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[WINTERFELL, THE NEXT MORNING]
[THEON stands in the Winterfell courtyard, addressing his men.]
"You hear that? That's the mating call of the Northmen. They want to fuck us. Well, I haven't had a good fuck in weeks. I'm ready for one."
[The Ironborn men laugh.]
"They say every Ironborn man is worth a dozen from the mainland."
"Only your half-brained brethren say that" Oberyn cackled. "Even in Dorne the Ironborne are seen as nothing but a nuisance. Pests that should have been taken care of."
"Perhaps you would like to meet us out at sea then? Take care of us pests" Yara drawled.
"Or perhaps you would like to come challenge us on land" Oberyn smirked sharply.
"We die today, brothers. We die bleeding from a hundred wounds with arrows in our necks and spears in our guts, but our war cries will echo through eternity. They will sing about the battle of Winterfell until the Iron Islands have slipped beneath the waves. Every man, woman and child will know who we were and how long we stood. Aggar and Gelmarr, Wex and Urzen, Stygg and Black Lorren. Ironborn warriors will cry out our names as they leap onto the shores of Seagard and Faircastle."
"Tell tales of how twenty stupid men followed a complete moron so far from the ocean that they were left stranded and got themselves killed" Tyrion added chirpily.
"I am twice the man you are" Theon grunted.
"Oh! how original! A dwarf joke!" Tyrion laughed condescendingly. "Though it isn't true anymore now is it."
"Or did you mean as a fighter? Because last I checked, my future self defended a city against a superior enemy while your future self fucked himself and his men for dumb ambition."
Theon glared at the man, which made Tyrion laugh even louder.
"Mothers will name their sons for us."
"Aye!"
"Girls will think of us with their lovers inside them."
Even Yara snorted at that one.
"Aye!"
"And whoever kills that fucking horn-blower will stand in bronze above the shores of Pyke!"
"Aye!"
"What is dead may never die!"
[DAGMER hits THEON on the back of the head, knocking him unconscious. The Ironborn watch him fall.]
Theon watched in shock. They just turned on him!
"Thought he'd never shut up."
"It was a good speech. Didn't want to interrupt."
[A man placed a hood over THEON's head.]
[LUWIN enters.]
"What is this? What are you doing?"
[DAGMER stabs LUWIN in the gut with his spear. LUWIN crumbles to the ground, groaning in sharp pain.]
The Starks gasped in horror. Maester Luwin was heir friend, almost a part of their family...
"Let's go home."
[DAGMER and the Ironborn exit, dragging THEON with them. LUWIN collapses.]
"No..." Sansa sobbed for the old Maester, who had been nothing but kind to her.
None of her siblings said anything to quiet her. They themselves were equally heartbroken.
[KING'S LANDING, TYRION'S CHAMBERS]
[TYRION sits in bed, his face still bandaged]
"Ser Mandon Moore tried to kill you on your sister's orders. If it weren't for your squire's bravery, you'd be a dead man."
Tyrion stared at the wall in disbelief. Of all the idiotic things his sister could do! It made sense she would do it, why wouldn't she? She hated him and he hated her. There was no love lost between the two. But still... to do it while he's out there defending the city?
A little part of him did respect the planning behind it. Noone would know how he died. Or at the least, no one that gave two sits about him. It was clever.
"Pod."
"Yes, my lord?"
"Get Bronn, tell him I want four of his most loyal gold cloaks outside my door at all times."
"I'm afraid your friend has been relieved of his command of the City Watch. The gold cloaks are now firmly in the hands of your father or your sister. It varies from cloak to cloak."
"Then my hill tribesmen."
"Have gone home. Your father paid them quite handsomely." "
"Everything I worked on, gone as if they were nothing!" Tyrion muttered in displeasure.
""You should have expected that from the moment you began setting things up." Jaime pointed out. "You were there until Father could come."
Tyrion grunted but did not say anything.
"I'm afraid we won't be seeing each other for some time, my lord."
"Don't want to swim too close to a drowning man? And I thought we were friends."
"We are. Podrick, would you mind?"
[PODRICK opens the door and SHAE enters briskly. She comes to TYRION's side and sits.]
"There are many who know that without you this city faced certain defeat. The king won't give you any honours, the histories won't mention you, but we will not forget."
"And one day even you will die and people will only remember what history writes about me" Tyrion frowned, "what comfort is there then?"
"Perhaps Casterly Rock would have something to write about you" Joanna suggested.
Tyrion shook his head.
"With Father and Cersei alive? Doubt it."
[VARYS and PODRICK exit.]
"My love."
[SHAE reaches to adjust TYRION's bandages, but he prevents her.]
"I want to see you."
"Believe me, you don't."
[She removes the bandages. They stick to the deep wound across TYRION's cheek. He grunts in pain. SHAE takes in the wreck of his cheek.]
"That is by far the shittest battle scar I've seen" Jaime snorts. "It has done nothing to ruin your image I'm afraid, brother."
Tyrion rolled his eyes at his brother, but he was smiling a little.
"You are a mess."
"I'm a monster as well as a dwarf. You should charge me double."
"You think I'm here for money?"
"That was the arrangement we made. I pay you and you lie to me."
"Oh. I'm a poor little rich man and nobody loves me, so I make jokes all the time and pay them to laugh. Fuck your money. Let's leave."
"Leave?"
"Leave King's Landing. They tried to kill you. They will try again. Going into wars, fighting soldiers, you're terrible at this. Let's take a boat to Pentos and never come back. You don't belong here."
"I very well don't belong in Pentos either" Tyrion muttered. "What could a Dwarf do there other than be entertainment or a slave?"
"You never know, Pentos might have room for an axe-wielding dwarf" Jaime mused playfully.
Tyrion shook him off.
"I do belong here. These bad people are what I'm good at. Out-talking them, out-thinking them. It's what I am. And I like it. I like it more than anything I've ever done. Are you going to leave?"
"You have a shit memory. I am yours and you are mine."
[TYRION bursts into tears. SHAE envelops him in her arms. TYRION holds her as well.]
Tyrion's eyes softened. He remembered another woman who once said that, someone who professed they loved him... Only to turn out she was a lying whore her brother hired. The softness quickly faded.
Jaime noticed it, as had Joanna. Mother and Son shared a look before turning away. Jaime received the message loud and clear.
[QARTH]
[DAENERYS TARGARYEN, SER JORAH MORMONT, and KOVARRO walk through a garden. They come to the base of the House of the Undying.]
"Where are the guards?"
"No guards. The warlocks kill with sorcery, not steel."
"Let them try."
"They invited you. Meaning you're possibly the only one they won't kill. The other two..."
Daenerys frowned at Elia's words. Had she brought people into danger again?
[They ascend the first flight of stairs and gaze up to the top of the tower. They cannot find an entrance. They circle the base. DAENERYS disappears from JORAH's view. He encounters KOVARRO instead.]
"And so it begins" Doran mused.
[INTERIOR OF THE HOUSE OF THE UNDYING]
[DAENERYS stands in darkness. She picks up a torch from the wall.]
"Are you trying to frighten me with magic tricks?"
"No, they permitted you entry" Oberyn stated calmly. "You are who they want, not the other two."
"At least they didn't kill them" Daenerys muttered.
"You want me? Here I am. Are you afraid of a little girl?"
[A dragon screeches. DAENERYS follows the sound up a stairwell.]