My blind optimism to blame

[reddosmod]

APRIL 2022 EVENT

IMAGE DESCRIPTORS IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE
Prompt One
[Image One: A large green butterfly.]
[Image Two: A woman staring in a daze at light orbs floating around her face.]

Prompt Two
[Image One: A volcano with meteors falling down around it.]
[Image Two: A ball of quivering light hovering in the dark with woman standing in front.]

Prompt Three
[Image One: A woman staring at a mirror-like humanoid being staring back at her.]
[Image Two: A woman in a field of grass with humanoid-shaped flower sculptures nearby.]

[NAVIGATION]

Prompt 1 • Prompt 2 • Prompt 3 • Plotting • Newsletter

[JUMP TO COMMENTS]

MIGRATION OF MOONLIT BUTTERFLIES

WHEN: April
WHERE: Everywhere outside
CONTENT WARNINGS: Hopelessness/corruption, heavy themes of mental trauma/health, killing of gentle creatures.

---

Excerpt from BEASTS OF DEER COUNTRY Chapter 12: Migrations:

"One of the most beautiful natural phenomena of Deer Country is the migration of the mysterious Moonlit Butterflies. These giant creatures are most often the size of a house, with exceptional wingspans. Fear not: they are not violent creatures. Most will fly well above the city of Trench, leaving trails of glittering orbs of light that fall all throughout the city. However, it is common for some Moonlit Butterflies to land and rest throughout Trench. Despite their massive size, these creatures appear to weigh very little, able to rest harmlessly on homes, lampposts, and the like. Don't be surprised to find some scattered throughout your neighborhood.

They have a gentle aura about them and are most famous for their behemoth wings which glow a radiant green. They are aptly named due to their ability to store immense power from the moon during April and are seen as distant children of Argonaut. Being near them will enchant the air with the scent of amber and fresh linen, and you may hear a soothing song emit from these beasts.

Despite their rare and incredible beauty, it is wise to not linger in their presence no matter how captivating they are...And they are captivating. Many residents of Trench have been known to stop and stare, enthralled by the wings or the orbs of light that are shed by the butterflies. Those who have been staring for too long will have an unnatural glowing green glaze over their eyes, obscuring their pupil and gaze. This is known as the Moonlit Drain.

These butterflies do not gather all of their energy from moonlight...but they gather it from hopeful beings as well. It is why they gather among populations of sentient beings. They soak up all hope in the area and the longer you stand in their presence, the more hopeless you may become. Standing in the presence of a Moonlit Butterfly has driven people to rapid, severe corruption in under ten minutes. It is best to avoid these butterflies no matter how mesmerizing they may be to look at.

The little orbs of light are actual manifestation of everyone's hope. Touching them may restore hope and they can be gathered into jars for future treatments of corruption. They do not "go bad" as they are the essence of emotion. One way to restore hope to a corrupt or beast-ridden soul is to slay one of the Moonlit Butterflies. They are incredibly easy to kill as they are naturally delicate and non-hostile.

Be warned: the one who slays a Moonlit Butterfly will be consumed with instantaneous corruption and possibly even beasthood. But once the butterfly has been slain, anyone in the surrounding area besides the killer will have corruption alleviated. Killing a Moonlit Butterfly has been known to fill people with incredible grief and guilt. Few have survived."

WONDERKIND

WHEN: April
WHERE: Everywhere outside
CONTENT WARNINGS: Possible spoilers per canon, time/vortex style presence, variety of possible monsters.

---

Excerpt from an essay titled "The Wonderkind Pthumerian" from the book The Curious Nature of the Weakest Pthumerian: Argonaut and Misconceptions:

"Most of the other Patron Pthumerians are known for exceptional strength and durability during trying times. It is only Argonaut in which people think of weakness. They believe the Patron to be a fickle, tiny thing with little worth, but there is a unique and powerful quality to Argonaut that should not be overlooked.

This is the phenomenon known as Wonderkind. It has only been known to happen once every few years and only ever during April, but those who have seen it would testify to the hidden strengths of our explorer Patron. There is much to be said about curiosity and resilience, after all. Argonaut has wandered through the lives of many without most ever realizing it. He has likely seen into your own life, curious about the odd Sleepers that show up on the shores of this world.

