I'm on my third play through (audiobooks, I'm dyslexic so I will misspell every name) somewhere near the end of ACoK. Quaithe says the firemage of Quarth has grown stronger because dragons are back in the world. The alchemist says spells weakened when dragons died and grew stronger for some unknown reason (speculating dragons return).

But... could this be a misdirection that GRRM likes to do? i.e. Over abundance of evidence that Ned fathered a bastard, or everyone claiming Raegar raped Lyanne.

Thinking about magic and dragons returning, there is something else that reappeared at the prologue of AGoT that may have ushered the return of dragons as well as magic. Furthermore, chicken and egg, magic was needed to bring dragons back.

What say you?