Chapter 23: Encroaching Darkness

19th day of the 12th moon, 292 AC. Dol Guldur.

"And you will ask Harry to remove the ears and tail if I do this?" Adrastia asked, doing her best not to sound too desperate.

She'd been sporting the extra appendages for six months now and had long since lost count of the amount of headscratches, cat jokes, tailstrokes and other assorted indignities she'd had to suffer through.

"Yes, although I don't know why you want them gone so badly. I think they're really cute." Luna nodded with a small pout.

"Then why don't you get them attached?"

"I'm more of a bunny girl."

"Of course." Adrastia rolled her eyes. "May I hear it again?"

"Can you imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie."

Adrastia grimaced at the horrible tongue twister, running it through her mind word by word and altering it as appropriate. Then she took a deep breath, closed her eyes, curled her hands like paws, plastered a huge fake smile on her face and started talking in the cutesiest possible voice while bouncing in place.

"Can mew imyagine an imyaginyary mewyagerie mewyager imyagining mewnyaging an imyaginyary mewyagerie."

She held the final pose for a moment, waiting to hear whether Luna thought it was good enough.

The door being slammed open startled her rather badly.

"Luna!" Harry said sharply.

"Harry?"

"Get suited up, there's trouble over at Thenn."

"Okay!"

They left without another word or glance at her.

Adrastia dropped the cute catgirl pose. Her big black cat ears (although not functional as sensory organs) twitched irritably and her tail whipped back and forth.

"Damn it."

XXXXX

A short while later, Thenn.

Harry and Luna traveled at speed, and arrived barely an hour after Sindri had contacted them via the Greensight. He and Sigmar were already waiting for them in the war room.

"You said you saw wights moving?" Harry asked, almost cutting off the greetings.

"Aye." Sindri confirmed, leaning on Gungnir. "They attacked a patrol during the night and I spotted them moving in through a raven the early hours of the morning, but they seemed to vanish into thin air during the day. No sign of Others yet."

"They probably burrow under the snow to hide from the sun, and the Others could still be some distance away." Harry said, frowning deeply.

He rather doubted that the Others deciding to move now of all times, not quite a year after his return, was a coincidence.

"Days have been getting colder, and fast." Sigmar added, rubbing worriedly at his grey beard.

"Unnaturally fast." Luna agreed, more subdued than was the norm for her. "There was barely any autumn at all. It went from the height of summer to winter in a matter of months."

Which would have been more than normal back on Earth, but was decidedly strange in this world and its ludicrously long seasons.

"Show me where you saw them and in what direction they were moving." Harry ordered, pushing the map towards Sindri.

"Here." The man planted his finger directly north of Thenn. "And they were heading right at us."

Figures. Why would the undead do anything except for the most direct route? "What your men ran into was probably the first few shambling corpses of their horde. The main force must still be further north. This is good, they've exposed themselves instead of maintaining the element of surprise."

"I don't think they care about surprise." Sindri noted drily.

"All the better for us." Harry nodded. "Luna and I will go meet them here" He said, tapping the very edge of the Haunted Forest.

"By yourselves?" Sigmar asked in consternation. "Father, that is too dangerous. We can't risk losing you now."

"Don't worry, if all goes well then this threat will be over before it even begins." Harry waved him off.

It was a damn stupid wizard that made his home on the doorstep of legendary monsters without preparing counter-measures, after all.

XXXXX

20th day of the 12th moon. 292 AC. North of Thenn, border of the Land of Always Winter.

The days were always notoriously short this far north, but lately it seemed like there was any daylight at all. Contrary to what common sense would tell a man that knew anything about planetary axial tilt, however, there was no corresponding permanent day for the other half of the year.

For all intents and purposes, the Land of Always Winter was also the Land of Eternal Night. He may be a wizard, but Harry was also a man of science, and that reeked of magical fuckery.

"There's so many." Luna said softly, looking down on the endless snowfields and the equally endless hordes of wights shambling across them.

"The Others have had eight thousand years to collect their army. Fifty years of us getting in the way was never going to make much difference." Harry replied grimly.

He knew that the wights were the least of their worries. The psychological impact they'd have on the average man was immense, but they weren't terribly dangerous. Behind them, though, a dense blizzard slowly crawled forward and from it….

"Ah, there they are." He said, spotting the vanguard of the beings mounted atop their giant ice spiders trotting out of the wall of wind and snow. "Let's begin the testing."

Forming a small, but densely packed, fireball was harder than it should be. He had noticed it as soon as they approached the borders of the Land of Always Winter, a malicious will working against his magic. It was much like stepping into the temple of a hostile god.

More high level Territory Creation. Not good.

The fireball flew speedily towards the frontmost Other, Only to rapidly unravel as soon as it entered the area of the clearly magical blizzard.

"Figures." Harry tsked in irritation, not really surprised. "Min-maxing bastards."

It wasn't hard to guess that the Others were hyper-specialized for all things cold related. A fire spell of that caliber was never going to make it through. And even if it did, the odds of it actually doing any damage were pretty remote. Fortunately, that had only been a test.

Because the problem with min-maxing was that you inevitably gimped yourself from the opposite end. Harry himself was a god at breaking bindings, but a complete scrub at making them. The Others were masters of the cold, but the slightest touch of fire would destroy them.

Bringing out his creepy bone staff made out of his own skeleton, he tried for something with a little more kick to it. The empty eye sockets of the skull staff head glove a fiendish orange, before sending out a lancing beam of condensed fire….

….to much the same result as before. The spell simply fizzled out before it could hit anything.

"Well, that's that, I guess." Harry conceded defeat. Spells wouldn't work.

"Look out!" Luna suddenly cried, zooming in front of him on her Disc and raising it up like a shield. There was a tremendous impact of ice against metal and a sound like shattering glass.

"Thanks, dear."

"You're welcome!"

"Still, that was rude." Harry frowned, looking at the Other that had just chucked an ice spear at them. The distance was impressive, implying enormous physical power. To say nothing of the accuracy. "Let's see if we can return the favor."

He unclipped a baggy from his belt and poured a fine dust into the air in front of him, catching it with a minor wind spell. The stuff glimmered in shades of black, green, blue and purple. Crushed obsidian, also known as dragonglass.

Fire in physical form, created in the bowels of the earth. Heavy with conceptual weight and something that no amount of magic would be able to dispel.

The bag was much bigger than it looked and contained a metric ton of obsidian dust. A single speck should be enough to destroy an Other if it burrowed into their icy skin, and obsidian was sharp. If sent at a human, it would strip flesh from bone with ease.

Harry sent it streaming towards the blizzard, quickly losing control of his magical winds, but the obsidian dust got sucked into the blizzard anyway. It didn't take long after that for the Others to suddenly stop and crumble into nothing.

