Aegor swallowed.
Bran accurately repeated the whispers Roose Bolton had spoken to him that night in Deepwood Motte. To be honest, even with psychological preparation, it was still a little creepy. That was not entirely a bad thing. At least now he did not need to act to show genuine shock.
Of course, it was just shock. He had not actually conspired with the Old Flayer to overthrow Stark, so he did not feel guilty. Whether it was the inexplicable phrase opportunity favors the prepared mind or the later thanks for taking care of Stark, they were both doing the same thing, proving to Aegor that he could see everything.
Aegor did not need proof. He knew his abilities better than anyone else in the world, except for the Greenseer himself.
"Very well, then..." Aegor pretended to swallow nervously, adopting a convinced and serious expression. "Please tell me, Bran, where are the White Walkers now, and what conspiracy are they planning?"
"We will talk about that later. Before that, we need to resolve a personal matter."
The boy sat up straight in his chair, a touch of seriousness appearing on his expressionless face. Seeing this, Aegor also instinctively straightened his back away from the chair, tensing his muscles vigilantly, and reaching for his waist.
Reason told him that the Greenseer would never use a foolish method like face-to-face combat to deal with him, but a soldier's instinct was uncontrollable.
"I do not know where you came from, who sent you, or what your purpose is. Although I am very interested in studying the method and principle of your sudden appearance, now is not the time. I really want to believe you are a hero sent by heaven to save humanity, but unfortunately, in some people's stories, I am heaven. No one knows better than I do that there are no gods in the world. About you, there is only one thing I can be certain of, because for reasons you probably also cannot explain to me, you seem to know many things you should not know, possessing knowledge far beyond this world." Bran spoke with a voice that was clearly still young, yet used words that sounded ancient and world-weary. "So, mysterious, wise, and learned Commander, why do you not consider this question: Am I, who is driven by the incomplete body of Brandon Stark, possesses all the memories and emotional inclinations of Brandon Stark, and loves his parents, siblings, and close friends just like Brandon Stark before he became the Greenseer, truly considered Brandon Stark?"
...
Suddenly, from exchanging battlefield information, it shifted to philosophical contemplation. Aegor was indeed doubting whether the person in front of him was still Bran, but the Greenseer did not seem to have the ability to read minds, did he?
Thinking about how to deal with the army of the dead is already enough to strain the brain. Let this kind of mental exercise be left to idle people. Aegor quickly decided not to be led by the nose by the other party, but the next moment a flash of inspiration struck his mind, and he immediately understood the subtext of the other party's words. The Greenseer was not asking him to think about this question at all, but was reminding or demonstrating that he could not find any way to prove that he was not Bran. In fact, in a sense, he was Bran.
Between the former Greenseer and Brandon Stark, did the former occupy the latter's body, or did the latter gain the former's memories, or was it a combination of both? Who could say? What was important now was not analyzing the essence of the Greenseer's inheritance, but utilizing his abilities first to win this war of ice and fire.
Looking at the Night's Watchman's expression, which showed a hint of surprise amidst his contemplation, the boy twitched the corner of his mouth and produced a not-so-bright smile. Talking to smart people saves trouble.
"I do not want your answer. I just want you to understand, I am also on the side of the living, that is, the Night's Watch. You can trust me."
...
The speed at which this conversation was progressing completely exceeded Aegor's expectations. He tried hard to conceal his inner turmoil. He had originally planned to play dumb and hide his identity as a transmigrator, but the other party was completely blunt, directly revealing his identity and thoughts, speaking frankly and openly.
Bran's actions exceeded all of Aegor's predictions. For a moment, he could not figure out how to respond, so he just hummed, nodded, and continued to stare at the other party, waiting for him to continue. Although he had broken through the previous impasse, whether the current Bran could be trusted was not something that could be taken at face value. It depended on his actions. Aegor did not get to his current position from being just a minor transmigrator soldier by relying on passion and pure innocence.
"You can think about it slowly after you go back. Now, let us continue with the topic we were just discussing." Saying this whole sentence and forcing out a smile seemed to have exhausted all the boy's strength. He slumped back into the chair, regaining his former listless appearance and sickly tone. "The Wildlings' wargs are now under your control. You should know something about them, right?"
Ho, the topic was changing really fast. Fortunately, Aegor's mind was not slow, and he quickly caught up with the rhythm. "I know a little. What I know is that wargs have a certain talent and can control some animals through magic to perform actions such as reconnaissance, carrying, and attacking."
