Leyton Hightower, Young Griff & the Golden Company (Spoilers Extended)

I am firmly in the camp that Leyton Hightower aka the Man in the High Castle has a working glass candle and that is the reason he has been atop the Hightower for a decade:

Some claimed a man could see all the way to the Wall from the top. Perhaps that was why Lord Leyton had not made the descent in more than a decade, preferring to rule his city from the clouds. -AFFC, Prologue

but in doing my due diligence and looking for alternate explanations, I think that I may have found one that I haven't noticed before (and that is far less magical in nature).

While there are numerous events that occur around 289AC (see post linked above), that I've noticed none of them really made sense for a guy to disappear for a decade, but what just popped out to me was that was when Varys/Illyrio likely approached Jon Con/Myles Toyne and the Golden Company about Young Griff.

We know that:

• Jon Con was exiled after Robert's Rebellion (283AC)
• Jon served with the Golden Company for 5 years (until 288AC)

Jon Connington might have been one of those successors if his exile had gone otherwise. He had spent five years with the company, rising from the ranks to a place of honor at Toyne's right hand. Had he stayed, it might well have been him the men turned to after Myles died, instead of Harry Strickland. But Griff did not regret the path he'd chosen. When I return to Westeros, it will not be as a skull atop a pole. -ADWD, The Lost Lord

If interested: Myles Toyne & The Size, Strength and Discipline of the Golden Company

• At that point Varys approached them with the plan for Young Griff and JonCon was forced to "disappear"

Griff wondered how many of them knew who he was. Few enough. Twelve years is a long time. Even the men who'd ridden with him might not recognize the exile lord Jon Connington of the fiery red beard in the lined, clean-shaved face and dyed blue hair of the sellsword Griff. So far as most of them were concerned, Connington had drunk himself to death in Lys after being driven from the company in disgrace for stealing from the war chest. The shame of the lie still stuck in his craw, but Varys had insisted it was necessary. "We want no songs about the gallant exile," the eunuch had tittered, in that mincing voice of his. "Those who die heroic deaths are long remembered, thieves and drunks and cravens soon forgotten."

My point is this is right around the time that Varys/Illyrio really begin to start hatching their pro-Young Griff scheme. They could have also approached Leyton Hightower at this time as well.

If interested: Secrets Aboard the Shy Maid

House Hightower Support

• During Robert's Rebellion they stayed loyal to King Aerys II
• During the First Blackfyre Rebellion they kept one foot in both camps

If interested: List of Known Blackfyre Supporters in each Rebellion

Counterpoints:

• House Hightower (and the rest of the reach) is pretty intermarried (especially to House Tyrell)
• Euron's coming. Leyton's story is in that direction

TLDR: While I still think it is much more likely that Leyton Hightower has a glass candle and has been preparing to duel with Euron Greyjoy, a far less likely conclusion that requires no magic is that he was approached by Varys/Illyrio about installing Young Griff on the Iron Throne.