Syrio gives Arya a lesson. He calls out where he will strike so that Arya can counter, but he lies on the final thrust and gets through her defense. Arya is upset, but Syrio points out that his whole body showed the point of attack and only his words were lies. He then tells her a story about the importance of seeing what is really there rather than what someone says is there. When Syrio's predecessor as first sword died, the Sealord of Braavos began conducting interviews with bravos from the city one at a time. When Syrio was brought before him, the Sealord had a beast on his lap he said was brought from a faraway land. Syrio recognized it as an immensely fat yet otherwise ordinary cat and was given the job. All the other candidates had seen an exotic beast because the Sealord said it was exotic, but Syrio saw through the lie. The lesson learned, Syrio tells Arya he is pleased with her progress and believes he might let her use Needle when they get to Winterfell. Suddenly, Ser Meryn bursts into the room with five Lannister guards. He says that Arya's father wants to see her, but Syrio sees through the ruse, and Ser Meryn orders Arya taken. Syrio intercedes to give her time to escape, and Ser Meryn orders him killed. Syrio takes on and defeats all five guards, killing some of them, but cannot do much against the fully armored Ser Meryn. He tells Arya to run and closes with his foe and almost certain death.
Arya runs into an underground storeroom and then crawls out a window. She sees the Tower of the Hand, with the doors bashed in and one of her father's guards dead at the door. She hears the sounds of fighting from within. She realizes she cannot go that way and heads to the stables instead. She sees Hullen at the entrance; he has been stabbed many times. Hullen tells her to warn her father and dies. Inside, there are more dead men: a groom, three Stark guards, including Desmond, and one dead Lannister guard. She sees her chest and searches through it for Needle. A stableboy sees her and tries to turn her in, but she stabs and kills him. She realizes the gates will be shut, but remembers the passage where she had seen the strange men.1 It takes her a while, but she finds her way down and walks towards freedom.
