ADwD 64: The Ugly Little Girl 972

Arya moves on to the next phase of her training. She, partly magically, partly by literally sticking a dead person's removed face onto her face, gets a new face in the style of that bloke she helped who killed all those people for her back in Harrenhal. Jaqen H'ghar, that was him.

Anyway the rule is that to become an acolyte and get all these cool new powers and skill she's got to give up her identity and become no-one. Her heart's not really in it so I'm hoping she can fool them enough to get the cool new powers and eventually go back to being Arya, have a big Stark family reunion (what's left of them) and get revenge on whoever is still left out of GREGOR (turned into a Frankenstein's monster, presumably), Dunsen (who?), Raff the Sweetling (dead, or still hanging out with the Boltons?), Ser Ilyn Payne (off with Jaime in the Riverlands), Ser Meryn (killed by Pod in battle of the Blackwater trying to kill Tyrion, was it? No that was Mandon Moore. Meryn Trant was the kingsguard who beat up Sansa) and Queen Cersei. This level of dishonesty seems fair enough when dealing with a weird cult that turns children into assassins.

Oh yeah, because Arya has to kill an insurance guy who hasn't been paying out on claims. She does this using the poisoned coin trick seen way back in the prologue of the last book: swaps out coin by pretending to fail at robbing a sea captain. Captain pays coin to insurance guy. Insurance guy bites it to make sure it's real gold. An old trick.

That done, she's now an acolyte and is being sent off to Izembaro, wherever that is, for an apprenticeship.

ADwD 45: The Blind Girl 690

Arya is blinded by a poison she takes every day to prolong the condition. This is for training purposes. When she sleeps she telepathically links to her wolf in Westeros. Mostly she does wolf-things. It's not entirely clear to me why she doesn't use her powers to have some effect on events: possibly there is little she could do, or possibly when being a wolf she doesn't feel like doing anything other than wolf things. I suppose an assassination attempt would be risky anyway: a wolf near a large enough group of people would soon be killed. She does learn things, at least. She knows it is snowing in the riverlands (which narrrows down where her wolf can be). Also, looking back at my notes, Ser Dermont, looking for Arya's escaped uncle Blackfish, was complaining about wolf attacks, and Jaime was wondering about Arya's direwolf. Arya remembers feasting on the flesh of man, but no mention is made about whether or not this is deliberate targeting of specific men.

She makes money for the temple by dressing up as an urchin and begging around inns. She keeps up with gossip this way, too. We learn that some of those wildlings who made it to Hardhome have been captured as slaves (thinking the slave ships are the promised rescue ships).

She gets a new power: she can now see through the eyes of a cat that has befriended her. It seems there has always been a connection between Arya and cats: back when she was sneaking around Winterfell there was a particular cat that never seemed far away. This seems like a very useful power.

She uses this power to figure out who it is that keeps attacking her with a stick (for training purposes). It's the kindly man. When she tells him she knows (but not how) this is enough for him to deem that her blindness training is over and she is given some other potion and wakes with her sight restored.

I have absolutely no idea what will happen next. Hopefully she will use her cat powers to some great effect.

AFfC 34: Cat of the Canals 569

Arya seems pretty happy selling seafood for Brusco and even has something of a family life in his house. Once a month she visits the temple to give intelligence to the Kindly Man. She meets a sailor whose captain was killed by Salladhor Saan, last seen helping Stannis and Davos, as I remember. She seems to know all the whores in Braavos because they are good customers. The best brothel is Happy Port, where she goes to sell oysters and bumps in to Dareon, with whom she is not impressed for abandoning his vows to the Night's Watch. He is singing about a princess who jumped from a tower because her prince died. I think that sounds like her dad's mistress, Jon Snow's mother. Or possibly I am confused. I remember Arya being told about this by one of Beric's men. GRRM mentions his boots. Dareon mentions Lord Snow being in charge of the watch. Arya doesn't seem to react, but the next thing we know she is delivering boots to Brusco along with the day's profits. It is clear she has killed Dareon. Brutal!

