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[---]
123 AC, King's Landing
Harry Potter walked up the stairs that made up Maegor's Holdfast, the very heart of the Red Keep, alongside his wife. The sudden gathering of energy, carefully contained and controlled, was akin to a lighthouse, an invitation that he immediately recognised, against his opponent in this game of chess that he had been arranging in the last few weeks, which culminated to this day.
It had been some time since he battled a Seer. He hadn't done so on this scale since Grindelwald, and Harry had not been able to do much other than dispel his ability to perceive the future, and relied on his interpretation of a very old and very powerful prophecy to fill in the void that he left. Looking back, it was utterly reckless because Fate rarely liked to be interpreted in a certain way, not even to save the world from devastation. However, it seemed that recklessly destroying prophecies made the entity quite resentful of Grindelwald and went along with it.
Now, it was a game, and it had rules. Neither he, his wife, nor his opponent would interfere actively in the battle beneath them. The result was apparent in the visions they likely both had of the battle, with it ending with nothing more than devastation by either side, should they escalate things, similarly to what happened to Pyke, but in a city with hundreds of thousands of people, something that neither side wanted.
It was pretty frustrating, if he were honest, but it was also interesting. The start of the Shadowbinders' attack was the signal that the game had begun, and now, it was time to finally meet his opponent.
They arrived at the top of the keep, having stopped before an almost flat surface, where a woman with crimson hair and clothes stood. She, curiously, had a bandage around her eyes, but Harry could infer that this blindness did not impede her in any way.
When they entered, she smiled, "Welcome, Potters… I have been waiting for you. I am Kinvara, servant of R'hllor, and will be your opponent for this bout in the name of the Lord of Light."
"You've gone through a lot of trouble to get us here."
"I have," the woman answered, "You are quite a frustrating man, I must say."
Harry hummed, focusing on something that had been niggling his head since the moment he saw this woman. In his research on R'hllor, he found out that Red Priests were pretty strange, as far as priests went. They did not have any direct connection to their gods, and instead, they held something of a spark inside them. The so-called Lord of Light communicated directly with them using divination, mostly through flames.
It was why it was so difficult to find the god's dimension.
Still, he shook his head in frustration. The woman felt different than she should have. It was strange, seeing the creature which had forced him into a confrontation that he wished to avoid. Still, it did not explain how this Kinvara would have been able to escalate things enough to stay his hand.
She wouldn't defeat him, not even close, but King's Landing wouldn't remain standing, that was for sure, and it would most certainly destroy much of the balance Harry had worked to secure in his time in Planetos.
The answer became quite obvious nonetheless: "You're not a normal priestess, are you?"
"I am not," she answered with a fake smile. "The Lord of Light has charged me to lead this battle in his honour."
"A battle, is it?" he repeated dryly.
"It is how gods battle, is it not?" Kinvara answered confidently, "Through warring mortals and champions."
"Are we gods now?" Harry retorted with a raised eyebrow.
"Are you not? I can feel your domains, a master of Space and Time that supersedes that of anyone else. How would you call that but godhood?"
"Skill," he joked back, "But it's funny that you didn't deny that you are a god. You're definitely not human. Perhaps you were, once, but not… this. What did this do to you?"
Harry expected the woman to get angry or defensive, and yet, her smile widened, "You did. I had the misfortune of being near your quest in Valyria. It was not quite something that a mortal should perceive, yet in my hubris, I thought myself above such concerns. The Lord of Light, in his infinite mercy, saved me, letting the fire of the Fourteen Flames nourish my inner flame, to become a true servant in a way that even that fool Benerro could never achieve."
Yes, that would do it. Harry didn't really have the time to make any calculations. He wasn't even sure that calculations would have been possible given the sheer influence that the Outside had in Valyria. However, it would make sense that a mutated blessing, empowered by the so-called Second Doom of Valyria, mixed with the fact that the woman's soul was most likely shattered into pieces, would combine into something… more, elevating its magic in a very troublesome way.
He wondered if there was anything really left of the woman before her 'ascension', or if this was all but a fancy method where a blessing grew powerful enough to possess the girl. It mattered very little in the end; this knowledge did not change the situation they were in.
"I have to admit," Daphne said, "that I didn't think that anyone would actually go through so much just to challenge us to a battle. Why here? My husband and I would have been perfectly happy fighting it out in the desert or some other deserted lands."
