As House of the Dragon tiptoes closer and closer to the opening shots of the Targaryen civil war, it might be tricky to pick out exactly where the first flashpoint is likely to be if you’ve not read ahead with George RR Martin’s source text, Fire and Blood. But in the season finale, we were introduced to Storm’s End, where the first major death of the civil war takes place.

The show had dropped some hints about the crucial location; there were a few sights of Storm’s End in the trailer, as well as that mention at the end of episode nine confirms what your mate who’s read the books has been trying not to blurt out for two months now. Storm’s End, a fortress belonging to House Baratheon, will be the scene for the crunch meeting that will set the fate of the families at the centre of Westerosi government, and the first shot in the civil war (known as the Dance of the Dragons) to come.

Lucerys and Aemond – who, you’ll recall, had a bit of a to do when Lucerys chopped out Aemond’s eye over Aemond getting hold of a dragon – are both in Storm’s End to appeal to the Baratheons for support as the struggle for power in King’s Landing gets more and more intense. Lucerys has been sent by his mother, Rhaenyra, while Aemond is lobbying on behalf of the Hightowers who have recently placed Aegon on the Iron Throne. They’re hoping to secure the benefit of House Baratheon’s military might and handy location. But Lord Borros shuns Lucerys’ request, and tension with Aemond causes him to flee on Arrax.

The two lads haven’t seen eye to eye since Lucerys relieved Aemond of his left one so, naturally, things are a little frosty. That all sets up a gigantic barney in the air between Aemond, Lucerys and their dragons, known as the Dance over Shipbreaker Bay. Lucerys on his dragon, the young Arrax, and Aemond on his dragon, the bigger and more much vicious Vhagar, go head to head – and one of them ends up in a crumpled heap on a beach.

The brutal scene is a slight departure from the books, where historical accounts claim that Aemond intentionally killed Lucerys. In the show, the princes lose control of their dragons, and Vhagar tears through Lucerys and Arrax. From the look on Aemond’s face, it seems he did not intend for the young prince to perish.

But perish he did, and everything that is to come in the Dance of the Dragons starts here. It’s likely that Lucerys’ death will push Rhaenyra over the edge and the realm into full-blown war. As Gyldayn, historian of the Targaryen family writes in Martin’s books: “And with his death, the war of ravens and envoys and marriage pacts came to an end, and the war of fire and blood began in earnest.” Cripes.