"Get your brother up," Joanna sighed from frustration at how her son would act from time to time. Like right now.
Jaime obliged in silence, hoisting Tyrion back on his chair. The Imp was still laughing, tears running down his face.
"I'm sorry," he says a bit later, wiping the tears away. "It's just, seeing Cersei's smug face break and watching her world crumble like that… oh I couldn't help it!"
"My mother's being forced to do something she does not want to, and you're finding joy in that?" Myrcella asked in outrage.
"I am, in the same way she finds joy in my misfortune" Tyrion admitted with a grin.
But Myrcella was not sharing his grin. She was not even smiling. Her look of disgust and anger knocked the grin off Tyrion's face.
"You two are exactly alike" Myrcella whispered hotly before getting up from her seat. She took Tommen's hand and yanked him to his feet as well. Their sets vanished, reappearing on Joanna's other side where Myrcella wanted the two of them to sit.
She could not stand to sit beside her uncle right now.
"She's still young, she will understand once she's older" Tyrion muttered to himself. But he was worried there was no doubt there.
[NORTH OF THE WALL, NIGHT]
[SAMWELL TARLY tends to the fire while GILLY sits nearby, cradling her baby.]
"The boy escaped with the girl and her babe," Olenna said with a frown. "No doubt they would be heading for the wall now."
"It should be safe there, right?" Sansa asked, ignoring the knowledge of who her future self had to marry and the disgust it brought.
"A lone girl surrounded by men who do not have women around them all the time and no doubt have some pent-up aggression to work on? Use your head, girl" Olenna chastised.
"Not safe then" Sansa muttered to herself.
"You've got too much wood in there."
"But the more wood, the bigger the fire."
"Spoken like a true Highborn" Gendry snorted. He'd worked by fire long enough to know how to stroke a growing fire.
"It needs to breathe. Take off that big log."
[SAM removes the log. The fire quickly comes to life.]
"Someone built your fires for you growing up?"
"It doesn't get so cold down in the Reach. And there were servants, of course."
"I knew you were highborn."
"Oh, I found something at the Fist of the First Men. Buried treasure. Thousands of years old. I think."
[SAM pulls out the dragonglass knife.]
"He kept it. Good" Brynden muttered. No doubt this boy would end up having to face a White Walker sooner or later. That would come in handy.
[THE NORTH, MORNING]
[MEERA REED skins a rabbit while OSHA looks on.]
"She's not too good at that" Lyanna muttered.
"You don't usually find rabbits around Grey Water Watch. She's trying her best" Ned answered stiffly. The conversation with Jaime Lannister was still in his head and he did not like it. Lannister still broke a vow… yet why was Ned the one feeling guilty?
"Can you skin a rabbit?" Jon asked his mother.
Lyanna shook her head.
"I have been on a few hunts when I was young. But I never learned how to skin a rabbit" she explained.
[LORD BRAN STARK sits, back to a tree nearby. OSHA skins another rabbit in a quick motion and twists its head off.]
"That's better" Robert muttered. Wildling women were surely something different.
"You grow up north of the Wall, you learn the proper way to handle game."
"I didn't see any game before I got here."
"If I had a bow, I could have shot a dozen rabbits."
"Well, I made this bow myself. Guess you don't learn how to do that north of the Wall."
"You learn how to use your fists, though."
"Oh, you're gonna punch the rabbits to death?"
"I had someone else in mind."
"Well… you don't see women fight like this often" Tyrion mumbled. Usually, it was clipping comments and snide remarks. This was like watching Jaime and some Knight trying to one-up the other.
Still entertaining, but not something he was used to.
"Stop it! You've been fighting since you met. Just stop it."
"Lady Reed here's got a stick so far up her ass, it's a wonder her feet touch the ground."
"You've been nasty to her every day. Of course, she's nasty back."
"Me? It's my fault? The first time I met her, she put a knife to my throat."
"First time I met you, you held a knife at me. We can't fight each other. We'll never make it to the Wall. I want you both to make peace."
