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123 AC, Hardhome, Beyond the Wall
From the ashes, a figure appeared. It was Harry Potter, but he was different. As he turned towards the Greenseer's last thrall, the scythe in his hand disappeared into mist, and he spoke up with a serious tone, "I believe it's time for us to have a conversation, Brynden Rivers."
Cregan Stark stared at the remains of the so-called Greenseer, unable to do anything but feel confusion at how it ended so brusquely. Harry Potter had fallen from the sky, the gigantic dragon somehow being turned into ash, and stared down at his enemy for a few moments, followed by just walking slowly and putting a palm to his head.
Green light emerged from Bloodraven's eyes, formerly white eyes, and Harry kept touching him for a few seconds before turning away, as the Greenseer slowly but surely faded away into motes of light.
The Greenseer's death had been sudden and quick. Cregan had given his everything in that battle, where the odds had seemed utterly grim, and it all ended with a witch slamming her bleeding palm into the ground, and the sorcerer merely touching their enemy's head.
Harry then turned and shared a look with his wife, which was followed by a nod to some unspoken question that she must have asked him. For some reason, the golden-haired woman almost looked relieved by the news.
As for Cregan, he still stared at where the Greenseer once stood with an entire army at his back, made of men, beasts and even giants. He couldn't help but feel humbled by the sight, or lack of, in this case. There were only corpses and the ashes of a dead man.
Leaf, on the other hand, looked completely horrified for some reason, almost flinching at Harry's every movement. Cregan knew that more had happened than he had expected; he had to admit that the green light that had destroyed the Greenseer had felt overwhelmingly oppressive, terror-inducing even.
And so, he broke the silence with a question, "What did you do to him?"
Harry shrugged and answered, "We came to a compromise."
That… That didn't answer much, and if anything, Leaf seemed to be even more shocked than normal. He wished to elaborate, but something inside him told him that it was better not to press.
Thankfully, Daphne changed the subject for them, "So, what was it?"
"It seems that we'll have to go to Volantis for a visit."
Cregan did not know why that statement sounded more akin to a threat than a suggestion of a travelling destination.
"R'hllor?" the woman answered questioningly, "You did think that he had been the main driving force that led to the mess outside Chroyane."
R'hllor, that was a name that he was uncomfortably familiar with.
After all, it was hard not to know the name of the Red God, given its faith's rather rapid expansion in Essos in the past few moons. After the devastation of Qarth, something that most believe to be some kind of failed coup by a group of their sorcerers, or just a misfired ritual, the Red Faith had all but invaded the city, offering its forces to recover from the devastation.
It was an alarming prospect for most Essosi because it was the furthest the Red Faith had spread so far, especially in a city so influential that it acted like a hub of trade with the far East. The sudden shift of influence was rumoured to eventually lead Essos to be enveloped in another war, a religious one at that.
It didn't affect Cregan's kingdom much, but Sara had seemed interested in how the situation would unfold. It had mostly come up when he asked her to investigate the rumours of rising tensions in the Stepstones, which also happened to be correct.
Still, it seemed that he needed to investigate the matter more, given that the Red Faith seemed far more involved with the North than it should be, at least according to the Potters.
Then again, they might be speaking of something else entirely, "You speak of the Red God."
"Yeah. We haven't really encountered him. He seemed to be content, wanting to spread his faith across Essos, probably hoping to increase his dominion, maybe even gain connections to a few extra domains. Still, for him to arrange for what is essentially an assassination attempt on us is very concerning."
"How was that an assassination attempt?"
Daphne seemed amused by that, "It was a very well-planned attack, which was arranged in the hopes of killing us. That is, by definition, an assassination attempt. Though you do have a point. He must have spent a considerable amount of power to protect Bloodraven from the Paradox he created; that's without even considering how much it likely cost him to animate an Elder Dragon. It seems slightly wasteful for an assassination."
Suddenly, a freezing cold spread across the world around them. The air turned so cold it hurt to breathe. Snow in the air stopped moving, and a layer of frost spread across the ground in seconds, covering the ashes, the trees, and the bodies scattered nearby.
Leaf released a gasp of horror, "The Cold Ones are coming. We must move, quickly."
"What a surprise," Daphne commented with a dry tone, "It's not like we didn't fight a giant dragon in their domain, did we?"
Harry seemed slightly amused at that, a sentiment that the young Stark did not share. After all, this was not the time for this, and if Leaf was correct, they needed to leave. He didn't get the opportunity to express any of this, as the sorcerer suddenly started looking up at one of the hills with an intensity that Cregan had seldom seen Harry show.
As he followed his gaze, Cregan could barely see anything bar the sudden snowstorm that enveloped everything around them. The cold grew harsher with each breath, sharp enough that his lungs protested. Snow stopped drifting naturally; it simply hung in the air, as if the storm had been paused mid-movement.
