Even though the Imp's speculation sounded reasonable, Sansa still did not quite believe it.
"Why are you so sure it was an illusion and not resurrection? Deceiving one person with an illusion is easy, but at the time, several thousand people saw the Red Priestess.
And the substitute died. It was Countess Meji who collected the body, and she examined it herself.
Resurrection sounds even more plausible. She could revive Jon, so why couldn't she revive herself?
After reviving, she must have guessed that we would move against Stannis, then set a trap to ambush you and Aegon."
"An illusion that deceives tens of thousands is indeed unimaginable, but someone burned to ashes can never be resurrected," Tyrion said.
"How do you know?"
"The Dragon Queen said so. I also asked Archmage Tam."
A trace of bitter, sardonic smile hung at the corner of Tyrion's mouth. "I once asked her whether my father could be brought back.My father wasn't burned to ashes, but he had already rotted into a pile of white bones. Long past the point of resurrection."
Sansa gave the dwarf a strange look. She really wanted to ask: after reviving Tywin, would you shoot him again with a crossbow, or should I slash him once to vent my anger, or perhaps have the Dragon Queen roast him with dragonfire, or let Aegon avenge his sister and mother?That old Tywin had enemies all over the world. Even reviving him a hundred times probably wouldn't be enough to kill him off.
Jon nodded in agreement. "I can be certain of one thing: the Red God cannot resurrect someone who has no body."
Tyrion continued, "There's another point. The spot where Balerion fell that day was right on the city wall.
If he had fallen outside the city, our people could have rushed him back to be treated.
How big is Winterfell, anyway?
Three hundred meters wide.
The Western Castle is even smaller, yet the wyvern slipped down from an altitude of three hundred meters!The odds of that happening are like tossing a coin over your shoulder and having it land perfectly in the mouth of a wine bottle twenty meters away.
If you say this wasn't designed in advance, who would believe it?I don't, at least.
So how could it be designed in advance?
Only through prophecy!
In fact, if Stannis hadn't captured Aegon through a one-in-ten-thousand coincidence, he could never have won this round no matter what. At that time, the morale of the knights under his command had already collapsed."
Tyrion's analysis was thorough and logical, and Sansa was gradually persuaded.
"It's just a pity that my Moon-Chanter meditation technique has only just begun," she said dejectedly.
"Jon, this failure is largely your responsibility," Tyrion suddenly said resentfully, glaring at Jon.
"What did I do?" Jon asked, utterly confused.
"Earlier, I said we needed to be wary of Melisandre's prophecy magic, yet you kept emphasizing that she often makes mistakes in her prophecies," Tyrion complained.
"I'm not lying to you. Her prophecies really are extremely vague. She once told me that my little sister Arya would come to the Wall to find me. I was so happy back then, like a complete idiot, and then I truly became one.
A girl did flee to the Wall, but it wasn't Arya. It was Lyanna of House Karstark." Jon looked both guilty and aggrieved.
"Then why was it so accurate this time?"
Jon shook his head with a bitter smile. "Maybe when it concerns her own survival, her prophecies are more precise."
"So this is your fault, and you must make up for it! Now that we've figured out Melisandre's true nature, if her body suffers a fatal injury, she will die just like an ordinary person, and she can't resurrect endlessly. You have the numbers. You can kill her by force."
After circling around the point for a long time, the dwarf once again brought up his earlier suggestion.
"How do you know she'll die if she's injured?" Jon asked, puzzled.
"She must be afraid of being harmed in order to foresee harm done to herself."
"What kind of reasoning is that?"
The dwarf closed his eyes and sighed. "The Dragon Queen fears that blades on the battlefield have no eyes, so after obtaining Valyrian steel, she immediately forged armor for herself by her own hand.Dragons fear scorpions, so the first batch of Valyrian steel was used to forge belly armor for the Black Dread."
"I've seen through these top-tier transcendent beings. The place where their defenses are strongest is always their weakness!"
"No. Aegon is in their hands. We can't take that risk," Sansa said sharply.
"If we don't take risks, the Iron Throne will have nothing to do with Aegon ever again. Imperial ambition has never been a smooth road. If it truly were, wouldn't anyone be able to become king?"
After hesitating for a moment, Sansa still shook her head. "If the person is gone, what's the point of the Iron Throne?Even if you get it, you won't be able to hold it.
Besides, we still have Aunt Dany. She will see justice done for us."
"Throughout history, there have only ever been those who fight for the throne. There has never been an emperor who willingly gave away a conquered realm! Aegon is only her nephew, not her son!" Tyrion said gravely.
"She has no son. Aegon is her only close relative, her only heir!" Sansa shrieked.
"She isn't even nineteen yet. She's healthy, and it's inevitable that she'll bear children in the future. Even Aegon understands this, which is why he left Slaver's Bay."
"I don't care. Right now, I only want Aegon. There can't be even the slightest risk!" Sansa sobbed, shaking her head like a rattle-drum.
"I hope you won't regret this in the future."
Maester Xiomer smeared the remaining fireproof salve all over Tyrion's body, then summoned servants and wrapped him up like a mummy with cotton cloth that had been boiled in strong liquor.
The mummy was placed inside a small coffin padded with a feather quilt.
The small coffin was secured to Tessa's back with leather straps.
Jon arranged for the most loyal and steady Maggie to escort the dwarf to Slaver's Bay.
Well, Maggie could not ride Tessa, but the dwarf was not completely dead. He could issue commands to Tessa from inside the coffin.
Winterfell's main keep.
Sansa's bedroom from when she was the Grand Princess of the North.
"Huh? What's going on?"
She held up a half-meter-long purple-black glass candle threaded with silver filaments, her face full of confusion.
