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• Daenerys has freed the slaves from several of the free cities (but as soon as she leaves, slavery goes on) and has become queen of Meereen. She has to deal with the slavers who oppose her and kill freed slaves every night. To put a stop to it, she accepts to marry one of the important persons of the city and has to make many concessions. Her three dragons also cause damages and kill people. One of them flees, while she keeps the other two penned. After her wedding, during a public event, the dragon comes back and start killing people. Trying to prevent it from being killed by the guards, she flees on its back, and she is presumed dead, but eventually joins a tribe of Dothraki. The two other dragons are freed by a prince of Dorne who wanted to marry Daenery but who had arrived too late; the dragons are wreaking havoc in Meereen.

• Tyrion, after killing his father, flees to Pentos. There he travels with a small group including a young boy who happens to be Daenery's newphew, Aegon Targaryen. The latter plans to join Daenery in Meereen before reclaiming his throne in Westeros, but eventually decides to hire sellswords and go west straight. During his trip, Tyrion is taken prisoner by Ser Jorah Mornont who wants to bring him to Daenerys, but they are made prisoner by slavers. They reach Meereen, but cannot make contact with Daenerys. They escape slavery during an epidemic and becoming sellswords, preparing to attack Meereen.

• Bran and his friends travel beyond the wall, guided by a mysterious character that may be a good wight. He finally finds the thee-eyed crow, a barely living creature who teaches him to become a greenseer and to read the past in the weiwoods.

• Jon is commander of Castle Black and, given the lack of soldiers on the wall to defend it agains the wights that will attack during the winter, he decides to allow wildlings to come south of the wall and to man the abandonned castles. King Stannis spends some time at the wall, before moving south to attack the Boltons. Just after receiving a letter informing him that Stannis has been beaten at Winterfell, Jon is stabbed by some of his men who don't like the idea of living with the wildlings.

• Theon Greyjoy has been tortured by Ramsay Bolton and turned into his creature. Bolton, his father and many followers eventually take quarters in Winterfell, Ramsay naming himself its new lord. Ramsay also marries a girl who claims to be Arya Stark, but was actually a maid of Sansa's. A plot to free the fake Arya leads Theon to flee Winterfell with the girl and is captured by Stannis.

• In King's Landing, Cersei is to be tried for having slept with too many men. In the shadow, Varys kills the people who would prevent Aegon from rising to the throne.

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This volume tells the stories of only half of the characters.

• Arya is working at a temple in Braavos, pretending to be “nobody” (but she doesn't fool the head priest there, who recognizes her for who she is). She later becomes an acolyte and helps caring for the dead. She is then sent to the city under a false identity to learn about people, observation… When she admits that her “Arya” identity killed a renegade black brother who travelled with Samwell, she is given some mysterious potion and becomes blind.

• Samwell Tarly is sent by Jon Snow to the city of the maesters to study and become the new maester of the Watch at Castle Black. During a stop in Braavos, he and Arya Stark meet, but don't know each other.

• Sansa plays her role as natural daughter of Petyr Baelish, who teaches her how to become a fine political schemer.

• Cersei, Queen Regent, tries to get rid of her son's wife, Margaery, whome she believes (because of a prediction she heard as a kid) would take her place as Queen. She becomes more and more paranoid. Her plan to accuse Margaery of fornication backfires and she finds herself in prison. Jaime, whom she sent away to defuse a difficult siege in Riverrun, decides to ignore her call for help.

• Brienne is sent by Jaime to find Sansa Stark (and possibly Arya, if she is still alive) in order to keep his oath to Catelyn to return her daughters in exchange for his freedom. Brienne is eventually caught by the rebels who ride with the zombie of Catelyn found guilty of being in league with the Lannisters, and hanged.

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• Jaime arives in King's Landing and resumes his position as captain of the King's Guard. But his father disavows hime because he's now a cripple, and Cersei, his sister and lover is keeping her distances.

