Xaro is worthy of being one of Qarth's Thirteen Princes. The mansion prepared for her amazed even the experienced and knowledgeable Dany.
Large gardens with exotic flowers, expansive marble baths, soaring crystal fortune-telling towers – also known as star observatories – and even a garden hedge-maze.
The whole palace is bigger than the market seen before, not to mention the Khalasar with more than 200 people, it can fit double that.
In fact, Xaro prepared 200 servants for her.
Waiting for many Dothraki in Khalasar to be properly placed in the palace, Dany sat by the pool and felt the comfort of the fish kissing her toes.
Suddenly, the sky above her head darkened, she turned her head, and was surprised to find Quaithe quietly appearing beside her.
"You..."
"I'm leaving." she said.
"Oh, bye." Dany was startled, wondering why.
"Be careful!" Quaithe said thoughtlessly.
"Uh…" She was stunned for a while before she said: "Be careful of what?"
"Be careful of everyone. From now on, they shall come day and night to see the wonder that has been born again into this world, and when they see they shall lust, for dragons are fire made flesh, and fire is power. Dragons are the source of all mysterious power."
Even though the red lacquer mask blocked her expression, Dany could still hear the seriousness in her tone.
After warning Dany, Quaithe left as unnoticed as she had come.
Dany lost her interest in enjoying the luxurious life of the palace, and immediately called Jorah and Bloodrider to the fish spa. While letting them enjoy the tender kisses of the fish brood, she repeated Quaithe's warning.
"I don't like her because I can't see through her." Jorah spoke first, "Every Shadowbinder deserves our vigilance, but she didn't intimidate us this time. Starting from entering this city, I felt… a very unfriendly, and uneasy atmosphere."
"I don't like the way these milky white people look at us." Rakharo's face was heavy, and he gritted his teeth: "It's like they look at us as exotic animals caught from a savage land."
Qartheen's skin is unusually fair, milky white, clearly distinguishable from other white peoples, so Dothraki call them "milk men".
Dany gave him a surprised look, the Bloodrider who she didn't expect too have such a keen perception.
Yes, they did have a warm welcome in Qartheen today, but there are many kinds of welcome. Welcoming a VIP to the city is definitely not the same as welcoming an animal to the city.
Therefore, when Dany passes through the middle wall street, she will unconsciously substitute herself into the role of Arthas.
—Lordaeron welcomed Arthas with victorious bells, cheers, and petals flying all over the sky, then Arthas launched a natural disaster in Lordaeron that day and slaughtered the city.
"They want to see the dragons." Dany turned to Quaro. "Arrange two groups of guards, one overtly and one secretly to guard the three dragons. As long as you are here for a day, you can't let your guard down."
"Aggo, Jhogo, you arrange people, men and women, to inquire about the topography, house structure, and palace guards around our station."
Finally, she solemnly looked towards Jorah, "Ser, I understand the current situation, so I want you to go to the market, pier, tavern, and even the brothel too find out the attitude of the ordinary people of Qarth towards us, and information about the upper class of Qarth."
After thinking for a while, she added another sentence, saying: "Since this is a trade center connecting the East and the West, there must be Westeros and other city-state businessmen. When you go to inquire about the news, you can also spread word of me any my dragons."
"This…" Ser Jorah hesitated, "You were worried that the Usurper would send someone to assassinate you, but now you take the initiative to spread news of yourself to the Seven Kingdoms merchants. They will bring the news of dragons back to Westeros, then…even if the Usurper is dead, there's still his progeny."
"Ai, the Dragon Hatching has been revealed now, if King's Landing has been paying attention to me, they will know about it as sooner rather than later. It's better to make this a focus, which not only protects ourselves, but also…"
Disturbs everyone's sight and concealing her true goal.
Dany enjoyed the extravagant food paired with the luxurious palace that night, stir-fried peacock tongue.
Damn, cooking with peacock tongue, even the most gluttonous couldn't think of it!
Second day early in the morning, as Quaithe had warned her, the powerful men of Qarth came to Xaro's palace in a sedan chair, surrounded by a large crowd of servants.
Xaro accompanies them to Dany's residence, where they claim to be overwhelmed by her beauty and noble background, and sincerely send gifts of silk, jewelry, exotic animals, dwarfs of special skills, so on so forth, and finally while weeping and praising the dragon's greatness, they looked around with wide eyes.
Well, the Qartheen love to cry, they see it as a symbol that makes them appear more civilized.
Dany understood what they meant, and didn't refuse. she directly lifted the little dragon on the chain and slipped it out, making those Qarth dignitaries cry harder.
The upper level of Qarth consists of three power organizations: Royal Family, Merchant, Warlock.
In the era of the dragons disappearance and Magic extinction, the once mighty Warlocks had no power; the Royal Family controls Qarth's camel cavalry and city fleet, and nominally rules the city.
Businessmen form the most powerful Three Great Guilds, The Thirteen, Tourmaline Brotherhood, and Ancient Guild of Spicers. In a city of commerce and trade, its actual rights are of course in the hands of businessmen.
