Chapter 238 [Vault]

Title - HOTD: Rhaenyra the Exiled | Chapter 2 | Female

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[3rd POV]

Realizing that the Hightowers were almost certainly behind a lot of the deaths of her family and the constant deaths of children was definitely not a good thing. Realizing that the Maesters were most certainly the reason so many newborn children died so early, was even worse.

And realizing that her own mother and brother likely died as a cause for this, was even worse, as her rage simmered just underneath the surface, her violet eyes gleaming with murderous thunderous rage.

The sort of rage that could lead to the death of thousands. The sort of rage that would cause her to swear that the Maesters and Hightowers WILL fall. She will make certain of it, with fire and blood.

But for now, she knew that she had to wait until she was in Pentos. Once there, she would begin to prepare to conquer the city in silence, while making sure her dragon, Syrax, grew as much as possible in the time before her eventual return to Westeros.

That, and she would need to wed someone. Since she wasn’t marrying Laenor, she had another Valeryon in mind, one that she should be able to procreate with. This being Laena Valeryon. She was confident in this fact thanks to her dragon blood ability, which instinctively gave her the knowledge of how to do a rather simple ritual that allowed for two women to create a child with each other.

This way she’d still be able to have children, even if she herself wouldn’t be the one birthing them, but Laena instead.

Laena was the best marriage prospect she had, smart, strong, and connected to a powerful family that would fight tooth and nail for her if they were to marry. Not only that, but she’d be giving her another powerful dragon in the form of Vhagar, the largest dragon in the world at the moment.

After Vhagar was Cannibal, then Vermithor.

So, she decided that she would conquer Pentos within two months of arriving in the city, and then she would find a way to get Laena to the city, where she would then approach her with the offer of marriage.

She hoped she would accept, as she found her to be gorgeous, even more so than the one who broke her heart.

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A few days later, they had landed at the port of Pentos. And just as she had expected, the men that brought her there had almost immediately ditched her with nothing more than some gold dragons and a letter for the Prince of Pentos.

She knew this was what was going to happen, as Otto would want nothing more than to ruin her. He wanted her dead or worse, and what better way than to abandon her with nothing but a few gold dragons?

In a continent that condones slavery, she was basically asking to be kidnapped and turned into a sex slave or something similar.

Sadly for Otto, he had severely underestimated her intelligence and personal power. He had also forgotten one very very important detail.

She had a damn dragon.

And she would show Pentos what a true Valyrian looks like, with fire and blood, or if need be, through shadows and manipulation.

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[2 Moons Later | Pentos]

As it turns out, conquering Pentos was just as easy as Rhaenyra was anticipating. While the city itself was powerful in terms of military might, it was absolutely awful in terms of politics, and actually running in a coherent and stable manner.

All she really had to do was whisper some words to the right people. Manipulation and coercion hadn’t been a difficult thing to learn thanks to her intelligence, and charming the right men and women to follow her had been just as easy as she had been expecting.

Add in the fact that she began to subtly take over major buildings within the city, primarily whorehouses and merchant guilds that held immense wealth, and taking the city had been laughable to her.

The magisters were not hard to either kill or make her servants. As she once again just killed those who denied her, and persuaded the others through charm and promises of a brighter future, and a fuck ton more coin. And that latter aspect was absolutely true, they’d be getting a lot richer in the future.

Although she did make sure that they would no longer practice what was essentially slavery, through making the people serving them so in debt that they were slaves in all but name.

And without Pentos being able to field an army or anything, they had no way to properly fight back against her, not that they even knew that they needed to fight back in the first place.

She was very careful that her subtle takeover of the city was not known to anyone, not even Braavos or her father. She wanted to keep the fact that she had taken over Pentos hidden, which is why she allowed for the Prince of Pentos to remain, a cover figure that would seemingly be in power, when in actuality it was her with all of it.

A good way of remaining hidden.

She planned on doing something similar in other cities she conquered in the future, like Volantis, Qohor, Lorath, and any other cities that caught her eye, and could bring her future prosperity, and more of a means to protect herself and her future children.

For now though, she had to focus on Pentos, deciding to grow the city and its wealth, which would therefore grow her own. The only downside being that she couldn’t make an army without catching the attention of Braavos.

But once she took another major city? She’d build an army that would surpass any in Westeros, a personal army that serves her, and only her.

At the moment she was sitting in her personal cellar, sipping on her wine as she looked over the papers in front of her. Which were detailing the growth of her merchant groups that she had ordered to expand, especially since they had begun to merge into one massive merchant group, one that was making more money than ever before thanks to her help.

Looking over the papers, she signed a few of them that needed her attention, before stopping as she looked at a small letter, causing her to raise an eyebrow in interest as she opened it.

“Hmm? Now this…this is interesting” She muttered, a small smirk forming on her face. She had sent a letter out to Laena Valeryon, a letter that only she would be able to read, as she had one of her men personally give it to her.

And it seems she has gotten her reply. With the letter itself being an invitation to the city, by the supposed “Prince”. It was actually from her, of course, but Laena didn’t know that.

And by reading the letter, Rhaenyra grinned, as the girl had accepted her invitation, with her even agreeing to keep her travel there a secret. With the “Prince” swearing that she’d be well taken care of within the city.

Rhaenyra was a little surprised that the girl had accepted, but she suspected it was because of Laena’s love for going against authority, especially her parents. That, and she probably doesn’t want to marry some Braavosi sea lord's son, one that would have no power in a few years.

She just hoped that Laena would be interested in her offer.

If not, then she’d have to look at someone else in Westeros, like a Stark or maybe even a Martell. And she’d rather not marry the latter, as they had a tendency to…lay around if you will. And she was not one to share.

With that in mind, Rhaenyra made her own letter in reply, before sending it off with her servant who would be delivering it.

Watching the man leave, Rhaenyra leaned back in her chair, a smile on her face, one thought on her mind.

‘…Now we wait’

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That’s the end of the chapter!

Rhaenyra will be developing a lot and very quickly. As thanks to her incredible intelligence, conquering some cities won’t be difficult at all for her.

Her and Laena will also be getting together quickly, as I don’t want to wait too long for that. That, and it’ll be shown a decent bit in flashbacks and such.

Anyways, have a good day!