Chapter 45: The Mysterious One's Mercy
Tyrion's residence.
It had been only three days since his wedding when Tyrion had just managed to pull himself out of a chair and was immediately greeted with news of the Red Wedding.
Upon first hearing that Walder Frey had carried out such a massacre, Tyrion's instinctive reaction was simple: his goodbrother Robb Stark—and his "mother-in-law" in name—were finished.
Yet as the report continued, he learned that they had escaped back to Riverrun.
It was almost unbelievable.
Even Tyrion could not fathom how, under such meticulous planning, Walder Frey had still allowed them to slip away.
He walked over to Sansa, who stood silently by the window, lost in thought, and told her the news.
Sansa's reaction mirrored his almost exactly—shock at first, followed by grief, and then a sudden, fragile joy as relief washed over her at the knowledge that her mother and brother had survived.
---
Three days later, in Yunkai.
After several days of chaos, order was gradually restored. At Jorah's and the others' suggestion, Daenerys chose to remain in Yunkai, waiting until the city was fully stabilized before moving on to liberate the last slave city of Slaver's Bay—Meereen.
As for Drogon, his days consisted of training the other two dragons, then eating, sleeping, and repeating the cycle.
At times, he felt less like a dragon and more like a very large pig.
On the surface, Yunkai appeared peaceful.
After days of harsh, nerve-wracking training, Rhaegal and Viserion showed clear improvement. While they still might not evade the Night King's spear, ordinary ballista ambushes would now struggle to seriously injure them.
Drogon decided it was time to return to Westeros and see how things stood.
Being a dragon, it turned out, required an exhausting amount of worry.
---
Three hours later, he reached his first stop—Dragonstone.
The moment he landed on Shireen's windowsill, he saw her.
The little girl seemed to have been waiting for him. Yet this time, she wasn't as excited as before.
"Drogon, you finally came," Shireen said urgently. "Ser Davos told me to tell you as soon as you arrived."
If Davos was this anxious, something serious must have happened.
Drogon took food from his pack and handed it to Shireen, then pulled out his paper and quill, asking whether Davos had already been released from the dungeon.
Shireen was startled that Drogon already knew this—and then faithfully relayed Davos's message.
Davos hoped Drogon would arrange for someone to receive Shireen as soon as possible. He himself would escort her to a hidden location on Dragonstone.
"Why do you want to send me away?" Shireen asked quietly after explaining everything. "Is it because Father burned Uncle to death?"
She was frighteningly perceptive.
Drogon felt a quiet ache for her. Anyone who learned that the father who once loved them might one day burn them alive would struggle to endure it.
He gently nudged her small hand with his snout in comfort.
Tears welled in Shireen's eyes, but she stubbornly refused to let them fall.
Drogon couldn't be sure how much his presence had already altered the course of the world. Shireen's uncle had been burned—would Stannis burning his own daughter come sooner as well?
He wasn't willing to take that risk.
"Wait for me."
Leaving behind only those three words, Drogon said goodbye to Shireen and took flight toward King's Landing.
---
An hour later, Drogon returned once more to Flea Bottom, the slums of King's Landing.
He took out the letter Varys had left behind. Its contents were brief:
Tyrion has married Sansa. Joffrey's wedding will take place tomorrow.
Robb attended the Red Wedding as scheduled. He and Catelyn, along with a dozen or so nobles, escaped back to Riverrun.
No other major changes.
Seeing confirmation that Tyrion had already married Sansa, Drogon could easily imagine the dwarf's daily life.
Locked in the same room, watching Sansa's generous curves sway in front of him day after day—yet unable to touch her even once. Tyrion must be suffering terribly. Just thinking about it made Drogon want to laugh.
Robb had still gone to the Red Wedding—and still managed to escape.
It seemed Varys really had delivered the warning. Yet even with foreknowledge, they still stepped straight into the fire. Drogon didn't know whether to call them brave or foolish.
This time, he didn't leave a reply.
Instead, he decided to visit Varys in person.
---
He arrived at Varys's residence in the northern part of the city. From a large tree, Drogon observed the courtyard for a while. Seeing no one coming or going, he first flew to the roof and left a letter for Varys, then returned to the tree to wait quietly.
The house where the "little birds" were kept was merely one of Varys's secret locations. The chances of finding him there were slim.
After more than twenty minutes, Varys finally appeared, strolling slowly out of a narrow alley.
Drogon immediately flew down and placed the letter on the stone table in the courtyard.
When Varys opened the gate and stepped inside, he habitually glanced toward the stone table. Just as he was about to look away, he froze.
The familiar parchment lay there.
He couldn't help but glance toward several large trees outside the courtyard, then toward a taller building in the distance. He strongly suspected that unseen eyes were watching him from one of those places.
After a careful scan revealed nothing unusual, he withdrew his gaze and picked up the parchment.
The handwriting looked slightly different this time—cleaner, more refined—but the signature was the same as always:
The Mysterious One.
The message itself was straightforward.
The mysterious person wanted him to arrange for someone to receive a young girl from Dragonstone. The girl's identity was highly sensitive: she was the niece of the late King Robert, the daughter of Lord Stannis Baratheon.
Reading the first half of the letter, Varys frowned.
He had heard of the girl. She had contracted greyscale as a child. Though cured, the disease had left terrible scars on her face.
He couldn't understand why the mysterious person at Daenerys Targaryen's side wanted to smuggle her out of Dragonstone. Was this part of some plot against Stannis?
That thought crossed his mind—but as he continued reading, he finally understood.
The reason for spiriting Shireen away was to save her.
Stannis, under the guidance of the Red Priestess Melisandre, had already burned Shireen's uncle alive—and might one day burn Shireen herself.
By the time he finished reading, Varys felt an inexplicable surge of anger.
He had never imagined that Stannis—known for his iron will and ruthless resolve—would be so thoroughly deceived by a priestess that he would contemplate burning his own daughter alive.
Ever since his childhood mutilation at the hands of a sorcerer, Varys had loathed the mystical and the unknown. His hatred for reckless, faith-driven magic ran especially deep.
After Tyrion was gravely wounded defending King's Landing, Varys had visited him—not only because of Tyrion's talents as Hand, but also to thank him for defeating Stannis's army, which had been manipulated by the Red Priestess.
Now, learning that Stannis might burn his own daughter, Varys knew this:
Even without the mysterious person's request, he would have tried to save Shireen himself.
Seeing the reason behind the rescue, Varys felt a quiet sense of relief.
He had agreed to shift his loyalty toward Daenerys ahead of time—but it had never been a blind decision.
The mysterious person's uncanny foresight and intricate schemes had always made him uneasy.
Back then, that person had only told him one thing: that Walder Frey would host a Red Wedding for the Stark mother and son—nothing more.
Varys had never understood the motive.
After failing to divine the mysterious person's intentions, he had chosen to send the warning to Robb himself, hoping to spare them from disaster.
Now, looking back, he couldn't help but wonder—
Had the mysterious person known that he would never stand by and watch Catelyn and Robb die, and deliberately used his hand to save them?
Whatever the reason behind saving Robb and Catelyn, Varys now fully understood the reason for saving Shireen.
And he had no doubt about it.
Stannis was prepared to burn his own flesh and blood. Daenerys Targaryen would never use a child like Shireen as leverage against him.