It was larger than a man, a green-greyish color, but it was odd-looking. The eyes and ears weren't right; it didn't look alien, but it didn't look human either. It had a sharply pointed crown on its head. It was the Grey King, only it looked like it was made of stone. Brienne reached out and touched it, saying, "It's cold like stone; I think it is stone." Intevar noticed a small slab in the wall with runes in it. It was on one side of the throne where the statue was seated. He produced a piece of parchment and a charcoal stylus. He began dragging the charcoal over the runes on the parchment he had placed over them. Arya was studying the hanging capstone and said, "We need to find a way to lower that stone to stop them from coming in." Hassan was down the steps near the pool, looking into it. "Get ready he said, something is coming up." He drew his golden sword, and the others turned towards the pool, ready.
A giant Deep One burst forth from the pool, covered in silver scales and obviously a dangerous, highly ranked new enemy. Hassan swung his sword to block a swipe that it was making towards him, cutting off the claws and fingers of one hand. The creature shrieked in pain and swiped its other claw across Hassan's face. Hassan fell back on the steps with deep furrows carved and bleeding on one side of his face. Leland jumped in to drag him away from the creature and began healing him. Siora fired off two spells that cut deeply into the monster, eliciting more screams from it. Tormund fired two rounds into the creature, one bouncing off its scale armor and the other slamming into its head. The creature staggered, and Brienne lopped off its head with a masterful stroke of her sword. Leland murmured, "I can't save his eye here; we must get him back to town." The wounds were closing with the healing spells, but the eye was going white. Intevar stumbled from his charcoal work and fell towards the wall. He instinctively raised his hand to brace himself, which landed square on the slab in the wall. The slab clicked and indented into the wall. Some hidden mechanism began lowering the chain and capstone onto the pool.
They stood spellbound, watching the capstone slowly lower until it seated over the pool. As the capstone thunked into place, Intevar yelled, "Look at the statue's eyes!" Intevar stumbled back away from the statue and fell backward off the dais. He scrambled up and moved to where Soria and Arya were standing in shock. Leland began dragging Hassan's unconscious body further away from the dais. The statue's oddly shaped eyes were glowing a deep red. Suddenly, the color of its eyes changed to an orange shade of red, and something began to rise from the statue. It was inky black and wavered as it rose from the statue before them. Arya shouted, "Careful, that looks like a wraith!" Its mouth started moving, but no words came out; it sounded like a wail of anger. It pointed its finger at where Tormund and Brienne were standing and made a terrible moan. The sound of that moan reverberated around the round chamber and froze them all in fear.
"We must kill it," Soria shouted and cast a powerful fire spell at the form. The fire passed right through the wraith and exploded against the far wall. The wraith flew straight at her and passed right through her. Soria made a choking sound as her whole body shriveled and desiccated instantly. The remains of her collapsed onto the floor. The others shook off their lethargy and leaped into action. Intevar's staff glowed and swung through the wraith's form. Tears were flowing down his face from the loss of his dear friend Soria. The wraith wavered from the blow passing through it but moved on and turned back toward him. Arya blasted it twice with disruption, which made the image stutter, but it swung away from her and headed straight toward its throne again. From there, it turned towards Tormund and Brienne again.
As it swept towards Brienne, Tormund fired two shots at it; they passed right through it and hit the statue in its head. The statue crumbled where the shots hit it, and the wraiths' form faded near its head. "Destroy the statue," Arya shouted. "The statue is giving it life!" Arya's black sword chopped downward into the statue as she jumped onto the dais. The wraith's form wavered and faded even more, but it still shot down toward Brienne. Tormund threw himself between the wraith and Brienne, and the wraith bounced off his chest. The thing seemed stunned that it didn't pass right through him, and it swung a translucent black hand towards Tormund's chest again. The hand bounced off, but it swept past him and clipped Brienne in the leg. She moaned and fell back from it. Tormund gave a battle cry so loud the room shook and heaved his battle axe straight into the statue. The statue exploded into tiny pieces from the impact, and the wraith vanished in a wail of death.
Thomas was sitting in their rooms, and the twins were hammering him about where Momma was. The party had been gone two weeks, and no one had any idea of when they might return. "Your mother is the strongest person I know," he told them and smiled.