Need to talk with your god? Try DivineMessenger, Worshiper Edition! Leave prayers and offerings with the touch of a button, and earn cool blessings to show off to your friends!
Chapter 16: Eat, Drink, and be Merry, for Tomorrow You Could Be An Ice Zombie
Despite the late hour, the streets of King's Landing were crowded as Cecily made her way along the avenue. She wasn't wearing her scepta's robes, as she didn't want to be pulled into a party right now. This was, perhaps, the first time in her life (this one anyway) where that was true. She made her way from the Red Keep to the Great Sept of Balor, dodging past partying small folk and nobles alike. May of them were raucously celebrating the very event that was causing her so much consternation: the Great Miracle of Aqua.
Outside of the Sept, two members of the Faith Militant stood guard, their armor gleaming in the Lights of Hope that hovered above the entrance. The combination of members of Athena's Cult and the blessings of Madoka's Cult of Magi proclaimed the sept as one where all orders of the Seven were welcome, and indeed the outside had stained glass depictions of the Seven Goddesses, their consorts and heroes, and the various deeds of the faithful throughout the millennia.
"Welcome, friend. How may we help you?" one of the brothers asked, his tone gentle but firm as he blocked Cecily's path.
Digging out her water wheel pendant that marked her as a septa, Cecily said, "I need to meet with the High Septa, and the heads of any orders here. Fetch them and wake then if you must, this is urgent."
The guards exchanged a look. "Sister, it is late, and the High Septa rests, as do most of the Arch Septons and Septas. It would be difficult to-"
"Oh, here, just read this," Cecily interrupted, and held out a roll of parchment, sealed with the Hand of the King's own sigil.
Eyebrows shooting up, the older of the Militant Brothers accepted the letter, breaking the seal and reading it. His eyes widened as he read, mouth dropping open. "Then, the miracle-"
"Was a freaking party trick; but it was real. Now are you going to go get the leaders of our faith or am I going to have to do it myself?!" Cecily demanded.
"Wake the Brothers, and fetch the High Septa," the paladin ordered.
"Sir," the other bowed, then hurried off.
Cecily was shown to an opulent waiting room, and began to pace nervously back and forth, wringing her hands. It wasn't long before the High Septa, Charity XIV, hurried in, still in her nightgown and followed by two attendants. She had entered into her eighth decade not long ago, but as she was blessed by the goddesses, her stride was firm and swift . She had once been called Tristana Westerling, but had taken her vows as a septa of Ristarte when she had been but a maid. She had been married, as was only proper for one of the followers of her order, but her husband was long dead, as were several of her children.
"Wait outside," the High Septa ordered her followers, and closed the door behind her. She stopped before Cecily, studying her for a moment. "Well. What is this, my daughter?"
Cecily knelt, tears filling her eyes as she took the wrinkled hands of the leader of the Faith of the Seven. "Mother, forgive me, for my heart is full of fear, and I know not my path."
"Be at peace, child," Charity said gently, her hand reaching up to smooth a lock of hair away from Cecily's forehead. "For the goddesses watch over us all. Now. What is it you can tell me of the Miracle at the Tourney this day?"
"Lady Aqua herself performed it, and I witnessed it," Cecily said quietly. "But she was there, Mother."
"Of course, her sign made it obvious she favors Margaery Tyrell. She would not be the first female knight, though it has been-"
"Mother, you do not understand, Aqua sleeps now in the Tower of the Hand in a guest bed chamber. She took meat and mead at my lord's table with his daughters, Prince Kazuma, and Margaery Tyrell."
The High Septa blinked, seeming not to understand. "Child?"
"Aqua is here, Mother, in the flesh! I have spoken with her before, but always it was in a dream or my prayers, she never-"
The door banged open, and a man in disheveled Axis robes stumbled in. He had a narrow face, and neatly trimmed beard going grey. His hat was askew, showing he was going bald as well. "Alright, what's going on? I was having a good time! Lady Aqua *hic* gave us a sign!"
"Come in and sit down, Brother Zesta," Charity said, sounding faint as she took a heavy seat in one of the padded chairs in the office.
"Huh what's-" Zesta paused, realizing that Cecily was still there, kneeling on the floor. "Don't I know you?"
