(Visenya 'Blackfyre', ???)
"You've had your fun, Visenya Targaryen. Now you will… LISTEN."
Visenya grudgingly obeyed the command, whilst still glaring at the mysterious interloper that had appeared in her dreams.
Feeling powerless in the face of absolute power, only further heightened the necessity to acquire more power of her own. She never wanted to feel this ever again, not when it made her feel like a burden to her lover.
She didn't want to hold him back, and this event made it clearer than ever just how weak she was in comparison.
"After all the effort I placed in bringing you to this world, you should at least act somewhat grateful." The woman said looking irked by the hostility, much to the confusion of the former Dragonrider.
"You were the one to return me to the living?" Curiosity quelled her anger and self-loathing, no… rather it pushed it back for another moment, this was more important.
"In a way, you could say that. Mind you the cost of such an undertaking was quite high, my siblings would claim it was too high. Though I suppose it was worth it, considering the absolute marvel of a gem we discovered together, hmm..."
"We?" She didn't like where this was going. The way this woman acted, it was as if…
"...We were the same person." Continued the woman, bringing Visenya's thoughts to a screeching halt. Leaving her speechless as she stared blankly at the woman in front of her.
That was not where her thoughts were going, she was more inclined to the idea that the woman could read her mind, not this… Whatever this was supposed to be.
She didn't like the implications of such a thing. Did it mean she would lose her sense of being? The Night King was an example of what happens to someone when they merge with another being.
His joining with his precursor had stripped away everything he was and could have been. Now he was just a mere husk, filled with obsession and need to destroy all living beings. Seeking vengeance for days long gone.
"How?" She asked, and most importantly why?
"How do I put this into words… When I began the process of your rebirth, I decided to do something quite unusual. I placed a sliver of my divine consciousness and power within your soul, allowing it to gradually adapt to the divine authority that I held."
"Mind you, it's not something that gained immediate results, after all, it took you just a decade to get used to just that little bit. Anymore and your mortal soul would have been torn apart. It certainly didn't help that you had little to no belief in me." The woman tutted at that, her eyes showing great disappointment at Visenya's lack of faith.
This infuriated the Dragon Queen, who didn't even know the identity of the bitch in front of her. "So what, you only put a hair's breadth of your mind in my soul. That can't possibly make us the same person." She argued it was ludicrous to even think of it.
It was like adding salt to one's cup of wine and then making the assumption that the whole cup was now just salt.
"Let me finish girl." The now apparent deity warned, getting annoyed with the other woman's resistance. "Normally, such a process would at best have left you a blessed child of mine, or if the consciousness grew, a Champion. There was only one unexpected issue with that."
Blessed? Champion? These words were familiar to Visenya, but the woman clearly had a different understanding of them. Visenya had never been the most religious, then again neither had her ancestors despite their worship of the fourteen.
"What could possibly make it so that we would merge? Even then, how could we be the same, if you're standing right in front of me at the moment?"
"Not what dear, rather it's who. Our beloved is quite unique, isn't he? To think his bedding of you, and constantly at that, would attract more and more of my divine consciousness into your body."
"Not only that, but his seed seems to act as a sort of stabilizer. Allowing your soul to safely accommodate more of my power within it, without burning your soul out." The goddess paused at that, patiently waiting for the information to sink in.
So Erlend had a magical cock… She already knew that. They'd have to check on the rest of his lovers, as far as she was aware only Ashara was affected by their coupling, something they attributed to her bloodline. Perhaps the others were affected in more discreet ways?
"Are you here to take control of my body?" Visenya suddenly asked, the area filled with tension once again, her body ready to strike at any moment.
She refused to go down without a fight, this goddess not only had thought about her body but also of her beloved. She would be damned if the woman had her way.
Only for it all to disappear as a loud slap echoed throughout the area.
"Snap out of it girl! If I wanted to take over your body, we would not be having this conversation right now." The deity huffed, having had enough of the blatant hostility she had received so far.
For the first time since meeting the goddess, Visenya's heightened emotions truly began to calm themselves. A sense of peace and tranquility engulfed her mind and spirit.