"Ha! That's what you get for leaving such an obvious Achilles Heel for me to exploit." He crowed triumphantly.

"Umm, Harry…." Luna interrupted his gloating, pointing over at the snow field.

The blizzard had stopped with an abruptness that simply wasn't natural, leaving the air incredibly still. Somehow that made it even colder than before, less like wind leeching cold away from skin and more like hoarfrost crawling into the body. More importantly, it caused the obsidian dust to gently fall to the ground, leaving the snow sprinkled with shimmering multicolored powder.

Snow started falling with the same unnatural abruptness as the wind had stopped, quickly forming a new layer of white over his secret weapon.

The wights had also briefly paused, but now they continued their tireless march forward. The obsidian dust hadn't destroyed them, unfortunately, which meant that it probably had to reach either the heart or the brain to do so.

Further behind, at the very edges of their vision, Harry and Luna saw more Others coming. Many more.

"Oh dear, there must be hundreds of them." Luna observed calmly.

"This….could be bad." Harry conceded. Their Territory Creation was already making things more problematic than he'd have liked and their ability to control the weather would mean that simply throwing obsidian dust at them wouldn't be the weapon of mass destruction he'd envisioned, but if there were this many on merely one front….."I think that we may have to consider a strategic retreat and repositioning."

"Back to Isengard?"

"No, they'll be coming over the Frostfangs, too. We can be surrounded almost anywhere on this side of the Wall and the terrain favors them. I'm going to have to do the traditional King-Beyond-the-Wall thing and get us south."

"Brandon won't like it."

"Brandon will just have to suck it up."

"Harry, be nice, he's Gerd's brother-in-law, which basically makes him your grandson." Luna scolded.

"I don't think that's how relationships work, but fine, I'll bring him a present while I tell him that we're taking over the northern chunk of his kingdom."

"Good."

XXXXX

22nd day of the 12th moon, 292 AC. Dol Guldur.

Judging by the frantic activity of the tower, you would think that the enemy was at the gates, rather than shambling along hundreds of miles to the north.

"Pick up the pace!" Harry roared orders at both family and servants. "I want us moving before the new year!"

"But we won't have time to move the books." Skadi protested.

It still struck Tyrion as both funny and disturbing that the grey-haired demi-giant librarian was Harry's daughter when she looked so old.

"Leave the books." The wizard ordered, continuing on over her protests. "I'm locking the tower down tighter than Adrastia locks down her cold, dead heart."

Harsh.

Skadi briefly looked like she wanted to protest further, but eventually just slumped in defeat and nodded, slinking away sulkily. No doubt she would try to bring a few books anyway.

"Tyrion, just the man I wanted to speak to." Harry said, noticing him.

"What did you need?" He asked, instinctively straightening up in readiness.

"You're a good organizer, so you'll march down to the Wall with Havel."

"Are you certain you wish to abandon Dol Guldur?" Tyrion asked cautiously. No lord he'd ever heard of ever willingly abandoned his castle, clinging to it with his dying breath.

"It'll still be here once the Others are dealt with, now take this." The wizard waved off, pressing a compass into his hand. "That compass will lead you to the Black Gate at the Nightfort."

"Does the Black Gate not open only for the Night's Watch?"

"The gate will be open when you get there. Don't mind the animals streaming through it either."

Animals? Did he intend to empty the True North of all life? It made sense, Tyrion supposed, animals can be raised as wights just as well as people and he certainly wouldn't want to fight any undead snow bears.

"After you get there, take command of the Nightfort. Rebuild it, start stocking resources and do the same for the adjacent castles if you can."

"Me?" Tyrion asked in shock. "Would it not be better to give command to someone with more experience?"

He didn't even bother to ask how Harry was intending to get anyone to agree to that. A wizard had his ways.

"Sieges aren't complicated affairs. Your biggest enemies will be logistics and resource management, which you excel at. You'll do fine."

He could feel his chest puffing out almost against his will. How could he do anything except his best when shown such trust? "I will not disappoint you."

"I know."

"I'm going too!" Visenya suddenly inserted herself into the conversation.

"Like hell you are!" Harry snapped immediately.

"But I can help."

"How? You have no martial training, I couldn't put you in a leadership position even if you were suited for it – which you aren't – and you're too young anyway. The only thing you'd be doing on the front lines is getting in the way, sucking up resources and being a distraction. You can help by going to Dorne with the rest of the family and looking after them."

Visenya pouted and looked at the ground, scuffing at the ground with her toe. "You don't have to be so mean about it, Dad."

Tyrion felt his heart clench at seeing those bright purple eyes peering up from under a curtain of black hair. Visenya was growing into a truly beautiful young woman and he had to admit(to himself) that the recent letters from various southern Noble Houses offering their sons in marriage to her were making him….jealous.

What a thing to realize, that you wanted a girl you've known since she was a young child for yourself. Somehow, asking Harry for her hand seemed far more daunting than fighting the Others.

"I will write you, if you wish." Tyrion offered.

Visenya brightened up immediately. "I'd like that!"

"Flirt later, pack now." Harry snapped, storming off to order someone else around.

Tyrion and Visenya looked at each other awkwardly, before the girl suddenly rushed forward to give him a kiss on the cheek. "For luck!" She squeaked and ran off, face glowing pink in embarrassment.

He touched his cheek and slowly smiled. In spite of all the impending doom, the world suddenly seemed a lot brighter.

XXXXX

24th day of the 12th moon. 292 AC. Winterfell.

A little drama and theater could be excellent tools for impressing the gravity of a situation upon people. That was why Harry had taken the time to cast a minor anxiety curse on Brandon Stark before he woke up, giving him a persistent bad feeling about the day ahead.

The midday meal was coming to a close when he made his entrance. The hoarse croaking of ravens announced him as they streamed into the great hall, followed by a cloud of darkness.

Brandon started shouting orders to the guards, but Harry stepped out of the darkness before they could actually do anything.

"Brandon Stark." He called loudly, grinning slightly at the panicked looks he was getting. "A moment of your time."

Brandon slowly put down his dagger and took a deep breath to calm down. He was smart enough to deduce that this had to be important. "We can speak in my solar, Sorcerer."

"Brandon!" His wife hissed in alarm, clutching at their squirming youngest children like a particularly determined barnacle.

"It is alright, Catelyn." Brandon reassured. "He is not here to do us harm."

His words were actually meant to keep her quiet more than reassure her. Catelyn was unfortunately prone to southron snobbery and it wouldn't do to insult his unexpected – and more importantly powerful – guest with any outbursts from her about properly addressing the Lord Paramount of the North.

