New chapter is live.
Settle in, take your time, and let’s see what waits in the dark 🖤 ✦ Aeg was making things up, but not entirely.
From what Aeg remembered, Westeros lay on a round world somewhat larger than Earth, with a greater share of land.
His own experience did not contradict that.
Judging by the feel of the air and gravity, this world was remarkably similar to Earth.
If those old memories held true here, then beyond the western ocean of Westeros there might well be continents or large islands.
No one would believe him if he claimed to be a transmigrator.
More importantly, his knowledge of the story and of its major players was the greatest advantage he had.
Those two secrets could not be told.
That made the vast, largely unknown Sunset Sea off Westeros’s western coast a perfect place to hide a false origin.
This story about coming from across the ocean was not something Aeg had invented on the spot.
He had used it when explaining himself to his brothers in the Night’s Watch.
Its greatest strength was simple: no one could disprove it.
If he needed to add customs, history, or culture later, he could do so by claiming they belonged to his distant homeland.
The voyage around the world, however, was an improvisation born during the feast.
Its purpose was simple: give Tyrion a mystery worth pursuing and turn that curiosity into a possible path out of the Night’s Watch.
By presenting himself as an educated traveler who had helped finance a great expedition, Aeg hinted at wealth and standing without clumsily claiming noble birth.
The lie explained his foreign face, knowledge, and manners while narrowing the distance between a common black brother and a Lannister lord.
Aeg had never considered himself a liar, a braggart, or a man who enjoyed posturing.
But if his life depended on it, if he could keep living, then he would lie to every person in the world without hesitation.
* * * One man, desperate to escape the black brothers, was doing his best to make himself seem worth helping.
Meanwhile, Jon, who wanted to join the Watch, had already fitted most of the broken swords together and noticed the problem.
“The way these swords broke is strange,” Jon Snow said, looking at the blades he had nearly restored to their original shape.
He saw the oddity, though he lacked the words to explain it.
“A weapon forged from steel should not break like this.” “Exactly.
Under ordinary circumstances, the metal around a break would usually show some distortion.” Aeg supplied the terms Jon lacked.
Better still, the observation had come from Jon rather than from him.
“These fractures mark where the blades met the Other’s weapon.
The ice magic robbed the steel of its ductility and toughness until it became brittle enough to shatter on impact.” Jon stared at the two swords on the table.
At last, he understood why Benjen had warned him.
“This is absurd,” Tyrion said.
He had little interest in the broken swords.
He did not know, and did not much care, how a steel blade should break under normal conditions.
The supposed new continent interested him far more.
Though he did not believe everything Aeg said, instinct told him that the explanation for the man’s origin was not entirely false.
Almost despite himself, he felt indignant on Aeg’s behalf.
“You come from a continent unknown to us, which should make you the most important guest Westeros has received in a thousand years, and the moment you set foot on shore, a band of northerners dragged you off to guard the Wall?
Are you content to spend your life north of the North, in that cold corner of nowhere?” “No,” Aeg said.
“But what can I do?” “I will find a way to help you leave.” ‘Gods, that was generous.’ Aeg nearly choked on his own breath.
This was exactly the result he wanted, but it had come far too easily and far too quickly.
Had his luck finally turned after all the suffering?
“My lord, I am grateful for your kindness.
But in the history of Westeros, has any man ever become a brother of the Night’s Watch and then returned to ordinary life?” “Not that I know of.” Tyrion shrugged.
“After a man swears the oath, he either remains a black brother for life or becomes a deserter.
There is no third road.
But I said I would help you leave.
I did not say I would help you take off the black.” “Is there a difference?” “Let me tell you a story.
Once there was a nobleman who backed the wrong claimant in a struggle for the throne.
When his cause was defeated, he had little choice but to take the black.
Years later, the man he had supported won the crown.
The black brother returned to his family seat in the name of gathering food and supplies for the Watch.
There he lived like any other lord—eating, drinking, bedding women—and never saw the Wall again before he died.” ✦ ✦ ✦ Want to keep going?
I hope this chapter gave you another reason to stay with the story.
There’s still plenty ahead, and things are only starting to unfold.