Chapter Summaries

Hominas Balivar told Xaro how the Iron Bank had ruined his family and how he had defected to Ian Dare after Cilia showed him a captured Faceless Man. He asked Xaro to take control of a Qartheen captains’ alliance, promising to reveal the next step after Grazdan Zo Eraz made an announcement.

• Hominas explained that the Iron Bank forced his family to serve it in Slaver’s Bay after his grandfather’s ships and fortune were destroyed in the War of the Four Kings, and that his sister had been burned alive in Braavos.
• Hominas said Cilia offered protection from the Faceless Men and support for revenge if he swore loyalty to Ian Dare, so he joined Ian and redirected the Iron Bank’s resources toward the war.
• Xaro said he would avoid gambling on Ian’s victory, while Hominas pointed out that most merchants had refused to transport supplies because they hoped to loot Slaver’s Bay after Ian’s defeat.
• Hominas revealed that he controlled Meereen’s intelligence station and knew the ships and owners in the harbor, then told Xaro to seize control of the Qartheen captains’ temporary alliance.
• Hominas predicted that Grazdan Zo Eraz would soon make an announcement and left Xaro with instructions to return after taking control of the alliance.

Ian returned to Meereen and heard that disorder, overcrowding, and soaring food prices had brought the city to the brink of a grain crisis. After questioning the council members about Hominas, he ordered Meereen’s grain supply cut off so food from the river valley could be sent to the front, then summoned Hominas.

• Grazdan, Bronn, and Ritznak arrived on the Great Pyramid’s terrace and found Ian returned with Ion.
• Ian asked for a report, and Grazdan described Meereen’s unrest, crowded harbors, and worsening food shortages.
• Ian asked the council members to assess Hominas, and Grazdan and Bronn praised his work while Ritznak blamed him for the crisis.
• Ian ordered Grazdan to announce that grain from the Skahazadhan River Valley would stop entering Meereen’s market the next day.
• Ritznak protested the order, but Ian dismissed him and the council members before Mida brought Hominas to him.

Ian revealed that he had defeated Drogo and planned to cut off Meereen’s grain supply to make harbor captains believe he had lost, luring them into attacking the cities of Slaver’s Bay. Hominas understood the scheme but warned that the captains might strike before Ian’s army could return.

• Ian asked Hominas whether Xaro had agreed to the plan, and Hominas said he had not.
• Ian explained that Meereen would soon run out of food, prompting Hominas to worry that the city’s supply would collapse and speculate that Ian had suffered a setback at the front.
• Ian told Hominas that he had won the Battle of Kayser Pass, killed Drogo, captured twenty thousand Dothraki, and hatched three dragons.
• Ian revealed that he wanted Meereen’s people to believe he had been defeated so the harbor captains would attack Meereen, Yunkai, and Astapor.
• Hominas recognized that Ian meant to eliminate the raiders and seize their ships, but warned that the cities might not be able to withstand an attack before Ian’s army returned.

Ian explained why Meereen’s newly formed army could not withstand pirates and mercenaries in urban fighting, and Hominas exposed a conspiracy among several Ghiscari nobles. Ian appointed Hominas Chancellor of the Exchequer and began planning how to keep news of the victory from reaching Meereen.

• Hominas told Ian that Meereen’s soldiers had received too little training for street fighting and that Ritznak, Xitzdahar zo Lorak, and Grazdan kalarr were conspiring against him.
• Ian praised Hominas for keeping the senior ministers united and reassured him that his loyalty did not need forgiveness.
• Ian appointed Hominas Chancellor of the Exchequer after explaining that Cilia would become High Priest of the Red God.
• Hominas accepted the appointment, and Ian led him to the stone table to refine their plan.
• Ian told Hominas that he had ordered ships at Kayser Pass to remain there so news of the victory would not reach Meereen.

Meereen’s food cutoff drove merchants, captains, and Great Masters to scramble for supplies as unrest spread through the harbor and city. Rumors that Ian Dary had returned to Meereen on his dragon left the city’s leaders and residents waiting to learn what would happen next.

