Arya was soaked to the bone when she arrived back home, and she left a small puddle on the floor as she stepped in out of the rain. The umbrella had been a welcome shield, but it could not exactly dry her already wet clothing. She was still shivering as the cold fabric clung to her frame and stripping off her jacket did little to help.
How long was I out there? Arya wondered absently. She had lost track of the time and she had no way to check it now. Her phone was still somewhere up in her room and unlike most of her siblings, she never wore a watch. She peered around the empty foyer.
Did anyone notice I was gone?
"Arya!"
A frantic voice reached her and Arya winced. That answered that question. She closed her eyes as her mother rushed forward, not wanting to see her expression of anger and worry.
"Gods, there you are." Two arms pulled her into a tight hug. "You disappeared, and we didn't know what happened." Her mother pulled back and Arya risked opening her eyes. Yep. Anger and worry. Just as she suspected. "You left your phone. You can't do that. If there had been some emergency, you'd have no one to call."
"I know. I'm sorry. I… I forgot it," Arya murmured.
"Forgot it?" her mother repeated. Arya was aware that it was a stupid excuse. She almost never forgot her phone. "And where did you go after you forgot your phone?"
Arya swallowed hard. "I went to visit father."
At once, the anger melted away from her mother's face, revealing the grief beneath. She let out a long breath, reaching out to push Arya's wet hair back from her forehead.
"You're soaked through. Did you forget to use your umbrella?"
"No, I… I didn't have one when I left the house. It wasn't raining then," Arya looked down at the umbrella in her hand. "This one I… found."
Found. Yes. That was a much better explanation than the truth. Tywin Lannister gave it to me, was too strange a sentence to speak. Arya still wondered if that encounter had been a hallucination.
"Well… next time don't leave the house in such a rush." Her mother squeezed her shoulder. "Go change. Quickly. Before you catch a cold."
Arya nodded, hurrying toward the stairs.
"And Arya," Catelyn called after her. "Please don't leave without telling me again."
Arya swallowed hard. "I won't. I'm sorry."
Ordinarily, her mother might have given her some punishment for disappearing like that. She would have punished Arya for skipping school as well. But nothing was "ordinary" these days. Not since father had died.
Arya was shivering like crazy as she made her way to her room, hoping to change into something dry before anyone else noticed her. She did not get her wish.
"Did you drown?"
Bran's voice came from beyond the threshold of his open bedroom door. She turned slowly to see him sitting in his chair in the middle of the room, scrolling through his phone.
"Yes," she said at last. "I drowned and I'm a ghost coming back to haunt you."
"You're doing a terrible job of it," Bran said. "Not sneaky at all."
"Are ghosts supposed to be sneaky?"
"In the beginning, yes. If they appear too soon, it spoils the haunt."
"I'll take that into consideration then." Arya drifted into his room, forgetting all about the wet clothes. She could deal with them later. Bran had barely spoken to anyone since the accident, and she did not want to miss her chance to speak with him now. "How are you feeling?"
"Wonderful," he said, glancing up from his phone. "Just like you."
"Just like me." Arya swallowed hard. "Is Mom making you go back to school tomorrow?"
"No. I'm an exception," Bran said. "Still getting used to my chair. She's thinking about hiring a private tutor. King's Landing Academy isn't exactly wheelchair accessible."
"Can I share?" Arya asked.
"Only if you get a chair like mine," Bran said. "We could match."
"Tempting, but I'll pass. I'm hoping to catch a bad cold instead."
"So, that's why you look like a drowned ghost."
"Yep. All part of my plan." Arya slipped a hand into her pocket, feeling the Braavosi coin again. The iron was cold against her palm. "Have your memories come back at all? About the crash?"
"No," Bran said. "Nothing useful. But I'm not sure I want them. It may make things worse."
"What if your forgot something important?" Arya asked. "Your memories… they could lead us to the truth."
"What truth?" Bran asked. "Dad's dead. I'll never walk again. Some asshole knocked our car off a bridge and got away. That's the truth."
"You don't want to know who did it?" Arya asked.
"I'd rather have my legs back, to be honest." Bran leaned his head back against his chair. "I get it. Revenge has its appeal. It just won't change anything. Dad will still be gone, and I'll be in this chair." He shrugged. "But hey… I'm not stopping you. If you want to track down the one who did this… Best of luck. Give them a bloody nose from me."
