ALL NOVEL Chapter 116: 116
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207 AC
Harrenhal
Aerion Targaryen
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"It's nice to see this place again." I smile wide as I stand in the main yard of Harrenhal.
It feels like it's been years... but it's only been months.
"It is." Danny agrees and leans her head on my shoulder which prompts me to wrap my arm around her back and grab her hip.
"We need to find Rhaena..." I mutter feeling a bit worried.
I want her to hear it from me.
The Faith of the seven will die.
Her Faith.
She spent her life worshipping the Seven.
Here I plan their death and my further rise.
I feel more pity for her than the Gods I plan to kill... if they ever lived in the first place.
Looking at the statues of the Gods in the Great Sept of Baelor left me... confused.
The Seven are indeed one.
Another God hides behind the Seven, I know not who he is... but I will find out.
"Let's go then." Danny pulls me along side by side and I smile as she does.
I will make this work.
Rhaena will be fine, I will see to it personally she converts.
Even if I have to take a direct... hands-on approach.
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207 AC
Harrenhal
Rhaena Targaryen
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"Aerion." I stand firm as Daenerys and Aerion enter the empty sept.
The sept he built.
The sept he plans to burn down.
"Rhaena, it's good to see you once again, I am beyond pleased with how you have managed my castle and lands in my absence." Aerion smiles and as he approaches I get a better look at his 'new' appearance.
I saw it in my dreams, I saw him enter the pyre and step out a new man.
Then he changed the rest of our family one by one.
I am last... at least I am supposed to be.
"I do not want this." I speak up and he freezes in place as his brows raise, soon realization washes over him though and he sighs.
"Rhaena..." He mutters while stepping forward once more letting go of Daenerys as he shakes his head. "You don't even know what I offer." I feel my eyes sting as he approaches, a bitter taste in my mouth as I steel myself and simply watch him approach.
"You offer a lie." It has to be.
"What lie?" He stops an arm's length away from me with a conflicted look on his face.
"No one other than the Gods can be immortal." He has been tricked by some foul demon in Essos and has been led astray.
The entire family has been dragged down with him... my heart aches at the thought.
"I am God now." He chuckles and I clench my hands into fists feeling my body shake despite my attempts to stand firm.
"You are not, you are Aerion and you have been led astray." He leans forward and I almost fall backward but his hands move swift as lighting and grab my shoulders... gently.
"Just let me show you... please, you don't need to fear me or what I bring... I promise." I don't move, I don't resist.
I never intended to.
If my entire family is going to burn in the demon's flames then I will go with them.
But even so... I send a final prayer in hopes we can still be saved by the merciful Seven.
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207 AC
Harrenhal
Daenerys Targaryen
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"She was scared." I mutter as I watch Aerion pick up Rhaena in his arms and turn toward me with a sad look.
"She was terrified." He sighs in a way I have only rarely heard.
He is hurt.
"It will be fine, she will see and things will get better with time." Time which we have plenty of.
I can feel it.
The aches and pains that use to plague me and worse as I aged.
Gone.
That alone convinced me beyond the change in my appearance.
The Red Witch used a 'Glamor' magic to make herself young and beautiful looking despite being old, and capable of being far older based on what I know. But the feeling of my body, which can't be tricked as my eyes can be, I know I have grown younger as if the days have flowed backward.
Aerion says he can do this forever so long as people believe in him as the Lord of Light.
The Prince who was promised.
Lightbringer.
So long as it's believed he is completely confident we can live for as long as there are people and ground to live on. The plan he has come up with to ensure that stays the case is honestly brutal, however, if it works it could be exactly what needs to happen. A new era where everyone is united under one banner, under one head figure who can guide everyone toward an overall better future.
He called it the beginning of a new 'Age of Gods'.
I trust him, and so will Rhaena once she sees the truth.
I do feel bad for her, she dedicated her life to the Seven.
But that has now been taken from her and we plan to completely kill them off, remove them from living memory and written memory with enough time and effort.
She can gain a new purpose though, despite the ache in my chest at us forcing this upon her.
I will do what I can to make this right by her.
"Let's go." Aerion nods toward the still-open door. "I want to rest my mind before we fly north to confront the Night King anyway... we can stay at her side until she awakens and speak with her when she does." I hum in approval and spin on my heels to walk beside Aerion as he carries Rhaena with practiced ease.
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207 AC
Haunted Forest
???
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This is not how it was supposed to go.
The plan has been torn to shreds.
All by the ripple.
A stone dropped into the lake.
It was never meant to be born, he was never meant to breathe and yet he did.
A dead babe grew into an unforeseen... problem.
I am supposed to become the Lord of Death, the King who rules over the frozen world and lets everyone live an eternal life under my forever rule.
My ice spear shattered as I clenched it too hard and I narrowed my eyes at one of my commanders who looked over in confusion. He quickly corrects himself and looks away as I summon a new one with the snow and frozen air.
Aerion... why must you ruin this for me.
I paid the price for this, unknowingly, but I paid the price all the same.
The Great Other picked me after what the children did... to become his 'living' aspect.
But you... Aerion... you have come and ruined this by starting things that should not have started for more than a hundred years.
You have become the opposite of me.
Now I am left to rush my plan that has been thousands of years in the making!
I hate you Aerion.
I am left out here watching the carefully laid plan I came up with fall apart like sand... unable to do anything.
Unless I want to rush to the land of living without the Long Night.
Without the Other's protection of Darkness... without the power it brings.
The Other... he plays with me.
R'hllor raises Aerion up and even falls on his own sword to let Aerion take his place.
Yet the Other who picked me sits back and watches on dispassionately, forcing me to earn my place.
Raising my head to the sky I spot a hawk with a man's mind inside and I ready the new spear I created. Tossing it through the air it soars like a bolt of lightning and passes straight through the hawk before it even knew what was happening.
Hmm.
I wonder if that will work on those big-scaled beasts?