Wonderkind appears as a meteor shower, but these are no meteors. Balls of flaming light will fall from the sky, silent, beautiful, striking, and somewhat ominous and terrifying. They rain upon Trench in intervals throughout April. They do not crash into the city so much as glide throughout. These balls of light are shimmering orbs that have split open time and space itself into unraveling cocoons, exposing portals into worlds foreign to this one.

These portals cannot be entered for they are not portals out of this world...But portals into this world. Sleepers have claimed to find beloved items and pull them out of these portals. Some may find old pets that come out to greet them. It can be a lucky and cherished event for many. Tragically, these portals do not seem to be able to bring in sentient beings applicable characters, but you may be able to talk briefly to a loved one who isn't yet in this world.

But that's not all that can crawl through these portals...Monsters from other worlds have been known to flock to these portals and make their way through. Monsters from your worlds or other worlds slip in to wreak havoc on the streets of Trench. It is during this time that it is of the utmost importance that our Hunters take up arms and protect the vulnerable. If you recognize the monsters or disasters from your world entering ours, then please, make sure to caution those against it.

The portals close after a few hours and cannot be manually closed by anyone. Nothing can be sent into portals, but one can stand by a portal and guard it for potential dangers. Portals from your world may reappear several times throughout the month, so don't let your guard down for even a moment, and always expect the worst even when hoping for the best."

Quick Facts:

1. Respect the setting. Do not bring in monsters that would be capable of destroying the world/city/etc.

2. Things like unique plants/items can be gained through these portals.

3. You do not need to engage with portals from your own canon. You can invent new worlds, engage with other canons, or alternate universes. It's up to you.

FROM WITHIN AND WITHOUT

WHEN: April
WHERE: Everywhere
CONTENT WARNINGS: Instant beasthood, corruption of soul, draining of soul, replication of soul, mistreatment of sex workers/night walkers.

---

An excerpt from a journal kept by a Night Walker named Charlotte Finch. Finch was known for being one of the first established Night Walkers and was known for her advocacy on the front of Night Walker work and its relationship to beasthood. This journal is kept in the Archives. It contains content pertinent to Beasthood yet, unfortunately, due to ongoing biases against Night Walkers, this journal is kept in the autobiography section rather than the section for beasthood. Good luck finding it.

"the job of the Night Walker is, of course, undervalued by this world. we do our best to soothe the troubled souls of this place and yet they continue to doubt our worth. what must we do to convince them? must we wield blades to show them how we fight? must we shed blood to prove our dedication? must we pick up books to show our intelligence? nei, we not do that. we sleep beside our worn hunters and rest heads upon the chests of scholars and hold the tired hands of architects. we guide the way to light in a way disciples could never.

all us are valuable, it be true, but why must the night walker be left to the wayside? why must our duties be written off? why must it be that it always a night walkers blood in the streets that leaves no tears to be shed? nei, nei, it is hatred of those who understand the soul and body have a close connection.

you know what i believe? these souls of ours change the landscape of our bodies. you cannot have one without the other. when the soul is corrupt, it only be natural that the body corrupts, turning rigid and hideous and monsterous and beastly. aye yes i have seen it myself, though none of the others believe except for other night walkers.

you see, there is a shape that comes to us in the Long Night of april, a shape much like our own. looking like a person ought to look but with no face and no features, like a mirror glimmering in the shape of you. they look like us, and they will mimic us. these odd mirror beings is the shape of our soul, you see, and once it finds you, it will copy you, and you will be driven mad! mad! how does this thing move as you move? how does it replicate what you replicate?

aye, it is your soul, my friend. your soul in a shape you can see. or something like it, may not soul be in your lexicon. it is you, as you are it. it is the Tether between you and beasthood, see what i say. the Tether will begin to soak into you if you let it, if you let it consume you, and it will consume you rapidly. people have been known to be ravaged by the Tether and turn into beasts within seconds, AYE yes, seconds, not minutes, into a vicious beast. the Tether wins.

