Chapter 24: Wights

The haunted forest is a vast forest beyond the Wall in northern Westeros. Located beyond the Seven Kingdoms, it is inhabited by the free folk and is bounded to the west by the Frostfangs and to the east by the Shivering Sea and the Bay of Seals. North of the haunted forest is the unmapped Land of Always Winter.

It was a pain to look for Bran and Rickon Stark in such a large region for Rhaego. It was much easier to find wights.

Wights were dead men or creatures resurrected by Others through necromancy, seemingly when touched by the cold that accompanies them. Anyone who fell against the Others had to be burned, or else the dead would rise again as their thralls.

The appearance of wights depended on the condition of the corpse when it was raised. Some were lifelike, while others were badly rotten although the process of decay has been halted. All were easily identified by their eyes having turned bright blue like two blue stars, and their hands and feet black and swollen with pooled and congealed blood.

Unlike Others, wights were slow and clumsy. Wights had a queer, cold scent that can panic living animals if they caught a whiff of it. It appeared that wights retain at least some of their former memories. Wights could remain in a state of stasis, lying in wait to attack. Others rode dead horses as their steeds.

Being dead, wights felt no pain and would continue to fight regardless of injury. Though they could be stopped by total dismemberment, their limbs could continue to move if detached from their bodies. When a wight was destroyed, the blue disappeared from its eyes.

Wights were flammable and quickly consumed if set aflame. It was unknown if they are vulnerable to dragonglass, or if they could cross the Wall on their own. The burning of corpses prevented them from being reanimated by the Others, so the free folk who lived beyond the Wall burned their dead.

Rhaego decided to hunt down some wights, instead of risking the Stark kids from dying from an ambush because of some butterfly effect. He was unsure if the three-eye crow could predict the future much more accurately with history-changing so much. He would conduct experiments on the wights while hunting them down. He found out dragonglass was effective on them.

"If only death can pay for life, why can the others resurrect the dead without necessarily paying the price? Unless killing people count as a sacrifice and they can 'stock' it like some life credit to resurrect them."Rhaego theorized with himself. "I am more prone to believe that their magic uses the could as a cataclysm instead of life to resurrect the dead. It would explain while the Night King is biding his time to attack the wall."

Rhaego tried to see if he could 'purify' the magic in the wights for his own use. He theorized that if the magic in the wights is ice and his magic is fire he may be able to extract 'water' from it. So he buried several wights with only their faces above ground and started the testing phase.

He took a wight above ground and with impeccable precision in his flames, he burned all the creature's superficial area. As he closed his eyes, he could feel the vitality within the flames as the cold magic merged with the flames it formed a small stream of vitality that got quickly dispersed in the smoke.

"So that's why their magic flames push the red priests so much to fight the others. They are a 'meal' nearly as good to the flame as the living, and the priests would not need to be that reserved in 'enjoying this meal'. " Rhaego said to himself.

He repeated the process, but this time he took water from melted ice and tried to control it into taking the vitality from the smoke, but he failed. He tried again and failed. After several attempts, he could finally extract the vitality without extracting the cold. And so he created a vitality potion.

For the lack of a bottle, the let the potion float around him. He decided to make more potions. Soon, there was a giant drop double his size on top of his head. 'It's good magic and concentration training.' Rhaego thought. He flew a while longer until he found a trail. He landed on the ground and turned back into his human form.

"Calm down kiddos. This skin-changer come in peace." Rhaego said, while he took a large drop of water and used it to cover his privates. 'Being a Dragonoid is surely great. I feel like I am freezing in this cold, but I am overall completely fine and far from hypothermia.'

"Why should we follow you?" Meera Reed, who might be the boldest of the group asked me.

"I don't think you have much choice. I would suggest you follow me instead of looking for the Brynden Rivers or the three-eye crow as he is known nowadays. Who might as well have orchestrated the whole tragedy in your life just to have a 'successor'. He may even have faked Jojen Reed's green sight. You may not know this. After all, following me you may at least have a chance to walk, Brandon."

