When Jon Snow returned to the godswood in Highgarden, it was quite late in the evening, much later than he intended. A touch of clairvoyance later, he found Dany was sequestered with the other handmaidens and they were having a sleepover party. He thought about interrupting and asking her to come back to the house, then chose to let her choose for herself.

Dany's thoughts were heavily influenced by the day spent with the girls. Margaery encouraged her as well, because she loved having so many other girls around and it ended her own loneliness. That imparted the mentality to the other girls that they would somehow lose their closeness if they left, and they were all reluctant to do so.

Jon mentally sighed at that, knowing Dany really would be lonely with Arya gone back to Winterfell and him having to work hard to get everything up and running. Melis might have convinced Dany to stay, if she had a bit more time to adjust to being young again. She had no practical experience with being a child and that just made things more awkward when she pretended.

A quick stop to meet with Lady Olenna to talk with her about that, and what happened with Lady Mormont, the older woman also agreed to let Dany choose what she wanted to do. If she wanted to stay at Highgarden, there would be room for her, or she could visit constantly to maintain her new friendships. They could worry about the future and Dany's place in it later.

So, Jon returned home on his ship and the crew left in the smaller boat. He would not need them again until someone approached the harbour master about the jobs Jon told him about and no one knew how long that was going to take. Once a week was enough to check in about that and to ferry anyone back to the island if they were interested.

A few days later, Dany chose to stay at Highgarden for a while and Jon didn't argue or fight against it. He delivered her things to her, including the bookshelf of books that she adored. That set off her friends about the treasures she had and Dany basked in the attention. Even Lady Olenna commented how valuable actual books were and Dany promised to let her borrow some, making the old woman smile.

Again, Jon returned to his homestead, a little sadder. He was pretty much alone, since Melis always did her own thing, and he was busy working most of the time. He would have spare time later... always later... and he straightened his back and put a determined look on his face. All he could do was live his life. Like Dany, he could worry about the future later. For now, he had work to do.

*

Over the next few weeks, Melisandre was woken occasionally at night to be the witness and taken by whatever means of travel Jon used. She was in awe as she watched the Threen, the cannibal tribe beyond the wall, be sacrificed to her god. Then the worst of the mountain men from the Vale followed them a few days later. Then a week later, the Wildlings that were the worst and encouraged their brethren to rape and murder, were sent along as well.

The patches of cleansed areas were spread all over, leaving marks of R'hllor behind, proving to everyone that saw them that the lord of light existed. It made her feel her connection to her god grow in ways she never knew it could. It was deeper and made her question everything his church did in his name.

It was humbling and empowering, and Melis never once doubted that this was his will. She suffered every time, remembering all of the things she did, and she bore it with shame at all the deaths, the innocent and the guilty, and knew that Jon Snow's way was the right way. He was removing the taint of evil from the world instead of trying to empower the light to fight against it.

However, being a child was a new experience for her and she just did not understand how to be one. She had been one so long ago that her memories of that time were long gone. In fact, the world itself had changed a lot since then as well, even if she did remember how she acted back then. She eventually decided she wouldn't bother pretending as she slowly regained her sense of self and felt the approval of R'hllor.

*

Princess Arianne Martell basked in the glory of having the head of Gregor Clegane mounted in her throne room. She refused to acknowledge her scream of fright when she had found the thing on her bed and called for... well, everyone. Even her wayward uncle Oberyn Martell came back from his travels to investigate it, only to drop to his knees and thank the Seven for the blessing of avenging his sister's murder.

No one knew what the substance was that the head was encased in, just that it was clear and produced a cool air around it that everyone wanted to be near. It wasn't until a travelling merchant visited the throne room and commented that it looked like the frozen water he had seen the last time he was in White Harbour in the North.

That sparked a new round of debates among Arianne's advisors and family members. Where could the thing have come from and who could have killed the Mountain that Rides? They even claimed his sword, which no one could remove from the mounted plaque, no matter what they tried. Even burning it didn't harm the wood or melted the ice around the head, which proved it really was blessed by the gods and they didn't want it ruined or destroyed.

Arianne never told them about the note that had come with it. She knew who had done the deed and he had given her another gift she could never repay. It made her wonder why he had helped her so much, especially since he couldn't come to visit her for years. Why did he have to make her wait so long to thank him? She might forget about her promise by then.

Her eyes went to the gift mounted on the wall and she smiled. No, she would never forget that Atlas had put her on the throne of Dorne, that should have always been hers anyway, and he showed that he cared about their family's honor more than he respected the Lannisters.

