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The Faceless Man, the Nameless Girl

Chapter One: A Prelude

The Sorcerer's Apprentice

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Jaqen H'ghar had always considered himself a rational man, one of reason, self-control, and intellect. So why now, he continued to ask himself, is there a ten year-old tagging along behind me? He could not provide a reasonable answer. Perhaps the little Stark girl struck a soft side of his heart, a fatherly face of Jaqen which instinctively felt the urge to protect the girl. His duty. Or maybe her fiery attitude entertained him, and he admired her tenacity. Either way, there she was standing outside of his Cadillac, blinking into the sun as her round face stared up at his slight frown.

"Well, get in, little one," Jaqen said patiently. He opened the door to the back seat.

"You have a funny accent," was all the girl said before she climbed into his car.

He hid a small smile by shutting the door between them, afternoon light glinting across the dark exterior, then opened the driver's side and ducked into his seat. The car door slammed shut. He adjusted his mirror so the Stark girl remained in his eyesight in the backseat before turning the key in the ignition. His car thrummed to life.

"Aren't you gonna put your seatbelt on?" she asked suddenly.

The chuckle that passed his lips was followed by, "A man does not fear death. A simple strap of fabric cannot prevent him from what is to come, and a man realizes this."

"What about girls? Do I need to where a seatbelt?" His passenger fiddled with the restraint.

"Yes, little one. I suppose I must lead by example, however." And so he acquiesced while the buckle clicked into place. Jaqen pulled out of the little gas station parking lot smoothly and double-checked the side view mirrors for any unwanted vehicles possibly following his Cadillac.

The man heard the girl shift in the back (causing the leather seat to squeak unnecessarily under her wriggling). Finally she stated, "I'm kind of hungry. Where are we going now?"

"I'm taking you to safety until I can contact your mother and father." He drummed his fingers along the steering wheel. "You have found yourself in a highly dangerous situation."

"I like danger," she insisted.

"You should not," he said. "Your endeavors to seek out such danger led you to a warehouse filled with world-renowned criminals." He glanced into the rearview mirror and noted the blank look the girl returned to him. "Or perhaps I need to remind you, little one, of all the trouble you stumbled into?" He raised an eyebrow then returned his gaze to the road winding behind an apartment complex.

She sniffed and muttered, "I just wanted to see where my dad goes every night. I didn't know there were bad guys in there."

Jaqen pressed a button on the radio panel, filling the interior of the car with soft music. "And am I, what you so call, a 'bad guy?'" he asked her, not bothering to conceal his amusement behind another one of his masks.

"Well, no," the girl answered after a moment of thought. "You helped me sneak away from the bad men. And," she added, "you weren't even with them, right? You told me you're a-a-a…um…what did you say? You're a 'vigilist?'"

Out of the corner of his eye, Jaqen noted the way the girl cocked her head to the left, her eyebrows scrunched together. "The word you search for is 'vigilante.'"

"Oh. Yeah, that. So now that I know what you are, tell me who you are."

"Names hold power, little one," he darkly said, "but I suppose you have learned that after your run-in with Mr. Bolton.

"I am Jaqen. Your name is Arya, if I remember correctly, no?"

She nodded vigorously. "Yup." A pause. "Wait, how'd you know that? D'you know my parents?"

Jaqen once again glanced up to the rear-view mirror and said, "A man knows many things. Including your father"—a corner of his full lips slightly curved upwards—"though he is not acquainted with me. Your father is well known, the ever honorable Mr. Stark."

"So why was he in that warehouse with all those bad men?" Arya could not bring herself to understanding. Her father was good.

"Eddard Stark has powerful friends," was all the answer she received.

After that, the two of them retreated to the recesses of their minds—Jaqen fine-tuning his plans, and Arya recalling the previous night's adventures. The car ride grew silent, save for the low humming of the engines and quiet music filtering through the speakers. Once she had enough of remembering, Arya entertained herself by causing the leather seat to squeak again. Sometimes she would sit upright all of a sudden to stare out the window at the large buildings zipping away behind them. Or, when they reached the highway, Arya would try to count the lines of passing cars.

She had never felt such extremities of boredom in all ten years of her life. Jon, Robb, and even Sansa always managed to keep her busy, because, at the very least, Arya could bother her older sister as a source of entertainment. She could not bother Jaqen. The consequences would be most severe, she figured. The girl just wished he would talk more.

Eventually, as the shadows of cars along the highway stretched longer, Arya piped up, "I'm hungry."

The grumbling of her stomach had not fallen upon deaf ears, and so Jaqen had already turned onto a dining exit when his little passenger had stated her need.

"A man obeys," he said.

Preoccupied with the task of finding a restaurant suitable for a famished pre-teen, Jaqen H'ghar failed to notice the BMW on their trail.


I obviously am not George R.R. Martin (you silly goose). Therefore, I own no rights to the recognizable characters throughout this story nor am I making a profit from them (don't make me laugh).

As will be revealed throughout the course of the story, Eddard Stark has involved himself with some not-so-upstanding men, inevitably introducing his youngest daughter, Arya, to an underworld of conflict, weapons, betrayal, immorality, murder, and, of course, Faceless Men.

Also, I find it incredibly humorous to imagine the skilled assassin Jaqen H'ghar ordering a kid's meal at a McDonald's drive-thru. Haha I hope you enjoy Faceless!

-The Sorcerer's Apprentice