Game of Thrones: The Wrath of the Sleeping Dragon

The current Sea King of Braavos, Ferrego Antalion, resides in the Sea King's Palace within the city.

The title of Aquaman is not hereditary. After the death of the previous Aquaman, the new Aquaman will be selected from all the citizens by the governor of Braavos and the Keeper of the Keys in a mysterious and incomprehensible process.

Once chosen as Aquaman, he will serve for life, until his death.

The letter that Viserys is holding now is a handwritten letter from Ferrego Antalion.

The letter was not very long and only expressed a simple purpose.

Moreover, Viserys could tell that the letter seemed to be a little 'outdated'.

This letter from Frego Antalion was written before Viserys and the Targaryen fleet embarked on their expedition to Storm's End.

After all, Braavos is a long way from Dragonstone, and by the time Aquaman received news of the naval battle, it was too late to take back the letter.

Moreover, this letter was not written to him, but was written in his name.

After all, Viserys, once crowned, was in a sense a wandering king with a desire for the Iron Throne, and his bloodline was pure, making him legally impeccable.

But in reality, the letter was written to his mother, Queen Leila.

In the letter, King Braavos persuaded Leila to take Viserys and abandon Dragonstone to live in Braavos.

Braavos will provide active protection and sanctuary to the Dragon King's descendants, which is more politely referred to as 'political asylum'.

In the letter, Aquaman also subtly indicated that he might consider supporting the Targaryens' "just cause" for the Iron Throne in Westeros at "certain crucial moments".

The entire handwritten letter was quite lengthy and written in Valyrian, suggesting that Aquaman's intelligence was more accurate than that of the messenger.

However, Viserys remained unfazed as he read the letter filled with utter nonsense.

Braavos may indeed need this poor widow and her child, but certainly not for reasons such as 'justice' or 'legal principles' as stated in the letter.

Oris Baratheon, the first Hand of the King after the Wars of Conquest, is said in ancient lore to be the bastard brother of Aegon I and also of Targaryen blood.

However, these are just rumors without any concrete evidence, and illegitimate children do not have legal inheritance rights.

Robert Baratheon's ascension to the Iron Throne was based on the legality of his grandmother's bloodline.

Robert's grandmother was Raleye Targaryen, daughter of Aegon V, so as a Targaryen 'relative', he was qualified to ascend the Iron Throne.

Robert was therefore more legitimate than the people of House Arryn, House Tully, or House Stark.

Viserys ignored all the nonsense above, but he did notice a person being subtly mentioned at the very end of the handwritten letter.

In his letter, Ferrego Antalion wrote that he invited Queen Leila and Prince Viserys to Braavos, and then secretly arranged for a mysterious person to meet with Queen Leila and Viserys.

The identity specified is a Valyrian word similar to 'in-law', indicating that it refers to a 'relative of the woman's family'.

While Valyrian is still sufficient for everyday communication in Viserys, it inevitably becomes rusty without such an environment after leaving the Red Keep.

He pondered the meaning of Aquaman's words carefully, and then read them several times, seemingly gaining some understanding.

This is because he was looking at the letter from a different perspective. Viserys had initially been looking at the letter from his own point of view and did not understand it at first.

Now that I've come to my senses, if I look at this letter from Queen Leila's perspective, the meaning of this sentence becomes very clear and easy to understand.

Queen Leila's in-laws?

Queen Leila has three children: Viserys and Daenerys, one is still a child and the other is even an infant, while only her eldest brother Rhaegar is married.

Although many messy things happened afterward, the in-laws certainly did not refer to the Stark family in the North.

"Dorn."

Viserys understood slightly, and the furrowed brow relaxed a little.

"Dorn actually wants to contact his mother?"

Viserys knew that the Iron Throne was currently negotiating with Dorne. In fact, due to the machinations of his father Aerys and brother Rhaegar, Dorne had long been alienated from the Targaryens.

But at this critical juncture, Dorn surprisingly contacted Braavos to act as a go-between.

Braavos, acting as the middleman, somehow agreed to secretly arrange a meeting between Dorn and the Targaryens.

"But...didn't their Iron Treasury already lend money to the Iron Throne during this period?"

"Aren't they afraid they won't get the money back?"

still…

They want to use this to their advantage, to manipulate the war and make the Iron Throne owe them even more money.

Viserys pondered the whole matter carefully.

Or perhaps...

Braavos simply didn't want the seven kingdoms across the Narrow Sea to truly reunify, and wanted to cause them a little trouble.

"That's where things get a little tricky."

Viserys' brow relaxed slightly, and he held the letter in his hand, lost in thought.

He was unsure of the current status of the negotiations between Dorne and the Iron Throne.

It is even more unclear what Dorne's true attitude is: is it a genuine reconciliation with the Iron Throne, or is it just a pretense?

