Stannis Baratheon and Shireen Baratheon in “Unfinished Business”

Stannis Baratheon

Are you lonely?

Just bored.

Stannis Baratheon

My father used to tell me that boredom indicates a lack of inner resources.

Were you bored a lot, too?

Stannis Baratheon

I know Castle Black is no place for a child, but I...

I like it. I thought I'd be left at home. I know Mother didn't want to bring me.

Stannis Baratheon

Why do you say that?

She told me, "I don't want to bring you."

Stannis Baratheon

She shouldn't have said that.

Are you ashamed of me, Father?

Stannis Baratheon

When you were an infant, a Dornish trader landed on Dragonstone. His goods were junk except for one wooden doll. He'd even sewn a dress on it in the colors of our House. No doubt he'd heard of your birth and assumed new fathers were easy targets. I still remember how you smiled when I put that doll in your cradle. How you pressed it to your cheek. By the time we burnt the doll, it was too late. I was told you would die. Or worse, the grayscale would go slow. Let you grow just enough to know the world before taking it away from you. Everyone advised me to send you to the ruins of Valyria to live out your short life with the Stone Men, before the sickness spread to the castle. I told them all to go to hell. I called in every maester on this side of the world. Every healer, every apothecary. They stopped the disease and saved your life. Because you did not belong across the world with the bloody Stone Men. You are the Princess Shireen of House Baratheon. And you are my daughter.