Game of Thrones: Viserys the Three-Headed Dragon

"This is a true story that happened in Pentos, as written in the book." Viserys held a thin storybook in his hand and began to narrate the story in a muttered voice. "It happened at the port of Pentos. The author learned about it from a friend with great difficulty. The friend insisted on hiding his name, so the author will not mention the names of anyone involved in the story."

"One night, there was a heavy knock on my friend's door. He opened the door and saw his childhood friend outside. His friend was in a hurry, full of fear, begging him to help save his life.

My friend is a kind-hearted and righteous person. Hearing his childhood friend's plea, he took him into the house without hesitation and asked the reason.

His friend claimed that his life He was threatened: the merchant who provided insurance contracts for ships in the port tried to kill him because he didn't pay the insurance money for the shipwreck. Before he came to my friend, his father, the captain, his uncle, the merchant ship's mate, and his uncle, the merchant ship's partner, had all been killed.

As we all know, the Free Trade City Insurance Company is famous for its business integrity. If it hadn't come from a friend who had grown up with him, my friend would definitely think that this accusation was the nonsense of a drunkard and the nonsense of a madman.

According to his friend, his family's merchant ship originally planned to go from Pentos to the Summer Islands for business. They had traveled this route countless times. Buying an insurance contract with the insurance company in Pentos was just a routine way to buy peace of mind.

But something went wrong on this voyage. Unfortunately, their ship was hit by a hurricane on the way. , the merchant ship hit a reef in the turbulent waves, the keel broke and the merchant ship collapsed. The broken hull sank into the sea after half a day, along with all the cargo. Most of the crew members were killed or injured. The survivors relied on lifeboats and sampans to drift on the sea for four days before being rescued by a passing merchant ship.

Encountering such a misfortune, his friend's family suffered heavy losses, and the only thing they could count on was the shipwreck insurance purchased before sailing.

Anyone with a little common sense knows that when a contract signed between a seagoing merchant ship and an insurance company is actually performed, it usually takes a long time to verify. After all, the ship is not supervised in the vast ocean, and one cannot make arbitrary judgments based on the one-sided words of the insured. Insurance companies need a complex set of procedures to ensure that they are not defrauded of insurance. Therefore, it is normal for the insured and the insurance company to have long-term negotiations. Such negotiations It often takes a month or even a year.

They were prepared for long-term negotiations. Because their home was not in the port, after the initial negotiation, they handed over the work of waiting for the merchant's reply to his friend's uncle. But during the negotiation with the merchant, his friend's uncle suddenly had an accident in the city and died.

At first, they didn't think it was murder. The cause of his friend's uncle's accidental death was very clear. He fell into the canal and drowned after getting drunk in the tavern at night. In Pentos, such things happen every year. The soldiers of the city guard can always fish out the drowned drunkards from the canals that flow through the city during the morning patrol. So they didn't take it seriously, but just let his friend's uncle continue the previous process and negotiate with the merchant.

Two weeks later, the accident happened again, and his friend's uncle also drowned in the canal in the city. The reason was the same as his friend's uncle, and the city guard reported it to them as a common case of falling into the canal and drowning after drinking.

At this time, his friend's father began to have doubts. His friend's father was familiar with his brother's character and knew that his brother was a meticulous person and would never have such an accident. So he told his doubts and worries to his son, who was the friend who came to my friend to beg for help that night.

Because there was no evidence, the business was still going on as usual. His friend's father thought about it again and again, and after making up his mind to make full preparations, he still came to the city to continue negotiating with the business.

His friend's father had a lot of connections. After entering the city, he lived in a gang area and was always accompanied by two crew members. He negotiated with the business during the day and in a safe place. He did not drink and never went out at night.

But even so, one night two weeks later, my friend's friend's father still had an accident.

It was the second day after the storm from the narrow sea landed in the port of Pentos. The heavy rain for two days and nights caused the flood to flow back into the city. The low-lying port area was severely affected. Many warehouses and houses collapsed under the attack of strong winds and floods, and countless people were killed and injured.

Needless to say, my friend's friend's father also died in the disaster. According to the surviving crew, the experienced old captain was unfortunately crushed by the collapsed house when the disaster occurred, and he could not get out. In the end, he was drowned by the rainwater that poured into the city.

This was an accident, everyone said so.

My friend's friend is now the heir of the insurance contract.

The insurance company still informed my friend's friend to go through the procedures, but he didn't dare to go at all, because the previous accident made him point the finger of suspicion at the insurance company.

This is the story my friend heard.

Hearing this bizarre narrative, although his friend's words were convincing, my friend did not believe it. My friend arranged his friend to a safe place, sent someone to investigate the matter, and personally came forward to negotiate with the insurance company for him.

As my friend expected, the honest insurance company did not do such a despicable thing and had been fulfilling the contract according to the procedures. And there was indeed no sign of murder in the death of his friend's three elders.

His friend's behavior seemed like a farce.

A few weeks passed, and everything was business as usual, or so my friend began to think.

But soon something unexpected happened.

One day, my servant rushed to tell my friend that his friend who was hiding in his secret courtyard died unexpectedly.

