Chapter 18 - Greenseer
The old man's single red eye opened slowly. It did not blink. It did not search. It found Manny at once, as if he had known exactly where he stood long before waking.
His voice came out thin, dry, and heavy with age.
"Manny… the traveler. The man who is not meant to be."
The cave went quiet. Even the Children nearby lowered their eyes.
Brynden Rivers stared at him.
"What are you doing here in this world? This is not your place. You were never meant to walk this land. You should not be here at all."
Manny felt something sink in his chest. Bloodraven was speaking about his transmigration. About his origin. He understood that immediately. But what surprised him was in the tone he said it. Cold, dismissive, almost as if Manny was nothing more than a mistake.
So he lifted an eyebrow.
And he answered.
"I'm here because you couldn't do your job."
A murmur went through the Children. Val stiffened beside him.
Bloodraven's one eye narrowed.
"My job?" Brynden Rivers' voice sharpened. "I have guided this world for years. I have watched over the realms of men. I do what the gods—old as the roots and wind—command me to do."
Manny shook his head slowly.
"Do you? Do you really help them? Do you really guide anyone?"
Bloodraven's expression did not change, but something in the cave air tightened.
Manny stepped forward.
"How have you helped the North? How have you helped the Westerlands, the Riverlands, anyone, when the Long Night is coming? Have you done anything to prepare them? Made them aware of the danger? Given them even the smallest push to unite?"
Brynden Rivers' jaw clenched.
Manny did not stop.
"Did you do anything when the Targaryens were murdered eight years ago? When the throne was taken? You are a Targaryen by blood. Those children were your kin. Innocent children. Did you warn them? Could you not even guide Elia Martell to stay safe? Did you whisper to anyone that danger was coming?"
Bloodraven remained silent.
"You could have told Ned Stark where Lyanna was. You could have saved even one life. You could have changed one event. But did you?"
Manny shook his head again, answering for him.
"No. You didn't. You let the killings happen. You let your own line bleed out. If you can't save your own family, how can you save the world?"
That stung. It showed on the old man's face for the first time.
Brynden Rivers still lifted his chin.
"I do what I must. I fight the Long Night from here. I resist the Night King's magic. I do not interfere with the state or the secular affairs of men."
Manny almost laughed.
"State and secular affairs? Seriously?"
He stepped closer.
"When the Long Night is coming, when the whole world is threatened, you are worried about 'not interfering'? You should have interfered long ago. When your brothers and nephews were burning alive in Summerhall. When the dragons died. When kingdoms fell apart. But you didn't."
Brynden Rivers' voice rose louder than Manny had expected.
"The gods do not wish me to meddle in the daily ambitions of men! What men do out of greed or hunger for power is not for me to control."
"Oh, really?" Manny said flatly.
"Then why did the gods make you a greenseer? Why did they give you magic? Why can you see the past and the future? Why can you influence minds? Why can you change things if you are not meant to?"
Bloodraven opened his mouth, then closed it. For the first time he had no reply.
Manny kept going, his voice calm but firm.
"If the gods don't want any interference, why did they put power into your hands? What is its purpose then? Decoration? Are you a watcher or a carving on the wall? Because right now, it looks like power was wasted on you."
Brynden Rivers' throat worked, but no words came.
Manny pointed at Val beside him.
"Let's forget the gods for a moment. What have you, Brynden Rivers, done for people? For the free folk? If you had guided them earlier, they could have been united long before Mance. They wouldn't be dying in groups here and there to the White Walkers."
"And these people," Manny continued, "look at them. They belong to forests. They are the Children of the Forest, not Children of the Caves. They hide here, in the dark, because they spend all their strength keeping you alive. Keeping you bound to this tree so you can resist the Night King. They are dying for you."
The old man bowed his head slightly, but said nothing.
"You call yourself a guardian," Manny said quietly.
Bloodraven finally spoke, his voice lower, strained.
"I could have saved many. I have seen futures. Paths. I saw when the Night King falls. I would have guided that path."
Manny scoffed.
