The night was deep.Moonlight streamed through a hole in the roof, casting its glow on the rim of the well inside the Andal prince's kitchen, where the rat chef cooked.
Barristan, pointing to the mouth of the well, recounted his experience to Dany, still visibly shaken."There's a small water-drawing platform at the bottom of the well. I was standing on it, waiting for Sam.
The walls were damp and slick with moss at first, but as Sam got closer, the stone suddenly turned into a white weirwood door."
After failing to find the Black Gate's exit beyond the Wall, Dany had sent Little White to bring back Barristan and Fat Sam.
The Black Gate seemed to involve spatial magic.
Hard to believe—spatial magic?!But reality was often stranger than fiction.
The Black Gate lay at the bottom of the well in the kitchen of Nightfort. Logically, passing through it should've placed Sam and Barristan just a wall away from Nightfort. Yet Dany found them three kilometers west of the castle.
Sam confirmed it too—the cave Coldhands had led him through last time wasn't here.
"Weirwood?" Dany was startled, but also felt it made perfect sense. She nodded and said, "It's said the Wall was enchanted by the Children of the Forest."
Barristan spoke with certainty. "It was magic! A white weirwood, with an old man's face on it. It could speak—it had consciousness.
When Sam recited the Night's Watch oath, the face opened its mouth. I stepped through, felt dizzy for a while, and then found myself beyond the Wall."
"I want to go down and see for myself." Dany's eyes lit up with eagerness.
"Wouldn't that be too dangerous? Dany, with your current status, you can't act on impulse," Maester Aemon cautioned.
"A wise ruler avoids standing under a crumbling wall—I understand," Dany smiled easily. "But I'm not just a queen—I'm also a mage, a seeker of truth. Compared to sitting on a throne or holding power, I'm far more curious about the world's mysteries.
Besides, this well has existed for thousands of years. Countless members of the Night's Watch have come down to draw water. Surely many have passed through the Black Gate. None were harmed—why should I be the exception?
And anyway, I'm the rightful queen of the Andals, the Rhoynar, and the First Men—the prophesied hero to end the Long Night. If the Black Gate is sentient and knows I'm the savior, it'll be too busy protecting me to cause harm."
Aemon was momentarily speechless. But upon reflection, though the dragon queen was quite shameless, her reasoning wasn't wrong.
The Black Gate was clearly an ally of the Night's Watch—a guardian of the Wall. It had no reason to harm a good queen.
"Then be careful," the old maester said helplessly.
Without further delay, Dany descended the well along the inner stone stairs. When she saw Barristan preparing to follow, she waved him off. "Ser, stay at the top."
"I must protect you," said the old knight.
"Oh, there's nothing down there but stone and water," Dany shook her head.
"No one knows what might be hidden in that water. It's safer if I go too," insisted Ser Barristan.
"Please. What, is the rat chef going to leap out of the well?" Dany laughed lightly. "If a monster really comes out of the water, we'll both be cramped on the narrow platform and unable to fight properly."
"Then I'll stand guard on the stairs above the Black Gate," the white knight said firmly.
"Fine," Dany didn't argue further. She went first, followed by Sam, then Ser Barristan.
The spiral staircase within the well wasn't narrow—about a palm wide and thirty centimeters deep. Thanks to the cold weather beyond the Wall, there wasn't much moss, and it wasn't slippery. The footing was solid.
However, in the dark, one's sense of balance worsens. Dany had to keep one hand on the wall for stability.
The top of the well was bathed in moonlight, but with each turn, it grew narrower and darker.
She heard her footsteps echoing between the damp stones. The sound of water below grew louder. Turn by turn, it became darker, the air colder and sharper against her skin.
Hearing the water sloshing below, she wondered—at this temperature, why hadn't it frozen over?
Gradually, her eyes adjusted to the gloom. With the faint moonlight above, she could even see the opposite wall and the shifting water below. She no longer needed to hold the wall and could walk swiftly and steadily.
"Fatty, hold up. Let me test whether the Black Gate will open for me," she called upward to Sam halfway down.
"Okay," Sam and Barristan stopped.
As her eyes adapted to the dim light, Dany quickened her pace, step after step, until she reached the very bottom—just above the water's surface was a platform about a finger's width high, more like a large stone step, twenty centimeters wide and half a meter long.
For some reason, the dark water was unusually restless, sloshing and lapping against the stone like water in a novice's bucket—loud and erratic.
If one saw the bottom of the well as its own world, and the well water as an ocean, then at this moment, a category-12 typhoon was raging on its surface.
"Could there be a giant turtle at the bottom? If it's been raised since the Wall was built… that's eight thousand years. How big would it be by now?" Dany muttered to herself.
Tap tap tap. Shaking off her imagination, Dany knocked along the damp stone wall beside the little platform. The hard rock rang out crisply, with no trace of wood beneath.
"I am Queen of the Andals, the Rhoynar, and the First Men—Daenerys Targaryen!" she said sternly to the wall.
"——"
No reaction whatsoever.
"I am Mother of Dragons—I have five dragons!" she declared.
"——" Still nothing.
"I am the Breaker of Chains, Advocate of Freedom, the Mhysa of all the world's suffering slaves!"
"——"
"I defend the Wall and slay White Walkers!"
"——"
"I am the prophesied savior, Azor Ahai reborn!"
"——"
"I have two dragons outside—burning down a weirwood is child's play!" Dany threatened.
"——"
"Damn it!" Dany cursed through gritted teeth and shouted up, "Fatty, get down here!"
Rustling footsteps echoed from above as Sam and Ser Barristan resumed their descent. Dany, meanwhile, infused her spirit with dragonfire, eyes wide as she stared at the stone wall in front of her.
