NOVEL WEB Chapter 77: Azor Ahai
The red priestess Melisandre closed her eyes and prayed silently:
"R'hllor, the Lord of Light, Heart of the Holy Flame, Master of Shadow and Flame, let me see the promised prince, your representative in this world."
The air was extremely hot, and her lips were already cracked.
This was not surprising. Since she had moved into this room in the inn, the fire in the fireplace had never been extinguished, even though the summer sun was shining in at this moment.
Undoubtedly, a priestess of R'hllor must coexist with fire.
She knew that R'hllor spoke through ashes and flickering flames, conveying omens to his chosen followers.
And she was best at observing and interpreting ambiguous omens from the holy fire.
She opened her eyes and gazed at the flames.
Before her, flickering illusions wavered in the fire.
Faces and figures drifted uncertainly, one illusion forming only to dissolve and fade into another;
Colors were sometimes golden, sometimes scarlet, sometimes bright white;
Shapes were sometimes strange, sometimes terrifying, sometimes alluring, sometimes sacred;
She could not see the promised prince.
Another failure. Melisandre tried hard to forget the disappointment and confusion in her heart.
She sat blankly before R'hllor's holy fire.
The Ancient Books of Asshai prophesied, "After a long summer, when the stars bleed, Azor Ahai shall be reborn in the Land of Smoke and Salt and wake dragons from stone."
Melisandre firmly believed that the "Land of Smoke and Salt" was Dragonstone.
Therefore, she had journeyed from Asshai to serve under Stannis, hoping to guide the promised prince to fulfill the mission granted by R'hllor.
But. Stannis was dead.
Melisandre had to accept the reality that she might have misinterpreted the prophecy.
She did not know where to go. But Dragonstone soon received news – Joffrey Baratheon, the heir to the Iron Throne, had become the "Prince of Dragonstone."
Afterward, envoys from the Iron Throne carrying dragon eggs stayed on Dragonstone.
She realized that she had arrived too early, that Stannis was merely a precursor to the king, and the true prince was in King's Landing.
So she came to King's Landing, spreading the gospel of R'hllor to the ignorant people, and even saw the face of the new king, but the holy fire remained silent.
Could it be that it wasn't him either?
Suddenly, a picture formed in the holy fire, only to be torn apart by the leaping flames in an instant.
Melisandre's eyes shone with tears of excitement.
Even though it had only appeared for a moment, every stroke in the picture was clear and distinct, impossible to forget.
Although the face of the figure in the holy fire was blurred, the seven small crystal towers by his leg, like toys, were a clear omen – the Great Sept of Baelor.
Melisandre rose from the holy fire.
Today was the seventh day of the seventh moon. The so-called promised day of the false Seven, the day of King Joffrey I's coronation.
The High Septon of the false gods would crown the king in the Great Sept of Baelor.
She walked out of the room, went downstairs, and joined the dense crowd surging towards the Great Sept of Baelor on the street.
The crowd moved slowly along the wide Muddy Way, the midsummer sun high overhead, the air filled with the smell of sweat, people, bread, and perfume.
Rich and poor alike were discussing the king's coronation, and Melisandre listened quietly.
"If you ask me, His Majesty is a truly excellent person. It's taken so many days for him to be willing to hold the coronation ceremony. King Robert would surely be very pleased."
"I think His Majesty is like Baelor the Blessed reborn. Crowning on the seventh day of the seventh moon, how pious, the Seven bless him!"
"Say what you will, I only care about the silver stag the Gold Cloaks promised."
"Hmph! His Majesty is rich in the Seven Kingdoms, how could he be short of a silver stag for you? Let alone giving a silver stag to everyone who attends the ceremony, what if he gave everyone a gold dragon?"
"There are hundreds of thousands of us in total, a gold dragon! You give it!?"
The crowd burst into laughter.
Melisandre was covered from head to toe in her red robes. Occasionally, someone would look at her curiously, but seeing nothing, they would move their gaze away in boredom.
"I heard," a voice said mysteriously, "that King Robert was killed by the spell of the dark wizard Bloodraven."
"Lord Bloodraven."
"I know him. The wicked wizard with a thousand and one eyes. My mother used to scare me with him when I was little."
"Really?"
"He's not still alive, is he? Counting the time, he must be over a hundred years old."
"Who knows."
"Actually, the night the Great Sept bells rang, Lord Renly ran back to Storm's End with his soldiers. Think about it carefully, hehe..."
"Alright! You dare to speak of Lord Renly!"
"According to that, are you still suspicious of His Majesty? His Majesty hasn't even accused Lord Renly."
"Exactly, what kind of person would suspect their own relative first?! Even if Lord Renly returns home, what of it? Will he raise an army to rebel and contend for the succession to the Iron Throne?"
The figure quickly squeezed away to somewhere else, and the vicinity was unusually quiet for a while, the atmosphere slightly strange.
Melisandre had also watched the holy fire for this a few days ago. Behind the death of King Robert, there was indeed a powerful force hidden. Bloodraven, Brynden Rivers, do you belong to light or darkness?
The flowing crowd became active again.
"I heard that Bloodraven is a greenseer of the Children of the Forest."
"I saw it. Those little things His Majesty brought back from the Wall are definitely not human! They have chestnut-colored skin! Three fingers!!"
"That's not right. Bloodraven is human, the greenseer of the Children of the Forest definitely isn't him."
"You're mistaken."
"He and the Children of the Forest are definitely enemies!"
"Exactly."
Someone asked worriedly, "If the Children of the Forest are real, could the Others and those strange prophecies also be true? The Long Night, the Doomsday, and so on."
"Bah, bah, don't talk nonsense!"
"Impossible! It's all just frightened people from Asshai spouting nonsense!" The voice couldn't hide its tremor.
"We also have legends, my grandfather told similar ones."
"The Long Night thousands of years ago couldn't possibly be completely false, could it? So many legends and stories, the Children of the Forest and the Last Hero."
Legend has it that during that winter which lasted a full generation, kings and slaves alike could only shiver and freeze into corpses, and the world was left with only endless darkness, monsters, and ice, until the Last Hero saved the world.
"What was the Last Hero's name?"
"The Asshai'i said he was Azor Ahai. His reincarnation will become a hero again, wielding 'Lightbringer' to stop the darkness and doomsday, and bring an endless long summer."
No one spoke to deny it anymore.
A voice tinged with fear said, "This summer has already lasted almost ten years, hasn't it?"
The people became even more silent.
As everyone knew, every long summer was followed by an even longer long winter.
A winter of more than ten years, or even longer.
Gods, will there be a new spring again? Will I still be alive to see it? Will my children see it?
Melisandre, beneath her red robes, frowned.
Recently, more and more people in the city were spreading propaganda about the Long Night and Doomsday. She could smell their scent, full of lies and deceit, definitely not devout followers of a true god or a false god. Not everyone speaking around her was doing so sincerely either.
Who made them do this, and what was their purpose?
The crowd came to a complete halt.
Melisandre raised her head. Before her was the Central Plaza, packed with people.
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