If you want to support me, check out my patréon at https://www.patréon.com/athassprkr
I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions on them, so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.
[---]
123 AC, Lands of Always Winter
He idly rubbed his wedding ring as a smirk curled up at his lips, mirroring the creature's own, "Hello there, I'm Harry Potter. I believe it's time we had a conversation, don't you?" This was going to be fun.
Harry looked at the so-called King of the Others, who seemed to be staring at him as one would an exotic animal. There was interest at the sight of something different, with an imperceptible hint of pride and smugness at holding an advantage over Harry. Of course, while Harry knew that it wasn't exactly correct, outwardly, there was no reason why the creature should doubt itself.
After all, he was technically trapped in a chamber with dozens of superhuman Others ready to kill him, in a fortress that was entirely under their control, which was the source of an entire realm that they personally created, and thus, under their domain. Most people would have been well and truly fucked, and there was no reason for the King of the Others – what a lame name, Harry would just call him the Night King – to feel even slightly apprehensive.
And so, Harry found himself being quite surprised when he noticed something attempting to peer into his past and also his future. Harry instinctively shrouded himself in a layer of time, making whoever attempted the probe lose themselves to it. He had other ways to block divination attempts, but he had found that this was, by far, the most effective way. Most people just didn't understand the concept of Time to try to navigate through the layer, let alone bypass it. The moment he did so, he noticed the Night King's expression shift. Huh, so, he wasn't as confident as he liked to portray himself to be, huh?
A smirk grew on Harry's face at that realisation, even though it showed that the Night King was far more cautious and calculating than he expected. However, it did show a slight chink in his armour, in that while he seemed to be quite intelligent, enough to harness a power so corrosive that it would mutate everything with its presence, which he used to gain some measure of control over Space, he still lacked an understanding of Time.
Still, with their little opening having finished, Harry opened his mouth and spoke up, "Oh, come on. The silent treatment, really? Is this about the worm thing? Alright, I'm sorry about hurting your pet and everything, but that's really not a valid reason to ignore me. You can't tell me that you brought me all this way just to stare at me. It would be so rude if you did."
The Night King continued to stare at Harry in silence, and so, the sorcerer continued, "Don't be like that. It's your fault, if you think about it. You're the one who sent it to me. What was I supposed to do then? You're a smart guy, right? I heard that you're the one who turned your people into… this," he motioned at their bodies. "Don't tell me that you invited me here and didn't plan on what came after. That would be rather dumb, wouldn't it?"
The temperature in the room immediately plummeted after that statement, and Harry knew that he had touched a sore point. Tainted by the void, they might be, the Corpse Queen had shown him that their core, their origin, was not quite as alien to mankind as they likely wished to portray themselves to be. The Other in the Frostfangs was further proof of that, having exhibited a desperation when he became powerless that Harry found to be so very… human.
Since Harry wanted to make them talk, which he knew they could, he ignored the Others completely and focused on the giant black hand, walking around it, as if he was unbothered by it, "Now, this… This is interesting. It reminds me of a story that I heard recently. It's about a god, the Other, who had found a fragment of the Night, as he explored the Void. Using it, he waged war against the rest of the gods, one that shook the very fabric of reality, a War in Heaven. This culminated in a battle that ruptured the very Void, which killed most of the gods, including the Other. Sounds familiar, huh?"
It hadn't taken long for Harry to figure out what this hand was and piece it together alongside Mother Rhoyne's tale. They had found a fragment of the remains of The Other, the god. Bloody hell, this was going to be confusing, even inside his own head. He had theorised that the head of the slain god that he had found in Oldtown belonged to him.
After all, Mother Rhoyne claimed that he had usurped the domains of many gods, and even if the Great Cataclysm that his war caused had killed off his consciousness, the sheer amount of energy that he had, still had to go somewhere, especially given the fact that he had obviously anchored himself into the material realm, hence, body parts. This would also explain how large the head's inner realm truly was, as well as the mess of domains he sensed within.
