Chapter Summaries

Patirius’s fleet was ambushed in the Sunset Sea by Stepstones pirates and the combined fleet of the Kingdom of the Three Daughters. The battle turned into brutal close combat, leaving House Patirius’s fate uncertain.

• Patirius assured his children that their three petrified dragon eggs would hatch and restore House Patirius.
• A fleet of eighty or ninety Stepstones pirate ships appeared, and Patirius ordered his fleet to prepare for battle.
• The Purple Fleet’s catapults damaged pirate ships, but a fleet of the Kingdom of the Three Daughters attacked from behind and killed Patirius’s commander with a ballista bolt.
• Patirius’s captains reorganized the fleet and counterattacked with catapults and flaming arrows, while the enemy ballistae and stormy weather weakened their defenses.
• The pirates closed alongside Patirius’s ships and boarded them, starting bloody hand-to-hand fighting between pirates and mercenaries.

Krahas Dahar’s Triarchy fleet turned on the Patirius fleet and the Stepstones pirates after they had fought each other, while Markris escaped with captured ships. A second Triarchy fleet arrived and the storm worsened, leaving the remaining forces trapped under a devastating assault.

• Krahas Dahar ordered his fleet to stop firing ballistae and wait for the Patirius fleet and pirates to weaken each other before attacking them with arrows.
• Markris captured more than a dozen Patirius ships while his pirates fought the mercenaries, then joined the battle against the Triarchy when Krahas’s fleet attacked both sides.
• The Patirius mercenaries and Stepstones pirates united against the Triarchy fleet, but Krahas ordered his ships to form up and prepare to board.
• Markris warned his men to retreat and escaped with fifteen captured three-masted ships when another Triarchy fleet appeared to the north.
• Krahas’s forces battered the Patirius fleet and the Blood Skull Fleet with ballista bolts and arrows as the storm intensified.

The Purple Fleet and the pirates fought the Triarchy’s fleet, using flaming arrows, ballistae, and dragonfire before the enemy boarded their ships. As Patirius and his family prayed over three dragon eggs, a storm gathered and the defenders’ forts fell into bloody close combat.

• The mercenary commander ordered flaming arrows and dragonfire launched at the Triarchy fleet, setting many enemy ships ablaze and damaging their ballistae.
• Patirius led his family in praying over three dragon eggs, and several core Pattirios family members felt a power awakening in their blood.
• A fierce storm gathered as the Triarchy fleet boarded the Purple Fleet’s ships and thousands of mercenaries attacked the defenders.
• After more than two hours of fighting, the Purple Fleet’s supplies ran out, and the Triarchy mercenaries captured many outer forts.
• Pirates and mercenaries fought hand to hand across the decks, with both sides inflicting heavy casualties.

The Purple Fleet attacked the weakened Triarchy, Stepstones pirates, and Pattirios forces, driving the three into an alliance. Dragonfire unexpectedly ignited and detonated across the Purple Fleet, leaving half its ships destroyed and the battle engulfed in green flames.

• The bloodthirsty Triarchy, pirate, and Pattirios forces spotted the approaching Purple Fleet and stopped fighting each other.
• Prince Krahas Dahar realized the three forces had to unite, while Augusta Otherys ordered the Purple Fleet to destroy them all.
• The Purple Fleet bombarded the allied fleet with boulders and dragonfire, and the allies rowed forward to board its ships.
• The allies broke into the Purple Fleet's bastions, where a pirate's charge triggered an explosion of wildfire crates.
• Green flames set off further explosions, destroying half the Purple Fleet as the fire spread across the sea.

Green dragonfire devastated the four fleets, while the prayers of Pattirios drew power into their three dragon eggs. As sea monsters attacked the survivors, Lord Otherys fled with the Purple Fleet’s cargo, and a vast shadow swept through the clouds.

• Green dragonfire destroyed thousands of warriors and most ships, while the dying formed power that flowed toward Pattirios’s three dragon eggs.
• Augusta surveyed his shattered fleet, and the Triarchy and Stepstones pirates gathered their few surviving ships as the four forces rescued survivors.
• A roar announced sea monsters drawn by the bloodshed, and their tentacles seized people and smashed ships.
• Lord Otherys refused to sacrifice his cargo and ordered the Purple Fleet to row for the Stepstones while the other survivors drew the monsters’ attention.
• As the storm began to disperse, an enormous shadow raced through the clouds.

A mysterious Great Dragon destroyed the three sea monsters, while the battered fleets fled the battlefield. The Earl of Tarth captured the Purple Fleet, the Pattirios fleet, and the surviving pirates, bringing the entire Stepstones under Danyla's control.

