GOT: Chapter 349/350

Chapter 349: Know Yourself and Know Your Enemy (Part 1)

"When I last scouted the movements of the dead, they had finished gathering about a dozen miles north of Black Castle. But instead of advancing towards the Wall, they split into two groups, heading east and west respectively. The group moving towards the Bay of Seals numbered five or six thousand, led by three White Walkers. They are currently lurking in the Haunted Forest outside the three strongholds of Beacon Tower, Green Guard, and Eastwatch-by-the-Sea. As for the group heading towards the Great Canyon, they are spread out everywhere, making it difficult to count. Because the Night King is leading them, I could not get close enough to scout, so the details are unclear."

Five or six thousand could be counted, so how many exactly was "difficult to count"? Aegor felt a chill run down his spine. This was even after he had taken in over thirty thousand Wildlings. Without that, the enemy would have thirty thousand more, while his side would have thirty thousand less.

He felt a heaviness in his heart, kept silent, and quietly waited for the rest.

"One can judge without much thought that they are searching for a way to cross the Wall, while waiting for the power that sustains their existence to reach its peak... so they can launch a decisive battle at the most advantageous time." Bran's words began to falter, his sentences breaking apart, as if those few consecutive lines had exhausted his strength. "I don't mean to flatter you, but the biggest reason the dead have not attacked the Seven Kingdoms until now is the series of preparations made by the Commander. Whether it is the airtight defenses along the Wall, the large-scale ice clearing in the Bay of Seals, or the patrols along the banks of the Great Canyon... the Night's Watch has sealed off every path for the enemy. Sometimes I can't help but wonder, maybe you truly are the Prince sent by prophecy to deal with the White Walkers."

"Thank you. I am no Prince. I just prioritize caution, think from the enemy's perspective, and then plug every loophole I can find." He could not deny it. Everyone appreciates having their hard work acknowledged, but Aegor would not be carried away and forget the main business. "Bran, I will not force you to risk danger by tracking the Night King's exact location, but I hope you can answer a few questions I have about the enemy. After all, knowing yourself and knowing your enemy is the key to victory in every battle. First, are the White Walkers and the dead afraid of water? Can they swim or walk across the seabed to reach us?"

"That is indeed a question worth considering." Bran nodded. "I can give you a clear answer, but it must be explained separately. First, White Walkers are afraid of water. Although they are transformed from living men, years of being permeated by ice magic gradually shed their physical bodies. They rely more and more on pure magic to sustain their forms, growing stronger as the process continues. A mature White Walker's body is merely a shape, entirely supported by magic. Just as humans must consume food to generate stable heat, and will die if their body temperature is too low or too high, White Walkers also have an optimal temperature range for maintaining their existence. That range is extremely low for humans. If they encounter water, a small amount will trap them in ice, limiting their mobility. If it is a large amount, like being thrown into the sea, they will, like humans freezing to death, 'burn to death' from losing their 'normal temperature'."

So that was how it worked. Did this mean White Walkers could be captured alive using water? Aegor considered the possibility but realized it was not realistic. With the divine power of a White Walker, strong enough to slay a dragon, even if a bucket of water froze them, they would break free at once. Only by flooding them instantly with tons of water could one freeze a White Walker, and that was difficult with current means.

His thoughts shifted, and he asked about a more likely scenario. "Why don't they cast spells on the shore to freeze the Bay of Seals and walk across?"

"They are White Walkers, not gods." Bran rolled his eyes. For the first time since Aegor entered the room, he looked like a child. "You have a powerful Red Priestess beside you. When she wants a hot bath, does she jump into cold water and use magic to boil it? In this world, where energy is thin, magic is precious. Compared to ordinary men, White Walkers are indeed incredibly powerful, but against the forces of nature, they are ants."

"So, the White Walkers do not have that ability?"

"I am not one of them, I cannot speak for them." Bran shook his head. "But what I can confirm is that maintaining their bodies and their cold consumes most of the White Walkers' power. If they wanted to freeze a passage across the Bay of Seals strong enough to withstand destruction from the Night's Watch above, they might need to sacrifice a dozen White Walkers to fill it."

That thought eased Aegor slightly. "Then, what about the wights? They do not have low body temperature. What if the White Walkers drive them to wade across?"

"In theory it is possible, but practically unlikely. First, wights cannot stray far from the White Walkers who control them, certainly not across the Wall. I will explain why later. Second, the Night's Watch has encountered White Walkers many times by now. Have you studied why they fear fire?"

"Of course. The bodies of wights are filled with a special, flammable corpse oil."

"Exactly. But have you ever wondered why the enemy would leave themselves such a weakness?"

Yes, why?

