396 EXCHANGE RATES

I easily repaired the boat Melis had used to reach the island. I also knew the previous owner had tried to assault her and she dealt with him, so there was no one that could claim the boat if they saw it back in Highgarden. I did change its look a little and made it slightly bigger, just so the crew of my actual ship could use it to return to their homes.

Over the next couple of weeks, I made many of the potions that would replace the Milk of the Poppy. It was going to be a great seller and everyone was going to want it, from the lowest commoner to the richest noble. Everyone needed a pain reliever for something and 'Pain Begone' would be there.

I also put them into different sized bottles, so the cheaper single dose ones could be easily bought by everyone and the larger bottles contained multiple doses and were more expensive. The more doses you took, the longer the pain relief worked, as did the truth portion. I was not tempted to remove that aspect, because I thought it would be funny that people felt relief and also spoke their minds.

I also received each of the animals I ordered, several mating pairs of each, and set them up in the farthest glasshouse. I had to expand it, and added in a bunch of different terrain options for them, including a cliffside for the goats, a meadow for the sheep, a grazing field for the cow-like animals (long horn steer) that I fully changed into actual cows for both milking and for slaughtering.

The large coop I built all along one wall would quickly become filled with many chickens. I would have the first few laid eggs grow into egg producers and they would exponentially grow to a viable egg producing business within a few weeks, thanks to the modifications I made to them.

All of the animals would be producing soon and I would need to hire workers to handle taking care of them all. Since I had access to a ship and a large boat, I could hire locally from the mainland and possibly the young people raised on a farm or the children of their own workers. It would bring more money into the local economy and also keep my ship's crew busy with morning and evening trips.

I crated up the first batch of 1,000 potions and brought them to the dock in the hand cart with multiple trips. The men on the ship carried them into the hold and during the last load, I made sure Dany looked after Arya while I was gone to make the delivery to Lady Olenna. It was the afternoon, so it was free time, and the girls were enjoying themselves as they played in the pool.

It didn't take long for the fast ship to make the trip up the Mander River and arrive at the docks near Highgarden. I hired a horse and cart again and we filled it with the crates of potion, I paid the harbour master the docking fee, and the driver brought myself and my potions up to the castle.

Lady Olenna made time in her busy schedule for me when she learned I was there delivering the first of the potions. She was shocked when she saw how many I had and also how I had spread out both the doses and the cost, to make it affordable to everyone and not just the more well-to-do people of society.

I could almost see the Golden Dragons dancing in her eyes as she started barking orders for their distribution, with an entire crate being set aside for herself and another earmarked to be sent to the citadel for the maesters. Apparently, the maester at Highgarden had already contacted them and told them about the discovery and they wanted it badly.

It was funny, because the last time I tried to send word to them and visit to translate some of their old scrolls and books, they claimed they were too busy to babysit me and to transcribe anything. I asked after Maester Luwin, whom would have happily done so, only for them to say he was reassigned to another post because his loyalty to the citadel was in question after how he defended the North in some of his arguments.

Olenna invited me to tea after dispersing the crates and arranging places for them to be sold, especially in Kings Landing, and I went with her to her personal gardens. Margaery was there on a nearby stone bench with her head next to a very pretty younger girl with long brown hair. They were talking animatedly in whispers and a slightly older woman that looked like her sat near them at the tea table.

“Lys, this is the boy I told you about.” Olenna said without preamble. “He took care of our Willas, whom hasn't stopped walking around since he gained his walking cast.”

Lys softly laughed and stood to hold her hand out to me, which I took and bent over to lightly kiss. “He's been even more of a terror for the local girls, hasn't he?”

Olenna huffed and sat down at the table. “I swear he's even more mobile now than he was before his injury.”

“I should be able to remove the cast today, now that I'm here.” I offered.

Olenna nodded and motioned towards the serving girl, which gained everyone's attention, and I put a tea set on the table. The girl came over and served the delicious and restorative tea to Olenna first, then Lys, then Margaery and the other girl named Elinor, then to myself.

