Plot summary
Xena returns to a Centaur settlement threatened by Dagnine, a former officer in her army. The Centaurs distrust her because of their old war, but a more personal confrontation awaits: the boy Solan attacks her, believing she killed his father, Borias.
Solan is Xena's son. She left him with Kaleipus shortly after his birth to protect him from her enemies, and he does not know who she is. Gabrielle urges her to tell him, but Xena fears disrupting the peaceful life she wanted him to have.
Dagnine is seeking the Stone of Ixion, which contains the evil removed from the Centaurs at their creation. After a spy learns that Solan is Xena's child, Dagnine kidnaps him. Xena attempts a rescue, but she and Solan fall into the hidden caverns where the stone was once kept.
Borias removed it before his death and concealed it in his sword. The truth emerges when Solan drops the inherited weapon while escaping and its hilt breaks. Dagnine takes the stone and becomes a monstrous Centaur with overwhelming strength.
The settlement prepares a giant crossbow, but Dagnine breaches its defenses. During his confrontation with Xena, he admits that he killed Borias. Xena triggers the crossbow with her sword and kills him.
Solan now regards her as a friend and decides that he does not want a warrior's life. Xena leaves him with the Centaurs without revealing that she is his mother. She has protected him, but the farewell makes clear how painful that choice remains.
Credits
Adapted from Legendary Journeys Wiki contributors, Orphan of War. Complete episode narrative, rewritten and condensed for clarity; causal developments and the episode's ending retained. Illustrations, dialogue quotations and non-story metadata omitted.