R'hllor's expression turned cold. She tilted Her head slightly and fixed Her shining, spirited purple eyes on Aegor, staring until his heart felt a chill.
"You seem to have misunderstood something. This war against the White Walkers is one you fight for your own survival as a human, not because I asked you for help. Your existence has saved me a great deal of effort, but as long as the cold god still fears me, with my support from behind the scenes, the humans are destined to win this war, with or without you. The only difference is the cost. Now, I am using the power I saved because of you to cast a spell and enter your dream. After explaining everything to you, I owe you nothing."
Just as Aegor thought his probing had offended the goddess and began considering whether to back down to avoid provoking Her further, R'hllor's tone shifted, giving the conversation a new direction.
"Rewards, just those two. But if you truly want something more, it's not impossible. Have you considered why I would go to the trouble of explaining so much to a mortal like you to dissuade you from taking a risk, instead of simply implanting the idea 'the Land of Always Winter is dangerous and you must not go' directly into your mind?"
Aegor's expression changed slightly. For a moment, he couldn't tell whether She was genuinely asking, or reminding him, through intimidation, of Her divine power and superiority.
"Because you are not the kind of clever person who can be controlled by fabricated ideas or petty tricks. To make someone like you serve me, rather than casting spells to influence your mind and constantly worrying about whether you'd break free from that control through suspicion and reasoning, which would cause unnecessary complications, it is better to explain everything clearly from beginning to end, so you choose to serve me of your own will."
The woman no longer hovered beside him but rose higher and drifted back a short distance. Her silver hair billowed in a breeze from nowhere, and She looked down at him with increasingly radiant purple eyes. The sight was truly awe-inspiring, majestic, and untouchable.
A moment ago, She had only seemed like a visitor within his dream, a storyteller. But now, She had transformed back into the high and mighty Lord of Light, the Red God R'hllor, above all mortal things.
"I have indeed prepared something else, but this is not a reward. It is an advance payment for what you will do for me in the future." The woman raised Her right arm and opened Her palm. A small object, shining with such intense light that its shape was completely obscured, hovered above Her hand. "This time, I forced the cold god to back down by relying on the lingering prestige I accumulated over thousands of years. But bluffing cannot last forever. I must escape this miserable state before that deterrent fades. So, I've made a decision. I will enter a long slumber, for an unknown period, using the latent abilities of my Dragonblood to take some risks and attempt to rid myself permanently of the demonic power clinging to me."
R'hllor lowered Her hand, but the crystal-clear, unidentified object did not fall or drift away due to the planet's gravity within the dream world of ice and fire. Instead, it floated steadily between Her and Aegor, faintly glimmering with a subtle light, spinning slowly like something alive.
"While I focus on healing my wounds, I will be unable to answer the prayers of my followers, nor intervene to guide the mortal world. Therefore, I need a helper to manage my followers, protect the surviving members of my bloodline, and build a new kingdom while I sleep." The light enveloping the goddess grew brighter, gradually obscuring Her appearance and expression. "Childbearing is troublesome and drains a tremendous amount of energy. I do not wish to go through it again. At the same time, I hope that when I recover and try once again to leave this world, I won't need to wait hundreds or even thousands of years for the formation of another vast kingdom capable of constructing a portal array. So the best approach is to begin planning its construction in advance."
"Aegon Targaryen was once a piece I selected, but during a moment of slumber, his descendants turned on each other. Their numbers dwindled, and then the dynasty vanished in the blink of an eye. Three hundred years of waiting turned into wasted effort. Now, I need a reliable new choice to continue the task that was interrupted. Are you willing to accept it?"
Could it be that the True Dragon Dynasty, founded by Aegon the Conqueror after uniting the Seven Kingdoms, had merely been a backup plan R'hllor activated after the Doom of Valyria? And now, he was being chosen to assist Her descendants in establishing a new, powerful, unified kingdom, so that when this willful goddess awoke after healing, She could immediately have the resources to rebuild a new portal array and attempt to leave this world again?
The thought of being so insignificant was unpleasant.
Not to mention, with the enormous time required for such a colossal undertaking, it was likely he would never live to see it completed, let alone gain anything from it to return to his original home.
