novelraw Chapter 165 165: A Helpful Ear
Chapter 165 165: A Helpful Ear
If you want to support me, check out my patréon at https://www.patréon.com/athassprkr
I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions on them, so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.
[---]
123 AC, King's Landing
Helaena Targaryen moved through the Red Keep with purpose. With her mother slowly falling into despair at the revelation that her son would not be king, she had spent much of her time trying to somehow reverse the results of the Great Council. Quite unsuccessfully, if Helaena was completely honest, for the King was at his strongest with his claiming of Vermithor, and the match between Daemon's son and Jaehaera, which he had been the one to arrange, showed them that this union had his full support. Very few would have risked angering the King, slighting the Rogue Prince, for the claim of a man who obviously had no interest in being king.
Unfortunately, there was a lord, an ambitious one, who thought that he was manipulating her mother, Unwin Peake. Queen Alicent should have seen his words for what they were, false promises for the sake of ambition; alas, she was too desperate at the illusion of having an ally to care. Normally, Helaena wouldn't have involved herself, but Unwin Peake was unfortunately too dangerous to leave be. Sadly, in a few days, he would trip on a decorative suit of armour while falling down the stairs, one that Helaena just commissioned, which was near the Great Hall.
There were so many other issues at hand, with the Braavosi trying to see if they could steal any Dragon Eggs, with the current Dragonkeepers in the Dragonpit having come from Dragonstone after the Shadowbinders' attack, and thus still unused to the procedures in the Capital. They were also looking for Dragonseeds in the city, likely hoping to entice one to return with them and hatch the dragons that they purchased from Elissa Farman during the Conciliator's reign, which had presumably turned to stone. Unfortunately for them, Helaena had ensured that any spy would be discovered immediately, and she kept track of the Dragonseeds in the city.
There were also the Rogare, who were enticing half of the Seven Kingdoms with cheap loans, with marriage being involved in the deal. They had failed talks about a marriage with the Rogue Prince involving his second son, Viserys, and seemed to be in good spirits. At least, they pretended to be as they secretly planned on helping Rhaenyra escape, hoping to marry her to one of their own, becoming a Dragonriding house as well as having a claim to the throne in a few decades. Sadly, for them, some of their unfavourable dealings with a magister of Pentos shall be made public soon, and the conflict, as well as the threat to their bank, shall distract them enough to stop these schemes from taking place.
All in all, she had become quite a busy woman, especially with her taking care of much of her mother's duties, something that would likely not change for as long as the woman grasped the truth of the situation. Alas, she would not be able to do so until she finished grieving her father and stopped feeling that she was betraying his sacrifice as she failed to put Aegon on the Iron Throne.
Truthfully, Helaena thought that the man would have been satisfied with Jaehaera being queen, but that he would have been outraged at his loss of influence over the governance of the realm and would have likely kept trading barbs with the Rogue Prince on every occasion. Aegon on the throne was always meant to extend his own power over the Seven Kingdoms, all but ruling in his stead, as he had when King Viserys was ill.
Still, she loved her mother and would wait for her to heal at her own time. In the meantime, she would protect her from making foolish mistakes, just as the woman protected Helaena during her youth.
Thankfully, she had some time to herself as the next crisis would not be dealt with until the next day, and her magic lessons with Rhaena would not be until that night. Apparently, the Rogue Prince finally realised that his daughter could use Fire Magic and wished to attend their lessons. He also seemed to respect her quite a lot, something that she found quite amusing, especially when he did so in front of her husband.
The plan had been to spend more time with her beautiful children. Aegon would likely be with them then, and the world would have been better for it. Unfortunately, it was not to be, for she felt a familiar shift in the tapestry, with silver threads appearing randomly, guiding her towards a particular event.
She suppressed a smile as she immediately recognised who this thread belonged to, for it was an invitation, one by her teacher, Harry Potter. After all, the sorcerer of Dragonstone could hide very easily from her sight. For all her talent and skill, he was, by far, her superior, even if divination was not his chosen field of study.
Helaena walked down, following the thread in question, and she did not even need to evade her guards, for the path that she would follow made it unnecessary, pushing her to wear a cloak to hide her form, the moment that she was out of the sight of her guards, and continue onward as if nothing had happened. To her surprise, after a few minutes, Helaena found herself walking down towards the port, which was something that she found strange.
She had fully expected the man to meet with her in the Red Keep's Godswood, but she supposed that this would do as well. The path settled as she noticed a small boat, completely unattended, and she sat inside.
Just as she expected, the boat moved on its own, into the middle of the Blackwater Bay, and it made its way towards a similar boat, somehow merging into one another, into a larger vessel. Of course, the other boat was not uninhabited, for a familiar man sat there with a straw hat and a fishing rod in his hands.
She turned to the man with incredulity in her tone, "Have you brought me here to fish, Lord Harry?"
