Manifestation of Catholicism in colonial Brazil Essay

Manifestation of Catholicism in colonial Brazil - Essay Example Notably, even after the independence of the country, the 1824 constitution made catholic the official religion in the country. The imperial government then even paid salaries to catholic priests and influenced the appointments of the bishops in the country then, thus making the religion rather strong in the country than in any part of the world. The Brazilian hierarchy consists of four cardinals, thirty archbishops and 128 bishops. The region, divided into seventy-seven ecclesiastical provinces, has an additional one archdiocese, commonly known as Brasilia. Excepting for only a few exceptions of provinces such as the state of Sao Paulo, which has five provinces, minas Gerais with three provinces, and Rio de Janeiro with two, most of these provinces corresponds to the state boundaries. The vicars general were the, the reactors of the Jesuit College, as well as the priors of the Benedictine, Franciscan and Calamite converts were the highest local ecclesiastical officials. The tribunal of the Lisbon, having gained supremacy over Brazil in the year 1551, undertook the role of overlooking into the religious and moral practices of the Brazilian people. Headed by the inquisitor general who was the president of the general council, oversaw the activities of other tribunals ion his jurisdiction. However, in case of matters relating to the policies and procedures, the general and the general council reined supremacy, unless the pope decided to rule differently. Temporary tribunals visited Brazil, and with the help of the police, undertook their mandate of inquisition (Wadsworth 19). The Portuguese inquisition, having officially begun in the year 1536, Brazil inhabited then the only the extreme margins of the empire of Portuguese, thus eliciting little concern from the inquisitors in Lisbon. The backdrops of colonial history, which painted the pictures of inquisition in Spain in 1478, saw the expulsion of

What is a good tax Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

What is a good tax - Essay Example The people in the state do not see the need as to why the government should reduce its expenditure but expenditure should be sufficient to meet the needs of the people. Most of the former politicians in Illinois State have faced significant challenges in their effort to come up with a good tax. One of the former Governors of the state by the name Scott Walker worked hard to cut the rights of the public employees to participate in collective bargaining. Deputy Director of the local council of the American Federation State said that the governor had an obsession of destroying the unions belonging to the public employees. The same director said that Mr. Rauner was trying to stir up the bitterness of the public employees who include teachers, firefighters, and police officers. The unions in Illinois State are always against a leader who tries to change the tax system of the state. Mr. Rauner may have a good idea of increasing the tax income of the state and improve economy of the state in the end. Most unions do not understand that when the economy is stable, having low unemployment rates will increase the tax income and government expenditure too. There is need for the citizens in the state to give the politicians independence to come up with a good tax system that will benefit both the employed and unemployed. A good tax is one that will enable the unemployed to venture into small-scale businesses and earn a living out of it. Davy portrays a good tax as one that is sufficient enough to avoid cutting of the benefits of the retirees because they have saved enough to rely on and survive on during their retirement period. However, Mr. Rauner said that the only problem he had was with the union leaders in the public sector who donated to political leaders. He claims that the government union has power to influence politicians in contracts negotiations about pensions, scales of payments,

