Robb thought nothing would surprise him in life anymore. He knew how twisted fate could be and how strange things could happen to you - it was mainly about that necklace out of nowhere. But he didn't expect to be so 'lucky' as to meet Stannis Baratheon, especially here, so close to the Wall, right after defending the castle.

It seems he doesn't deserve even a moment of peace.

He had never met Stannis in person before, but he tried to make a deal with him during the war, but he spurned his help, calling him a usurper.

He was not very pleased with this meeting, and especially didn't want to hear words of sympathy regarding the Red Wedding. Stannis only scratched his wounds and didn't gain his sympathy in any way.

Additionally, standing in front of him while he was sitting comfortably at his desk... He already felt judged and placed below him. He wanted to tell him to get to the point and stop spouting empty words of sympathy that he probably doesn't even mean.

"It's not too late." he finally said, it seemed as if Stannis was finally getting to the point. "Bemnd the knee, swear allegiance to me, and I will give you back the North."

His pride had not suffered enough to make him repent and fall to his knees. True, he would like to take the North back from the traitors who took it from him by deceit, he would like to rebuild the castle, to be able to live there again...

But his own inside was at odds with itself. On the one hand, something tells him that he doesn't deserve it, that he should step aside and let someone else deal with it... But his heart begs him to not give up so easily, to avenge the people who gave their lives so that he could be saved. It actually kept him on his toes and helped take his mind off the self-blame.

Maybe his heart will finally speak to that voice that this tragedy is in the past and he must move forward while he still can and try to make amends for his mistakes.

"It's not yours, you can't give it anyone." he replied without hesitation. Some might say it's not very intelligent to speak like that to someone who calls himself the King of the Seven Kingdoms and could easily demand your head, but if the Northmen haven't given up on him, he won't give up on them.

They named him King in the North and saved him, so he has to repay the debt. Maybe they'll give him a chance.

He must think first of all about his people, not himself.

"But it will be." he answered, but he didn't look upset yet. He was very confident, convinced of his victory, even if he had not achieved it yet. "As soon as I defeat the Boltons." exactly... 'as soon as' or rather 'if'. "And I will need the Warden of the North."

"How many men do you have?" Robb asked, instead of answering his unspoken demand.

"Six thousand."

"And how many will die along the way?" he asked, slightly raising an eyebrow. "How many sellswords will leave you when the winter becomes too harsh for them? You won't have enough left to take the castle, let alone the entire North."

"The Lords of the North will follow you." Robb refrained from sighing and looking away. He just demands all the time and has nothing to give in return. "You know this girl, Lyanna Mormont?" Stannis took out a rolled, small letter, which Robb immediately focused on.

"I knew her mother." he admitted.

Involuntarily his thoughts returned to the war. He knew Maege Mormont, for all he knew she had died fighting for him during the war. Stannis only confirmed these suspicions now...

"She's ten years old and the Lady of Bear Island. I asked her to support me and this is what she replied." he handed the letter to Stark to read it himself.

The letter said: "Bear Island knows no King, but the King in the North, whose name is Stark."

"It just proves that they won't bend the knee to you." he said, shrugging and handing the letter back to Stannis. "If I swear allegiance to you, they will despise me and feel betrayed. I'm sorry, but I respect my people more than you."

The last sentence shattered Stannis' proud, especially since he believed that Robb would be more cooperative in his current situation. But the boy had more spirit than he expected.
Does he really need to start threatening him to make him understand that he is in no position to question his decisions?

"I could just hand you over to the Lannisters now and distract them from me, you know that, boy?"

"Don't call me a boy." throughout the entire conversation, Robb never once addressed Stannis by his title. In fact, Davos pointed this out to him at the beginning, but he deflected it with the words: 'He will be king when he sits on the Iron Throne. For now, he is only the rightful heir, which I fully agree with.' "You could have had the Iron Throne a long time ago if it weren't for your pride. But you chose to call me a usurper and despise my support when I still had an army behind me. We could destroy the Lannisters and you would have six kingdoms, instead you have none."