Given the similarity in the general material anchor of the god, or as most people called it, its body, between the head in Oldtown and the Hand in the Heart of Winter, he was reasonably sure that it was the same god; however, the main difference was the dagger, the weapon.
A fraction of the Void, of an endless starry night, controlled by the unbendable concept of Death itself. That theory fit far too well. If Harry had to guess, the heretical god had found the fragment of the Void, of the Night, and was almost overwhelmed. Even to a god, the void would have easily been corrosive, like a poison that would dispel their very existence with its chaos, and he was desperate enough to need something to control it.
Harry could only imagine what the god felt. As a god, the idea of non-existence probably didn't ever occur to him. He must have been terrified, trying to figure out a way to avoid being swallowed away into the void.
Given the mess of combined domains that Harry felt, the best answer he found was the domains of other gods. By expanding his realm, he could theoretically slow down the corruption, and the chaos of the Void was warping them all together into a single entity, while still growing like a cancer. That was until he found something that it couldn't swallow, something that remained completely and utterly unbendable. Death.
Using it, he bound the fragment of Night, forging it into a weapon. But it was too late. There was likely very little of the god he used to leave, and even if there was, he had started a war against all other divinities in the universe. The end result was still the same: for the War to continue, until a Great Cataclysm ended it.
That… was a much clearer picture about the scene before him, of a desperate people who found a fragment of a terrible god, who took its power to their own. However, Harry couldn't see how others could have let that happen. Back then, the Children of the Forest were a race of warriors, and the White Walkers were defeated. The Great Other's hand was not exactly a subtle thing. They would have known of its existence and wouldn't have let an enemy have access to it. Unless…
Realisation struck, and Harry couldn't help but blurt out, "It was all luck. The Great Other was shattered with fragments of him spreading across the world, and you found one, the most dangerous one, if I had to guess, given the weapon it is wielding. And to make things worse, you did it not because you were clever, but by pure chance. It was beneath the ice, beneath the snow, bound by the Black Stone. The Children of the Forest's attack, which created this entire valley, revealed its existence. Ironic, huh? The attack that should have wiped you out, that killed so many of you, ended up giving you your greatest weapon, purely through chance, an accident."
Just as Harry finished speaking, the cold intensified even further, and for the first time, the Night King opened his mouth and spoke, "IT WAS NO ACCIDENT."
The wizard did not miss the widened eyes of the Others as the Night King spoke. That must not have been a common event. It was proven to be why when the very chamber tightened around them. Harry could feel the very edges of the world bending, much like the inherent eldritch nature of the Great Other's remain.
Had the Night King intertwined his very soul so much with the fragment of a dead god that his very nature became so… alien to the world.
In a balanced world, this little trick would have either made him ascend or just vaporised him. Hell, if it weren't standing in his realm, he would have likely unravelled most forms of magic by accident. His… realm. Oh, things made much more sense. The Night King was trying to expand his domain, his realm, like a god might, like the Great Other had tried, but in a much smaller manner.
One of the Others, one who wielded a sceptre as opposed to a blade like the rest of his kind and spoke up quickly, breaking Harry from his introspection, "IT IS AN INSULT TO THE KING TO CALL HIS EFFORTS AS PRODUCTS OF LUCK. FOR YOUR PRESENCE HERE IS NO ACCIDENT EITHER."
Was he supposed to be an orator or something? It made sense, in a way, if every word from the Night King warped reality and could accidentally kill a few of them.
Still, they were obviously trying to unsettle him, "Well, you did send me an invitation, didn't you? It would have been very rude if you didn't follow through with it, wouldn't it? And why wouldn't I be interested in meeting with such fascinating creatures? I would work on your hospitality, though, if you're expecting further guests."
"YOU ARE NOT OF THIS WORLD!" the Night King spoke, shaking the very fabric of reality once more.
"No, I'm not," Harry answered, "But I've put a lot of work into it."
"YOU WILL BREAK THE BARRIER!" the orator spoke.
