"Can I help you M'Lord?" the finely dressed man at the counter asks me as I walk over to him, with my small group behind me.
"Yes, I would like the most popular items you have to offer here," I say to him and the man's eyes go wide for a second, but quickly hides his surprise going back to his professional face.
"Of course M'Lord, though some of them are preoccupied and may take a bit before coming. Are you able to wait an hour?" the man asks confusing me, but waiting for a dragon, especially one hour is nothing.
"Of course," I say with a shrug as I'm really looking forward to this food.
"Then follow me, M'Lord," the man says and I follow behind with my group following after me.
The man brings me to a very large bedroom with the same fancy wooden furniture that the Targaryen's have in the room I'm staying at. Then I see a table with some wine and fruits on it, I make my way over and is enjoying the great food the humans make. While the guard hands some gold over to the man we followed, the guards stand outside the room, while Jaela stands by the table awkwardly watching me.
"You can join me, Jaela. I do not mind," I say to her making her eyes go wide and her face become reddened, confusing me further.
"You do not have to if you don't want to," I say trying to placate her, she may be a slave according to humans, but I will treat her as I would any other living being.
"I will join you if you want me to, M'Lord," Jaela says to me with a red face still looking at me with lust in her eyes.
"....Uhm… It's more about whether you want to join me," I say confused and she nods her head walking over to me and taking a seat at the table I am at fidgeting in her seat.
I enjoy the food and wine the place provided while I wait for the main course, I also convince Jaela to enjoy the food and wine after many encouragements. Then the door opened and five young women that were dressed very little walked in. The man from earlier bowed his head, introducing them. I just nodded my head confused, though maybe these women would be giving me the food.
Once the man left they all walked over to me with swaying hips. Though their eyes betrayed them as all of them looked slightly empty on the inside like someone took their souls from them. Feeling pity for these women, I stood up to ask them what is wrong but then they immediately began to place their hands all over my body. As one slide her hand down to my item that made me a male. Instinctively I grabbed her hand stopping her with a glare, making everyone in the room pause as my true presence leaked out instilling absolute fear in any being lesser than me.
We metallic dragons, especially golden dragons only take one mate in our entire lives. When we find that mate we go through a mating ritual that binds our souls together in a way that connects us deeper than anything else could. This allows us to know where our mate is no matter where they are, how are mate truly feels, and if they are still living. The real thing it does is empower both of us dragons by biding our souls together slightly, but at the same time if one of the pair dies the other becomes much weaker as half their new soul is missing.
So when this human attempted to touch me where only the one being I chose as my mate would I became very upset. Though I reigned in my anger quickly after releasing the woman's hand, then my naivety hit me. This place is a place for humans to have sex, humans like kobolds appear to have more than one partner before settling down with one. Though I do not believe I can not follow my natural instincts this time when it comes to finding a true mate. Though as I get older I know that I may never pass on my lineage, however at the same time I've come to terms with never finding a mate.
"You have all been paid correct?" I say to the women as they all stare at me with confused faces and wait for me to do or say something.
"Yes, M'Lord…" one of the women says with a nervous and confused voice.
"Good, then take this time I paid for as a break. I will be taking my leave, I seem to have confused this place for something else," I say standing up and leaving the place that I now realize is where many humans are copulating.
"Did we do something wrong, M'Lord?!" one of the other women says confused and worried about something for some reason.
"No, none of you have done anything wrong. This was a mistake on my part," I say bowing my head slightly in apology surprising the women to a very high degree, as Jaela looks at me surprised too.
'Did I apologize wrong? This is how Aenela taught me to apologize,' I think to myself but brush it off as I want to leave this place where I now recognize the scent is many humans mating.
As I walk through the doors and leave this place the guards following me also give me confused looks, but say nothing. While Jaela is also very confused, but says nothing following after me. Then I hear the man from the counter rush outside after me with a very worried face.
"M'Lord! Did one of those… women… do something wrong? I will make sure they are properly punished," the man says with a worried face though I can tell he holds some contempt for the women who work here.