• Robb and Catelyn attend Catelyn's brother's wedding at the Frey's castle, but they are both murdered during the feast (as a revenge because of Robb not marrying the Frey girl he promised to marry). Catelyn is eventually ressucitated thanks to a priest of the God of Light who goes with the brotherhood of thieves Arya had met before. She now goes with them, seeking revenge against the Freys.

• Arya is taken by Sandor Clegane, former bodyguard of prince Joffrey, who fled King's Landing during the attack by Stannis. They reach the Frey's castle just at the time when Robb and his mother are being murdered, and immediately flee the place. Arya finally manages to escape Clegane, and takes a ship to the North, to the Wall, to join Jon Snow.

• Tyrion and Sansa are accused of having poisoned King Joffrey (who is therefore dead) at his wedding feast. Tyrion is made prisoner, tried and found guilty. The night before his execution, he is freed by his brother Jaime, and before leaving for good, kills his father, Lord Tywin, who had made his life miserable since he was a boy.

• Just after the death of Joffrey, Sansa flees with the help of the former knight whose life she had saved, but the latter is actually working for Petyr Baelish. Petyr tells Sansa that it was his scheming that lead Joffrey's new bride's grandmother to poison the king while making it look like Tyrion did it. Petyr then takes Sansa to her aunt Lisa, her mother's sister. Lysa is now wed to Petyr, but she's also mad with jealousy (rightly so) since Petyr is still in love with Catelyn, and attracted to Sansa. Lysa confesses, in front of Sansa and Petyr, that she had poisoned her former husband, Joh Arryn, Hand of the late King Robert, thanks to Petyr's scheming, just before being murdered by the latter.

• Bran and his friends are still looking for the three-eyed crow he saw in his dreams. They reached the Wall and manage to cross it thanks to a strange character riding an elk.

• Jon Snow is back to Castle Black, and helps defend it against the wildlings who had been gathering in order to invade the Seven Kingdoms. King Stannis arrives just in time to defeat the wildlings and save the few remaining Black Brothers. Jon is offered to become Lord of Winterfell in exchange for cooperating with Stannis and converting himself to the Lord of Light. He refuses and is eventually elected Lord Commander of the Watch.

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Multiple parallel story trails:

• Tyrion, even uglier than before, is made Master of the Coin by his father who took back his place as Hand of the King. Tyrion additionaly loses most of his pawns to Cersei, and is forced to marry Sansa Stark. All are preparing for Joffrey's wedding to the late King Renly's widow.

• Catelyn frees Jaime Lannister (against the will of her brother and her son, Robb, King of the North) and sends him, escorted by Brienne, to King's Landing in the hope to exchange him against her daughters. But Jaime and Brienne are made prisoner by Roose Bolton's men, Jaime's sword hand is cut, and they are both taken to Harrenhal.

• Arya is taken by a brotherhood of thieves, who are men sworn to the late King Robert, fighting both the followers of King Joffrey and King Robb. Arya is recognized as a Stark by one of them (who used to serve the Starks). They plan to return her to Robb against a ransom.

• Daenerys bought an army of the best soldiers in the world, eunnuchs trained since childhood for absolute obedience, and continuously drugged so as not to feel any pain.

• Jon Snow has joined the wildlings, who then crossed the Wall. He finally manages to escape, in hope to be able to warn Castle Black of the invasion of the South by Mance Rayder's people.

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Multiple parallel story trails:

• Renly and Stannis Baratheon both want to be king. Stannis is the eldest, but the people prefer Renly. Stannis has changed religion, now following the God of Light, whose priestess seems to be a sorceress; she manages to get Renly killed by a shadow. Most of Renly's followers join Stannis's ranks. They march to attak King's Landing.

• Tyrion is asked to replace his father as Hand of the King. Cersei doesn't like it and does her best to make his life difficult. Tyrion tries to organize the defense of King's landing, waiting for the attack by Stannis Baratheon. Joffrey's little brother and sister are sent away to safety. Stannis loses the battle thanks the help of Tywin Lannister who arrives just in time. Tyrion is severly wounded during the battle by a knight probably following Cersei's orders.