The Chevrolet Case Study In India Marketing Essay

The Chevrolet Case Study In India Marketing Essay Introduction: Marketing is an integrated interactive methodology of planning, processing and practising the entire chain of advertising, awareness, pricing, promotion, distribution and selling of any product or services serving the individual and organizational objectives of client satisfaction and profit maximization. Web or online marketing is the phenomenon of establishing and perpetuating consumer relationships through internet branding, awareness building and selling in order to encourage and expedite exchange of merchandisable views, commodities and services for mutual advantage. [Source: Imber, Jane and Betsy-Ann Toffler. 2000. Dictionary of Marketing Terms. 3rd ed. Barrons Business Dictionaries] To implement a successful marketing case study it is necessary to winnow all information to strategize and integrate the various marketing management steps taken to derive the solution as enlisted below: a background and introduction to acquaint with the marketing prospects circumstantial scrutiny about the product marketed or service rendered elaborative analysis of the marketing action plans adapted absolute affirmations to substantiate the case study and information [Clemes, Michael D. (2002) p.35] The marketing case study illustrated here is the first hand experience of the writer while working in middle management team of Chevrolet group of General Motors in India successfully strategizing the brand even through web marketing in midst of the companys uncertainties and global recession. Background and the Chevrolet Case Study in India: The global economic recession and probable bankruptcy of General Motors urged the US Government to formulate the Bail out Policy by the White House under the able and diplomatic administration of the United States President Mr. Barack Obama thus reinstating the companys progress and popularity and saving it from the present recession which has affected its other competitors hugely. This case study accounts the direct experience while actively working in India amongst the aggressive marketing team of GMs Chevrolet pioneering marketing and web marketing strategies to attain market leadership through ingenious brand awareness intelligently programmed in line with the vision and values thus steering them successfully in face of global economic melt down. General Motors considered as the colossus of American capitalism has become synonymous with the American lifestyle showering warmth of living in opulence. Moreover, the recent plans and strategies of General Motors to revive the company concentrates focus on their four brands, namely, Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and GMC. GM vis-Ã  -vis Chevrolet champions itself as a prestige brand targeting the affluent and aspiring community to position them amongst the renowned stature. Chevrolet additionally advocates brand image for the common corporate class familiarizing them with the brand which is well-acclaimed by the rich and the famous. Hence Chevrolet curves a class of its own synonymous with the prestige and the power of position. With the current fast forward lifestyles and the growing trend to attain social visibility especially in the emerging markets like India consumers generally cannot escape the incessant attraction of gaining conspicuous prominence in the community by possessin g prestige and luxury commodities like classy cars. Conspicuous Consumption depicts the consumers intention to exhibit prominence in affording luxury goods to attain social visibility (Piron, 2000, p.309). Displaying abundance, people who enjoys Conspicuous Consumption aims to achieve greater social distinction amongst the common (Wang and Chen, 2004). Conspicuous consumption in India is no longer confined to rich class merely, with easy communication finance accessibility at any point of time this affluence is desired amongst all income groups even the economically backward working class. In India the advertising, campaigning techniques adopted by General Motors are product-based group-targeted aiming at dynamic-branding strategies aiming at the flourishing corporate class branding especially through online audio visual marketing. The free test drive campaigns and extravagant road shows especially organized in India by Chevrolet at principle prospective points with propaganda of least maintenance cost for three years have instantaneously increased sales and immensely strengthened their market share. Niche luxury car section of Chevrolet also aims at targeting high and medium income groups in India through practising a more specialized privately customized publicity strategy through email or internet Invitation Only Marketing. Overall Chevrolets strategy in appealing the Common Working Man or locally termed as Aam Admi from diversified classes of income groups in India has proven to be so effective that Chevrolet has seen a sales boom in India even in the face of globa l recession, at the same time Chevrolet Spark and the Aveo U-VA have bagged the prestigious J.D. Power Asia-Pacific awards in addition to many other accolades in its bouquet. Chevrolet in India amidst the economic meltdown has proven to be the market leader through formulating innovative, decisive brand awareness aiming to glorify and transform lives of their loyal enthusiastic followers and prospects. In India, Chevrolet through its enterprising marketing, branding masterminding has conquered billions of loyal and prospective consumers paving enlightened path for flourishing historically important path-breaking strategies. Analysis of Internal and External Issues: The consumers behaviour can be broadly studied under cognitive, affective and normative determinants depending on the approach, preference, prejudice, perception and conspicuous consumption of the existent community. The purchasing graph in automobile industry is always an exception. Though the car prices are in decreasing mode in accordance to Indias vision for her citizens to own at least one car per person, yet the possession of car in emerging countries like India is still a luxury capital purchase. All the above affecting consumer behaviours vary with time due to financial condition, age, gender, educational background and lifestyle which induce two reactions, namely, the rational attitude and the experienced outlook. While purchasing luxury goods like cars in India, consumer acquires in-depth knowledge of the market and the company offerings rationally analysing and evaluating all information. According to Kotler, Armstrong, Saunders and Wong (1999), in addition to the cultural phenomenon, there are social, personal and psychological aspects which govern the purchasing power of the people. Across India, the globalization has ushered in an open door market and economic boom leading to easily accessible information, technological advancements, communication systems, international social networks these global trends enormously influence both the markets and the consumers (Borg, 1996). Following the Maslows Hierarchy of Needs, to analyse and evolve the human psychological factors configuring and constituting their needs and motivations the determinants are categorized into five classifications in a pyramid such as the lowest level shows physiological demand to appease basic hunger and thirst, the second level arouses an individual to look for safety and security, the third level pacifies an individuals desire for social belonging, the fourth level influences the person to q uench his esteem to attain social status and finally the fifth level inspires to achieve self-actualization accomplishing ones ultimate potential and independence. In developing countries like India significant determinants exist for the increasing demands of high involvement products like automobiles. India being the second most populated country has emerged as one of the most preferred nations by foreign multinational investors in automobile sector like Chevrolet of General Motors- mostly attracted due to the huge demand naturally created by Indias growing population through the extensive expanse of qualitative talent and competitive labour pool available. Principal credit of publicizing and popularizing of Chevrolets vast Indian expansion is contributed by the creatively sophisticated advertising market especially the web advertising and marketing strategies which has not only inspired its very own Indian population but also attracted the audience worldwide. The secret formula be hind Chevrolets marketing success in India dwells upon communication and the extent to which a consumer recognizes and recalls a brand. In this context it is appropriate to quote Aaker (1991, p 63), A name is like a special file folder in the mind which can be filled with name-related facts and feelings. Without such a file readily accessible in memory, the facts and feelings become misfiled, and cannot be readily accessed when needed. Accordingly it depends on the Levels of Awareness as illustrated below: (Source: Aaker; 1991, p 62) Unaware of Brand->Brand Recognition->Brand Recall->Top of Mind A direct extraction from the Summer Internship Report on Role of Advertising in Brand Communication through Television Media submitted by Sumantra Ray (A0102207185) of Amity University Uttar Pradesh the following useful information can be considered: The above graph shows the number of people who have given the corresponding ranks to the mediums according to the time devoted. The total is calculated by adding up the product of the number of people and corresponding ranks. [Example for television: it is (1X35) + (2X30) + (3X26) + (4X9) =209] The medium getting the lowest score is one getting the highest average rank. Hence the ranks are: 1- Television, 2 internet, 3 radio, 4- print. Next probing deep into the impact of the electronic media rising amongst which is the internet advertising and its influence on auto-sales in India, the following extracted international statistics can be cited and then Indian variables be derived with present research data as explained below: [The above tabular graphical data directly extracted from the source Ong, Jessica (April 21st, 2009) Archive for Advertising Effectiveness, Big Domain or Big Homepage? Homepage Visitors at the Top Publisher Sites [online] (Cited 4 February 2010) Available from: http://blog.compete.com/topics/advertising-effectiveness/page/2/] [The above pie-chart graphical data directly extracted from the source Coad, Chris(March 3rd, 2009 ) Hyundai (pronounced like Sunday) Accelerates into 2009, [online] (Cited 4 February 2010) Available from: http://blog.compete.com/2009/03/03/hyundai-assurance-sales-increase/ ] In India as per the scrutiny conducted the internet is generally browsed by the younger generation and the corporate class, and it is also seen that while purchasing a brand new first hand car people most often do visit websites and collect feedbacks or news updates from the internet in addition to the conventional method verbal consultation with friends and relatives. But in the current scenario with the rewarding publicity awareness created in India by the social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, etc even amongst the oldest generations, political leaders, celebrities, public figures that the common mass in India are transforming more or less as net savvy and net dependent while finalizing on the high involvement purchase and the older generations, conservative classes or house-wives as well are now consulting the internet rather than discuss out with friends and relatives. Thus for the internet users advertisements do play a central conclusive role in aiding them to take the ir decisions. The creative agencies in India are not only involved in advertising in the conventional methods they are always inventive in venturing into innovative vistas like arranging for symposium, conferences or just meeting points to interact the advertisers with the prospective consumers and spread the global views for a promising prospective and prosperous future. Search engine Optimization, Pay per click, Invitation Only Marketing and Exclusivity advertising strategies are all implemented to establish as a successful brand intelligently utilizing the web marketing effectively. The advertisements of automobile sectors in this passing phase of global economic recession are also targeted to reinstate and reinforce the renewed presence of the auto brands and proclaim the word of assurances for their stable support and thus honouring their brand loyalties with perpetual guaranteed services. This is evident in the extracted instance of press release of a credibility reassurance c ampaign related to the General Motorss US Bankruptcy case in which GMs President and Managing Director (India) Mr. Carl Sym is featured as rightfully justified: Piyush Rathi, business director, Quasar Media, the digital agency which has conceptualised the campaign, tells afaqs!, It is an assurance-building campaign, aimed at informing consumers that India and the US are two separate operations of GM. And the Indian arm is debt-free and self- sufficient and consumers will continue to get after-sales services. [Kapil Ohri (June 03, 2009) Digital reassurance by GM India, New Delhi, http://digital.afaqs.com/perl/digital/news/story.html?sid=24156] This induced the big honchos in the auto industry like Chevrolet to invest in the enormously prospective emerging market of India as evidenced in the Chevrolet Aveo U-VAs Bada Dil. Badi Car ad of Bollywood star Saif Ali Khan depicting through online advertisements and electronic campaigns the friendly responsible Indian common man popularized as Aam Admi which at once wins the hearts of millions of Indians. (http://www.prdomain.com/companies/G/GeneralMotors/newsreleases/20066733214.htm) Broadly there are four interdependent perspectives to collectively contribute towards giving the product its brand essence, namely, product, people-organization, product-personality and signature-symbol all the factors together have proven to be a revolutionary hit even in the case of web marketing for the Chevrolet brand in India. Web Marketing Action Plans Behind the Success Story: The Web Marketing Strategy implemented in this case is illustrated below: FRAME MARKET OPPORTUNITY FORMULATE MARKET STRATEGY DESIGN CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE CRAFT CUSTOMER INTERFACE DESIGN MARKETING PROGRAM LEVERAGE CUSTOMER INFORMATION THROUGH TECHNOLOGY EVALUATE The Web Activities of Consumers are enlisted below (Source: Advertising Age, Digital Marketing Fact Book 2007): Activity Internet Users Used e-mail 70.5% Got Latest News 40.2 Made Purchase, Personal 34.2 Paid Bills 30.7 Used Instant Messenger 26.8 Got Financial Info 24.8 Got Sports News/Info 23.8 Played Games 22.4 Made Travel Plans 19.8 Got Medical Info 17.4 Download Music 15.7 Visit TV Website 14.1 Tracked Investments 13.2 Got Real Estate Info 12.3 Looked For Job 12.1 Watched Video 11.4 Listened Radio 10.9 Made Purchase, Business 10.7 Got Info for Car Buy 10 Visit Blogs 6.7 In marketing of high involvement purchase like