“Dontar, are you planning to perform this act out of the kindness of your own heart?” Catelyn Stark, the wife of the Lord of the North, abruptly asked. Eyes and heads turned to look at her, curiously. Dontar himself smiled at this question, and his curiously colored eyes brightened in sheer, mischievous, delight.
“Even if my answer to that question was yes, do you think that acts of kindness do not merit just rewards? I always thought that the Starks were about honor.” The figure asked, an impish smile stretching across his roguish face.
This response caused both Catelyn and Eddard to powerfully pale. Ros couldn’t help herself as she began to smile at this response, before quickly regaining control of her facial muscles and making her facial expression a seemingly neutral one. Lord Stark cleared his throat and eyes returned to him.
“In that case… what merits a ‘just reward’ or is otherwise a ‘fair price’ to pay for your services?” Lord Stark asked, which caused Dontar to suddenly turn to face the lord once more.
“Lord Stark, what did your maester tell you about the harm your son’s fall has caused him?” Dontar asked in response to that question. This query caused Lord Stark’s eyes to shut and for the man to consider the question.
“The maester explained to Catelyn, Robb, Theon and I that Bran’s legs and spine sustained significant damage. We were told that even if he awoke, itself something with less than optimistic odds, the boy would be paralyzed for life.” The so-called “Warden of the North” explained, his voice filled with sorrow as he tried to speak clinically about the tragedy that befell his family. Dontar’s violet eyes filled with a facsimile of the sorrow Eddard’s face suggested he felt, cleverly replicating the emotional response of Lord Stark himself.
Dontar took in this information impartially, revealing no surprise as he was informed of it. In truth, the chorus of voices in the back of his mind had already told him what had happened to Bran’s body.
“In that case I will have to use one of my stronger potions. A costly one at that. And yet what I shall ask for in repayment is not as simple as direct monetary compensation, for such a thing does not interest me. At least not as my repayment.” The figure explained, causing eyes around him to narrow in skepticism and interest in equal measure.
“I shall not ask you to give me something so mundane. My interests are more esoteric than that.” The healer added, a devilish smirk making him look more frightening than his usual roguish smiles did. These remarks delighted the unnatural audience watching the self-proclaimed “Healer”, causing them to laugh cruelly.
“But for now… let’s retire to the chambers the boy is being kept in. That way I may offer a second opinion regarding the boy’s health before I attempt to give you my final price.” Dontar offered, which caused Lord Stark to sigh in consternation but nod at the request.
For the next few minutes the voices in Dontar’s head would delightedly explain some of the perks the young man, only barely more than a boy, possessed. One of which was about to have a chance to shine… As they did, he and the group of individuals he was now interacting with, retired from the Great Hall of the keep and moved to a private chamber which had very recently been turned into a place for Bran to heal.
During the journey to the quiet room where Bran was resting, the group came across Jon, Sansa, and Arya. The Lord and Lady of Winterfell introduced the stranger to the group of youths, and Catelyn studied Dontar while the young man was meeting her daughters. Dontar was polite but he expressed no particular interest in either one of the young women, which was in part an act he performed admirably.
Both the Stark girls, and the bastard, had subtly magical auras, which Dontar’s keen eyes detected with ease. The magic in Stark blood interested Dontar, but his interest in them was not enough for him to betray his interest in the girls or in Jon, so he kept his expression appropriately neutral, which Catelyn took in stride. Eventually though the group reached the small and private chamber where Bran had been left in the care of maester Luwin.
The only occupants the chamber was housing when the group arrived was the conscious maester who had served House Stark for years; a humble looking old man, and the unconscious Bran himself. The maester attempted to protest when he saw Ros and Dontar but his initial complaints were silenced by Lord Stark himself who explained that Dontar was a healer who had come here to examine Bran. The maester accepted his lord’s words and quieted down, but Dontar never paid the man any mind at all.
The chamber was a small, private one lit by a window that allowed natural light to fill the place. It was only midday so there was plenty of natural light streaming into the room. The bed that Bran’s frail, unconscious body was placed on took up most of the room, and the boy was asleep atop it. On the way in the group had passed by the boy’s dire wolf pup, who had not tried to stop them but did look at Ros and Dontar with a curious gaze.
