Tormund showed up at the forge wanting to know if Gendry could drill some holes in the fang he tried to mount on his new tiger armor. He had cut strips from the skin with his dragon glass axe to use to tie it on with. Thomas and Gendry tried many different ways to drill the long fang with no success. Tormund nodded sadly and told them to keep the strips and fang. The younger Mangana came in and said, "Gendry, you have a bunch of requests that have come in to make weapons for people." His Westeros was getting quite functional. Gendry headed to the gatekeeper to see about these requests. As he was getting there, a large royal wagon pulled in. The driver, seeing him, began pointing at the wagon. Gendry saw Beth nearby and called her over to translate for him. Beth listened to the driver and said, "He is from the king, and he says the king is commissioning you to make 20 swords for his closest bodyguards. The king wishes you to finish this task before any other. He says that all of the guards have black disruption affinity, and there is a large box of crystals and 25 large bars of star metal in the wagon. Also included is payment for this commission, some other assorted bars, and three large bags of the best burning coke in the kingdom. His majesty awaits completion of this task." Attendants began unloading the wagon and carrying the stuff to the forge room. Gendry checked the payment bag and found 40 platinum bars inside. A note was handed to Beth, and she said, "It reads: Rings for these will be made in town, take as much time as you need to finish, but don't let me down, master blacksmith." Gendry shook his head. He had only been a master blacksmith one day, and he was already this busy. He thanked Beth and headed back to the forge. Beth's eyes followed him as he walked away.
Two days later, the vote was held. When counted, there were 33 votes for helping the treekin attack and 33 against. Calancy had abstained as she was a treekin. They all looked to Arya to cast the deciding vote. She shook her head, no, saying, "You, the crew, must decide this alone." Members stood and passionately argued for and against. Captain Dirk once again stood and said, "So when you're captured and enslaved, I don't need to come save you, right?" A few hours later, the vote was held again. This time, it was 37 for helping, 29 against.
Arya nodded and took the message to Elanor. The planning for the assault to free the captives began. At the first assault meeting, King Wen's minister of intelligence briefed the group on all the information that they had on both the city and the castle. Numbers of mid-level fighters and high-level fighters, where they were stationed, and what reserves they had. He spread large updated maps of the city and the castle. The group argued back and forth on plans to take down enough of the wall to get into the castle and how to do so. The minister reminded them of the numbers disadvantage, saying that surprise was their best chance to pull this off. Then they argued about how best to effect the escape of so many weakened captives. The meeting went round and round, discussing the best plans for attack and escape. Thomas stood and said, "We are thinking about this wrong. If surprise is our friend, then we must really surprise them." He pointed to a breach in the wall between the castle and the town, saying, "Two teams enter here. One goes to the castle and quietly frees all the prisoners. The other team turns towards the port and captures three of the largest ships there. Before the ships are attacked, three of our barrels take down the wall near the castle. The explosions will alert the castle to the fact that it is under attack. The non-treekin prisoners will exit through that breach, perhaps even joining the fray, and the treekin prisoners will be hustled down to the port by backstreets. That way, they can bypass the fighting men that will be called up from their ships as reinforcements. That will allow the port team to capture three vessels large enough and fast enough to load them all on board and escape with them. The older Mangana stood and said, "I can make enough revitalizing potion to give each prisoner enough to make them function whether fighting or running." The minister nodded, saying, "This plan is risky and full of places where it may go wrong. Yet it addresses many of the issues that will be encountered. His majesty has authorized 120 troops to accompany this attack. These will not be regular line troops, but the best of the best. 30 will be from his own personal guard, 30 more will be royal archers, and 60 will be mixed special troops and mages. New intelligence says the Zon are massing ships and troops to attack Aman very soon. 4 troop carriers left a northern city yesterday; it will take them over two weeks to arrive. If in this attack, their navy can be disrupted enough, perhaps the invasion of Aman can be delayed." The minister left the maps on the table and departed to inform the king. The plan to rescue the captive treekin was underway.