She was a beautiful woman, his lady wife, but had all the sense of a fish on dry land sometimes.

XXXXX

"The Others are on the move and I've ordered all of Angmar to retreat south, behind the Wall." Harry didn't bother to cushion the blow.

"The Others?" Brandon echoed in shock, eyes going wide. He may have been more skeptical had someone else delivered such news – and indeed he was still not eager to believe it – but he could think of no reason for the Sorcerer to lie.

And it explained why he'd been having an ominous feeling all day.

"Yep." Harry nodded. "I've been keeping an eye on them ever since I arrived in Westeros. It's possible that my return to the land of the living may have woken them up."

"You woke them up?!" Now Brandon was angry.

"I woke them up early." Harry corrected. "Probably, at least. I'm not sure if it was really my fault or not. At any rate, they would have likely woken up on their own in a few years. Decades at the most."

Taking a deep breath to calm his wolfsblood, the Stark decided to focus on something else for now. "You said something about Angmar retreating south, below the Wall. You cannot do that! It would be an act of war, an invasion!"

"Don't be so dramatic, there's already plenty of Angmari living south of the Wall." Harry rolled his eyes.

"What?" Brandon squawked. "Where?!"

"In the Wolfswood. It's mostly Children of the Forest and the halfbreeds that some of my daughters had with them, but they are there."

"You settled them on our lands without even the courtesy of informing House Stark?" Brandon demanded, getting a bit angry.

"Oh? Should I have? I was under the impression that the First Men had a Pact with the Children of the Forest. You would have the coasts, high plains, bright meadows, mountains and bogs, while they would have the deep forests. Are those terms not more than generous?"

The dangerous question quickly doused Brandon's anger. The Pact may be ancient, but he knew better than to disregard it like some greedy Andal. "My apologies, I was merely surprised."

"It's fine." Harry waved off. "But getting back to the subject of the Others… we can't fight them up there, I've already tried. Do you really want them to have hundreds of thousands of new wights at their disposal?"

"…No." Brandon grudgingly admitted. He hadn't yet considered what it would mean if Angmar fell to the Others. "But my lords will not easily accept this."

"My people will stay in the Gift and the New Gift and return home once the crisis has passed. The Others don't care about destroying buildings, so the worst we'll have to do is dig them out of the snow. Besides, there's nineteen castles to restore and three hundred miles of Wall to defend. The North alone doesn't have the manpower and Angmar has the finest stonemasons in the world."

He should know, he was the one who taught them.

"Will Angmar also help pay for the restoration?" Brandon asked. He did not want to seem greedy, but the North could not afford such an expenditure, even with how the glass trade had improved their economy.

"Of course. I'm willing to pay for the whole thing, actually. You and the rest of the Seven Kingdoms should focus on stockpiling food, clothing, wood, coal, iron, steel, medical supplies and so on."

That would certainly go a long way towards calming down his vassals, as well as proving that this was not some kind of trick. The size of the commitment did bring another worry to mind, however.

"Can your magic truly not vanquish them?" Brandon had heard some rather fantastical things about the Sorcerer's power and was now how much of it was exaggerated.

"No." This time it was Harry with the grudging tone. "I thought it would be able to, rather easily at that. Their extreme alignment to cold and darkness makes the Others appear incredibly powerful, but that is only until you find the right tools to fight them, in this case light and fire. Unfortunately, it seems they have a workaround."

"What kind of workaround?" Brandon asked, hiding his worry.

Harry regarded him for a moment, wondering if there was any point in attempting to explain. With an internal shrug, he decided that he might as well. "They are imposing their own logic on the world to nullify any magic used against them."

"…I do not understand." Brandon admitted.

"When a powerful magical being makes a place home, they begin to slowly warp it to suit them. Where dragons live, it becomes hot and dry. My spells come to me more easily in my tower than they do elsewhere. A magically powerful priestess would find that her sermons are more readily believed within the walls of her temple. And the Others….." Harry trailed off leadingly.

"Have had thousands of years to change the Land of Always Winter to suit them." Brandon finished, picking up on the implication.

"Exactly and now they are spreading their territory south. When facing them, it is no longer the logic of the world I need to subvert, but the combined will of the Others and that is quite beyond me. Fighting them will have to be done the mundane way. We have a year, maybe two, before they make it to the Wall."

"Even if I agree that it must be done, my lords will not be happy about having the Angmari on their doorstep."

"That's why I brought a gift to smooth things over." Harry said brightly, reaching into his hammerspace. "Behold, the pump-action crossbow!"

Brandon looked at the contraption curiously, wondering what 'pump-action' meant. "What does it do?"

"Observe." Harry instructed, taking aim at an empty wall.

With a press of the trigger, a crossbow bolt flew out. A quick pump reset the string and loaded another bolt. Within a matter of seconds all five bolts in the cartridge had been fired.

"See these wheels?" Harry said, indicating the large metal objects attached to the very ends of the bow shaft. "They're essentially a pulley system to reduce the amount of strength needed to draw the string. The cartridge can be loaded with five bolts and the pump also loads the next one. Once the cartridge is empty, you can simply slam another one in there and resume firing. This baby fires faster than a bow, takes less effort to use and aim and still strikes with the force of a crossbow."

Brandon was impressed, already imagining how devastating such a weapon would be if used in large numbers, but he had learned a little bit of prudence since becoming the Lord of Winterfell. "It also appears to be much harder to make than a bow or regular crossbow."

"That is the nature of technological progression; increasing the complexity of manufacture in exchange for ease of use and efficiency. Don't worry, I'll teach your craftsmen how to make it."

Harry had no particular problem negotiating this time. Unlike his previous interactions with the nobility of the Seven Kingdoms, he actually needed something from them this time. Asserting his will by force would take too much time and effort.

"Very well." Brandon eventually nodded, deciding that trying to squeeze more advantages out of the wizard while the world was under threat by monsters of legend would be foolish. "I will summon my principal lords to Winterfell and inform them of our…alliance."

"Not Benjen." Harry interjected. "He's got his hands full getting the Stony Shore in order and the Ironborn can't be trusted. In fact, it's probably best not to bother anyone that lives on the western shore."

Perfectly valid reasons, although most of his concern was for Gerd.

"That will considerably reduce the amount of men we can send to the Wall." Brandon pointed out, accepting the untrustworthiness of the Ironborn as a simple fact of life.

"Don't worry about that, I'm not going to let the south sit this one out."

XXXXX

26th day of the 12th moon, 292 AC. Highgarden.

Olenna had a bad feeling about this. Adrastia had requested a meeting with the leadership of House Tyrell, claiming that it was important. The Summer Islander usually only came around every so often to act as a tutor for Margaery's bridal training, so this was quite odd.