Shapes appeared through the white, exactly where Harry was looking, and Cregan instinctively knew that it was the Others. He could feel his medallion shaking wildly, his ancestral weapon, Ice, almost humming in anticipation of attacking them. He could feel their cold, dead gaze on them, and he had to admit that it felt quite different to that of the Corpse Queen. She, for all of her inhumanity, felt natural, as opposed to the presence of the Others. He could understand why they were called so, for they felt particularly off-putting, inhuman in a way.
He would have stared at them, at his family's mortal enemy, the very purpose that Bran the Builder had created Winterfell, alas, if it weren't for him noticing the corpses around them twitching briefly. Their limbs moved in short, rigid motions, like something was trying to force them upright. One corpse managed to lift its head. Another pushed an arm against the frozen ground, trying to rise.
The sorcerer seemed completely and utterly unconcerned by them, still staring at the Others in the distance. Cregan could see Leaf preparing to use one of her exploding spheres in one hand, while her Dragonglass dagger seemed to glow in the other. He, himself, took up a stance, ready to defend himself from the onslaught, only for Harry to snap his finger.
The snowstorm immediately disappeared in such an unnatural manner that it would have unsettled Cregan had the circumstances been different. In the meantime, dozens of roots came from the ground and bound the small army of rising corpses, which were swallowed into the snow and then the earth, as if it were liquid. Looking at the magic's source, it seemed to have originated from Daphne.
However, that was not where Cregan's focus remained, as the dispelling of the snowstorm allowed him to have a far better look at the Others than before. Even in the distance, he recognised that they rode some form of white horses, which seemed unnaturally still for any living animal despite the distance.
Their bodies were pale enough to blend with the frost behind them, yet distinct enough that Cregan could make out the shape of their armour and the faint glint of their weapons. None of them advanced. They simply observed, their attention fixed entirely on them, specifically, on Harry. Cregan did not know how he knew that, but it felt correct.
Harry, himself, returned their fascination with him, staring at them intensely. Suddenly, one of the white walkers released a sound, something between a screech and cracking icicles. The mere sound unsettled Cregan and making his grip on his weapon tighten.
Suddenly, another snowstorm appeared and enveloped the White Walkers, before disappearing just as abruptly, leaving no trace of the Others. Immediately after, the oppressive feeling that surrounded them was gone, relaxing the young Stark.
Though he heard Harry mutter to himself, "So much for being subtle, huh?"
His wife smiled at him, "No offence, Harry, but subtlety isn't exactly your strong suit."
He snorted in answer, "Still, I suppose that this was quite telling, wasn't it?"
Cregan interrupted them, whatever Daphne's reply would have been, "This was them, wasn't it? The Others."
"Yes," Harry answered, "Quite different from the one we met before, huh?"
And wasn't that an understatement?
Where the Corpse Queen was unnatural, she did not quite feel like this, "Wrong. They felt wrong."
"That's quite perceptive of you, and they are. I suppose some of my suspicions were confirmed today. It's funny how accurate a vague description like 'The Others' could be."
The young Stark did not fully understand what the man meant. However, he chose to focus on another question, one that he found much more critical: "Why did they leave?"
"Because they were facing something unknown. In a way, we have lost the element of surprise today. I swear that Bloodraven was almost a professional at making a mess of things. Still, even then, the fight didn't last that long, and this place is at the very edge of their domain. Their coming so quickly, especially without a raised army of corpses on their back, means that they weren't ready, and they rushed here. They probably had a waypoint ready for this place. Oh…"
Daphne suddenly looked interested in her husband's realisation, "What is it?"
"The fact that they came so quickly means that they knew about the dragon, and if they knew about it, then it stands to reason that they probably had a plan for it too. It was a corpse, wasn't it? Sure, it was a malformed hatchling that was dead in its own egg, but Joramun's ritual gave it a body, even if it had perished. It would have been a rather effective weapon against the Wall, don't you think?"
Cregan agreed with this terrible statement. After all, the prospect of this gigantic dragon attacking the Wall was a horrifying prospect indeed, and one that could have dealt a gigantic blow to the Night's Watch and the North as a whole.
His wife, though, didn't seem as horrified as she should have at the idea of such a creature being under the Others' control. "No wonder R'hllor risked so much in the attempt. We could either die, and he would get access to a very powerful weapon in the form of the dragon, or we could have defeated it, essentially denying the Others a powerful weapon."
Leaf spat out something with her strange language, only to stop, "To think that a Greenseer would treat with foreign gods… It is of no matter now. If the Cold Ones had come so deep into the Haunted Forest, then we need to return to the cave. We must wake my kin as soon as we can."
Harry nodded and raised his hand, summoning two familiar items to him, specifically, Cregan's Valyrian Steel Sword and the strange glowing white dagger that he had gifted him earlier, "Better not forget these before we leave."
Cregan looked away, slightly blushing as he grabbed the floating weapons that he had lost in the battle against the giant. He sheathed the Greatsword and the dagger quickly, while also resigning himself to continue to hold his ancestral weapon, the original Ice, as he did not have a sheath for it.
Still, the walk back to the cave was silent. Harry had apparently cast more powerful protections to hide them from the Others, with the hope of not leading them to the cave. The man also seemed preoccupied with something, like he was trying to solve a mystery in his own head.
