"It's her!"
"She killed Renly!"
"Seize the traitor! Avenge the King!"
This roar, like a spark thrown directly into a vat of boiling oil, instantaneously ignited the apocalyptic fury of every single guard in the pavilion!
"Kill her!"
"Avenge Renly!"
"This traitor! How fucking dare she!"
Dozens of gold-armored guards, their eyes completely ruptured with bloodshot rage, raised their heavy longswords and advanced on Brienne step by deliberate step.
Their combined, suffocating murderous intent threatened to literally blow the roof off the tent!
Brienne stood completely frozen in place, her harsh, un-beautiful face written with absolute shock and total bewilderment.
She slowly looked down at the longsword in her hand.
The steel blade was still heavily coated in the dark blood of Renly Baratheon.
It was the blood that had accidentally, violently splattered onto her weapon when she lunged forward to protect him just moments ago.
But right now, it had become undeniable, irrefutable physical evidence of a crime she couldn't possibly wash away.
She killed Renly?
Impossible!
This was Renly! The man she had sworn her absolute life to! The man she was more than willing to die to protect!
"No... it wasn't me..."
Brienne desperately wanted to explain, but she found her vocal cords completely paralyzed; she couldn't force a single coherent sentence out of her throat.
Her brain was endlessly looping the sheer, absolute disbelief in Renly's eyes right before he hit the ground.
Her heart felt like a massive, jagged chunk had just been violently carved out of it.
It hurt.
It hurt so incredibly much she could barely breathe.
"You still dare to make excuses?!"
The guard captain roared like a rabid animal. He aggressively charged forward first, his longsword whistling through the air as he brought it brutally down toward the top of Brienne's skull!
He put absolutely every ounce of his strength into this strike, fully intending to execute the "traitor" right on the spot!
CLANG!
A sharp, explosive clash of metal.
Another sword shot out of nowhere, flawlessly and violently parrying the lethal blow.
It was Loras!
His usually handsome, effortlessly arrogant face was completely drenched in tears.
He was holding Renly's lifeless corpse with one arm, while his other hand gripped his own drawn sword in a death grip.
"All of you, stand the fuck down!"
Loras glared at the guards, who were completely blinded by rage, and shrieked hysterically.
"It wasn't her!"
"She is not the murderer!"
The guard captain's arm went completely numb from the sheer, violent force of Loras's parry. He frowned at the manic, practically unhinged Loras.
"Lord Loras, what exactly is the meaning of this?"
"Are you actually going to harbor the assassin who murdered Lord Renly?!"
"I said, it wasn't her!"
Loras's completely bloodshot eyes glared dead into the captain's face.
"I saw it! I saw the whole fucking thing!"
"It was a shadow! A monster wearing the exact face of Stannis Baratheon!"
"It was the shadow! It drove a black dagger straight through Renly's heart from behind!"
A shadow?
A monster?
Every single guard completely froze.
They looked at each other, seeing mutual, heavy confusion and sheer skepticism in each other's eyes.
The guard captain looked at Loras like the man had completely, permanently lost his mind.
"Lord Loras, has your grief completely shattered your sanity?"
"What shadow? What monster?"
He pointed a heavy, armored finger directly at the bloody sword in Brienne's hand.
"All we see is her sword covered in his blood!"
"All we see is that when Lord Renly was murdered, she was the only person standing right next to him!"
"The physical evidence is right in front of our faces! She is the assassin!"
"You fucking idiots!" Loras felt like he was going to literally explode from sheer frustration.
He desperately wanted to explain, but how the hell was he supposed to convince a bunch of brain-dead grunts—men who only believed what they saw with their own two eyes—about a monster crawling straight out of the shadows?
They would just assume he was clinically insane!
"I command you as the Lord Commander of the Rainbow Guard!"
Loras tried to use his absolute authority to crush their insubordination.
"Drop your weapons! All of you!"
But it was completely useless.
Renly was dead.
His title as Lord Commander was absolutely, completely worthless in the eyes of these men right now. All they wanted was blood for their fallen King.
"Lord Loras, step aside!"
The guard captain's tone turned ironclad and highly aggressive.
"We are executing this traitor today! We will avenge Lord Renly!"
"He's right! Execute her!"
"Avenge the King!"
The guards' apocalyptic fury was violently stoked once again.
They chanted the battle cry, tightening the circle and advancing on Brienne once more.
Loras looked at the sea of bloodthirsty guards. He knew absolutely anything else he said would fall on completely deaf ears.
They needed an answer.
They needed a perfect, convenient scapegoat to violently vent their grief and rage.
And Brienne was the absolute perfect target.
If he kept blocking them, they would likely butcher him right alongside her.
Loras's heart slowly, heavily sank like a stone.
He looked down at Renly's lifeless body in his arms, and then at Brienne, who was standing there looking as helpless and isolated as a deserted island.
He made a choice.
"Fine."
Loras slowly stood up, his dead, freezing eyes sweeping over every single man in the room.
"Since you are all so absolutely certain she is the assassin."
"Then arrest her."
"Throw her in the black cells!"
"I will personally interrogate her! I will find out exactly who else she is working with!"
His words made everyone pause.
The guard captain hesitated.
"Lord Loras, a traitor like this... we should just execute her on the spot. Why bother with an interrogation?"
"Shut the fuck up!"
