Chapter Summaries

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.

After Stannis ordered the Faith of the Seven suppressed, attacks on his soldiers prompted him to impose martial law and hunt down worshippers. His troops began abusing civilians, until a hoarse voice confronted them as they targeted a blacksmith’s family.

• Stannis dismissed the court and ordered the High Sparrow’s remains removed, then commanded that septs be sealed and their wealth seized.
• Stannis’s soldiers looted septs and arrested septons while fearful residents of King’s Landing grew resentful.
• Civilians began attacking isolated soldiers, and more than fifty of Stannis’s men vanished or were killed within three days.
• Stannis ordered martial law and searches for worshippers of the Seven, leaving soldiers to decide who was faithful and ordering severe punishments.
• Soldiers broke into a blacksmith’s home, assaulted him, and threatened his wife and daughter before a hoarse voice accused them of committing crimes.

Davos tried to stop Stannis’s soldiers from abusing a family, but they beat him and committed further atrocities before the One-Eyed General intervened. Stannis ordered the soldiers beheaded in public, and the crowd demanded that every criminal soldier be punished.

• Davos confronted soldiers abusing a family and accused them of rape and robbery, but they beat him and attacked the family.
• The soldiers planned to kill Davos and blame the family, but the One-Eyed General arrived with a patrol and arrested them.
• Stannis asked Davos to name the punishment under his laws, and Davos said the soldiers deserved beheading.
• Stannis ordered the soldiers publicly beheaded before the Great Sept of Baelor.
• The next day, King's Landing’s crowd denounced further abuses and demanded that Stannis execute every soldier who had committed a crime.

Stannis tried to restore order in King's Landing by creating a tribunal to punish soldiers who had committed crimes, but the people's growing demands and challenge to the Lord of Light drove him to order a citywide purge of worshippers of the Seven. The chapter ended with Stannis commanding his forces to seal the city and kill everyone still practicing the Faith of the Seven.

• Stannis rejected calls to execute soldiers without trials and ordered Davos Seaworth to establish a tribunal for victims to present evidence.
• After a miller proved a soldier had robbed and injured him, Stannis had the soldier executed, prompting a wave of complaints and more than a hundred soldiers to be punished.
• Stannis used confiscated money from the Faith to compensate people whose property had been damaged, but their demands continued to grow.
• Merchants and minor nobles demanded that Stannis reopen the septs and allow the Seven to share authority with the Lord of Light.
• Stannis ordered the One-Eyed General to seal the Red Keep and King's Landing, search every home, and kill all worshippers of the Seven.

Stannis ordered a bloody purge of King's Landing, forcing Davos to resign and driving the southern nobles to submit. With the South pacified, Stannis prepared to march north against Lynn, who learned of the massacre in Slaver's Bay and saw it as a pretext for war.

• Davos pleaded with Stannis to spare the people, then resigned as Hand and left King's Landing for Dragonstone.
• Stannis commanded the One-Eyed General to seal the city and kill the Seven's followers, and soldiers slaughtered people across King's Landing for three days.
• After news of the purge spread, southern nobles submitted to Stannis, and House Tyrell offered grain and access to its ports.
• Stannis ordered his army to gather supplies and prepare to march north in three months, seeking to defeat Lynn and Joffrey.
• Lynn reunited with Daenerys in Slaver's Bay and used greensight to learn of the massacre, recognizing it as a pretext to fight Stannis.

Lynn returned to Astapor and reunited with Daenerys, Tyrion, Jorah, Grey Worm, and Missandei. He inspected Astapor’s newly equipped Unsullied Legion, while Tyrion warned that the slave masters of Yunkai and Meereen were becoming restless.

• Daenerys tearfully welcomed Lynn back, and Tyrion complained about following him from Westeros to Essos before settling in Astapor.
• Jorah, Grey Worm, and Missandei greeted Lynn, and Daenerys reported that white sugar sales had brought in immense wealth.
• Tyrion explained that the earnings had been used to equip the Unsullied Legion with armor and weapons.
• Grey Worm led Lynn and the others to view the assembled army and reported that Astapor had 103,600 fully equipped Unsullied.
• Tyrion warned Lynn that the slave masters in Yunkai and Meereen had grown restless.