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, Sothoryos
After all, there might have been a few hiccups in the last part of the plan, but everything was completely set up for this one. And so, Harry Potter looked up towards them, readying himself for the final part of this day and began to sing, knowing the world would forever be unchanged after that.
It had not taken Daphne long to realise that her husband was in trouble. It wasn't exactly the sounds of explosions and beams of energy that warped her surroundings, but the fact that he recalled his invisibility cloak the moment that signalled to him that she was done. Harry always felt the need to leave some manner of protection near her, even if it was unnecessary. It was one of his quirks since the war against Dumbledore and Grindelwald that never really disappeared, and she had learned to live with it.
And so, his taking back something like the cloak, something that was extremely powerful, and doing it while in the middle of enemy territory despite her not needing it, was not a good sign. A part of her wanted nothing more than to go to him and make sure that he was alright, but she had a job to do, and she needed to see their plan through.
It had been much harder than expected to grow a Heart Tree in Sothoryos, especially when the Outsiders' influence on it was persistent. Daphne had needed to use a little trick that Harry had arranged while she wore his invisibility cloak, which extended its stealthy features to not only her existence, but to any magic she cast. She wasn't sure if Harry had played around with the cloak to achieve that, or if it was already a feature that had existed within it; she still could not make heads or tails of any of the Deathly Hallows and their magic whenever she looked at it.
Anyway, extending her magic to the tree was the only reason the Outsiders did not notice the Weirwood tree growing from the seeds provided by the Old Gods, though she was all but coaxing it to do so... Some of the Old Gods' will be remained within the seeds, which was to be expected, and they did not like being anywhere near the Outsiders, refusing to grow with them nearby, making this entire endeavour both slow and straining on her magic, her druidic ancestry be damned.
Things had gotten much easier to deal with when Harry rewound time and sliced apart the realm, banishing the Outsiders. She had been sceptical about this part when he told her of the plan, having spent years around him enough to know how merciless the laws of Time were and the consequences that existed for breaking them, but he had seemed confident that he could do it with the fragment of Light that he would control through R'hllor's realm, and she had trusted that. And now, it seemed like his confidence was not in vain.
Still, the Outsiders being gone was one of this realm's biggest problems being solved, one that was the main reason for Planetos' reliance on the Elder Dragons, aside from enforcing the rules that gods should follow, the Elder Dragons that had appeared from the sky, which Harry began to battle.
Daphne did not like the idea of leaving him to fend for himself like this. She wasn't exactly worried about Harry losing; he could be very nasty in a fight if he felt the need to, enough that he could take the Elder Dragons off-guard in ways that would be catastrophic for them. However, she knew that her husband really disliked fighting or war in general. Sure, he liked the idea of solving puzzles and sometimes fighting does end in that, but after a big fight, she wouldn't see him smiling, truly smiling, for days at a time.
This trip, this voyage to Planetos, was meant both as a vacation and a potential place to solve her curse. And while she achieved the latter, the idea of a vacation, where they would explore ruins and try to piece together the history of this place from its historical remnants, had become but a second thought.
Because Harry… Because Harry had seen another apocalypse, another world potentially ending in so many different ways, and decided to stop it, because that was who he was, even if he liked to deny it, a man who, deep down, beneath the scholar, could simply not walk away, knowing that devastation would follow his departure.
Daphne did not begrudge him that. In fact, she loved this about him, but every time he fought some great battle, she could see some of the childlike delight leave him, a piece of him, which they had worked for years to rebuild after the war, and that broke her heart. Despite what he said, she knew that Harry was not happy in Planetos, not anymore, with the realm having lost its lustre, with every moment becoming something of a burden, a problem to be solved, instead of a curiosity (aside from the few friendships that they made here, of course).
Hopefully, they should be done soon, and the fully-grown Heart Tree before her was a step in the right direction. The tree was massive and towered over the forest with its invisibility being taken from him, and now came the most troubling part.
Daphne delved into the tree and pushed through it, enhancing its range. She felt its energy connect to the rest of the Weirwoods, each of whom sat above the crossover of two ley lines, empowering them. Each Heart Tree pulsed the same signal, her signal, spreading across Essos, like the part of a single network, before finally settling towards Westeros.
