With the Lannisters not appearing for a while, it was decided that the group would break to rest. Nobody had any idea of day or night from where they were, so nobody knew how long they had gone without sleep. They guessed it was not too long. But the moment heads hit the pillow, they all passed out immediately.
And when they woke, they felt refreshed, and energized and had no idea how long they had slept.
When they all filtered back into the hall, they found the wall of the future and their seats missing. Instead, a large table with a feast had been arranged. None of them knew how to react to that.
Well, almost all of them.
Gendry rushed over and dug into the food with gusto. He looked like someone who had not eaten in days.
But then again, how long had they gone without eating or drinking here?
Slowly they all sat down and dug into the food as well, the dishes served being a delicacy from all over Westeros, food from every culture present in the viewing Hall. Some ate what they were familiar with, while others braved the chance and tried something different.
But by the end of the feast, everyone had filled their bellies to the maximum.
As the last of them left their chairs, the table, chairs and dishes vanished. The ground shook and the wall of the future rose from the ground and their viewing seats had returned. But as they were taking their seats, a voice stopped them all.
"Do not sit right away. Walk around after you eat" the chastizing voice of the serpent-eyed woman echoed through the halls.
Not wanting to displease the clearly powerful goddess, they all walked for a while before taking their seats to watch again.
[THE RIVERLANDS]
[LOCKE's men ride through the woods]
"Of course, we'd start with this" Joanna muttered. She threw a worried glance at her older son.
Jaime sat in silence, stone-faced and hard-eyed.
That made Joanna worry more.
Tyrion patted his brother on the knee but got no reaction from him.
[SER JAIME LANNISTER rides with them, his severed right hand dangling around his neck.]
"I have never seen Jaime Lannister like that" Renly whispered to Robert.
"Regardless of the kind of man that the Kingslayer is, he is a warrior through and through. To lose the one thing that defined him" Robert shook his head. "I suppose it's a punishment from the gods for Kingslaying and Oathbreaking. But as a warrior, he's lost sense of who he is."
"I suppose" though no warrior, Renly could understand the question of his worth or identity without what defined him.
He's asked himself similar questions sometimes.
[He is glassy-eyed and dejected. LADY BRIENNE OF TARTH, her hands bound, rides next to him, concerned.]
"How many of those fingers do you think we could shove up his ass?"
"Depends if he's had any practice. Is that the sort of thing you and your sister go in for, Kingslayer? She loosened you up for us?"
"Bastards" Joanna muttered.
[JAIME's horse drifts leftward and JAIME starts to bend and teeter over.]
"He's going to fall. He's going to fall off his horse. Someone help him."
[JAIME falls off his horse, face-first into the mud.]
Joanna gasps sharply, tears prickling her at the corners of her eyes.
[He grunts and searches for purchase with his left hand. LOCKE halts the party with a signal and dismounts. JAIME struggles to his feet.]
"Water. Water. Please, water. Wa-water. Water, please. Please. Please."
[One of LOCKE's men approaches. He opens his canteen, then pours it out on JAIME's filthy head. The men laugh, and BRIENNE is disgusted. LOCKE comes closer.]
"Just give him water!" Jon Snow snapped.
Lannisters (barring Jaime) gazed at him in surprise, only to notice that he wasn't the only one to be outraged. Many outraged faces watched, and a few sad and pitiful faces stared back at Jaime. Even the Martells (who hated their guts) seemed not too satisfied.
"If I die, you won't be getting-"
"Oh, enough. Here."
[LOCKE gives JAIME his canteen. JAIME gulps it down as quickly as he can.]
"Can't say that I've ever seen a man drink horse piss that fast."
[The men laugh, and JAIME doubles over, coughing and spitting out the piss. A man comes to help him up and JAIME sees his opportunity. JAIME elbows him in the face and grabs the man's sword as he falls. LOCKE draws his weapon, as do some of his men. They surround JAIME. The Kingslayer makes some awkward left-handed blows that are easily parried. There are too many of them. Another man kicks JAIME down from behind, back into the mud.]
"I want you to watch brother" Tyrion whispered. The force behind his voice made Jaime turn to him. "Watch, remember those faces, remember those names. Because once we return I will make it my personal mission to root those men out and make them suffer for this. You have my word."
"I don't need your pity-"
"Then it's a good thing I'm not giving it to you" Tyrion cut him off sharply. "You've protected me for the majority of my life, it's time I do the same. Nobody does this to my brother and can think about getting away with it."
