Chapter Summaries

Leon persuaded Arthur Dayne and Oswell Whent to leave the Tower of Joy with him while Gerold Hightower stayed behind to face Eddard Stark. After Eddard took Jon as his bastard, Leon’s party fled Westeros, and Tyrion returned to Casterly Rock to protect Leon and prepare for his eventual return.

• Leon persuaded Arthur and Oswell to protect Rhaenys and Jon by leaving Westeros, while Gerold chose to hold off Eddard Stark and the Northmen.
• Eddard killed Gerold, found Lyanna dead, and accepted Jon as his nephew, promising to conceal Leon’s presence from Robert and Tywin.
• Leon left the Tower of Joy through a secret passage with Arthur, Oswell, and their companions, and chose to go first to Highgarden to find Willas.
• A caravan’s news confirmed that Cersei was expected to marry Robert and become queen.
• Tyrion and Sandor parted from Leon, with Tyrion returning to Casterly Rock to gather resources for him and promising to support his return.
• Sandor gave Thea a crude stone carving of a dog before riding after Tyrion, and Leon’s group continued north.

Leon reached Highgarden and made a deal with the exiled prince Jalabhar Xho: he would help Jalabhar reclaim Jhala Island in exchange for hereditary governorship of Walano Island. At Morning Dew Manor, Arthur and Maester Loomis committed to following Leon as he prepared to leave Westeros for the Summer Isles.

• Leon used Willas Tyrell’s seal to meet him at a secluded manor near Highgarden, and Willas gave him a safe place at Morning Dew Manor.
• Willas told Leon that Jalabhar Xho was seeking help to reclaim his kingdom, and Leon went with him to meet the exiled prince.
• Leon offered to provide men, weapons, ships, and money to help Jalabhar retake Jhala Island in exchange for Walano Island’s hereditary governorship.
• Leon showed Jalabhar a Dragon Egg, and Jalabhar agreed to the deal.
• Willas offered the use of his warehouses and berths on the Honeywine, and Leon’s company settled at Morning Dew Manor.
• Arthur agreed to join Leon’s expedition, and Maester Loomis told Leon he would follow him wherever he went.

Leon assembled a disguised expedition to reclaim Jhala Island and secure a foothold in the Summer Isles. After recruiting more than three hundred people and preparing ten transport ships, the fleet set sail from Oldtown.

• Willas brought Leon 160,000 gold dragons, and Leon planned to hide soldiers aboard merchant ships and seize Red Flower Vale’s harbor at night.
• Willas recruited more than a hundred retired Oldtown veterans through Earl Leyton, who also introduced Norman Hightower as a guide familiar with the route to the Summer Isles.
• Pudding Face bought weapons for three hundred men, Jalabhar gathered more than fifty exiled islanders, and Maester Loomis obtained nautical charts and sailing information from the Citadel.
• Thea and Oswell recruited veterans, sellswords, and sailors until Leon’s force numbered 317 people, and the group refitted ten merchant transports to conceal soldiers and weapons.
• Leon told the assembled force they would sail to reclaim Jhala Island, and Jalabhar led the group in a toast to Leon before the fleet departed Oldtown at dawn.

Leon sailed with his fleet toward Red Flower Vale, tested the growing power to alter emotions and thoughts, and guided the ships through a dangerous fog. After two months at sea, the fleet reached Jalabhar’s homeland, where Leon prepared to begin the landing.

• Leon and Arthur discussed Jaime’s kingslaying, and Leon defended Jaime for preventing the Mad King from burning King's Landing with wildfire.
• Leon planned a surprise assault on Red Flower Port with Arthur, Jalabhar, Oswell, and Norman, assigning Jalabhar to stall the rebels while the ships brought in three hundred soldiers.
• Leon used his ability to ease a veteran’s anger, then collapsed and remained unconscious for two days; after waking, he warned Thea that changing thoughts came at a steep cost.
• Leon used his ability to loosen Harold’s grief over his son’s death at the Trident, then suffered a nosebleed and dizziness.
• Leon spotted a hidden reef through the fog and directed Norman to steer clear of it, saving the fleet from running aground.
• Two months after setting sail, Leon and the fleet reached Red Flower Vale, and Leon told Arthur they were ready to begin.

Leon’s forces seized Red Flower Vale through a coordinated night assault, and Leon used his power to make Jalabhar’s younger brother surrender. After waking from a day-long collapse, Leon learned the rebellion had ended but struggled with the deaths and the changes he had caused; he left the palace roof resolved to continue.

• Jalabhar posed as a spice merchant to secure the fleet’s landing while Pudding Face gathered intelligence on three rebel camps.
• Leon captured the harbor, sealed the roads, and assigned Oswell, Arthur, and Thea to draw the rebels’ attention while he led a hundred men toward the palace.
• Leon’s forces routed the northern camp and its reinforcements, then entered the palace amid the confusion and cornered Jalabhar’s younger brother.
• Leon used his power to alter the rebel leader’s thoughts, causing him to surrender, then collapsed and remained unconscious for a day and a night.
• Jalabhar ordered his brother imprisoned, and Leon accepted responsibility for the thirty-seven deaths by doubling the soldiers’ death benefits at his own expense.
• On the palace roof, Leon questioned whether his actions were worth the cost, while Thea promised to stay by him; Leon then rose to face the work ahead.

