Bab 121: The creatures that secretly controls
(Time skip me months later location Herranhall the Gods eye lake)
I had once thought the God's Eye to be a stagnant lake. The blue-green colours of the water made me think of the sort of stagnant lakes that dotted the local park back home, eventually, I would then remember that it was also connected to a river that went onto join the Blackwater. This gave me the idea to build up a war fleet to support kingslanding whenever it needed reinforcement.
Anyway. I have done a lot things in Eight months that no lord in westeros can do it in his lifetime.
Some were good and some bad, And some are extremes.
The first month was gone very well perhaps extremely well.
Because I found My Maester, Because The previous Maester of Herranhall died from stress before i came to Herranhall, if the castle's chamberlain told me the truth.
And with no Maester we were cut off from all kinds of stuff.
But now things are becoming positive every day Because of my new Maester Qyburn.
No ...he was not sent by the citadel. The Townsfolk caught him red-handed in the act of grave robbing.
The Townsfolk wanted me execute the man , but i told them that i would kill him after some extensive torture. The Townsfolk returned to their business.
And i assigned the scared soul of Qyburn as the new Maester of my castle.
And with his help The rebuilding of Herranhall was progressing as hundreds of workers are coming in weekly from all over my domain.
And how did I get my funds for kick-starting the rebuilding projects?
Simple, After I almost executed Edmyn Rivers my Castellan for abusing the castle Servants, The Frey bastard revealed that there are lots of golds hidden in the castle for not taking his life .
So I ordered to dig out all of it and found that it's a considerable amount of gold.
The origin of the golds are came from Rhaegar targaryen.
Rhaegar was the one that arranged the tourney to win over the Lords to support him against his father but everything went to shit.
But I'm still thankful for it because I'm the one that benefited from every part of it. Rhaegars folly was instrumental in my rise to the ladders of nobility.
I found out that Edmyn Rivers is the sleeper agent of Hoster Tully arranged to watch over me And he's too important to get rid of. I'll think about it later.
Back to the Godseye lake
It didn't hurt that the water was fresh enough that I would almost be obliged to drink from it without boiling it first. Almost.
Just because it looked pretty and had a nice smell to it wasn't enough to make me forget that I had seen people bathe in these waters amongst other things.
There was an early morning fog that shrouded our destination with an otherworldly visage, but not enough to deter me from the journey that I was embarking on. The only sounds that could be heard from the lake were the sounds of early morning bird songs and the dimming sounds of crickets chirping as day slowly rose from the east, the crickets and birds themselves taking note of the burning ball of plasma as time for a shift change.
The other sounds belonged to my motley group of fellows that I had chosen to come with me to the Isle of Faces based on their loyalty and ability to keep quiet about anything that would go on to happen on the Isle. And also they are less valuable for me to use them as Canon fodder if necessary.
I brought these men Because I don't want to lose my most trusted subordinates on a deadly quest.
Rick is my new master at arms in Herranhall, his job is to train new recruits.
Claw is my captain of the guards and his duty to is well being ....captain of the guards.
And Morty is my captain of the scouts regiment, His job is petrol the roads and borders of my lands.
They are all assigned to very important roles.
Thus I did not brought my trusted men, but I still needed men for this job.
It also didn't hurt for me to acknowledge that I needed someone to row the boat because I had no idea how to do that sort of thing.
And I doubted I would enjoy the effort in doing so.
The silence of our journey was broken by me as we neared the Isle and the fog, almost by design started parting allowing me a full view of the Isle in all of its splendour. It's splendour and the figures that were standing waiting for us on the shore.
I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised.
My feet were the first to hit the ground of the Isle of Faces, perhaps the first to do so in thousands of years. I didn't pay much attention to our welcoming party as I turned to help bring our rowboat away from the waves and onto firmer ground, Ser Garrett and Ser Robin jumping out as well and pushing the rowboat.
It took a few moments of effort before we were assured enough that the waves wouldn't take the boat away before turning to face our greeters. I didn't know what I was expecting, but I assumed that coming across grown-ass men and women dressed in clothing that seemed straight out of something a druid would look like, clothes made from leaves and the likes, I assumed that is what I had expected from the greenmen.
It was then that I noticed that they have a child a with them, and not the sort of usual child that one would expect.
It was slight, but I certainly heard the slight intake of breath from Robin as his eyes rested on what I'm sure me and Ser Garrett were staring at.
"By the old gods and new, is that a child of the forest?"
I think it was, though my image of them was certainly different from the image I had of them in the dark, depths of my mind. Brown skin that sort of reminded me of a deer, three fingers and a thumb, big-ass eyes that reminded me of a cat.