She felt it then, resistance, which was something that she had expected, yet it was tainted by a countless wave of outrage, an outrage whose sheer potency surprised her greatly. She delved into the energy, slipping through the Weirwoods, out of caution, as well as curiosity. After all, Daphne had studied the Weirwoods and understood much of their quite powerful botanical properties, but the scene before her was one that she did not entertain.
For she found herself standing in an infinite pool of blood, a symbol of the sacrifices made in the name of the Old Gods over thousands of years and fed their blood to the Weirwoods. Each tree's ability to use blood magic was not particularly efficient, but the countless creatures whose blood spilt could more than achieve something very potent.
She had studied the Weirwoods extensively and had never come across anything like this. Their magic was raw, but potent, but this felt… structured, similarly to her own brand of blood magic, specifically the magic she used to grow the seeds of the Old Gods into full Heart Trees, across the world. She supposed some magic could be based on it, but not to this extent…
Had the Old Gods put some kind of magical sensors inside it? The trees did act as divination hubs of sorts, but she didn't really consider the Old Gods using them to try to steal her magic, nor had she cared, if she were honest.
Her theories were proven to be correct as a giant Heart Tree grew from the blood before her, one that was larger and greater than the ones that she had planted. More tellingly, it didn't truly seem to be a single tree, with each branch seemingly growing into trees of their own, and every piece of white wood seemingly carved into faces of different expressions before her.
As the blood slipped from their branches, she saw one of the faces move and speak up, this time, in a mimicry of a voice, echoing around them, "You would break our pact."
Daphne snorted in derision, "I made no pact, my husband did. And even then, we did not use you against the Elder Dragons. We did not try to bring you harm. The terms of the pact are unbroken."
Of course, that was when everything turned chaotic.
"You sought to bind us."
"You sought to chain us."
"You sought to slay us."
"You sought to drown us."
"You sought to bleed us."
"Help us."
"Curse us."
"Drown with us."
Every carved face, on every branch and every twig, spoke up for a completely different accusation, each one as absurd as the other, and it was only then that it dawned on her what had happened, and she cursed beneath her breath.
Those… idiots.
That was the only way to describe the Old Gods, given what had likely happened. Blood Magic was extremely powerful. Daphne had spent years mastering it in ways that very few people even thought possible, and the first lesson she learned about blood magic was how unpredictable it was, especially if one did not set all the variables of the vow properly, and powerful sacrifices resulted in more unpredictable results.
As one of the most decisive conflicts on Planetos took place, the Old Gods had attempted to elevate their existence, to become more than they were created to be. Originally, they were nought but a spell, in truth. They were but the remnants of an enchantment that had gained sentience, which used the memories of all those who died in their domain as a basis for that enchantment. It was probably made by design, as it was an easy way for an enchantment to achieve sentience, but something with so many sacrifices, with so many personalities, over so much time, was bound to have irregularities.
And, likely in the hope of avoiding the fighting, and in fear of destruction, they had likely hoped to ascend, to create a realm where they would inhabit, like true gods, only the realm that they created was barely more than a mindscape as no amount of blood magic would make a realm out of nothing, especially not something as basic as the blood magic she used when planting the Weirwoods, which they tried to use for this.
Usurping an empty one was possible, but not making one from scratch, and of course, just to make things all the more interesting, the fact that it had turned into a great mindscape amplified the differences between the sources of memories, which was turning the Old Gods into… this.
This was bad…
This was very bad.
Harry's plan required them, and neither of them expected the Old Gods to do something so fundamentally insane and stupid.
Daphne hoped that she could calm the creature before her, but that would have been the same as trying to calm down a bloodthirsty mob, something that was becoming increasingly obvious as one of the endless branches came slamming down towards her.
The sorceress quickly conjured a freezing blizzard towards it, hoping to redirect it, which it did successfully. Daphne then quickly turned into a dove flying away from the reach of the tree, which continued to grow endlessly, wondering why everything had to be so much harder than it needed to be.
Nevertheless, she now needed to deal with this mess, sort out the network for Harry's gambit, and stop the Old Gods from possibly messing with his part of the plan.
This time, the pool of water thrummed and moved, and Daphne found herself being ready to be attacked by a gigantic wave of blood coming at her, which she easily manipulated to move around her, not even letting a drop of blood stain her clothes.
It was certainly powerful, though extremely crude, and that was its greatest weakness, a lack of control. Her lips faintly twitched upwards in anticipation of what would come soon, and she quickly raised her hands, creating a crimson shield as another attack of blood came soaring towards her; only this shield seemed to glow more intensely in the presence of blood.
