Recaps

Aurelion and Danyla planned to develop Baharasi and settle Volantis’s freed slaves according to their skills and preferences. Danyla then traveled with Rhaena to the edge of the Smoking Sea to improve its environment and establish a fortress, where the chapter left them facing the region’s hellish conditions.

• Aurelion agreed with Danyla’s plan to build a fortress at Baharasi and secure the trade route, while Teran Rhaena warned of monsters, bandits, disease, and extreme weather.
• Danyla explained that Volantis’s freed slaves needed different resettlement plans, then proposed farmland for willing farmers, jobs for skilled workers, and a chance for some to follow their former masters to Baharasi.
• Danyla proposed military farmland west and north of the Sea of Sighs, and Aurelion left with a new plan for Volantis.
• Aurelion and Teran Rhaena issued a decree offering land, supplies, and money to households volunteering to settle upstream along the Valanna River.
• Danyla asked Rhaena to take her on Silverwing to the Smoking Sea, where she planned to improve the harsh environment and build a fortress to guard Valyria’s ruins.
• Danyla and Rhaena reached the Smoking Sea, and Rhaena wondered aloud whether it was the hell described in books.

Danyla, Rhaena, Silverwing, and the hatchlings encountered deadly sea monsters near a submerged Valyrian Dragon-Taming Tower in the Smoking Sea. After the hatchlings landed on the tower and awakened a colossal creature, Danyla began a Blood Flame Sacrifice to fight it.

• Rhaena flew Silverwing toward the cliffs at Danyla’s direction, and Danyla discovered the remains of a Valyrian structure beneath the water.
• A tentacled sea monster attacked, but Danyla and the hatchlings used dragonfire to sever its limb while Silverwing drove it back with cobalt flames.
• Danyla insisted on investigating the enormous blackstone tower, which she recognized as a Valyrian Dragon-Taming Tower.
• Azure Scale and the other hatchlings ignored Danyla and landed on the tower, causing it to tremble as a gigantic creature rose from the sea.
• The creature attacked Silverwing and struck Rhaena with a mind-piercing sound, so Danyla cut her palm and cast Blood Flame Sacrifice at it.

Danyla and Rhaena used blood magic, weirwoods, and the Great Dragons to defeat sea monsters around the Dragon-Taming Tower and make the Smoking Sea safer. After Rhaena returned to Volantis with news, Danyla explored the tower, found strange eggs, and used them to grow more than a hundred weirwoods along the Sea of Sighs.

• Danyla burned a sea monster with blood flames and drained its strength by planting weirwood seeds in its body.
• Amoros and the other Great Dragons answered Danyla's summons and helped her kill the monsters around the Dragon-Taming Tower.
• Danyla and Rhaena planted seven weirwoods near the tower, where they transformed the surrounding magical energy and grew to over ten meters tall.
• Danyla sent Rhaena back to Volantis on Silverwing to report to Aurelion while she explored the Dragon-Taming Tower with the four young dragons.
• Danyla discovered over a hundred strange eggs, used them with Amoros to germinate weirwood seeds, and grew more than a hundred trees along the boundary between the Smoking Sea and the Sea of Sighs.

Danyla explored the strange forest by the Sea of Sighs, finding useful mutated plants and clashing with a herd of mutated bison alongside the young dragons. After they feasted, a dangerous rain transformed the landscape, and Danyla watched as poisonous mushrooms killed a hare.

• Danyla examined the sharp red grass and fragrant resin, considering their practical uses.
• Azure Scales attacked a herd of mutated bison, and the bison leader wounded the young dragon before the herd charged.
• Azure Scales, Redclaw, and the other young dragons drove off the bison with dragonfire, then feasted while Danyla cooked some of the meat.
• Danyla noticed the soil quickly decomposing the bison bones and returned with the young dragons to the Dragon-Taming Tower as the sky darkened.
• Danyla watched dark red rain transform the forest and saw a poisonous mushroom release spores that killed and dissolved a hare.

Danyla led the young dragons on a jungle hunt and tested them against a pack of Bone-Blade Direwolves. The wolves’ disciplined tactics and the wolf king’s deadly tail blade injured Azure Scales, White Teeth, and Vermilion Claws as the battle continued.