It's just that the internal struggle between the three major merchant guilds is very fierce. If it wasn't for the control of the Royal Family, they would have torn their relations for the actual control of the city.
The other 12 of The Thirteen Princes visited Dany on the first day and the Tourmaline Brotherhood on the second day.
After seeing the dragons, those gem merchants specially spent a week to build a Three Headed Dragon Crown for Dany: The Dragon's curled body is gold, its wings are silver, and its three heads are made of Carved from Emerald, ivory, and agate.
On the third day Guild of Spicers sent Dany 77 boxes of precious spices from all over the world.
Well, when House Targaryen unified the Seven Kingdoms, in order to integrate into Westeros as a foreign Conqueror, he gave up the Old Valyria Gods and converted to the Church of The Seven.
Theoretically, Dany should also believe in The Seven.
For The Seven believers, "7", "77", and "777" are all auspicious numbers.
On the fourth day, Dany began to receive figures in the middle and lower reaches of Qarth's power system. Small businessmen, government officials, captains of ships, captains of camel cavalry…
When she asked Xaro if the Pureborn would come, he said disdainfully: "What is left of the current Pureborn except for the dignity and ancient glory of supremacy? Just be accommodating and take the initiative to see them."
However, it is not so easy to see the Pureborn. To be summoned by the Pureborn, you must be qualified, and this qualification is in the hands of several powerful people.
Simply put, just like Tripitaka of the Tang wanted true scriptures from Buddhist Ancestors, and needed to send personnel to Ananda Kasyapa, Dany must get through all the barriers to see the Pureborn.
Even if you want to go through the back door, you have to have a way.
Xaro's devotion to righteousness that inspires reverence expressed that he is very knowledgeable in this regard and can teach her who to find, who to give gifts to, and how much each person should be given.
Dany would like to say, go sacrifice yourself, this mother doesn't want too bother with this.
But Jorah over the past few days has already inquired about the general situation of Qarth. The Pureborn have indeed lost actual control of the city, but the Civic Guard and the moat fleet are all under their control.
Dany can't figure out why the Pureborn, who held the military power, lost its dominance. Maybe this is the characteristic of Free Cities?
Or, merchants have more money, and with money they can hire more armed forces, such as sellswords?
Xaro persuading Dany to have a relationship to meet with the Pureborn is no secret at the top.
Eighty percent of the Pureborn have already opened their pockets, waiting for her to throw gold dragons into it. If she doesn't go, she doesn't give the Pureborn dignity, and if she doesn't give the Pureborn dignity, it means they are not friends.
Well you are not a friend, and not a guest, then I can deal with you.
Jorah advised her, "This is the custom of Qarth. Even in our Westeros, it's not that you go to my house, you must enjoy the guest right.
When the guest comes to the host's eaves the guest right takes effect after accepting the bread and salt provided by the host.
If the host puts the drawn sword on his knees, it means that he has no intention of establishing a guest relationship with the guest, and the guest right is not in effect."
"However, asking for bribes forcibly is too low, right? Is it true that in Seven Kingdoms it is also popular for the hosts to ask for gifts from guests?" Dany said angrily.
"cough cough cough..." Jorah coughed as if he was choked, and his beard couldn't stop the noticing of the blush that appeared on his face.
"No way." Dany opened her mouth with disbelief.
"It's not as naked as Qarth." Ser Jorah quickly distinguished: "Guests give 'guest gifts' to the host, mainly to express their gratitude to each other for providing food and shelter, and when the guest leaves, it may also be given to the other party as a 'guest gift'.
This tradition usually occurs when the guest is on the weaker side, because he is afraid that the host will veto the guest right."
Also Dany didn't pay attention to the details when watching the show, and this point about Jorah's words is especially obvious between Night's Watch and Wildlings Craster.
beyond the Wall Wildlings Craster, the first traitor of the Ice and Fire World. He married his daughter as his wife, and the daughters born by his wife/daughter continued to be married as wives, so he continued to marry dozens of wives who were daughters and granddaughters.
He also had sons, but all of them were sacrificed to White walkers as soon as they were born.
It can be said that, except for the Night King, almost all White walkers are the sons of that guy.
Well, White walkers are not the same as Wights, White walkers are transformed from the living, Wights are the resurrection of the dead body by White walkers.
Without Craster to provide houses and food, the Night's Watch men who left the Wall north would almost double in death rate, so the Night's Watch asked Craster for it.
Not only did they turn a blind eye to his incestuous behavior, they were often blackmailed by Craster for iron weapons, aka 'guest gifts'.
Also because of the guest right, the Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, Old Bear, Jeor Mormont couldn't hurt Craster even if he knew that Craster was related to White walkers.
Guest right is two-sided, not only can the host not harm the guest, but the guest will not harm the host – even if the host is making a deal with the devil.
Jorah saw that Dany was silent, and could not help once again advise: "First Men have the tradition of guest right, and Andals also have a similar principle. Maybe guest right is common in the whole world, but the specific expression is not same ."
"Well, I'm giving the Pureborn a gift, hoping they'll give me a little 'guest gift' too." Dany sighed.
