Another Way to Feed the Fire Chapter 2 (ASOIAF Daemon SI)

Laena Velaryon

After years of begging, of pleading with her father to let her join in his war for the Stepstones, after countless arguments and fights she was finally there. Only to find out that the war had ended before she arrived through the actions of the wildest Targaryen who had ever lived and probably the most dangerous man alive. That title might have been impressive to others but to Laena it just showed just how much people feared dragons and Laena had the greatest dragon of this age.

If anyone were to ask who the most dangerous person in the world is, her name would surely be at the top. Laena was now surveying the ‘prize’ that her father had fought for and even as she wandered the rapidly growing merchant district on the island of Bloodstone Laena couldn’t say that spending all that money was worth it, saying that she was unimpressed would be the same as saying that the sky was just a little blue, in other words, an understatement, but that was before she saw the absolutely massive shadow in the distance.

Rising from one of the highest peaks on the island a silvery white structure was rising from the ground, Laena had studied like any other child of a great lord and while she hadn’t paid as much attention as she should have on some things there was no way that she couldn’t recognize what the foundations of a castle looked like. The problem with what she was seeing was that the structure was being built with liquid stone, something that as far as she knew couldn’t be replicated.

“Impressive, isn’t it?” the voice of her father spooked her as it came from behind her, Laena stared angrily at him as he badly tried to hide his snickering, a waste of effort as the smile on his face said more than any momentary silence he had achieved.

“It is. I didn’t know that you had found a way to mimic what the ancient Valyrians could do” she said in accusation, her father must have launched an expedition to what was left of Valyria after the Doom and had kept it a secret from her!

“I didn’t, Daemon did. He…has changed but it’s a good change and an interesting one for sure” Her father stared into the distance as if he could see something she didn’t, there was something in the way he said interesting while looking at her that rubbed Laena the wrong way. The lord of the tides shook his head before continuing “As you walked through the island did you notice anything strange?”

It took her a second to realize what it was and the realization came with some help as a man with a strange accent spoke in broken common, something about a ham burgrr? Laena had no idea what ham had to do with anything but she realized that a lot of the people building the merchant district were from Essos.

“The people… they are from Tyrosh, others look like they come from Lys” Laena hadn’t thought anything strange before as she watched some of the fairer-headed people walking around since Drifmark was full of dragonseeeds but on these islands, such a thing shouldn’t have been so common.

“Yes, they all come from Tyrosh. Daemon convinced them of coming with him after he burned the city” Her father sounded very impressed and with good reason, it was not every day that people went to live with the person that burned their homes and killed their countrymen. “The ones that look Lyseni are slaves or rather former slaves, we also got a lot of ships from them”

“How? How did he convince them?” if he had threatened them they wouldn’t walk so happily on the streets and even people who valued money above everything else wouldn’t have taken a bribe.

Her father just shrugged his shoulders as he gave a simple answer “Daemon talked with them”

Laena’s mind was almost broken by the answer, she couldn’t see any way that a conversation could convince people to move with the one who destroyed their city. Then she thought about the liquid stone and a new question appeared in her mind. “Daemon…Does he have magic?” there was wonder in her voice and for good reason, magic was a rarity even the shadow mages that sometimes were seen on Essos could be counted with one hand.

Her father hesitated before answering, opening his mouth before closing it again “I guess you could say it’s magic” he pushed himself closer until they were only a hairsbreadth apart and he whispered “Daemon has been having dragon dreams”

Laena gasped as her father revealed the truth of what had been happening with King of the Stepstones, it all made sense now, his change in how to make war and the mysterious liquid stone that perhaps one day would turn the same as the one on Dragonstone. “Has he shared any visions of the future with you?”

With a grim face, the lord of the tides nodded “It’s better to wait until your mother and brother arrive so that we can speak as a family” Then he tried to lighten the mood by nudging her with his arm and smiling “I think I can now say ‘I told you so’ to your mother’”

Perhaps her father’s fearlessness is what made her mother so attracted to him because she didn’t know anyone who would so readily bother a woman who had a dragon.

“Where is Daemon now?”

“He is trying to get some of the sell-swords to stay here as a garrison, normally I would say that no one would stay but stranger things have happened. Let’s go see him on the way we can try out all the new food that he’s been re-creating from the old Dragon Lords, and believe me daughter, they knew how to eat!” her father gave her a hearty clap on her back before leading her to a stall that had a fascinating smell coming from it, the sign on top of it however made her frown. What in the seven hells was a pizza?

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Laena had a revelation after she had her first bite of the pizza. The greatest thing lost to the doom wasn’t the knowledge of magic, it wasn’t the dragons or the priceless jewels and paintings that were surely there. It was the food. Laena didn’t know how she could have spent her whole life eating what she had before, it was tasteless bland, and absolutely without flavor but everything she tried on Bloodstone was perfection incarnate.