"A-Arch Septon," Cecily cried, bowing her head. "Um, I don't know if you remember me, but, I'm Septa Cecily Rivers. I, um, I was the one that was sent-"
"Goddesses be good, you're the favored of Aqua she sent to Winterfell," Zesta gasped, putting a hand to his chest. He sat down next to Charity, looking a bit pale. "Was it you who performed the Sign of The Joyful One at the Tourney?"
Cecily shook her head, biting her lip. "No. That...that was Aqua herself. I think...I think Margaery Tyrell is another of the Children of Destiny. Aqua indicated she knew her. And another: a girl, Chris Dayne. Aqua greeted her as a friend as well."
"I think...I think I'm not drunk enough for this yet," Zesta muttered, and pulled out a flask. He took a pull, then passed it to Charity, who took a drink as well, looking stunned.
"We've known the Children of Destiny were here for the past 20 years," Charity sighed, rubbing her temples. "You were the first sign, child. Revealed to us when you were barely more than a babe. This is her, I take it?"
"She is the one," Zesta agreed. "I was not yet Arch Septon of the Axis Cult then, but I was informed of her upon my ascension. Aqua herself appeared in a dream and told me she was the Child of Joy, here to prepare the way for the rest of the Children."
"Rise, child. Have a seat. Have a drink," Charity ordered, handing over the flask. "The others will be found as they can, but many are out enjoying themselves. We are fortunate that Zesta here seems to have been enjoying himself in his bed chambers."
Zesta blushed and coughed. "Well, I mean, when your lady appears in the sky, that's a good reason to party."
"You're Axis. You think everything is a good reason to party," Charity said, but she did so with a gentle smile. Then she turned more serious, looking back to Cecily. "But you are certain? The goddess herself has appeared?"
"I recognized her! So did Lord Stark, and the Queen! She was not…" Cecily struggled for words. "She was in disguise, but it was not a good one."
"Our Lady isn't a subtle one," Zesta agreed. He took back his flask and drank again, making a face. "But if she's here, walking among us… that isn't a good sign."
"We must find the rest of the Children of Destiny," Charity agreed. "Dark times approach. The goddesses do not send champions in days of peace. Even during Robert's Rebellion, the goddesses stayed out of the affairs of men aside from sending more healers, and Satella appeared to grant mercy to far too many souls."
"We can't have another Kinslayer situation," Cecily agreed, sitting in a chair and rubbing her shoulders in worry. "He was the last Child of Destiny to appear."
"That is why you were sent to guard the Children of Winterfell," Zesta agreed. "But now we learn there are others. How many?"
"Chris Dayne, Margaery Tyrell, and Prince Kazuma Baratheon," Cecily said, trying not to wince as she lied. But that was a secret she had promised herself she would take to her grave. "And, um, maybe some others. I'll have to check.
"Seven. Seven children of Destiny, at least," Charity muttered, looking increasingly worried. "And the Stormborn is out of reach. For her to come at such a time… I had feared we would simply see a Targaryen on the throne again, even if one that was not as mad as her father. But now…"
"Now we do not know what to do," Zesta sighed, taking off his hat and scratching at his thinning grey hair.
"Um, I, er, could ask Aqua?" Cecily offered. "When she wakes up. She'll have a bit of a hangover, but I can probably get some answers out of her. We're 'best buds' or something."
That got Charity and Zesta to exchange started looks. "You think… you think she would answer you?"
"I mean, probably. We talk all the time, I just thought we already knew the Children of Destiny and didn't ask her about it that much," Cecily admitted.
"What do you talk about?" Charity asked curiously.
"Um, well, I mean…" Blushing, Cecily swallowed and made herself answer. "...what girls I think are cute, gossip about what people say during confession, what Megumin got up to lately, what Komekko tried to eat, who Yunyun decided to make friends with, and, um, well, when Aqua and Rista get in trouble for something-"
"Who's Rista?" Charity asked suspiciously.
"Er, I mean, Lady Ristarte. And what Hestia's kids are doing, and what Aqua had for dinner, and if she likes my new dress, and-"
"You really are her best bud," Zesta gasped, looking pale. "How… how often does the goddess talk to you?! I'm lucky if I get a direct answer once a month!"