"Nicely done, little brother" Robb grinned, though his grin was forced. His mind was still on the events from before, about how his indecisions and his wrong decisions cost him a war. Well, his future self was the one to do those, but it was still him. He needed to learn and fast, instead of excusing it as shit his future self has done and not him.
A circumstance like that may not come up, but he was sure as the future Lord of Winterfell, he would need to make the right decisions.
Bran, in the dark about his older brother's thoughts, smiled at him. His smile only grew when his father's hand reached out and ruffled his hair. It was always a good feeling to make his family proud.
[JOJEN REED begins to spasm in his sleep. MEERA goes to him and places a leather belt between his teeth. The spasm continues. RICKON STARK wakes.]
"What's happening?"
"He's grown so much" Catelyn commented, holding back a sniffle. Rickon her darling youngest…
"What's wrong with him?"
"The visions take their toll."
"Is that how greensight works?" Rhaegar asked. He'd never seen Greenseer, and seeing one now was unsettling. Dragon dreams were so much more peaceful compared to this.
Or at least he expected them to be, since they were called dreams after all.
[JOJEN comes to his senses and sits up.]
"I saw Jon Snow. He was on the wrong side of the Wall surrounded by enemies."
"Not ominous at all" Jon muttered. But then again, he was with wildlings, so it was expected.
Lyanna gripped her son's hand in worry.
[NORTH OF THE WALL]
[The Wildlings pack up their camp in the woods. TORMUND GIANTSBANE, ORELL, JON SNOW, and YGRITTE are among them.]
"Used to be you couldn't find a tree within a mile of the Wall. Crows would come out every morning with axes."
"With the diminishing numbers…: Ned sighs. Another way he could help the watch was by sending men out there to help them collect timber. They could sell those and earn for themselves.
"You ever climbed it before?"
"No. But Tormund's done it half a hundred times."
"Well, he's a fucking madman then!" Tyrion exclaimed.
"Or just fucking desperate" Jaime suggested.
"That too" the Imp conceded.
[YGRITTE hands him some climbing cleats to strap onto his boots.]
"I brought a pair for you. They're too big for you, but they're good."
"You kill someone for them?"
"Nah. I didn't kill him, but I bet his balls are still bruised."
"The girl likes you" Lyanna whispered to her son.
"Or she's playing pretend to be close to me and stab me in the back when I inadvertently turn my back to them" Jon suggested.
"He wasn't good to me the way you're good to me. He didn't do that thing you do with your tongue."
"Oh, she definitely likes you" Robb barked with a slap on his brother's back. "I never knew you could do things with your tongue."
"Wouldn't it be weird if you did?" Margaery of all people asked teasingly.
"He is a Targaryen…" Daenerys added, though a lot more shyly than the other two.
"Shut up!" Jon shouted, blushing furiously. It made the three and a few others laugh.
Olenna eyed her granddaughter curiously though. What was she playing at right now?
"You're a proper lover, Jon Snow. And don't worry. Your secret's safe with me."
"What secret?"
"Do you think I'm as dumb as all those girls in silk dresses you knew growing up? You're loyal and you're brave. You didn't stop being a crow the day you walked into Mance Rayder's tent."
[JON freezes. YGRITTE comes closer, furtively.]
"But I'm your woman now, Jon Snow. You're going to be loyal to your woman. The Night's Watch don't care if you live or die. Mance Rayder don't care if I live or die. We're just soldiers in their armies and there's plenty more to carry on if we go down. It's you and me that matters to me and you. Don't ever betray me."
"She cares, deeply" Lyanna whispered to her son. "She's basically given herself to you now."
And I'll have to betray her at some point, Jon thought with a grimace.
[RIVERLANDS, WOODS]
[LADY ARYA STARK practices with a bow, shooting arrows into a straw man. She says a name with each arrow she lets fly. ANGUY watches, while THOROS OF MYR sits nearby, drinking. A party of mounted travellers approaches. ANGUY takes the bow and meets them on the path. A woman lowers her red hood revealing to be MELISANDRE.]
"What's she doing there" grunted Robert in displeasure. He was having such a good time not seeing her blasted face.