At the tip of the glass candle rose a halo of light like a silver moon the size of a fist. As her right hand moved, it trailed fine tails in midair, like scattered silver dust.
Sansa was contacting Dragonstone, using Dragonstone's magical network hub to relay a message to the Dragon Queen of Slaver's Bay.
She wanted to tell Aunt Dany the outcome of the negotiations and the news that Tyrion and Maggie were about to arrive.
"Did you remember the frequency password wrong?" Jon reminded her.
"How could that be? I don't have dementia."
"Then Dragonstone must have changed the frequency password." Having just said that, Jon immediately shook his head. "At a critical moment like this, that doesn't make sense."
Sansa looked up and said in alarm, "It's not a password problem. I can't find the magical network hub at all."
"Is your glass candle broken? Let me try."
Sansa stopped channeling her magic and handed the small glass candle to Jon.
Moments later, a sphere of light the size of a basketball rose from the candle's tip. Half of it was black, like a living shadow, and the other half was surging with blood-red flames.
Red and black entwined like lovers, casting dreamlike, hellish disco lights across the vast bedroom.
"Ah!" Sansa's eyes widened as she cried out involuntarily.
The glass candle radiated a tsunami-like surge of magic, strong enough to send her hair flying wildly.
A thousand times stronger than her moonlight.
"How are you this powerful?" Sansa's small face turned pale, her body trembling beneath the magic flames that blended chilling cold and scorching heat.
"I've trained longer than you, and the meditation and fire-control techniques Daenerys gave me are both top-tier."
Jon's expression remained calm, without the slightest hint of showing off. He simply closed his eyes and sensed the location of the magical network hub.
He was not being sarcastic.
Dany had always thought the orthodox meditation technique given by Tamm was too basic, never realizing that its original purpose was to lay an extremely solid foundation with limitless potential for advancement.
In other words, it had a low starting point but enormous potential.
Somewhat like the Quanzhen Inner Art.
The Seven Disciples of Quanzhen were beaten into pulp by figures at the level of the Five Greats, but wasn't Old Imp still cultivating the Quanzhen Inner Art?
And didn't Hero Guo also use the Quanzhen Inner Art as the foundation of his internal power?
Tamm was like Qiu Chuji obtaining the Quanzhen Inner Art. Seeing that Dany had good innate talent, she wanted her to be "Guo Jing." Unfortunately, Dany Guo already possessed the Nine Yin Manual, so she passed the Quanzhen Inner Art on to her nephew "Yang Guo," and even threw in a vicious move from the Nine Yin, the White Bone Claw, which in the great shaman's lineage was the "Fire Control Technique."
Jon Yang soared skyward in a single leap.
"As expected, I can't sense any trace of the magical network hub, but there's nothing wrong with the glass candle," Jon said gravely.
Sansa's face turned white as she said in a trembling voice, "Could something have happened to Dragonstone? Did Euron lead the Great Kraken in a surprise attack on Dragonstone and destroy the magical network hub?"
Jon slowly shook his head. "Dragonstone Castle was forged with Valyrian stonecraft and is nearly indestructible. A sea monster couldn't take it down in one assault. I'll send a raven later to ask."
Although they failed to contact Aunt Dany, the well-prepared Tyrion still left Winterfell before dusk.
Standing on the high tower balcony and watching Tessa's figure disappear into the dim, low clouds, Sansa suddenly turned to Jon and asked, "What is your relationship with Melisandre? She's trying to seduce you.
It's fine if you take a wildling spearwife as a lover, but you mustn't be tempted by the red-robed woman!"
"It's not what you think," Jon said, his old face flushing as he shook his head with a bitter smile. "Sansa, she's a shadowbinder."
"You're a shadowbinder too."
Jon glanced around, dismissed the attendants and knights, and then said solemnly to Sansa, "I've seen Bran. In the weirwood, he became a greenseer!"
"Ah!" Sansa covered her mouth in shock, then burst into tears. Wiping them away, she smiled and said, "That's wonderful, truly wonderful. He didn't die, and he's become so accomplished, a greenseer, the strongest shapeshifter.
Mother will be so happy when she knows. Once we find Arya too, our whole family will be reunited."
"Yes," Jon said softly. "Lady Catelyn will surely be rejoicing for us in heaven together with Father and Robb."
Jon gently wiped the tears from his sister's cheeks, filled with both sorrow and hope.
"My mother…" Sansa froze for a moment, then swallowed back the matter of Lady Stoneheart.
"Where is Bran? When will he come back?" she asked eagerly.
"Bran is in the Land of Always Winter, thousands of kilometers north of the Wall. Guarding the world's gateway is his responsibility, so he can't return for now.
It's a pity you've converted to the Seven. You can't communicate with him through the heart tree."
"There's nothing to regret. I wasn't devout toward the Old Gods before either," Sansa said with clear self-awareness. Then she asked, "What does guarding the world's gateway mean?"
"I'm not entirely sure. It may have something to do with the White Walkers."
"You can see him every day in the heart tree?"
"Only when he seeks me out. I can't contact him on my own. Through the trees, he can observe the entirety of Westeros. No matter where we are, he can communicate with us."
"Wow, worthy of being a greenseer feared by all the transcendent beings. He's truly that powerful," Sansa said excitedly.
She had studied the Moonchanter's meditation method and knew some basics of the transcendent world, which was why she exclaimed as she did.
However, if she understood the difference between the Three-Eyed Raven and an ordinary greenseer, she would realize that her little brother at this moment was still just a little brother.
Jon said solemnly, "Bran warned me that Melisandre wants to take something from me through sexual union.
Although she revived me before, she now harbors ill intent toward me."
(End of chapter)
Want to read the chapters in Advance? Join my Patreon
https://patreon.com/Glimmer09