"Even if they haven't done shit?"
"Even if they haven't done shit."
Jaime shook his head and looked away. There was a considerable wetness in his eyes that nobody mentioned.
[KING'S LANDING]
[LORD TYRION LANNISTER enters VARYS's chambers.]
"I hope we might speak. In confidence."
"Oh, always in confidence."
[VARYS works to open a large crate with a crowbar]
"About the events of the Blackwater. Perhaps this is the wrong time?"
"Oh, no. It's a wonderful time."
"I thought one of your little birds might have knowledge of my sister's intentions to-"
"End your life?"
"You're very blunt when you want to be" Gendry snorted.
"Bluntness has its time, as do sweet drawn-out words" Varys giggled behind his sleeve.
"I didn't inherit Littlefinger's spies along with his position, I'm afraid. Which is why I'm coming to you. I need proof."
"I don't think you can find any" Myrcella said to her uncle, half as if she was concerned and half as if she was talking to herself. "Mother isn't stupid enough to leave clues."
"She may have" Tyrion muttered.
Myrcella did not reply to that.
"I have no proof, only whispers. Before all this nastiness, I was going to tell you the story of how I was cut. Do you want to hear it still?"
Jon leaned forward with interest. Maybe he'd get some answers now. The question has been nagging him for too long. Why Varys?
"As a boy, I travelled with a troupe of actors through the Free Cities. One day in Myr, a certain man made my master an offer too tempting to refuse. I feared the man meant to use me as I'd heard some men used small boys. But what he wanted was far worse. He gave me a potion that made me powerless to move or speak, yet did nothing to dull my senses. With a hooked blade, he sliced me, root and stem, chanting all the while. He burned my parts in a brazier. The flames turned blue and I heard a voice answer his call."
"Blue?" Brynden asked.
"I recall blue, yes" Varys nods. "Why?"
"Nothing of important" Brynden shook his head. The flame could have turned blue for various reasons, the spell being one of them.
It was only a coincidence that the white walkers were blue.
"I still dream of that night. Not of the sorcerer, not of his blade. I dream of the voice from the flames. Was it a god? A demon? A conjurer's trick? I don't know. But the sorcerer called and a voice answered."
"What did it sound like?" Bran asked curiously.
Varys smiled tightly.
"You don't want to know" he murmured and ignored any other questions on that topic. Best to not let it haunt his waking moments too.
"And ever since that day, I have hated magic and all those who practice it. But you can see why I was eager to aid in your fight against Stannis and his Red Priestess. A symbolic revenge of sorts."
Stannis' lips pursed at the reminder of his downfall. Resorting to witchcraft, he was disgusted.
"Yes, ahem. I feel the need for revenge against the actual person who tried to have me killed. Which will require a degree of influence, which-"
"You do not possess at the moment."
[Varys puts down the crowbar and moves to a basin to wash his hands and freshen up.]
"But influence is largely a matter of patience, I have found. Once I had served the sorcerer's purpose, he threw me out of his house to die. I resolved to live to spite him. I begged. I sold what parts of my body remained to me. I became an excellent thief and soon learned that the contents of a man's letters are more valuable than the contents of his purse. Step by step, one distasteful task after another, I made my way from the slums of Myr to the small council chamber. Influence grows like a weed. I tended mine patiently until its tendrils reached from the Red Keep all the way across to the far side of the world where I managed to wrap them around something very special."
[VARYS removes the top of the crate. He and TYRION peer in. VARYS protects his nose from the stink. TYRION is aghast. A man lies helplessly in the crate. His mouth has been sewn shut long ago. He mumbles desperately behind his sewn mouth.]
"Is that… is that the sorcerer?!" Catelyn asked aghast.
"It is," Varys said cheerily.
People were looking at Varys a little uncomfortably now. They knew the Spider to be ruthless, as he had to with what he did, but this was… surprising. Most did not expect him to hold grudges, let alone foster one to the point he had his criminal trapped in that manner.
"Lord Varys" Jon suddenly asked, "have you always been bald?"
Something flickered in Varys' eyes before they were smothered away.
"I was not. But in my days as a performer, I had to shave my head. Sadly, after whatever the sorcerer did, my hair refused to grow."
"And your hair was…"
"I don't remember my boy. It has been so long."
"Yet you remember the sorcerer who wronged you?"
Varys smiled.
"You seldom forget the people who wrong you. I am certain you will learn of that too."
