With the birth of seventy or eighty young dragons in the Targaryen royal house, even the bitter winter began showing signs of ending.
The days finally grew longer south of King's Landing and in the Kingdom of Reclea. The Far North and the Shivering Sea were no longer shrouded in perpetual darkness, either.
With temperatures beginning to rise and the celestial signs observed by the Citadel's maesters, it was all but certain that this Long Winter was finally nearing its end. People across both continents were overjoyed, believing that this freezing calamity was finally about to pass.
This was especially true of the devastated Slaver's Bay and the Golden Empire of Yi Ti, which had already reached the brink of collapse.
But unfortunate news arrived from Volantis: Aurelion's queen, Rhaena, had died of severe postpartum hemorrhaging after giving birth to her eldest son, Aegon.
"Ah! To think another daughter of Princess Rhaenys's line has died in childbirth."
Upon receiving the news, Danyla hurried to Volantis on Dreamfyre, who had already awakened from her slumber.
Dreamfyre had now grown to more than a hundred and thirty meters long, making her unquestionably the largest great dragon in House Targaryen. In terms of age, however, she had always been the eldest of all the great dragons.
With her bloodline elevated to that of a five-toed great dragon, Dreamfyre's muscles remained firm and powerful. She showed none of the signs of an aging dragon that had appeared in Vhagar and Vermithor.
After arriving in Volantis, Danyla immediately mobilized her Secret Guards to investigate Rhaena's death thoroughly. The result left her helpless: it truly had been an accident.
Yet it could not be called entirely accidental. Aurelion, whose bond with Rhaena had never been particularly deep, had succumbed to his youthful passions and become involved