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123 AC, Lands of Always Winter
"We're not exactly safe here, and it won't be long before they notice that something isn't right." "Move where?" Cregan asked. The golden-haired woman looked at him as if he were an idiot, "To the Heart of Winter, of course."
Cregan couldn't help but feel surprised when Daphne quickly pulled him towards her and followed them in running away from the giant worm monster, which Harry was battling. He immediately understood why that was when the creature roared, and the very world around him shook, and bent to its will. He could hear Ghost whine in fear, and the Lord of Winterfell was not much better.
The creature looked different now. That was something that Cregan quickly realised. It looked more akin to a ghost than the fleshy creature it used to be, though it was no less monstrous. Its presence also seemed to warp everything around it, like a rock thrown in a pond. He supposed that it always did that, but it was not quite so apparent.
The warping had almost reached them when the woman raised her hand, which released a faint golden glow which seemed to mainly originate from the ring she wore. A small golden shroud appeared before them, and the warping seemingly splashed against it before it was dispelled once more.
Daphne looked at the worm monster that her husband was battling, seemingly coming to a decision, before she commanded them, "Follow me."
She then proceeded to brusquely walk away from her husband's fighting form. Confused at the act of abandonment, the young man couldn't help but ask, "You said that we would go to the Heart of Winter."
Daphne turned towards him, "We will, but do you think we're in a position to do that now?"
Cregan and Leaf both turned towards the ice fortress that was before them, only to freeze as they slowly made out the gigantic shroud of darkness that originated from it. The ice itself looked strange, as if it were leaking some strange tar-like substance, staining the very icy ground around it. Above was a gigantic pillar of darkness that seemed to spread into the sky, covering the sun, though they could still see. There were small fragments on it, almost akin to twinkling stars in the horrific mimicry of night.
This fake night seemingly spread outwardly, though the shroud seemed to become thinner as it moved south, up until its remnants splashed against a gigantic wall of ice and light in the distance.
He couldn't help but stay shocked at what he was witnessing, for the world around him was devoid of colour, and even the features that he could see felt strange, as if the world was uncertain about what they looked like, to show it to them.
"What is this place?" he heard Leaf ask, as they continued walking away from Harry's battle with the monster.
"An echo realm. Imagine the world to be made of layers. This is one of them, much like the reflection that Harry trapped the Other in the Frostfangs."
"We are trapped here?" Cregan exclaimed.
"No, we are not," the golden-haired woman answered dryly, "I can make us leave whenever we want to, but given our proof of the Others' blindness to these planes of existence. This realm is not quite as rigid as the world of reflections, for it is much deeper. Reality behaves differently, with very different rules. Certain natures are revealed, as you have just seen. We cannot be seen from the outside world, but there are things that can affect many layers of reality, and there are things here that would pose a danger to us as well. However, we have an opportunity here that we would not have in the outside world."
The young man nodded at the explanation. Much of it went over his head, with talks of realms and planes of existence, but he understood enough to know that they were hidden from the Others' sight, and they were not quite free of danger, as that worm seemed to be able to affect the world around them.
There was something that still bothered him, though: "What about your husband?"
Daphne snorted at that and simply looked at the giant worm monster, which suddenly screeched and started moving. The very world around it shuddered, before a void surrounded it. It ran out, seemingly swallowing everything in sight, even the shroud of night and the darkness within the Heart of Winter. He could feel Ghost move in front of him, as if wishing to protect him from this impossible threat.
Cregan, Leaf, and Ghost were almost pulled there before Daphne had stopped them, with her strange golden shroud. He watched as everything was being pulled away, until suddenly, the shroud of night pulled itself away from the distance, strengthening itself near the Heart of Winter. Suddenly, the beast stopped thrashing, the void around it shrinking, before collapsing into nothingness, as the creature turned to ice. Then it fell, scattering into a million pieces.
Daphne smiled in amusement at the expression on his and Leaf's faces, "Yeah, Harry is going to be fine."
"What is it that you plan on doing?" Leaf asked.
The young Lord had to agree with the Child of the Forest, "I need the Wall's magic. Harry's little stunt forced the Others to use a lot of energy, which they used to expand their influence over their realm. He made it a lot easier. I don't even think that we have to travel too much south to get to a suitable place that I could use to draw the energy."
Cregan's eyes widened when he noticed that the shroud of night, the one that was centred on the Heart of Winter and spreading until the Wall, had shrunk. By the gods, it didn't even cross the Frostfangs anymore, though it was quickly starting to expand.
Seeing that they were quickly running out of time, he understood Daphne's hurry. He followed her until they quickly walked towards it, only for a shape to appear, some sort of shadow, that emerged from the shroud of night and tried to leap towards them.
