Hello, my dear readers.
I know, I know it has been more than a week since the last update and I am sorry. University work fucked up my plans and I needed to deal with everything. Unfortunately, I still need to do a few more things so Chapter 7. won't be out until 19-21.12.2019r.
I worked hard on planning out this chapter as I am going into unknown territory. Something that was not explained in books or the TV show. Stygai. I created my own history for this land. I hope that you will like it. I don't know if it will play an important role in the future, but I want to build a nice base just in case. You can give me your opinion in a review.
I am writing this AN before I finished the chapter, so I don't know if I won't need to cut it in two parts as I probably planned a bit too much. (Yes I did.)
Now let me answer some questions.
1. Pairing. I wanted to finish the poll in this chapter but I will give one more chance to those that didn't vote yet. For now, Dany is winning by 10 votes. Don't worry, even if she wins I will try to create some twists to her story. Of course, I need to keep a few important events from the cannon as they created her character, but nothing too much. For Arianne, I already have something ready, at least for the beginning. Don't worry I won't make Harry their lapdog... It is just not my style. The poll will be active for 2 more days after I upload this chapter. To Ravenm, don't worry I put Dany and Arianne into the poll because I can do them both and I just couldn't decide which to choose (I also thought of OC pairing or making Rheaenys survive, but I decided against it).
2. Valyrian people in Essos. I feel like I need to address this issue one more time. Yes, I fucked up a bit in the beginning with how I described Valyrians and now I know that in some Free Cities there are more people with their looks. So for the convenience of this story lets just assume that Myr doesn't have too many of those people. This shouldn't cause any problems to the story, but I felt like I needed to address this issue one more time.
3. Harry's white hair. I know Valyrians/Targaryens had silver or platinum blonde hair and I made Harry's different for a reason. He is not a pure-blooded Valyrian. I made this change to point out he is different from them due to mixing the blood for a few generations. I know some might say he has old man's hair so I will send you to Google to search for Nero from DMC 5 as this was the exact color I was going for (No, I am not fanboying this character, I never played the game). The color might change in the future, but I won't give any spoilers.
That should be all. Enjoy the chapter.
Disclaimer: I don't own HP or GoT.
Chapter 6. Into the Shadows
The first few hours of Harry's journey were highly uneventful. The city of Asshai was already a long way behind him and now Harry's only companions were the pale green glimmer of river Ash and the rocky mountains that surrounded him from both sides. No matter how far Harry went, the water's color remained the same. The wizard began to wonder how the river looked in the place from which it flowed. Maybe he would check it one day.
Harry hoped Stygai was really the city he saw in both his dreams and visions. If he was wrong then the wizard would waste a pretty big amount of time for this trip. And it was better not to mention all of the dangers people spoke of when he asked them about the way to Stygai. Harry would rather not fight any demons and dragons. He was out of their league.
As Harry walked, his mind began to wander. Specifically to the visions, he saw in the House of the Undying. During his stay in Asshai, he tried to find their meaning and after all this time Harry was still not sure if he got everything right.
He didn't need to think too much about the first two visions as they represented his past life and the biggest fear. Even after the war with Voldemort Harry wanted to forget about his life with relatives, so to get a visons of them after so many years was quite disturbing. Fortunately, he already dealt with those memories so he had no problems with pushing this vision into the deepest corners of his mind.
The vision of Harry's biggest fear was a bit more difficult to deal with. Hermione was not there to talk and while the wizard liked Maran, he didn't trust him with something so personal. Thankfully due to Harry's experience, he was able to deal with the fear and forget about it. It was much safer this way.
Now, the next vision of big city was something that intrigued Harry. He really wanted to know where it was, maybe he could visit it someday and see why he had a vision of it. Luckily for the wizard, Maran again showed his knowledge.
Flashback
Both Harry and Maran sat by the table in the former shop's backroom. They sat in silence while working on some runes. Finally, Harry decided to make some small talk to pass the time. At first, the two talked about some minor things, but the white-haired wizard slowly shifted the topic onto the city he saw in his third vision in the House of the Undying. Surprisingly Maran had the answer.
"It is no surprise that you don't know what city it is," he began, "From the description, I would bet it is King's Landing in Westeros. I might be wrong, but it fits quite right."
Harry raised an eyebrow at the man. The wizard studied some books from Westeros and even some maps, but there is not a chance he would be able to guess it right just from book knowledge.
"How do you know it?" the boy inquired.
