麻雀鸡汤篇
High Sparrow 和 Margaery 的对话:
HS: If I were to let you leave right now, where would you go? What would you
seek out?
M: I'd go to my brother, my husband, my family.
HS: Of course, but for you, that means seeking out money, finery, power.
Seeking out your family means seeking out sin. I'm not maligning you. I
sought those things out too. To the exclusion of all else.
My father was a cobbler. He died when I was young and I took over his shop.
He was a simple man and he made simple shoes. But I found that the more work
I put into my shoes, the more people wanted them.
Fine leather, ornamentation, detailing, and time. Time most of all. Dozens
of hours spent on a single pair.
M: Quality takes time.
HS: Yes.
I imagine you've worn a year of someone's life on your back. The highborn
liked to cover their feet with my time and they paid well for the privilege.
I used their money to buy a taste of their lives for myself. Each time I
indulged, I felt myself ascending to something better.
M: And one day you walked through a graveyard and realized it was all for
nothing and set out to the path to righteousness. Book of the Stranger,
verse 25.
HS: You know "The Seven-Pointed Star."
M: Septa Unella reads it to me. At me.
HS: Yes, yes, she does enjoy reading at people.
You're close. But it wasn't a graveyard. It was a feast.
I bought old fine wine and young pretty girls and invited my friends to come
and share it all. We passed around the wine, passed around the women, and
soon we fell into a stupor.
I woke before dawn. I could barely stand. Everyone else was asleep on the
couches or on the floor, lying in heaps next to their fine clothes. The
truth of their bodies laid bare. I could smell them beneath the incense and
the perfume and the fine food that had already started to turn. And I saw it
with perfect clarity. I saw what my sins were. The gold I had, the wine I
drank, the women I used, my ceaseless struggle to maintain my position. It
was all part of a story. A story I was telling myself about who I was. A
collection of lies that would disappear in the light. The people I was
trying to climb away from, the beggars in the street, the poor, they were
closer to the truth than I ever was.
M: So what did you do?
HS: I left to go and find them. I didn't even put on my shoes. I walked out
the door and never went back.
HS: Come, let's go and see him.
M: Who?
HS: Your brother.