• Sansa saves a drunken knight from death by suggesting to make him a fool. He swears to help her escape King's Landing. When Joffrey breaks their betrothal to wed the widow of Renly Baratheon, the knight suggest they would escape the next month, during the wedding.

• Theon Greyjoy, son of the king of the Iron islands, returns to his place after ten years as “hostage” of the Starks (who treated him well). He wants his revenge, especially since his father doesn't trust him anymore. When sent by his father to attack coastal cities (while his sister gets a much more interesting assigment), he decides to sail to Winterfell, the castle of the Starks, and take it. When Bran and Rickon escape and Theon is unable to recover them, he fakes their deaths. Later, the people he hoped would help him take control of the region betray him, kill him and burn Winterfell.

• Arya: taken by a recruiter for the Wall who recognizes her as Ned Stark's daughter, she is travelling north with other recruits (and prisoners). During the journey they are almost all killed by soldiers who clean the country of opposants to the Lannisters. Only a handful escape, including Arya, some of them die of their wounds, and they end up at Harrenhal as servants. After learning that her brothers Bran and Rickon have been killed, she decides to escape with two of her companions.

• Danerys is looking for ships to go back to the mainland and take back her kingdom. Everybody she meets is interesing in her dragons, but not really in giving her ships. Eventually she meets two envoys of an accointance of her who sems willing to give her ships.

• Jon Snow and many other Black Brothers are ranging beyond the wall, to find out what happened to the rangers who disappeard, and also to understand where all the wildling villagers are gone. They discover that a renegade Brother, Mance Rayden plans to break the wall and invade the Seven Kingdoms. Snow and his companion are taken by a group of wildlings; Jon's superior orders him to pretend to want to defect in order to become a mole among the wildlings.

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King Robert comes to the North and asks his friend Eddard (Ned) Stark to become his new Hand, since the (suspicious) death of the previous Hand. During the visit of the King, Ned's son Bran discovers that the Queen Cersei has an affair with her twin brother Jaime Lannister, who tries to kill Bran. The latter survives but is crippled. Soon after, Ned leaves his castle with his two daugters to move south with the King to his castle in King's Landing. At the same time, Jon Snow, Ned's bastard, leaves to the north to become a guardian of the Wall that protects the kingdom from the creatures living farther north, accompanied by Ned's brother Benjen and Tyrion Lannister, the Queen's other brother, a (smart) dwarf. Robb, Ned's eldest son, remains at the castle with his baby brother and Bran, and their mother, Catelyn. A murder attempt on Bran pushes Catelyn to ride south and warn her husband. In King's Landing she is told that the murder attempt on Bran has probably been ordered by Tyrion. She also manages to warn her husband, and then moves back North. On her way she meets Tyrion who was traveling back from the Wall and takes him prisoner, but he is released, having “proven” his innocence through a “judgement of the gods”. In King's Landing, Ned discovers that the previous Hand had been killed because he had discovered that the King's children were actually not his, but Jaime's. Soon after the King is killed during a hunt, and although he wants Ned to become Regent, Cersei schemes to place her son Joffrey on the throne, takes Ned's daughther Sansa (betrothed to Joffrey) hostage and gets Ned's followers all killed. Even Ned is taken prisoner and forced to claim he is a traitor before being executed. Only Arya, Ned's other daughter, manages to escape the castle and hides in the city. Lead by Robb and his mother, an army marches to the South to try and rescue Ned, but when they learn of his death and that the youngest brother of the old King has been crowned a King also, they choose to secede from the kingdom and make Robb the King of the North. During all this, the only descendant from the previous King's dynasty (the one from whom Robert took the throne) becomes the mother of 3 baby dragons, a created who had disappeared for several hundred years.