22 Prologue: Leaving the old, finding the new
I'm Back. At least for today. I am so sorry for those who have been enjoying this and wanting more but I've been super busy with work, university and just not having a great inspiration to write at all. I thought I might as well grind out a chapter to appease those who thought it was dead, ITS NOT I DONT THINK.
I've been thinking of writing a different fic with something else, I don't really know what it would be, might be Dune cause I just saw the movie, maybe Overlord because I'm reading that, might be Warhammer or Dune and Warhammer combined, give me ideas for a new fic and if you want me to continue this one please comment that you do.
....
Of all the days the last few years have brought, this day would probably be amongst the worst.
Brandon knew this day would come, many had known, yet only Brandon hated it the most.
Few understood why, for Brandon had fought against gods and demons and lived to tell of his heroic tales, why would he dread this day over the others?
For Brandon, today was a day he would have to say goodbye to someone he once called foe, he now called friend.
Melkor and his family had begun preparing to set out to find a place they truly could call home.
After the defeat of the Great Other Melkor and Brandon and the other lords and kings of Westeros had begun fortifying the North and many other settlements across the continent, but as the years passed and the guarantee of peace, Melkor began looking east to a new land.
Melkor could no longer cross the great land bridge to the south, for with the coming of his great fiery demons of shadow also wrought with it a great shattering of the land.
Brandon then ordered the construction of a grand ship under the supervision of Melkor that would carry his family across the perilous ocean to Essos.
Brandon would not be the only one to miss the gods he saw more like a man than the divine entity they were.
Eoghan would dearly miss the entities from another world.
But the one who would miss them most of all could only be Beorn, even though he would never admit it.
Beorn was the one to first find the banished god and his family, to take them in when Melkor had no place to turn in the strange new world. And now Melkor would return that kindness with an eternal debt to help the one who had helped him whenever he called upon him.
Beorn wished to ask for them to stay on the content, to keep him company when he had no one else. But his pride would never allow him to admit such a thing.
But Beorn knew that it was not right to ask such a thing when they could not truly call his home their own.
"You need to get over yourself, you know that it's not like we won't visit."
Brandon's head snapped up towards the voice, breaking him from his thoughts.
Situated in front of him at the high table of Winterfell sat Melkor, Aina, and Fae eating their last supper in the great halls of the Stark home.
Brandon's eyes locked onto Aina, "We aren't going to cut off all communication with you and the other realms, my husband is still the Elder King. He would be a poor ruler to abandon his subjects."
Melkor cracked a smirk at his wife. "Let the poor man grieve my love, he feels should I leave the demons to the deep north will break through the wall and the old gods will disappear, yet he forgets how much his people have grown since the war."
Mekor's remark brought forth dark memories and bright futures.
From the start of the end of the war, Melkor and Brandon had begun working in tandem to strengthen the North to new heights to better protect the South should the Others return.
The Great Tower of Cailin had undergone a great change. No longer a lone tower the vital chokepoint of the north now held host to twenty massive towers and mighty curtain walls with powerful runes carved by Brandon and great spells and wards weaved by Melkor.
The now-named Moat Cailin was not the only great project that had undergone change in the North. Aina even before the war had been trying to find a way to feed the people of the North during the Winter Years when the food supplies ran low. Aina and Fae had discovered a never-before-seen type of cow.
The strange animal was discovered in the dead of winter when no cattle should have survived. The cow seemed to be covered in long thick fur, and none the bothered when faced with the peltering waves of winter.
Aina and Fae promptly named the cattle the Gaidhealtachd cow. Why they had thought of such an odd name, no one could tell, perhaps it was the work of some greater entity beyond even the banished god.
"Stop torturing him my love, much has happened to the North that those foul demons have caused and many have suffered."
As Aina berated her husband she glanced at her ever-quiet daughter, a drastic change from her bombastic personality from before the war.
Aina took on a softer voice as she looked into her husband's eyes, "You were gone for a couple of hours, for us it was years, and we lost many friends along the way."
Brandon's expression panged at Aina's beratement of Melkor. He glanced at the now-ever-empty chair his son once occupied, a casualty of the war that has left a deep scar in many hearts, Fae's most of all.
Melkor looked to his daughter, sulking, barely eating her food. She had changed the most after the war.
Melkor sighed frowning at the state of his daughter, worried that it would lead to more bad than good.
Melkor did not hate young Bran, but felt Fae could find a better match in the realm, perhaps of more divine blood. But the state of the world and its gods did not sit right with Melkor and approved of the fae's choice with some but little resignation.
After Melkors returned, he had found his daughter grief-stricken with the loss of her not-so-secret lover.
Melkor was not at the battle where Brandon died, but Aina tells as Fae watched Brandon die, she released a power unlike any other that not even Melkor could comprehend.
It burned every enemy they faced that day, yet created an army of fire and death that no Valar should have been capable of unless Eru himself intervened.
What Aina described to Melkor that day shook him to his very core.
Eru was still here, watching him, interfering in his life, fueling his rage for his father to new heights.
Melkor sighed and put on a smile, rising from his seat he readied himself for the next adventure.
