Kat

Kat lives in King's Landing with her husband Hugh, a blacksmith, and their young daughter. She also has a brother living in the city of Ladera. When the Dance of the Dragons breaks out, the girl falls ill, and Hugh begins desperately searching for the money to buy her food and medicine.

Kat is cooking when Hugh comes home from work without having been paid, and she tells him their daughter's health is worsening. She warns him that food is starting to run short at the market, because the wealthier townsfolk are hoarding supplies out of fear of war. When Hugh complains about people's selfishness, Kat answers that they would probably do the same in their place.

Hugh tries to cheer her up by reminding her that the king promised to pay him for his work, but Kat is doubtful: no one has said when that payment will come. She admits to her husband that she is afraid.

Kat's fear grows after the battle of Rook's Rest, when the head of the dragon Meleys is put on display before the people of King's Landing. That same night, seeing that food is growing scarcer and crime is on the rise, she decides they must leave the city. When Hugh worries they will end up in a dragon's jaws wherever they go, Kat proposes fleeing to Ladera, where her brother lives.

Hugh resists, since he does not want to beg, and Kat points out that they are already begging for the wages owed to him. When he brings up the king's promise again, she dismisses it as a lie: if they keep waiting, their daughter will die. In tears, she convinces him.

The three try to leave the city along with hundreds of other townsfolk, but the gold cloaks bar the gates and order the crowd to disperse in the name of Aemond Targaryen, which leaves Kat bewildered. Amid the chaos the order causes, she tries to comfort her daughter, whose health is failing by the moment.

Days later, Kat waits in line at a fishmonger's stall, but the fish runs out before her turn comes. Begging for anything to eat, she watches a cart of sheep pass by, escorted by Hightower soldiers, while another townsman, Ulf, complains that the dragons eat well while the common folk go hungry. Shortly after, the girl succumbs to her illness, leaving Kat and Hugh devastated.

When Lady Elinda Massey, handmaiden to Queen Rhaenyra, begins seeking out Targaryen bastards willing to claim a dragon, Hugh decides to come forward, to Kat's horror. One night she tries to talk him out of it and suggests they leave for Ladera together to start over. It is then that Hugh confesses his secret: he is the bastard son of Princess Saera Targaryen, daughter of King Jaehaerys I, and had kept it hidden because his mother, a prostitute, was ashamed of it.

Hugh apologizes for failing to protect their family, and tries to lift her spirits by saying that if he claims a dragon they will never go without again. Kat tells him she does not care about nobility: the only thing she does not want is to lose him too.