β
I didn't want to wake up. I was having a much better time asleep. And that's really sad. It was almost like a reverse nightmare, like when you wake up from a nightmare you're so relieved. I woke up into a nightmare.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
I can't eat and I can't sleep. I'm not doing well in terms of being a functional human, you know?
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
I waste at least an hour every day lying in bed. Then I waste time pacing. I waste time thinking. I waste time being quiet and not saying anything because I'm afraid I'll stutter.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
People are screwed up in this world. I'd rather be with someone screwed up and open about it than somebody perfect and ready to explode.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
I don't know how I can be so ambitious and so lazy at the same time.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
I'm done with those; regrets are an excuse for people who have failed.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
Things to do today:
1) Breathe in.
2) Breathe out.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
I'm fine. Well, I'm not fine - I'm here."
"Is there something wrong with that?"
"Absolutely.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
Its so hard to talk when you want to kill yourself. That's above and beyond everything else, and it's not a mental complaint-it's a physical thing, like it's physically hard to open your mouth and make the words come out. They don't come out smooth and in conjunction with your brain the way normal people's words do; they come out in chunks as if from a crushed-ice dispenser; you stumble on them as they gather behind your lower lip. So you just keep quiet.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
Dreams are only dreams until you wake up and make them real.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
I don't owe people anything, and I don't have to talk to them any more than I feel I need to.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
Love is sweet, dearest Ned, but it cannot change a man's nature. -- Lyanna
β
β
George R.R. Martin (A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1))
β
I'm smart but not enough--just smart enough to have problems.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
I just want to not be me.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
Sometimes I just think depression's one way of coping with the world. Like, some people get drunk, some people do drugs, some people get depressed. Because there's so much stuff out there that you have to do something to deal with it.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
Life's not about feeling better, it's about getting the job done.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
See, when you mess something up, you learn for the next time. It's when people compliment you that you're in trouble. That means they expect you to keep it up.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
Life can't be cured, but it can be managed.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
That's all I can do. I'll keep at it and hope it gets better.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
Why is it always the innocents who suffer most, when you high lords play your game of thrones?
β
β
George R.R. Martin (A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1))
β
So why am I depressed? That's the million-dollar question, baby, the Tootsie Roll question; not even the owl knows the answer to that one. I don't know either. All I know is the chronology.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
(...) Since I was a kid."
"Which you refer to as 'back when you were happy.'"
"Right.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
Some of the most profound truths about us are things that we stop saying in the middle.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
I wanted to tell people, "My depression is acting up today" as an excuse for not seeing them, but I never managed to pull it off.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
They say it grows so cold up here in winter that a manβs laughter freezes in his throat and chokes him to death,β Ned said evenly. βPerhaps that is why the Starks have so little humor.
β
β
George R.R. Martin (A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1))
β
No," mom says, looking at me in the eyes. "What's a triumph is that you woke up this morning and decided to LIVE. THAT'S a triumph. that's what you did today.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
Life is a nightmare.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
The only time a man can be brave is when he is afraid.
β
β
George R.R. Martin
β
I should be a success and I'm not and other people- younger people- are. Younger people than me are on TV and getting their lives in order. I'm still a nobody. When am I going to not be a nobody?
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
My family shouldn't have to put up with me. They're good people, solid, happy. Sometimes when I'm with them I think I'm on television.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
Depression starts slow.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
What happened when you woke up?"
"I was having a dream. I donβt know what it was, but when I woke up, I had this awful realization that I was awake. It hit me like a brick in the groin."
"Like a brick in the groin, I see."
"I didn't want to wake up. I was having a much better time asleep. And that's really sad. It was almost like a reverse nightmare, like when you wake up from a nightmare you're so relieved. I woke up into a nightmare."
"And what is that nightmare, Craig?"
"Life."
"Life is a nightmare."
"Yes.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
I'm not afraid of dying, I'm afraid of living.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
Itβs tough to get out of bed; I know that myself. You can lie there for an hour and a half without thinking anything, just worrying about what the day holds and knowing that you wonβt be able to deal with it.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
The stuff adults tell you not to do is the easiest.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
I want to live but I want to die. What do I do?
