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[RIVERLANDS WOODS]
[GENDRY, ARYA STARK, and HOT PIE walk through the woods, weapons drawn.]
"I'm just trying to understand."
"Would you please shut up about it?"
"Jaqen H'ghar offered you three kills."
"I'm not listening."
"But just explain it to me. He offered to kill any three people you wanted. Dead. All you had to do was give him the names. Anyone. You could have picked King Joffrey."
Arya frowned, a pink tinge on her cheeks.
"You could have picked Tywin Lannister."
The pink turned redder.
"Jaqen got us out of Harrenhal, so why are you complaining?"
"But you could have ended the war."
Arya was full-blown blushing now, head dipped to hide her face. Jon reached around his mother and ruffled the girl's hair.
But the point that Gendry had brought up had now seeped into the minds of everyone in the hall. And none of them could argue against it. Especially the Gendry in the hall who nodded along to his future's opinion.
[They hear some far-away singing.]
"Could be a minstrel."
"Shut up."
"A lion still has claws..."
"Gods not ominous at all" Tyrion Lannister murmured. He knew that song, had bloody heard it too many times in his childhood.
[They crouch to hide behind a broken wall, and watch a handful of men approach. One is singing.]
"And so he spoke, and so he spoke
That Lord of Castamere
But now the rains
Weep o'er his hall
With no one there to hear."
[An arrow whistles past the trio, surprising them. It embeds in a tree trunk behind them. They spin to hide out of sight.]
"Shit" Robb muttered, heart racing from fear for his sister.
"What's lurking behind that wall? A lion? A wolf?"
"Just a dirty little cub, I think."
"Loose a few more shafts."
[ARYA steps out of hiding. THOROS and ANGUY look down at her from the path. THOROS takes a deep drink.]
"Put the sword down, girl."
"You go on down the road. Just keep on singing so we know where you are. Leave us be and I won't kill you."
"Generous."
"Isn't he the guy who won the archery competition for the Hand's Tourney?" Daenerys whispered to Elia.
"I don't recall" the older woman frowned.
"You're a dangerous person. I like dangerous people. Why are your friends so shy?"
"What friends?"
"The fat to your left and the lad beside him."
"He must have had his eyes on them for a while," Brandon the Elder said with a frown. This did not look good.
[Resigned, GENDRY steps out and pulls HOT PIE with him. They ready their weapons. THOROS responds, and his party swiftly comes over the wall to face the trio. They do not draw weapons.]
"Three young ones on the run carrying castle-forged swords. You escape from Harrenhal?"
"Who are you?"
"Thoros of Myr. And the fellow here with the bow is Anguy."
"Isn't he the drunk Red Priest you absolutely love to see in tourneys and shit?" Renly whispered to his brother.
Robert for his part could only grunt. He may like the man, but he has also developed a hate for the Red Religion in its entirety.
"No, who do you fight for?"
"The Brotherhood without Banners."
"Wasn't the Mountain torturing people for information on them?" Ronn whispered to Jon, who nodded.
"Now come along. I want to hear how two boys and a very dangerous girl escaped Harrenhal."
"I'm not going with them. The Brotherhood? That's who the Mountain and their lot were looking for. They'll bring us back and put rats in us."
Robb looked satisfied in recognizing the Brotherhood.
[HOT PIE takes a few steps back. ANGUY notches an arrow in response. ARYA, GENDRY, and HOT PIE raise their weapons, nervously.]
"Here's the thing, fat"
[ANGUY shoots the arrow into the sky.]
"When I'm done talking, that arrow's falling down on your fat head. So I advise you to move because I'm done talking."
[HOT PIE lurches forward two steps. The arrow lands, burying itself where HOT PIE was just standing.]
"He's an extremely good archer" Ned commented. Perhaps he'd find this man and hire his services. No doubt if he's part of this Brothehood, he has no true loyalties or a home.
[THOROS motions for the trio to move with them.]
"Half the country's starving and look at this one."
"Maybe he's the reason half the country's starving."
