Bab 81: Chapter 81: Godkiller
Harry was quite right to think there was something different about Bear Island. He had known it the moment he set foot on the island. As expected, Maege Mormont had thrown her daughters at him to 'please' him or even just shamelessly tried to entice him to one of her daughters. That was the natural reaction he expected from all the Northern houses. This time, it had the added benefit of gaining him the opportunity to take a closer look at Dacey Mormont.
He had known there was something seriously different about Dacey Mormont the first time he met her at Winterfell. It was almost like he was getting an otherworldly presence from the island and Dacey Mormont. That was why after reaching the castle of Mormonts, he sneaked out of his room in the middle of the night to study Dacey Mormont.
To his surprise, he came across Dacey Mormont taking her leave out of the castle. The guards, for some odd reason, were sleeping soundly in their posts. Harry kept a safe distance away from the heir of House Mormont on a flying carpet while Dacey rode off into the woods on a horse she commandeered out of the stables. It was a bit difficult to keep up with the Mormont heir on the carpet, but he could track her rather easily. Dacey Mormont was like a lone bright star in the vastness of space. He could track her without even using a tracking spell, as he could feel her with his magical senses. It was like watching a moving well of chaotic magical power. Even if Harry wanted to ignore it he couldn't help but notice Dacey Mormont.
He was not stupid enough to follow Dacey without any protection. Harry understood there was a chance that she was being used as bait. Therefore, he took certain precautions just in case. He released an additional flying carpet and made it hover high in the night sky. In case of an emergency, the carpet would function as his backup while he followed Dacey into the woods. For nearly an hour, Dacey rode her horse through the woods without a stop until, finally, she came to a stop near a wide pond.
Harry willed the carpet to stop and hovered safely, hidden behind a tree branch. It was a little bit dark for him to see everything in detail, but he could make out Dacey Mormont walking around the pond until she stopped before a huge tree. Luckily enough, the clouds shielding the half-moon moved aside, shining some much-needed moonlight around the pond. Under the auspices of the light provided by the celestial body orbiting the planet, Harry saw a Heart Tree that looked far different from all the other trees he had ever seen.
Unlike the usual Heart Trees he had seen, this one lacked a white bark, and instead, it was completely green. The five-pointed leaves remained red in colour. The face carved on the tree was pale white, with red sap dripping out of its eyes. Harry took out a telescope and zoomed in using the magical lens inside to get a closer look. He saw Dacey Mormont kneeling before the Heart Tree and whispering something against the carved face. When the Mormont heir stepped back, the eyes of the tree glowed with an ominous red colour.
The waves of magical that washed over the area was tremendous. Harry's eyes widened at the scale of power that he was witnessing, exuding from the Heart Tree. It was as if he was in the presence of Dumbledore and Voldemort or even the Ice dragon he met at Skane.
'Incredible.' Harry thought, witnessing the surge of magical power from within the Heart Tree.
The telescope's magic allowed him to witness veins of energy passing inside the trunk of the Heart Tree. It was unlike the Heart Trees he had seen in the mainlands of Westeros.
'It's almost as if…'
"Yes. I'm not part of the Old Gods." a voice suddenly whispered into Harry's ears.
Harry was startled to see that he was discovered so easily despite the notice-me-not charm he had applied on himself and his flying carpet.
The green sheen on the Heart Tree rippled before it folded into one small space. The entire green colour separated from the Heart Tree and became a green-skinned creature with two golden antlers growing out of its forehead and bright yellow eyes. The creature had long brown hair with streaks of green in it. It also looked humanoid, with two legs and two arms, along with a pair of ears.
'The Heart Tree is now pale white like the other trees.' Harry noted. S
"Come now, Harrion Stark. I mean you no harm." the creature spoke once again, but its brown lips never moved for its sound to reach him, which was fascinating.
He was sure the creature was not speaking into his mind. He could clearly hear the words being spoken through his ears. It was some kind of magically amplified speech which was fascinating to witness. With some trepidation in his mind, he urged the carpet to lower to the ground near the pond. The moment his feet touched the ground, Harry expanded his senses, trying to decipher any hidden traps on the ground. But he could find nothing that was threatening or with malicious intent within his immediate vicinity.
"Who're you? What're you doing with Lady Dacey?" Harry asked, keeping his hands behind while also summoning the Elder Wand into his hand once he noticed a cloud of dense magical energy covering the irises of Dacey Mormont.
