Chapter 9:- Arya Stark: The She Wolf
On King Robert's visit to Winterfell, Arya rushes out to see the arrival of his entourage. She is scolded by her mother when she finally joins the receiving line in the courtyard. Arya is overheard by Queen Cersei when she asks Sansa where the "Imp" is, a reference to Tyrion. Later that evening at the feast, she tests her mother's patience by misbehaving and throwing food at her sister, prompting Robb to send her to bed early. Robert names Arya's father as his Hand of the King, Joffrey is betrothed to Sansa, and Eddard decides to take his daughters with him to King's Landing to experience the court. A day before leaving, her younger brother Bran falls from the tower that he was climbing and goes into a coma. Before leaving, Arya receives a pet direwolf, one of several pups found by her brothers outside the castle, and names her Nymeria, after a great warrior-queen of Essos. She also receives a sword as a gift from Jon. She names it Needle, as a play on words that she may now enjoy doing "needlework." After receiving the sword, she hugged Jon and said "I'll miss you."
While journeying south on the Kingsroad, she practises her swordplay with Mycah, the son of the butcher in the King's retinue whom she befriends. When Sansa and Joffrey spot them fighting, Joffrey intervenes. He accuses Mycah of pretending to be a knight and threatens him for striking Arya. Arya and Mmycah didn't acknowledge that and protested that he doesn't know what's going on. Ignoring their protests, he cuts Mycah and threatens Arya when she attacks him to defend Mycah. As Joffrey menaces her with a sword, Nymeria savages Joffrey, injuring his arm, allowing Mycah to flee and Arya to throw Joffrey's sword in the river. Arya runs away and drives Nymeria off with rocks so that she won't be punished.
Arya is eventually found and questioned. Arya told the truth as it was, but her sister Sansa lies about the incident, saying she didn't see what happened, but generally supporting Joffrey, all because she's afraid that if she didn't support him her engagement will be in danger and she didn't want that at all. This infuriates Arya, who proceeds to strike her sister and call her a liar. Queen Cersei, as they do not have Arya's wolf Nymeria, the one who actually bit Joffrey, spitefully requests that Sansa's direwolf Lady be executed instead. Despite the fact that she had just struck Sansa for lying to save her budding friendship with Joffrey, Arya quickly joins her sister in vehemently protesting against killing Lady. She even reaches out to touch Sansa in sympathy as she breaks down into tears upon seeing that the queen's order will be carried out nonetheless. Meanwhile, Mycah is murdered by Joffrey's bodyguard, the Hound.
After reaching King's Landing, Arya argues incessantly with Sansa over the incident, to her father's despair. Eddard tries to make Arya understand that Sansa could not contradict her future husband. Arya is disgusted that Eddard thinks such an excuse is acceptable and questions why he would betroth Sansa to someone like Joffrey. Eddard discovers Needle when he comes to Arya's room to talk to her while she is practising. When he realises she is serious about learning, he hires Syrio Forel, a master sword-fighter who was formerly the First Sword of Braavos, to train Arya in the art of combat. Eddard is bemused to find that Syrio's training regime includes having Arya balance on her tiptoes for hours at a time and chasing cats around their new residence in the Red Keep to learn agility. Arya and her father discuss how Bran cannot be a knight now that he is paralyzed below the waist, but he can be lord of a holdfast, or sit on the King's council. When Arya asks if she can as well, Eddard laughs and says that someday she will marry a powerful lord and have children who can be lords or even kings and rule the land. Arya replies that is not her destiny: "That's not me."
Arya watches the Hand's tournament along with Septa Mordane and Sansa. She asks Littlefinger how he got his nickname, to his amusement. Arya later resumes her cat-chasing training exercise and finds her way into the dungeons under the Red Keep, where she sees the dragon skulls that used to decorate the Great Hall of the Iron Throne. Curious, she looked around the dungeon for some time and observed the skull of a mighty beast that may not be on the planet anymore.
In the passages under the Red Keep, Varys meets with his ally, Illyrio, the man who secretly harboured last remaining Targaryen heirs, Viserys and Daenerys, and arranged the wedding of the latter to Khal Drogo Varys informs Illyrio of how the new Hand of the King, Eddard Stark, now has the same genealogy book that his predecessor read, and has met Robert's bastard son Gendry; the same evidence which led Jon Arryn to discover the truth about Queen Cersei's children. Illyrio suggests the possibility that the same fate may befall Lord Stark as did his predecessor, but Varys states Eddard Stark is not the same man as they were. Furthermore, he assures Illyrio that the conflict between the Lannisters and the Starks will soon escalate into a civil war. Illyrio protests that a war will not serve their purpose right now, since Khal Drogo is not yet ready to send his army of Dothraki to invade Westeros for Viserys, thus reviving the Targaryen Dynasty. However, Varys protests there is no way of delaying the incoming conflict, so the Dothraki must be urged to move faster, since "this is no longer a game for two players." Illyrio replies that it never was. Their discussion is overheard by Arya Stark, who is with them in the tunnels under the Red Keep. Arya tries to warn her father about what she heard, but she doesn't know who the speakers were, and out of context, all she understood was that her father has "found the bastard", that "the wolves are fighting the lions", and "something about the savage."
