brand-new to DW and voicetesting. tempted to look for a game!

[conqueress]

I care nothing for empty promises, Mundane. Tell me, will your "opportunities" calm the fears of my children? Will they bring the Sons of the Harpy to justice? You must have some plan to stop my city from bleeding, surely? Perhaps this game you seek can raise olive trees from the ground, or banish the blockade from the Skahazadhan.

You will restore me to Meereen, or you will use some power unknown to make peace with the cities who wish us ill. Why have you sentenced my people to certain death? Speak.

Comments

welcome!

[bishieblake]

....ma'mm, are you alright? [jaeris no] Yer lookin' a bit pale. Do you need help? [jaeris no ] </small? Ah'm new to whatever this is, too, and ah'll be willin' to help any way I can.

ty

[conqueress]

[More strange accents, and this one is clearly not from any city she knows.

She favors the offer with a sad smile.]

I fear there are none here who can help me, unless they can return me to my home. [Home. Though the term is technically true, Meereen has never felt like her home, and the queen knows it. Perhaps she does belong in Westeros, as so many have told her. Perhaps she belongs nowhere at all. Nevertheless, she longs for a place she can call home, and mean it.]

My quarters are atop a pyramid, in the great Yellow City of Meereen. It lies to the east, in Slaver's Bay. [It is useless to explain, and she knows this, too.] I have freed fathers and mothers, sisters and brothers, daughters and sons. They look to me for protection, and I have promised them--

[She pauses.]

I promised them I would stay and rule, though my birthright lies across the Narrow Sea. So long as I am here, my words are wind. I do not wish to stay here. I cannot.

From one forlorn princess to another...

[dreamstone_pendant]

If word reaches me well then you are Daenerys; mother of dragons; the unburnt, and yet you seek the council of someone who cannot help you. For someone of such boundless courage and spirit I think you would do well to see the opportunities of which you seek in yourself, not others.

But forgive my impertinence, I speak from humble respect, nothing more.

[conqueress]

[This one receives a sharp look in response, and it is all Dany can do to suppress a sudden surge of cold anger in her belly. Who is she?

Warningly: ] I pray this word does not come from one of my enemies. [It won't go well for her, if it has.] You presume too much, to think I have not done all that is within my power.

[She is exasperated, a state of being that has become uncomfortably familiar for her in recent months.] I need ships. I need exports that have not grown in Meereen for hundreds of years, and an army of seasoned knights. Those who offer me counsel wish to go back to the old days of fighting pits and flesh trade, which I will not allow. For what purpose have I freed my people, if I do not intend to keep them free?

[dreamstone_pendant]

[ Schala didn't need to be an empath to see that she had offended Daenerys, which had not been her intention. While Daenerys had had enough experience of the world, and all of the lessons it had to teach her, to make her weary of strangers, Schala had comparatively lived such a sheltered life she would have come across as plain naive.

Schala's apologetic tone and expression were clear on her face, she had rarely had the need to conceal how she felt. ]

I'm sorry, I think I've been too presumptuous. I only--[ She hesitates, trying to find the right words. ]--I meant to say that I thought that if anyone could come up with a solution then you would be the best one to find it.

But... must you have armies and ships? Must you go to war? [ She asked in all innocence, again, unaware of the gravity of her words. ]

[conqueress]

[Dany doesn't wish to unleash anything on this girl, truly. She has no knowledge of Meereen; that much is clear. She is not from the Known World. But the fury persists, and the queen isn't easily calmed, once roused. Not about this. The situation has become dire. Her eyebrows raise, then set into a glare.]

I am a queen. It is the duty of a queen to protect her people, is it not? The river is blocked. Now we have no food, no trade. My enemies whet the sellswords' appetites with gold, and thousands march this way. Brazen men stalk the city in the shadows, gutting my freedmen and leaving them to bleed in the streets.

[Her voice is hardening. She no longer cares that the places she names are meaningless to these people.] Astapor is sick with plague, and Yunkai means to fight. Some say that I gain three thousand enemies for every ally. Soon, more of the Free Cities will join their swords to the Yunkish and Qartheen cause. And all that my council bleats of is marriage. Marriage to a man of noble Ghiscari blood, to appease my people. It will solve little, and it will not stop my enemies from advancing.

[dreamstone_pendant]

[ It pains Schala to hear this, not because of Dany's outburst or the fierce look in her violet eyes or even the hardness of her voice, but because the strength this queen shows makes the decisions of her family seem so very weak. ]

You bear more than most with a senate of councilors ever could, and I, of all people, know how most monarchs fail when put under pressure. I wish I could offer you comfort in these dire times, I am... no rock of wisdom or pillar of strength.

When others lust for power it is the weak who are left to suffer, you carry a burden many will never understand.