They headed east, east towards home. Then Wicket the swampkin telepath's voice rang in Arya's head, "Run! We need to run. The Ice Queen, the woman who destroyed my people, is coming towards us fast. When she is close enough, she will shroud us all in a thick fog. She has Swampkin onboard, more powerful than us." Arya thought back to Wicket, "Have everyone turn towards her ships. When they get within range of the 'flowers', on my order, all will turn sideways and fire over and over at them." Arya ran out on deck, shouting orders for all fighters on deck. To Portsmith at the wheel, she told him the plan, and he nodded. He began to shout orders to pull in the sail and prepare for combat. All ten ships swung around, spreading out and heading back west. When the words, "Sails ho!" rang out, Arya shouted, "Turn!" Thomas and Gendry manned the 'flowers' and raised the degree as high as it would go. They began firing, and the first shots went over the approaching ships. Three enemy ships were coming, two smaller ones and a very large one in the center. The next two shots destroyed the ship on the left, and a good shot from the treekin's vessel got the one on the right. As they were zeroing in on the middle vessel, a thick fog appeared around it. They fired anyway, and someone struck the vessel on its poop deck. It didn't sink it, but it crippled one of its wind tubes. Arya shouted for all ships to turn back west and prepare for boarding. Wicket sent out the commands. Arya told Gendry and Thomas to aim their 'flowers' as far down as they could, to sink the ship as it tried to board them. They nodded and adjusted as the fog came in, covering all 10 ships. Wicket said in Arya's mind, "They are coming towards us." Arya shouted, "All fighters, prepare for incoming hostilities. Don't kill each other in this soup."
Arya heard a whistle-like sound from a partially collapsed wind tube and said, "Port side." The enemy ship was pulling in alongside them, and both 'flowers' fired. The enemy ship rammed the Sovereign as its port side disappeared. Grappling hooks and boarding nets had just been thrown, and though everyone was knocked about, 30 enemy soldiers jumped aboard. Wicket's voice was heard, "The witch is standing in the middle of the deck."
10 archers were on the poop deck, and the fore castle, and they started firing into the center of the deck. A shriek was heard, and the fog started lifting. A wind blew in, and Arya could see the enemy witch standing with an arrow in her shoulder. Arya fired three quick disruption blasts from her glove, and one caught the witch in the head. The headless neck started skeeting blood. The fog vanished, and the fighting began in earnest. Then cries came from the lower decks of the enemy ship, "We're drowning, help us!" Wicket shrieked, "Mother? Save my mother, please!" "Wicket is that you?" came from below.
The tide of battle was turning; without the fog and their witch, they were just soldiers. Jon and Drena made a push in their lines, and a team went to rescue those below. 50 enemies became 20, and the fighting grew fierce as the enemy knew only death was coming for them. Brienne killed one, but another cut her hand, and she snarled at them. Nymeria was wreaking havoc on their back lines, and she suffered some cuts in the doing. The younger Mangana took a sword blow to the shoulder, but Gendry killed the man who did it. Jack and the other men-at-arms pushed against the enemy, driving them back to their own railing. The team entered the lower decks and went straight to the chained captives. Water was waist-deep, but they cut them loose from chains and ferried them up the stairs. Then the fighting was done, and they looted the ship and tended to the wounded. They lost two assassins and one man-at-arms, and many were wounded. They looted the ship of everything worth taking and cut it loose. The Sovereign bobbed up as the weight was removed from its side. The enemy ship went down with a glug.
Bran was sitting with Sansa in a small room, and he had drifted off to sleep. He awoke with a cry, saying, "Arya's danger is over for now, Sansa. She is coming home. They hit the becalmed part of the ocean, but they were ready for it. Wind affinity users pushed them through. A smaller storm hit them, causing some damage, but it did not deter them.
As the first few days of spring began, 10 strange ships pulled into the harbor of Kings Landing. Arya and her crew had been gone a year, but they were back home. Both Arya and Calancy butted heads with Nymeria, telling her to be on her best behavior and not to try to run loose. Nymeria wanted to be free, but she acknowledged the need for good behavior. Arya promised her that when they got to their new home off the Ice Bay, she would taste freedom again. 10,000 members of this group marched toward new lives and a home.