Whether feeling the killing intent from the man or realizing her own lack of justification, the casual expression on Melisandre's face faded. She met Aegon's gaze silently for a moment, then quickly raised the corner of her mouth: "Alright."
The Night's Watch is the core force against the Lord of Light's ancient foe, and Aegon was the first member of the Black Cloaks she had met since coming to Westeros. Even if she disdained mortals, she ultimately decided not to immediately offend a potentially important ally.
The Red Priestess turned around and led the man to two chairs in the corner of the room, gesturing for him to sit and talk: "Ask away. I will tell you everything I know, provided my lord has not forbidden me from answering."
Aegon didn't stand on ceremony, striding towards a chair: "You said I have the aura of a foreign god on me, what's that about?"
"To be precise, you have two auras on you. One is full of evil but extremely faint; the other retains a very powerful energy but is not malicious... All in all, you are truly fortunate to be alive today."
"Why do I have these two auras on me?" Aegon asked, half-believing and half-doubting. He was a materialist, but this was not the world he had come from, and the woman before him had displayed powers he could not explain. Even if he didn't believe in the supernatural... he could only cautiously take her words with a 'better safe than sorry' attitude for now. "I'm just an ordinary Night's Watch Soldier."
"No, you are not. I just saw you fighting a cold god's servant in the fire. You were very brave. It's rare for a mortal to kill such a magic creature. The moment you killed that thing, you were no longer an ordinary Night's Watchman—but a Night's Watchman who had caught the cold god's attention." Melisandre waved her hand, signaling the guards to leave and close the door. "That evil aura on you is the residue from that battle. This way, the next time you appear within the cold god and its servants' range of perception, you will be detected faster than your other comrades."
Aegon's heart sank, both at the opponent's ability to see his past with just a few drops of blood and at the content of Melisandre's words—he had been targeted by the cold god. But what the hell is the "cold god"? Is it the Night King's nickname? Wait, did she really see him killing the White Walkers in the fire, or did she learn about it after Eddard Stark or Jeor Mormont mentioned it when writing to Stannis to introduce him?
...
"What about the other 'powerful' aura?" Aegon asked calmly, his mind churning. "I did kill a White Walkers, but that was the strongest enemy I've ever faced in this life. I only won by luck because the opponent underestimated me—if that battle only left a tiny bit of evil aura, then to carry an aura that even you find 'powerful', what kind of monstrous thing would I have had to fight?"
"That's what's strange to me. The being that left the other aura on you is far weaker than the cold god, yet the trace left behind is so obvious. Theoretically, this abnormal situation could only happen if you directly fought or even clashed face-to-face with Him. But it's absolutely impossible for a mortal like you to be alive and well after fighting such a being. What's even stranger is—what I saw in the fire was: a small boy falling from a very high place. If you want me to continue explaining, you must first tell me what that was about?"
"Don't you see everything? Do you still need me to tell you?"
"Sensing past events from the fire is not as magical as you think." Melisandre waited for Aegon to sit in the chair before taking a seat opposite him. "I put your blood into the fire and saw some things—in this step, it wasn't your blood that was effective, but the two forces contained within your blood. The evil aura is very weak, so it could only show me a few brief scenes. I saw your almost fatal encounter with the cold god's servant—what you Night's Watchmen call a White Walkers—and the moment you plunged the Dragonglass into its belly. Though that's all, it's enough to explain everything. The other aura, however, is the opposite. It's very strong, strong enough to show me several continuous scenes. You were running around talking to a boy on a rooftop, and finally, he fell. I couldn't hear your conversation, nor could I analyze what this has to do with a god. Therefore, I need your further explanation. What exactly were you doing at that time?"
"I was stopping..." Aegon explained with a frown, when a flash of inspiration suddenly struck him, and a word instantly popped into his mind: Green Prophet!
...
A raging storm brewed in the transmigrator's heart. Failing to prevent Bran's fall was embarrassing, but it taught him a lesson: interfering with the plot must be done in a more subtle way, not by personally charging in headfirst.
Being able to learn from failure was something Aegon had always been proud of. But listening to Melisandre today, could it be that his series of actions failed to change the outcome not because he was thoughtless or did something wrong, but because he was going against a powerful existence?
Just like the stock market, no matter how godly a retail investor's operations are, they can't stop the major players from cutting the leeks; no matter how much capital and connections the major players have, they would never dare to play against the national team. When two sides are not on the same level, the outcome doesn't need to be guessed!
Bran's fall was not a coincidence, but something that someone or a "god" deliberately wanted to happen!
After much thought, only the Green Prophet has this suspicion. But why did he insist on Bran falling? Could it be that the child couldn't go Beyond the Wall to receive the inheritance unless he was crippled? Also, that day, the two Lannister family members were possessed, having an affair in the Keep right in front of him, and the Stark family's brat was also determined to go up to the top of the tower to feed the crows. Was all this the Green Prophet's doing?
Melisandre watched Aegon hesitate, his expression changing repeatedly before falling into thought, assuming he was hiding something. A trace of gloom flashed across her seductive face: "My Night's Watch friend, I am too impolite. I haven't even asked for your name until now."
"You can call me Aegon."
"Then Aegon, if you know something, you'd better tell me."
Witches are also human, and they also form a first impression of things they have only heard about—unlike the people of Westeros who don't believe in the existence of White Walkers, in her eyes, the Night's Watch, stationed at The The Wall and standing on the front line against the White Walkers, must all be tough guys. Therefore, after some consideration, she decided to take a softer approach: "The two gods who left their auras on you don't have much power in the South, but they are, after all, beings who could crush you with a single finger. Now, only the Lord of Light can protect you."
***
Aegon was hesitant. He wasn't sure if the "gods" in this world were the omnipotent, transcendent beings of legend, or merely more powerful life forms who had mastered magic. But either way, one thing was certain: the Lord of Light, also known as the red god, was one of the absolutely real and extraordinary forces in this world.
If he had to latch onto a powerful backer, R'hllor's was certainly thick enough. Under normal circumstances, believing in Her would be an option, but Aegon faced a problem: he was not an ordinary person, and he had too many secrets. As the saying goes, an innocent man is guilty because of his treasure. If he rashly threw himself into the embrace of a god, it would be good if they could be open and cooperate. But what if this "god" coveted the vast knowledge in his mind or was curious about the wider world outside of this one, and wanted to squeeze him dry for all information before abandoning or even silencing him? He would have no ability to resist at all.
He couldn't even handle a priest of the red god; he was not qualified to bargain with any existence in this realm. It was absolutely not a wise move to entrust his life to someone he didn't understand before he had the strength to sit at the same table.
Furthermore, he had to consider the identity he had fabricated for himself: an outsider who had crossed over from beyond the Sunset Sea. It was already rare for him to integrate quickly into Westeros society; how could he speak of secrets that even ordinary locals didn't know, as if listing his own treasures?
In this cold, cruel world, where incomprehensible transcendent powers exist, being cautious is absolutely the right thing to do.
Aegon put on a confused expression, organized his words slightly, and spoke: "That was during King Robert's North tour. I went South because I was accompanying the First Ranger Benjen Stark to report the movements of the Wildlings and White Walkers Beyond the Wall to the Warden of the North. That day, I was training alone in a corner of Winterfell and saw Lord Stark's second son climbing a The Wall. I was afraid he would fall, so I spoke up to persuade him... But the child wouldn't listen no matter what I said, and in the end, he was scared into falling by someone who suddenly poked their head out of the Keep. But no matter how you look at it, this was just an accident, right? If I offended any god in this process, it could only be that god wanted Bran to fall and die or be crippled? But what's the point of that?"