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
Sometimes when you open a book, time stops.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (The Other Normals)
β
That made me happy. That was my Anchor.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
It hurts so much, she thought. Our children, Ned, all our sweet babes. Rickon, Bran, Arya, Sansa, Robbβ¦ Robbβ¦ please, Ned, please, make it stop, make it stop hurtingβ¦ The white tears and the red ones ran together until her face was torn and tattered, the face that Ned had loved. Catelyn Stark raised her hands and watched the blood run down her long fingers, over her wrists, beneath the sleeves of her gown. Slow red worms crawled along her arms and under her clothes. It tickles. That made her laugh until she screamed. βMad,β someone said, βsheβs lost her wits,β and someone else said, βMake an end,β and a hand grabbed her scalp just as sheβd done with Jinglebell, and she thought, No, donβt, donβt cut my hair, Ned loves my hair. Then the steel was at her throat, and its bite was red and cold.β Catelyn Stark
β
β
George R.R. Martin (A Storm of Swords (A Song of Ice and Fire, #3))
β
I feel dead, wasted, awful, broken and useless. It's not the kind of feeling you forget.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
deep down I believe my year was a special year: it produced me.
β
β
Ned Vizzini
β
She doesn't want to end up like me. At least I'm giving someone an example not to follow.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
And I could have died right then. And considering how things went, I really should have.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
Iβm not better, you know. The weight hasnβt left my head. I feel how easily I could fall back into it, lie down and not eat, waste my time and curse wasting my time, look at my homework and freak out and go and chill at Aaronβs, look at Nia and be jealous again, take the subway home and hope that it has an accident, go and get my bike and head to the Brooklyn Bridge. All of that is still there. The only thing is, itβs not an option now. Itβs justβ¦ a possibility, like itβs a possibility that I could turn to dust in the next instant and be disseminated throughout the universe as an omniscient consciousness. Itβs not a very likely possibility.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
I have a system with bathrooms. I spend a lot of time in them. They are sanctuaries, public places of peace spaced throughout the world for people like me.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
The Shift is coming. The Shift has to be coming. Because if you keep living like this you'll die.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
Ned?' he says, after a while. 'Oi, Ned?'
'What?'
'If someone says to you that the guy they're going out with doesn't have to prove how smart he is, what's your response?'
'That he's dumb.'
'And if he has a sixpack?'
'Dumb jock.'
'Not too intense.'
'Dumb jock with no personality.'
'And they see eye to eye?'
Ned pauses. 'With the spitfire from Dili?'
'Same,' Tom corrects.
Ned holds up a hand to where Tara would reach him in height.
'Dumb jock with no personality and short-man syndrome.'
'Thanks, Ned.'
'Anytime.
β
β
Melina Marchetta (The Piper's Son)
β
It was almost like a reverse nightmare, like when you wake up from a nightmare, you're so relieved. I woke up into a nightmare."
"And what is that nightmare, Craig?"
"Life.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
Ski. Sled. Play basketball. Jog. Run. Run. Run. Run home. Run home and enjoy. Enjoy. Take these verbs and enjoy them. They're yours, Craig. You deserve them because you chose them. You could have left them all behind but you chose to stay here.
So now live for real, Craig. Live. Live. Live. Live.
Live.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
We look into each other's eyes as we shake. His are still full of death and horror, but in them I see my face reflected, and inside my tiny eyes inside his, I think I see some hope.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
you have to be the prude or the slut, and if you pick one, other people hate you for it, and you canβt trust anyone anymore, because theyβre all after the same thing, and you see that you can never go back to how was beforeβ¦
β
β
Ned Vizzini
β
It's such a silly little thing, the heart.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
I like how you don't hide your problems like everyone else, and I don't have to hide mine when I'm around you.
β
β
Ned Vizzini
β
They've spent alot of money on me. I'm ashamed.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
And when you say the truth you get stronger.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
You want to play video games twenty-four hours a day?"