• Grazdan Zo Eraz announced that grain shipments from the river valleys and Astapor would stop, prompting some captains to flee to Astapor and others to seek food in Meereen.
• Hominas met Xaro Xhoan Daxos and confirmed that Xaro had secured leadership of the Qarth Interim Alliance, then promised to introduce him to someone who could help him obtain food.
• General Kalo sold military rations to the Great Masters while food fights and looting spread, and the city guard began taking food from commoners.
• Lord Kurza learned that the Lorak family had staged the city guard’s apparent mutiny to obtain food, while Ritsnak warned that Ian Dary had ordered the cutoff and might return victorious.
• On the third day, sailors reported seeing Ian Dary’s dragon and heard that Ian had returned to Meereen and was meeting officials in the Great Pyramid.

As Meereen descended into chaos, rumors that Ian Dare had returned alone led Ritsnak and the Great Masters to suspect betrayal and debate how to respond. Ritsnak realized Ian might have engineered the crisis, but concealed his suspicion and supported a plan to help Volantene forces attack the Great Pyramid.

• Mercenaries looted Meereen’s Harbor District while spreading rumors that Khal Drogo had defeated Ian Dare and that Ian had escaped captivity on his dragon.
• Ritsnak confronted the Great Masters over news of Ian’s return, and they speculated that Grazdan Zo Eraz had helped create Meereen’s food crisis by arranging for General Kalo to seize Astapor grain.
• The Holy Master argued that Grazdan and Kalo had planned to profit from the grain shortage, but Ritsnak remembered that Ian himself had ordered the food cutoff.
• Ritsnak suspected Ian had orchestrated the crisis to weaken Meereen’s nobles and eliminate his opponents, but he hid his theory from the others.
• The Holy Master proposed that Volantene forces attack the Great Pyramid, and Ritsnak and the other Great Masters agreed to support the plan.

Ian used food deliveries to feed Meereen’s starving civilians while making the Great Pyramid appear vulnerable, hoping the sea raiders would target the Holy Lord faction. Ritznak confessed his dealings with the rebels and was spared, but Ian sent him to establish an intelligence station in Volantis and ordered him to help cleanse the city.

• Ian sent the Reorganized New Army into Meereen with grain disguised as supplies for the Great Pyramid, allowing starving civilians to seize it and making the pyramid seem short of food.
• Mida brought Ritznak to Ian, who questioned him about his sudden request for an audience and listened as Ritznak claimed he had tried to dissuade Sitzdara and Grazdan from rebelling.
• Ritznak admitted that he had agreed to join Sitzdara’s plan to attack the Great Pyramid, then revealed the rebels intended to act by morning and urged Ian to concentrate his troops around Harpy Square.
• Ian pretended to panic about his lack of troops before asking Ritznak how he knew Ian had already won the war; Ritznak explained his deduction and confessed the food cutoff had exposed a flaw in Ian’s plan.
• Ian forgave Ritznak, appointed him to establish an intelligence station in Volantis, and ordered him to help Mida and Hominas arrange the operation before cleansing Meereen.

After rumors of Ian Dare’s defeat left Meereen’s Royalist nobles despairing, Grazdan revealed that the Emperor was returning with his fleet and urged them to shelter at Marrek Pyramid. The Raiders learned the Great Pyramid lacked food, changed plans to attack Sitzdara’s Lorak Pyramid, and overwhelmed its defenders, leaving Sitzdara collapsed as they reached its base.

• Marrek Great Lord’s invited Royalist nobles feared Ian Dare had been defeated, until Grazdan announced that the Emperor’s fleet would reach Meereen by nightfall and told them to gather at Marrek Pyramid.
• A mercenary reported that the Reorganized New Army had forced grain convoys through Meereen’s rioters to supply the Great Pyramid, convincing the Raiders that it held little food.
• Mataus Megeya accepted Xaro Xhoan Daxos’s plan to attack Sitzdara’s Lorak Pyramid, and nearly ten thousand Raiders surged south.
• Sitzdara saw the Raiders approaching Lorak Pyramid instead of the Great Pyramid and realized they had turned against him.
• The Raiders broke through the city guards’ defenses in six directions and reached the base of Lorak Pyramid, where Sitzdara collapsed.