"No, this was a misunderstanding on my part. They did nothing wrong, let them keep the money I gave them," I say to him and the man nods his head quickly before bowing to me as I walk back to the Targaryen home. I no longer want to walk about as this experience soured my mood.
"Come, let us return to the castle," I say to everyone as Jaela quickly leads the way back with the guards following after us.
Once I return back to the Targaryen's castle, I go to my room with Jaela following behind me. Once we enter the room I bid her to sit down by the table with a few chairs around it in my room. Then I pour us both some wine as I sit across from her, as I think about all the things I still do not know about humans.
"Tell me Jaela, all about the customs of this place. It seems from where I come from and know is not enough to go exploring on my own," I say to her trying to word it in a way that leaves little confusion.
"Of course, M'Lord. Did they not have brothels where you come from?" Jaela says to me while giving me a curious look.
"No… I was raised to find a… partner who I could spend the rest of my life with. I still have yet to find her," I say trying to think how to explain it to her without saying what I really am. She just nods her head not sure what to say.
"So Jaela, can you tell me all you know about the customs of this place?" I say to her once again and she nods her head.
For the next few hours, Jaela explains everything she knows about the city and the way these 'Dragon Lords' run the city. She tells me as much history as a slave like herself learned just from being in the Targaryen care. The more she tells me about the inner workings of the city and how humans live their day-to-day lives. I've come to realize how little I really knew about them and that they are much more complex beings than I originally thought. By the time she finished giving me a brief understanding of the culture of the city and the way humans lived their life, it was dark outside.
Jaela excused herself to go sleep and prepare for the next day. While I asked one of the guards if the castle held a library and if I could see it. The guard nodded his head taking me to the library, where I spent the whole night reading as much as I could about the history of these humans. I found many interesting things they learned about the world and the way they perceived everything around them. My reading was interrupted by Jaela who found me amidst dozens of books.
"M'Lord, Lady Targaryen has requested your presence at the dining hall. The cooks have started to serve food, so you all can break your fast," Jaela says to me while I stand and snap my fingers casting Prestidigitation on myself, cleaning my human body.
I've come to learn that daily cleanings are necessary as my human body becomes dirty easily. The magic surprised Jaela who knows I'm a 'mage', but still seeing even basic magic is huge to humans. I read in one of the books just how rare magic has become in the world, that it used to be very prominent a few millennia ago, but the number of people who can learn or cast magic has begun lessening for some reason. I believe it is a combination of human greed and fear, as the ones who know it do not want to share their knowledge. The ones who do not fear the ones who do and kill them if possible.
I follow Jaela into the dining hall where Noble humans eat, as for some reason Nobles have rooms for all sorts of things. While your average human has maybe one or two rooms possibly three if they are lucky. As I enter the family of Targaryens is eating at the table and nods their heads to me in greeting. I sit next to Aenela as she is the only one I'm most comfortable around.
"Good Morning Lord Valtaris, I heard you spent the night reading. I hope you still have the energy to teach my daughters," Lady Vaehna says to me with a raised eyebrow.
"I don't need that much sleep these days. Though when I do sleep I can sleep for some time," I say to her and she nods her head as the room falls into silence for a few minutes.
"I got a letter from your father last afternoon. Seems the war is almost over and they should be on their way home by now if what he said is true. Your father and brothers should be home within a few months," Lady Vaehna says to her daughters as the two younger ones perk up excited at the news, while Aenela seems happy but worried at the same time.
The rest of the time eating is spent with her two younger daughters asking everything they could from their mother about their father and brothers. While Aenela seemed lost in thought. Then after we finished eating, I brought Aenela and Relaesys outside with me to the garden. As I preferred open air when it comes to using magic. Plus these places humans use as homes are too stuffy for my taste.
"First before I can even begin to teach you anything about spells, you both must learn to sense the mana inside yourself. Then you must learn to use that mana to take the shape of the spell you cast. In the beginning, you will be using a lot of verbal and hand movements to cast spells. Though the more you learn and use the spells the less you need to do or use to cast it. Plus the more mana you have the easier it is to use the spells, but at the same time, you need refinement to use magic," I say to them as the two girls listen to me closely.