"Or watch. I just want to not be me. Whether it's sleeping or playing video games or riding my bike or studying. Giving my brain up. That's what's important.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
Itβs a huge thing, this Shift, just as big as I imagined. My brain doesnβt want to think anymore; all of a sudden it wants to do.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
I made that test my bitch.
β
β
Ned Vizzini
β
What am I always going to do? I'm going to go home and freak out.I'm going to sit with my family and try not to talk about myself and what's wrong. Im going to try and eat. Then I'm going to try and sleep. I dread it. I can't eat and I can't sleep. I'm not doing well in terms of being a functional human, you know?
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
Ned was clad in a white linen doublet with the direwolf of Stark on the breast; his black wool cloak was fastened at the collar by his silver hand of office. Black and white and grey, all the shades of truth.
β
β
George R.R. Martin (A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1))
β
I'm young, but I'm already screwing up my life. I'm smart but not enough -- just smart enough to have problems.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
I'm not doing well in terms of being a functional human.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
It's better to swim in the sea below
Than to swing in the air and feed the crow,
Says jolly Ned Teach of Bristol.
β
β
Benjamin Franklin
β
Some days I woke up and got out of bed and brushed my teeth like any normal human being; some days I woke up and lay in bed and looked at the ceiling and wondered what the hell the point was of getting out of bed and brushing my teeth like any normal human being.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
Every tounge bit had another word to say.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
Take these verbs and enjoy them. They're yours, Craig. You deserve them because you chose them. You could have left them all behind but you chose to stay here.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
The absolute worst part of being depressed is the food. A person's relationship with food is one of their most important relationships. I don't think your relationship with your parents is that important. Some people never know their parents. I don't think your relationship with your friends are important. But your relationship with air-that's key. You can't break up with air. You're kind of stuck together. Only slightly less crucial is water. And then food. You can't be dropping food to hang with someone else. You need to strike up an agreement with it.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
I knew Dad was concerned about my past associations. I was from the Trash Alley. It was my community. I hung out with thugs from the Frog Bottom, the Burns Bottoms, the Red Line, the S-Curve, the Sandfield, the Morning Side, and a bunch of other places that shall remain nameless. I knew all of the βLegends of the Hoodβ: Sin Man, Swap, Boo Boo, Emp-Man, Cookie Man, Shank, Polar Bear, Bae Willy, Bae Bruh, Skullhead Ned, Pimp, Crunch, and Goat Turd (just to name a few). I thought maybe Dad had summoned me as a βshow and tellβ for the kids in his neighborhoodβthe hardliner to scare those wayward suburban brats back into reality.
β
β
Harold Phifer (Surviving Chaos: How I Found Peace at A Beach Bar)
β
I wasnβt gifted. Mom was wrong. I was just smart and I worked hard. I had fooled myself into thinking that was something important to the rest of the world. Other people were complicit in this ruse. Nobody had told me I was common.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
So now live for real, Craig. Live. Live. Live. Live.
β
β
Ned Vizzini
β
I didn't want to wake up. I was having a much better time asleep. And that's really sad.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
I don't-" I shake my head. (...)
"What? What were you going to say?" This is another trick of shrinks. They never let you stop in midthought. If you open your mouth, they want to know exactly what you had the intention of saying.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
Impossibility is a thing that begs to be disproven," said Ned brightly. "Perhaps it hasn't been possible for years, perhaps it's not even possible right now, but that doesn't mean it can't be. It doesn't mean it won't be. You say the magic guttered, the flame went out. But what if it simply needed to be stoked?
β
β
Victoria E. Schwab (A Gathering of Shadows (Shades of Magic, #2))
β
I found myself jealous of the people who wrote the books. They were dead and they were still taking up my time. Who did they think they were?
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
I'm jealous of her. Can you be jealous of your mom for being able to handle things? I couldn't take a day off, take a dog to the vet, and cook dinner. That's like three times too much stuff for me to get done in one day. How am I ever going to have my own house?
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
Everybody has problems. Some people just hide their crap better than others.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
My brain was all right back then; it didn't get stuck in ruts.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
Sometimes I wish I had an easy answer for why I'm depressed.