"My name is Ygg. As for Dacey, you need not worry. She is my daughter, and this was the only way for me to ensure you'd come to visit me."
Harry openly gaped at the creature for a moment before he forcibly schooled his features to be neutral. He analysed the creature that claimed its name was Ygg and Dacey Mormont who looked like she was in dream. In all his studies of ancient myths surrounding the North, he had never come across this Ygg character. If he were to judge the creature by its appearance then he'd have assumed it was one of the illustrious Green Men that we're supposedly inhabiting the Isle of Faces.
Or if he were to dip into the lores of his home world then he'd have called it a variant of the Dryad. Harry had met Dryads in his time and they had more in common with the Children of Forest than this creature.
"Say I believe you, why are you still holding Dacey under your thrall?" Harry asked, clamping down shields around his mind and preparing himself to use the mind arts against the creature if need be to release Dacey Mormont.
"I do not wish for her to know of her ancestry. Not do I wish for her siblings or her mother to know about my existence. The less they know, the better they'll be shielded from the other gods." Ygg said.
That did not necessarily put Harry to ease. In fact, Ygg's response only made him more alarmed. The fact that Maege Mormont did not even know that she had a daughter with a creature like Ygg set off alarm bells in Harry's mind. With a start, Harry realised he had never known who was the husband of Maege Mormont. He wracked his brain for any shred of details about Maege Mormont's husband and there was nothing he could recollect. It was as if the husband of Maege Mormont was shielded by…
Harry's eyes widened as the realisation set in.
'A personalised form of Fidelius charm that protects the identity of Maege Mormont's husband.' Harry theorised.
It should be an impossible feat for any ordinary creature to pull off. But he supposed Ygg was nuanced enough to pull off such a complicated piece of magic.
"What do you want with me?" Harry asked finally, realising that he needed to bid his time to see what was going on between the spirits.
"You are at war with the Ironborn, are you not?" Ygg asked.
"Yes. What concern is the Ironborn to you?" Harry asked back.
"Let's just say that I have an interest in those islands. But first, let me give you some valuable information if you seek to destroy them to their roots."
Now, Harry was interested a little bit. The Ironborn were somehow connected to Ygg. And for some reason, a creature as powerful as Ygg was somehow asking him to destroy the Ironborn. The red flags continued to rise in his mind as he thought about his current predicament.
"If you have this valuable information that could destroy the Ironborn to their roots, why don't you use it and destroy them?" Harry asked.
"Because, I am a god. Unlike you mortals, I'm forbidden from interfering with mortal affairs." said Ygg.
"Oh! Is that so?" Harry cooly said, gripping the Elder Wand tightly in preparation for what was to come next.
"Yes. If I act against the Ironborn, I'll trigger retribution from the Drowned God against the people of Bear Island. The only way to dismantle the Ironborn is to strike hard and fast against the Drowned God himself and kill him. It'll weaken the hold he has on the people of the Iron Islands."
Harry paused his plans to attack and possibly kill Ygg.
"The Drowned God? You know where this Drowned God is and how to kill it?" Harry frowned at the green-skinned creature.
"Yes, of course. I shall even aid you in ending the tyranny of the Kraken, young Stark." said Ygg.
"What if the Old Gods deem you a threat and come after you?" asked Harry, fishing to see how the creature would respond to the Old Gods.
"I've lived on this island for thousands of years. The Old Gods have never seen a reason to make any hostile moves against my domain. I don't see how that's going to change suddenly with the threat looming from beyond the Wall."
Harry remained sceptical of the claims made by Ygg, mostly because he had no means to verify them. Ignotus had never mentioned a god that goes by the name of Ygg to him. This left Harry in a quandary as he was left with little to no information. It'd be impetuous of him to act with information solely given by Ygg. And that meant only one thing. He had to contact the Old Gods and get a second opinion. It was likely that Ygg was born after the time of Ignotus Peverell's arrival in Westeros.
"Why do you want the Drowned god killed?" Harry asked.
"To know that, you must know the origin of the Drowned God and how I came to be on this island."
"I have enough time for a story." said Harry, transfiguring a pebble into a chair and making himself comfortable.
****
Harry cautiously levitated Dacey Mormont beside him on the flying carpet. The heiress of House Mormont was soundly asleep, ignorant of the happenings in the world outside. There was nothing else to be done for Dacey besides waiting for her to recover from the effects of suspended animation.