But you need not let it be a victor, my friend. you see, we proved it, we did, us night walkers, we proved to lay with the Tether is to soothe the Tether. Allow yourself the kindness of another soul, another companion. touch and feel and express companionship. holding the hand of your lover or your friend or your brother or sister will cause the Tethers to weaken before ye very eyes! i do swear it, my friend, i should not lie on a subject i hold so dear.

you see, when we hold one another dear, when we cherish one anothr truly and wholly, we abate the darkness in our souls. listen to your companions, my sweet friends, and let your souls heal, and you can stop the Tether from consuming. you see, you see. surely you see. this is what it looks like. the Tether is always with us, but only in April under this moon can we see it always and will it be vicious and invasive. do not allow it.

do not allow it."

Quick Facts:

1. Tethers will take the exact body shape/size of you and mimic your moves. They may follow you around for several hours/days. Once they decide to "consume" you, it will be quick. It will essentially look like your body is turning metallic and then you become a beast.

While Charlotte states it happens in a matter of seconds, this can happen in several hours/days as well. Depends on the character and their general resolve.

2. People can be pulled back from this through emotional support whether verbally or physically and general acts of kindness. It's the sincerity that matters here. You do not need to be familiar with the person to help them.

3. Everyone can see each other's Tethers so you can determine how severe someone's Tether has become. The more severe the Tether, the more silvery the impacted person will look.

4. Tethers cannot be destroyed with weaponry/attacks. Trying will only hurt the person they are mimicking. You could actually kill someone by trying to "kill" their Tether. The tether will vanish with those who died but reappear once they have reincarnated.

CODING

Comments

iii.

[dohaeris]

[sansa blinks at the man on her doorstep. he looks.......silvery, and he's acting...defeated. something is very wrong here. in the house behind her, lady barks.]

I don't need your things, I need your help. Are you well? Come inside.

[is there something...behind him? she tries to peer around him, then gasps and reaches for his arm.]

Come inside very quickly.

[hearthebell]

[L's found Sansa, and it's a testament to the shape he's in that he's broken his typical habit of not asking for help, or daring to darken the threshold of someone's door with his rather bad-luck presence.

The bad luck seems likely to continue.]

No; no I'm not well. But...

[He glances over his shoulder at the tether, the weirdly solid shadow that just continues to follow him and wait. The sweet-faced girl in front of him is the obvious choice of the two to reach for; he does so, entering her home.

Too bad the tether won't be shut out. It stands in the glow of a moon orb, quiet, shaped like a question mark just like its Sleeper.]

[dohaeris]

[sansa's been walking the streets treating corruption all month, and when she's not treating corruption she's very often working and chatting with old night walkers. she knows how this goes.

so she glares briefly at the tether and hugs lazarus, tightly.]

You came here because you knew I would help without you having to ask.

[this is a guess. but she's guessing, too, that he would be more impressed if she framed it as a statement of fact, and she's been in the habit of trying to impress clever men. she doesn't even realize she's doing it (or she might stop herself).]

I expect it will work better if you hug me back.

[hearthebell]

[L was a nightwalker, briefly. Some parts of it did not suit him, to a comical degree; others were custom made for his predilections, to the point where one would be forgiven for understanding the mad impulse that drove him to choose it in the first place.

He did a lot of listening in that career track; not much touching. He seizes and stiffens when Sansa reaches for him and envelops him in an embrace. He's tense and afraid because of it, but there's also something wound deep in his chest that seems to loosen slightly when her arms and shoulders press against him.]

You're not wrong... I had a feeling that you would.

[And he's only a little bit ashamed, so great is his need.]

I don't really know how to hug. Is it truly alright if I try?

[dohaeris]

[sansa nods a general yes.]

You would have asked, otherwise.

[it's reassuring to be around a man that doesn't seem to want to touch her, even if that's not what's needed right now. once she might have questioned how someone might never have learned to hug, but it barely registers to her any more. she's grateful, too, that he asks, even though she already said yes. it makes him feel safer. she relaxes a little.]

It's truly all right if you hug me. It's not all right if you allow yourself to be consumed by that shadow...thing.