Mace had huffed and puffed about having to accommodate a foreign woman, but Willas had fortunately managed to calm him down before Olenna herself had needed to start smacking him with her cane. She really should have beaten that boy more often when he was a child.

Adrastia swept in then, dressed in her usual body-hugging robes that managed to be indecent while still covering everything up.

Olenna's lips twitched in amusement at the cat ears and tail she was still sporting. That feature had certainly elicited some interesting reactions from anyone who saw her. Harry's sense of humor truly was quite cruel and unusual.

"Thank you for agreeing to meet with me on such short notice." Adrastia spoke, giving a regal nod of her head before sitting down with them.

"You made it sound important." Olenna replied before her oafish son could. "Did something happen?"

"You could say that." The dark woman smiled thinly. "The Others have awoken and march south as we speak."

A moment of silence, then Mace surged out of his seat. Red-faced, he began spluttering denials and worked himself up into a rage at being 'lied to'.

"Father…." Willas attempted to calm him down.

"No, Willas!" Mace blustered. "I know you have some sort of friendship with the Sorcerer, but this will not stand! I will not be mocked!"

Her stupid boy always did have a problem discerning truth from lies. He was too eager to believe what he wanted and disregard what he disliked. He still did not believe Willas' account of what he had seen in Asshai, despite the boy being his son and having no reason to spout such outlandish lies.

Olenna heaved herself out of her seat with a grunt of effort, walked over to her son and whacked him across his fat belly with her cane. "Sit down, you oaf!"

"But, Mother…!" He protested, sounding almost wounded.

"No buts! Sit!"

He obeyed, fortunately.

"Now, you said that the Others are moving?" Olenna prompted to Adrastia.

"Yes, they have been spotted north of Thenn a few days ago. Harry attempted to face them, but found his magic stymied. All of Angmar will soon begin moving to take shelter behind the Wall."

Well, wasn't that interesting?

"What of the Starks and the Night's Watch? Surely they will not be pleased with this?" Willas asked.

"Harry has already spoken to Brandon Stark and settled things with him." Adrastia waved off.

"What do you want of us, then?" Olenna got to the point.

"Food and men." The other woman stated bluntly. "Send half your strength to the Wall, except along the coastlands to guard against the perfidious Ironborn. Harry also means to have Willas take command of one of the castles along the Wall."

Predictably, that got Mace jumping out of his seat again.

"Absolutely not!" He raged. "Who do you think you are, to give me orders?! Who does the Sorcerer think he is?! This insult will not go unanswered!"

Olenna sighed. Why did her son have to be so stupid? Harry had already proved his ability to slip into their castle whenever he pleased. They had a mirror portal set up for Adrastia's use in an empty room, which could just as easily be used to murder them in their sleep. Why did Mace not see the long, dark shadow Dol Guldur cast over the Seven Kingdoms?

When someone who could kill you on a whim tells you to do something, you do it with a smile. That was how House Tyrell went from being stewards to a House Paramount.

"Lord Tyrell." Adrastia's amused tone cut through the rant like a knife, cat ears twitching on top of her head. "Do you truly wish to make such a poor impression on your future king? Why, Aegon might even decide that he does not wish to be your goodson if you so obstinately refuse to cooperate with his father's wishes."

"Prince Aegon's father was Rhaegar Targaryen." Mace protested weakly after gaping like a fish for several seconds.

"Hmph, a father he never knew." Olenna snorted, quietly grateful that Adrastia had chosen this route instead of veiled threats. "Harry is plowing both the boy's mother and grandmother, has sired children on both and is raising him. What is long dead Rhaegar compared to that?"

"Grandmother…." Willas protested her crudeness, exasperated.

"Indeed." Adrastia nodded, smiling. "The two of them have become quite close recently. In fact, they should be finished speaking to Rickard Stark by now."

Ah. Of course the Reach wasn't being singled out for aid to the Wall. And there was little doubt that the Lord Regent, being a Northman himself, would command the rest of the Seven Kingdoms to comply with Harry's wishes.

Adrastia had probably come to them personally merely out of courtesy….and possibly to keep Mace from being a stubborn idiot.

XXXXX

Meanwhile, in King's Landing.

It hadn't taken long to bring Rickard on board. The man was deeply perturbed by the news that the Others were moving and a little skeptical, but Harry had settled that with the expedient method of jamming a memory into his head.

Instead of immediately moving on to Dorne though, Harry and Aegon went to the highest tower of the Red Keep and lingered for a while.

"It does not feel right." Aegon said pensively. "Should I truly be hiding in Dorne when my realm is under threat by monsters of legend?"

"You're too young to do anything except get in the way." Harry shrugged. "Sometimes, knowing when not to get involved is even more important than knowing when to do it. That's especially true for any kind of government, actually."

"How so?" The young prince asked, sensing a lesson. He was always eager to learn, knowing that the future of his House stood on shaky foundations thanks to the madness of his grandfather.

"Because government is a paradoxical existence that does more good the less work it has to do." The wizard said sagely. "One could say that the primary job of the government is to make the government as unnecessary as possible."

"But that makes no sense." Aegon protested.

"It does sound rather counter-intuitive, doesn't it?" Harry asked rhetorically.

"Aye." The boy nodded.

"You just have to consider what the government is supposed to be doing and take that to its logical conclusion. Then it will make sense. What does a king do, Aegon?"

"He rules." The answer came quickly.

"Why does he rule? Why does a king even exist? What reason did some ancient man have to put a crown on his head?"

This time it took Aegon some time to consider the question. "Lust for power?"

"Why would he need power?"

"Do some men not desire power simply for the sake of power?" Aegon asked pensively.

"Not really, however much it may look like it. Even your grandfather, insane as he was, desired power because he was afraid. His fears were stupid, but they were real." Harry shrugged again. "There are reasons for everything, if you dig deep enough. By and large, all of mankind's actions can be traced back to four very simple needs, needs which must be met in order for people to truly live and prosper." Harry held up the appropriate number of fingers.

"The first and most basic is sustenance, food and water. Without these, everything else becomes irrelevant. Deprive people of them and they will quickly forget everything except hunger and thirst." A finger went down.

"The second is shelter, a place to rest. Heat and cold and other dangers won't reduce a man to animal desperation in the same way as hunger or thirst would, but they will still preclude everything else." Another finger.

"The third is more nebulous; safety, a chance for a man to let his guard down. Lack of safety does strange things to people, their minds warp under the strain like wood left exposed to the elements for too long."

"That is why the first kings rose!" Aegon exclaimed in realization. "For safety."

