6 Chapter 6

The pain was excruciating, but her torturer was aware enough of what he was doing to her to keep her on just the right side of conscious. There was no sweet oblivion for Leaf, no whiting out that involved her getting even a slight reprieve from the agony. Instead there was merely constant and consistent torment. She suffered each second of each minute of each hour of each day.

Only her connection to the Earth and the life around her, as frozen and corrupted as it all was, allowed Leaf to keep track of the passage of time. Knowing that she'd been tortured nearly nonstop for almost two hundred years did not help much though. Sometimes the Child wished she didn't know, if only to see if that way was any better than this way.

But she could no more stop feeling what she felt then she could stop breathing. And while she wished for both things many a time, her greatest failure would not let her die.

"That's enough."

The pain stopped and the White Walker that tortured her almost nonstop stepped away. Leaf wasn't as relieved as one might expect though. Speak of the devil and he will appear. It was hard to lift her head and hard to open her one working eye, but Leaf managed it all the same. She had to, to show the creature before her that she was not broken, merely bent.

The horned White Walker stared at her with unreadable glowing blue eyes. Leaf hated it, that she couldn't find the malice or the hatred or the malevolence in that gaze that lurked right beneath the surface. There'd been a time when she could see his emotions. Before they'd turned him, she'd seen the terror and the fear. After they'd crushed his will, she'd seen his anger and impotent rage in his eyes, the only way he could even convey his true emotions.

And when the Long Night had come and he and his kind had destroyed their species, Leaf had gotten a very authentic showing of just how deep the Night King's hate for the Children… for her, ran. Yet now he looked at her like one would stare at a dying animal. She needed the hate. She needed the malice. She needed him to be an enemy that she could rail against and fight.

"I had a question for you Leaf."

He had never called her by her name. She hadn't even known he knew it. Her sole working eye widened slightly, bulging out of her skull. In response, the corners of the Night King's lips quirked up in a sort of smile. It made her shudder in disgust and horror. None of it made sense anymore. After what the Children had done to the White Walkers, none of them were meant to be intelligent. They were weapons, made for one purpose and one purpose only. Killing.

They had done their job well too, almost too well. By the time the Children made peace with the First Men, those that they made peace with actually didn't know of the White Walker's existence, despite the Children using them within five years of the treaty. Why? Because when the White Walkers were deployed, they did not leave witnesses or survivors. They didn't leave evidence either. Those that died got up and walked away, trailing after the White Walkers as they returned to their handlers and to their crypts until the next time they would be needed.

The Children had considered the reanimation of the dead to be something of a cleanup tool. Despite using the White Walkers as weapons against their foes, they never thought to use the dead as well. Perhaps it was shortsighted of them. Perhaps it was merely beyond their consciences to do so, even if the creation of the Walkers in the first place was not.

Ultimately, when the time had come to put their weapons to slumber, they had burned the army of wights that the Night King and his kind had inadvertently assembled. At that point, after two thousand years of strife, there may very well have been more wights then living First Men on the continent. Perhaps even more wights then the grand total of the First Men and the Children combined. It did not matter, they burned all the same and the Children used their ashes to grow new Weirwoods in order to appease nature.

Only too late did they realize just how much they had wronged the Earth with their experiments. Two thousand years passed before the Earth retaliated, but when it did and when the Long Night fell over Westeros, the White Walkers returned and the Children of the Forest died in droves for hers and her fellows' crimes.

Now it was just her left. Even her fellows had barely lasted a decade under the Night King's tender mercies. He'd enjoyed killing them far too much and each had died in excruciating pain. But not her. She'd been kept alive and once the Night King had finished with her comrades, he'd ignored her for decades at a time, leaving her constant torture to one of his subordinates.

But even now, his intelligence bewildered Leaf. Even if he was the first, the leader… his mind should have been crushed by their magics just as the rest had been. The fact that he remained sentient and that Lyanna Stark did as well, made absolutely no logical sense. Yet here he was, talking to her. He'd said something hadn't he? The White Walker was clearly waiting for an answer.

Licking her lips ever so slowly, Leaf spoke with a raspy voice. Not from disuse, but from overuse. She'd been screaming minutes before after all and the only reason that she hadn't been when he came in was because no more sound would come from her ruined throat. Still, Children of the Forest had modest regenerative capabilities. The duration of a few minutes was enough to give her at least this much of a voice back.

"Ask."

This seemed to please the monstrosity she'd brought into this world. He stepped closer to where she remained suspended from the ceiling, her arms over her head. Even if she was free, the Child wasn't sure her arms would even work anymore. At least not for a few hours. They would need time to regenerate, as would the rest of her. Her constant torture did not allow for such things.

The Night King crouched down in front of her, bringing himself to eye level with the short Child. Leaf's one bulbous eye looked into his glowing blues as he smiled sardonically.

"I wanted to know why."

"We were at wa-."

"No, not that."

Leaf fell silent, confused as to what the creature meant then. If not that, then what?

"More personal than that. Why me specifically. Many of the White Walkers you made are infirm old men. But I was not. Where did you find me? Why did you grab me? I've always wondered."

The Child of the Forest, perhaps the last remaining Child of the Forest, stared in silence at the Night King. Eventually, she found her voice.

"You… do not know?"

That got a laugh from the blue eyed, blue skinned monstrosity. His clawed hand came up and ran through the back of Leaf's hair. He gripped tightly, a clear threat even as he smiled without humor at her.

"I would not ask if I knew. Tell me. Tell me as if I was not there, as if I was not born until you created me."

That possibility frightened her more than she cared to admit. Enslaving the minds of their enemies had been one thing and it had always weighed on her conscience. But the idea that she may have created the intelligence before her, that he was not the First Man she and her kind had captured… the words spilled forth from Leaf's mouth as she regained strength bit by tiny bit the longer the torture was abated.

"You were the first."

That got a blink from the Night King.

"Yes, I know I was a First Man."

"No, you were the first of even them. You were the first to find a Weirwood and the first to try to cut one down for wood. The screams of the forest alerted us and we brought you to your knees with our magic swiftly. Then your companions arrived, armed with nothing more than axes in most cases. Yet they were so very numerous. We were forced to retreat that day, but not without our prisoner. Not without you."

The Night King was silent now, listening raptly as Leaf spilled long kept secrets that no longer mattered to any but her and the creature before her.

"We did not kill back then, not out of anger. We did not understand war. We knew death to be a part of life and we knew that all things went back to the Earth eventually. But we were not killers nor were we murderers. Not until your people made us like that. And before we became killers, we sought to keep our hands clean. We created you, the first of our weapons. Ultimately, neither you nor the ones that came after you were enough to stem the tide. Not even the Hammer of Water could do that and we used it twice to try to deter your kin."

Leaf let out a raspy laugh, remembering things that at the time had been horrifying. Nearly four thousand years later, they seemed almost comically ridiculous.

"You First Men. More numerous than all the trees in all our forests. More numerous than the blades of grass across the land. Your kind kept coming and nothing that you or the other White Walkers could do would stop it, not fully, not forever. And so in the end we sued for peace and rid ourselves of the reminder that we had turned to war by forcing you into slumber. At the time, we thought ourselves clever. I see now how foolish we all were."

The Night King seemed to consider this for a moment before nodding slowly.

"So then. I was the first of the First Men. Amusing in a way. I could lay claim to being the progenitor of every human on this continent and it would not be too far off. After all, I paved the way so to speak."

"You also killed countless in our names. You were not and are not their 'progenitor'. You are their darkness, their monster. You will always be the evil that lurks north of the Wall. You will always be their greatest enemy."

A pause, but rather than the anger Leaf hopes to see, there's only a slightly amused look on the Night King's face.

"Are you trying to provoke me Leaf?"

Was she truly that transparent now? Letting out a shudder, the Child decides to be bluntly honest.

"After all this time, death is preferable to a return to torture. I would welcome it. Please… end me."

Another pause and she finds a small ember of hope growing in her heart as the Night King seems to search her face and consider her request. It's snuffed out by the wicked smile that spreads across his features and the sharp shake of his head.

"No, I don't think I will. Instead…"

Her creation slides the hand he had in her hair down to her neck and grips. For a brief second, she thinks he's merely toying with her and is preparing to wring the life from her neck anyways. But he does not squeeze, he merely grips. And Leaf screams as he brands her with his mark right there on the spot. She can feel his icy magic reaching out and gripping her soul. She can feel the bond forcibly constructed between them.

He is not turning her into a White Walker. This will not give him dominion over her mind or her body. But it gives him a door, a door that he will hold the key to. He will be able to find her anywhere, he will be able to hear her thoughts if she is not careful to shield them. He will know her exact location every moment of every day.

In a word, it is a magical collar that he places around her neck. Once he's done, the Night King stands up and runs his hand through her chains, frosting them over and shattering them quite easily. Leaf is free but at the same time she knows she will never be free again, not with his mark on her. As a greenseer, there is the possibility that she could remove it, given time. She will not be given that time, she knows this.

Falling to her knees, Leaf breathes shallowly as the Night King observes her.

"I forgive you for what you did to me. Or perhaps I've merely forgotten enough that I no longer care. Cross me again and I will kill you in a heartbeat. I suppose if it is still death you want, then merely think the thought and I will end you."

There's a long moment of silence as Leaf truly considers. Death up against the torture that she felt for nearly two hundred years? No contest. But death against potentially eternal servitude? Leaf could not bring herself to do it. She bowed her head and thought no malicious thoughts. The Night King chuckled.

"Good girl."

Leaf shuddered at that and squeezed her one remaining eye shut tight. Though she supposed given enough time, the second eye would regenerate. Her entire body would. But she would still be trapped beneath the blue handprint pressed to her neck. The Night King's mark held her close. Is this what she was to be? A pet? Better a pet than tortured… better a pet than dead.

Shivering in a way that had nothing to do with the cold, the Child of the Forest slowly rose and moved to follow after the Night King as he allowed her to leave her prison for the first time in nearly two centuries. The thought caught the attention of her new Master and he amusingly reminded her mentally that his own imprisonment had been two thousand years of mental torture and two thousand years of forced slumber.

Leaf could not help but be abashed.

-x-X-x-

Only time would tell if I would need to rid myself of Leaf or not. As far as I knew, she was probably the last remaining Child of the Forest, and if she was not, the Andal invasion in around eighteen hundred years would ensure she was. Why not keep her alive as a novelty? A unique little thing, kept under my control.

The mark had been spur of the moment though; I could be honest about that at least with myself. I hadn't known what I wanted to do with her, going into that exchange. I'd simply been curious to have an answer to my question. The man I now inhabited, that I'd been… inserted into for lack of a better word, he had been the first. An auspicious honor turned horrifying by just what the Children had done to him for his ignorance.

Ah well, it was no skin off my back. While I still remembered all too vividly the pain and agony as Leaf dug that crude stone dagger into my heart, I had had enough time to move on. I'd never really been a vengeful guy to begin with, at least before I became the Night King. The Long Night was… uncharacteristic of me, least of all because I was actually a massive coward and I'd risked much by going south solely to eradicate the Children of the Forest where ever I could find them.

It'd worked out in the end though and now with Leaf at my side and Lyanna convinced that humans could not be trusted as equals, I was feeling pretty good about my "home" life. Time to get started on a bit of my "work" life. Stepping out of the cave where I'd kept Leaf imprisoned for two hundred years, I found my White Walkers and the Thenns and even Lyanna waiting for me. Though on Lyanna's part it was begrudging.

We were on… sort of speaking terms now? Improvement at least, in my slow, slow seduction of my she wolf Queen. The amusing thought brought a smile to my face as I regarded the five young Thenns in front of me. Two men, three women. All were essentially adults. All had completed their first hunt and the men had both killed predators as was custom. The women had taken down stags though, which was not custom. It had ultimately drawn my attention to them.

Coming to a stop before the five kneeling Free Folk, I spread my arms wide.

"My children. I have heard such good things about you all. You are the strongest, the bravest, and the smartest of your village. You are the best Thenns. The first of you, Rogund Thenn himself, tells me these things. He speaks highly of you."

Rogund stands off to the side and the five humans look to him for brief moments in awe before quickly turning their gazes back to the snow beneath their feet. I smile at the display of subservience. Still, for what I intend to have them do, mere displays are not enough. I must ensure actual loyalty.

"Rise, Chosen among the Thenns."

As they stand up, I move to the first of them. He does not look me in the eye until I take his chin in my hand and force him to. What I see there is devotion. But I must be sure. Tearing his clothing is easy and in moments his shoulder is bared to the freezing winds whipping against us. He shivers but stands firm even as my free hand comes down on his naked flesh and I mark him as my own, just as I did with Leaf.

There is pain but when I am done, the bond is formed and his mind is open to me. Unlike with my White Walkers or the reanimated dead, I cannot control his actions, nor can I crush his personality and turn him into a thrall. But thanks to a lack of training and thus protection, he has no defenses against me hearing his inner most thoughts. He is loyal, as loyal as he seems.

I smile and step away from him, allowing him to fix his furs as he shivers. My connection to the first is soon joined by three more as I go through the women as well and mark each of them in the same spot on their shoulder. One of them is like the man, loyal and devoted. The other two are similar, but their adoration for me is not entirely platonic. I consider returning their affections, but ultimately decide it is irrelevant. And in the same way that the pathetic crow on the Wall could not compare to me, these Free Folk in turn could not compare to my Lyanna. Humans… they were simply too weak to handle either of us.

Arriving at the final member of the group of five, I can see nervousness in his eyes, beyond that which I saw in his companions. More than that, there's something else. I tear his furs back a bit rougher than usual and mark him as my own. His mind is laid bare to me and I know immediately that he plans treachery, that he hopes to one day become King-Beyond-the-Wall after seeing the great host Joramun brought to the Thenn village.

This one is not loyal or faithful. He is selfish and ambitious for ambition's sake. I snap his neck without a second thought, drawing gasps from the four I'd already marked. Turning to look at the marked Thenns, I smile.

"Your loyalty and devotion to me are without question my children. His on the other hand was false. He was filled with greed, and where I intend for the four of you to go, there can be no greed, only patience."

One of the four speaks for the group, the woman who did not lust after me.

"We live to serve you your Grace. Where must we go?"

Grinning, I show off rows of my sharp teeth as I elaborate. The more I talk, the more understanding fills their gaze, along with trepidation. Understandable given what I will have these four and many more after them do. The marked Thenns before me are to venture south of the Wall. Thanks to my Lyanna's machinations, the Wall is in disarray and poorly manned for the first time since its founding. There is no Lord Commander for the moment and over half of the Night's Watch is dead, while the other half are imprisoned.

Brandon the Breaker's armies are not used to manning the Wall. My agents will have no trouble passing through it and once they do, their orders are clear. They are no longer Thenns; they are no longer Free Folk. These four are now kneelers, the first of many that I intend to send south. I may not be able to go beyond the Wall, trapped by greenseer magics as I am, but that does not mean my influence need stay limited as well.

With almost eight thousand years left before canon… there was a lot that I could to do with the right people in the right places at the right times.

Their orders given, the Thenns are escorted away by Rogund and a few other White Walkers. They will be helped south of the Wall and then they will be on their own. Through my bonds with them, I can feel fear and trepidation as expected. I can also feel eagerness and excitement. They are enthused to serve me and the chance at adventure has them doubly pleased to go.

It will be interesting to see how they do. I do not expect four Thenns to miraculously become successful infiltrators overnight. As… prototypes, these ones will allow me to work out the kinks in the system. Each new group will theoretically be better than the last. Almost as an afterthought, I snap my fingers and the fifth member rises, still dead but reanimated as a wight to serve. I send him off without looking in his direction, focused entirely on my four newest toys.

Too focused perhaps. I completely failed to notice the way Leaf's single eye widened at the sight of Lyanna. I did not pay attention when the last remaining Child of the Forest and my Queen left to have a private chat.

My distraction would quickly prove to be a detriment.

-x-X-x-

Watching the Night King mark the Thenns had been an… interesting experience. This plan of his, to send agents south of the Wall, well, Lyanna wasn't sure if it would work or not. She also wasn't entirely sure what his intentions would be in using them. She was considering asking him, when Leaf came up alongside her, big bulbous eye even wider than usual.

That was the other shock. The White Walker's forgiveness of the Child, or at least the clemency he was showing her was simply insane in Lyanna's eyes. Not that she fully minded. While she did not consider Leaf a friend, the Child had been a confidant and a source of support for over a century and a half now. So when Leaf touched her and spoke in a quiet tone, Lyanna listened.

"I must speak with you, in private."

She had no reason to refuse her and the Night King was staring off into space with a pleased smile on his face anyways. They left the freezing cold behind and moved inside a nearby hut of sorts, a place the Night King had had wights build for her when she'd demanded it. As soon as they were in relative privacy, Lyanna turned to Leaf, hoping to explain herself.

"I do apologize for my absence. I had to make an attempt at least. I went to the Wall, I sought out someone who could kill the Night King, just as you suggested. I was thwarted by men. My kin, free folk… the White Walkers did not have to even lift a finger to stop me. I'm not sure that humans are even worth saving anymore, not at the sacrifice of my own life. They would kill me as soon as look at me, despite my innocence."

Whatever response she expected from Leaf, whatever direction she was thinking this conversation would go, it was thoroughly shut down and derailed by the Child of the Forest's next words.

"You are pregnant."

