5 Months Before the death of Jon Arryn
Cenn
Another month gone, another month in which every day had contained a long walk headed south. Cenn still had not reached the Wall, but he had encountered no shortage of wights.
The encounters had shaken Cenn's entire view of the world. Cenn had always thought his family and the families like his had protected the people down here from the White Walkers. But down here, down south, there were more wights than Cenn would ever have imagined. He had dispatched all he had come across with practiced ease, but Cenn no longer knew what good he had been doing with his life.
He, his family, and the families like his had given up so much to shelter the world of men from the threat of the Walkers. They had stayed north in spite of every hardship, through the deaths of family and friends. Cenn had put down the wights that had once been his sons, his wife, his daughter. He knew now that they could have come south any time and done just as much good for the worlds of men. His family should be alive. They could have lived down here and been safe. But they hadn't.
"You couldn't have saved them" a voice from behind him said.
Cenn spun around, obsidian spear ready. The figure behind him did not even attempt to move. The black tip of the spear point passed within an inch of the creature's face. It did not blink.
What stood in front of him was a creature with a child-like physique, with green eyes and red hair. He had seen creatures like this one fighting the Others in the dreams he had while sleeping in a Weirwood.
"You are one of the Old Ones?" Cenn asked, though there was no doubt in his mind. He had never seen an Old One before, only in his dreams, but if the creatures from his dreams were real, why doubt that they could do what they did in his dreams. The only creatures who could do this were the Old Ones; Cenn was sure of it.
"You can put the spear down" the Old One said dryly. "I was not intending to be gored while talking to you."
"What were you intending?" Cenn asked. "And how did you know what I was thinking about?"
"I always know" the Old One said. "But now you must know what I am thinking."
The Old One moved with lightning speed and grabbed his head, and Cenn's mind exploded with images.
He saw a young boy, almost a man, draping a coat of black over a beautiful flower in a plant nursery well above the ground.
He saw an eagle flying high over the sea, with a dead kraken, dripping blood, dangling from its talon. The eagle was chasing a doe, sheltering three smaller animals in its bosom, the smallest flitting between several mammalian forms. The eagle had a face of a man, and in those eyes was a look Cenn would never forget, a look Cenn was sure had been on his own face several months ago, a look that may still decorate his face.
He saw a woman surrounded by ice, but on a farm in the North. A massive mountain of ice rose to her north, and the woman turned to it and smiled. But then she turned to the east, and began to cry as a young boy who looked like Cenn stared after another man, who refused to let go of two balls of fire.
Cenn saw a woman who was followed by a small lion.
He saw a man surrounded by molten fire with a chain of islands dangling from his neck.
He saw a bloody axe immersed in a pile of gold and draped by a curtain of silver.
Cenn saw a girl with bright red hair, a man surrounded by women who bore an eerie resemblance to the man, a host of crows flying north, a king without a crown, three dragons pouring fire down on an army of the undead, and a young direwolf tearing out the throat of the Nightking, while a doe, a trout, a falcon, a lion, and a sun were doing battle with the wights. Cenn felt a boiling fury because no flower banners were on the field of battle. Cenn saw three stags transform into lions, a lion transform into a direwolf, and two stags locking antlers, unable to untangle, falling from a cliff. He saw a dog dig its teeth into a mountain. And then Cenn saw himself, sailing away, into the unknown east, never to see Westeros again.
The vision ended as suddenly as it began. Cenn's mind reeled with new information, not only from the visions, but from the knowledge he had gained. Somehow, he now knew what a flower was, what a dragon was, what a crown was, what a dog was, what gold was, and quite a few other things.
"What was that?" Cenn asked the Old One.
"What you saw are the six who must be gathered to you if the Night King is going to be slowed."
"Slowed? What do you mean slowed? I want the Night King dead. I want him and all the Others destroyed. I want the dead to be put back to the rest in which they belong."
"You can kill the Night King, destroy the Others. But the power that animates them does not originate in Westeros. But you will do what you must, or else Westeros will be frozen over, and Cate and Alyse will have died in vain."
"They already died in vain. I am not going to do anything until you tell me how to destroy all of them."
"The boy in black, the woman surrounded by ice, the eagle, and the bloody axe will all be found north of the Wall. The woman with the lion and the man with the necklace will be found south of it. You will need them all, if Westeros is to survive."
"And the other visions?"
"What other visions?"
"I saw more than ten other visions, some more detailed than others."
"Then I know nothing about these. The Three-Eyed Raven only gave me the six. If there are more, they have come directly from the Old Gods, I know nothing of them."
"Then what am I supposed to do with them?"
"Use them, Dealmaker, use them to destroy the Night King and buy us all some time."