Is Dorne's current initiative to contact the Targaryens at the behest of Prince Doran, or is it merely a secret action by a group within House Martyr who are dissatisfied with the peace talks?

He doesn't know anything about it.

Viserys understood Dorne's caution. After all, they were currently negotiating with the Iron Throne. If a ship were sent directly to Dragonstone, the negotiations would be pointless, and Westeros would be plunged into war once again.

but...

This letter reveals more than just that.

If Viserys understands correctly, the letter meant for Queen Leila to take him to Braavos and meet with the people of Dorne.

It was specifically noted that the Targaryens and the Martell family are still related.

Then they used a term of double kinship to indicate that he was a 'relative of the woman'.

Viserys held the letter in his hand and suddenly had a bad feeling.

"This...does the Ma'ertai family have daughters?"

"They're not targeting me again, are they?"

Chapter 57 The Hand of the King

Viserys, clutching the letter from King Braavos, fell silent.

The entire hall was completely silent.

Everyone stared at the young king sitting on the throne in the center. They didn't know what the letter contained; it was highly confidential. But judging from Viserys's expression, they seemed to see some difficulty in his expression.

Viserys then remained silent and handed the letter in Aquaman's hand to Ser Geoffrey beside him.

For this fleet commander, Viserys had nothing to doubt, after all, he and his mother would have been dead long ago if it weren't for him.

Even if things had followed the original trajectory, and he and his mother, Queen Leila, had escaped to Dragonstone, the presence of the fleet deterred the acting lord and others from harming them, the orphan and widow.

Even though the storm that later destroyed the Targaryen fleet was unknown to Viserys, perhaps the bastards and others wanted to hand Viserys and his sister over to Baratheon, or perhaps they had other plans.

But with the help of Sir William, he eventually escaped to the continent of Essos and began a long period of exile.

Therefore, Viserys naturally had unconditional trust in the old Jazz and the coach.

If he needed to create a 'Hand of the King' medal right now, Viserys might just award it to Sir Geoffrey.

The elderly nobleman with gray hair did not refuse and took the letter directly from Viserys's hand, then read it carefully.

Viserys's gaze, however, returned to the two Braavos envoys.

"In fact, my mother, Queen Leila Targaryen, is dead."

Viserys rose from the cold stone throne, and sunlight streamed in from both sides of the hall, forming beams of light that shone on the dust-covered ground.

"Your Majesty, please accept my condolences."

Claire, the mayor of Braavos and the messenger, bowed slightly once again to express her condolences to Viserys, though they already knew the news when they disembarked.

"Please allow us to pay our respects to this kind and great Empress Dowager as we leave Dragonstone."

However, Viserys simply waved his hand, knowing that these were merely polite words from the messenger.

The other party didn't even know that Targaryens could still speak Valyrian, and perhaps they had only heard the name of their mother, Queen Leila.

"Please stay on Dragonstone a little longer, envoy."

"I need to consider what Lord Ferrego Antalion wrote in his letter."

This is what Viserys is hesitating about now. After receiving this letter, Viserys can confirm that the sender is indeed an envoy from Braavos.

However, he was hesitant about whether or not to actually go to Braavos to meet Viserys.

Although the young king has thwarted several plots to seize the Iron Throne and led the fleet to a brilliant comeback victory at Shipwreck Bay, greatly boosting morale.

However, the Targaryens are still far superior to Baratheon in terms of power.

The opponent is like someone with ten fingers, who just managed to break one of them. If the opponent had clenched their fists, they could have easily killed him on Dragonstone.

After all, this place is too close to Westeros, almost within arm's reach.

Viserys felt completely unsafe on Dragonstone. Although he knew that King Robert no longer had any warships, he was still afraid that one day he would wake up to find Dragonstone surrounded by an endless array of ships.

Therefore, Viserys was constantly thinking about how to abandon Dragonstone and lead his fleet and people to the mainland east of the Narrow Sea.

They needed to settle down there and develop their business in peace to ensure the safety of themselves and their siblings and prevent them from living a life of constant wandering.

Viserys had been clueless about this matter for a long time. After all, as the old lord had said, the free trade city-states, though seemingly loose, were resistant to the intrusion of outside forces.

Viserys dared not lead his fleet to invade the continent of Essos, as that would be tantamount to cutting off his own escape route.

But now, this letter from the Sea King of Braavos has brought him another possibility.

Viserys was slightly undecided.

This idea is good and bold, but it also carries considerable risk.

If Braavos had malicious intentions, it was possible that he could be tied up and sent to King's Landing in exchange for a substantial reward.

However, Viserys believed that a living version of himself, capable of causing trouble for the Iron Throne, was far more important than the meager reward that the Iron Treasury could offer.

So even when Viserys was still somewhat hesitant, he already had this answer in mind.