[video] UNSEELIE LOCKED;

[fulminants]

So, guys. You remember when we lost all the fire magic in the world to the Void because of reasons?

Well, we've got some hope here. Well, a small, puppy-like, really adorable hope, and his name is Kaio. He's a new god forged from some god of the forge and a shardbearer, and I'm sure some of you have seen him around, because I sure have.

But more importantly, he's going to need shrines, and offerings. I know a lot of you lost those powers and want them back, or even if you just want to get the ability to learn those powers. He's our chance to bring back fire magic into this world again.

I've currently got one in my castle, and I'll be setting up a large shrine to him at Spire Four itself, but he'll need more. So if you guys can set up something of your own, burn offerings in his name, spread the word, you know the drill.

And hey, if he comes by, remember to give him plenty of tummy rubs and ear scratches, he really loves those.

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[fulminants]

[ Oh, how can he forget such a pretty face? Johnny adores the ladies, especially stunningly beautiful ones like her. He remembers her fight against slavery, the iron-will against seemingly overwhelming odds, the compassion.

He has to smile at that question, but he shifts the camera to where he's got a likeness ready, a portrait of a coal-black puppy with gleaming orange eyes, lined with similar glowing marks all over its little body. ]

He really is. But I'm not sure if touching him would be bad for you. Since, you know, fire puppy and all. [ Johnny's immune to flame; he doesn't feel its effects at all, but he's sure Kaio would have consideration enough to tone it down.

Still, her story captures his attention, and his brows raise in surprise; she's thoughtful, he notices, hedging on a story he imagines must be particularly unsavory. ]

No, [ He says at length, getting the hint; but no one ever said that Johnny's got an abundance of self-preservation skills. He's curious about her, and her world, this queen with a bearing to rival even Morla's. ] I imagine your gods don't. Have you seen them before?

[conqueress]

[ A soft gasp comes. She's as enraptured as a maid who's just been given her first horse, studying Kaio in silent, appreciative delight. ] A fire pup, indeed. How not, with eyes and markings like that? [ She averts her gaze, only for a moment. The fire-on-black contrast stirs something in her. ] I--he looks not unlike another fire creature I have known. My dragon, Drogon, with eyes of smouldering red.

[ At his concern, she chuckles. What sort of Targaryen would she be, if she feared fire? ] Why worry for me, and not your own hands? I have seen visions, perhaps. Shapes in the fire, that my people did not see.

[fulminants]

Holy shit, you have a dragon?

[ Johnny blurts out in amazement, because a) why is this not a thing he knew before and b) this is awesome! But he doesn't miss the usage of past tense: it means the dragon isn't here.

And what's even more fascinating is that she seems to not care about the effects of fire. Is she immune, too? Visions, shapes in the fire -- it's not difficult to see her as a person who uses magic.

Johnny is thrilled at what he hears from her, and he's smiling when he raises his hand, which bursts into bright, burning flame at will, which rapidly spreads to the rest of him, until it's the Human Torch looking back at her. ]

No, Your Highness, I wouldn't be worrying. What was it that you saw in the fire before?

[ Now, show me yours. ]

[conqueress]

[ Now it makes sense that he knows so much. This time, her gasp is audible, her surprise plain. ]

Kaio is drawn to a kindred spirit. [ She can almost feel the heat from within her locket, though she doesn't look away. Fire is as much her heritage as bloodshed is. ] I understand him now.

[ She is quiet for several moments, her gaze fixated, as if she's in a trance. It's like staring back into the funeral pyre, but this time, she sees no shapes but for the eyes that gaze back at her. ]

Many things, in the funeral pyre I had built for my lord husband. [ She didn't realize she'd been holding her breath, and lets it out now. ] Sorcerors and firelions and wolves. The spirit of a great stallion as it soared to the nightlands.

And three dragons, hatched from stone. Not only Drogon, but Rhaegal and Viserion as well. [ Her smile is miles away. ] They remained with me in the ash, after the fire had taken all the rest.

[fulminants]

[ Her words, flowing and poetic, take some getting used to, but Johnny comes to understand it; that she is a widow, and she dreams of incredible things, great beasts that seem so remote from him and what he knows.

That, and three dragons, of which she apparently is owner (mother?) of, from the way she talks about them. He can't imagine what kind of fortitude she must possesses to command such animals, he's read enough of them to know that dragons are definitely not to be fucked with, and to have three of them?

Wow.

He's more interested in her tale than his own, and that last part snags his attention. ] After the fire had taken all the rest? You were in the fire?

[conqueress]

Yes, [ she admits. His ears are keen; that pleases her. ] My knight thought me mad, but he never dreamed as I do. [ Jorah had always put such little stock into things that weren't mundane. ]

I am called the Unburnt by my riders, and Mother of Dragons by all the rest.

[fulminants]

The Unburnt? Mother of Dragons?

[ Hot damn, he's impressed. ] Wow. So do I have to call you that, or should I stick with Your Highness? [ He likes 'Your Highness', he can see it pleases her, and he does like pleasing very pretty girls who just so happen to be badass queens. ]

And pffffft, your knight just needs to be less of a cynic. Pretty amazing things happen almost every day!

[conqueress]

If you named me by all my titles, I fear the breath would leave you long before I answered. [ A clear tease. ] In my world, queens are called Your Grace. That shall serve well enough.

[ Thoughts of Jorah sadden her, but she keeps it from her face. ] Allaidh Darach changes by the day, it seems. He would not have liked it here. [ Far too much magic and lore, but perhaps the prospect of honing his betrayer's skills would have pleased him. ]

[fulminants]

[ Johnny laughs -- he likes her, she has a wit that he appreciates, and a gracefulness that's died out long before he was born. ]

So, Your Grace, that knight of yours; you must really like him.

[conqueress]

[ And in the blink of an eye, all the warmth flees her. In fact, she looks as though she's been slapped, and a flush that has nothing to do with embarrassment colors her pale cheeks. She should compose herself--she knows better--but few people can bring her to anger faster than Ser Jorah can. ]

I did not desire him, though he desired me. [ She gets that out of the way immediately. ] Ser Jorah was the first knight of my Queensguard, yet he informed on me and sold me to my enemies. [ Her voice is heat and fire. If he'd truly trusted her to be his queen, he would have told her. He would have told her before he'd sworn the oath. ] I thought he was many things, but in the end, he was only my betrayer. That is all he ever must be, or I am no queen.

[ It's difficult to say the words. It was just as difficult to send him away from her, never to return to her side on pain of execution. For all he did against her, she knows he did truly love her--but if she forgives him, she's weak. There's a struggle in her eyes. They're angry, hardening one moment--and then they're saddened the next. It was a mistake to speak of him: her mistake. ]

[fulminants]

[ Johnny realises, in that instant, that he'd pretty much asked the wrong thing. The reaction is plenty telling, and he cringes at the story she tells him. Seriously, what the hell? ]

So, what, he got pissed that he was friendzoned and betrayed you? That sucks. [ No sympathy points for you, Jorah. He sees the hurt and the anger; and the pride, too -- this is one lioness of a queen, even as she nurses her hurt somewhere deep down inside. Daenerys is young, younger than him, and he can't help but be impressed and sorry that circumstances had put her into such a situation. But he notices something else, too, that she still cares for him despite everything. That one probably isn't a wise thing to bring up. ]

I'm sorry you got saddled with a jerk like that, betrayal's just not cool.

[ ...sorry for all the modern American, Dany. ]