Being questioned like this, Aegor's mind flooded with conspiracy theories. Could it be a trap? When the Night's Watch believed wights feared fire, would they suddenly become immune in the final battle, rendering wildfire useless and annihilating mankind?

If that were true, the enemy's strength would rise by an order of magnitude. In that case, they would simply march forward, and even all Seven Kingdoms united would not stand against them. There would be no need for conspiracy.

"I suppose the corpse oil is like blood to humans, an indispensable component. Even if it is a weakness, they cannot abandon it?"

"You guessed correctly. Corpse oil has at least three functions. First, it stores the ice magic cast by the White Walker who awakened the wight, the key difference between it and a normal corpse. Second, it acts as a medium, allowing the wight to draw magic from the air and sustain its existence. Third, it serves as a lubricant for muscles and bones, while also slowing decay and drying of the wight's body." Bran's words came in broken bursts, panting, his body weakened after his journey beyond the Wall. "It is irreplaceable. A wight without corpse oil moves stiffly and is fragile. Although it would no longer fear fire, it could then be killed by swords, clubs, and even standing a few steps away from the White Walker might cause it to collapse."

So corpse oil was vital to wights. Aegor had previously worried about facing wights immune to fire, but now he realized that was unnecessary.

"But this only explains why wights fear fire. What I am most concerned about is whether wights fear water. Could it be that corpse oil dissolves in water?"

"No, wights are not afraid of water. What they fear is ice." Bran shook his head with a half-smile. "I know this seems counter-intuitive. How can wights, controlled by ice magic, fear ice? Even I had to observe for a while before I understood. The reason lies in a mistake of naming. The Long Night, when the White Walkers first appeared, left the impression of bitter cold, so the chroniclers named their power 'ice magic'. But in truth, cold is only a favorable condition and side effect of that magic, not its purpose. Ice is simply frozen water. Because the White Walkers bring cold and freezing with them, people assumed there was a causal link, but that is not the case."

The boy drew a deep breath before continuing. "A more accurate term for their power would be 'cold magic' or necromancy. Ice formed from water looks suited to their power, but in fact it is a poor carrier of magic. You should have experience with this. Whether it is the bodies of White Walkers or the weapons they wield that look like ice, they are in fact entirely different substances. After wights cross water, the water itself does not affect them. But the ice formed in low temperatures not only hinders their movements, it interferes with necromancy itself, making it extremely difficult for White Walkers to control them. Worse, ice magic cannot be used to dispel ice. This is why White Walkers will never drive wights to wade around the Wall."

Aegor sat quietly in his chair, digesting the secrets of the White Walkers that the Greenseer revealed.

The first thing he grasped was Bran's remark that he "should have experience." The Greenseer had clearly traced back his desperate battle with a White Walker in the Haunted Forest. He recalled that moment three years ago, the details Bran meant him to remember. The sword that looked like ice shattered when it struck him. The White Walker's milky body, once slain, dissolved in a way that defied the properties of ice. It did not melt into water, but boiled and vanished, leaving nothing but a chill behind.

It was less like water and more like a gas with a high freezing point, sublimating rapidly when heated.

A theory that fit observations could either be the truth or a carefully crafted lie. Since the Greenseer had no reason to deceive the Night's Watch about the enemy, this was most likely the truth.

Bran looked at Aegor in thought and reminded him, "I don't know what the Commander is thinking, but please do not grow careless or underestimate the enemy. Do not reduce the garrison at Eastwatch-by-the-Sea. One force of nature may counter another. White Walkers cannot freeze the Bay of Seals, but Winter can."

Aegor nodded. Even without the reminder, he would not take such risks. The Night's Watch did not lack manpower at present.

"Understood. The deployment at the Bay of Seals will remain as it is." After leaning on his knees and thinking for a moment, he raised his second concern. "The Builder raised the Wall seven hundred feet high. So why did it stop abruptly at the Great Canyon, instead of extending west to Ice Bay, leaving a gap?"

(To be continued.)

Chapter 350: Know Yourself and Know Your Enemy (Part 2)

"There are many reasons, the most direct being that it is difficult to build," Bran replied without hesitation. "Almost all the snowmelt from the Frostfangs flows into the sea through the Milkwater River, and the current at the bottom of the Great Canyon is extremely strong in summer. If the Wall were built at a low point, it would be washed away by the water. Built halfway up the mountain, it would soon tilt and collapse. Built on the mountaintop... I wonder if the Commander has calculated this: the mountains on both sides of the Great Canyon rise over a thousand feet, higher than any point of the Wall, and serve as natural barriers themselves. If construction of the Wall began there, the difficulty would be equivalent to building countless Eyries, and the labor and resources required would likely match those needed to build another Wall."

