"Brother, you can't expect me to do nothing!" he clenched the arms of his seat, the wooden joints creaking at the force.
"That is exactly what I expect. I will not back your ill-considered campaign," Doran answered, the way he remained so calm irritating Oberyn to no end.
"Our daughters, Doran; they have our daughters! Are we to leave them to the same fate as we had with Elia?!" he raged, no longer caring to hold back his barbed words.
"Enough!" his brother shouted, and Oberyn knew he'd hit a sore spot by the rare outburst.
"You know as well as I that this is not the same. This isn't the Mad King we're dealing with," Doran continued, regaining his calm. "For the time being, I'll only make decisions under the presumption that this new King of the North will treat his hostages with the respect their due."
"So that's it? You'll just sit on your hands and hope for the best," Oberyn deadpanned, tired of how passive his brother could be.
"If that's how you want to put it, Oberyn? Then yes, I'll not risk my daughter's life with any of your foolishness."
"Fine, I'll take my leave then," he growled, standing and walking for the chamber's exit.
"And Oberyn, I forbid you from leaving the Water Gardens until we depart for the Grand Parley," Doran ordered before he could step out.
Not bothering to respond the command, Oberyn only paused to nod, closing the door on his way out with more force than necessary, heading for his quarters where the others waited for answers.
"My Love, has your brother come to a decision?" his paramour asked, and he let out a long sigh, his lover and two older daughters frowning at his response.
"He's not going to help me get them back… and I've been forbidden from leaving," Oberyn told them, his oldest growling before punching the stone wall while Ellaria moved to wrap her arms around his waist.
"Well, if you can't leave, Obara and I will go," his daughter who wasn't still working her frustrations out on the innocent wall suggested, making said daughter pause her violence, apparently interested in the idea.
"Absolutely not, it's far too dangerous," he flat out rejected the idea as Nymeria rolled her eyes and Obara scowled.
"Yet you'd do the same if you could," she accused. Okay, she was right, but that didn't mean he wanted his daughters to go gallivanting across the continent into enemy territory.
"I don't think you'll be able to stop them, My Love, they're as stubborn as their father," Ellaria said, running a hand along his neck. "I'll accompany them and keep them from doing anything too reckless."
Oberyn broke away from his woman's embrace, pacing around the room as he thought the idea over.
It could work. He knew that Braavos was the primary trading partner of the new Northern King, and he had plenty of contacts in the free city who could smuggle his girls without anyone the wiser.
"Alright, but you're not going there to start a war. If you can't rescue Arianne and Tyene without a fight, I only want you gathering information," he decided.
A New God's Conquest
Lux's four black-gold appendages that he usually kept hidden away carried him over the smoking waters and volcanic ruins of the greatest civilization this world had ever witnessed.
It felt good getting out of his castle, spreading his wings literally and metaphorically. Lux would never pretend like he wasn't the laziest bastard around, but even he could enjoy the occasional adventure.
However, he hadn't decided to waste his time visiting the flaming pits of Valyria for fun alone. With the Grand Parley he'd scheduled taking place in a couple of months, Lux was hoping to pick up a few things here that would have the Southern lords shitting their trousers when he made his arrival.
You see, Lux could show up with his flying armada equipped with enough firepower to wipe out King's Landing in a short barrage, but the unsophisticated inhabitants of this world would only marvel at the fact for a short while before believing they somehow stood a chance against his might.
So, no, while he loved his badass fleet, it wouldn't send the right message he was looking for. After all, he wanted to thoroughly cow the remaining half of Westeros not under his rule.
Because if a full-scale war broke out, he'd easily take over the continent, and Lux wasn't nearly done playing with his toys yet. And who knows, maybe he'd even leave the conquest of Westeros to one of his precious daughters.
Now, back to why he was flying over these apocalyptic lands. If he wanted the upcoming negotiations to end in a cold war of sorts, he'd need something that'd truly have the lords trembling in their boots. So, dragons were on his shopping list, specifically, any eggs lucky enough to survive through the doom.
But Lux wouldn't be settling for the dragons of this world. He felt dirty just referring to them as dragons. At most, they could be considered wyverns, and he wouldn't be caught dead riding such an inferior creature. He shuddered just thinking about it.
Any egg he'd find would simply be used as a starting point, and while he knew that he wasn't strong enough to evolve them to the levels of true dragons, he'd at least make sure they had four legs.
Finished with his rant, Lux spread his senses, looking for anything with the barest hint of magic. And while he'd picked up on multiple signals buried under ash and molten rock, he'd leave the digging for later because something far more interesting was happening a dozen or so miles to the east—not far from where the capital of the Freehold should be.
Flapping his wings, Lux raced through the smoke-filled skies, easily reaching speeds faster than sound, but with his magic canceling any effect on the air, he silently appeared above an ongoing battle, the expected shockwaves from such movements nonexistent.
Lux grinned, happy to find something he hadn't expected. Something that was more than welcomed as he neared omniscience each day.
On one side, he watched as red slithering creatures swarmed their foe, breathing fire that harmlessly rolled over the behemoth, who seemed completely unbothered as he munched on their kin.
A dragon: and from the histories, Lux knew that, while the greyed scales didn't match the description, this should be none other than the infamous Cannibal. Even in its decrepit old age, the ancient beast's wings so torn apart that it was impossible to soar the skies, it was clear that this beast still reigned supreme at the top of the food chain.
Lux wanted him; if he was going to get himself a pet dragon, then he'd surely be picking the baddest motherfucker available.
"Cannibal, your new master has arrived," Lux proclaimed after falling from the sky in a meteoric landing that he'd like to think would have gotten a streak of perfect tens if any judges were around to see it. As for the bus-length Firewyrm he was standing on? Well, it's not like the corpse would be giving its opinion anytime soon.
