Playing It Safe

Viserys shut out every flaw in the fantasy he had built for himself.

In his mind, loyal men were certainly preparing crowns and gifts for him somewhere. When he stood before them, he had to display the dignity of the true dragon.

Ignoring Daenerys's opinion entirely, he strode into a luxury clothier and demanded that the owner measure him for a splendid set of garments worthy of a dragon king.

At first, the shopkeeper had no intention of entertaining a beggar. Then Viserys produced ten gold coins as a deposit. The shopkeeper's interest woke at once. Yes, the shopkeeper was tempted.

And Viserys, with impressive speed, managed to lose everything again.

"Damn you! Thieves, liars, slaves! I will have you all killed!"

That mouth earned him another beating. If the city watch had not arrived in time, the Beggar King might never have lived long enough to meet the horselord who would one day crown him with gold.

In the end, out of consideration for the Sealord, Viserys recovered his coins. Then, almost immediately, he lost nearly all of them again for insulting the dignity of Braavos.

The guards were merciful enough to leave him a single silver coin for the Beggar King's living expenses.

After that, Viserys's reputation in Braavos collapsed completely. He became the Beggar King in truth, despised by almost everyone who heard the title.

Even beggars sometimes felt that Viserys lowered the standing of their profession.

Daenerys suffered worse. Almost every day brought some new version of waking the dragon. If hunger had not left Viserys too weak to be truly dangerous, her fate might have been uglier still.

Ronan was not idle either. He had found a way to draw value from the situation.

As long as he remained near Viserys and Daenerys, he did not even need to interfere deliberately. Divergence Points kept trickling in.

The number was not large, but it was far better than selling his sword for scraps.

He opened the status panel.

[System]
Name: Ronan Harrow
Class: Conqueror of the Dothraki Sea
Weapons: Short Sword, Bow, Spear, Dagger
Talent: Conquest (An unpredictable talent with a chance to inspire absolute loyalty and infatuation in the target.)
Skills: Advanced Combat, Survival Mastery, Master of the Forge, Mounted Archery
Summoned Units: Mongol Cavalry (one thousand-man unit)
Sworn Followers: Jebe (Mongol Hero), Khal Sido and his warriors, Khal Drogo and more than seventy thousand Dothraki warriors
Divergence Points: 41,005
Unlockable Units: Mongol Cavalry. Cost: 160,000 Divergence Points per thousand-man unit. Once redeemed, fallen soldiers may be replenished repeatedly at a cost of 100 Divergence Points per soldier.

Nearly a thousand points had come in simply by staying close to the Targaryen heirs.

Compared with the old rate of 0.2 points per nameless sellsword, it was almost insulting how much time he had once wasted.

The key was to touch the center of the story. So far, Drogo had been Ronan's richest gain.

Khal Drogo's original fate was death. Ronan could have ended that life early, but he had chosen to conquer the man and make use of him instead. The reward had surged at once.

The system's explanation was simple enough. Ronan had changed Drogo's fate in a nearly perfect way while preserving the shape of future events, so the reward had reached two hundred thousand Divergence Points.

If he had killed Drogo early or conquered the entire Dothraki Sea himself, he might have shattered the later paths of too many important figures.

A change that large would make future fates harder to judge. Rewards could shrink or vanish entirely, because the ending Ronan knew might no longer be the ending waiting for those people.

In other words, his foreknowledge could stop being a cheat and become little more than a rumor from another life.

For now, he had to choose his moves carefully. A good hand could still be ruined by playing it like a fool.

Of course, once his strength became absolute, he would not need to care so much. For the present, caution came first.

Ronan had little use for Viserys, a man who could not sustain even his own delusions for long. The future dragon queen held far more promise.

Right now, Daenerys was like a pale flower caught between storms.

The larger world battered her. The smaller world around her gave her no footing. She could not see her future, could not decide her life, and had no dragons to make men afraid.

She had nothing. After Ser Willem died, even the smallest pieces of warmth in her life had begun to fade.

When Ser Willem was alive, Daenerys had loved looking out over the blue sea and sitting beside him while he told her stories of places and people she had never seen.

Back then, she had waited for story time with a heart that still knew how to hope.

Now she had to set aside that old ease and search the shore herself for shellfish, small fish, and shrimp. The past would not return.

Following her brother, she could not even be sure of a full belly.

She only remembered Ser Willem once telling her that the sea was a treasure, and that people who lived beside it did not need to starve.

Daenerys picked one large shell after another from the sand. Their hard shells left her worried and uncertain.

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