The Mountain of Ice and Fire

Cersei stood frozen, like a statue carved from wood.

Arya Stark?!

Just now, it was Oswell Kettleblack, her master of coin.

Even if Arya could wear a face, how could her body, voice, and mannerisms be exactly like Oswell's?!

Has Arya learned dark magic?!

Cersei couldn't believe it; she was struck dumb by shock!

"Cersei, it's almost the 301st year of Aegon's Conquest. Four years. I remember every scene of your slaughter of the Stark family very clearly. Now it's time for you to pay the price." As she spoke, a dagger appeared out of nowhere in Arya's hand.

"No? Arya." Cersei found herself retreating, backing away incessantly, as if behind her lay an endless abyss of darkness, a path of retreat with no end. "I appointed the Mountain as the commander of the northern legion, I appointed the Mountain as the Warden of the East and the Warden of the West, and it was because of my authorization that the Mountain had the power to mobilize the Vale's forces. It was also because of me that the Tyrells agreed to provide money and food to support the Mountain's northward march to help the Starks defend Winterfell. You can't repay kindness with evil; the Starks of the North value honor above life..."

Suddenly, before she could finish speaking, the dagger was at Cersei's throat, the blade cutting into her skin. Blood flowed out, cold as ice, instantly reaching Cersei's heart.

"No..." Cersei was terrified, her heart and liver splitting. She didn't want to die, she couldn't die, she mustn't die. She choked, unable to speak, because Arya's sharp dagger was pressed against her throat, and a slight force would easily sever it.

Cersei froze, unable to speak, but her eyes, filled with terror, could speak, could beg, could plead, "...Arya...please let me go...I beg you...spare my life..." Her eyes were full of terror and pleading...

Arya stared into Cersei's eyes, and the sharp dagger retreated slightly.

Cersei's throat made a hissing sound, as if her windpipe had been cut; it was the hissing sound caused by being too terrified to breathe, as if trying to drain a river with a reed... After a long while, Cersei's hissing stopped, and her breathing gradually eased. She had escaped death, terrified and incredulous: "Arya, I didn't kill any Starks. Sansa is not dead; she has escaped. Lord Eddard is also safe; he has returned to the North... Please, spare my life..." She found herself reaching out to grab Arya's arm, she found herself kneeling on one knee, she found herself rambling incoherently... Her panicked gaze darted towards the door, towards the window, but sadly, she didn't see anyone...

Arya looked down at the kneeling Cersei: "Cersei, stop daydreaming. Your Kingsguard have been reassigned by me in your name. The guards of Maegor's Holdfast are all on the walls of Maegor's Holdfast, and the maids have also been dismissed by me in the name of the master of coin. Here, it's just you and me. Her Grace the Queen Mother and her master of coin have something to plot in secret, and irrelevant people have temporarily avoided it."

The fear of death seized Cersei's heart, causing her body to tremble slightly, uncontrollably.

"I want you to see your sons and daughters killed with your own eyes, and the dynasty you and Jaime obtained through incest destroyed. I can take your life at any time, Cersei. Although you ordered the underground passages to be blocked, you don't know the true secrets of the underground passages. There are still many paths that lead directly to many rooms in the Red Keep. Unless you abandon the Red Keep and build a new palace, you will always be under the surveillance and sword of those who know the secrets of the Red Keep's underground. Even the Black Cells of the Red Keep have many secret passages that lead directly to the underground labyrinth. People who know the secrets can come and go as they please."

"...Arya, please calm down...please listen to me...this world has changed...it's changing too fast...we need to join forces to fight the Others...the Starks need the support of the Iron Throne..." Cersei heard her voice trembling violently. The wound caused by Arya's dagger was still bleeding, and blood stained her neck and collar.

"Is that so, Cersei? We will win the final battle with the Others, but before that, I will personally send you to the real hell." Arya Stark's voice was as cold as the frozen ice of the Land of Always Winter. "I know how to change faces, and I also know how to transform faces, but whether it's changing faces or transforming faces, generally speaking, to be exactly the same, we need the original face as a mold. There are two ways to make a mold: one is to peel off the entire face to make a mold, and the other is to make a mold directly on the original face. Which one do you choose? Cersei!"

Cersei was extremely frightened. Arya didn't have a ferocious expression, but Cersei could feel the desperate cruelty and ruthlessness. The aura of death was real and intense, like a substance, suffocating her and imprisoning her body, making her unable to move.

"...Arya...please let me go..." Cersei heard her voice begging. No, she couldn't beg, let alone beg the Starks, but why was she still begging? This filled her heart with sharp contradictions and despair. "Arya, I didn't kill any Starks. Sansa is not dead; she was rescued. Lord Eddard is also safe; he has returned to the North..." Cersei was so panicked that she repeated what she had already said, and she herself was completely flustered and didn't realize that these reasons for begging had already been said once.