"Ah, Helaena. It's good to see you. I suppose I have. There's nothing wrong with a bit of fishing to clear your head. Here, why don't you try it?" the man answered while giving her a fishing rod.
The young Princess was quite confused as she grabbed one of the fishing rods and threw the fishing lines into the sea, wondering why the man had no bait with him. To her surprise, almost immediately, she felt something caught in her fishing line, and she excitedly pulled it up, only to see a large golden fish, whose scales were glowing faintly. The fish looked at her with her strangely intelligent eyes before releasing some sort of golden-coloured water at her and jumping back into the depths of the sea.
Helaena spluttered at what had just happened, and she turned to the chuckling sorcerer, "What was that?"
"That would be a Golden Fish. Not the most elaborate of names, but that's what I saw it. It's quite rare, almost hunted down to extinction, really, because of its inclusion in a fairy tale, where it was said to grant any wish. Of course, that's nonsense, but they can bless someone with good fortune. I found a few of them chased down by poachers when Daphne and I were exploring an old, abandoned Viking settlement. I offered them a place to stay without any danger to them, and they accepted."
She did not know what most of these words meant, but she accepted them as places or civilisations that related to Lord Harry's home. One thing did bother her, though, "And yet, you are trying to fish for them?"
The sorcerer snorted, "For most of the fish here, this is more of a game. It's quite relaxing, really. Normally, none of the Golden Fish would have chosen to be caught, but I suppose he wanted to get a proper look at you. It's not often that strangers come to this place."
"This place?" Helaena repeated, before staring in awe, as strange creatures began to fly over them. She must have imagined them, for a few looked like horses with wings, and some like hybrids of eagles and horses.
In the distance, a gigantic bird flew up, and she could see a distant thunderstorm grow around it. She stared at the spectacle in awe as the sorcerer answered, "I call it the menagerie. Over the years, Daphne and I found creatures, mostly magical, but a few normal ones as well, in danger or hurt. I made this place something of a home for them, separating them into different biomes depending on their needs. It was quite the tricky little project, but I pulled it off."
Helaena stared in awe at her surroundings, having noticed that the boat had been moving almost silently towards the shore, where she saw great forests, filled with golden fawns that stared at her. There were also silver rabbits running around, and in the distance, she saw hints of endless mountains.
She had known, personally, that Lord Harry was powerful, but this place… It was akin to a world on its own. She had never thought of the Potters as anything truly godly. They were more than sorcerers, more than mortals, but the road to divinity was a different one, and the fact that the man before her had created such a place. Well, it was harder and harder to define what he truly was.
And so, they stayed on their boat, beneath the sunny sky. They continued to fish, catching one creature after another, and throwing them back into the water. It was a game of sorts; she realised that one that the fish seemed to adore.
She had not felt this relaxed for some time, not since having to deal with the schemes of King's Landing to ensure that the realm wouldn't rip itself apart, and that her family would be safe. Nevertheless, as grateful as she was for the distraction, after some time, she couldn't help but ask, "Why did you bring me here, Lord Harry?"
The sorcerer smiled gently at her, "I suppose that I needed the company. I usually do this whenever I feel like there's too much going on in my head, and it looked like you needed a break too."
Helaena nodded, though she looked up in the sky, "Is this… Is this regarding your 'adventure' with Aemond and Daemon?"
"Yeah, that was a fucking mess," the sorcerer uncharacteristically swore.
She had known about it, of course. After all, a hysterical Aemond had come to her apologising for going on an adventure with Harry Potter, before going into horrifying details about what he had experienced. Sure, while it was amusing that Aemond thought that she hadn't known about his little lie, that the adventure itself wasn't as horrific as her time in Valyria, and Lord Harry did keep him and Daemon safe, some of the revelations were worrying to say the least.
Helaena, who had known more about the Potters and their goals, had gotten a better context about what had occurred, and she would admit that it worried her, especially Lord Harry's reaction to it all.
"Are Daemon and Aemond well?" Lord Harry suddenly asked.
"They are afraid, of course, but each has dealt with it in their own way. Daemon spends most of his time with his sons and daughters, while Aemond does so in the yard."
"I really shouldn't have brought them with me. I expected it to be interesting to see the gods of their ancestors, to speak with them. I didn't think that the Elder Dragons would be… like this. It has been a while since I've been caught off-guard like this, especially repeatedly, and now I feel stuck choosing impossible choices."
Ah, yes. The Elder Dragons. Helaena had once let one speak through her, and through the brief connection that they shared, she knew the creature to be completely and utterly alien. It looked at the world differently, just as it had before.
