House Avalon

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"I haven't been to any stupid islands. I'm from King's Landing, born and bred," Dacey said proudly. "And I'm not going there to see pissing contests. We have enough of them here."

[Erik]

"I just assumed. You seem to have quite the understanding of our legal system." Erik tells her, "But have you never left, girl? I'm of half a mind to grab you and sail out of the Blackwater with you right now, just to show you what else is out there!"

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Dacey laughed. "In greenlands we usually don't just grab girls and carry them off." But she seemed curious at his talk of the wider world.

[Erik]

"And there's another grievance. It doesn't make sense. You all just sit in the same place and breed and breed until you've got a city full of cousins. We at least add go out and bring back some new blood."

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"There are too many people in this damn place for that to happen." She leaned forward over the counter. "So how many places have you visited?"

[Erik]

"Oh, most every port here in Westeros, one time or another. The Summer Islands once, when I was a boy. Here and there in the Stepstones, though there's not much in them worth talking about. And the Free Cities. I've seen Lys, Astapor, Yunkai, Meereen," He counts the cities off on his fingers, "Elyria, Oros, Myr, and Tyrosh, and of course I was just in Braavos and Pentos last year."

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Dacey's eyes had grown very wide, and seemed to regard him in a new light. "Seven hells, you can't have seen all that. That's...I didn't even know there were so many cities. Across the narrow sea? And...Yoohai? Wait, what was that again?"

[Erik]

"Yunkai. Not a Free City, technically, it's on Slaver's Bay, out east. Slaves everywhere there, cheap as anything. And there's a huge temple, a pyramid, as big as Aegon's Hill, with a giant golden harpy sitting on top, a whip and and collar in her talons. Oh, and best is the hair. The people there use some sort of oil that lets them shape their hair as they please, and they put it in such odd shapes, horns and crowns and antlers. A strange place, truly."

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"Yunkai," Dacey said slowly, rolling the words on her tongue. "They have slaves? What's a pyramid? And what do they look like? I heard some of those folks across the narrow sea have blue skin and black eyes, and they worship demon gods and drink horse blood."

[Erik]

Erik laughs at all her questions. "Slaves, yes. All over the East. A pyramid is a sort of building with triangles for sides, so it works out like a big pointy hill. The people, well, they aren't usually so different than us. Darker skin, for the most part, and hair. The Lyseni, they dye their hair all sorts of colors, and some of the folks from Qarth have blue lips from the tea they drink. Demon gods and horse blood, that's the Dothraki, most like. They wander a great plain in huge bands, thousands of them all on horses, and they raid the cities sometimes. It's said they take whatever gods they can for themselves."

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Dacey tugged at one her red ringlets, trying imagine how it would look if it was blue. "There's that one Lysene man, that funny Razoon fellow who was throwing a ball to the goddess of love." She cocked her head. "I can't remember all those names. Kerths and Dothrookies and all those foreign names. We get foreigners all the time here in King's Landing, but not the types you talk about." Her eyes were shining. "I wish I could see all that."

"Did you take any slaves?"

[Erik]

Erik shakes his head. "We Ironborn don't take slaves, only thralls. And we don't take them much these days, anyway. A thrall isn't truly anyone's property, more of a forced servant, and their children are considered free. But we did come upon a Lyseni ship in the Stepstones and attacked it. Found a good dozen slave girls, and made them salt wives."

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"Really?" Dacey said wryly. "If all men could do that, our whorehouses would be out of business."

[Erik]

"Could be. But is there really that much stopping them? What's to keep me from grabbing you and taking you back to my ship, like I said before?"

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"I'll attack you with the pepper," Dacey grinned. "It's right here behind the counter!"