Ian watched the fall of the Holy Lord faction’s pyramids through an eagle as the Raider Alliance plundered Meereen, but the sudden arrival of the Ghiscari army shattered the raiders and trapped them. The chapter ended with Khal Drogo accepting the mercenaries’ surrender and the captives recalling the prophecy of the Ghiscari emperor’s return.

• The Raider Alliance stormed the pyramids, and Xaro Xhoan Daxos’s guards killed Holy Lord Sitzdara and five other Great Masters while searching Lorak Pyramid.
• Scouts reported that the Meereen fleet had blockaded the harbor and Ghiscari troops had entered the city, causing the Raider Alliance to collapse into fleeing groups.
• Ghiscari forces defeated the sailors at the harbor, while Meereen’s civilians attacked raiders who escaped into the streets.
• Five thousand mercenaries fled through the western gate but encountered the Qohor Black Goat Cavalry and the returning Ghiscari army outside the city.
• The mercenaries turned on Mataus Megeya, bound him, and offered him to Khal Drogo in exchange for surrender.
• Khal Drogo accepted the mercenaries’ surrender and marched them back toward Meereen as they remembered the prophecy of the emperor’s return.

After restoring order in Meereen, Ian used food relief and the Red Temple to spread the Red God and establish a new hierarchy of ranks and rewards. The city’s people heard the Emperor’s version of the recent unrest as preparations began for his coronation and the public trial of the surviving traitors.

• The Unsullied and Iron Legion soldiers retook Meereen’s streets after the fires were extinguished, and Red Priests began distributing bread to the starving population.
• The Red Priests changed their sermons to promise food, imperial victories, and rewards for converts, prompting more Meereenese to join the Red God.
• Ian’s new system assigned ranks to converted nobles, commoners, and slaves, with paths for people to advance across class boundaries; most first-tier Iron Legion slaves chose to become Free Folk.
• Cilia awarded Grazdan Zo Eraz ten thousand Glimmer Coins after he won the Wish Pool’s grand prize, and Grazdan granted him citizenship, a house, and four slave guards.
• Red Priests spread the claim that Ian had conquered the Dothraki and Lhazareen, announced his coronation for two months later, and blamed Sitzdara, the Green Grace, and the Holy Lord faction for the unrest and food shortage.

Mataus Megeya endured a neglected imprisonment until R'hllor supposedly rescued his soul and convinced him that Ian was a divine incarnation. Ian had Mataus brought to the Great Pyramid, where he planned to use the ordeal as an experiment in brainwashing future intelligence agents.

• Mataus realized his captors did not know his identity and waited in vain for them to return with food or take him to Ian.
• After collapsing from hunger, Mataus awoke in R'hllor's garden, where a Red Grace said the god had answered his prayer and would send him back to meet Ian.
• Mataus returned to his dungeon, prayed to R'hllor, and was soon freed by a guard sent to take him to Ian.
• An Unsullied captain escorted Mataus by carriage to the Great Pyramid, and Mataus concluded that Ian was a god and feared punishment for trying to sack his city.
• Ian ordered Mataus bathed and given clean clothes before an audience, then told Cilia he had used the ordeal to test a brainwashing method for training intelligence agents.

Melisandre received a vision directing her to Volantis and decided to leave King's Landing, while Lorran tried to persuade her to make him the Lord of Light’s champion. After she rejected him as unworthy, Lorran ordered his guards to kill her.

• Melisandre’s ruby flared during prayer, showing her landmarks in Volantis and another vision she could not identify.
• Ser Barron Swen reported that Melisandre had refused to attend Shireen’s coronation, and Lorran went to speak with her.
• Melisandre told Lorran she was leaving to correct her earlier mistakes.
• Lorran offered to unite Westeros against the God of Cold and asked Melisandre to grant him the Lord of Light’s power.
• Melisandre called Lorran unworthy and walked away, so he ordered his NPC guards not to let her leave King’s Landing alive.

