(Erlend Mudd, Castle Black)
As soon as Erlend had gotten hold of the spear, and dealt with the necessities of rewarding the survivors. The Conqueror had rushed to uncover the secret of the spear.
Knowing this was important, he'd first isolated its power from the world. More precisely, he'd made it so that neither the Night King nor the Great Other could sense it and summon it right back.
His divine energy sufficed in making this possible, as only a god could truly limit another god. It was his paranoia at its best, but Erlend wouldn't put it past his enemy to have a nifty tool summoning feature.
That's what any reasonable magical being would do if they had such a unique artifact within their hands. Would it be more accurate to say that it was in his hands now? Hmm…
No, he was getting distracted.
After thinking about it for a moment, Erlend enlarged the isolated space to cover the chamber he was in. While he could not dally too long on researching it, it wouldn't hurt to try and gauge something useful from it.
Grasping the potent divine power within the spear. He could feel it visibly attempting to avoid his touch, like a mouse stuck into a corner as a cat playfully gazed at it.
Interesting. While this wasn't the first divine artifact he'd seen, it was the most 'alive' one he'd ever seen. Even the Blackstone, which he suspected was the work of some god, or likely a divine-led civilization, wasn't alive like this. Unique and completely outrageous, yes. Alive, No!
The Gods of Yi Ti came close, but none of them had truly powerful artifacts, likely lacking the serious firepower and energy needed to make such a thing a reality.
For a moment, a sudden thought arrived in his head. A thought that he swiftly decided to put to use. Without preamble, the young ascendent sent a brief shot of his elemental divinity at the thing.
If the divine power was previously avoiding his touch, it was now completely floundering about. Trying to find any way to escape his isolating energy and recoiling from the briefest touch.
It seemed to completely despise the elemental power he had sent. As if sensing a natural enemy, one that lacked the capability of resisting.
"Fascinating. Is this why the old man blessed me with 'Lord of Nature'?" Erlend murmured to himself.
From a practical perspective, he understood that the old man probably had bigger plans for him. After all, realistically, and in a nun-buffed ASOIAF world, Erlend only really needed to be as strong as, say… Severus Snape, to kill the Night King.
Pulling an Arya, and killing him while his walker guards stood there dazed.
Though in all seriousness, a well-timed apparition and an appropriate spell could see the Night King fall dead.
Erlend had seriously considered doing so when he first gained the Potterverse Magic, but had quickly realized the difficulty of such a thing when one took into account that living, breathing gods roamed this universe.
Gods who had no qualms about messing with the mortal world.
It wouldn't surprise him if the Great Other had a backup plan left behind for such an occurrence, and was likely waiting to snatch back the soul of his avatar. Better the enemy you knew than the one that you couldn't see coming.
The 'final battle' served two purposes: to kill the Night King in such a public and high-profile manner that it would leave a lasting impact on Westeros, and to a certain extent, Essos.
Secondly, attract the attention of the Great Other and use the fucker as a perpetual, eco-friendly air conditioner.
Was it ambitious and completely out of the blue? No. Not really.
Erlend had never made it a secret that he planned to make good use of these consumable divinites, and seeing that the old man had gone so far as to provide him with support materials in carrying out his goal, it appeared that he was on the right track.
The campaign in the East was the right way to go, too bad the West was heavily lacking in that aspect. R'hllors' influence was simply too powerful for any other minor god to have the guts to show up.
As for Westeros, it would be a bit outrageous if the new leader decided to seal up all his new subordinates just to experiment on them.
Glancing one last time at the cowardly divine power, Erlend decided to leave his elemental energy within the spear. Insurance in case something happens while he isn't paying attention.
Still, he instructed his power not to do anything rash. He still needed the Great Other's power for later use. Amusingly, he could practically feel his power being annoyed. As if it were a pet that had been denied its favorite treat.
Despite the absurdity of the situation, Erlend still took the chance to comfort it. "Don't worry, I'll feed you all the Ice Cream you want later. Though it's a bit stale, seeing how old it is."
He could imagine his power wagging its tail excitedly like a particularly excitable puppy.
I feel rather concerned for his mental state. Erlend decided to move on.
'I need to stop hanging around the lab too much. Old man forbid I end up like a certain snake nin.'
…
(Visenya 'Blackfyre', ???)
Humanity never failed to impress upon her the fact that it could achieve a new level of stupidity never heard of before.
Despite knowing that a god-like 'sorcerer' ruled this continent, some people simply were too mentally challenged to realize that raiding Westeros was a bad idea. It wasn't like Edmund was any less ruthless than his father, just because he was a child.
