Daenerys pinched her thigh and felt the pain. Filled with anticipation, she quickly walked to the riverbank and picked up the Dragonriding Manual left by the mysterious woman.
The paper was made of a strange material. Though it bore a strong sense of age, there were no signs of decay. The entire book was written in High Valyrian, with a clear index and rich, illustrated content. One glance suggested it was not a fake. Daenerys instantly forgot her fatigue and hunger, turned to the first page, and began to read word by word, quickly becoming immersed.
...
Rather than an explanation, the opening was more of a historical background.
The first volume of the Dragonriding Manual revolved around the core concept of the prerequisites for Dragonriding, focusing on defining and explaining the origin of Dragonblood.
Dragonblood, in the Common Tongue, means True Dragon Bloodline.
Valyrians are divided into two types, narrow and broad. Broadly speaking, Valyrians, or Valyrian Freehold citizens, refers to all those born free within the Valyrian territories who owned land and property.
Narrowly speaking, Valyrians refers to those with silver hair and purple eyes, possessing the talent for Dragonriding, that is, those who truly possess Dragonblood.
And the protagonists of the story were an even smaller subset of these narrow Valyrians, Dragon Kings who legally owned Dragons and were capable of riding them.
---
Initially, only members of one family throughout Valyria possessed strange, unearthly beauty and the talent for riding Dragons. The rest of the citizens were vassals, servants, or dependents of this family. Members of this first Dragon King family, also known as the Original Dragon Kings, inevitably produced bastards during their interactions with other Valyrian citizens, that is, special Valyrian citizens who did not possess a Dragon King surname but had Dragonblood flowing within them and indeed shared the same characteristics as the Original Dragon Kings.
At that time, the number of Dragon Riders was far less than the number of Dragons. Large numbers of wild Dragons flew freely among the Fourteen Flames within Valyria, and no one could control them. With the intent to quickly increase the number of Dragon Riders to enhance the strength of the Freehold itself, and also out of the love of the Original Dragon Kings for their bastards, the rulers of the first Dragon King family, after consideration, generously issued a far-reaching decree that granted widespread favor:
[Any bastards of the Original Dragon Kings, or even the descendants of those bastards, who can successfully ride a Dragon can become the founder of a new Dragon King family and enjoy high status and treatment.]
This decree remained in effect for nearly a hundred years. During this period, bastards with silver-gold hair, purple or indigo-blue eyes, in short, those possessing Dragonblood, ventured into the Fourteen Flames one after another, risking their lives to attempt to tame wild Dragons. Those who failed were crushed and turned to ash under claws, teeth, or Dragonflame, disappearing into the long river of history. Those who succeeded leaped over the Dragon Gate, becoming Dragon Riders and founders of brand-new Dragon King families, thus engraving their surnames into the history of Valyria.
In this way, the number of wild Dragons among the Fourteen Flames decreased one by one, while the number of Dragon King families rapidly grew from one to two, three, eventually expanding to over a dozen or even several dozen.
Finally, the founder of the fortieth Dragon King family tamed the last visible wild Dragon among the Fourteen Flames, which also marked the end of the Original Dragon King family's favor decree. After this important moment, the forty Dragon King families together redrafted and clarified the Freehold's constitution regarding intermarriage and Dragon ownership, which was used until the Doom of Valyria, commonly known as the Dragon King Law. It stipulated that only Valyrians who married within or among the forty Dragon King families, and possessed the blood and surname of one of the forty Dragon King families, were qualified to ride Dragons. Anyone else, even if they possessed Dragonblood and talent, was not qualified to become a Dragon Rider.
...
A bit complicated? It does not matter. Remembering one point is enough. These forty Dragon King families monopolized the rights to the taming, breeding, and riding of Dragons, as well as the accompanying power, the voice and control at the highest level of the Valyrian Freehold. From then on, even if the characteristics of silver hair and purple eyes, and even Dragonblood, spread throughout the world due to the Dragon Riders' dalliances, from the birth to the destruction of the Freehold, every law and every Dragon Rider in Valyria came from these forty great families. The rare exceptions were often bastards who secretly rode intimate, ownerless young Dragons while herding Dragons for the main family, which was a serious crime under the Freehold's law. Those who committed it either relied on recognition from the Dragon's owner to obtain a surname and become legitimate, or faced relentless pursuit from all other Dragon Kings worldwide, a struggle to the death.
At the end of the first chapter of the manual, there was a list of the surnames of the forty great Dragon King families. The Original Dragon King was listed alone on the first line at the top, while the derived Dragon King families were listed three surnames per row below.
One plus thirteen, a total of fourteen lines, filling an entire page.
