Recaps

Clay met the Manderly cadets gathered at White Harbor so he could choose men to train as his personal guards. He learned that Lord Wyman would soon preside over his knighting ceremony, and he began by having the candidates state their names.

• Ser Marlon Manderly brought Clay to the castle courtyard, where Manderly cadets had gathered to meet their lord's heir.
• Ser Marlon told Clay to choose attendants from among the cadets and explained that Lord Wyman would knight him in a few days.
• Clay observed the assembled men and learned that their families hoped selection would improve their fortunes.
• Ser Marlon ordered the cadets into formation, and Clay had them introduce themselves by name.
• Clay stopped Rysda Manderly from listing his family connections and continued down the line without offering the candidates personal encouragement.

Clay tested the Manderly candidates for his personal guard by challenging them to display their swordsmanship, defeating ten men in quick succession. Earl Wyman arrived to see Clay’s skill firsthand, and Clay prepared to explain why he had summoned him.

• Clay asked Ser Marlon whether he recommended any of the forty-two candidates, but Ser Marlon left the choice entirely to him.
• Clay told the candidates that he wanted a personal guard willing to charge enemy formations and challenged anyone afraid to draw a sword to leave.
• One candidate stepped forward, and Clay fought ten Manderly men, defeating each of them within three moves without being struck.
• Earl Wyman arrived at the training yard and watched Clay defeat an armored opponent with a swift winding move.
• Clay greeted his grandfather and prepared to explain why he had called him there.

Clay told Earl Wyman that Petyr Baelish had arranged an assassination attempt to provoke conflict between the Starks and Lannisters. He explained how he planned to use the assassin against Petyr, then revealed his magic to prove the man would obey.

• Clay told Earl Wyman that Petyr Baelish had sent an assassin to kill him and frame the Lannisters.
• Clay explained that he had subdued the assassin, learned Petyr's identity, and let the man go rather than trigger the conflict Petyr wanted.
• Clay said he had made the assassin send Petyr a raven claiming Clay was dead, so news of Clay's survival would expose the assassin as a liar.
• Earl Wyman questioned how Clay could be sure the assassin would send the raven, and Clay demonstrated his magic by casting Igni.

Clay persuaded Earl Wyman to support secretly training warriors with magical Signs for House Manderly. Wyman agreed to invest in the plan, and Clay’s effort to create a new force for White Harbor began.

• Clay claimed he had learned Signs from a Valyrian tome and had memorized its contents before destroying it.
• Clay asked Earl Wyman to help him secretly train a force of warriors like himself.
• Clay demonstrated Quen, Yrden, Aard, and Axii by deflecting a sword, slowing Wyman, smashing a weapons rack, and calming a horse.
• Earl Wyman recognized the warriors’ potential for sabotage, assassination, and battlefield disruption and decided House Manderly should form a squad.
• Clay assured Wyman that he had not revealed his abilities to anyone, and Wyman agreed to support the plan.

Clay and Earl Wyman discussed selecting loyal, quick-learning candidates and gathering supplies to create more witchers. Earl Wyman pledged fifty thousand gold dragons to begin funding the effort.

• Clay told Earl Wyman that the candidates should be chosen for their ability to learn, and Earl Wyman agreed to have others screen suitable people from House Manderly's collateral branches.
• Clay listed the ingredients needed for the transformation potion and said he would handle its final synthesis to keep the process secret.
• Clay asked Earl Wyman to arrange painkillers because the transformation was painful.
• Clay considered obtaining dragonbone but decided it was too risky and difficult to retrieve from King's Landing.
• Earl Wyman offered fifty thousand gold dragons to start and promised to provide more as needed.

Clay reviewed his plans to improve his fighting ability and focused on the Witcher system’s potion formulas. After inspecting four potions, he decided that gathering ingredients and building strength would be his priority, while leaving the story with him alone in his room, considering his next steps.

• Clay considered swords, bombs, Signs, and other Witcher tools, then decided to focus on potions.
• Earl Wyman left to mobilize the family’s procurement teams, while Ser Marlon was tasked with vetting the forty-two recruits and rejecting at least half.
• Clay returned to his room, opened the Witcher system, and examined the formulas for Thunderbolt, Swallow, Cat, and Blizzard potions.
• Clay recognized that the potions could greatly improve his combat abilities but that their combined toxicity could overwhelm his current resistance.
• Clay decided to seek the ingredients himself and prioritize building strength as the coming age of chaos approached.

Clay accompanied Maester Theomore to deliver a raven letter from Winterfell to Earl Wyman, and learned that the maester was a Lannister whom his family distrusted. Earl Wyman opened the letter and began reading it aloud, but its contents were not revealed.