She could understand their apathy, but had not expected them to have been ready to let much of the inhabitants of the world be destroyed for their ambition, whatever that was. From what she understood from Aemond's retelling of what happened, they had somehow arranged for Lord Harry to slay R'hllor, with the hopes of releasing an object of power, the fragment of Light, which reminded her of something Mother Rhoyne mentioned regarding the origin of the gods. They hoped to use this fragment of Light against the invading Outsiders from Sothoryos, but releasing it would force the other gods into war over it. The sorcerer realised this and stopped this, somehow, yet that measure will not last forever.
And so, she spoke up, "What can you do?"
"Should I let the Elder Dragons claim the fragment of Light, a divine war would follow, and even if I don't, and they'll eventually find a way to undo my magic, and they'll claim it anyway, with war following just after."
"Could you defeat them?" Helaena found herself asking.
"Yes," Harry answered directly, "But what would that achieve? They are the ones who enforce the divine laws that they set in place when I came here. With them gone or unpowered, every god and demon would have no reason to follow the rules, and war would follow. Only this time, there would also be nothing to stop the Outsider's incursion coming from Sothoryos. No matter what way I think of, devastation follows. Devastation was always going to follow."
"But if the Elder Dragons are willing to let us all die, then what are they fighting for?"
"This was a question that I asked myself many times, and my best guess would be the eggs."
"The eggs?" Helaena answered questioningly.
"From what I've seen, Elder Dragon Eggs need to grow in a material plane of some sort, as well as certain multidimensional energy signatures, which would have been very hard to pull off. I'm guessing that they found this realm during the Great Cataclysm that followed the war and saw the potential. After all, this was a realm of a god that had turned material, and they had the key to shaping it exactly the way they needed it. The fragment of Light would allow them to filter the void between worlds into exactly the ratio of energy that they needed, allowing their eggs to grow."
Helaena's eyes widened in realisation, "But they would have needed to bring order first."
Lord Harry nodded in approval, "Exactly, only that the Outsiders did not want to let this realm go. They lost the Light; by their own edicts, they couldn't get it, while the Outsiders continue to encroach into the material realm. To make things short, they probably wanted to use this plane of existence to reproduce, and everything else, like the survival of any living species on it, would be a secondary goal at best."
That… That made sense, far too much sense for comfort, and it does present the conundrum quite well. There was nothing that the sorcerer could do to appease them, for the Elder Dragons likely needed the fragment of Light for more than simply waging war, enough that they would allow a war between gods to occur.
"What does Lady Daphne think of all of this?" She asked.
The sorcerer gained a sheepish expression, "I haven't told her about it yet. She knows that there is something, Daph always does, but she's letting me deal with it."
"Why have you not told her?" The young princess asked, confused.
"You don't get it. Daphne understands my guilt, given my choice of R'hllor for our ritual, but the fact that the Elder Dragons had planned it, that this mistake had been a scheme by an outside force to pit us against R'hllor with the aim of killing him and causing all of this, changes things. The Elder Dragons are, essentially, the greatest force in this realm, the supreme authority. It's their laws that are being followed, the strength that enforces them. If they want a war between gods to happen in their domain, then it shouldn't be our place, as outsiders, as travellers, to oppose them. That was one of the rules, my rules, that we follow during our travels."
The princess quickly understood what he meant, "Oh!"
"Exactly. The moment we realised what was happening, we should have left, but I find myself unable to leave this world, as impossible as this is, to its fate, that I would let it fall to ruin because of the whims of a higher entity. Sometimes… Sometimes I wish that we hadn't come to this place at all, for while this war was always going to happen, it's my actions that started all of this."
Helaena stared at him, this time, feeling anger coursing through her, which she stifled as well as possible. Still, she shook her head and spoke up, "I don't."
She saw Lord Harry look at her in surprise, but ignored it. There was much that she wished to say to him, so much gratitude that she wished to express to him, but the words simply failed her. And so, she did something she normally did through complete instinct and looked at the tapestry within her mind for guidance.
It was then that she saw it, a beautiful path of pure light and beauty, and she knew, in this moment, the exact words that she needed to speak, "I don't regret you coming here. I am terrified, of course, for my family, for my children. But I have been terrified all of my life, from dreams that I never thought I'd be able to escape, for I saw my children's death before their very births, and it was worse than anything I had ever experienced. You saved me. You saved my children. You saved countless people across the Seven Kingdoms, though they would never know of it. You ended the threat in the North and the horrors of Old Valyria. You helped Aegon, Daemon, and even Aemond become greater than what they were, what they would have been."
Before he could interrupt, she continued, feeling the need to finish the words, as the path within her mind dictated, yet meaning every single word she spoke, "Perhaps, it would all be short-lived, but I can see it in the tapestry, the extent of the goodness that your actions would propagate into the future. I can see it all. You saved us all in ways that no one would ever know, and while I am terrified of what might come, the fact that you have not left this realm tells me that you would do everything you can to do it, because that is who you are."
"I am no hero," Lord Harry answered after some time.
