"Bring me the person, and this power will be yours."
Jon and Ygritte's minds reeled.
Body. Inheritance. Magic...
These words combined into something that reeked of evil.
Jon's hand gripped his sword hilt again, wariness practically solidifying in his eyes.
Ygritte backed away in terror, hiding behind Lynn as if he were her only anchor now.
Lynn remained calm.
He even smiled.
"Sounds like a fair trade."
His gaze moved from the Three-Eyed Raven's withered face to Leaf nearby.
"But before I find your unlucky candidate, I need to know some things."
The Three-Eyed Raven's single eye shifted slightly, waiting.
"Skinchanging."
Lynn spoke the word.
"What exactly is this ability of mine?"
He'd wanted to ask this for a long time.
Back in King's Landing, he'd controlled the Faceless Man, made Daenerys write, forced Littlefinger to jump, even made Jaime do... unspeakable things.
But he could only achieve simple influence. The mental backlash after each skinchange varied wildly.
Controlling Daenerys had no side effects.
Making Littlefinger jump nearly drained him completely.
He'd thought it was because others had strong willpower. But now it seemed more complicated.
"That's not skinchanging."
The Three-Eyed Raven's voice dripped with mockery.
"That's playing with fire."
His cloudy eye seemed to pierce through time, seeing what happened on King's Landing's Street of Silk.
"Animal souls are simple, pure. Their consciousness is like a clear stream."
"You can easily wade in, even change its course."
"But humans are different."
"Human souls are turbulent oceans, full of desire, fear, memory, and obsession."
"Especially their survival instinct—it's branded into the deepest part of the soul. Unbreakable."
The Three-Eyed Raven's voice deepened.
"You forced your way into that ocean. Tried to command it to raise a tsunami that would destroy itself. That violates the world's most fundamental rules."
"In that instant, you face the target's most frenzied, most complete counterattack."
"That force can shred any invader who isn't strong enough."
"At best, mental collapse. You become a drooling idiot."
"At worst, soul disintegration. Instant death."
The cavern's temperature seemed to drop.
Jon and Ygritte barely understood, but they could tell—nothing good.
Cold sweat beaded on Lynn's back.
He finally understood.
No wonder he'd felt unprecedented weakness after controlling Littlefinger.
It wasn't simple mental exhaustion.
His soul had fought an invisible life-or-death battle with another soul.
And he hadn't even known he'd walked past death's door.
"You only succeeded because—"
The Three-Eyed Raven continued.
"First, your soul is far stronger than you realize."
"Second, your target—that Petyr Baelish—his heart was already filled with failure and fear. That ocean had lost its dam."
"So you could wade in easily."
"You just got lucky in a gamble you never should have entered."
"Try it on anyone with firm will, complex thinking, or no fear of you—force them to suicide—and you'd be a corpse right now."
"Like that Lannister knight."
"To control him into suicide would require mental strength dozens, even hundreds of times his own."
Lynn's heart sank completely.
So that's it.
It wasn't that Jaime's willpower was especially strong.
Jaime simply hadn't believed magic could control him. His soul was in an "unguarded but unyielding" stable state.
Lynn couldn't shake his survival instinct.
Thank the gods he'd only made Jaime do those... things. Nothing that triggered fierce resistance.
If he'd tried to make him suicide, Lynn would have suffered unprecedented damage.
"Keep playing like this, and you'll kill yourself eventually."
The Three-Eyed Raven concluded.
Ygritte's mouth hung open behind them.
Through fragments of conversation, she finally understood.
This southerner used his own method to make someone jump off a building?
Madman!
This guy was a complete lunatic!
She stared at Lynn's back, eyes impossibly complex.
Fear. Shock. And a trace of... admiration she didn't even recognize?
Free folk respected strength.
And Lynn was clearly the strongest—and craziest—person she'd ever met.
"So I need your knowledge."
Lynn exhaled slowly, suppressing his lingering fear.
He looked at the Three-Eyed Raven with unprecedented seriousness.
"Teach me. How to use this power correctly."
"Of course."
The Three-Eyed Raven seemed satisfied with Lynn's attitude.
"But you must fulfill your promise."
"Teach me first." Lynn turned to the Three-Eyed Raven.
"How do I properly use skinchanging?"
"Once I know, I'll naturally find you a suitable candidate."
"Feel, don't control."
The Three-Eyed Raven was concise.
"Like this."
His single eye suddenly turned toward Ygritte behind Lynn.
Ygritte felt an irresistible will—like warm springs—gently envelop her soul.
It didn't hurt. Actually felt... comfortable.
Like soaking in hot springs on a freezing winter night.
Made her unconsciously lower all her defenses.
Then she heard a voice speak directly in her mind.
"Raise your left hand."
Ygritte instinctively started to obey.
But just as her hand began to lift, another thought surfaced.
Why should I?
Why should I listen to you?
Rebelliousness from deep in her free folk blood made her stop cold.
That warm will didn't force her. Just receded like a tide.
"See?"
The Three-Eyed Raven looked at Lynn.
"That's feeling."
"I felt her resistance. Felt the pride deep in her soul."
"Not like you, completely blocking out their perception."
"So I didn't force her. That would only trigger stronger resistance. Both sides lose."
"What you must do is find the cracks in her soul. Use your will to guide her, persuade her, make her willingly serve you."
"That's true skinchanging. Soul-level communication and resonance."
"Not your plundering and control!"
Lynn pondered thoughtfully.
In other words—brute force doesn't work. Go soft. Win hearts and minds.
"I want to try." Lynn said.
"Go ahead. If something goes wrong, I can save you in time."
The Three-Eyed Raven's gaze fell on Ygritte again.
Ygritte flinched, suddenly feeling stripped naked.
These two demons!
They're using me as a test subject?!
"You... don't come near me!"
She backed away in terror, bow aimed at Lynn.
"Relax. I won't touch you."
Lynn soothed her, flashing what he thought was a kind smile.
He closed his eyes, mimicking the Three-Eyed Raven, and carefully extended a thread of mental awareness toward Ygritte.
No forced entry.
Just like a breeze, gently brushing her tense soul.
Lynn saw it.
He saw the truest scene deep in Ygritte's soul.
A snow-covered wasteland. Howling wind.
A red-haired little girl standing alone in the blizzard, clutching a bow taller than herself, stubbornly staring into the distance.
Around her—the frozen corpses of her tribe.
In her eyes—hatred and sorrow that wouldn't melt.
And deeper in that wasteland, beneath layers of ice and snow, Lynn sensed something that didn't belong to this frozen land.
Like a seed buried under frozen earth.
Yearning for sunlight. Yearning for warmth. Yearning for arms to hold her.
Lynn's heart stirred.
He transformed his mental awareness into the warmest ray of sunlight, carefully shining on that seed.
Ygritte's body trembled violently.
Her bow lowered without her realizing.
Those grey eyes—always wary and stubborn—now held only confusion and moisture.
She seemed to... return to that cave.
Return to that cold night.
Leaning against a warm, solid chest. Breathing in that clean scent that made her feel so safe.
The most peaceful sleep of her life.
"Put down the bow."
Lynn's voice echoed in her mind again.
This time, impossibly gentle.
Ygritte barely hesitated. Obediently placed her bow and arrows on the ground.
Jon beside them was completely stunned.
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