281 AC
The Narrow Sea
The first thing I noticed was the soft, rhythmic creaking of wood and the distant, hollow knock of waves tapping against the hull. My eyes fluttered open to the dim glow of lantern light swaying gently with the ship's motion. The air was thick with the scent of salt, tar, and aged timber—a comforting blend of sea and ship. I lay still for a moment, cocooned in a coarse woolen blanket. Listening to the groan of the wooden beams above me and the occasional muffled voice of men outside my room, I wondered where in the seven blazes I was.
Gradually the fog lifted, and I remembered the events of last night. The Door successfully activating, crossing over to Westeros, saving Elia and the kids, killing the Mountain, escaping King's Landing. I shook my head in amusement at how suddenly my day changed from attending classes to escorting a princess back home, before thinking about my friends' worried reactions and hoping they found my hastily carved message.
I sat up slowly, the low ceiling forcing me to hunch. After we came onboard, the captain of the ship was gracious enough to offer his personal cabin to the princess for the duration of the stay, while I was given a small cabin below deck. The ropes and buckets stacked on the opposite end of the 10×10 sq. feet room suggested it might have been a supply closet hastily modified. Still, I was grateful for having a bed and some privacy and not having to pitch a hammock in the sailors' quarters.
Wearing my shoes and donning my school cloak, I stood up. The floor tilted beneath me and I steadied myself on the curved wall. Reminding myself once again that I was on a ship, I pushed open the heavy door. Stepping into a corridor, I climbed a narrow ladder to the deck, emerging into a world of wind and light.
The sky stretched wide above, streaked with pale morning clouds. The ship rocked gently on a vast, undulating sea - endless blue in every direction, the horizon a thin, trembling line. The sails above billowed softly, full of the wind's breath, and the rigging creaked as the ship pressed steadily forward. Crewmen moved about with practiced ease, tending ropes and calling out to one another, but none disturbed the peace that wrapped around everything like a living thing.
I moved to the rail and leaned out over the side, watching the deep green water churn and foam in our wake. There was something timeless in the scene, as if the world beyond this ship had fallen away, and only the sea and sky remained. The air tasted clean and sharp, filled with salt and freedom. My heart beat slower. Steadier.
This was the kind of morning the soul remembers.
After a few minutes of joyful contemplation, I cast a notice-me-not charm around me. Taking out a bottle of mouthwash from my storage ring, I lamented my hasty departure last night. My storage ring basically acted as a stasis chamber, which means I could easily store enough warm homemade food to last me a very long time. And yet here I was, with just a few snacks, five bottles of orange juice and a couple of butterbeers. As I gargled, I made a mental vow to keep my inventory stocked from now on.
Washing down a donut with a mouthful of juice, I decided to go and check on my fellow passengers.
Knock! Knock!
I stood outside the biggest cabin on the ship. After waiting patiently for a few moments, the door opened to reveal the dornish princess.
"Ser Benjamin," she smiled when she saw me.
"Good morning, my lady. I wanted to see if you were doing alright," I explained.
"I'm doing fine, thank you," said Elia.
"Have you had anything to eat yet?" I asked.
"Yes, the captain was kind enough to bring over some food earlier," she said.
"Good. How are the children?" I enquired.
"Asleep. Last night's excitement proved to be a little too much for them. Oh, where are my manners!" she suddenly exclaimed, noticing me standing there awkwardly. "Please, come in."
"Thank you," I said, walking into the room.
"Did you sleep well last night?" she asked, closing the door behind her.
"Well enough. At first, I didn't think I would sleep at all. As it turns out, the creaking of the ship's not so different from the groaning of floorboards back home." I told her.
"Indeed. The sea rocks you gentler than most beds ashore - if she's in the mood for kindness," said Elia.
"And if she's not?" I asked. She smiled.
"Then you cling to the mast and pray she tires of tossing you about," she said.
"That sounds like the voice of experience," I probed.
"Unfortunately. I experienced the sea's harsh nature for the first and thankfully, only time when I was on a trip to the Stormlands with my mother." She shuddered at the memory. "I didn't feel properly dry afterwards for weeks."