She had come up with this nifty little spell after a little mishap for a sentient shadow-demon thing that empowered itself through blood magic, which had remained dormant for thousands of years. Apparently, the Mayans had used blood sacrifices to feed the thing and appease it, but it eventually ran out of juice and came hunting again.
Anyway, that was a story for another time, as since the shield was quickly reaching its maximum capacity at absorbing blood magic, which she quickly shaped into thorned chains of crimson energy, she threw at the tree.
The chains grew as it moved forward, its thorns cutting through the Weirwood and draining its blood, while strengthening itself. With every second, the chains thickened and grew longer, until they were quickly trying to encircle a tree.
This wasn't a spell that she would use on a whim, but it was far more economical and focused than anything that the Old Gods had managed to cobble together. A part of her felt a bit vindictive, given the fact that the entity before her had attempted to get one over Harry, not that it would have changed anything, but more importantly, she felt the Old Gods' attempt to fight back against it.
Daphne tightened her control over the chain, doing her best to slip through vulnerabilities in raw magicks, slipping through certain irregularities, spreading its influence further into the branches of the tree. Whatever hastily crafted protections were quickly undone, though they became increasingly elaborate over time.
However, that meant that the Old Gods were fighting off Daphne's spell, giving her time to actually finish her preparations of the network. She re-released the pulse, ensuring that each node was connected properly, and carefully manipulated the chains to ensure that they would remain so. Huh, she supposed that some good would come of this, since she wouldn't have to personally power it; the Old Gods themselves would. They could inevitably break away from her chains, but it would take some time to manage this, more than enough time for Harry to do his thing.
Finally, Daphne opened her eyes and allowed herself to slip out of the Old Gods' mindscape, and of course, what met her was a world on fire, or at least, remnants of it. She saw some remnants of flames in the distance, some smoke, with trees being uprooted around her, as if after a hurricane.
Then, she hears Harry singing in the distance, his voice echoing across the world, creating a giant dome of golden light that spreads through the distance, though the barrier seemed to almost flicker at times. Her walked towards her, his smile still strained, and it was only then that she saw just how tired he really looked, and it was clear to see why.
He was singing into existence the protections that surrounded them, resisting the beings that tried to destroy it, as well as, more horrifically, channelling some of his magic into the Deathly Hallows to control the ever-shifting flame that hovered before him, the fragment of Light.
It was then that she realised that he had claimed it, this fraction of creation, and given the way that he looked, it was not a good experience. A part of her wanted to berate him for doing something so unbelievably reckless, but she didn't, especially with the grimace that he had on his face while doing all of this.
He didn't even say anything witty, just untensed when he looked at her and the tree, "Is it ready?"
Daphne nodded, her hand still on the trunk of the Heart Tree to ensure that nothing unexpected would happen, "Yes… There were some complications, but you should be good to go."
Harry practically slumped in relief at that before plunging the fragment of Light into the tree's trunk, practically phasing through it. Realising what her husband wanted to do, she manipulated her chains over the Old Gods to help ease him into what would come next.
It was then that his song shifted, amplified by every Weirwood Tree in the network, which spanned across the World, each one helping him use the fragment of Light without straining his soul. She could feel the Old Gods thrash in their chains in protest, yet she ensured that it would be just that, thrashing.
Harry's song was different this time, probably more so than ever before. It was more primal and more authoritative, and it made sense. After all, at this moment, he commanded the world.
With every verse, something deep within the world shifted, almost shaking at the sheer change of it, each edict, a commandment in the world.
Daphne had spent enough time with Harry to somewhat take an educated guess of what he was doing, or in this case, the nature of these edicts.
She could make up for the fact that he commanded that no God or Demon would ever interfere in the 'waking world', that paths to this realm shall be closed, and the Black Stone was to lose its power. He commanded that no traces of the Great Others shall remain, and that the Outsiders shall not be allowed to be summoned into the realm or even gain a foothold or influence over the realm, with whoever attempting it or becoming under their influence being labelled an enemy of the world, with Death itself seeking to rid it of them.
Harry paused after this edict. She could see the silhouette of great beings that the golden barrier was stopping, fading away into the distance, and taking with it a pressure that had been building, which she hadn't noticed before.
