Indeed, if this Lady's "Daenerys" truly possessed the power to banish her own mother, a True Dragon, from her original world, then calling her a god would not be an exaggeration. One could imagine, the younger brother of such a god-like being, R'hllor's father, naturally would not be a mere mortal either. However, what kind of hatred could have driven this "divine" Daenerys to ruthlessly exile her sister-in-law, even while she was pregnant with her own niece?
Was it a racial conflict between humans and high dragons, or was it some deeper emotional entanglement?
"My Daenerys fell in love with her younger brother and believed she was destined to be his wife and the mother of his children." R'hllor, whether seeing through Aegor's confusion or simply intending to make things clear, gave him no room for wild speculation. "But my father always refused to accept this, insisting on finding a spouse not related by blood. In that situation, when news of my mother's pregnancy reached her, all of my Daenerys's suppressed rage erupted, triggering everything that followed. Why are you making that strange face? Do you really think that beings as powerful and transcendent as gods are bound by your mortal codes of ethics and social constraints?"
She shrugged, as if unwilling to linger on such a scandalous topic. "Being half-dragon, half-god, I displayed extraordinary growth in the early stages of my life. Very early on, I sensed the boundary that my mother had ultimately failed to cross, just ahead of me, vaguely visible. Reaching it was only a matter of time, and crossing it would be no challenge. But just as I was about to reach the end of my first century, I began to encounter strange circumstances. Although I could clearly feel that only a tiny portion of my potential had been unlocked, my cultivation and strength began to stagnate, stuck at a bottleneck that should not have existed. I tried every method I could think of to find the cause. I even disturbed my slumbering and recovering mother to ask her, and after several inquiries, I finally got the answer. The problem wasn't with me. What was preventing me from stepping into a higher realm was an external factor. The world I existed in, whether in terms of energy level or the laws of nature, could no longer support beings of greater power."
So it's not her that's flawed, but the world itself? Should he call this idea arrogant, or simply confident?
Aegor wasn't Tyrion. He knew when to hold his tongue. He didn't mock, only nodded and watched her silently, knowing there was more to come.
"Don't ask me why I have to pursue a higher realm instead of settling down and living a peaceful life. I won't answer such a foolish question. I also don't know how to convey to you, a mortal, this suffocating sense of constraint. But here's an example to help you understand my predicament. The same type of fish, if raised in a river or a lake, will grow to different sizes. I was raised in a fish tank. The resources and space within the tank determine my limit. This world cannot support my instinctive desire to move toward a higher realm. Under these circumstances, breaking the tank and leaping into the river, the lake, or the sea is my only option."
Aegor's heart stirred. He finally understood why, when he had previously asked if there was a way to return, she told him to be patient. It turned out, he wasn't the only one thinking the same thing.
"Is this what you meant before, when you said you were too busy with this to care about the Cold God?" Aegor asked cautiously, not even realizing that he had subconsciously begun using respectful language.
"That's right. I am looking for a way to reopen the passage between worlds and return to the one where my mother lived before she was banished, and where my father still resides. A world capable of nurturing beings as powerful as my parents, whether it's a small river, a lake, or a sea, would certainly be better than a fish tank."
As expected, R'hllor was also trying to go back "home." But since this conversation was happening now, it meant she likely hadn't succeeded yet.
"Aren't you worried about the threat from your Daenerys? Since she could attack and exile your mother out of jealousy, there's no guarantee she wouldn't do the same again if she saw you."
"Don't think you're the only clever one," R'hllor snorted. "Of course I've prepared countermeasures. As long as I survive the most dangerous initial stages, entering the other world and searching for my father, without being discovered, then once I find him, I don't believe he would allow his older sister to harm his daughter again, once he knows the truth. But the real issue isn't what to do after returning, but how to return in the first place."
Right, how to go back?
Although the topic seemed to have wandered with R'hllor's story, Aegor had finally arrived at the part he cared most about.
"According to my mother, world-hopping was an independent discipline in her original world, a profound skill that very few mastered, but one that could indeed be learned. Unfortunately, it wasn't her area of expertise, so she knew nothing about it. Which meant I couldn't receive any guidance from her. I had to figure it all out on my own. Not long after she passed, I began this grand endeavor, attempting to study and master spatial magic independently."
"I spent decades understanding what space truly is, and then more decades researching how to manipulate it with energy. But when I finally made progress through self-study and ran the calculations, I reached a conclusion. The magic strength required to tear space exceeded the maximum power I could achieve in this world. To break the fish tank, I needed more power. But to gain more power, I had to first escape the fish tank that was suppressing me. I was trapped in a dead loop. Space, this invisible, intangible, formless yet unbreakable wall, confined me like a cage, making it impossible to move forward."