• Clay and Maester Theomore climbed the Sea Tower stairs to bring Winterfell's letter to Earl Wyman.
• Clay noticed that the Manderly guards seemed wary of Maester Theomore and that they treated Clay more warmly after the maester left.
• Earl Wyman asked whether Theomore had accompanied Clay, then warned Clay to keep his dealings with the maester to a minimum.
• Earl Wyman revealed that Maester Theomore was a Lannister and said he did not trust him.
• Earl Wyman unfolded the letter from Winterfell and began reading it aloud.

Clay learned from Earl Wyman that House Manderly maintained spies in Winterfell and King's Landing, and that King Robert had appointed Eddard Stark as Hand because he had no viable alternative. Earl Wyman then offered Clay command of the Manderly spy force, the White Sea.

• Clay told Earl Wyman that Robb Stark resembled his father but acted more impulsively.
• Clay explained that Robert chose Eddard as Hand because of their friendship and the alliance among the great houses.
• Earl Wyman said Eddard had been Robert's only choice, since refusing would have pushed the king toward the Lannisters.
• Earl Wyman revealed that House Manderly had spies in Winterfell and King's Landing, and that the Boltons also had a spy force.
• Earl Wyman named the Manderly force the White Sea and asked Clay to become its commander.

Earl Wyman warned Clay that, as House Manderly’s only heir, his actions and choices affected the family and White Harbor’s future. He told Clay to visit the Twins and consider a politically useful marriage, leaving Clay resigned to the duty while privately imagining a more powerful match.

• Earl Wyman scolded Clay for acting without considering House Manderly’s interests and ordered him to consult the family in the future.
• Clay admitted he had not understood the responsibilities of being House Manderly’s heir and promised to seek the family’s counsel.
• Earl Wyman told Clay that House Frey had invited him to the Twins for Lord Walder Frey’s child’s Name Day and had considered marrying him to a Frey girl.
• Earl Wyman advised Clay to attend the invitation out of respect for the Twins’ strategic importance, but not to pursue a Frey marriage.
• Clay accepted that he had little choice in the matter and privately thought about Daenerys Targaryen and Margaery Tyrell as possible future matches.

Clay reviewed White Harbor’s intelligence on House Frey and learned that he would take command of the White Sea Guard before traveling to the Twins in five days. He left with the trip planned, still unsure whether the Three-Eyed Crow would send Hodor with the Dragon Egg while he was away.

• The old man gave Clay a booklet on House Frey and told him to meet the former White Sea Guard commander before leaving for the Twins.
• Clay read about Walder Frey, his family, and three possible marriage candidates, including two named Walda Frey.
• The old man explained the White Sea Guard’s reach and rejected Clay’s suggestion that it recruit locals.
• The old man set Clay’s departure for the Twins in five days and promised to provide a cover story.
• Clay wondered whether his trip would interfere with the Three-Eyed Crow’s promised delivery of the Dragon Egg by Hodor.

Clay was summoned back to New Castle to meet the twenty Manderly cadets who had passed the selection for his personal guard. He ordered them to train with the White Harbor Guard and learn to write, beginning his search for capable men to become the first witchers.

• Ser Marlon told Clay that Lord Wyman had selected the candidates and wanted him back at New Castle.
• Clay returned to the training yard and inspected the twenty remaining Manderly cadets.
• Clay questioned the cadets about their role and told them he valued independent judgment as much as loyalty.
• Clay assigned the cadets to the White Harbor Guard and ordered them to learn to write a letter within a month, warning that he would dismiss those who failed or cheated.

Clay recruited twenty Manderly cadet-branch men for the White Harbor Guard and earned their respect by listening to their experiences and ideas. After dinner, Wynafryd asked him to refuse any marriage proposal from House Frey when he went to the Twins.

• Clay listened to the twenty cadet-branch men describe their backgrounds and discussed their ideas about past battles.
• Clay ended the conversation, and the White Harbor Guard escorted him away as a captain took the new recruits to eat.
• At dinner, Earl Wyman asked Clay whether the recruits met his requirements, while Wendel offered to find veterans for Clay's personal guard.
• Earl Wyman told Wendel to focus on the army's equipment and said he would handle Clay's guard.
• Wynafryd took Clay into the garden and asked him to reject any Frey who proposed marriage to her.

Clay reassured Wynafryd that he would reject a Frey betrothal and realized Earl Wyman had delayed her marriage to protect House Manderly’s succession. The next day, Clay met Ser Bartimus, the former commander of the White Sea Guard, and Wyman sent them off together to show Clay the bloodied realities behind White Harbor.