Stannis wished he could somehow respond well to these words and take Robb down a peg or two once and for all, but he had no counterargument to this statement.

Funny, she spends most of her time as Queen of Meereen in the audience hall, listening to people.
Today she was wearing a light, white silk dress with long, wide sleeves and an open back - because of this she wore an equally snow-white cape, which was held in place by a clasp which origin she did not know.

It must have belonged to that boy. She decided not to throw it away or hide it somewhere at the bottom of her trunks, but to always keep it with her in some way so that she could give it back to its owner when she meet him.

Another man entered the room and up the stairs to the place to make his request. Missandei introduced her once again that day.

"Kirimvose syt ūndegon nyke, aōha dārōñe." he said, bowing. "Brōzio ñuha iksis Fennesz."

*"Thank you for agreeing to listen to me, Your Grace. My name is Fennesz."*

"Ziry iksos nēso naejot rhaenagon ao." she replied, smiling at him friendly.

*"Nice to meet you."*

"I can speak common tongue, if you wish."

She was surprised to hear him use common language. She expected that the conversation would be in high valyrian and that she would have to watch her accent, but she was so pleasantly surprised...

"You speak it very well." she admitted.

"And you speak Valyrian beautifully, my Queen. I didn't expect this from someone who came from across the Narrow Sea." she smiled even wider at Fennesz's words. She was always happy when someone appreciated her valyrian, especially since she had a hard time learning dothraki, mainly because of the pronunciation.

"What business do you have with me?" she asked, remembering that there were about fifty more people waiting to speak to her.

"Before you freed me, I belonged to Master Mighdal. I taught his children languages and history. I have told them many times about the history of your family. Calla is only seven years old, but she admires you very much, she would like to be like you." he told about himself.

She felt happy that a girl took her as a role model. It only meant that new generations could change this world and make it a better place.

"I hope I truly deserve her admiration. But... What do you expect from me? What can I do for you?"

"When you took over the city, the children begged me not to leave their house. But Master Mighdal and I agreed that I had to. So I lost my home. Now I live on the streets."

She didn't realize that someone could have a happy home and she took it away from him... But she couldn't show how much it affected her.

"I prepared outfitted mess halls and barracks for former slaves to provide them with food and shelter." she explained. When conquering the city, she thought that it would be difficult to change the system quickly enough so that people could find work and start earning money for themselves, so she organized these places so that by the time of this change, former slaves would not die of hunger in the streets.

So she didn't understand why this man was living on the streets.

"I don't mean to offend you, Your Grace..." he began, and her throat was already tightening. She knew there was no good news waiting for her. "I went to one of these places, but the young people prey on the old there. They take whatever they want and beat us if we oppose it."

What...? Why? Why do they not respect others who were their companions in misfortune? What did I do wrong?

"I will send the Unsullied to each of these places to keep order. You have my word that it will be safe there." she reacted the only way she could.

Soon she won't have enough Unsullied to patrol the pyramid she lives in if they are needed to keep order in every corner of the city.

"I believe you, Your Grace. But who will I be there? What will be my goal? I was a teacher with my former Master, I could pass on my knowledge. I had the love and respect of his children. I was treated well, they are not bad people."

He was right. And that was the worst for her, she can't provide all the people with what they need. In fact, she should consider each case separately, but this would take years. She had no idea how she could solve the problems faster, what laws she should introduce.

And things weren't any better in Westeros. There may have been no slavery there, but the situation was often just as terrible. If she ever manages to control and bring peace to Slaver's Bay, there will be another huge challenge waiting for her across the sea...

A challenge she feels she's not ready for yet.

"Would you like to go back there?" she asked, already knowing what Fennesz was getting at.

"Yes. I want to ask you to let me sell myself to Master Mighdal."

"Sell yourself?" she didn't expect such a choice of words... "Not to have any rights? Belong to someone again and be at his beck and call?"