Yeah, I'm sure I saw the episode that introduced the children and I was positive they didn't look anything like this. Did this mean I was in the universe of the books? Not that it mattered anymore because the timeline went nearly the same but few additional people being born, Though i did most of hard works. Though most. None of the canonical events mattered, perhaps maybe for the looming zombie invasion that would come in the future.
And even then, I wasn't sure that would happen as scheduled.
"Welcome, wandering one." The child spoke, it's cat-like eyes trained on me yet I'm sure noticing everything from me to the two knights with me. "We havebeen waiting."
An eyebrow rose slightly from the way I was addressed but I put it into the back of the mind for the moment. "I suppose introductions are necessary, behind me are my two companions, Sers Garrett Wayne and Ser Robin Woode, and I am, Alan Winter, Lord of Herranhall and the entirety of the Gods eye, and perhaps, your protector if you will have me."
"Your offer is appreciated," the child spoke, her...he? It was difficult to make out the sex...did they even have sexes? It's been a while. "and it shall be taken into account."
"Neat." I rubbed at the back of neck, to release a knot that I was feeling. "So, let's begin?"
The child turned and with the greenmen, we were led into the cavernous embrace of the Isle of Faces. It was early morning, there should have been a subtle grip of cold, yet inside the embraces of the forest that was filled with trees of many faces, crying, laughing, screaming among many others, all of them with tears of blood streaming out of their eyes, it almost felt as if I was in my solar with the hearths on blasts.
I immediately placed it onto some sort of greenmen or children of the forest bullshit.
Robin moved up close to my side, an arm gripping the blade of his sword tightly. "My Lord," he began, his eyes still trained onto the back of the greenmen and in front of them, the child. "That was a child of the forest. Of the forest."
"You have an impeccable ability to notice the obvious, ser Robin." My other employee remarked blithely, he himself keeping close to me just in case.
For his own protection or mine was something that made me happy to muse about.
Robin ignored the barb from the older knight. "I've heard of them from the stories, especially when I was younger. We had stories about them in my village. The elders would say the children lived amongst the Isle and any who went there would never come back, killed by the children, by the gods, I didn't think they were real."
"They are as real as you and me." I said with a calm ease that had come naturally to me when pretending to know what you are doing becomes something of a natural habit. "And they don't eat people. They are vegetarians." I think.
Something about a red paste of some kind and blood and weirwood sap or something? I think it was a drug of some sort. That allowed you to see the past, present and future. That would be a cool drug to have.
Ser Garrett and Ser Robin certainly had no idea what a vegetarian was, but they seemed to take my word for it as we delved deeper into the Isle, all the while, I was hiding the fact that these trees were utterly and truly terrifying.
Why would anyone draw such faces on their trees? I mean, some of them were crying blood whilst laughing, smiling amongst other positive emotions.
That was just unnecessarily terrifying.
Eventually, we entered a clearing that allowed more sunlight through the canopy of leaves. The trees here we weirwoods, bigger, older, and more ancient. The most noticeable being a single weirwood in the centre that seemed to tower over the rest in terms of height and width.
It seemed as if weirwoods were not so extinct after all, south of the neck.
"Are those treehouses?" Ser Garrett asked as he squinted into the canopy.
Following his vision, I noticed that yes, they were indeed tree houses, along with bridges that criss-crossed the entire opening. I just think we had been led to were the greenmen and children lived and slept.
"Wandering one," the child said, suddenly in front of us that it nearly made Us three seasoned killers jump back in fright like cats. "Come...but they stay." It finished, peering at my two companions.
Who were not having any of that nonsense. "Wherever My Liege goes, I go." Ser Garrett said, with Robin nodded his head as he stepped forward as well.
"It's fine. She doesn't mean me any harm." I think. "Stay here." And I doubt even if she did mean me harm, there wasn't anything that we could do anything about.
They certainly didn't look happy about the order, but they nodded nonetheless. The child then led me towards the large tree and in-between some of its showing roots that I noticed led into an opening that led into the tree, though at elevation that showed me that I was heading underground.
After I nearly slipped or my foot hit something for the third time, I voiced my complaints. "Is there some sort of light here? It's getting a bit difficult to see." I said, squinting at the shadow of the child in front of me.
"Ah yes, apologies. It has been a while since we last received a guest." The child did something, touched the ground I think? And lo and behold, there was light.
Blinking to adjust to the sudden light, I couldn't help but question her words. "Really? how long ago?"
"nearly 200 years ago by prince Daemon Targaryen though he died here from his wounds.The next visitor was Brynden Rivers now he goes by the name three eyed reven you already aware of that" It said. "And last person was young Lord Howland Reed."
Oh.
Well, that sucked, I suppose?