She vistits the temple and chats with The Waif, a mysterious girl who teaches her about poisons. This girl was born the heir of an ancient house but had an evil stepmother who wanted her dead. It is probably possible to identify her from this information but I have not managed it.

Arya tells the kindly man about killing Dareon. He thinks these are the actions of Arya Stark, not the "no one" she is supposed to be now, so he poisons her milk, naturally. I'm assuming the blindness will be temporary.

AFfC 22: Arya 350

Arya is still praying for GREGOR's death but he is dead now; I'm pretty sure of it. His head is on its way to Dorne. She is hanging out with the Faceless Men of Braavos. She is expected not only to serve (valar dohaeris means all men must serve), but to give her entire being over to service. No playing with swords or otherwise being Arya Stark is to be allowed. So she goes for a walk and naturally strips all her clothes off and throws everything into the river. Except for Needle, which she hides under a stone step. Then she gets accepted as a full member of the temple. And sent off to go and work for a Fishmonger called Brusco to learn better to speak Braavosi.

As usual there is some mystery about just how much the Faceless Men are magical and how much they are tricksters. But it's basically a cult about freedom from slavery by dying, which doesn't sound particularly healthy. Then again the people who come to the temple to die seem pretty peaceful and happy about it, which is better than dying in agony from festering wounds but also slightly suspicious.

The other main message from this chapter is that we really should feel sad for Arya, who has lost everything and seems to have no place in the world, to the extent that she's fallen in with a sinister death cult. I'm pretty sure she's going to come out of this even more badass than she already is, though. Maybe she'll team up with Dany and together they will conquer all of Westeros.

AFfC 6: Arya 98

We last saw Arya getting onto a ship, trying to get to the Wall. Instead she's ended up bound for Braavos, which is a kind of Venice-like city of islands and about as un-Westeros-like as possible, in case Arya wasn't homesick enough. She's going to end up seriously tough at the end of all these adventures.

The weird coin that Jaqen H'ghar gave her leads her to a weird temple. Inside she meets an even weirder old man who seems to be able to read her mind and change his face. The face-changing, if I remember rightly, is a trick Jaqen himself pulled last time Arya saw him. This seems like pretty overtly magical magic, unless it turns out to be some trick along the lines of Stannis' suspiciously not-hot fire-y sword.

ASoS 74: Arya 1027

Arya and the Hound visit an Inn. Who should be there but Polliver and The Tickler, GREGORs men who tortured the villagers, earning their place on Arya's list of People Who Must Die. They have a nice chat during which they learn the Joffrey is dead, that Tyrion is blamed, that he married Sansa, that she escaped, and that Arya is due to marry the Bastard of Bolton. Most of which Arya thinks is too ludicrous to believe.

Then they have a fight in which the Hound is almost killed but is saved by Arya, who kills Polliver's squire with Needle. I think this is actually the same Needle that they stole off her. They make there escape with weapons and money. Arya's list is a lot shorter. I think this counts as good news for a Stark, kind of. And things are looking less desperate for Jon, too. Could the tide be turning?

Things are not looking good for the Hound, whose leg wound is festering. Arya leaves him for dead. I'm a bit disappointed as it seemed like they were starting to make a good team. But I don't really blame Arya, who is thinking of all the people like Mycah he must have killed. She goes to the port town of Saltpans, sells her horse, and has a chat with a ship's captain. She wants to go north to the wall and find Jon, but the ship is going to Braavos. When she shows the captain the coin given to her by Jaqen H'ghar, she is offered her own cabin. And possibly the ship will go where she wants, too.

Just what is this coin and who is Jaqen H'ghar? And what does valar dohaeris mean?

ASoS 65: Arya 883

Arya and the Hound wander about not quite knowing what to do. At first Arya wants to go back and get her mother who she thinks might still be alive. Then she has a warg dream in which her wolf finds her mother's dead body, and now she is sure her mother is dead. They hang out in a village getting paid for odd jobs until the villagers kick them out. They toy with going to visit Lysa in the vale (hasn't she been avoiding the action a bit too easily?) but since that route is too dangerous now that Tyrion has armed all the barbarians, the Hound decides to head for Riverrun. So Arya is going to Riverrun again.

