The High Septon is Dead

[Westeros]

The High Septon, Father of the Faithful and the Voice of the Seven on Earth, has been called to sit at the Father’s right hand in the golden hall which is his abode among the heavens. Knowing the end was coming, he had made peace with his time being done and instead spent his last hours with the king. Baelor prayed over him and gave him a benediction through tears, and swore he would do as the High Septon asked of him. The old High Septon, his spirit strong though his body was failing, extracted three promises from the king.

The first was the simplest: Ser Peron the Pious was called so that he could kneel at the High Septon’s bedside, and accept his blessing as he recited the vows of the Kingsguard before the king, and swore to remain at the High Septon’s side by night and by day until his remains were interred.

The second was not much harder: that the remains to be interred in the great sept even now climbing its way skyward atop Visenya’s Hill would be the High Septon’s own, once the silent sisters had stripped the flesh from his bones.

And the third, the king had already committed to: to travel to Dorne without delay, to see Prince Daeron wed to the Princess Mariah, and seal peace between Dorne and the Iron Throne. It had become his dream, as it was Baelor’s, and he would not have it jeopardized by unnecessary delay.

Even as the ships were being loaded and readied with supplies and scores of chests, even as the greater part of the king’s household and court made ready, the bells rang throughout the city marking the death of the High Septon. After, the king himself went to Visenya’s Hill, to look at the place he had chosen for the High Septon’s burial… and also to visit the stonemasons who had labored over the High Septon’s tomb, commissioned months earlier when the High Septon had begun to falter. But the king tarried there, speaking with one of the younger masons, the man who had been given the most difficult task of rendering the face of the High Septon himself. And what followed was nothing as was expected. Attended by the Most Devout, Baelor spoke to the man at length, and his remarks and his questions began to raise alarm. The stonemason, guileless, answered them all as best he could, and the king seem satisfied. He smiled, and thanked the man, and turned to the Most Devout and asked them to join him in prayer, to see if the Seven would show them what they had shown him.

And so it was that even as the silent sisters received the High Septon’s body, the king made a singular suggestion as to who should become the new High Septon.

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