• Clay promised Wynafryd he would refuse any Frey match, and she explained that Wyman had never discussed her betrothal before Clay returned.
• Clay reasoned that Wyman had kept Wynafryd unbetrothed to prevent another house from gaining control of White Harbor if disaster struck the Manderlys.
• Wyman summoned Clay to his study, where Clay met the one-eyed, lame Ser Bartimus, former commander of the White Sea Guard.
• Wyman named Clay as his heir and Bartimus’s successor, then ordered Bartimus to take Clay to see his territory and the blood behind White Harbor.

Clay visited the Wolf's Den, House Manderly's prison and White Sea Guard headquarters, where Ser Bartimus introduced him to the Guard's network and handed over command. Clay became the new commander and prepared to take charge of its five regional stewards.

• Clay rode with Ser Bartimus into the Wolf's Den and learned that it served as White Harbor's prison and the White Sea Guard's headquarters.
• Ser Bartimus stopped Clay from touring the prison until their handover was complete.
• Clay saw the Guard's raven-message room and learned that it compiled reports from thirty-four locations across several regions.
• Ser Bartimus introduced Clay to the five chief stewards responsible for those regions.
• Ser Bartimus gave Clay the command ring and announced that Clay Manderly was the new commander of the White Sea Guard.

Clay put on a ring that identified him as the White Sea Guard’s new superior, then heard reports from the five regional overseers about their intelligence networks. He ordered a report on House Frey ahead of his upcoming visit, while the roundup revealed the guard’s difficulties gathering intelligence in several regions.

• Ser Bartimus left the meeting room after ordering the overseers to report their work and news to Clay.
• Snow reported the White Sea Guard’s spy network in the North and promised to compile intelligence from the king’s stay at Winterfell.
• Rivers reported that Lord Hoster Tully was near death and that a House Frey offspring had fled the Twins before being captured and hanged.
• Clay asked Rivers for a summary of House Frey’s major events over the past five years, to be delivered within a day.
• Hill reported that the White Sea Guard struggled to infiltrate the Westerlands and the Vale, while its agents faced heavy losses in King's Landing.

After reviewing the White Sea Guard’s costly intelligence network, Clay took command and began redirecting its efforts toward people and places he considered important. He left the meeting with orders to monitor Winterfell, strengthen coverage around the Twins, and investigate Hall Lyko.

• Clay insisted that the White Sea Guard never deduct from the death benefits of its dead agents.
• Ser Bartimus confirmed that Clay had authority to command the White Sea Guard, and Clay ordered Northern surveillance concentrated on Winterfell, especially Bran Stark and Lady Catelyn.
• Clay directed Chief Rivers to continue monitoring Lord Tully, focus on the Twins, arrange contact during Clay’s visit, and eventually map the area around the Twins’ gates.
• Clay told Chief Hill to stop competing with House Lannister’s spies, seek leverage over someone with access to the Lannister castle, and preserve the Westerlands network after Hill reported past failures.
• Clay ordered the Crownlands network to avoid becoming caught in conflicts in King’s Landing, track Petyr and Varys, and find out whether Hall Lyko was still alive.

Clay followed Ser Bartimus into the godswood, where they shared an old bottle of ale and discussed the White Sea Guard and the dangers of misplaced trust. As Clay left, he recognized a magically resonant crow as the Three-Eyed Crow.

• Clay followed Ser Bartimus to the heart tree after seeing him enter the godswood.
• Ser Bartimus told Clay that he had lost a leg saving Clay's grandfather and kept the bottle of ale they had once planned to share.
• Ser Bartimus warned Clay not to become lenient or trust the White Sea Guard blindly, advising him to believe only half of the information passed up from below.
• Clay and Ser Bartimus drank together and talked about their past and the northern army's exploits.
• Clay washed his face at the pool and spotted a huge black crow, recognizing it as the Three-Eyed Crow.

Clay met the Three-Eyed Crow and received Vermax’s petrified Dragon Egg, then learned the conditions needed to hatch it. The Crow revealed that magic, high heat, and special blood could awaken a dragon, leaving Clay with a dangerous gift and a possible path to raising one.

• Clay encountered the Three-Eyed Crow and Hodor in the woods.
• The Three-Eyed Crow gave Clay the Dragon Egg from Vermax, which Clay accepted despite suspecting it was bait.
• Clay learned that R'hllor and Melisandre were working to expand their influence through the southern lands.
• The Three-Eyed Crow explained that hatching a Dragon Egg required high heat, special blood, and magic.
• Clay connected the Crow’s explanation to the sacrifice and conditions that had allowed Daenerys to hatch her dragons.

The Three-Eyed Crow explained that dragonriding depended on high Valyrian blood, not merely the ability to use fire magic, and offered Clay a way to acquire that bloodline. Clay absorbed Bloodraven’s blood, enduring scorching pain as the Three-Eyed Crow instructed him to assimilate it.

