"Mother… Mother Goddess?" The little sprite tilted her head, calling out softly in a singsong voice.
The two-foot-tall little creature, completely naked and utterly innocent, sat on Dany's wrist with tiny legs dangling and swinging. She wasn't afraid of strangers at all; instead, she felt incredibly close to Dany.
"Not bad. You can even speak the Origin Tongue."
Dany couldn't understand the words, but she could tell the sprite was speaking the Origin Tongue and roughly grasped her meaning.
Their current state resembled that of a devout believer and a deity. Dany's thoughts could easily enter Little Mist's mindscape, and Little Mist could send messages back to her through a strange spiritual bond. Their souls, however, had not merged.
Dany could even receive faint power of faith from Little Mist.
"Little Mist, change your form and show me." She smiled.
With a push of her tiny hands against Dany's wrist and a flutter of dragonfly-like wings, Little Mist lifted into the air.
Bang!
Without shouting any sort of magic catchphrase, the naked Little Mist suddenly burst apart on the spot, leaving behind a volleyball-sized red flame.
It was entirely composed of elemental fire, and within the flames floated a tiny face. Wasn't that Little Mist?
"A fire elemental creature?" Dany was genuinely astonished.
The fire sprite gazed around blankly, not understanding what a fire elemental creature was. She simply circled Dany, radiating heat so intense it nearly scorched Dany's clothes.
"She even has magic—powerful fire magic. If there were a few thousand fire element sprites…"
Boom!
The flames exploded again, and a large black crow flew out from the embers, landing on Dany's shoulder with a "caw caw."
"She can turn back into a crow?" Dany was stunned once more.
What kind of being had she created?A fire elemental? A sprite? A fire crow?
"Come inside and meet A'fu," she said.
"Caw!" The crow instantly transformed into pure spirit form, like a puff of black foam, and slipped into the violet right eye.
"Big Mist?" A'fu called hesitantly.
She wanted to draw closer, but she sensed an unfamiliar presence from this "ugly creature" before her, along with a chillingly powerful aura.
"Little Mist!" Little Mist shook her head, then tilted it, staring at A'fu in confusion. "A'fu?"
"Yes, I'm A'fu. Did you regain your memories?" A'fu quickly nodded, delighted.
"What memories?" Little Mist shook her head again. "This is my first time seeing you, but you feel very familiar."
A'fu's large catlike eyes filled with tears as she laughed. "Little Mist, you really have been reborn."
Little Mist wrinkled her tiny nose and suddenly said, "A'fu, why are you so ugly?"
A'fu froze completely.
In the end, A'fu decided to become ugly together with Little Mist.
But becoming ugly wasn't easy. Big Mist was extremely compatible with fire elements and could endure hundreds of cycles of burning, spirit-infusion, and burning again.
A'fu's soul, however, grew exhausted after only two or three rounds.
After another attempt, A'fu nearly lost consciousness. Dany ended the day's training and said, "Different Children of the Forest go through different processes when shedding old memories and becoming pure life imprints. A'fu, don't rush. We have plenty of time. We'll take it slowly."
The Dragon Queen had one stroke of good fortune after another in Sothoryos, and once she returned to Slaver's Bay, her progress became even more rapid. Meanwhile, the people of Westeros were far from idle.
Jon mortgaged the North's next two thousand years of taxes, along with its mineral and timber resources, and borrowed a total of five million gold dragons from the Iron Bank.
Yes—two thousand years.
The North was poor, and even a duke barely earned a few gold dragons a year in taxes.
But Jon knew the Long Night would come, and the North desperately needed grain to survive. Naturally, he borrowed as much as he possibly could.
If the Iron Bank had been willing, he would have mortgaged the next twenty thousand years of taxes without hesitation.
All five million gold dragons were used to buy grain, giving Jon the means to march south with his troops.
The Iron Bank agreed to the deal not only because lending to the North was essentially risk-free, but more importantly because Jon supported the Two Stags.
Compared to Jon, the Two Stags received even greater support from the Iron Bank: unlimited loans in the name of the Iron Throne.
In other words, they could buy anything they wanted. Money was no object.
The Two Stags cast a calm glance around the tent at the assembled commanders and said to Ser Justin in an offhand tone:
"Go to Braavos and hire mercenaries for me. At least twenty thousand. Even a hundred thousand wouldn't be too much. As for supplies—get whatever you need."
It was extravagant beyond reason.
After the Iron Bank representative signed a guarantee for Jon, the loyal Targaryen commander-in-chief, Ser Alliser, finally agreed to lend grain from the Night's Watch to Jon.
To accomplish this, Jon used a little trick.
He approached Alliser privately and said, "As long as I stay at the Wall, you'll never be the true Lord Commander of the Night's Watch. Lending me grain benefits both of us."
Elisa understood very well that Jon was right.
Everyone at Castle Black had witnessed Jon returning from death and believed he was the Prince That Was Promised. Jon's prestige at the Wall was now even higher than when he had been Lord Commander.
Just as Jon was mustering troops and preparing a fleet to sail from Eastwatch-by-the-Sea, he received a letter from the Earl of Manderly in White Harbor: Rickon Stark was still alive and currently on Skagos Island.
After her last conversation with the Dragon Queen, Lord Eel immediately informed Lady Stoneheart of her attitude.
It was true that Catelyn did not like Jon, yet with the Stark family shattered and only Jon remaining as an adult male, she had little choice.
If she insisted on putting her son on the throne, the six-year-old Rickon would very likely be controlled by powerful ministers.
After the incident with the Boltons, Lady Stoneheart no longer dared to trust outsiders. She would rather allow the relatively dependable Jon to temporarily "serve" as King in the North.