Arya swallowed. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bring up."
"It's fine," Bran said, going back to his phone. "You should change. If you haven't caught a cold by now, you're not going to."
Arya bit her lip and nodded, backing out of his room. "Want the door closed?"
"Nah. How else will I spy on everyone?"
Arya's mouth twitched, then she hurried onto her room. Nymeria leapt off the bed the moment she entered, nearly knocking her off her feet. Arya knelt in front of her, petting her great head.
"Hey, girl. Sorry I ran off in the middle of us playing," she murmured.
Nymeria let out a low whine and licked Arya's cheek. She shuddered and wrapped her arms around the dog's neck, holding on tight.
Outside, the rain continued.
Arya caught a cold after all, and it was bad enough that she got her wish to stay home from school for two more days. It left her with more time to think about the coin she found at her father's grave.
The iron coin sat on Arya's bedside table, and when she closed her eyes, she saw nothing else. Every time her thoughts drifted, they returned to that coin. A Braavosi coin left at her father's grave. There was no reason for it to be there unless…
Unless…
They say that's how the Faceless Men operate.
She needed to know. Even if she couldn't do anything about it… she needed to know the truth. And that meant going to Braavos.
Arya did not know much about Braavos, outside of what she learned in school. They were once one of the most powerful Free Cites, and they had been allies with Volantis during the first and second Essosi wars.
If Arya remembered her history correctly, the first war had been a massive domino effect which started with Volantis overstepping boundaries with Tyrosh and declaring war against them when Tyrosh closed their borders. Myr offered support to Tyrosh which brought Lys to Volantis' aid as they had long fought with Myr over resources. Qohor and Norvos were drawn into the conflict as well, on opposite sides, though Arya couldn't remember which side each of them joined. She always got them mixed up.
Eventually, Westeros ended up in the mix, on the side of Tyrosh and Myr, as the government at the time saw Volantis' ambitions as a possible threat to Western soil-and Western pockets. Braavos joined around the same time in support of Volantis when they decided they were more likely to win the war.
Volantis was powerful, and so was Braavos. It was because of their resources and their navy that Westeros was forced to pull out of the first war. The Free cities eventually signed a treaty very much in Volantis' favor and an unsteady peace resumed… for a time. In the second war, nearly two decades ago, some of the slighted Free Cities struck back and Westeros with them, eager to gain back control over naval trade routes. This time they won, and not because they were stronger. A political revolution and resulting economic collapse forced Braavos to stay out of the second war, leaving Volantis vulnerable and without support. Thus, Westeros had won, gaining the resources and trade routes they wanted, while they're Free City allies regained stolen territory.
Braavos was still rebuilding in the aftermath of the collapse. Their government was fragile, their bank had not fully recovered, and it allowed the Faceless Men to move unchecked through the struggling country.
If Arya went to Braavos, it would not be hard to find them. If she paid them enough money… they could surely tell her what had happened to her father. Or they could tell her they had nothing to do with it and give her some peace of mind.
So sometime late at night when she couldn't sleep because of the congestion and uncertainty, Arya ended up on her computer searching for ways to get to Braavos. A plane ticket would be expensive enough to catch her mother's attention and she would have to book the flight too far in advance. A trip by ship on the other hand… it was cheaper, and she could buy her ticket on the same day she left with cash. Then no one could track her.
It was a two-day trip from King's Landing to Braavos. By the time Arya reached the coast, her mother would be sick with worry. But if she was lucky, she would be back within a week with answers. Her mother would be mad. She might confine her to the house for the rest of her life. That was fine. She was prepared for that.
It was two weeks after the rain incident when she finally decided to leave. By then Arya's mother had stopped keeping such a close eye on her. She was too busy helping Robb with the company and Bran with his paralysis. Amongst her siblings, Arya faded into the background, and here that was an asset.
Thursday seemed the best day to leave. That way she would hopefully be back home before the new week started so no one could accuse her of missing too much school. She packed her bag full of essentials, but not so full that her family would find it suspicious. And she wrote a note to her mother, which she left just under her pillow.
