counselor scoffed. "Your greediness will become our downfall. I'd rather have a treaty with them, pay them a significant amount, and tell them to leave. I'm sure they've realized that occupying those lands are not worth it."

"If we suggest this to the other councilors of the other two cities, Tyrosh will be mocked as cowards." others countered.

"I'd rather be cowards, rather than see all that we built be destroyed by dragonfire."

"They will not burn us." the high-councilor stated. "The scorpions will make sure of that."

"Those weapons are not a guarantee. All of you should know that!" the counselor shouted towards the others.

The high-councilor looked at the other counselor in the room, and they had this understanding look in their faces.

Suddenly, the high-counselor pulled out a knife, and slit the defiant counselor's throat, killing him instantly. His body dropped towards the table, his blood gushing out from his throat, tainting the expensive looking table.

The high councilor wiped the blood from his knife, and said to the other counselor. "Kill his family, and send letters to the other cities, that Tyrosh needed to replace a counselor."

Before the others could respond, however, in between the sound of thunder and rain, screams and sounds of explosions entered their ears. They turned towards the window, rushing to see what it was.

When they looked outside at first, they saw nothing, but the city was burning rather badly, even though a storm was going on.

But then, they saw a stream of silvery and bronze fire coming from the sky, carving a path of destruction below.

"Ring the bells." said the high-councilor with an awfully quiet voice. When the other counselor saw his face, they saw that fear was written all over his face. "Ring the bells! What the hell are those dornish people doing!? They said that only one dragon was on their side! Yet I see two dragons burning our city!"

—

Atop a bronze dragon in the Tyroshi sky, Maegor sat on the dragon's saddle, controlling the beast as he unleashed his fury towards the city below.

While the storm was raging on, the dragon was seemingly not bothered by the wind or the rain, and the fire kept burning, steam rising when the raindrops hit the dragonflame.

[Dracarys, Vermithor!] Maegor shouted, and the dragon obeyed. A pillar of bronze fire was unleashed from Vermithor's mouth, burning the luxurious houses of the city. From afar, the silver dragon saw that Vermithor was burning the city, and Silverwing followed it. She burned the city with her silvery fire, but unlike Vermithor, she was not targeting a building specifically, she was just burning the place to the ground.

Vermithor and Maegor then flew towards the walls, where the scorpions were starting to be manned. When the dragons weren't breathing its fire, they were seemingly hidden by the darkness of the night even though they were humongous beasts, with only few that had keen eyes could see them.

The scorpions tried hard to find their targets, but the wind disturbed the soldiers' ability to aim, and the night was dark.

Vermithor then unleashed his flame towards the line of scorpions, burning everything in its path. Except for the black dragonstone that protected the inner walls, everything melted, from flesh, to steel. While Vermithor was attacking the defenses, Silverwing continued to burn the city to the ground, no arrows could hurt her because of the wind and the rain, no bolts could kill her as Vermithor burned all of them.

There was seemingly no chance of fighting back.

Maegor jumped from Vermithor towards the black wall, when he landed, he passed through the burnt corpses, the melted steel, and he stood at the edge of the wall, watching as the two dragons burned the city.

He had this look of pity in his eyes, his red cloak fluttering from the wind, his bronze armor wet from the rain.

"As they say…" he hummed. "The night is dark, and full of terrors."