WiC Reads: Fire & Blood

10) Jaehaerys and Alysanne – Their Triumphs and Tragedies

The curious chapter titles continue. From where I was sitting, Jaehaerys or Alysanne were the least involving part of what is easily the most exciting chapter so far.

Much more interesting than the realm quietly prospering is the tragic return of Aerea Targaryen, once heir to the Iron Throne. Aerea returns on the back of Balerion the Black Dread, and Martin makes it pretty clear where she must have been all this while: the ruins of the Freehold of Valyria. We get incomplete information about what happened to her on her journey, possibly so the book doesn’t spoil things yet to be revealed in A Song of Ice and Fire. Aerea dies without fully coming to her senses and only a handful of people learn the full extent of her condition, including Grand Maester Benifer and Septon Barth, soon to be the new Hand of the King.

Aerea seems to be burning from the inside. There are worm-like creatures living beneath her skin. Some of these creatures may have had human parts, like faces and hands. We get pieces of this puzzle and can guess at how they might fit together, but much is left intentionally blank. It seems like both dragons and dragonlords may have been the results of magical experiments like those that created the monsters eating Aerea from the inside.

And then there is Alys Westhill, formerly known as Elissa Farman. She embarks on a trip to find a new continent west of Westeros. This also has implications for A Song of Ice and Fire, particularly for those that believe Daenaerys might try to sail past Asshai and finally reach Westeros from the west. Elissa Farman is like an inverse Christopher Columbus here. Columbus sailed west to reach the east he knew, and found a new continent instead. Elissa Farman sails west to find a new continent, and could find the east we already know.

But that’s just speculation. I doubt we’ll hear from Alys again in this book.