β
β
Ned Vizzini
β
You all right, man?'
This should be my name. I could be like a super hero: You All Right Man.
Ah...' I stumble.
Don't bug Craig,' Ronny is like. 'He's in the Craig zone. He's Craig-ing out.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
A person's relationship with food is one of their most important relationships.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
You shouldn't be able to be alive and you are. You want to trade?
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
One thing I've learnt recently: how to think nothing. Here's the trick: don't have any interest in the world around you, don't have any hope for the future, and be warm.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
And I mouth into the phone, I love you, in case some of her cells pick up on the vibrations and it serves me well in the next life. If there is one. If there is a next life, I hope it's in the past; I don't think the future will be any more handleable.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
I had hurt her feelings, I found out later; I didnβt know I had that power.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
Dr. Barney stared at me, his lips puckered. What was he so serious about? Who hasnβt thought about killing themselves, as a kid? How can you grow up in this world and not think about it?
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
I had fooled myself into thinking that I was something important to the rest of the world.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
And that was the closest I've ever come to an epiphany.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
Do you even know who the enemy is?"
"I think... it's me".
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
I owe her everything and I love her and I tell her these days, although every time I say it, it gets a little diluted. I think you run out of I love yous.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
They always said on TV you could do anything you wanted, but here I was trying to do something and it wasn't working. I would never be able to do it.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
She's pretty." (It's amazing how girls can say this and make it the most withering insult.)
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
We're all animals, high school is animals, but some of us are more animal than others. Like in 'Animal Farm,' which I read, all animals are created equal, but some are more equal than others? Here in the real world, all equals are created animal, but some are more animal than others.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
Noelle: But I look like a freak now.
Craig: I told you, Noelle, everybody has problems. Some people just hide their crap better than others. But people arenβt going to look at you and run away. Theyβre going to look at you and think that they can talk to you, and that youβll understand, and that youβre brave, and that youβre strong. And you are. Youβre brave and strong. p.366-367
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
βYou're Ned Stark's bastard, aren't you?β
Jon felt a coldness pass right through him. He pressed his lips together and said nothing.
βDid I offend you?β Lannister said. βSorry. Dwarfs don't have to be tactful. Generations of capering fools in motley have won me the right to dress badly and say any damn thing that comes into my head.β He grinned. βYou are the bastard, though.β
βLord Eddard Stark is my father,β Jon admitted stiffly.
Lannister studied his face. βYes,β he said. βI can see it. You have more of the north in you than your brothers.β
βHalf brothers,β Jon corrected. He was pleased by the dwarf's comment, but he tried not to let it show.
βLet me give you some counsel, bastard,β Lannister said. βNever forget what you are, for surely the world will not. Make it your strenght. Then it can never be your weakness. Armor yourself in it, and it will never be used to hurt you.β
Jon was in no mood for anyone's counsel. βWhat do you know about being a bastard?β
βAll dwarfs are bastards in their father's eyes.β
βYou are your mother's trueborn son of Lannister.β
βAm I?β the dwarf replied, sardonic. βDo tell my lord father. My mother died birthing me, and he's never been sure.β
βI don't even know who my mother was,β Jon said.
βSome woman, no doubt. Most of them are.β He favored Jon with a rueful grin. βRemember this, boy. All dwarfs may be bastards, yet not all bastards need be dwarfs.β And with that he turned and sauntered back into the feast, whistling a tune. When he opened the door, the light from within threw his shadow clear across the yard, and for just a moment Tyrion Lannister stood tall as a king.
