Chapter 350: Knowing the Enemy (Part III)
"'After the long summer, the stars bleed'—this clearly refers to the crimson comet in the sky. No one can say how it was created, or why it hangs in the air without moving or vanishing."
"'The cold breath of darkness falls heavy on the world.' Without a doubt, this refers to the winter that has already arrived, and by extension, the invasion of the White Walkers."
"'In this dread hour, a warrior shall be born again amidst smoke and salt.' This sentence is nonsense; it says everything and nothing at all. Where isn't there smoke and salt? There is plenty in the kitchens of the Nightfort."
"What finally offers some substance, and causes much controversy, is what follows: 'He shall wake dragons out of stone, and draw from the fire a burning sword—that sword shall be Lightbringer, the Red Sword of Heroes.'" Bran rubbed the armrest of his chair. "This phrase can be a description of a literal fact, or a complex metaphor. Before we begin interpreting it, we must first accept this: the things appearing in a prophecy are not necessarily the things themselves. A dragon from stone is not necessarily a real dragon; a burning sword is not necessarily a sword on fire. They can be symbols and designations."
After seeing Egger nod in understanding, the boy continued: "If one wishes to say Stannis Baratheon is the Prince Who Was Promised, then the dragons from stone refer to the dragon-shaped statues on Dragonstone; as for 'Lightbringer,' a glowing sword is enough to fill the role. If someone believes Daenerys Targaryen is the chosen one, then the dragons are the real ones hatched from fossilized eggs, and the burning sword could easily refer to the fiery breath from a dragon's maw." At this point, he suddenly looked up at Egger, his tone shifting. "But what if someone wanted to say that you, Lord Commander, are the hero of prophecy? The dragons from stone could be wildfire, since its preparation as a combustible material involves 'rock oil' , and the burning sword would naturally be the roaring flames produced once that wildfire is ignited!"
Egger raised a hand to interrupt the young Greenseer's long-winded lecture. "I see your point. The ambiguity of the phrasing allows for immense subjectivity in interpretation. Anyone can be the hero of prophecy if they're bold enough to spin the tale. So, what is your conclusion?"
"You have quickly grasped one of the key points." Though Bran's expression remained unchanged, the approval in his voice was clear. "But have you noticed the slight discrepancy between the sequence in the prophecy and how events actually unfolded?"
"What?" Egger finally felt like he was losing the thread of the conversation.
"This is an ancient prophecy from Asshai. Both in space and time, it is so distant and old that even I cannot trace its original source. Yet, after being weathered by ages, it is finally becoming reality. On the surface, it seems like a miraculous and accurate prediction... but if you pay the slightest attention to the details, you find things that are not quite 'accurate.'"
"For example?"
"'After the long summer, the stars bleed, and the cold breath of darkness falls heavy on the world.'" Bran recited the first three lines again. "Did you notice the order of these three events? Summer ends—the crimson comet appears—and finally, the Others return. But in reality? The Others began moving beyond the Wall more than a year before you ever encountered them. The crimson comet appeared more than a year after you killed the first Other... that's a gap of two years. And this long summer? It wasn't officially declared over until more than a year after the comet appeared. Thus, the correct sequence is: the cold darkness awakens, the stars bleed, and then the long summer ends."
Egger was a man of the Night's Watch; he had witnessed these major events more directly than most. He didn't need to reflect to know Bran was telling the truth. But to the muddled masses living day to day, two or three years flash by in a blink. Besides, what did this minor difference in timing prove?
"I don't understand. What if there's a slight issue with the order in the first stanza? It could be a distortion from centuries of oral tradition, or perhaps the prophet was simply a man who didn't care for trifles. Denying the prophecy because of this seems a bit forced."
"No, I am not trying to deny the prophecy. I am trying to provide a new perspective: have you ever thought that this subtle difference in sequence is essentially because of a slow-reacting 'hindsight'?" Bran shook his head, dismissing Egger's accusation. "If the 'bleeding star' represented the prophecy coming true or the return of magic, then the Others, the dragons, and the comet should have all appeared at the same time—or roughly so. Yet the fact is: the latter two only appeared suddenly overnight after you encountered an Other and the news spread that the Watch was planning—and eventually abandoning—the Great Range north! There was a gap of over two years! Have you never thought about that?"
"You mean..." Realization dawned on Egger.
"Rather than 'the prophecy coming true,' it feels more as though 'a certain existence' finally realized their opponent had begun to move, and hurriedly performed a set of operations, creating celestial omens to make the contents of the prophecy become reality."
