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"Idiot girl" Olenna muttered.
[Some men approach. JAIME, nervously, gestures to BRIENNE.]
"Untie me. Now!"
[Three men approach, in leather armour and bearing swords.]
"What's your business here?"
"Traveling a prisoner."
[The three men laugh hysterically]
"You're a woman. A woman!"
"Yeah that's going to come up a lot" Tyrion muttered.
"If you've quite finished up-"
[The men laugh even harder.]
"All right, we'll be going."
[She turns to take care of JAIME.]
"Whoa. Whoa! Who do you fight for?"
"The Starks."
"And now either these men would take the prisoner back to Robb or they'll kill the woman and free the man depending on who they fight for" Oberyn mused. "Want to wager?"
"Not the time" Elia sighed.
"What did he do?"
"Apparently eating is now a crime. Who knew?"
"No, stealing is a crime."
"But it's not a crime to starve. That's justice for you."
"Where are you taking him?"
"To Riverrun."
"Why Riverrun?"
[BRIENNE works to unbind JAIME from the tree.]
"Steal from the Tullys, it's their dungeons you rot in."
"Why not kill him?"
"For stealing a pig?"
"I don't give the orders. He must be important to someone."
"Sending him with you? How important could he be?"
[BRIENNE does not answer.]
"She needs to keep her head down and move on now" Olenna muttered.
"She should" Margaery agreed, before smiling at her grandmother. "Are you beginning to care about her well-being?"
"I'm tired of seeing in competence" Olenna drawled.
"All right, have it your way, my lady."
"Do I know you?"
"Have you been to Ashemark?"
"No."
"Then you don't know me."
"Do you ever go to the river market at Salt Rock?"
"You just asked about Ashemark. Why is he asked about that?" Tommen asked.
"He's probing to see if I'm telling the truth" Jamie answered.
"Is it near Ashemark?"
"No."
"I've never been there."
[BRIENNE frees him from the tree, and she and JAIME start to walk away.]
"What do you think of these beauties?"
"I hope you gave them quick deaths."
"Two of them we did, yeah."
"The girls all look disgusted."
"Wait. I do know you. That's Jaime Lannister."
"Well there's no escaping them now" Tyrion hummed. "Why did she not hide you better? Dirty your hair with mud more?"
"I don't know" Jaime shrugged.
"I wish someone had told me. I wouldn't have had to steal that pig."
"If this is the Kingslayer, I think I'd know about it."
"How do you know what the Kingslayer looks like?"
"I was at Whispering Wood. I saw him. They dragged him out of the woods and threw him down before the king."
"Just your luck" Tyrion clicked his tongue.
"He's not the Kingslayer. Sorry to disappoint you. If he was, I'd only be travelling his head."
[Again, they try to move along.]
"I have a question for you both. And I want you to answer it at the same time. I count to three, you both answer. What's his name? One. Two. Three."
[BRIENNE pushes JAIME aside, draws her sword, and sets on the men, viciously. JAIME is surprised at her prowess in battle. She bests them all and turns to MAN, who lies on the forest floor. She drops her long sword and draws her short sword.]
"You're impressed" Tyrion noted, "you're not usually impressed."
"You don't see women fighting every day, let alone that well" Jaime shrugged.
"Two quick deaths."
[She stabs the MEN in the gut, painfully. She plunges deeper, and the MAN dies. She withdraws her sword and steps away.]
"Those were Stark men."
"I don't serve the Starks. I serve Lady Catelyn."
"But she is a Stark" Tommen frowned.
"She's sworn to Lady Catelyn only, not the Starks. That is what she means" Tyrion explained.
"I told you I'd take you to King's Landing, and that's what I'm going to do. Stay."
[BRIENNE turns and chops the rope that holds the three women's corpses with a large grunt. JAIME winces as the bodies thud to the ground.]
[RIVERLANDS AT NIGHT.]
[KING ROBB STARK sits in his tent. LADY CATELYN STARK sits as well.]
"Walder Frey is a dangerous man to cross."
"I know that."
"And you mean to do it anyway?"
"I love her."
"Ned!"
The Lord of Winterfell snapped his head up to find his brother standing.
"A word. Only you" Brandon grunted before walking away.
Ned followed him in silence with a frown.
Brandon was pacing the chambers that he called his own. It brought back memories for Ned that he'd pushed back for so many years. His brother's chambers, the familiarity and comfort of it. It was odd, but it was there.
"What happened to you?" Brandon asked.
"What do you mean?" Ned asked in return.
"You had the most of the North in your blood amongst all of us siblings, even with our wolf blood. Ather may not have seen it, but I did and I would always commend you for it. So what happened? How did you change so much that you let so much go?"
Ned narrowed his eyes at his brother.
Brandon took a deep breath.
"You who follow the Old Gods to an almost priestly degree allowed a Sept to be built in the heart of the Old Gods' domain. Something our ancestors have fought against the Andals for. You allow your wife to do as she pleases without any consequences. Would father have allowed mother this much freedom? Would Jon Arryn? And now your son is treating vows he made as if they are nothing! A Stark of Winterfell who treats his vows like that is not fit to be a Stark of Winterfell! How did you let so much crumble?!"
"You want to know what happened? Ned snarled, surprising Brandon in the process. "You! All of this happened because of you!"
Brandon looked at him incredulously.
"Me?!"
"Yes! If only you hadn't gotten yourself killed!"
"They had our sister!"
"And you thought it wise to ride up to challenge a madman?!"
Ned and Brandon glared at one another.
"You went and got yourself killed. It caused Father's death. It caused a fucking war and I was stuck cleaning up after all of you!" Ned boomed. "Do you think I wanted to be Lord of Winterfell? Do you think I wanted to marry Catelyn Tully? I did what I had to do because of the fucking war! I had to build a Sept to make her happy because I brought Jon home and claimed him my bastard!"
"Catelyn Stark's personal feelings should have never messed with your judgement!" Brandon snapped. "She was a bargaining chip her father threw at you so he could wash his hands off his daughter. And I can see why. Impulsive, shortsighted and politically challenged! Her father saw all the flaws in her, in her sister, and pawned them both off the first chance he got! And now she's spread all of that to your children!"
"She is trying her best!" Ned snapped. "She's trying her best with everything crumbling around her!"
"And why do you think it all crumbled in the first place?" Brandon hissed. "If she had listened to you and gone back home without abducting a Warden's son, that too of Tywin Fucking Lannister, none of this would have happened!"
Ned fisted his hands.
"And you know why she did what she did? Because you give her too much freedom! You don't hold her accountable for anything. You build Septs for her, ignore her favouritism of the children that look like Tullys, and her attitude towards Jon! She knows you won't tell her off or punish her for whatever she does. She kidnapped Tyrion because she knew as her husband you'd shoulder her mistake and as Hand of The King Tywin Lannister would do nothing against it. Seven Hells she released a fucking Prisoner of War because she worried her daughters might get killed! What would freeing the only bargaining chip you had against your enemies do for your daughters?! If anything it would kill them faster! We lost Winterfell Ned. No Stark in history has lost Winterfell! Her sense of entitlement and shortsightedness is the reason House Stark stands on the brink of extinction!"
Brandon stormed towards Ned and the man was ready to fight. But Brandon walked past him to the door.
"I pray you learn something from seeing this and bring your wife under control. I pray she actually learns something and thinks before doing anything from now on! Because even if father and I are resurrected you will be the warden of the North, we may advise you but it will be upto you to decide what to do."
Brandon slammed the door behind him, leaving Ned to stew in his anger alone.