The older man got a faraway look before he came back from his thoughts and explained, "When I was much younger, I liked to travel. Essos, Westeros, even the Summer Isles. I visited almost every corner of those lands during my life. Unfortunately, I hadn't had enough time to travel to Sothoryos and Ulthos... So it is no surprise that once I was in King's Landing."
Now Harry was interested, maybe he could learn something about the city he didn't know of, "So how was it?"
"What, King's Landing?" at the nod from Harry he continued, "Well for one it smells of shit."
The wizard leveled Maran with a deadpan stare, "And for real?"
The older man laughed at Harry's reaction, making the younger boy quite irritated. Finally, after a moment, he stopped, "Oh I am not kidding, it really smells like shit."
"So are you telling me that the Westeros' Capital's most recognizable feature is its smell of shit?" Harry asked with a sweatdrop.
"Yes."
Harry sighed, "Alright, let's just forget I even asked. Now, what else can you tell me about the city? Apart from the smell," Harry finished the last part in exasperation.
So Maran told Harry what he knew. Unfortunately, it wasn't much as it had been some time since the older man was in King's Landing so his information might be a little out of date.
Flashback End
After this talk, Harry didn't know what to think of his vision. He guessed he should wait until he went to Westeros.
Luckily for the wizard, his fourth vision was a bit easier to unravel. After a quick look into books about Great Houses in Westeros, Harry recognized the three animals as the Houses of Lannister, Stark, and Baratheon. Then there were the dragons that intrigued the wizard. Again Harry had no clue why he would see anything regarding Westeros. After giving the vision a bit more time, Harry concluded that maybe war between those four Houses affected not only Westeros but also some of Essos.
Even then it didn't explain much as at this moment Harry was a long way from Westeros and it will be probably quite some time until he went there. So without any more ideas for this vision, Harry moved onto the next one.
In the fifth one, Harry didn't see anything. It was just the one voice of a man. Probably someone from his previous world as the wizard didn't have anyone so familiar in this one. One thing that bugged Harry was how familiar the voice sounded. He tried to remember where he heard it, but nothing came to his mind. Guess it would be something that remained unanswered forever.
The next vision was about the city to which Harry hopefully was going. He still wasn't sure, but Stygai was the only city that had a river like Ash running by it and was surrounded by rocky mountains.
Harry really wanted to discover if the city some time in the past had races other than humans living in it. Not even in his previous world existed a place, in which every magical race could live. So even if the city was a ruin, Harry wanted to see if he could find some traces of those species.
Then there was the last vision which Harry saw in the chamber of Undying Ones. It was probably the most intriguing one.
To see someone wielding Blaclfyre with such skill was something awe-inspiring for Harry. Of course, there were also the inferi-like creatures that the man in vision fought. After this vision, Harry began to think that maybe Death had another motive than just amusement in sending him to this universe.
The wizard would rather not mention the ice creature, but knowing his luck, he probably would meet it in battle someday.
Sighing Harry finished his train of thoughts. He was getting tired and it was time to rest.
After another ten minutes of walking, Harry found a place of behind a rock which would hid him quite well. The wizard then placed ward stones around his place of rest to create a big dome of protection. While they would not harm any attacker, it would wake Harry up, so he could deal with the intruder himself.
After the wards were up, Harry gathered some sticks for a campfire. Then with the use of a bit of magic, he had a small burning fire ready. He would extinguish it before going to sleep, but for now, he could enjoy the warmness.
When he woke up the next day, Harry took out some food and after a quick meal, he was ready to go. The wizard gathered the ward stones and continued his journey.
During his walk, Harry noticed that even though he knew it was daytime, the way before him was getting darker and darker. It seemed that the Vale of Shadows really ate every bit of light going inside of it.
It was a bit annoying to walk in the dark when it was rumored for shadow binders to live in this place. Unfortunately, there was nothing Harry could do about it. Guess he would need to travel like it was, with only the river as his companion.
With a shake of his head, Harry banished those thoughts from his mind and focused on the way before him.
A few weeks later
A few weeks passed since Harry began his journey to Stygai. It was mostly uneventful and the wizard was grateful for it. It looked like the rumors of demons and dragons were untrue and Harry released a breath of relief when after so much time nothing attacked him. Even then Harry still used his ward stones when he went to sleep. It was better to be safe than sorry.
The scenery in which Harry walked also changed a bit after the first week. No longer he traveled with Ash on his right. The river now flowed in lower parts of the Vale when Harry continued to go higher and higher. It was not easy as sometimes the road was destroyed and Harry needed to climb the rocks or use magic to make a passage.
