Recaps

Melisandre persuaded Stannis and Selyse to perform a dark ritual that created a shadow assassin in Stannis’s likeness. She sent it to kill Renly Baratheon and then turned her attention to Joffrey.

• Melisandre told Stannis that Shireen’s sacrifice was only the spark and that he had to provide his life flame through Queen Selyse.
• Selyse agreed to serve as the ritual’s furnace, and Stannis ordered Davos out before reluctantly proceeding.
• Melisandre chanted as black flames appeared and Selyse’s belly swelled, then a shadow with Stannis’s face emerged from her body.
• Melisandre commanded the shadow to kill Renly Baratheon, and it vanished through the wall.
• Selyse lost consciousness and Stannis collapsed, while Melisandre declared that Renly’s time had come and that Joffrey was next.

Melisandre explained that Stannis’s shadow assassin could kill Renly, then urged him to sacrifice Shireen to create stronger shadows for killing Joffrey and Tywin. Stannis refused to harm his daughter and struck Melisandre, who called him too weak to become a true king.

• Melisandre told Stannis that the shadow was an unstoppable assassin and would kill Renly.
• Stannis planned to use another shadow to kill Joffrey, but Melisandre said the sacrifice would need king’s blood.
• Melisandre named Princess Shireen as the sacrifice needed to create stronger shadows.
• Stannis refused to sacrifice Shireen, slapped Melisandre, and warned her never to touch his daughter.
• Melisandre told Stannis that his inability to sacrifice Shireen made him too weak to become a true king.

Melisandre urged Stannis to sacrifice Shireen to awaken Dragonstone’s stone dragons and create a stronger shadow assassin. Tempted by the promise of dragons and the throne, Stannis asked how certain she was that the dragons would awaken.

• Stannis struck Melisandre and forbade her from speaking Shireen’s name.
• Melisandre claimed Stannis’s Targaryen blood could awaken the stone dragon statues on Dragonstone.
• Stannis imagined using dragons to defeat his enemies and claim the Iron Throne.
• Melisandre said Shireen had to be burned completely to awaken the dragons and create another, stronger shadow assassin.
• Stannis wrestled with the choice between Shireen and the throne, then asked Melisandre whether the dragons would truly awaken.

Stannis rejected Melisandre’s demand to sacrifice Shireen and drove her from Dragonstone. At Storm’s End, a shadow resembling Stannis killed Renly, and the guards accused Brienne of the murder.

• Stannis refused to sacrifice Shireen, threatened Melisandre, and ordered her off Dragonstone.
• Melisandre left for King’s Landing to seek the man with dragons who she believed had been chosen by the Lord of Light.
• At Storm’s End, Renly mocked Stannis while celebrating his army and support from the southern nobles.
• A shadow that looked like Stannis appeared in Renly’s pavilion and stabbed Renly through the heart before vanishing.
• Loras rushed to Renly, while the guards mistook Brienne’s bloodstained sword as evidence that she had killed the king and ordered her seized.

After Renly's death, Loras stopped the guards from killing Brienne and secretly helped her escape. Brienne rode into the night, swearing to find Stannis Baratheon and avenge Renly.

• The guards accused Brienne of killing Renly, but Loras said he had seen a shadowy monster with Stannis's face stab Renly from behind.
• Loras ordered the guards to arrest Brienne for questioning and invoked Stannis as a possible mastermind to keep them from executing her.
• Loras secretly freed Brienne from the dungeon and led her through a hidden passage to the stables.
• Loras urged Brienne to leave and find Renly's killer, and Brienne agreed to pursue Stannis Baratheon.
• Brienne rode away into the night and swore to pass judgment on Stannis with her sword.

After Renly’s death, Stannis prepared to claim Storm’s End and ordered Melisandre silenced, while Lynn let the southern nobles’ divisions deepen. Melisandre arrived in King’s Landing and told Lynn that the flames had revealed him as the Prince That Was Promised.

