THE QUEEN BEYOND THE WALL

Story the First: Of the Night's Queen and the Maesters' Looking-Glass

This story is framed as a tale told by Septa Roelle to Jaime Lannister and Brienne of Tarth one stormy evening at Evenfall Hall, the harsh yet beautiful ivy-grown keep on the western coast of the Sapphire Isle of Tarth.
It takes place centuries before the start of our story.
"Now listen, dear children! Let the story begin, for when we get to the end we shall know much more than what we already know..."
"I hope this is a war story rather than a romance", a lovely green-eyed boy tells the septa.
"There will surely be great battles to be told. Don't worry", a younger yet taller blue-eyed girl replies.
"One day, the then second son of the great Northern House Stark, a fearless warrior who had risen up the ranks of the Night's Watch to the rank of Lord Commander (he was the thirteenth Lord Commander in the history of the unit), went on a recon mission beyond the great Wall of ice that protects our world... to find, in the Haunted Forest, a strange lady of stunning beauty, with silver hair and ice-blue eyes ("skin as white as the moon, cold as ice, and eyes like cold blue stars"). She was a female White Walker, who lured him deeper into the woods, into an ice cave, and then she took his soul. When the Lord Commander returned to the Nightfort, he enchanted all of his subordinates, binding them to his will.
And thus, they ruled from the fort as Night's King and Queen, committing human sacrifices, mostly of women and children, no matter if they were Winterfellian Northerners from south of the Wall or free, roaming wildlings.
The leader of the wildlings and the Northern King of House Stark (the older brother of the Night's King), forsaking their differences, joined forces and rallied the brave youths of the Northern lands to meet the royals in open battle. The Night's King fell on the battlefield, and his consort was fatally wounded by her brother-in-law. The most widespread version of the story says that she died. But she actually survived and retreated up north to her ice cave in a glacier. And surely, she is still alive.
Later on, all of the wisest maesters in Westeros gathered in a Conclave in Oldtown, where they had been educated, to discuss the end of a long winter. Together, they crafted a powerful magic mirror, which they planned to take north of the Wall. This mirror could only reflect reality as it was, devoid of deception, and they planned to give it to the 22nd Lord Commander of the Night's Watch as a valuable tool: for such a looking-glass that reflected a sickening grin instead of an "honest" smile would surely reveal what the Walkers were and are at heart. At the Wall, after a year-long and perilous journey, the maesters were attacked by White Walkers, and, since dragonsteel, dragonbone, and dragonglass hadn't been discovered yet, the learned men were overpowered, the mirror was shattered by the Queen in the heat of battle, and the shards were sent flying in all directions, scattered all over and around Westeros. The tiniest of them are still whirring about, causing a chaos the maesters of yore hadn't expected at all, because these slivers of enchanted glass, so small that they can barely be seen, can enter human bodies through their lips, their nostrils, their eyes... and subsequently lodge in the warm, throbbing hearts of those people, turning those hearts cold as ice and hard as steel."
The flaxen-haired girl doesn't shudder, neither does the golden-haired boy, who shouts in defiance:
"That would never happen to me!".
But, like all humans, he may turn out to be actually wrong...
For there is at least one shard of the maesters' looking-glass whirring around in the cool air of Tarth, searching for a heart to harden. And now, readers, you shall find out what is to happen next...