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[MARGAERY takes both of SANSA's hands.]
"You must see Highgarden. You'd love it there. I know you would. We have a great masquerade on the night of the harvest moon. You should see the costumes. People work on them for months."
"I-I don't think the queen would let me leave King's Landing."
"The Queen Regent, you mean. Once I marry Joffrey, I'll be queen. And if you were to marry Loras... Oh, your place would be at Highgarden, wouldn't it? We would be sisters, you and I."
"Or Willas. That would make you Lady of Highgarden" Margaerys suggested.
Sansa looked at her with genuine interest, before she thought about it. She turned to her parents, who were looking as thoughtful as her.
[CRASTER'S KEEP, NIGHT]
[A funeral pyre blazes in the night.]
"Didn't think a broke foot could kill a man."
"Unless there's a cut and the wound festers or if the bones are not set back right... it shouldn't" Varys murmured.
"You know a lot about healing" Gendry noted.
"Back in my performing days I had to tend to my own wounds, so I needed to know what I was doing" the Spider explained.
"It wasn't his foot that killed him. That bastard Craster starved him to death."
"That too" Varys noted with a sigh.
"Craster's got his daughters to feed. We can't just show up and steal all his food. We're brothers of the Night's Watch, not thieves."
"The day we leave, Craster will tap a barrel of our wine and sit down to a feast of ham and potatoes and laugh at us starving in the snow. He's a bloody wildling is all he is."
[CRASTER'S KEEP, LATER]
[CRASTER eats and JEOR writes]
"So he feasts while his guests starve" Brandon the Elder said dryly.
"The man is taking full advantage of guest rights" Lyanna muttered in outrage. "He knows they would not harm him as long as they were guests under his roof and so he's taking out his dislike and insulting them freely."
"Wildlings" Brandon muttered in disgust.
"You have one son, don't you, Mormont? I had my ninety-ninth. You ever met a man with ninety-nine sons?"
"Ninety-ninth! He's served ninety-eight sons to the White Walkers" Catelyn said with disgust. She could not imagine doing something like that to her sons. She couldn't imagine what those women were feeling!
"Let us not forget that it is his daughters that give him those sons" Lyanna muttered in disgust.
[The Night's Watchmen return to warm themselves, including SAM, GRENN, DOLOROUS EDD, RAST, and KARL TANNER.]
"Them that's dying, why don't you cut their throats and be done with it? Hmm? Or leave them if you've not the stomach and I'll sort them myself."
Many were disgusted by the man's words. But a lot were reluctantly in agreement. With the state of affairs, it would be best for the rest if the ones not healing were left behind. Loathsome as the idea was, it might just be the only chance they got.
"Whose throat you gonna cut, old man?"
"Wait outside."
"It's cold outside and there's nothing to eat."
"My wives gave you bread."
"There's sawdust in the bread."
Brandon the Elder spat.
"You don't like it, you go out there and eat the snow."
"I'd rather eat what you've got hidden away."
[JEOR stands.]
"I told you to wait outside."
"Jeor has lost his men's respect and their obedience" Rickard muttered sadly. He knew what was coming next.
"He's sitting there drinking our wine, eating his fill while we die."
[CRASTER stands in rage.]
"I gave you crows enough. I've got to feed my women!"
"So you admit you've got a hidden larder, then? How else'd you make it through winter?"
"Enough! Out!"
"I am a godly man."
"You're a stingy bastard!"
[CRASTER grabs an axe from the wall and approaches KARL TANNER.]
"Bastard? Out with you, you little thief. And you! And you! Go sleep in the cold on empty bellies. I'll chop the hands off the next man who calls me bastard."
"The truth stings" Robb chuckled sharply.
Robb was nodding his head. He would love nothing else but for Craster to get what is desired.
"You are a bastard. A daughter-fucking, wildling bastard."
[CRASTER raises his axe and attacks KARL TANNER. KARL grabs his arm and stabs him in the belly. CRASTER gurgles and chokes."
"Gods" Ned muttered aghast. The guest's rights... broken! There was no going back from this.
"The gods will curse us for this. By all the laws-"
[KARL TANNER hits one of CRASTER's wives. He then picks her up from the ground, and she does not resist. He puts his knife to her throat.]
"There are no laws beyond the Wall. Now show us where he hides the food or you'll get the same as he did."
[JEOR draws his sword. KARL TANNER drops the woman and gets ready to face off with JEOR.]
"I shall have your head for this."
[RAST stabs JEOR from behind. JEOR's hands go weak, and he drops his sword. GRENN charges KARL TANNER, and they wrestle for control of the knife. Women and men shout as the fight escalates. JEOR turns to face RAST, grabs him by the throat, lifts and pins him against a post. SAM flees to the outside and picks up a sword amidst the chaos. CRASTER lies dead on the floor. JEOR continues to choke RAST, until he suddenly spits up a mouthful of blood, and collapses to the floor. RAST comes to him and savagely stabs JEOR again and again.]
"He was an honourable man" Ned said after a moment's silence passed.
"Who resorted to treating with Wildlings for protection. When it was them that the Watch was tasked with hunting" Renly said pointedly.
"And why do you think he had to do anything like that?" Ned threw back. "We send our criminals to them and other than that we ignore them. We abandoned them and they had to do anything they could to survive." Even if it meant... that."
"And we can all agree that it isn't the Wildlings that the Watch is supposed to watch out for" Stannis spoke loud enough for everyone to hear. "The legends are true, and so should anything related to it. The Wall stands to hold off the White Walkers. And as the years since the Long Night passed, people forgot that fact."
The reminder of the White Walkers sobered them up easily enough.
"We'll make sure the Wall is prepared this time" Robert spoke with conviction.
"Aye," Ned nods.
[THE MOUTH OF A CAVE]
[The Brotherhood enters single file, leading the hooded GENDRY, ARYA, and THE HOUND. They reach the main chamber and remove the hoods.]
"Sometimes it's jarring the change from one disaster to the other" Shireen muttered. And it was just that, one disaster after the other with little to smile about.
Stannis gives a nod.
"What is this place?"
"Somewhere neither wolves nor lions come prowling."
"You look like a bunch of swineherds."
"Some of us were swineherds. And some of us tanners and masons. That was before."
"You're still swineherds and tanners and masons. You think carrying a crooked spear makes you a soldier?"
"War turns even the simplest men into fighters" Ned muttered solemnly. Howland Reed came to mind. He was once a shy boy until war had made a warrior of him.