CHAPTER 287 Watchmen's Doubt

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CHAPTER 287 Watchmen's Doubt

297 AC

POV THIRD PERSON

Allister couldn't believe it until he saw it. He was trying to be respectful since he knew the Druid and his power was real but an army of dead. That was something he couldn't believe without seeing one.

Aermir knew this was going to happen. This was the main reason he didn't announce the Night King was real. Some of the Northern lords and all of the Southern lords were going to act like Allister.

He sıghed and said, "Ser Allister, I understand your reluctance to believe it. But I assure you, everything I say is real. Do you not even believe your own man?"

Cotter said, "First Ranger Benjen is a respected man, but what is more plausible? Getting attacked by a White Walker or being overrun by wildlings with paint all over their body and then mistaking them as Others. After that, getting saved by you and telling tall tales to exalt you more?"

Cotter is a small man with close-set eyes and a broken nose. He has a widow's peak and a sparse, rough beard to cover his pox-scarred face. He is not handsome, but he is lean and wiry. Many had underestimated his short stature and paid dearly.

He had spent many years on the Wall, but at his core, he was a believer of the Seven, so he was having none of that. Believing White Walkers were real was close to being blasphemous to him or any other faithful.

Aermir was getting annoyed by this midget's behavior, so he released some mana, which caused them to feel oppressed. After making sure everyone felt it. Aermir lifted it from them and focused on Allister and Cotter.

"Do you think I need some Night's Watchman to sing praises for me? Do you think I am some mummer that needs attention and a crowd?"

Cotter felt like a horse was sitting on top of him. He was hardly able to lift his head halfway from the ground. He realized he had made a mistake. He had thought that, like every other lord, the Druid would try to act dignified and with manners, but this man didn't care. 

In his life, Cotter was in many life-and-death battles with Wildlings. When a fight started, he almost had an unnatural instinct to realize who was a better fighter and who was more likely to kill him.

He had felt this kind of feeling only a few times, and those times were when he faced animals like polar bears, dire wolves, or shadowcats. Those beasts saw him as prey, something to be hunted, and from This Druid's eyes, he could feel something similar, primal.

To him, Cotter was not even a human but a prey he was going to hunt. A cold sweat ran through his back, "I-I am sorry, Druid Emrys. I didn't mean to say it like that." 

Aermir's voice turned colder." Is there any other meaning to it than calling me a charlatan, a fraud?"

Aermir raised his hand and mumbled something. Then Cotter couldn't move his body. He was frozen stiff. The torches in the room started to flicker and grow dimmer and dimmer. As Aermir talked, his voice turned deeper and deeper like thunder in the sky. "Do you take me for a conjurer of cheap tricks or some back alley mummer?"

His words reverberated through the room and caused fear to bloom in the hearts of every man in there. But one man was feeling something else. Bran was almost ready to bow down to Aermir and start worshiping him. Since his green dream, he could sense all things magical more clearly. This man before them was radiant with magic right now.

Before, he only knew the Druid was a powerful magic user because the people said so, but now he could feel it in his bones. He couldn't see it, but it felt like he was inside an intense inferno, and The Druid was the eye of that blazing storm. It felt like he was inches away from a great fire; he could feel the radiating heat but couldn't see it.

Jear Mormont managed to get up with some hardship since Aermir's aura was not bearing down on him. He walked up to them and kneeled on one knee before him. 

"Oh, the voice of the Old Gods, please forgive those incompetent and foolish subordinates of mine. I beg of you, they didn't know what they were saying. It was not them talking, but their foolish faith was talking. They are good man, and they are indispensable men for the Wall. Their oaths bind them to do the bidding of the Old Gods since we all know it was their power that erected the Wall."

He lowered himself and got on one knee, "Please let those fools serve the Wall for the rest of their lives."

The aura disappeared as it appeared without any sign, but the menacing tone in Aermir's voice didn't disappear, "Today, two fools will be spared thanks to their faithful and selfless commander, but there will be no second time."

When Aermir declared that both Allister and Cotter managed to breathe again, especially Cotter, he could feel his life sliding across his eyes until a few seconds ago. At that moment, his faith in the Seven was broken. Even when he lost his house and was exiled here after the Rebellion, he hadn't lost his faith, but this moment made it sure for him. Even if the Seven was real, it was certain for him that the Seven had abandoned them, and here at the North, the Old Gods reined supreme.

...

After talking to the Castle commanders of the Night's Watch, it confirmed his suspicions. If even these weak Night's Watchmen commanders were disrespecting him and distrusting him like this, he didn't want to guess what the Lords of Westeros would do when they heard about the Night King and his army.

Aermir realized he needed to find one and display it in front of the lords, but catching one was not easy. To do that, he had to stop everything he was doing, scour the Far North, and find a group of stragglers since approaching the main army could be dangerous for him. Aermir gave this mission to Skadi. First, she had to discover some, and when she did, he could decide what to do. 

Aermir had many things to do. He had to find a wight, dig the tunnel under Winterfell, and finish the channel, and the mountain clan army was getting restless. He had to turn back to Vale. When he fought with Night King, Aermir realized he could not travel around beyond the Wall arrogantly. He had to get more powerful. Right now, he was nothing in front of Night King, but all was not lost.

From that confrontation, he had gained one thing. In his arrogance, Night King had exposed one more of his weaknesses: dragon glass. He had to find a way to procure more of those things and continue his experimentation with alchemy.