Jon frowned, deciding not to push with any questions for now.
"What was that about?" Robb asked.
"I was curious" Jon shrugged.
"Is this about the thing you said before?"
Jon nods.
"You're wasting your time there, Jon. It's a coincidence and nothing more.'
"I suppose" Jon muttered, for now dropping the matter.
But Brynden had picked up the matter dropped, understanding Jon's line of questioning easily. His sight had only been on Westeros, not beyond. Perhaps he should have been going beyond as well.
Regardless, Varys was now on Brynden's radar.
[CRASTER'S KEEP]
[GRENN and "DOLOROUS" EDDISON TOLLETT work in the pig sty, shovelling mud and shit.]
"When people talk about the Night's Watch, they never mention the shovelling."
"Or the shit."
"Because the Night's Watch is not supposed to do these things for anyone but themselves" Ned muttered angrily. He would have a talk with Jeor about the Watch's association with this wildling Craster.
Even if he had to invest in something beyond the wall for the Watch.
"They tell you about honour, pardoning crimes, and protecting the realm, but shovelling really is most of it."
"And getting attacked or killed or worse. And that."
"But when you're not getting attacked or killed, usually you're shovelling."
"Oh, look. More shit. I was starting to wonder what to do with the rest of my day."
[RAST stands at the side of the pig sty.]
"We need to get out of here."
"When the Lord Commander says we go, we go."
"The Lord Commander told us to go to the Fist of the First Men. How'd that turn out for us?"
Rickard's face grew dire. This was not looking good for Jeor. Discontent like this would no doubt cause a rebellion of sorts in the camp. And that was something the Night's Watch could not afford with the White Walkers on their heels.
"He had no way of knowing."
"We do now. We know what's out there."
"Craster's been out here surviving."
"So he's your new protector now? Our good friend Craster?"
"We're like the sons he never had."
"Oh he's had sons" Jon said darkly. The image of Craster handing his son to the White Walkers was still in his head.
"Mormont isn't gonna save you. This lummox here isn't gonna save you. When the walkers come calling, Craster will serve us up like so many pigs. If we want to live we'll have to look out for ourselves."
"He isn't wrong" Stannis muttered. "Jeor Mormont can't protect them against the White Walkers, and Craster serves men to their ranks like some ritual sacrifice."
"Like you burning men?" Renly raised a brow.
"Yes," Stannis muttered through gritted teeth.
[WOODS, SOMEWHERE]
[BRAN STARK runs through the woods. A raven caws overhead. BRAN comes upon a godswood. JOJEN REED appears by his side.]
"It's creepy how he just appears in the dreams" Arya mutters.
"Do you think he can dive into my head and my dreams?" Bran asked.
Arya shrugged.
"You have to go after him."
[BRAN climbs to the high branches of the godswood until he finds the raven. He balances his way carefully to the raven. CATELYN STARK appears behind him in the tree. CATELYN grabs him roughly.]
"How many times have I told you? No climbing."
"Mother, I need to find it. It's here. It's calling me."
"I want you to promise me. No more climbing."
[She shakes BRAN as her voice rises in volume. CATELYN shakes BRAN so hard that he loses his footing and he falls from the tree.]
"Promise me! Promise me, Bran! Promise me!"
Catelyn's brows furrowed seeing her son's dream. She knew that was not really her, but what did her presence mean?
Ned on the other hand was having flashbacks that he did not care to have, especially considering the one the flashbacks were about was sitting with Jon right now.
[BRAN wakes suddenly before he hits the ground in his dream. He sits up. JOJEN watches him, wordlessly.]
"I think he can" Arya muttered, referring to the last question Bran asked her.
[NORTHERN WOODS]
[THEON GREYJOY and RAMSEY ride slowly through the woods.]
"How far is it to Deepwood Motte?"
"Not far, my lord. Your sister is waiting for you there."
"She sent you to save me?"
"Yes. I served them, the men who were torturing you. I did what they told me and waited for the right moment."
Theon nodded. He was right then, a turncloak.
"Why would you risk your life for me?"
"I grew up on Saltcliffe, my lord. I was only a boy when they took you away. My father brought me and my brothers up to the bluffs so we could watch the ship that carried you off. I remember the look on my father's face when he told us, 'That's Balon Greyjoy's last living son.' And those are the words I heard over and over again when I saw what they were doing to you."
A servant from Saltcliffe? No, that was odd. Since when did the Ironborn serve anyone but themselves?