Kinvara snorted in amusement, "A battle? My dear, that is how mortals fight amongst one another. We are above them, are we not? You and your husband have long flouted the rules of the heavens, a limitation that stops the world from turning to chaos and returning this sphere to the devastation it once held dear. Your existence, as gods that walk amongst men, are heretical one. You have fought gods unfairly, battling them in a realm where they are limited, and using your domain to affect their true forms. The Lord of Light chose me to show you that, to grant you the wisdom that you lacked in your time in the realm of men."
Harry frowned at that answer.
If he were honest, he didn't give many thoughts about gods and how limited they were. It was always obvious; outside of their domains, they were weakened. Still, given what he heard about the War in Heavens, the so-called Other had used the Materium to usurp the power of countless gods. The Elder Dragons must have reigned in all possible divinities, created edicts to stop them from causing another war from starting out, or another Great Cataclysm from taking place.
He supposed that from their perspective, he and Daphne appeared from thin air, and upended the board completely, and they were not happy with that, not that Harry expected them to be happy about something existing that could truly kill them.
He didn't particularly care about that. The only two gods that he truly killed were Mother Royne, who wanted to die anyway, and the Drowned God, who had obviously broken the rules by manifesting himself in Dalton Greyjoy. For now, he only needed the power of a single god to finally finish his ritual and end the aftereffects of Daphne's curse, and then they would leave this realm, too.
Still, this fight is something that he was forced to participate in, or more likely, forced not to interfere in a carefully curated manner. A living blessing inside a priestess that would match Harry in terms of escalation, enough to cause enough damage to stay his hand, and ruin the work he put in since he came to this realm.
There was obviously a reason why Kinvara and R'hllor wished to stay his hand, something that would occur during the attack, and while he had a few ideas as to why that was, he could not narrow it down to anything.
Still, they figured out Harry's desire to balance the world and were using it to their advantage, something that he really didn't like.
"Then I suppose we should begin," Harry answered neutrally.
"We have already started it. We have chosen the battlefield and set up our pieces. Now, let us speak of terms." Kinvara stated.
Harry raised an eyebrow at that, "Terms?"
"Yes, there are terms, both equal in severity. The game would be a battle between two champions, one of your choosing, and another of R'hllor's. Should you lose our game, you and your wife shall no longer commit your heresy upon the divine."
"You are afraid."
"The Lord of Light fears nothing, especially not the likes of you," Kinvara snapped, "Yet you must see reason. Since you have set your foot upon your lands, you have slain two gods, massacred an entire order of magic users, and plunged a kingdom into a bloody civil war. Asshai and Nefer, two of the oldest cities in the history of the Known World, are nought more than graveyards. Is it truly strange that we wish it to end?"
"No," Harry answered, "I do not agree with your terms."
He then quickly felt it, the rage bubbling beneath the woman's skin, the flames of R'hllor simmering into an endless rage. She quickly and impressively recollected herself, "Perhaps, you would change your mind if you would hear what the Lord of Light would graciously offer you in return."
Harry raised an eyebrow and let her continue, "Should you be victorious, the Lord of Light would offer you the means to see his true self. He knows that you have been looking for it for some time, with no success."
That stopped him short. Kinvara was right, in the way that he had been looking for R'hllor's realm for some time now, and his search had frustratingly ended up with very little. However, could he truly trust what was essentially R'hllor's will in miniature to give him this information? It was unusual, especially since the god obviously took steps to hide himself from the world.
No, he would not trust it not to be some kind of trap or misdirection. He could see a lot of ways out of that, primarily, that this was not even R'hllor that he was dealing with, but some manifestation of the mutated blessing that Kinvara received when she became a priestess of the Lord of Light. Harry could feel the offer, the agreement, ready to chain them both, and yet, these chains would only affect them both, not the actual god behind the attack.
It was clever. R'hllor had obviously realised that attacking Harry wouldn't achieve much in the long run, and so, orchestrated this entire affair, forcing him to participate in it, with the risk of plunging the Seven Kingdoms into a war that would ruin the delicate balance that Harry created, without any reprisal from the sorcerer's part.
But that did not mean that he couldn't turn the situation around. Harry suppressed a smirk as he came up with an idea, "No. It would take from my joy of discovery. I want something else. I want you to never knowingly attempt to destabilise the balance of the material realm again."
