GOT: Chapter 383/384

Chapter 383: A “Destined” Encounter?

Melisandre spoke in Valyrian. Apart from the name Thoros, Aegor could not understand the rest. At this moment, the shop attendant who had escaped and hid with the Night's Watch also spoke to him with a smile. "Commander, I am Tobho Mott. The person you sent earlier has conveyed the message. You have found the right person. I dare not say the entire Westeros, but I am definitely the only one in King's Landing who can reforge Valyrian steel!"

So this person was the one he was looking for on this trip, but Aegor had no intention of talking to him at this moment. His attention was on the red-robed man opposite.

Perhaps simply to contradict Melisandre or considering whether others present could understand, Thoros replied in the common tongue. "The Lord of Light conveyed the oracle to me in the flames, my Lady. He told me that we must rush to the Wall as soon as possible to participate in His decisive battle with His archenemy. Such an epic battle, of course, needs the best equipment. So, we came here to acquire some goods."

Tobho Mott would not accept this explanation. Relying on the backing of a group of Night's Watch who looked capable, his voice grew much louder. "What epic battle, nonsense! Even if you go to heaven to kill a god, you cannot forcibly take the equipment I saved here for the City Watch officers!"

But no one paid attention to the shop owner. Both sides looked at the leader of the other with surprise. Aegor and Melisandre stared at the young noble with golden-red hair beside Thoros, while those on the opposite side carefully observed the Night's Watch Commander who had suddenly appeared before them as if he had fallen from the sky.

After a moment, the young noble smiled and walked toward Aegor first, placing one hand on his chest and bowing. "It is an honor to meet you here, Commander. I am Beric Dondarrion. These two are my friends: Angei, the Marksman who won the archery competition at the tournament celebrating Eddard Stark's appointment as Hand of the King; Reliable Luke, who is skilled in swordsmanship and possesses immense strength. The child outside watching the horses is my squire, Edric Dayne."

"Lord Dondarrion, it is a pleasure to meet you," Aegor returned the bow in kind, also briefly introducing Nina and Qyburn, but a ripple had already stirred in his heart. Beric Dondarrion? Is this the Beric who was killed countless times by Tywin's army in the original plot but never died? He did not look similar at all, but thinking about it, on this timeline, he probably had not been killed even once yet. "Hearing Thoros of Myr say, you want to head to the North to support the Night's Watch?"

"That is right," Beric said with a spirited expression. "Commander, you and I are practically fated comrades-in-arms. We were just worrying about how to leave King's Landing for the North, and by sheer coincidence, we bumped into you here. Surely your ship will not be short of these five spots for us!"

Of course, there was no shortage of these five spots. A few thousand catties of saltpeter in jars look like a lot in a small part of the warehouse, but it is far from enough to fill the blackbird. But, coming to Steel Street in King's Landing to invite Tobho Mott, he actually ran into several Red God followers and warriors who obey the will of the Lord of Light, all of whom had roles in the original plot.

Is this a coincidence?

Only a ghost would believe that.

Could it be that the mysterious R'hllor, after learning about his idea of melting the sword and casting arrowheads, and his specific itinerary, notified Thoros and Beric and their group through fire to wait for him here today, thereby providing him with an excellent archer and three excellent warriors to cooperate, in order to maximize the power of the arrow version of Lightbringer?

The above is a better guess. There is an even worse possibility that Aegor did not even dare to think deeply about. Was the idea of melting the sword that suddenly popped into his mind shortly ago still a decision made independently by his free will?

Is it possible that R'hllor influenced his subconscious to implant the idea of melting the sword, guiding him to Tobho Mott's blacksmith shop, and then giving Thoros an oracle that also made him have the idea of coming to the best blacksmith shop in King's Landing to purchase equipment, thereby logically bringing the two groups together and helping the last missing group for this war catch a ride with him back to the Wall?

This guess seems to explain everything completely.

He lied to Melisandre saying that R'hllor instructed him to recast the sword into ranged weapons. Could it be that this was not a lie, but an accidental truth?

Just like the classic brain in a vat problem, how can he, in his current situation, distinguish whether he has been influenced or even controlled by R'hllor?

Aegor was chilled by this thought, so much so that he was stunned for a few seconds, not even hearing the Beric's next sentence.

"My Lord?"