• Loras let Brienne escape, so Renly’s guards arrested him as an accomplice and planned to execute him.
• Stannis learned Renly was dead, ordered his army to march on Storm’s End, and told Davos to find and silence Melisandre.
• Lynn heard of Renly’s death and refused to intervene as Stormlands nobles and Renly’s guards turned against one another.
• A priestess arrived at the Tower of the Hand, and Melisandre told Lynn that the flames named him the Prince That Was Promised.

Melisandre declared Lynn the true Prince That Was Promised and offered him her loyalty, while Lynn discovered that her ruby could grant him Eternal Youth and Flame Resurrection if disassembled. The chapter ended with Melisandre removing the ruby that sustained her life and offering it to Lynn as proof of devotion.

• Melisandre told Lynn she had left Stannis and found the true light in him.
• Melisandre revealed that her ruby kept her young and alive, and that similar gemstones could be found in Asshai.
• Lynn's system identified the ruby as a fragment of the Lord of Light's authority that could yield Eternal Youth and Flame Resurrection.
• Lynn hesitated to disassemble the ruby because doing so would kill Melisandre, whom he considered a useful ally.
• Lynn questioned Melisandre's loyalty, and she knelt, offered herself as his servant, and handed him the ruby that sustained her life.

Lynn learned the limits of Flame Resurrection and confirmed that he possessed an extraordinarily powerful kingly bloodline. After disassembling Melisandre’s ruby to gain Eternal Youth and Flame Resurrection, he killed her and began the resurrection ritual.

• Lynn questioned Melisandre about Flame Resurrection and learned it required the Lord of Light’s approval and King’s Blood as fuel.
• Melisandre sensed both Old Gods power and the Cold Gods’ presence within Lynn, but declared him a born King and the strongest bloodline she had encountered.
• Lynn tested his bloodline and concluded he could serve as fuel for resurrection.
• The ruby lost its glow as Lynn disassembled it, and he gained Eternal Youth and Flame Resurrection.
• Lynn stabbed Melisandre through the heart with Longclaw, then placed a hand on her forehead and cast Flame Resurrection.

Lynn resurrected Melisandre after killing her, using king’s blood at the cost of some of his own vitality. Cersei, Liana, Sansa, and the Gold Cloaks mistook the miracle as proof that Lynn was a god, while he prepared to speak with Melisandre privately.

• Lynn resurrected Melisandre and felt his vitality drain as the magic drew on his blood.
• Cersei, Liana, and Sansa entered the hall and watched Melisandre’s wound heal before she woke.
• Melisandre remembered Lynn killing her and stared at him in fear and confusion.
• Cersei, Liana, and Sansa knelt before Lynn, believing he was a god, and a returning Gold Cloak joined them.
• Lynn told Melisandre to meet him privately, collected the blood-replenishing herbs, and heard the Gold Cloaks whisper that he was divine.

After reviving Melisandre, Lynn revealed that she had lost her immortality and offered to restore it through his Eternal Youth skill. Melisandre refused, explaining that she longed to die after centuries of loneliness, but Lynn urged her to live for herself instead.

• Lynn brought Melisandre into a private room while Cersei, Liana, Sansa, and a kneeling Gold Cloak wondered if Lynn was a god.
• Lynn discovered that Eternal Youth could link him to someone else and share immortality, and decided to offer Melisandre the first link.
• Lynn told Melisandre that reviving her had cost her immortality, then offered to make her immortal again.
• Melisandre refused, calling immortality a curse and describing her long life, loneliness, faith in the Lord of Light, and disappointment in Stannis.
• Melisandre said she wanted to serve Lynn, help end the catastrophe, and then die peacefully, but Lynn urged her to live another thousand years for herself.

Melisandre renounced her role as the Lord of Light’s priestess and gave her four powers to Lynn, who acquired them as skills. Lynn then used Eternal Youth to restore her immortality, and Melisandre chose to stay by his side.