"You'll need this when you face that old Kraken." said Ygg, placing a golden arrow that was carved out of one of the stray branches of his antlers.
"I'll keep that in mind." Harry replied, taking the arrow into his hands and storing it away in an expanded pouch secured on his belt.
"Don't forget to plant those saplings I gave you." said Ygg.
"I won't. So long as you don't forget what's required of you, Ygg." said Harry.
He pointed his wand at the horse Dacey had liberated from the stables and fired off a spell.
"Relashio."
The harness on the horse was magically removed, and he slapped the horse on its back. The horse rode away into the wild, gaining his freedom. He willed the carpet to rise easily, climbing over the top of the tree line. The spare carpet that was flying high in the sky rushed towards him and settled a few feet near Harry on the carpet.
"All right then. Back to Mormont keep." Harry muttered, willing the carpet to fly straight for the castle.
Once they reached the keep, Harry carefully levitated Dacey Mormont into the bed in her room. The heiress of House Mormont snored the moment her head hit the pillow. Letting out a relieved sigh, Harry carefully extracted himself from the room and slipped into his quarters through the open window. Once he was safely inside his room, he warded the place to the bone before taking out the saplings and golden arrow Ygg gifted him.
According to Ygg, the arrow contained a significant portion of divine energy amassed by Ygg over the years. Harry wholeheartedly denied there was anything 'divine' in the energy consecrated inside the arrow. It was old magic, shaped by the intent of a being taken birth in the spirit realm. That was the only speciality the arrow had. In fact, Harry felt confident he could drain the energy inside the arrow and turn that energy into a more powerful tool with his own modifications. He was not going to waste such a powerful source of energy capable of destroying a 'god' go to waste on a measly arrow.
Then his attention went to the saplings he received from Ygg. Harry felt like this was a more dangerous piece of 'spirit weapon' than anything else. After all, he was intimately familiar with weapons of a similar kind from his interactions with the Old Gods. He had weaponised the Weirwood saplings to increase the reach of the Old Gods and to unleash the restraints on magic in Westeros. To see the same trick he used to increase magic's presence in the world being duplicated by Ygg did not sit well with him. So, he took out a glass vial and began enchanting it to contain the magic of the saplings. After that, he stuffed all the saplings into the vial, which was also enchanted with space expansion charms.
Harry decided to hold back on planting the saplings until he got a positive response from the Old Gods. The last thing he wanted was for the Old Gods to turn on him. Not that he was afraid of the little buggers. It was just that he was smart enough to pick his battles one at a time. Besides, the Old Gods have so far been a good sport. He was not going to bomb their current common ground on a misunderstanding.
Therefore, Harry stayed put in Mormont Keep as the guest of House Mormont for the next few days, waiting for word from Avalon.
It was a bright morning in the Mormont Keep, and Harry was looking over the mythical stories surrounding the Iron Islands within the library. Maester Alaric was by his side as he poured over some old tomes and scrolls containing some of the old tales surrounding the founding of House Mormont and their age-old feud with the Ironborn.
"The exact origins of House Mormont are lost to time, my lord. But almost all records point to the fact that King Rodrik Stark claimed the Iron Islands from the Ironborn. The Bear Islands was given to a warrior by the name of Strider the Bearhunter, who took up the name of Strider Mormont. Some masters in the Citadel believe Strider might be a bastard half-brother of King Rodrik Stark." Maester Alaric explained.
"I want to know more about the origins of the Ironborn. More specifically, I want to know what sort of religion the Iron Islands and the Bear Island followed during the old times." said Harry, staring at the maester of Mormont Keep.
Maester Alaric rubbed his grey beard thoughtfully.
"I'm afraid there are no tomes in this library that contains the origins of the Ironborn. Such rare tomes might be available in the Citadel. However, it's a popular theory in the Citadel that the Ironborn followed the Old Gods before they began worshipping the Drowned god."
"I see." Harry murmured. "What about the Bear Island? What religion did the people of Bear Island follow?"
"Despite the rule of Ironborn, very little evidence could be found whether the people of Bear Island worshipped the Drowned god. There are some scrolls containing testaments of old that speak of rituals performed by the lord of Bear Island. Some of those rituals have continued to this day. Otherwise, the people have always worshipped the Old Gods." Maester Alaric explained.
