Reopening Old Wounds

Arya was about to argue again, but a look from Lynn stopped her.

Everyone in the camp watched the silent confrontation.

Lynn remained seated, perfectly calm.

He picked up a twig and stirred the campfire before him.

Sparks flew up, tracing brief, brilliant arcs through the air.

"Love?"

Lynn finally spoke.

His voice was soft, yet it carried clearly over the crackling wood.

"The Lannisters seem to know a great deal about that word."

Tyrion shrugged.

"A little."

Lynn smiled.

It was a faint smile, inscrutable in the firelight.

"As it happens, I've heard a story about love."

Lynn's gaze shifted from the dancing flames to Tyrion's face.

"A love story, too."

"And its protagonist was a Lannister."

Tyrion's body stiffened in an instant.

His grip on the wineskin tightened involuntarily.

"Oh?"

Tyrion tried to keep his tone light.

"There are plenty of stories about us Lannisters."

"Which one do you mean?"

Lynn ignored Tyrion's question and his pretense of composure.

He simply continued.

His voice held not a ripple of emotion, as though he were recounting an ancient legend that had nothing to do with him.

"The story goes that there was a young Lannister."

"He rescued a girl who was being harassed by bandits."

"The girl was running, with two men behind her."

"His brother drew his sword and drove the bandits off in a few strokes."

"He took off his cloak and gave it to the girl."

Every word Lynn spoke struck Tyrion's heart like a sledgehammer.

The color visibly drained from Tyrion's face.

His smile had frozen completely, becoming a ridiculous mask.

"She was an ordinary common girl, a wheelwright's daughter."

"She was starving when they rescued her."

"He took the girl to an inn, where they ate three whole roast chickens and drank a large jug of wine."

Jon and Arya watched the two men in confusion.

They could not understand why a perfectly ordinary story had made Tyrion look so awful.

Only Benjen Stark frowned slightly, as though he had sensed something.

Lynn kept speaking.

His voice was quiet, yet it seemed to hold a strange power that plunged the entire camp into deathly silence.

"Strangely enough, he didn't know how to drink then, yet he drank half the jug."

"He didn't want the girl to notice his physical deformity."

"So he wasn't good at dealing with women."

"All he could do was drink to numb himself to a truth he refused to accept."

"Women only stared at his brother, because his brother was tall and handsome. He was afraid of that."

"But this girl was different."

"She was gentle, considerate, and willing to accept all his imperfections."

"And so the young Lannister fell in love with her."

"They went to bed together and whispered words of love."

"The girl could even sing a very sad song."

"In the end, they found a drunken septon, slipped him a few gold coins, and got married in a haze."

Thud.

The wineskin slipped from Tyrion's hand and fell to the ground.

Dark red wine seeped into the filthy snow at his feet, spreading into a disturbing dark stain.

He wanted to say something.

But an invisible hand seemed to have clamped around his throat, leaving him unable to make a sound.

Lynn finally raised his eyes and looked straight into Tyrion's mismatched eyes, wide with shock and fear.

"Unfortunately."

"Two weeks later, the septon sobered up."

"He told the man's father about it."

"The boy's father made his brother tell him the truth."

"It had all been a deception."

"The girl was only a whore."

"His father had hired her for a few gold coins."

"All to teach him a lesson in 'becoming a man.'"

"The pursuit, his brother chasing them off, the inn, the septon who married them..."

"Every last detail had been arranged beforehand."

Boom!

Thunder seemed to explode inside Tyrion's head.

The memory he had spent all his strength trying to bury and forget had been torn out by Lynn in the cruelest way possible, raw and bleeding.

Exposed to everyone's gaze.

Lynn rose.

He looked down at Tyrion, who sat slumped on the ground, trembling all over.

His voice was utterly cold.

"At the end of the story."

"To make sure he remembered that lesson, his father..."

"Had his new bride brought to the barracks."

"He made every guard in the garrison line up and take turns enjoying his new bride."

"The price was fair enough. Each man gave him, her husband, a silver coin."

"How many whores could command that price?"

"And he was forced to watch the whole thing. At the end, he was forced to give his new bride a gold coin himself."

"His wife earned more silver coins than she could count."

"The gleaming silver spilled through her fingers and scattered across the floor."

Arya could barely bear it, her expression troubled.

Jon's face was conflicted as well.

The story was so cruel that he found it impossible to accept.

He tried to imagine himself in the young man's place.

All he felt was a pain that tore his heart apart.

Lynn leaned down slightly, bringing his mouth close to Tyrion's ear.

In a voice only the two of them could hear, he spoke the words like a curse.

"Wasn't that how it happened?"

"The girl named Tysha."

That final word shattered every defense Tyrion had left.

"Aah!"

A roar burst from Tyrion's throat, inhuman and filled with boundless pain and rage.

He jerked his head up.

There was no trace of mockery or composure left in his eyes.

Only the madness of a beast remained.

He stared fixedly at Lynn.

As though he meant to carve the face of the man before him into his very bones.

He had always deliberately kept this hidden.

It was a secret his brother and father would surely never reveal to anyone, either.

How did Lynn know?

Lynn slowly straightened and looked down at Tyrion.

"Now do you believe I've received guidance from the Old Gods?"

"Less speculation. Less talk."

"I don't like people passing judgment on me."

"Will you remember that, my noble Lord Lannister?"

Tyrion tried to make his expression calm again.

But no matter how hard he tried, he could not.

Lynn bent down and patted Tyrion's shoulder.

"Sorry. I shouldn't have said those things."

"But what I want to tell you is this."

"What you saw in the end wasn't necessarily the truth."

Those few unremarkable words provoked a violent reaction from Tyrion.

He snapped his head up and looked straight into Lynn's eyes.

"What do you mean by that?"

"What else do you know?"