"It goes back even further than kings or lords, back to the very first time that a man rallied others to support him, but you are correct. People follow the strong, so that their strength may shield them. It gets dressed it up in pretty words like 'honor' or 'glory', but the root of it is the pursuit of safety."

"But….what does this have to do with what you said earlier?" The boy frowned in confusion. "About how the job of the government is to make the government as unnecessary as possible?"

"You have to understand that government is a clumsy beast, lurching from one problem to another like a drunkard and then solving them with the same finesse as one." Harry replied wrily. "It works well enough when faced with outside threats, because that is a simple, straightforward situation, but not so much when dealing with internal issues. Worse yet, it is highly prone to corruption, which makes it even more messy. For this reason it is best that government keeps its fingers away from internal problems as much as possible and allows people to solve them themselves. As king, one of your titles will be 'The Shield of His People' not 'Nosy Meddler'. You may think of it like taking care of children. By all means, protect them from anyone that comes to do them harm, but when they make mistakes, let them learn from them instead of trying to control their every move."

Aegon nodded slowly, thoughtfully, before replying. "You mean this advice to be for the smallfolk, yes? What of my lords?"

"Ah yes, the lords." Harry grinned widely. "It is only natural to look upwards, so lords may often forget that they have a responsibility to those beneath them. Be sure to consistently reward the honest and straightforward ones to curb this behavior. Because you rely on the support of your lords to stay in power they will, of course, try to leverage that in order to extract favors from you. The trick is to play them against each other. I'm personally not very good at that, so you will have to learn it from Adrastia."

Because you are too powerful. Aegon thought awkwardly. He was honestly conflicted on the topic of his stepfather's power. On one hand, he envied it and how much simpler it made things, but on the other he was glad to not have it out of fear that he may walk down the same path as his grandfather.

"Wait, you said that all of mankind's actions can be traced back to four basic needs, but you mentioned only three." He said, recalling that bit as he went over their conversation again.

"So I did." Harry agreed. "The fourth is reproduction, the making and raising of children. It may not sound like it belongs in the same category as food and water, but rest assured that reproduction is among the most basic of human instincts. If a certain action isn't related to survival, then it can almost assuredly be traced back to a desire to propagate and secure a one's bloodline."

"But how would lack of it prevent people from living and prospering?" Aegon asked, remembering what Harry had said at the start of this conversation. "The Citadel and the Night's Watch, as well as the Kingsguard, all forbid relations with women and they prosper."

"All of those organizations are riddled with men breaking their vows of chastity." Harry retorted drily. "Take my word for it, if people aren't allowed to act on their reproductive instincts, they get a bit….weird. Men tend to either find a cause to fight for or something else to dedicate themselves to – this is why vows of chastity work for some men – and women find something other than children to focus their maternal instinct on – be it animals, children not her own or something a little more abstract. If this happens in large enough numbers in a society, then you start having some really big problems."

"How could that even happen?" Aegon asked, puzzled. He could think of no situation where large numbers of people were unable to marry and have children.

"Government meddling, for one."

"It happened to your people." The young Targaryen realized that Harry was speaking from experience.

"Mm." The wizard nodded with a hum. "Adrastia told you about how our era of monarchy ended and democracy was established?"

"Powerful weapons became cheap enough for the common people to overthrow their lords." Aegon nodded. It had been a lesson on the dangers of allowing the common people too much power.

"That's the gist of it. Well, leaving aside democracy's many other problems, one of the worst decisions my people ever made was to allow women to vote. Now, the intentions behind this decision may have been good – for the most part – but the Law of Unintended Consequences is not kind to those who do things without thinking carefully." Harry lectured.

He had quite the turbulent relationship with that particular law himself.

"While democracy sounds to me like madness, should not every man and woman have a say in such a system?" Aegon wasn't seeing the problem with women also voting, although he definitely saw a lot of problems with democracy as a whole. Adrastia had only given him a brief overview of it so far, but he could not fathom how letting the uneducated, weak-willed masses rule could be considered a good idea.

"You'd think so, but there are several critical oversights in this line of thinking. Firstly was the presumption that women had no power without the vote. They did, and a great deal of it, but secondary power wielded by influencing their husbands isn't obvious so they didn't see it or acknowledge it. By giving them the right to vote, women had suddenly become more powerful within the system than men, although it took some time to become apparent. Even to the very end, many still didn't see it."

"The power to vote added on top of their ability to influence their husbands." Aegon realized, nodding.

"And men in general. Secondly was assuming that when allowed a hand on the reins of power, they would use it the same way as men would. The mere fact that women gained this right by influencing men, whereas men had to fight for it should show how flawed that kind of thinking was, but this went overlooked."

"How did they use it, then?"

"The same way they've always used power of course – they started treating the government as if it was a husband. That is to say that, instead of participating in politics properly, they nagged and whined and bitched and moaned until it paid attention to them. And it worked, because it is an extension of humanity's survival instinct to keep women as comfortable as possible. Unfortunately, that kind of behavior is a bottomless pit and, like a jealous wife sensing that her husband's attention is wandering, women will never stop complaining, even if they have to invent fake problems just to keep the government's focus on them. Worse yet, this allowed politicians to stay in power without actually doing anything worthwhile as long as they pander to women."

"That sounds disastrous." Aegon frowned.

"It was, but it gets worse. The third problem was that power should never be separated from responsibility and men are naturally inclined to coddle and protect women, even suffering the consequences of their mistakes in many cases. This is a necessary survival strategy for our species in nature, as women are too biologically valuable for it to be otherwise, but in politics it creates a lot of unshackled power, and unshackled power breeds chaos. "

"Is that why you settled beyond the Wall, to avoid causing chaos?" Aegon asked.

"More or less." Harry nodded. "Fourth and worst of all, women being able to vote hammered a wedge right into the middle of the family."

"Huh?" Aegon blinked in surprise. "I do not understand."

"It's very simple, really. See, the average voting man was married and had children, therefore anything he voted for would generally be to the benefit of his family. This is a good thing, because the family unit of a wife, husband and children is the basic building block of a nation."

"Would women not also vote towards the benefit of their families?" The young Targaryen asked, finding it hard to imagine a woman acting against the interests of her own children.

"Sure they would, but women occupy a different role in the family and therefore have different priorities. Can an army have two generals, or a land two ruling Houses?"

"Of course not."

"Of course not." Harry agreed. "It doesn't actually matter whether it is fair to let women have an equal say in things, the fact that they have a different say is in and of itself the wedge that eventually culminates in men and women seeing each other as enemies instead of partners, which in turn compromises the growth of the children and thus hollows out a nation. It would have been far better to change the voting system so that only intact families with at least two children could vote, with the whole family having only a single vote. That would have been both fairer and kept disruptive individuals away from power. With the institution of marriage ruined and many people unable to properly form families – or attempting it and having them collapse – they sought meaning elsewhere."

