video; un: lady

[dohaeris]

[since her last video sansa has created a backdrop featuring several ravens surrounding a weirwood tree to match the one in her window. she has also acquired a blood hound, who wears a tan leather harness intricately carved with weirwood branches resembling antlers. it says 'knight.' lady is also in frame, on her other side. she wears a collar embroidered with grey velvet scales to match sansa's grey linen and scale mail dress. a black batkitten and white raven might be occasionally glimpsed wheeling around overhead. her hair is only half up, braided back and tied, and it is possible to discern its vivid shade of red.]

Hallo, for those of you that don't know me, I'm called Alayne Stone. [for now.] A blood hound has recently come into my care and I've since discovered he is capable of pulling the corruption from the blood of people just as well as he pulls pollution from the blood in the ground. As the blood blisters seem to be decreasing in number of late I would ask that anyone suffering from corruption visit us, or tell me where you are so that I might bring him to you, as he doesn't seem to eat anything else. You might ask the lantern imps for the Rookery, or seek out the weirwood in Cellar Door.

[you will find a banner in another window with a handsome portrait of knight and the pronouncement 'blood hound cleanses your blood of corruption free of charge.']

I believe this could be a great help in maintaining the health of our city. He's called Knight, and he is not very friendly, but I promise you he won't bite.

[she furrows her brow, trying not to frown overmuch.]

Is it...usual here, for the sun not to rise?

[the weather is definitely getting warmer, despite the lack of sunlight, but it is concerning. even if it is not the long night, it seems like this would be bad for the crops? she doesn't want to be the one to bring up rations, but they are already on her mind.]

Comments

[searingwing]

I work as a smith and bartender. It has been a good source of trade. And a good way to study this business of enchanting weapons. [He says, as he sets aside the hammer to turn fully towards the Omni.] I'm Diluc Ragvindr, a pleasure to meet you.

[dohaeris]

[she doesn't know why a smith would need work in a tavern, but it's not really any of her business.]

The pleasure is mine, Lord Diluc. I make clothes, and leather armor. I always have need of good steel fastenings, if you make them.

[a swordsmith might not be interested in casting parts for buckles, but at least it's smithy work.]

[searingwing]

Just Diluc is fine. And yes, I can. Give me a list of the sizes you need and it will be done. [Diluc steps away from the anvil and heads out of the forge after calling for someone to take over.

He grabs a battered journal from where his coat lies and adds,] About the sun. There might be something in the archives about it. We’ve had vague warnings before from there and talk around town.

Either way, I assume we’ll know soon enough.

[dohaeris]

[sansa was never taught to research, and finds the archives quite daunting, but she decides she will mention it to adaine when she gives her her jacket.]

Of course. Do you have any interest in decorative fastenings, for my suits and gowns? I could give you pale bloodstones for your blades, in return, and I'm learning to enamel with it.

[searingwing]

I have interest in it. I’m a cold blood. All of this is good training for finer manipulation of my magic.

[The more he works with the forge the better he can pin point how his magic works now. And what he can do with it.] I accept your trade, but provide half the paleblood stones you expect. As I said, part of work is the betterment of my magic.

[dohaeris]

If you're quite sure. I could always use more steel beads, and any spare bits of maille you might have as well.

[searingwing]

And if you have any leather bits that couldn’t serve as armor, but better serve as straps. I would happily trade for those.

My omen is a dragon and I’ve been slowly building a riding saddle and gear for scouting adventures.

[dohaeris]

[sansa laughs half in surprise. a dragon omen, big enough to ride! perhaps this man is one of the old valyrian dragonlords?]

Oh, I can cut you straps myself; I'm only sorry I know so little of saddlery. That sounds very interesting. I've heard stories of the dragonlords of Old Valyria, but I've never seen a dragon in person before.

[because as far as she knows they're all dead, but that's not something you say to someone who might be a dragonlord of old valyria.]

[searingwing]

Dragons are still sighted in Teyvat. On clear days, if you’re lucky you’ll spot Dvalin, one of the four guardians of Mondstadt in the sky above.

[He smiles just a little bit. Talking about Mondstadt always helps him feel a bit better. And he needs that of late.]

I can tell you the length I need for the straps. I’m adapting it from horse saddles. The straps are for safety reasons.

[dohaeris]

Is Teyvat in Valyria? I'm afraid I know little outside of Westeros.

[obviously the seven kingdoms wouldn't exist if valyria did. she doesn't quite now how to say that valyria is in deadly ruin, in her time.]

Is your dragon omen much larger than a horse?

[balerion was said to be very big, but also bigger than all the other dragons.]

[searingwing]

Omens can be whatever size they feel is necessary. But that’s not why it needs adapted. A saddle needs to be adapted to the motions of the one wearing it. Wings change things.

