novelraw Chapter 166 166: Motivating Arbours
Chapter 166 166: Motivating Arbours
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123 AC, Dragonstone
Daphne Greengrass sat in the shade of an Ironwood Tree that she had grown in the ground, sipping a cup of tea, while watching the waves move towards the sea. Playing around with the tree was something of a meditative exercise of sorts, and despite many of her misgivings, given the nature of magic in this universe, the magical flora was pretty interesting, to say the least.
Harry didn't really have to suffer through that part, given his, frankly, bullshit magic, most of which she still could barely understand, years into their marriage. He had explained everything to her, including his strange ability to hear magic as music, but she could barely make heads or tails of any of his magic despite her best efforts. She had given up on trying to understand it after a couple of years of banging her head on the wall.
With magic spreading through the world, its nature was apparent to her, and it was, for the lack of a better word, raw. It was better than calling it eldritch aligned, which was a lot closer to the truth that she would have liked. It tended to easily create mutations, was chaotic in nature, and sometimes unpredictable. One only needed to look at the toad men in the Basilisk Isles and the mutated survivors of the Doom of Valyria in Mantarys.
It was likely an effect of magic users to deal with the poor concentration of ambient magic over thousands of years. Structure often required more magic, and the higher the risk and the more unpredictable a spell's effect was, the more powerful it tended to be. It was probably why sacrificial magic had been so commonplace, as it could circumvent a lot of the chaotic elements due to the rigid nature of life force. This being done for so long would have slowly shaped how magic intrinsically spreads.
Of course, it could have been a result of the divine war that this place suffered through, or the obvious chaotic influence of the Outsiders that are involved in it, but given the fact that, since the Resurgence of Magic, things were settling down, her prior theory held more and more weight. Perhaps in a century or two, magic would finally become something… ordered, and a proper magical society that wouldn't be based on soul magic would start to form. Which was good since Harry freeing Death made that path untenable, though not exactly impossible.
Though this flexibility, this tendency towards mutation, did help create some very interesting things, much like the Ironwood, which was as hard as stone by nature, but also able to absorb protective enchantments better than anything Daphne had ever seen, though any other form of magic barely held its ground.
It was an interesting prospect, having magical wood whose property aligned only with certain enchantments, enough that she had begun to try making other trees that would enhance only certain forms of magic. Thankfully, the Ironwood's inflexibility could be countered by alchemically combining it with Weirwood, though after being drained of most magic. The wood itself was remarkably great at holding certain forms of magic, and the Ironwood was quite good at channelling that magic. So far, Daphne managed to make elemental trees using this combination, but was currently stuck on her efforts to create a universal healing tree.
She found herself experimenting with such things more these days, trying to expand her knowledge and create something of a legacy in her family crest. It had suddenly dawned on her how important it was, now that, finally, her curse was gone.
Because her and Harry's ritual had worked perfectly, the goal that they came to this place for was finally over. They had come to this broken world to break an impossible curse, and they did it. She regretted how hasty she had been in her youth, to pay such a great price, unknowing of how much she would treasure it later, but that didn't matter anymore, for finally, her curse was gone.
She would be a mother, and she would pass down everything she could to her children, so that they may surpass her and their father in power and deeds. Well, not their father, at least, she hoped not. Harry had a tendency to get involved in one mess after another, just as he was likely involved in one at this moment, like the fact that the universe that they were in would likely soon host another divine war because they had been a bit hasty in targeting R'hllor as the final godly sacrifice for their ritual.
Daphne hadn't been there, having begun her preparation for the ritual at the time, but apparently, the god had a fragment of the Maiden of Light or something similar, something that would quickly become the centre of a war should any entity realise that it was unclaimed. Harry had used his Time Magic to trap the god, in a way that wouldn't kill him, and last she knew, he was planning to meet the Elder Dragons, with the hopes that they, as a race of creatures that had some interest in keeping this world balanced, would also help him maintain the magic that he put on Qohor, before they both left this universe.
She had been recovering from the ritual at the time and had elected to rest under the wards of the cosy little manse that they built on Dragonstone, but she was sure that things had not gone to plan, given the way her husband had been in the last few days.
He had avoided broaching the subject, and he looked obviously troubled. Daphne had chosen to let her husband be, knowing from years of experience that pressing him wouldn't achieve anything and that eventually, he would either deal with whatever was bothering him or talk to her about it.
Speaking of the devil, she peered out and saw Harry's frankly ridiculous boat, sailing from the sea. He looked a bit better, more relaxed, for the lack of a better word. It seemed that some time 'fishing' in the Menagerie had done him some good.
She smiled as he walked towards the shore and whistled as he looked at her latest experiment, "That's certainly new."