[THOROS and MELISANDRE speak Valyrian]
"Valar Morghulis."
"Valar Dohaeris. I don't see many priestesses of R'hollor in the Riverlands.|
"You are Thoros of Myr."
[THOROS nods]
"The High Priest gave you a mission. Turn King Robert away from his idols and towards the Lord of Light. What happened?"
"I failed."
"You quit, you mean."
"He saw reason and sense, is what he means" Robert stated calmly. He knew Thoros, shared cups with the man and funded him in many tourneys he'd been in. The man was nothing like that woman, which meant he had seen sense in the senseless and moved.
Good for him.
"The heathen continue to slaughter each other and you continue to get drunk."
"You worship Him in your way, and I'll worship Him in mine. Do you speak the common tongue? My friends here don't speak High Valyrian. Why are you here, my lady?"
[EXT: RIVERLANDS, CAVERNS OF THE BROTHERHOOD WITHOUT BANNERS]
[LORD BERIC DONDARRION sits by the fire. MELISANDRE and THOROS enter. He stands. MELISANDRE scans BERIC with both her eyes and her hand. She is fascinated by his scars.]
"How many times has the Lord brought him back?"
"Six."
[MELISANDRE and THOROS converse in Valyrian]
"That's not possible."
"The Lord has smiled upon me."
"You should not have this power."
"Somebody is jealous" Renly said with a satisfied grin.
"I have no power. I ask the Lord for His favour, and He responds as He will."
[THOROS sits and begins to drink again.]
"I've always been a terrible priest. Drank too much rum. Fucked all the whores in King's Landing. It's a terrible thing to say, but by the time I came to Westeros, I didn't believe in our Lord. I decided that He, that all the gods, were stories we told the children to make them behave. So I wore the robes and every now and then I'd recite the prayers, but it was just for show. A spectacle for the locals. Until the Mountain drove a lance through this one's heart. I knelt beside his cold body and said the old words. Not because I believed in them, but because he was my friend and he was dead. And they were the only words I knew. And for the first time in my life, the Lord replied. Beric's eyes opened and I knew the truth. Our god is the one true god. And all men must serve Him."
"He doesn't sound like that woman, yet he still believes" Stannis noted with a frown.
"She's an extremist" Robert shrugged. "You get those in every religion, and each of them is the worst kind."
"Just the red god's ones are worse with their people burning" Renly added.
"You've been to the other side."
"The other side? There is no other side. I have been to the darkness, my lady. He sent you to us for a reason."
People shivered. All their lives they thought there was a better place, that after death they would end up in a better place or a worse one. To hear that it was darkness…
"Is it all darkness?" Daenerys asked Elia, "Or is there something after it?'
"I'm… unsure. I remember the darkness, but nothing else. Yet there is an itch I can't scratch" Elia explained.
It was the same for the other dead ones in their midst.
[RIVERLANDS, WOODS]
[ANGUY, ARYA AND GENDRY are conversing, with ANGUY showing GENDRY an Arrow Head. MELISANDRE, THOROS, and BERIC approach.]
"Forgive me, lad."
[Two of MELISANDRE's guards grab and bind Gendry. MELISANDRE leave with sacks of gold being given to BERIC and The Brotherhood. ARYA tries to stop her but MELISANDRE speaks of darkness and eyes before moving along.]
"They intend to burn me for my blood" Gendry spat in disgust. Of course, it was too good to be true. No man was ever looking out for anything or anyone unless it profited them! Brotherhood his ass.
Robert's face grew grave and angry. If he was ever going to show mercy to the witch, he was not going to do it now. Nobody killed his blood and got away with it.
Maybe after all of this, after Cersei and that golden bastard, he'd bring Gendry to the capital. Even Mya might finally be brought to the capital. He still had children. He'll name one of them his heir.
[DUNGEON, SOMEWHERE]
[RAMSAY blows a horn, waking LORD THEON GREYJOY, who is bound to the X-shaped cross.]
Theon, who had been silent and drawn in all this time, sat up as if the horn woke him from some slumber.