"What did they do?" Aegon asked curiously.

"Whatever seemed like a good idea at the time." Harry shrugged. "Understand, Aegon, that a person's identity is a collection of traits internalized over the course of their life. See that man over there?"

"Aye?" The boy nodded, curiously looking at the random citizen Harry was pointing at.

"His identity is comprised of traits such as [human], [male], [son], [brother], [Westerosi], [Andal], [Crownlander], [citizen of King's Landing], [subject of the Iron Throne], [follower of the Seven], [husband], [father] and several others depending on what he believes and does for a living. Some of these are more important than others, more deeply rooted in his soul, but as long as he is surrounded by people with similar identity traits, he will feel safe, because he is among his own. The more different the people around him are, the more threatened and out of place he will feel, to say nothing of how he will react if any of these identity traits is actively attacked. As we've established earlier, it will be your duty as king to keep your people safe and that means more than just protecting their bodies."

"So I must safeguard their identity as well." Aegon said, nodding slowly.

"Being king means being the focal point for your people's faith and therefore a shared pillar of their identity. Still, you're going to have a rough time of it, because you'll rule seven kingdoms instead of just one, each of their identities just different enough for conflict to be one wrong move away." Harry sighed. "And I've made it worse for you with my grudge against the Seven. Religious identity conflicts are an especially messy sort."

"Can I not simply replace the Faith of the Seven with the Old Gods religion?" Aegon asked.

He had been educated on the Seven, but only because it was necessary for the future. He had no true belief in the Andal gods.

"Not easily, but at least you know better than to just get rid of the state religion without having anything prepared to replace it. I had to learn that lesson the hard way." Harry chuckled. "We can talk about that some other day, for now let me give you three warnings regarding people's identity."

Aegon straightened up attentively, sensing that this was important.

"First, never do anything that would undermine the shared identity of your people. That's why I said earlier that driving a wedge between husband and wife by letting women vote was so dangerous. [Husband] or [wife] are identity traits that nearly every adult has in common, so losing them or turning them antagonistic means that people will suddenly find it much harder to relate to each other. The effect of this is subtle and slow, but inevitably catastrophic.

"Second, never let groups of people with significantly different identities live together or do things that would cause their identities to clash. You can see how tense things get between the Seven Kingdoms at the slightest provocation and those are at least all Westerosi. Imagine how bad it would be if you let a bunch of Essosi settle on your lands. They are a different tribe and would forever be a source of conflict. If you need an example, just look at what happened when my son, Tarkus, settled in Andalos. They've been fighting with the locals since day one."

Although, Tarkus and the bloodthirsty bastards he'd led over there enjoyed it. Plus, Harry had taught his boy these things too, and the demi-giant had been hard at work entrenching their identity into their new lands.

"The Rhoynar settled in Dorne without much issue." Aegon pointed out the discrepancy.

"The Rhoynar settled into Dorne without much issue because Princess Nymeria was a damned smart woman, easily the best female leader this continent, possibly this world, has ever had. She knew perfectly well that she wouldn't be seen as threatening as a male leader, but instead of being a prideful idiot and railing against it, she used that perception to her people's benefit. First thing she did upon arriving was marry a local lord and place her people under his rule, knowing that Martell lands were too small to support them and he would have to set out to conquer the rest of Dorne. This gave the Rhoynar tremendous prestige and influence in their new homeland at minimal cost. It allowed them to survive something that by all rights shouldn't have been survivable. A man could never have pulled off a stunt like that, he would have been all but forced to go on a campaign of conquest to protect his people and that wasn't likely to succeed given the state of the Rhoynar at the time."

"So…the Rhoynar were able to settle in foreign lands because their leader was a woman?" Aegon asked slowly.

"Yep." Harry nodded. "Where tribal identity is concerned, women are far more adaptable and they generally won't be willing to die over it. Men though, we're wired to fight for our tribe even if it kills us, because losing the tribe means losing its women and children, and losing the women and children means losing our bloodline. Whether this is good or bad depends on the situation, but the point is that you should never let large amounts of men move into lands where their tribal identity would clash with the locals, unless you're planning a conquest. Women can migrate without causing trouble, men can't. "

"Then I should not allow the Angmari to pass through the Wall?" Aegon asked cheekily.

"Smartass." Harry snorted, amused. "That situation has some pretty extreme extenuating circumstances. Plus, the fight for survival against a common enemy will help forge a shared identity. That's something that you will be able to use, actually, once the fighting is done."

"How?" The prince questioned eagerly.

"War of any kind always generates a lot of political clout and you being my son will give you the connection required to exert it over both Angmar and the Seven Kingdoms. If you play things right, you might even be able to lay the groundwork for bringing Angmar closer to your realm. I'll teach you about it as the war progresses."

Hopefully I'll have time for it. Harry thought to himself, unable to shake the uncomfortable sensation of the walls closing in.

"I understand….Father." Aegon nodded, looking up at him with uncharacteristic shyness.

Harry smiled and reached over to ruffle the boy's hair. He had been waiting for that and it was the first time Aegon had verbally acknowledged him as a parent. It was a bit of a dick move to usurp Rhaegar's place like this, but the man was long dead and it was in nobody's best interests to have the future king grow up fatherless. Daddy issues were a serious psychological weakness, just ask Voldemort.

There was no need to make things awkward by being emotional, so he slid his hand down to the boy's shoulder and continued with the lecture. "Third, be extremely wary of people who have only a few identity traits, because they are going to be dangerously unpredictable, especially if they happen to be intelligent. I was one of those people in my youth, I was not a son or a brother, I did not value my heritage as a Briton or European, I did not acknowledge anyone's authority over me, I followed no religion or ideology, I did not set down roots to become a husband or father until later. All I was in my youth was [human], [male] and [wizard], which left me with very few limits on my behavior."

"I understand." Aegon repeated, as grave as a pre-pubescent boy can manage to be, but he was almost imperceptibly more relaxed than he had been before.

"Good." Harry giving the boy's shoulder a squeeze. "Now come on, we've lingered here long enough. Let's head down to Dorne."

XXXXX

28th day of the 12th moon. 292 AC. Highgarden.

Luna was a woman on a mission. Everyone was working so hard because of the upcoming zombie/unknown apocalypse, but relaxation was important, too! She was going to make sure that everyone made some happy memories to remind them of what they were fighting for before the bad stuff got started.

Servants gawked as she skipped through the halls and one nervous guardsman eventually worked up the nerve to confront her.

"My lady…?" He swallowed, struggling to maintain eye contact.

Was he scared?