"Shouldn't have appeared while she was having this particular dream. I forgot how possessive and emotional you get after them." The goddess murmured to herself, though Visenya could barely make out the words.
"I assume I'm now an avatar of sorts for you." She said plainly, more accepting of the apparent changes to her soul and body, if only because she realized a new path to power had opened itself to her.
"Indeed, power will come in time. You're already in the process of awakening some of it. Had we not been connected, I'm afraid any being that dared step in would've been smitten down in our previous bout."
"That's good to know." The deadpan Visenya received told her just how much the goddess appreciated her prideful words.
"You'll be glad to know that I unfortunately will not be the dominant personality once we merge. While I hold the larger share of power, I lack the ego necessary to truly come to life."
"That shouldn't be possible, you should be around several millennia old by my best estimate." Visenya stared skeptically at the goddess. Whilst she still had no idea who this deity was, her talking about casually manipulating her soul made it rather obvious that she wasn't weak or young.
Soul manipulation was very very dangerous territory, and even divine beings didn't mess with it casually. Erlend had confirmed that the older a deity was in this world, the stronger their ability to mess with tended to be. There were exceptions such as the fire demon, but he was wholly reliant on faith and his experiences under the Valyrians.
Even his resurrections were inherently flawed, as those he brought back to life were mere shadows of their true selves, with each time they were brought back they only lost more. Till they become nothing but mindless puppets for the fire god's will.
The Night King was unique in the sense that his control over souls was mainly shoving them into physical containers and forcing them into servitude. This was sort of a gray area, since the original one relied heavily on the power of the old gods, whilst this one relied on the Great Other.
Meaning he was more dangerous since the old gods could somewhat limit the former. Fucking tree demons, as Erlend was fond of saying.
"As you are aware there are two forms of divinities, those through faith and those through ascendence. I belong to the former and was formed through human belief. Generally over time, as conceptual deities, we would gain egos, our personalities molded by our followers. It is for this reason that R'hllor, despite being so scheming and subtle, is also one of the most unstable gods out there. The Valyrian deities were anything but kind and had essentially destroyed any chance he had of reaching his true potential."
"Yet you say you didn't for some reason." Visenya prompted.
She inclined her head in agreement, "As you'd expect, it all comes back to the Valyrians. My pantheon was formed during a time when they stood at their absolute peak, not only was our growth hindered by their continued aggression as we staved off their enslavement attempts. It also made it nearly impossible to form a consistent and singular view of us. Our followers were far too divided and the faith's separation from the Arryn's did not help matters."
By mentioning the Arryns, it was obvious the goddess was one of the Seven. Considering her appearance, she should be the Maiden, she doubted the crone cared for looking young.
"I know the Arryns helped bring the faith to Westeros, but what does them no longer being the heart of the faith have to do with you lacking an ego?" Visenya pondered that thought, she knew that those falcons boasted one of the purest Andal bloodlines, yet she couldn't understand why they were necessary for the Seven to stabilize their existence.
"Quite simply put, Artys Arryn was the reincarnation of the Warrior. Had the Arryns remained the heart of the faith, then he would have eventually completed his reincarnation and rejoined us once more. Unfortunately, he is now trapped in a cycle of reincarnation and none of the Seven hold the power required to bring him back."
Visenya blinked, and the now-identified Maiden blinked right back. The two women stared at each other in complete bafflement, well at least one side did. How the fuck? Who the fuck? What the fuck? How does a god of all things get trapped in reincarnation of all things?
The Maiden took far too much pleasure in seeing the usually unflappable Dragon Queen on the backfoot. Hell, this whole situation brought Visenya straight out of her comfort zone and made the usually stable woman twitchy and itching to cut something.
"Without the Warrior to take the reign, and with Father critically injured. There wasn't much we could do to reform the faith and complete ourselves, not without losing our followers in the process and leaving us vulnerable to, as Erlend put it, those trigger-happy pyromaniacs."
"You still took the risk and put a sliver of your consciousness within me, you could have ended up in the same situation as your brother…" She pointed out the obvious miscalculation on the goddess's part.