"It's my first attempt. I experimented on Ironwood mostly as a whim, but I never imagined how flexible it is when it comes to holding enchantments. Unfortunately, healing magic is proving to be more complex to put into a simple spell. I don't think a Panacea tree is feasible, not without them requiring sitting beneath a nexus of magic for centuries, sucking away every drop of magic, to work, a handful of times, maybe by concentrating the magic into fruits or something. Even then, it wouldn't be without its complications; it's usually a bad idea to brute force healing magic."
Hmm… The idea of adding an effect that spanned over centuries of stored magic into fruits was certainly interesting. It didn't really have to even be a healing spell… Theoretically, there was no reason not to make the seeds undigestible, to act as a focus of a fruit's magic, which would allow whoever ate it to cast the singular enchanted spell without any magic of their own… That held promise… A lot of promise…
Her husband seemed interested in her words, "Still, the fact that you managed to add in a general healing spell as well as a general counter curse, into the very nature of the tree is impressive enough."
She shrugged, "It's certainly interesting enough to maybe put into the Greengrass crest, eventually."
She was mostly speaking of the idea of fruits that served as a channel for an enchantment. Maybe she could ask Harry to send it into a realm whose time stream was accelerated, if only to see its results. She could even leave the fruits to the locals, if there were any, so any magic would remain in their particular timeline.
Though that was going a bit far. Sure, she was a mage, and some experimentation was somewhat expected, but this might have been a bit… out there. That's without considering the effects of having so much magic sucked into a single place for so long. It would certainly reshape the world in very unpredictable ways, at the very least. Harry was better at these sorts of calculations, but one didn't need his expertise to know that such an experiment didn't go well.
Still, her half-finished trees, which had a general healing effect, were quite neat. They did look quite pretty too, with white bark and white leaves. A part of her thought about leaving a few of them around. Harry did find the idea of being some mysterious figure in history to be extremely amusing, liking the prospect of historians theorising about his existence, despite having probably shaken the very foundation of the world.
Despite the childishness of it, Daphne would say that the possibility amused her as well. It would seriously be funny to have people question the presence of clearly unnatural and eye-catching trees randomly across Westeros. And it wouldn't hurt to help the people a bit with some healing magic. Plague did tend to happen far too much, and she supposed that she could help ward them off a bit.
She had been in a generous mood since the curse had lifted, so she might as well.
"I need to tell you something," she heard her husband speak in a serious tone, bringing her out of her thoughts.
Huh, that was earlier than she expected. Daphne raised an eyebrow and answered, "Is it that the whole affair with the Elder Dragons didn't go well, and now you still have to stop the divine war that would begin the moment R'hllor dies?"
She did her best to suppress the urge to burst into laughter as he gaped at her. Still, a smug little smile appeared on her face as she commented, "It seems that you've gotten predictable in your old age, Harry."
Her husband squawked in outrage, "I am not old," she nodded at him condescendingly, and he muttered beneath his breath, "You're as old as I am."
Daphne felt the air around her turn colder as her eyes narrowed at Harry, who had gotten slightly pale for a moment. She immediately commanded the Ironwood tree's branch to hit him. The tree moved, as she commanded, only for him to phase through it using his overpowered invisibility cloak. Harry then jumped and sat next to her, his eyes glittering in mischief.
She formed her lips into a fake pout, but eventually laughter began to leak out of her controlled expression, and they were laughing at it all. After a while, they had calmed down, and Harry seemed calmer, which was why she broached the subject: "I have to say that I expected you to take a bit longer to come with me with this."
Harry had a sheepish expression on his face, "Helaena helped."
"She's a smart girl, that one. You taught her well."
Truthfully, Daphne was fond of most of the Targaryen girls. She was sure that the boys were good enough kids, but they had only ever interacted with the girl for some reason. They hadn't initially intended to interact with any of them, truthfully, but then Harry felt bad for Rhaena regarding her lack of dragon, which ended up with the girl going on one of their expeditions with them, which eventually ended up involving Baela as well.
The situation was similar for Helaena as well, but there was also a certain pride that Harry likely felt in bringing out her potential and bringing her out of her shell. That girl was an impressively powerful seer for her age, a prodigy even, and was certainly going to be a force to be reckoned with in the future. Still, their time with the Targaryen girls had given her a glimpse of what Harry would be like as a father, and Daphne certainly liked what she saw.
Her husband chuckled, "That I did. But let's go back to the subject at hand, because, while you're right, things are a bit more complicated than that."
What followed was an explanation of the mess that happened near the Basilisk Isles, of the incoming Outsider incursion from Sothoryos, the Elder Dragons wanting to use the fragment of Light against them, which had been taken from them through betrayal.
That R'hllor found it and claimed it, subtly using it to increase his influence on the world, and the Elder Dragons had some form of multiversal precognition, that allowed them to predict Harry's presence, and set pieces up to eventually have Harry kill R'hllor, so that they'd claim the Light, thinking that the divine was that would follow be worth the risk.