Aegor was not satisfied with the explanation. "Then at least patrol routes could be made along both sides of the Great Canyon to aid the Night's Watch. The reports I received from the Shadow Tower soldiers are that there is no road at all. Everything must be cleared anew. Why is that?"

"There used to be roads, but after thousands of years, they have long since collapsed into the valley due to landslides and been carried away by the current. They are gone," Bran sighed deeply. "Speaking of the loopholes in the Wall's defenses, I want to tell you something else that has long been forgotten. Do you remember what I just said, that it is difficult for White Walkers to control wights across the Wall?"

Of course he remembered. At that time, Bran had also said he would explain the reason later, and now was clearly the "later" he had spoken of.

"I'd like to hear the details."

"Besides being a massive Wall that physically blocks Wildlings and monsters, the Wall is also a barrier of magic. White Walkers do not like to approach the Wall, which gives the impression that the Wall can 'counter White Walkers.' That is not an illusion, but I must add that countering White Walkers is only one of the Wall's secondary effects. The primary purpose of the magic woven into it is to shield against the power of the cold god that originates from the Land of Always Winter, the power that drifts in the air and sustains the existence of White Walkers and wights."

"That makes sense, but wouldn't it be better to seal off the Great Canyon as well? You are not going to tell me the power of the cold god is denser than air and sinks into the valley so it cannot penetrate, are you?"

Even with the wisdom of a Greenseer, the concept of gas density did not exist in Bran's mind. Yet, with the accumulation of knowledge from countless years, he quickly grasped Aegor's meaning and moved past it. "As the Commander of the Night's Watch, you should be clear about the distribution of the nineteen castles along the Wall. Which one is in the very middle?"

Nonsense. If he did not know the map of the Gift and the Wall by heart, what kind of Commander would he be? Aegor nodded. "If we are talking about the 'middle' in terms of numbers, then it is naturally Queensgate. Whether you count from east to west or west to east, it is the tenth. But if we are talking about the spatial distance from both ends of the Wall, then it is Castle Black. Even when the Night's Watch declined to its lowest point, this castle remained the headquarters, because the time it takes to send patrols from here to either end of the Wall is the same, whether on the ground or atop the Wall."

"A competent Commander, exactly right," Bran nodded. "So, if I am not asking about along the Wall, but from the Bay of Seals to the Bay of Ice, which castle of the Night's Watch is equidistant from the eastern and western coasts?"

Aegor opened his mouth, and before he could think, he already had the vague answer.

The westernmost section of the Wall was forty to fifty miles from Ice Canyon Port. Therefore, the castle equidistant from the two coasts must be just over twenty miles west of Castle Black. It was definitely not the adjacent Queensgate. Deep Lake, a little further west, did not seem right either. Further west...

Aegor's heart suddenly leapt. The final conclusion was indeed what he had already suspected. Wasn't the castle equidistant from the Bay of Seals and the Bay of Ice precisely the original headquarters of the Night's Watch, the place with the giant glowing weirwood and the Black Gate, the ancient fortress of the Black Brothers where he and the little Greenseer Bran now sat?

"Nightfort!" Aegor blurted out. "Damn, this means that when the order was first founded, the Great Canyon was indeed within the patrol area set by the first Night's Watch high command."

Bran's face was full of approval. "Exactly. I can also tell you that the energy source for the Wall's protection against the cold god and its power to drive away White Walkers is the giant weirwood embedded within the Wall at Nightfort, which has merged with the most powerful Greenseer in history. The stone base, carved with ancient runes and pressed under millions of tons of ice, gathers and confines its endless energy. That energy radiates outward in a circle... no, in a sphere, within a certain range inside and outside the Wall, shaping a magical barrier similar in form to the Wall, but higher, wider, and thicker. The physical Wall of ice and the 'soul' woven of magic together form this ultimate defense against death."

...

Aegor was utterly stunned. So that was it. Everything, absolutely everything, was connected. The Wall was not only the largest man-made structure in the world of Ice and Fire, but also the most spectacular magical artifact. It was a powerful "barrier generator," and that super weirwood was the energy core sustaining its operation.

The nine hundred and ninety-eighth Lord Commander of the Night's Watch gained a new understanding of this Wall that was nominally his. Yet Bran's narration continued. "Because the giant tree is closer to the western end of the Wall, the magic against the cold god is stronger in the western half than the eastern. At the Shadow Tower at the very end, this power even flows through the forest of weirwoods planted along both sides of the Great Canyon, extending outward for dozens of miles like an invisible Wall, closing that final gap and reaching into the Bay of Ice. Except for the faint traces that leak from high above and the distant sea, the Wall blocks all of the cold god's power beyond the Wall."

