"I am Augusta, Ephor of Septimont, and I want to know if you can understand me?" I introduced myself, speaking the words slowly and carefully in English.
My words seemed to be understood by the man who was panicking about the drakes and had knelt down, and by the woman who, in my eyes, seemed to regain a little light in her gaze.
"This one, gives thanks to your grace, for having freed us from the yoke of the Dothraki, this one, Haela Helir of Myr, promises to do everything in her power to serve, Your Excellency", said the woman bowing before me, being the first to recover from the apparent impression of the drakes.
Her English was somewhat convoluted, with words pronounced differently than we were used to, but still understandable.
I nodded to the woman in recognition and turned my gaze to the man, who seemed to want to disappear into the earth before my eyes, but nevertheless he introduced himself, as he stood up.
"I, my name is Arthur and I come from Dorne, your grace", he said with his head bowed in deference.
"Well met, Haela, Arthur", I greeted them cordially with a smile, and began to tell them what we needed from them, there was no time to lose.
"I regret imposing this meeting on you, given your current condition, but we are having trouble communicating with these people", I said, gesturing to the man, who looked injured and underfed, and then toward the young Dothraki, who were still waiting at the bottom of the hill in front of Titus's group.
"I would like to ask you to help us with this task, and in teaching us to better understand your languages. Of course, we will try to pay you for this service as best we can", I told them what we required clearly, although I had no doubt that some words might have been lost in their ears.
"This one will serve, Your Excellency", Haela replied confidently and reverently.
"I will do my best, Your Grace, but I only speak Low Valyrian and the Common Tongue, I believe, I believe I will only be able to communicate with the slaves", Arthur said, bowing his head in apology.
"Excuse me, but what is Low Valyrian and Common Tongue?, I assume they are languages, but…", Avidius intervened doubtfully, with his drake now on the ground next to my pups playing.
"And also, if I may add to the question, what are 'slaves'?", I asked them as well. The word seemed to refer to people who were imprisoned, but I didn't know if it was a linguistic difference or if that's what they called captives.
Both of their eyes widened in surprise.
'Is that such a strange question to ask?' I thought, bewildered, and looked at Avidius, who seemed to be thinking the same thing.
"… Your Grace, what do you mean, slaves… they're slaves?" Arthur spoke as if the word simply meant something obvious, and perhaps it did to him, but we just looked at him in bewilderment.
"…what I mean is, what does the word 'slave' mean?" I clarified, finally making myself understood.
"This one thinks she understands what Your Excellency wants to know", Haela replied, nodding quickly, "A slave is an unfree person, a product for sale. Everyone, including this one, was a slave until Your Excellency freed us", she concluded, with Arthur nodding in agreement.
My body froze, and a chill ran down my spine as the realization hit me: these people were selling other human beings like cattle, and not only that…
'…for them…it's normal…' I thought, realizing why they were so puzzled by our questions.
"That is…that is monstrous, there were children, boys and girls, among the captives, this is…" Avidius spoke, while trembling with anger and righteous indignation, this caused the photons of light around his body to begin to solidify, giving him a yellow edge to his figure.
I'd be the same if it weren't for the fearful looks on the faces of the people in front of us.
"Avidius!" I spoke loudly, not shouting, but loud enough to get his attention and not scare our interpreters further.
"My apologies, Your Excellency, and my apologies to you as well. I didn't mean to cause such a scene. If you'll excuse me, I'll step aside for a moment", He apologized quickly and left.
I could only sigh in my head, I understood, I was outraged too, but I had to keep a cool head and get more information first.
Haela and Arthur's reactions had been revealing, in an unpleasant way.
There had been a disturbing normalcy in their reaction. There was no disgust at the abhorrent practice—perhaps in the man, but it was small and hidden due to the life he led. But for both of them, there was a total lack of strangeness about this "enslavement" of people.
That said, the practice of selling people was normal and accepted, at least in the region, and I hoped, I really hoped, that it wasn't the same all over the world.
'If not… I was afraid I wouldn't be able to control the following encounters…' I thought with resignation as I slightly directed my gaze towards Avidius who was walking away towards his Griffex, with his Drake following in his footsteps. But it wasn't time for that yet, so I focused again on Haela and Arthur, still half scared, but I had to know more about this, it was too important.
"Please don't be scared of him, he's a kind person who's only concerned about the innocent people who have suffered", I said, trying to calm their nerves, with mixed success.
Haela, who seemed to have a calmer temperament, had limited herself to looking between me and Avidius with a fascinating surprise in her eyes. After having calmed down from the fright, the man, Arthur, was still trembling slightly and in his eyes began to appear what I believed was distrust for the ability shown by Avidius.
"This one understands that the Lord may have hatred in his heart given his words, there is no need for Her Excellency to apologize to this one", Haela said, making Arthur speak quickly afterwards as well.
"Yes, Your Grace, you have no reason to apologize to us" Arthur said nervously.