• Seasmoke carried Saewan away from the battlefield, and a pitch-black Great Dragon arrived and devoured or drove off all three sea monsters.
• The four forces withdrew after suffering devastating losses as the storm faded and the sea grew calm.
• Saewan reported to the Earl of Tarth that the Purple Fleet, the Pattirios fleet, and surviving pirates were sailing for the Stepstones, while the Three Kingdoms Alliance fleet returned to Lys.
• The Earl of Tarth revealed that his men had destroyed the Triarchy's and pirates' bases in the Stepstones while the fleets were away.
• With Seasmoke's help, the Earl of Tarth captured the three returning fleets, seizing ships, prisoners, workers, and valuable cargo.
• Danyla gained control of the entire Stepstones.

Danyla returned to Holy Flame Island, where Samwell updated her on the delayed Cremation Tower projects and toured her through the island’s treasuries. After demonstrating that she could inscribe Bronze Runes onto armor, she left with her wealth and the island’s growing role as a trade and research hub in view.

• Danyla returned to Holy Flame Island, instructed Samwell, and learned that House Tyrell and House Lannister had paid deposits for Cremation Towers, which she told them to wait for.
• Samwell showed Danyla the completed cliffside treasuries, which contained vast wealth, weapons, Magic Gems, goods, and Dragonfire Wine.
• Danyla sent Samwell and the others away and inscribed Bronze Runes onto an ordinary suit of armor, sensing magical energy gather around it.
• Danyla toured the remaining storehouses and assessed her wealth at around a billion gold dragons, excluding her great dragons and Valyrian steel weapons.
• Danyla’s plans centered Holy Flame Island on trade and advanced research as production shifted to Oldtown, Sunhouse Castle, Cisland, and the North.

Danyla sheltered from a long storm in the Mountains of the Moon with Dreamfyre, Myracis, and the dragon hatchlings. As they prepared to leave for Braavos, deep roars from several powerful dragons sounded in the mountains, and Danyla ordered Dreamfyre to hurry away.

• Danyla left Holy Flame Island with Myracis and the hatchlings, expecting Saewan’s Stepstones plan to succeed and prepare the way for her to occupy the island chain.
• The hatchlings hunted fish during the flight, while Dreamfyre and Myracis joined them in feeding.
• Danyla took the dragons to a mountain cave to shelter from a storm, calmed the frightened hatchlings, and shared her jerky with them.
• After the storm passed, Danyla prepared to resume the journey to Braavos, but several deep dragon roars sounded from the Mountains of the Moon.
• Danyla ordered Dreamfyre to leave quickly rather than investigate the dragons with the hatchlings in tow.

Danyla returned to Braavos and hosted Sealord Utherys and the great families for dinner, where they offered islands and five million Gold Dragons as compensation. She accepted their gifts but raised the danger of the person who had hired the Faceless Men, leaving the gathering under pressure to address the unresolved threat.

• Danyla reached Braavos and learned that the Sealord had repeatedly asked to meet her, while Ser Cameron had taken thirty ships to Lorath to buy supplies.
• Danyla invited the Sealord and the great families to dinner aboard the Danyla and ordered her guards to feed the hungry dragons.
• Sealord Utherys presented Danyla with deeds to Pattirios family islands and Iron Bank redemption notes worth five million Gold Dragons.
• Danyla accepted the gifts after Utherys framed them as thanks and an honor for Braavos.
• Danyla warned Utherys and the gathered families that the Faceless Men’s employer might still be hiding among them and threatened everyone’s safety.

Danyla used the banquet meant to appease her to pressure Braavos over the ruined House of Black and White and expose the conflict between the Sealord’s faction and its rivals. She left with five million Gold Dragons and a foothold in Braavos, while Otherys and his allies feared what she might do next.

• Danyla warned Braavos that the destruction of the House of Black and White had left the city vulnerable and that accepting gifts would not settle the matter.
• Utherys agreed with Danyla and criticized corruption in the Purple Fleet, prompting Governor Antaryon and Utherys’s allies to join in.
• The accusations revealed that Governor Otherys’s allied houses had taken control of part of the Purple Fleet and pocketed its missing profits.
• Governor Otherys stopped the dispute from escalating and redirected the gathering toward its original purpose of appeasing Danyla.
• Danyla secured five million Gold Dragons and a foothold in Braavos, while Utherys’s faction prepared to regain control and Otherys’s allies grew uneasy.

Danyla secured and fortified three islands near Braavos, then sent Cameron to the Stepstones as the Triarchy arrived to accuse Braavos’s Purple Fleet of attacking its ships. At the Palace of Truth, Governor Otherys and Sealord Utherys challenged the accusations and demanded that the Triarchy wait for the Purple Fleet’s return.