Despite the fact that the experience was quite interesting, Harry had no plans on being forced into something like this again, and if his suspicions were right, this could easily end up as a massive constraint in the long run.
Kinvara practically jumped at the offer, not seeing it for what it was, "We are in accord. The Lord of Light's champion is to be Rhaenyra Targaryen."
Just as she said, Harry witnessed the woman in question stab the last Shadowbinder in the back and absorb the combined leaking life force of every single living creature in Asshai, ending the attack.
It was a shame. As far as opening moves went, Kinvara had won the first round.
Harry had mostly preoccupied himself with weakening the scale of the attack, starting with a discreet ward around the city to slowly drain the energy of the shadow constructs, the further they were from the Dragonpit, and also the calming charms around the city so that people wouldn't trample each other to death.
He had been guiding Hedwig discreetly, hoping that Aemond would be the one to deal the final blow with Blackfyre, with Cregan's help, which he was sure that Kinvara wouldn't have foreseen, since Harry had done his best to hide his presence since he asked him to come to King's Landing.
It wasn't exactly a great loss; Harry had planned around Rhaenyra's empowerment, since she would obviously be R'hllor's chosen champion, as a Targaryen who hated him.
He spoke up to finish the agreement, "My champion is Helaena Targaryen."
The agreement was sealed, and Kinvara obviously stiffened, not having expected this. Cregan was the obvious choice, as far as champions went. He was strong and had access to the magic within his sword, which would make him able to face an empowered Rhaenyra on equal ground.
However, that was in a direct confrontation, and this was anything but that.
After all, neither Kinvara nor Rhaenyra could obviously find Helaena, who had hidden inside the secret passages of the Red Keep, which Harry had subtly filled with a faint chaotic magical signature, which would disturb any form of magical scrying, or even divination while inside, except for someone who could make sense of the pattern he had used, someone like Helaena.
Harry had quickly explained what he needed from her when the Shadowbinder began their attack, and while Rhaenyra's newfound power made things more dangerous, he trusted Helaena to perform her task, and she had done admirably to join up with Aemond and Cregan, though he helped a bit by using Hedwig to inconvenience Rhaenyra at every turn, allowing Helaena to hide and turning the game into something of a stalemate, one that obviously frustrated Kinvara to no end.
The priestess turned to him, with much of the confidence that she held before being gone, "You are a formidable opponent indeed. But you must know that this will not end in your favour. If you seek to delay the inevitable, it will not end well, for the Lord's champion will find her eventually. You simply chose a weak champion."
Harry snorted at that, "I'll have you know that as far as Targaryens go, Helaena is the most dangerous one by far."
Nevertheless, Kinvara's words were proven to be correct as Melisandre was able to use blood magic to pierce through the veil of chaos that Harry used to hide Helaena in Maegor's tunnels, allowing Rhaenyra to follow her.
He couldn't help stiffening as he saw Rhaenyra carelessly collapse the tunnels. It was only repairing spells cast through Hedwig that stopped things from going too far. Honestly, he was going to give his beautiful owl an entire mountain of bacon for pulling her weight in this fight.
Still, every instinct he had wanted to help Helaena, to help her face her older sister, who Harry was sure had become half-mad since the confrontation began in the first place. If he had to guess, Kinvara had ensured that her hatred for him and Daphne translated to her opponent. The woman was barely more than an incoherent ball of rage and hatred at this point.
"You wish to help her," Kinvara said with a fake sweetness in her voice, "You cannot, just as the true gods cannot. It is a curse of the divine to not be able to help their champions…"
Whatever she wanted to say stopped, and Harry suppressed a smirk. It seemed that Daeron had used the Valyrian Steel knife that he arranged for him to find, and Melisandre. The boy was unconscious, of course, drained by the feat, but it was obviously not something that Kinvara had expected.
For the first time, the woman turned to Harry while looking unnerved. This was the first real blow that Harry gave her during their 'game'. Melisandre's death was obviously not something that she expected, especially with the battle between Rhaenyra, Aemond, Cregan, and Helaena occurring across the castle.
That nervousness slowly faded away with Cregan being taken off-guard as Rhaenyra gave more of herself to the power, and the small fragment of R'hllor burned off her own life force to empower her.