Dontar examined Bran, removing the bedsheets that hid his legs from the others for the sake of conducting a thorough examination. As he studied the young boy he was silent. This was due to the fact that the instant that Dontar entered the room where the boy was resting he immediately saw the incredibly potent arcane aura that surrounded Bran. The young lad had astoundingly potential when it came to the magical arts…
Following the removal of the bedsheets one could see the gruesome sight of Bran’s injuries. His lower body was covered in blood-soaked bandages.
Dontar impartially studied the lad’s body, and after several minutes of careful study quietly echoed the prognosis first given by the maester. This news was received stoically by the Starks, but each of them was clearly hurt by it even if they did not voice the pain they felt knowing what they now knew for certain.
“Dontar, what price would you ask in exchange for healing my son?” Catelyn asked, a few moments after Dontar gave this devastating news to the family. The maester did not bother speaking up in protest when he heard Catelyn make this dangerous plea, as he knew and trusted her.
The maester, a good and loyal man, knew that if Catelyn was making this offer then surely, she must have had her reasons for doing so. The mysterious healer the Starks were willing to bring here must have done something miraculous to earn Catelyn’s faith. Dontar silently pondered the question, and unbeknownst to the people around him listened to the voices in his mind as he considered how to answer Catelyn’s question.
He was eager to say a price, but he knew that when he did he would be able to ensure that he got it and then some, thanks to one of the supernatural abilities he possessed. Eventually, though, the figure did reply to the question.
“Lady Stark, my price is simple… I would like two things. Or rather, I would like three things. You see, I would like the souls of you and your husband, and for you to pay my companion three gold dragons. Consider that… a fee for the service she has done for your family.” Dontar offered, a positively wicked grin spreading across his face as he made that offer. This caused confusion to spread across the faces of those who were around the figure and conscious.
“You wish for… my soul?” Lord Stark asked, as he glanced at the figure curiously. The enigmatic man continued to smile as he nodded in response to the man’s question.
“Yes, Lord Stark. If you agree to this deal when you die your soul will not go to the Seven Heavens or the Seven Hells. Instead it will be transferred to a… space, within me. Where I will be able to control what you experience in the afterlife. I told you that my price would be esoteric… I meant that. It would cost you nothing, aside from what you are to pay Ros, in the short term but in the long term the price you would be paying would make it worthwhile for me to heal your son.” Dontar remarked, honestly.
There was something almost refreshing about the blunt honesty behind the words of the young man… It was enough to make Catelyn and Eddard turn and look at each other with soft smiles on their faces. The two figures also knew that they were stuck, that they couldn’t afford to say no to this deal without endangering the life of their son, but they were mildly comforted by the fact that if they believed this stranger’s claims about their fates they would at least be together. Lord Stark was the one to eventually break the silence.
“Why should we believe that you possess the power you claim you do? The ability to… yank us from the afterlives we believe we will be going to?” Lord Stark asked. This question garnered a laugh from Dontar, though the sound was indifferent and that in and of itself and was perceived as an offense by Robb, the eldest child of the Starks. He drew his blade and pointed it at Dontar’s throat.
“Why are you laughing? This is a serious family matter and your lord has asked you a question of great importance.” The young “Wolf” asked, his eyes filled with prideful anger and his blade dangerously sharp. Nevertheless Dontar was fearless and turned to look at the Stark with a steely gaze. As he did the man’s violet eyes narrowed and Robb saw a flicker of azure flames flare up behind them.
“I laugh because I do not care if your father and mother believe I possess the power I do. Those who are truly powerful are powerful even when they lack swords and guards who’d give their lives for them. True power and the figures who possess said power do not need validation.” The figure remarked, even as cold air mysteriously began to fill the room and frost began to appear on the blade the figure who’d someday be known as the “Young Wolf” was pointing at Dontar.
“My price is… fair enough, all things considered. If the two Starks believe me to be a fool for only asking that my friend be paid more traditionally than I, then they would be wise to take advantage of my perceived ‘Foolishness’. Their beliefs regarding my powers make little difference to me. I know my power is real, and if they are as smart as some believe them to be they’d believe me as well.” The creature stated, even as he utilized the power of the flames within him to peer ever so subtly into the future.
