Rhaena leaves Fair Isle

Rhaena Targaryen’s departure from Fair Isle turned a private household succession into a public confrontation: after Marq Farman’s death, his heir Franklyn ordered the queen off the island and tried to keep his sister Elissa there. Rhaena left by dragon for Casterly Rock, but the attempt to separate Elissa from her brought the new lord into conflict with the islanders, who helped the queen’s party escape together.

Conflict within the Farman household

Franklyn’s hostility had roots in the Battle Beneath the Gods Eye. He had fought for Prince Aegon the Uncrowned and been wounded; his grandfather and eldest brother died in the battle, and Franklyn had to bring their bodies back to Fair Isle. He believed that Rhaena showed too little remorse for the losses suffered by House Farman and too little gratitude to him. He also resented her friendship with his sister Elissa, whom he considered willful. In his view, Rhaena should have urged Elissa to fulfil her family duties through marriage and children.

The change in influence at Faircastle sharpened that resentment. Rhaena’s circle, known as the Four-Headed Beast, had become the focus of court life, while Franklyn and his father received less attention. Lords from the Westerlands and elsewhere came to Fair Isle to seek an audience with Rhaena, not with the lord of the island or his heir. While Marq lived, his amiable nature and affection for all his children—including Elissa and his weaker son Androw—kept these tensions from becoming an immediate crisis. He also loved Rhaena for loving his children.

Less than a fortnight after Rhaena and Androw had celebrated the first anniversary of their union, Marq died suddenly at his own table after choking on a fish bone. He was forty-six. Franklyn succeeded him as Lord of Fair Isle, and the balance that had protected Rhaena and her companions was gone.

The queen leaves Fair Isle

The day after his father’s funeral, Franklyn summoned Rhaena to the great hall rather than going to her. He ordered her to leave the island, taking her dragon and her friends, and declared that Androw could leave as well. Elissa, however, was to stay and marry a man of Franklyn’s choosing. His demand made the dispute more than an expulsion: it placed Rhaena’s freedom to depart beside her friendship with Elissa and the new lord’s claim to control his sister’s future.

Rhaena did not remain where she was unwelcome. That night she flew on Dreamfyre to Casterly Rock, instructing Androw and her companions to follow by ship with those who wished to go with her. Androw, angry at his brother’s treatment of them, offered to challenge Franklyn in single combat. Rhaena dissuaded him: she believed Franklyn would defeat him, and feared that another widowhood would bring damaging rumours and further hostility. Instead of escalating the quarrel through a duel, she relied on a refuge she knew from earlier troubles. Lyman Lannister had sheltered her before, when Maegor the Cruel sought her and Prince Aegon’s deaths, and she expected him to receive her again.

Elissa and the islanders

Androw Farman, Samantha Stokeworth, Alayne Royce, and more than forty of Rhaena’s friends, servants, and attendants set out the next morning. Elissa was with them, and her ship, Maiden’s Fancy, had been prepared for the crossing. At the docks, however, Franklyn and about half a dozen men were waiting. He permitted the rest of the party to leave but insisted that Elissa remain on Fair Isle to be married.

Franklyn had misjudged the support Elissa commanded among the island’s smallfolk, especially the sailors, shipwrights, fisherfolk, porters, and other people of the docks who had known her since childhood. When Elissa defied him and demanded that he move aside, the onlookers gathered and grew increasingly angry. Franklyn attempted to take hold of his sister; the crowd intervened, overwhelmed his men before they could draw their blades, and prevented him from keeping her on the island. Three of his men were pushed into the water, and Franklyn was thrown into a ship’s hold among freshly caught cod. Elissa and the others boarded Maiden’s Fancy unharmed and sailed for Lannisport.

Refuge at Casterly Rock

Lyman Lannister welcomed Rhaena and Androw as she had expected. His earlier connection to the couple was not the only tie: his bastard son, Ser Tyler Hill, had fought beside Prince Aegon at the Gods Eye, and his wife, Jocasta Lannister, had befriended Rhaena during her previous stay at Casterly Rock. Jocasta had also been the first to recognize that Rhaena was pregnant. When the rest of the party arrived in Lannisport, the Lannisters took them in too.

Their reception was lavish and offered practical protection as well as hospitality. A feast was held in the party’s honour, an entire stable was given over to Dreamfyre, and Rhaena, Androw, and their companions were assigned richly furnished apartments deep within Casterly Rock, where they would be safe from harm. They remained there for more than a month. The contrast is central to the episode: Franklyn’s new authority could order Rhaena away, but he could not command the islanders’ loyalty or keep Elissa from leaving. Rhaena’s departure thus carried her circle out of Fair Isle intact, from the Farman lord’s contested hall and docks to the protection of the wealthiest house in Westeros.