He quickly returned to reality. "Oh, of course, no problem. The Night's Watch welcomes assistance from any ambitious person in the Seven Kingdoms."

"Commander, let us be clear, we are just going to help you fight the dead," the archer Angei, who looked like a big boy, added. "We are not joining the Night's Watch. I have not had enough of women's taste yet. If you make me swear not to marry, you might as well kill me."

Beside them, Melisandre and Thoros had started arguing in the common tongue. The Red Priestess questioned the drunkard Thoros about why he had not completed the task assigned by the High Priest, while the latter unceremoniously retorted that he had his own way of serving R'hllor. Melisandre's arrogant expression and aggressive tone showed that her status within the Red God was higher than Thoros's, but the latter had a devil-may-care attitude like a dead pig not afraid of boiling water, seemingly not buying into the authority of the high priestess before him.

"Hey..." The shop owner, who had hoped that Aegor, who needed his help, would support him, did not expect that in just a few words, the two groups would hit it off and become allies. He immediately looked at Aegor with some worry. "Commander, you seem like a reasonable person. Can you persuade your friends? This equipment was ordered by His Majesty the King. I cannot explain it if you just take it away."

Reliable Luke glared fiercely at the shop owner. "We are going to the North to fight the natural enemy of mankind, to end the Long Night and protect all the residents of the Seven Kingdoms. It is your honor to use the equipment in your shop! If you keep making excuses, when the dead come south and swallow the human kingdom, do you think the City Watch wearing your armor can act as the Night's Watch?"

Aegor had also recovered from the chilling conjecture at this point, struggling to curb his runaway thoughts. He looked up at the equipment his new companions had taken a liking to. Shiny, well-made, and indeed quite good, but they were just a few sets of ordinary mid-to-high-grade armor. The batch that Lord Tywin donated to the Night's Watch was no worse in quality. After distributing one set to each trusted officer, there were still more than ten sets left.

"Let us forget it, everyone. Mr. Mott still has to do business in King's Landing and has his difficulties. Let us not trouble him. When we reach the Gift, I will open the warehouse and let you choose suitable equipment first."

With this promise, he managed to quell the dispute. Suppressing his surprise and doubt, Aegor continued to handle the main business as planned. He asked Tobho Mott how he had considered it, whether he was willing to go to the North with him to reforge an unknown Valyrian steel sword for the Night's Watch.

"Alas, of course I am willing, but why did you not bring the sword?" Tobho sighed. "It is not impossible for me to go North myself to do the work, but I must state in advance. As the best forging artisan in Westeros, my appearance fee is very high. We must negotiate the price here first."

"Name your price," Aegor never expected everyone to be enlightened enough to offer free services just because the Night's Watch claimed to be fighting White Walkers. But he was just a common blacksmith, no matter how good his skills were, at most it would be a thousand or eight hundred golden dragons. How high could it be?

"You have decided to melt a Valyrian steel sword and forge as many arrowheads as possible." Tobho Mott hesitated before quoting a price. "No matter how big that sword is, I want one-tenth of its Valyrian steel as payment, how about that?"

"One-tenth of the Valyrian steel?" Beric, who was standing nearby, laughed after hearing this. "That is a good price indeed. Lord Tywin would probably be willing to pay a hundred thousand golden dragons for any Valyrian steel sword, yet he spent half his life without finding a seller. You, a blacksmith, demand an appearance fee of over ten thousand golden dragons at once, more than what I, the Earl of Black Harbour, collect in taxes in a year?"

"An original and complete Valyrian steel sword is worth more than a hundred thousand golden dragons because, in addition to being a weapon, it is also a discontinued collectible. But after melting, it is just a material with excellent performance. And how much one-tenth of the material is worth, I really dare not make a judgment before seeing the size of this sword. In short, it is definitely not worth ten thousand golden dragons," Tobho did not directly respond to Beric's ridicule, but analyzed it righteously. "But my Lord, when you trust and choose me to reforge Valyrian steel weapons for you, have you ever thought: I learned the Valyrian steel forging technique across the Narrow Sea many years ago. After such a long time, will it become rusty?"

Who does business by questioning themselves and ruining their own reputation like this? Aegor was curious. He really had not doubted it, not because he could not think of it, but because the other party had successfully forged Oathkeeper and Widow's Wail in the original plot, which made him subconsciously trust him.

"Is it still not too late to ask now, have your skills become rusty?"