It took a few hours until they found themselves staring at the Heart Tree where the Children of the Forest resided, and they walked inside with purpose, only for Cregan to freeze as he noticed over a dozen pairs of golden and slitted eyes, meeting his own, a few with hints of hostility in their depths, and others with more curiosity than anything. There were more Children of the Forest than he thought even existed, and he had a feeling that there were others there.
However, bar the initial surprise, they all dismissed him and turned towards Leaf, addressing her in their strange language. Leaving Leaf to her kin, Cregan followed the Potters, who the Children of the Forest seemed to avoid even looking at for some reason, though they didn't seem to care one bit.
Harry walked forward to see the last Greenseer's body, who remained rotten, just as it once was. The old man suddenly appeared beside them, though he looked much older than he was when they first visited the cave, his illusion feeling lesser, for the lack of a better description.
The man spoke with a hoarse voice, "I see that you have fulfilled the end of your bargain, Harry Potter. I suppose that it is only right that I do the same. I have spoken to the Earthsingers. One will have the answers you seek."
The sorcerer nodded in acceptance, looking oddly solemn despite getting what he wanted, "Thank you. Did you know?"
"Did I know that this day would be my last? I suppose I did. The Weirwoods kept me alive, but they could only do so for so long. Being cut off from the network accelerated what was already occurring. It is not a great loss; I am too weak to aid you in the coming battle, nor do I have a suitable successor in sight anyway, my only option having proved himself to be quite shortsighted."
A gasp sounded behind them, and Cregan turned to see Leaf with small tears appearing in her eyes, "You kept this from me… again."
"I have. It was always a failing of mine. I wished to protect you from the world. You were so young when I first saw you, a seedling in a cruel world that would snuff it out. You, Earthsingers, seem so unageing that I suppose I forgot that you would grow up as well, and for that I apologise. I am happy to have been able to hold on long enough to see you one last time, Leaf. Farewell. I shall miss you, young one, most of all."
Then slowly, the man's illusion started to fade away, with tears streaming down Leaf's face. Cregan had no doubts that the Greenseer had perished. The Child of the Forest opened her mouth and released a mournful song, one that made Cregan's heart clench in the sheer grief it expressed. The other Children joined her. Their voices rose one by one, forming a low, steady chant in their own tongue. It was not melodic in the way men's songs were. It sounded closer to a lament spoken through breath rather than sung. The cave felt smaller for it, the weight of their sorrow pressing in on all of them.
As they sang, the Heart Tree's roots began to stir.
The Greenseer's rotten body, still slumped beneath the carved face, shifted slightly as thin white roots crept over his limbs. They wound around him slowly and pulled him closer into the trunk. His legs disappeared first, then his torso, the decayed skin breaking apart in small flakes that the roots absorbed without effort.
His shoulders sank into the wood next, then his arms, leaving only the Greenseer's face above the roots. The peaceful expression he had worn in his final moment stayed unchanged as the bark spread across his cheeks, before his features were fully claimed by the Heart Tree, the man's face being etched into the trunk.
The Children's song softened, then ended as quietly as it had begun.
Leaf's eyes still released tears as if it were a stream, and she stared unblinkingly at the face of the Greenseer, and Cregan decided to leave her to her grief. The Potters seemed to have joined him in his decision.
Thankfully, they didn't wait too long, as a strange noise echoed from the deeper part of the cave. Immediately, the entire cave turned silent, as even the Children of the Forest seemed surprised as they turned to look at the noise's source.
It was also a Child of the Forest, but she also looked very different. Her skin was darker and rougher, more akin to the bark of a tree than skin. One of her eyes looked golden, while the other one was crimson, though they both looked more aged than Leaf's. She leaned slightly on a carved staff and walked slowly forward.
Cregan had never thought to see an elderly Child of the Forest, but that was the only description he had of the sight before him. She tapped her staff, and immediately, the Children of the Forest walked out of the cave, likely into its hidden depths, and finally, she spoke up, "The Greenseer claimed that you came seeking answers."
Her voice was calm, but not quite as melodious as Leaf's, and Harry nodded, "We did."
"The times before our forest were not kind," the elderly Child of the Forest replied. "My words will not give you peace."
Harry didn't answer, and Cregan would have wondered why, if it weren't for the fact that the elderly Child of the Forest was obviously addressing Leaf. Leaf stared at her kin and shook her head, making the elderly woman gain a mixture of pride and grief on her face.
"Then ask your questions, Stranger. I will answer what I can."
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AN: I was supposed to write the actual interaction here, but this chapter got away from me a bit, so I decided to stop here. The idea was to have the Greenseer's death be a contrast to Bloodraven's. This was also the first real interaction with the Others, at least the real one that raised the dead. I thought about making it an actual confrontation, but I didn't really like it for some reason; it just felt more fitting to have them come and leave. As usual, please let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions.
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If you want to support me, check out my patréon at https://www.patréon.com/athassprkr
I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions on them, so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.
Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.