"Look at her chanting, as if that will save us from The Others,"

Dolorous Edd said to Jon, and spat at the frozen ground at his feet.

Jon watched Dolorous Edd walk away.

Jon was standing on top of the Wall. The wind was blowing hard at the top, and the snow was falling and piling up higher than ever. Jon's face was frozen and red and his fingers were losing feeling even though he was wearing heavy fur gloves. He watched as Melisandre chanted on top of the wall and marveled at the woman's inability to feel cold, as she was only clad in a red gown and nothing else, with only the red ruby choker to warm her throat. The red stone glowed.

She was on her knees in front of an ancient ruin. Since her discovery of this ruin three days ago, the Red Priestess had not left it for even a moment. Jon was not even sure if the woman ate in the last three days. The ruin was a massive stone ring with ancient writing on it, at least three stories high. It had been encased in the ice within the wall for many generations, but when the long summer came, even the ice on the Wall began to melt little by little and the melting revealed the large ring structure. Although half hidden by the ice, a table-like structure stood in front of the ring. It, too, was covered with ancient writing. Writing on both the ring and the table looked like symbols that someone had etched long ego into the stone.

Melisandre was obsessed with the ring upon her discovery of it. She was convinced that she could draw great power from it. She would stand over the table structure for hours and touch each symbol, running her fingers along the edges. She chanted day and night, lighting fires until more of the ice melted around the ring and the table structure. The wind and snow would put out her fires and yet she chanted. She wanted to make sacrifices to the ring in the name of R'hllor, but Jon refused her. She was determined, and Jon begrudgingly admired her determination.

Jon came up behind Melisandre. He watched her back hunched over her book of spells. Her shoulders moved up and down with exertion and he listened to her speak words he could not understand.

He cleared his throat.

"Perhaps it would be better to make your fire down in Castle Black?" Jon asked. "It will be less likely to be put out."

"No," Melisandre answered firmly. The red stone at her throat glowed brighter than Jon had ever seen before. He blinked, clearing the snow flakes that landed right in his eye. For a moment he could've sworn that the symbols on the table structure glowed. "Something is coming. I can feel it. Something, or someone, in the fires. People from far away are coming," Melisandre told him. Her brows drew together in a frown. She seemed confused, disoriented, almost in a daze. Jon felt slight concern for this strange woman from the foreign land for the first time since meeting her. Somehow she was different, unsure of herself.

Melisandre came with Stannis Baratheon when Stannis and his army came to aid Jon at the Wall. The Wall was under attack. The dead were coming back to life, attacking and killing his men. And something even more deadly was looming behind the Wall, something even more sinister. The dead came with only one purpose, to kill. And nothing could stop them except fire. But every day was getting colder and colder than the last and more snow was falling on the ground, piling up feet high. The fires were blown out by cold winds and the evil behind the Wall was threatening.

Winter is coming. Jon remembered his father's, Ned Stark's, words.

Winter is already here, he thought bitterly, and I doubt we will survive this time.

Jon did not know how he would feed his men and the Wildlings that came from beyond the Wall, scared and starving. They were huddled in make-shift camps and Jon didn't know if he would be able to help them. They were extra mouths to feed and Jon doubted that he wold be able to feed his own men.

Melisandre came with Stannis, but she stayed when he left, taking his army. She worshipped one god, R'hllor, the Lord of Light. She had converted Queen Selyse, Stannis's wife, to her strange religion, and Stannis soon followed, his banner men converting as well. She made him a believer by promising fortune that she saw in her fires, and upcoming victories. She promised him The Iron Throne.

After abandoning the Wall in his pursuit of The Iron Throne, Stannis went south. But Queen Selyse stayed with her Queensguard and her banner men and her crippled daughter, Shireen, and her fool. She stayed and she watched over, while Melisandre worshipped by her fire.

Melisandre had taken to Jon. She was very interested in him. She told him that she saw visions in her fires. But Jon did not trust this beautiful, foreign woman. He came to a realization that he was terrified of her, more terrified of her than what was beyond the Wall.

Suddenly the ancient ruin began to radiate energy. Jon and Melisandre both jumped a few steps back as the symbols on the large circle and on the table began to glow.

"What magic is this?" Dolorous Edd screamed, running forward and falling on his knees in the snow. Two of the Black Brothers that were on the Wall with them ran toward the sight, drawing their swords.

Jon looked at Melisandre. "What have you done, my lady?" he asked, trying to keep the terror out of his voice. He was the Lord Commander, he would not show fear in front of his men.

"It is as I saw it in the fires," Melisandre said, calmly, as if in a trance.

"Make it stop," Jon commanded.

"I cannot," the Red Priestess answered. "I don't control it. I just see visions and follow what the fires tell me. R'hllor is…"

Her words were drowned by the wind.

The circle began to vibrate and then it started to rotate. The symbols on the table and the ancient ruin began to glow and the spheres that made up the enormous ring were rotating, turning left, then right, then left again, on their own. Jon and the others stood mesmerized.

Jon glanced at Melisandre and watched the Red Priestess' lips curve upwards.

A bright liquid filled the empty space inside the circle. It was glowing and reflecting light off of itself, almost like real water. But it could not be.

Jon and the others stood for what seemed like hours, unable to look away from the terrifying sight. And then some strange metal object with wheels emerged from the liquid.

The two men fell to their knees, swords still drawn.

Jon studied this strange metal object intently, cautiously. Not sure what to expect next. He did not even notice that his own sword was drawn. He was ready for attack from whatever this new adversary was.

The metal object moved on its own, the wheels moving forward. A ray of red light glowed from what looked like a glass window in the middle of the metal box and pointed at Jon, then the metal box wheeled around in a circle, as if it was surveying its surroundings. The light that was pointing at Jon moved, a line pointing at the snow covered floor where the metal object seemed to be looking.

The object wheeled around and disappeared back into the liquid wall where it came from.