Lord Aeos raised his palm, and a wave of silence spread through the crowd. This was the last time, probably in years, that they were going to hear directly from their monarch.
"It has been a couple of years since I began my journey," Jon started, his voice echoing across the completely silent street. "Two years since I took over Astapor and made a few grand declarations. A few exaggerated promises of a vision I had wanted to make true."
"The things I had declared, people dismissed as absurd and impossible. And to be honest, it did sound absurd," he said with an awkward chuckle. "People said that the fluke victory which I had earned in Astapor had gone to my head. That I had gone mad from the arrogance of being a winner. That I would have a failed end. A humiliating defeat."
He let out a small chuckle as the crowd listened to him with rapt attention.
"Banning slavery, making your lives better, improving the conditions of your lives, building great cities, and the grandest of them all, setting up the greatest empire this world has ever seen. An empire more powerful and more prosperous even than the Old Valyria and the Ghiscari Empire or any empire this world has seen for that matter."
"These were the absurd things I had announced. Impossible things that I had promised to achieve."
"And," he continued, his voice hardening like steel. "Here we are."
He raised his hands as he basked in the attention and the devotion of his people.
"And I assume that I would not be wrong to say that I have achieved almost all of them, except for the dream of the greatest empire. Not that I have not already started to walk the path required for my goal."
"Are all of you happy?" he thundered. A humongous chorus of agreement erupted from the crowd.
"Have your lives improved?" he questioned again as the sound died, and the chorus erupted again.
"Have I made your cities into a better place?" he roared. The chorus followed.
"Does any man want to go back to the same life?" he roared again. The chorus of rejection followed.
The adrenaline of the crowd was pumping, and the excitement among them was reaching its peak. If Jon asked them to march for a war, the entire crowd would have happily followed after him.
"Meereen," he said. "I have grown to be quite fond of this city and of you all. I do not know when I will see this city once again. It most probably would take a few years but I would always remain grateful to you all."
"In everything I have achieved, you have all played a very important role. Through the relentless hard work you have done, you are the reason I have been able to build this city brick by brick."
"I may have shown the vision, the dream, the path, but it was you, the people, who walked down this path. Who fulfilled all my dreams. Who made it possible for my vision to come true."
"And now is the time," he continued, "that I fulfill the grandest of all those visions. The vision of the greatest empire."
"I am departing to fulfill that very goal," he said. "My army is more than halfway toward its targets. And I am going to join them in their campaign."
"A lot of people like you are waiting for my arrival. They are waiting for me to come and free them from their misery. To ban slavery. To grant them liberty. To make them prosperous. To make them see what living a life actually is."
"Are you behind me in this?" he roared. The chorus followed.
"Do you all support me?" he questioned. The chorus followed.
The sound died and Jon raised his clenched fist.
"I am departing, departing from Meereen," he boomed. "And I promise that the next time I appear in this city, I will have already fulfilled my vision. My promise."
"For," his voice echoed around the far away streets, "what I had started as my vision has not remained merely my vision."
"It has become destiny. I am destined to achieve whatever I have announced."
A humongous wave of sound, the loudest yet, erupted from the crowd as Jon gave a nudge to his horse and began to move, surrounded by his Supreme Shadows.
"Lord Aeos! Lord Aeos!" The chant started to echo continuously through the city.
No one knew who started it, but suddenly the chant shifted from Lord Aeos.
"The Monarch! The Monarch Lord Aeos! The Monarch!"
It was maddening. It felt as if the entire city was quaking from the humongous energy that was resounding throughout the streets. The smaller pebbles were almost bouncing from the echo of the sound. At some point, a few people pulled out drums from somewhere and started beating it. It was exhilarating.
And with a wide, prideful smile on his face, Jon continued to move. Towards his goal. Towards his destiny.
As Jon, followed by Melisandre and one hundred men, departed from the city, the crowd continued to stare toward him until he had vanished on the horizon. The chatter of his name was still echoing behind him. Lord Aeos had departed, and he was going to write a new chapter.
[This chapter might come on the shorter side. I did not want to extend Jon's speech unnecessarily only for the word count, as it would have seemed to lose the energy that I am trying to give it. And also, I wanted a new arc for a new chapter. So, bear with it. Towards the Free Cities from the next chapter.]
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