Far and above the most nightmarish storyline in Chapter 1 is Missy's. Her whole situation is already unnerving. Introduced as Albin's concubine, it is quickly revealed that she was tortured into insanity and suffers from a case of Stockholm Syndrome. On top of that, she is at the mercy of Albin and his freaks, who take cruel pleasure with tormenting her.
One moment of Missy's storyline deserves to be mentioned in particular. After getting a tiny Hope Spot by helping out the queen and Prince Alaric with saving the handmaiden Shana Sand, she is confronted by the king and forced to admit that she is responsible for the deaths of Matt the Mute and Ronny. Though he forgives her, he does send her a clear message, by ordering his assassin Zereth to give her a box. As she opens it, she realizes that it contains the head of her ally, the Purple Ocelot.
Gwendis' storyline begins to delve into the nightmarish when she makes the fatal decision of grabbing the hand of Aisha, the Dark Priestess, giving her a terrifying vision about the fall of the dornish kingdoms and even what seems like her own death. Her vision ends with her seeing a dark being with massive, icy blue eyes: The Great Other.
Chapter 2: Kings and Snakes
Missy's storyline continues where it left off, with the introduction of Ser Mordekhai Crusher, Albin's cousin, who arrives at Kingsgrave with the head of the fleeing handmaiden, Shana Sand, mutilated beyond recognition. After the events of Chapter 1, Missy's standing among the freaks has grown worse, which means she is now in danger of being phyiscally harmed by them again, especially by the vengeful Tom the Animal. The revelation of her true identity as Kortney Caron also puts her suffering into a new light.
After the already nightmarish vision Gwendis suffered in the previous chapter, things quickly turn even worse. As it is revealed, the Great Other took a personal interest in her, which means that Aisha now does the same. She convinces the princess to leave Blackmont with her instead of going to Skyreach to marry Desmor Fowler, promising that doing so would save her life. However, considering that it is Aisha we're talking about, the truthfulness of such a statement is highly questionable. Being dragged across Dorne by the priestess, Gwendis continues to get tormented by the Great Other, who is now watching her personally. Eventually, she is even brought into the presence of Ser Mordekhai Crusher.
At the end of his stay in Godsgrace, Jamison has a nightmare that shows him in a city near a river, where he sees a shadow creeping across the street, before he himself is burned alive by fire. In itself, this is merely a nightmare. However, given that the only other dream shown in the story, Gwendis' vision, holds prophetic elements, it becomes more terrifying. All of this is made worse when you consider that Jamison is about to leave to a city near a river, Vaith, which is rumoured to be ruled by a priestess of the Great Other and is about to be attacked by the R'hllor follower Dalia. The combination of these give quite a bad feeling for the future events in Jamison's life.
Aisha herself might try to appear Affably Evil at her worst moments. However, at times during this chapter, he shows that she is way less affable and way more evil than she admits to. Forcing Gwendis to interact with the Great Other, who slowly threatens to overwhelm her, only solidifies her as a cold-blooded villain, as well as a truly terrifying force to behold.
Just Lyla's duel with Mordekhai. Being a fight between a nimble assassin and a heavily-armoured knight, even the hardened Lyla is easily intimidated by her massive opponent. She nonetheless manages to take him down in a truly gruesome way, taking out one of his eyes and ramming a dagger into his skull. The fact that he gets up again, wounded but still able to carry on shows that he is more than a mere human and surely enough, Lyla is killed with a single strike once he gets his hands on her.
Valerie Sand is introduced to the story as a sorceress of likely greater power and even less morals than Aisha. She bewitches Jamison and a dozen other men to cover her retreat during the Battle for Vaith, which proves that she herself is the true witch of Vaith. Later on, it is revealed that she has bewitched even her own mother for her goals and is responsible for a number of gruesome sacrifices to her dark god. The worst part about it is that she managed to escape, meaning she can continue th pursuit of her nefarious goals elsewhere.
Jamison's fight during the battle for Vaith manages to be equal parts, this and a moment of awesome. Deprived of his free will, but not his skill with a blade, we get to see Jamison for the first time without his swagger, his playful arrogance and teasing. In this moment, he becomes a true killing machine, not even focussing on keeping himself alive. He easily beats down a number of opponents, killing Vyran the Lion with ease and even besting Dalia, before being brought down by the Absurdly Sharp Blade of Kris Vaith.
Histories & Lore
Unsurprisingly, Aisha's Histories & Lore part is unnerving. It drives home how delusional she is, as she herself clearly believes to do the right and good thing with her blind obedience to her God of Evil.
Missy' Histories & Lore part is as dark as you'd expect from a girl that has been tortured into insanity. It starts fairly normal, perhaps even light-hearted for Missy, but quickly turns sour when she ends up getting into a harsh argument with a young servicegirl. Eventually, she ends up framing the girl for the murder of a guard she herself killed, gleefully watching on as the girl gets carried away by the other guards, to meet a horrible fate.
Gwendis' second Histories&Lore is fairly upbeat for the most part, detailing her positive relationship to her parents and how she developed into the Politically-Active Princess she was seen as during the beginning of the story. However, it also features a brief talk with the alchemist Syrenho, who would later go on to murder her mother. With this knowledge, a lot about his interaction with Gwendis and Valaena crosses over from harmlessly eccentric into pure Nightmare Fuel instead.