What he could do with his magic was wide-ranging and fiercely powerful. And what he could see when he utilized the magic that a distant priestess was known for was the future if his offer was rejected. A future of bloodshed, loss, and devastation for the Starks.
For better or worse, Dontar was indifferent to whether or not this future came to pass. He had no horse in the grand race that was the Westeros of tomorrow. His only interests at the moment were whether or not he’d be getting paid what he had said his price would be.
The future that Dontar could see promised that it would not be long before Catelyn and Eddard were brought before him, in the afterlife… barring supernatural intervention, of course. Catelyn then placed a hand on Robb’s shoulder and the teen’s shoulder sagged as he sighed and returned his blade to its sheath.
“Dontar, I apologize for my son’s pride. Your words carry the unpleasant sound of the truth but they are part of a lesson that Robb has yet to learn. The powerful are powerful even when they are unarmed and alone. Their power surrounds them like a shield, and the greatest among them use it as skillfully as an assassin might wield a poison.” Catelyn stated, as she looked at the mysterious healer.
“Can you tell me what would happen to us in your afterlife?” Catelyn asked, her inner piety revealing itself in ways both subtle and unsubtle. This question caused Dontar to hesitate and to think about it curiously.
Dontar was aware of certain aspects of his own powers. One aspect of his powers that he was aware of was the concept of “Essences”, potent constructs bound to the soul that a very rare handful of people possessed. He was aware that his ability to take souls was part of an essence known as the “Essence of Infernal Augmentation”, and that he could take souls into an afterlife which existed within him.
In that afterlife he possessed the power of a supreme deity, and could do whatever he wished to those who existed inside of him aside from a small handful of things such as return them, freely, to the land of the living. He wasn’t sure what he planned to do with that afterlife just yet, he simply wanted to begin preparations to fill it up, and he knew that if he took the souls of the Starks he wouldn’t have to wait long to begin to doing just that. Plus the voices in his head had told him other things that directly influenced his actions here… They had given him assurances that even he was hesitant to truly believe.
“I am not sure. I have no real interest in cruelty, however, so I doubt my world would be comparable to one of the Seven Hells.” He explained, gently. The “Seven Hells” were where the wicked dead were sent according to the most popular faith in the Seven Kingdoms, the “Faith of the Seven”. These words were meant as a jest, but Catelyn was a stern person and while Eddard smiled at Dontar, Eddard’s wife did no such thing.
“I can understand your skepticism of all of this. If it makes it easier for you to swallow the price I genuinely have no problem with you believing that I am incapable of what I say. I am, right now and right here at least, a person of business. If you wish to be skeptical, if that makes my price easier for you to pay, be skeptical but go ahead and choose to save your son. When you agree to my terms I will heal him.” Dontar added, stating in no uncertain terms his position. His words caused both Starks to look at each other and to try and gauge where the other stood.
“I believe it would be best if my husband and I pay the price you ask. Three gold dragons for your friend, and… our souls, for you.” Catelyn stated, after a few moments of quiet contemplation, hesitating as she uttered that last part. Dontar smiled, brightly, as he turned to face Lord Stark. His eyes spoke a question more strongly than he felt like uttering one, and eventually Eddard also nodded.
Dontar’s smile widened, and he reached into his cloak. The young man retrieved the shaped metal rod that he used as a wand and pointed it at the child. This action caused Robb’s hand to fall back on the hilt of his sword but he didn’t immediately attempt to lash out. No one did, even though every person in the room aside from Dontar was unsure of what the stranger planned to do with that bizarre lump of metal and everyone in the room watched as Dontar closed his eyes and uttered a set of strange words.
“Brackium Emendo!” The figure uttered, as his wand began to brilliantly glow. A soft green light emanated out of the wand and touched the leg of young Bran. Everyone in the room, aside from Dontar, gasped when they watched Bran’s leg begin to heal. They watched the magic of the stranger forcibly and almost violently wrench the bones of the young boy, and they all paled as they saw and heard the sounds the boy’s body began to make.
For several minutes Dontar patiently used his magic on Bran. The wizard grew more and more comfortable with his magic as he diligently tended to Bran, and with each spell the group of individuals in the room felt more and more awe wash over them. In time Bran’s body began to regain its former color, however little that was, and the faces of the Starks and the guards were all awash with relief. Dontar’s magic was like nothing they had ever seen, and in a matter of minutes a boy who was on the verge of death was fully healed.