During those moments he began to notice how the air and magic changed, the deeper Harry went into the Shadow Lands. The air became thinner and sometimes he had trouble breathing if he got too tired.
Now, Harry knew the air was meant to become thinner in mountains, but he wasn't even that high. Harry refused to believe for a moment that this change was natural, especially with the difference in magic.
The deeper into Shadow Lands Harry went, the more controlled the magic was. Its wild aspect somehow slowly disappeared and all magic Harry used was easier to cast. Of course, it would be too good without any drawbacks and Harry quickly found out what they were.
He got tired a lot faster with every bit of magic used. Af the beginning of the trip it was unnoticeable change but now, the wizard got tired almost three times faster than normal.
The changes to air and magic caused his travel speed to lower. No longer could Harry walk for six hours straight, now if he managed to travel for two then the wizard was happy. It might have been a bit annoying in the beginning, but Harry figured out that it was better than being attacked every few hours.
Luckily yesterday Harry noticed that his trek up would end soon. Day or two more and he should be able to see Stygai in the distance as he would finally get into the heart of the Vale.
Unfortunately, he was again getting tired. So with a heavy sigh, Harry spotted a withered tree by the road and decided to put his camp there. Again Harry created a dome with his wards and gathered some wood for a campfire.
After the wizard ate some food from his stash, he got as comfortable as he could on the ground. With a tired yawn, Harry slowly fell asleep. He deserved it after the whole day of walking with only a few stops to rest. He was really pushing it today even with the changes to the environment.
Surprisingly, when Harry opened his eyes again, he was no longer in the Vale of Shadows. It looked like those weird dreams visited him once again. He didn't have one since he began his journey to Stygai.
This time he appeared in some kind of meeting room. In the center of the room stood one big circular table with ten beautifully crafted chairs to sit in. Otherwise, the room was mostly dark so Harry couldn't see walls or doors which led to this room.
Still, the most interesting part of this vision was probably the two occupants of the room.
The first one was definitely a male. He was tall and from what Harry could see his body was slender but didn't look weak. He was dressed in clothes one would expect from a high born. Even then Harry was mostly interested in the man's features.
His eyebrows were slanted and he had pointed ears. He was probably an elf and Harry was always highly curious about the race.
The elf was now in shouting match with the other occupant of the room. Unfortunately, Harry couldn't hear a word so it wasn't too helpful. The interesting thing was that while the elf looked furious, the other being only sat calmly in one of the chairs and listened to the shouts without even moving an inch.
Harry would love to see who it was, but the being was shrouded in darkness and Harry couldn't see a thing.
The vision lasted for a bit longer before it changed to another scene.
This time he was in a dimly lighted room. Again Harry couldn't see much apart from the center of the room. There stood a big stone pedestal which was covered in runes in every place. They were much different than the ones Harry learned from Maran so again he couldn't recognize them.
But even then, the pedestal was not what intrigued Harry. No, the blood-red crystal levitating above the pedestal took the cake. It was big, probably bigger than Harry's head. From time to time it pulsed with power.
Even though it was a dream Harry could feel the magic in the crystal. It was powerful, not even the Veil of Death in his previous world gave out so much power. It was weird to feel such magic in a vision.
Harry would observe the crystal for a bit longer, but at this moment he felt a warning going out in his head. So without wasting any more time, Harry forced himself to wake up.
When Harry opened his eyes, this time in the real world, he instantly felt that something was wrong. The wizard quickly stood up and grabbed his new, black shortsword in his right hand. Then he tried to feel the magic and looked around.
It was darker than it should be and Harry quickly found the reason why.
Shadows covered his dome of wards from every side and Harry couldn't see anything through them. The wizard quickly summoned fire into his left hand as he recognized what was happening. With a quick wave of Harry's hand, the campfire was again burning brightly, so now the wizard had a constant source of light.
A shadow binder was attacking him. Harry could feel that whoever it was, the magic-user was stronger than the shadow binders in Asshai.
The white-haired boy cursed under his nose and prepared for the fight. He had some experience with shadow binders as he met a few in Asshai. Some of them were not as bad as the rumors said and they even agreed to a mock fight with him. Their shadows were quite powerful and Harry feared a bit if he could handle the new enemy with his current abilities.
Thankfully the wards stopped the shadows from advancing into his camp so at least Harry could have some ground to fight. It would be interesting to see how the shadow binder wanted to attack him.