That made Cecily feel pretty bad. She'd never liked talking about this, but now it seemed important. "P-pretty often. A few times a day at least. This morning I was a bit worried because when I woke up my only message was a 'I'll see you soon' with a winky face emoji."
"Winky face emoji?" Charity asked, her voice faint.
"Um, yeah. It's er, it's in DivineMessenger. I, um, here. I'll draw one." Cecily quickly sketched out a crude face smiling and winking, along with a few other emojis. "They just sorta...pop into my head. I can ignore them if I want. Sometimes we do video chat too, usually when I'm sleeping. Every once in a while some of the other goddesses join in, usually Eris or Rista, they're Aqua's closest friends in the Pantheon, but I talk to the others too sometimes. Satella's kinda a creeper because she's always going on about the latest souls she's collected and…"
Cecily trailed off as she realized that both the High Septa and the leader of her own cult were gaping at her.
"You talk to ALL the goddesses!? I… I don't even do that," Charity gasped, her hands clutching at her head. "How...how have you not gone mad?!"
"Who says I haven't? Sanity's boring. Just ask Aqua!" Cecily joked, a smile blooming on her lips as her prior fear was forgotten. "Even Madoka says most mortals are hard to talk to because we do all this groveling. She lets me borrow her blessing whenever it's dark though, see?" Cecily snapped her fingers, conjuring up a ball of light. "I could use it whenever I wanted in Winterfell because they don't really get that I'm an Axis Septa and we're only supposed to purify water, but I've tried not to use it here because people would probably get weirded out. Sorta… sorta like you two are right now. Am I in trouble?"
"No my child, I… you are not in trouble," Charity managed, giving a wan smile to Cecily and looking rather dazed. "I… I will discuss this with the other Cult Leaders when they arrive. Return to the Goddess, and attend her. Learn what you can of all the Children of Destiny, and why they are here. Ask… ask the others of the Seven as well."
"What about Holo and Nyarko-san?" Cecily blurted.
"Holo and...who?" Charity asked, blinking.
"Um, I mean the Old Goddesses and the Drowned Goddess. Um, they dip into our group chat sometimes too," Cecily admitted. "That's er, well, Aqua's says it's not blasphemous but I gotta be careful because Nyarko lies all the time. She's not really a goddess but she keeps bugging me about Theon."
"My child, I think we shall need to have some very long talks about the many, many theological revelations that seem to be bouncing around inside your head," the High Septa said faintly. "Go, now, before you give this old woman a heart attack."
"Oh, um, I can do healing too, you know," Cecily offered.
Zesta barked out a laugh. "Of course you can! No, go, little sister. We'll talk more later."
Cecily bowed, and hurried away. As she did so, there was a little ding in her head, and she got a message from Eris.
Look, tell Aqua, I can explain, and that I'm still a maiden. I'm dealing with something back in Belzerg and I'll talk to her when she gets back.
Cecily let out a whimper. She was just an Axis Septa. This was supposed to be fun. Not a terrifying existential crisis!
Coughing, Benjen awoke from his half dazed sleep as foul tasting water was forced down his throat. He spat and tried to resist, but after weeks of rough treatment and terror, he could manage only a little. He looked up at the faces of his men as their empty eyes looked down at him, forcing now a thin broth into his mouth.
They had been dead for a long time now, and were starting to rot. How long had it been since the ambush? Benjen couldn't tell, in the eternal daylight of the Lands of Always Winter during the summer. But it had been too long.
He and his rangers had been tracking the Witch when a sudden blizzard had blown up. They knew what that meant: White Walkers. The Others. They had come out of the snow, silent and terrible with their pale armor and icy blades, but the Rangers had fought their kind before. But this time, there were too many corpses with them. Wildlings and beasts freshly killed and raised, or bones dead so long they were impossible to identify. The Rangers had fought well, but they were cut off, surrounded, and worn down by sheer terrible numbers.
Benjen had watched his men die, watched them rise. He'd thought he was dead too. If only that had been the case.
He was being carried tied to a pole, hauled along between the corpses of two of his men. Occasionally, he caught a glimpse of one of the Others in their icy armor, but not often. They let their undead slaves do their work. Where they were taking Benjen, he did not know. Nor did he want to.