Loras let out a violent, explosive roar.
The absolute, crushing aura of an elite knight violently erupted from him, forcing the guard captain to instinctively stumble a step back.
"I said, I will interrogate her personally!"
A manic, highly dangerous light flickered in Loras's eyes.
"What if she was acting on orders?"
"What if Stannis is the one standing directly behind her?"
"Do you really just want to execute a useless, expendable pawn and let the true mastermind walk away free?!"
Stannis!
That single name made every guard in the room violently suck in a breath of freezing air.
Right!
Lord Renly had literally just been discussing how to crush Stannis, and seconds later, he was dead!
If there was no connection there, you'd have to be a complete fucking idiot not to see it!
The guard captain immediately realized the logic.
Right! An interrogation was an absolute necessity!
They had to drag the mastermind, Stannis, out into the light!
"Fine! We'll do exactly as Lord Loras commands!"
The guard captain waved his hand.
"Seize her! Throw her in the dungeons!"
Two guards aggressively charged forward, violently grabbing Brienne by both arms.
Brienne didn't resist.
She let them violently drag her away.
Loras watched them haul Brienne off. He gently picked up Renly's corpse and slowly, mechanically followed behind.
...
The dungeons were freezing, damp, and pitch black.
Brienne was thrown into the absolute deepest, darkest cell.
She slumped against the freezing stone wall, curled into a tight ball in the corner, her dead, hollow eyes staring blankly at the dirt floor.
An impossible amount of time passed.
A faint, rhythmic sound of footsteps echoed down the hall.
Loras's silhouette appeared in the doorway of the cell.
He had stripped off his blood-soaked armor and was dressed in a simple, pitch-black tunic.
The tear stains were completely gone from his face, replaced by an absolutely dead, freezing calm.
He unlocked the heavy iron door and stepped inside.
"Move."
Loras spat a single word.
Brienne slowly raised her head, looking at him in utter confusion.
"I said, come with me."
Loras repeated impatiently. He stepped forward, grabbed Brienne by the arm, and forcefully yanked her up, dragging her toward the door.
He didn't lead her back up through the main dungeon entrance. Instead, he navigated a hidden, secret passageway that only he knew, silently emerging straight into the military encampment's stables.
"Mount up."
Loras pointed at a pitch-black horse that was already fully saddled and packed.
Brienne was completely lost.
"Lord Loras... what are you doing..."
"I'm telling you to leave!"
Loras's voice violently cracked with emotion.
He spun around, aggressively grabbing Brienne by both shoulders.
"Are you completely deaf?!"
"They are absolutely never going to believe me! They only believe what they saw with their own eyes!"
"If you stay here, you are absolutely dead!"
"And I cannot let you die! You only got blood on your sword because you tried to protect him..."
Loras's voice choked. He couldn't force another syllable out.
He released her, pulled a heavy pouch of coins from his tunic, and shoved it directly into Brienne's hands.
"There's coin in here. Take it."
"Get the hell out of here. Ride as far away as you possibly can."
"And never, ever come back."
Brienne stared at him in absolute shock.
She looked at this man—a man who was usually as arrogant and preening as a peacock—currently completely broken, looking like a helpless, devastated child.
She slowly shook her head.
"No."
"I'm not leaving."
"Why the hell should I run? I am completely innocent. I'm staying right here to avenge Renly."
"Avenge him?!"
Loras let out a bitter, hollow laugh, like he had just heard the sickest joke in the world.
"How exactly are you going to do that? With your life?!"
"If you stay here, you will be burned alive at the stake within two days! How the fuck does that avenge him?!"
"Brienne, listen to me."
Loras took a deep breath. He locked eyes with Brienne's stubborn gaze, grinding out his words syllable by agonizing syllable.
"Leaving isn't running away."
"It's fulfilling your oath."
"Didn't you swear a sacred vow to protect him?"
"Now... go out there and find the exact bastard who murdered him! And chop his fucking head off with your own two hands!"
"That is the absolute only thing you can do for him now!"
Brienne's entire body violently shuddered.
She finally understood.
Loras wasn't banishing her. He was handing her a brand new, absolute mission.
A mission of pure, unfiltered vengeance for Renly!
"I..."
Brienne's eyes rapidly flushed red.
She looked at Loras—the man who loved Renly just as deeply, and just as hopelessly, as she did.
She gave a heavy, absolute nod.
"I understand."
She didn't waste another single word. She smoothly swung herself up into the saddle.
"Remember the name."
Loras looked up at her, his voice dripping with venomous, bone-deep hatred.
"Stannis Baratheon."
Brienne didn't look back.
She dug her heels violently into the horse's flanks, and the black stallion shot like a bullet straight into the endless, pitch-black night.
Loras stood completely still in the stables, staring into the darkness where she disappeared for a very, very long time.
Miles away, Brienne spurred her horse, riding at a dead sprint through the freezing night.
Stannis.
The man she had only met once, yet felt a profound, instinctual disgust for.
He was the one! He was the bastard who had murdered her Renly!
Brienne raised her head, locking her eyes onto the freezing, pale moon hanging in the night sky.
She swore an absolute, blood-soaked vow deep within her soul.
I, Brienne of Tarth, swear this absolute oath.
I will hunt you down, Stannis Baratheon.
And I will use my sword to deliver absolute, final justice!