• Melisandre realized she wanted to live for herself and told Lynn she would give him her powers.
• Melisandre transferred her powers of prophecy, flame, curses, and shadows to Lynn, who gained four new skills.
• Melisandre collapsed after the transfer, and Lynn caught her as she became an ordinary, weakened woman.
• Melisandre told Lynn she was his and offered to spend the rest of her life serving him.
• Lynn activated Eternal Youth on Melisandre, restoring her immortality and telling her she belonged to him.

After Lynn resurrected Melisandre, she slept and dreamed that the Lord of Light was the Cold Gods, who accused her of betraying him and named Stannis the true Chosen One. She woke to Davos's warning that Stannis had sent assassins to King's Landing and that she should flee to Essos.

• Lynn let the exhausted Melisandre sleep and left her room to plan how to profit from the coming war between Stannis and King's Landing.
• Melisandre dreamed that the Lord of Light revealed himself as the Cold Gods and condemned her for giving her faith to Lynn.
• The Cold Gods showed Melisandre a vision of Stannis at Dragonstone and declared him the true Chosen One who would become king.
• Melisandre woke at dawn, shaken by the revelation that the god she worshipped was the enemy she had fought.
• A raven delivered Davos's message warning Melisandre that Stannis had sent assassins to King's Landing and urging her to flee to Essos.

Melisandre warned Lynn that Stannis had gained the power to use flame and was raising an army of fanatics to attack him. Lynn remained untroubled and looked forward to seeing how many soldiers Stannis could recruit.

• Melisandre rushed to Lynn with a note revealing that Stannis had sent an assassin to kill her.
• Lynn used his power to show Melisandre a vision of Stannis proclaiming himself the Lord of Light’s chosen emissary.
• Stannis demonstrated his ability to conjure flame for a young soldier at Dragonstone and promised the gathered troops they could gain the same power.
• The soldiers shouted their support for Stannis and the Lord of Light, while Melisandre realized Stannis planned to attack Lynn as well as her.
• Lynn dismissed Stannis’s fire-wielding army as no threat and wondered how many troops he could win over.

Lynn dismissed Melisandre’s fears about Stannis, while Stannis used his fire powers to force Renly’s surrendered soldiers to embrace the Lord of Light. The High Septon called for a religious war, and Stannis began turning his followers into an army of fanatics.

• Lynn reassured Melisandre that Stannis and his fire-wielding army were no threat, and she left the hall feeling secure.
• Reports that Stannis had burned Dragonstone’s septons and demonstrated fiery powers spread through Westeros, prompting the High Septon to declare him a heretic and call believers to arms.
• At Storm’s End, Davos told Stannis that religious opposition was stirring resistance and desertions among his forces.
• Stannis summoned a captured septon before his surrendered soldiers, displayed his flame, and burned the old man when he refused to worship the Lord of Light.
• Thousands of soldiers knelt and pledged themselves to Stannis, while Davos realized that Stannis had become the Holy Fire King and would lead them into war.

Stannis used Loras Tyrell’s captivity to demand House Tyrell’s armies and Margaery’s hand in marriage. Mace accepted the terms, but Margaery escaped her room and fled toward the stables to seek Lynn in King’s Landing.

• Stannis accused Loras of murdering Renly and offered to spare him if Mace Tyrell pledged the Reach’s armies and agreed to Margaery’s marriage to Stannis.
• Stannis gave the Tyrells one month to comply and threatened to burn Loras if they refused.
• Mace accepted Stannis’s terms and ordered Margaery confined after she refused to marry him and revealed she had slept with Lynn.
• Margaery made a rope from her bedsheet, climbed out her window, and ran toward the stables to escape to King’s Landing.

Margaery fled Highgarden to escape being forced to marry Stannis Baratheon, but Tyrell guards caught up with her in the woods. Brienne intervened to protect her and prepared to face the seven guards.