That vast weirwood forest covering the mountains and plains had originally been planted to make up for the Wall's absence at the Great Canyon, its purpose to complete the invisible Wall that shields against the cold god. Although the Wall had a physical gap, on the magical level, it stretched unbroken east to west, blocking the energy the White Walkers relied upon to the north, and creating a haven for the living.

Perfect, intricate, and unimaginably grand, Aegor was struck for the first time by the magnificent beauty hidden beneath the seemingly clumsy Wall. His first thought was that in the original tale, Daenerys had sacrificed her dragon to save Jon and ultimately destroyed the Wall... a decision so foolish and unforgivable that it was beyond belief.

After cursing silently, he felt more spirited. Having made countless preparations with foreknowledge, and with such a defense at hand, if he could not win this war, he would truly be worthless. What kind of Commander would he be then? He might as well drown himself with his own spit.

But the questioning spirit he had cultivated quickly raised another issue. "Then I have another concern. The Wall is difficult to destroy, but the weirwood forest is exposed. If the White Walkers burn it, would that not open a gap in the invisible Wall, this continuous energy field against the cold god?"

"They will certainly attempt that." Unexpectedly, Bran did not deny Aegor's thought. "But I must stress again that the weirwood forest covering the Great Canyon is only reinforcement, not the foundation of the... anti-cold god energy field, as you call it. As long as the Wall does not fall and the great weirwood remains, the magical barrier is complete. Even if the forest is destroyed, the cold god's power would only seep slowly through the weak point of the Great Canyon. White Walkers south of the Wall would still be weaker than those beyond it, and so long as handled properly, they can be defeated."

That was good.

The last doubt was cleared, and Aegor nodded with relief. Unfortunately, his mind was too quick, and he immediately thought of a deeper question that had long been buried in his heart. "You keep talking about the power of the cold god. What in the seven hells is that damned cold god... and R'hllor? You said there are no gods in this world. Are they, like you, simply beings who wield more extraordinary power?"

...

After a moment of hesitation, the young Greenseer finally admitted there was something he could not answer. "This, forgive me, I cannot explain. I have not encountered either of them, neither in spirit nor in flesh. What is certain is that they both exist, and their power is far beyond what I can perceive or test. But they are not the omnipotent deities their believers imagine. They are not human, perhaps some higher form of life. My suggestion is to avoid groundless speculation. Considering the possibility of the cold god personally joining this war is meaningless. If he were to act, aside from relying on the equally mysterious Lord of Light, all preparations by the Night's Watch would be in vain. Tell me, do you believe in prophecy?"

Again? How had the discussion of the cold god suddenly turned to prophecy?

Although puzzled, after many talks with Bran, Aegor had grown used to the Greenseer's style of speech. His topics seemed to jump about, but in truth, they followed a hidden logic and were never truly random.

This was not an examination, so without straining too hard, Aegor gave an answer that seemed moderate enough not to cause problems. "I think prophecy is something you listen to. You should not ignore it, but you should not take it too much to heart either."

Bran looked into Aegor's eyes, shook his head, and gave a shallow, unfathomable smile. "That is not wrong, but prophecies differ. Roughly, they can be divided into three types. The first type: curses and venting. If you believe, it exists. If you do not, it does not. A typical example: you offend someone, and he prophesies that you 'will surely die a terrible death.' No matter what, men die. In truth, whether you die early or late, the prophecy will not be the cause. But if you live every day in fear beneath that curse, you may indeed die young, just as foretold."

An interesting theory. Aegor nodded, thinking of the witch's prophecy to Cersei, that she would have a miserable second half of her life.

"The second type: when one has sufficient information, a deep understanding of the essence of things and the workings of the world, they predict the direction events will take through logic, calculation, and inference. Even if such prophecies are not always accurate, they often have considerable value. To ignore them would be a waste."

Aegor nodded again. The boy made sense, and there was no shame in admitting it. "Indeed... And the third type?"

"You must have heard the following. After a long summer, the stars will bleed, and the cold darkness will cover the world. In this terrible hour, a hero shall be reborn in the land of smoke and salt. He will wake dragons from stone and draw a burning sword from the fire. That sword is Lightbringer, the hero's red sword. He who wields it is Azor Ahai reborn, and he shall drive the darkness away."

"I have certainly heard it." To be honest, Aegor could not recite the entire passage word for word. "The priests of the Lord of Light and the followers of R'hllor spread it everywhere. It is one of the most widely known prophecies in the world today. What about it?"

"This is the third type of prophecy. It appears to be a prophecy, but in essence, it is a warning, an ultimatum, and a declaration of war—from R'hllor to the cold god." Bran lifted the cup of water from the bedside table, took a sip, and began to explain the prophecy as a Greenseer.

(To be continued.)