Harry shook his head as he realised what the creatures wanted from him. They wanted to get past the Wall. That made far too much sense for comfort, especially given why they hadn't attacked him yet, or why they were even talking with him.
They were unprepared for their assault on the Wall. They had been waiting for it to weaken, and slowly biding their time to destroy it, either when the spell was too weak to sustain itself in a few centuries, by Harry's calculation, or by using the Elder Dragon's corpse, likely as a last resort.
Alas, Harry's actions returned magic to the world, and they found themselves pressed for time, with their chances of victory lessening with time, not succeeding, and their last resort, the dragon, which was a multidimensional creature in nature, was destroyed at his hands without a chance of it being reanimated again. The Wall was a remarkable structure, one designed to resist the very void itself, a very complex enchantment which was more structured and precise than any form of magic that he had ever seen.
However, they saw enough to know that Harry had the capability to bring down the Wall too, and thus lured him to this place, to make him an effort that he supposedly couldn't refuse.
Naturally, Harry answered, "No."
The entire room stilled, as if they hadn't expected his refusal. Even the Night King seemingly blinked before speaking up once more, "BREAK THE BARRIER!"
This time, the intensity was tenfold what it was. Even the Others flinched away from the command despite it being issued by their King. Reality had seemingly frozen for a moment, almost unwound, but Harry, who had navigated the void itself, did not seem perturbed.
"No means no," he uttered finally, "But lucky for you, I have a little compromise in mind. I will take you from this place, from the horrors of war, into an empty realm of ice, to make your home. There would be no war, no Death, no void corruption, just a realm of true winter. All you would have to do is leave this place, this world, unravel this realm and your connection to this god and the void."
That seemed to have struck them silent, and Harry suppressed a grin as he continued, "You would be free to grow as a society in a way beyond this endless war against life, for there won't be any life to bother you. You can wake up the women hibernating in the Ice, stop draining them to create a foreign realm to overwhelm this one. Everybody wins."
It was an offer that he did not make lightly, one that the White Walkers, before they became the Others, would have jumped to gain, a true home without any threats.
Silence spread at his offer, before the Night King spoke up, "I REFUSE!"
Harry had expected that, and thus used this for his advantage, "It's funny. The people who first came here during the Great Cataclysm, the creatures that you once were, would have jumped at the offer. I know why you are refusing. You cannot procreate, not since merging a shard of something as corrosive to life itself into your being. You have been warping human souls, using them to animate creatures that resemble you, using them to try to create other versions of your kind. You need humans, just as they need cattle, and even the idea of peace would not stop you from continuing. I wonder what your past selves would think if they saw you now. Would they even recognise what you were? Would they run away in horror? We don't even have to guess, you've been keeping them like popsicles, draining them to create this false realm of yours."
The Others all bristled at the accusations but did not say anything. It had been a test, of sorts, a final chance that he knew they probably wouldn't take, but it made their stance clear, for they refused to entertain the chance at trying a different way to solve their problems, to not continue their horrific acts to warp souls.
Just as he expected, they failed. This became all the more apparent when one of the ice walls shifted, suddenly becoming clear, showing a giant valley of ice and snow, one that he recognised. The Night King then raised his hand, and Harry's eyes widened as he noticed the Great Other's hand almost move with it, its grip of the weapon being released.
Suddenly, a pulse of crimson light lit the sky, and three familiar figures appeared from thin air, as if thrown up from the icy ground. For they were Daphne, Cregan, and Leaf. His wife looked around in confusion, followed by realisation.
Harry fidgeted with his wedding ring and felt Daphne's confirmation. He quickly got the impression that they were almost done, and so, he needed to buy them enough time to finish, which was trickier since they couldn't exactly hide in an echo realm anymore.
Immediately following this, there was movement on the ice, and thousands of creatures emerged. Most were wights of men, giants, or animals, but he could see hundreds of Ice Spiders, Ice Giants, and a few of these demonic creature things that he fought in the Frostfangs. To his surprise, he also saw dozens of Others riding up on their corpse horses, ready to meet them.
