By then, Sunspear in Dorne had been under the Holy Flame Fleet's naval blockade for six or seven years, and its once-bustling docks had long since fallen into complete disuse.
Any merchant caravan in the world with a shred of sense had long since abandoned southern Dorne. After all, Hellholt, Tor, and Wyl were now more prosperous than Sunspear had ever been, so merchants naturally preferred to trade there.
Besides, offending Danyla for such a paltry profit would have been sheer idiocy. The Holy Flame Fleet was now indisputably the strongest fleet in the world.
As the shipyards on Holy Flame Island continued to improve and modernize, their shipbuilding capacity had long since caught up with Braavos. The Holy Flame Fleet now numbered more than a thousand ships.
The Holy Flame Fleet could be seen all over the world, and no power dared lightly set its sights on it. Many merchant caravans therefore paid a protection fee and followed behind its ships, enjoying their protection.
Six years earlier, the people of many Dornish towns had learned that House Targaryen would no longer burn their settlements with Great Dragons, and they had begun returning one after another.
Yet the shortage of basic necessities forced many to leave their homes again and scatter among the water sources near Sunspear in search of a livelihood.
Some even boarded the ships cruising along the Greenblood to encourage surrender and were taken to the Stepstones or the Orange Coast of Reclea to settle. Over five years, more than fifty thousand Dornish people had chosen to leave their homeland and seek a living elsewhere.
After all, survival always came first.
This made life even harder for the great houses that remained in Dorne. Their reserves of basic supplies had never been particularly abundant, and they had