ASoS 52: Arya 706

Arya and Hound are making their way towards the castle. The portcullis opens, soldiers come out, the fighting begins. Actually it's not much of a fight, Robb's troops are massacred and burnt alive in their party tents.

Never should have trusted those Freys! But I get the feeling massacring your wedding guests is so unthinkable that nobody thought it...

The Hound wants to get Arya away from there but she wants to go to her mother. She is so close! Arya runs and is chased by the Hound and is hit on the head with an axe.

She is not dead. I refuse to believe it. Even GRRM would not give a character so much development only to kill her now. Would he?

ASoS 50: Arya 686

Arya and the Hound arrive at the Twins disguised as farmers. They don't get a very warm welcome, but they are able to make their way through the soldiers' camp outside without trouble. Arya looks out for Stark banners, but doesn't see any banners she recognises.

There are big questions over whether Arya herself will be recognised. And I'm not entirely sure how the Hound envisages getting away safely with his bounty money, except perhaps rules of honour around such things.

All in all, no plot developments in this chapter. Everything is progressing peacefully. Something is up.

ASoS 47: Arya 648

Arya is now a prisoner of Sandor "The Hound" Clegane. She tries to kill him and/or escape and he stops her every time, harsh but fair. It's raining. The river is flooded. The villages near the river are flooded. Someone should build an ark.

They cross a river, paying the ferrymen with paper money. They aren't too happy about that. It'll never catch on.

The Hound finally tells Arya that he's not taking her to King's Landing (he's fed up with Lannisters now) but to the Twins to see her mum so he can get the ransom. And he's not so bad at all, and is even amused that his brother GREGOR managed to lose Arya without knowing who she was. He probably could have saved a lot of trouble had he told Arya all this in the first place, though. He's looking like a faster ticket home than the Brave Companions were.

But will he get there in time for the wedding, or only after Robb has gone off to Moat Cailin and Catelyn to Seaguard?

ASoS 43: Arya 590

Arya and the Brave Companions are on their way to Riverrun to deliver Arya to her mother. They camp at the top of that hill where that old lady appears and makes predictions.

I am no good at interpreting this stuff. Other Kindle users have higlighted a passage that is presumably very meaningful. The howling wolf is probably Jon's wolf, who probably is wondering where Jon went since wolves can't scale 800 foot walls. The jangly bells are probably Dany's, but why are they sad? I've got no idea who Medusa represents: possibly Ygritte is going to be really cross with Jon.

The old woman talks to Arya and turns into Madame Trelawney predicting Harry Potter's death. But she does usefully tell them that Catelyn is leaving Riverrun to go to the Twins for a wedding, which we know is true. And in plain English, too, so that was helpful.

On the ride the next day Arya learns more than she wanted to know about her dad's romantic interludes. Apparently Jon Snow's mum is called Wylla, who was Ned/Edric Dayne's wet nurse. And that affair caused Lady Ashara Dayne to throw herself off a cliff, since Ned Stark and Ashara were in love. Harwin says that was before he was engaged to Catelyn, though. But we know he fathered Jon after his marriage to Catelyn. So the timeline is a bit complicated.

The storm comes and they shelter in an abandoned village. This must be the same storm that Bran and Jon are sheltering from. Either it's a big storm or it is moving south. Either way I like that it is anchoring the various characters in time and place, the way Tolkien does with the moon phases. Presumably it is the titular storm.

The village is abandoned because Arya's granddad Hoster (who just died) set it alight during the war between Mad King Aerys and Robert Baratheon. This is a hint that the winners of that war (including Arya's family?) weren't necessarily good guys.

Thoros looks into the flames and sees Lannisters attacking Riverrun. Now Beric wants to go back to Acorn Hall and hang out while he scouts Riverrun to see if it's safe. Arya doesn't like the sound of this and does a runner. Straight into the arms of the Hound. Oh dear, will she *ever* get home?