"Everything turned out well enough in the end. Our pantheon has never been as stable and peaceful as it is now. More importantly, let's discuss our eventual merger…" Visenya rolled her eyes at the goddess sidestepping the issue.
It was ironic that the death of the faith's 'representative' in the world and the conflict between the most devout would bring its pantheon great relief. She wondered if those old conservatives would drop dead from shock at that particular revelation.
…
(Erlend Mudd, Firmridge)
He could sense the maiden's divine power eastwards, something he'd perhaps have to look into once he was done with Braavos. She was either in the Axe, the original home of the Andals, or in Andalos in northwestern Essos.
Both lands only carried ruins as far as he was aware, though there was a good chance the Andals might have left items of value in their haste to escape the Valyrians.
Regardless, the potential God King had more important things to do, such as placating his wife and lovers, as Ed decided to be a poor sport and inform them that Erlend was walking headfirst into a trap.
He knew Ed did it because he was worried about him. Unfortunately, Erlend having to calm his worried and fretful lovers decided to tan the boy's hide as a punishment. Luckily for Edmund, Catelyn was having none of that and had him change it to more paperwork instead.
Erlend had only been joking, but the lad still got a punishment in the end for the chaos he'd caused. Old man knows, Dany and Rhae had thrown a fit when they found out, and Cella and Jasper were worried sick that he'd get hurt of all things.
Saera was incredibly silent, but he knew better than to assume she was fine with his decision. That girl would make her move soon, he'd have to make sure all the ships were triple-checked to ensure she hadn't snuck her way in.
Kids were troublesome.
There was another important matter that caught his attention. Usually, when someone ascends to divinity, they'd be vulnerable to other divines for a few years. Similar to how MCs get power-ups and nerfs in novels so they can get proper character development.
He for whatever reason did not, the Mudd patriarch suspected that it had to do either because of his draconian children and them acting like magical fountains or the old man's meddling. So that he wouldn't get one-shotted by the horse god or even the drowned god looking for revenge.
That sea deity might have decided to take a step back, but there was a good chance he'd strike if given the opportunity.
As for why Erlend went ahead and did it, despite the potential weakening… He had no fucking clue there would be such a thing, nothing in the ancient records mentioned anything about it. A deliberate move by the other gods maybe? Perhaps using it to press-gang new gods into their pantheons?
He was faintly aware that R'hllor had been enslaved by the fourteen, and those pyromaniacs even attempted to do the same with the Seven.
Conceptual gods like R'hllor, the Old Gods, and the Great Other were supposedly quite weak starting. Some got stronger by themselves, whilst others relied heavily on their followers.
It might be an equalization of sorts, like a law or something that evened the playing field between faith-based gods and ascendant ones.
In the end, Erlend felt like the world, despite how ridiculous it could be at times, had ways to balance things out. This likely came about due to George's influence, meaning that everything in this world comes with a price, especially power.
The question is, What price did Erlend have to pay to avoid it?
…
"Your Majesty, I must protest this decision to aid the Sealord. He is undeserving of your protection." Yohn outright said, not giving time for Erlend to even take his seat.
"I concur, your Majesty. This Anataryon fellow has never hesitated to act against your interests before, it would be only fair that he face the might of the Dothraki on his own as penance." Estermont supported the hand, the Stormlander had never had a good opinion of the Sealord.
This probably stemmed from the fact that Anataryon's trade fleets made a habit of ignoring Greenstone for Planky Town. Taking away much-coveted trade from the island as his fellow merchant princes followed suit.
From a practical point of view, this was understandable considering the fierce storms that generally took place within the aged lord's homeland. Then again, the Stormlander was still miffed about it and showed no hesitation in taking slight, as was common among Westerosi nobility.
"Tell me, Wyman, how much will it cost to go through with this expedition?" Instead of responding immediately to his councilors' concerns, Erlend chose to ask the more crucial question.