[hearthebell]

[L moves through the world in a way that suggests he's both very disrespectful of his surroundings, and paradoxically very afraid of affecting or changing them in any way. He touches things lightly, skulks instead of strides, and always, always assumes that his touch is not wanted, even when it's invited or asked for.

So he hugs her back. It's an awkward thing; he's taller than she is, standing at a scrawny and hunched 5'10". Though their arms and shoulders touch, there's a fair amount of distance between their bodies. It seems to work, however; the shade is retreating, and oh yes, L notices. Comprehension lights up his dark eyes and he squeezes her a little tighter against the painful, sharp brace of his collarbones.]

[dohaeris]

[sansa is only a little shorter than 5'10", though sometimes she seems to shrink in on herself, and she had not even been that tall the last time she hugged her father or older brothers. of course, even jon snow knew how to give proper hugs, unless he was being very sullen. she shuts her eyes and hugs lazarus the way she'd like to hug jon snow, now.

soon batkitten visenya flutters in from the back room, curious about this new visitor and emboldened by the momentary stillness. she circles the pair of them, sniffing at his hair. sansa lifts her head and laughs gently.]

Don't worry, she's already eaten.

[visenya attempts some gentle nosing of his hair. the hug, still, is a little awkward, and sansa has a lady's instinct to try and put him at his ease.]

I told you I'd tell you about my world. Well, I only know a very little of it. I come from the North, in the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros. It's meant to be one realm, with one king, ever since Aegon conquered it. The Iron Islands had conquered the Riverlands, when he came, and they were all fighting over the Crownlands, so there were seven. Including Dorne, which he didn't conquer. The Targaryens, Aegon's house, kept trying to conquer Dorne, but King Daeron the Good had to send his sister to marry the prince of Dorne, and he married a lady of that house, for Dorne to join the Seven Kingdoms. The other lands are the Vale, where I was, and the Stormlands, the Westerlands, and the Reach. The Storm King was the one who started the war, really. He wanted to marry his daughter to Aegon, who was just the lord of Dragonstone then, except Aegon was already married. So he sent an envoy to say the Storm King's daughter could marry his friend Orrys Baratheon, instead. The Storm King killed the envoy and sent his hand back to Dragonstone in a box, saying that was the only hand he'd give to Orrys Baratheon, and not his daughter's, in marriage. They say Aegon prayed for seven days and seven nights, and then he decided to conquer all of Westeros with his dragon Balerion, and his wives Rhaenys and Visenya on their dragons too. I called my kitten Visenya because I thought they looked like little dragons with their wings. I was going to name her after one of the dragons, but none of the ones I could think of seemed to suit.

[hearthebell]

[The hug is awkward but lingers for all the good it's doing. As it abides, the appearance of the creature contrasts with the calm by being startling, but like a child watching an adult to gauge their own reaction, L takes Sansa's ease with it as a reassurance, nodding his shaggy head even as he continues to watch Visenya with no small measure of wariness.

He understands even less than what Sansa knows as she tells him. He has enough context to piece together a crude imagining, though, broad concepts like king and conquer serving as starting points to form an outsider's interested but limited perspective.]

I see...

[And he does; his retention for knowledge is truly remarkable.]

Do you think of Aegon as a hero? Or his wife, for her to be your pet's namesake?

[dohaeris]

[sansa laughs softly. visenya attempts to land on his head.]

I don't know that there are any heroes, not truly. If there was one in the Conquest it was Torrhen Stark, the King Who Knelt. [a brief pause.] My ancestor. He saw the Field of Fire where the three dragons burned the massed armies of the Westerlands and the Reach, and he surrendered to spare his men.

[she sighs.]

Aegon was no worse than any of the other kings in the South, who were always fighting. Rhaenys and Visenya were interesting. I like the story of how Visenya won the Vale--the king was only a little boy, and he gave over the kingdom for a ride on her dragon. Of course there was a Queen Regent, but it's said she and Visenya only laughed together, because they both had sons. Visenya was said to be quite stern otherwise. She had a sword called Dark Sister, and fought as well as Aegon. I always liked Rhaenys better, but my sister liked Visenya. In truth I called my kitten Visenya because I thought it was what Arya might have chosen. She--the kittens reminded me of her, but I didn't want to call my kitten Arya, in case she came here.