• Danyla moved the Holy Flame Fleet to the three islands, renovated their dock, built two fortresses, and named the islands Hogland, Dr aland, and Rasland.
• Cameron returned from Lorath, then Danyla sent him with more than seventy ships to the Stepstones to meet the Earl of Tarth and take control of the region.
• Prince Khalas Har arrived in Braavos with the Triarchy’s delegation and accused Augusta of the Otherys of commanding the Purple Fleet’s attack.
• Governor Otherys denied Khalas’s account and accused the Triarchy of joining Stepstones pirates to plunder the Pattirios fleet.
• Sealord Utherys said Braavos would wait for the Purple Fleet’s return to establish the truth and threatened to pursue anyone who fabricated accusations against Braavos.

Danyla supported the Sanctuary of the Blessed in Braavos and discovered a new carving of the goddess of desire made by Lysandro. Lysandro told her the legends of Aphrodite and Adonis, ending with the origins of red roses and the Tears of Lys.

• Danyla hunted enormous sea beasts in the Shivering Sea while Dreamfyre stayed away from the dangerous northern waters.
• Danyla made Hogdera’s pit into a dragon lair and arranged funds, education, and shelter for children at the Sanctuary of the Blessed.
• Danyla hired artists to restore the stories of forgotten deities and dedicated the Sanctuary’s central pillar, called the Gods, to their images.
• Danyla found a carving of a beautiful goddess wreathed in roses and recognized her as the goddess of desire of Lys.
• Lysandro explained the legends of Aphrodite, her love for Adonis, his death, and the origins of red roses and the Tears of Lys.

Danyla invited Lisandro Rogare to paint the Sanctuary of the Blessed and declared that it would relieve suffering, shelter the vulnerable, and promote virtue. Larel introduced her to Lecia, leader of the Scythians, whom Danyla had asked to teach the children the Water Dance.

• Danyla invited Lisandro Rogare to create murals and ceiling paintings depicting forgotten deities for the Sanctuary of the Blessed.
• Danyla declared that the sanctuary would relieve suffering, shelter the vulnerable, and promote virtue.
• Lisandro warned Giovanni Rogare not to rely on Princess Danyla's influence to advance House Rogare's business.
• Giovanni sent Lisandro to seek stories and helpers among the scholars and artists in the flooded district.
• Larel introduced Lecia, leader of the Scythians and a former Water Dancer, to Danyla as a potential instructor for the sanctuary's children.
• The chapter described the Scythians' history, traditions, and dwindling population in Braavos.

Danyla offered Lecia three possible territories for the Scythians, and Lecia chose Skane Island as a base for fighting the Free Folk. After settling the Scythians on Hogland Island temporarily, Danyla began training with Lecia and saw changes in magical energy among herself and the children.

• Danyla presented Lecia with Skane Island, Moat Cailin, and the Cisland Peninsula as possible homes for the Scythians.
• Lecia chose Skane Island, explaining that the Scythians needed the challenge of war to remain strong and could fight the scattered Free Folk beyond the Wall.
• Danyla agreed to settle the Scythians on Hogland Island until Skane Island was ready, and Lecia pledged the Scythians' allegiance to Danyla and her descendants.
• Lysandro brought red and white roses to plant in the garden behind the Sanctuary of the Blessed.
• Danyla supplied the Scythians with housing, servants, horses, and weapons, while Lecia began training the children and teaching Danyla the Water Dance.
• After a week of Water Dance practice, Danyla noticed changes in her fire-aspected magical energy and faint water-aspected energy in several gifted children.

Walda learned that the Scythians’ Water Dance was said to come from a Giant Turtle, while Danyla practiced the dance and studied the magical energy around the Dragonpit. The Scythians continued training and settling into life at the Sanctuary of the Blessed as its Godswood flourished.

• Walda improved quickly at the Water Dance and broke through to skinchange into her falcon.
• Lecia told Walda that Scythian ancestors had learned the Water Dance from a Giant Turtle, and Walda wondered if it was the Old Man of the River.
• Lecia dismissed the deity as a legend and credited the Scythians’ survival to their own strength, while Walda argued that Danyla’s powers showed that supernatural forces existed.
• Danyla practiced the Water Dance beneath the weirwood and sensed magical energy flowing into her, while recognizing that the Faceless Men’s techniques differed from the dance.
• Watcher’s weirwood saplings and other trees thrived in the Godswood as its soil improved, and Luka grew attached to Danyla and learned to understand ordinary conversation.

Danyla monitored the turmoil around High Heart and the growing threat of a possible dragon in the Mountains of the Moon while her forces salvaged vast treasures from the Stepstones. The Stepstones were fortified and brought back under the Seven Kingdoms’ control, while Saewan headed to Braavos with prisoners and evidence that threatened to spark new unrest.

• Danyla kept watch on House Brinley’s near-destruction and sent Jeyne and Dorea Sand’s warg sisters to investigate the Mountains of the Moon for a dragon.
• Saewan and the Earl of Tarth salvaged treasure, ships, and Valyrian steel from the Purple Fleet and the vanished Pattirios family’s fleet.
• Samwell and White Sheep Town’s officials spent days cataloguing the enormous haul, while Augusta confessed that House Otherys had helped plunder the Pattirios fleet.
• Saewan sailed to Braavos with Augusta and other prisoners, carrying letters and confessions implicating Governor Otherys.
• The Earl of Tarth, Markris, and their allies built defenses across the Stepstones and defeated the pirates’ attempt to retake the islands.
• The Stepstones returned to the Seven Kingdoms after the Earl of Tarth’s forces established control over the islands.

Danyla expanded the Sanctuary of the Blessed and discovered that worshippers’ faith gathered magical energy around its statues, including the dragons. Saewan arrived in Braavos with evidence against the governors, and Sealord Utherys faced pressure to decide House Otherys’s fate.

• Danyla noticed magical energy gathering around the Sanctuary’s most popular deities and added dragon statues carved with runes, which also began attracting energy.
• Saewan and his companions arrived in Braavos, and he presented Sealord Utherys with Augusta’s confession and letters exposing the governors’ plot.
• Governor Otherys admitted his crimes, claimed responsibility for the forged letters, and asked that Pallych and Tedeus’s houses be spared.
• Governor Tedeus negotiated the return of his family’s daughters and dowries, while Governor Pallych’s son stopped him from objecting.
• Sealord Utherys considered how to punish Otherys, knowing the governor’s actions had won public sympathy and had not directly harmed Braavos.

Danyla challenged Governor Otherys in the Palace of Truth and left Braavos’s internal punishment to the Sealord while demanding answers for the attacks on her and the theft of her dragon eggs. When Utherys offered compensation, Danyla countered by demanding a five-percent stake in the Iron Bank and two hundred purple-sailed ships in exchange for stationing dragons in Braavos.

• Danyla accused Governor Otherys of plotting to endanger Braavos and demanded answers for the Faceless Men's assassination attempts and the theft of House Targaryen's dragon eggs.
• Danyla left the Palace of Truth and told Sealord Utherys to handle House Otherys, while Saewan demanded ransom for Augusta and the other prisoners.
• The next day, Danyla rejected Utherys's offer of the Pattirios palace, lands, and ten million gold dragons, demanding a five-percent Iron Bank stake and two hundred purple-sailed ships instead.
• Governor Antaryon called Danyla's demand impossible, while Governor Prestan and Governor Plainerliss argued that Braavos's houses could provide the stake in return for dragon protection.
• Larel reminded the governors that Danyla wanted dividends only and would not participate in managing the Iron Bank.

Patirius accused Braavos's Purple Fleet of destroying his family, prompting the Council to order the return of the Pattirios family's holdings and award him compensation for its Iron Bank shares. House Pallych and House Tedeus lost their standing among the Thirteen Great Houses and could no longer keep their governorships.

• Larel warned Governor Oriel that House Oriel should avoid offending Danyla while seeking a place among the Ten Great Houses.
• Danyla learned about House Frell and House Unfas from Lecia and agreed to receive their leaders.
• The Council fined House Tedeus and another family ten million Gold Dragons each and confiscated some of their Iron Bank shares over their involvement with the Otherys family.
• Saewan brought Patirius to the Palace of Truth, where Patirius accused the Purple Fleet of destroying the Pattirios family.
• Sealord Utherys voided the sales of Pattirios holdings and ordered the Otherys family, House Pallych, and House Tedeus to pay Patirius Iron Bank drafts worth sixty-three million iron coins.
• The other Nine Great Houses and House Frell and House Unfas supported Utherys's ruling, leaving House Pallych and House Tedeus without their rank or governorships.

Danyla secured compensation and political influence in Braavos after the fall of House Otherys, while House Unfas, House Frell, and Patirius rose among the city’s governors. The chapter ended with Danyla accepting Braavos’s settlement but insisting that its three hundred Purple Sails remain under the Purple Fleet’s unified command.

• Patirius gave his recovered holdings to Danyla and pledged himself to her, and she let him stay at her side and provided dragonfire and Water Dance training to improve his health.
• Danyla moved into the Pattirios palace, while Patirius received Iron Bank drafts worth sixty-five million gold dragons and transferred holdings to House Frell and House Unfas to help them become governors.
• The Palace of Truth confiscated House Otherys’s assets and expelled the family from Braavos, and a mysterious cold wave froze them to death before their boat reached Moroshi.
• House Unfas and House Frell became governor’s houses, and Patirius was elected governor again as Braavos’s thirteen great families were reshaped.
• Sealord Utherys offered Danyla four percent of the Iron Bank’s shares, three hundred Purple Sails, two island chains for dragon pasture, and daily livestock for her dragon.
• Danyla accepted Braavos’s terms but demanded that the three hundred Purple Sails stay under the Purple Fleet’s unified command.