And safety measures need taken. He can catch me if I fall but making it easier to retrieve a rider would be better and more efficient in a fight.

[Diluc walks over to where a small pitcher full of water rests. He pours some for himself and settles. Smoke curls at his chest and pours out. A cat sized two-footed dragon settles, his folded wings used as a secondary point of balance. Feathers cover his wings and his red and gold scales glint as he climbs right into Diluc’s lap.]

I couldn’t tell you if Teyvat is in Valyria. But, I can tell you as far as I know all people here come from entirely different realms that are governed by different rules. This world seems like a hub for many others. As the dream was.

[dohaeris]

[sansa's eyes widen at the little dragon. he's so lovely and small! she always thought that morning must have been pretty, if rhaena wore across her shoulders when she was a baby, but the illustrations she has seen of dragons were not exactly cute, and mostly looked nice in the way that horses looked nice.]

Oh, he's lovely!

[she wonders if she might be able to ride her omen, if he were very large, but she suppose there isn't much room to sit, on a raven, even a giant one. and she has never liked riding much, which winter knows, and he would probably enjoy teasing her by flying upside down or some such.]

The Valyria in my world has long been in ruin, but I have always been told that the dragonlords of Valyria were very proud, and I think if you had been living in their lands you would know it.

[so much for a possible source for valyrian steel. it's not as if she could wield it anyway.]

I haven't yet met anyone that comes from my world, or who has heard of the few lands in it I know.

[this is probably a good thing, except that she still holds out hope for her family to be reborn here.]

But I'm very glad to meet your omen. Might he tell me his name?

[searingwing]

[Diluc offers his arm to his dragon who climbs up onto his arm and expands to the size of a large eagle. But Diluc shows no signs of strain as the dragon turns his arrow shaped head towards the Omni.

His voice is deep and resonant despite his size. ‘I am Dellingr, a pleasure.’ He dips his head in a draconic bow. Diluc continues,]

Tell us more about Valyria, please. I would like to hear of these dragonlords.

[dohaeris]

[she bows her head and draws her the corner of her skirt up, in a sort of informal sitting-down curtsy, a small smile of wonder on her face.]

It's an honor to meet you, Dellingr.

[she drops her skirt. her brow furrows for a second in concentration before she begins.]

I'm afraid little is known of Valyria, four centuries after its Doom, and I know even less, for I was no Maester, or scholar, and made no special effort to study it. I can tell you that the Dragonlords of Valyria were its great houses, the first to tame dragons and ride them, that we know. They conquered lands in Essos that they called the Freehold, which is where the Free Cities are in my time, and they mastered great magic, much of which has been lost to us, such as the forging of Valyrian steel. They built great roads, called dragon roads, between their holdings in Essos, and the Free Cities do think themselves the daughters of Valyria, but the land that was Valyria is gone. Where it once was there is only the Smoking Sea, and none have been able to explore the ruins and return alive.

One house of Dragonlords, House Targaryen, held an island off the coast of Westeros, called Dragonstone. One daughter of this house, called Daenys the Dreamer, dreamt of the Doom that befell Valyria, and House Targaryen moved their household and dragons to Dragonstone. They survived the doom, and some time later one of the kings of Westeros, the Storm King, wanted to arrange a marriage between his daughter and the lord of Dragonstone, called Aegon Targaryen. But Aegon was already married, and he sent an envoy offering a marriage to his friend Orrys Baratheon instead. But the Storm King butchered that envoy, and sent his hand back to Aegon, saying it was the only hand he would give to Lord Baratheon, and not his daughter's hand in marriage. They say Aegon meditated for seven days and nights, before he decided to conquer Westeros on his dragon Balerion the Black Dread, and his wives of their dragons Meraxes and Vhagar. There were Seven Kingdoms on Westeros at the time, and he conquered all of them, save Dorne, so he called his lands the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros, and became the first dragon king, called Aegon the Conquerer, first of his name. The Targaryens brought dragons to Westeros, although none without Valyrian blood could ride them, and too few survived a great war, called the Dance of the Dragons, some two hundred years after the conquest, so that not long after dragons became extinct.

I could tell you a little more of House Targaryen in the Seven Kingdoms, and their dragons, but nothing more of Valyria. I could tell you that Valyrian steel is lighter than ordinary steel, and does not dull or break, and Valyrian steel blades appear to be folded many more times than ordinary ones, and are a little darker.

[she expects this might be more interesting to a smith than the travels of good queen alysanne and jaehaerys the conciliator, or stories of queen nerys and aemon the dragonknight, which had been her favorite. but she thinks it might be frustrating, to be told of something of your craft you cannot examine or make.]

