Blood and fire share a source

"We meet again, agent of a foreign god."

The Three-Eyed Crow's voice, like rotten deadwood, emerged from the throat of the enormous black crow. By rights, a crow could not produce such a human voice, but with the aid of magic, anything was possible.

"I didn't expect to meet you here, Three-Eyed Crow."

Clay stopped, one hand resting on his sword hilt, and addressed the uninvited visitor without expression. This time, he did not raise the Quen Sign. In this form, the Three-Eyed Crow did not frighten him.

But he soon discovered that there was more than one uninvited visitor present.

An extremely tall figure emerged from the woods, carrying a wooden box in his hands.

His face looked somewhat simple, his body was fat, and his hair was a tangled mess. He had the typical features of a northerner. From a distance, Clay's hearing picked up the burly man's intermittent murmurs:

"Hodor... Hodor..."

Clay sighed inwardly. He knew who this was: Hodor, the Winterfell stableboy who, in the original timeline, had carried Bran north beyond the Wall of Ice to meet the Three-Eyed Crow. A thoroughly pitiable man.

The Three-Eyed Crow was also watching Clay. Through the crow's cloudy pupils, he saw Clay as a body composed of complex magic, with a kind of magic that made him rather uncomfortable flowing within it.

This was also what he feared most, and precisely why he was willing to lower himself and agree to Clay's terms. For beings like them, whose bodies were filled with magic, the greatest danger was contamination by unknown magic.

It would cause their bodily structures to collapse, inflicting irreversible damage outright.

"Since you spared that child, I will naturally honor my promise, agent of a foreign god."

The Three-Eyed Crow fluttered his wings, seemingly truly treating himself as a crow. He waved a wing at Hodor, who walked toward Clay with a vacant expression, carrying the wooden box.

"As you wished, this is a Dragon Egg, from Vermax, the dragon that once came to Winterfell. I have kept it by my side ever since I discovered it. I never expected to give it to you now."

The box opened, and Clay's gaze was immediately drawn to the oval creation resting on its stand.

It was deep blue, streaked with gold. Its scale-like surface was richly textured, and its shell seemed coated in a layer of glaze, or perhaps resembled the exquisite enamel that could only be made in Myr.

It was quite large. Clay measured it against his hands; he would barely be able to cradle it with both.

Although he had imagined what a Dragon Egg would look like countless times, when Clay truly saw this one, he had to admit that it might be the gods' most perfect creation in this world.

He reached out and rested his palm on the Dragon Egg's surface, feeling a chill. Sure enough, over the long years, this Dragon Egg had turned to stone. In an age when magic had ebbed and dragons had vanished, no one in the world remained who could awaken it.

Although reason told him that, for him right now, this thing was a hot potato, he knew he could no longer let this Dragon Egg slip through his fingers.

"It seems you like my gift very much, agent of a foreign god."

The Three-Eyed Crow's voice echoed in Clay's ears, rousing him from his imaginings.

"I have to ask again, Three-Eyed Crow. Why are you doing this?"

Clay's question cut straight to the heart of the matter. As long as Clay dared to play for time, the power of an adult dragon would be equivalent to the nukes possessed by the five great hooligans in his original world-a true weapon of mass destruction.

The Three-Eyed Crow was not at all surprised by Clay's question and answered with great patience:

"My answer remains the same. My lord and I both seek survival... If you and your god cannot occupy the southern lands, then R'hllor and his agent will occupy them. As I said, the excessive expansion of his power will throw the entire world out of balance."

R'hllor's agent? Clay thought of someone: the Red Priestess who had changed the course of the war-Melisandre!

So Melisandre's support for Stannis's bid for the throne and her resurrection of Jon Snow with fire magic were actually all R'hllor's will?

Hiss, this bastard really was up to no good. He's helping me rise to power and occupy the southern lands. Isn't he blatantly hiding behind the scenes and making me fight R'hllor for him? Scheming old bastard!

Once he understood all this, Clay's expression darkened somewhat. But things had reached this point, and he could not possibly refuse this gift.

Gritting his teeth, Clay took the box containing the Dragon Egg from Hodor. The Three-Eyed Crow was setting bait for him, and Clay decided to be a fish that ate the bait without taking the hook!

"Then tell me now how to hatch a Dragon Egg. A king died in the Tragedy at Summerhall. I know ordinary methods cannot awaken it."

In the building called Summerhall, once the summer palace of House Targaryen, Aegon Targaryen V had ignited wildfire inside the palace to hatch seven collected Dragon Eggs, seeking to bring dragons back to his gradually weakening house.

Whether it was a conspiracy or a Pyromancer's mistake, the outcome of the affair was lamentable.

The volatile wildfire went out of control. Both the king and his crown prince died in the blaze, dealing the royal family a grievous blow. Daenerys's elder brother, Rhaegar Targaryen, was also born during that fire.

At this tragedy that had befallen the later generations of his own family, the Three-Eyed Crow merely fell silent for a moment, then quickly returned to the subject:

"They failed, but not because of the fire, nor because of Targaryen blood. In fact, they lacked the most crucial thing, something that both you and I possess."

Something both he and I possess? Clay instantly understood what the Three-Eyed Crow meant and blurted out, "Magic!"

The Three-Eyed Crow's avian head inclined slightly forward, clearly agreeing with Clay's words:

"Yes, magic. After the last dragon died, magic throughout the world fell to a low ebb. At present, the conditions required to awaken a dragon are high heat, special blood, and magic."

"This method was not needed before dragons went extinct. Dragons, themselves composed of magic, could hatch the eggs. But now, this is the only method available. There is no other choice."

The Three-Eyed Crow offered his solution, and after hearing it, Clay sank into deep thought.

No wonder. Clay understood why Daenerys had been able to hatch her three dragons.

Her constitution as the Unburnt had allowed her to survive the flames, and Targaryen blood was itself the most special blood in the world.

Sacrificing that witch, her own husband, and her own child had given her precious magic in this age of ebbing magic. Thus, all the conditions were met, and the dragons within the stones were awakened. After the Long Summer, the stars wept blood, and the Mother of Dragons was born!