He told her of his theory that this world was the realm of a dead god that had been turned using the fragment of Light into one of matter, that the Elder Dragons had likely morphed the rules of the realm with the hopes of it becoming a great incubator of their eggs, so that they could reproduce reliably.
In the meantime, Daphne remained completely and utterly silent, for he was right in calling this entire situation a mess. There were many sides to this conflict, each one with different motivations, but the end result would be the same either way, with the inhabitants of this realm suffering.
Still, it was obvious why Harry had kept it all from her now, "You want us to intervene, then."
Harry looked away and answered, "I know that this technically makes this a problem internal to this realm, since this was the Elder Dragons who engineered it, and that our rule says that we shouldn't…"
Daphne didn't let him finish and just interrupted him, "Alright then."
"Huh?" was Harry's reply in his adorably confused expression.
The witch rolled her eyes at him, "While I do agree with the rule in principle, we learned many times that every rule has its exceptions, and this is certainly one of them. Did you really think that I would just refuse, that I would ask you to leave everyone in this place to die because of some rule we made before we even came here?"
Daphne had to admit that she was somewhat hurt that Harry would think this of her. She would admit that she could be… aloof sometimes, which was likely because of her upbringing as a traditional mage, but did her husband really think that she would let billions die, including people that they had gotten attached to over the course of an entire year?
Sure, the logical part of her, the one with a mage's education, urged her to leave for safety, since she had already gotten what she needed, but she couldn't possibly look at Rhaena, Baela, or Helaena in the eyes, knowing that she would leave them to die.
It was also one thing to leave a ticking time-bomb in Qohor that would start a divine war, after ensuring that it wouldn't happen for a long time, something like thousands, or maybe even millions of years, but it was something else entirely, to leave while knowing that there were creature who would actively try to undo Harry's protections the moment that they could, something that they tried to do it before when they literally bled a god dry. In this case, leaving would be the same as abandoning a world to its fate, even if it was something planned by the highest authority over this universe.
Her husband smiled at her and shook his head, "Sorry, I don't know what I was thinking. I guess this was just me being silly." His smile turned softer, "Thanks for indulging me with this, Daph. I love you."
"I love you too," Daphne said, which was followed by a comfortable silence, one that she sadly needed to break. "So, what's the plan?"
Harry looked sheepish for a moment, "I don't have one. So far, the only thing I can think of would be to stay and maintain my magic in Qohor, and deal with anything the Elder Dragons would throw at it."
Well, now her husband's avoidance of the issue made sense. Harry didn't think that she would refuse his request to stop a divine war from taking place. She should have known this. He was obviously just trying to avoid the issue, knowing that she would refuse to stay here for an indefinite amount of time, while he tried to figure out what to do.
Unfortunately for him, he was right. Daphne spoke to him slowly, wanting to show that she would not budge on this issue, "Harry, there is no way in hell I am going to raise our child in this world."
Planetos was simply not a good place to raise a child. Aside from most societies being stuck in the Middle Ages, magic was too chaotic. Sure, it was stabilising, but it wouldn't really become structured for centuries, and a mage growing with chaotic magic would stifle their growth.
For heaven's sake, these people hadn't even invented toilets. She would not raise her son or daughter amongst savages, and while some of the people on this world were lovely, she wanted her child to live somewhere more modern, with people who had more modern sensibilities.
Seeing the seriousness in her tone, Harry raised his hand, "I'm not saying that we should. It's just… It's just that I am stuck, and I feel like there's nothing I can do that would make a difference. I… I'm not sure if I can do this."
Daphne gave him a blank look. She had seen Harry like this exactly once before, and she knew exactly who to say to move things along a bit: "Oh, get over yourself, Harry."
"Wha…" Harry cleverly answered.
She rolled her eyes at that, "In a logical world, you should have never defeated Dumbledore or Grindelwald, not in the direct confrontation. They had power behind them that dwarfed anything you could bring to the fight, and you knew it. However, you came up with the most insane plan that I have ever heard of to this day, and it worked. Because you did then what you always do, and wait until the last moment, until everyone else had given up hope, and you'll have that infuriating smug smile on your face as you come up with the most nonsensical, incomprehensible, and roundabout way to win, plans that are so out there, that no sane mind would ever think of, and you would pull them off."
Harry was still staring with a flabbergasted expression on his face as she continued, "So, why don't you save us both the time, and get on with it. You have your mystery, your puzzle, so stop moping around thinking about how impossible it is and just solve it."
Her husband blushed for a moment as he looked away. He was probably a bit embarrassed by her rant, but she knew that thousands of ridiculous plans were flashing inside his mind. She was doubly sure when a focused expression appeared on his face as he stared into the distance.
In the meantime, Daphne decided to continue sipping her tea, patiently looking at her husband's face, and waiting.