He didn't need to wait long for the answer as after a minute, from the dome surrounding him, out walked a humanoid looking shadow. It was taller than Harry and had a sword of darkness in its hands.
The Shadow ran at Harry and the boy took a stance so he could intercept the attack a bit easier.
The black and shadow blades met each other in a silent battle and Harry was surprised when the attack was weaker than he expected. Don't get him wrong, the Shadow was still stronger, but it was nowhere the strength of Bronn or Harry's teacher in Asshai. Luckily for the wizard, whatever the new opponent was, it was slower than the boy.
Harry managed to find an opening in his enemy's stance, so he used his better speed and slipped through the Shadow's guard and ran his sword through its abdomen. To make sure of his opponent defeat, Harry sent a wave of flames at the Shadow.
Thankfully it was enough and the Shadow disappeared.
Unfortunately, Harry didn't get any time to celebrate his victory as in the next moment two more humanoid shadows walked out of the dome. The wizard again cursed his luck as this fight just got a lot harder.
Harry didn't have any experience in fighting two people at the same time so the Shadows quickly managed to put the wizard on defense.
Again Harry used his superior speed to dodge most attacks, but he was slowly getting overwhelmed by the sheer number of blades pointed at him. The wizard also tried to send flames at his opponents, but without first disarming them, the Shadows always dodged his attacks.
Harry would use some other branches of magic, but with the higher cost of use in the Vale, he didn't want to tire too fast. He would rather save his strength for the final enemy. Harry just hoped that the shadow binder couldn't hold the shadows forever.
During the next few minutes Harry dodged and blocked the blades of Shadows, but even then he couldn't avoid everything and a few times his opponents managed to cut him. Thankfully his enchanted leather armor protected him from getting any serious injuries and Harry managed to escape with some light cuts.
Finally one of the Shadows fell for Harry's feint and the boy managed to sneak his left hand through its guard and sent a big wave of flames at it. Now Harry was again in a one versus one fight so it should go a bit faster.
The two exchanged a few blows but it was visible that the Shadows couldn't fight as well as a human who trained with a sword for a few years. So Harry capitalized at the Shadow's weaker sword skill and after a minute he was driving his blade through his enemy's chest.
In the same moment when the Shadow disappeared, Harry felt a shift in magic in the shadows around him. Thanks to this feeling, the wizard managed to roll just in time from another sword which wanted to take his head off.
When Harry stood up and looked at his new opponent, he saw that this Shadow was a bit bigger and bulkier. The sword it wielded was also longer, but still covered in shadows.
This time it was Harry who ran at his new enemy. He tried to end it fast and try the same feint which worked on the previous shadow. Unfortunately, the Shadow was not fooled and he swatted Harry away with his free hand.
The wizard groaned loudly when he stood up and felt the effects of Shadow's blow. It was stronger than the previous Shadows and now Harry's whole right arm was stiff.
Harry didn't get any time to relax as the Shadow was already on him and the wizard was forced to dodge once again. He couldn't use his sword to black as his arm wouldn't be able to handle the strength of the blow.
So for the next ten minutes, Harry danced around the Shadow in hopes that whoever was controlling it would get tired faster than him. Unfortunately, even Harry's superior speed didn't save him from getting another few cuts.
Slowly, but surely Harry noticed that the Shadow's moves began to slow down. Now, the wizard would shout in joy if it wasn't for the fact that he was also tired. Thankfully, he still got some strength in him and Harry used this strength and both hands to block the oncoming blade.
It was painful, but the block had the desired effect of surprising the Shadow. Harry quickly pulled his left hand from his shortsword and directed it in the direction of the Shadow's heart.
When the attack connected Harry looked up where the Shadow's face should be and was surprised when the shadows slowly began to disappear, leaving a man dressed in a black cloak and a traditional mask which people from Asshai wore.
Sure, Harry knew that this attack should defeat this Shadow as when Harry looked down, his fist was covered in ice and a blade created of the same material ran through the man's heart. It was something that Harry thought of on a fly and was glad it worked.
After Harry got out of his shock, he dismissed the blade of ice and let the now identified shadow binder fall on the ground. Harry himself sat down to recover from the fight.
The dome of shadows disappeared with the death of its creator and now Harry was sure the fight was over. The wizard knew he couldn't just sit there, so he went to his bag and took out some medical supplies to take care of his cuts.
After ten minutes he was done. Next, Harry went back to the shadow binder to search through the man and see if he had anything useful.