This meant that the Royal Navy had a great time sinking their ships and killing off any stragglers who knew how to swim.
'You're feeling quite cheerful today'
"I'm back on top of a Dragon, how can I not be happy?"
Sat abreast of the most destructive of her beloved's children, she felt quite pleased with herself.
What a stupid question to ask. As a pure-born Valyrian, it was essentially a crime to prevent her from riding a Dragon. Her beloved, despite his dislike for Valyria as a whole for understandable reasons, had never denied her the right to fly upon his draconian children.
'Careful of your head growing too large, I can't heal arrogance.' The snippy tone in the Maiden's response was surprising and relieving.
Visenya had no interest in hosting a self-righteous bitch and eventually merging with her.
This time, there was no response. It appeared that she had touched a sore spot. Hmm… She might have gone too far there. Rhaenys always claimed she never knew how to restrain herself.
Deciding to leave the goddess to sulk on her own. Visenya absently watched the coastline, awaiting to kill any stragglers that might have escaped the Royal Fleet.
Occasionally, Velskud would rush over towards a particular conspicuous spot and gobble up some poor slaver or whatever they called themselves.
They did at least try and avoid thrashing all over the place. That was quite the giveaway that someone had succeeded in surviving the first wave of attacks and needed to be dealt with.
The Velaryons had been meticulous in protecting the coastline. Moford wanted to maintain his position and was even likely angling for a Palatinate title in the hopes of landing his gold-strapped house with much-needed favorable trade agreements.
She didn't know what to feel about the title, in her eyes it was just a grander sounding Magistrate title, with a bit more obvious benefits. Similar to how the Magister of Pentos was just the spokesperson of their fellow merchant princes.
By the way the Westerosi lords positively hungered for it, one would think it meant something.
'I think it's a good idea, it avoids the petty fights and inheritance system Westeros takes too much pride in.'
"Here I thought you'd be sulking for days."
'Please, your cynical comments have long lost their effect on me. I'm better off just letting it enter one ear, and leaving through the other.' The Maiden sniped.
"That's fair. What do you think of the changes Darling has made to the Faith?"
Another thing her beloved had put her in charge of was redirecting the faithful's worship towards him and, to a certain extent, the Crown. He wanted a system that proclaimed the divinity of his dynasty. Similar to what her siblings' descendants had tried to implement after her son made a mess of things. Really. If you're going to attack the Faith, at least wipe them all out. She taught that boy better than to underestimate his enemies.
Unfortunately, he inherited too much of his father's oafishness to be of much use.
Jaehaerys, the little shit had succeeded. Not fully, and not enough to truly convince everyone, but the Smallfolk had lapped it up enough that it had worked.
The Targaryens enjoyed an appearance similar to that of gods, their dragons a symbol of their 'divine' authority, but that was quickly lost within a generation, which was both impressive and horrifying to see.
'I don't mind it as much, Darling does intend to be more involved than we were in the past. It's not like there's anyone among the divine realm capable of protesting against his changes.'
Cocking her eyebrows in surprise at the nonchalance in her counterpart's voice. "Your siblings don't care?'
'They stopped caring the day my brother failed to fully incarnate. Humanity holds little value or love thanks to its constant failure. If it wasn't for them, my brother would be back with us.'
"Harsh, but not untrue."
She would not deny the Maiden's distaste for what has become of her followers. When one's loyal and most devout worshippers keep getting burned as witches, one tends to lose any affection they hold real fast.
It didn't help that the bloodline that they favored so heavily had become so isolationist and rigid. Unable to advance or grow as they were intended to.
Erlend called it humanity's innate arrogance. An attempt to control what should be beyond them, while still stubbornly clinging to a fading era. It was something many lords had in common, and even he admitted to sharing that trait on occasion. Claiming that his true strength lay in his magic, yet for nostalgia's sake, he stubbornly stuck to the sword passed down his line.
Visenya wanted to disagree with her beloved, as she also was guilty of this charge. It was her arrogance and pride that led to failures in the past. Despite that, she couldn't bring herself to regret them, otherwise, she would never have met him…
'The most devout have been particularly ardent in showing their worship of darling. Their prayers are incessant and never-ending.'
"Is that annoyance I can hear in your voice?"
'Hmph… Whatever you think, these fools have nothing better to do than pray to me. Can't they pray to brother to give them a quick death…'
It would be better not to say anything. Visenya had no interest in hearing the maiden's complaints about a bunch of old geezers at the edge of death, she had no idea if the Stranger could hear his sister's complaints.
