Forty: Regal

In the stunned quiet after the dragons’ departure, Fitz and Nighteyes salvage supplies from the ruined camp, tend wounds, and search for water. They discover Will, horribly maimed and crawling toward the Skill-pillar. Fitz binds Will’s stump and steadies him, not to save Will, but to exploit Will’s lingering Skill-link to Regal.

Drawing deeply on the Skill, Fitz forces a connection through Will and invades Regal’s mind. He finds Regal drugged, weak, and fundamentally dependent on others’ Skill. With Nighteyes pressing the Wit to unnerve Regal, Fitz isolates Regal from his coteries and recognizes the petty cruelty beneath Regal’s threats. Fitz then unleashes the Skill to overwrite Regal’s will, redirecting his loyalty toward Kettricken and Verity’s line. When the assault ends, Fitz refuses to kill Will outright, instead keeping vigil until Will quietly dies.

Fitz and Nighteyes withdraw to a trout stream, healing in quiet days. Through dragon-dreams, Fitz witnesses Verity-as-Dragon arrive at Buckkeep with Kettricken and Starling. Patience greets them imperiously, and Verity destroys the Red Ships in the harbour, then hunts Raiders through the town. Other dragons—led by Girl-on-a-Dragon and the Fool—join, and together they scour the Coastal Duchies, later carrying the war to the Out Islands, while their passing steals moments of memory from onlookers.

Legends grow, praising Elderlings and Verity’s return. Under Fitz’s implanted zeal, Regal transforms publicly: recalling troops from the Mountains, apologizing to Eyod, sending aid down the Buck River, pardoning prisoners, pledging fealty to Kettricken’s unborn heir, and returning the crown, Solicity’s Skill scrolls to Chade, and jewels to Patience. He fights beside commoners at Tradeford and wins popular love. Ultimately, Regal dies bizarrely in bed, rumoured slain by a monstrous rat, with Chade’s later ever-present ferret hinting at a hidden hand.