----
112 AC
Lys
Daeron Nymeros Martell
----
"So what do you think?" I lean back after describing my 'master plan' and the Lyseni Nobleman looks stupefied.
"You want to bring Lys under you, to name me 'Lord of Lys' and have me rule it over a council of Magisters?" I nod as he follows along, the Magisters are too deeply rooted to pull them out at the moment with the war going on, they can be gotten rid of later. "I feel this is a good opportunity, with the backing of dragons my family easily can hold Lys... but Slavery?" I narrow my eyes, if he cant work with my terms then he won't work at all.
Slavery is a cornerstone of the Free cities, or at least, most of them, and Lys is no different. But Westeros is anti-slavery, except for thralls but there 'different' and don't apply here. Slavery won't go away overnight so I gave conditions to slowly loosen the chain around the necks of the slaves but it must be put in place immediately. There will be no more buying or selling of slaves into or out of Lys and anyone skirting this in some way will be killed and property taken.
Slaves will be given wages that are 'fair' and that they can survive off, but I agreed to let it go toward their 'price' first. So if a man bought a pleasure slave for one hundred gold dragons or something, she will work for one hundred gold dragons to pay back the price for her freedom. It's fucked up, I get that and I wish it was not this way but it is, if I just break the chains and move on it will all collapse. There needs to be a system put in place to properly free the slaves where it won't end up with some crazy slaver fanatics toppling my house of cards.
I could just start killing and burning things and force it with an iron fist but it would take years and years for Lys to recover and might not reach where it is now for tens of years. The system I am putting in place can see eighty to ninety percent of the population free long before that and Lys not tanking and needing support to survive. I won't claim it is perfect or fair but it will get the job and that is what matters, I do not want to have to come back here constantly to kill people.
When I make a trip to Lys I want it to be for tapping ass and not kicking it.
"It will be very hard." He strongly points out and I nod with a smile as if I am not asking him to help me change the foundation of the economy of Lys. "I will do it." He looks paler than he should be but he seems to find his feet and decides to work with me.
"Good, I will name you Lord of Lys and the Magisters who run the council of Lys will be under you. I expect you already know far better than I do just how hard it will be to get them to follow your orders. That is why when I leave I will be leaving two thousand and five hundred men, that is half of the men I brought with Lord Vaith. Lord Vaith will keep the city in order and defend it from any would-be aggressors while 'supporting you'." Left unsaid Lord Vaith will be killing any troublemakers and looting their riches but he gives me a genuinely thankful nod anyway.
----
112 AC
Lys
Lysandro Rogare
----
Arriving back home I feel both excited and worried, this is a chance to go very far but can also end with my family being killed off. We have the protection of a Dragon rider so I am not too concerned so long as I can get word to him if something is wrong. But the removal of slavery will not go over well with many in the city.
I own a few pillow houses but most of our income comes from the bank which is massively successful at this time. There are also the Magisters who make their income from different sources and I will be working with them. But the Magisters who own nothing but pleasure houses will be furious with this change, it just so happens they are also the 'threats' I identified already. I will just have to have most of them killed off and their belongings spread around to keep the others silent on the matter.
Lord of Lys, it sounds nice and will further establish my family and will be making us a noble house of Westeros in the not-far future. Daeron did not go too far into the details of who Lys is 'under' but it sounded like after he dies that Lys will be sworn to his firstborn. Which will be the child that sits on the Iron throne from his wife Rhaenyra Targaryen. But he also said that may change depending on how the rest of the war with the 'Triarchy' goes.
If he does the same in Tyrosh and Myr as he did here then he would have conquered three free cities and that will concern the rest of them. I do not know his plans and instead of running in circles trying to figure them out, I can instead focus on what must be done. I need to get in contact with my allies and make as many more as I can, then kill all the rest bringing Lys firmly under me.
"What happened?" My wife asks worriedly as I approach her.
