If I faint, pull me out. I don't intend to be the first Lannister to die in a bathtub.
Why should I care how you die?
You swore a solemn vow, remember? You're supposed to get me to King's Landing in one piece. [Nods to his severed hand] Not going so well, is it? No wonder Renly died with you guarding him. [Brienne stands up with contempt] That was unworthy. Forgive me. You protected me better than most.
Don't you mock me.
I'm apologizing. I'm sick of fighting. Let's call a truce.
You need trust to have a truce.
I trust you. [Brienne sits back down] There it is. There's the look. I've seen it for 17 years on face after face. You all despise me. Kingslayer, Oathbreaker, man without honor. You've heard of wildfire?
Of course.
The Mad King was obsessed with it. He loved to watch people burn, the way their skin blackened and blistered and melted off their bones. He burned lords he didn't like. He burned Hands who disobeyed him. He burned anyone who was against him. Before long, half the country was against him. Aerys saw traitors everywhere. So he had his pyromancer place caches of wildfire all over the city. Beneath the Sept of Baelor and the slums of Flea Bottom. Under houses, stables, taverns. Even beneath the Red Keep itself. Finally, the day of reckoning came. Robert Baratheon marched on the capital after his victory at the Trident. But my father arrived first with the whole Lannister army at his back, promising to defend the city against the rebels. I knew my father better than that. He's never been one to pick the losing side. I told the Mad King as much. I urged him to surrender peacefully. But the king didn't listen to me. He didn't listen to Varys who tried to warn him. But he did listen to Grand Maester Pycelle, that grey, sunken cunt. "You can trust the Lannisters," he said. "The Lannisters have always been true friends of the crown." So we opened the gates and my father sacked the city. Once again, I came to the king, begging him to surrender. He told me to... bring him my father's head. Then he... turned to his pyromancer. "Burn them all," he said. "Burn them in their homes. Burn them in their beds." Tell me, if your precious Renly commanded you to kill your own father and stand by while thousands of men, women, and children burned alive, would you have done it? Would you have kept your oath then? [Brienne stares at him in stunned silence.] First, I killed the pyromancer. And then when the king turned to flee, I drove my sword into his back. "Burn them all," he kept saying. "Burn them all." I don't think he expected to die. He, he meant to... burn with the rest of us and rise again, reborn as a dragon to turn his enemies to ash. I slit his throat to make sure that didn't happen. That's where Ned Stark found me.
If this is true... why didn't you tell anyone? Why didn't you tell Lord Stark?
Stark? You think the honorable Ned Stark wanted to hear my side? He judged me guilty the moment he set eyes on me. By what right does the wolf judge the lion? By what right-- [collapses, Brienne supports him]
Help! Help! The Kingslayer!
Jaime. My name is Jaime.
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