The creature was humanoid in nature, in the vaguest sense. It was tall, thin, had two arms and two legs. The creature looked dark grey, yet not quite black, and left traces akin to ink stains with its every move. Its eyes were the outlier, being as blue as ice, the only form of colour that he had seen since entering this realm.
Despite not having a mouth, it was screaming as it approached them with its shadowy claws, but it was not a scream of rage, but of agony. It was akin to someone being tortured, yet attacking them in spite of the pain.
Cregan instinctively wielded his sword, ready to slay it, only for Daphne to casually walk forward and put her palm into its chest. Suddenly, the shadows seemed to melt away from the creature's form, like a stain being washed away, revealing a creature made of grey light, with distinct male human features. Daphne looked at him before stabbing him with some kind of strange crimson blade, a strange contrast in this world devoid of colour. Cregan swore that he could almost see a small grateful smile on the creature's face until it faded away into sparks of light.
The young man didn't have the faintest idea as to what he had just seen, and Daphne answered his unspoken question, "This is an echo of reality, traces of what was left behind, and in this case, of a human life that could have been. Harry could hear their screaming in the Frostfangs, their unspoken agony, the wails of the dead who were not allowed to have their peace."
Cregan and Leaf followed the woman's gaze to the Frostfangs, where they noticed a cloud of these creatures forming, and he winced as they finally registered their wails. Leaf gasped at the sight, and Cregan almost had when he realised what Daphne meant. These were the human souls that the Others used to create their living weapons and giant beasts. That creature that just attacked them had once been human.
If this had been what Potter had sensed in the Frostfangs, then he could understand the man's rage and his sudden seriousness when it came to the Others. He could not imagine hearing all of the screams in the Frostfangs without going mad.
Daphne's voice broke him from his thoughts, "They will attack us again. It will be up to you, Cregan, to protect us. Valyrian Steel was forged with the souls of men and dragons, horrific as it may be. It will be able to affect these soul remnants easily enough and grant them peace."
The young man nodded, "You have my sword. But what will you be doing?"
"Something interesting," she answered while looking at the Wall.
Cregan did not know what that meant, but Leaf obviously did: "Your magic could damage the Wall."
"It likely will," the woman agreed, "But the Wall was built with the express purpose of fighting the Others. This is when they are at their weakest, when the chances of victory are at their highest. Damaging the Wall's enchantments slightly is a small price to pay for literally fulfilling the purpose it was built for."
Leaf looked like she wished to protest, but Daphne continued, "You will also play an important part." She then raised her hand, which released a faint golden glow, "Take these. You'll know what to do, for it is your salvation"
The Child of the Forest's eyes widened as it shakingly took whatever golden objects the sorceress was holding. They were seeds that looked akin to saplings. There was a golden thread connecting them, like a giant loom or tapestry.
"How?" Leaf simply asked.
"I was curious when I first saw the Weirwood and found its magical properties quite remarkable, one whose influence is extremely powerful, even here. So, what do you say about spreading your forest to the enemy's land, especially as their influence over their domain is likely at its weakest?"
Daphne knelt down and planted one of the seeds in the soil beneath, and a vicious smile grew on Leaf's face as she looked and saw the shroud of night looking frail but still expanding. It was a very strange contrast to how she had been before, mostly a mixture of sadness and fear, which was understandable given the day that she had. Without saying anything else, the Child of the Forest practically ran into the distance, and the woman turned towards him, "Protect her, Cregan. I can take care of myself, and Ghost will protect me, won't he?"
Cregan suppressed the amusement as his newfound companion's tail wagged, as if approving of his newfound duty. And so, he nodded and motioned to follow, only to hesitate for a moment before asking, "Will… Will killing the shadow creatures save the men they used to be?"
"The wraiths, you mean?" the woman commented, and when he nodded, she answered, "No. These are traces, echoes. The true souls still remain bound by the Others. However, I believe that this would grant them a small measure of relief in their world of endless pain. But I promise you, Cregan, that before this day's end, they will be free."
He nodded solemnly. He would take the promise and follow after Leaf, who seemed to run around, and gently place each seed into the icy ground, followed by cutting the palm of her hand with her Dragonglass knife, and bleeding on it. He saw a small glow appear near the soil, and a small sapling emerging from the ground.
He did not know how long they spent doing this, but with each sapling planted, a golden thread bound them together, creating a thin wall that halted the shroud of night from spreading. Cregan immediately realised that they were halting the Others' influence from spreading. He did not know exactly why they had done it; he would not protest inconveniencing mankind's enemy in any way.
Then again, he had been busy battling the wraiths, as Daphne called them. Just as she said, they were often attacked by them, but Cregan quickly learned how to fight them. They were fast, but their screaming made it easy to know when they would attack them, and even then, he realised that they were quite predictable.