But Aegor had long passed the naive stage of doing things based solely on how he felt. Now, what he truly cared about was what benefits this so-called advance payment—this glowing object of unclear form—could bring him.
Extraordinary power? Immortality? Or both?
"This is one of my scales, an ordinary one, but it has been sealed with spells to stabilize its power and effects." R'hllor seemed to see through his thoughts. "Don't be surprised. As someone with half-Dragonblood, what lies beneath my clothing is not quite what you imagine. Whoever carries this scale becomes the earthly representative I have personally selected and recognized. My followers will obey your authority without question. All sentient beings will revere your existence, and every extraordinary entity that has seen or heard of me, with the exception of the cold god in the Land of Always Winter and the demons still active in the ruins of Valyria, will not dare become your enemy. For a mortal who possesses power but lacks strength, is there any better reward than this?"
It was somewhat unexpected, but Aegor was not especially satisfied. This was still far below his initial expectations.
"Accept or refuse, it is your choice." R'hllor spoke with an unwavering tone. "But I must remind you, those willing to serve me in this world could line up from the Shadow Tower to Eastwatch-by-the-Sea. I simply prefer you, an outsider, someone with the same origin as my mother. That's why I came to you first."
Aegor didn't believe the claim about preferring outsiders, but the task She offered wasn't difficult for him. It didn't conflict with his plan to elevate the Queen. In fact, it could be accomplished alongside it. R'hllor called the scale an advance payment, but to him, it was no different from a third reward. There was no reason not to take it.
Moreover, Her words held another implication. She would inevitably choose someone for this role. If he didn't accept it, he might later become the enemy of whoever did.
"I accept, Lady R'hllor." Aegor didn't take long to decide. This wasn't truly a request for his opinion. If She really was the Red God, then from the moment She chose to enter his dream, She had already made up Her mind. Offering him a choice was just a ceremonial gesture to make it seem less like a command. He was proud and willful, but he also knew when to display it and when to conceal it. So he bowed his head and gave a respectful answer. "For the rest of my life, I will carry out the task you've entrusted to me with complete dedication."
"Don't try to act virtuous after taking advantage." R'hllor snorted softly. "As for how to use this payment, I won't bother explaining in detail. Figure it out yourself. Use your imagination freely. As long as a powerful kingdom that can serve me is eventually built, I don't care how you use my name to commit misdeeds or deceive others. Hmm, that's all. Farewell... perhaps forever."
Although Aegor still had many doubts, the goddess gave him no further chance to speak. As soon as Her voice fell, the long dream finally ended. The woman, now glowing like a being made of pure light, shattered and disintegrated into countless sparkling fragments that drifted into the void. Only the glowing "scale" and Aegor, full of questions, remained.
What did Her last words, "perhaps forever," really mean? Could the slumber She spoke of still fail and lead to Her death?
The thought passed briefly through his mind, but then he realized the truth.
It wasn't that She might die. It was that he might die.
To an immortal being with infinite lifespan, he, a mortal, was like a speck of plankton, barely noticeable and gone in an instant. This was very likely. By the time She awakened, recovered, and looked at the world again, decades or centuries could have passed, and he would long since have turned to dust. That was the true meaning of "perhaps forever."
His mouth turned bitter for a moment. A new problem came to mind. R'hllor was gone, but why didn't She hand over the "payment"? He was currently suspended in gravity-free space, and the glowing scale floated more than ten meters away. How was he supposed to retrieve it?
No, wait—he slapped his forehead. He had nearly been confused by R'hllor's story. He had forgotten that this was his own dream. As a lucid dreamer, could he really be stopped by a mere ten meters?
Just as he prepared to imagine some kind of superpower to pull the payment closer, an even greater doubt arose in his gradually clearing mind. Wait, since this was a dream, even if he got the dragon scale—or rather, the half-dragon scale—how could he bring it out of the dream?
As he was seriously thinking through this question and even starting to suspect it was all a scam, the silver-gold scale, which was slowly dimming and becoming visible to the naked eye, seemed to grow impatient. It stopped spinning, trembled in place a few times, then suddenly accelerated without warning. In the next instant, it turned into a beam of light and shot directly into his chest before Aegor could react.
A sharp pain pierced his chest. His eyes snapped open, and he woke from the dream.
(To be continued.)