• Clay wondered why Bloodraven had never ridden a dragon and realized the Dragon Egg had come to him too late.
• The Three-Eyed Crow explained that dragonlords possessed a special affinity for fire magic, while Clay’s own ability to use fire magic did not prove he had the necessary bloodline.
• The Three-Eyed Crow revealed that he had brought Clay a sample of his own former dragonlord blood and instructed him to absorb it.
• Clay used the Witcher System’s Magic Pool to draw the blood’s fiery power into his body, suffering intense pain as it spread.
• The Three-Eyed Crow told Clay to let the blood reach his heart and use magic to assimilate it, beginning the creation of a new dragonlord bloodline.

Clay returned to New Castle after secretly obtaining a Dragon Egg and collapsed from exhaustion, while Earl Wyman grew furious on learning Clay had shared a bottle with Ser Bartimus. The next day, Clay discovered he could gradually merge the Blood of the Dragonlord into his own blood, then weighed the dangers of hatching a dragon while remaining heir to House Manderly.

• Clay woke in the Godswood after the Three-Eyed Crow delivered the Dragon Egg, hid it in his Witcher System inventory, and told his guards he had drunk too much wine.
• Clay's guards brought him back to New Castle, where Wynafryd took him in, and their captain reported the incident to Earl Wyman.
• Earl Wyman became angry when he learned Clay had drunk with Ser Bartimus, then smashed things after dismissing the guard captain.
• Clay woke the next day and used his magic to test the Blood of the Dragonlord, discovering that repeated contact could slowly merge it into his own blood, though the pain made the process dangerous.
• Clay considered whether to hatch the Dragon Egg and decided that his duties to House Manderly and his family made abandoning his position impossible, but he wanted the option of a dragon against Daenerys Targaryen in the future.

Clay set out from White Harbor with two hundred Manderly knights to travel by ship to the Twins. He boarded the Old Man of White Harbor, where his guards prepared for the voyage, and settled into his private cabin.

• Wynafryd reminded Clay of his promise to refuse any Frey marriage proposal on her behalf, and Clay reassured her before leaving.
• Clay rode through White Harbor to the Manderly military harbor, where Captain Ston prepared to take him and his men south aboard the Old Man of White Harbor.
• Clay struggled with the swaying gangplank but crossed it, while most of his veteran guards boarded with ease.
• Clay asked why the guards removed their armor, and the guard captain explained that heavy armor could exhaust them when the ship pitched.
• Clay let the guard captain remove his armor and entered the private cabin prepared for him.

Clay went up on deck to escape his seasick cabin and learned about the strength of White Harbor’s fleet and the Iron Fleet’s dominance. He recognized how vulnerable coastal lands were without naval power and resolved to suggest that Lord Manderly invest in a stronger navy.

• Clay left his cabin for fresh air and joined Captain Stone and the guard captain on the stern platform.
• Captain Stone explained that White Harbor had ten great sailing ships, twelve longships, and two galleys, far fewer than the fleets of the Iron Islands, Lannisters, and Tyrells.
• Captain Stone described how Stannis had nearly destroyed the Iron Fleet at the Battle of Fair Isle by trapping it between the island and the mainland.
• Clay considered how ships could bypass the Neck’s defenses and how a coastal landing could threaten White Harbor.
• Clay decided he would someday urge Lord Manderly to spend more money building up the navy.

Eddard Stark worried over the crown’s mounting debts as he watched the tournament in King’s Landing. After Loras Tyrell defeated the Mountain, Gregor Clegane killed his horse in a fit of rage, while Jon Arryn’s cryptic words returned to Eddard’s thoughts.

• Eddard Stark watched King Robert’s costly tournament and considered the crown’s debts to the Iron Bank and Tywin Lannister.
• Eddard saw Loras Tyrell offer Sansa a flower and expected the Mountain to defeat the Knight of Flowers.
• Loras Tyrell unhorsed the Mountain when Gregor Clegane lost control of his horse.
• The Mountain rose, took a sword from a squire, and killed his horse before the horrified crowd.
• Eddard recalled Jon Arryn’s repeated words, “The seed is strong,” without understanding their meaning.

Clay led 200 White Harbor cavalrymen through the Riverlands to visit Lord Walder Frey at the Twins. After a difficult journey, he reached the Green Fork and considered the fortress’s defenses as he approached.

• Clay ordered his men to camp on the Riverlands shore and set watches for the night.
• The next morning, Clay and his cavalry crossed scrubland and reached the Kingsroad.
• Three days later, a House Frey patrolman met the group near the Green Fork and offered to guide them to the Twins.
• Clay asked the guard captain to learn about House Frey’s situation and whom they would meet at the Twins.
• Clay saw the bridge and the Twins’ fortress, and wondered how he would capture it if he commanded an army.