"I think it's best we start to head east Brandon, I would only ask you to accompany us, one last ride, before we depart east."
Brandon smiled at the god. "Aye, I would gladly ride with you all, one last time, not as friends or allies, but as family."
Aina smiled at that. Of all the mortals of this new world, Brandon was one of the few she respected the most."
"Come now, we haven't left yet, you'll have plenty of time to reminisce on our journey to the port."
The family of banished gods and friends began leaving the halls of Winterfell ready to find their new home in the east.
....
The great carrack sailed across the open sea, propelled by great winds and tides. Faervedess stood at the bow of the ship, letting the cool air glide across her face, letting her hair run free in the wind.
Melkor and Aina stood on the deck's starboard side, leaning against the railing and watching their daughter look past the ever-expanding sea to a place they could call home.
Aina watched her daughter and her husband. One lost in the beauty of the sea, the other warily glancing to the ocean or the sky, waiting for something, or someone.
Melkor knew they were not the only gods in this world. He had met the sea god and the wind goddess before they left Westeros. Melkor had struck a deal for safe passage, at least until the sea gods' domain.
The sea god had warned Melkor of his father, the drowned god, Triton, another banished god-like Melkor. All Melkor knew of the god was he was a terrible tyrant just like him in his own world, controlled by Eru just as he was, and was banished to this forsaken world just the same.
Melkor and his family had left the domain of the sea god and now sailed across the Drowned god's waters, yet no waves clashed against them, the winds kept them on the right path, and the sea did not roar to life as Melkor had expected.
So very different were the gods of these lands compared to the Valar he remembered from Ea. The drowned God and Ulmo differed in every way imaginable. The Drowned god seemed to remind Melkor of himself, or if Ulmo betrayed the Valar rather than he himself.
Where Ulmo was just and kind Melkor only remembered tales of evil from the sea gods and tales of his father. Should he and the drowned god ever cross paths, it may lead to a battle just as the last with the great Other.
Melkors powers have been greater than ever since his arrival in the world, but he was nowhere near the power he once wielded when Ea was sung into existence. How the Old gods granted him such power, he could not understand, but he knew they were hiding something from him, and he would find out what it was, but first, he needed his old servants back, his lieutenant Gothmog and the other balrogs had begun scouting years ago for a place they could begin operating from. eventually, they reported back, believing they found the right spot.
He had with him now nine mighty balrogs at his service. Melkor would meet them upon the land they had found and begin building a kingdom no man nor god could oppose.
But not all the balrogs would meet him upon Essos, for he had left one behind in the North, hidden away to protect the family he called his own, the balrog would forever serve the Starks, warming their home, never truly revealing its power until the day they needed it most.
Melkor had some of his mightiest servants now to serve him in this world, his loyal hound Carcharoth would forever look after his daughter protecting his family till the day he died.
Melkor knew though he did not have his mightiest servants. They still remained trapped somewhere, in those rifts the old gods inhabit, wherever they might be, he needed to find the mightiest of them all.
Where his lieutenant lied in this world Melkor did not know, but he did know he would find him.
Melkor knew his lieutenant may not have ever been captured after the war of wrath, and because of that, he was vulnerable. Melkor did not have a servant whose power was unquestionable.
Carcharoth was far weaker than he was at the time of his prime, and Gothmog was vulnerable to the other gods of the lands.
What Melkor needed was the servant he knew was defeated at the end of the War of Wrath. Melkor needed the servant that not even the Ainur could push back without the Silmarils themselves.
Melkor needed to find Ancalagon.
"Father look." The shouting of Fae broke Melkor from his planning. looking up to his daughter he found her pointing off into the near distance. They had found land.
The ship had finally made it to its destination. The ship beached itself not intending to sail back west for they had no plan of leaving the gods alone for they knew whatever Melkor had planned would be great, and the crew dearly wanted to be a part of the greatness to come.
The banished gods' family along with their loyal hound made their way across the rolling hills and mountains they would create into their new home.
"Father, it's beautiful." Fae ran around the new lands, happier than either of her parents had seen her since Brandon's death.
"That makes me happy that you love it. We will carve great kingdoms into these mountains and plains and rule as the gods we are."
Aina smiled at her family, finally feeling like they had a true and new start in life, to be a true family.
Over the ridge, a fiery Balrog appeared, "Gothmog, it pleases me to see you here. I must say you picked the perfect spot."
The mighty Balrog fell on one knee and bowed to his master. "It pleases me greatly to hear such praise my lord, but I must confess, there have been unforeseen problems that I had not foreseen in my shortsightedness."
Melkor frowned at Gothmog. "Show me." He growled.
The fiery demon rose and began escorting his master and his family over a ridge to see the other seven balrogs herding a great many men and women and a few sheep into a tight ball.
The men and women had the strangest features very different from the mortals of Westeros. Their skin was paler than any man comparable to Melkor or his wife's, and their hair was either a platinum blonde, a silvery white, or some kind of ethereal white only seen in the aging elderly, and their eyes were a deep sapphire purple.
Aina raised an eyebrow at the herded mortals, screaming in fear of the great fiery demons that surrounded them. "My love, are those...
Melkor answered her before she could finish. "Shepherds."