Alas, Harry did not take the time to admire his own world, though his eyes were glowing as he stared at the bleeding eyes of the Heart Tree before him, and whispered to it, "O' Remnant of those who walked the sunset kingdoms, expand your roots to cover this world, I name you the protector of this world, the enforcer of its rules, protector of its Light and enemy to all who seek to use it for their own ends."
It was then that she felt the Old Gods shift, their chaotic, almost eldritch amalgamation of memories that failed to ascend, becoming more orderly, more refined. She saw the madness in them abating for a second, and finally, Daphne let her chains fade away, knowing that the Old Gods would not be threats anymore.
Harry finally takes back the fragment of Light in wonder, though still looking strained by it. He quickly grabbed it and slammed it into the ground, and spoke it, "This fragment of Light, of creation, from which this realm was born, shall be a part of it, present in every breath of air, every drop of water, and every grain of sand. And thus, I renounce my claim over its power and authority, and grant it the song of this world, to which it controls."
Her husband sang once more, and she saw the ever-shifting Light slowly pulse with the melody before fading away into the earth and wind, disappearing eventually.
With that done, Harry literally slumped in place, and she ran to make sure that he would fall. She slowly set him down, and she found him smiling, "It's finally over."
Of course, that was when the sky was breached momentarily, and the shadows of an Elder Dragon looked like it was attempting to slip through. Daphne prepared herself for another fight, only for the Heart Tree's eyes to open, and it released a great blade of light which hit the middle of the breach, closing it, and sending the Elder Dragon reeling away. It seemed like the creation was finally rebelling against those who were once its master.
Harry's smile turned into a chuckle, "We did it."
She smiled at him, "Yes, I suppose we did."
His chuckle turned into great laughter, which she found herself joining, despite knowing what it was about. She supposed she was only happy to see the burden that Harry was bearing finally disappear. After all, it seemed that they had averted an apocalypse in this world. She sincerely hoped that it wouldn't be a trend everywhere they went.
[---]
The Mysterious and Cursed Lands of Sothoryos
By Malora Hightower of Oldtown
Oh, Father. I write to you with great sorrow, hoping mostly to reassure your weary heart. I must believe that you must have heard the news of my ship having sunk, but know that I am currently unharmed in Tyrosh, or at least, as safe as a Westerosi woman might be in such a city. But I confess it is anger that consumes me every day.
I know not what you have heard, if my ships have sunk because of some storm or simply disappeared, but it was no accident. It is true that we found ourselves suffering a great storm near the Stepstones, but it was no ordinary one, for it appeared suddenly, and disappeared just as suddenly after our ship was sinking. I had not known that magic of such a scale to exist, nonetheless.
After suffering from the storm, we found ourselves accosted by a small fleet of ships, which surrounded ours. They had water mages with them, which immobilised us, and my men were slaughtered by it all. They were looking for the scale. I know not how they knew of its existence, for I did not mention it outside of my letters to you, father, but they sought it specifically. I only escaped through pure chance, having been thrown overboard, as I battled one of their mages, and hiding beneath the waves under an obscuring spell, to avoid reprisal.
This was a coordinated attack, and not some remnants of pirates from the Stepstones. The resources needed for such a thing were great indeed, and my attackers sailed under a banner, one disturbingly similar to that of House Targaryen, only with the colours flipped, a black three-headed dragon on a red field. I know not what to think, for only rage remains in my heart, for my crew has perished, the fruits of my journey to Sothoryos, and the scale whose magic I wished to explore with you. Alas, there is little I can do for now but look for traces of my attackers and look for a way back home.
[---]
AN: I had this chapter in my mind for a while, though now that I wrote it, I'm not sure how it came out. The plan was to always have the Old Gods become the sole 'divine' creatures that have direct access to Planetos, since they were never really gods in the first place. I said 'direct' because there are indirect ways to contact, which I'll go into. I sort of tried to avoid overexplaining here and let things be, but some things will get a bit clearer over the years.
It was also why I chose Daphne's POV, and I also wanted to show that the Old Gods weren't exactly sleeping at the wheel when they gave Harry the seeds, since they had planned on 'stealing' their magic through them, and trying to replicate it to ascend. I wanted to show a bit of the progression of the Old Gods, from being creatures made by the Elder Dragons and serving them in the past, to defying them in the future. 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.