Leon reclaimed Jhala Island, then chose to lead his followers to the unruled Omboru Island and build a city where Westerosi and islanders could live by their own customs. His fleet sailed north toward the island, where dense forests and dangerous beasts awaited them.

• Leon took Sweet Lotus Vale through a rumor of the prince’s return, and after three months of fighting and negotiation, he reclaimed all of Jhala Island.
• Leon apologized after Harold groped priestesses in the market, then warned Harold not to repeat the offense.
• Jalabhar told Leon about the struggle for power on Walano Island, the valuable shipyards and charts on Samber Isle, and the beasts that kept Omboru Island unconquered.
• Arthur urged Leon to find a homeland for their people, and Leon decided to settle Omboru Island and build a city with room for both Westerosi and islanders.
• A priestess refused Leon’s offer to attend a ceremony and instead asked him to retrieve a portrait of Xanda Qo from the Pearl Palace on Samber Isle.
• Harold and many others agreed to follow Leon, and the fleet of ten ships sailed from Jhala Island toward Omboru with Rhaenys, Thea, Arthur, and the others aboard.

Leon established Northwatch Harbor on Omboru Island, treated a tropical fever with plants he identified, and imposed mixed Westerosi-islander work groups to ease tensions. The chapter ended with an Old Man of the Red Forest approaching the camp before retreating into the rainforest.

• Leon chose a sheltered bay on Omboru Island for the landing and named it Northwatch Harbor.
• After more than a dozen people collapsed with heat illness, Leon identified local plants for Maester Loomis to use as remedies, and the patients began recovering.
• Leon mediated a dispute between Harold and Kojo, then ordered Westerosi and islanders to work, eat, and live in pairs.
• Leon warned the camp that anyone who caused further conflict would be expelled, while the groups began trying to communicate.
• Thea alerted Leon to movement near the sentries, and Arthur drew Dawn as an enormous Old Man of the Red Forest emerged from the rainforest.
• The creature stared at Leon with apparent intelligence and curiosity, then returned to the rainforest, prompting Leon to order stronger watches and continuous torches.

Leon’s camp faced a deadly attack by the Old Men of the Red Forest and a spreading fever, forcing him to send Thea and a party to gather herbs. As the medicine helped the sick recover, the chapter shifted to Tyrion enduring Tywin’s contempt at Casterly Rock and longing for Leon to return.

• Harold and Kojo’s group was attacked in the Rainwood by an Old Man of the Red Forest, leaving two men dead, one missing, and Duncan badly wounded.
• Kojo and an older islander explained that the Old Men of the Red Forest guarded their territory, and Leon ordered everyone to stay out of the forest and clear a security zone around camp.
• Twenty-three people developed severe fevers, and Leon sent Thea, Arthur, Oswell, and five others to gather medicinal herbs near the Rainwood.
• The herb-gathering party returned with bundles of plants but lost a veteran in the swamp, and Maester Loomis’s medicine helped the patients’ fevers subside.
• Duncan told Thea that his father had named him after Ser Duncan the Tall, and he vowed to live up to the name.
• At Casterly Rock, Tywin berated Tyrion for Leon’s escape, and Tyrion privately clutched the wooden lion Leon had left him and asked Leon to come back for him.

Leon improved conditions at Northwatch Harbor by securing fish and gathering food, then began planting crops after receiving seeds and new settlers. A letter from Tyrion confirmed Leon’s survival and described developments in Westeros, while Leon stood by the newly sown fields and committed to building a lasting home.

• Leon sent Norman Hightower fishing, while Kojo and Oswell led islanders into the Rainwood to gather berries, timber, vines, and coconuts.
• Norman returned with a large catch, and the camp shared tuna while Arthur remembered Gerold and Leon said Gerold had chosen his own ending.
• Korio helped Jalabhar investigate dishonest village overseers, then secretly met Pudding Face and received Leon’s message praising his work.
• Two months later, Pudding Face brought seeds, fruit saplings, iron ore, and new settlers to Northwatch Harbor, where Leon’s people planted a sixty-mu field.
• Leon read Tyrion’s letter about iron supplies, mineral deposits, Cersei’s marriage, and Jaime’s tourney victory, then went to the shore and quietly told Arthur he was alive.

Leon explored a rocky mountain resembling Casterly Rock and named it Twin Lion Rock, choosing its bay and water source as the site for a new city. After workers began surveying and clearing routes, Kojo found the Mist-Hidden Tribe, whose people welcomed Leon as a child of the gods and took him to their village.

• Leon led a scouting party through the Rainwood, found a mountain and deep natural bay, and named the mountain Twin Lion Rock as the site for a city.
• Leon assigned Norman to survey the bay, Maester Loomis to register skilled workers, Oswell to clear a mountain road, Kojo to track the footprints, Arthur to train patrols, and Thea to coordinate supplies.
• Harold told the veterans he trusted Leon because Leon shared their hardships, while Norman mapped the bay and recommended a dock site.
• Kojo found four people in the Rainwood and identified them as members of the Mist-Hidden Tribe.
• Leon met the tribe's elder, who called him a child of the gods, and followed her to the tribe's village.
• Oswell returned to camp and told Loomis that Leon was safe and would return in a couple of days.