"That pretty much covers it," Bran said, glancing at him lightly. "You asked me where the White Walkers are now, and I have been concerned about that too. It used to be easy to satisfy this curiosity. They were scattered throughout the Haunted Forest and the Land of Always Winter, each searching for usable corpses in their respective areas and attacking and killing living beings to strengthen the wights' army. This is one reason they have not attacked the Wall since waking up. But no matter how big beyond the Wall is, it has an end. After they gathered together, things became troublesome."
The boy sighed like an old man, then maintained a hesitant expression for a while as if recovering his strength before speaking again. "This starts with how I perceive the world. I can see everything, but that is not the same as knowing everything directly. If I want to know the truth about something, I either accurately find out when and where it happened, and then use magic to trace its origins mentally and go to that time and place to see, or I do it like a warg, controlling a creature and keeping a constant watch on the person or object I am tracking. But after the White Walkers completed their preparations, gathered together, and started moving south, I discovered there is a special being among them who acts as a Commander or king, that is, the Night King from the legends, who has the ability to counteract my surveillance. Whether I possess a living creature to get close or use magic to peer out of thin air, he quickly detects and interrupts me. Not only that, the Night King can also cause damage to my body and mind that is difficult to recover from by tracing my perception in an incredible way. After suffering losses several times, I can now only tell you the general direction of the White Walkers and no longer dare to easily attempt precise positioning."
---
Regarding the principle of the Greenseer's omniscience ability, Aegor had actually made deductions and conjectures long ago.
The spatiotemporal system formed by weirwood, this magical plant, is like a surveillance network spread throughout the places where it grows, meticulously recording and archiving everything that has happened in the past and is happening in the present within its field of vision. And the Greenseer's ability is to mentally delve into this network, like retrieving surveillance records, to gain knowledge of past and present events.
However, no matter how unsolvable this magical talent is, the Greenseer's brain, the physiological limit of a human, is there. They are like lonely staff left alone in a surveillance center, facing an overwhelming flood of astronomical amounts of information covering entire walls and screens, yet they can only select and browse a small portion of it. What the Greenseer wants to know and investigate can be thoroughly understood, but if it is about people or things they have never encountered or heard of, they have no way to start.
The ability of omniscience is indeed extremely powerful, but it is also severely limited. The Greenseer must first know or have a strong enough connection with something to follow the vine and find the melon, delving deeper to explore more. For example, if Aegor had not tried to stop young Bran from falling under Winterfell's main keep three years ago, and had not returned to the Gift three years later and, through a series of operations, gained real power over the Night's Watch and carried out drastic reforms, thus becoming the supreme Commander of the living against death, then the Greenseer probably would not have thought, even until the end of the world, to look up the origin and life of an ordinary Night's Watchman, and thus discover that he appeared out of thin air and his identity was a mystery.
Weirwood is a medium that spans time and space, but it does not have the ability to discern and process information like a supercomputer in a tale. To the Greenseer, the world is like a large strategy game without a minimap. Although the entire map is warded and the whole game is recorded, at any given moment, the player can only see a small area currently framed on the screen. If the Greenseer wants to deal with the White Walkers and the dead, he must focus his energy on the Wall and the North, and will have no time to turn his head occasionally to peek at others, especially allies, to see if Aegor, this transmigrator, or anyone else, is thinking of dealing with him.
Aegor was certainly wary of the current Bran, who might no longer be Bran, but was not the Greenseer even more wary of him, this mysterious and unpredictable outsider? But now was not a good time for mutual suspicion and caution. The final battle was imminent. If something went wrong because of insignificant details, who would be to blame?
Just like Ser Denys Mallister, prioritizing the big picture was the reason Bran, or rather the new Greenseer, was in this room today, discussing matters related to the mystical side openly and frankly with Aegor, in order to gain each other's trust.
---
Aegor nodded seemingly casually, but his mind was racing. Even a casual remark from such an extraordinary being could reveal a huge amount of information. Bran's explanation at least confirmed the speculation he had already made, the Greenseer's ability was not direct omniscience and omnipotence, but conditional omniscience.
Since the speculation and the explanation were not contradictory, he intuitively believed what Bran said. Although what the other party said might be seven parts truth and three parts falsehood, and he did not always act on intuition, regarding a Stark who possessed an ability he could not understand, whose identity was special, and against whom he could not harbor ill intentions, even if he still had doubts, he could not show them openly. "Alright, Greenseer, at least you can still roughly judge, which is better than us. Would it be convenient for you to estimate now where the White Walkers are at this moment and what they are doing?"
(To be continued.)
***
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