He didn't let his expression shift, but an instinct screamed at him to go to his wife's side. He stifled it; she could handle herself, and they both had their parts to play.
Daphne quickly conjured a wall of flames to attack them, and Leaf followed along, but they were clearly surrounded. He turned to the Night King's smug face, the unspoken demand to destroy the Wall still being in the air.
In response, Harry's tone lost all joviality, "This is it, huh? Your answer. Even after all of this, you try to force my hand, using my wife's and our charges' lives. And yet, you still haven't attacked me. Why? I am surrounded in the very centre of your power, where you are literally at your strongest, mouthing my ass off, but you haven't even tried to attack me. It's definitely not out of courtesy. My best guess would be fear. You acted rashly when you set your trap. You were overconfident. After all, I would be in your domain. But now, you are worried that I have something up my sleeve, something like what I did with the worm monster. I can feel it now, the way you're focusing on this fortress, ready to respond in case I decide to fight my way out."
He turned towards them and spoke up, "You're right to be worried. Every instinct that I have is telling me to kill you all. I loathe you and everything you stand for with a burning hatred, for you truly are horrible creatures. The twisting of the souls, the plans for genocide, the doom of an entire realm… I tried; I really tried to find another way. Now, I want you to know that you brought this onto yourself."
The structure suddenly shook, and the main suspect of this event appeared on the scrying wall of ice, as a tree emerged from the ground. However, it was not Daphne who was responsible; it was Leaf. The Child of the Forest was bleeding dark blood on the ground and singing a song so emotional that Harry could feel its effect from the fortress deep within the ice.
It was a plea for help, in the face of the unforgiving, in the face of the inevitable. Harry smirked as the world answered, hundreds of Weirwood Trees sprouted from the ground, before opening up, and letting dozens of the Children of the Forest enter, with their Dragonglass weaponry, and Weirwood bows open. They released their exploding balls at the coming wave of wights, before stopping it.
He smirked at their angry faces, "You really shouldn't have let your authority over this realm slip after you killed the worm monster."
Harry barely had time to react as the Night King moved his hand, likely planning on using the Great Other's blade once more. Harry slowed his perception of time, took out Cregan's ancestral sword with one hand, and took out his scythe with the other, its kaleidoscopic blade changing colour with every look.
He ran at the giant fist, his body enhanced by Ice's magic, and blocked the gigantic dagger as it moved imperceptibly. The moment the blades touched, a shockwave of space and time threw the Others off their feet. When reality returned to normal, they all stood there agape as they found that his weapon had halted its attack.
One of the brave ones tried to skewer Harry in the back, but was immediately vaporised mid-lunge, undone by the chaotic energy of the void, which Harry's ring shielded him from. That seemed to deter anyone from following his lead, and instead, they all looked at their king for guidance.
As for the Night King, his surprise had quickly turned to fury, and he commanded the hand to move even further, yet Harry withstood the attack, though the pressure increased. This stalemate remained in a moment that felt like an infinity until Harry's ring vibrated, informing him that Daphne was ready.
He gave a confirmation through the ring and smirked as he saw Daphne touching Leaf's tree with her hand, which had the same glow as her ring. Suddenly, all of the newly sprouted trees turned golden and grew about as large as a skyscraper each, surrounding the valley and enveloping it with their golden glow. The fortress started to shake far more violently than before, with the ice around them slowly being overwhelmed by a burst of gold. Harry felt the Night King attempt to use the Great Other's hand to stop it, but Harry would not let it happen, forcing it to stay in this stalemate.
The walls around them looked almost golden, until suddenly the world exploded into golden light.
[---]
AN: That was trickier to write than I expected. I tried to wrap the White Walkers' origin with the lore I already made for the rest of the world, especially given what I revealed in Chroyane. Still, this was mostly supposed to be a lore chapter, though I added a bit of action near the end, even if the confrontation still isn't over. As usual, please let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions.
[---]
If you want to support me, check out my patréon at https://www.patréon.com/athassprkr
I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions on them, so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.
Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.