Harry nodded at the maester before going back to reading up the scrolls Maester Alaric suggested to see whether any of the rituals were mentioned in detail. There were some obscure crude rituals performed by the Winter Kings of old. Therefore, he was looking to see whether there were any similarities between the 'old ways' that were followed in Bear Island and mainland North. He had no interest in learning the culture or history of Bear Island. His interest lay purely in corroborating the 'origin story' Ygg told him.
According to Ygg, the spirit was native to the Iron Islands. At some point, the green-skinned spirit was expelled by the arrival of the Drowned God. Harry found it more interesting that Ygg was 'bonded' to the Weirwood trees the Old Gods inhabited. Apparently, the Old Gods had some sort of pact going on to share their abode with some spirits like Ygg after the Children sank the Arm of Dorne to stop the migration of First Men. And this 'pact' kept the Old Gods and Ygg out of any conflict. Ygg was supposed to be the guardian of the seas by commanding the Iron Islands while the Old Gods reigned supreme over the mainland.
No matter how many tomes and scrolls Harry poured over in the library, he could not find any mention of other religions in Westeros. The closest he found that resembled Ygg was from a passing mention of the Green Men of the Isle of Faces and Garth Greenhand. The Green Men were the mythical guardians of the Isle of Faces, where the Children and the First Men came to a pact that stopped their war. Garth Greenhand, on the other hand, was revered as a god at some time and had a similar look to Ygg.
'I suppose, I could learn more if the Old Gods were in a sharing mood.' Harry thought.
Not that he hadn't tried. He had tried to talk to the Old Gods through the Godswood of Mormont Keep. His attempts were met with silence from the Old Gods. Either they were giving him a cold shoulder, or they couldn't hear him. He had even used Leglimency on Maege Mormont to see whether the Lady of House Mormont held some secrets in her mind. He came up with nothing.
Disappointed with the lack of any findings, Harry turned to the next best thing. He decided to construct a weapon that could kill a god.
From the folded space of his magical pouch, Harry took out the rune-powered forge and set it up in his room under heavy wards. He poured down ingots of enriched steel into the forge along with sawdust of weirwood. The rune fuelled forge lit up with white fire as Harry charged the runes. While the metal quickly began to fuse together, Harry shifted his focus to transfer the magical power trapped in the golden arrow Ygg gifted him.
Using the Elder Wand, Harry began binding the magical energy trapped in the arrow into the layers of metal. As his spellforging techniques took effect, the metal layers began entrapping the energy from the arrow under Harry's enchantments. After draining the last embers of magic from the golden arrow, Harry began using the folding techniques on the hot metal.
When the work was done, he poured the molten metal into a mould, allowing it to cool off and assume the form of the shape in the mould. The cooling charms he applied aided in setting the molten metal layers until the weapon was finally ready. Applying the levitation charm, Harry pulled the sword out of the mould and inserted it into a handle made of weirwood wrapped in blue cloth.
Harry stopped the forge and let it cool off while observing the sword floating by his side. He reached out and took the sword by the handle, and he flared his magic in a small quantity. The room lit up with a radiant white glow as the sword became enflamed with an aura of dense magical power. He could feel the rampant magical power's intent was infused with only one purpose, to kill a god.
"No other name would suit better than Godkiller. I proclaim thee, Godkiller. The weapon that makes the gods fade." Harry whispered, his eyes glowing bright white.
A knock on the door of his room made him take his eyes off Godkiller. With a flick of his wand, Harry wrapped up the forge in the subspace of his pouch and hid away the sword in the same place. He applied a cleaning charm on the room for good measure.
"Come in." Harry said, making himself presentable while staring at the door.
"My lord."
Harry found the bright green eyes of Dacey Mormont on the other side of the door. He was not surprised to see Dacey Mormont look utterly normal despite the ordeal she went through. He had collected blood samples from the alleged daughter of Ygg and Maege Mormont to see whether Ygg spoke the truth. Once in Avalon, he could study the blood samples closely to ascertain the truth. Not to mention, he was curious to study the progeny of the so-called 'gods'. After all, he had to kill a powerful one beyond the Wall and maybe a few more.
"Yes?"
"A raven came from Avalon." said Dacey Mormont.
"Good."
Harry was relieved. It was finally time to invade the Iron Islands and kill a god. It'd be an excellent opportunity to test out the effectiveness of Godkiller. If it failed, he could always go for the Killing curse. Not even the so-called gods were immune from death.
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone