WiSh - Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Secrets Beneath the Earth

Hullen led the riders, with Bran in the middle, chasing after Jon and the others. Eddard, Jory, and Will took a different path, crossing the King's Road and turning onto a small road that ran parallel to it.

They would enter Winterfell through the North Gate, as the godswood was close to it, next to the warm glass gardens. Hullen and his group would enter through the South Gate, returning the horses to the stables to allow the young lords to enter the main keep from the training grounds.

After half a day's ride, Will saw a tall, round tower in the distance. As they approached, he saw that the top of the tower had collapsed inward, severely damaged, yet it remained the tallest structure in Winterfell. It was like a stubborn old giant that refused to fall. The stone walls of the tower bore the marks of a great fire.

This was the burned tower of Winterfell, destroyed by a fire caused by a lightning strike a hundred years ago. This tower would soon witness the tragic event where Bran would be pushed off by Jaime Lannister, breaking his back and legs.

Will suddenly groaned.

Eddard and Jory turned around and saw Will's pale face and vacant eyes.

"What's wrong?" Eddard asked in a deep voice.

"I've seen the image of this tower in a vision, vague and indistinct. There was a figure falling from it, but maybe it wasn't a person, or perhaps it was the shadow of a bird. When I saw the tower just now, the vision returned, and I felt a stinging pain in my eyes and a nauseous feeling in my chest."

Eddard was moved. He knew that Bran loved to climb this tower and look out from it. The tower had originally been a watchtower built by the Starks. It had never been repaired after being damaged by a fire caused by a lightning strike a century ago.

Jory was also moved. Will, having spent years at the Wall, would not know about Bran's climbing habits. If his fragmented visions were prophetic, it meant that Bran would be in danger if he climbed the tower again.

Eddard, who doted on Bran, had never stopped him from climbing around Winterfell, but Lady Catelyn was very worried about him falling. Since the prophecy hinted at danger, it would be better to tell Bran not to climb the tower for the time being.

Eddard waited a moment and then asked, "Will, are you feeling better?" His icy tone had softened considerably.

Will didn't answer, just nodded.

Will liked Bran, he was cute. He didn't want Bran to fall from the tower again.

The three of them entered through the North Gate, and Will noticed that inside the high walls was a moat about twenty meters wide, with another, wider wall on the opposite side.

The double walls enclosed a moat.

This was Will's first time inside Winterfell.

In his days as a thief, he had never entered here, only spent time in the Winter Town outside the South Gate. The Winter Town had few residents in the summer but was crowded during the winter.

The guards had already lowered the drawbridge, and Will followed Eddard and Jory across it, noticing that the inner wall was wider and thicker, though not as tall as the outer wall.

Eddard dismounted, and Jory and Will followed suit. Guards at the gate came to take their horses. To their right was the vast glass garden, and as they approached the entrance, they could feel the warm air rushing out. Inside the garden were flowers, vegetables, and fruit trees, creating a small spring-like paradise. In the cold North, the glass garden was heated by underground hot springs to ensure the necessary temperature for the vegetables and flowers.

The level of civilization that could produce glass caught Will's attention. It seemed that the craftsmanship of ironworking and glassmaking in this fantastical world was quite mature.

Passing the glass garden, they entered the godswood through a large iron gate. The scent of decaying leaves and damp, chilly air hung in the air, creating a sense of oppressive gloom.

Entering the godswood, the light dimmed, and overhead, twisted branches and trunks blocked out the light. There were tall sentinel trees, oaks, ancient ironwoods, and dark brown cypresses with leaves that resembled dark green needles. When the breeze blew, they fell and pricked the skin painfully.

This was a world unto itself, filled with trees, some of them thousands of years old. The massive trunks were like black walls.

The ancient forest was very quiet, and Will felt as if he could hear the wriggling of earthworms and other small creatures beneath the thick layer of decaying leaves.

Was it because his consciousness had become exceptionally strong after merging two souls?

Perhaps there was such a possibility!

After walking for a while, they came upon a small lake covered in green moss, with wisps of white mist rising from it. Then there was a second and third lake, both steaming with hot springs. On the banks of these heart-shaped hot springs, Will saw the mysterious heart tree he had been imagining.

Looking up, he saw the dense foliage of the heart tree, which seemed endless, creating a world of its own. The tree bark resembled human skin, and the leaves were like human hands with five fingers. In the center of the massive trunk was a long, ancient human face, several meters high, with eyes that were silent and full of compassion. When Will's gaze met those eyes, his heart skipped a beat.

He felt the silent, ancient life in those eyes, which seemed to have a magical power to draw his soul in. Will became dazed, and his gaze sank into the heart tree's eyes. In the pupils of those eyes, he saw a pair of grayish-brown eyes looking back at him.

"My child, you have a very powerful soul," Will saw the mouth of the face move, the voice old and desolate, as if coming from the distant past.

Then he felt himself floating, leaving his body, drifting toward one of the heart tree's eyes. Will was horrified and looked back to see himself standing stiffly, with a blank stare and a bewildered expression. Eddard was kneeling on one knee in prayer, and Jory was kneeling beside him, eyes closed, murmuring.

"Has my soul been separated from my body?" Will was alarmed but couldn't control himself as he drifted toward one of the giant eyes. What did he see? In the eye, he saw storms, giants, several dragons, and green-skinned creatures with limbs like plant tendrils. These creatures were a mix of plants and humans, and then he saw the Others, with their blue eyes and icy bodies, swarming. The tendrils of the plant-people wrapped around the Others like vines, the giants' warhammers swept through, shattering the Others, and dragons roared and flew, pouring fire from the sky into the masses of the Others.

This scene was completely new to Will's memories of this world.

"Child, this is the Battle of the Dawn, the final battle between the alliance of the First Men and the Children of the Forest, the giants, and the dragons against the Others. Beneath the land you stand on, beneath Winterfell, lie the bones of countless First Men, Children of the Forest, giants, and ancient dragons. Below those bones is a great secret. Winterfell was built here to conceal this secret. Without exceptionally powerful soul energy, one cannot withstand the pressure of the many spirits beneath the earth and cannot enter the depths to uncover this secret."

The ancient, desolate voice was slow, like the dying sigh of an ancient god: "Child, you are the person with the strongest soul I have ever seen. I have finally waited for you, but with your current soul energy, you cannot yet enter the depths to retrieve the great treasure. Winter is coming, don't struggle, child. Enter my eye, and I can make your soul even more powerful."

Will was horrified: "Is the trajectory of this fantastical and cruel world changing because of my appearance? Do I have a powerful soul? Naturally, it's because my soul has merged with Will's!"

Will's body floated into the heart tree's right eye involuntarily.

The scene of dragons roaring, giants, First Men, and Children of the Forest battling the Others changed. Will was floating in a blue sky, watching as the people below, under the command of a man named Brandon Stark, built a city. Walls, watchtowers (the current burned tower), the main keep, and other structures were completed one by one. Outside the moat, there were no walls.

It turned out that the walls outside the moat at Winterfell were added by later generations of the Stark family. When Winterfell was built, there was only one set of walls, the inner walls that exist now.

The scenery changed again, and Will flew up like a giant human bird. He soared into the sky, heading north. He arrived above the Wall, where the biting cold wind threatened to scatter his transparent human soul. Will fought against the knife-like wind with all his might, and his soul energy grew stronger.

However, the icy power of the heavens and earth was ultimately beyond his ability to resist. Just as his transparent human soul was about to be scattered by the wind, a warm, intangible yet substantial air enveloped him, allowing him to catch his breath. He looked down and saw that the hundreds of miles long and seven hundred feet high Wall was gone. The burly man named Brandon Stark appeared again, leading the First Men, the giants, and quarrying massive stones, mixing them with solid ice, and with the help of dragons, began to build the Wall from both ends.

It turned out that both the Wall and Winterfell were constructed by a man named Brandon Stark, who united the First Men, the Children of the Forest, the giants, and with the help of dragons.

Brandon Stark, the builder of the city, was truly a remarkable hero, able to bring together the First Men, the giants, the Children of the Forest, and dragons to build the Wall together.

It seemed that dragons were not brought to this land by the Targaryen family across the Narrow Sea. In the Dawn Age, dragons had already appeared on this continent.

Will felt relieved. A mythical creature like the dragons had existed for at least ten thousand years, far surpassing the Targaryen family, which had only a few hundred years of history.

The Stark family, builders of the city in the Dawn Age, were equally capable of controlling dragons. The uniqueness of the Targaryen family's ability to control dragons due to their special bloodline, which had only a few hundred years of history, may not have been the only case.