(Random Pov)
(City of Lys)
Who am I? My name is not important, not significant. I am just an insignificant nobody. A man in his late fifties, one with a bulging stomach, protruding cheeks and greying hair.
I am also a small time merchant in Lys. What do I trade in?
I provide shipping services to whoever needs them, at a cost, of course. Otherwise, how would I make the profits? People who need ships to transport their cargo from one place to another, or groups of people, mostly merchants and magisters, who want to travel from one place to another, can hire my services.
Under my command, I have a fleet of twenty-three ships with a highly efficient and extremely professional crew.
My men are among the best in all of Lys, and I have a very sound reputation in the city. A lot of merchants and magisters prefer my services because of the quality and the professionalism I provide at a very attractive price. You could say, I was well known in the corridors of power.
But my story does not begin here. My story begins a couple of years back. Originally, I was a resident of Meereen. Yes, Meereen, the very city in the Slaver's Bay that Lord Aeos captured two years ago. I hated Lord Aeos. I loathed him.
The way he arrived, announcing his pronouncements about banning slavery, uplifting the poor, and whatnot, I hated all of it.
I was a merchant in Meereen then, doing the same trade of providing shipping services as I do now.
Though not a very powerful or influential business magnate, I had been doing decently well.
I had twenty ships, around one hundred slaves to man them, and a few dozen freemen working under my command. Everything had been good and I had been progressing in my life.
But Lord Aeos's arrival stripped me of everything. Just before he breached the gates of Meereen, my men, the slaves, revolted against me. They were almost successful in killing me. I barely survived thanks to the sacrifice of a few of my loyal freemen.
But despite all my efforts, I could not save my family. The slaves were successful in killing them. My wife, my son, and my daughter were brutally murdered. I lost all my wealth and everything I had built for myself. I barely escaped with my life.
Lord Aeos captured the city and, thanks to his instant intervention, he stopped the rioting and the pillaging of rich men, merchants, and magisters. He even granted amnesty to everyone who bent the knee to him and allowed them to keep their wealth and properties. But it did not matter to me. I had already lost everything. I was devastated.
I hated, loathed, the man. I know Lord Aeos did not kill my family with his own hands. I even knew that Lord Aeos did not call for the killing of masters by their slaves. But in the end, it was he who was ultimately responsible for everything. It was his pronouncements that had caused everything.
I could never forgive him, nor could I live in the city he ruled. Therefore, I sold all my ships at whatever price I was able to get. The slaves had already been freed.
I loaded my remaining wealth into a wagon and, with half a dozen of my subordinates, arrived in the city of Lys. Here, I bought a couple of ships and, with the help of my men, set up my trading enterprise.
This was my story. Well, at least, this was the story of the world, the one the people around me knew.
My actual story was very different. There were certainly people who had gone through what I described just now. Casualties of war, and though I understood their losses and sufferings, I also understood that some sacrifices were necessary to change an era. Not that, they were actually innocent people. Even so, the sacrifices that Lord Aeos sought, compared to the changes he was bringing, were nothing.
Anyway, about my story. In reality, I had been a slave under one of the merchants. Well, not one of those beaten down and tortured slaves. My master had been a good man, at least, compared to other masters.
I had a bit of respect and a lot of freedom to do a lot of things. You could say I had been a slave in name only.
My master was the one who dealt in the shipping enterprise, and after working for him for more than three decades, I too had become an expert in the field.
Now, my master was a very smart man. When Lord Aeos breached the gates of Meereen, he was among the first to surrender. He not only saved his life and wealth but even rose in the eyes of Lord Aeos. It did not change much for me, as I continued to work for him, except that now I was getting paid a monthly wage.
But that did not mean I was not happy. I was extremely happy. I was a freeman, in reality, and more than for myself, I was happy for the people of my community.
I had seen the extreme conditions slaves were subjected to. I had seen them treated as nothing more than objects. I was happy for them, and like every other former slave, I worshipped the very ground Lord Aeos walked on.
It began shortly after the fall of the city, when men from Lord Aeos's army came looking for my master. They were seeking his assistance with ships, as Lord Aeos was laying the foundation for his navy. During that time, Lord Aeos's men learned of my talents, and one day, I was summoned to the Great Pyramid, the seat of Lord Aeos.
At the Great Pyramid, Lord Aeos personally spoke with me and asked if I was willing to do a great service for him, an act that could change the fate of his plans. And who was I to reject the commands of a God? I instantly accepted it.
I arrived in Lys with that fake story of mine. The half a dozen of followers who had arrived with me were also men in the service of Lord Aeos.
Here in Lys, I collected sympathy, built connections, established myself in the corridors of power, and, most importantly, I cultivated an image of a man who immensely hated Lord Aeos, one who was willing to go to great lengths to seek revenge against him.
The situation has become so convincing that I know if a rebellion ever breaks out in Lys, the slaves will surely come after me first. I was a known Lord Aeos hater.
Since my actual motive was not to make a profit, I was able to provide brilliant services to the magisters and the rich merchants. It was all part of the plan to build connections with them.
I had the backing of Lord Aeos and received regular funds to continue my operations. I worked tirelessly and built my fleet from two ships to twenty-three. All the money had come from Lord Aeos's treasury.
And now, with his forces having arrived on the shore, my actual work was about to begin.
With all these thoughts and my story in mind, I arrived in front of one of the majestic mansions in the centre of the city.
It belonged to one of the Magisters and, for the past few days, it had been serving as a base of operations for the upcoming battle. I had sought special permission to be out during the lockdown and, thanks to my connections, it had been an easy task.
[1. From this chapter onwards, the story will not divert and will continue till the capture of the three cities. A lot of things will happen simultaneously with the capture, like the story of Viserys, Oberyn, Varys, Rhaenys and Qohor, Lagsan and the Golden Company but we will deal with all of that after the end of capture.]
[2. When I will tell a tale or anything happening, I will do it with a point of view of any one of the three cities. You would have to imagine similar things happening in all the three cities.
Of course, there would be differences especially for Myr which is not an island. And I will write accordingly but I will not repeat the same thing happening for every city.]
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