Taking aback by the unexpected question, the fat lord took a moment to get his bearings before responding. "The treasury can handle it, your Majesty. While much has been spent to expand the Banners and develop the Heartlands, we are still flush with gold from the recent tax collections. The double-entry system you introduced has been quite helpful at that."
"Numbers Wyman, give me numbers, not words."
"Of course, it should cost a little over 15,000 Golden Crowns due to the proximity of the Twilight Isles and the fact that the Sealord will be paying for supplies and logistics once we land in Braavos." Wyman expanded.
Erlend was surprised by the low cost. Though it made sense, he wasn't hiring a fleet for one and was just using his own. Secondly, a majority of the bill would be footed by the Braavosi, leaving only maintenance costs, equipment, and journey provisions.
There was that word again, 'Heartlands'. Not a terrible name per se and it was swiftly becoming popular and used more frequently than 'Riverlands'. That was hardly the only thing to change, the Small Council was commonly referred to as the 'Realm Council', an obvious reference to the Realmstone Throne.
It might not sound all that impressive of a change, but the more popular these subtle changes became, the more accepting those under him would be of his rule.
"Get it sorted as fast as possible. I want to be done with everything by the beginning of the moon's turn."
"As you wish, your Majesty." Wyman nodded, not bothering to try and convince the King against his newest campaign.
Massaging his forehead, the old Hand looked to his friend Lorimas for support, hoping that the Lord Marshal could convince his nephew not to go through with this heavily dubious expedition.
Seeing the look his friend gave him, Lorimas winked. "Say, Lenny, why don't you just have Velskud burn down the horsefuckers, it would be efficient would it not?"
An almost silent smack was heard, as the Hand face-palmed at his friend's lack of tact. While the rest of the councilmen mulled over that suggestion, Erlend raised his eyebrow at his Uncle, amused that he'd suggest a field of fire of all things.
Monford for his part looked like he'd sucked a particularly sour lemon at the thought of an andal/first men hybrid reenacting Aegon and his sisters' glorious deeds. Never mind the fact that Erlend had the blood of Aegon running through his veins and twice over at that.
"Uncle, while I'll still have my children follow me into battle as a precautionary measure. This whole farce is more geared towards bloodying the new Banners and giving them experience, rather than sate my Velskud's bloodlust."
Lorimas shrugged at his nephew's response, like Wyman he was fully aware of Erlend's stubbornness, though unlike the rest of the councilmen, he was more aware of the true nature of this plan.
"Just be careful, I don't like this Ferrik, Fergus, or whatever his name is. He's one of the slipperiest fuckers out there and I don't believe for a single second, he doesn't have an ulterior motive." Lorimas warned.
Was 'slipperiest' even a word?
His Uncle had never once trusted the Sealords and even more so after his father's death. While the Sealord hadn't directly killed the late Mudd head, it was heavily implied due to misinformation and insufficient reports.
If it wasn't for the uncertainty House Mudd had faced at the time and its enemies eying it hungrily, Erlend was sure his Uncle would've marched to Braavos and wiped out the Antaryons.
"I completely understand. Just trust in my judgment my lords, I never make a decision lightly, you all should know that," Erlend assured both his Uncle and the rest of the councilmen.
Anataryon was a useful tool, one that had helped him gather most of his enemies in one place. Erlend wanted to reward him by making the ambitious Sealord watch as his whole world collapsed around him.
He neither forgave nor forgot…
The Tyrells were a perfect example of this, nearly a decade since the Conquest and those upjumped stewards were no way close to uniting the Mander, this despite the King having a Tyrell and Hightower lover, as well as essentially raising Mace's daughter as his own.
Figuratively throwing his hands in the air, Yohn just sighed. He knew attempting to convince his liege was a lost cause, but he had to try anyway. His loyalty and respect for the younger man demanded it.
Even if you knew you were walking into a trap, that doesn't mean you can just go ahead and walk into it. Better to just get rid of the trapsetter, than let it occur in the first place.
Erlend could practically read his Hand's thoughts, he understood the man's worries. Unfortunately, nothing could convince him to let things go. Not when everything was finally coming to a head.
"As you say, your Majesty."