• Danyla trained the young dragons against the jungle’s mutant animals, while they hunted rabbits, Scabby Sheep, and Scaled Boars.
• Danyla led the dragons through the jungle, where Azure Scales sensed a Bone-Blade Direwolf pack approaching.
• Danyla guided the pack toward a rock face, then ordered Azure Scales, White Teeth, and Vermilion Claws to attack.
• Azure Scales and White Teeth killed wolves but suffered deep wing wounds as the pack surrounded them and struck from multiple directions.
• Vermilion Claws attacked the wolf king, but it blocked her claws and slashed her neck with its bone blade.

Danyla and the four young dragons fought the giant wolf pack and its formidable king, suffering wounds as they gradually overwhelmed their enemies. After Azure Scales’s dragonfire left the wolf king charred and weakened, Danyla approached to brand him with a blood pact.

• Red Claws, Black Armor, and Azure Scales attacked the wolf king, while Danyla struck him with her Valyrian steel sword’s flame slash.
• Danyla ordered the four young dragons to unleash dragonfire, tearing through the wolf pack, but the wolf king wounded Black Armor before Black Armor’s clubbed tail crippled him.
• The surviving wolves used the forest to ambush the dragons, who continued fighting despite their injuries as the wolf king returned to battle and badly wounded Azure Scales.
• Vermilion Claws, White Teeth, and Black Armor coordinated attacks on the wolf king, and Azure Scales engulfed him in electrically charged dragonfire.
• Danyla cut her palm and invoked a blood pact art, moving to brand the charred wolf king’s forehead with flaming runes.

Danyla strengthened her bond with the direwolf king and expanded his pack while Aurelion reported on Volantis and the region’s recovery. She laid out reforms to unify the Kingdom of Reclea and Holy Flame Island’s territories, warning Aurelion that their future enemies could come from across the world.

• Danyla completed a blood pact with the direwolf king, whose wounds healed and strength increased after receiving her blood essence.
• Danyla fed the direwolves sea monster carcasses, and the recovered wolf king helped her absorb nearby packs into his own.
• Aurelion arrived with Aegon and Aemond after reopening Dragonstone Avenue and reported on farmland recruitment, workshop production, and resettlement efforts.
• Danyla explained that Volantis required different policies because its people had lost their established livelihoods and were relying on relief.
• Danyla proposed abolishing feudalism, unifying currency and measures, and adopting Qi Yin’s refined Yi Ti-based language as the official language.
• Danyla stayed to help Aurelion carry out the reforms and warned him to prepare for threats from Slaver’s Bay, the Dothraki, the Summer Isles, and Westeros.

Danyla welcomed the children to the Smoke Sea Fortress and advised them on their restless great dragons, while the settlement and its surrounding trade routes expanded. As winter arrived, refugees and Free Folk were resettled, reforms were completed, and Dax returned to Danyla, who bore him a son and granted Cisland to Osirion.

• Danyla explained why she had stayed at the Smoke Sea Fortress and reassured the children that their great dragons would not leave if they stayed close and hunted with them.
• A hundred warships opened the fortress’s sea routes, and more than ten thousand Volantene criminals arrived to farm as exiles.
• Aurelion, Aegon, Aemond, and Rhaena completed the Baharasi Wall and Abaharasi City, while settlement and trade revived across the region.
• Lysandro unified the currency, weights, and measures of Westeros and the Kingdom of Reclea, and Qi Yin helped introduce a common continental script.
• As winter spread south, Danyla’s Free Folk settlers moved to the Smoke Sea Fortress, while the Wildlings who stayed behind were transferred to Cisland except for the Thenns.
• Dax returned, pursued Danyla until she bore their son Osirion, and Danyla granted Cisland to him.

Danyla established a fortified settlement around the Dragon-Taming Tower, where the transformed land supported abundant crops and livestock, while her children grew stronger and expanded their realms. When Ishys reported that a grain inspection had exposed nobles violating the law, Danyla upheld the penalties and warned Ishina to focus on preparing for winter rather than seeking more land.