And Targaryen was prominently listed on the second to last row, one of the lucky ones to become a legitimate Dragon King family last. The Valyrian family Velaryon, also famous in the Seven Kingdoms, was not among them. They were a vassal family of the Targaryens, not one of the Freehold's Dragon King families.
Forty Dragon King families, hundreds of Dragon Riders, the past prosperity and strength of Valyria seemed to appear before her eyes. Unfortunately, all the pioneers, including the Original Dragon Kings, were annihilated in the tide of time during the mysterious disaster of the Doom and the subsequent turmoil. Now, only the lonely Targaryen remained.
If Aegon, who was currently in Westeros fighting the usurper family, was an impostor, then Targaryen, this last Dragon King family, would have only this one last woman remaining, destined to disappear from the world entirely.
Daenerys felt the vast changes of time, sighed, turned the page, and entered the second chapter.
The principle of Dragonriding.
This was the main topic. The Queen shook off the sorrow and melancholy in her mind and read carefully.
After a while, she realized that her many previous, shallow, experiential understandings of Dragonriding were almost entirely off the right path.
The taming of a Dragon by a Dragon Rider was not, as she had previously taken for granted, like riding a horse, relying on skill and training to make the Dragon form conditioned reflexes to commands and body movements. Whether special words or a whip, those were unorthodox methods. True Dragonriding used a Dragon's recognition of Valyrians with Dragonblood, binding with the chosen Dragon on a soul level through a set of magical and complex contracts. After that, the Dragon Rider could control the Dragon through thought, directing and manipulating the Dragon as if it were a part of their own body.
Regarding becoming a Dragon Rider, the beginning of the second chapter listed several recognized experiential laws.
One: Riding a Dragon is not the same as Dragonriding. A person, due to special status, such as a Dragon breeder, or great strength, magical or otherwise, might experience the feeling of riding several Dragons. But throughout their life, they can only be bound one-on-one with a single Dragon, becoming its controller and rider.
Two: Dragons have longer lifespans than humans, but an owned Dragon will not accept a second Dragon Rider before the death of the previous contract holder, regardless of whether they are familiar or how strong they are.
Three: The closer the blood relationship to the Original Dragon Kings, the purer the Dragon King bloodline, and the higher the success rate of Dragonriding. Original Dragon Kings who never married outsiders were guaranteed to be able to ride Dragons. But as the bloodline was diluted, the success rate of Dragonriding would drop at an astonishing rate and proportion.
Four: Having Dragonblood does not necessarily mean one can ride a Dragon, but lacking Dragonblood definitely means one cannot ride a Dragon. This was a lesson the Freehold learned through countless failures and bloody experiments.
...
These laws did not contradict Daenerys's understanding. She was the breeder of Three Dragons, the mother of the black, white, and green Dragons. Although she had not tried, if she ever felt like it in the future, riding Rhaegal and Viserion would most likely not result in her being bitten or thrown off. But what she wanted was clearly not simple riding, but control as if they were her own limbs. Only true Dragonriding would allow her, like Aegon the Conqueror, to bring blood and fire to her enemies precisely and ruthlessly, and reclaim what was hers.
Very well, the Dragonriding contract and binding spell were on the next page. This was exactly the knowledge Daenerys wanted.
Then she quickly discovered that the third chapter was completely different from the first two. Although it was also written in Valyrian script, and even the style and size had not changed, she could not understand it.
To be precise, she could understand every single word, but when combined, she completely failed to grasp the meaning or how to perform the procedures.
In Daenerys's less than eighteen years of life, the only time she had anything to do with magic was when she followed Mirri Maz Duur's method, using blood sacrifice and self-immolation to awaken the three Dragon eggs. But that had been a clumsy imitation, acting entirely on intuition, and only succeeded because of the sorceress's personal demonstration beforehand. Now, the Dragonriding contract required her to activate the power within her Dragonblood, and the binding spell required her to precisely control the second body with her mental power.
What did this mean, and how was she supposed to do it?
After a period of futile effort and struggle, Daenerys understood that she lacked the necessary foundation and could not master true Dragonriding on her own. She needed guidance, and she had to pay the price she should pay.
She did not wait long. Around the same time the next day, the mysterious woman appeared before her again.
"Save your lines. I want you to teach me." For some reason, Daenerys was certain the other party had this ability. "Tell me the price."
Quaithe found the Queen's eagerness and directness amusing. She seemed to smile and shake her shoulders, still speaking unhurriedly.
"Countless Dragon seekers are monitoring my movements and whereabouts, intending to find the lone Daenerys through me. For your safety, I have to use this method now, meeting you through magic. And doing so requires magic, a lot of magic, more magic than I can afford." The red-lacquered mask blocked the mysterious woman's face, but it could not hide the unfathomable divine light shimmering in her eyes. "And within the Dragon King's blood, there is power."
(To be continued.)
***
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