But I could not tell you how it is made or even worked, for our smiths don't know. There are some in the Free Cities who are able to take one blade and forge it into new ones, but they tell no one the secrets of their craft.

[searingwing]

[He thinks it over and looks to Dellingr. A thought passes between them. He makes a mental note to be very careful of who he shows Dellingr to. Then he says,] Lighter than normal steel sounds like it might be an alloy of some sort.

Here a lightness could be achieved with an Omen channeled into a weapon or, dark blood laid into the blade. The later is similar to things we do to weapons to make sure they can withstand the magic Vision users channel over a long period of time.

[dohaeris]

I'm sorry I don't have any to show you. I'm sure you could find the trick to it. But it's very rare, in my time. I can see how dark blood could make a similar effect.

[or, well, she can see how dark blood magic might do it, but that doesn't semm like a very helpful thing to say to a smith with cold blood. she offers a small, slightly apologetic smile.]

I'm very glad to meet you and Dellingr both, and I would be glad to hear more about the dragons of your world.

[sansa had never found dragons so very exciting as her siblings, but dragon guardians sound very interesting, more so than dragons in the stories she knows, who don't seem to do more than fly around and breathe fire in battle.]

[searingwing]

Dragons of Teyvat are as different as the colors trees turn because all life in Teyvat is…

[Dellingr moves slowly down to sit on the table and breathe shadowy flames. Diluc lifts his fingers and icy wind pours out of his fingers and weaves a mountain, the jagged peaks.]

Teyvat is governed by the Seven. An Archon for each land and that land is affected by the element of the god that presided over it. Some archons rule directly.

[The icy wind breaks and forms blasts of lightning and wide fields.] The Raiden Shogun, rules as the top of her government.

Some rule not at all, [The wind scatters and becomes a great tree and wide fields, with mountains rising in the distance.] Barbatos, lord of the winds and freedom let’s just people of the wind live as they want.

He sees it that we must choose our own way. Following what winds we will. But his touch means our lands are steeped in wind energy. Even the plants that grow have natural traces of it.

Dragons embody this as well. Dvalin, guardian of one of the four winds. [The icy wind breaks up once more showing a long winding shape with four feathery wings spreading out from the body. It is what one might assume a salamander might look like if stylized into a dragon. His arrow shaped head and the marks on his body have that streamlined feel of something that grew up in a windy land.]

Dvalin is of the ice but also of the wind. I grew up knowing he was a lord of the wind and slumbering protector of the land. He fought and defended us against a corrupted dragon. The remains of Durin lay in the frozen wastes of Dragonspine.

Dvalin was corrupted in the fight. He rose recently and fought the land he once defended. [Tornadoes of wind tear into a city that looks made of stone and somewhat decorative decor.] But, Our Honorary Knight helped him. Thus is he a protector once more.

Dragons are a varied lot. What little I know of them, they often has an association with an Archon and great power at their claws. The archon of Liyue, often appeared to his subjects once a year as a great dragon.

[dohaeris]

[sansa watches, entranced.]

Oh! Valyria did have kings called Archons. I remember that. I think Volantis has them, now.

[the rulers of volantis are in fact called triarchs. she attempts to peer closer.]

I'm glad your ice dragon was saved. Some say there are ice dragons far to the north, beyond Ib, but the Maesters say they may only be mountains of frozen ice. We do have a constellation called the ice dragon, though. It's said he points you north with his blue eye.

[sometimes...sansa actually sounds 16.]

[searingwing]

When the saddle is done and we’ve made it to our liking. Would you like to take a flight?

[He leaves that offer there before he continues.] Dvalin has taken the ancient ruins west of Mondstadt as a home. They can only be entered by wing.

But strong head winds in our land are said to be his doing.

[dohaeris]

[oh!! she thinks about rhaena launching herself into the sky atop morning at last, and queen visenya winning the vale by allowing its little king to join her in flight--and then she remembers her own little lord arryn, cheerfully demanding to make 'the bad men fly,' the feeling of the moon door open below her, and the screams of her aunt as she fell...and sansa has never really liked riding horses, which she has only ever done sidesaddle, anyway.]

You do me a very great honor, but I'm afraid I'm not much of a rider. I've only ever rode sidesaddle before, and I wouldn't like to put you to any trouble.

[searingwing]

It’s no trouble. It’s an open offer. But if you would ever like to learn how to ride other ways, I can teach you.

[He says it lightly. Since getting away from the forge, he has the tone and mannerisms of a noble lord.] In any case, any time you want to hear more about Mondstadt and our legends, my husband and I run the tavern The Roost. He recalls fine details I’ve likely forgotten and has tales of his own.

Just discount the tales of a fiery young Calvary Captain. I’ve long left those days behind.