Brienne to the stone stair to Varys's watch tower two at a time. Her lungs seared from the unending abuse she'd subjected her body to through the night. As she approached the top of the wall, the heat of the flaming stones stung the gaping wound in her cheek. She didn't recall exactly when the wound had happened, but that was the thing about battle, she'd suffered a great many injuries she'd been entirely unaware of until the mental fury had cooled.
She burst into the tower and was disarmed by the attitude of relative calm that hit her.
Varys stood at a window licked by the red priestess's flame, with his arms folded behind his back, his posture relaxed like he was overlooking a parade rather than a losing battle for survival.
Brienne grimaced at the eunuch, unable to make sense of him.
"Lord Varys." She heaved the words from her winded lungs. "Winterfell is falling. A retreat is underway. It's time to abandon the castle."
A soft sob stole Brienne's attention and she looked around, finding a small figure staring at the stone wall. Beneath the mud and blood, the tear stained face was nearly unrecognizable as the Dragon Queen.
"Your Highness." Brienne said, respectfully bowing her head. She considered herself sworn to the Stark girls and until they bent the knee, she would know no king or queen. But regardless of her choices since, she'd been raised as a proper lady and the courtly expectations where ingrained in her as surely as swordplay —even if she found most every courtly interaction to be deeply mortifying, turning her uncommon size into a painful spectacle.
The queen didn't even look at her, as though transfixed by the stone. She felt a sudden mix of emotions for the foreign queen, chief among which was pity, but followed quickly by distaste.
She did not judge shock or grief, but there was a time and a place for such reactions. A queen could not afford to falter, not when her people needed her most.
"When a White Walker falls, so does a section of the wights." Varys said. "As though it is the head and the wights the body."
Brienne turned her attention to the spymaster. "What do you think that means?"
"Perhaps that they are tied to the one who made them." Varys said. "When you take the head, you kill the body also."
"Meaning?" Brienne press, buzzing with too much adrenaline to keep up with the calm man's thoughts.
"Meaning we miscalculated." He said. "Forget the wights. All that matters is bringing down the White Walkers. And… just maybe, the Night King is their head."
"You're saying kill the Night King…"
"Kill his army." Varys nodded.
Brienne glanced back at Daenerys. "The dragons… Jon Snow…"
Varys shook his head. "I've seen no sign of them for hours. We must fear the worst."
Brienne nodded. "So our fates rest in the Godswood."
Varys tilted his head in agreement.
"Come quickly." Brienne said. "I'll get you to the tunnels."
"Then you'll go to the Godswood."
Brienne didn't bother to confirm, she just turned and hurried down the stone steps, trusting the spymaster and the shaken queen to follow.
Through the haze of time, Arya quickly realized, things looked different than when lived through the first time. The way the steam hung thick as smoke in the air as the wrecked figure of a once beautiful man shuffled toward the hot water of the baths.
"Not so hard. You'll scrub the skin off." Jaime Lannister chided to the woman in the tub.
"What are you doing here?" The unmistakable figure of Brienne asked from the waters.
"I need a bath." He said, struggling with his filthy clothes. "Help me out of these rags."
Even as a captive, he had not problem barking orders and was promptly assisted by a serving man.
"Now get out." He said as soon as his shirt was off and he could manage on his own.
The serving man scampered off without a word.
Jaime Lannister took off his pants and Arya looked away. She was not overly encumbered with qualms regarding modesty, but she also wasn't keen to see a man her father's age naked.
"There's another tub." Brienne shrieked.
"This one suits me fine."
Arya looked at her brother who studied the scene before them without any evidence of her own discomfort.
"Why here?" She asked.
"Because it is important." Bran said.
"Important."
"This is the moment when the oathbreaker broke." Bran explained.
"And why is that important?"
A loud rush of water drew Arya's attention back to the bath where Brienne stood, glaring down at her former captive turned fellow hostage.
"That was unworthy. Forgive me. You protected me better than most." Jaime said, uncharacteristically penitent.
"Don't you mock me." Brienne warned.
"I'm apologizing. I'm sick of fighting. Let's call a truce."
Brienne sank back into the bath. "You need trust to have a truce."
"It's important because you can't reforge a sword until it breaks." Bran said.
Arya studied her brother for a long moment. He was telling her something, she knew that much, she just wasn't quite sure what it is she was supposed to be getting from his words. What was so important as to pull her here, away from the action where she was needed.
"Stark?" The half mad by fever man said, cutting through Arya's thoughts. "You think the honorable Ned Stark wanted to hear my side? He judged me guilty the moment he set eyes on me. By what right does the wolf judge the lion? By what right!?"
Jaime collapsed and Brienne jumped into action, catching him up in her arms before he could sink beneath the turbulent water.
"Help! Help! The Kingslayer!" She shouted.
"Jaime." He mumbled, barely conscious. "My name is Jaime."
The memory faded and blurred and Arya turned to Bran, brow furrowed.
"Reforged into what?"
"A good man."
It's been a busy week so far, but I finally managed to get this chapter finished up. I've been committed to keeping chapters to a single POV up until this point, but I was feeling the need to do some more three-eyed raven exposition stuff. If you guys don't mind the split POV (the three-eyed Raven bits will be about one of the main characters from the present part of the chapter) I'll keep sprinkling these in. If you don't like it, let me know and this can be a one time only snippet and I'll go back to the normal format.