"…thank you for understanding" I told them, hoping we could move forward with gathering information. "So, what I want to know first, before you help me give instructions, is where we are and, above all, if this 'slave' practice is normal in these lands" That was the first thing I needed to know.
This information would decide our next moves.
"Um… Your Grace, if I may ask", Arthur said hesitantly, to which I nodded encouragingly. If they had any doubts, it was best to get them out of the way.
"Why are you asking where we are? This place is very well known", he asked, causing Haela to look at me closely, waiting for an answer.
"… The answer is quite simple, we're not from here, we arrived by accident a few days ago", I told them clearly, mentally shrugging. There was no problem they knew about, it was clear we weren't from here.
"That's…" Arthur began, but Haela cut him off as she began to answer my questions with a little more enthusiasm, leaving him puzzled, and me as well.
"This one will answer Your Excellency's questions", Haela said, taking a step forward, "this place is known as the great desolation, it stretches from the forests of Qohor to the mountains of bones, but it is also called the Dothraki Sea, by the horse riders" she explained, giving the directions in which this… Dothraki Sea stretched.
"So… this whole place belongs to them?" I asked doubtfully. It was too much for people without armor or anything technological to own it, and since we had flown over the area and hadn't seen any mountains, the forest I was pointing to was barely visible on the horizon.
That meant the plain stretched for more than a thousand kilometers, at least...
"Yes, Your Excellency", Haela nodded, "this one knows that there was another kingdom here a few centuries ago, but it was wiped out by the Dothraki. Its ruins can still be seen from here" she said, pointing toward the ruins we had inspected days ago.
"Well, and the 'slaves'?" I asked her. This was the important thing; much depended on what they said next. This time, it was Arthur who spoke, causing Haela to close her mouth, which she had begun to open.
"It's normal here, Your Grace. Almost all of Essos practices it," he said, clearly hating his former situation. "If it weren't for the trade in other things, I would never have come here."
"All of Essos? Please clarify," I asked.
"Essos is the continent. This whole place is part of Essos. We're almost in the middle of the continent", he explained.
'A continent…that practices the sale of people…this is bad…' I thought darkly, but…, "You said almost the entire continent and that you wouldn't have come here, so there are places where this practice isn't allowed?" I asked.
"No, your grace, it is known that in Essos, the only free city that does not allow slavery is Bravos, and in reality I do not know of any other cities or kingdoms that do not practice it" Arthur replied, making a knot form in my stomach, if there was only one city that did not practice this abominable custom…then I…, "and I come from Dorne, your grace, south of Westeros, we do not practice slavery there", Arthur continued, taking me away from my dark thoughts.
"And 'Westeros' is it?" I asked, wanting to know about this land that didn't allow this 'slavery'.
"Those are the seven kingdoms, Your Grace, ruled by the Targaryen and their dragons, except for Dorne" Arthur replied bitterly at the end, looking at my drakes playing behind me.
"Dragons? You mean drakes?" I asked, gesturing slightly toward them.
"Yes, Your Excellency, the Targaryen, the only family of dragon riders to survive the Doom of Valyria, they conquered the Sunset Kingdoms and rule them now", Haela replied, causing even more questions to pile up on my tongue, but it seemed these Dothraki didn't want to wait any longer.
"...it seems I will have to postpone our conversation for later" I told them, hearing their annoyed shouts, "well…, Arthur, please accompany Valeria back to the other people we freed, tell them that from now on they are under my protection, and that if any Dothraki, anyone, wants to impose themselves or mistreat them, they only have to go find one of my comrades, and we will take it from there, understood?" I asked, while gesturing towards Valeria, who was with her sister taking care of their Griffexs.
"I, I understand, your grace, if any Dothraki harm us, we will notify you?" he asked, seeming to get the general idea, but again, our English dialect was different.
"Yes, Arthur, that is what I ask of you, and also tell them to try to find people from their own villages or kingdoms, to see if we can send them home", I said with a small encouraging smile, hoping this might bring hope to some of them.
"Thank you, thank you very much, Your Grace. I'll do exactly that. If you'll excuse me, I'll be right there", he said, to which I nodded in response, leading him to turn to Valeria, who looked at me for directions.
I just nodded and gestured toward the people we'd freed.
"How can this one help, Your Excellency?" Haela asked after Arthur left.
"You'll be my spokesperson. I need to understand what they're saying and for them to understand my next orders", I said, sending a message to Titus through the terminal, telling him to let the young women through first.
They should be able to communicate more easily... I hoped that was the case...
"And Haela…" I said in a firmer voice, getting her to give me her full attention.
"Yes, Your Excellency?" she asked attentively.
"Translate my words as literally as possible", I paused for a moment, allowing my words to sink in, until she understood what I was saying.
"I'm not one to give unclear orders", I said, making her eyes light up a little more.
"...if they're not going to follow my orders, they'd better be clear about the risks of disobedience".
Then I turned to face the group of young Dothraki women and teenagers coming toward us.
Hoping... that they weren't the monsters I was beginning to believe they were.
"khaleesi! khaleesi! khaleesi!" they called as they approached.