Don't worry about me. I'll be back soon. I'm going to get answers about father. I promise I'm all right.
- Arya
The note would not reassure her mother. Not even a little. But her mother said not to leave without telling her, and this was Arya's terrible way of keeping that promise.
As she packed, her gaze flicked to an umbrella sitting in the corner of her room. The same umbrella Tywin Lannister had given her two weeks before. It had been such a strange encounter that Arya had thought it must be a dream. But the umbrella was a reminder it wasn't.
Arya did not know much about business, but she knew that Tywin Lannister was easily one of the most powerful men in Westeros because he played the game with ruthless efficiency. Her father had called him a lot of things, especially when he thought his children weren't listening. He was a cold, conniving bastard, with a bottom line for a heart. He made a sport of running competitors out of business and absorbing their assets. And in the wars… well. Her father had never told her what Tywin Lannister had done in the wars, but she knew it wasn't good.
In the Stark household, Arya only ever heard negative words about the Lannisters, and she believed them. Why shouldn't she? Joffrey Baratheon was half Lannister, and he was perhaps the worst human that had ever existed.
So, it had been strange when the patriarch of the Lannister family stood beside her in the graveyard and offered her a few coppers and an umbrella to help her home. The coppers were nothing to him, of course. He might as well have given her a few rocks he picked up off the ground. But the fact that he offered them at all surprised her.
What was he doing in the graveyard? She couldn't help but wonder. She hadn't asked at the time because she was too focused on her own grief. And she imagined if she had asked, he wouldn't have answered.
Nymeria trotted by, knocking over the umbrella with a great wag of her tail. Arya exhaled. Maybe Tywin Lannister was everything her father said and maybe he wasn't. But she was more inclined to believe her father, and if he was right, she didn't want to owe the CEO of the Lannister Corporation anything.
Before she left for Braavos, she would settle her debt.
Tywin expected the Stark girl to quickly forget their encounter in the graveyard. So, he was legitimately surprised when his assistant told him that there was an 'Arya Stark' waiting to see him.
She no longer looked like a drowned rat when she walked through the door, and her expression was calm but determined. She set two things on his desk. The umbrella and a few coppers.
"Your debt is paid," Tywin said. "I didn't think you would take it so seriously."
"Better safe than sorry," Arya said. "I wouldn't want you to call it in many years down the line."
"I see." Tywin counted the coppers and raised an eyebrow. "You gave me back more than I gave you."
The girl lifted her chin. "Interest."
A single laugh left him before he could stop it. Gods, she was something wasn't she? Her father's daughter through and through. He wasn't sure what was more amusing: the fact that she had thought of interest or that her math was actually correct. "All right. I accept that. Pleasure doing business with you." He glanced at the clock on his desk. "It's strange you're here right now."
She shifted from foot to foot. "Really? Why?"
"I believe there's something called school you're meant to attend. Shouldn't you be there?"
She rubbed her palms together. "Probably. Yes."
"Why aren't you?"
She didn't answer for a long time, and when she did, she didn't look at him. "Because I don't want strangers asking me how I'm doing."
Tywin nodded once. Yes, that seemed a reasonable enough explanation. There was nothing worse than a stranger feigning sympathy.
She looked up at him cautiously. "Are you going to call someone?"
"It's not my business how you spend your days," Tywin said. "Do you have a phone this time at least?"
"Yes," Arya said. "And enough money to get me where I need to go."
Tywin tilted his head to the side. "And where is that?"
She seemed to freeze for a moment and he saw her throat bob up and down as she swallowed too hard. "Does it matter?"
"No. I suppose it doesn't," Tywin said. He noted that she had a rather large bag over her shoulder. But it didn't matter to him why. He barely knew the girl. "So long as you're prepared this time."
"I am," she said.
"Good," he said. "Until next time, Arya Stark."
She nodded once, then backed quickly out of his office.
She had the look of a girl about to run. That wasn't overly strange for teenagers. Joffrey often disappeared for days at a time to spend as much money as possible before reappearing asking for more. He disappeared more often since his father had passed less than a year ago. It was understandable if Arya Stark did the same-and also not his problem.
But when she left his office that day… he did not expect her to go missing for three years. Nor did he expect anything that happened after.