The sound of boots scraping against the stairs drew closer. Sam's heavy breathing became clearly audible.
"Oh my gods!" Dany suddenly cried out in alarm.
Without any warning, the stone wall transformed into a door—a white weirwood door, with a face on it.
The Black Gate wasn't black at all. On the contrary, it was white.
The wooden door gave off a milky-white glow, like a blend of moonlight and milk stirred into one. Yet the light was so faint that it barely illuminated anything, not even Dany standing directly before it—she remained shrouded in darkness.
The face on the door was pale and ancient, wrinkled and lifeless.
No—this wasn't a face carved into the door. In fact, there wasn't really a door at all. What appeared before Dany was simply a face.
The face of a living Old God, imprisoned beneath the Wall.
His mouth was tightly shut, his eyes closed, cheeks sunken, forehead shriveled, and chin slack. If a person were to live forever without staying eternally young, growing older and older over ten million years, in the end, their face would look just like this.
Yet from the perspective of Dragon Spirit, this withered and decaying wooden face radiated boundless magical power and a divine, immortal brilliance—dazzling like a sun fallen before her eyes.
If majesty were something tangible, even if you gathered and combined the dignity of every king and noble in human history, it still wouldn't compare to the presence of this ancient weirwood.
Dany's legs trembled; she had an urge to kneel and worship. Even the black dragon deep in her soul sea had already knelt. Only her willpower allowed her to maintain the last shred of dignity.
Seeing the Queen of Dragons pale as wax, sweating profusely, her body trembling, Sam asked in confusion, "Your Grace, what's wrong?"
"I—" Dany snapped out of it, instantly dispersed the dragon soul, and all abnormalities vanished. Before her, the weirwood door looked so decayed that it gave the illusion one could smash it to pieces with a single kick.
"Seven above!" She patted her chest several times, steadying her breath, and exclaimed in horror, "The power of a true god… it's terrifying beyond words!"
"True god? What are you talking about?" Sam asked strangely.
"Ah, ignorance is bliss," Dany gave the chubby man a glance, filled with emotion.
At that moment, the door opened its eyes. Pale orbs, just like the face of the weirwood, seemingly hollow—yet they gave Dany a tremendous fright.
Seven hells!
It was alive. Its consciousness was returning.
"Who are you?" the door asked, echoed softly by the well:"Who—who—who—who—who—who—who?"
Dany raised a hand to stop the chubby man from opening his mouth to swear an oath. She composed herself and solemnly said, "I am the Mother of Dragons, Daenerys."
A simple title—nothing fancy.
"You—" The door hesitated, then asked, "Do you want to come in?"
"Ah!" Sam was shocked. The Black Gate could be opened without reciting the oath?
That's not what Coldhands said!
"I want to know the secret of the Wall," Dany replied.
"Swear!" The door scrunched its nose and spoke.
Dany was momentarily stunned, then raised her hand and solemnly vowed, "Everything I see and hear today, I will not utter a single word of it to anyone, and I will never threaten the safety of the Wall."
"Swear!" the door repeated.
"Uh… what oath?" Dany asked blankly.
"Your Grace, maybe it's the Night's Watch oath," Sam said hesitantly.
"What? Me, a Night's Watch brother?!" Dany widened her eyes in disbelief.
Like the maesters, the Night's Watch didn't recruit women—much less a reigning queen.
"It's different. Maybe just a portion of the Night's Watch oath," Barristan reminded from above. "You don't need to give your life to the Watch or serve until death."
Dany recalled Sam's earlier "spell"—sure enough, it had been trimmed to its essence. She cleared her throat and solemnly recited:"I am the sword in the darkness. I am the watcher on the Wall. I am the fire that burns against the cold, the light that brings the dawn, the horn that wakes the sleepers, the shield that guards the realms of men."
"No—" The door seemed somewhat irritated.
"This won't work either?" Dany grew angry. Must she don the black?
"The Ancient Pact," the door reminded.
"Gah—" Dany was dumbfounded.
"Do you know what the Ancient Pact is?" she turned to Sam.
The chubby man pondered, then said, "Isn't it the oath made between the Children of the Forest and the First Men?"
"No way… what does that oath have to do with the Wall?" Dany shook her head.
Suddenly, the door puckered its lips, and as if blowing a smoke ring, it sprayed a ring of faint, mist-like white runes toward Dany.
The runes were unimaginably complex—a "QR code" composed of 108 different characters—but it contained only one crude message:
I swear to maintain the balance of nature's elements, to guard this world, and to ensure it never falls into the abyss of darkness.
PS: The Ancient Pact
Twelve thousand years ago, the First Men invaded the homeland of the Children of the Forest—Westeros—via the Arm of Dorne, a land bridge that connected the two continents.
It was a battle of magic versus bronze weapons. The Children of the Forest even used forbidden spells to alter geography—creating the Neck and breaking the Arm of Dorne. But alas, it was like two flocks of weak chickens pecking at each other. In the end, the war concluded with a treaty signed on an island called the Isle of Faces, located at the center of the Gods Eye in the Riverlands.
The agreement granted the First Men the coasts, plains, grasslands, mountains, and marshes, while the lush great forests would forever belong to the Children of the Forest. Additionally, no weirwood tree in the entire realm was to be felled ever again.
To allow the gods above to witness this sacred vow, the Children carved faces into every tree on the island and founded the holy order of the Green Men, tasked with guarding the Isle of Faces.
The Pact began four thousand years of friendship between humans and the Children of the Forest. Its signing marked the end of the Dawn Age and the beginning of the Age of Heroes.
(End of Chapter)
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