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YGRITTE: Swords in the darkness.
Aye, the black brothers of the Night's Watch are that at least,
as too many of the free folk know.
You Southerners are strange.
A man murders and you train him to kill better.
A man thieves or rapes, and you send him where it's dark and private.
Well, at least you make him promise to be good.
And you make him regret even that.
From the time he's woken to the time he's allowed to sleep,
he walks the frozen Wall, carries frozen stones, or boils frozen food.
When he lies down at night, he can't have nobody to warm his frozen bed.
Well, not unless the crows like to nest together.
You think he remembers the stories they told him then?
About when the White Walkers woke in the Land of Always Winter
and how the Wall and the Night's Watch were raised to stop them the next time.
Never mind trapping us on the other side.
We free folk have our stories, too.
About how one of your king crows found something cold in the woods
with bright blue eyes.
How he brought her home through your wall
and declared himself Night's King.
Thirteen years he and his queen ruled over his brothers,
making sacrifices as black as their cloaks.
Lucky for you Southerners,
the free folk rallied to a King-beyond-the-Wall,
as we will when need be,
and march on the ancient castle he'd taken for his own.
The Nightfort.
With the help of the Starks,
we killed the demon and cleansed your precious watch.
And then they thanked us and kicked us back across the Wall,
as you always have.
Gendel, Raymun Redbeard, the Horned Lord,
each chosen as a King-beyond-the-Wall,
each promising victory,
and all fallen to the Night's Watch and the Starks.
But this time is different.
Our new king knows your tricks.
You called him a brother crow once, but he never forgot his wings.
We know how you think.
We know where you're weak.
Watch for us from your Wall, if you like.
With the cold, you won't even feel the blade slip into your back.