"Sorry. Were you sleeping?"
"Wa-'
"Wa-? Wa-? Water? You want some water. I wish I had some for you."
[RAMSAY holds up the mug from the table next to him. He slowly pours out the water to the floor.]
"That was cruel" Sansa frowned.
"Theon's being tortured here. Nothing is going to be nice" Arya rolled her eyes.
She left out the part where she agreed that Theon deserved it all.
"Let's play a game. Which body part do you need the least?"
"I'll tell you everything, please."
"But you've already told me everything. Remember? Your daddy was mean to you. The Starks didn't appreciate you. One good bit, though. The Stark boys, they're still alive. Wouldn't that be a hunt to remember? You failed, but I'm a better hunter than you."
"Hunt?! Why would he hunt us?! Isn't he from the North?!" Bran asked in fear.
Nobody answered him, but most had an idea of why. The members of the Northern family that guessed wished it was not the case.
"Now how about your little finger? You don't use that for much, do you? No? Good. Let's start with that."
[RAMSAY works at the leather straps on THEON's right hand.]
"You've been wondering why you're here. Haven't you? Where you are. Who I am. Why I'm doing this to you? So guess. If you guess right, I'll tell you. By the old gods and the new, I swear it. You win the game if you can figure out who I am and why I'm torturing you and I win the game if you beg me to cut off your finger."
"He's Bolton's bastard, right?" Robb asked. "I remember Roose Bolton saying he would send his bastard to free Winterfell."
"I think so" Jon nods. "But Theon wouldn't know that."
"Good" Robb muttered. This torture was deserved. A turn cloak like Theon deserved it.
"If I win, you'll let me go?"
"If you think this has a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention."
Theon couldn't help the whimper that left his lips.
[RAMSAY brandishes a knife just before THEON's chin.]
"Where are we?"
"The North."
"Too vague."
"Deepwood Motte."
"Terrible guess."
[RAMSAY tortures THEON by stabbing his right pinky finger.]
Theon cried out at the scene, though more to himself, unlike his future self.
"Now, where?"
"Last Hearth."
"Do I look like a fucking Umber to you?"
[This time, RAMSAY holds the knife in THEON's pinky finger for much longer.]
"Karhold!"
[RAMSAY stops.]
"Karhold? How did you know that? Did you see any banners flying when we came in?"
Theon relaxed visibly.
"No. It was just a guess."
"Very good, Lord Theon. And who am I?"
"Torrhen Karstark."
"He's dead. Strangled by the Kingslayer."
"He was your brother. Your father is Lord Rickard Karstark."
[RAMSAY walks away.]
"Gods," Theon said in relief.
Only to tense against when Varys mentioned how both sons of Lord Karstark had died in the war.
This bastard was lying to him! But why?!
"You swore to tell me if I-"
"You're right."
"Lord Rickard Karstark is Robb Stark's bannerman. I betrayed Robb. That's why you're torturing me."
"Yes. You win."
[THEON is relieved. RAMSAY looks dejected, but then rises suddenly, full of energy.]
"Of course, you forgot to ask one question. You forgot to ask if I'm a liar."
[RAMSAY tortures THEON by twisting his knife in the tip of THEON's pinky finger.]
Theon grabbed said pinky finger tightly as if the thing would start to bleed out if he let go.
"I'm afraid I am. Everything I told you is a lie. This isn't happening to you for a reason. Well, one reason- I enjoy it."
"This is sick" Lyanna muttered, looking green in the face.
"That bastard sounds like he's done this before" Brandon the Elder noted.
"Shouldn't be possible. The torture and flaying of men have been banned in the North" Ned argued.
"Banned, yes. But who'd tell you if the victims were dead and it was all done in secret?" Brandon questioned.
Ned inhaled sharply before exhaling with a growl. If this was true…
[RAMSAY stops when THEON begs for him to stop and cut it off. He smiles.]
"I win."
Theon whimpered. No… No, no, no! This could not be happening to him! Why was this happening to him?! What had he done to deserve this?!
