"Rise, Dame Nymeria Starlyfe. From this day onwards, you are a Knight of the House Targaryen."
Azaerys left the girl in shock as he sheathed his sword.
"A Knight in my Kingsguard can not hold any land or be the Lord of any Household. However, any noble Lady, who wishes to find a suitable Consort, may ask her King to provide her one from his Kingsguard, granted that they fulfil the two conditions put forward by the Crown. Since you have fulfilled the two conditions I put forward, you may take Ser Arthur Dayne as your Consort."
"Thank you, Your Grace!" A tear escaped from her eyes and she knelt to him, this time, swearing her vows again in her heart.
If her trembling body meant anything, it showed that she had received more on this day than anything she could have ever asked for in her life.
"Do you have any objections to my arrangements, Ser Arthur?" He asked the purple-eyed Knight, who had his head lowered.
"No, Your Grace." He answered.
"Go, be with your future wife. You are dismissed for the day." He chuckled as he walked past him.
Ashara, who was in the Hall, and had stayed silent, caught her brother blushing for the first time in her life, and she failed to contain her giggle.
"Yes, Your Grace." The Knight hurriedly stepped forward and offered his hand to his Lady, who was still on her knees, and Nymeria blushed as she placed her hand in his and followed him outside.
"To grant a Noble Lady the right to take a Kingsguard as her Consort, your wisdom is enviable, Your Grace." Ser Willem could not help but say as his mind worked around all the benefits of such an arrangement.
Not only Noble Houses without male Heirs would be able to save themselves from getting exploited by another house, but their daughters would have an honourable Consort who would be respected by everyone, and who would never have ambitions to control her house and steal her power.
Importantly, she and her House would be in debt to the Crown, and for the children, having their father in the Kingsguard would keep them loyal as well.
"Maybe I just wanted to create a Vassal House." He shrugged, but no one in the room believed that he had not thought far.
Their King was special, farsighted, and caring.
"We will have to rework the Vows of the Kingsguard, but that's not happening today. Let's continue with the meeting."
"Your Grace," someone called out.
It was Lyanna.
"Yes?"
"A Dame?" She smiled, making her intentions clear.
"The title conferred the Female Knights."
"So, women can be Knights too now?"
"Sure, if they are worthy of the title." He smiled when she pulled her sword out, placed its tip on the ground, and rested her hands over the pommel.
"Am I worthy of being Knighted?" She asked, and both Ashara and Elia brightly smiled at her behaviour.
"Yes," He said, nodding his head, "but later..."
"Now!" She excitedly said, almost like a little girl, and even the Knights laughed at her behaviour.
"We have a meeting..." He playfully reminded her and chucked when she begged him with her eyes. "Alright, step forward."
Lyanna was excited. No, she was beyond excited. Being a Knight was one of her dreams, and now, it was coming true.
By the time she knelt, her eyes were already teary, and an infectious smile stayed on her lips throughout the ceremony.
She swore her vow of allegiance, and finally, she was Knighted.
"Rise, Dame Lyanna Stark. From this day onwards, you are the Knight of the House Targaryen."
"Your Grace." She gratefully bowed her head to him before she stood up, and then sheathed her own sword.
Though not as beautiful as Elia, she was still beautiful. She had a wild flare about her that added to her charm. Right now, the merry smile on her face was warm enough to melt their hearts, and one by one, everyone congratulated her on becoming a Knight.
Even though ladies were not bestowed Knighthood in Westeros, no one had any objection to Azaerys' decision. And perhaps, it was for the best.
Their King was different from his predecessors. No rules of men could bind him.
And Nymeria was right.
There were indeed people who believed that he was a God, and at times, even Oswell wondered if it was true.
Inside the Council Room, around a large brown wooden table, which held the map of Essos, and had every major City marked by dragonglass embedded into the wood, blurred red lines that marked the assumed territories and the names of the regions in red ink, his council took their seats.
Two members of the council were his Kingsguard, Ser Gerold and Ser Oswell.