"Yes. By turning Bran Stark into a creature like yourself. Emotionless. Hollow. Disable in leg. By wiping out the Children of the Forest. By killing House Reed. By ending Daenerys' line and breaking the legacy of Valyria forever. That is your future? That is the 'victory' you saw?"
The Children of the Forest looked at Bloodraven with some surprise, more with discomfort and alarm.
Brynden Rivers' red eye flickered. Shame crossed his face like a shadow.
He tried to speak but could not.
Manny's voice softened, but only a little.
"You call yourself Three-Eyed Raven. But you behave like a man hiding behind excuses. Power without responsibility. Sight without action."
He looked around at the Children staring at their greenseer with new, uncertain eyes.
"You let the world bleed," Manny said.
"And now you ask why someone else has come."
Brynden Rivers' lips trembled, not with fear but something like guilt.
Something like understanding.
For the first time in a long age, he looked… human.
And the Children watched him with suspicion.
They heard Manny's words.
They felt the truth in them.
Manny took a slow breath.
"I'm not here to fight you. But don't question why I exist. I'm here because the world needed someone who would act when you would not."
The old greenseer closed his single eye, the weight of a century settling across his face.
When he opened it again, his voice was a whisper.
"Perhaps the gods sent you after all.
The Children of the Forest began murmuring the moment Manny's words settled in the cave. Their round eyes shifted from him to Brynden Rivers, then back again. It wasn't anger at first but confusion, then slow-growing suspicion. A few of them clicked their tongues in their strange way, a sound that echoed like dry leaves rubbing together. Even Leaf, who had been calm through most of the argument, looked shaken.
Leaf stepped forward, her small face tight with worry. She had not used her greensight in years, not properly. Many of the elders had not. The truth was visible on her face as she asked, almost in a whisper, "Human… is he speaking truth? Will the Children of the Forest die? Will we go extinct?"
Brynden Rivers did not answer at once. His voice cracked with disbelief. "No… no, they will not die because of me. When the Night King comes for this cave, after I pass on my sight to Bran Stark, the Children will die with me to protect them."
The words fell heavily in the air. Leaf's eyes widened as though he had struck her. A fresh wave of murmurs rose. It was of hurt, disbelief, and anger. Some of the Children stepped back from Brynden as if seeing him for the first time.
Leaf turned to the elders. They exchanged looks—long, tired looks that carried centuries of regret. They had trusted Brynden Rivers. They had guarded him, fed him, sheltered him, and let their own numbers shrink while he stayed safe. And now he admitted openly that he would let them die with him.
After a long moment, Leaf faced Manny again. Her voice was steady but thick with emotion. "Human… you are not from here, this we feel. Yet you speak truths we should have known ourselves. We depended too much on him. We forgot our own sight."
She pointed at Brynden Rivers without anger—only disappointment. "We believed he would guide us. We believed he would fight for us. Instead he is ready to let us die."
Manny was silent, unsure of what to say.
Leaf continued, "We do not wish to go extinct. We do not want our forests lost forever. We do not want our last children dying in this cave like prisoners. So we have decided. He"—she glanced at Brynden—"is no longer fit to be a greenseer. He will not hold this power. We will not guard him. We will not treat him as a leader."
Brynden Rivers opened his mouth, but no words came out.
Leaf looked at Manny. "We will give this power to you, if you promise us you will help us survive the Long Night. If you will help us live after it."
Manny stared at her, shocked. "Me? I would be honoured. But can you really do that? Isn't he the greenseer? Don't you serve him?"
Leaf shook her head. "No. We served our own shamans first. Greenseers are our leaders. After we mingled with the First Men, the power became shared. But it was always meant to protect the land and its people, and us the Children of Forests. If a greenseer forgets that duty, we may choose another."
Her voice softened. "We believed in him and others before him. We had been retreating and losing for over thousands of years so we sought the Humans to be greenseer. But we were wrong. You have reminded us of what we forgot."
She bowed her head once, slow and heavy. The murmuring stopped. The cave went silent.
End of Chapter 18 - Greenseer