Old Quincy was still brooding uneasily when he heard the High Sparrow say, "Aegon, your application has been approved. You may leave Heaven now and return to the mortal world.
But remember, this is only once, and only for tonight."
"Once is enough. Thank you, Your Eminence. May the Mother have mercy!" Aegon was overjoyed and jumped three feet into the air.
"Return to the mortal world? What does that mean?" Old Quincy asked in confusion.
Aegon did not answer him. Instead, he said anxiously, "Your Eminence, what should I do?"
"Go to the foot of Heaven Mountain, push open the gate that guides the Holy Spirit, and follow the line of faith belonging to the one you miss, entering her dream.
If she rejects you, or if her subconscious mind does not want to see you at all, you will be unable to enter her dream and can only appear before her in the form of a Holy Spirit.
That carries a certain amount of danger. A Holy Spirit can be harmed by mortals," the High Sparrow warned solemnly.
"I understand. Thank you, Your Eminence. I'm off!" Aegon gave a salute and then ran off excitedly toward the steps of Heaven Mountain.
After Aegon left, Old Quincy asked again, "Your Eminence, what exactly is King Aegon going to do?"
"Once you come to Heaven, worldly identities no longer have any meaning. You are not a knight, and Aegon is not a king. You do not need to call him 'Your Majesty.' Do you understand?" the High Sparrow said with a stern face.
"Then what about you? Should I just call you 'High Sparrow'?" Old Quincy asked hesitantly.
"Call me Your Eminence," the High Sparrow replied calmly.
Old Quincy's lips parted as he very much wanted to ask, Didn't you just say that worldly identities have no meaning in Heaven?
But then he remembered that the administrator of this island was the High Sparrow himself, and the words stuck in his throat.
"So where did Aegon go? What does 'return to the mortal world' mean?" he returned to the original topic.
"It means exactly what it says. Aegon will descend to the mortal world as a Holy Spirit today to see his wife."
"That's even possible?" Old Quincy said in disbelief. "After entering Heaven, you can still leave?"
"Have you not read The Seven-Pointed Star?" the High Sparrow asked in return.
"Uh…" Old Quincy froze for a moment. Thinking back, there were indeed stories in the holy text about Heavenly Holy Spirits descending to the mortal world to guide wayward descendants back into the embrace of the great Seven.
"But Aegon is going to see his wife for personal reasons, not to spread the teachings of the Seven," Old Quincy still found it hard to understand.
In all of The Seven-Pointed Star, the descent of a Holy Spirit was mentioned only once, originally something of extremely lofty significance, yet Aegon's actions had made it feel rather different.
"Aegon died very suddenly and harbors lingering attachments. Once he fulfills his final wish of speaking with his wife, his soul may be elevated.
The Mother is merciful and willing to redeem every believer," the High Sparrow said lightly.
Old Quincy's heart stirred, and he said worriedly, "I also have unresolved attachments. The Long Night has descended, the Wall has fallen, and the small castle of Saltpans cannot stop the army of the Others.
Can I also go back once, to have my steward immediately take my two granddaughters across the Narrow Sea to escape the disaster?"
"No. Heaven is not your home. Do you think you can come and go as you please?" the High Sparrow said harshly.
"Then why can Aegon do it?" Old Quincy asked unwillingly.
"He is not ordinary."
"I know the Dragon Queen helped him get into Heaven, but I am a heroic spirit. My authority should be greater than that favored dependent of hers, shouldn't it?"
"No. You are only a first-tier heroic spirit. Aegon is third-tier."
A devotion level of 100 to 150 qualifies one as a petitioner, the minimum requirement to enter Heaven; 150 to 200 is a saint; 200 to 250 is a holy son.
Old Quincy barely qualified as a petitioner, making him a first-tier Holy Spirit.
The newly promoted first-tier Holy Spirit stared wide-eyed. "He used connections, and his rank is actually higher than mine?"
"Aegon took the place of the holy son Daenerys. Can you compare yourself to Daenerys?"
Old Quincy's expression twisted.
"Jon, I saw Aegon last night."
It was around three or four in the morning, before dawn. Well, in any case, dawn does not really come anymore these days.
In short, Jon felt that not long after the two of them had finished their exertions, he was woken by the noise.
When Sansa rushed in wearing a nightgown with a white lion-fur cloak thrown over it, the red-haired woman, Ygritte, was still naked and clinging to him.
But Sansa was far too excited to care about the wildling woman's bony, exposed body. She rushed straight to the bedside, slapped Jon's fuzzy chest, and said excitedly, "I saw Aegon, Jon. Aegon came down from Heaven last night to see me."
"It's over. Your sister has gone mad," the wildling woman said with some alarm as she gathered her disheveled red hair.
"Sansa, you…" Jon jolted awake from his drowsiness and grasped his sister's hand worriedly. "Couldn't sleep, or did you have a nightmare? Shall I have the maester prepare you a cup of milk of the poppy?"
"I'm fine. Very fine." Having been called a "madwoman" by the wildling, the Stark lady gradually regained her composure. She cast a faint glance at the thin red-haired woman and said, "Ygritte, Jon and I have something private to discuss.
You may step aside for a while. You can stay here if you like, but you must promise not to go out and talk nonsense."
"I'm not a blabbermouth. We went at it for too long last night, and I don't want to get up," the red-haired woman said, sprawled out on the feather quilt, a hint of curiosity appearing in her small eyes.
