Arc 5Chapters 101–125
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Danyla argued that she should travel to Oldtown on Dreamfyre to bring the Hightowers to King's Landing, despite the council's concerns about the danger. When Grand Maester Runeter defended House Hightower, she accused him and the Citadel of compromised loyalties and scheming to control dragons, until he spat blood and collapsed unconscious.
After Danyla’s outburst about the Citadel, Jaehaerys and the Small Council grew wary of its influence. The chapter explained how House Hightower built and funded the Citadel, Faith, and Hightower, leaving its long-standing network of wealth and information firmly in place.
After the Small Council meeting, Danyla warned Jaehaerys about the Citadel and was ordered to bring House Hightower members and a new Grand Maester from Oldtown. She then took Jaehaerys to the Dragonpit to attempt hatching a dragon egg, where a captive white-haired young man claimed to be the king’s bastard son, Ulf.
Danyla and King Jaehaerys burned the Faceless Man, Ulf, and Grand Maester Runeter on a pyre, but the flames revealed that Danyla was unharmed by fire. Immersed in visions of the past, she discovered the dragon Urrax and ended the chapter holding Urrax’s reddish-brown Dragon Egg in the flames.
Danyla hatched a copper-red dragon from a petrified egg after her visions triggered her to breathe fire. King Jaehaerys named the hatchling Urrax and warned Danyla never to explore Old Valyria.
Danyla escorted King Jaehaerys back to the Red Keep after their secret visit to Holy Flame Island, where he introduced the hatchling Urrax. The next morning, Danyla asked for more dragon eggs, while Daemon revealed that the three eggs stolen by Mund Hightower had vanished among the Stepstones pirates.
Daemon reported on the Kingdom of the Three Daughters and the Stepstones, while Jaehaerys decided to watch their conflict and deal with Braavos after House Hightower. Danyla recovered four fossilized dragon eggs on Dragonstone, gathered nine dragons, and departed for Tarth before heading to Oldtown to confront House Hightower.
Danyla led nine dragons on a high-speed flight over the Narrow Sea, while Seasmoke joined the pursuit and Laenor panicked as he watched him go. The dragons reached Sharp Point as a storm gathered over the sea.
Danyla sought shelter from a storm at Stonedance, where she was welcomed by Lucifer and Earl Gormon Massey. While Danyla waited through the storm, Gormon’s wife gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl.
At Stonedance, Danyla helped Earl Massey’s wife deliver twins and gave the newborns precious gifts. After the storm cleared, Seasmoke tried to take sheep before Danyla gave the order, and her dragons attacked him, leaving his wings badly injured before she stopped them.
Danyla and the dragons left Massey's Hook after celebrating the birth of Earl Massey's children, Robin and Elena, whom Danyla named. On the flight to Tarth, the dragons fished in the calm sea, and the group arrived at the Isle of Sapphire.
Danyla visited House Tarth, where young Brienne met Myracis and the household welcomed her. After drinking and falling asleep beside the moonlit sea, Danyla dreamed of a prophecy warning that the dragon had three heads and that darkness would rise from the ocean.
After a dragon dream left Danyla gravely ill, Myracis burned a pale blue presence out of her shadow and she recovered. Danyla then arrived at Oldtown, where her dragons destroyed the garden beside the Hightower, and she began to feel sick again near a greasy black stone at its base.
Danyla arrived at the Hightower, where she sensed powerful magic in its blackstone and met Earl Hightower and his family. As the Hightowers prepared to go to King's Landing, she demanded two hundred thousand gold dragons per person for the dragon ride.
Danyla pressured Earl Hightower into accepting the royal family’s demands and securing seven million Gold Dragons for the Holy Flame Fleet. While exploring Oldtown in disguise, she reached the Sailors' Sept and heard a hostile crowd denouncing her and defending House Hightower.
Danyla countered House Hightower’s campaign against her by using her dragons to kill septons who were inciting crowds, then turned the people’s anger toward the Hightowers. She and the Watcher staged two more attacks as they moved on to other gatherings.
Danyla and Ygr used Watcher's hallucinogenic drug and staged provocations to turn Oldtown's crowds against House Hightower and the Starry Sept. Tens of thousands converged on both targets, and Ygr led the attack on the Starry Sept as the mob overwhelmed its defenders.
Under the Watcher's drug, the Oldtown mob overwhelmed and killed the septons defending the Starry Sept, while the bishops barricaded themselves inside. As the mob began battering the doors, a blaze lit the sky near the Hightower.
Earl Hightower scrambled to protect the dragons as rioters stormed the Weirwood garden, where Danyla began a sacrificial incantation. Nine dragons unleashed their fire on the crowd and absorbed a strange energy from the dead, while Himolos and the others began eating the corpses to gain more of it.
Danyla’s dragons burned through the rioters as mercenaries looted Oldtown and her forces seized the River-Locking Towers. At the docks, disguised mercenaries boarded Pentoshi merchant ships, where a scrawny soldier dropped a Jeweled Whip.
Rogue and his mercenaries seized merchant ships by turning their enslaved guards against their owners, expanding their force and capturing valuable weapons. At a hidden inn, a veiled woman forced the Pentoshi spice merchants to sign enormous promissory notes, offering valuable intelligence as a way to repay their debts.
Danyla led the dragons in crushing Oldtown’s riots, then turned Dreamfyre on Hobart Hightower and his forces when they approached her. After the slaughter, the dragons grew stronger by consuming the dead, and Danyla flew toward Earl Hightower’s room as he fled.
Danyla plundered House Hightower’s wealth and records while her followers forced merchants and foreign nobles in Oldtown to sign debts and unequal contracts. As the chaos spread, Lisandro Rogare persuaded his father to approach Danyla’s fleet for help.
Danyla searched the Hightower for Earl Hightower and confronted him and his family in the Septon's Hall. She accused House Hightower of exploiting the unrest against her, and Earl Hightower agreed to pay any price as she proposed discussing the matter further.
Danyla negotiated House Hightower’s surrender of wealth, control over Oldtown’s defenses, and most dock-tax revenue in exchange for the family’s protection and continued place in Oldtown. Earl Hightower signed her agreement, leaving House Hightower under the Crown’s growing control.