The rider who arrived at Cair Volakar that morning did not bear a sword or a banner.
She bore a ledger.
And that made her more dangerous than any sellsword.
📍 Cair Volakar – Eastern Watchgate
Her name was Kaerys Velaryon, marked by the silver chain tattoo coiling her neck—a symbol of the Scales of Velaryon, the Freehold's most powerful economic syndicate. Not quite a noble House, not quite a guild, they existed in the gray waters between power and purchase.
She bowed without kneeling.
"Ash-Lord Neron. I bring an offer. One only made to those the Scales consider… inevitable."
Neron raised an eyebrow. "And what is it you offer inevitable men?"
Kaerys smiled. "A way to make others need you more than they fear you."
🪙 The Scales' Game
Over blackwine and bitter root-salt, Kaerys laid her proposal before Neron and his inner circle.
"The Scales offer investment, trade routes, and logistical mastery."
"Why now?" M'Koro asked bluntly. "We've barely held off the Byrnadar dogs. You think we're worth your coin?"
Kaerys didn't blink. "You're hatching a dragon. You've just slain a noble scion. And you now sit on an artery of ore, obsidian, and old roads."
She pulled forth a scroll of ancient mapping, showing the Six Roads of Oros, lost in the chaos after the Fourth Freehold Succession War.
"Cair Volakar sits atop a vein that could be reactivated. Supply lines. Fortified caravans. Military control."
She leaned forward.
"We want to build a mercantile army. Your soldiers—our coin. You hatch the beast. We own the chain it drags behind."
🧠 System Interface: New Faction Deal Incoming
[Faction Deal: The Scales of Velaryon – Investment Proposal]🔸 Terms:
Receive 5000 Gold
Gain access to merchant barracks, quartermasters, and supply engineers
Start the Volakar Trading Company (VTC) – your own military-backed economic house
Gain factional cover from the Scales in the Freehold courts
🔻 Price:
8% tax on all future trade
One seat on the VTC board must be filled by a Scales agent
Obligation to honor economic alliances
Accept? ✅ / ❌
Neron stared at the options.
M'Koro leaned in. "Too many chains."
Kaerys smiled. "No empire survives without debt. Even dragons must feed."
Jorvan muttered, "Better to ride the gold serpent than be eaten by it."
Neron chose accept.
🪙 Deal Accepted: Scales of Velaryon Investment Pact
[Gold +5000][Volakar Trading Company (Tier 1) Founded][First Quartermaster Deployed] – Commander Ilian Maelstrom[Faction Standing Improved – Scales of Velaryon: Neutral → Allied][Political Cover Gained – No assassination contracts allowed on player within Freehold for 3 months]
🏗️ Building the VTC: The Dragonlord's Coin
With gold in hand and the backing of the Scales, Cair Volakar changed almost overnight.
Caravans rolled in from the south, bearing iron, smoked meat, and tools.
Quartermasters began training troops in efficiency-based formations—tight shieldwalls for defense, pike-charges to crush cavalry.
Masons and engineers began rebuilding the east wing of the outpost into a proper Merchant Citadel, with armories, offices, and counting rooms.
And with it all came… whispers.
👁 Whispers in Oros
"They say the Ash-Lord will build his own Freehold."
"The Scales don't back losers. Who is he?"
"A beast stirs beneath Volakar. It's not just gold buying loyalty."
Even nobles began to notice.
In particular, Lady Dazhalor of House Euryth, mistress of mountain glass trade, and Lord Raemerys of House Marridor, a naval prince of the eastern isles.
Kaerys warned him: "You've made waves. Soon, the sea will stir."
🧊 A Knife in the Vault
Ten days after the deal was signed, someone tried to kill Neron.
It was subtle—not a blade in the dark, but a poisoned ledger. A scroll laced with smoke-death parchment, enchanted with trace sigils.
The assassin had disguised himself as a scribe from Velaryon. But Neron had started feeding his arcane system with scrying runes—a layer of magical vision.
He saw the death-sigil flicker on the scroll before he touched it.
He let the man speak his lies. Let him believe the plot had succeeded.
Then he whispered one word: "Undo."
The Voldumorte system activated.
The shadows rippled. The assassin froze in time, then snapped backward like a puppet yanked by its strings.
Neron stepped forward, kopis drawn.
"I am not yet a dragon," he said. "But I've already learned how to burn."
He made the man scream until he named his buyer.
House Marridor.
🔥 The Fire Returns the Favor
That night, Neron gathered his inner circle.