cars in India, informative web advertisements through public sharing of the sensational package, affordable prices, vehicular features, outstanding mileage, spare-parts accessibility, world-class presence are proven to be the focus of attraction in communication strategies as successfully illustrated by Chevrolet in its powerful persuasion of forceful advertisements as evidenced in Saif Ali Khan playing the brand ambassador. In India, with rising fuel costs and thinking green becoming buzz words amongst people; Chevrolet of General Motors has progressed immensely with innovations exclusive in fuel efficient and environmental-friendly cars of world standard. The Brand Awareness strategies of Chevrolet are a grand success on adopting the following steps as advocated by Aaker (1991): Be different, Memorable: To differentiate amidst the competitive market, Chevrolet manifests outstanding, sensational, attention-pulling successful web campaigns and e-ads to attract the exclusive consumer community. Classy, hyped ramp walks during new series launch with cocktail celebrations in grand presence of dignitaries and celebrities are added crowd-pulling sensations practised universally in India by the automobile giant brand Chevrolet which are all posted in the websites and internet advertisements to attract buyers. Involve a slogan or jingle: To augment the effect of visual practical impact of the brand, the witty attractive slogan in Chevrolet ads has achieved unimaginable popularity since the most successful innovative pioneering one-liner captivates a million hearts as in Bada Dil. Badi Car meaning Big Heart. Big Car. Symbol Exposure: Popularizing of Chevrolets unique attractive golden cross symbol has further magnetized the consumers and pulled the brand from its grass root level to the current acclaimed glory the symbol sometimes be seen as ads at different news, informative and sports websites. Publicity: In this era of fast, speedy communications Chevrolets prime achievement in India dwells in advertising, especially in electronic and internet media, which are timely organized and strategized thus capturing millions and billions of consumers at a time. Event Sponsorship: The free test drive campaigns, extravagant road shows organized by Chevrolet in India at principle prospective points with propaganda of least maintenance cost for three years to attract the targeted mass of consumers have been highly successful in establishing the dominant effect of the brand values and ideology thus creating a recognition augmentation phenomenon which are widely advertised throughout the web. Consider brand extensions: Chevrolet is renowned in India to popularize its brand assets in trademark symbol to identify in a faster, broader horizon worldwide utilizing the internet since human memory recalls small symbolic visuals instantly and familiarize it with daily lifestyle. Using cues: The close to heart marketing package of Chevrolet in India targeting the youth, active working class, fashionable, classy yet loving and caring community is the supreme determinant, the first interaction or synergy point with the consumer. As the saying goes, The first impression is the last impression, hence during launch of the first brand communication through innovative emails and web campaigns, utmost consideration is inculcated for the brand appearance to be attractive and pervading the right message. Recall requires repetition: Chevrolet in India adopted continued marketing strategies to achieve the supreme recall senses in the minds of the consumers through repeated transmission via emails and e-advertisements or reminders through innovative style such as online sponsorships, events, competitions, rewards etc., to create an imagery of the brand in the subconscious mind of target consumers. To accomplish a top of mind recall, Chevrolet has implemented immense endeavour to be recapitulated, reiterated time and again to impact permanently in consumer minds to the extent that the brand loyalty inspires consumer to forgo his own desires in interest of the brand. The recall bonus: Reminders through regular e-promotions, publicities have created a strong fortification for the Chevrolet brand in India to take over its other competitors, to attain the vertex in market share through intelligent masterminding, hosts of hallmarks and repetitive net broadcasts with consequent online market surveys and positive promotions fetching an added bonus and dividend in the long run. Chevrolet in India goes to such great extent to embolden and energize their existing as well as prospective customers by treating them with emails, e-greetings, e-cards, gifts and flowers at very special moments of life such as birthdays, weddings, marriage anniversaries, and all the delightful events that make the occasion ever more memorable. This makes Chevrolet truly global, distinctive and exceptional. Thus the international brand Chevrolet implements dynamic online strategies to inspire brand loyalties amongst their diversified classes of consumers with varied preferences in India. Strategizing brand equity of Chevrolet in India has proven to be an indispensable factor to gauge market dominance, and consumer appreciation and loyalty equating with the charisma and values the brand endorses. According to Aaker (1992, p 17) brand equity can be measured under five dimensions, namely, Brand Loyalty, Brand Cognizance, Brand Quality, Brand Association and Brand Assets. India being an emerging nation, its people aspires and is influenced by the prosperous epitome of capitalism exhibited by the United States of America. General Motors is esteemed to be the titan brand upholding all the values and virtues of American capitalism and experiencing changeover under the visionary leadership of the dynamic and charismatic US President Mr. Barack Obama to revitalize, reincarnate and reinstate it to its hallowed glory. This perceived quality creates a halo effect to strengthen life-time association of the consumer with the brand despite its premium pricing thus spreading the goodwill for the brand through word of mouth advocacy, enhancing the brand equity, hence adding to cash flow appreciation and increased revenue generation of the company in India. Further, since they are exclusive in nature, their marketing and advertising also needs to be unique and limited to a few of the affluent and exclusivity conscious segment. This demands that the marketing and advertising events be planned and executed minutely to maintain an aura of exclusivity which is achieved through Invitation Only Marketing strategies adopted by Chevrolet for its prospective customers. In other words, it can be seen as the highest level of service offered to make the customer feel the differentiation in products as well as service. Hence, it requires a strategic plan for the marketing event to be a success which evolves a concept where consumers are indulged to think of a product as being in scarcity due to the high demand and hence inspires them to desire to own the product. This brand alliance inspires amongst closely networked online consumers to invest in an authenticated quality and name, and also motivates them to share information amongst their close associates which not only elevates the value but also curtails expenditure on additional advertisements and publicity campaigns. Web Marketing Activities and Life Cycle: Firms have realized the importance of the right tools for promoting their events and their products to the niche segment and note that it has to be subtle. Bohdanowicz and Clamp (1994) note that for the upcoming niche industry, the efficiency both the short-term and long-term marketing plans increases with the use of Information Technology and without it marketing becomes product-cantered (pp 151,152). Since any established brands as well as luxury items, relies on customer loyalty which in turn depends on referrals and invitation-only concept, inefficiency in using Information Technology can hamper the efforts of marketing. TRAFFIC BROWSERS PROSPECTIVE CONSUMERS BUYERS LOYAL CONSUMERS KEY IDENTIFIERS IN WEB MARKETING: WEBSITE DESIGN SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING PAY PER CLICK ADVERTISING EMAIL MARKETING MOBILE ACCESS TARGET SLOPE Here, it is to be noted that although the two kinds of customer base in the industry form the major segment, the small percent of networking activists can be considered to promote the products at a faster rate by the use of Information Technology and further, this small but important customer base called Initiators have the potential to trigger sales as they are found to be more active users of Information Technology along with being the patrons for a number of exclusive products (Hardie, n.d.). Also, this segment, as they are called initiators, is true to the name and can be tapped and relied on to initiate the further sales and also attracts a more loyal customer base. Here, it should be noted that a closely networked customer base can be easy to reach and sustain than attracting a non-communicating customer base. However, it is to be noted that there is the risk of losing out on competition should the service disappoint the closely knit group. This would mean losing out on a large mass at one time. Hence, there needs to be a continuous effort to market web branding of products to the niche segment. With the exclusive products marketed to the niche segment, the pricing is also kept high and although this is limited to a small segment, is growing due to the increasing number of brand conscious segment with their increasing incomes and identity needs. This also requires innovative ways of marketing to all prospective segments which necessitates the cause for an exclusivity which in turn is accentuated by the trend of by-invitation-only marketing strategy. It is also observed that there is an online presence for these companies and the exclusive customers for the exclusive products usually are invited or more often seek to be invited to special and exclusive marketing events for these brands. Further, it is noted that social networking has added to the success of this by-invitation-only marketing concept. It is seen that Gmail is the first one to experiment online marketing for some of its VIP customers (Cornes, 2007). Source: Advertising Age, Digital Marketing Fact Book 2007, eMarketer Feb. 07 projections against IAB/PriceWaterhouseCoopers data for which the last fully measured year was 2005. [Directly extracted from: Akehurst, G. E-Marketing Planning and Strategies [online] Viewed 04 February 2010 Available from: ] [Directly extracted from: Akehurst, G. E-Marketing Planning and Strategies [online] Viewed 04 February 2010 Available from: ] In web marketing due to its global presence since price cannot be a constraint in marketing these goods, it can be seen as a way to introduce new products based on the feedback from the customers. This is also a good way to keep in business and evolve. Special online advertisements of events such as fashion weeks, charity shows, are also a trend among the affluent. Further, it is observed that companies use the services of a third-party advertising agent or Public Relations (PR) agent to manage also, a Push-Pull strategy is being adopted for marketing of luxury goods (Hines Bruce, 2007, p 146). However, with the use of Information Technology, the World Wide Web (WWW) and the intranet have enabled a pull process to the distribution of data as opposed to the push process (Yeoman, Robertson, 2004, p 99). Another marketing strategy for luxury goods is sample sales which are also by invitation only. As Sherman observes, the Web is an important tool for such marketing and there are a numb er of online channels that arrange invitation only sales where often the membership is free and customers can request to be invited (2008). Thus through web marketing the prime focal points are the aspects of offering exclusive products, enhanced customer service, mix of marketing strategies both intensive and extensive online presence, use of efficient tools for communication and push-pull strategies, organized monitoring and feedback system amongst others. Pay Per Click Advertising Campaign: Pay per click is an intelligently engineered advertising tool where web-hosts are sponsored by the advertisers every time the web-visitors click on the advertisements thus promoted mostly by the search engine overtures, as in the case of Googles AdWords Select, AOL Search and many more. It is sometimes seemingly advantageous than the SEO campaigns due to its operational simplicity since also the websites need not be customized without any specialized expertise and much faster in use. However the disadvantages are evident in generalization of positioning and hence lowering of existent importance, sometimes rampant competition can make the entire affair highly expensive and further if not effectively identified the visitor worth the entire process can also pose as utter loss. To accentuate this campaign it is imperative to evaluate visitor worth on dividing the profit by the visitor numbers for the specified time period. Further selection of appropriate key phrases, relevant and useful descriptions, and finally regular insight and monitoring is absolutely essential in such cases. The best advantage of PPC is that it can reach enormous amount of targeted visitors in little time. Conclusion and Managerial Recommendations: The web marketing lifecycle thus conclusively commences with creating an online profile of the organization globally advertised through a skilfully and strategically designed website. Then marketing strategies are farmed, formulated and focused in order to build an online campaign with the help of search engine optimization such that the most popular keywords are identified to impart frequent visibility of the website and hence the organization to any online users. Then branding and further marketing is pursued through varied social media networks and pay per click activities further popularizes the vision and mission of the organization through frequent web users who exchange information, ideas, news and views through the net. Email marketing and web-to-mobile connectivity can further commercialize the entire process and impart it as an exclusive affair thus enhancing the return on investment on a steady growth. Further to sustain this productivity one must have a customized report formulation, regular identification of the best sales leads, evaluation testing and tweaking of the most popular pages, positive transformation of prospective customers, sustenance and perpetuation of loyal consumers, online promotions sponsorships campaigns and competitions, regular checking of site-conversion site-performance and market-return, insightful reports with comparative corporate analysis and intelligence for further improvement at every stages of development. Hence such unconventional attractive, larger than life tradition made innovative, avant-garde at the same time classic and eternal by touching hearts of millions of consumers from every walks of life is the true success secret of the global branding and web marketing.