I lightly chuckled at her words, before noticing her haggard appearance.
"You look tired, my lady. You should get some rest," I advised. "You are safe now."
"I'll rest when I'm home, ser... with my family," she said in a surprisingly strong voice. "Until then, I have to stay strong."
"As you wish," I sighed, conceding to her stubbornness. "And you don't have to keep calling me Ser Benjamin. Call me Ben, all my friends do."
"Very well, Ben. But only if you call me Elia... all my friends do," she smirked.
"Elia, it is," I graciously accepted.
I turned around to take a proper look at the place. The captain's cabin lay nestled in the stern of the ship, just beneath the quarterdeck. Rays of golden light filtered through the small, paned windows at the rear. Like the rest of the ship the room smelled of salt, old wood and wax - the scent of the sea woven into every grain of the floorboards.
At the center of the room stood a heavy oak desk with two chairs, its surface dotted with ink stains and compass points. A sandglass used to mark the passage of time, rested beside a stack of charts. Leather bound logbooks, their pages yellowed, were neatly stacked in one corner, alongside an astrolobe that gleamed like gold in the morning light. A plate containing some hardtack biscuits and cheese and a jug of water were lying on the table - the breakfast provided for the now ex-royal family members.
A narrow bed stood on one side of the room, its frame low and sturdy. On it lay the sleeping forms of the young Targaryen children, tucked inside coarse woolen blankets. Rhaenys had a peaceful look on her face as she slept hugging her black cat.
"This is your first time aboard a ship, isn't it?" I stopped admiring the cabin and turned around to find Elia smiling at me.
"What gave it away?" I asked.
"The look on your face," said Elia. "My brother Oberyn had that same look the day he boarded a ship across the Narrow Sea for the first time."
"Well, you guessed right," I admitted with a shrug. "I have never travelled on a ship before...even more so, a wooden ship."
"What do you mean?" she frowned in confusion. "What other kind of ship would there be?"
Realising this chat might go on for a while, I telekinetically pulled the chairs near the table and laid them out near us, facing each other. Elia gasped for a moment at the casual display of magic, before she forced down her surprise. I sat down on one of the chairs and gestured her to do the same with the other.
"Where I come from, we don't use wood to make ships anymore," I began. "Our ships are now made out of metal, mostly steel."
"Oh, very funny, Ben." Elia laughed out loud. "Ships made of steel! Hah, that sounds like one of my grandmother's wild stories after she had too much to drink."
"I know it must sound unbelievable to someone at the current stage of your civilization," I said, understanding the reason for her disbelief. "It's true, though. We used to make ships out of wood, just like this one. Then about 200 years ago, we discovered how to mass produce steel, and it was decided that in the long run it was much better to create ships out of steel that last decades longer than those made out of wood."
Elia kept looking at me closely, as if trying to determine if I was trying to dupe her or not.
"Very well. Let's say I believe you. Tell me, how does a ship made entirely of steel stay afloat? Metal sinks in water, you know. Or is that not the case in your world?" she said with a challenging grin.
"That is certainly true for my world as well," I said with a nod. "Almost all metals sink in water due to their higher density. However, a ship is not made out of a solid block of steel. Only the hull is made of metal, while the large hollow spaces inside of it," - a glowing illusion of a ship appeared above my palm, highlighting the vacant spaces within - "are filled with air, making the average density of the ship less than the density of water."
"When such a ship is placed in water, it displaces a volume of water equal to the weight of the ship." The illusion showed the ship being lowered into a body of water and several arrow marks pushing at the bottom of the ship from the water. "The upward force exerted by the displaced water then equals the weight of the ship allowing it to float."
After I finished explaining, I waited for any questions from her.
"Huh," she finally uttered, still staring at the illusion I was holding up.
"You didn't get much of that, did you?" I said with a slight wince.
"I got some of it," she said.
"Some is good," I said.
"Really?" Elia said doubtfully.
