Tainted // Tyrion Lannister

83. Accept

'You leave tomorrow. Were you going to say goodbye?' Missandei asked Grey.

'I will see you when I return.' He answered.

'But you don't know when that will be.' She answered.

'No one knows.'

'I wish you good fortune.' Missandei told him softly.

'Missandei. It is hard for me to say goodbye to you.' Grey admitted.

'Why?'

'You know why.' Grey told her.

'I don't.'

'Y-you are my weakness.'

'That's what I am? Your weakness?' Missandei questioned.

'When Unsullied are young, the masters learn their fears. One boy is scared of dogs, one boy hates high places, one is frightened of the ocean. They make the boy sleep with dogs or climb a cliff. They throw him in the water. If he learns to swim, good. If he drowns, good. Either way, strong Unsullied. But I had no fears. I was never the biggest, never the strongest... but I was bravest, always.'

'- I believe it.'

+

But yara and theon didn't make it like danny and tyrion had planned. They were attacked by their uncle. Fire rained down upon their ships. Burning the wood to embers as blades bashed against each other. Slicing and stabbing everyone falling eventually.

Theon watched hopelessly. He felt like reek all over again. Helpless and weak, a coward. He jumped ship. While yara and Their dornish friends were being taken captive.

'Our ironborn and Dornish allies were attacked en route to Dorne.'

'- And?'

'- Two or three ships escaped, the rest, sunk or captured. Ellaria and the Sand Snakes, dead or captured. The Greyjoys, dead or captured.'

'All of them?'

'Pull! Heave! Pull!' the men were grunting as they got ashore.

'Your sister's dead?' Danny asked

'Euron has her.' Theon answered.

'You saw him take her?' he nodded '- But you got away?'

'I couldn't save her. I tried.' Theon told her.

'You wouldn't be here if you tried.'

+

'Ch'Vyalthan was a dreadful writer, but an excellent researcher'.

'- Archmaester, I wondered if I...' Sam began

'- And this one. Maester Faull was quite the opposite... a brilliant stylist who invented half the stories he tells.'

'Um, I wanted to ask you...' Sam tried again

'If you're going to write histories, Tarly, you have to do the research. If you want people to read your histories, you need a bit of style. I'm not writing "A Chronicle of the Wars Following the Death of King Robert I" so it can sit on a shelf unread. What? You don't like the title? What would you call it, then?'

'Mm, possibly something a bit more poetic?' Sam suggested

'We're not poets, Tarly.'

'Um, Archmaester, if I could just have a moment.' Sam tried again.

'This is your moment. Use it wisely.'

'I may have found a way to treat Ser Jorah. There are two recorded cases of advanced greyscale being cured. I found the procedure in the study of rare diseases by Archmaester Pylos.' Sam informed him.