Mission Review :: essas papers

Mission Review Hello Agent 42701, by the looks of it, I see you have grown quite weary of your post. Not to worry, the agency has new plans for you, a change of pace. We have decided in setting a matter of utmost importance to national security your way. Your impeccable record, highly expansive educational background, and comprehensive training in espionage make you the agency’s only choice for this matter. It has come to the attention of the agency that an underground syndicate, also known as Admissions, has brainwashed educational authorities in the state of Florida into allowing the cartel to enter Florida colleges and universities and gather highly sensitive data. Admissions have put themselves in a position to deny high school seniors entry to the graduate school of their choice. Admissions is accomplishing this task through a ploy known as the â€Å"Application Essay† or AP. The agency is most interested in the information that Admissions has gathered through the FSU division. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to infiltrate Admissions and assume the identity of a reviewer. While undercover analyze all documents as any other Admissions reviewer would. Your priority is to gather Intel on one particular student, for security reasons we shall refer to this student as Mister Cheeks. Mr. Cheeks is believed to be of particular interest to Admissions due to his superior writing techniques, vast intelligence, mathematical mastery, and scientific gift. An Admissions henchmen known only to us as "The Big Boss" is holding the AP of Mr. Cheeks. Your task is to entice The Big Boss using any means you deem as necessary to gain her trust, and the trust of Admissions, when access is acquired to Mr. Cheeks’ AP produce a copy. Agent 42701, this is a high-risk operation. An elite agent, Cherry Maraciano, was apprehended two weeks ago while infiltrating Admissions. Cherry was able to access Mr. Cheeks writing portfolio and give us her review of it before being captured, she was unable to secure a copy of Mr. Cheeks’ AP. This is the information Cherry was able to relay before she was seized: Admissions security is minimal; here is what I have learned of Mr. Cheeks. His discipline and attendance records are similar of those of any regular scholar finishing high school. Don’t be fooled he is no regular scholar, Mr.

High School Drop Outs vs. College Graduates

High School Drop Outs vs. College Graduates Think about it, how many people actually get through high school and graduate? How many people actually graduate from college as well? High school dropout rates and college graduate rates are very different. High school dropouts are more likely to be Hispanics, African Americans, and American Indians in Maryland. Also, in Maryland high school dropout rates have come to 23% over the years according to the National Dropout Rates by www. boostup. org. For college graduates, 31. 3% of all students graduate out of a public, 4-year university.On the other hand, 52. 4% of students graduate from a private, non-profit institution according to CBS News. All the students who drop out of high school and graduate college are different by the determination and work ethic, the lifestyles and the potential earnings they might get. The determination and work ethic can make a total difference in getting into college or not graduating high school. High school drop outs don’t have good determination or work ethic. They don’t want to go to school, so they don’t and stay home. They don’t want to do their work, so they don’t do it.They think they don’t have to do any work and get by in life, but in reality that’s not how life works. College graduates either love doing school work or they hate it, and do it anyways. Their work ethics are great, because they want to do great work, so they get amazing grades. They just get it done, so they don’t have to worry about it when they want to go out and have a fun time with their friends. High school drop outs and college graduates are only a product of the way they grew up; the lifestyle they were raised in.The lifestyle of a high school dropout and a college graduate can be totally different, but could also be the same. With a high school dropout, the world they grew up in could be a low income family and they don’t have much money; bar ely enough to get by. With not much money the student who drops out could want to leave school and work. But on the other hand, they could be getting by, and never want to go to school. A college graduate could have two different lifestyle extremes. They could have loads of money and their parents pay for everything they own or they have just enough to get by.The college graduates who are just getting by want a higher education, so they go to college anyways with all the financial help they can get. According to the National Center for Children in Poverty 40% of all American kids are living in a low income family, but I think those children should still go to school and figure out what kind of person they really, truly are. Even though some people go to school and don’t receive good grades should go anyways to figure out who they really are. To figure out what kind of friends they hang out with and why they hang out with them. They also find out who their true friends are.Als o, by the type of friends they have is how they are reflected to the world. High school drop outs tend not to have the type of friends that push them to be better people, but only what they are today. For college graduates, they typically would have friends and other people pushing them and wanting them to go far in life. The motivations of the people they have in their lives are what make college graduates and high school dropouts different. All students who drop out of high school or graduate from college are different by their determination and work ethics, their lifestyles and their potential earnings.There should be more people wanting to graduate from high school and continue to graduate from college. Also students should want to learn and continue learning. Finally, lifestyles may be different and may effect who goes to college, but shouldn’t hold people back from learning, or achieving a higher education. Just because some people may drop out of high school and some p eople may graduate from college shouldn’t matter; everyone deserves to learn every day until the day they die.

A Commentary on William Wordsworth’s Poems

There are many strategies in which a writer can convey his message to his readers. One is allusion, a literary device that lets the readers have a mental image of what the writer is trying to express in his article. The dictionary defines it as an â€Å"indirect reference or citation† to a person, place or something that is presumed to be known already by the reader. Others classify it as an indirect mention of something that the writer may intentionally or unintentionally do so. It is up to the reader to see and grasp the necessary connection.Wordsworth’s breathtaking ranges in poetry encompasses the entire arc of his career from writing pieces of poetry and lingering passionate meditations on demands set forth by the contemporary society for purposes which indulges the art of love, heroism, nature and a whole sense of unpredictable somber and angry poems which stages the flames of war and a whole lot more of uprising circumstances. His so-called nature pieces gave not only a slight impact on readers, but it made people internalize each and every line of his poems such as in Tintern Abbey in the specific lines.â€Å"Do I behold these steep and lofty cliffs, that on a wild secluded scene impress, thoughts of more deep seclusion; and connect, the landscape with the quiet of the sky† (Wordsworth, Owen and Wordsworth). It was believed that the purpose of his works is to send subliminal messages to the British society of his time. He is a man armed with romanticism which is considered moribund in modern literature. His skill of captivating hearts of readers with his ability to revive legends by placing it into lyrics gave him a towering height of success and respect which is up to date appreciated by literature fanatics.Unlike E. S. Yeats who received mostly admiration on his works, William Wordsworth on the other hand had a lot of criticisms regarding his works especially on The Prelude. Some said his works were â€Å"not being poetry at allà ¢â‚¬  and that they were just replica of other authors’ creations. Nevertheless, these were not barriers for Wordsworth to be recognized as one of the most influential British poets in the 18th Century (Colville).Among his greatest works were published after his death in 1850 which gave him a breakthrough in the limelight and a tank of deliberate criticisms at that. Given the fact that his works were often questioned, he remained steadfast upon his works and continued writing epics, tragedies, culture and religion. His enthusiasm on nature which triggered the rationality of the reading public were ironically given ample respect. He was described as a writer dancing shallow waters, and enables one to judge his works either positively or negatively. It was between: love him, or hate him.William Wordsworth in his works in Lyrical Ballads which includes the â€Å"Tables Turned† and Tintern Abbey† also says that it will make everything about him right again, put his life back into perspective especially those about his friend, Samuel Taylor Coleridge as reflected on the lines of the poem, The Tables Turned which reads, â€Å"May teach you more of man, of moral evil and of good, than all the sages can† (Wordsworth, Owen and Wordsworth). Again, he talked about the Coleridge and mentioned the woman he loves and how she is the object of his desires, and also, pain.But then, in addition to feeling let down, Wordsworth also implies that he is not sure about how his friend does things in the poem as reflected by the lines, â€Å"Sweet is the lore which Nature brings; our meddling intellect, mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things:–we murder to dissect†. The essence of the British romantic period is its ability on making readers read and at the same time comprehends what they are reading. This literary device which is used in prose and poetry help in visualizing a mental picture by playing with words alluded.The fragile fact in th e usage of such is the level of expectation evoked by the allusion. The style is like â€Å"counting chickens with eggs†. In general, the utilization of allusions by a novelist shows an anticipation that the bookworm is proverbial with the allusion made, otherwise the effect is nowhere to be found in the tentacles of the purpose. Colville, Derek. The Teaching of Wordsworth. American University Studies. Series Iv, English Language and Literature, Vol. 7. New York: P. Lang, 1984. Wordsworth, William, W. J. B. Owen, and William Wordsworth. The Fourteen-Book Prelude. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1985.

