Storm Kingdom
Storm's End
Painted Realm
12 BAC
After six months of work—growing more Electro Weirwood trees, processing, and carving—Ei had created her dragon.
It was a forty-foot serpentine dragon of deep purple color, with two limbs at the front and two at the back.
Armed with an Electro beam as its main weapon, nodes capable of launching Electro orbs, and the ability to summon storms meant it could destroy entire cities by itself.
Though the most important part was its modularity. Ei could simply switch the parts with anything else, changing the Thunder Dragon's size and configuration.
She could make it hundreds of feet long, capable of carrying an immense amount of cargo, or just fill it with more weapons, making it an even more potent and deadly war machine.
Now, all that was left to do was to infuse it with enough Electro to bring it to life.
Ei could use her powers, but spending this much power on it would mean she would have to rest to restore the amount of elemental energy she would spend.
That was why she had taken the Painted Realm out to Durran's Point, sneaking out of the castle as everyone was busy sheltering from the incoming storm.
Contrary to what the legends said, Ei did not feel any divine energy or any magic at all from the storms that had been battering this land for thousands of years, which could mean two things.
One, the gods responsible for the storms had faded, for lack of a better term, because from what she gathered, the gods of these lands gained power from worship only, unlike Archons, who were empowered by ruling, their people's faith in them, and being a fragment of the elemental Authority the Heavenly Principles had stolen from the Seven Sovereigns.
Since those gods weren't worshipped in the Storm Kingdom anymore, it was possible that they either lost their domain in these lands or had simply faded away.
The storms could simply be explained as the divine power of the gods changing the land permanently so they wouldn't need to send storms every now and then.
The second option was they had never existed and were just stories, but then again, Ei still hadn't looked deeper into it, busy as she was.
At any rate, none of it mattered for now, as she was busy dragging the Thunder Dragon out of the Painted Realm.
Setting the puppet down, Ei turned to the gathering storm clouds and raised her hand, launching an Electro orb at the clouds to take control.
There was no resistance.
The Electro Archon's eyes lit up with power as the storm clouds began to grow at an exponential rate. Soon enough, Ei had accelerated the storm to full swing.
To the people watching from the safety of Storm's End, the storm took them to the day of Princess Argella's birth.
Purple lightning crackled with an unbelievable intensity, as if the very gods themselves were making their displeasure known to mankind.
Ei clenched her hand, concentrating the storm to a single point and drawing the natural lightning mixed with her divine energy.
With a mental command, a single giant lightning bolt struck the puppet, slowly draining the storm and infusing the Thunder Dragon with life.
It took a minute, but when the storm dissipated, the Thunder Dragon's eyes opened, glowing purple.
Slowly, the lumbering creation of a god rose and soon enough was floating, its rudimentary intelligence—compared to a human's anyway—slowly learning how to control its own body.
When it was done, the Thunder Dragon locked its gaze on Ei, recognizing her as its master, and bowed.
Ei patted the massive head, feeling quite happy.
—
People of Storm's End were terrified.
The storm had appeared with a swiftness unseen and had disappeared just as fast after a lightning bolt of epic proportions struck Durran's Point.
Many had seen it as a bad omen, a sign from the gods about the approaching end of the Durrandon dynasty.
Argilac scoffed at this. If the gods wanted his line to end, they would have to come down here and kill him.
Not to mention that damn purple weirwood tree that had shot up in the Godswood made some people with loose tongues accuse his daughter of witchcraft.
He turned to the girl in question, with her blue-purple hair and light purple eyes, shining each time lightning crackled in the sky, his gift from the gods.
She had watched the entire event with nary an expression on her face.
The Storm King did not understand it. Sometimes Argella was quite chatty and enjoyed bantering; other times she was like a doll, not saying anything unless she was spoken to, and her face did not betray any emotions.
He turned forward and sighed. If only his wife were here, Argilac was sure she could raise their daughter better than he did.
—
Sneaking back into the castle, Ei made her preparations, mainly gathering enough silver stags to buy all the mora the merchant possessed, going by the rate of the necklace.
Well into midnight, Ei headed to Braavos atop her dragon, flying above the clouds.
—
Braavos
Next Day
Ei reached Braavos just before sunrise. Her first thought was Westeros could stand to learn a lot from the city.
Sending the Thunder Dragon back into the Painted Realm, she, in her guise as Carn, was walking through the harbor, searching for the merchant, which took a while, because there were a lot.
Ei eventually found the merchant, peddling his wares near the fish stands.
"Greetings," the Electro Archon said, holding out the necklace. "I believe this was bought from you."
"Ah, yes. How can I be of service?" The merchant was nervous, hoping he wouldn't get into another fight about the necklace.
"Do you possess more of these coins?" Ei asked, not willing to name them, lest she draw any attention from the merchant.
"Yes, I do, my good man, a chest full, in fact. But most people say there is something wrong with them and refuse to accept them in trade."
Mora tended to be much larger and shinier than other gold coins used by the Free Cities, and with its unknown depictions and most smiths' inability to melt it, people considered it a form of fool's gold.
"May I ask where you found the chest?" Ei asked, after all, the more Mora, the better.