She couldn't understand it. Perhaps if she hadn't suffered so much under Tywin Lannister's 'care', she wouldn't have wanted to change her life at all and wouldn't have seen anything wrong with slavery.
After all, circumstances alter cases... And this man was apparently lucky enough to have a good man as his Master.

"I'm begging you, my Queen. The young will find their way in the world you are building for them, but we, the old, will not adapt to the changes. We want to live out the end of our lives in places we know, among people we know. Many who are waiting to be listened to want to ask you the same."

She couldn't turn a deaf ear to his request or to the requests of everyone else with the same problem. After all, she was here to help them, not force them into a life that would be a burden to them. They were free, they decided for themselves.

"Slavery doesn't exist in Meereen anymore, so I can't let you sell yourself to someone, it's against the law." the man's expression visibly softened, but she hadn't finished speaking yet. "But there is another solution. You can make a contract with your former Master. You will work under certain conditions, it may be as before. But you retain your rights, you will be able to quit your job at any time and go wherever you want. This is what freedom is all about. Come to Grey Worm tomorrow, I'll go with you to Mighdal and you can draw up an agreement."

"Thank you, Your Grace. Thank you, really." she clearly made him see purpose in his life again. He smiled, she even thought he had tears of joy in his eyes. He bowed and left.

Before the next resident of Meereen arrived, ser Barristan spoke to her:

"Masters will take advantage of this. They will have slaves again, but they only won't call them that."

"What can I do?" she turned to him and shrugged. "I have to let them work, I can't feed every former slave in the city for the rest of his days." she sighed. "There should be someone - no, not one person, at least several, who will control that no one breaks what is included in employment contracts."

"A new institution?" asked ser Arthur, standing on her other side.

"Yes, composed of people educated in... We should also have a law defining working conditions." she sighed again, placing her hand on her forehead for a moment and then gently combing her hair - so as not to damage her hairstyle. "Will you bring me tomorrow that man with whom I had such a good time talking about law? Azdahr...? I think that was his name."

"You can form a council, my Queen. There will be a representative from each state, making it easier for you to find out what your city needs." Barristan suggested. She liked this idea.

"We'll deal with it tomorrow, remind me." she replied, smiling at him. At the sound of footsteps at the entrance, she turned her gaze to the man who was holding a bundle in his hand. Her first thought was that the dragons had killed some herd again, so the smile fell from her face, but she motioned for him to come over. "You may approach, my friend."

He stopped on the stairs and looked between her and the others standing next to her with frightened eyes.
He said something that reminded her again of high valyrian in pronunciation, but the words were different, so Missandei translated him Visenya's words.

Only when she assured him that he could approach her he did so, stopping at the designated place. He began to speak with tears in his eyes, clearly he had been holding them back for too long.

"I brought you..." Missandei started to translate, but the man stopped and did not finish the sentence. "He came from the sky. He was black. Winged shadow." Drogon... "He came from the sky and..." she wanted to tell her to stop. She already knew it wasn't about a herd of goats... The man knelt on the ground and unfolded the cloth, revealing the charred bones of the child. She took a sharp breath, drawing the attention of both Missandei and her knights. "My girl. My little girl."

Everyone was moved by the scene, but only Visenya felt like she couldn't stop the tears forming in her eyes. Missandei looked down, and so did ser Arthur and ser Barristan, although they kept glancing at Vis and how she was bearing the sight.

This was what she had been afraid of all along, that someone would show her the bones of someone killed by one of her dragons.
She tried her best not to cry, just sit as a Queen should, without unnecessary emotions, solve the problem quickly and efficiently, and move on.

But this situation had no solution. She can't bring the child back to life.

She can't move on, she can't just block the sight of the charred bones of an innocent child from her mind.

She slowly stood up from her seat, surprising everyone. The man continued to cry as she approached him. Only when she crouched down next to him and put her hand on his shoulder he looked at her with his face flooded with tears, and that was enough for her to start crying too.
She didn't care what everyone in this room thought of her at that moment.

