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"You want to come with me to Essos… because you broke your fiancé's ribs?"
Leo rubbed his temples, feeling a headache coming on.
"He's not my fiancé!" Brienne blurted, voice rising before dropping to a mumble. "My father arranged it without asking me. The man's sixty-five years old. I didn't want to marry him, so I challenged him to a duel. I just wanted him to back off."
"I barely hit him a few times… and he snapped like kindling."
She looked miserable.
Leo hadn't known this side of her. In the show she was the honorable, sword-swinging knight who lived by her oaths. He never pictured her as the type to break an old lord's ribs and then run away from home.
Brienne kept explaining. Her father, Lord Selwyn Tarth, had tried twice before to marry her off. Both suitors only wanted the Tarth lands and title—Brienne was the sole heir to Evenfall Hall and the wealthy isle of Tarth. They made it painfully clear they found her looks repulsive. Both betrothals fell apart.
This latest match was to Ser Humphrey Wagstaff, castellan of some minor holdfast. Brienne had been ready to accept her fate—until Leo's words from the tourney hit her like a warhammer.
"You told me my beauty is the courage to pick up a sword and prove I'm as good as any man," she said, eyes fierce. "You said if anyone mocks my face, I should make them remember it with my fists. When Humphrey sneered that only an old man like him would ever take me, I taught him exactly what I thought of that."
"I don't want to marry some disgusting, half-dead stranger. I don't want to spend the rest of my life in stupid dresses, smiling for people who laugh at me behind my back."
She looked straight at him. "Leo… take me with you. You're the only person I can ask. I want to go to Essos, swing a real sword, and live free. I'll be a sellsword if I have to. Anything but this cage."
Leo stared at her for a long second.
He had zero romantic interest in Brienne—he was a face guy through and through—but he respected the hell out of her raw strength and sense of honor. Turning her down would crush her… and if Lord Selwyn ever found out his daughter went berserk because of something Leo said, there would be real trouble.
Besides, Brienne was a monster with a blade and loyal to a fault. Having her at his side would be huge.
He pretended to think it over, then grinned. "Fine. We're friends, right? I've got your back."
Brienne's whole face lit up. "Really? Thank you, Neo! You're the best friend I've ever had!"
"One condition," Leo added quickly. "To keep things simple, you'll travel disguised as a man and say you're one of my hired fighters. No one can know who you really are."
"Understood!" She nodded so hard her straw-colored hair flopped. "Whatever you say. Just get me out of here."
"Deal."
Warrior acquired.
Leo was still smiling when the second visitor arrived.
Brule Wayne was a minor knight from the Riverlands—second son, small family holdings, no real prospects. He'd entered the tourney hoping some lord would notice him, but he got knocked out of the first joust by Barristan Selmy (who had gone easy on him) and that was that.
Brule was honest about it. He wasn't much of a fighter and knew it. What he was good at was numbers—managing estates, keeping books, basic math he'd learned from the family maester. He'd been helping run his father's lands for years.
Leo needed exactly that kind of man. He already planned to pick up a few sharp administrators in Essos to act as his "white gloves" for future business.
He asked a couple quick questions, liked the answers, and hired Brule on the spot.
Scholar acquired.
Two days later, after quick goodbyes to the few people he actually liked in King's Landing, Leo and his growing crew boarded Illyrio's ship.
Varyn walked at his right, calm and steady as always.
Brienne—now dressed in plain mail with her hair cropped short and a helmet tucked under her arm—looked every inch the sellsword.
Brule carried a ledger and a hopeful expression.
Five of Leo's original loyal men rounded out the group.
As the sails caught the wind and the Blackwater fell away behind them, Leo stood at the rail, wind whipping his hair, a quiet grin on his face.
Essos was waiting.
And for the first time since arriving in this world, he didn't feel like he was walking it alone.