He woke to quiet.
The tent was a low, the lamp a stub of ember. The blanket lay heavy over their hips—black fur and worn leather patched together, warm with shared heat. At his side Daenerys slept on her stomach, hair braided and loose in pale strands, breath slow, one arm flung toward him as if even in sleep she refused distance.
The dragons had crept closer in the night. The green was curled by her calves, the cream tucked by her shoulder, the black—Drogon—a small shadow near her spine, possessive and alert even sleeping.
He watched her for a time. The rise and fall. The tiny flutter at her throat as her lips close. The way her hand flexed once, as if grasping something delicate.
Fire lives, he thought, and the sea-call in him answered—low, steady, like a tide turning under the moon.
He slid from the bed without waking her, drew the blanket higher over her back, and paused at the flap to listen. The khalasar on the far edges stirred: the thud of a spade, a horse snorting and settling, the uneven cough of a man who had smoked too much the night before. A cool breath of predawn came through the gap in the canvas, smelling of ash and dew and something else—water, faint and far as a memory.
He stepped out into the morning's first color.
The horizon was a line of iron with a thin blade of light lifting behind it. Grass hissed softly in the low wind.
The pyre ground was a dark oval scar, edges gray with cooled ash; men had already scattered a fine layer of it to deaden the risk of ember. He stood on a rise where he could see the breadth of what remained: a few hundred riders making ready, women striking and setting tents, boys and girls fetching water in skin bags, the singer tending to his zither strings.
Drogo breathed deep.
"Status," he said into the quiet, without moving his lips, without speaking.
The air tightened—not around him, within him—and familiar letters formed in his mind , a glass-bright panel hovering where only he could see.
[ TEMPLATE SYSTEM ]
[ SYNCHRONIZATION RATE :
Degree of alignment between host and the template. Higher alignment increases access to template functions, resistances, and capabilities.
NOTE + : Alignment does not transfer memories, identity, or personality. ]
[ ABILITIES :
Discrete functions granted at specific alignment thresholds. Abilities are passive or active. Passive abilities require no conscious activation. Active abilities require intent. ]
[ STATUS :
Descriptive assessment of core performance categories. Status is comparative and situational.
STRENGTH, AGILITY, DURABILITY, STAMINA. ]
"Not numbers," he thought, a little disappointed.
[ STATUS ]
Status categories are descriptive indicators. They report capability in specific and defined terms. Context and environment may alter outcomes without altering functions.
STRENGTH : Capacity to exert force for lifting, striking, throwing, and grappling. Influenced by leverage, medium (air/water), and synchronization rate.
Overmatches any Dothraki bloodrider in close quarters. Can overturn horse and rider with a shove if braced. Can lift and carry a wounded man one-armed over uneven ground. Precision and restraint available.
He flexed his hand. Tendons rolled like cables; the grip felt clean, not merely strong.
"Feels like my whole body feels strengthened ," he said to himself.
AGILITY : Capacity for acceleration, deceleration, directional change, balance, and reaction timing. Influenced by footing, visibility, and synchronization rate.
Faster than the finest Dothraki sprinter for short bursts. Exceptional balance on moving mounts; capable of sudden angle changes on loose ground without ankle failure. Reflexes sharpened beyond ordinary human baselines.
He set his feet as a rider trotted past below, feeling how the ground told him where it wanted him.
DURABILITY : Resistance to physical injury, pressure, temperature, and corrosive mediums. Influenced by armor, angle of impact, and synchronization rate.
Blades and knives bite shallow scratches when struck at a poor angle. Bruising mitigated; cuts knit faster than expected. Heat tolerance elevated; brief exposure to flame survivable without blister if movement is correct. Not invulnerable. Head/neck/eyes remain critical.
STAMINA : Endurance under sustained activity including combat, swimming, marching, and breath control. Influenced by rest state, wounds, and synchronization rate.
Hours of hard labor or combat without collapse; rapid baseline recovery. Breath control significantly improved; long submersion sustainable (see abilities).
NOTE + : Sleep still increases output. Do not disdain sleep.
He huffed once, amused. "The system speaks like a sergeant."
[ SYNCHRONIZATION RATE: 10.00% (ESTABLISHED) ]
Baseline established due to host physical compatibility with selected template.
[ ABILITIES ]
MINOR AQUATIC AFFINITY(Passive — NEW)
Info: Establishes low-level attunement to bodies of water and aquatic life. Effects include extended breath-holding beyond human norms, directional sensing of currents, and low-band perception of nearby marine organisms. Range and clarity scale with synchronization rate.
AQUATIC BREATHING(Active/Passive Hybrid — NEW)
Info: Breath of the Deep. Lung architecture adapts on command or under immersion, enabling limitless underwater respiration at current alignment when submerged. Surface respiration unaffected.
ENHANCED VISION(Passive — NEW)
Info: Visual acuity elevated. Glare resistance increased. Low-light contrast improved. Motion tracking sharpened. Underwater clarity exceeds human norms; particulate scatter reduced subjectively.
A whisper slid through him—as if distant streams were speaking along their beds. Not words. Directions. Temperatures. A slow pulse. "Water is a map," he realized. "And I can read the parts near the edges."
He rolled his shoulders, lungs opening as if they were meant for more room than air allowed.
The horizon sharpened. He could count bugs around a horse's ear at fifty paces, see how heat made the air's skin ripple, how the first light broke at the grass tips. "No more fighting against the light," he thought. "Or the lack."
"But how would I increase the sync even more ? "
After testing the System a bit more I found my answer.
!!! HINT !!!
[ TEMPLATESYNCHRONIZATION PROGRESSION ]
Daily immersion (moving water preferred): +0.01% alignment/day (cumulative; cap applies).
Sustained swim training: increases all STATUS indicators; accelerates sync gain modestly.
High-pressure exposure : unlocks higher-tier adaptations at later thresholds.
The panel thinned, brightened, and eased back, ready to be called again with a thought. He stood on the rise a moment longer, letting the cool weight of dawn rest on his shoulders. He would need all of it: the strength that did not waste itself, the breath that did not panic, the sight that did not lie.
Behind him the tent rustled.
"Drogo," Daenerys said, voice rough with sleep and something gentler. He turned. She stood with the black blanket clutched around her shoulders, hair pale as the edge of morning, eyes bright as new glass. The dragons clung to her like stubborn jewelry. She took him in with a quick look that held pride and concern both.
"You will not fight alone."
"I will not," he said, and felt the truth of it.
She came to him barefoot, pressed her palm to his chest once and then let him go. "Make them yours," she said.
No blessing. A command.
He nodded.
When he looked back to the camp, men were already shaping the ground where the Trials would run. A ring cleared and stamped flat. A line of horses led out, unsaddled. A shallow brazier built with coals the singer had begged from a cookfire, to take oaths in flame instead of ash. Good. He had thrown the hooks last night. Now he'd pull.
He went to meet the day.