"Those men, they said my father knew what they were doing to me. Did he?"
"I- I don't know, my lord. They- they never told me much."
"He did not," Theon told himself, pushing the thought of Saltcliffe away for now. His father would never allow them to do this. He was his father's last living son, there was no way Balon Greyjoy would sit back and take it.
[NORTHERN WOODS, LATER]
[THEON and RAMSAY leap over a wall and move furtively along it in the rain. They approach a small castle.]
"My sister's men are loyal to her. We don't need to hide from them."
"Not all those are your sister's men. Some of them are loyal to your father."
"So? My father's men wouldn't want me dead" Theon asked no one in particular.
Yara watched her brother with keen interest and a bit of incredulity. How was he not suspecting anything at all?
[RAMSAY opens the lower gate leading into the castle. It leads to a long hallway.]
"I was just thinking how jealous I was when my father told Yara to take this place."
Yara rolls her eyes,
"What did he tell you to do?"
"Raid fishing villages. He didn't trust me. Thought I was a Stark. Ha. I could never be a Stark. Robb Stark always reminded me of that."
"I did nothing of the sort you complete ass!" Robb growled.
Theon chose not to reply. He had enough of talking to the Starks.
"He lorded it over you?"
"Didn't have to. All he had to do was be. Be who he was born to be. His life fit him better than his clothes."
Robb snorted.
"So you felt you were not a Stark because you felt inferior to me?" he asked with a laugh. "Of course you would. If nothing is presented to you on a silver platter you can never expect to have it! Ironborne scum through and through."
Theon glared at Robb with venom.
"I'm going to enjoy watching my future self burn everything you hold dear down" he hissed.
"That's the only satisfaction you will find. Because once we are out of here, I will make sure you get what you deserve" Robb snarls.
"For things I have not even done?" Theon snorts. "Hypocritical when none of you would punish your mother for the shit she's pulled so far."
Robb grits his teeth and stands but is quickly pulled back down by Jon.
"Do you have anything to say against what he said?" Jon whispered harshly.
Robb shook his head.
"Then sit quietly and do not give Theon anything to use against you" the boy muttered.
Theon took it as a victory regardless. And not even the glares from the Starks would dampen his mood now.
"How could someone like that ever be a brother to me? He's the King in the North."
[They reach another gate. RAMSAY works to open it with his keys.]
"And me my father gave me a choice and I made it. I could never be a Stark. But ironborn, that's what I was born to be. I paid the iron price for Winterfell. I murdered those boys."
[RAMSAY finally has worked the gate open.]
"The Stark boys?"
"Never found them. Just some poor orphans living with a farmer. I let Dagmer slit their throats and I let him burn the bodies so I could keep Winterfell and make my father proud."
"Maybe it's not too late."
"It is. My real father lost his head at King's Landing. I made a choice and I chose wrong. And now I've burned everything down."
Multiple people blinked in unison, especially Theon who suddenly lost the emotions he'd been clinging to.
"But I-"
He swallowed thickly. What was his future self on about? Everything he did was right! And his father would reward him for it he knew it for sure. He burned Winterfell, that's what Ironborne do, pillage and burn!
Yet a small part of him agreed with what his future self said, agreed that Ned Stark had been more of a father to him than his actual father was.
But his actual father did not have the opportunity! Theon argued with himself.
But when he did, he spat on him and pushed him away, the small part of him argued back.
Theon nibbled on his nails and breathed sharply as the conversation with himself ran through his mind.
[THEON and RAMSAY continue past the gate and through some doors. The room is black.]
"Yara?"
"Shh. Wait."
[RAMSAY lights a torch. The room brightens to reveal the X-shaped cross on which THEON had been tortured. THEON is stunned.]
Theon was violently shaken out of his thoughts at the revelation.
"No…" he muttered pitifully.
"I brought him back. He killed the others."
"What? No, I didn't."
[Some guards appear behind THEON. One grabs his shoulder, spins him and punches him in the gut.]
"You can't! No, please stop! No!"
[The two guards wrestle THEON back onto the cross. He sobs and yells. RAMSAY smiles. THEON screams.]
"No. No. No. NO! Not again! NO! Not again!" Theon wailed as he saw himself being wrestled back on the cross. He was out. He had escaped! No- but- how-why?! He was Yara's man! Why would he betray him?!
So engrossed in his breakdown, that Theon did not notice his sister take him away from the viewing Hall.