As far as she was aware, speaking a god's name or referring to them can easily attract their attention.
Absently stroking Velskud's skin beneath her, she could feel the Dragon's annoyance with the lack of food. It appeared that he'd killed off the last remaining survivors and wanted more.
There was also some agitation about the fact that his father had left South.
She understood Erlend's decision about the three dragons. Velskud, despite being the most destructive overall, would be greatly weakened if he went too far North.
Similar to the dragons her niece and nephew rode, if she had to guess.
He was a dragon of fire after all, and his fire had not yet reached the realm where it could ignore a divine-powered effect from the Great Other avatar. Leaving him vulnerable.
Not enough to kill him, but enough to hurt him. Something her beloved would never allow, no matter how much he doted on his children.
Of course, this was ignoring the times he trained them. Erlend could be quite strict when teaching the kids, wanting them to be able to protect themselves as much as possible.
Leaving him south would also serve as protection for the Royal Family while Erlend was absent. The combination of Firmridge itself and Velskud was not something any other sneaky deity would be able to deal with.
Erlend had informed her about how Firmridge was now alive.
A bit weird to hear, considering what she and Erlend had done inside of it. It was embarrassing to say the least.
Seeing that there were no enemies left, she patted the grumpy death-dragon's back. "Home, Velskud. Don't worry, I'll have the guards reward you with a flock of sheep for your hard work." She said.
Faint rumbling came from beneath her as the dragon responded to her words, flying back to Firmridge in anticipation of a good meal.
….
(Edmund Mudd, ???)
It felt exhilarating being in this form.
There was a stark difference between his forms. Not only did his movements feel smoother, but his emotions were also steadier, easy-going, and uncaring of the world around him.
It was a primal view of the world, one where only sustenance and freedom mattered.
Unfortunately, it was not one to last. He could feel his brother's presence close by. The most reserved Mudd, gently conveying the necessity of his presence. Eventually, as he allowed himself to return, he found Jasper staring at him with his piercing eyes.
There was a wisdom and solemnity in the falcon prince that betrayed his age, making him appear older than he was. Aunt Dalia claimed that it was similar to how Father looked when he was younger, and Edmund wondered what secrets lay in that head of his.
Yet, he respected his brother too much to pry. The bond between the magical children was not something that could be conveyed in words.
It was neither the perverse relations Rhaeny's family got up to, but it was a far closer bond than what normal siblings had.
Father called it a magical bond, a bloodline recognizing and resonating with each other. Akin to that of Twins, despite their difference in ages. Regardless of what it was, Edmund had come to trust and rely on it. Knowing fully well that while others would eventually pass away, he and his family would persevere, untouched by the sea of time.
Their lives far longer than even the magical humans, from whom their father had stated that their magic originated.
'The Empire you'll build won't just be the legacy we grand leave to this world, but also as a shield for our descendants. For only at the top of the world, can we rest easy in using our powers without fear or persecution.'
Those were his father's words before he had left for Yi Ti. Words that rang continuously within his ears even now.
"You're thinking too hard on the matter," Jasper noted lazily, his eyes glancing at him with concern and annoyance.
"Would you rather I not think at all? I certainly wouldn't advise it." He retorted half-heartedly.
"You know what I mean. Don't expect to fight on your own, you still have me, Rhae, and Cella. Even Dany, if you stretch it far enough."
Edmund snorted at the mention of Dany, that girl was someone he considered a sister, but for whatever reason, she was intent on being his step-mother. How scandalous!
"Now I know you're thinking something stupid."
Smirking at his brother, "You just called Dany stupid, we'll see how well that will turn out for you once she realizes it." He said.
The unamused look on the Falcon Prince's face made his day. It was rare for Edmund to get a leg up on his overly mature younger sibling. Rarely did the brat show any emotions one would expect from a child.
No wonder the Valemen took a shine to him; he was already acting like a bloody Arryn. At least that's how Gruncle Lorimas described his late grand-uncle Jon and Eddard Stark.
His thoughts were stopped by a sudden gust of wind hitting his face, waking him up to the world around him, and to a brother who was distinctly missing.
"Why you little…"
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Note: Don't get any ideas, Jasper ain't a reincarnator, he's just a lot like Eddard and Catelyn from when they were younger. Anyways, I won't be able to update for at least 2 - 3 weeks after this, hence the bundle of chapters being released, unfortunately, it's that time of the year where I have to deal with exams again, wish me luck!