[her smile turns wry.]

I would tell her it was because of the Vale, though.

[she was, in a way, trying to conquer it herself. she would certainly have to win it back from littlefinger if she ever went home, to have any hope of reclaiming the north. and visenya won it with kindness and cleverness, not dark sister.]

[hearthebell]

That's a refreshingly nuanced take on it.

[And he means that. He comes from a world where everything is shades of grey, too.]

If your sister Arya turns up, I'll do you the favor of keeping the story consistent.

[He owes her that much, for hugging him like this. The silver is subsiding, its strangeness ebbing away into his still odd more less alarming appearance.]

I didn't have siblings. I don't know what it's like... it's a deep sort of platonic love, right?

[dohaeris]

[sansa refrains from mentioning that rhaenys, aegon, and visenya were all siblings. she also refrains from asking how he never managed to get an impression of sibling relationships secondhand. instead she nods.]

Yes, when a family's good, it is--the best friends anybody could ever have. Friends who love you better than anyone and would never, ever leave you if they could help it. When they tease you, you laugh, because...it only goes to show how well they know you. But when they're cruel, it wounds you, because you know they're meant to love you. And some families can be very cruel.

[she wasn't totally oblivious to the lannister family drama that had been unfolding around her in king's landing, but it's the cleganes she's thinking of here, for the most part.]

[hearthebell]

[L's odd for many reasons. The obvious surface ones, of corse, but also the mundane and seemingly universal experiences that he seems to have little to no knowledge or intuition concerning. He leans into accounts of those like someone cold to a campfire, with a sort of seeping hunger that is difficult to place and harder to satisfy.]

I haven't heard that teasing can be done to show someone that you know them well, out of love. I've always heard it framed as cruel. But families are composed of individuals... I'm sure you've experienced some of both.

[dohaeris]

[sansa laughs a little. she doesn't exactly know how to explain teasing someone out of love, though she found herself doing it to arya almost immediately through the portal.]

Oh, I think it's meant to make you laugh--that's only how it makes you feel. My family was only ever good, except for my aunt, who was mad. [well, and sweetrobin, but he was only ever stupid and unpleasant.] Arya could play quite cruel japes sometimes, but she was little then, and when I saw her in the portal, she only teased me out of love. I have known people to be badly hurt by their siblings, though. And more of them by their parents.

[she thinks of adaine before lord tyrion, here. and she wants to ask lazarus about his world, but she did promise she'd tell him about hers.]

My family ruled the North for thousands of years by being like Torrhen. Our words are 'Winter is Coming." It's meant to remind us to prepare for any trouble. Our duty has always been to see the North through the winter, ever since the days of Bran the Builder. He was the first King in the North, and he built the massive wall of ice at our northern border to keep out the White Walkers--horrible monsters made of ice who commanded armies of the dead and hated all that lived. My ancestors beat them back to the Land of Always Winter in the Battle for the Dawn. My brother Jon Snow leads the Night's Watch, that guards the Wall against them.

[her tone is light and a little wry. she smiles.]

You can understand why I wouldn't want the necromancy teacher to know who I am.

[hearthebell]

[L has news about the portals. He will wait for an opportune time, since Sansa is still in the process of pulling him back from the tether that means to consume him. It seems to be growing weaker; its hold on him is not as fierce, and it seems to be fading away.

Something actually going his way, this month? Absurd, yet welcome.]

Yes, that... I do know. People can be very badly hurt by their families.

[It's the middle ground, of affectionate damage, that he struggles to grasp, but he's really trying.

When she mentions the Night Walkers and gives some explanation as to what they are, he stiffens.]

There are many reasons to wish for this particular necromancy teacher not to know, I'd think... but that's hardly the least of them.

[dohaeris]

[sansa frowns. she had told adaine he reminded her of littlefinger, but in truth sometimes she thought she imagined the resemblance. he was just...friendly, as petyr had been friendly, once.]

What other reasons?

[it occurs to her this topic of conversation might not be as healing. she hugs him more tightly, as if to make up for it.]