• Danyla and Aurelion cleared the Dragon-Taming Tower, and the Second Legion built a fortress around it with the help of dragons and craftsmen.
• Danyla planted weirwoods and inscribed runes around the fortress, improving the water and surrounding environment as the Second Legion established farms.
• The first harvest yielded about twice the crops of other regions, and livestock born near the weirwoods grew larger and stopped producing malformed offspring.
• Rafa carried Hogras and the others across the Sunset Sea to hunt sea monsters, giving Danyla's children more experience riding dragons.
• Ishys told Danyla that inspectors had found thirteen earls and over a hundred lesser lords breaking grain laws, leading to the exile of four earls, sixty-three lesser lords, and their families.
• Ishina asked Danyla how the reclaimed lands would be distributed, and Danyla refused to grant her Acorn Hall while warning her to prepare her lands for winter.

As winter and the Long Night began, Danyla prepared to leave Cisland after strengthening its defenses and helping the North stock supplies. Dax stayed behind to rule and raise Osirion, while worsening cold disrupted trade and drove refugees from Lorath and Norvos into Andas and Rhoynar lands.

• Danyla inspected Rafa's dragon egg and warned Dax that winter and the Long Night might bring dangers despite Cisland's strong defenses.
• Dax promised to learn to govern and raise Osirion, whom the giants had already recognized as their Giant King.
• Winter buried the Frozen Shore, froze the Bay of Ice, and forced most of Bear Island's people to seek refuge at Oldstones.
• After years of worsening winter, Northern lords grew anxious as livestock dwindled and their grain stores ran low.
• Lorath and Norvos ran out of supplies, and Dothraki attacks devastated their caravans traveling toward Slaver's Bay.
• More than a hundred thousand refugees fled Lorath and Norvos for Andas and Rhoynar territory, where they were allowed to settle.

As winter devastated much of the world, Isilia prospered through rain, migration, and grain trade, while Ishys expanded the Kingdom of the Rhoynar by conquering Norvos. The chapter ended with Lorath surrendering and Ishys accepting some of its territory while offering aid to its people.

• Winter left much of Westeros and Essos starving, while Reclea’s cultivated lands supplied grain to neighboring kingdoms and Westeros.
• Daemon conquered Qarth and helped Isilia secure the Red Waste, where rain and newcomers fueled the kingdom’s growth.
• Isilia married Murong Zun, gave birth to Murong Huang, and named her heir; Daemon brought five dragon eggs for his granddaughter.
• Ishys marched on Norvos, where the lower city’s commoners welcomed her after its nobles abandoned them during winter.
• When Norvos’s bells disrupted Isalorn’s magic, Ishys stopped the dragon from attacking them and instead blasted open the upper city’s walls.
• Ishys annexed Norvos for the Kingdom of the Rhoynar, then accepted part of Lorath’s mainland and promised to help its people survive winter.

After Norvos fell, Qohor surrendered to Ishys, who founded the Andalos Kingdom and brought its people under unified rule. Meanwhile, Danyla’s kingdoms resettled refugees and weathered a severe winter, as the Seven Kingdoms Law and Central Bank reshaped the lords’ responsibilities and fortunes.

• Qohor’s nobles, facing winter hardship and the loss of their ally Norvos, sent Ishys a declaration of surrender three days after Norvos fell.
• Ishys accepted Qohor’s submission in exchange for five million Gold Dragons and weapons and equipment for ten thousand men, then proclaimed the Andalos Kingdom.
• The Andalos Kingdom distributed supplies during the winter, while remote communities gathered into towns and cities along the Rhoyne expanded.
• Reclea and Isilia took in refugees fleeing Slaver’s Bay, and Reclea resettled hundreds of thousands by year 126 of the Conqueror’s Calendar.
• Danyla coordinated winter relief from Holy Flame Island, while the Seven Kingdoms Law imposed penalties on lords whose people suffered excessive casualties.
• As the winter continued, lesser lords borrowed from the Central Bank, and wealth across the Seven Kingdoms flowed into it.

Omanrion's white dragon Mylar hatched, followed by many other dragons across the realm, while the four ancient eggs from Asshai remained unhatched. By 127, Danyla gave birth to Ilisa and decided she would have no more children, as House Targaryen's dragon numbers continued to grow.