And just as the golden-haired woman theorised, Valyrian Steel slayed them easily enough. The entire affair was bittersweet, hearing their agony and providing them a measure of relief, while still knowing that their souls continued to suffer. He offered each one a prayer to the Old Gods, in hopes that it would give them a measure of comfort and perhaps even hope of freedom.
He still would have preferred the Builder's blade, the original Ice. There was a sense of familiarity, almost guidance, that grew with every moment he wielded that blade, which he treasured as much as the strength it gave him. It was something true to his legacy, something that a Stark forged himself, not something that someone commissioned from Valyria centuries ago, which had been named in honour of a legendary weapon. The blade in his hand, forged by the finest smiths in Old Valyria at the height of its power, felt like a poor mimicry of its namesake.
Finally, Leaf had surrounded the Heart of Winter with the saplings, creating a wall of golden threads that halted its advance. By that time, they had found their way back to Daphne, who was palming the ground, the Wall's familiar light, which he had seen in the distance, seemingly pulsing beneath her. In the meantime, there were ominous tendrils of blood surrounding her, slaying all of the incoming wraiths with an effectiveness that baffled him.
In the meantime, the Wall's light seemed to gather beneath her feet, where she had planted her own sapling, a testament of Daphne's magic, which seemed to almost reach its climax. Cregan was immediately helped by slaying the few lingering shades.
Just as Lady Daphne was raising her hand, the world shifted, with its colour returning once more. The shades that he had been battling were gone, and he looked around and noticed that even the Heart of Winter, whose corruption had been obvious just moments ago, had disappeared completely.
There were no doubts in Cregan's mind that they had returned to the normal world. And given the suddenness of it, it had not happened by design. He heard Daphne mutter a curse and tensed, taking it as a confirmation of his worst fears. The golden-haired woman had always acted like a refined lady despite her obvious foreignness and her husband's antics.
He did not have the time to ask what they would do as hundreds of walking bodies emerged from the icy ground below them, perhaps even thousands; he did not have the time to count. Most Wights were made of the bodies of men, half-frozen, half-decayed, but there were animals, such as bears, shadowcats, and wolves as well. Towering above them, as they marched, were hundreds of Ice Spiders and a few Ice Giants, ready to slay them.
Cregan did not think that their chances of survival were high. They were fully in the open and surrounded by what amounted to a small army. Their best bet was for Daphne or Harry to do some magic. As if she had heard his very thoughts, the woman raised her hand and created a wall of flames surrounding them, destroying the surprisingly flammable Wights. It did not seem to work as well against the Ice Spiders or the Ice Giants, but Cregan would not complain.
The Wall turned around them following the witch's command, and she turned towards them, "My spell will fade away eventually. I'll need you to hold them off while I'm finished."
"Hold them off?" Cregan exclaimed, "There are thousands of them!"
"It won't take long. Just make sure we don't die," the woman dryly retorted, before taking a knife and cutting her palm, which she later pressed onto the ground while muttering something in a language that he did not recognise.
Leaf seemed to have found her courage and immediately grabbed a few of her explosive orbs and threw them at the incoming Ice Spiders. Cregan muttered and raised his Valyrian Steel sword, ready to kill them as well. He did not have the strength that Ice gave him, but Valyrian Steel cut through his enemies very efficiently.
Leaf then pressed her arm into the ground, releasing a deep hum, and a wind appeared out of nowhere, sending the Wall of Fire deeper into the enemy's ranks. They were holding on for now, but it would not last for long.
Their enemies did not tire, did not care, but he could only hope that Daphne would finish her work soon, or they would quickly be overwhelmed by the sheer numbers they were facing.
As if they had been waiting for them, a sudden chill spread around them, and Cregan saw the wall of fire being snuffed away immediately. He could barely widen his eyes as he saw an Other riding the corpse of a horse, rising from the icy ground and galloping towards him, its blade of ice, ready to cut him in half.
The young Stark raised his Valyrian Steel blade in retaliation, and a loud ringing spread across the battlefield as both blades met. He could almost see the Other's wide eyes as everything and everyone around them was sent flying back, including both combatants.
He quickly rolled to the side as his instincts told him that something would come, and a sword of ice appeared where he had been moments later. Cregan was able to raise his weapon to shield himself, but then the Other burst into shards of ice. He turned and saw Leaf having thrown one of her Dragonglass daggers at it.
She then followed by hurling her explosive orbs next, letting them rest amid the chaos before they erupted. Then, he heard a loud roar and winced as he noticed the familiar figure of the Ice Demon that he had seen in the Frostfangs emerge from the ground, and ready its whip. If this hadn't been bad enough, the creature was followed by the appearance of two others of its kind.
Dread rising within him, Cregan turned to speak with Leaf, only to freeze as she was focusing on something on his belt, specifically, the broken horn that he had found near the Fist of the First Men.
Without saying a word, she grabbed the horn and put her bloodied hand on the horn whose runes started to glow ominously. Leaf then opened her mouth and sang.
