It wasn't of the woman he'd met for the first time in the Vale that Brynden thought of, or of the grieving widow at Riverrun who'd lost her sons, her husband, everything. It was the little girl, bright red hair down to the middle of her back with a bright and ready smile.

His little Cat.

Brynden remembered the tears when Hoster had told him to leave. Even then she had tried to hide them, swiping them away before anyone could see. "I'll miss you, Uncle," she said, and hugged him quickly before darting away, standing with her sister and holding Lysa's hand.

They'd thrown her body in the river.

Robb was dead as well, a mockery made of his body. Roose Bolton had turned his cloak. In one stroke of treachery, the North had been lost. But not Riverrun. Never Riverrun.

But they held Edmure. Lord Tully. His nephew. Save Lysa, mad Lysa, the last of his family.

And they had killed Catelyn. Little Cat, floating in the river, no one to find her body.

His sword hand clenched at his side. His was the last defense, Riverrun the last castle, and Brynden held no illusions. It would fall. The Lannisters were too many, and no one was coming to his aid. The others would bend the knee, he knew that.

But they had killed his King. They had killed his grandnephew. They had killed his little Cat.

They would not have Riverrun as well. Not so easily.

Many years ago, a little girl with bright red hair sat on his knee and kicked her legs. "Tell me a story, Uncle Brynden," she said. "Tell me a story about you."

"All my stories are war stories," her uncle said. "Not for little girls."

"When I'm older?"

"Maybe when you're older," he'd said, and really meant never. War wasn't for Catelyn. And yet it had found her anyway, in the hall of one of their sworn lords, at a bloody feast with broken guest right.

The others behind him were babbling. He listened to none of it. "Prepare for a siege," he said coolly. "Riverrun is sworn to the Young Wolf. It remains sworn."

Let Freys and Lannisters both choke on blood before the end. Let them swim in it. He was a fish, and fish didn't drown.