"I can answer you with certainty, no!" The shop owner said decisively. "Not because I have a good memory or high talent, but because I have practiced persistently. Valyrian steel swords are hard to find in the world, but various small items such as maesters' links, miniature daggers, rings, etc., can sometimes be seen on the black market. When I first offered my tuition to the grand artisan in Qohor to learn the skill of re-forging Valyrian steel, the grand artisan reminded me: I might never have the chance in my life to encounter someone coming to me to re-forge a real Valyrian steel sword. But even so, I still spend hundreds of golden dragons every year to purchase fragmented small Valyrian steel items, repeatedly re-forging and re-forging, until it finally fails and the Valyrian steel deteriorates and loses its properties, and then I summarize the lessons from the failures and think about how to avoid them. Such a skilled worker cultivated at a huge cost, waited countless years just to serve you and your sword one day. Thinking about it this way, do you still think the price of one-tenth of the Valyrian steel is expensive?"

So he was beating around the bush to praise himself, but the shop owner's words were reasonable. Not only did Aegor not feel disgusted by his self-praise, but he was even moved by his craftsmanship. Just like the art of dragon-slaying, spending time, energy, and money to learn and practice repeatedly, yet it is highly likely that one might never encounter a dragon in their entire life. This kind of hopeless waiting has a subtle similarity to the spirit of the Night's Watch. From ancient times to the present, how many Night's Watch have guarded the Wall their entire lives for White Walkers who would never attack?

If this statement is true, then Tobho's appearance fee is indeed worth the price he is asking.

"Forging Valyrian steel arrowheads?" The archer Angei became interested. "By the Seven, I have never used a Valyrian steel weapon. Commander, if you are willing to give me ten such arrowheads after the re-forging is successful, I will prove to you why I won the championship at the Hand's tournament!"

"As long as your archery skills are as divine as Lord Beric says, I will consider it," Aegor replied with a smile, then looked at Tobho and answered his question in a deep voice. "Forget one-tenth, I will give you one-fifth. But with two additional conditions. One, if there is a failure during the re-forging process resulting in loss, it will be deducted from your one-fifth first, meaning, if the loss exceeds one-fifth, you will have to work for me for free. Two, your payment, I want to use it first to deal with the White Walkers and the Night King, and pay it after this war is over, within a year at the latest. If the arrows are shot out and less than one-fifth are recovered, I will compensate with golden coins."

Aegor's conditions were quite harsh, but for an artisan at Tobho Mott's level, making money was no longer his life goal and ideal. The experience of forging a real, complete Valyrian steel sword itself was already a huge reward.

The shop owner did not hesitate. "Good. But please allow me to prepare. I am not familiar with the conditions in the Gift. Forging a Valyrian steel sword requires complete and good forging facilities and environment, as well as a lot of unusual tools."

"Crown Town has all the forging facilities and environment you need, and I can borrow what is missing from Winterfell. As for the tools, do you not practice regularly? Are you not prepared? I remember telling the person I sent to make it clear, either agree and leave with me immediately, or I will keep that complete sword as a family heirloom."

This was not a negotiation tactic or a threat. Aegor had truly decided this. Melting Dark Sister into arrowheads and renaming it was originally a whim without any reason. He could not waste even a single day on such a casual move at this critical juncture.

Using the influence of that famous prophecy and directly renaming the sword Lightbringer would achieve no less effect.

Tobho Mott pursed his lips, struggling internally for more than ten seconds under everyone's gaze, and finally decided not to let this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity slip away. "Alright, please allow me a moment to explain the shop's operations and follow-up work, and then we will depart immediately. Gendry! Go and get that small box under my bed, then prepare two horses and come with me to the Wall!"

(To be continued.)

Chapter 384: Level 3 Warning

Missing Sandor Clegane and Brienne of Tarth, and the group would be complete. This thought uncontrollably popped into Aegor's mind.

Calling Qyburn by name, without his assistant, and bringing Beric and Thoros along, plus the blacksmith Tobho and his royal bastard apprentice whose existence Aegor had almost forgotten, he successfully left the King's Gate before King's Landing closed, as planned, and boarded a ship from the Industrial Park's dock to begin the northbound voyage.