When Bran’s body was visually identical to how it had been before the fall, the Starks breathed a collective sigh of relief. Dontar was not finished and he performed the same actions he had performed when he was collecting a potion to drink. This time he collected another potion and brought it to Bran’s lips. The young boy drank the potion without much prodding and as soon as he downed the last of it his eyes shot open.
“Whoa, where am I?!” Bran suddenly asked, as he took in his surroundings and then gazed at Dontar fearfully. Dontar chuckled, even as he gazed into Bran’s dark eyes and deliberately replicated the same feat of mind magic, or legilimency, that he had performed when looking into Ros’s eyes minutes ago.
This feat allowed the figure to, thanks to Bran’s own youth and relatively unguarded mind, absorb the contents of the boy’s mind with startling ease. He immediately navigated the layers of the boy’s mind and what he saw caused his eyes to widen.
Dontar was more than a little shocked at what the boy had seen mere moments before being pushed from the tower. The naked bodies of two Lannisters, twins at that, caught performing socially taboo intercourse…
“So it was the Lannisters…” He quietly muttered, so softly that only Bran could hear him. Dontar began to smile a second later, sensing even more opportunity here now that he was armed with knowledge of the truth. He subtly rips the memories the boy has of the events right before he fell out of the mind of the youth, and frees him of the heavy burden that comes with that awareness.
“Okay so… As you can see, Bran is healed. I believe that now is the time for Ros to get paid.” Dontar declared, smiling brilliantly at the Starks. They were all still stunned by what they have seen, coupled with the fact that Bran was awake again, and eventually the family’s maester was the one who gives Ros a total of nine coins.
Dontar watched this exchange and saw the maester count out the money. Maester Luwin quickly counted to three coins but then seem to not notice as he continued to hand the redheaded woman coins until he had given her nearly ten of the things.
He didn’t even really notice the fact that he gave her more money than had been agreed upon when he stopped giving her the money, he just stopped putting lovely looking coins in her hands. She was also ignorant of the strangeness of the situation, and this was confirmation of an ability that Dontar possessed that excited the foreign healer.
The chorus of voices inside of him had warned him of an ability he possessed named “Afarkaup Avarkostir” during the time it took for the group to go from the Great Hall of Winterfell to the private chamber where Bran had been resting. This mysterious ability made it so that prices he paid were only a third of what they were supposed to be, and made it so that he earned three times what he was supposed to earn, while suppressing the ability of those who did business with him to notice the disparity, along with a number of other benefits it bestowed upon him.
The fact that Ros had been paid triple the amount that had been agreed upon was a simple manifestation of this unusual power, but to Dontar it was proof that the power was real. Dontar was not a particularly nice person and he did not advocate that his companion be paid out of the kindness of his heart, it was out of a desire to test this power that he ensured that she be paid. But that was not the only confirmation that the power was real that Dontar received when the coins were given to Ros.
Dontar’s perception of reality was suddenly split in half when maester Luwin finished paying Ros. One-half of his perception of reality showed him the interior of Winterfell, the location he was standing in, while another half of his perception of reality showed him a beautiful windswept plain, where four human-shaped silhouettes motionlessly stood in front of another body… a perfect copy of him.
Dontar and Ros quickly and quietly excused themselves from the Starks, for the sake of “Giving them time to plan what to do next and spend time together as a family”. The Starks were all too happy to be reunited with their second youngest child, and quickly bade the healer and his friend farewell. All the while Dontar himself focused inward on events occurring on the windswept plain.
“It really worked…” Dontar muttered, though only the “Him” that was in the windswept plain uttered those words. That version of him was inside of his “Palais”, the name the “Essence of Infernal Augmentation” gave to the world that constituted his personal afterlife.
“Excellent work Dontar! This gives us the perfect opportunity to share with you the best means at your disposal when it comes to attaining power: the ‘Essence of the Shop’.” One of the voices that could speak to Dontar explained enigmatically.
The voice was not finished speaking, but Dontar only paid it some mind. His nature as a curious sort compelled him to study his surroundings.