"I found it on the shores of the Storm Kingdom eight years ago. The storm that hit us that day wrecked my ship, and I barely made it to the shore. It just stood there, sticking out of the sand." The merchant was truthful, seeing no need to hide where he found the chest.
He had searched after all, hoping to find more to overturn his bad fortune, but was unsuccessful.
Ei blinked. So not only was she somehow sent to this world, but a chest full of mora had been as well.
She wondered what else from Teyvat—if anything—could be here.
"I will give you a chestful of silver stags for them." Ei offered, and the merchant's eyes shone.
"Let us say two chests," he bargained, his greed getting the better of him.
"Very well." She could have bargained back, but the Mora was worth a lot more to her.
The merchant's smile wavered for a second, not expecting the man before him to agree to it so easily.
Damn it, he should have asked for more.
"Ah yes, the chest is at my home. Let me gather my wares, and we can go." The merchant began to put his wares in a sack, and soon enough they were headed to his home.
Stopping by the merchant's house, Ei claimed she had to go to her ship to bring the silver.
Sneaking into an alley, Ei took the chests out of the Painted Realm and made her way back.
The merchant happily inspected the silver, while Ei did the same to the chest full of Mora.
Excellent, though Ei wondered just what else that storm had brought to this world.
—
By noon Ei was back in Storm's End, pushing the Thunder Dragon to the limit. Sneaking back into her room, she began to carve the shaft of Engulfing Lightning.
Ei had worked nonstop for the next two days, and the fruit of her labor was a masterpiece, as was the first Engulfing Lightning she wielded.
Lighter in color than the original, the shaft was perfectly balanced, as well as durable enough to handle the might of a god.
Now, only the blade was left, and she had to head out again, this time heading well away from Storm's End.
After all, the energies released from forging a divine weapon would be quite destructive.
—
Each strike of the hammer rang out akin to a lightning strike, each blow to shape the metal releasing shockwaves that would smash stone to dust.
Ei raised the blade to the air, divine lightning striking the metal, heating it way beyond any mortal forge would be capable of, as well as infusing power into the steel, slowly giving it a purple color.
Where mortals would see destruction Ei only saw creation and artistry.
She kept hammering.
—
Day turned into night, and night turned into day again, and Ei raised the blade while the storm clouds dispersed.
It was almost done.
Perhaps fusing the blade with the Electro Weirwood tree was the easiest part of the whole process; all she needed was power, after all.
"Finally," Ei whispered, raising Engulfing Lightning to the air.
Twirling it in her hands, she fell into the familiar motions of her katas. With each swing cutting through the air, each thrust sending out air blasts, the weapon was perfect in her hands.
It felt as if a part of her had returned.
Ei continued to train, all else forgotten.
—
Storm's End
11 BAC
Winter had come to the Storm Kingdom, and Ei found it weird.
Not the winter itself, but the disparity of the seasons.
She had not realized it before, occupied with other matters as she was, but the seasons of this world did not make any sense.
Winters and summers lasted years, with short autumns and springs between.
Ei had learned enough astronomy to know that the seasons depended on how the planet orbited around the star, and for the world to have such irregular seasons, this planet's orbit around the sun would have to be extremely unstable.
But it was not.
As the chill washed over her, Ei realized something.
This winter was not an ordinary part of the seasonal cycle of this world, not entirely at least.
It contained magic.
Someone or something was responsible for this.
Ei pushed back against the unnatural cold, feeling her powers meet a wall of ice, death, and cold.
It could not stop her, though, and as she increased the pressure she was exerting, the unnatural cold broke, retreating with a howl.
—
He sent a letter to the Citadel, requesting several books on astronomy, the Others, and White Walkers, as well as historical records concerning the seasons.
Which had been rejected with a very polite letter.
"To Argella Durrandon, Crown Princess of the Storm Kingdom,
Regarding your request to borrow several books, we are unfortunately unable to accommodate your request. The subjects you mentioned include some of the rarest books in our library and are only open to our highest-ranking members; as such, we cannot part with them.
However, we are glad to hear of your interest in scholarly matters and will be happy to provide you with less unique books from our library.
Also, if you wish to find books on the Others and White Walkers, you may find them in any place selling children's books.
Archmaester Gavel of the Conclave
If that is how they wished to act, then so be it, Ei thought, a burst of Electro burning the paper.
—
Stabilization of the Seasons of the Storm Kingdom
An excerpt from "Magic and Its Effects on the World"
According to Her Excellency, the unnaturally long winters and summers Westeros faced were caused by magic, with winters originating from further up in the North, with the Land of Always Winter assumed to be its source, while the magic responsible for the summers originated from Essos. While most believe Rholl'r is responsible for the length of the summers, there is a not-so-insignificant amount of people who believe the magic of the Dragons and Old Valyria was responsible for it.
Many, especially in the North, considered this as proof that the Others and the Night King were real, while the Faith of the Seven declared Her Excellency "a fearmonger," accusing her of spreading fear amongst people to keep her grip on power.
Naturally, this accusation did not find many believers, especially as the Storm Kingdom only suffered snow and winter three months a year, while the rest of the continent faced winters lasting years at a time.
Coupled with Her Excellency's reforms in the fields of agriculture, our kingdom never had to suffer the harsh conditions the long winters brought for close to three centuries.