“I see your daughter has taken well to her new role as a lady-in-waiting.” Olenna commented after several sips of tea and a biscuit.

“She really has, Lady Olenna.” Lys said and looked proud. “Thank you very much for this opportunity.”

Olenna waved her thanks away. “Think nothing of it. Margaery has met with others of similar age recently and it gave her the urge to continue the practice.”

“Dany enjoyed their talks, too.” I added and sipped my tea. “I'm bringing her and Arya here to the market soon for some shopping and I'm sure she'll enjoy another visit if Margaery is available.”

Olenna nodded, as did Margaery. Elinor turned her head to look at me and she blushed as she smiled, then she turned away and whispered in Margaery's ear and they both giggled.

“I don't want to know what she said.” I whispered, only loud enough for the two women at the table to hear me. Lys smiled in a similar way and Olenna gave me a knowing look.

I couldn't resist touching their minds with telepathy and discovered that Elinor was actually a ploy by Lord Serry to try and tie me down to his island and closely to his family, only his addition of Olenna's orders to not annoy me that he gave to his cousin had backfired and Elinor entered into service to House Tyrell instead as Margaery's handmaiden.

It also worked a bit too well, because her two cousins that were only slightly younger than her, would soon be sent for and they would also foster under Margaery as her handmaidens. None of them would be sent to me for anything, let alone as future wives or mistresses.

The talk shifted to my work on the island and I told them about how well the crops were taking to the glasshouses and that I would have more potions ready next week. The animals were also coming along well and I would start having fresh milk of different kinds within a couple of weeks and eggs within a month or so, thanks to the accelerated growth.

The cheeses and other things would take a little longer, unless I used my chronomancy powers to cure them much faster. I did know a bunch of recipes for different things, so I could use my powers to make a bunch of them and then use my copy power to make as many of them as I wanted. I didn't want to flood the market with them though. There was only so much money to be had in a strained economy.

Still, I could sell smaller cheese wheels for cheap and spread them around, thanks to the teleportation circles in the thirteen weirwoods spread all around Westeros. I would use the one here in Highgarden to take Arya back home to Winterfell after our shopping trip. I couldn't keep her away from her family for her nameday that was coming up soon and she knew that as well, even if she didn't want to go back to her boring and controlled life there.

The tea time came to an end and I was brought to where Willas was, sitting beside a horse paddock and watching a young man as he trained one of the young stallions as part of his apprenticeship. He greeted me like an old friend and he really was as nice as everyone said he was. I doubted he had a mean bone in his body and never became angry, which was amazing in the society he was growing up in.

I refused the offer to go back to his assigned healing room to work on his leg and knelt right there in the dirt to check him over. A touch told me he was fully healed, so I gave him the basic upgrade package to make him a step above normal. He was a little stronger, a little faster, and more resilient. I used a dagger and made it glow to explain how it easily cut through the cast.

After I told him to take it easy for a day or two, to get used to walking without having his ankle immobilized, I bid him a good day and started walking away as everyone there marvelled at Willas being back to full health. He would still be checked over by a maester, just in case, which was a smart thing to do. No one had ever seen anything like a cast before and everyone talked about it.

Before I could get very far, the Highgarden maester rushed over to the group. I thought it was odd that he had somehow heard about the cast removal this quickly and paused to listen in, only to be surprised that he wasn't there to check over Willas. Instead, he had a message from Dorne that didn't make sense to him.

He discussed it with Olenna, since a message always arrived at the closest maester to a person if a destination hadn't been written or spoken. The problem was, he had no idea who someone named Atlas was and also had no way to deliver the message. She asked what it was and he told her.

The message thanked Atlas for saving her people and for saving her own future. If possible, he was to visit her at the seat of power in Dorne as soon as he could to receive his reward.

Since I didn't want anyone to know it was me that did that, because it would cause them to ask me some quite difficult questions to answer, I continued waking and left before anyone associated the message with me. I also didn't know how long the message would have taken to reach Highgarden if there was no destination stated, which meant I had some time to respond if I wanted to.