The curious foreigner stood in the middle of a gigantic plain. He took some time to fully examine where he stood and he found that no matter what direction he looked in all he could see was a sea of wild grass of various heights.
His nostrils filled with the scents of various wild grasses, and the featureless silhouettes were his only somewhat physical company in this place. The skies above him were cloudless and a distant sun shone brilliantly on the strange southerner. A constant breeze blew from behind him, which helped cool the heat of the sun as it beat down on the figure. Eventually Dontar began to give the voice in his head his full attention.
“Do me a favor and go ahead and wish for ‘The Shop’ to open.” The same disembodied voice from earlier told him. The version of the young man present in this place did as he was told, and was surprised to see a floating menu suddenly appear. The menu was trapped in a strange blue textbox.
The menu contained a lengthy explanation regarding “The Shop”, a sort of “Omniversal” marketplace wherein items, perks, traits, abilities, and even other essences, could be purchased. The menu also detailed an important tidbit: items of all sorts in Dontar’s possession could be put into the textbox and exchanged for the currency the shop utilized whenever someone who possessed its power made a purchase, a strange series of units known as “Store Points”.
“Hmm… I suppose I could go ahead and test that out.” Dontar muttered, before absentmindedly reaching out and willing one of the souls he possessed as virtue of the potent effects of “Afarkaup Avarkostir” towards his eager hand.
The featureless silhouette floated toward the figure’s hand until it rested against his palm. He promptly shoved it into the floating textbox and the thing disappeared quite suddenly.
The text in the textbox changed in the wake of this action, revealing how many “Store Points” a “Generic Human Soul” was worth. It then asked him if he wanted to exchange the soul for the points.
Dontar decided to experiment with this, and he informed the menu that he would be exchanging the soul for points. What happened next brought a smile to the man’s face, as the instant he did this he saw that he received triple the points he was offered, and that was an incredible discovery for this creature to make this early on in his journey.
“Oh I can definitely use this…” He muttered, as he proceeded to do the same thing with the other souls in his possession. The act of acquiring the souls had been part of an experiment he was running to see if his powers really would allow him to snatch souls so long as those to whom they belonged consented, so he was fine using the extra resources for more experimentation.
As soon as he was all by himself in his personal afterlife, he found himself willingly experimenting even more. Even his other body had departed from Ros’s side at this point, to go and do more experimenting during the minutes this all took as there was a subtle difference between how fast time flowed in this personal dimension versus how fast time flowed in the baseline reality that Dontar was a part of.
The curious figure began to peruse the things he could purchase. The offerings on display were often intriguing, but Dontar began to plan to buy something special for his first purchase. Even as he thought that up for the first time the shop informed him that for his first purchase two greater essences would be discounted, which was curious and exciting to the wanderer.
The strange healer quietly explored the thousands of essences on display that he could purchase, recognizing their tremendous power, before finally finding two that he felt were intriguing enough to seriously examine.
These two essences, named “The Essence of Celestial Power”, and “The Essence of Prototype”. One offered him chances to grow, to get new “perks” without spending “Store Points”, and the other offered some of upgrades and boosts to some of Dontar’s more sinister powers. He also went ahead and added a device known as a “Sheikah Slate”, complete with all of the available “Runes” to his “Shopping Cart”.
When Dontar moved to purchase these powerful essences and the curious toy he added to his list of purchases he selected the option to “Go to checkout”. As this happened he was informed of the final price he’d have to pay to buy everything. The young man was not surprised to see their prices slashed by two thirds, each, in addition to the discounts that was already being applied to them.
This was within his expectations, but the certainty that this remained the case even when he purchased things brought a smile to his face. The ambitious figure went ahead with the purchase, which itself occurred more dramatically than he thought it would.
When he finalized his purchase he felt the power of the twin fonts of potential the Celestial Grimoire and the Celestial Forge, two objects which went ahead and bound themselves to Dontar’s soul rather dramatically. The objects were the two aspects of “The Essence of Celestial Power”, and they were pouring themselves into him.
Thankfully both Dontar’s were alone, one in the windswept plain, and the other on the road leading away from the winter town, because the power flowing into him made him fall to his knees as he adjusted to the hurricane of sensations he was feeling. All of this was so dramatic that it initially escaped Dontar’s notice that he hadn’t acquired two essences… He had acquired a total of six, thanks to the frightening effects of, perhaps, the scariest thing in Dontar’s possession: a perk that amplified the results of his actions.