Bastard or not, Jon had always been a good brother.
Thus, Jon met up with the Onion Knight.
Davos Seaworth, the Onion Knight, was Stannis's Hand of the King and represented Stannis in White Harbor to recruit Lord Eel.
Lord Eel agreed to the alliance but made one demand: Davos had to personally lead the fleet to the treacherous waters around Skagos and bring back Prince Rickon.
Skagos lay only two to three hundred kilometers off Eastwatch-by-the-Sea.
While the Dragon Queen was encountering one miracle after another in Essos, Jon was also blazing his own trail on Skagos.
The Skagosi, known as "Stoneborn," were massive in stature, heavily haired, and rode unicorns. Every one of them was a formidable warrior of the North.
At this moment, Jon was demonstrating the valor and strength of a King in the North to the clan chiefs by taming the fiercest of all unicorns—the King of Unicorns.
If he succeeded, the clans would pledge fealty to him and join his forces.
Jon, the true protagonist of A Song of Ice and Fire, had at long last begun to receive the treatment a main character deserved.
He was rising.
Snowflakes as large as palm prints slapped against his face, dampening the black hair on his forehead. Jon rode the towering, long-haired unicorn king—large as a wild aurochs—his gray eyes filled with exhilaration and pride.
In the ghostly northern wind, tens of thousands of clanspeople knelt in the snow and shouted, "Long live the King in the North! Long live King Jon!"
In the foreseeable future, as long as the Flayed Men did not cheat the system, Jon would undoubtedly enact the grand return of a king.
In King's Landing, the twice-crowned Cersei was also beginning her rise.
Euron had settled Highgarden's Tyrells, so Cersei had to deal with the Reach nobles outside Highgarden.
First, she needed to win over Randyll Tarly, the "greatest military commander in the Seven Kingdoms."
Originally, this was almost impossible. Randyll Tarly's temper and stubbornness were second only to Stannis.
But Tywin, Kevan, Mace Tyrell, and the Little Rose—all four of them were working together to persuade him.
When Tywin was alive, he had once fed the Tyrells a piece of poisoned fat meat: Brightwater Keep.
The three wealthiest lands of the Reach were Highgarden of House Tyrell, Oldtown of House Hightower, and Brightwater Keep of House Florent.
Stannis's wife, Selyse Florent, was the niece of the current Florent lord.
Yet during the early stages of the War of the Five Kings, the Florent family had followed the Tyrells and supported Renly rather than Stannis.
After Renly's death, some of Renly's bannermen switched to Stannis, including the Florents.
After Stannis's crushing defeat on the Blackwater, the Florent lord began negotiating between Dragonstone and the Iron Throne: Stannis would admit defeat and recognize Tommen's rule, but Tommen must marry Shireen.
To be honest, that would have been an excellent outcome for both the lions and the stags.
But Stannis's temper was iron-hard and utterly inflexible—he burned his own wife's uncle.
Logically, after the Lord Florent died and his only son Alekon, who remained in Brightwater, repeatedly expressed his willingness to surrender, Tywin should have accepted Alekon's fealty and used House Florent of Brightwater to weaken Stannis's remaining Florents.
Yet Tywin—who once said, "When your enemies kneel, you must raise them up with your own hands"—ignored Alekon's submission, stripped House Florent of its title and lands, and granted Brightwater Keep to Garland Tyrell.
Now came the issue: who exactly was Alekon?
He was Randyll Tarly's brother-in-law and also the Oldtown patriarch's brother-in-law.
In other words, his two elder sisters married two of the most powerful men in the Reach. His background was incredibly strong.
Following the advice of her cousin Daven Lannister, Cersei returned Brightwater Keep to Alekon.
Alekon immediately reciprocated, announcing that Brightwater Keep pledged allegiance to the Iron Throne and personally traveled to King's Landing to persuade his brother-in-law Randyll.
The long-dead Tywin had helped Cersei greatly.
Next came Kevan.
Kevan had always held Randyll in high regard, valuing his talent and character. During his time as Regent, he had consistently tried to lure and win Randyll over with power.
Randyll was stubborn and hot-tempered, yes—but every man has desires.
Did Stannis not have ambition?
Randyll's desire was to achieve military glory.
More directly, he wanted power.
After removing Mace Tyrell, Cersei immediately appointed Randyll Tarly as Hand of the King.
Then there was Mace himself.
During Robert's Rebellion, Lord Pufffish had stolen Randyll's military achievements and caused him to suffer humiliating losses in the joint campaign. One reason Randyll had not been hailed as the greatest general of the Seven Kingdoms earlier was that his buffoonish commanding officer sabotaged him into losing multiple battles.
During the War of the Five Kings, Tywin intentionally separated Randyll from Pufffish, giving Randyll the freedom to display his military brilliance. He won battle after battle and rose smoothly to become the "greatest general of the Seven Kingdoms."
Meanwhile, Lord Pufffish expended vast resources yet achieved nothing—not even capturing Storm's End, defended by only two hundred men.
Worse yet, Pufffish was Randyll's liege lord, with ample opportunity to obstruct him and insult him.
After suffering so much under him before, would Randyll truly risk the destruction of his entire house to defend Mace against the Iron Throne?
Finally, there was the Little Rose.
Interests were the main reason Randyll remained neutral, but the Little Rose gave him an honorable justification for openly siding with the Lannisters: House Tyrell had committed regicide and treason.
Falling into Cersei's hands, the Little Rose confessed the truth behind Joffrey's death.
That meant Cersei's arrest of Margaery and Mace, and her order sending Euron to take Highgarden, were all justified.
(End of chapter)
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