"We don't strike openly," he said. "We whisper. We rot them from within."
M'Koro grinned. "Shadow play?"
"No," Neron replied. "We invest."
He took 1000 gold and gave it to Kaerys.
"Buy up Marridor ship shares in the eastern harbors. Quietly. Sabotage their spice routes. Bribe their captains. Start a rumor: their next fleet is cursed."
She smiled like a shark.
"As you command, my Ash-Lord."
📉 3 Weeks Later
House Marridor's spice fleet failed to reach the mainland.
Two ships exploded in harbor.
A third was boarded by pirates that turned out to be former gladiators from Volakar, wearing Marridor colors.
In the Freehold court, Marridor lost economic voting rights.
They screamed about sabotage. But could prove nothing.
Kaerys toasted Neron that night.
"Politics," she said, "is just war measured in ledgers."
🐉 Meanwhile… The Egg Stirs
As trade flowed and gold lined the halls of Cair Volakar, the dragon egg reached Stage 3 of Incubation.
It had begun emitting song—not of words, but pure harmonic energy, like a heartbeat and a scream intertwined.
Neron began hearing it in his dreams.
The system pulsed.
[Dragon Hatchling 73% – Name Pending][Bond Strengthening: Emberlink Level 3 – Psychic Echoes Unlocked]
Visions struck him like lightning:
A battlefield wreathed in ash.
A black tower rising over a molten river.
His future self, cloaked in royal robes, commanding ships of obsidian and sails of fire.
He woke gasping.
Something in him was changing.
🔮 A Visionary Comes
A few days later, as the fourth trade caravan left, a new visitor arrived.
He was ancient. Skin like dry bark, wrapped in blue silk robes marked with pre-Freehold runes.
He bore no sigil. No guards.
Only a staff carved from blackglass.
"I am Vaeslar the Rootless," he said, bowing before Neron. "I felt your egg cry out. And I bring knowledge... of what lies beneath Valyria."
📜 Secrets Beneath the Stone
Vaeslar told stories no history book dared hold.
Beneath Valyria's volcanoes are old paths carved by fire spirits.
Before the Freehold, before dragons, there were things made of ash and bone—called the Sōvenghul, the "Fire-Forged Ones".
The magic of Valyria is not only from dragons—but from what was sacrificed to wake them.
He offered to teach Neron a forbidden rite—one that would let him merge with the soul of his hatchling, creating a permanent psychic bond.
But there was a cost.
"I will give you the ritual," he said. "But in return, I will ask for a favor… in fire and time. Will you accept this pact?"
🧠 System Prompt: Forbidden Pact Incoming
[Mystic Pact: Vaeslar the Rootless]🔹 Gain:
Dragon-Soul Binding Ritual – Permanent Emberlink (Control Boost + Magic Access)
Unlock: Flame Tongue (Passive) – Understand ancient Valyrian fire-language
Passive Bond: Share thoughts and fear with bonded drake
🔻 Cost:
A favor owed in blood and time – ???
Mental link with dragon will carry emotional bleed
If the hatchling dies, you suffer 50% mental collapse (Temporary)
Accept Pact? ✅ / ❌
M'Koro warned him. "Never trust a man with no House."
Jorvan growled. "The gods fear what sleeps beneath us."
Kaerys said, "A dragon half-bound is a slave to its instincts. But a dragon fully bound is a sword that cuts only for you."
Neron accepted.
🔥 The Rite Begins
In the molten chamber beneath the hatchery, Vaeslar painted runes in glassblood ink, chanting in a tongue that boiled the walls.
Neron bled onto the egg. Spoke his name into its fire. Invited the beast into his mind.
Pain erupted through his soul—searing heat, endless hunger, dreams of flight and killing and fury.
He screamed. Fell.
Then…
He heard a voice.
"I. Am. Yours. And You. Are Mine."
🐉 Hatchling Named: Vhassaryx – "First Flame Beneath the Sky"
[Bond Forged: Emberlink Complete][Dragon Stats: Age – Hatchling | Scale Color – Silver-Green | Type – Flame-Seeker][Personality: Cunning, Loyal, Temperamental]
[Dragon Magic Unlocked – Ember Pulse Lv1][New Command Option: Tactical Firebombing (Limited)]
Neron rose from the ritual, eyes smoking with residual fire.
A voice echoed through his mind.
"Feed me war. And I will feed you victory."
The age of fear was ending.
The age of fire had begun.
🏁 End of Chapter 7