Jon's old face reddened. "Sansa, Ygritte knows what's appropriate. What do you want to say?"
"I saw Aegon. Don't worry, I'm not crazy, and I wasn't dreaming, okay. I did dream, but my consciousness was clear. I knew I was meeting Aegon in my dream."
Ygritte's eyes lit up as she smiled. "Sometimes when I dream, I know I'm dreaming too."
Sansa ignored her and said excitedly to Jon, "You know Aegon went to heaven, right? He descended from heaven."
Concerned about his sister's feelings, Jon could only go along with her and asked carefully, "What did he say to you?"
"It turns out he was able to ascend to heaven entirely because of Daenerys. She sensed the fluctuation of Aegon's Holy Knight seal and knew he was in danger, so she prayed to the Holy Mother. At the cost of her own status as a holy child, she exchanged it for the Holy Mother saving Aegon from the clutches of an evil god."
Sansa's eyes were like two little suns, reflecting dazzling vitality.
From the inside out, she seemed to come back to life.
"And then?" Jon did not quite understand her meaning.
"This means Daenerys truly forgave Aegon." Sansa shook her head rapidly. "No, not just forgiveness. She acknowledged his Targaryen identity."
"Didn't I tell you last night?" Jon frowned. "She acknowledged that Aegon is another branch of the Targaryens."
"It's different. She sacrificed her qualification as a holy child for Aegon!" Sansa said excitedly. "Even a real aunt wouldn't go that far for her nephew, would she?"
Jon hesitated. "She never told me about this. Maybe…"
Maybe you were thinking about it all day and dreamed about it at night.
"You think I was dreaming?" Sansa's expression darkened.
"You just said you knew you were dreaming," Ygritte muttered.
"Aegon said the Night's Watch brothers who died at Eastwatch also went to heaven." Sansa listed a long string of names. "Jon, you were Lord Commander of the Night's Watch. You should know I'm not wrong, right?"
Jon's expression grew solemn. He knew many of the people Sansa mentioned, but she should not have known them.
Could it really be a descent of the Holy Spirit?
"What did Aegon do?" he asked curiously.
"He apologized to me." The excitement on Sansa's face vanished completely.
"He said he was sorry for leaving me such a mess and a ruined reputation." Her eyes reddened as she choked up. "I also apologized to him. I should have gone to see him. I should have rescued him from Stannis immediately. I should not have let him leave this world in despair."
"Ah, this is all fate," Jon said bitterly.
Sansa neither agreed nor disagreed and continued, "He also told me to remarry. He said he would pray for me in heaven."
At this point, Sansa could no longer hold back. She covered her face with both hands and began to cry softly.
Jon gently patted her back and asked quietly, "Did he say anything else?"
"Just things about heaven. He said he's living well now and told me not to worry. He said that maybe we can reunite in heaven someday."
Ygritte's eyes lit up as she asked eagerly, "What is heaven like? The old gods don't even have a heaven. If the Seven really have one, I might even consider converting."
Sansa ignored her, and Jon shot her a glare.
After breakfast, Daenerys finally met her so-called niece-in-law in the glass garden behind the main keep.
Well, they had contacted each other before through a glass candle, but this was their first face-to-face meeting.
Her face was pale, her eyes rimmed with red. Thick auburn hair was tied into a widow's knot at the back of her head. Her thin body carried a large belly, making her look pitiful.
Overall, she looked far better than the tall, broad-shouldered Sansa from Game of Thrones.
"Your Majesty," she said weakly, giving the Dragon Queen a curtsey, no longer calling her "Aunt Dany."
"Winterfell is about to face a decisive battle. You should leave first and take refuge elsewhere." The Dragon Queen's eyes held three parts pity, three parts concern, and the rest solemn resolve.
Sansa was startled. Forgetting to play the pitiful act, she raised her head sharply and asked anxiously, "Can Winterfell hold? Don't we have you and Stannis, the three-god combination?"
"No one has ever seen the Night King. We don't know what cards he has left. Against a completely unknown enemy, I can't guarantee victory." With some effort, Daenerys spoke honestly for once.
"You may not be familiar with him, but the reincarnation of Azor Ahai should be.
Stannis is the prophesied chosen one. The Red Woman and the Lord of Light both recognize his identity.
Since Azor Ahai defeated the Night King once before, this time he should know the way. There's no reason for him to fail, right?"
Sansa looked flustered and even began to sincerely pray that the enemy who had killed her husband would become the savior.
Though she was not a legitimate Stark, her love for the Starks and for Winterfell was no less than that of her brothers and sisters.
"That makes sense. In terms of familiarity with the Night King, no one really surpasses the Red God." Daenerys nodded, then asked, "What are your plans for the future?"
"I don't know. I don't even know where my child's future lies." Sansa's eyes filled with tears again, looking utterly helpless.
Daenerys frowned at her and said, "In the North, there is a House Flint. The main line is the Flint clan of the mountains. Outside the main line, there are also the Flints of Breakstone Hill, the Flints of Flint's Finger, and the Flints of Widow's Watch.
After thousands of years, there are no longer any inheritance disputes among the four Flint houses, nor is there any distinction between a main house and branch houses.
In fact, as a former branch, the Flints of Widow's Watch are far stronger than the other three combined.
So, do you understand what I mean?"
With things spelled out so clearly, Sansa could no longer pretend to be ignorant.
"You will personally acknowledge our branch as 'Targaryen,' won't you?" she asked expectantly.
(End of chapter)
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