He had originally come for nitrate, but factoring in the sailors and the newly joined people brought back, including people, equipment, tools, and luggage, the living people on the ship actually weighed more than the cargo. The Blackbird was originally a small sailboat. To make space for the eight new passengers, Aegor had to put in a lot of effort arranging the duty roster and allocating accommodation, and also threw away more than half of the ballast, to ensure the ship was not overloaded and everyone had a bed to sleep in. They managed to set sail just before sunset. To avoid slighting the Earl of Black Harbour and the invited master blacksmith, he even shared the Commander's cabin with Beric and Tobho.

Fortunately, on the return journey, he did not have to rack his brain writing half a book of a magically altered Prince, and although it was so cramped there was no environment for any work, enduring it would be fine.

Both fleets of Stannis and Daenerys, which were patrolling Blackwater Bay separately, readily allowed the Blackbird to pass. He saw the sea before dark. The northbound return was not as easy as the journey here. Due to weather conditions, the Blackbird stopped and anchored for two nights and did not sail overnight. However, compared to the average weather standards of the Narrow Sea in winter, this was already as smooth as if the Seven had blessed them, and no one had any complaints to make. Finally, after another week of sailing, Aegor, who had been away from the Wall for half a month, completed this eventful but safe absence within the expected timeframe and returned to the dock at Eastwatch-by-the-Sea.

The port was empty with no other ships in sight, but fortunately, the workers and soldiers going back and forth on shore still clearly looked like living people. This truly made Aegor, who had not received any news from the Gift for over ten days, breathe a sigh of relief. As soon as he disembarked, the eight guests brought back from King's Landing were still looking up in amazement at the Ice Wall, while Aegor had already started asking Cotter Pyke, his former election rival who was now the obedient and settled Commander of Eastwatch-by-the-Sea, about the latest situation at the Wall.

"There have been constant situations at Shadow Tower and Great Gorge. A few days ago, we could receive raven messages daily, roughly concerning military intelligence like 'the dead have appeared within sight of the Rangers on the south side of the Great Gorge, urgent need for support.' But later, because the messages were too frequent and there were not enough ravens, I stopped receiving news from the west side of the Wall. I can only rely on intelligence exchanged between Rangers on top of the Wall to confirm that no fortresses have fallen yet."

Aegor nodded. Communication methods were backward and capacity was limited. He could not expect to understand the situation of the entire Gift from Eastwatch-by-the-Sea. As long as the Wall had not fallen, there was no need to panic. "Alright, send someone to prepare carts and horses. I need to return to Crown Town immediately with the guests and some special cargo."

"Yes, Lord Commander." When he lost the election for Commander and was forced to swear allegiance, Cotter Pyke was almost certain that the Night's Watch would be buried in Aegor's hands, but now time had proven the conservatives' worries were unfounded. Although he still felt dissatisfied, he no longer had any thought of making meaningless provocations against the Commander's authority. "Also, Lord Commander, there is a situation at Eastwatch-by-the-Sea that needs to be reported immediately. The weather at the Bay of Seals is so cold that it is constantly freezing even during the day. You can see, there are no ships in the harbor because both the Storm Crow and the Claw, as well as the newly commissioned Bear Old and Maester Aemon donated by White Harbor, are performing ice-breaking tasks around the clock. When the ice is not thick, breaking it is not difficult, but the difficulty is preventing the broken but unfrozen thin ice from overlapping and forming thick ice. Even if this problem is solved, we have to dispatch ships to intercept or find ways to remove ice floes drifting from other places. As soon as the Blackbird's cargo is unloaded, I will send her out as well. But this is already operating at full capacity. If the temperature continues to drop, the freezing situation will soon become too severe for manpower to fight against, and once the Bay of Seals freezes over, it will be much easier for the White Walkers to walk over the ice than to cross the Great Gorge!"

Ultimately, the subtext was one sentence. Although the situation in the Great Gorge was urgent, Eastwatch-by-the-Sea also needed support.

"Let the Blackbird join the ice removal effort to hold on for a while. If there are still merchant ships coming from Essos or the South later, I will forcibly requisition ships and personnel in my name to assist in breaking the ice." Aegor nodded, not giving a direct answer. He just needed a little more time. Once the Dragon Crystal Bombs were successfully mass-produced, he could not wait for the White Walkers to come and die. "As for troop allocation, I will give you a reply as soon as possible after understanding the situation along the entire length of the Wall."

