“Ah, Arya. You have a wildness in you, child. ‘The wolf blood,’ my father used to call it. Lyanna had a touch of it, and my brother Brandon more than a touch. It brought them both to an early grave.” Arya heard sadness in his voice; he did not often speak of his father, or of the brother and sister who had died before she was born. “Lyanna might have carried a sword, if my lord father had allowed it. You remind me of her sometimes. You even look like her.”
AGOT 23 – ARYA II (GRRM)
POV character Arya Stark 2
Chapter (AGOT) 23 / 73
Chapter (ASOIAF) 23 / 344
Summary
The girls learn that there will be a tourney in Eddards Stark honor and Sansa pleads her father to be allowed to attend. Grudgingly he gives his permission and includes also Arya. She on the other hand does not want to go as she avoids prince Joffrey whom she hates. Sansa and she start to fight and Ned leaves the hall soon.
Afterwards Arya is more or less ignored by anybody, but she prefers it that way. She would have eaten alone if the let her and she thinks back how she liked to eat with her brothers and that Ned always had a spare place at the high table for his staff. Every day another member of the household was invited as Ned believed that a lord should connect to his people and know their problems and stories. Arya feels very alone.
As she wants to leave Septa Mordane calls her out and tells her that she should eat all of her meal but Arya runs out and into her bedchamber where she locks the door. She takes Needle out and remembers Mycah, her friend who was killed by the hound. She thinks that is was her fault, when Septa Mordane hammers on the door, but Arya ignores her demands.
When her father knocks at the door she lets him in. Instantly he takes the sword and a good look at it. He asks if Mikken – his own smith – made it and she nods, but she does not betray Jon and tell her father that he gave if to her. Eddard does not push the matter but makes clear that a sword is not a toy and that the Septa’s duty is to make a lady out of the girls – an impossible task as he admits. He speaks abut his brother an sister and how Arya reminds him on Lyanna. Arya is in disbelieve because Lyanna was called a beauty – and she does not think to be beautiful.
Then Arya bursts into tears about Mycah’s fate and her father comforts her and tells her that it was not her fault. When she claims that Sansa and Joffrey lied Ned tells her that all people lie and even her as he knows that Nymeria did not leave her willingly. She confesses that Jory and her had to throw rocks and tell her that she should seek a new pack.
Ned tells her that a family – as a pack of wolves – has to support each other as dire times are coming up and the place is dangerous. She promises that she will try to begin growing up and is truly surprised when she gets her sword back. On the next day she even manages to apologize to the Septa.
Three days later she is summoned to the small hall and is introduced to a man called Syrio Forel from Myr or Braavos who tells her that he is her dancing master. He gives her a heavy training sword and tells her to take it in one hand. He notices that she uses the left hand and comments that that will benefit her, as her enemies may have problems fighting her. Then they start the training as Forel will teach her the water dance of Braavos (in comparison to the iron dance of westeros).
Thoughts
- Eddard is in fact a great leader of people, but clueless in politics. The thing with the extra-seat at the high table is a great way for a lord to connect to the staff (and stay in touch with real life). Also works in real life if you have to lead people (as a boss for example).
- “Let me tell you something about wolves, child. When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies, but the pack survives. Summer is the time for squabbles. In winter, we must protect one another, keep each other warm, share our strengths. So if you must hate, Arya, hate those who would truly do us harm. Septa Mordane is a good woman, and Sansa . . . Sansa is your sister. You may be as different as the sun and the moon, but the same blood flows through both your hearts. You need her, as she needs you . . . and I need both of you, gods help me.”
What a great speech of the not too outspoken Ned. And well done as Arya feels how serious he is and that he speaks to her not in a father-daughter way but takes her (nearly) as an equal. - Nine years Syrio Forel was first sword to the Sealord of Braavos, he knows these things.
What IS the first sword? Do we know that. - It was the third time he had called her “boy.” “I’m a girl,” Arya objected.“Boy, girl,” Syrio Forel said. “You are a sword, that is all.”
Forel is awesome. Point. - Book vs. Series:
Forel is described as bold with a “beak of a nose”. Torally different from the casting (curly hair and nice looking) in the series. I have no problem to see again “my” Forel as he looks totally different.
My Song of Ice and Fire 