β
β
George R.R. Martin (A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1))
β
I wasn't going to have enough money to pay for a Good Lifestyle, which meant I'd feel ashamed, which meant I'd get depressed, and that was the big one because I knew what that did to me: it made it so I wouldn't get out of bed, which led to the ultimate thingβhomelessness. If you can't get out of bed for long enough, people come and take your bed away.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
I canβt function here anymore. I mean in life: I canβt function in this life. Iβm no better off than when I was in bed last night, with one difference: when I was in my own bedβor my momβsβI could do something about it; now that Iβm here I canβt do anything. I canβt ride my bike to the Brooklyn Bridge; I canβt take a whole bunch of pills and go for the good sleep; the only thing I can do is crush my head in the toilet seat, and I still donβt even know if that would work. They take away your options and all you can do is live, and itβs just like Humble said: Iβm not afraid of dying; Iβm afraid of living. I was afraid before, but Iβm afraid even more now that Iβm a public joke. The teachers are going to hear from the students. Theyβll think Iβm trying to make an excuse for bad work.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
I want to live forever in a land where summer lasts a thousand years. I want a castle in the clouds where I can look down over the world. I want to be six-and-twenty again. When I was six-and-twenty I could fight all day and fuck all night. What men want does not matter.
Winter is almost upon us, boy. And winter is death. I would sooner my men die fighting for the Ned's little girl than alone and hungry in the snow, weeping tears that freeze upon their cheeks. No one sings songs of men who die like that. As for me, I am old. This will be my last winter. Let me bathe in Bolton blood before I die. I want to feel it spatter across my face when my axe bites deep into a Bolton skull. I want to lick it off my lips and die with the taste of it on my tongue.
β
β
George R.R. Martin (A Dance with Dragons (A Song of Ice and Fire, #5))
β
This was all an excuse, I think. I was doing fine. I had a 93 average and I was holding my head above water. I had good friends and a loving family. And because I needed to be the center of attention, because I needed something more, I ended up here, wallowing in myself, trying to convince everybody around me that I have some kind of. . . disease. I donβt have any disease. I keep pacing. Depression isnβt a disease. Itβs a pretext for being a prima donna. Everybody knows that. My friends know it; my principal knows it. The sweating has started again. I can feel the Cycling roaring up in my brain. I havenβt done anything right. What have I done, made a bunch of little pictures? That doesnβt count as anything. Iβm finished. My principal just called me and I hung up on him and didnβt call back. Iβm finished. Iβm expelled. Iβm finished.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
I hug her one more time and pull her down to the bed. And in my mind, I rise up from the bed and look down on us, and look down at everybody else in this hospital who might have the good fortune of holding a pretty girl right now, and then at the entire Brooklyn block, and then the neighborhood, and then Brooklyn, and then New York City, and then the whole Tri-State Area, and then this little corner of America- with laser eyes I can see into every house- and then the whole country and the hemisphere and now the whole stupid world, everyone in every bed, couch, futon, chair, hammock, love seat, and tent, everyone kissing or touching eachother... and i know that i'm the happiest of all of them.
β
β
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
β
I looked for you on the Trident,β Ned said to them.
βWe were not there,β Ser Gerold answered.
βWoe to the Usurper if we had been,β said Ser Oswell.
βWhen King's Landing fell, Ser Jaime slew your king with a golden sword, and I wondered where you were.β
βFar away,β Ser Gerold said, βor Aerys would yet sit the Iron Throne, and our false brother would burn in seven hells.β
βI came down on Storm's End to lift the siege,β Ned told them, and the Lords Tyrell and Redwyne dipped their banners, and all their knights bent the knee to pledge us fealty. I was certain you would be among them.β
βOur knees do not bend easily,β said Ser Arthur Dayne.
βSer Willem Darry is fled to Dragonstone, with your queen and Prince Viserys. I thought you might have sailed with him.β
βSer Willem is a good man and true,β said Ser Oswell.
βBut not of the Kingsguard,β Ser Gerold pointed out. βThe Kingsguard does not flee.β
βThen or now,β said Ser Arthur. He donned his helm.
βWe swore a vow,β explained old Ser Gerold.
Nedβs wraiths moved up beside him, with shadow swords in hand. They were seven against three.
βAnd now it begins,β said Ser Arthur Dayne, the Sword of the Morning. He unsheathed Dawn and held it with both hands. The blade was pale as milkglass, alive with light.
βNo,β Ned said with sadness in his voice. βNow it ends.
β
β
George R.R. Martin