AN: This is super short and it'll probably be the only chapter of the day. Sorry!

I would just like to take the time to thank everyone who has wrote something in support to what has been written. You guys have made this experience of exposing a part of myself truly enjoyable (take that as you want). So, Thank you! And enjoy.

Helping Howard walk, I leaned him against a wall. The cut was pretty bad and he wouldn't see much use out of the leg anytime soon. It was a worrying prospect. This era probably had more deaths from infection and illness than any other reason. Plus, there was no way he would be able to control this band of scum without some kind of mobility. I didn't have any actual ways to heal though, so I called the little ones to deliver alcohol and bandages. They would have to do.

"T-thank you..." Howard said as I wrapped his wound. I only nodded in reply.

"It wasn't always this bad, you know? This used to be a place of high prestige..." He softly said. "Then Lords stopped sending their soldiers in favor of their spares. Cunts with too high ego, and not enough wit or skill. They still send them, but it fell out of favor for sending smallfolk." He laughed self deprecatingly "Then came the criminals. Those they didn't have the resources to execute themselves. It just became normal. Die or take the Black, they say now...

Those of righteousness and morals have slowly been killed out, whether in sleep or out in the open. The bastards don't care. I've had to turn a blind eye to too much... Turn a blind eye, because the only thing that keeps them in line is letting them vent on the Wildlings. I would pity the bastards if it didn't keep at least a tiny bit of the good safe...

I have no control here."

I held the silence as I finished patching him up.

"I'm sorry..." I replied to what he has obviously been holding onto for a long time. I apologized for far more than just his situation, and he seemed to catch that fact.

"Aye, I'm sorry too."

There was little I could do. I could kill them all, but what would that achieve? They hold back an ever invading band of bigger idiots. Idiots that would ransack and rape their way through the North if they actually got across the Wall.

No. You have all this power, don't compromise! Is leaving it alone actually all you can do?

It was the Dragon... and wasn't that alarming. Maybe the implication hurt pride, but that was surprisingly caring for what I've been viewing as a destructive force. It was right though, there was something I could do.

I wasn't going to give power to a mortal, no matter the good light I've viewed Howard in so far. I was also hesitant to fuel a Wall obviously made with such vile methods. Killing the entirety of the Watch would only leave the Wall defenseless and I wasn't staying to watch over it.

I rose from my crouch and Howard sent me a look of doubt. I could imagine the face he saw, one of determination.

I'm tired, oh so tired of the moral dilemma. Couldn't someone else make the hard choice? Is it really my responsibility to care for what happens? That wasn't really a question that needed to be asked, considering I do it to myself. The hardest thing about not living in fear is becoming a monster that you've feared yourself. It's overly sentimental and philosophical but it still rings true. I don't want to ever reach a point where I don't question my actions. Reach the point where I turn into my father, who controlled through fear and violence. A point where I turn into an entity that felt that because it's power... there aren't consequences.

Yharnam may have been hell, but it was also a place ripe with lessons. Of humanity's greatest sins and failures.

"The thing about control, Howard..." I say as I stretched out my arms.

"Lyle?" Lyanna questioned timidly. I ignored her.

"There isn't enough of it."

Eyes appeared all around, blinking and looking. Spreading to all surfaces in an image of grotesque nightmares.

"It's why weDream."

There was a flash of rainbow-colored light, accompanied by a cacophony of screams as the Dream intertwined with the Children in the Wall. They became something different, something ugly and twisted. Something more. Control was relinquished, and the magic could barely fight back. It screeched and clawed but I only stamped down. Overloading and overwriting what it was made to be.

The necromancy and ice magic protection strengthened, already there and built upon. The search became more, not only for magic but intent. You want to rape and kill? Enjoy your drop. It was immediately put to use as people were flung into the air.

Golems formed from ice, thousands, started lining the Wall, made never tiring and ever watchful. And the greatest of it all, a massive crystal-like Dragon fell out in resemblance to birth, the Wall closing behind it.

The thing about the Dream... it's a lie. Something used to kindle hope and majesty, making the falsity of it blinding. That same lie blinds not only to what it isn't capable, but what is. My disgust for it has led to what I believe. I've only seen the harm it brings, it's difficult to consider what else a Dream kindles.

With enough wit, determination, and ambition... it can bringReality.

The madness was still there, slowing corrupting and corroding, but it's tied to the Wall. Anchor it and it holds the answer to a hesitancy to use. Its danger is still there, but with a little wit, just a little, you can reduce the risks presented. That eldritch energy that causes so much trouble? Just cycle it, and keep it on the move. It'll stay as long as the Wall holds. A Wall that was made as strong as it could be made.

I turned back to see the stunned face of Howard, the pale face of Lyanna, and, of course, the excitement in Elena's.

"We're leaving, ladies."