• Omanrion's white dragon egg hatched into Mylar after Danyla used his blood to help him bond with the hatchling.
• Lann Lyon's and Ityla's nine-year-old eggs hatched into the golden Tabertan and red Tyratan, and Osirion's egg hatched into the aqua-blue, ice-and-fire dragon Titangor.
• Ovanrion worried that his ancient dragon egg had not hatched, but Danyla reassured him that a longer incubation could mean greater potential.
• Over the following year, House Targaryen's other dragon eggs hatched, bringing its dragon total to 119 besides the twenty-five that had flown away; the four Asshai eggs remained unhatched.
• In June of 127, Danyla gave birth to Ilisa, whose companion dragon was Aphrodite, and decided to have no more children.
• The High Septon feared the rising cost of dragon allowances, as the Faith of the Seven was already burdened with enormous loans and interest payments.

As the Long Winter began to ease, Rhaena died after giving birth, and Danyla investigated the circumstances before opposing Aurelion’s plan to make Teran Rhaena his queen. Danyla backed Helaena as his future queen, and Helaena bonded with Silverwing; the story left their marriage awaiting the end of Rhaena’s mourning period.

• Danyla flew to Volantis after Rhaena died in childbirth and discovered that Aurelion’s affair with Teran Rhaena had worsened Rhaena’s grief and anxiety.
• Aurelion asked Danyla to care for his son Aegon and proposed making Teran Rhaena his new queen, but Danyla rejected the plan on legal grounds.
• Danyla urged Aurelion to keep Teran Rhaena as a court lady and choose Helaena, the Holy Flame Temple’s holy maiden, as his queen.
• Three days later, Helaena bonded with Silverwing, and Danyla gave her a Valyrian steel sword named Moon Companion.
• Danyla trained Helaena in court etiquette and statecraft, while Helaena grew to love and respect her; Danyla expected Helaena to marry Aurelion after Rhaena’s year of mourning ended.

Danyla guided Helaena through spacetime, where they discovered the White Walkers had grown stronger and learned that dreams could affect reality. When they later searched for the future, Danyla found hostile demigods in the mist and declared that another Extreme Cold Long Night was coming.

• Danyla taught Helaena about ruling and showed her memories of House Targaryen’s struggles, but they encountered a vastly increased number of White Walkers near the Heart of Winter.
• Danyla used golden flames to escape with Helaena, then hurled her Valyrian steel sword Dawnlight into the Heart of Winter before returning to reality.
• Danyla recovered in the temple while Teran Rhaena brought Helaena clothes and jewelry from Aurelion, and the women shared a peaceful meal.
• As the long winter appeared to be ending, Danyla and Helaena entered the mists to investigate the future but found it obscured.
• Danyla used Proud Sun to set the mist ablaze, revealing a group of demigods who had joined forces against her.
• Danyla ordered that the Extreme Cold Long Night would return and commanded people to burn idols of the heretical faiths to survive.

A white raven delivered Queen Danyla’s warning that extreme cold and the Long Night were approaching, ending Highgarden’s spring celebration and forcing its nobles to prepare. Margaery and Vermond clashed with Duke Tyrell over who would manage the response as the chapter contrasted the Reach’s depleted stores with Danyla’s realms’ careful rationing and expanding school system.

• Duke Tyrell celebrated the end of the long winter and the birth of his son Garth while Vermond and Margaery remained sidelined in Highgarden.
• Nobles praised the unusually strong fertility of people, livestock, and crops as signs of Garth Greenhand’s blessing.
• A white raven delivered Queen Danyla’s warning that extreme cold and the Long Night were coming, and Margaery read it to the assembled nobles.
• The nobles abandoned the feast to prepare for the coming cold, while Duke Tyrell ordered Margaery to arrange matters and Vermond challenged his authority.
• Margaery warned that stored supplies were running low across much of Westeros, while Danyla’s territories continued rationing food and expanding schools.

Islyn visited Iseryn at Lonely Mountain Castle, where the sisters discussed winter food shortages and the price of aid for Winterfell before agreeing to help form a Royal Legion. Across the realm, strange creatures and old ambitions stirred in Dorne, while Danyla sent dragonriders to hunt and brought young dragons to the Smoking Sea fortress.