"You killed Septa Mordane, she was my and Sansa's teacher; you killed my dancing master Syrio Forel, who only had a wooden training sword in his hand at the time; you killed Mycah, he was my best friend; you killed Jeyne Poole, she was our best sister; you killed our master of horse Hullen, he worked for the Stark family for thirty years, he was already our family; you killed the steward Vayon Poole, you killed all the guards and servants in the Tower of the Hand, as well as the cattle and sheep in the livestock pen, Cersei, now it's your turn to pay your debts."

Arya moved. Cersei felt Arya's arms suddenly become as hard as steel. Irresistible force easily threw away her hands that were grabbing Arya's arm. The dagger in Arya's hand stabbed towards her. A cold light rapidly magnified in her eyes, magnified, instantly filling her entire eye socket...

"No..." Cersei shouted, but unfortunately, the sound was muffled in her throat and didn't come out at all...

*

Cersei felt a violent shaking, and her head ached terribly. She opened her eyes, and around her was a hazy, dim darkness. She supported herself with her hands to sit up and found herself in a swaying carriage. A voice came from outside, giggling, it was her maid Meryn laughing.

Accompanying Meryn's laughter was the sound of horses' hooves.

Where was this? It seemed to be in a group, and where was this group going? Had Arya not killed her? Was she still alive? Then, had she been rescued by people in the court?

"Meryn--" Cersei called out. She was startled by her own voice. Her voice was hoarse, low, and distorted, as if she had been cut in the throat. She touched her neck in horror. Sure enough, her throat was wrapped in bandages. Suddenly, she felt goosebumps all over her body. She realized that her face was also wrapped in bandages, and her hands touched hard bandages that didn't have a trace of warmth. Then, she discovered in horror that she was wearing a maid's clothes, not the Queen Mother's gown.

What was going on?

"Meryn--" the Queen Mother shouted in horror. The hoarse voice was unfamiliar and frightened her. Her throat also began to hurt, as if the wound had been torn by the shout.

The thick curtain of the carriage was lifted, and the strong light from outside suddenly shone in, making Cersei's eyes unable to adapt. She closed her eyes and opened them after a while. Meryn's face appeared in front of her, without a smile, her face as cold as ice: "Conny, you're awake?"

"Conny?" Cersei said subconsciously. Conny was her other maid.

"How's the injury? Does it still hurt? Do you want to drink water?" Meryn's face was cold, as if Cersei owed her money and hadn't paid it back.

"You bitch, I am..."

Pa!

A loud slap landed on Cersei's bandaged face. Meryn slapped Cersei hard, and Cersei almost fainted from the pain. She felt a burning pain all over her face. The face under the bandage seemed to be pasted with something, and the place where she was hit sent out a tearing pain in all directions.

"How dare you call me a bitch, Conny? Now the Queen Mother has appointed me as the head of the maids. If you dare to be presumptuous, I will take good care of you." A smile suddenly appeared on Meryn's indifferent face, but this smile was even more sinister.

Cersei was both shocked and angry, her throat choked, suffocating, her chest rising and falling sharply, and the face of Meryn in front of her turned into two, shaking and overlapping, constantly changing between virtuality and reality. Was she dreaming?!

Conny? Queen Mother, Meryn is the new head of the maids?

Suddenly a flash of light flashed through her mind, and Cersei regained her sanity in the confused trance, her eyes suddenly widened, as stiff as a wooden chicken--could it be that her face was peeled off by Arya and replaced with Conny's face?

How long had she been unconscious after being knocked down by Arya? Cersei didn't know! What did Arya do to her after she fainted? Cersei had no feeling at all.

Cersei's heart and liver were splitting, and fear overwhelmed her... Could it be that she was no longer the Queen Mother Cersei, she had become the maid Conny... She didn't know how long she was stunned, maybe it was a heartbeat time, maybe it was a hundred years. Memories flashed in Cersei's mind: before she lost consciousness and fainted, Arya said a passage that she couldn't understand at the time--"I know how to change faces, and I also know how to transform faces, but whether it's changing faces or transforming faces, we need the original face as a mold. There are two ways to make a mold: one is to peel off the entire face to make a mold, and the other is to make a mold directly on the original face. Which one do you choose? Cersei!"

"No!" Cersei heard herself make a sharp and high-pitched exclamation! But the so-called sharp and high-pitched, heard in Meryn's ears, was still a hoarse and turbid sound.

"No what? Bitch, the Queen Mother said that after you recover from your injury, you will be married to the groom Doyle. This is the reward for your disrespect to Her Majesty the Queen Mother."