ASoS 39: Arya 529

Lord Beric and crew are out raiding. They find some Bloody Mummers taking some villagers hostage and fight them in a battle, and hold trials of the rest of them. Roose Bolton's septon is among them and he gets hung.

We get a bit of detail about the mechanics of how Thoros heals Beric. By breathing fire into him, apparently. Thoros was as surprised as anyone that it worked, but it gets harder each time he does it. And no, he can't revive Ned's headless corpse.

The previously released Hound turns up and asks for his gold back, then goes away again. I'm not sure what that was all about.

Arya is to be taken to Riverrun. Gendry has decided to stay behind to be Beric's blacksmith, much to her dismay. I expect she will reward him when she is on the Iron Throne, though! It also occurs to me that she isn't going to like going home all that much. A lot has changed, and her mother will probably want her to be ladylike, and she will probably get married off before long.

ASoS 34: Arya 460

Arya finally makes it to the rebel base. Lord Beric, Thoros and others debate what to do with the captured Hound, for he is the Lannister man Arya saw out of the window. I start to like the Hound a little more during this exchange since he rightfully points out that he's hardly responsible for killing perpetrated by other Lannisters. But then Arya reminds me that he happily murdered her friend Mycah after she got into an argument with Joffrey. Damn you GRRM, with your momentarily sympathetic bad guys.

Anyway, since these rebels are all Lord of Light worshippers it's trial by combat. Which the hound wins despite getting badly burnt (really didn't need the image of flesh sloughing off an arm, there, GRRM). But Beric is still not dead even after being cloven nearly in two by a sword. So it's almost definitely magic now and not just a rumour put about that he's unkillable. Wow.

ASoS 29: Arya 395

Arya and company reach Stoney Sept, a decent sized town. She kills some prisoners dying in cages, because whatever their crimes, nobody deserves that. Also it's unnerving that they're Stark men. They stay at an inn called ??? that also happens to be a knocking shop run by one Tansy. Could she be the Tansy that Lord Hoster was muttering about in his delerium? If so then Catelyn has the wrong end of the stick.

One of the prostitutes jokes that her dad might be King Robert. She has his hair, but Arya dismisses this because Gendry also has his hair. But she doesn't know that that's because Gendry is Robert's son. And the hair presumably is very significant, after all that's how this whole saga started, with a dead hand who got too close to the truth after noticing Joffrey was too blonde.

Gendry fancies Arya and is annoyed because she is too highborn for him, so he goes off in a huff. Arya doesn't notice and doesn't know why he's in a huff. As a king's bastard he's higher than he realises, though. High enough to marry Arya? Don't know. But I now predict Arya ends up on the iron throne with Gendry as king regent.

The mad huntsman has of Stoney Sept has caught a Lannister but it's not Jaime, Arya can tell. Who is it?

ASoS 22; Arya 298

Arya gets dragged around the countryside looking for the boss Lord Beric, who is not hiding from them, exactly, but moves around a lot and likes to be hard to find.

The party visits elves in Lothlorien, and meets a scary fortune teller on Weathertop. They end up at the castle of Lady Smallwood, who seems thouroughly decent. She gives Arya a bath and puts her in a silly dress, which makes Gendry take the piss out of her leading to a hilarous play-fight. But she ends up riding out in sensible new clothes previously owned by Smallwood's now dead seven-year-old son.

At some point during all this Arya learns that her mother freed Jaime and can't quite believe it, but that's because she doesn't know the whole story.

ASoS 17: Arya 227

Hot Pie stayed at the Inn to become a baker, since he was bored with all the travelling anyway. Arya and Gendry have gone with the outlaws to Riverrun. It turns out that the outlaws started out as the men Ned sent to harry GREGOR, under the command of Lord Beric. But GREGOR smashed them, and then they found out that Ned and Robert were dead. Rather than yeilding to the new king Joff, they decided to continue defending the smallfolk.

Lord Beric survived his injuries (he never dies) and continues to lead the outlaws, and their numbers have grown. They are the Rebel Alliance! Arya finds out she's being taken to Beric instead of Rivverrun, so she tries to gallop off, which almost works because she has a fast horse, but Harwin is a better horseman. Arya had better hope that Beric is as fair as they say.