Free Essays on Media Violence

Two hundred thousand.........................................believe it or not, by the age of eighteen, the average American child will have witnessed this many dramatized killings (Television 1). The glamorization the media gives to violence is polluting children’s thoughts and desensitizing them to reality. One reason, among many others, the media has this control, is because parents do not censor enough violence from their children. Most parents respond by claiming that their eight year old son or daughter could never become one of those serial killing, stalkers on the news every night (Gerdes 108). The fact is that some of these kids do end up robbing, stealing, degrading women, and killing. A child’s innocence makes him/her all the more vulnerable to violent television programs and movies and explicit lyrics and novels. Studies have repeatedly shown an increased aggressiveness among children exposed to larger quantities of violence. It cannot be argued then, that d ue to the influence the media has on children, Americans must resolve to oppose violent acts portrayed in the media. Before interpreting the media’s effect, it is crucial to understand what it is, how it works, and where it comes from. According to the American Heritage Dictionary, media can most basically be defined as a way of mass communication. Now it a reasonable question to wonder why television ads are the most expensive and profitable? TV reaches more people than any other media source out there, so if a commercial does not make persuade people to buy the product, the money spent on it would not be worth it. Just the same, crime on television must be sold to the audience or the show would not be productive. A shocking statistic that proves television’s dominance over society is that the average American watches approximately 1,669 hours of TV each year and sixty six percent of American children have TVs in their room! (Katz 1) When the hours are tallied... Free Essays on Media Violence Free Essays on Media Violence Two hundred thousand.........................................believe it or not, by the age of eighteen, the average American child will have witnessed this many dramatized killings (Television 1). The glamorization the media gives to violence is polluting children’s thoughts and desensitizing them to reality. One reason, among many others, the media has this control, is because parents do not censor enough violence from their children. Most parents respond by claiming that their eight year old son or daughter could never become one of those serial killing, stalkers on the news every night (Gerdes 108). The fact is that some of these kids do end up robbing, stealing, degrading women, and killing. A child’s innocence makes him/her all the more vulnerable to violent television programs and movies and explicit lyrics and novels. Studies have repeatedly shown an increased aggressiveness among children exposed to larger quantities of violence. It cannot be argued then, that d ue to the influence the media has on children, Americans must resolve to oppose violent acts portrayed in the media. Before interpreting the media’s effect, it is crucial to understand what it is, how it works, and where it comes from. According to the American Heritage Dictionary, media can most basically be defined as a way of mass communication. Now it a reasonable question to wonder why television ads are the most expensive and profitable? TV reaches more people than any other media source out there, so if a commercial does not make persuade people to buy the product, the money spent on it would not be worth it. Just the same, crime on television must be sold to the audience or the show would not be productive. A shocking statistic that proves television’s dominance over society is that the average American watches approximately 1,669 hours of TV each year and sixty six percent of American children have TVs in their room! (Katz 1) When the hours are tallied... Free Essays on Media Violence America’s Road to Independence: In the year 1783 the Treaty of Paris was signed, granting America their freedom from Great Britain. There were many reasons why the colonists wanted their freedom and separation from their mother country of England. Great Britain laid down many laws and Acts which were the main reasons leading up to the revolutionary war, otherwise known as America’s War for Independence. For eleven years even before the actual revolution started, Great Britain bullied the thirteen original colonies with several harsh acts and proclamations. The Proclamation of 1763 came first. It prohibited settlements west of the Appalachian Mountains and trading in that area without a license. Less than a year later the Sugar Act was passed. It lowered taxes on molasses, but put new taxes on wine, coffee, cloth, and of course sugar. Colonists reacted to this harsh act by smuggling in the goods they needed. This way they did not have to pay the tax and it was much cheap er for them. In 1764 the Currency Act was passed. This prohibited colonies from issuing paper money and required all of the debts to be paid for in gold. In 1765 the Stamp Act was passed which required all written materials to be printed on stamped paper including newspapers, birth, marriage, and death certificates (King, McRae, Zola 95). These items were many of the basic necessities, which made the tax even more realistic. The colonists reacted to this act by forming a Stamp Act Congress. Nine colonies of thirteen showed up and all wanted representation (Dadante, 25 September 2000). These three acts were the start of the build up towards the war. In 1765 the Quartering Act was also passed requiring colonists to house and feed the British soldiers. Colonists did not want them in their homes so they taxed themselves to build barracks for the soldiers. A year later the Stamp Act was repealed because of the violent acts that the Sons of Liberty committed, a violent libe... Free Essays on Media Violence â€Å"The average child watches 21 to 23 hours of television per week...the average person has viewed around 200,000 acts of violence by the time he reaches 18 years of age† (Steele). Lights, camera, action! â€Å"Jerry, Jerry, Jerry† is the chant heard from the audience as The Jerry Springer Show begins each day at 2:00pm on the Fox television network. In a recent episode titled â€Å"Sexy Stories†, which aired on July 11, 2 women stripped down to their undergarments and were romantically involved in a kitty pool filled with whip cream. They poured chocolate syrup all over each other and ate strawberries and bananas while the Springer crew poured nuts all over them. They basically became human sundaes while the audience chanted â€Å"we love lesbians!† While this ridiculous banana split session was going on, the husband of one of the women in the pool was trying to fight the other woman, but was restrained by Springer security. Undoubtedly, there w ere children home alone watching the sho! w, viewing the violent and distasteful behavior that always dominates The Jerry Springer Show. Television networks should not air violent and inappropriate shows such as The Jerry Springer Show at times when unsupervised children are likely to be watching. Violent behavior is prevalent on The Jerry Springer Show. Fistfights are normally broken up quickly, but the hatred and anger shown by the guests is not something children should be witnesses to. Benjamin Spock, M.D., in his book titled â€Å"Problems of Parents† writes, [A certain number of judges, prosecutors, and psychiatrists have been impressed with the frequency with which a severe delinquent, asked in court where he ever got the idea for his crime, has promptly answered, â€Å"On a television program†] (Spock 253). Violent behavior definitely has a negative effect on children. It may even affect the way their young brains perceive behavior. Robert Steele writes, â€Å"children repea...

USS North Carolina (BB-55) in World War II

USS North Carolina (BB-55) in World War II USS North Carolina (BB-55) was the lead ship of the North Carolina-class of battleships. The first new design constructed by the US Navy since the early 1920s, the North Carolina-class incorporated a variety of new technologies and design approaches.   Entering service in 1941, North Carolina saw extensive service in the Pacific during World War II and took part in nearly all of the major Allied campaigns. This saw it earn 15 battles stars, the most won by any American battleship. Retired in 1947, North Carolina was taken to Wilmington, NC in 1961 and opened as a museum ship the following year.   Treaty Limitations The story of the North Carolina-class begins with the Washington Naval Treaty (1922) and London Navy Treaty (1930) which limited warship size and total tonnage. As a result of the treaties, the US Navy did not built any new battleships for the most the 1920s and 1930s. In 1935, the General Board of the US Navy began preparations for the design of a new class of modern battleships. Operating under the constraints imposed by the Second London Naval Treaty (1936), which limited total displacement to 35,000 tons and the caliber of guns to 14, designers worked through a multitude of designs to create a new class that combined an effective mix of firepower, speed, and protection. Design and Construction After extensive debate, the General Board recommended design XVI-C which called for a battleship capable of 30 knots and mounting nine 14 guns. This recommendation was overruled by Secretary of the Navy Claude A. Swanson who favored the XVI design which mounted twelve 14 guns but had a maximum speed of 27 knots. The final design of what became the North Carolina-class emerged in 1937 after Japans refusal to agree to the 14 restriction imposed the treaty. This allowed the other signatories to implement the treatys escalator clause which permitted an increase to 16 guns and a maximum displacement of 45,000 tons. As a result, USS North Carolina and its sister, USS Washington, were redesigned with a main battery of nine 16 guns. Supporting this battery were twenty 5 dual purpose guns as well as an initial installation of sixteen 1.1 anti-aircraft guns. In addition, the ships received the new RCA CXAM-1 radar. Designated BB-55, North Carolina was laid down at the New York Naval Shipyard on October 27, 1937. Work progressed on the hull and the battleship slid down the ways on June 3, 1940 with Isabel Hoey, daughter of the Governor of North Carolina, serving as sponsor. USS North Carolina (BB-55) - Overview Nation: United StatesType: BattleshipShipyard: New York Naval ShipyardLaid Down: October 27, 1937Launched: June 13, 1940Commissioned: April 9, 1941Fate: Museum ship at Wilmington, NC Specifications: Displacement: 34,005 tonsLength: 728.8 ft.Beam: 108.3 ft.Draft: 33 ft.Propulsion: 121,000 hp, 4 x General Electric steam turbines, 4 x propellersSpeed: 26 knotsRange: 20,080 miles at 15 knotsComplement: 2,339 men Armament Guns 9 Ãâ€" 16 in.(410 mm)/45 cal. Mark 6 guns (3 x triple turrets)20 Ãâ€" 5 in (130 mm)/38 cal. dual-purpose guns60 x quad 40mm antiaircraft guns46 x single 20mm cannon Aircraft 3 x aircraft Early Service Work on North Carolina ended in early 1941 and the new battleship was commissioned on April 9, 1941 with Captain Olaf M. Hustvedt in command. As the US Navys first new battleship in nearly twenty years, North Carolina quickly became a center of attention and earned the enduring nickname Showboat. Through the summer of 1941, the ship conducted shakedown and training exercises in the Atlantic. With the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the US entry into World War II, North Carolina prepared to sail for the Pacific. The US Navy soon delayed this movement as there was concern that the German battleship Tirpitz might emerge to attack Allied convoys. Finally released to the US Pacific Fleet, North Carolina passed through the Panama Canal in early June, just days after the Allied triumph at Midway. Arriving at Pearl Harbor after stops at San Pedro and San Francisco, the battleship began preparations for combat in the South Pacific. South Pacific Departing Pearl Harbor on July 15 as part of a task force centered on the carrier USS Enterprise (CV-6) North Carolina steamed for the Solomon Islands. There it supported the landing of US Marines on Guadalcanal on August 7. Later in the month, North Carolina provided anti-aircraft support for the American carriers during the Battle of the Eastern Solomons. As Enterprise sustained significant damage in the fighting, the battleship began serving as an escort for USS Saratoga (CV-3) and then USS Wasp (CV-7) and USS Hornet (CV-8). On September 15, the Japanese submarine I-19 attacked the task force. Firing a spread of torpedoes, it sunk Wasp and the destroyer USS OBrien as well as damaged North Carolinas bow. Though the torpedo opened a large hole on the ships port side, the ships damage control parties quickly dealt with the situation and averted a crisis. Arriving at New Caledonia, North Carolina received temporary repairs before departing for Pearl Harbor. There, the battleship entered drydock to fix the hull and its anti-aircraft armament was enhanced. Tarawa Returning to service after a month in the yard, North Carolina spent much of 1943 screening American carriers in the vicinity of the Solomons. This period also saw the ship receive new radar and fire control equipment. On November 10, North Carolina sailed from Pearl Harbor with Enterprise as part of the Northern Covering Force for operations in the Gilbert Islands. In this role, the battleship provided support for Allied forces during the Battle of Tarawa. After bombarding Nauru in early December, North Carolina screened USS Bunker Hill (CV-17)when its aircraft attacked New Ireland. In January 1944, the battleship joined Rear Admiral Marc Mitschers Task Force 58. Island Hopping Covering Mitschers carriers, North Carolina also provided fire support for troops during the Battle of Kwajalein in late January. The following month, it protected the carriers as they mounted raids against Truk and the Marianas. North Carolina continued in this capacity for much of the spring until returning to Pearl Harbor for repairs on its rudder. Emerging in May, it rendezvoused with American forces at Majuro before sailing for the Marianas as part of Enterprises task force. Taking part in the Battle of Saipan in mid-June, North Carolina struck a variety of targets ashore. Upon learning that the Japanese fleet was approaching, the battleship departed the islands and protected American carriers during the Battle of the Philippine Sea on June 19-20. Remaining in the area until the end of the month, North Carolina then departed for the Puget Sound Navy Yard for a major overhaul. Finished in late October, North Carolina rejoined Admiral William Bull Halseys Task Force 38 at Ulithi on November 7. Final Battles Shortly thereafter, it endured a severe period at sea as TF38 sailed through Typhoon Cobra. Surviving the storm, North Carolina supported operations against Japanese targets in the Philippines as well as screened raids against Formosa, Indochina, and the Ryukyus. After escorting carriers on a raid on Honshu in February 1945, North Carolina turned south to provided fire support for Allied forces during the Battle of Iwo Jima. Shifting west in April, the ship fulfilled a similar role during the Battle of Okinawa. In addition to striking targets ashore, North Carolinas anti-aircraft guns aided in dealing with the Japanese kamikaze threat. Later Service Retirement After a brief overhaul at Pearl Harbor in late spring, North Carolina returned to Japanese waters where it protected carriers conducting airstrikes inland as well as bombarded industrial targets along the coast. With the surrender of Japan on August 15, the battleship sent part of its crew and Marine Detachment ashore for preliminary occupation duty. Anchoring in Tokyo Bay on September 5, it embarked these men before departing for Boston. Passing through the Panama Canal on October 8, it reached its destination nine days later. With the end of the war, North Carolina underwent a refit at New York and began peacetime operations in the Atlantic. In the summer of 1946, it hosted the US Naval Academys summer training cruise in the Caribbean. Decommissioned on June 27, 1947, North Carolina remained on the Navy List until June 1, 1960. The following year, the US Navy transferred the battleship to the State of North Carolina for a price of $330,000. These funds were largely raised by the states school children and the ship was towed to Wilmington, NC. Work soon began to convert the ship into a museum and North Carolina was dedicated as a memorial to the states World War II veteran in April 1962.