I only know a few other lands in my world. Essos, across the Narrow Sea, has the Free Cities and the Slave Cities and the Shadow, and then the Jade Sea with Qarth on one side and Yi Ti on the other, so that everything we get from Yi Ti goes through Qarth, or Vaes Dothrak over land, from the Dothraki. That was where Arya was, in Braavos. It's the Free City that's closest to Westeros, along with Pentos, so that everything we trade goes through there. It looked nicer, and cleaner than King's Landing, but I was never allowed at the docks.

[it wouldn't have been safe, anyway.]

I did find a book about the lands around the Jade Sea, and it was very interesting. Asshai-by-the-Shadow reminds me a little of this place. They say it's always night in the shadow and it poisons the river Ash as it runs through it, so that nothing can live in it or grow alongside it. They have to have all their water as well as their food imported from elsewhere. They say nothing is forbidden in Asshai, and they know very much of magic, even blood magic, but it doesn't say what it is or what the shadowbinders do, aside from 'binding shadows to their will.'

[she pauses, considering.]

There was a story about a man who tempered his blade with his wife's blood, and then it burst into flames. Someone had marked it out.

[it's jon's book, and maester aemon marked the passage about azor ahai for him, but sansa doesn't know that.]

[hearthebell]

["Alayne" perhaps sells her instincts short. Though L can come across very much like a kicked puppy, there's a shrewdness and a sharpness to him. Those things are not imagined, even if they happen to work in one's favor.

He's coy about his knowledge, though. He shifts in her arms; she can probably feel the bones creaking against each other.]

Reasons a dreamwalker could know, I think. There are things seen only at night when one's guard is well down.

[Sansa is a paleblood, but he's not sure if this is one of her particular talents. It's his primary one, perhaps taking points away from a potential gift for prophecy. It's never worked out for him the way he was told it should.

It's strange to hear someone speaking of only a few lands in their world. He grew up with globes and maps and a jetset life; he knows exactly the size of the world and what is there.

He also understands, implicitly, the reason "Alayne" was not allowed near the docks. It's a simple matter of reading her appearance and sex accurately; sailors aren't known for their chivalry, however young the mark.]

The Archives contain a multitude of volumes. I've been researching for you, as promised, and I've seen that book.

[dohaeris]

[sansa was not allowed outside the red keep. her sole experience with the people of king's landing had left the impression that there was little in it safer than the docks would have been. what was remarkable was that arya had seemed wholly at ease on the docks in braavos, that girls in bright dresses and clean-aproned fishwives walked among the sailors laughing and haggling.

the house in gaze had shaken lady, enough so that sansa wouldn't dare send her over there again. she's hesitant to send ravens until she knows it won't trigger any wards or curses. she may have gotten the wrong idea of what he meant by 'dreamwalker.' she pulls her head from his shoulder and frowns.]

I could never send Lady over there, it's too dangerous. I don't even want to send a raven until I know what all the curses are, but I've only seen Kaworu since the party, and I doubt he knows more than he told me already.

[he didn't seem to think there was any reason to hide any of it, and he didn't seem to know very much about it, so that it wasn't worth the risk that he mention she'd been asking questions to the necromancer or anyone. more tentatively:]

Have you found much in the Archives, besides the Jade Compendium?

[she could name the various island nations westeros trades with, and say a little about the summer islands, but she thought perhaps he wouldn't like to hear about the whalers of ib, given his omen. and she was afraid she'd sound vapid, only listing what each of them bought and sold.

and she would've explained about sothoryos, but she's distracted now.]

[hearthebell]

That's right... your situation as a paleblood isn't quite the same as mine, is it? You have the wolf and the raven. Regardless... I'd concur, it's not worth getting mixed up in his dreams. Not if you can help it.

[He nods, seeming relieved for a shift to something he's got well in hand. He seems less silver, more solid, and his tether has retreated sulkily to the door, staved off for the moment.]

Some maps, with the names of places you've told me on them. A few songs and stories, and some histories as well that corroborate names and titles. I can safely say that what you saw was real, that day.

[dohaeris]

[sansa draws a breath, she can feel her eyes begin to fill with tears.]

