Chapter Text
“Get up.” The Commander training Jon snapped the staff he had just taken from Jon and threw it to the side, “Again.”
Jon knelt. Readying himself for the next attack, he placed a hand over the ice at his feet and a staff slowly grew to meet his waiting hand.
Other children who had been sacrificed to the Night King were training in the row beside him, being trained as the ultimate weapons for the war to come.
Commanders frozen since the last Long Night were slowly thawing, and as they thawed began to train the new child white walkers in matters of combat. The Night King’s castle, called Hopesbane by the few wildings who had seen it and lived to tell the tale, was made entirely from ice and had begun to thaw the frozen soldiers with the coming winter. The Long Night was once again approaching, and this time the Night King would not be defeated, not with the song of ice and fire by his side.
Jon was taught to fight with all matters of weaponry, and taught to form his own weapons from the ice below his feet, so that he would never be unprepared. He also showed great aptitude in cracking the ice below his opponent’s feet, a rare development from the new soldiers the Night King had created.
The magic in his blood also allowed Jon to control the wind and ice by singing, something only the original thawed out soldiers could do. His hymns rang across the wind in a haunting and debilitating sound attack, paralysing anyone who hears it and creating a dangerous storm. Jon was truly living up to the expectations that the Night King had anticipated from him.
At the age of 8, Jon was already warging into multiple animal wights at once, and would soon start on practicing on the human wights collected from wildings who had wondered too close to the Night King’s castle.
As he grew Jon was becoming more curious, he was different from other recruits. There was no envy at his being more advanced, but the other children knew that his skills would be of greater use to the Night King during the Long Night, and so they showed him deference when taking orders. Envy was a human emotion, the children of the Night King felt only the cold, felt only loyalty to supporting the Night King in dominating all living men. Jon being advanced meant that he could better help the Night King in realising his goal, and so they felt no envy.
But Jon was different to the other recruits. His skin was more pale than the ice blue of the other white walkers, his eyes were a shining violet, and his obvious skills had him curious in his own difference from the other child white walkers he trained with.
The Night King knows that Jon is the accumulation of ice and fire, his greatest ever possible threat. The children that had been sacrificed to him were babies, and babies have only ice in their hearts, with the slightest flame lit for their mothers. Such a flame can easily be smothered out by the Night King, leaving only ice in their hearts.
As the accumulation of ice and fire, Jon would have proven to be the Night Kings strongest foe. Yet with the deaths of his parents and only the smallest of flames for his uncle, the Night King was able to influence the ice in his heart, though not smother out his flame entirely. Instead, his flame became like ice, and his loyalty towards the Night King was made stronger.
When he was 8, Jon questioned his differences to his Commander, and he was escorted to the Night King.
“You question who you are, child?” The Night King questioned Jon.
“I look different to the other children, may I ask why?”
“Come,” the Night King motioned for Jon to follow him to one of the inner chambers of the castle.
Jon followed him until they reached a room with a white flame, “Look into the flames child, and you will see.”
Jon looked into the flame, and saw what might have been.
He saw that he was an outcast within his own family. There was love, but that love was overshadowed by the feeling of not belonging, by the coldness he was shown by the Lady Catelyn. His life was a lie, told to him by his uncle, with the truth of his parentage never spoken of, no matter how many times he asked. He went north to the wall, where he found some light in his life, but was still shown coldness. He tried to do what he believed was right, and save all that he could from the coming storm, and yet was stabbed in the heart multiple times by those he called his brothers. The rest of his family, those he cared about, were murdered or scattered across the lands by evil, selfish humans who enjoyed the suffering of others. Jon saw that his life had no meaning and his death had no meaning, and he grew angry at the selfish and ungrateful humans who he might have known, the life he might have lived if not for the Night King.
“This would have been your life, if I had not found you”, the Night King told him, “But I did, and we will show these ungrateful humans true despair. We will bring down the wall which holds the winter at bay, and we will destroy all who stand in our path. Humans do not deserve the lives they have. They squandered it, and so we shall take it from them until there is only ice.”
Jon considered the flames and the future he might have had and replied, “I understand.”
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As Jon grew older his growing skills allowed him to join the scouting parties which were sent out to recruit more wights and gather information on the wall.
Like all white walkers, Jon was never purposefully cruel to the wildings, giants and animals he killed and recruited into his regiments of wights. He also felt no pity. Jon was ice and snow, he was a force of nature, and he would breach the wall and bring winter to Westeros on behalf of the Night King. Failure was inconceivable, the Night King would bring winter to all the realms of men.
The cold comes for everyone eventually, and Jon would ensure that all of Westeros never felt the warmth again.