• Islyn visited Iseryn at Lonely Mountain Castle and discussed how winter had strained their food supplies and forced Iseryn to hunt sea beasts.
• Iseryn demanded control of a stretch of Wolfswood in exchange for helping Winterfell, but Islyn challenged her motives and failed to persuade her.
• Iseryn told Islyn that their mother had ordered ten thousand young people to form the Tenth Royal Legion and help the Night's Watch defend the Wall, and Islyn agreed to assist.
• Former Dornish nobles secretly formed spiritual contracts with powerful creatures as ancient faiths revived, while Holy Flame Island's guards and inspectors ignored the developments.
• Danyla ordered Dragon Warriors to hunt in nearby seas to feed their growing Great Dragons and personally took fifty young dragons to the Smoking Sea fortress.

Danyla explained to Helaena that the gods manipulated the climate to exploit humanity’s faith, then defended them from five giant sea snakes with Dreamfyre and Silverwing. After returning to the Dragon-Taming Tower with the slain monsters, the dragonkeepers processed their valuable remains while young dragons and mutated animals continued to thrive.

• Danyla told Helaena that the gods were powerful beings seeking faith and urged her not to entrust her fate to them.
• Danyla sensed sea creatures approaching and used Proud Sun to block their water attacks, revealing five enormous horned sea snakes.
• Danyla and Dreamfyre attacked the sea snakes, while Helaena and Silverwing joined the fight and helped kill all five.
• Danyla and Helaena returned to the Dragon-Taming Tower, where dragonkeepers carried away the sea snake carcasses for processing.
• The young dragons continued growing on magical-creature meat, while mutated beasts and Danyla’s wolf pack multiplied rapidly.

Otheryon secured Great Morak Island’s rich farmlands and trade port, then patrolled its forests as magical beasts multiplied and spread toward human settlements. When Stone Bull calves began breathing fire and killing their mothers, he destroyed the island’s temples and used Cannibal and blood sacrifices to suppress the cult, leaving both him and the dragon more powerful.

• Otheryon seized Pharos City and, over the following months, occupied Great Morak Island and took control of Morak Port.
• Otheryon built the Dragonstone Aqueduct to carry water from Great Morak Island across Qarth and the Red Waste.
• Otheryon rode Cannibal through the southeastern forests and began killing magical beasts that threatened human territory.
• White Giant-Horned Yellow Cattle began giving birth to fire-breathing calves, intensifying the islanders’ worship of the Stone Bull.
• Otheryon ordered the Stone Bull temples destroyed, turned their statues into dragonstone, and sacrificed mutated cattle and frenzied worshippers at Cremation Towers.
• Otheryon and Cannibal absorbed the sacrifices’ energy, and the islanders were left to accept the destruction of their faith.

The Thenns and the remaining Wildlings beyond the Wall struggled through the worsening winter, while Volna’s Spearwives fled Hardhome for Skane Island after male tribesmen abducted hundreds of their women. As more than two thousand pursuers overwhelmed the Spearwives, two dragons roared overhead.

• The Thenns used the Cremation Tower at the Fist of the First Men to burn ancient corpses, warming Dragonstone Fortress and restoring its greenhouse.
• Vovna told Volna that hunters’ clothes had been found among the Cannibal Tribe, and urged her to seek refuge with the Scythians on Skane Island.
• Volna refused to submit to the Dragon Queen and told the Spearwives to hunt in larger groups and stay alert.
• Thousands of Wildlings stormed the Spearwives’ fortress and abducted hundreds of girls, forcing Volna, Vovna, and about five hundred survivors to flee across the frozen bay.
• More than two thousand male Wildlings caught the fleeing Spearwives, and Volna led the defense with her beasts as the women’s formation began to collapse.
• Two piercing dragon roars sounded above the battle.

Iseryn and Islyn rescued Volna and the Spearwives, then hunted the Shivering Sea’s increasingly enormous sea beasts. After the sisters captured a whale nearly seventy meters long, strange multicolored auroras appeared over the Far North.

• Skeld and Veldrak defeated the Wildlings who had attacked Volna, and Iseryn and Islyn had their dead burned to ash.
• Iseryn escorted Volna and the Spearwives to Skane Island, where the Scythian Female Soldiers welcomed them and shared food and shelter.
• Iseryn and Islyn noticed that fish and sea beasts were growing more numerous and unusually large, and they hunted them for several days.
• Northeast of Braavos, Iseryn and Islyn attacked an enormous whale, and Skeld and Veldrak brought it down after it blasted Veldrak with a towering jet of water.
• The sisters hauled the exhausted whale to Skane Island, and multicolored auroras appeared over the Far North that night.