"Oh yes. We are talking about scientific principles and engineering breakthroughs that took hundreds of years to develop to the point of practical application. I would have been very surprised if you had actually understood more of it." Elia smiled at my words.
"So, I take it your world is much more advanced than Westeros?" she asked.
"It's not that. It would be more appropriate to say that we live in different time periods," I elaborated. "In my world, the year is now 1993 AD. We had the same political, social, economical and scientific conditions as yours currently around 1600 AD. Since then we have evolved for almost 400 years, which has led to many discoveries, achievements and developments."
"400 years! I can't even imagine what this world will look like in that amount of time," Elia said with a far-off look in her eyes, as if trying to envision such a future. "Tell me more about your world, Ben."
"My world, let's see..." I gathered my thoughts. "My world is divided into seven continents, six of which are habitable. Each of these continents has several countries, or kingdoms as you might call them. The total population of my world is approximately 5.5 billion..."
"What is a Billion?" interjected Elia.
"You don't know what a Billion is?" I asked, surprised. She shook her head. "But you do know what a million is?"
"Of course," she replied.
"Well, a Billion is a numerical figure that denotes 1000 million," I said. Elia narrowed her eyes.
"So when you say 5.5 billion, you mean...?" she asked.
"5500 million," I said.
"That cannot be!" She objected strongly. "There must be some mistake! The Maesters say that there are about 40 million people living in all of Westeros... and that's such a large number. How can there be 5500 million people living in your world?" She shook her head. "No, you must be lying."
"Elia, I know this must sound unbelievable for someone living in your world and time," I gently began. "But it might help you understand if you can imagine this:
Imagine a world where food production has been improved to the point that even poor farmers have enough to eat all year round. At the same time, centuries of experimentation have allowed us to discover strains of crops and vegetables that provide maximum amount of nutrition. This led to the availability of large amounts of highly nutritious food cheap enough for everyone to purchase.
That led to the steep decline in infant mortality. Childbirth is no longer considered dangerous. Because the mother consumes high amounts of nutritious food during the pregnancy, both the mother and the child usually survive with no complications. In fact, in my world women can easily give birth four or five times without any problems, with all the children safely reaching adulthood.
Another reason for such a large population is medicine. We have made enormous strides in the field of medicine, especially in the last century. Cures for several deadly diseases have been discovered, as well as vaccinations to prevent even more. Because of cheap healthy food, people rarely fall sick. And even if they do, they buy the easily available medicine that can cure them.
This has led to the increase in people's lifespans by decades, with people rarely dying before the age of 75 or even 80. This way, generation after generation, with more mothers and children surviving and people living longer lives, the population kept increasing exponentially until it reached the current number. In fact, with more lifestyle improvements happening everyday, it is projected that by 2020 the population of my world would cross the 8 billion mark."
The dornish princess was silent for several moments after I finished talking, digesting everything I just said. She looked at me with a complicated gaze, several emotions mixed in - curiousity, jealousy, longing, happiness.
"Your world sounds like a wonderful place, Ben," she said at last. "You are lucky to be born in such a great time."
"Thank you. The 90s truly are the best," I smiled. "It's not perfect... nothing ever is. We've got our own problems, of course. Still, it's a lot better than Westeros."
"So it seems," she said. "I'd love to see it someday."
"Then, when the day comes, I'll give you a personal tour of the place," I said.
"Thank you," she smiled.
"What about me?"
We whirled around to find Rhaenys sitting upright on the bed and looking at us.
"Rhaenys dear, when did you wake up?" said Elia, standing up and walking over to her daughter's side.
"Just now," she answered her mother, before turning back to me. "Will you take me to see your world too?" she implored with big round eyes.
"Of course!" I smiled at her. "Once you grow up a little, I'd be delighted to take you to see my world. We'll start with Disneyland, you'll love it!"
She smiled happily at my words, before her eyes drifted down to her cat.
"And Balerion?" she asked.
"And Balerion." I confirmed. "And Aegon, and your mother and anyone else you can think of," I smiled.