Ser Willem Darry, Ser Rykker and Ser Mooton sat at the table as well, and there were two more Knights, one was Ser Baros, a man in his mid-twenties with a thick beard and dark hair with red streaks, and Ser Gremm, who was younger, in his early twenties, had a red tattoo on his neck, a scar across left cheek, and was a beast of man, standing nearly seven feet tall.
These two Knights were two of the four Captains of Azaerys' Household Guards, the most trusted, and who had pledged their lives to him when he saved them and their kin from the hands of the Grand Temple.
Elia, Lyanna, and Ashara sat at the table as well, and there was now a vacant seat, which belonged to Arthur, but he was now dismissed for the day.
"Do you have your answers now?" The Young King asked them to continue the meeting from where they had left in the last session.
It seemed that they had already discussed these things between them, and Ashara stood up to place her hand on the Dragonglass, which marked one of the three cities located at the coast of Slaver's Bay. And then she placed her hand on another Dragonglass, right in front of her, which marked the New Ghis.
Both the obsidian glasses lit up, brightly shining and Azaerys smiled a little.
"Your reasoning?"
"Astapor is the easiest to conquer," said Ashara. "The Good Masters have too much faith in their Unsullied, and with how peaceful things have been for years, their slave trade is very profitable and they don't feel any danger. They have also made peaceful terms with the Dothraki savages, who supply the three Ghiscari cities with Slaves. The trade route is vital as well."
"What about the Unsullied?" He asked.
"We buy them." She said, much to Lyanna's displeasure. "We will do it on the day we make our move. We will buy as many Unsullied as possible. We believe that as long as we manage to buy seven-tenths of the Unsullied and use them to take control of the city, we will succeed. However, we will need to make a very lucrative offer to the Good Masters to sell us that many Unsullied. They usually don't sell more than 1000, and there are always over 10,000 Unsullied in the City, including more than 5000 who are always under training."
"So, we will need 7000 Unsullied?" He raised his brow, and Baros, who was the most familiar with the three Slaver Cities, nodded his head.
"Yes, Your Grace. If things work out fine, we will be able to control the city with those numbers."
"And if they don't work out?" He asked, and the man sighed.
"You have Dragons, Your Grace."
"If I use Dragons, the city will be ruined. What are we going to control then? Ruins and Ashes?" He shook his head. "We are doing it to control the trade route and to make a Garrison for our forces. We will also need the labour to work in the fields outside the walls and to regulate the port. We need a functioning City." He stressed and watched the Dragon Blood smile at him.
"Which is why this plan must work," said Ashara. "Baros says that the Good Masters are very greedy, both for coin and for powerful slaves, including Beasts. If we wait for four years, the Griffin Eggs that you have collected will hatch and the Beasts will become adults. What do you think they will ask for when people riding Griffins, whom the world has not seen for Thousands of Years because these creatures never left the Shadow Lands after the fall of Stygai, appear again, and their Masters come to Astapor to buy the Unsullied?"
"And what stops them from trying to steal those Beasts?"
"Their reputation as Good Masters, and it will help that we send a strong enough Legion, which will make them hesitate when such thoughts cross their minds." She answered, and Azaerys stared into her purple eyes.
She was the same girl who had once told him that she had no interest in becoming a Queen, and now, she behaved like a proper Dragon Queen.
"We will do as you have decided." He nodded. "Gremm, since you and your brothers will be the ones controlling the Griffins, you will lead this mission."
"Yes, Your Grace." The man nodded to him, accepting the task.
"Baros, you will be leaving with your guards, and together with Sir Moonton and Ser Rykker, you will work as traders between Volantis and Slaver's Bay. Buy a Trading Fleet, and start working on building our Royal Fleet. At the same time, you will also build some relationships and a reputation with New Ghis, Astapor, Yunkai, and Mereen. Get a better understanding of the people, the state of the cities, and the weaknesses in their defences, and gather any valuable information you can get your hands on. You will leave within a moon, and you will not return to Asshai before the fall of Astapor."
"As you command, Your Grace." The Man stood up and bowed to him, and Ser Jaremy and Ser Mooton did the same.
"Sit. We still have to talk about the New Ghis."