Did I want to, though? What kind of reward could she offer me that I didn't already have? I asked myself.

By the time I reached the harbour to board my ship, and put out the word that I was looking to hire capable people willing to learn, I suspected I knew what the reward was. I also knew I was still too young to sleep with anyone. Even if the mind was willing to bed a exotic desert beauty, the body was not. However, I would look forward to having a nice visit to Dorne sometime in the future.

Maybe I should take care of something else while I was thinking of Arianne Martell. I thought.

Her family did suffer a lot when the Mad King was finally taken down and her husband the prince had set her aside and abandoned her to be raped and murdered by Gregor Clegane, the Mountain that Rides. He also murdered her two children to ensure the end of the Targaryen family's rule and put an end to Dorne's claim to the Iron Throne.

Yes, I think I will do that. I thought as the ship left the dock.

It stayed on my mind the whole way back to my home and I thanked the crew and the captain for the lift and that I would see them again next week. I waved to the ship as it left with haste and I went up to the house and didn't enter it. Instead I went into my potions workshop and used my clairvoyance power.

I peered through the fog until I found the giant of a man and he was in someone's house. With his minder Tywin Lannister dead, Gregor had let his desires out and his sword embedded itself through a man's chest and pinned him to a wall. The wife screamed, hurt the big man's ears, and he slapped her with his backhand and knocked her out.

The daughter wisely stayed quiet, not that it was going to save her in the end. Gregor never left any witnesses to his depravity and she wouldn't survive the sexual assault he planned. I stepped through the vision and cast a sleep spell on her, knocking her out, and Gregor looked surprised at my appearance.

“You're a pretty one.” Gregor said and his thoughts immediately saw me bent over the daughter as he took me from behind, because to him, a young boy wasn't much different from a young girl. There was just one less hole to use.

“Ew.” I said and used teleport on his sword to put it in my hand.

Gregor laughed at me holding the huge sword made for him. “You can barely lift it.”

“I don't have to hold it for long.” I said and leapt into the air.

Gregor smiled as he crossed his arms, his bracers long ago proven strong enough to deflect any sword, even his own. I apparated silently behind him and swung the huge sword. He felt the blade slice through his thick neck and he choked, tried to grab at the wound, then he dropped to his knees. I floated down and landed as his brain caught up to his body and his hands fell away, covered in blood.

I stored his head and his sword, kicked the body aside, and turned to the man that still stood near the wall. He looked shocked, probably because he was still alive after having been run through.

“He missed most of your major organs.” I told him and put a hand on his arm. I used Panacea's power to fix him right up and the man took a huge breath and let it out.

“You slayed the Mountain that Rides.” The man said, as if that happened every day. “Who are you?”

“If anyone asks, and they won't, call me Atlas.” I said.

“Why won't they ask?” The man asked.

“Because no one important enough will care.” I said and walked over to the body, picked it up, and vanished the blood. I lightly touched the wife to heal her, then woke her and the daughter up. I waved the man towards them and left the small house to see I was on a homestead near Casterly Rock. Gregor's larger than normal horse was there, armor and all, and I walked over to pet it. It neighed at me and chomped its teeth at the corpse. I chuckled that the horse hated carrying the man and didn't want to carry the body. I stored it and it neighed again.

“Don't worry, you won't have to work another day in your life.” I said and pulled the armored headdress off of its face. He neighed happily as I rubbed the spots it had dug into its flesh and I healed them. “Let's go find you a nice mare to mate with.”

The horse neighed loudly and dug its hooves into the dirt eagerly. I laughed and climbed up into the saddle and kicked it into a trot. I passed several other houses and no one questioned why I had Gregor Clegane's horse. I pulled the reins and stopped us when the horse made a grunt sound. I glanced around and saw a couple horses in a paddock nearby and the horse liked the look of the black female.

I hopped down and walked the large horse over to the man guarding the place with a pitchfork. “Excuse me? How much for the solid black beauty?”