Or maybe… "Do you like my Mega Milk T-shirt?" She asked, bending forward and grabbing at her bra-less breasts.

"Err, that is, I mean…." The guard stuttered, blushing furiously.

Luna beamed. He did like the T-shirt!

"I'm glad, but I really have to go and kidnap Willas now."

"W-wait!" The guardsman cried a few seconds later, running after her.

"No." Luna chirped back, speeding up her skipping so that he couldn't catch up.

Unlike the Starks, who ate in Winterfell's great hall along with their servants and men-at-arms, the Tyrells had their meals in private. Another two guards stood before the door of her destination.

But she knew these two. Olenna called them Left and Right, which was honestly kind of rude.

"Hellooo~." She greeted them cheerfully.

"Your Grace." They chorused and made no move to stop her when she reached for the door knob.

"Good morning!" Luna chirped at the surprised Tyrell family, although Garlan and Loras were missing. Probably squiring or fostering elsewhere. "I've come to kidnap Willas."

"Again?" Olenna sighed in resignation.

"Now listen here, you cannot simply barge into my castle whenever you please, doing whatever you please!" Mace blustered.

"But I do it all the time." Luna replied, frowning in puzzlement.

"He means that you should not be doing it, dear." Olenna explained with a snort. "And what is that thing you are wearing?"

"It's my Mega Milk T-shirt!" Luna beamed again, once more grabbing her breasts. "Do you like it?"

Mace blustered incoherently while Willas and Margaerys blushed brightly. That was so cute!

"It is highly inappropriate!" Mace's wife, Alerie snapped, trying to cover Margaery's eyes for some reason.

"Well…I can take if off if you want?" Luna offered, not really understanding why it was inappropriate.

Olenna choked on a laugh as Alerie was reduced to a state similar to her husband.

"What am I being kidnapped for this time?" Willas managed to ask calmly despite his blush. "Another 'bromance'?"

"No, we're having a beach day in Dorne." She answered, taking another look at the children.

"Will Prince Aegon be there?" Margaerys perked up.

"Yes." Luna nodded. "Do you want to come, too?"

"Yes!" The girl exclaimed, turning big brown eyes to her parents. "Mother, Father, may I go?"

"You may." Olenna butted in.

"Mother!" Mace cried in protest. "That is not for you to decide!"

"Oh, shut up, Mace." She huffed, rolling her eyes. "It will be good for Margaery to spend more time with Prince Aegon's family if they are to be hers one day as well. And I have no doubt that Luna will not allow any harm to come her way."

"Of course." Luna confirmed, striding over to Willas and Margaery and tugging them out of the room. "Now let's go!"

"Wait, I need to change my clothes!" Margaerys protested, mildly panicked.

Willas, being more experienced, simply cooperated.

"Why? You'll just have to take them off anyway." Luna asked…rhetorically, because she didn't slow down

"Take them off?!" The young girl yelped in shock.

"Of course, clothing would just get in the way on the beach after all."

Luna's explanation floated towards the remaining Tyrells from the hallways and Olenna could only suck on her teeth thoughtfully.

"I may have made a mistake." The old woman mused, unheard over the panicked shouting of her son and his wife. Then she shrugged and continued breaking her fast. Nothing to be done about it now and she was sure that Margaery would be alright. Neither Luna nor Harry had struck her as the type to like children in that way and Willas would look out for her anyway.

XXXXX

Later that same day….

Harry had never been much of a party person and his detour through apotheosis hadn't changed that, but even he knew that he was taking his brooding up to the next level right now.

He appreciated what Luna was trying to do, he really did. In fact, he was planning to ask her if she'd mind acting as a sort of morale officer at the Wall once things really got started….although he suspected that she already intended to do that. But that didn't change the fact that this beach party was not serving its purpose in taking his mind off things.

Even if the awkwardness and embarrassment of those not used to being naked around other people was hilarious. Tyrion and Willas were especially bad, with the latter constantly vacillating between keeping an eye on his little sister and not keeping an eye on his naked little sister, and Tyrion…..

Well, Tyrion's problems stemmed from the fact that Visenya had apparently taken it upon herself to tease him. Precocious little brat.

And troublesome, too. First she riles up half the nobles on the continent with the hope that they might score Rhaella's daughter as a bride for one of their sons, now she decides that she likes a guy that she practically grew up with.

It was almost as if that whole stunt was done for the purpose of forcing Tyrion realize she was almost a woman and making him jealous. Adrastia's meddling or just inherent female mating strategy? Mankind may never know.

"I see that Luna was not exaggerating when she said you need help to enjoy these things sometimes." Oberyn commented, practically oozing into a beach chair.

He was also as naked as everyone else and perfectly comfortable about it. In fact, if one watched carefully, they would notice that he was taking no small amount of enjoyment at both his own nudity and the vast amount of naked flesh available for his visual perusal.

"I always had trouble relaxing around large groups of people." Harry admitted with a shrug.

"My brother is of similar disposition, always preferring his books and schemes." The Dornishman nodded.

"You should have dragged him here so that we could suffer together."

"Each of you would sulk on their own part of the beach."

"Yes. We would suffer together, separately."

Oberyn burst into laughter and reached over to slap him across the leg.

Harry caught it before it could actually connect and gave the man an unamused look. "Just because we're both naked doesn't mean I want a man touching me."

Pouting was an expression that did not suit the Red Viper in the slightest. "I do not understand how you can be so comfortable in your body and yet reject half the pleasures of the flesh."

"That's because you're a feckless degenerate who spends too much time thinking with his cock." The wizard retorted drily.

Oberyn gasped and held a hand to his heart. "You wound me!"

"Maybe I should turn you into a eunuch?" Harry mused to himself. Loudly. "I wonder how much better that mind of yours would work if you weren't constantly horny?"

"Hey now, that sounds like it would be against the bro code."

"Have you been listening to Luna again?"

"A wise woman, your wife."

They both turned to look at the beach where the woman in question was playing with the children and teenagers.

"WHO DARES TRESPASS UPON FORTRESS OCELOT APLHA?" The Witch-Queen demanded, standing behind the battlements of a massive sand castle, fists on her hips and naked chest puffed out in faux-arrogance.

Next to her, a deeply embarrassed Margaery Tyrell was 'being held captive', equally naked.

The children, under Aegon's leadership, began laying siege to the sand castle by throwing wet sand balls at the walls. Nudity was a great social equalizer.

"Yes, very wise." Harry drolled. "Wise enough to know how to have fun, at least."

"So does your daughter." Oberyn replied with a grin, nodding over to where Visenya was…..reaching over to grab a backpedalling Tyrion's erection?

A stinging hex was instantly launched, smacking into the girl's hand and making her back off with a startled yelp.

