Chapter Summaries

Danyla urged the Citadel’s leaders to expand its reach by establishing branches across the Seven Kingdoms, despite their concerns about the scarcity of qualified teachers. After learning about the glass candles and Archmaester Galvin’s blindness, she challenged the archmaesters to spread knowledge before it was lost.

• Seneschal Waghram suggested that Danyla give a lecture at the Citadel, and she praised the importance of knowledge and the Citadel’s role in advancing the Seven Kingdoms.
• Danyla proposed establishing Citadel branches in King's Landing, on Holy Flame Island, and eventually in every major city, while Vaegon mocked her idea and Waghram explained the shortage of teachers and resources.
• Waghram and Archmaester Galvin showed Danyla the glass candle room and described the acolytes’ vigil and the candles’ mysterious properties.
• Danyla recognized Archmaester Galvin from her vision, asked about his Valyrian steel chain and whether he had lit a glass candle, and heard that lighting one had cost him his sight.
• Danyla praised practical learning and urged the archmaesters to expand the Citadel and preserve and spread knowledge.

Danyla pressured the Citadel to accept two new branches, promising to fund them while warning that she would not tolerate obstruction. She learned about the Citadel’s Astronomical Telescope and inspected it, hoping to assess its usefulness while dragonriding.

• Danyla proposed funding two Citadel branches and insisted the doctors appoint branch heads and teachers, while Vaegon objected to her involvement.
• Ormond revealed that House Hightower had agreed to fund the Citadel from Oldtown’s harbor taxes under Danyla’s arrangement.
• Waggo Wagram and Vaegon defended the Citadel’s independence, but Danyla argued that establishing the branches would benefit future generations.
• Danyla mentioned the Astronomical Telescope, surprising Doctor Waghram, who then led her to see it atop a tall tower.
• Danyla tested the telescope and found that it could clearly reveal people aboard ships dozens of li away.

Princess Danyla challenged the Citadel's resistance to her proposals and visited Rookery Island with Vaegon, where she examined the Citadel's white ravens. The chapter left her at the white raven nest, where she learned that the Citadel used the birds only to announce seasonal changes.

• Danyla asked Doctor Waghram to make telescopes for the Red Keep and Holy Flame Castle, but he argued that the expense was unjustified while commoners suffered.
• Danyla countered Waghram's objections by defending her rule and urging the Citadel to use its knowledge for the people's benefit, warning that another organization could replace it.
• Danyla greeted Maester Raven and invited Vaegon to walk with her around Rookery Island.
• Myracis flew toward the island's weirwood, scattering the roosting ravens and crows.
• Danyla followed Maester Raven to the White Raven Nest and learned that the Citadel's white ravens carried news of seasonal changes.

Danyla visited Rookery Island, where Riven showed her the white raven chicks he had successfully hatched using her techniques. After collecting twelve newly laid eggs and learning about raven care, Danyla decided to meditate beneath the weirwood beside the sleeping Myracis.

• Riven told Danyla that his breeding method had produced nine surviving white raven chicks from two broods.
• Danyla fed the chicks caterpillars, prepared feed, and pieces of a rat she killed with her dagger.
• Riven secretly gave Danyla a box containing twelve white raven eggs, which she put in her shoulder bag.
• Danyla spent the day learning about raven studies from Riven while Myracis rested beneath the weirwood.
• After noticing Myracis's energy intertwined with the weirwood's, Danyla climbed onto Myracis and began meditating beneath the tree.

Danyla experienced Myracis’s ancient memory of the land’s creatures fighting the sea monsters and a colossal monster, then joined Myracis in restoring the world’s power and defeating it. She awoke from the dragon dream after peace returned.

• Danyla saw through Myracis’s eyes how sea monsters corrupted the land and overwhelmed its creatures with dark water magic.
• A moon exploded, and fire dragons descended to destroy the sea monsters while the land’s creatures used the Song of the Earth to repel the ocean waves.
• A colossal tentacled monster rose from the sea and battled a giant fire dragon, whose clash with the monster’s black smoke disrupted the world’s life-sustaining melodies.
• Danyla chanted the Song of Blood and Fire, synchronizing her power with Myracis and the enormous tree beneath her and restoring the world’s rhythm.
• The renewed power strengthened the fire dragon, which burned the monster until it sank beneath the sea, and Danyla awoke.

Danyla’s Nature Contract connected her with Myracis and the weirwood, altering the tree and giving her fleeting visions of the land’s history. Meanwhile, the Citadel’s doctors debated Princess Danyla’s authority to choose a new Grand Maester as Earl Hightower listened uneasily.