It was then that she saw it, the look in his eyes, the smug smirk on his face that showed that he knew something that no one else did. He looked up at her, and in the blink of an eye, brought her into a deep and intense kiss.
She leaned into it and was almost panting by the end, so out of it that she barely registered his words, "You're brilliant, Daph. Absolutely brilliant. I know what to do now, but I'll need your help."
She gave him a soft smile, "Always…"
As he jumped back and began babbling the skeleton of a plan to her, her smile turned into a fond one. For before her was the Lord of Space and Time, Harry Potter, her husband, and he was back. After all, the game was on, and she was sure that this world was not prepared for what Harry would do next, because she knew that look on his face, and knew that it meant trouble.
Oh, how she couldn't wait to see it.
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The Kindly Trees: An Inquiry into Their Nature, Origin, and Curative Properties
By Archmaester Aemon of King's Landing
The Kindly Trees, or the White Trees of Westeros, are some of the great mysteries that have befuddled historians in recent memory. The trees themselves are quite rare, with at most one natural one being discovered in every kingdom, except for the North, which boasted to have found dozens of them, though that was to be expected given the size of the Kingdom in question.
What was truly befuddling was the fact that such trees were not mentioned in any way before the reign of Viserys the Peaceful, which was quite strange given their distinctive look, with white bark and almost silver-coloured leaves. One cannot help but wonder if the Old Citadel of Oldtown, before its dissolution, had purposefully hidden its existence from the world. After all, records of the Citadel purposefully refusing to heal certain nobles that they found undesirable, or perhaps provide sub-par remedies, did exist, and the properties of the Kindly Trees would have easily broken much of the Citadel's monopoly on the healing arts in the Seven Kingdoms. Alas, as many records as we have on the scandal, we could only assume that worse was destroyed or remained hidden, and thus, we cannot know for sure.
What we do know is that the first public discovery of the tree in question was in 128 AC by Alysanne Blackwood during one of her journeys across the Riverlands. Many had thought the tree to be beautiful and had used fallen cuttings of the sacred tree to plant their own. Entire villages were built around these trees across the Seven Kingdoms, thinking them a blessing from the Gods, Old or New.
Alas, the Kindly Trees' true medicinal properties were only discovered by Baelor the Seer just before the end of the second century after Aegon's Conquest, when the prince had seen the presence of much healthier smallfolk that lived near such a tree. But most tellingly, the naturally fallen leaves of the tree had great healing effects that could easily be called magic.
Eventually, many had attempted to steal cuttings of the tree, but only those that seemed to fall naturally seemed to be able to grow into another Kindly Tree, which greatly limited its spread. The growth of the trees was also unpredictable, seemingly growing more quickly in the North, for some reason, though crop-growing magicks in the North were often theorised as the reason for their land's sudden fertility.
To this day, natural cuttings of Kindly Trees are often worth a small fortune, with House Lannister having bought one for two million gold dragons in 243 AC, which had since skyrocketed their value. Today, Kindly Trees are often guarded heavily by whichever house holds the lands within and are often considered some of the great wonders of the world, that wealthy men from across the Known World come to visit.
To this day, many scholars consider the presence of Kindly Trees to be the reason why the Seven Kingdoms were somewhat untouched by many plagues that ravaged Essos. For example, the Winter Fever of 132 AC had barely affected the Seven Kingdoms, where many Free Cities lay ravaged, and similarly, the Great Sickness of 209 AC had also barely impacted even the Westerosi Smallfolk, whereas most of the Western coast of Essos had fallen into ruin, enough that it almost halted the Second Century of Blood.
Noticeably, Princess Helaena Targaryen had, for decades, insisted on collecting the cuttings of the Kindly Trees, distributing them towards cities with significant ports, claiming that she found their presence soothing. This might hint at the possible knowledge of the effects of the Kindly Trees in question belonging to the royal family, knowledge that even I, who was once a Prince of the Realm, confess not to know of.
In the end, we could all debate whether the Kindly Trees are a gift of the gods, Old or New, an echo of the lost Children of the Forest magicks, or some lingering consequence of the Resurgence of Magic itself. Yet, their mysterious origin matters not; only the fact that they exist, and in doing so, have left this world forever changed.
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AN: This chapter took a bit out of me, and I'm not really sure about it. I sort of realised that I didn't do a Daphne POV yet, and it felt right to have her build on what Helaena did in the previous chapter, and finally push Harry towards making a viable plan, which I'm pretty excited to write. Still, I think I might have made her a bit cold. It has been a while since I wrote to her, and she was a teenager then. I sort of wanted it to be a remnant of EM mages, who were pretty ruthless with their magic and experimentations, but I tried to make it somewhat a subtle instinct, an old remnant, though I'm not sure I quite pulled it off. As usual, please let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions.
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