A Feast for Crows ÔÇö Arya III
Each night the girl confesses: Arya of House Stark, Needle under a stone. After Dareon dies, the kindly man gives her warm milk ÔÇö and she wakes blind.
The chapter retold
In the House of Black and White, Arya's nightly ritual of confession continues ÔÇö each night she must recite who she truly is: Arya of House Stark, with Needle hidden beneath a stone rather than surrendered to the House along with everything else she's been asked to give up. After Dareon's death is discovered and its author suspected, the kindly man who serves as her principal teacher gives her a cup of warm milk that is not what it appears to be ÔÇö and Arya wakes to find herself blind.
This is a brutal, deliberately ambiguous punishment: the novel never states outright whether the blinding is retribution for Arya's unsanctioned killing of Dareon, a test of her commitment to becoming no one, or simply the House's method of stripping away the last vestige of self-interest a novice clings to. What's unambiguous is the cost ÔÇö Arya's refusal to fully surrender her identity (Needle under a stone, her name still hers in the dark) has just been answered with the loss of her sight, the sharpest possible statement that the Faceless Men's bargain is not negotiable.
This movement: The Queenmaker
- Arianne Martell steals Myrcella to crown her by Dornish law; Ser Arys Oakheart dies for it and Myrcella loses an ear.
- Doran reveals the game beneath the stillness: Dorne has been wedding itself to the dragons for years.
- Cersei springs her trap on Margaery with a perjured singer ÔÇö and the Faith takes the little queen.
- In the Vale, Alayne Stone keeps Sweetrobin dosed while Littlefinger collects the Lords Declarant like debts.