As the power afforded by the essences he had just acquired washed over him, the dark stranger began to smile brightly. He was witnessing an unexpected and significant burst of growth brought on by the interaction of “Afarkaup Avarkostir” mixing with the mightier of the two essences he had just acquired. The potent energies of the Celestial Grimoire and the Celestial Forge synchronized with him in an instant and began to synergize with his curious metaphysical essence, which was kissed by the perks he possessed.
These fonts of power mixing was resulting in “Afarkaup Avarkostir” blending with the celestial fonts of multiversal power within Dontar. And that mixture of perks and essences was rapidly mutating Dontar, even as the power of the Blacklight and Redlight viruses warped Dontar’s body and bestowed their own frightening powers upon the curious man.
The viruses infecting the healer was one of the results of his other newly acquired essence, “The Essence of Prototype” filling him as thoroughly as “The Essence of Celestial Power” was. Every cell of his was infected with both Redlight and an artificial variant of it dubbed “Blacklight”, transforming Dontar into something even further from human than he had been minutes ago.
Perks and items were etching themselves onto the conceptual makeup of the young multidimensional being. Each perk and item acquired by the empowered versions of the Celestial Grimoire and the Celestial Forge were visible to the eldritch audience watching Dontar. Dontar’s empowered versions of the Grimoire and the Forge were strong enough to apply the mechanisms by which they empowered those blessed with them retroactively, bestowing the strange adventurer with an array of diverse perks and a few items right away instead of needing him to engage in adventures before he could use both sources of power to grow even stronger.
At first the perks and items were not immediately known to the southerner. Some of these perks offered subtle, but impressive, changes and modifications to his physical form, while others boosted his intellect or even conferred wholly new abilities to the inhuman monster. And yet, while several of the first perks etched themselves onto him he remained largely ignorant to things as specific as their names and exact effects.
All of that changed, however, when one of the perks the Celestial Forge bestowed upon the adventurer awoke within him: the perk, named “BETTER GO READ MY OWN MANUAL”, caused the figure to gain a powerful level of self-awareness that nearly pushed him to the edge of the information he could attain all at once, thanks to how it touched one of the essences that had previously escaped his notice: the “Essence of the Scholar”.
The scholarly essence allowed him to read any and all books instantaneously so long as he could touch them. The perk, referring to something called a “Manual”, filled Dontar’s internal mindscape with “Manuals” that detailed each of his powers, be they essence-based or perk-based, and his items. When the two things touched inside of him it granted him an eerily perfect form of self-awareness, which was unbelievably powerful for a creature like him since it allowed him to skip the awkward phase he’d otherwise have to undergo of learning about his powers one at a time.
The potent and shadowy healer smirked and began to laugh, terrifyingly, as he felt his awareness of the perks, essences, and items in his possession become perfect. And that knowledge was humbling, in its own way, since it allowed him to realize how much self-awareness he had lacked just moments ago.
No longer did he need the voices of the figures inside of him to alert him to his own capabilities, he was now fully aware of both his own powers and his limits. And perfect self-awareness was a hell of a superpower in the right hands.
“The things I can do with this, with myself…” The stranger quietly whispered, even as he began to imagine the sorts of changes his powers would allow him to make on the world.
Dontar’s body inside of his “Palais” began to experiment with his “Prototype”-sourced shapeshifting. He quickly began to have fun morphing his limbs into potent weapons, such as turning one arm into a gigantic blade and the other into a lengthy, coiled whip. The figure even began to practice swinging and utilizing such extraordinary weapons, just to be sure he could have some idea of how to use them in a real battle.
Before he knew it, hours would pass quickly. When the sun began to set, and Dontar’s body on Planetos was somewhere on the Kingsroad, that body of his was closer to a small village than he was to the winter town situated close to Winterfell that he had first awoke in.
Sadly for the tiny village, Dontar had satisfied the part of him that wanted to see his powers in theory. The young man now wanted to see, with his own eyes, how his powers could change places and people. And he knew exactly how to do that… Dontar turned in the direction of the village, a smile caused by powerful otherworldly abilities inhumanly etched onto his disarmingly handsome face.