But he feared he knew.
That day, he was carried down from a tall mountain into a valley shrouded in a thick mist. The vapor seemed to be ice crystals floating in the air, and seemed to freeze Benjen to the bones. He shivered uncontrollably, both from fear, and from his weakening body. He started to drift off again, only to be awakened as the group once more began to ascend up a steep slope. However, when he looked, Benjen saw dark, shaped stone.
"No," he croaked. "No…"
But his weak struggles were in vain, and he was carried up the stairs of the dark citadel. At last, he was cut loose, and he flopped on the frozen stone, struggling to stand. Two others came, grabbing him with a touch that could freeze a man's soul. They spoke in their terrible language, but Benjen could not understand it; no mortal man could.
He was carried to an icy altar, strapped down by bonds of cold iron. He prayed fervently to all the goddesses he knew, old and new, and even to the witch, but he knew they could not hear him. Not here.
Turning his head, Benjen was able to see what he had feared: a great block of ice, dark blue and shrouded in the mists, set atop the fortress. Within it sat a figure in dark plate, a terrible blade that seemed to be made of pure ice gripped in a frozen hand.
"No… no… you are dead," Benjen whispered as the Others gathered around him. He looked up, tears freezing in his eyes as the tallest one, dressed in a dark robe with silver scroll work on the sleeves raised an icy dagger. "Please, no, I-"
The dagger plunged down into Benjen's heart, and he let out a final gasp of pain, before his eyes went dull and blank. Dark blood seeped from the wound, pooling down to collect in a silver bowl set beneath the altar. The priest of the Others waited a minute, then took up the steaming bowl of blood that was already cooling. He hurried to the throne, pouring the dark fluid out upon the ice that sealed away the figure.
As he did so, the ice steamed and hissed, and began to melt away. The Others stepped back, bowing low. Cracks appeared in the dark ice, and within the block, two blue lights appeared where the eyes of the seated figure would have been.
Then, with a scream of shattering ice, the front of the block dissolved in a boiling mass of steam. The Others stumbled back slightly, but then resumed their posture of supplication.
Slowly, the dark armored figure stood, ice falling away from him like shed scales. He took up his blade, and walked over to the altar, where Benjen's cooling corpse lay. He raised his blade, and the strange runes upon it began to glow. A voice, distorted and echoing, rumbled out, like the breaking of sea ice and the grinding of old bones.
Rise, son of Winter, son of Wolves. Arise, and serve your King.
"I serve!" Benjen rasped, and slowly sat up. He slid from the altar, kneeling before his new master.
Long have I lain dormant. But the Winds of Winter blow once more. Tell me. What of the Dragon Kings? What of the realms of Men?
"The dragons are dead, my king. Slain by their own brothers. The blood of the dragon is scattered, lost, with only a single boy and girl child across the sea still bearing it," Benjen replied. Somewhere, deep within him, the soul of Benjen Stark screamed in agony and torment. But his mind, his body, and what little remained of his will, was commanded by the will of the Night King, trapped within the cursed runeblade, and bound to the Frozen Throne.
Then our time has come. The Witch trapped me for 300 years, but now, her power wanes. She yet defies me, but she shall kneel, or be slain, then rise and serve again.
Benjen looked up, his eyes glowing with a terrible blue light. "Yes, my king. What are your orders?"
You shall be the general of my armies, Benjen Stark: My Hand. You shall rally the forces of Winter, and march upon the realms of men. This time, we shall tear down their Wall, and not even the Witch or the Dragons can stop me.
"As you command, so I obey," Benjen rasped, rising.
So spoke Arthas Menathil, the Kinslayer, Lord of the Others, and the Night's King.
And so would Benjen Stark, Hand of Death, would do.
The Lich King of the Others raised his accursed blade, pointing it south. Frostmourne Hungers.
Cast of Characters
OC, Donut Steel as; The High Septon
Cecily as; Aqua's bestie
Zesta as; More or less himself
Benjen Stark as; High Lord Darion Mograine
And introducing;
Arthas Menathil as the Night's King
And the Cast of a Song of Ice and Fire in:
WRATH OF THE LICH KING: KEFKA'S BOOGALOO EDITION