"Great. Then papa can come with us too." she smiled happily. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Elia wince at the mention of Rhaegar.
"Rhaenys darling, why don't you get something to eat, hmm?" she suggested, pointing towards the plate of biscuits on the table.
"Yes, mama." Rhaenys smiled at her mother. She got down from the bed and put on her shoes, before moving towards the table.
"You haven't told her about her father yet?" I whispered to Elia.
"Not yet," she said sorrowfully.
"You should tell her before we reach Dorne." I advised. "The change in scenery will help distract her from the pain of loss."
"I know," she said, looking sadly at her daughter who was trying to feed her cat. "I will."
///////////////////////////////////////
The Jolly Man was a fine sea-faring vessel. It belonged to a Braavosi merchant and was right now on its way to Sunspear to (officially) pick up a shipment of Dornish Red. It was made of ironwood and cedar and had three decks. It was relatively small, not meant to accommodate more than fifty individuals.
The distance between King's Landing and Sunspear was about 800 miles. Unfortunately the shortest possible route was comprised neither entirely of land nor entirely of water. Add to that our need to avoid impediments as well as taking abrupt changes in wind and weather into account, the original distance of 800 miles was nearly doubled in this voyage.
The Jolly Man had a maximum sustainable speed of 16 knots. I spoke to the captain of the ship - a nice Braavosi fellow with a strong accent - and he informed me that to avoid exhausting the crew or overstressing the ship, he usually maintained an average speed of 13.5 knots. That meant it went approximately 15.53 miles per hour.
The crew had to alter course a few times to avoid obstacles, such as Driftmark, Tarth and Greenstone. When we passed Shipbreaker Bay, we spotted an armada to the west. That was the Redwyne fleet, maintaining the blockade of Storm's End. Luckily, our ship was sailing faraway and none of the Reachmen bothered us.
As a guest, there was not much for me to do on the ship. The first couple of days, I roamed the vessel while trying not to get in the crew's way. But it was a small ship and soon I was out of things to see. I'm sure the crew had some interesting stories, but no sailor is going to trust you until you share a drink with them and I was still underage.
One way or another, I ended up spending most of my time in the company of Elia and Rhaenys. We talked about our worlds...well, mostly about my world. I told her how we were no longer ruled by kings or queens but rather by the law; how we used electricity to light up our cities; how we went to the moon! Elia had a really hard time believing that last one while dear Rhaenys just listened with stars in her eyes. Elia was especially fascinated by the concept of Human Rights and Gender Equality. We talked about our upbringings and our families. And of course the thing we talked about most often was -
"Tell us about Hogwarts!" Rhaenys begged for the umpteenth time. "Please!"
I sighed good-humouredly while Elia smiled in amusement. Ever since I told them where I learnt magic from, Rhaenys would use every opportunity to learn more about the place.
"Alright. Let's see, Hogwarts... Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry is the best school of magic in my world." I created an illusion of the school and its surroundings. "Built over a thousand years ago with the intent to train young witches and wizards, this magnificent castle lies surrounded by high mountains, a magical forest and a deep lake; all of them home to various magical creatures like hippogriffs, thestrals, unicorns, merpeople and the giant squid."
I combined the mention of each term with an illusion of the respective creature. Not only were Elia and Rhaenys entranced, even little Aegon was making happy gurgling noises and reaching out with his tiny arms to touch the floating images.
"On the day children born with the gift of magic reach 11 years of age, Hogwarts sends them a letter inviting them to come learn magic at the school. They board a train," - a facsimile of the Hogwarts Express materialised, happily running on the tracks. Its compartment windows displayed young boys and girls talking and laughing - "that carries them from home and brings them to Hogwarts."
"Wow!" Rhaenys said softly, not taking her eyes away from the image of the students walking into the Great Hall, complete with its enchanted ceiling. "Did you get a letter, too?" she asked me.
"Of course," I said. "In fact, I've got it right here." So saying I withdrew my Hogwarts acceptance letter from my storage ring and handed it to Rhaenys.