Ser Arthur was right, she has a gentle, soft heart that doesn't allow her to look at people's suffering with indifference.

She wished she could tell this man how sorry she was, even though she knew something like that couldn't be forgiven or forgotten, even if it wasn't entirely her fault.
No... It was her fault. She should have been the one to control her dragons, not anyone else. They are hers, so what they do is her responsibility. This girl lost her life because of her.

'I believe that nothing happens without a reason. I believe in you.' Now he believes in her too? When something like this happened because of her?

She started to say something, but then she remembered that the man wouldn't understand her, so instead she reached out with both of her arms and pulled him to her chest, hugging him and letting him cry into her white dress. Tears streamed down her face as she tried to calm him down, holding him to her chest and rocking him gently.

She doesn't know how long she sat there with him.

Hours later, she still couldn't quite get over it, but at least the tears weren't streaming down her face. She had to take a break to calm down before listening to the other people, but all the while she was only thinking about that child.

"What was her name?" Visenya asked Missandei. She and Gray Worm were with her in her private chambers. She told Missandei to take care of this man, talk to him and tell to give him everything he needed and more, even though she knew it would do nothing to ease his pain.

"Zala." replied her friend.

"How old was she?"

"Three."

"Three..." Vis repeated after her. "And she is gone forever before she could even discover the world." she turned and went down the stairs, slowly heading towards the exit of the chamber. "Iēdrosa daor udir nūmāzma Drōgon se Maelia? Daorys ūndan zirȳ?"

*"Still no news about Drogon and Maelia? Has anyone seen them?"*

"Loktysīs ūndan Drōgon sōvegon toliot se zōbrie clis hāre tubissa alāgo, ñuha dāria. Se syt Maelia, īles ūndegīon tōma tubissa alāgo, lēda Drōgon. Pār daor udr." Grey Worm replied. He watched her as she passed him on her way to the door.

*"Sailors saw Drogon fly over the Black Cliffs three days ago, my Queen. As for Maelia, she was seen five days ago, with Drogon. No news since then."*

"Rhaenagon nyke rȳ se bazādas." she replied dryly, although tears began to form in her eyes again.

*"Meet me in the catacombs."*

She didn't want to do what she had just decided to do, but she had no choice. It will break her heart just as much as the sight of those bones broke it.
On the surface, it looked like it was an easy decision for her to go down into the catacombs to lock up Viserion and Rhaegal, whom she knew where were because they always stayed closer to her than Drogon and Maelia. They might not have done anything yet, but they were as unpredictable as the other two, and she wanted to do everything in her power to prevent another tragedy.

Two dead goats were thrown into the catacombs, successfully luring Rhaegal and Viserion.

"Stay here." she said to ser Arthur, seeing that he wanted to say something. She didn't want any advice at this point, in her eyes there was no better way out of the situation.

As the dragons quickly jumped down the stairs, she slowly followed them, unable to hold back the tears in her eyes. The two beasts got their paws on the meat and it was her moment to do what was right, what was necessary.

She must think first of all about her people, not herself.

No matter how much it hurts her.

She crouched on the ground, not caring that she would get her dress dirty, grabbed the first chain and moved it along the ground to Rhaegal's neck. Then she lifted it with considerable difficulty and fastened it. Tears blurred her vision as she took the other shackles and placed them around Viserion's neck.
She couldn't sit there any longer, she didn't want to look at her own... Children, in chains. Because of her.

Walking towards the exit, she wiped her tears, but it didn't help, because when she heard that the dragons were losing interest in food and wanted to follow her, but they couldn't... What roars they were making... She couldn't keep up with wiping her tears.

But she didn't turn around, even when she left and Unsullied were closing the entrance with a huge boulder.
She was about to head back to her chambers, but she saw Arthur hold out a handkerchief to her so she could wipe her tears.

She accepted it, but didn't say a word.

She suffered in silence.