Game of Thrones: Knight’s Honor
Chapter 382: Sacrifice to Me

“The White Walkers can communicate? You're not joking, are you, Maester Marwyn?” Lynd glanced at Marwyn, then down at the test report in his hands, his expression filled with doubt.

Marwyn shook his head. “Of course not. I submitted the application properly and officially.”

“All because of those two test results?” Lynd frowned, thinking of the two research tables where the Maesters and spellcasters had claimed the White Walkers were intelligent—and capable of communication.

Lynd had always known the White Walkers possessed intelligence. After all, without it, they couldn't have built fortresses in the Land of Always Winter, nor led wight armies with tactical precision. But claiming they could communicate with humans—that was a different matter. The White Walkers were a fundamentally different race, harboring a deep, soul-engraved hatred for the living. Under those circumstances, how could communication even be possible?

“Not exactly,” Marwyn said, shaking his head again. “I’ve long wanted to write a book on the White Walkers. Now that we have ample experimental material, I see no reason to let this opportunity slip away. Your Grace, please—grant me this chance.”

Lynd considered for a moment before replying, “You can continue your research for as long as the base remains. But once we evacuate, all White Walkers must be destroyed. Do you understand?”

“Yes, Your Grace,” Marwyn said eagerly, bowing with excitement.

After Marwyn left, Lynd turned to Malora. “That unknown force you mentioned earlier—what exactly is it?”

“Your Grace, this way,” Malora said, dismissing the rest of the team. She and Lagz, head of the Silent Court, led Lynd down to a lower level of the underground facility.

This basement level had no opening to the surface; sunlight couldn’t reach it. More than a dozen oil lamps lined the walls, bathing the room in warm light.

The moment Lynd stepped inside, he felt a sense of familiarity. He turned to Malora. “You brought the White Walker altar from the Haunted Forest here?”

“No—we built a replica,” Malora explained.

Indeed, at the center of the room stood an altar, nearly identical in design to the one where Lynd had first discovered the sacrificial tablet in the Haunted Forest. The only difference was the runes carved into the floor. Instead of the spiral patterns associated with the White Walkers, these symbols were different. Still, everything else—from layout to structure—was nearly an exact match. They had even brought out the sacrificial tablet stored in the Black Cave and placed it atop the altar.

If it had only been a replica, Lynd wouldn’t have been surprised. Dozens, even hundreds, of similar altars had already been built in the Black Cave to study the original tablet’s effects and test if newly crafted tablets could replicate its power.

Whether it was due to the material of the sacrificial tablets or something about the construction of the altars themselves, the replicas—while functional—never matched the original’s potency.

As for the original altar in the Haunted Forest, Lynd had long ago ordered the Night’s Watch rangers to dismantle it and transport it south of the Wall. Dacey had delivered it to him personally. It was still stored in the Black Cave.

What truly caught Lynd off guard was what he saw through his enhanced vision: the altar in front of him was actively absorbing power from the surrounding environment. This energy, when diffused, was nearly imperceptible—his special vision couldn’t even detect it. But once the altar began drawing it in, concentrating it, the change became clearly visible.

“You can see it, right?” Malora asked with excitement, knowing of Lynd’s ability to perceive magical residues. “What does it look like? Tell me—what do you see?”

Lynd described the scene in detail. After listening, Malora’s excitement gave way to puzzlement. “Did we get it wrong? Shouldn’t it be releasing energy? Why is it absorbing instead?”

Lynd gave her a long look. “Explain what’s going on.”

“Let me,” said Lagz, stepping forward. The head of the Silent Court continued, “From the moment we arrived on this frozen land, Malora and I noticed that the magical energy here is incredibly active—so active, in fact, that I can now easily cast spells that once required deep concentration.”

As he spoke, he performed a basic pyromancy trick. A small flame the size of a fist materialized in his palm, twisted into the form of a snake, and coiled through the air around him before extinguishing.

“This probably isn’t good news for us,” Lynd said with a frown. He was certain that the last time he came Beyond the Wall, the magic here hadn’t been this active.

While this surge of magic made it easier for spellcasters to cast spells quickly, it also made the magic dangerously unstable. Even Lagz, the head of the Silent Court, had to focus her full attention just to stabilize a basic flame spell. As for the others, most would likely suffer magical backlash the moment they began casting.

What truly concerned Lynd was that this same surge in magical activity that benefited his own spellcasters would also benefit the White Walkers.

Though Lynd didn’t know just how powerful the White Walkers' spellcasters were, the fact that they had carved out territory in the unforgiving Land of Always Winter suggested their mastery of ancient magic was anything but ordinary.

In contrast, his side relied mostly on alchemically crafted conventional weapons. If those were pitted against forgotten and ancient magic, there was no telling if they would still hold their effectiveness.

Malora, now visibly serious, added, “The worst part is that this chaotic magic is growing stronger. I can feel it affecting the magic within me. If it continues, my magic will become unstable as well—and who knows what kind of mutation that could cause in my body.”

Though she couldn’t perceive magic visually the way Lynd could, Malora was still able to sense it. In fact, when it came to the finer details of magical energy, her sensitivity often surpassed Lynd’s.

Lagz, standing nearby, also had the ability to sense magic, but her perception wasn’t as acute as Malora’s. More importantly, she couldn’t feel how the chaotic magic around them was influencing her own inner magic.

It wasn’t until Malora pointed it out that Lynd noticed the magical fluctuations radiating from both her and Lagz were indeed unusual.

Lagz spoke in a low tone, “Could this be why the White Walkers are pushing south no matter the cost? In this environment, even their own magic might be at risk of destabilization.”