She took the envelope carefully with both hands. Looking at the purple wax seal bearing the Hogwarts coat of arms for a moment, she took out the letter and read it along with her mother. After both of them had read the two page letter thoroughly, they gave it back to me.
"I wish I could go to a magic school someday," Rhaenys pouted, looking down. Elia wrapped her arms around her daughter to comfort her. She looked at me and mouthed, "say something."
"You know what, Rae." I drew her attention. "Your wish brought me here to you, across worlds. I don't know many people who can do that. So who knows, if you wish for it really well, maybe one day you'll get a letter from a magic school with your name on it."
Rhaenys perked up at that. "Really?" she asked and I nodded. "Promise?" she persisted.
I looked at Elia and she looked back at me imploringly. I sighed.
"Promise," I told Rhaenys. The smile she gave me lit up the room.
/////////////////////////////////////
Our journey continued unabated, the Narrow Sea gracing us with strong winds and clear skies. In the end, we only needed slightly more than nine days to reach Sunspear. The day before we reached our destination however, I entered the now familiar cabin to find Rhaenys alone in a corner. She was sitting with her head down, hugging her knees and sniffing softly.
"You told her?" I asked Elia softly as she shut the door. She nodded, looking at her daughter sadly.
I walked over to Rhaenys and sat down beside her. She noticed me approach and started rubbing her red eyes to hide her tears.
"You okay there?" I asked her.
She grunted in assent. I looked at her.
"You don't look okay," I said, looking away. "You look sad. I feel sad looking at you." I took out a Honeydukes chocolate bar from my storage ring.
Snap!
Rhaenys turned her head sharply at the sound to find me eating a piece of chocolate with a blissful look.
"Hmm?" I noticed her gaze on the chocolate bar. "Oh, this? This is chocolate. It makes you happy." I offered it to her. "Go on."
She hesitantly took the confectionery. Looking at me once more, she raised the chocolate bar up to her lips and took a small bite.
I could literally see stars appearing in her eyes the moment the chocolate melted in her mouth. She made a small happy sound in delight, before attacking the rest of the chocolate.
"Feeling better?" I enquired.
"Mmm, mmm," she nodded, her mouth full of chocolate.
"Come here," I wrapped an arm around her shoulders and held her. "You know, when she was little, my sister would sometimes get all mopey like you," I joked. "I would sing her a song then, and she would be happy again. Would you like me to sing you a song?" I asked.
Rhaenys eagerly nodded. I looked over at Elia. She was smiling at how quickly I had cheered her daughter up. Drawing a chair, she scooped Rhaenys into her lap and sat down, waiting.
I took out my instrument - an intern INT-38C acoustic guitar from my storage ring. Easing down on the other chair, I briefly debated which song I should try. The golden rays of the evening sun helped me decide.
[When the Night Feels My Song by Bedouin Soundclash]
🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶
I'mon a rocky hill
Heading down off the mountain slope
And as my steps echo, echo louder than before
Another day is done
Say goodbye to the setting sun
See what I found
Turn back to the ground
Just like before
And Hey hey hey hey hey hey
Hey beautiful day, hey beautiful day
Hey hey hey hey
Hey beautiful day, hey beautiful day
When the night feels my song
I'll be home, I'll be home
Into the undergrowth
Twist and turn on a lonely road
In the twilight
The day turns to night
And I'm alone
And when the light has left
I'm not sure of my every step
Follow the wind that pushes me west
Back to my bed
Elia closed her eyes and tilted her head, enjoying the song. She was caught off-guard by how warm and sincere Ben's voice sounded in that moment. As the song continued - low, earnest and full of a kind of worn hope, she had a feeling like she was finally walking home after a long day and that the night understood her. A subtle smile formed on her face. The song felt special - simple yet deeply comforting.
And Hey hey hey hey hey hey
Hey beautiful day, hey beautiful day
Hey hey hey hey
Hey beautiful day, hey beautiful day
When the night feels my song
I'll be home, I'll be home
When the night feels my song
I'll be home, I'll be home
When the night feels my song
I'll be home, I'll be home