While preparing for his coronation and consolidating Slaver's Bay, Ian considered investigating Mantarys to reopen the Dragon Road between Meereen and Volantis. A vision from R'hllor warned him that enemies in Volantis were preparing to strike his allies, so Ian decided to intervene and discovered that his Red Priest ability had improved.

• Ian reorganized Slaver's Bay, expanded and integrated its legions, assessed the captured fleets, promoted agriculture and the Red God, and prepared for his coronation.
• Ian sent forces to seize Tolos, Baharasi, and the island cities of Cedar Island, Giza, and Varos, but postponed taking Mantarys until he could investigate its monsters.
• Ian decided to investigate Mantarys and recalled Euron's manuscripts and the Silence's captain, then felt a powerful premonition while examining the manuscripts.
• Ian used his Red Priest abilities to see a vision of a player and an ally discussing an attack on Manious Visama's forces and Darren Grafton in Volantis.
• Ian realized that misleading reports about the Ghiscari defeat had made his enemies act before the truth could arrive, and he decided to go to Volantis to stop them.
• Ian saw that his Red Priest Legend ability had improved and credited R'hllor for granting him greater power.

After a prophecy spell drained Ian’s willpower and left him unconscious, he awakened in Corlo’s body to find Volantene mercenaries attacking his estate. Ian fought off a Dothraki assassin but lost his knight guard, and he faced an S-rank warrior blocking his escape.

• Ian’s use of a Legend-tier prophecy spell exhausted his willpower, and he slept until night before awakening Corlo’s body.
• A knight told Ian that mercenaries had surrounded the estate and that Count Daron was leading its defense; Ian ordered his armor prepared so he could break out toward the Great Red Temple.
• An armored warrior and a Dothraki mercenary burst into Ian’s room, and Ian fought the Dothraki with his knight’s help.
• Ian killed the Dothraki after losing part of his thumb and suffering a severe hand wound, then found that the armored warrior had killed his knight and was fighting five guards.
• Ian hesitated to join the fight because his right hand was badly injured, but he knew he could not escape the building while the S-rank warrior remained alive.

Ian joined the defense of the residence in Corlo’s body, helped kill an armored attacker, and learned that the delegation was surrounded by a growing enemy force. When an unknown group attacked the besiegers and broke the encirclement, Ian ordered a breakout, while Grand Magistrate Palachiro Valeros revealed that his family had risked everything to win Ian’s trust.

• Ian used a javelin to blind the armored warrior, allowing the guards to bring him down and kill him.
• Ian met Breakbones Belakovo and Count Daron Grafson in the tower, where Daron described the siege and admitted they had lost contact with their agents and Maniu Visama.
• Ian considered abandoning the delegation but told Daron to hold the residence while he thought through the situation.
• Daron reported that an unknown force had attacked the besiegers and broken their encirclement, so Ian ordered everyone to gather for a breakout.
• Mous Valeros worried that Palachiro Valeros had defied the Triarchs by mobilizing the Tiger Guard, but Palachiro said a woman had shown him they were destined to win the wager and earn Ian’s trust.

Ian led the escapees toward the Great Temple of the Red God, where he hoped to hold out until reinforcements arrived. Melisandre and the Valeros family’s Tiger Guard joined him, and Melisandre accepted his authority despite urging him to leave Volantis for the fight against the Long Night.

• Ian found Bloody Flower mercenaries and poorly equipped Tiger Guard dead outside the estate, then ordered Darren Grafton to lead the group west toward the Great Temple.
• Ian encountered Melisandre with Tiger Guard, Hands of the Holy Fire, and Westerosi knights, and realized she knew Ian Dare controlled Ian Corlo’s body.
• Melisandre urged Ian to abandon Volantis and take his armies to The Wall, but Ian told her to obey him or leave.
• Melisandre submitted to Ian, acknowledging that the Lord of Light had commanded her to assist him.
• A Tiger Guard commander told Ian that his father, Palachiro Valeros, had sent troops to help, and Ian promised to report the Valeros family’s loyalty to the emperor.