"Hands above the waist, Brat!" He hollered at her. "No cocks until you're sixteen!"

"I'm almost fifteen and Arianne was still fifteen when you fucked her." Visenya yelled back indignantly.

Oberyn was laughing again and pretty much everyone had tuned in to the bit of family drama. Those coming from more 'polite' society looked scandalized.

"That makes you fourteen and when Doran lets his daughter get fucked has nothing to do with you." Harry retorted.

"Listen to your father, Visenya." Rhaella chimed in supportively.

"Fine." The girl huffed. "Come on Tyrion, let's go for a swim."

Tyrion gave a fearful glance in his direction and only relaxed upon receiving a shooing gesture. The former dwarf was still vaguely terrified about courting Visenya….possibly because the Angmari way of doing things had less rules to guide him.

"You are being a hypocrite, you know?" Oberyn pointed out, still grinning.

"Humanity thrives on double standards." Harry responded loftily.

They lapsed into silence for a while, just looking at everyone having a good time. Aside from Luna and the children/teenagers she had roped into playing 'save the princess', there were also several other distinct groups.

Some were swimming or splashing about in the shallows. The heavily pregnant Elia and Ellaria were dozing in the sun next to Rhaella. A short distance away, Arianne and Tyene were looking after their newborns under a large parasol to protect them from the sun….

It was a peaceful scene. The type that a man could look at and relax.

So why couldn't he? Where was this persistent sense of threat coming from? Harry had learned to trust his instincts a long time ago and they were telling him that he wasn't the biggest fish in the lake anymore. Or maybe he was and someone had dumped toxic waste into it?

"You are brooding again." Oberyn interrupted his…brooding.

"I've got a bad feeling." Harry admitted.

He was going to need to check some things around the world as soon as his people started evacuating Isengard.

XXXXX

7th day of the 1st moon. 293 AC. Asshai.

Harry hovered high in the air, staring down at the sprawling darkness spilling out from Stygai and Asshai. The Shadow Lands were extremely mountainous, leaving him quite the clear view of how that unnatural stuff crawled around and over the rocks. Even at high noon, the shadows no longer retreated.

In fact, the sunlight was a lot weaker than it should be. There weren't any clouds, but the sky was too dark. Perhaps even odder, the ghost grass that typically grew everywhere in the Shadow Lands was being even more invasive than normal, growing taller and spreading wider. The pale vegetation had an unsettling glow to it.

Whatever the hell this was, it was getting stronger.

"Bombs away." Harry said softly, dropping the crystal contraption he'd brought along on this trip.

Sadly, a doomsday device charged with enough sunlight essence to obliterate the whole of the Shadow Lands had proved beyond him. There was simply no safe way that he could find to contain that kind of power in weaponized form. That didn't mean his research had been fruitless, though.

The shining crystal dropped into the darkness without a sound, but the shadows immediately began roiling violently. It was kind of like looking at the surface of a lake after a bomb went off in the depths.

Unfortunately it also ended like that. The darkness eventually settled, seeming to have swallowed the burst of light that should have been powerful enough to blind everyone who looked at it for miles around.

"Of course, why would it be that easy?" Harry sighed, pursing his lips in frustration.

This was always his life. Everything was easy, until it suddenly wasn't. Then again, he supposed that was the case for everyone, they just had a different definition for 'easy' and 'hard'.

XXXXX

Omake – The self-inflicted problems of Cersei Lannister

Jaw clenched tight and lips pressed into a thin line, Cersei glared at nothing in particular in front of her, refusing to make a sound as the wooden paddle smacked against her bottom again and again.

She had once again done something to displease her unwanted husband, deliberately and fully aware that this would be her punishment. It had, in fact, been an act of defiance more than anything else. She did it simply to prove to the damned fish that she would not be cowed.

Not her, the Lioness of Lannister.

Even as tears gathered in her eyes from the pain, she still refused to break.

When he finally stopped, she held back a sob of relief, refusing to give him the satisfaction. The days when he could force her to utter empty words of regret and apology were over, now she just endured the pain until he tired of it. She would not sully that victory by showing weakness at the very end.

"I hope you have learned your lesson." Edmure said, tired and unconvinced. He knew that he had accomplished nothing.

Cersei said nothing and continued glaring forward.

"Do you want me to apply the liniment?" He asked.

"The servant girl can do it." She said stiffly.

"I am taking it with me when I go." He retorted bluntly. "Either I do it, or you go without."

Cersei ground her teeth together. She knew from experience that her bottom would burn with pain the whole night and much of the next day without the liniment.

"Fine!" She snarled.

"Ask nicely for it." Edmure instructed.

Rage bloomed in her heart. This was another one of his attempts to break her. Pride warred with the knowledge of how unpleasant the lingering pain would be if she did not do as he said.

"P-please." She managed to force out, that one word feeling like bile on her tongue.

"Please what?"

A scream got stuck in her throat, held back only by the knowledge of the suffering she would have to endure for giving it voice. "Please apply the liniment."

Wordlessly, he reached for it and applied it to the reddened, raw skin.

Cersei hissed in pain, but did nothing else as he began rubbing it in with his calloused hands. The sensation quickly turned soothing, though her abused flesh still stung horribly.

Her mind wandered back to the Sorcerer, to Harry. His powerful frame, his chiseled body, his blazing green eyes and night black hair. The way his huge hands had felt on her head as she pleasured him and the sweet, creamy taste of his seed as he released in her mouth.

Even if he had rejected her – or perhaps especially because he had rejected her – she could not help but think of him and lust after him. Her womanhood moistened and clenched with the desire to feel his thick cock spearing into her, to feel it pulse and throb as he bred her. Their children would have been magnificent.

Why did he not take her with him? She just couldn't understand. Was she not the most beautiful woman in the Seven Kingdoms?

"Wife, are you getting aroused?" Edmure growled, fingers probing at the edges of her entrance.

Cersei was startled out of her thoughts and realized that her idiot husband had gotten the wrong idea.

"No." She denied stiffly.

"Then why are you so wet?"

Well, she could hardly tell him that she was lusting after another man. Much as she would like to use it to hurt him, the consequences could be worse than a mere spanking.

"I am not." Blatant denial was the best option.

"But you are." He insisted, pushing one of his fingers inside to the first knuckle.

"You are a fool." She hissed disdainfully. As if some floppy fish could ever hope to rouse her passions.

He pulled his finger out and scoffed. "You are a liar, Cersei, but I cannot quench your lusts now, not with your bottom so raw. We will return to this on the morrow."

A few minutes later, Cersei was glaring furiously at the closed door. The fish had gotten it into his head that he was man enough for her and refused to believe that he was wrong.