There were not enough ships, but there were plenty of people. The unloading of nitrate was completed quickly, filling two carts with whole barrels. There were not enough remaining horses for Rangers to ride if they wanted to save some for backup, so Aegor could only cram the guests who had traveled a long way into a Gift public horse-drawn carriage to achieve the goal of returning to Crown Town all in one trip.

The capital of the Gift still stood properly beside the King's Road, and was even a bit more lively than usual. After the town area outside the core fortress was fully completed last month, Aegor had let the permanent residents move out of tents and into simple but at least wind and rain-proof cabins. But now, as the fully loaded convoy approached Crown Town along the road almost covered by snow, everyone could see dense tents had been set up outside the high walls of Crown Town again, and many New Gift People wrapped in worn furs were moving among the tents, curiously staring at the convoy consisting of three large carts approaching from a distance.

"Crown Town is bigger than I heard," Beric Dondarrion said in surprise, but then asked more strangely, "But I thought there was no distinction between nobles and commoners in the Gift. How can such a large town not accommodate all residents, forcing these people to pitch tents at the foot of the city wall?"

"There were none of these tents when I left, but I had already decided to issue a medium-level warning in advance on the day I went to King's Landing," Aegor naturally understood where the crowd in front of him came from. "According to the plan, all Gift residents whose homes are more than a day's journey from the nearest fortress are to pack their things and consolidate into the pre-arranged fortresses. These people currently living outside the walls are mostly those who rushed here from the area around Crown Town after the warning was issued. Because they were slow and arrived late, there was no time to arrange accommodation for them, and to avoid disrupting the order within the walls, they can only temporarily stay outside the city."

Beric nodded and continued to ask with interest, "You mentioned a medium-level warning, so I presume there are also high and low levels? If it is not confidential, could you briefly explain what conditions trigger each of these three levels of warning, and what the corresponding plans are?"

"The low level goes without saying. Because there have long been anomalies within the Haunted Forest beyond the Wall, the Gift has been on low alert ever since I became Commander. Adult males undergo regular basic military training, snow on important roads is cleared at all times, ground and Wall-top patrols are never interrupted, every inhabited village must have soldiers on night watch, and so on. As the guards of the northernmost frontier, even in peacetime, this is the minimum level of vigilance. As for the medium level, when a large enemy force is detected appearing in the area near the Wall and the Commander feels the enemy has offensive intent, they can announce entry into this state. All activities are consolidated around defensible fortresses, and patrol strength is increased to maximum." Aegor carefully surveyed the tent dwellers at the foot of the wall and casually introduced, "As for the high level, that is the final moment. When the White Walkers lead the dead to officially attack the defense line and signal fires are lit everywhere. At that time, not only these temporary residents under the city wall, but the entire Gift plus the area along the Wall, a total of about forty-five thousand soldiers and civilians, will all be evacuated without exception into the nineteen plus one, twenty fortresses along the Wall, Crown Town, and the Bay of Seals..." Saying this, Aegor also remembered that the existence of Ice Canyon Port was currently a military secret of the North, and quickly stopped. "Open the armories and distribute all kinds of Dragon Crystal and burning weapons to every person capable of fighting, stop all production activities, and either wait for the good news of 'the front-line defenders repelling the enemy at the gates' to lift the alert, or face the final decisive battle."

"This is truly being fully prepared, I am impressed." Beric sincerely praised, realizing that the rumors he had heard these days about the earth-shattering changes in the Night's Watch's combat power under the new Commander were not exaggerated at all. He had also led soldiers and had some vague concept of what fighting was like. These three states, high, medium, and low, coupled with corresponding specific policies and measures, even without considering the equipment level, just the ability to execute this set of plans properly would make them an army with astonishing combat power even if they were only armed with wooden sticks.

Fortunately, the Gift has few people, otherwise, under the leadership of such a Commander, there would be absolutely no problem even if they rebelled to seize the Iron Throne.

Amidst the creaking sound of turning wheels, the convoy entered the outer city gate of Crown Town and crossed through the neatly planned streets. Aegor quickly found that there seemed to be many more people in the town than expected, far exceeding the number of people who should be here seeking refuge under a medium-level warning. The situation seemed somewhat different from what he had imagined.

Each with their own thoughts, the group finally arrived at the inner fort. Before even walking out of the gate, Aegor first heard the clear shouting coming from the training ground nearby, which was clearly Arya's voice.

(To be continued.)