For Camille Ferros, this entire trip was, in the end, worth more than she initially anticipated. At first, she only came here to find out more about the Imperial Gold, because if there was found something from the Imperial Gold, the Ferros Clan wanted to obtain the source.
The House Lannister raised the prices to a ridiculous degree after the Golden Empire issued a ban on selling the Imperial God to foreigners as they were planning to use it for some Magic ritual or whatever against the Jogos Nhai that were harassing their borders constantly.
That was making the Imperial Gold a very rare commodity whose price was getting higher every month, with less and less Imperial God being sold from the Westerlands of the continent of Westeros.
Yet, she came across something more intriguing and interesting when she arrived as she finally met a man that her cousin was talking about from time to time. And she had to admit that it was an interesting meeting.
One of the things that she noted was that it was rather refreshing to talk to someone who wasn't groveling in front of her. Normally, people abstained from a long discussion with her due to her stern nature, but this Valkorion Nerona wasn't...
Even more so as she would expect it from this low status as an adventurer.
Though, when she noticed his presence and appearance, he appeared to be more noble than some heirs of the Dragonlord Families. It was rather weird because she was very sure that the man in front of her had a noble heritage, even though he was clearly half-valerian judging by the color of his golden molten eyes.
Yes, power was apparent to them.
Still, she was very surprised to hear of his martial prowess, and his killing Sequence 7 Mutated Extraordinary Creature was rather a feat on itself. Mutated extraordinary creatures were always very powerful and highly problematic to deal with.
Not to mention, the materials from their corpses were especially valuable to anyone who harvested them. From what she heard from her cousin Albus, Valkorion Nerona was basically constantly dwelling in the Painted Moutnaians and was fighting a lot.
He was a very talented swordsman, skilled man, and high kill count.
It would be a worthwhile investment in him; she could see him becoming stronger and bringing even more wealth to the Ferros Clan. Investing in some Low Sequence Beyonders and seeing them grow into powerful figures was always one of the strategies of the Ferros Clan.
Still, it partially made her pretty angry at his instant refusal, but she had to admit that he was rather smart. Realize that the support from the Ferros Clan won't be out of the goodness of their heart, but it would require something in return.
She liked men who were smart, most of them were stupid, Beyonder or not.
Still, he was open to a more equal partnership, and even that was better than nothing. his friendship with her cousin Albus was a good boon; at least something came from Albus coming to this forgotten city that could be attacked anytime by endless hordes of goblinoids.
Rarely did anyone catch the interest of Camille Ferros, the Heir Apparent of the Clan Ferros, especially after she became the Heir Apparent after the fortunate death of her brother, who was useless as a block of stone on the sea.
Right now, she was already running most of the Clan's operations, and her father decided to let her succeed the Clan in a year or two as she would become the Matriarch of Ferros Clan as her skills and abilities were far superb.
Not to mention, she was also a rather powerful Beyonder on her own and one of the best of the Clan, even though the Ferros Clan wasn't focused on cultivating Beyonders but rather on gathering wealth.
However, once one had wealth, power was needed, and in Camille's eyes, the current practice of Clan was outdated and insufficient. In her opinion, the Ferros Clan needed to give birth to at least a Saint or, most ideally, an Angel that would guard their interest.
While they had enough money to buy protection for Angel, it would be vastly superior if one of them reached that level, and Camille Ferros decided that it would be her who would become the Angel of the Ferros Clan.
Though she had to admit that Valkrion was rather a handsome man, all things considered, and she really liked that powerful, dark, tyrannical visage that he had. She knew that it was something that he himself wasn't realizing yet, but the way how he looked at everyone with a certain degree of contempt...
"I should be going. We need to be in Volantis in one week, and the journey would take longer even with the carriage pulled by Rough Rhinos. If I wish to contact you, by letter or through my cousin?"
To her question, Valkorion shook his head as he passed her small paper with several runes on it.
"You can use the glass candle."
She was rather surprised that he had a glass candle in his possession because these things were especially pricy, sometimes to a degree where only nobility or very rich merchants were able to buy them.
Glass Cadles were one of the magical items of the Valyrian Freehold.
They were tall and twisted with sharp edges. These glass candles were used by the Valyrians to communicate with each other, while some advance models of the Glass Candle could be also used for scouting terrain and many other functions, it was possible to communicate with one another half a world apart.
'Certainly not ordinary individual...'
She though as her eyes sparked with interest as she stored the paper containing seval Runes in Dragonese.
When one Glass Candle was lit up, the person controlling the Glass Candle could engrave several runes from the fire that served as identification for another Glass Candle and connect them together so the people could communicate precisely with the person they wished.
Of course, only Dragonese was used in this because it was a far superior mystical language when it came to these matters. When Valkorion passed the Runic Number to her, she immediately knew that his model of Glass Candle should be something costing tens of thousands of Gold Dragon Coins.
Only, that one were built for personalized communication, as usually the Glass Candles were built in a more simplistic manner. Some of the most basic models that allowed only accepting "calls" were built in a way where they served as a method of receiving announcements or warnings or such...
Those contained only a few hundred Gold Dragon Coins, and sometimes even commoners living in some dangerous areas of the Freehold bought them to be informed about the important things in the Valyrian Freehold.
***
When Camille Ferros has left, Valkorion was left sitting alone in the living room of Albus's shop as he gave her his "phone number" as he liked to call it. At first, he was rather surprised that the Valyrian Freehold had such an advanced method of communication, but it wasn't that surprising, in fact.
Valkorion, during the years, realized that many concepts from his old world existed within the Freehold in one way or another. He knew that the Heiress Apparent of the Ferros Clan was more interested in him than she normally should.
He wasn't yet sure if it was a good omen or a bad sign.