"Perhaps you are not," she answered, her eyes glittering, yet it was so close, a path to hope, "But I have faith that you would do everything that you could find a way out of our situation, nonetheless, one that is clever and unpredictable enough that even the Elder Dragons would not have thought of. Maybe it is a childish notion, but then again, faith usually is, just as I am sure that Lady Daphne would have faith in you as well, should you speak with her."
And just as it appeared, the path faded away, and the world felt lesser for it. For it was hope, great and true. She did not know how it had appeared like this, and how Lord Harry had not seen it, for he must have, and at that moment, looking at the small smile on the sorcerer's face, she knew that she had played her part in it.
He gave her a soft smile, "Thank you, Helaena. I think I needed to hear that."
They stayed in silence for a few moments before the sorcerer suddenly clapped, his eyes lighting up with excitement, "Alright, enough gloom. There's something very important that I wanted to ask you?"
Helaena stiffened as she turned into him, "What is it?"
"Tell me, Helaena, have you ever seen a unicorn before?"
Before she could ask him why he thought that, she would have even seen some horned goat from Skagos, only to freeze as she looked at the shore and saw one of the most beautiful sights she had ever seen before, for it was a herd of large horses, which almost glowed silver. Their beautiful white horns atop each of their heads looked almost majestic, and their manes were like threads of moonlight.
It had not taken long for Helaena to beg the sorcerer to take her ashore to see them, and the rest of the day passed with the wonder not abating as she met one strange and wondrous beast after another in Harry Potter's impossible world of wonder.
[---]
Of Magical Fauna and Flora in the Known World
By Archmaester Marwin of Highgarden
Given the Resurgence of Magic and its adoption into the Seven Kingdoms and the rest of the Known World, in general, many dismiss the impact that such a thing had on the presence of magical fauna and flora across the world, something that I had only myself grown to appreciate after visiting the Kingdom of the North.
The truth remains that many creatures and plants, magical or not, have been discovered to have magical properties since the Resurgence of magic. Perhaps they always did have such properties, but our ability to detect magicks has increased over the last decades of study; given the rarity of accounts of magical animals and plants in the past, it is likely a relatively recent development. Though some remnants of the wretched Old Citadel of Oldtown's influence over written history might have been involved to hide such reports, given their general dislike of the Higher Mysteries.
Nevertheless, it is my theory that just as humans were affected by the Resurgence of Magic, plants and animals had received the same. There were, of course, reports of magical creatures and plants existing in the past, chief among them being House Targaryen's Dragons and the Weirwood Trees, but recent discoveries have allowed us to classify Ironwood as a magical wood as well. Aside from its unnatural hardness, the wood was resistant to many forms of magics through some sort of magic that connected it to nature in some way, though I was not allowed to study it for long. Similarly, winter roses were found to have great medicinal properties, as they had many roots, commonly grown in the North. Given the strange growing of magical plants, especially in the North, which they had called a blessing of their gods, one might expect more tension with the royal family, as House Stark's position to stay all but a separate entity of the kingdom remains its greater policy.
Thankfully, while the North had been the home of many provenly magical animals as well, such creatures had begun to spread across the world. Though in the North, Direwolves were becoming quite commonplace, followed by forms of magical bears, which seemed to have grown far larger than any accounts, and after studying a corpse, it was proven to be blessed with some sort of strengthening magicks. Unicorns of Skagos are similar, though the goat-like creatures became unnaturally fast and agile, especially on mountainous terrain.
However, the presence of larger and greater beasts had also appeared in the Vale, with the appearance of giant eagles who were said to be unnaturally intelligent, with similar tales of lions in the Westerlands. Kraken encounters became quite common in the Sunset Sea, though that might be because of the improvements in ship manufacturing that allowed more survivors to tell the tale of the beast. Similarly, in Essos, tales of harpies and sphinxes have become quite commonplace.
And yet, for all these discoveries, I cannot help but feel that we have only glimpsed the presence of a pattern of change, one that has begun to reshape the very nature of life across the world. How this change would conclude, I know not, but with every decade, every century, magical creatures become stronger. Perhaps stronger beasts would appear, one that could be tamed much like the Targaryen tamed their dragons, and perhaps these creatures would change the political landscape of the Seven Kingdoms, and perhaps even the World.
[---]
AN: I'm not really sure about this chapter. It's a bit of a slow one, but it's sort of necessary given what comes next, and I thought that a conversation with Helaena would be a good way to get Harry out of his funk, while also getting Daphne a bit involved, which I neglected in the next few chapters. The idea of a magical menagerie did cross my mind a few times, and someone did recommend it a while back, so I thought I'd include it in this conversation. As usual, please let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions.
[---]
If you want to support me, check out my patréon at https://www.patréon.com/athassprkr
I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions on them, so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.
Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.