When Hassan came, the elders were brushing him off and setting him upright. The golden sword was talking to him about the Many-Faced God and the need to do away with all of its adherents. The three trees were saying the same thing to him, and it was ringing in his ears. One of the trees said, "You must speak to Arya, consider this a holy crusade for the old gods." Then they all stopped. Hassan thanked the treekin elders and said, "I've been given a holy quest by these gods. I must get back to Brandon's Rest."
Arya got the telepath ping, and Wicket was saying, "Arya, I have been having dark visions of betrayal by the sea lords. Visions of them attacking us from behind while we attack Zonian ships. Something connects the Iron Bank and Zon. We need to mount a delegation to send to Braavos to get to the bottom of this." Arya responded, "Bran, how much does the Iron Throne still owe the Iron Bank?" The reply came, "It's down to around 1 million gold coins now." Arya responded, "I can manage half of that. Can you come up with the other half?" It took a little while, but Bran responded, "Just about that much, yes." Arya thought back, "We will be leaving in a few days, please have it ready by then." As the connection broke, an alarm sounded.
Arya had never heard the city's alarm go off before. Jack came rushing into the Great Hall and shouted, "We are under an attack from Faceless men. It seems the last trading vessel that docked had several of them onboard." Arya shouted, "To arms!" Brienne appeared, half-armed, and Drena and Jon came out of their apartments, running. Bronn and Tormund came up one stairwell, and 12 assassins came up the other. Arya stood in the doorway of her apartment. She vowed nothing would get past her to the twins behind her.
Shouting began at the main door, and then a piece of glass fell from the top of a wall to shatter on the floor. Arya looked up in time to see five shadows enter through the open window above. Her guard of ten assassins went into action defending her. The faceless men's onslaught pushed them back. Jon and Drena jumped into the fray around her. Drena killed one by hitting him with a disruption blast, knocking him off the railing to his death below. Jon cut another in half and leaped in towards the others. Suddenly, one was in front of Arya, attacking. She blocked his attack with her glove and then blew him into the air, past the railing. What was left of him splattered on the floor below. Ned suddenly yowled behind her, and a faceless man appeared with the cat on its face. Arya spun and disemboweled the man from behind. She heard one of her sandkin guards, outside the room, shriek as he took a sword to his belly. And then the fighting on the balcony was done. A ping in Arya's head said, "There are still ten left." Arya shouted out, "Ten left!" More sandkin assassins came up the stairwell shouting, "We just killed three that targeted the sandkin enclave!" "Seven left," came the ping. "Seven left," Arya shouted.
Hassan was entering the west gate when the alarm went off. The golden sword told him to defend himself. Two faceless men were at the west gate, and they attacked when they saw him. He listened as the sword said the words for the vibration spell. He repeated them as he held the sword high. He began to vibrate back and forth, and he charged the two men. He attacked from one side, and then the other. One faceless man went down while the second stabbed at where he just was. The golden sword plunged into the man's side from a new position. His two enemies were dead.
"Five left," came the ping. "Five," Arya shouted. "We have five down here in front of us," came Brienne's shout from below. One of the faceless men turned to run, and Dirk's green daggers took him. The last four went down, and the attack was over. Hassan rushed into the Great Hall, saying, "The old gods have tasked us with eradicating the faceless men."
At a meeting later, Hassan told the whole tale of his treekin visit. Arya told everything Bran had said. She said, "This is the third attack on me; if nothing else, I have to go clear up this mess. And if they are siding with the Zon, they are an enemy to all Westeros, and Essos too. Tangling with the Iron Bank is the hardest thing anyone can do. And yet it seems we have to." Thomas spoke up, "How could they be in contact with Zon?" Tse answered him, "Perhaps one of the prisoners in King's Landing has a method of communicating with others?" Ming asked Tse, "Did any of the observer spies have any special abilities?" Tse thought for a while and said, "One of the mages was trained in the dark arts, I believe." Arya contacted Wicket in King's Landing and told her to reexamine all the prisoners, looking for one with dark arts. The response was, "Will do."
Arya said, "I need volunteers." Everyone at the table stood.