VIDEO ( UNSEELIE LOCKED );

[conqueress]

[ The locket reveals the face of a young woman--some would say a girl--peering into it. Her hair gleams silver-gold in the candlelight, her eyes an unusual purple color. In the background, an imp peers over her shoulder, its claws clinging to her bared skin. ]

There is magic in the Free Cities and Qarth alike, yet I have seen nothing half so convincing as Allaidh Darach. It is ... [ She hesitates; what to call the place that's imprisoned you against your will? ] ... intricate work, truly. Were I settled into my kingdom, my children fierce and grown, perhaps I would not mind it so much, calling Caer Scima home.

[ For a fraction of an instant, she looks sad. Did Drogon sense her as she faded into this world? ]

But lush pillows will not shield my freedmen from those who would send them back to the shackles, no more than peach tarts will keep famine away from my gates. [ The imp shakes a foul little fist at the locket in punctuation, as though its fellows didn't help to abduct her only four nights ago. Dany turns and fixes it with a measured look. ]

Leave me now. I want no spies.

[ It hesitates, but something in her voice convinces it. Muttering, it releases her shoulder and shrinks away as though scolded. Dany waits impatiently for two more of the creatures to leave her presence, some private struggle raging beneath. Then, at last, she exhales in a sigh. ]

Yet time is not so easily disrupted, I have learned. Tell me, was I spoken true? [ It's phrased as something of a demand, but there's a very clear plea beneath it. The queen is there, but so, too, is the girl. And the girl is frightened, fearing for her people and her dragons alike. ] Will my people notice I have left them, or will all be as it was? How may I be assured of their safety?

[ Restless fingers pluck at the fringe of the cushion in her lap. ]

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» action;

[conqueress]

[ Dany leads the way out the gates, as she did for her Dothraki many fortnights ago, and urges her horse into a light canter at first, then a gallop. The wind is in her hair, but more importantly, it has found her heart. She is alight, for the first time since her arrival, and she feels powerful.

When they have reached a certain speed, she allows herself a laugh, and a confession. ]

My most trusted knight was thrice my age. [ And his betrayal still hasn't stopped stinging her. There are a chain of mountains greeting them, looming out of the evening light. ] This place offers us mountains and forests, it seems, and all manner of beasts that would wish us ill. [ She stays the jape, but only just: So, it isn't so different from either of their worlds, she would assume.] Unless it is beasts who have been whispering secrets in your ear? [ Another tease. ]

» action;

[fauxdysseus]

In many ways, this place is rather similar to my home. The monsters and fantastical beasts might be more of a metaphor, but their malice is, I assume, quite as powerful, as is their capacity for nuisance.

[ a low, quiet chuckle. ]

Unless you consider this place's denizens to be beasts ... But they have, indeed, started to give me a sense of this place's, ah ... politics, in a way. As you would imagine, everything is centered around this encroaching Void.

[conqueress]

[ That he both has the same thought and recognizes her implication pleases her. She smiles. ] Then we are not truly so different, it seems. [ The remark has no other purpose than to be friendly. She knows she's already won his interest. ]

Just so, yet none can tell me what the Void is, or where its origin lies. [ All anyone has told her is that it marches inland to destroy everything. ] Speak freely, Captain. My ears are keen.