Eddard introduces her as his daughter to Yoren, a recruiter for the Night's Watch. Dishevelled and unclean, Arya is at first mistaken by him as a boy, to her annoyance.
Arya is distracted from her training exercises by news of Jory's death and her father's injury while fighting Jaime. Syrio teaches her how to ignore her troubles to focus on fighting. Later, Eddard brings his daughters together to tell them he is sending them back to Winterfell. Sansa and Arya are both upset. Arya does not want to leave Syrio's training. Sansa is incensed, feeling that losing a dancing instructor is nothing compared to breaking her betrothal to Joffrey. Eddard says not to worry, he will choose another man for her to marry, one strong and gentle and brave. Sansa says she doesn't want someone like that; she wants Joffrey to Arya's amusement. She wants to have his blonde babies, like Joffrey, her "golden-haired lion." After the interjection "Seven hells", Arya asserts that he will be a stag like his father. Sansa replies that Joffrey is nothing like Robert. This prompts Eddard's sudden realisation that Joffrey is not Robert's son and thus not the heir to the throne.
Eddard confronts Cersei, who admits that her children were fathered by her brother Jaime. However, before Eddard can inform Robert, the King is mortally wounded by a boar while hunting and dies shortly afterwards. Cersei and Joffrey have Eddard arrested and send guards to take Arya into custody while she is training with Syrio. He realises that Eddard would not send Lannister men for his daughter, and instructs Arya to flee while he faces down the guards himself. Armed only with a wooden sword, he disarms several of them and holds off one of the Kingsguard, Ser Meryn Trant. Syrio's fate after that is unknown. Arya goes first to the stable, where the men who were to take her and Sansa out of King's Landing were waiting with the baggage. The men have been killed, but she finds her sword, Needle, where she hid it in the bottom of her luggage. She is discovered by a stableboy who tries to stop her. As he comes at her, she raises her sword, and he is impaled and dies. Horrified, Arya runs away to find her way out of the castle.
Arya Stark is living rough on the streets of the city. She catches a pigeon and tries to trade it for a slice of bread, to no avail. She sees crowds moving through the streets and is told that the Hand of the King is being brought before the Great Sept of Baelor, the centre of religious worship in the city. Stunned that she will see her father, she drops the pigeon and joins the crowd. Unable to see, she climbs onto the pedestal of a statue of Baelor, a previous Targaryen king, Baelor the Blessed, for whom the Sept is named. She sees her father being brought in chains to the steps of the temple. He sees Arya on the statue, and as he is dragged through the crowd he passes Yoren of the Night's Watch who had met Arya. Lord Eddard looks at the statue and says, "Baelor," puzzling the crowd. Yoren understands, however, and moves toward the statue where Arya is watching.
Eddard is given a chance to confess his "crimes." He weighs his choices as he sees both Arya and Sansa present, and chooses to save them by making a false confession. He says that Joffrey is the true King on the Iron Throne, pleasing him. Grand Maester Pycelle extols the virtues of mercy and Joffrey agrees that he could be merciful and send Eddard to the Night's Watch as his mother has suggested and as Sansa has begged. He instead acknowledges that as women they are "soft" and treason must never go unpunished. He commands Ser Ilyn Payne to bring him the traitor's head.
The crowd goes into an uproar. Arya tries to make her way through the crowd, drawing her sword to save her father, but before she could move forward anymore she saw Ser Ilyn Payne dying due to arrows struck in his eyes. Right after that she heard a familiar voice that always supported her to take the sword and fight for herself "A mongrel holding the Ancestral Sword of House Stark?"
Looking at the man she murmured under her breath "Uncle."
Yoren who was just behind Ary asked "You know him?"
"He's my uncle. My father's elder twin." Arya told him.
Hearing that, Yoren nodded in understanding and said "So he's Benjens second eldest brother huh."
Then they heard Joffrey saying "Behead that man!"
But to the surprise of all present in front of the Sept, none of the soldiers moved even the King's guard didn't move. All because of the men standing behind them with knife to their throat.
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🚫🚫🚫🚫 Chapter 1 End 🚫🚫🚫🚫