• Danyla chanted Nature Contract, and the energies of Myracis and the weirwood resonated as she saw flashes of the continent’s past.
• Myracis’s scales gained a purplish-red tint, and she flew to Weirwood Square for breakfast after Danyla sent her off.
• Raven pointed out that the weirwood had developed black-and-white markings and narrower leaves, and Danyla explained that Myracis had caused a similar change on Holy Flame Island.
• Earl Hightower asked Doctor Waghram about the next Grand Student, and Waghram said Doctor Mellos had been elected and would go to King's Landing.
• A doctor from House Hightower objected to Princess Danyla choosing a Grand Maester, while other doctors mocked him and defended her right to intervene.

Danyla demanded that the Citadel provide maesters suited to the royal family’s and Holy Flame Castle’s needs, challenging the Conclave’s control over their selection. She left Doctor Waghram with a warning that the Citadel must meet royal demands or risk its existence.

• Doctor Galvin mocked the Hightower-aligned maesters and stormed out of the Citadel’s dining hall after Doctor Waghram tried to stop him.
• Danyla returned to the Conclave, where Doctor Waghram introduced Maester Mellos as its choice for the next Grand Maester.
• Danyla requested three Grand Maester candidates for the Red Keep and three skilled maesters for Holy Flame Castle.
• Doctor Waghram objected that the Conclave alone chose which maesters served each castle.
• Danyla argued that the royal family had the right to set its requirements and cited Prince Baelon’s death as proof of the need for skilled medical care.
• Danyla warned Doctor Waghram that the Citadel must fulfill royal demands or have no reason to exist.

Danyla used Myracis’s dragonfire to make the Citadel agree to hold a Conclave, then spent time tending to her dragons. When Earl Cuy marched on Oldtown, Danyla confronted him on Himolos and demanded to know his intentions.

• Myracis roared and breathed fire above the Citadel, prompting Doctor Waghram to agree to gather the doctors and convene a Conclave to select new maesters.
• Danyla offered to cure Doctor Galvin’s blindness if the Citadel provided a Glass Candle, then returned to Weirwood Square to care for Amoros and bond with the dragons.
• Rouge informed Danyla that Earl Cuy had marched on Oldtown with five hundred and twenty men, and that the garrison had stopped them outside the southwestern checkpoint.
• Danyla took secret letters involving Sunhouse Castle and House Hightower, mounted Himolos, and flew to confront Earl Cuy.
• Himolos’s roar frightened Earl Cuy off his horse, and Danyla asked why he had brought his men to Oldtown; Earl Cuy claimed House Cuy had come to pledge loyalty to House Hightower.

Danyla exposed Earl Cuy’s treason, sentenced House Cuy, and used Himolos to kill Earl Cuy and several of his supporters. After House Cuy’s ordinary soldiers surrendered, Danyla sent Mungo’s forces to seize Sunhouse Castle, which she hoped could become a future Targaryen fief.

• Danyla accused Earl Cuy of sending Princess Senyra to Lys, backing her bastards as heirs, and hiring the Faceless Men to assassinate her.
• Maester Doron confirmed that the letters Danyla presented bore Earl Cuy’s handwriting and House Cuy’s seals.
• Danyla stripped House Cuy of its lands and title, sentenced its adult men to the Night’s Watch, and exiled its women and children to the Stepstones.
• Earl Cuy demanded a trial by the Seven and attacked, so Himolos burned him and several knights while Rouge, Mungo, and their troops defeated the remaining resistance.
• House Cuy’s ordinary soldiers surrendered, and Danyla ordered Mungo to lead forces to seize Sunhouse Castle.

Danyla used the dragons to dispose of House Cuy’s dead and planned to forge weapons from their metal-rich droppings. She used the Glass Candle to restore Doctor Galvin’s sight and gained his support, while her message reached Jaehaerys in King’s Landing.

• Danyla had the dragons eat House Cuy’s charred corpses and dead warhorses, then arranged for smiths to forge high-quality steel from the metal in the dragons’ droppings.
• Danyla sent Antheros to King’s Landing carrying evidence of House Cuy’s guilt and a message for Jaehaerys.
• Doctor Galvin told Danyla that a Glass Candle had blinded him more than ten years earlier after he saw a vision of a dragon being born in fire.
• Danyla hinted that Valyrian steel required baptism in blood and fire, then used the Glass Candle to restore Galvin’s sight.
• Galvin pledged to obey Danyla, and she asked him to help when the Citadel established a branch.
• Jaehaerys heard Danyla’s voice while Audella read to him in the Red Keep.

Mungo and Rouge captured Sunhouse Castle and Cuy Town, confiscating House Cuy’s wealth after Princess Danyla’s judgment. As Danyla’s influence spread across the Seven Kingdoms, Princess Rhaenys and the Sea Snake considered whether they could arrange her marriage to Driftmark.

• Mungo and Rouge captured Sunhouse Castle, killed its defenders, and confined House Cuy’s men while Lady Redwyne surrendered the account books and storeroom keys.
• Mungo inventoried the castle’s wealth as Rouge occupied the docks and counted House Cuy’s ships.
• Danyla ordered House Redwyne to protect House Cuy’s fleet, and Earl Redwyne relayed her demand to his family’s ships.
• King Jaehaerys accepted the evidence against House Cuy, approved Danyla’s actions, and placed Sunhouse Castle under her administration.
• Princess Rhaenys and the Sea Snake discussed Danyla’s victories and whether she might marry into House Velaryon.

After restoring order in Oldtown, Danyla sent convicted rioters to Dreamfyre Island, where she built up a settlement and new industries. She also consolidated estates and shops around Oldtown, preparing them for more productive farming.

• Danyla and the Oldtown Garrison restored daily life in Oldtown, arrested hundreds of rioters, and exiled them and their families to the Stepstones.
• Danyla occupied an island in the Stepstones, named it Dreamfyre Island, and used the exiles to build a dock, fortress, reservoirs, and aqueducts.
• Danyla established wind-powered waterwheels and saltworks on Dreamfyre Island, while Dax assured nearby rivals that the force would stay out of their fighting.
• Danyla returned most stolen property deeds to their owners and took over the assets of wealthy families killed during the riots.
• Danyla consolidated five large estates and more than fifty shops, then prepared the estates for planting with dragon droppings and seeds sent by Samwell.

Danyla flew the Earl of Hightower toward King's Landing and stopped at Longtable Hall, where she cultivated House Merryweather's friendship. She recruited Maria Merryweather as a lady-in-waiting before the dragons feasted on the castle's livestock.

• Danyla rode Dreamfyre from Oldtown with the Earl of Hightower, Little Balerion, the Three Little Ones, and Myracis.
• Danyla and her party landed at Longtable Hall, where the Earl of Merryweather and his family welcomed them.
• Danyla shared a meal with the Merryweathers and took an interest in Maria's embroidery.
• Danyla invited Maria to join her as a lady-in-waiting, and Maria accepted.
• The Longtable Hall servants brought livestock to feed the dragons, which roasted and ate the black pigs.

Danyla arranged for Earl Merryweather to supply Holy Flame Island with fruit saplings and livestock, while reflecting on the supernatural legacy of Garth Greenhand. After the dragons fed at Longtable Hall, she invited the Merryweather children to approach Myracis.

• Danyla ordered fruit saplings and livestock from Earl Merryweather and offered favorable trade with Holy Flame Island.
• Danyla considered the legends of Garth Greenhand and sensed distinctive natural energy in castles belonging to his descendants.
• Danyla asked Earl Merryweather to arrange rest for Earl Hightower before joining the dragons.
• Earl Merryweather ordered another herd after the dragons quickly ate the first one.
• Myracis pushed to the front of the herd, ate a dozen fat pigs, and nuzzled Danyla.
• Danyla and Myra soothed Myracis through telepathy as Danyla encouraged Mark to touch her.

Danyla returned to King's Landing with Maria, then told King Jaehaerys how she had brought House Hightower and House Cuy to ruin. As the king praised her and discussed House Hightower's fate, Audrey revealed that Alicent and Prince Daemon had grown close.

• Danyla brought Maria to King's Landing on Dreamfyre and introduced her to Bethany and Shirei as their new companion.
• Danyla met with King Jaehaerys, who praised her for the wealth she had sent from House Hightower and anticipated more from House Cuy.
• Danyla recounted how she had exploited House Hightower's plans and Oldtown's riot, while keeping most of her preparations secret.
• Danyla advised Jaehaerys to give House Hightower a lawful trial and show mercy, since the house had already been weakened.
• Audrey told Danyla that Alicent had grown close to Prince Daemon, who had repeatedly returned to the Red Keep to support her.

After recovering, Seasmoke followed a mysterious stirring in his blood to the Wandering Prince, where he found Sevan and Markris. Sevan reached out to touch the dragon, hoping to become his companion.

• Seasmoke recovered outside House Massey's castle, grew larger from eating its livestock, and flew toward the other dragons.
• Seasmoke followed a strange feeling to the Wandering Prince, where Markris tried to persuade Sevan to hatch or sell his dragon egg.
• Markris and Sevan worried Seasmoke might want the egg, and Markris reminded Sevan of the scars Cannibal had given him.
• Seasmoke landed on the ship and sniffed Sevan and Markris, while both men felt a powerful longing for the dragon.
• Sevan called to Seasmoke in Valyrian and, as his fear faded, placed his hand on the dragon's snout.

King Jaehaerys presided over House Hightower’s public trial, where Earl Monto Hightower denied responsibility for Mund Hightower’s theft of three dragon eggs. Jaehaerys accused the family of past treachery and inciting a deadly riot in Oldtown, while the assembled nobles reacted with shock.

• King Jaehaerys ordered the Kingsguard to bring the adult men of House Hightower into the Throne Room.
• Earl Monto Hightower denied that his house had known of or helped Mund Hightower steal the dragon eggs, but Lady Florence cited the house’s men and ship as evidence of its guilt.
• Lady Florence presented evidence suggesting House Hightower might have hoped to hatch dragons and flee to its holdings abroad.
• Earl Monto Hightower begged King Jaehaerys for mercy based on House Hightower’s supposed loyalty to the royal house.
• King Jaehaerys condemned House Hightower for conspiring against the royal family twenty years earlier and inciting a deadly riot in Oldtown.
• The nobles in the Throne Room erupted in shock as they heard that House Hightower had orchestrated the riot.

Earl Hightower and Otto defended House Hightower before King Jaehaerys, while Otto’s mention of the king’s children stirred his anger. When Hightower blamed the Faith for the Oldtown riot, the High Septon countered that House Hightower had directed the brothers who incited it.

• Earl Hightower pleaded that his house had no part in the scandal involving House Cuy and claimed it had suffered heavily in the Oldtown riot.
• Otto supported Hightower’s defense and invoked Princess Senylla, Vaegon, and Sister Magna, angering King Jaehaerys.
• King Jaehaerys reflected on Vaegon’s rejection of the crown and Magna’s role in the royal family and Church before her death.
• Earl Hightower said he had handed Oldtown’s garrison to Princess Danyla and blamed the riot entirely on the Faith.
• King Jaehaerys challenged the High Septon, who accused House Hightower of directing the rioters to pressure the royal house.

At King Jaehaerys’s trial over the Oldtown riot, the High Septon and Earl Hightower tried to shift blame onto each other until Danyla proposed that the Faith pay for the Royal House’s dragons and provide free classes. The High Septon accepted the classes in principle but argued that staffing them would leave the Faith unable to afford the dragons.

• Lady Florence and Earl Beesbury argued that the High Septon bore responsibility for wrongdoing across the Faith of the Seven.
• Earl Hightower demanded that the Faith show remorse, and the High Septon retaliated by accusing House Hightower of infiltrating the Faith and noble households.
• King Jaehaerys silenced the quarrel and declared that the High Septon must share responsibility for the Oldtown riot.
• Danyla proposed that the Faith pay the cost of feeding the Royal House’s dragons and establish free classes at its places of worship.
• The High Septon agreed that free classes were possible but claimed that a shortage of clergy would leave the Faith unable to fund the dragons.

Danyla introduced inexpensive New Paper to the court and used the promise of franchises to secure support for her conditions on universal education. She left the High Septon considering both a new source of income for the Faith and a proposal to have the Faith present dragons as its sacred protectors.

• The High Septon warned Jaehaerys and Danyla that universal education would cost the Faith too much in parchment, pens, and ink, and Danyla brought out New Paper for the nobles to test.
• The High Septon and the nobles praised the paper, and Danyla announced that a ream cost only five Silver Moons.
• Danyla said the Royal House and Holy Flame Island controlled New Paper, and Earl Beesbury explained that franchises required loyalty and funding for the Faith's training classes.
• Lord Stokeworth suggested that lords could organize classes with maesters, prompting the High Septon to insist that the Faith was better equipped and ask for a paper franchise.
• Jaehaerys said the Faith might receive a franchise, and Danyla proposed that it make the dragons sacred beasts that protected the Faith and the Seven Kingdoms.