A Game of Thrones Chapter Sixtyeight

There was a door ahead of her, tiny with distance, but even from afar, she saw that it was painted red. She walked faster, and her bare feet left bloody footprints on the stone. â€Å"You don’t want to wake the dragon, do you?† She saw sunlight on the Dothraki sea, the living plain, rich with the smells of earth and death. Wind stirred the grasses, and they rippled like water. Drogo held her in strong arms, and his hand stroked her sex and opened her and woke that sweet wetness that was his alone, and the stars smiled down on them, stars in a daylight sky. â€Å"Home,† she whispered as he entered her and filled her with his seed, but suddenly the stars were gone, and across the blue sky swept the great wings, and the world took flame. † . . . don’t want to wake the dragon, do you?† Ser Jorah’s face was drawn and sorrowful. â€Å"Rhaegar was the last dragon,† he told her. He warmed translucent hands over a glowing brazier where stone eggs smouldered red as coals. One moment he was there and the next he was fading, his flesh colorless, less substantial than the wind. â€Å"The last dragon,† he whispered, thin as a wisp, and was gone. She felt the dark behind her, and the red door seemed farther away than ever. † . . . don’t want to wake the dragon, do you?† Viserys stood before her, screaming. â€Å"The dragon does not beg, slut. You do not command the dragon. I am the dragon, and I will be crowned.† The molten gold trickled down his face like wax, burning deep channels in his flesh. â€Å"I am the dragon and I will be crowned!† he shrieked, and his fingers snapped like snakes, biting at her nipples, pinching, twisting, even as his eyes burst and ran like jelly down seared and blackened cheeks. † . . . don’t want to wake the dragon . . . â€Å" The red door was so far ahead of her, and she could feel the icy breath behind, sweeping up on her. If it caught her she would die a death that was more than death, howling forever alone in the darkness. She began to run. † . . . don’t want to wake the dragon . . . â€Å" She could feel the heat inside her, a terrible burning in her womb. Her son was tall and proud, with Drogo’s copper skin and her own silver-gold hair, violet eyes shaped like almonds. And he smiled for her and began to lift his hand toward hers, but when he opened his mouth the fire poured out. She saw his heart burning through his chest, and in an instant he was gone, consumed like a moth by a candle, turned to ash. She wept for her child, the promise of a sweet mouth on her breast, but her tears turned to steam as they touched her skin. † . . . want to wake the dragon . . . â€Å" Ghosts lined the hallway, dressed in the faded raiment of kings. In their hands were swords of pale fire. They had hair of silver and hair of gold and hair of platinum white, and their eyes were opal and amethyst, tourmaline and jade. â€Å"Faster,† they cried, â€Å"faster, faster.† She raced, her feet melting the stone wherever they touched. â€Å"Faster!† the ghosts cried as one, and she screamed and threw herself forward. A great knife of pain ripped down her back, and she felt her skin tear open and smelled the stench of burning blood and saw the shadow of wings. And Daenerys Targaryen flew. † . . . wake the dragon . . . â€Å" The door loomed before her, the red door, so close, so close, the hall was a blur around her, the cold receding behind. And now the stone was gone and she flew across the Dothraki sea, high and higher, the green rippling beneath, and all that lived and breathed fled in terror from the shadow of her wings. She could smell home, she could see it, there, just beyond that door, green fields and great stone houses and arms to keep her warm, there. She threw open the door. † . . . the dragon . . . â€Å" And saw her brother Rhaegar, mounted on a stallion as black as his armor. Fire glimmered red through the narrow eye slit of his helm. â€Å"The last dragon,† Ser Jorah’s voice whispered faintly. â€Å"The last, the last.† Dany lifted his polished black visor. The face within was her own. After that, for a long time, there was only the pain, the fire within her, and the whisperings of stars. She woke to the taste of ashes. â€Å"No,† she moaned, â€Å"no, please.† â€Å"Khaleesi?† Jhiqui hovered over her, a frightened doe. The tent was drenched in shadow, still and close. Flakes of ash drifted upward from a brazier, and Dany followed them with her eyes through the smoke hole above. Flying, she thought. I had wings, I was flying. But it was only a dream. â€Å"Help me,† she whispered, struggling to rise. â€Å"Bring me . . . † Her voice was raw as a wound, and she could not think what she wanted. Why did she hurt so much? It was as if her body had been torn to pieces and remade from the scraps. â€Å"I want . . . â€Å" â€Å"Yes, Khaleesi.† Quick as that Jhiqui was gone, bolting from the tent, shouting. Dany needed . . . something . . . someone . . . what? It was important, she knew. It was the only thing in the world that mattered. She rolled onto her side and got an elbow under her, fighting the blanket tangled about her legs. It was so hard to move. The world swam dizzily. I have to . . . They found her on the carpet, crawling toward her dragon eggs. Ser Jorah Mormont lifted her in his arms and carried her back to her sleeping silks, while she struggled feebly against him. Over his shoulder she saw her three handmaids, Jhogo with his little wisp of mustache, and the flat broad face of Mirri Maz Duur. â€Å"I must,† she tried to tell them, â€Å"I have to . . . â€Å" † . . . sleep, Princess,† Ser Jorah said. â€Å"No,† Dany said. â€Å"Please. Please.† â€Å"Yes.† He covered her with silk, though she was burning. â€Å"Sleep and grow strong again, Khaleesi. Come back to us.† And then Mirri Maz Duur was there, the maegi, tipping a cup against her lips. She tasted sour milk, and something else, something thick and bitter. Warm liquid ran down her chin. Somehow she swallowed. The tent grew dimmer, and sleep took her again. This time she did not dream. She floated, serene and at peace, on a black sea that knew no shore. After a time—a night, a day, a year, she could not say—she woke again. The tent was dark, its silken walls flapping like wings when the wind gusted outside. This time Dany did not attempt to rise. â€Å"Irri,† she called, â€Å"Jhiqui. Doreah.† They were there at once. â€Å"My throat is dry,† she said, â€Å"so dry,† and they brought her water. It was warm and flat, yet Dany drank it eagerly, and sent Jhiqui for more. Irri dampened a soft cloth and stroked her brow. â€Å"I have been sick,† Dany said. The Dothraki girl nodded. â€Å"How long?† The cloth was soothing, but Irri seemed so sad, it frightened her. â€Å"Long,† she whispered. When Jhiqui returned with more water, Mirri Maz Duur came with her, eyes heavy from sleep. â€Å"Drink,† she said, lifting Dany’s head to the cup once more, but this time it was only wine. Sweet, sweet wine. Dany drank, and lay back, listening to the soft sound of her own br eathing. She could feel the heaviness in her limbs, as sleep crept in to fill her up once more. â€Å"Bring me . . . † she murmured, her voice slurred and drowsy. â€Å"Bring . . . I want to hold . . . â€Å" â€Å"Yes?† the maegi asked. â€Å"What is it you wish, Khaleesi?† â€Å"Bring me . . . egg . . . dragon’s egg . . . please . . . † Her lashes turned to lead, and she was too weary to hold them up. When she woke the third time, a shaft of golden sunlight was pouring through the smoke hole of the tent, and her arms were wrapped around a dragon’s egg. It was the pale one, its scales the color of butter cream, veined with whorls of gold and bronze, and Dany could feel the heat of it. Beneath her bedsilks, a fine sheen of perspiration covered her bare skin. Dragondew, she thought. Her fingers trailed lightly across the surface of the shell, tracing the wisps of gold, and deep in the stone she felt something twist and stretch in response. It did not frighten her. All her fear was gone, burned away. Dany touched her brow. Under the film of sweat, her skin was cool to the touch, her fever gone. She made herself sit. There was a moment of dizziness, and the deep ache between her thighs. Yet she felt strong. Her maids came running at the sound of her voice. â€Å"Water,† she told them, â€Å"a flagon of water, cold as you can find it. And fruit, I think. Dates.† â€Å"As you say, Khaleesi.† â€Å"I want Ser Jorah,† she said, standing. Jhiqui brought a sandsilk robe and draped it over her shoulders. â€Å"And a warm bath, and Mirri Maz Duur, and . . . † Memory came back to her all at once, and she faltered. â€Å"Khal Drogo,† she forced herself to say, watching their faces with dread. â€Å"Is hemdash?† â€Å"The khal lives,† Irri answered quietly . . . yet Dany saw a darkness in her eyes when she said the words, and no sooner had she spoken than she rushed away to fetch water. She turned to Doreah. â€Å"Tell me.† â€Å"I . . . I shall bring Ser Jorah,† the Lysene girl said, bowing her head and fleeing the tent. Jhiqui would have run as well, but Dany caught her by the wrist and held her captive. â€Å"What is it? I must know. Drogo . . . and my child.† Why had she not remembered the child until now? â€Å"My son . . . Rhaego . . . where is he? I want him.† Her handmaid lowered her eyes. â€Å"The boy . . . he did not live, Khaleesi.† Her voice was a frightened whisper. Dany released her wrist. My son is dead, she thought as Jhiqui left the tent. She had known somehow. She had known since she woke the first time to Jhiqui’s tears. No, she had known before she woke. Her dream came back to her, sudden and vivid, and she remembered the tall man with the copper skin and long silver-gold braid, bursting into flame. She should weep, she knew, yet her eyes were dry as ash. She had wept in her dream, and the tears had turned to steam on her cheeks. All the grief has been burned out of me, she told herself. She felt sad, and yet . . . she could feel Rhaego receding from her, as if he had never been. Ser Jorah and Mirri Maz Duur entered a few moments later, and found Dany standing over the other dragon’s eggs, the two still in their chest. It seemed to her that they felt as hot as the one she had slept with, which was passing strange. â€Å"Ser Jorah, come here,† she said. She took his hand and placed it on the black egg with the scarlet swirls. â€Å"What do you feel?† â€Å"Shell, hard as rock.† The knight was wary. â€Å"Scales.† â€Å"Heat?† â€Å"No. Cold stone.† He took his hand away. â€Å"Princess, are you well? Should you be up, weak as you are?† â€Å"Weak? I am strong, Jorah.† To please him, she reclined on a pile of cushions. â€Å"Tell me how my child died.† â€Å"He never lived, my princess. The women say . . . † He faltered, and Dany saw how the flesh hung loose on him, and the way he limped when he moved. â€Å"Tell me. Tell me what the women say.† He turned his face away. His eyes were haunted. â€Å"They say the child was . . . â€Å" She waited, but Ser Jorah could not say it. His face grew dark with shame. He looked half a corpse himself. â€Å"Monstrous,† Mirri Maz Duur finished for him. The knight was a powerful man, yet Dany understood in that moment that the maegi was stronger, and crueler, and infinitely more dangerous. â€Å"Twisted. I drew him forth myself. He was scaled like a lizard, blind, with the stub of a tail and small leather wings like the wings of a bat. When I touched him, the flesh sloughed off the bone, and inside he was full of graveworms and the stink of corruption. He had been dead for years.† Darkness, Dany thought. The terrible darkness sweeping up behind to devour her. If she looked back she was lost. â€Å"My son was alive and strong when Ser Jorah carried me into this tent,† she said. â€Å"I could feel him kicking, fighting to be born.† â€Å"That may be as it may be,† answered Mirri Maz Duur, â€Å"yet the creature that came forth from your womb was as I said. Death was in that tent, Khaleesi.† â€Å"Only shadows,† Ser Jorah husked, but Dany could hear the doubt in his voice. â€Å"I saw, maegi. I saw you, alone, dancing with the shadows. â€Å" â€Å"The grave casts long shadows, Iron Lord,† Mirri said. â€Å"Long and dark, and in the end no light can hold them back.† Ser Jorah had killed her son, Dany knew. He had done what he did for love and loyalty, yet he had carried her into a place no living man should go and fed her baby to the darkness. He knew it too; the grey face, the hollow eyes, the limp. â€Å"The shadows have touched you too, Ser Jorah,† she told him. The knight made no reply. Dany turned to the godswife. â€Å"You warned me that only death could pay for life. I thought you meant the horse.† â€Å"No,† Mirri Maz Duur said. â€Å"That was a lie you told yourself. You knew the price.† Had she? Had she? If I look back I am lost. â€Å"The price was paid,† Dany said. â€Å"The horse, my child, Quaro and Qotho, Haggo and Cohollo. The price was paid and paid and paid.† She rose from her cushions. â€Å"Where is Khal Drogo? Show him to me, godswife, maegi, bloodmage, whatever you are. Show me Khal Drogo. Show me what I bought with my son’s life.† â€Å"As you command, Khaleesi,† the old woman said. â€Å"Come, I will take you to him.† Dany was weaker than she knew. Ser Jorah slipped an arm around her and helped her stand. â€Å"Time enough for this later, my princess,† he said quietly. â€Å"I would see him now, Ser Jorah.† After the dimness of the tent, the world outside was blinding bright. The sun burned like molten gold, and the land was seared and empty. Her handmaids waited with fruit and wine and water, and Jhogo moved close to help Ser Jorah support her. Aggo and Rakharo stood behind. The glare of sun on sand made it hard to see more, until Dany raised her hand to shade her eyes. She saw the ashes of a fire, a few score horses milling listlessly and searching for a bite of grass, a scattering of tents and bedrolls. A small crowd of children had gathered to watch her, and beyond she glimpsed women going about their work, and withered old men staring at the flat blue sky with tired eyes, swatting feebly at bloodflies. A count might show a hundred people, no more. Where the other forty thousand had made their camp, only the wind and dust lived now. â€Å"Drogo’s khalasar is gone,† she said. â€Å"A khal who cannot ride is no khal,† said Jhogo. â€Å"The Dothraki follow only the strong,† Ser Jorah said. â€Å"I am sorry, my princess. There was no way to hold them. Ko Pono left first, naming himself Khal Pono, and many followed him. Jhaqo was not long to do the same. The rest slipped away night by night, in large bands and small. There are a dozen new khalasars on the Dothraki sea, where once there was only Drogo’s.† â€Å"The old remain,† said Aggo. â€Å"The frightened, the weak, and the sick. And we who swore. We remain.