Recaps

After Milos Farman met secretly with suspected Qohori envoys, Douglas warned Redd that Qohor and the Kingdom of the Three Daughters might be forming an alliance against him. Redd ordered heightened surveillance and stronger defenses while prioritizing the consolidation of Volantis and the search for Valyrian treasures.

• Milos Farman left Volantis, then secretly met suspected Qohori representatives at a secluded estate outside the city.
• Douglas's intelligence network uncovered the meeting, and Douglas reported his concerns about a possible alliance between Qohor and the Kingdom of the Three Daughters to Redd.
• Redd said Qohor wanted help ending the spread of Greyscale and the Kingdom of the Three Daughters wanted to secure its rear before competing for the Stepstones.
• Redd ordered Douglas to closely monitor both countries, especially their military movements and communications between important figures.
• Redd ordered inspections and repairs of defenses in Pentos, Volantis, and other coastal regions, while focusing on consolidating Volantis and gathering information about Valyrian treasures.

Redd received news that 80,000 Dothraki were attacking Seahoru Town and suspected the invasion might be a probe arranged by hostile city-states. He ordered Marcus to take 50,000 troops north to reinforce the town, leaving Marcus committed to defending it.

• A messenger reported that tens of thousands of Dothraki Screaming Warriors were assaulting Seahoru Town.
• Redd suspected the Dothraki attack was timed to test his strength after tensions with the Kingdom of the Three Daughters and Qohor.
• Redd summoned Marcus and ordered him to lead 50,000 troops north to reinforce Seahoru.
• Redd asked Marcus about his chances of holding the town, and Marcus vowed to defend Seahoru even at the cost of his life.

Redd sent Marcus north with fifty thousand slave soldiers and Aegon to fight a border war, while he watched the campaign as a test of Marcus, the army, and his system. As the army departed, Redd turned his attention to the Dothraki Sea and considered how difficult it would be to eliminate the Dothraki threat.

• Redd assigned Aegon to support Marcus on the campaign, and Marcus accepted the command with renewed confidence.
• Marcus gathered resources and prepared an elite force of fifty thousand slave soldiers overnight.
• At dawn, Marcus led the army north from Volantis while Aegon flew above the marching troops.
• Redd watched the army depart and planned to assess Marcus's command, the soldiers' strength, and whether the system could collect energy without his presence.
• Redd studied a map of the Dothraki Sea and considered how to eradicate the Dothraki from the grasslands.

Redd considered attacking Vaes Dothrak to draw the scattered Khalasars into a decisive confrontation, but postponed the plan while he awaited Marcus’s performance at Seahoru Town. Marcus arrived with fifty thousand soldiers to find the town besieged by more than eighty thousand Dothraki, and twenty thousand enemy cavalry charged his prepared formation.

• Redd reasoned that an attack on sacred Vaes Dothrak could force the Khalasars to unite, allowing him either to subdue or destroy the Dothraki.
• Redd decided to hold position for the time being and watch Marcus’s campaign while monitoring the Kingdom of the Three Daughters and Qohor.
• Marcus led fifty thousand battle-hardened slave soldiers to the vicinity of Seahoru Town, where over eighty thousand Dothraki cavalry under three Khals had surrounded the town and raided nearby villages.
• The three Khals assembled twenty thousand elite cavalry and sent them charging toward Marcus’s formation.
• Marcus’s soldiers stood in a tightly organized formation, prepared to counter the Dothraki charge.

Marcus prepared his slave legion to withstand the Dothraki cavalry and create an opening for Aegon and the Demon Dragon to strike. The Dothraki began their assault with mounted archery, and arrows penetrated the legion’s shield wall.

• Marcus arranged the soldiers into a spear-and-shield formation, binding each squad of ten together to prevent retreat.
• Marcus watched the Demon Dragon circle overhead and planned to hold the Dothraki long enough for Aegon to attack.
• Twenty thousand Dothraki cavalrymen approached the fifty thousand-strong slave legion and began firing arrows from horseback.
• An officer shouted for the soldiers to raise their shields, and the slave legion formed a defensive wall.
• Three volleys struck the formation, but arrows slipped between shields and fell among the men behind the front ranks.

