A Glimpse of Secrets Old and New
Nineteenth Day of the Twelfth Month 292 AC
From fire to ice your thoughts pass then, for though the peril in the north had receded from your mind somewhat here, guarded beneath root and soil, you will not soon forget it. First you ask what manner of twisted beasts and horrors the Others can bring to bear beyond the lords of winter themselves and their armies of the dead and the dragons you had heard of. Alas to that Bloodraven has no clear answer.
"Their forms are a warped reflection of the world and as life is bewildering in its countless shapes to too are their thralls, still some things call to them: black despair that sees no path forward, hunger on cold winter nights that sees men lower themselves to the basest acts, the sacrifice of light and hope to the ever hungering gloom in the hope of but a breath's more wretched existence... that is how they will see all life before the end."
The words send a shiver down your spine as though some cold wind had managed to penetrate even here, and so you move on to your next request, for a map of the Lands of the Far North beyond what the Watch was able offer. You carefully unroll the seal-skin for him to inspect.
He gives a short cough of seeming disgust. "Even worse than when I left. Some of those rivers would be running uphill by their reckoning." So saying he utters a single word in the Old Tongue and the map hovers midair, then another and a point of fire begins to sear fine lines into the map. With a start you realize it is the first time you have ever seen Bloodraven use magic in the flesh, beyond his dreams and visions.
"Could not the Old Gods aid the Watch in this hour?" Dany asks after a few moments. Few and poor though they be, they are not without courage and they are the Watches at the Wall, set to guard the realm of men. "Their foe is clear as day..."
"Would that I could act so openly so soon," the greenseer answers, the cracks upon his skin growing deeper as he scowls in frustration. "Alas balance still holds the powers in check. It is still summer, so the first move is mine, but for every move I make the powers of the North may counter in turn. I would not wager on the Brothers of the Night's Watch to use new-gleamed sorcery against frost-touched mages rather than to defect to warmer lands."
"Yet I sensed the touch of the Old Gods upon the youngest Stark girl. Why her?" you ask.
"She is near enough an infant. By the time she can move the conflict will be fought in earnest." He hesitates a long moment as though pondering how much of his plans to reveal. "It also gives me an envoy of sorts in the confidence of the lord of Winterfell. Whether by fate or chance it fell to me to guide the Nameless Gods in this hour. No warrior first and foremost I for all I fought my share of wars. Master of Whispers I was, and so I learned that a whisper in the right ear can be worth more than the thunder of a thousand knights across the battlefield."
"I see it now," Dany says. "You are making the Others play a game of indirect influence, they who hate men and do not truly understand them."
"They lost one pawn already by being too heavy-handed. A Stark... cousin of a
very distant sort," Bloodraven confirms, eye still fixed upon the map.
"What is his name?" you ask, intrigued.
"Brandon, fittingly enough. He is in Old Town now being feted as a hero for the rescue of the Hightower ancestral sword, Vigilance, if not the missing lord who was
quite beyond help by the time he was found," Bloodraven answers.
The name reminds you of the titanic presence of the Wall and the power that is locked within it, power that reaches you even here. "How was the Wall built, and why of ice? It seems a strange choice given what it was meant to guard against?"
"Alas I am not Bran the Builder, nor can I recall his arts..." Bloodraven laughs then, though the sound is more melancholy than bitter. "In truth those were the first secrets I sought when I first took this seat. Still lesser runes I can recall with time and patience as I have told you yesterday, though It will take weeks even months..."
"And so the great wards like those in Runestone and Winterfell that guard against even the dreamer's mind will be locked away forever?" you ask, dispirited at the loss.
"Such ambition..." He looks up from his work to give you an approving look. "From fundamentals and from study of the finished wards old secrets may yet come to light."
What do you do?
[] Offer to leave him a calligraphy wyrm and some empty books to be retrieved at a later date (slow progress)
[] Have Lya come here to study (fast progress, locks Lya's schedule)
[] Write in
OOC: I skipped the Casterly Rock question since it would not quite fit and instead asked about the aid to the Night's Watch.
