Doran's daughter Arianne to create a war of succession by crowning Tommen's sister Myrcella as queen of Westeros is thwarted. In the confusion, one of Arianne's co-conspirators, Ser Gerold "Darkstar" Dayne, attempts to kill Myrcella and disfigures her face. Myrcella's guardian, Ser Arys Oakheart, is killed by Areo Hotah. This strains Dorne's new alliance with the Iron Throne. Doran later reveals to his daughter that he has a much grander plan to bring down the Lannisters, and her brother Quentyn has gone east to bring back "Fire and Blood" through an alliance with Daenerys. Braavos Arriving in the foreign city of Braavos, Arya Stark finds her way to the cult of face-changing assassins known as the Faceless Men. Accepted as a novice, Arya is taught to abandon her previous identity, but her true identity asserts itself in the form of wolf dreams. Meanwhile, the Night's Watch lord commander Jon Snow has ordered Samwell Tarly to sail to the Citadel in Oldtown to train as a maester and warn the Seven Kingdoms about the return of the legendary hostile beings known as the Others. Sam is accompanied by the elderly Maester Aemon, the wildling girl Gilly, Gilly's newborn baby, and another Night's Watch member, Dareon. After the voyage is underway, Sam realizes that the child is actually the son of the wildling leader Mance Rayder, swapped with Gilly's real son. The party becomes temporarily stranded in Braavos when Aemon becomes sick, and Dareon absconds with their money. After learning that Daenerys possesses dragons, Aemon concludes that she is destined to fulfill a prophecy, and he needs to go assist her; but shortly after the party finally leaves Braavos, Aemon dies at the age of 102. After Sam's party leaves, Arya chances upon Dareon and murders him for deserting the Night's Watch. As punishment for the unauthorized killing, the Faceless Men then feed her a potion that causes blindness. Oldtown At the end of the novel, Sam arrives at the Citadel and is introduced to Archmaester Marwyn. After learning about Aemon's death and the dragon prophecy about Daenerys, Marwyn leaves to find Daenerys himself. Samwell also encounters a fellow apprentice who introduces himself as Pate. Characters The story is narrated from the point of view of 12 characters and a one-off prologue point of view. Unlike its predecessors, the fourth novel follows numerous minor characters as well. Prologue: Pate, a novice of