[RIVERRUN, GREAT HALL]
[KING ROBB STARK, LADY CATELYN STARK, BRYNDEN "BLACKFISH" TULLY, LORD EDMURE TULLY, "BLACK WALDER" RIVERS, and LOTHAR FREY sit around a large table.]
"They came," Catelyn said in surprise. She didn't expect them to come after what happened.
Ned thought the same thing, though his line of thinking sent him in another direction. Why had they come willingly…
"Our father has instructed us to tell you that his alliance with the North can continue if his terms are met. Lord Frey requires a formal apology for your violation of your sacred oath to marry one of his daughters."
"A given" Brandon the Elder muttered.
"As restitution for this betrayal, he demands Harrenhal and all its attendant lands."
"Can Robb grant that?" Lyanna questioned.
"They named his King of The Trident, so I suppose he can" Rickard answered grimly. Doing so would no doubt set the Rivermen against Robb as well in some way. Harrenhal was a Castle everyone coveted.
"We are fighting for the North. Harrenhal is not in the North. It is his once the war is over and we have no further strategic need for it."
"And there's something else."
"We will do whatever we can to give Lord Frey what he needs."
[BLACK WALDER looks at EDMURE.]
"What?"
[BRYDEN, ROBB, and LOTHAR also stare at EDMURE.]
"No."
"Our father requires Lord Edmure to wed one of his daughters- Roslin."
"How old is she?"
"Nineteen."
"Could I see her first?"
"You want to count her teeth? We depart for the Twins in the morning. We need an answer before we leave and a wedding not more than a fortnight thereafter or this alliance is at an end. Father is old. It will put his heart at peace if he could see her wed to a good husband."
"Bullshit" Catelyn muttered under her breath.
"And his recent experience has made him wary of long engagements."
That made more sense to Catelyn than the old-age bullshit.
[LOTHAR and BLACK WALDER exit.]
"Why should I let that old ferret choose my bride for me? At the very least, I should be offered the same choice you were. I'm his liege lord."
"He's a proud man and we've wounded him."
"You have. He did nothing" Oberyn pointed.
"Robb is his King-"
"Do you expect King Robert to make a mistake and have Ned Stark pay for it?" Oberyn cut her off sharply. "Why must Edmure Tully pay for the mistake his nephew and King made?"
Catelyn and Robb both remained silent. The other Starks remained silent because they agreed.
Especially Arya.
She was pawned off to marry a Frey by her mother after all. Why would she need to suffer that when she had no say in it?
[BRYNDEN stands and walks to EDMURE.]
"Listen to me and listen very carefully. You-"
"Your uncle is out of line, Lady Stark" Margaery frowned. "That is his Liege Lord that he's threatening. Kin or not, such things have consequences."
"Uncle Brynden has always been… rough with my brother" Catelyn sighed. It was because of how naïve Edmure could be. And his general incompetence.
"The laws of gods and men are very clear. No man can compel another man to marry."
"The laws of my fist are about to compel your teeth."
Olenna snorted. The Blackfish was a colourful man. Olenna had heard rumours that Hoster Tully intended to ask her cousin Bethany's hand for Brynden. Good thing he hadn't. Poor Bethany would no have lasted long with this man.
"It's all right. You heard him. If you refuse, our alliance with the Freys is dead."
"He's wanted me for one of his daughters since I was 12. He's not gonna stop wanting it now. When I say no, he will come back and offer me a daughter of my choosing."
"That's a bold assumption" Doran commented. "The better choice for the Freys would be to ally themselves with the Lannisters and the best case scenario is that they would be rewarded for their loyalty to the Crown. Might even earn a Lord Paramount title, considering how the current Lord Paramount is a rebel."
Who's to say they haven't already, the thought came to Ned even without his wishes. But it was a valid thought that made him dread.
"You're willing to risk our freedom and our lives for a chance at a prettier wife?"
"A man has the right to choose his bride. His nephew's fuck ups do not take it away from him" Obery said with an easy smile. "You're lucky he is so agreeable. If it were me, I'd have kicked you all out and bent the knee to the Lannisters."
"Aye," Robb sighed.