But Lynd didn’t have an answer. He couldn’t feel the chaotic magic that Malora and Lagz were describing, and it wasn’t interfering with the rune power in his body at all. He had no idea whether this immunity was a blessing or a curse.

“Who exactly are you planning to sacrifice with this altar?” Lynd didn’t linger on the chaotic magic. Good or bad, it was beyond his control. Instead, his focus returned to the altar. He pointed at the symbols inscribed on the floor. “Are you trying to sacrifice to me?”

He asked because he had just noticed something clearly: where the White Walker’s spiral rune should have been, the sigil carved beneath the altar was none other than his own Nameless King rune.

Years ago, Lynd had engraved the Nameless King rune and handed it to Malora for research. She’d never discovered anything useful about it—yet here she was, using it as a sacrificial rune, which left Lynd somewhat puzzled.

“Yes, we’re offering the sacrifice to you,” Malora admitted honestly. “Aren’t you the God of Calamity and the God of Storms? I figured I’d try using the White Walker altar to see if we could sacrifice something useful.”

Lynd didn’t object. On the contrary, he was intrigued.

“And the sacrifice?” he asked.

Malora pointed upward. “Plenty of them upstairs.”

“White Walkers as sacrifices?” Lynd quickly understood and chuckled. “Using White Walkers as offerings on their own altar… now that’s an amusing twist.”

“Let’s give it a try,” he said, clearly entertained by the idea.

With Lynd’s approval, Malora immediately ordered a White Walker to be brought down and laid on the altar. The group then retreated to a safe distance and cleared the upper level of people and White Walkers. Only then did Lagz begin activating the mysterious runes on the altar, following the sequence they had studied.

To Malora and the others, the altar simply glowed faintly, and a soft silver sheen appeared over the Nameless King rune on the ground.

But what Lynd saw was something else entirely.

As the runes activated, a vision unfolded before his eyes. A towering figure emerged atop the altar—its form strikingly similar to the Nameless King as Lynd remembered him. The illusion gazed down at the White Walker laid out as an offering, then lifted a dragon-slaying spear and drove it through the creature’s body, impaling it to the altar.

From the perspective of ordinary sight, the moment the spear pierced the White Walker, flames erupted from within it. Malora and the others watched as the body burst into fire, turning into a flaming silhouette that was reduced to ashes in the blink of an eye.

Lynd, meanwhile, felt a surge of power rush into him. It flowed into the Nameless King rune carved within him, merging with the frozen dragon rune’s power. The intense chill of the frozen dragon rune was now accompanied by a new, obscure deathly energy. In his memory, the frozen dragon rune shifted slightly—along with it, new knowledge appeared: instructions on how to use the sacrificial altar.

Watching the White Walker reduced to ashes, Malora frowned slightly, uncertainty in her eyes. She wasn’t sure if the sacrifice had worked, so she turned to Lynd and asked, “Your Grace, how do you feel? Was the sacrifice successful?”

“It should be,” Lynd nodded, then turned to Lagz and instructed, “Bring in a Silent Man.”

Lagz immediately exited the basement. A short while later, she returned with a Silent Man in tow.

“Lie on the altar,” Lynd said directly.

Without hesitation, the Silent Man approached and lay down on the altar, which was still dusted with the remains of the burned White Walker.

As soon as he was in place, Lynd followed the sacrificial altar instructions that had seemingly appeared in his mind—channeling a surge of power from the Nameless King rune and infusing it into the Silent Man’s body through the altar.

The process was supposed to be agonizing—so painful that most would be driven to madness or suicide. But the Silent Man endured it without so much as a sound.

Fortunately, the pain was brief. Like a wave, it passed quickly. The moment it subsided, a bright red sun-shaped sigil appeared on the Silent Man’s forehead.

At the same time, Lynd suddenly found himself able to sense everything about the Silent Man—just as he could with Deltos, Neltharion, Glory, and Cannibal. He could feel not only the man’s physical state but also his memories. Even more remarkably, Lynd could control the Nameless King rune power that had been embedded in the Silent Man’s body, just as he controlled the same power within himself. In other words, the Silent Man’s life now rested entirely in Lynd’s hands.

Lynd looked at the man, now seated upright on the altar, and asked, “How do you feel? What abilities have you gained?”

The Silent Man remained still for a moment, then raised both hands. A wave of intense cold surged from his palms, spreading across the basement and coating the floor and walls in a thin layer of ice.

“Is that the power of your frozen dragon rune?” Malora asked, clearly excited by the biting chill that had filled the air.

Lynd didn’t speak. He simply nodded.

The Nameless King rune power within the Silent Man wasn’t especially strong—it only lasted for a short time before the energy flow halted. It seemed it would take a long time for that power to regenerate.

“Just like Serellia, the leader of the Sisters of Redemption,” Lagz remarked, recalling another who had received Lynd’s blessing.

“No, it’s different,” Lynd shook his head. “Serellia and Cersei were granted the power of dragon runes, and those regenerate quickly. His power comes from the Nameless King rune. It can only be restored through my guidance.”

As he spoke, Lynd used the connection between the runes to send another stream of power into the Silent Man, then directly controlled him to manifest the power of two additional dragon runes.

“He can actually wield three dragon rune powers?” Malora and Lagz exclaimed in unison, startled by what they had just seen.

Lynd, meanwhile, ended the channeling and fell into deep thought. It seemed the experiment had sparked some new insight.

After a long pause, he said in a low voice, “Let’s test what else can be used as a sacrifice besides White Walkers. I want as many people as possible to receive the mark of my Nameless King rune.”

“Yes, Your Grace.” Neither Malora nor Lagz asked him why. It was exactly what they had hoped for as well. The more they used the sacrificial altar, the more they could uncover the secrets hidden within it.

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