On Sunset Shores
Fifteenth Day of the Sixth Month 294 AC
It had been a bit of a surprise when Princess Daenerys announced her wish to leave the arcane luxuries of the Deep for King's Landing, not just for a short visit, but for a few weeks. Upon considering her reasoning, hiwever, it was hard to fault it. The people of King's Landing were used to a royal in residence and with all the strange new laws and new ways of doing things about, it only made sense that they would find some solace in the familiar. Knowing that one of the dragons had returned to the city, not as the frightful presence that had shaken and awed them on the night of the Conquest, would assure the people of the city that they were not forgotten to the whims of 'foreigners'.
Yet Dany had no desire to usurp the power of the Imperial Governor, far from it. She rented a small house on the Street of Sisters, not far from the Dragonpit, one that likely would have stayed empty were it not for her. The noise that rang out from the shell of the Dragonpit as it was, through craft of engineer and sorcerer, reforged into a proper arena was enough to scare off even the ubiquitous crows and pigeons, never mind the citizenry of King's Landing already made wary by the demise of the Alchemist's Guild. Here she stayed, offering what aid might be needed to the task of rebuilding not just the hollow crown of stone atop Rhaenys' Hill, but far more importantly the great cauldron of suffering humanity that was Fleabottom, which king after king past the end of the Dance had deemed too expensive or too dangerous to actually fix.
One could, she supposed, blame the great lords, the dukes and counts who by their machinations robbed the throne of much of its power and thus its ability to salve the suffering of the great host of refugees from the Crownlands and the Riverlands. Dany did not feel particularly inclined to charity in the matter, not after having seen a boy younger than her with worms wiggling under his eyelids or a woman of scarce twenty who could barely eat from the infections in her jaw. Worse still babes in arms who were yet healthy, but could barely summon up the will to cry from sheer malnourishment.
Thankfully, the latter sorts of ailments had gotten better once the food shipments were actually distributed, but still the fact that a quantifiable number of the people of King's Landing were actually starving and many, many more were teetering on the brink, being only a slight disruption in the supply chain away from experiencing the same fate.
Walking as she did mostly among the healers, it left her with perhaps a more sympathetic perspective on why those same 'clung to their hovels with their nails' as one legion colonel put it in exasperation. When what you have is almost nothing, you will fight against the prospect of losing it all the fiercer and you would be less inclined to trust hopeful promises.
After all, if today is generally as bad or worse than yesterday why should you trust that tomorrow should be better?
A boy wearing very much unprincely vestments turned the corner to meet her by the side of the still ad hoc house of healing, his hair turning silver as the glamor on him shifted. "How's the round up going?"
"Poorly," he replied with a shake of his head that sent little droplets of the morning rain flying about like a particularly dejected cat. "Too many of the golden rats took your brother at his word about honest law enforcement, and knowing that they were more crooked than a shepherd's staff melted right into the crowds. All the more thugs to make trouble for us and to rile up the people they used to rob and beat up for the hell of it."
"It's not like the Goldcloaks have many skills worth hiring them over," Dany pointed out. "In some ways it's a black mark on their record worse than saying they were Lannister men."
"I bleed for the sons of bitches. I won't say from where," the boy scoffed. "They could just lie to the recruiter, it's not like they run full background checks for legion recruits, or if they haven't the wits for that, they can take the side eyes. Did you hear the latest rumor going around?"
"Probably not, they spread faster than lice and jump around as fast," Dany replied.
"Apparently, this is all a ploy to get people out of the city so we can ship them off to Essos to replace the slaves. I mean fuck, that does not even make sense. Why would we free the slaves just to replace them with the citizens around here..." Maelor sighed. "Damn am I glad I did not get this city."
OOC: Vote's still open. This is just a little prelude since I did not think the King's Landing action would change. Not yet edited.