Redd watched the slave army’s battle against the Dothraki and confirmed that deaths caused by forces under his command generated Energy Points even when he was absent. He then ordered Aegon to unleash Dragonfire, turning the battlefield into a slaughter.

• Dothraki arrows devastated the slave soldiers, but the officers and Marcus’s collective-punishment laws kept their ranks from breaking.
• The Dothraki cavalry smashed through the first defensive line and threatened the second, inflicting more than three thousand casualties.
• Redd observed the battle through Aegon and confirmed that deaths caused by his forces steadily increased his Energy Points.
• Redd took control of Aegon and sent the Dragon plunging toward the battlefield, terrifying the warhorses and scattering Dothraki riders.
• At Redd’s command, Aegon swept along the cavalry formation and consumed horses and warriors with Dragonfire.

Aegon devastated the Dothraki vanguard, then pursued the retreating forces into a trap set by the Unsullied. Though concealed ballistae struck him repeatedly, his reinforced scales held, and he landed among the Unsullied in fury.

• Aegon swept Dragonfire across the Dothraki, killing more than half of the twenty-thousand-strong vanguard as the survivors retreated in deliberate order.
• Redd recognized the retreat as a trap and let Aegon pursue the enemy into an apparently open area.
• Hidden ballistae emerged from the ground and fired at Aegon, but he dodged their first volley and burned the emplacement and its Unsullied crew.
• Concealed ballistae on both flanks fired dozens of bolts into Aegon, causing him pain but failing to pierce his reinforced scales.
• Aegon roared, plunged to the ground, and crushed several Unsullied beneath his body.

Aegon slaughtered the forces that had ambushed Redd, while the three Khals fled into the Dothraki Sea. After the battle, Redd ordered Marcus to march north and attack Qohor, avoiding the dangerous Lands of Sorrow.

• Aegon destroyed the remaining ballistae and massacred the Unsullied and Dothraki with his strength, wings, and dragonfire.
• Redd watched without intervening, allowing Aegon to punish the ambushers and send a warning to anyone who might plot against him.
• The three Khals abandoned their forces and fled into the Dothraki Sea, but Aegon pursued the retreating enemy with fire.
• Redd commanded Aegon to return to Seahoru Town, ending the battle after the last visible enemies were burned.
• Redd wrote to Marcus, ordering him to lead his legions north at once and attack Qohor while avoiding the Lands of Sorrow.

Redd ordered thirty thousand troops from Volantis to reinforce Marcus’s campaign against Qohor, accepting the risk of leaving Volantis exposed. The Kingdom of the Three Daughters then offered peace, and a reply from Rhaenyra confirmed that Redd’s military expansion had driven them to withdraw from the war.

• Marcus received Redd’s order to attack Qohor and replied with concerns about supplies, Dothraki raids, and holding the region.
• Redd decided to pursue the capture of Qohor and ordered Douglas to send thirty thousand troops north while leaving twenty thousand to defend Volantis.
• The Kingdom of the Three Daughters publicly offered peace to House Targaryen and agreed to give up its interests in the Stepstones.
• Redd suspected the Three Daughters had mistaken his reinforcements for preparations to attack their territories, and he sent a raven to Rhaenyra for details.
• Two days later, Rhaenyra’s reply confirmed that Redd’s rapid military expansion had threatened the Three Daughters’ rear and prompted them to accept reconciliation.

Redd learned that the Kingdom of the Three Daughters had gathered two hundred thousand soldiers at Myr while Lys assembled warships, but he remained confident and ordered Douglas to track their movements. A desperate message from Marcus then revealed that his expeditionary army was trapped near the ruins of A, suffering heavy losses and collapsing morale, with the Brave Companions’ banner among the river pirates attacking them.

• Douglas reported that the Kingdom of the Three Daughters had assembled two hundred thousand soldiers at Myr and that Lys was gathering warships.
• Redd ordered Douglas to increase surveillance of the enemy forces and said King Ghidorah could defeat any invaders.
• Redd planned to seize Qohor, claim its magical legacy, and later eliminate the Kingdom of the Three Daughters.
• Marcus sent an urgent plea for aid, reporting that his expeditionary army was trapped near the ruins of A and beset by Dothraki, Unsullied, and river pirates.
• Marcus reported devastating casualties, disrupted supply lines, collapsing morale, desertions, and the Brave Companions’ banner among the river pirates.

Redd recognized that Qohor and the southern states were coordinating to trap his army and weaken his rule, so he chose to lead King Ghidorah north to break the siege at A. He ordered Sheepstealer and Ehm to defend Volantis against Myr and Lys while he advanced.

• River pirates used the hidden waterways beneath A to devastate Marcus's sorties and trap more than fifty thousand of his soldiers in the ruins.
• Redd learned that Qohor was delaying his northern army while Myr and Lys massed troops to pin him down in the south.
• Redd concluded that the enemy aimed to undermine his land forces and exploit his lack of troops to hold conquered territory.
• Redd decided to lead King Ghidorah north to rescue Marcus's legion and open a route to Qohor.
• Redd summoned Sheepstealer and Ehm to defend Volantis and deter an attack by Myr and Lys.

Redd left Volantis under General Douglas’s protection and flew north to take command of the stalled vanguard near A. After warning Marcus that he had one last chance, Redd ordered the army to resume its march toward Qohor, while Dothraki scouts watched from a hill.

• Redd sent two Demon Dragons circling over Volantis, then entrusted the city and its garrison of twenty thousand soldiers to General Douglas.
• Redd rode King Ghidorah north toward A, intending to lead the campaign against Qohor.
• Redd confronted Marcus, kept him in command of the vanguard, and warned him to reorganize the army and prepare to march or face the consequences.
• Marcus accepted Redd’s orders, and the army of more than sixty thousand slaves packed up and began marching north toward Qohor City.
• Dothraki scouts watched the army set out and were overcome with fear.

Redd ordered King Ghidorah to destroy the mountains above the Underground River, burying the River Pirates and setting off a catastrophic flood. Redd flew toward Qohor, while torrents unleashed by the collapse raced toward ruined A City.

• Dothraki scouts saw King Ghidorah and fled across the grasslands to warn their tribe.
• Redd rode King Ghidorah to the Underground River and ordered him to level the mountains.
• King Ghidorah blasted the mountains with Gravity Beams, collapsing the cliffs and burying the River Pirates in the caves.
• The collapse blocked underground waterways and sent violent tremors through the region, forcing rivers into new channels.
• Redd flew with King Ghidorah toward Qohor as torrents surged toward ruined A City.

A flood caused by Redd’s reshaping of the land devastated settlements downstream, while the Dothraki Khals abandoned their alliance with Qohor and fled. With Qohor isolated before the Dragon King’s army, its leaders argued over surrendering.

• The redirected flood swept through towns and villages, killing countless people and destroying homes before rejoining the Rhoyne.
• A scout told the Dothraki Khals that mountains had collapsed and rivers had changed course, revealing the Dragon King’s power over the land.
• The Khals ended their cooperation with Qohor, broke their forces into smaller bands, and retreated across the Dothraki Sea.
• Qohor lost its Dothraki support and stood isolated under attack from the Dragon King’s army.
• In the temple of the Black Goat, a Qohor leader demanded that the city surrender and send envoys to sue for peace.

Pentos’s leaders argued over whether to surrender to Redd or resist, as they learned their forces and defenses could not stop the advancing army and its dragons. With the Dothraki gone and other allies unwilling to help, the meeting ended in despair, with no path to safety in sight.

• A wealthy magister urged the leaders to surrender before Redd’s forces reached the gates, but a high priest of the Black Goat cult argued that surrender would bring massacre and ruin.
• A frightened noble pointed out that Pentos had fewer than seven thousand Unsullied and fewer than fifty thousand city guards against a fifty-thousand-strong enemy army and two Demon Dragons.
• The city’s defense general said the ballistae and Unsullied had failed to stop the Demon Dragon at A, which had destroyed their weapons with ease.
• Pentos’s diplomatic official revealed that the Dothraki had all fled despite accepting gold, treasure, and slaves.
• An old magister dismissed the Kingdom of the Three Daughters’ forces as a threat to Redd rather than a potential rescue, and said Norvos offered only empty assurances.
• The leaders confronted the failure of their allies and remained trapped between surrender and resistance, both seeming hopeless.

As Redd’s forces threatened the city, the Black Goat’s high priest convinced its nobles to perform an ultimate sacrifice, then forced the bloodshed through the temple. The ritual transformed the blood-filled altar into a pool of clear liquid, and its purpose remained unknown.

• The high priest proposed sacrificing the entire city to the Black Goat, and desperate nobles supported him despite warnings about the ritual’s cost.
• A young priest tried to flee and protest, but a cultist killed him, after which the high priest declared the decision final.
• Armed cultists cut the nobles’ and leaders’ wrists and sacrificed infants and pregnant women over the Black Goat altar.
• The high priest opened a casket containing ancient bones and severed limbs, chanted an incantation, and cast the remains into the blood pool.
• The pool churned and purified itself into clear liquid, leaving the temple in an eerie cold.

Redd investigated a growing number of soldiers vanishing from his camp and discovered that magical black shadows were abducting them. As the shadow creatures continued their work undetected, he silently summoned Aegon.

• In Qohor, the high priest ordered the Black Goat’s followers to distribute cursed holy water to soldiers and slaves as a supposed blessing against dragons.
• Redd noticed that soldiers had begun disappearing from the northern army’s camp, with dozens missing by the third day.
• Redd ordered Marcus to lead a thorough night search, but Marcus’s patrols found nothing unusual.
• Using his mental power, Redd detected black shadow creatures that possessed sleeping soldiers, made them vanish, and led them out of camp.
• Redd stayed calm and sent part of his consciousness to Aegon, who rose silently and spread his wings.

Redd followed a vast procession of mind-controlled people toward Qohor and discovered that soul-devouring creatures had been attacking his army. He concluded that Qohor’s Black Goat Priests were using the monsters to weaken his forces and assemble an undead legion.

• Redd rode Aegon through the night and followed over a hundred controlled soldiers toward Qohor.
• Redd saw countless soldiers and civilians, including elders and children, shambling toward the city like puppets.
• Redd ordered Marcus to wake the army, but over a hundred soldiers had vanished and others had become vacant husks.
• Redd examined the survivors and found that their souls had been almost entirely devoured.
• Redd identified the attackers as soul-devouring creatures and suspected Qohor’s Black Goat Priests had unleashed them to weaken his army and create an undead legion.

Redd rushed his army toward Qohor after realizing soul-devouring shadows threatened the city and could overwhelm conventional defenses. The army destroyed a powerful shadow amalgamation with Aegon’s Dragonfire, but Redd feared worse monsters awaited them near Qohor.

• Redd ordered his army of more than fifty thousand to break camp and march through the night toward Qohor.
• The soldiers encountered soulless civilians and soldiers marching south, killed them, and burned the escaping wraiths with torches.
• The army found a mountain pass piled with corpses and faced an eight-meter human-faced centipede that attacked them with a psychic shriek.
• Redd recognized the monster as an amalgamation of wraiths and devoured souls, then commanded Aegon to destroy it with Dragonfire.
• Aegon burned the corpse mountain and the amalgamation to ash, but Redd worried about what stronger creatures had formed around Qohor.

Aegon raced ahead of Redd’s army and used dragonfire to cleanse the road to Qohor before destroying the city’s walls and the Black Goat’s altar. When Redd arrived the next day, Qohor was burning and its order had collapsed, while some slaves had escaped amid the chaos.

• Redd ordered his army to speed up and raze Qohor before the enemy could gather anything they could not easily burn.
• Aegon flew ahead, incinerating shadow-controlled puppets and dark creatures along the road to Qohor.
• Aegon evaded Qohor’s ballista bolts and melted sections of the city walls with dragonfire.
• Aegon destroyed the altar, the enormous shadow creature forming there, the high priest and cultists, and the nobles imprisoned nearby.
• Redd reached Qohor the following day and found the city burning, its defenses shattered, and escaped slaves struggling to survive among the ruins.

Redd ordered his army to occupy Qohor and considered how to bring Norvos under his rule while the city-states weighed surrender. News that Viserys had called a truce with Dorne reached Redd, and a raven’s letter promised to clarify the connection to his seizure of the Iron Bank.

• Redd ordered Marcus to secure Qohor’s key districts, suppress resistance, and protect valuable supplies.
• The priests and magistrates of Norvos argued over whether to surrender voluntarily or wait until Redd’s army reached their gates.
• Volantis’s new nobles discussed Qohor’s destruction and feared that all nine Free Cities would fall under one ruler.
• Redd had Qohor’s altar ruins cleared, destroyed the black stone from its core, and waited for fear to push other cities into submission.
• Marcus reported that Viserys had called a truce and ceded the outskirts of the Red Mountains to Dorne, leading Redd to suspect a link to the Iron Bank.
• A raven delivered a letter that confirmed Redd’s suspicions about the truce.

Redd used the Iron Bank’s leverage and Qohor’s fate to pressure Norvos toward negotiation, then accepted Viserys’s invitation to celebrate the expected birth of a Targaryen prince. He planned to attend as ruler of the Free Cities and a major stakeholder in the Iron Bank, positioning himself to influence Westerosi politics and finance.

• Redd learned from Rhaenyra’s letter that Viserys faced financial pressure from the Iron Bank and feared defaulting on his debts to Redd.
• Redd ordered a letter to Norvos offering trade agreements and security guarantees while warning of economic pressure and the destruction of Qohor’s altar.
• An envoy delivered Redd’s letter to Norvos as Redd prepared to mobilize troops along its border.
• Redd received Viserys’s invitation to celebrate the expected birth of a Targaryen prince and recognized it as an attempt to build support for a possible male heir.
• Redd accepted the invitation as ruler of the Free Cities and instructed his scribe to emphasize his role as the Iron Bank’s principal stakeholder and the bank’s potential support for royal projects.

Redd prepared to attend Viserys’s celebration as the ruler of the east while consolidating his control of Norvos and Lorath. Rhaenyra arrived and asked him to publicly support her claim to the Iron Throne, leaving Redd to consider how to use his influence against Viserys’s plans.

• Redd ordered his commanders to accelerate the takeover and reorganization of Norvos and told Marcus to intensify efforts in Lorath.
• Rhaenyra arrived at Redd’s residence on dragonback, and the two reunited intimately.
• Rhaenyra told Redd that Viserys seemed ready to break his promise and argued that forceful rebellion would endanger the Seven Kingdoms and Redd’s eastern power.
• Rhaenyra asked Redd to publicly affirm her right to inherit at the celebration, using his authority and the east’s wealth to influence the lords.
• Redd considered applying pressure through the Iron Bank or trade agreements as Rhaenyra urged him to choose the most effective way to support her.

Redd prepared to leave the eastern city-states and flew with Rhaenyra to King's Landing, where his arrival with King Ghidorah made his power impossible to ignore. The chapter ended with Ser Otto Hightower receiving them in the Red Keep's courtyard as the prince's birth celebration approached.

• Redd gave Douglas authority over administration and integration across the six city-states, left Marcus as his military deputy, and stationed his dragons to secure his holdings.
• Redd flew west on Syrax with Rhaenyra while King Ghidorah followed them across the Narrow Sea.
• Redd and Rhaenyra landed near the Dragonpit, drawing attention from the people of King's Landing with the arrival of two dragons.
• Redd helped Rhaenyra dismount and warned her that people were watching as she tried to regain her composure.
• Ser Otto Hightower greeted Redd and Rhaenyra in the Red Keep's courtyard and scrutinized their appearance.

Redd and Rhaenyra returned to King’s Landing and faced a formally welcoming but wary Viserys and his court, where Redd hinted that the celebration concerned the realm’s future. That night, Lady Rhea Royce sought a private conversation with Redd, and he left Rhaenyra and Alicent to follow her.

• Ser Otto welcomed Redd and Rhaenyra and escorted them to the Throne Room, while King Ghidorah followed behind.
• Viserys and Queen Aemma greeted Redd and Rhaenyra before the gathered court.
• Redd emphasized his affairs in the East and hinted that the coming celebration concerned the realm’s future.
• Redd declined the king’s separate guest chambers and stayed with Rhaenyra in her room.
• Alicent arrived with Lady Rhea Royce, who asked to speak privately with Redd.
• Redd left Rhaenyra and Alicent in the room and followed Rhea out.