The pizza, oh! The pizza with that soft creamy cheese melted on top of crunchy bread and riddled with whatever she wanted on top and accompanied by a sauce made out of tomatoes that could take her to the heavens. The burgers that made her mouth water as she thought of the soft meat in the middle of soft buns and whose flavor dripped out in every bite as the smoky taste of the meat that was cooked over a grill fueled by logs of the highest quality and that had many other sauces and combinations not to mention the fired potatoes cut into perfectly uniform little rectangles that you could dip into any sauce you liked.

Laena had barely seen the tip of all the food that was being made here and she didn’t want to leave before trying all of it! The merchant district was full of little stalls of different foods that made you want to try them all. It was a trap of the highest order as her father explained what was going on. The people would either come here to buy something and end up expending extra on the food or they would come for the food and buy something from the merchants because they were already here.

“Daemon has ensured that Bloodstone and the growing city won’t have the same problems as King’s Landing, we are lucky that there are any caves with fresh water here, it comes from the sea but as it passed through some of the caves the salt sticks to the walls leaving only good water on the surface and we can just go and scrap the salt of the walls. Genuine Sea Salt! You should have seen the face of the Iron Islander when I explained what Daemon had discovered!”

“Isn’t it dangerous to tell that to the reavers?”

Her father dismissed her worries with a ‘bah!’ “Those sea-sick pirates are only going to poison themselves if they take the salt as it is there is a method to make sure that there are no strange rocks or anything else in what we take, it’s difficult and I won’t speak of it openly but rest assured that it’s more than worth it”

As curious eyes followed them they made their way to the place where Daemon was building his new seat of power, they didn’t walk though as her father had prepared a pair of horses for them both and they arrived to see a marshaled army standing in front of Daemon who had his dragon at his back surveying the field for any would-be assassin.

“All men are not created equal, you know this as well as I do” Daemon’s voice was heard clearly across the field thanks to the silence all around “Some are born swifter of foot, some with greater beauty” as he said the word beauty he pointed at himself much to the laughter of the men around but after he held up his hand the place went silent again, it was a demonstration of order that Laena wasn’t expecting to see from sellswords.

“Some are born into poverty and others are born sick and feeble, both in birth and upbringing. In sheer scope of ability, every man is inherently different, that is why people discriminate against one another which is why there is struggle and competition. The kingdom I want to build is one that needs men like you”

Daemon pointed at a random man in the crowd. He didn’t look like a great fighter, he was no scarred veteran he was as unordinary as a sellsword could be. It was a powerful message that everyone around could appreciate.

“Men who aren’t afraid of what the future holds, men who have the will to act! To fight!” cheers rose from across the crowd but this time they didn’t quite down and yet Daemon’s voice carried out through the air just as strong as it had been before.

“What I’m telling you isn’t meant to keep you from running off onto your next fight, your next war, or from returning home. As far as I care you can go wherever you wish but know this. The offer that I’m giving you comes only once in a lifetime.”

Murmurs rose from the crowd of soldiers and Laena thought that Daemon had perhaps made a mistake in giving them an ultimatum.

“Right now, it’s time to build on what we have conquered together but what of next year or the year after that? Hmm. Do you think I will be content to stay with only this. I burned Tyrosh, broke their walls, and cast down the arrogant magisters that controlled the city. Right now the people who couldn’t follow us here are building a new nation out of it even as their borders are ravaged by the men who once swore an oath of friendship!”

“They will endure” Daemon nodded at his own words “because just as you saw when you faced them in the war they are strong. Like all of you! Stay with me, let us build a kingdom together! let the people acclaim you in the streets! And when the time is right let us become conquerors again!”

At that moment as if a signal had been given Caraxes took to the sky with a powerful roar amidst the cheers of the men that had conquered the Stepstones a single name came from their mouths.

“Daemon!” “Daemon!” “Daemon!” “Daemon!”

“Daemon!” “Daemon!” “Daemon!” “Daemon!”

“Daemon!” “Daemon!” “Daemon!” “Daemon!”

Laena hadn’t taken part in the conquest of the Stepstones she had never seen war as her father had and never had dreams of conquest but the words that Daemon had spoken awoke a spark that lay buried within her heart. It called out to something primal inside of her. In the distance, the roar of Vhager could be heard, her partner knew what she felt like and perhaps it was this hidden desire that had allowed her to ride the last dragon that had been used in the times of conquest.

Laena Velaryon kept her eyes on Daemon. She may have been young when compared to him but she would make sure to conquer him all the same.

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Author note: i know what i said the last chapter but i wanted to write a suitably dramatic scene and cannibalized some of Charles's speech from Code Geass to make it work as i wanted. i liked it, next chapter will be the King's Landing + Dorne reaction and the one after that will finally be a Daemon POV. Also for those of you who like Feed the Fire an enterprising soul has paid for another chapter of it, as you know i can't post it here because of the Rules so i warn you that it will only be available on QQ