[DRAGONSTONE DUNGEON]
[SHIREEN whispers to a sleeping SER DAVOS SEAWORTH through the iron bars of his cell.]
"I thought I told you to stay away from Ser Davos" Stannis raised a brow at his daughter, pushing the unpleasantness of Jaime Lannister's reveal away for now.
"I have done no such thing" Shireen shrugged. "And even if I did, you were wrong about him and he does not deserve to be locked up for being something you always respected."
Stannis could only sigh at his daughter.
[DAVOS comes to the bars to talk.]
"Go back to your room. You're not supposed to be here. If your father knew-"
"He said you Were a traitor. Are you?"
"I am, child. I disobeyed my king, your father, and now I'm paying the price."
"I don't care."
"You should care" Renly pointed out. "Rightfully or not, you don't know if Ser Davos is a dangerous man."
"He isn't. I have known Ser Davos my entire life and I can vouch that he is not a bad man" Shireen insisted.
"But still-"
"He is not a bad man!"
"Very well" Renly sighed. His niece was quite opinionated and stubborn in her beliefs. All her father.
"You're my friend. You must get bored down here. I brought you something to read. It's about Aegon and his dragons. Aegon used to live here. Did you know that? And the Targaryens built this castle."
"Ser Davos can't read" Stannis informs his daughter gently.
Shireen stares at him in shock.
"We must change that when we return!" the Princess said adamantly.
Stannis only nods.
[SLAVER'S BAY, RIVER]
[A score of Unsullied march and halt in front of DAENERYS and her group. DAENERYS speaks Valyrian]
"You did not choose this life. But you are free men now. And free men make their own choices. Have you selected your own leader from amongst your ranks?
[The Unsullied part, revealing their chosen leader.]
"It was a good choice to let them choose their leader," Doran said softly. "They are yet strangers to you as you are to them. By allowing them to choose, you show that you trust them to make important decisions that affect them."
Daenerys nods at the compliment. She wasn't used to many compliments, Viserys not being one to shower her in them for a long time. But she still remembered how to take them with grace.
[The man removes his helmet when told to and walks forward, head bowed. He then looks up at DAENERYS. They converse in Valyrian]
"What is your name?"
"Grey Worm."
"Grey...worm...? That's his name?" Bran questioned, "What kind of name is that?!"
"All boys taken in as unsullied are given new names when they are... put into their training" Varys explained, finding a lack of words to explain how their 'training' starts. "They are given a new name to remind them that they are no longer free men."
Bran frowned at that. Just how cruel were these Essosi? The Wildlings seemed tamer in comparison.
"From this day forward you will choose your own names. You will tell your fellow soldiers to do the same. Throw away your slave name. Choose the name your parents gave you, or any other. A name that gives you pride.''
""Grey Worm' gives me pride. It is a very lucky name. The name this one was born with was cursed. That was the name he had when he was taken as a slave. But Grey Worm is the name this one had the day Daenerys Stormborn set him free."
"It means a lot to them that you have freed them" Elia whispered to Daenerys.
"I must free them this time as well" Daenerys spoke softly.
'Must you?" Elia questioned.
"I must!" the reply this time was more confident and her eyes reflected it clearly. "Look at them, look at how glad they are to be free, how happy and grateful! How can I look away from them?" she paused a moment. "I don't want to marry Khal Drogo or any Dothraki savage. But I want to hatch my eggs and I want to save these people."
"Very well then," Elia said with a smile.
She turned to Oberyn.
"We shall see what can be done" was all Oberyn said in reply.
[RIVERRUN, WAR ROOM]
[ROBB surveys a battle map in deep concentration, while TALISA sits on a chair behind him. ROBB throws down an army piece in disgust.]
"The Karstarks are gone. Almost half our forces."
"You killed their Lord. They had no reason to stay" Rickard Stark said somberly.
"Aye..." Robb muttered. If only he had... what would he have done differently? Punish his mother? Make sure she didn't free the Kinglayer? Keep her away from the camp entirely?
So many possibilities... it was a good thing he was learning of them before the events unfolded.
"Tywin Lannister knows what he needs to do to make us unravel. Nothing. Only wait."
""Don't let him."
"What can I do? Attack King's Landing? There's nothing he'd like better. He'd crush us in a day."
"We could ride north. Take your land back from the Greyjoys. Wait out the winter."
"Winter could last five years. Once my bannermen are home again, sitting by the fire, surrounded by their families, warm and safe, they'll never ride south again. When I gathered my lords together, we had a purpose, a mission. Now we're like a band of bickering children."
"They all marched to avenge the death of their fallen Warden."
"They have found his son lacking, an oathbreaker and indecisive, and his wife a meddling woman who freed one of their most prized prisoners over false hope and watches her walk with a punishment that is equivalent to a slap on the wrist" Rhaegar said with a frown and hum. "They no longer wish to follow such a... broken King."
"I am no oathbreaker!" Robb said angrily, standing to face the Targaryen Prince.
"Did your mother not promise your hand to Frey's daughter?" Rhaegar asked simply. "And were you not the one to break that promise, which can be called an oath, to marry this Volantene woman?"
Robb fell back on the seat scowling. He'd forgotten about that little indiscretion.
"Give them a new purpose."
"What?"
"Oh, I don't know. I don't even know where Winterfell is."
[ROBB takes her hand and uses it to point out locations on the large map. He pauses as a thought takes his mind.]
"I can't force them to meet us in the field and I can't attack them where they're strongest, but I can attack them where they're not."
[ROBB moves one piece to take another on the map.]
"And Casterly Rock can't run away. I'm going to take their home away from them."
"With what army?" Oberyn asked. "Half your army deserted you for home."
"I don't know" Robb muttered, "he hasn't said it yet" Robb pointed to his future self.
"I need men to replace the Karstarks who marched home. There is only one person in this kingdom with that kind of army who hasn't already sided with the Lannisters. The man whose daughter I was supposed to marry- Walder Frey."
"That is the most idiotic plan I have heard," Renly said blandly. "Walder Frey is a proud man, all of us know this. You have broken an oath to marry his daughter and basically shamed him when you chose that woman to marry. He would never help you for that alone, and you'd be lucky if he doesn't kill you where you stand just to get in the Lannisters' good books."
"I know" Robb muttered frustrated. "Clearly it's an act of desperation if I'm crawling back to him! I don't blame my future self for being so desperate when half his army had left him."
"Had the future you not have gotten prideful and arrogant enough to kill Rickard Karstark you wouldn't be in such a situation" Jon pointed out evenly, like he was pointing something obvious.
"Exactly Had the future you been smart, he wouldn't have had to face so many problems" Renly pointed out evenly, like he was pointing to something obvious.
"I know..." the boy sighed, still frustrated.