◉◉◉◉◉
The flames surged higher, yet Jimmy acted as if he didn't feel the heat at all, calmly carrying the brazier into the room.
Only after hearing the Lord of Light's explanation did Jimmy begin to grasp the deeper truths hidden beneath Westeros.
The irony wasn't lost on him.
Even someone who knew the story had just been blindsided by something he never saw coming.
Gods, it turned out, existed in different tiers.
At the top were beings like the Seven. They were among the first to ascend to higher divinity, They required no offerings, no worship.
As long as they were not forgotten, they would endure forever.
Formless. Timeless. Without fixed bodies.
Then there were gods like the Lord of Light.
Beings who had shed their original forms, gathering the fortune and destiny of kingdoms to forge new divine bodies sustained by belief.
When the Lord of Light demanded the sacrifice of a king's child, it wasn't truly about blood.
It was about fate.
He could grant victory in war, but the cost would be drawn from the kingdom's own destiny.
In other words, he could help win the battle, but the kingdom would lose years of its future in return.
The Lord of Light admitted that when he first shed his old form, he had acted too hastily. As a result, he now required far more of this "fate" to sustain himself, leaving him weaker than he should have been.
It wasn't entirely his fault.
At his core, he was cautious.
The most efficient way for him to gather power would have been to become a king himself.
Once seated on a throne, he could accumulate enough destiny in a relatively short time.
But that came with a dangerous cost.
To become a king, he would have to possess a mortal body. And in doing so, he would become vulnerable.
If that body were killed, everything would be lost.
Just like the Drowned God Jimmy had slain.
After barely clinging to existence for so long, it had been reduced to the point where it could no longer even control a single mortal.
And in its failure, it had dragged the Iron Islands down with it.
Their so-called philosophy of "taking is better than toiling" wasn't pride.
It was desperation.
They had nothing left but their lives. Without raiding, they couldn't survive.
And at the root of it all was the Drowned God's failed attempt to rebuild itself.
…
Now, something had gone wrong with the Great Other.
Its discarded form had somehow come back to life… and developed its own will.
That was the Night King.
Even with its own consciousness, however, it still followed the will of the Great Other.
And when Jimmy asked who the Great Other truly was, the answer left him stunned.
The Three-Eyed Raven.
The ancient greenseer.
And according to the Lord of Light's visions, along with the speculation of one of the Seven, the Smith, the Great Other might attempt to seize the Iron Throne through possession.
By ruling the Seven Kingdoms, it could harvest enough destiny to ascend further and break free from its current limitations.
One detail Jimmy hadn't expected.
The Lord of Light was, in fact, a subordinate of the Smith among the Seven.
The Great Other, meanwhile, fell under the domain of the Stranger.
But "subordinate" didn't mean what Jimmy had first assumed.
It wasn't about hierarchy.
It was about succession.
Replacement.
If the Lord of Light grew powerful enough, he could take the Smith's place as one of the Seven.
The Smith, in turn, might be reduced to something lesser. A diminished aspect.
The Stranger's domain worked differently.
It was more like a network, or a spreading influence.
The Stranger could exist as one… or many.
The Great Other could become the Stranger, and still be the Stranger.
Multiple manifestations, yet sharing a dominant will.
The strongest consciousness would guide the rest, even if each retained fragments of independence.
At that point, Jimmy understood.
The Lord of Light's side was built on competition.
The strongest rose to claim the mantle.
The Stranger's side, however, was more like a hive.
A collective.
If the "queen" grew stronger, the whole would grow stronger. But the current dominant force would never willingly give way.
Yet the lesser parts of the whole might still act to nurture a new power, strengthening the entire system.
As for why the Smith favored the Lord of Light…
Jimmy could guess.
The Lord of Light was too cautious, too risk-averse.
Even if he grew stronger, he posed little threat to the Smiths' position.
…
In the end, the Lord of Light had only one request.
Work together.
Kill the Great Other.
Jimmy, however, asked a different question.
Why hadn't Shireen been sacrificed?
The answer was simple.
The Lord of Light had noticed Jimmy's nature.
He disliked harming the weak. He protected children.
Burning Shireen would have turned Jimmy against him.
And that wasn't a risk worth taking.
Besides, Stannis's fate was already sealed.
His kingdom's destiny had been exhausted.
He was destined to lose this war.
There was no reason to provoke Jimmy over a doomed cause.
"Then why are you targeting the Great Other?"
"Because in each age, only one god can successfully forge a divine body. If he succeeds, I fail."
Jimmy stared at him.
At least he was honest.
"That's all well and good," Jimmy said, "but my ability to kill gods comes with strict conditions. It only works if they enter my mind."
"That won't be a problem. I'll create the opportunity," the Lord of Light replied calmly. "When the greenseer takes control of a powerful host, his consciousness leaves his original body. At that moment, I'll move in and take the place first. With you nearby, his focus will shift to you. That's when you strike."
Jimmy considered it for a moment, then nodded.
"Deal. Works for me."
He was here to grow stronger. It didn't matter who the target was. Anyone who stood in his way could be cut down.
"Agreed."
A hand of living flame extended toward him. Jimmy took it without hesitation.
The fire licked against his skin, but it meant nothing.
A silent demonstration.
Your flames can't touch me.
While they were at it, Jimmy asked about resurrection.
This time, the Lord of Light didn't hold back.
"Resurrection is nothing more than creating a living corpse. After revival, the mind becomes fragile, easily influenced… easily controlled."
In that sense, it wasn't so different from the Great Other's methods.
The only distinction lay in their nature.
The Lord of Light's resurrection was bound to fire, sustaining life through constant energy.
The Great Other's version, tied to ice, preserved the body indefinitely.
…
When Jimmy finally returned, carrying the now-extinguished brazier, everyone stared at him in disbelief.
"What?" he asked.
"That was… the Lord of Light?" Melisandre's voice trembled, on the verge of breaking.
"Yes. Why?"
"That was the Lord of Light…" she repeated, almost losing her composure. "And you spoke to him like that…"
Jimmy shrugged. "He's your god, not mine."
…
It didn't take long for everyone to steady themselves and return to more pressing matters.
Melisandre had brought grim news.
King Stannis's army had been destroyed.
On the march to Winterfell, their stables had been burned, leaving them without horses.
After an exhausting day's march, just as they were preparing to rest, Ramsay's cavalry struck.
Forced into battle with a fatigued army, Stannis had no choice but to draw his sword.
The result was inevitable.
His forces were crushed.
Annihilated.
…
That was enough to shake the Night's Watch to its core.
Without Stannis's army acting as a deterrent, what would stop the Free Folk outside the Wall from turning on them?
And Jon Snow?
Hadn't he relied on Stannis's backing to silence opposition?
Now that Stannis was gone, what authority did he have left?
As for Jimmy's conversation with the Lord of Light…
Few had witnessed it firsthand. And even among those who had, many chose to forget.
…
Jon stood alone, breaking the seals on the messages brought by raven.
Bad news.
More bad news.
War.
Conflict.
Refusal.
Every letter carried another setback, another failure.
It felt as though the entire world had turned against him at once.
Was there not a single piece of good news left?
◉◉◉◉◉
~Support with 200 PowerStones = 1 Bonus Chapter
◉◉◉◉◉
For early access to advanced chapters on P-atreon:
P-atreon/iamxeno
(Just remove the - hyphen to access normally)
Thank you so much for your support and for reading!