Aegor drew a breath, feeling both helpless at this cruel paradox and awed by the tenacity of someone who was half-god, half-dragon, and nearly immortal. Only such a being could have had the time and energy to stubbornly tackle a nearly hopeless task for centuries.
He also suspected that this dry, prolonged research might be what shaped her peculiar temperament. She clearly had a strong desire to talk about herself, yet insisted on labeling it as a reward, constantly forcing others to ask questions to keep the conversation going.
"Did you give up in the end?" Aegor, gradually becoming more familiar with her personality, dared to speak more casually.
"No. The harsh results did depress me for a long time. But fortunately, the one thing I have in abundance is time. After temporarily setting the idea aside and turning to other areas, I eventually made breakthroughs. And just like one of the sayings my descendants came up with, all roads lead to Valyria."
R'hllor spoke in a calm, emotionless tone, describing her cycle of setbacks and breakthroughs, journeys that would have taken an ordinary mortal more than a dozen lifetimes.
"First, I found the exact location where my mother was banished into this world. It's a point suspended in mid-air above the Smoking Sea, between the current Lands of Long Summer and the remnants of the Valyrian Peninsula. When my mother entered this world, she severely damaged the space there. Although space naturally healed itself over time, the area's stability remains significantly lower than elsewhere, making it the easiest point to breach. After calculation, while the magic required to tear open space there still exceeded what I could achieve, it was no longer off by two orders of magnitude. Now it was only several times higher, which at least gave me a glimmer of hope."
"Afterward, my experiments in non-spatial magic, which I had started simply to pass the time, made me realize a personal flaw. Due to my bloodline, I had always been able to solve everything on my own, frighten off enemies, and achieve anything I desired through strength alone. But precisely because of this, I had relied too much on my own power and overlooked the aid tools and helpers could provide. I fell into a misconception. If I couldn't do something, then it simply couldn't be done."
She waved her hand, adjusting the floating image of the planet in front of them, shifting it away from Westeros to a new angle. Now, the Valyrian Peninsula on the continent of Essos was at the center. Unlike the map Aegor had seen, this Valyrian Peninsula was whole.
"After recognizing this flaw and working to correct it, everything became clear. While I still couldn't tear space using magic alone, I could use pre-arranged magic-enhancing tools and structures. Spellcasters can use external forces to cast amplified, high-intensity spells at specific locations. Normally, this approach is impractical in combat, as it requires preparation and can't adapt to changing circumstances. But for a stationary space crack that neither hides nor flees, it works perfectly."
"After spending decades researching auxiliary magic, I finally designed a massive spell formation that could absorb and harness the free energy between heaven and earth to amplify my spatial magic. If completed and activated, its energy output would be sufficient to tear open any previously opened spatial rift. Of course, the cost was immense. The manpower and materials required were beyond anything one person, no matter how powerful, could gather. That should have been a major obstacle. But, during the centuries I spent searching for a solution, my descendants, and their descendants, and their descendants' descendants, with their half-dragon, half-god bloodline, established a vast empire called the Valyrian Freehold without me even realizing. Without any help from me, they conquered nearly every major native civilization in the known world and built a vast, highly efficient governing machine, the perfect tool for executing my grand design."
"Under my strict command as their ancestor, they captured countless laborers from all over the world and looted mountains of magical materials. Using the Fourteen Flames as the core and the plains of the Valyrian heartland as the foundation, I constructed a colossal space-tearing magic array, so large you couldn't see its end from one side." R'hllor lightly tapped her finger, and the location around the chain of tall mountains on the Valyrian Peninsula lit up, forming a massive circle. "At the perfect moment, when the magical tide was at its peak, I activated this spell formation I had spent over a thousand years refining, and which alone took decades to construct. It drained nearly half of the world's magic, unleashed a spatial spell far beyond my individual limit, and forcefully tore open the rift that had first brought my mother here."
Staring at the complete Valyrian Peninsula in front of him, and recalling the maps he had seen of the Ice and Fire world before and after his transmigration, Aegor suddenly felt a chill run down his spine. He remembered the difference. The location of this colossal magic array she mentioned, centered around the Fourteen Flames, was now a vast ocean known as the Smoking Sea, dotted with scattered islands.
A terrifying conclusion flooded Aegor's mind. The Doom that destroyed the Valyrian Freehold might not have been a natural disaster, but a man-made one.
Suppressing the turmoil in his heart, he cautiously asked, trying to confirm his suspicion, "So... did something go wrong with the spell array? Did it trigger an unprecedented eruption of the Fourteen Flames, causing part of the Valyrian Peninsula to sink beneath the sea, leading to the fall of the Freehold?"
(To be continued.)