Chapter 40.2- The Seadragon's Roar

“And they still refuse to enter into any meaningful dialogue?” I asked, even if I knew what the answer was already.

“Their message remains the same— leave the Stepstones”

“Lovely” I said sarcastically, turning away.

“I’d love to see them say that when we burn that fleet of theirs— or when we burn them in their manses” Laena said. I shook my head.

“No. Leave them be. We’d do nothing but put ourselves in another war. And this one would be one we’d be putting ourselves into. We’d have to divert ships and men to work instead of building and trade. And even if we won, we’d have to wait for Volantis to recover before they become a viable market. Attacking them to force them to trade with us isn’t going to be a viable option for a while yet” I said.

“So what would you have us do, my Lord?”

“Stop wasting resources trying to reach out. Like Volantis starve behind her walls while the rest of the world progresses at a rate they can’t imagine.” I said, ending the discussion there. There was no point progressing beyond that.

—

I rode through the city that I had built feeling many things. The main emotion, sadly enough was disappointment. I’d fucked it up. Even with the benefit of understanding city planing at a level far beyond the best that this world had to offer. Even with the benefit of Aegon’s example with King’s Landing, I’d made the same mistake.

So focused I’d been on getting glass off the ground, and then with the discovery of limestone down in Ithaca and the subsequent development of cement, I had been unable to notice the way things had come together to create a warped set of incentives. I had built a city of passable houses with wood best I could, and then cement was brought into the equation so people could build for themselves at very little cost.

Of course they had done that. My initial city plan had fallen to the wayside. And I had been too busy with my head in my clouds to even notice it.

“I know we’re not exactly in a rush, but just standing still and waiting can’t be that entertaining to you, can it?” Laena’s voice reached my ears.

I nodded, not replying, but spurred my horse to move a bit faster to show that I had heard her words.

We arrived at our destination, and with thoughts of the city on my mind, I failed to show the appropriate level of enthusiasm in the face of what was actually good work.

“Does the shipyard displease you, my lord” I snapped to attention at being directly addressed. Something must have shown on my face that I didn’t want it to because the man across from me had already begun apologizing.

“Stop apologizing, Rhaenos. This is good work— great work. Especially when you consider what we have to work with here. My mind was just on something else. I should be the one apologizing for wasting your time by not paying attention”

And if those words were meant to make him feel better, they had had the opposite effect. The apologies were even more intense after that.