Silver Stag

Beyond The Wall

Some timr had passed. Not much had happened in the North, but plenty had happened in the South.

Multiple ships full of Ironborn had been mysteriously poisoned, rapidly depleting their army.

The source had not been confirmed.

But, apparently, it had happened after they boarded an abandoned ship flying a reversed Velaryon sigil.

They looted whatever resources they could find, which happened to be a lot of gold.

But, somewhere on their return to King's Landing, the men had perished. Their bodies were cold, their mouths and noses streaming with dried blood.

It almost resembled a particular poison, the Long Farewell, but this one didn't eat away at the corpses flesh.

No one had heard of any activity from Aurane Waters, so it was presumed he had perished, fighting in the Stepstones, and one of his ships had strayed away.

Nonetheless, this was a large hit to the forces of Cersei Lannister.

Hundreds of men, dead. Further tipping the odds in Daenerys' favour.

[Eastwatch - Great Hall]

Tormund, Jon, Davos, Gendry, Richard and Jorah sat at a table, having a conversation.

Gendry, who against the advice of Richard and Davos, had revealed his true parentage to Jon.

"Isn't it your job to talk him out of stupid fucking ideas like this?" Tormund asked Davos.

"I've been failing at that job of late."

"How many queens are there now?"

"Two." Jon answered.

"And you need to convince the one with the dragons or the one who fucks her brother?"

This drew laughs from the men around them.

"Both."

"How many men did you bring?"

Jon looked around the table. "Not enough."

"The big woman?"

Jon smiled and shook his head, knowing he meant Brienne. Tormund was clearly disappointed.

"We were hoping some of your men could help." Jorah told him.

"I'll be staying behind. I'm a liability out there as you well know." Davos informed him.

Tormund nodded his head. "You are." He turned to look at Jon. "You really want to go out there again?" Jon nodded. "You're not the only ones."

The raiding party walked down to the Eastwatch cells, led by Tormund.

"My scouts found them a mile south of the Wall. Said they were on their way here." He told them.

The men looked into the cells, which were occupied by Sandor Clegane, Thoros Of Myr, and Beric Dondarrion.

"You're The Hound. I saw you once at Winterfell." Jon noted.

Sandor pulled a blanket tight around himself and sat up from the table he was laying on.

"They want to go beyond the Wall too." Tormund told them.

"We don't want to go beyond the Wall, we have to. Our lord told us the great war is coming." Beric corrected.

"Don't trust them. Don't trust any of them."

The men turned to look at Gendry, who walked up and pressed his face to the bars of the cell.

"They're the Brotherhood. And the last thing their Lord told them to do was sell me to a Red Witch to be murdered."

"Thoros?" Jorah called, causing Thoros to sit up from a dark corner. "I hardly recognized you."

"Ser Jorah Mormont-" He began, causing Tormund to turn and look at Jorah, anger evident on his face. "They won't give me anything to drink down here. I haven't been feeling like myself."

"You're a fucking Mormont? Like the last Lord Commander?" Tormund spat.

"He was my father."

"He hunted us like animals."

"You returned the favour, as I recall."

"Here we all are, at the edge of the world, at the same moment, heading in the same direction for the same reason." Beric told them.

"Our reasons aren't your reasons." Davos corrected.

"It doesn't matter what we think our reasons are." Beric stood up and walked towards the bars of the cell. "There's a greater purpose at work and we serve it together whether we know it or not. We may take the steps but the Lord of Light-"

"For f*ck's sake, will you shut your hole. Are we coming with you or not?" Sandor interrupted.