It was unlike anything that he had ever heard before, a song of nature, of its wrath, and its unity, a plea for help from the gods, from all of those who would defend life itself. To Cregan's utter surprise, hundreds of Weirwood Trees grew from the ground, specifically from every sapling that Leaf had planted in the world echoes.
From the depths of the newly grown forest, dozens of familiar creatures made their way out of it, Children of the Forest. They were all armed with Dragonglass weaponry, and near him, he saw the figure of their Elder, using her strange staff to create beams of black fire, which swallowed two of the Ice Demons, and left nothing behind but ash. That seemed to act like a battle cry, as it pushed the rest of her kind to start raining arrows of Dragonglass at their enemies.
Cregan did not have the time to celebrate as he saw Leaf slump; the horn had turned into nothing more than dust. In the corner of his eye, he saw a figure running towards her, and he ran. He raised his hand with his Valyrian Steel weapon, ready to slay the Other. However, this time, there was no surprise on the creature's face. It had expected it and retaliated by kicking him far in the air.
The blow knocked the breath from his lungs and tore his weapon from his grasp. For what felt like the hundredth time, he wished that the original Ice had been with him, but he took a deep breath and slowly limped his way forward.
Cregan could feel the Other's amusement at his defiance, especially as it walked slowly towards Leaf. Suddenly, a white blur almost ran towards the Other, which the creature grabbed in mid-air. The young man's eyes widened as he saw Ghost's form, baring his fangs at the enemy of life itself. The young man did not know what possessed him to run, or how he was able to do so in the first place, but all he remembered was that he would not allow Ghost to be harmed.
He did not know what had happened, but suddenly, he looked at the Other's shocked expression, before it broke into shards of ice. He looked at his hands and noticed that he was holding the dagger that Harry had given him, which was glowing crimson instead of the white it had been earlier.
He saw Leaf's tired face and muttered something, "Dragon's blood…"
Cregan did not know what she meant and did not have the chance of doing so, as he heard a loud noise, which silenced the battlefield. Children and Others alike froze and turned towards Daphne's form, which, if he was honest, he sort of forgot about in their desperate bid for survival.
The woman looked slightly haggard as she slammed her bloodied hand into the trunk of a Weirwood tree, and suddenly all of the trees started to turn golden and grow impossibly in height, almost as high as the Wall itself.
The trees, in unison, released a pulse of golden light, and with it, Cregan's eyes widened as all of the Others' creatures, wights, Ice Spider, and even the remaining Ice Demons, turned to ash. Most importantly, where the Heart of Winter once stood.
The golden light seemed to sink beneath the ground and grab the very fortress from the ground. The world shook as it rose, as the gold started to seep through the very cursed ice that made it. Everyone remained transfixed as the fortress fully turned gold, the world holding its breath, and it exploded.
A wave of golden radiance swept outward, and Cregan braced for pain, for heat, for the shock of being thrown again, but none of it arrived. Instead, the light simply passed through him as though he were no more substantial than mist, though one that he could not see through.
However, he felt the world almost warp near where the structure once stood, and Cregan got the distinct feeling that it was akin to a knot unwinding itself, which shook the very world around it. The world seemed brighter, as if a huge oppressive weight had been lifted from his shoulders.
Still, when the light faded away, his eyes widened as all that remained of the Heart of Winter was a gigantic crater, one almost perfectly circular, as if someone had taken a bite from the world, with nought remaining but broken shards of golden ice, which were melting into the ground. Still, with the world settling, there were two figures who had remained standing.
One was Harry, who held both a strange colour-shifting scythe and Cregan's weapon, one in each hand. His silver cloak was almost glittering in the night.
Opposite to him was an Other, one of the few that had remained living, though this one wore a strange, broken crown of ice on his head. The creature looked around in shock and spoke up, "YOU KILLED THEM!"
The world seemed to almost shake at the creature's words, and he could see even the Children of the Forest and the few remaining Others almost wince at the sheer hate in its voice.
Harry's expression did not falter, remaining completely neutral, "I warned you. You did this."
The King of the Others released a gigantic roar of anger, and then it plunged its hand into the ground, which sank as if it were made of mud. When he pulled his arm back, it looked… wrong.
The skin was made of black, and it seemed to warp the very world around it, though the arm itself looked almost withered. However, at its end was a blade that made Cregan shiver with its sight alone. It was akin to seeing a fragment of the night's sky while surrounded by something crimson, which unsettled everything around it.
The creatures glared at Harry hatefully, "THEN WHAT COMES NEXT IS YOUR DOING!"
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AN: Phew, that chapter got away from me. I know that it's not a Harry POV, but I needed to provide a bit of context about what happened in the previous chapter. The idea was to show a bit of the battle from close by as opposed to what Harry had seen through scrying. 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.