Chapter III Interlude
Beyond The Wall
In the Land of Forever Winter, where the touch of Summer has not dared venture for untold millennia, a change was wrought in the land. This was no great collapse, no tumultuous shifting of the natural order. No, this was a merely a brief hesitation, a momentary pause from the Powers that Dwell in such forbidden trespasses. It was only for a moment, this pause. But it was enough. Something had changed.
Beyond The Shadow
In Asshai by the Shadow, a nascent god came to life with the fury to rival the Doom of Valyria itself. The entirety of the Shadow quaked, as if in fear, as if in shock. Yet how could that be? What could challenge the darkness that suffocated all life? What fire could blind even the worshippers of R'hllor himself? Such things wondered his priests and priestesses, as they gazed into flickering flames of crimson green that threatened even their fire-blessed hands.
The Shadowbinders knew, with the knowledge gifted to them from the things that crawled in the Night. They knew, deep within, that something had changed. An anomaly had occurred, an impossibility that should not have been possible. Yet still the secrets were whispered, along the dark piers of that great lightless city. They spoke of power, of change, of something knew.
They spoke of the coming of Heroes and Gods.
Winterfell
"What?-" A child woke in the night, half-forgotten dreams taking their leave from his delirious consciousness as she woke. "What just-?"
"Lyanna! Thanks the gods, you've recovered!" Her mother's words swept her away, her worries and confusion fading as she struggled to sit up, only to be pressed down once more by her concerned parent.
The last thing she remembered before the dark took her, was the flickering heat of some great fire, and the vast calm of a sea at rest.
Somewhere
"All right. So . . . when I said I had no idea where we would be heading, I gotta admit I did not see this coming." Leo tried to grin, and succeeded the moment he caught her hazel eyes.
"You mean you didn't expect some primordial portal to gods-knows-where interfering with our escape from Ogygia?" Her voice was tense yet held a note of laughter, the very sound that had rooted him in sanity whilst he had searched for a way to return to his friends, the same noise that had drawn him past Death itself.
"You got it! Now, come on Festus! Let's start exploring, preferably before monsters start attacking, or Buford shows up again, or Gaea makes a comeback!"
"No plans, many questions, and no tidy answers?"
His grin nearly split his face, yet it did not hurt. This moment, simply could not hurt him. She, could never hurt him.
"That's how I fly, Sunshine. You ready?"
Calypso smiled. "Absolutely."