"He took the maid who took care of him into the sea to swim. He must have said that he could breathe underwater," the servants told my friends. "He got his feet tangled in seaweed in the sea. We will fish him out when the maid calls." He was already dead when he died, and his stomach was full of sea water. ’

This news caught my friend off guard. It's one thing to hear about it, but it's another thing for it to actually happen around me.

Family members of his friends drowned accidentally one after another. The well-informed man couldn't help but think of some bizarre stories he had heard when he was young. So he immediately set off to the temple of the Red God to report the incident to the priest who served the god.

After hearing about this, the temple quickly sent a red-robed monk to investigate.

As soon as the red-robed monk saw the corpse, he concluded that something was unusual, and strictly ordered my friend to purify the corpse with flames, including the three previous corpses, and to burn them.

'It's a curse. ’ The red-robed monk asserted this, and then ordered all the belongings of the deceased to be brought over for him to look at one by one.

Only then did my friend know that his friend’s family had brought a bag of gifts with them to smooth things over, and the bag was circulated among the four dead people.

The red-robed monk finally found a pearl necklace among the relics. The largest pearl had an ink-like stain on it.

'This bead is stained with filthy blood. ’ said the red-robed monk. ‘Everyone who touches this bead must follow me to be saved. ’

Rao is a well-informed friend of mine who has experienced such a thing for the first time, so he sent the maid and the servants responsible for taking care of it to the temple, and the matter was settled.

After witnessing such a bizarre thing, my friend couldn't help but ask the red-robed monk: 'Is the curse true? ’

The answer was: 'Of course. ’

He then asked: ‘Since there is such an unpreventable curse in the world, how should we deal with it? ’

The red-robed monk told him: 'Those who believe in the King of Light can come to the temple. The fire will purify everything and protect you. The long night is dark and dangerous everywhere! ’

From then on, every night, when the red monks lit the fire in the temple and chanted prayers, my friends would join them in praying to the red god and praying to R'hllor for the dawn."

When Viserys read this, he heard the red-robed monks singing and praying when lighting the night fire from outside the high wall, and couldn't help but laugh at this coincidence.

Daenerys asked in confusion: "What's wrong?"

"What a lame sermon story, isn't it?" Viserys replied. The story booklet in his hand clearly came from the temple of the Red God. It was collected and integrated by someone specifically for the purpose of preaching. There are many short stories. There are many kinds of missionary stories and fables, but they can only be divided into a few types: showing benefits - the protagonist in the story made a fortune and avoided disasters because of his belief in the Lord of Light; showing threats - the protagonist in the story suffered disasters because he did not believe in the instructions of the Red God; Some are the bizarre stories that Viserys is most interested in. The recording of such stories is very poor, and the solution is mostly mechanical deity. However, it is recorded in the story book used for preaching, and Viserys pays special attention to it. .

The non-story content described in the stories in this booklet is very true and detailed, including how believers who believe in the Red God worship and make offerings, the etiquette for believers entering the temple, the way monks worship, and even the time and earnings of temple prostitutes giving alms to believers. The way of giving.

From this point of view, these bizarre stories may not be educating believers on how to deal with such bizarre events.

"What's behind?" Daenerys asked. Although she was not interested in the story, she still cooperated and asked her brother questions. These days, she had to adapt to this new way of getting along with each other. Viserys behaved particularly relaxed and contentedly these days. He no longer seemed to be angry about anything. He acted as if he wanted to stay here for a long time. He was not in a hurry. He is very irritable and willing to share the novel stories he has seen with her.

It's just that it's difficult for Daenerys to distinguish the emotions from the words in Viserys' mouth, and even if he shows emotions from time to time, she doesn't know whether they are true or false. She had a vague feeling that Viserys was disparaging the story but actually being interested in it. But she wasn't sure.

"No," Viserys replied, "Let's take a break, I'm exhausted from talking."

They were currently passing the time in the pavilion of Illyrio's courtyard garden, facing the golden view of the Narrow Sea in the dusk. Desserts and drinks were prepared on the pavilion table, and the cool and gentle sea breeze blew across his cheeks, making Viserys feel truly relaxed and comfortable.

Dany quietly raised her head and glanced at her brother, who was standing in the wind with a relaxed expression, and silently closed his mouth.

More than half a month has passed. After eating well and exercising diligently here in Illyrio every day, Viserys's figure has grown visibly, and he is no longer as skinny as before. The natural perseverance and confidence in his expression make Viserys He looked full of energy, completely different from the brother Daenerys had previously remembered.

Only Daenerys is still small and preoccupied. She couldn't understand what happened to her brother, let alone the calm way he looked in the courtyard of Illyrio.

Since Daenerys's legs and feet recovered, her brother took her with him wherever he went, talked to her, told her new stories, and treated her better and better. But the closer she got to her brother, the more she couldn't understand this calmness and change. Dany tried to ask many times, but Viserys was vague and always changed the subject, so she gradually felt that her brother was perfunctory under the surface of closeness, which made her feel uneasy.

Dany's mind was in a mess. She couldn't help but look up and glance at her brother Viserys, who was sitting at the table with a leisurely posture and gazing at the narrow sea in the warm sea breeze, and then followed his gaze to the ocean at dusk.