"It will be tricky. We can not attack them with ships, they are prepared for such battles. Their Iron Legions include both freemen and slaves, and we simply can't take them on in a ground battle as they are as well-trained as the Unsullied," Ser Gerold said.
"Dragons," Ashara lightly smiled. "We will give them time to surrender, but if they stay stubborn, we will lay waste to their city. I know it is better to control the Island without laying waste to the city, but we have no other way right now."
Azaerys stayed silent at her words and waited for others to speak.
"The fall of New Ghis and Astapor will crush the hopes of Mereen and Yunkai. Our actions will make the slaves in those cities restless, and if we destroy their fleets and hamper their sea trade, the two cities will fall on their own. We will only have to hold Astapor," Ser Willem said but then frowned. "Volantis won't sit still. It will be the same for other Free Cities. The only ones we don't have to worry about are Bravos and Pentos. However, what is most concerning is that we will have to face hundreds of thousands of Dothraki. Those cities will surely recruit their help in dealing with us."
The old man paused and then met Azaerys' eyes.
"They might even seek help from the faceless men."
"For now, let's focus on New Ghis and conquering it without laying waste to it. The Island is a very good place to create a future Trading Capital. If we lay waste to the city, it will take us a long time to reconstruct it." The Young King told them. "Find a way."
"Yes, Your Grace," They answered in unison.
"Anything else?" He asked and raised his brow at Lyanna, who was hesitating to say something. "Yes?"
"We should put an end to the Dothraki savages," her words made him smile. "They rape, pillage, kill indiscriminately, old and young alike, and they are the reason why the slave trade is booming in those cities."
"What would you have me do to all those Khalasar? They say that there are more than a million Dothraki in the world. Tell me, should I feed a million people to Aerylyx and Rhaelyx or turn them into ashes?"
Lyanna frowned at his words.
"So, we will let them roam free in the Dothraki Sea? You want to cultivate the arable land outside Astapor, but Dothraki hate seeing the land getting cultivated. They will keep coming back to destroy the fields."
"I will deal with the Dothraki, but ending them or totally changing their ways isn't the right answer. You can not end deep-rooted cultures and traditions overnight unless you kill every last person of that race or the nation who follows the beliefs that you want to end." He lightly said. "Dothraki are savages, true to their primal instincts. In a thousand years, their ways would see changes, and they would be a lot different than they are today. The First Men men that are hailed in your stories, were even worse than the Dothraki. They did all the evil things that Dothraki did and even did evils that the horselords of today would never do. Andals were the same. Now, things are very different since those two races stepped into Westeros. We have honourable and Ancient Houses standing tall, built from the blood and bones of babes, innocents, under the cries of dishonoured women and betrayed men."
"Why do you hate the First Men and Andals so much?" She frowned, displeased at his words.
"I don't hate them. I just despise their actions. I despise the actions of my ancestors too." He smiled. "We were honoured and blessed, we dishonoured and cursed ourselves, saw the first Doom. We vowed to never commit those mistakes again, begged for forgiveness, and received blessings and honour again, and yet we ended up making the same mistakes and even worse ones. One example is of how the Ancient Valyrian prophecies forbade unnecessary slavery and warned against it, but after the fall of Old Ghis, Valyria strayed, adopted the Ghiscari vices, their culture of Slavery, used slaves to expand their power, and eventually, when they had enough Power, they committed all sorts of atrocities on their slaves. I can not even tell you the horrors that I have seen or you would never be able to sleep again in your lives. Valyria ended, not because of some accident or some natural disaster. It ended because that's what Valyrians deserved."
There was silence around the table, and everyone was uncomfortable after his words.
"Our histories are our worst nightmares. If you ever meet someone claiming that their Blood was always honourable, you should know that they are ignorant and stupid."
"Hey!" Lyanna protested but shut up when he narrowed his eyes at her.
"Back to your concern, Dothraki will be dealt with, but you must not hold any unrealistic expectations. I can speed up their changes, but I can not force them to start anew in a day. And I am not going to feed a million Dothraki to my Dragon." He seriously told her, but then smiled. "It will upset his stomach."
Despite themselves, no one at the table could help their smiles, some even chuckled.
"The meeting is adjourned."