Truly?

[no, that's stupid. he has no reason to lie. or does he? would he think it a kindness?]

Were the bubbles from my own world, and not only one that looked very like it?

[she has heard enough people talk about vastly different 'earths' to consider the possibility. she draws another breath.]

Bran said my power with Lady and the ravens came from my own world. It was taken from me when Lady was. I learned to make the bloodstones, here. Perhaps in time I could learn more.

[hearthebell]

[He stares, seeming mystified by her emotional reaction. He often is; it's not like he had to interface with the people he's worked for very much in the past.]

I've cross-referenced all the consistencies I could find, as well as the experiences of others who dealt with the portals. Including my own... the monster that came through one of them and attacked me was real enough. There's every reason to accept that you really spoke with your brother, and that what he reported to you was true. Therefore... there's no reason you couldn't continue to learn, I'd think, especially if you've been reunited with your wolf in Trench in some manner.

[dohaeris]

[sansa nods, and hesitates.]

I saw a famous dragon come out of a portal, and it took my friend Allen as a rider, only I know from my lessons that Aegon the Elder found its corpse after his own dragon killed and ate it.

[could it be a sort of copy, like their new bodies were sort of copies, or was it a different grey ghost, from a different dragonstone, that never returned?

does it matter? is it enough to know that her little siblings lived in another world? but then if she ever went back, would they still be dead?]

I've already learned to be ravens. Bran thinks I could be anything...I think that's what a greenseer is. Did you see anything about them in the Archives?

[hearthebell]

Really? What became of that situation with the dragon? I hope your friend Allen is alright.

[He nods at her question, eyes lighting up with recognition at the phrase.]

It seemed not dissimilar to what Palebloods can do here. Divining, prophecy and so forth.

[dohaeris]

Oh, Allen's all right, he healed his dragon in the Salt Lake.

[allen is currently not all right, but that has nothing to do with the dragon, who is still all right, and living in the caves.]

I don't know if you saw anything about the Dance of the Dragons in the Archives. It was a stupid war in my realm. Aegon the Elder lost, but his mad dragon Sunfyre ate the rightful queen Rhaenyra while he was dying. My ancestor Cregan Stark came down from Winterfell and defeated the rest of the Greens. He was Hand of the King for Rhaenyra's son Aegon and executed the traitors or sent them to the Wall. They called it the Hour of the Wolf.

[she doesn't actually want to take about the dance of the dragons. she thinks about bloodraven calling her 'pale raven,' and wonders how much he knows.]

I know I have paleblood, and I've been told I could learn to be a greenseer. I would like to learn what I can.

[now that she knows she could have had this power all along, it feels like something else the lannisters and littlefinger took from her. it feels important that she learn to wield it well, to prove that they didn't succeed.]

[hearthebell]

[He nods, taking that near enough at face value. What catches his attention about it is the implication, of course, that what comes through the portals has remained.]

Then the dragon is still here? And yes... I'd encountered an abridged history of the war and its chief players, though strangely the text didn't refer to it as the Dance of the Dragons. It was more generic and cold... just Aegon's War.

If you're interested in honing your Paleblood abilities, I'm sure you've been to the Pale Sanctuary at least a few times.

[dohaeris]

[sansa laughs a little, because that is an incredibly unhelpful title.]

'Aegon's War' doesn't tell anybody anything. There were two Aegons in the Dance, on either side, and then three other King Aegons, not to mention all the princes. Besides, Aegon the Elder lost. His mother must've written it.

[sansa doesn't know very much about the dance of the dragons, but she's pretty sure alicent hightower is the only one who would think of that name. she frowns, slightly.]

I've only ever been to Mutter's School. I thought the Pale Sanctuary was a kind of godswood.

[even as she says it she pictures bran on the weirwoods and feels a little sheepish. but the sanctuary tree has always looked like the bloated corpse of a weirwood to her, and she's never thought to brave it.]

Is there much to be learned there? I was told that Disciples were different from Scholars, and didn't seek to understand.

[she pauses.]

The Grey Ghost is still here. He's known to be very shy. I think I'm the only person he doesn't mind, besides Allen.