Harry found a few coins and a black stone which radiated darkness. Knowing he couldn't leave this stone, the wizard took out Blackfyre and lit it with flames. He then placed the stone on the ground and directed his sword at it.
With a quick swing, the stone shattered and from it, a large number of shadows escaped. They took forms of humans and animals, for Harry it was a mesmerizing sight as the figures run far away and slowly disappeared.
Even then Harry wasn't sure what the stone was and he was probably better off not knowing.
The wizard decided to rest for half an hour before continuing his journey. During this time he gathered all his things and got something to eat and drink.
Finally, after his short rest, Harry resumed his walk and after 2 hours of walking, he finally got to the highest point of the road. When he looked in the distance, Harry could see the river Ash going behind some walls made of black stone. Looking a bit farther, the wizard saw the ruins of a city and a bit higher in the mountains he noticed the same castle he dreamed of.
With a hint of a smile on his face, Harry began his trek down the mountain.
It took him four days to get to Stygai's gates, but he finally did it.
The walls and gates were big, about sixty feet in height and were made out of some black stone Harry couldn't recognize. The gate didn't have any doors as they were probably destroyed a long time ago. Surprisingly the walls were mostly in good condition.
Harry didn't waste any more time and walked into the city. Instantly he felt a change in magic. The wizard quickly tried to summon a small fire in his hands and after a few seconds, he finally managed to do it.
Doing magic in the city was almost impossible. It was like something stopped its flow. Harry wanted to know why, so he extended his senses and tried to fell magic around him.
He was surprised by the outcome. The magic in Stygai felt rotted... almost hollow. It was there but at the same time, it felt like it wasn't. Magic should never give out such a feeling.
Sighing in frustration Harry began to walk through the city.
Most of the buildings were destroyed and ruined, but there was one thing that got Harry curious. Every house he saw was of black color and Harry could remember clearly that in his visions, the buildings in Stygai had different colors.
So with a thoughtful look on his face, Harry walked toward one of the walls of a house and ran a hand on its surface. It felt a bit weird and the wizard got even more curious.
He even tried to push some magic into it, but it was instantly absorbed. Frowning Harry took out Blackfyre and swung the blade towards the wall. He managed to cut away some of the black material and surprisingly in the place of a cut, Harry saw some kind of redwood.
Intrigued, Harry crouched down and took the piece of cut of material in his hands. Not even a moment later it turned into ash.
Harry looked around in shock and saw that something changed. It was like he got pulled in some kind of vision, but was stopped before he could fully get into it. The world around him looked the same as earlier, but now, Harry could also see transparent people walking around the city.
At first, Harry thought those people were ghosts, but he quickly noticed that it wasn't the case. He saw humans, dwarfs, goblins and what he assumed were elves walking around.
In the same moment, a girl of maximum five years old ran by him shouting, "Mom come on, dad is waiting!"
Next said mother walked by Harry and said, "Calm down dear, your father won't escape."
After the duo walked away, Harry stood there perplexed. He could understand them which was something new. Still, Harry had no clue why he was seeing this.
Frustrated, Harry shook his head and looked around in hopes of finding a clue. He didn't need to search too long as after a moment he saw a man with a hood on looking directly at Harry. The person gave him a nod and then the vision slowly disappeared.
Harry was slightly put off by the person's action as this was the first time a vision interacted with him. Still a bit annoyed, Harry walked towards the place that the figure stood in a looked around.
Like earlier, the vision shimmered into life and Harry again saw the same person a bit away from him. After another nod, the vision disappeared and Harry again moved.
This situation happened a few more times, with Harry always following the figure. He walked for about an hour before Harry came upon a road that led up. When Harry followed the path with his eyes he could see that it went towards the castle.
With a sigh, Harry accepted that something wanted him to go there. Normally, he wouldn't charge ahead like that, but Harry didn't want to sleep in this city. The magic was too hollow here for him to get a good night of sleep.
Harry steeled himself and began his trek to the castle.
That would be it for today.
I know that probably some of you wanted to see what will happen next, but I didn't want to release a 10k word chapter.
I finished in a place that maybe is a bit of cliffhanger and I am sorry. I didn't plan for the chapter to be so long.
About shadow binder's abilities. I couldn't find shit on what they could do apart from what Melisandre did. So I crested their own abilities. Hopefully it wasn't too much. I tried to make it believable.
Hope you enjoyed the chapter. You can always leave a review and tell me what you liked.
Chaos out.