† â€Å"They took Khal Drogo’s herds, Khaleesi,† Rakharo said. â€Å"We were too few to stop them. It is the right of the strong to take from the weak. They took many slaves as well, the khal’s and yours, yet they left some few.† â€Å"Eroeh?† asked Dany, remembering the frightened child she had saved outside the city of the Lamb Men. â€Å"Mago seized her, who is Khal Jhaqo’s bloodrider now,† said Jhogo. â€Å"He mounted her high and low and gave her to his khal, and Jhaqo gave her to his other bloodriders. They were six. When they were done with her, they cut her throat.† â€Å"It was her fate, Khaleesi,† said Aggo. If I look back I am lost. â€Å"It was a cruel fate,† Dany said, â€Å"yet not so cruel as Mago’s will be. I promise you that, by the old gods and the new, by the lamb god and the horse god and every god that lives. I swear it by the Mother of Mountains and the Womb of the World. Before I am done with them, Mago and Ko Jhaqo will plead for the mercy they showed Eroeh.† The Dothraki exchanged uncertain glances. â€Å"Khaleesi, † the handmaid Irri explained, as if to a child, â€Å"Jhaqo is a khal now, with twenty thousand riders at his back.† She lifted her head. â€Å"And I am Daenerys Stormhorn, Daenerys of House Targaryen, of the blood of Aegon the Conqueror and Maegor the Cruel and old Valyria before them. I am the dragon’s daughter, and I swear to you, these men will die screaming. Now bring me to Khal Drogo.† He was lying on the bare red earth, staring up at the sun. A dozen bloodflies had settled on his body, though he did not seem to feel them. Dany brushed them away and knelt beside him. His eyes were wide open but did not see, and she knew at once that he was blind. When she whispered his name, he did not seem to hear. The wound on his breast was as healed as it would ever be, the scar that covered it grey and red and hideous. â€Å"Why is he out here alone, in the sun?† she asked them. â€Å"He seems to like the warmth, Princess,† Ser Jorah said. â€Å"His eyes follow the sun, though he does not see it. He can walk after a fashion. He will go where you lead him, but no farther. He will eat if you put food in his mouth, drink if you dribble water on his lips.† Dany kissed her sun-and-stars gently on the brow, and stood to face Mirri Maz Duur. â€Å"Your spells are costly, maegi.† â€Å"He lives,† said Mirri Maz Duur. â€Å"You asked for life. You paid for life.† â€Å"This is not life, for one who was as Drogo was. His life was laughter, and meat roasting over a firepit, and a horse between his legs. His life was an arakh in his hand and his bells ringing in his hair as he rode to meet an enemy. His life was his bloodriders, and me, and the son I was to give him.† Mirri Maz Duur made no reply. â€Å"When will he be as he was?† Dany demanded. â€Å"When the sun rises in the west and sets in the east,† said Mirri Maz Duur. â€Å"When the seas go dry and mountains blow in the wind like leaves. When your womb quickens again, and you bear a living child. Then he will return, and not before.† Dany gestured at Ser Jorah and the others. â€Å"Leave us. I would speak with this maegi alone.† Mormont and the Dothraki withdrew. â€Å"You knew,† Dany said when they were gone. She ached, inside and out, but her fury gave her strength. â€Å"You knew what I was buying, and you knew the price, and yet you let me pay it.† â€Å"It was wrong of them to burn my temple,† the heavy, flat-nosed woman said placidly. â€Å"That angered the Great Shepherd.† â€Å"This was no god’s work,† Dany said coldly. If I look back I am lost. â€Å"You cheated me. You murdered my child within me.† â€Å"The stallion who mounts the world will burn no cities now. His khalasar shall trample no nations into dust.† â€Å"I spoke for you,† she said, anguished. â€Å"I saved you.† â€Å"Saved me?† The Lhazareen woman spat. â€Å"Three riders had taken me, not as a man takes a woman but from behind, as a dog takes a bitch. The fourth was in me when you rode past. How then did you save me? I saw my god’s house burn, where I had healed good men beyond counting. My home they burned as well, and in the street I saw piles of heads. I saw the head of a baker who made my bread. I saw the head of a boy I had saved from deadeye fever, only three moons past. I heard children crying as the riders drove them off with their whips. Tell me again what you saved.† â€Å"Your life.† Mirri Maz Duur laughed cruelly. â€Å"Look to your khal and see what life is worth, when all the rest is gone.† Dany called out for the men of her khas and bid them take Mirri Maz Duur and bind her hand and foot, but the maegi smiled at her as they carried her off, as if they shared a secret. A word, and Dany could have her head off . . . yet then what would she have? A head? If life was worthless, what was death? They led Khal Drogo back to her tent, and Dany commanded them to fill a tub, and this time there was no blood in the water. She bathed him herself, washing the dirt and the dust from his arms and chest, cleaning his face with a soft cloth, soaping his long black hair and combing the knots and tangles from it till it shone again as she remembered. It was well past dark before she was done, and Dany was exhausted. She stopped for drink and food, but it was all she could do to nibble at a fig and keep down a mouthful of water. Sleep would have been a release, but she had slept enough . . . too long, in truth. She owed this night to Drogo, for all the nights that had been, and yet might be. The memory of their first ride was with her when she led him out into the darkness, for the Dothraki believed that all things of importance in a man’s life must be done beneath the open sky. She told herself that there were powers stronger than hatred, and spells older and truer than any the maegi had learned in Asshai. The night was black and moonless, but overhead a million stars burned bright. She took that for an omen. No soft blanket of grass welcomed them here, only the hard dusty ground, bare and strewn with stones. No trees stirred in the wind, and there was no stream to soothe her fears with the gentle music of water. Dany told herself that the stars would be enough. â€Å"Remember, Drogo,† she whispered. â€Å"Remember our first ride together, the day we wed. Remember the night we made Rhaego, with the khalasar all around us and your eyes on my face. Remember how cool and clean the water was in the Womb of the World. Remember, my sun-and-stars. Remember, and come back to me.† The birth had left her too raw and torn to take him inside of her, as she would have wanted, but Doreah had taught her other ways. Dany used her hands, her mouth, her breasts. She raked him with her nails and covered him with kisses and whispered and prayed and told him stories, and by the end she had bathed him with her tears. Yet Drogo did not feel, or speak, or rise. And when the bleak dawn broke over an empty horizon, Dany knew that he was truly lost to her. â€Å"When the sun rises in the west and sets in the east,† she said sadly. â€Å"When the seas go dry and mountains blow in the wind like leaves. When my womb quickens again, and I bear a living child. Then you will return, my sun-and-stars, and not before.† Never, the darkness cried, never never never. Inside the tent Dany found a cushion, soft silk stuffed with feathers. She clutched it to her breasts as she walked back out to Drogo, to her sun-and-stars. If I look back I am lost. It hurt even to walk, and she wanted to sleep, to sleep and not to dream. She knelt, kissed Drogo on the lips, and pressed the cushion down across his face. A Game of Thrones Chapter Sixtyeight There was a door ahead of her, tiny with distance, but even from afar, she saw that it was painted red. She walked faster, and her bare feet left bloody footprints on the stone. â€Å"You don’t want to wake the dragon, do you?† She saw sunlight on the Dothraki sea, the living plain, rich with the smells of earth and death. Wind stirred the grasses, and they rippled like water. Drogo held her in strong arms, and his hand stroked her sex and opened her and woke that sweet wetness that was his alone, and the stars smiled down on them, stars in a daylight sky. â€Å"Home,† she whispered as he entered her and filled her with his seed, but suddenly the stars were gone, and across the blue sky swept the great wings, and the world took flame. † . . . don’t want to wake the dragon, do you?† Ser Jorah’s face was drawn and sorrowful. â€Å"Rhaegar was the last dragon,† he told her. He warmed translucent hands over a glowing brazier where stone eggs smouldered red as coals. One moment he was there and the next he was fading, his flesh colorless, less substantial than the wind. â€Å"The last dragon,† he whispered, thin as a wisp, and was gone. She felt the dark behind her, and the red door seemed farther away than ever. † . . . don’t want to wake the dragon, do you?† Viserys stood before her, screaming. â€Å"The dragon does not beg, slut. You do not command the dragon. I am the dragon, and I will be crowned.† The molten gold trickled down his face like wax, burning deep channels in his flesh. â€Å"I am the dragon and I will be crowned!† he shrieked, and his fingers snapped like snakes, biting at her nipples, pinching, twisting, even as his eyes burst and ran like jelly down seared and blackened cheeks. † . . . don’t want to wake the dragon . . . â€Å" The red door was so far ahead of her, and she could feel the icy breath behind, sweeping up on her. If it caught her she would die a death that was more than death, howling forever alone in the darkness. She began to run. † . . . don’t want to wake the dragon . . . â€Å" She could feel the heat inside her, a terrible burning in her womb. Her son was tall and proud, with Drogo’s copper skin and her own silver-gold hair, violet eyes shaped like almonds. And he smiled for her and began to lift his hand toward hers, but when he opened his mouth the fire poured out. She saw his heart burning through his chest, and in an instant he was gone, consumed like a moth by a candle, turned to ash. She wept for her child, the promise of a sweet mouth on her breast, but her tears turned to steam as they touched her skin. † . . . want to wake the dragon . . . â€Å" Ghosts lined the hallway, dressed in the faded raiment of kings. In their hands were swords of pale fire. They had hair of silver and hair of gold and hair of platinum white, and their eyes were opal and amethyst, tourmaline and jade. â€Å"Faster,† they cried, â€Å"faster, faster.† She raced, her feet melting the stone wherever they touched. â€Å"Faster!† the ghosts cried as one, and she screamed and threw herself forward. A great knife of pain ripped down her back, and she felt her skin tear open and smelled the stench of burning blood and saw the shadow of wings. And Daenerys Targaryen flew. † . . . wake the dragon . . . â€Å" The door loomed before her, the red door, so close, so close, the hall was a blur around her, the cold receding behind. And now the stone was gone and she flew across the Dothraki sea, high and higher, the green rippling beneath, and all that lived and breathed fled in terror from the shadow of her wings. She could smell home, she could see it, there, just beyond that door, green fields and great stone houses and arms to keep her warm, there. She threw open the door. † . . . the dragon . . . â€Å" And saw her brother Rhaegar, mounted on a stallion as black as his armor. Fire glimmered red through the narrow eye slit of his helm. â€Å"The last dragon,† Ser Jorah’s voice whispered faintly. â€Å"The last, the last.† Dany lifted his polished black visor. The face within was her own. After that, for a long time, there was only the pain, the fire within her, and the whisperings of stars. She woke to the taste of ashes. â€Å"No,† she moaned, â€Å"no, please.† â€Å"Khaleesi?† Jhiqui hovered over her, a frightened doe. The tent was drenched in shadow, still and close. Flakes of ash drifted upward from a brazier, and Dany followed them with her eyes through the smoke hole above. Flying, she thought. I had wings, I was flying. But it was only a dream. â€Å"Help me,† she whispered, struggling to rise. â€Å"Bring me . . . † Her voice was raw as a wound, and she could not think what she wanted. Why did she hurt so much? It was as if her body had been torn to pieces and remade from the scraps. â€Å"I want . . . â€Å" â€Å"Yes, Khaleesi.† Quick as that Jhiqui was gone, bolting from the tent, shouting. Dany needed . . . something . . . someone . . . what? It was important, she knew. It was the only thing in the world that mattered. She rolled onto her side and got an elbow under her, fighting the blanket tangled about her legs. It was so hard to move. The world swam dizzily. I have to . . . They found her on the carpet, crawling toward her dragon eggs. Ser Jorah Mormont lifted her in his arms and carried her back to her sleeping silks, while she struggled feebly against him. Over his shoulder she saw her three handmaids, Jhogo with his little wisp of mustache, and the flat broad face of Mirri Maz Duur. â€Å"I must,† she tried to tell them, â€Å"I have to . . . â€Å" † . . . sleep, Princess,† Ser Jorah said. â€Å"No,† Dany said. â€Å"Please. Please.† â€Å"Yes.† He covered her with silk, though she was burning. â€Å"Sleep and grow strong again, Khaleesi. Come back to us.† And then Mirri Maz Duur was there, the maegi, tipping a cup against her lips. She tasted sour milk, and something else, something thick and bitter. Warm liquid ran down her chin. Somehow she swallowed. The tent grew dimmer, and sleep took her again. This time she did not dream. She floated, serene and at peace, on a black sea that knew no shore. After a time—a night, a day, a year, she could not say—she woke again. The tent was dark, its silken walls flapping like wings when the wind gusted outside. This time Dany did not attempt to rise. â€Å"Irri,† she called, â€Å"Jhiqui. Doreah.† They were there at once. â€Å"My throat is dry,† she said, â€Å"so dry,† and they brought her water. It was warm and flat, yet Dany drank it eagerly, and sent Jhiqui for more. Irri dampened a soft cloth and stroked her brow. â€Å"I have been sick,† Dany said. The Dothraki girl nodded. â€Å"How long?† The cloth was soothing, but Irri seemed so sad, it frightened her. â€Å"Long,† she whispered. When Jhiqui returned with more water, Mirri Maz Duur came with her, eyes heavy from sleep. â€Å"Drink,† she said, lifting Dany’s head to the cup once more, but this time it was only wine. Sweet, sweet wine. Dany drank, and lay back, listening to the soft sound of her own br eathing. She could feel the heaviness in her limbs, as sleep crept in to fill her up once more. â€Å"Bring me . . . † she murmured, her voice slurred and drowsy. â€Å"Bring . . . I want to hold . . . â€Å" â€Å"Yes?† the maegi asked. â€Å"What is it you wish, Khaleesi?