• Margaery escaped Highgarden and rode toward King's Landing, hoping Lord Lynn could save her.
• After two days of flight, seven Tyrell guards caught up with Margaery, whose exhausted horse fell and injured her ankle.
• Brienne arrived and recognized Margaery, who begged her for help and explained that her father planned to marry her to Stannis to save Loras.
• Margaery pleaded with Brienne to take her to Lord Lynn, and Brienne agreed because she owed Loras a debt.
• Brienne drew her sword and declared Margaery under her protection as the captain ordered the guards to attack her.

Brienne defeated the guards hunting Margaery, though she was wounded, and set out with her for King's Landing. There, Lynn ordered Robb to harass Stannis's and Tywin's forces while he considered how to obtain more troops.

• Brienne killed or wounded the guards attacking her and forced their captain to flee with a warning to Mace Tyrell to stop hunting Margaery.
• Brienne bandaged Margaery's sprained ankle and her own arm, then took Margaery toward King's Landing.
• In the Tower of the Hand, Lynn contacted Robb and warned him that Stannis's army would soon march on King's Landing.
• Lynn ordered Robb to muster the North, the Vale, and the Riverlands, harass Stannis's supply lines, blockade Dragonstone, and raid the Westerlands' fields and grain.
• Lynn looked toward the Narrow Sea and considered finding an army that could appear out of thin air.

As the dead surged south, Lynn ordered the evacuation of King's Landing rather than its defense and prepared to leave with his allies. He rescued Margaery and Brienne, gathered the women onto Winter, and called to Cersei as the dragon prepared to fly.

• The dead rose in vast numbers beyond the Wall and began marching south toward the Riverlands.
• Lynn ordered the Gold Cloaks to take Joffrey and King's Landing's wealth to White Harbor, and commanded Sandor to evacuate Varys and remove every jar of wildfire.
• Margaery arrived with Brienne and begged Lynn to save her from her father's plan to marry her to Stannis and to rescue Loras.
• Lynn told Liana, Sansa, and Margaery to leave King's Landing with him, then summoned Winter and brought Melisandre and Brienne aboard as well.
• Lynn spotted Cersei watching from the corridor and invited her to climb onto the dragon.

Lynn took Cersei and the other women away from King's Landing on Winter, leaving the city undefended for Stannis. With the city abandoned, the High Sparrow rallied the commoners, seized the Great Sept's wealth, and claimed the High Septon's authority.

• Cersei accepted Lynn's help and climbed onto Winter, leaving King's Landing with him and the other women.
• As Winter flew north, Cersei watched King's Landing disappear and decided she would begin a new life.
• Lynn saw the fleet carrying the city's remaining wealth and army toward White Harbor and anticipated Stannis's arrival at an undefended King's Landing.
• The High Sparrow roused the stranded commoners against the fleeing nobles and septons, then led them to storm the Great Sept of Baelor the Blessed.
• The Sparrows found the High Septon trying to escape with gold, and one of them struck him down.
• The High Sparrow took the High Septon's crystal crown and declared that he would safeguard the faith of the Seven.

The High Sparrow rallied King's Landing's commoners, restored the Faith Militant, and seized the abandoned Red Keep in the name of the Seven. When scouts reported Stannis's fleet outside Blackwater Bay, he declared that King's Landing would resist the false king.

• The High Sparrow denounced the nobles and declared the Faith Militant restored, recruiting thousands of believers into the Warrior's Sons and Poor Fellows.
• He distributed the High Septon's hidden gold, armed his followers, and sent Sparrows to enforce his teachings across King's Landing.
• The High Sparrow led the Faith Militant to the Red Keep, broke through its gates, and claimed the Iron Throne would remain under the Seven's watch.
• A scout reported that Stannis's ships, flying House Baratheon's banners, had arrived outside Blackwater Bay.
• The High Sparrow prepared to face Stannis, calling him a false king and King's Landing the city of the Seven.

Lynn brought Sansa, Cersei, and the others to Winterfell, then flew east to Essos while Stannis’s army arrived at an abandoned King’s Landing. Stannis entered the city and found the High Sparrow blocking his way.

