A Dance with Dragons-Chapter 64

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The Ugly Little Girl
A Dance with Dragons chapter
ADanceWithDragons.jpg
POV Arya Stark
Place Braavos
Page 835 UK HC (Other versions)
Chapter chronology (All)
The Blind Girl
Victarion I  ← The Ugly Little Girl →  Cersei II

The Winds of Winter
Mercy

Synopsis

After a gathering of eleven Faceless Men, Arya is interrogated by plague face and deemed ready for her first assassination. Arya disguises herself again as Cat of the Canals and returns to Brusco's. While selling seafood at the Purple Harbor, Arya observes her target, an old man who sells insurance for captains, shipowners, and other merchants. When the kindly man suggests that the man might not be paying out for claims as he should, Arya determines that a family member of a client has prayed for the man's death at the House of Black and White. Arya eventually decides she will kill her target with poison, which the waif then helps her prepare.

The kindly man informs Arya that she will need a new face for this job, since Cat of the Canals would be easily recognized. He and the waif lead her down into a hidden chamber deep under the House of Black and White. The walls are covered with mask-like faces, which Arya realizes are the faces of people who have died at the House of Black and White. The face chosen for Arya is that of a young girl who was abused to the point of permanent disfigurement, and who came to the temple seeking death. Arya's blood is used to soften the leathery mask into living skin, which then bonds to her head and becomes her new face. The kindly man warns Arya that she will suffer the nightmares of the girl whose face she has taken, but only for a time. His promise proves to be true, and that night Arya dreams of the abuse that was suffered by the girl at the hands of her father.

Arya's target bites the poisoned coin. © Fantasy Flight Games

The target is always accompanied by two guards, and the kindly man has forbidden Arya to kill anyone other than her target, so Arya must stalk the man for several days to find an opportunity. She eventually dispatches him by slipping a poisoned coin into the purse of one of his clients, knowing the old man selling insurance will bite into the shipowner's coins to test their legitimacy. Knowing that the target's heart would then soon give out after consuming the poison, the kindly man is pleased by Arya's success, and he raises her to the status of an acolyte. He gives her a black and white robe to wear while at the temple and restores her face. However, the next day she is to take a new face and leave for her first apprenticeship with someone named Izembaro.

Character List appearing/mentioned

Places and terms mentioned

References and Notes