† â€Å"Bring me . . . egg . . . dragon’s egg . . . please . . . † Her lashes turned to lead, and she was too weary to hold them up. When she woke the third time, a shaft of golden sunlight was pouring through the smoke hole of the tent, and her arms were wrapped around a dragon’s egg. It was the pale one, its scales the color of butter cream, veined with whorls of gold and bronze, and Dany could feel the heat of it. Beneath her bedsilks, a fine sheen of perspiration covered her bare skin. Dragondew, she thought. Her fingers trailed lightly across the surface of the shell, tracing the wisps of gold, and deep in the stone she felt something twist and stretch in response. It did not frighten her. All her fear was gone, burned away. Dany touched her brow. Under the film of sweat, her skin was cool to the touch, her fever gone. She made herself sit. There was a moment of dizziness, and the deep ache between her thighs. Yet she felt strong. Her maids came running at the sound of her voice. â€Å"Water,† she told them, â€Å"a flagon of water, cold as you can find it. And fruit, I think. Dates.† â€Å"As you say, Khaleesi.† â€Å"I want Ser Jorah,† she said, standing. Jhiqui brought a sandsilk robe and draped it over her shoulders. â€Å"And a warm bath, and Mirri Maz Duur, and . . . † Memory came back to her all at once, and she faltered. â€Å"Khal Drogo,† she forced herself to say, watching their faces with dread. â€Å"Is hemdash?† â€Å"The khal lives,† Irri answered quietly . . . yet Dany saw a darkness in her eyes when she said the words, and no sooner had she spoken than she rushed away to fetch water. She turned to Doreah. â€Å"Tell me.† â€Å"I . . . I shall bring Ser Jorah,† the Lysene girl said, bowing her head and fleeing the tent. Jhiqui would have run as well, but Dany caught her by the wrist and held her captive. â€Å"What is it? I must know. Drogo . . . and my child.† Why had she not remembered the child until now? â€Å"My son . . . Rhaego . . . where is he? I want him.† Her handmaid lowered her eyes. â€Å"The boy . . . he did not live, Khaleesi.† Her voice was a frightened whisper. Dany released her wrist. My son is dead, she thought as Jhiqui left the tent. She had known somehow. She had known since she woke the first time to Jhiqui’s tears. No, she had known before she woke. Her dream came back to her, sudden and vivid, and she remembered the tall man with the copper skin and long silver-gold braid, bursting into flame. She should weep, she knew, yet her eyes were dry as ash. She had wept in her dream, and the tears had turned to steam on her cheeks. All the grief has been burned out of me, she told herself. She felt sad, and yet . . . she could feel Rhaego receding from her, as if he had never been. Ser Jorah and Mirri Maz Duur entered a few moments later, and found Dany standing over the other dragon’s eggs, the two still in their chest. It seemed to her that they felt as hot as the one she had slept with, which was passing strange. â€Å"Ser Jorah, come here,† she said. She took his hand and placed it on the black egg with the scarlet swirls. â€Å"What do you feel?† â€Å"Shell, hard as rock.† The knight was wary. â€Å"Scales.† â€Å"Heat?† â€Å"No. Cold stone.† He took his hand away. â€Å"Princess, are you well? Should you be up, weak as you are?† â€Å"Weak? I am strong, Jorah.† To please him, she reclined on a pile of cushions. â€Å"Tell me how my child died.† â€Å"He never lived, my princess. The women say . . . † He faltered, and Dany saw how the flesh hung loose on him, and the way he limped when he moved. â€Å"Tell me. Tell me what the women say.† He turned his face away. His eyes were haunted. â€Å"They say the child was . . . â€Å" She waited, but Ser Jorah could not say it. His face grew dark with shame. He looked half a corpse himself. â€Å"Monstrous,† Mirri Maz Duur finished for him. The knight was a powerful man, yet Dany understood in that moment that the maegi was stronger, and crueler, and infinitely more dangerous. â€Å"Twisted. I drew him forth myself. He was scaled like a lizard, blind, with the stub of a tail and small leather wings like the wings of a bat. When I touched him, the flesh sloughed off the bone, and inside he was full of graveworms and the stink of corruption. He had been dead for years.† Darkness, Dany thought. The terrible darkness sweeping up behind to devour her. If she looked back she was lost. â€Å"My son was alive and strong when Ser Jorah carried me into this tent,† she said. â€Å"I could feel him kicking, fighting to be born.† â€Å"That may be as it may be,† answered Mirri Maz Duur, â€Å"yet the creature that came forth from your womb was as I said. Death was in that tent, Khaleesi.† â€Å"Only shadows,† Ser Jorah husked, but Dany could hear the doubt in his voice. â€Å"I saw, maegi. I saw you, alone, dancing with the shadows. â€Å" â€Å"The grave casts long shadows, Iron Lord,† Mirri said. â€Å"Long and dark, and in the end no light can hold them back.† Ser Jorah had killed her son, Dany knew. He had done what he did for love and loyalty, yet he had carried her into a place no living man should go and fed her baby to the darkness. He knew it too; the grey face, the hollow eyes, the limp. â€Å"The shadows have touched you too, Ser Jorah,† she told him. The knight made no reply. Dany turned to the godswife. â€Å"You warned me that only death could pay for life. I thought you meant the horse.† â€Å"No,† Mirri Maz Duur said. â€Å"That was a lie you told yourself. You knew the price.† Had she? Had she? If I look back I am lost. â€Å"The price was paid,† Dany said. â€Å"The horse, my child, Quaro and Qotho, Haggo and Cohollo. The price was paid and paid and paid.† She rose from her cushions. â€Å"Where is Khal Drogo? Show him to me, godswife, maegi, bloodmage, whatever you are. Show me Khal Drogo. Show me what I bought with my son’s life.† â€Å"As you command, Khaleesi,† the old woman said. â€Å"Come, I will take you to him.† Dany was weaker than she knew. Ser Jorah slipped an arm around her and helped her stand. â€Å"Time enough for this later, my princess,† he said quietly. â€Å"I would see him now, Ser Jorah.† After the dimness of the tent, the world outside was blinding bright. The sun burned like molten gold, and the land was seared and empty. Her handmaids waited with fruit and wine and water, and Jhogo moved close to help Ser Jorah support her. Aggo and Rakharo stood behind. The glare of sun on sand made it hard to see more, until Dany raised her hand to shade her eyes. She saw the ashes of a fire, a few score horses milling listlessly and searching for a bite of grass, a scattering of tents and bedrolls. A small crowd of children had gathered to watch her, and beyond she glimpsed women going about their work, and withered old men staring at the flat blue sky with tired eyes, swatting feebly at bloodflies. A count might show a hundred people, no more. Where the other forty thousand had made their camp, only the wind and dust lived now. â€Å"Drogo’s khalasar is gone,† she said. â€Å"A khal who cannot ride is no khal,† said Jhogo. â€Å"The Dothraki follow only the strong,† Ser Jorah said. â€Å"I am sorry, my princess. There was no way to hold them. Ko Pono left first, naming himself Khal Pono, and many followed him. Jhaqo was not long to do the same. The rest slipped away night by night, in large bands and small. There are a dozen new khalasars on the Dothraki sea, where once there was only Drogo’s.† â€Å"The old remain,† said Aggo. â€Å"The frightened, the weak, and the sick. And we who swore. We remain.† â€Å"They took Khal Drogo’s herds, Khaleesi,† Rakharo said. â€Å"We were too few to stop them. It is the right of the strong to take from the weak. They took many slaves as well, the khal’s and yours, yet they left some few.† â€Å"Eroeh?† asked Dany, remembering the frightened child she had saved outside the city of the Lamb Men. â€Å"Mago seized her, who is Khal Jhaqo’s bloodrider now,† said Jhogo. â€Å"He mounted her high and low and gave her to his khal, and Jhaqo gave her to his other bloodriders. They were six. When they were done with her, they cut her throat.† â€Å"It was her fate, Khaleesi,† said Aggo. If I look back I am lost. â€Å"It was a cruel fate,† Dany said, â€Å"yet not so cruel as Mago’s will be. I promise you that, by the old gods and the new, by the lamb god and the horse god and every god that lives. I swear it by the Mother of Mountains and the Womb of the World. Before I am done with them, Mago and Ko Jhaqo will plead for the mercy they showed Eroeh.† The Dothraki exchanged uncertain glances. â€Å"Khaleesi, † the handmaid Irri explained, as if to a child, â€Å"Jhaqo is a khal now, with twenty thousand riders at his back.† She lifted her head. â€Å"And I am Daenerys Stormhorn, Daenerys of House Targaryen, of the blood of Aegon the Conqueror and Maegor the Cruel and old Valyria before them. I am the dragon’s daughter, and I swear to you, these men will die screaming. Now bring me to Khal Drogo.† He was lying on the bare red earth, staring up at the sun. A dozen bloodflies had settled on his body, though he did not seem to feel them. Dany brushed them away and knelt beside him. His eyes were wide open but did not see, and she knew at once that he was blind. When she whispered his name, he did not seem to hear. The wound on his breast was as healed as it would ever be, the scar that covered it grey and red and hideous. â€Å"Why is he out here alone, in the sun?† she asked them. â€Å"He seems to like the warmth, Princess,† Ser Jorah said. â€Å"His eyes follow the sun, though he does not see it. He can walk after a fashion. He will go where you lead him, but no farther. He will eat if you put food in his mouth, drink if you dribble water on his lips.† Dany kissed her sun-and-stars gently on the brow, and stood to face Mirri Maz Duur. â€Å"Your spells are costly, maegi.† â€Å"He lives,† said Mirri Maz Duur. â€Å"You asked for life. You paid for life.† â€Å"This is not life, for one who was as Drogo was. His life was laughter, and meat roasting over a firepit, and a horse between his legs. His life was an arakh in his hand and his bells ringing in his hair as he rode to meet an enemy. His life was his bloodriders, and me, and the son I was to give him.† Mirri Maz Duur made no reply. â€Å"When will he be as he was?† Dany demanded. â€Å"When the sun rises in the west and sets in the east,† said Mirri Maz Duur. â€Å"When the seas go dry and mountains blow in the wind like leaves. When your womb quickens again, and you bear a living child. Then he will return, and not before.† Dany gestured at Ser Jorah and the others. â€Å"Leave us. I would speak with this maegi alone.† Mormont and the Dothraki withdrew. â€Å"You knew,† Dany said when they were gone. She ached, inside and out, but her fury gave her strength. â€Å"You knew what I was buying, and you knew the price, and yet you let me pay it.† â€Å"It was wrong of them to burn my temple,† the heavy, flat-nosed woman said placidly. â€Å"That angered the Great Shepherd.† â€Å"This was no god’s work,† Dany said coldly. If I look back I am lost. â€Å"You cheated me. You murdered my child within me.† â€Å"The stallion who mounts the world will burn no cities now. His khalasar shall trample no nations into dust.† â€Å"I spoke for you,† she said, anguished. â€Å"I saved you.† â€Å"Saved me?† The Lhazareen woman spat. â€Å"Three riders had taken me, not as a man takes a woman but from behind, as a dog takes a bitch. The fourth was in me when you rode past. How then did you save me? I saw my god’s house burn, where I had healed good men beyond counting. My home they burned as well, and in the street I saw piles of heads. I saw the head of a baker who made my bread. I saw the head of a boy I had saved from deadeye fever, only three moons past. I heard children crying as the riders drove them off with their whips. Tell me again what you saved.† â€Å"Your life.† Mirri Maz Duur laughed cruelly. â€Å"Look to your khal and see what life is worth, when all the rest is gone.† Dany called out for the men of her khas and bid them take Mirri Maz Duur and bind her hand and foot, but the maegi smiled at her as they carried her off, as if they shared a secret. A word, and Dany could have her head off . . . yet then what would she have? A head? If life was worthless, what was death? They led Khal Drogo back to her tent, and Dany commanded them to fill a tub, and this time there was no blood in the water. She bathed him herself, washing the dirt and the dust from his arms and chest, cleaning his face with a soft cloth, soaping his long black hair and combing the knots and tangles from it till it shone again as she remembered. It was well past dark before she was done, and Dany was exhausted. She stopped for drink and food, but it was all she could do to nibble at a fig and keep down a mouthful of water. Sleep would have been a release, but she had slept enough . . . too long, in truth. She owed this night to Drogo, for all the nights that had been, and yet might be. The memory of their first ride was with her when she led him out into the darkness, for the Dothraki believed that all things of importance in a man’s life must be done beneath the open sky. She told herself that there were powers stronger than hatred, and spells older and truer than any the maegi had learned in Asshai. The night was black and moonless, but overhead a million stars burned bright. She took that for an omen. No soft blanket of grass welcomed them here, only the hard dusty ground, bare and strewn with stones. No trees stirred in the wind, and there was no stream to soothe her fears with the gentle music of water. Dany told herself that the stars would be enough. â€Å"Remember, Drogo,† she whispered. â€Å"Remember our first ride together, the day we wed. Remember the night we made Rhaego, with the khalasar all around us and your eyes on my face. Remember how cool and clean the water was in the Womb of the World. Remember, my sun-and-stars. Remember, and come back to me.† The birth had left her too raw and torn to take him inside of her, as she would have wanted, but Doreah had taught her other ways. Dany used her hands, her mouth, her breasts. She raked him with her nails and covered him with kisses and whispered and prayed and told him stories, and by the end she had bathed him with her tears. Yet Drogo did not feel, or speak, or rise. And when the bleak dawn broke over an empty horizon, Dany knew that he was truly lost to her. â€Å"When the sun rises in the west and sets in the east,† she said sadly. â€Å"When the seas go dry and mountains blow in the wind like leaves. When my womb quickens again, and I bear a living child. Then you will return, my sun-and-stars, and not before.† Never, the darkness cried, never never never. Inside the tent Dany found a cushion, soft silk stuffed with feathers. She clutched it to her breasts as she walked back out to Drogo, to her sun-and-stars. If I look back I am lost. It hurt even to walk, and she wanted to sleep, to sleep and not to dream. She knelt, kissed Drogo on the lips, and pressed the cushion down across his face.