Chapter 11.1- The Seadragon's Roar

The plan was to bleed Tyrosh, but not to capture it. The writ we had received from Viserys to wage war in the Stepstones had been very specific— granting us authority to do whatever necessary to secure peace in the region, but prohibiting us from attacks, even reprisals, on powers within mainland Essos. All we were going to do, then, was attack Tyrosh’s fleet and argue that that was not an attack on Tyrosh itself. Besides, if we were being completely honest, we had no chance of taking the city. Even bleeding the fleet was a tall ask, and we were going to have to engage in more than a little bit of subterfuge.

First of all, the ships were intentionally harmed a fair bit by their own crew. The damage was all superficial and unlikely to impair proper function, but it would hopefully draw the Tyroshi fleet out to give battle rather than trying to retreat into their harbour where they would be harder to reach. The second subterfuge came from Igneel and I. At dawn, we had left the fleet with little fanfare, flying into the clouds to hide and wait. The Tyrosh had ordered an attack with the hopes of killing whatever dragon Corlys had with him, and once they noticed that there was no dragon with the fleet, instead of being suspicious and wondering where I was, they would just assume that their attack had succeeded and that was why Corlys was attacking with odds so terrible— he was heartbroken and seeking revenge.

It was a snake’s plan. Feign weakness, draw out the enemy, and strike with unrelenting brutality once they took the bait. And from so far above, I could see them beginning to take the bait. It was almost beautiful the efficiency that the Tyroshi men moved with. They were like a collection of ants from this far up and they moved with an order and discipline that only ants could truly match.

They crewed the ships, and pushed them out of harbour, aiming to give Corlys battle. Corlys’ fleet was sailing towards the center, to the Tyroshi command ship, and instead of disengaging to protect himself, the Tyroshi commander clearly saw nothing wrong with being used as bait, having his feet that was previously arrayed in a simple straight line curve inwards at the edges, aiming to encircle Corlys and trap him thoroughly. From here I could see that all things being equal, there was no chance Corlys would manage to leave this alive. But that had been the point, all things weren’t equal here, and once I felt that the Tyroshi had committed to the battle as fully as they could— Corlys was only mere minutes away from being in engaging range of their command-ship, I pulled at Igneel’s saddle.

He growled, more than tired of the waiting and enthusiastic to bring fire to our enemies. We dove striaght down like a missile of scale and flame. I watched as no one noticed us until at the very last second, Igneel spread his wings to slow down. The men beneath looked up with a scream on their lips and that was the last they ever saw.

“Dracarys”.