"He aims to name me Lord of Lys and bring Lys under him." Her eyes widen and she even stops walking as she freezes in place. "Also he is getting rid of slavery." If that surprised her she did not show it as she closes the distance and embraces me.
"Lord of Lys?" She asks in a small voice and I nod causing her arms to tighten around me. "That sounds dangerous." I chuckle and continue to nod as I imagine the trials ahead, but the payoff is massive.
"What do we need to do?" She pulls back and looks at me oddly, probably wondering why I got picked for this.
"He is using the power of our bank to justify naming me the Lord, I do nothing other than Lordly duties and give my loyalty." I don't need her to know about all the blood I will be spilling in the next few days, she is too sweet for all of that.
He seemed a kind individual if you ignore him killing almost a thousand or more people when he burned the walls. I am just glad he left enough of the wall so we can still easily defend the city, it will be hard but it can be repaired. It will never be the same because we can not fuse stone but we can repair it. I might ask if he can have his dragon fuse it but I do not know if he knows how... I will find out.
I also need to get word out about starting to expand into the Disputed lands, he marked out the part set aside for Lys, and it's much larger than we have been using. It will help to offset the loss of slavery for most people. They will be able to safely use the lands of the Disputed lands so that will be a balm to the wound of slavery being ended.
Though I hope he is serious about burning the Dothraki or Volantis should they come around? Lys won't have an army as he is imagining even if we started training me and banding them together immediately. His dragon could end the entirety of the Dothraki if he sought to do so, but Volantis might be a problem. But then again he took care of Lys in less than a day so maybe I am just overthinking and underestimating the power of a dragon even against Valyria's first daughter.
I suppose we will see but I need to prepare for both success and failure, I won't be caught off guard and get a knife in the neck. I have a ladder before me that will let me sit above all of Lys and rule it as I want so long as I follow what Daeron has set in place. A way for the bank of Rogare to climb above the Iron Bank, dangerous as that has always sounded it now sounds real.
Who knew a dragon falling from the sky would be a good thing for me?
----
112 AC
Lys
Daeron Nymeros Martell
----
Lysandro should be fine now that I have him sworn and kneeled to my service, and if he tries to betray me his bank will be burned and looted. The second most powerful bank in the world surely has some good loot inside, but I doubt it will beat what I just got today. And I am not talking about just Lys as my loot but what Lord Vaith brought to me moments ago.
"I can't believe they thought they could sneak off after I just told everyone Lys is on lockdown." I shut this place down like it had a plague and the Lyseni Nobel family Vargo thought they could slip off.
"Not a big one but it's still Valyrian steel." Lord Vaith comments as I look over the sword he presented me.
He was quite happy he is the one remaining in Lys to watch the place for me, I can only imagine why. But in reality, any man would rather guard and secure Lys than head to fight in the damn Stepstones.
"She will serve me well but not in this form, I will have her melted down and turned into a spearhead or two and the rest into a dagger." I sheath the blade and set it aside as I also set aside the giddy feeling of finally having Valyrian steel to replace my spearhead.
I want to make two so I can train one of my kids one day to also use the spear, likely the one inheriting Dorne. The firstborn will end up with Blackfyre one day so they will need to learn a sword so I will teach the spear to the second. I have no idea what I will call them though, it looks enough for two spearheads and a small dagger.
"Let's get schedules and patrols set up for the men who are staying, I know they will be eager to have some 'free time' but we have no room to make mistakes. This is important and needs to be treated as such, failure will set the tone for anything I try to do in Lys so we need to be flawless." I can't have horny Dornish men fucking up and making me look bad is what I really want to say.
But they get the message as we start to go over the plans for holding the city and keeping the peace. Lys will one day have its own army that will defend her but for now, the spears of Dorne will protect her. I do not imagine any of the men stationed here will be too angry about it though, in fact, I expect to get volunteers once the war is over. We will rotate men in and out of Lys so they are not gone from home for too long, and I expect many to be happy about it.
Getting paid to stay in Lys sounds like most men's dream job after all.