Groom Doyle, the groom of the Queen Mother's stable, a strong mute, a slave from the Summer Isles in the south, a bald man with a body as black as night. His only hobby is to like a pair of shorts woven from feathers.

Cersei's open mouth suddenly choked, unable to make a sound, just like a fish dying of thirst on the shore.

"Meryn, is Conny awake?" A voice came from the front, it was Cersei's own voice, it was the voice of the supreme Queen Mother, full of majesty and inviolability.

Meryn, who was still smug in front of Cersei, immediately became cautious. Her face, which was as cold as ice to Cersei, immediately changed into a bright smile, and her vicious voice also became sweet and crisp: "Reporting to Her Majesty the Queen Mother, Conny is awake."

"How does she feel?"

"Very good, Her Majesty the Queen Mother. Conny says she is very good."

"Scholar Qyburn said that the wounds on her face and throat can be removed after they are itchy. Meryn, ask Conny if she feels itchy on her face?"

"Her Majesty the Queen Mother, Conny says she feels itchy."

"That's a sign that the wound is getting better, tell her to be patient, if it's too itchy, take off the bandage."

"Yes, Her Majesty the Queen Mother."

Cersei listened to her own voice. Fortunately, the bandage wrapped her entire face, and Meryn could only see her horrified and terrified eyes... These eyes made Meryn very happy. Damn Conny, this is the end of disobeying Her Majesty the Queen Mother's will. You usually bully the sisters, you have today, you deserve it!

Meryn looked at Conny's terrified eyes and felt very happy in her heart, just like eating ice in summer and roasting a fire in winter.

*

Arya Stark returned from learning in the House of Black and White on Braavos's Isle of the Gods. Her purpose was to kill all of Cersei's family, guards, maids, cats, dogs, cattle, and sheep. After she returned to King's Landing, the situation of the seven kingdoms, except for Dorne, jointly resisting the Others under the leadership of the Mountain and supported by the royal family changed her mind.

The Mountain used the banner of the royal family to gather the military forces of the three regions to advance into Winterfell, and it was also because of the authority of the royal family that the Mountain legitimately coerced the Tyrell family to wholeheartedly support military supplies.

On the other side, the armies of the Reach, the Stormlands, and the Crownlands gathered in King's Landing to resist the impending Daenerys Targaryen. If she killed Cersei now, the royal family would inevitably be turbulent, and rumors would spread in King's Landing. Whether it was the allied forces fighting the Others or the defending army resisting foreign enemies, the morale would be shaken by the assassination of the Queen Mother. The royal turmoil caused by the sudden killing of Cersei would benefit the Others and the foreign enemy Daenerys Targaryen the most...

The sudden appearance of the Others and the overseas threat of Daenerys, the unexpected two-sided attack made the continental situation tense, which made Arya change her initial plan to directly kill Cersei... Once the news of Cersei's assassination spread, the internal military morale of the alliance supporting the Starks in the North, which the Mountain had built, would inevitably be shaken, which would inevitably greatly harm the morale of the allied forces of Winterfell and the Others before the final battle...

*

Cersei escaped the death penalty, but the living crime had only just begun.

When the convoy stopped, Cersei secretly lifted a corner of the curtain. She saw a person riding a horse towards her. Cersei was too familiar with this person. It was Grand Maester Qyburn, whom she trusted the most.

Cersei's heart was pounding wildly. She silently put down the curtain and listened to the sound outside. The sound came to her carriage, stopped, and the curtain was slowly lifted. Grand Maester Qyburn's kind and amiable face was in front of Cersei: "Conny, Her Majesty the Queen Mother asked me to ask you, how do you feel now?"

"I'm very good, Grand Maester Qyburn." Cersei's voice was excited, her whole body was hot. Grand Maester Qyburn was familiar with her and understood her. Just say the secret between them...

“Connie.” Qyburn interrupted Cersei's 'rhapsody', “If you are unwilling to marry the groom Doyle, my underground medical research lab desperately needs someone like you. For the mercy of the Seven, I hope you agree to be my medical researcher. I guarantee to give your parents a large sum of money and ensure your name is written into the glorious Royal Medical History. I swear to you in the name of the Old and New Gods.” Qyburn was as amiable and kind as the old grandpa next door.

But his words made Cersei's hair stand on end! What kind of place was Qyburn's underground medical research lab? Cersei knew very well that it was a true hell on earth.

“Qyburn, I am Cersei.” Cersei's hoarse, low voice was urgent and soft, full of vigilance and hope. “I am not Connie, I am Cersei Lannister. Grand Maester, save me.”

The kind smile on Qyburn's face froze and disappeared, his eyes were as suspicious as a cat, and as wary as a venomous snake retracting its neck: “You are Cersei?”

“I am Cersei, the Cersei in the front of the procession is Arya Stark.”

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