[ It is a question that arrives, at once, to the heart of the matter. Dany is silent, taking the chance to nibble at a plum. It is ripe and sweet, so much that the juice nearly drenches her chin, but the more the queen thinks upon her follies and her concessions, the more sour it tastes.

At last, she speaks. And when she does, there is something younger about her. What is old is the eyes. ]

I freed my people, yet I did not save them. [ A simple, profound truth. ] I thought I'd struck the chains from their ankles and cast their iron collars into the fire. In truth, all I did was cut off their feet and behead them.

[ That is the simple truth. That is what sours the plum. ]

I lingered in Meereen to rule. [ Her eyes meet Sieglinde's. ] To be a queen. My heart was sick of smashing and plundering, and I was only a young girl. I wished to feed my people and see them prosper. To ... to plant trees and watch them grow.

[ But Meereen is not her home. ]

Before I awoke in Oska, I was a starved, filthy thing. Drogon carried me away from Meereen, away into the Dothraki Sea, where once I roamed the high grasses with Khal Drogo's khalasar. I wanted to return to my city on wings, but by dusk Drogon always returns to his lair.

[ She smiles wryly. ]

I have named it Dragonstone. Do you know why, Sieglinde?