Unsurprisingly, the scaled monster only gave him a passing glance before returning to munching on the inferior reptiles. How rude. Lux decided he'd have to teach his future mount a lesson for the disrespect. But first, he'd get rid of the nearby annoyances.
Creating a light spear in each hand, Lux aimed for the nearest Firewyrm, the golden construct pinning the thing to a bolder as the superheated spike boiled it alive.
After impaling a few more of their brethren, the wyrms finally decided to take him into consideration instead of solely focusing on their castle-sized enemy whom they'd wrongly assumed to be the primary threat.
Quickly correcting their mistake, Lux was beginning to wonder if these things had some sort of hive mind after they evenly split their focus, half now slithering towards his unmoved position on top of his first kill in unison.
To get this over with, tens of golden runic circles formed at Lux's back before machine gunning the rushing horde in a spray of light bullets, any of the surviving creatures fleeing at their top speed as they tunneled away from an undefeatable opponent. And probably sensing something went wrong, the other half of the wyrm army swarming Cannibal tucked tail and ran themselves as well, leaving behind piles of bodies that the old dragon merrily went about gulping down.
"Are ya just gonna sit there and ignore me, ya fat pig?" Lux asked, his all speak getting the meaning across, making the big oaf drop the piece of meat in his mouth as he turned, narrowing his eyes.
It seems that these dragons are at least smart enough to know when they're being insulted, Lux thought, watching a wave of green flames bounce off his light barrier.
"Heh, this could have been easy for you but now I'll have to teach you who's the boss here." Lux said, cracking his knuckles as he walked through the torrents of fire.
Lux sent a palm strike onto the ground in front of the beast, the attack doing nothing other than leaving a hand sized indent in the rock and confusing the dragon he was fighting.
Though, Cannibal's unspoken question was soon answered, a golden projection of Lux's hand the size of a small mountain crashing onto his target's neck as he struggled underneath the immeasurable weight.
With the dragon still pinned down, Lux walked up to one of its eyes, the slit pupil the height of an average man glaring him down. "See, it's nothing personal, just had to establish the hierarchy," he told the angry reptile.
Running his hand over the grey, cracked scales, Lux shook his head. This wouldn't do. Like he'd mentioned, he wouldn't be settling for the dragons of this world that should truly only be called wyverns.
If he had a dragon egg, Lux could simply feed it his magic while making changes as he wished, but for the ancient thing in front of him, he'd have to handle it another way.
There were many options that Lux had to choose from, but the one that'd have the best effect was making the dragon into his familiar. The only issue being that Noire was sure to be a pain thinking there would be an extra soul bound companion vying for his affection.
Eh, whatever, he'd just need to give the little pup some extra head pats, Lux decided, getting to work on the ritual while Cannibal growled his dissatisfaction at still being immobilized by the magical hand.
With the two of them at the center, Lux transfigured the surroundings into a perfectly flat surface before getting to work on creating miles worth of runic trenches that would have taken months if not for his ludicrous magic reserves.
Normally, a familiar ritual was a simple process, but that was only when you weren't planning on evolving the creature into a higher lifeform. So, Lux took his time, making sure everything was perfect, after all, the slightest mistake would probably have the big guy over here exploding into a shower of gore.
Luckily for Cannibal, Lux was more than confident in his abilities, and after making a slice on his palm, and one on his soon-to-be familiar, rivers of blood flowed out of each cut—just typical magic bullshit at work—filling the circle's channels before the smog-covered sky shined bright as the ritual activated.
Seeing that the time was about right, Lux dismissed the hand holding Cannibal to the ground, and before the disheveled dragon could act on his grievances, the ground split, oceans of magma rising from the planet's core, all converging on the creature having a terrible day. Now, where there was once a wrathful beast, only a giant sphere of hardened lava remained.
Lux clapped his hands clean. Well, this might take some time. Might as well go hunt down some eggs while waiting, he thought.
Later, after Lux tossed the sixteenth petrified egg into his storage ring—something he'd created after improving on the wizarding world's expansion charms—he felt it was about time that his Pokémon egg hatched.
After making sure his newest piece of loot was secured alongside the others of its kind and a large pile of Valyrian Steel, he tore through space, appearing at the same time cracks began forming on the enormous sphere.
He had no use for the slightly-sharper-than-normal metal, but to the locals of Planetos, it was all the rage. Hell, gifting a Valyrian sword to each of the Northern lords would probably have them forgiving him for the deaths he'd caused during his day-long conquest.
Lux would decide what to do with the metal later. Because now, his newest companion was announcing himself to the world in a grand an over-the-top way that Lux felt was a bit much.
Cannibal's head was the first thing to break free, his reinvigorate pitch black maw roaring his presence, a jet of gold flames with black swirls lighting the skies ablaze, and Lux noted that the dragon's eyes had taken on a matching color scheme—something that was obviously caused by the ritual.
After the flamboyant display, his newly created front legs and claws helped the big guy wrench the rest of himself free, Cannibal now proudly standing on four legs like a real dragon should.
And it seems like that fact might have gone to its head as Lux felt it giving him a clearly challenging eye.
"How many times do I have to teach you this lesson, Old man," Lux shook his head, not expecting an answer as he readied himself to lay down another whooping.
So, that's exactly what Lux did, and now patting his dragon's snout, he tried comforting his beaten and bruised buddy. "There, there, maybe in a few hundred years you might be able to put up a challenge," he lied.
"But ah, I almost forgot. I can't have you using that same old unpleasant name," Lux said, pacing around while thinking.
"Got it, you'll be Hannibal from now on; Han for short," he told the newly named Han. Hey, Lux had already admitted he wasn't original when it came to naming.
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