The man gave my expensive clothes a look, nodded, and smiled. “She's only ten gold crowns.”

I held in my sigh at him assuming I was a rich idiot with lots of money that he could fleece me out of. Instead of responding, I walked past him and down the road towards the house. The man called several other prices out, dropping it each time, and I ignored him and knocked on the door. It opened and a normal looking girl stood there. She was about fifteen and her face went red when I smiled at her.

“Is your father home? I want to buy one of your females for my stud.” I said, intentionally not explaining if I meant horses for either buying or for studding.

The girl blushed deeply as her mind went over a few things, including being bred by me, bred by the horse, and what kind of package we could both have when we were at full mast. I wanted to commend her on her imagination as she accurately pictured what I looked like naked, only I didn't want to give away I could easily read her thoughts.

“Miss? Are you okay?” I asked instead.

She made a sputtering sound and stepped back, then turned and yelled. “DA! DOOR!”

A man grumbled and came out of a back room. His hands were dirty with feed mulch, so I assumed he was preparing food for the horses. “What is it? I'm busy.”

The teen pointed at me and opened her mouth to explain, then she blushed and shook her head.

“I'd like to buy one of your mares for my horse to stud.” I said and the man walked over to the doorway and looked out at the horse. The quite large horse. I could tell he knew who the horse used to belong to and he didn't care.

“It's two golden dragons for any of them, except the black one. She's a prime mare and any colt she makes will be worth twice that.” The man said.

I glanced back at the horse and it nodded. “Well, he has good taste.” I said and the man chuckled. I looked back at him. “How about I give you six gold for her, and the first colt she makes is yours to breed?”

The man thought about it, then nodded and reached out to shake my hand. “I doubt you'll stud him with anyone else, so I'll take your word for it.”

I accepted the hand and shook it. “We can write up a contract if you want.”

“Nah, can't read more'n a few words. You could screw me over and I'd never know.” The man said. “Come in and we'll break bread and I'll have Milly mark down when to expect a new foal.”

“Fair enough.” I said and tied the horse on the post by the door. “I'll bring you out some feed when I'm done.”

The horse neighed and turned its head to stare at the black horse in the paddock.

“Heh, definitely good tastes.” The man said and the three of us went inside.

It didn't take long for the daughter to mark down when to expect the new foal and I handed over the six golden dragons. The man gave them odd looks and then bit into one. He grunted and nodded. I offered to change it out for him and he could bite all the silver coins next. He laughed and clapped me on the shoulder, then said he was tempted to have his daughter pledge to my house as a ward or a maid.

I gave her a good look from her head to her feet and smiled, making the girl both pleased and embarrassed. I had to turn him down, because I lived on the Shield Islands and he needed her help more than I did. He laughed and agreed, because she was a huge help and he didn't know what he'd do without her. Again, she was pleased and embarrassed at the compliment.

I left there with a happy mare, a very happy stud, and went to Gregor's home to clean it out. I gained a lot of treasure, some of which I suspected belonged to some very important people. He also had a lot of money stashed all over, as if he never used any of the money Tywin paid him. When I finished stripping the place, I brought both horses to the largest barn with the meadow inside.

Neither horse were bothered by the change and I stored the male's equipment to leave him bare. He didn't waste any time and did some nuzzling and nipping at the black mare's face and neck, which she liked, and then he was on her and they were both making noises that I didn't need to hear.

I stepped away from there to my potion workshop and took out Gregor's head. I used my power to encase it in a block of clear ice and made it permanent, mounted it on a plaque with the man's giant sword, and then wrote out a note thanking her and promising to show up in a few years to collect my reward.

A quick portal later, the plaque and note were deposited onto Arianne Martell's bed. The throne had been occupied by her and she looked busy, and since I didn't want to get caught dropping it off and giving away how easy it was for me to visit, her bedroom was the best compromise.

With the important work done, I went into the house to start making supper for my girls. We had a night of music and stories to enjoy and we always had a good time spending it together.