Now, it appeared we had a little problem with the mother of dragons. You see, the sight of slaves had always put Danaerys on edge, and so to find herself at the heart of it, well... Let's just say she couldn't stomach the idea.

Of course, Mo Naklos had treated Danaerys with a certain difference from the rest of his slaves; she was, after all, one of his most precious 'possessions'.

However, he had been offered a far better price by one of the good masters, who had the intention of having Danaerys trained as a bedslave

Mo Naklos, being a businessman, immediately accepted.

Danaerys was therefore transferred to her new master's household.

The trouble is that the next day, the good master was found dead in his chambers with his throat slit and the trembling girl in the corner of the room with the bloody knife in her hand.

She had murdered her new master as he tried to force his way with her.

Now, according to the Astaporian Codes, there was only one punishment for such a crime. death.

And so, Danaerys had been sent to undergo the walk of punishment, as was the custom.

We had now retreated to the grand plaza at the heart of the city as Mo Naklos, or rather Missandei, relayed the events to me.

It was apparent that they had no intentions of selling the Targaryen princess for any price. Nakhlos insisted that if such a thing were to be allowed to slip unpunished, it would greatly endanger as well as tarnish the reputation of Astapor among the cities of Slaver's Bay and beyond.

So in short, Mo Naklos insisted that, as far as Danaerys was concerned, her fate had been laid out and she had to die.

Which was very stupid of him. I began to think that the good master did not understand my purpose here. I had been trying to make things clear to him since we left the port. But on the other hand, it could just be that Missandei was leaving the threats out of fear. Therefore, the final message that reached these guys was a little bit 'submissive'.

"Missandei, please tell your master that I plan to leave here with the princess, and that is not a question; either I pay for her freedom or I just take her by force, and please translate the message as I have said it".

This time The translator did just that, and the next second, the reaction from the masters present was one of mad fury.

I smiled as I watched Mo Naklos's gaze hover between me and his translator; he appeared to have a huge problem believing that Missandei had translated my statement correctly.

The next second, he broke into another verbal torrent that made me decide I would now put my focus on learning more languages. I was sure he had hulled me with tons of insults for the second time since we met at the harbor. But again, the faithful translator did not include the insults in her message.

"The good master wishes to know if that is a threat." Missandei asked

Good, now I could see we were getting on the same page. I turned to the translator with a gentle smile.

"It isn't a threat if you can back it, is it?, Missandei's face was passive; there was no way one could read what she was thinking or what her view of the situation was. The only time I came close to eliciting a reaction was when I mentioned the princess, which made me believe that indeed, the two slaves had become close.

"Tell your master that it's a threat I intend to carry out."

The good masters were not idiots. To amass wealth in a man-eat-man world was a tough job, but even tougher was playing the power game that was a common thing in all the cities of Slave's Bay. So it was safe to say that they were shrewd men.

From the moment they saw my majestic ship leading all the unsullied and the hoards of the Dothraki, they must have known that they had been pushed into the corner. They knew very well that I held all the cards, and what they were doing was just ceremonial bluffing. I must say that it would have hurt their rich asses to cowardly surrender to my demands.

However, a wise man knows when his luck has worn out, and in such a situation, it never hurts to bend with the winds.

That was what was happening to the wise masters before me; after hearing that I intended to use force if necessary, they had now decided to explore another alternative, one that would leave Astapor intact or perhaps even better.

They had now withdrawn further into the plaza to deliberate on the situation, and Mo Nakhlos had left behind his translator, which gave me some time alone with Missandei.

"When did you last see Danaerys? I asked the translator. Missandei looked afraid of engaging me in a conversation that was not sanctioned by her master, but seeing them deeply engaged in their conversation made her feel a little bit at ease.

"This morning, my lord," Missandei answered cowishly.

"I am not a lord. Call me Eron. Was she alright though? I asked with concern. The look that the translator gave me almost made me recoil. I had never seen Missandei give anyone a withering stare even in the show..

But then I realized Mo Nakhlos had mentioned that the princess had been sentenced to suffer the walk of punishment.

Knowing what this meant, it was highly unlikely anyone would be alright, which made me feel a sense of urgency. Danaerys could not die, not with the dragons unhatched; that would be a drawback to my plans.

I began to feel that the good masters were taking their sweet time reaching a decision. We all knew it had to be my way, or else I would tear down the city.

Luckily, they seemed to have noted my unrest, and Nakhlos was now approaching. He stared at me with a feint of courage and began spitting out his low Valyrian words.

"The good masters have reached their decision, Missandei translated. "They will give the slave princess to you, but with conditions. You will return all the unsullied as they were part of the trade, or if you wish to keep them, you will pay double the price they were bought for."

I listened intently, waiting to note where the catch was. So far, the deal sounded good to me. My ship had departed to take the sea lord and his entourage to Yunkai, but I had convinced Tycho Nestoris to stay behind and help. Seeing that he was an authorized representative of the Iron Bank of Braavos, any financial decision that we reached here involving the Iron Bank would be sealed. Even the Astaporians knew the legacy of the Iron Bank. They would honor the agreement that was put in writing.

I had no intention of returning the unsullied,so I was willing to pay for them. I knew that even though they would not benefit me directly, they would contribute towards my end goal.

However, knowing the good master and their deals, I knew the likelihood of there being a catch, and the next part of the deal confirmed it.

"Also", Missandei went on, "you will promise to protect the city of Astapor, and in case of attacks in the future, the city of Astapor may count on your support."

Yes. just like I thought; in other words, they were asking me to commit to protecting them against myself, but I had no wish to spend more crucial time here debating. Missandeis's look of panic had been enough to warn me that all this business I was doing here may end up useless if the person I was doing it for perished.

"Tell your master that I wish to keep the unsullied, and Nestoris here will take care of the financial matters on my behalf. I also agree to all their conditions, but I need to see the princess immediately."

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