Lyanna didn't understand at first. Her brow furrowed in confusion as her lips moved before her mind had even fully processed the words.

"What?"

Leaf was looking at her with disgust and dread and horror. The Child stepped forward and placed her hand on Lyanna's midriff, right atop her womb.

"You are pregnant Lyanna Stark."

The words finally hit her properly and whatever she might have said was choked off as she lost control of her motor functions. She almost fell down right there on the spot, but instead she stumbled back out of Leaf's reach and landed in a chair, her hand going to where the Child had touched.

"I-I'm… how?!"

Slowly, Leaf approached her. The short wood nymph shook her head back and forth.

"I do not know. It is impossible. This… horrifying abomination should never have been able to come into being. Walkers were not made to procreate. But then, neither were they made for independent thought. The Night King is different and so are you. But you are still monsters."

Lyanna was a tad hurt by that and it probably showed as she turned confused glowing blue eyes towards the Child, her hand never leaving her abdomen.

"What… what are you saying Leaf?"

"The Night King can never know and the child must never be born. You have to kill it. You have to kill yourself. There is… there is a dagger of dragonglass buried in the Night King's chest. It was part of the ritual used to create him and it remains even now. Pulling it out will not kill him, but that is good because you cannot kill him. You must go to him, seduce him, and drag the dagger from his chest. You must use it to end yourself and this abomination before he learns that he has impregnated you. You mu-hrrk!"

Lyanna had moved almost unconsciously, but suddenly she found herself leaning out of her chair, hand latched around Leaf's frail neck. She stared into the Child's bulging eye as Leaf scrambled uselessly at the tight grip.

"How can you… how can you ask that of me? How can you ask me to kill my child? How can you call me monster in one breath and in the next demand such horrific actions? You… you are evil! You are evil!"

Leaf continued to try to speak, continued to try to tear Lyanna's iron grip from her neck. Instead, the female White Walker snarled her rage and added her other hand to the first. She wrung the Child's neck, falling from her chair and pinning Leaf's smaller frail body to the ground as she shook her back and forth. Leaf's skull slammed into the floor again and again and a loud crack filled the air as Leaf's neck snapped.

But even with her death, Lyanna did not stop. The White Walker could not stop, burning hot rage filling her ice cold heart. She continued to strangle the corpse in her hands and beat its head back against the ground until it popped clean off, her grip having sheared right through the Child's spine. Leaf's head, bleeding profusely from the back where it was practically crushed inwards, rolled away from Lyanna and only then did the she wolf realize what she was doing, what she had done.

Lyanna choked back a sob as she stared down at the Child's headless corpse, but it was not for Leaf. She fell back on her haunches, sitting there and staring at the sight before her with swirling blue eyes. After a moment, she reached out across the ever present bond at the back of her mind. It was the first time she'd ever done so and the Night King reacted with surprise and then speed.

He arrived swiftly, yet at the same time walked into the hut at a casual, slow pace. He stopped and stared at what Lyanna had wrought. His silence made Lyanna feel guilt for the first time, like she'd done something wrong. She felt a desire to explain.

"I am pregnant."

Surprise. The Night King was surprised at her declaration. That was good, for some reason. Swallowing thickly, Lyanna gestured at Leaf's decapitated corpse.

"She advocated death. So I gave it to her… your Grace."

And now understanding. His acceptance washed over her and until that moment, Lyanna Stark did not know how much she had needed it. Slowly, he moved forward. At the same time, she found herself rising, turning to meet him and leaving the Child's corpse behind her. They met and for the first time, shared an embrace that was not violent or rough or sexual. The Night King held her close and Lyanna rested her head against his chest.

"You did well to protect our child my Queen. You did well. It seems time to set aside my games with the humans for a while. I will accelerate my plans for the palace."

That gave Lyanna pause. Her brow furrowed and she pulled back just enough to look the Night King in the eyes.

"Palace?"

He smiled back at her, a wicked little grin that contained no evil, merely humor and mischief.

"Our child will be a Prince or a Princess. Royalty must live how royalty lives. He or she should and will have the very best. Do you not agree?"

Lyanna suddenly found herself imagining it. With the forces at the Night King's command, she could envision what he could build and what she saw was glorious. Slowly, a smile of her own spread across her face. She nodded once in agreement with the man who had stolen her away nearly two centuries ago. Her mind couldn't be farther from the circumstances that had led her here though. No, Lyanna Stark could no longer afford to deal in the past. For her child, it was time to look to the future.

"I do my King. I do."

-x-X-x-

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