We eventually entered a large chamber, its walls littered with veins of white colouring and red sap slowly oozing out like blood from a wound. If that wasn't unnverving enough, the walls were also carved with faces. Loads and loads of faces.
That didn't attract half my attention as the throne looking alter thing. I stopped dead in my tracks and crossed my arms.
"I didn't come here to be sacrificed."
They did that right? The children. I'm sure they did that. Sacrificial killings were a thing of the past when it came to the old gods, so why would they not do that considering the old gods were their gods originally.
"You are not going to be sacrificed wandering one." Another voice said, this time with more gravitas and wear than that of the child in front of me.
I followed the sound to the altar/throne where I finally noticed in the little light that we had of a figure with mossy green eyes that glowed looking down at me from its throne. How did I miss that?
"You keep calling me that," I said, my arms uncrossing. "wandering one. What does it mean?"
"I would say its rather obvious, no?"
I rubbed at the back of my head. "I suppose you guys know about me then."
The eyes moved slightly and I think their owner was nodding. "A spirit of some kind, though were you come from is beyond my knowing."
"It would probably blow your mind if you knew."
"Then I suppose it's best I don't." The shadows that draped the owner of the eyes shifted some as it leaned back on its altar/throne thing. I just noticed the child that had led me into this place was now gone. Man, those kids were quiet. "Why have you come?"
"Don't you know?" I asked, an eyebrow raised. "You see the future."
"Our power is weak in these lands, there is only so much we now know. So much less from the days of our glory."
"You sound old."
"I am old."
"I need your help. I can't sleep peacefully because bloodreven keeps bothering me "
"There is little that I can do to help you and for what reason? You are no friend of our kind you burned our sacred tree. The world of men means little to us now. The world is going to be destroyed because of you. The children of flames will never fulfill their destiny. The return of the dragons will not happen. The humanity lost it's biggest weapon against the others. "
"If it wasn't for you, they everything would have been better. Your interference has not been welcomed." The greenseer (I was now positive that this was a greenseer) rebuked and I really couldn't fault it. It might even have a point.
I don't remember anything like this happening from canon, In this timeline Daenerys is not living in exiled, she is with her mother in the growing up alongside my ...ahm ...John Arryns childrens. So no mother of dragons.
"...How badly have I fucked things up?" I asked, slowly.
I had somewhat started to care just a little about the future of Westeros. It was now my home and not by choice, but my home nonetheless. I had built a life here. I cared.
"You are nothing more than a small pebble that was dropped into a lake, the ripples you have caused...though small, they shall continue to spread and spread and spread. You already aware of one of those effects."
"In the original timeline the dragons caused as much as damaged as the others."
For Fuck sake i don't regret it at all. I still remember in the show How Daenerys burns Cities to ground. There are other ways to defend against the White runners/walker.
"You meant well," the greenseer acknowledged. "But not all actions of noble intent have the consequences we imagine them to have."
I felt the urge to roll my eyes. "I know that much. And as much as I would love to hear about how me fucking a tons of westerosy girls somehow fucked the world, I care more about what is happening now. Can you help me or not?"
"Perhaps." For the first time, I saw the face of the child I was speaking to as it leaned forward, bringing its face into the light. Weathered skin like that of leather hanged loosely onto its skull, its ears droopy and hanging limply. It looked grotesque, the image of an old hag and not the good kind. "But at what price are you willing to pay?"
"I'm not selling my soul. but i promise that I'll not burn anymore of your sacred trees" I responded in deadpan. "All I have is annoying neighbours. It's nothing that serious for me to sell the soul of me, my family or my people."
An eyebrow was raised, I think. "Even for the benefits we can bring your people? Your land?"
"It's not that deep." I responded resolutely.
I was of the mind that sending thousands of people to their deaths was a far better option than the deal being offered. The magics of Planetos was iffy at best. I'd rather not think what the worst of what Planetos had to offer when it came to be magic would be at the very least worth it, at all.
The ancient child leaned back, letting the shadows overcome it once more. "The price would not be that steep, but I respect your resolution and though your interference is not welcomed, not all the consequences of your actions shall bring the end. Some...might even be positive though the road that you take to those choices is still very much in your hands. Take your oath that you will do your outmost to save the world from the Cold clutches of the Others."
"i promise that I will do everything to defend the realm with my knowledge and power."
"very well. we shall put our hopes in you. "
"Thanks?"
"So, who shall it be...?" The greenseer asked with a certain, slow intensity, the torches burning in the chamber, making the shadows dance and the blood glisten. "The Raven or your rival neighbours?"
"No not that sort .You must defend my family from the faceless man. Because some of my inventions would greatly harm the Essosi economy so they will eventually hire the faceless assassins to get rid of me or harm my family. You people are the only one that can recognise their presence. "
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone