Chapter Summaries

Redd directed the reconstruction of Valyria City and the conversion of its Underground Fortress into an Underground Dragonpit, using Demon Dragons to speed up the excavation. The work uncovered vast deposits of Valyrian steel and other ores, leaving Redd with a valuable local supply for the city’s rebuilding.

• Redd stationed soldiers and Demon Dragons at the thunderstorm gaps to control access to Valyria City and oversaw its reconstruction along the original foundations.
• Redd put Demon Dragons to work excavating and modifying the Underground Fortress, using their strength and Dragonfire to move, cut, and break rock.
• Douglas brought Redd intelligence while Redd directed the Demon Dragons, whose construction work cut the Underground Dragonpit project’s expected duration by at least half.
• The Demon Dragons uncovered veins of Valyrian steel and other ores while excavating beneath Valyria.
• Redd ordered Douglas to sort and store the ores, keeping the Valyrian steel separate and allocating the rest to supply reserves.

Laena arrived alone at the Valyrian Peninsula, where Redd welcomed her and showed her the sheltered settlement amid the smoking volcanoes. She remarked on the contrast between the peninsula’s calm interior and the harsh conditions outside, then followed Redd toward the camp.

• Redd continued having Douglas search the Free Cities and Westeros for smiths who could reforge Valyrian steel, treating the search as a long-term assignment.
• Laena crossed the Smoking Sea with a supply convoy and arrived without Vhagar, guards, or attendants.
• Redd welcomed Laena at the harbor, and she thanked him for allowing her to visit Valyria City.
• Laena admired the calm weather inside the volcanic ring and described it as a sanctuary separated from the doomsday outside.
• Redd led Laena toward the camp, and she followed with restrained curiosity as they passed the ruins and ongoing construction.

Laena visited Redd’s camp and saw demon dragons hauling stone in the Underground Dragonpit, revealing that he could direct them to perform organized work without riders. She reassessed the scale of Redd’s power as she continued observing his holdings.

• Laena told Redd she had waited five days in Volantis and had come to see the Valyrian Peninsula, which Daemon had once wanted to visit.
• Redd led Laena through the construction camp and showed her the ruins of Valyria City and the Underground Dragonpit over two days.
• Laena watched more than a dozen demon dragons haul and organize stone under Redd’s mental instructions.
• Laena recalled that ancient Valyrians had used demon dragons for labor, but their method of controlling them had been lost after the Doom.
• Laena realized Redd had trained demon dragons to perform construction work without riders and reassessed his strength.

Laena assessed Redd’s strength and Valyria City’s reconstruction before asking whether he intended to rebuild the Valyrian Freehold and support Rhaenyra. Redd confirmed he planned to establish his own kingdom and said he no longer cared whether Rhaenyra succeeded to the throne, leaving Laena with a clear understanding of his position.

• Laena observed the Demon Dragons working in the Underground Dragonpit and concluded that Redd had become Essos’s strongest military power.
• Laena asked Redd whether he planned to rebuild the Valyrian Freehold, and he said he intended to build a kingdom of his own.
• Laena asked whether Redd would continue supporting Rhaenyra, explaining that the question concerned both her and Rhaenyra.
• Redd said Rhaenyra lacked the temperament to rule and that he would act as he saw fit when the time came.

Redd oversaw the reconstruction of Valyria City and the Underground Dragonpit, using the Demon Dragons to accelerate excavation and uncover valuable ore and Valyrian steel. The city regained basic functions, and a three-story stone castle was completed near its center.

• Laena stayed in Valyria City after reporting what she had seen and heard, while Redd accepted that others would eventually learn about the peninsula.
• Redd reviewed the construction plans each morning and inspected the city's building sites, ordering corrections and reallocating workers when needed.
• Redd directed the Demon Dragons' excavation of the Underground Dragonpit through his link with King Ghidorah, with Ehm blasting hard rock and other dragons hauling rubble.
• The excavation progressed far faster than expected and uncovered large reserves of ore and damaged Valyrian steel, prompting Redd to have Douglas search for skilled reforgers.
• Douglas managed supplies, port schedules, workers, prisoners, and intelligence while the city’s buildings, streets, and drainage were restored.
• Craftsmen completed a three-story stone castle on a raised platform slightly north of the center of Valyria City's ruins.

Redd settled into his new castle in Valyria City and enjoyed an idle life while others managed the city's work and the Fourteen Flames. Laena remained in the city and kept asking him to return Dark Sister, but Redd refused.

• Redd moved his belongings into the castle and settled into its second-floor study.
• Ehm directed the Demon Dragons as they continued renovating the Underground Dragonpit, while King Ghidorah modified the Fourteen Flames and helped restore the land around Valyria City.
• Douglas, Mysaria, Theora, and Marcus handled their respective administrative duties, leaving Redd free to relax with tea, tobacco, and dancing girls.
• Laena stayed in Valyria City after her tour and observed the reconstruction during the day.
• Laena repeatedly asked Redd to return Dark Sister, offering reasons and possible exchanges, but Redd refused because the sword suited him and was his spoil of war.

After learning that Laena had contracted greyscale, Redd ordered Douglas to investigate and discovered that the Red God Church had secretly exposed her to infected Stone Men in Volantis. The investigation revealed the church’s rapid expansion across the Free Cities, leaving Redd facing a growing religious and political threat.

• After Laena repeatedly asked Redd for Daemon’s sword, Redd ordered Douglas to send her away to Volantis.
• Two months later, Mysaria sent Redd an urgent letter reporting that Laena had contracted greyscale.
• Redd asked Douglas to investigate Laena’s infection and whether the Red God’s followers were responsible.
• A week later, Douglas reported that the Red God Church was spreading rapidly and maintaining armed forces throughout the Free Cities.
• The investigation found that Laena had spoken with the church’s priests in Volantis, where she may have been exposed to Stone Men the church had hidden.

Redd learned that the Red God Church was expanding and ordered Douglas to destroy it throughout the Free Cities. Douglas traveled to Volantis with authority over fifty Demon Dragons and arrived at the Underground Dragonpit.

• Redd questioned Douglas about his contact with the Red God Church and confirmed that he had never believed in the Red God.
• Redd gave Douglas a golden scale from King Ghidorah and permission to command fifty Demon Dragons to eradicate the Red God Church and its believers.
• Douglas accepted the order and sailed from Valyria City to Volantis with a small party of attendants.
• Douglas reached the Underground Dragonpit and watched the golden scale glow and its patterns move in the heat.

Douglas entered the Dragonpit with a golden scale, rallied fifty Demon Dragons, and sent them ahead toward Pentos. He sailed after them, planning to destroy the Red God Church’s influence there through overwhelming force.

• Douglas presented the golden scale to a Demon Dragon, which accepted him and led him deeper into the Dragonpit.
• Fifty Demon Dragons gathered around Douglas, acknowledged his command gesture, and followed his orders.
• Douglas organized the dragons into groups led by the three largest and steadiest individuals.
• The Demon Dragons took off from the Dragonpit and flew toward the inland Free Cities.
• Douglas boarded a ship for Pentos, intending to reach its harbor and lead an attack on the Red God Church.

Redd considered how his harsh rule had helped the Red God Church spread and learned that Douglas had been ambushed in Pentos. Douglas fought to escape the Magistrate’s residence, but his guards were falling and he remained surrounded.

• Redd realized that the Demon Dragons stationed in Volantis had helped keep the Red God Church from rebelling openly.
• Redd reviewed Mysaria’s intelligence and Douglas’s findings, recognizing that the Church was gaining followers among people burdened by his taxes and labor demands.
• Redd received word that Douglas had taken fifty Demon Dragons from Volantis and was traveling to Pentos to investigate the Church and the city’s Magistrate.
• The Magistrate welcomed Douglas in Pentos and lured him and a hundred guards to his residence under the pretext of sharing intelligence.
• The Magistrate and the Red God Church trapped Douglas in the Council Chamber with hundreds of armed men.
• Douglas fought back and killed at least twenty attackers, but his guards fell around him as he retreated toward an exit.

After escaping a revolt in Pentos, Douglas unleashed fifty Demon Dragons, whose Dragonfire devastated nearly a third of the city. His warnings prompted Theora and Marcus to purge the Red God Church in Lys and Braavos, but their broader crackdown sparked unrest among other churches, leaving the three leaders to ask Redd for a decision.

• Douglas escaped Pentos with heavy losses, then sent fifty Demon Dragons to burn Red God Church strongholds and other targets across the city.
• After the fires were brought under control, Douglas ordered letters sent to Theora in Lys and Marcus in Braavos, warning them of the church’s influence and requesting more troops.
• Theora declared martial law in Lys and began searching and arresting suspected Red God Church supporters, while Marcus raided churches and placed Braavos’s mercenaries under his command.
• Theora and Marcus banned armed forces maintained by all churches, prompting bishops to unite against the policy and stir up believers.
• Clashes and economic disruption spread through the city-states, so Douglas, Marcus, and Theora sent messengers to Valyria City asking Redd to decide how to proceed.

Redd rejected Douglas, Marcus, and Theora’s plea to moderate the purge and ordered them to kill those who maintained faith in the Red God. The three launched sweeping crackdowns across the Free Cities, where resistance and riots began to emerge.

• Redd replied to Douglas, Marcus, and Theora’s request for flexibility with the single word “Kill,” insisting that believers who would not obey his rule had to disappear.
• Douglas, Marcus, and Theora accepted that they had to carry out Redd’s order, despite Douglas’s horror at the destruction and deaths it would bring.
• Douglas advanced from Pentos with Demon Dragons and reinforcements, Theora demanded that Lys’s churches surrender their weapons, and Marcus raided Red God Church strongholds in Braavos.
• The three expanded the purge to other religious groups with armed forces, arresting clergy, disarming believers, seizing or destroying churches, and publicly executing core members.
• Some Red God Church strongholds resisted and were destroyed, while civilians in several cities staged sporadic riots against the purge.

Douglas, Theora, and Marcus completed the purge of the Red God Church’s public presence across the Free Cities, while investigations into its hidden networks continued. After reviewing Douglas’s report, Redd turned to Valyria City’s reconstruction and planned to consolidate his power against the faith’s possible return.

• Douglas coordinated purges and supply allocations from Volantis, while Theora restored Lys’s trade and administration and Marcus hunted the Red God Church’s underground network in Braavos.
• After nearly two months, the purge largely eliminated the Red God Church’s public presence across the Free Cities, and daily trade resumed.
• Douglas sent Redd a detailed report listing churches cleared, sentences, confiscations, and casualties, noting that investigations into underground remnants continued.
• Redd reviewed the report, considered the Church a lingering threat, and studied plans to complete Valyria City’s reconstruction into a capital.
• The authorities restored order in Pentos, while Red God followers who resisted were killed or sent to labor in the mines outside Volantis.

Months after the purges, the Free Cities’ economy, administration, and public services deteriorated as workers withdrew, trade fell, and officials feared taking action. Douglas crushed disobedience among the slave troops with a mass execution and reorganized the army, while the broader crisis remained unresolved.

• After the church’s clergy were purged, people across Pentos, Lys, and Braavos lost faith, stopped working, or went without aid, and trade and tax revenues declined.
• Douglas dismissed falling tax receipts as temporary, Theora ordered stricter tax collection, and Marcus tightened lending to curb capital outflows.
• When revenues and trade kept falling, Douglas, Theora, and Marcus discovered administrative paralysis, unfilled posts, and worsening disobedience among the slave troops.
• Douglas had nearly twenty thousand slave soldiers massacred under the watch of fifty Demon Dragons, forcing the remaining troops to obey.
• Douglas replaced key military personnel, promoted loyal officers, dispersed soldiers of questionable loyalty, and established a reporting system that sent city garrison reports directly to him.

Douglas, Theora, and Marcus consolidated military, administrative, and financial control in the Trade City-States while reporting their actions to Redd. Though Mysaria warned that their combined power could threaten him, Redd trusted his military strength and the loyalty of their subordinates, and allowed them to continue.

• Theora replaced ineffective officials, while Marcus sent guards to inspect and collect taxes across the Trade City-States.
• Rhaenyra struggled to retain influence in King's Landing as Viserys and Otto strengthened their positions, while Laena's greyscale worsened on Driftmark.
• Mysaria reported that Douglas controlled much of the army, Theora dominated administration, and Marcus held the Iron Bank and taxation.
• Redd read Mysaria's warning that the three could challenge him if they joined forces, but decided their power and the loyalty of their followers kept them under his control.
• Redd let the three continue their work as they stabilized the Trade City-States and regularly sent him reports and supplies.

Redd oversaw Valyria City’s reconstruction as its population grew and the Demon Dragons flourished in the Fourteen Flames. After expanding dragon breeding and training, he surveyed the completed city and its recovering farmland.

• Redd watched Valyria City’s districts, harbor, waterworks, and underground network be rebuilt as slaves arrived to work on construction, mining, dragon care, and farming.
• Redd observed that Demon Dragons grew faster and stronger near the Fourteen Flames, and he had Ehm record how the volcanic heat affected them.
• Redd concluded that the Valyrian Peninsula provided the best environment for Demon Dragons and ordered Douglas to bring more Dragon Eggs and young dragons from Dragonstone.
• Redd organized the adult Demon Dragons to train the newcomers, recalled Ehm to command patrols and training, and assigned a dark-colored dragon to guard the Underground Dragonpit.
• Redd stood above Valyria City on the day its reconstruction was completed and saw its restored streets, quieted volcanoes, and newly sprouting crops.

Redd planned to establish the Valyrian Freehold as the center of his growing power when letters from Mysaria, Rhaenys, and Rhaenyra reported Laena’s death. Rhaenys invited him to Laena’s funeral, and Rhaenyra’s letter detailed how Laena had chosen to die by dragonfire after greyscale left her incurable.

• Redd surveyed Valyria City and considered proclaiming the Valyrian Freehold before planning his next move.
• A maid delivered Mysaria’s letter, which told Redd that Laena had chosen to have Vhagar burn her to death after contracting greyscale.
• Redd read Rhaenys’s letter, which explained Laena’s death and invited him to return for her funeral.
• Redd questioned why Rhaenys had invited him, given their strained relationship.
• A raven from Dragonstone delivered Rhaenyra’s letter, which described Laena’s year of illness and her decision to die by Vhagar’s dragonfire.

After receiving letters from Rhaenyra, Redd decided to return to Westeros for Laena’s funeral and planned to stop in Volantis to leave Douglas in charge of Valyria City. Before departing, he shared an intimate farewell with Nora.

• Redd read Rhaenyra’s request that he accompany her to Laena’s funeral and decided to return to Westeros.
• Redd chose Douglas to oversee construction in Valyria City and decided to travel to Volantis to appoint him in person.
• Redd returned to his living quarters and found Nora closing a window and preparing his outer robe.
• Nora wished Redd a safe journey, and Redd embraced and kissed her before telling her to think of him while he was away.

Redd rode King Ghidorah from his castle to Volantis, where the dragon squeezed into the Underground Dragonpit. Douglas learned that the Dragon King had arrived and stopped his government work to respond.

• Redd left Nora and summoned King Ghidorah to the castle courtyard.
• King Ghidorah landed, let Redd climb onto his back, and flew north along the coast of the Valyrian Peninsula.
• Redd had King Ghidorah slow before they reached Volantis to avoid harming the city.
• King Ghidorah entered the Underground Dragonpit, squeezing through its passage after adjusting his body.
• A messenger interrupted Douglas's work in Black Wall Castle and reported the Dragon King's arrival; Douglas dropped his quill in surprise.

Redd inspected the Demon Dragons in the Underground Dragonpit before confronting Douglas about whether he would betray him. He left Douglas in charge of watching Valyria City while he returned to Dragonstone, warning him not to disappoint him.

• Douglas hurried to the Underground Dragonpit and waited for Redd, who took him on a private walk through the caverns.
• Redd inspected the Demon Dragons, which submitted to him and crowded near him for attention.
• Redd asked Douglas whether he would betray him and explained that he trusted him because he was practical but now held enough power to threaten him.
• Douglas knelt and stayed silent, realizing that his power—not his actions—had made Redd suspicious.
• Redd told Douglas to watch over Valyria City while he returned to Dragonstone, then departed on King Ghidorah.