Incidentally, it seems like Ned was doomed one way or another. If his leg wasn't broken he probably would have gone to face GREGOR himself, and would have been just as outnumbered and probably more dead than Beric.

ASoS 13: Arya 173

Arya, Hot Pie and Gendry get caught stealing vegetables from a dead man's garden by Lem, Archer/Anguy and Tom of Sevenstreams the singer. After a bit of parley, Arya realises they can't escape the archer, and they go with them to a nearby Inn where they are promised food but I suspect Arya at least will be sold into slavery of some form.

It turns out to be the same Inn visited by Jaime, Brienne and Cleos a couple of chapters earlier. Lem, Archer and Tom were supposed to intercept Jaime and company and steal their horses, but were foiled because Brienne didn't trust the man who is not an innkeeper and chose a different route from the one he advised.

Sure enough, after being fed, the band of outlaws offer Arya a promissory note in exchange for their horses. The note is probably worthless since there is no gold (imagine someone on 21st century Earth falling for that! Err...) but Arya thinks they're going to lose their horses anyway, so she offers them in exchange for Brienne's boat that she's seen outside.

Just then some riders turn up, who turn out to include Harwin, who used to lead her pony around the yard. He recognises her and announces to the room that she is Arya Stark, daughter of the Hand. So perhaps these really are "king's men" still loyal to the ghost of Robert and his hand.

ASoS 3: Arya 43

Arya, Hot Pie and Gendry are heading north on horses to Riverrun. Hot Pie does not travel well. They assume they are being chased. Eventually they sleep and Arya now gets the benefit of Bran's dream powers. As her wolf she kills their pursuers, so that's handy.

Presumably at some point Arya will meet up with her wolf again.

We don't learn much else. Gendry knows who Arya really is but Hot Pie does not. He's even surprised she can read.

ACoK 64: Arya 800

Arya overhears the rumour that Rickon and Bran are dead, though she doesn't completely believe it. Also she is not being treated with any respect by Roose Bolton, who doesn't like servants talking to him. And she has to pull blood-filled leaches from his naked body and empty his chamber pot, but she doesn't seem too bothered by that.

But she resolves to escape, and with more audacity than planning, manages to enlist Gendry and Hot Pie in the middle of the night and make off with three horses, some stolen swords, a map and a dagger. I'm thinking this would make a good board game: Escape from Harrenhal.

She does have to kill a guard in cold blood. She doesn't think too much of it beyond the annoyance of (literal) blood on her hands. The rain will wash it off, so that's okay then.

ACoK 47: Arya 609

Arya is filching tarts from Hot Pie when Vargo Hoat comes back with prisoners, and they're Roose Bolton's men. This is a bit of a worry, so when she sees Jaqen next she asks him to help her free the prisoners so they can take over Harrenhal. Pretty impressive for a ten-year-old.

He says no, so Arya asks him to kill himself as her third wish. He hesitates and she says if he helps her then she'll change the name. This is a stunning bit of chutzpah. Arya really is playing with fire: here's a sorcerer who can make dogs chew men's faces off and she's tricked him into doing her bidding. Which is bound to piss him off and once his debt is repaid he'll be presumably free to put a hex on Arya for her cheek.

For now it works, though, and Jaqen has Arya order a vat of hot broth from the kitchen which Jaqen and his men pour over the guards, freeing the prisoners. But it turns out that Vargo Hoat was working with the Roose Bolton all along. The prisoners aren't prisoners at all, they're not injured. Bolton duly takes over the castle.

All of which leaves me wondering what Arya has achieved, save using up he last wish and being promoted to Bolton's personal wine-pourer. I'm not quite sure why she hasn't revealed her true identity to Bolton, but going home to Winterfell might not be a great idea right now anyway.

Jaqen changes his appearance in front of Arya's eyes before making his getaway (and giving her a secret coin and secret password to find him again). The list of characters who have directly witnessed magic happening is growing.