• Lynn landed Winter in Winterfell’s courtyard, where Ned and Catelyn greeted Sansa and were astonished to see Cersei and the other women with him.
• Cersei reunited tearfully with Myrcella, while Lynn told Ned that Stannis’s army was nearing King’s Landing and advised him to watch the Iron Islands.
• Lynn left for Essos with Melisandre, telling the other women to stay in Winterfell until he returned.
• Stannis ordered his army to land and seize the Red Keep, but scouts found King’s Landing empty and reported that the king, the Gold Cloaks, and the Red Keep’s occupants had fled.
• Stannis charged into the city and encountered the High Sparrow, who forbade the followers of the Lord of Light from entering the city of the Seven.

Stannis’s army attacked the High Sparrow and the armed worshippers defending the gates of King's Landing, but their fanatical resistance halted his advance. Stannis withdrew and gave the city three days to submit, leaving the conflict unresolved.

• Stannis demanded that the High Sparrow and the worshippers move aside, while the High Sparrow rallied them to defend their homes and faith.
• Davos Seaworth urged Stannis not to attack civilians, but Stannis ordered his soldiers to advance against the Warrior's Sons and the crowd.
• The worshippers fought without fear and overwhelmed Stannis’s soldiers with their numbers, trapping the army outside the gates.
• Stannis revealed a flame in his hand and demanded that the people kneel, but the High Sparrow called him a demon and renewed the crowd’s resistance.
• Stannis extinguished the flame, gave King's Landing three days to submit, and withdrew his army to make camp three li away.

Stannis rejected Davos's plea to spare King's Landing and threatened to use fire if the city did not surrender within three days. The High Sparrow rallied the people and crushed dissent, and after the deadline passed, Stannis ordered an assault on the fortified city.

• Stannis told Davos he would burn King's Landing if its gates remained closed, insisting that he needed submission rather than support.
• The High Sparrow's followers caught a silk merchant trying to send Stannis a letter offering to open the gates, and the butcher killed him on the High Sparrow's command.
• The High Sparrow ordered the Sparrows to kill anyone advocating surrender or conspiring with Stannis.
• Over the next three days, the High Sparrow's followers fed and frightened the people into defending the city, while nobles and merchants fell silent after several suspicious deaths.
• With his food running short and the city still refusing to surrender, Stannis ordered his troops to attack and promised to show the people divine punishment.

Stannis unleashed the Order of the Holy Fire Knights against King's Landing, breaking the city's defenders with devastating fireballs. The gates opened in surrender, and Stannis ordered the High Sparrow brought before the Iron Throne.

• Stannis ordered the Order of the Holy Fire Knights to attack after his soldiers stalled beneath King's Landing's walls.
• The Holy Fire Knights hurled three hundred fireballs, destroying part of the wall and killing or burning many defenders.
• Stannis ordered a second volley aimed at the crowds behind the wall, causing the defenders to panic and flee.
• A leader of the Warrior's Sons opened the gates, and the people of King's Landing came out to surrender.
• Stannis pointed to the High Sparrow and ordered him brought before the Iron Throne.

Stannis forced the High Sparrow and the people of King's Landing to witness his brutal execution, then claimed the Iron Throne and declared himself king. As the terrified crowd acclaimed him, he looked north and thought of Lynn and Joffrey as his next targets.

• Stannis led a procession through King's Landing with the captured High Sparrow, while the people knelt in fear.
• Stannis ordered a Holy Fire Knight to flay the High Sparrow before the assembled nobles, merchants, and commoners, but the old man refused to cry out.
• Stannis ignored Davos's misgivings and sat on the Iron Throne, declaring R'hllor the only god and himself the only king of Westeros.
• The terrified nobles began shouting acclaim for King Stannis, while Davos watched from the corner.
• Stannis looked toward the north and thought that Lynn and Joffrey would be next.