"This was never about our wager, was it?" Harry suddenly spoke up, gaining Kinvara's attention,
"This was never even about me. You just wanted us not to interfere. This was always about spreading the Red Faith here. In the best case, R'hllor would have a future ruling Queen under his command, and at worst, the heiress of the Iron Throne died in an attack, and the realm would be in chaos, enough that no one would care about a foreign faith approaching, especially after the Seven Who Are One lost so much influence because of yours truly. That was... clever. Very clever."
Kinvara stiffened as he spoke, and Harry used this to make Hedwig cast a flurry of notice-me-not charms, so that the woman would not notice what he planned to do. It worked, for the Red Priestess did not notice as Harry used Hedwig to awaken Daeron and guide Otto and Alicent Hightower to the battle. She did not notice as Daeron made its way to Viserys.
She only realised what had happened when Rhaenyra killed Otto, just as Harry predicted, with Daeron leading Viserys and half of the court to the battle. "It was different before. Rhaenyra Targaryen had not really committed a real crime, but not anymore."
As Otto Hightower died, Kinvara glared at him, "This changes nothing. R'hllor can have other champions."
Harry shrugged, "It does when they find a letter penned by Otto Hightower, claiming that a foreign witch, a Red Priestess, put him under a spell, and that he is writing this to warn them that she planned on doing the same to Princess Rhaenyra. Brave Otto has tried to overpower it and save his old friend's eldest daughter, and died for it. Quite the heroic tale, huh? They will be outraged, indeed. A foreign power that wished to invite them all. It would explain much, wouldn't it? The Shadowbinders' attack, everything. I don't think that any Red Priest will be welcome in this place anytime soon."
He could feel the anger literally radiating from Kinvara, obviously readying herself for a proper fight, with the stakes of the game having ended. Besides him, he felt Daphne ready herself to attack.
In the meantime, Viserys had finally entered and saw Rhaenyra with a bloodied dagger, with Alicent holding Otto Hightower's dying body. The entire room froze at the sight, even Rhaenyra. However, she released an animalistic growl and grabbed her knife, ready to skewer Helaena in a fit of madness, or perhaps it was frustrated revenge.
Despite it all, Harry wasn't worried. He turned to Kinvara with a small smirk on his face, "Did you know that I really learned to admire the Conqueror and his wife. Not exactly their actions, but their divination. It truly is a wonder how much length they went to, to protect themselves from a dream of an endless winter, enough to erect protections in their capital, I'd say."
Just as he finished talking, Helaena's necklace moved to intercept Rhaenyra's knife, releasing a pulse of magic from the vault hidden within the Red Keep, one designed to release a spell that would dissipate any item that could be traced back to a non-material realm.
Taken by surprise, Kinvara's body turned to dust, leaving the trace of herself in limbo for just a fraction of a second. For someone like Harry, it might as well have been an eternity. He grabbed the blessing and focused on a single command channelled through the resurrection stone, to return to the source.
It would not have worked for any other blessing, for a Red Priest's blessing would quickly be swallowed away by the chaos before making its way back to R'hllor, but not Kinvara's. It made up her entire being, conjoined with her shattered soul, and was more than powerful enough to brave the void.
Finally, as he held R'hllor's blessing, knowing that the god would hear it, Harry murmured, "I expect you to honour the terms of our little game. It was… illuminating. I'll be coming for you."
With a pulse, a great arrow of fire rose to the sky like a star, returning to rejoin the so-called Lord of Light, its binding due to the game being conjoined with the greater whole of the god.
With that done, Harry stared at Rhaenyra Targaryen, who had broken down on her knees, the power granted to her having fled from her body, in front of the Court and her father, before falling unconscious.
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AN: I'm not sure about this chapter at all. The original plan wasn't to write it from Harry's POV, but Kinvara's just didn't really work. I rewrote it twice, but it kept feeling a bit off. Eventually, I just bit the bullet and decided to go with it.
The main idea is for Harry and Daphne to be forced into a bit of a chess match against Kinvara, since she knows that she can't fight them head-on, by making it a mutually losing situation, and turning it into a divination battle that started a while back, ending with Harry using her to track down R'hllor's dimension, and also setting things up for his designs about the Capital, which was his plan in the start.
Still, the chapter isn't all that eventful, or as tense as I wanted it to be; I showed how everything happened from Rhaenyra's perspective, so I realised halfway through that there wasn't much I could add in terms of tension. 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.