"Rast would have loved these two" Jon snorted in ill nature, remembering the guy from the Watch from a moment ago.
[DUNGEON]
[THEON screams as the TORTURER's ASSISTANT turns a huge screw that is planted on his foot.]
Theon flinches, twitching his foot as if he felt the phantom pain of the torture his future self was going through.
Yara had a hand on his knee, squeezing it comfortably but to no avail.
Robb on the other hand took pleasure in watching the traitorous bastard get what is deserved. Even if a tiny part of him reeled from the display.
"Why'd you take Winterfell?"
"I took it to took it-"
"Who gave the orders?"
"No one. I took it on my own."
"Why?"
"To take the North while it was vulnerable."
[The ASSISTANT turns the screw again. Blood well ups around it as THEON screams.]
"Why did you do that?"
"I told you. Why did you take Winterfell?"
"I took it to bring glory to my house and my father."
[The TORTURER approaches.]
"Wait. Wait, wait, wait. I took it because I hated the Starks. I hated them for holding me prisoner. I wanted to hurt them."
"Told you we should have sent that squid to the Wall, Ned. But you wished to show him some leniency" Robert snorted. 'See what leniency gets you?"
Ned did not say anything, his entire face massive and stone-like.
[The TORTURER places a hood over THEON's head. The ASSISTANT turns the screw and THEON screams. The TORTURER walks away, followed by his team. They leave one lowly cleaning boy, RAMSAY, behind. The door closes shut. RAMSAY removes the hood from THEON. He is surprised.]
"Your sister sent me."
A bubble of hope built up in Theon. Saved, he would be saved!
But Yara couldn't help but frown. She was in the habit of sending only her men. And she knew each of her men's faces. That was not one of them.
[RAMSAY releases the pressure on his foot.]
"I'll come for you tonight when the castle sleeps."
[RAMSAY places the hood back onto THEON's head and leaves.]
"No, don't go. Please, please. No, please don't leave me. Please, please. Please, please don't go! Please. Please. Don't leave me. Please don't go."
"Only a while" Theon chanted to himself. "I'll be free. I'll be free. I'll be home, free and can recover. Only a while more..."
Yara watched her brother with worried eyes. She did not have the heart to tell him that the man was not sent by her.
[THE NORTH]
[HODOR, RICKON, OSHA, JOJEN, and MEERA walk along a narrow road. HODOR pulls the cart carrying BRAN. The direwolves are nearby. RICKON runs excitedly down the hill.]
"The wolves will protect him."
[BRAN nods to SUMMER, who turns to follow RICKON. They continue on the path.]
"You can get inside his head, see through his eyes."
"Only when I'm asleep."
"That's how it begins until you learn to control it. You're a warg."
Catelyn was not sure how she felt about that. Wargs were... well they were rather demonic things. She'd been taught that for a long time now. But her son was not demonic. Yet he was a Warg. She did not know how to feel about it...
"It's not just wolves. Sometimes in my dreams, there's a"
"A three-eyed raven?"
"You've seen it?"
"We saw him together. You haven't forgotten?"
"Does it have anything to do with warging?"
"No, the raven is something different, something deeper. The raven brings the sight."
"Now that's a thing to wonder about" Rickard Stark murmured to himself. He had once been fascinated by the history of his family. The fascination died when he became Lord of Winterfell and had a part of the realm to look out for. But now, watching all this? That fascination was coming back.
"Seeing things that haven't happened yet?"
"Or things that happened long before you were born or things that are happening right now thousands of miles away."
"When my father died, I dreamt it."
"You didn't dream it. You saw it. So did I."
"You have the sight, too?"
"When I told my father about your father for the first time in my life, I saw him cry."
Ned couldn't help but smile at the mention of his old friend. Loyal to the bone that one.
"He saved my father's life during the rebellion."
"Your father told you about the rebellion? Mine never did. But I saw that, too."
"Wonder how much of it he saw" Brandon mused.
Ned and Lyanna had similar questions but for different reasons.