Ian accepted Bericio Valerose’s offer to command the force defending the Great Temple of the Red God after Bericio revealed that he and his father had converted because Melisandre showed them Ian’s victory over Khal Drogo. The group reached the temple, where Red Priests came out to welcome them.

• Bericio Valerose reported that his Tiger Guard battalions and the Hands of the Holy Fire had repelled the attackers, and he urged Ian to withdraw to the Great Temple before Volantis declared them traitors.
• Bericio explained that Melisandre’s visions had convinced him Ian defeated Khal Drogo, and Ian questioned why the Valerose family believed the Red Priestess despite the Tiger Party’s hostility toward the faith.
• Bericio asked to command the journey and the coming defense; Ian agreed to let him lead unless events took a bad turn.
• Bericio organized the force, cleared ambushes, and negotiated passage past other Tiger Guard battalions as they crossed Volantis to the temple.
• Ian’s group reached the Great Temple, where two Red Priests and a group of Hands of the Holy Fire came forward to welcome them.

Ian entered the Great Temple of the Red God in Volantis, where Melisandre used a painful fire ritual to restore his severed thumb. He reviewed Cilia’s unfinished religious mission and decided to focus first on taking Volantis.

• Benerro welcomed Ian and his companions to the temple and led them inside.
• Melisandre examined Ian’s severed thumb and agreed to restore it using a ritual in the central temple’s brazier.
• Ian endured three hours in the flames and emerged with his thumb restored, though his right arm was badly burned.
• Ian reviewed Cilia’s mission requirements and judged the tasks of converting a million devout heathens and destroying a major religion especially difficult.
• Ian concluded that he would deal with Volantis first and went to sleep.

Ian learned that Manius Visama had been seized by his brother Belisa and would face a treason trial, while Grand Magistrate Palachiro planned to enter the Black Wall to defend him. With Palachiro poised to risk his life and weaken the temple’s defenses, Ian began urgently assessing the forces and resources available for a rescue.

• Bericio Valeros told Ian that Belisa Visama had captured Manius and planned to accuse him of treason at the next morning’s council meeting.
• Bericio explained that Grand Magistrate Palachiro intended to return to the Black Wall and defend Manius, and that two Tiger Guard battalions were preparing to escort him.
• Bericio asked Ian to devise another way to save Manius before Palachiro’s two-hour deadline expired, after Melisandre said she could not use powerful magic without King's Blood.
• Ian judged that Manius’s execution and Palachiro’s death could ruin his alliance with the Valerose family and damage his standing in Volantis.
• Ian questioned Bericio, Darren, and Machiro about available troops and resources, learning that the temple’s forces and the Valerose troops offered little immediate help.
• Ian ordered Machiro to bring him a detailed map of Volantis so he could plan a rescue.

Zorg explained his plan to use Manios Visama and Grand Magistrate Palachiro to draw Daron Grafton and the Ghiscari Delegation out of the Great Temple, then eliminate them and their allies. Gales accepted the scheme and left to collect a shipment before returning to Chayona to begin the ritual.

• Gales confronted Zorg for failing to kill Daron Grafton, and Zorg blamed the lost mercenaries and the unexpected support Daron received from the Valerose family and the Great Red Temple.
• Zorg told Gales that Magister Malacho Megar had joined their side and sent for Tiger Guard reinforcements to surround the Great Temple.
• Zorg revealed that he planned to use Manios's treason trial to force Daron and Palachiro to act, while Palachiro's offer to leave the rebels would divide the defenders.
• Zorg said that after Palachiro publicly broke with the rebels, poison would kill him, Manios would still be executed, and the Ghiscari Delegation and Great Temple's red-robed monks would be slaughtered.
• Gales accepted Zorg's plan, then left for the northern docks to collect a shipment before returning to Chayona to begin the Mother Rhoyne ritual.