A brilliant aurora unleashed a surge of magical energy that transformed dragons and stirred strange powers across the world. As dragons and Ozarion were drawn toward the Far North or Valyria, Danyla found the young dragons gathering in the ruins and trusted they would be safe there.

• Islyn and Iseryn felt their magic surge as the aurora appeared, while Skedrala and Veldrak grew to nearly forty meters after devouring the giant whale and receiving the sisters’ Blood Sacrifice Song.
• Hogdera burned the statues in Braavos, absorbed their flame-shapes with his Fire-Devouring Ability, and flew north to hunt in the Shivering Sea.
• Ozarion’s body and Valyrian Steel Sword erupted in purple flames, and he slipped away from his guards to cross the frozen sea toward the Far North.
• Danyla saw dark clouds gather over Volantis as Chixiao’s statue and the dragons at the Holy Flame Temple absorbed the rising magical energy.
• The Valyria Ruins’ volcanoes scattered the dark clouds and approaching hurricanes, while young dragons from several dragonpits flew there over the following days.
• Danyla flew to Valyria on Rafa and, seeing the dragons gathered in the ruins, decided they would be safe and grow stronger there.

As the Long Night and Great Deluge devastated the world, Danyla struggled to manage food shortages and unrest while searching for the source of the disaster. She suspected it lay in the sea, and set out with Rafa and Dreamfyre as Myracis joined them and revealed her seven Dragon Eggs.

• Danyla read reports that only twenty-one Great Dragons remained and heard that Reclea faced severe pressure to feed the kingdoms.
• Danyla ordered the Small Council to suppress unrest and sent Senylla and Sevan to guard Goldmine City, while Great Dragons patrolled the Seven Kingdoms and hunted sea beasts.
• Danyla searched the world through the Weirwood and concluded that the source of the Great Deluge was probably beyond the lands covered by Weirwoods, perhaps in the sea.
• Danyla flew toward the Sunset Sea with Rafa and Dreamfyre, and Myracis joined them near Crackclaw Point.
• Danyla learned that Myracis had laid seven unusually large, colorful Dragon Eggs, collected them, and continued toward Otheryon City.

Danyla investigated the strange magical forces behind the storms and found that killing enormous beasts could restore warmth and calm the rain. She destroyed a giant whale and attacked a Storm God blood sacrifice at Shipbreaker Bay, where a gigantic crow phantom appeared in the flames.

• Danyla gave Oserion one of Myracis's Dragon Eggs and warned pregnant Lara to flee to Holy Flame Island if Otheryon City became unsafe.
• Danyla rode Rafa through the clouds and sensed abnormal magical energy connected to the sun's stolen power.
• Danyla and Rafa, Dreamfyre, and Myracis burned an ancient giant whale in the Sunset Sea, clearing nearby clouds and easing the rain.
• Danyla found impoverished people sacrificing young girls and giant crows to the Storm God at Shipbreaker Bay.
• Danyla ordered Rafa to attack the crowd, while Myracis destroyed the wooden crow and Danyla cut the girls' bonds with her sword.
• A gigantic crow phantom appeared in the burning wooden crow and called Danyla a heretic.

Danyla destroyed the Storm God, strengthened her Great Dragons, and helped the people of Westeros recover as the storms eased. When a deadly plague devastated White Harbor, she performed a Funeral Rite for the dead, and Rafa sensed unusual magical energy that Danyla went to investigate.

• Danyla commanded Rafa and Myracis to swallow the Storm God’s manifestation, absorbing the energy he had gathered and ending his attempt to return.
• Danyla rescued the Storm God’s intended victims and brought them to Storm’s End; the storms over the Stormlands began to subside, and people turned from the Storm God to Danyla and the Great Dragons.
• Danyla hunted magical beasts across the Sunset Sea for more than a month, bringing food to the Seven Kingdoms and helping her Great Dragons grow stronger.
• A plague killed a fifth of White Harbor’s population in fewer than ten days, including Earl Manderly and many of his family, leaving Torrhen and his cousins to hold the city together.
• Danyla burned White Harbor’s dead in a Funeral Rite, and the resulting energy made the gem atop the Cremation Tower radiate warmth.
• Rafa detected unusual magical energy nearby, and Danyla led her Great Dragons toward its source.