Egger narrowed his eyes, finally understanding what the third type of prophecy meant.
"You're saying this prophecy isn't a 'prediction' at all, but a guarantee. It's not supported by magical superpowers like clairvoyance, but by a powerful entity using its strength and means to ensure that everything is fulfilled as a matter of fact?"
"It is merely a guess, but it explains many things." Bran confirmed Egger's suspicion, then asked him a question: "Let us assume this guess is true, and you are the one behind the prophecy pushing it toward fulfillment—would you begin laying out pieces and nurturing a 'hero' decades or centuries in advance, just to fight a final battle and 'drive away' the darkness?"
Egger was a mere mortal; how could he simulate the thought process of a deity? He initially wanted to decline the question, but then it occurred to him that he could simply substitute the role of a private business owner—a role he had tasted while founding the Night's Watch industries.
The operation and development of an industry, and the implementation of a leader's various policies and ideas, inevitably require all sorts of talent to actually get the work done. Does the industry cultivate these talents from the stage of sperm, egg, and embryo—or even from the parents and grandparents?
Of course not. Society runs on dynamic self-adjustment. As long as humanity doesn't die out, there will always be the average, the excellent, and the superior; the suitable and the unsuitable. No matter the boss, the employees they want can always be recruited from some corner of the world. It's just a matter of whether they are plentiful or scarce, and how much time and cost it takes to find and hire them.
By switching his perspective, he quickly reached an answer: "No. I wouldn't waste energy laying pieces so far in advance. Instead, I would accumulate resources and strength to ensure I don't lose ground in the overall trend. When I actually need a role like a 'hero,' I would simply look for one or more suitable candidates within a certain space-time range, provide them with resources, secret help, and opportunities, and let them win this war against the Great Other for me."
Before he even finished answering, Egger had his own epiphany: wasn't his answer the classic logic of a Great Power seeking suitable pawns to fight a proxy war? What Bran meant was: the hero of prophecy is not born. Whoever happens to fulfill the prophecy by chance, or is chosen to drive back the darkness with assistance, is the hero mentioned in the prophecy!
As for where this person "matches" the ambiguous descriptions in the prophecy, there will naturally be meddlers and future historians to write and fill in the blanks.
So, Daenerys walking into the pyre to hatch dragons and then going on a killing spree before returning to Westeros; himself successfully building the Night's Watch Logistics Department and rising to Lord Commander to fortify the Wall... was R'hllor behind it all, helping in the shadows, while they were merely proxies?
This hypothesis was a massive challenge to the concept of free will, and it made Egger feel quite uneasy: no one likes being a marionette.
"This ancient prophecy is actually a warning from the Lord of Light to his nemesis, that other similar existence: 'Oppose me, and someone will inevitably come to deal with you.' The point isn't the hero at all; the core is the final sentence, the result: the hero will drive away the darkness." After a long detour, Bran finally returned to his narrative logic. "As for who the hero is or how they drive it away, it's completely irrelevant. The Lord of Light only wants the result to come true."
Why did he make two legendary gods sound like street thugs? Egger couldn't help but make the association—some being wreathed in fire threatening another being made of ice-like substance: 'Try something, and I'll end you.'
He quickly realized where his sudden sense of familiarity came from: this widely known Asshai'i prophecy was just the otherworldly, magical, extended, deity-only version of 'Don't say we didn't warn you!'
"The Great Other has his White Walkers; the Lord of Light has the hero of prophecy. Perhaps they cannot, perhaps they will not, or perhaps they have reached an agreement. In any case, these 'only two true gods' spoken of by the Red Priests have chosen to decide the outcome through a contest at a distance," Bran concluded. "This means that although none of us know what these two gods actually are or what they look like... it does not affect our actions. As humans, our opponents are the White Walkers on the board, not the Great Other sitting outside of it."
After going in a huge circle, Bran hadn't resolved Egger's confusion; instead, he had left his mind in a greater mess. According to this theory, Egger—who had become the de facto lord of the Gift and was barely beginning to escape the status of a pawn in the Game of Thrones—had merely jumped from a lower-level board to a higher-level one. He was still far from realizing his dream of becoming a player.
If he abandoned the Wall's defenses and allowed the White Walkers to invade the Seven Kingdoms, could he force the Lord of Light behind the scenes out into the open? The thought bubbled up uncontrollably in Egger's mind, but reason told him: what Bran said was, after all, just an inference. He couldn't—and wouldn't—treat the lives of every living soul in Westeros like lab rats to verify its truth.
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