Rhaego snapped his fingers, and he threw a bit of the potion at Jojen Reed's mouth forcing him to swallow it. As Jojen regained some vitality, his eyes shined with new color, and he cried. So the boy was no longer in his dying state.

"Does that mean I no longer am fated to die?" Jojen asked while Meera hugged him tightly.

"I guess so." Rhaego said.

"What is the price of all this?" Bran asked with some wisdom.

"You only need to swear fealty to the iron throne..."Rhaego said.

"To who..."Bran asked.

"Isn't it obvious to house Targaryen or more specifically to my mother Queen Daenerys Targaryen."

"Targaryen?"Meera asked.

"Yes, a lot of things happened in Westeros while you were on this dangerous journey that would only let you to a man with a body stuck in a tree. West of Essos and Westeros now serve house Targaryen." Rhaego said.

"But prince, why are you looking for a Stark?"Meera asked.

"They may be traitors like all houses in the North, but they are less worst than the Bolton, that I would not trust to even take care of dogs. Considering that your house had the best excuse to join the rebellion, we decided to give you a bit of clemency. Though, the Starks shall no longer be wardens."Rhaego said.

He then more water and used it to pierce the skin of Bran's legs, soon after he pushed the potion into the boy's bloodstream. As he did not know the exact location of Bran's nerves he made the vitality circulate around the boy's legs until a point of saturation. It consumed a lot of the potion. To test the effect, he pinched Bran's foot.

"Ouch!"Bran shouted.

"The treatment worked fine. As you can see, you can feel your legs again. You only need to get used to using your legs again, but I guess these two can help you with that." Rhaego said.

"I am prepared to swear fealty, prince?"Bran said.

"Rhaego Targaryen is my name."Rhaego said with all have some doubts, but avoiding to said them to not offend their 'life savior'."But you must do this in the presence of the queen, Knight Bran." Rhaego said

"Knight?"Bran asked.

"It is the price for house Stark helping the Usurper in the rebellion. Your house standing was reduced to the Landed Knights of Winter Town, which is a much more gentle term than we gave the Tullys, as we let them keep their castle without the land. So your uncle Edmund now runs an inn named Correrrio." Rhaego said.

He then left for a bit to look at Bryden's location. The raven tried to defend, but he failed as Rhaergo burned the tree connected to him, ending his life. He had no use for an annoying hive mind. He then found the kids again and transported all except Coldhands in his claws, while flying. Obviously, he did not let them ride on his back, that spot was special to dragons.

As he returned the kids to Winterfell, he made sure to get proper bottles for his potion and went out and flew all the way to Dorne. He decided to heal his father-in-law. By water, he remembered he had gout, which is caused by too much uric acid in the blood.

The process took a long time and a lot of his potions, nearly as much as Bran's healing. He used the potion not only to increase Doran's vitality but to expel the uric acid in him.

"The treatment is offered. Soon you will be able to walk again. Father-in-law you must stop drinking alcohol as the illness may return. This incredible potion needs material that is not rare now, but that will go scarce soon. "Rhaego said.

"What is this miraculous ingredient? " Doran asked. He thought it may be something expensive like Saffron.

"Wights" Rhaego said.

"What?"

"Wights, you know about the others?"

"Isn't it some northern legend?"

"No, that things are actually infesting the land beyond the wall. They might try to take the Wall in the near future. The real others might make better ingredients than wights, but I was not lucky to find any of them beyond the wall so I was not able to test it. Bye, father-in-law. I need to rejoin mother and my wife."

He tested the potion on an unsullied volunteer. If put into the nether region, with enough amount it could even regrow their lost genitals. Rhaego was happy for them, he always pitied the unsullied.

With this he could finally award his mother's most loyal army, in the long run, if they remain fertile, it would allow the unsullied army to be gradually regrown with reproduction. Soon, the frenetic wights' hunt began.