Oh, and wasn't that a shocking thing to hear about. Tywin Lannister had been declared a traitor and beheaded after his daughter the queen had an accident and died. The Imp himself was now Lord Lannister and it forced everyone to rethink how they regarded the family.

Everyone knew how much Tyrion's father despised his malformed son that killed his wife in childbirth, and now he was running the Lannister lands from the biggest brothel in Kings Landing. Tywin would be rolling over in his grave if he knew his vaunted family's reputation was quickly changing to become known as the best owners of every whorehouse in the capitol city.

Arianne softly laughed at the thought. In his own way, Tyrion was striking back at his father in the only way that he knew he could hurt him. Making his family's pride be reduced from the gold producers they used to be to the whore-makers they were becoming. They were well paid whores to be sure; but, they were still whores.

Oberyn had stayed around as well. His wanderlust was sated and would be for a while, because he didn't want to leave Gregor's head unguarded. The constant smile he had on his face wasn't faked, either. He was genuinely happy for the first time in years and it didn't look like he was going to lose that smile for a very long time.

Arianne couldn't help but smile as well. Her life had changed so much in so short a time and she had only one person to thank for that. It was just too bad that she had to wait for him to visit before she could do so. She thought about sending another message, then shook her head. The feeling it wouldn't work again made her decide to wait instead.

Atlas would come when he could and Arianne would make sure he came a lot when he finally did show up to claim his reward. She guaranteed it.

*

Surprisingly, Arya had a much easier time of things at home than she thought she would. Her schedule was the same as it always had been when at Winterfell, except the new maester didn't push her to learn more than she wanted to. Old Nan didn't make her try needlepoint, either. Her fingers were too stubby for it, the old woman lied, and Arya hugged her and thanked her for it.

Mind you, she was almost five namedays old and her outlook on her life was a pretty simple one. She did have to suffer behaving herself during the evening meal, like usual. However, breaking her fast and the midday meal were handled like they were when she was with Jon. She didn't know that Jon had given certain things to the Kitchen Matron and told her how to make eating fun for her.

Sansa and her friend Jeyne were also nice to her, giving her hugs at random times, or agreeing to play with her without fuss. She had secretly given them one of the many stuffed wolf toys Jon had given to her and both Sansa and Jeyne loved them and peppered her cheeks with kisses in return.

Thanks to how Jon treated her, making her dress up constantly, she didn't mind it when her mother fussed over her and made her dress in a similar way. The best part? Everyone complimented them when Catelyn wore her new dress and Arya wore a similar one. The seamstresses were working hard to copy it and make one for Sansa to wear, so they would all match.

All in all, Arya was quite happy with how her life was turning out, and it was all thanks to Jon showing everyone in Winterfell that they didn't know what they had until it was gone.

*

Lady Mormont was not surprised that the glasshouses Jon Snow had built for her, started producing things only a month after they were seeded with plants and animals. She wasn't sure what the boy had done to them to make the animals so horny that the females were constantly pregnant and grew their numbers faster than anyone had ever heard about.

The eggs the chickens made were plentiful, with each laying two or three every day, and there was no shortage of things they could use them for. The goats and cows produced milk by the gallon and everyone was looking healthy and hearty for the first time in their lives.

Also, everyone was happy. Lady Mormont had no doubt as to why that was, either. People around her were constantly singing their song, even her daughters, and she had caught herself humming it a few times as well. Not only was it a catchy tune, it made them remember they had survived and would continue to survive.

That was worth more to her than the riches she earned from selling the pirated loot to people on the mainland. They couldn't get enough of the things she had and she was glad she had taken Jon's advice to not sell it all at once, or to one person, and to dole it out as if it was a rare commodity. It earned her more gold and also maintained the demand for more.

She sat back on her throne and held her baby in her arms as she nursed her. It always made her smile how that made the men near her uncomfortable and a few were unable to not take peeks at her bare breast. The only one that hadn't reacted was the boy and her respect for him grew. Had Catelyn nursed around him so much that he could act normally and ignored it?

Lady Mormont snorted and laughed, because she had known Lady Catelyn for years and the woman would have had problems baring her breasts to her husband, let alone to a bastard she hated. It had taken some digging to find out the truth, and to find out that Jon had forsworn his rights to Winterfell and any lands and buildings in the North.

That had been a shock, especially with her offer to foster him. She hadn't known at the time that she couldn't give him anything like a plot of land, or even a house of his own, because of his oath. It put his refusal into a new perspective and her respect for him grew once more.

When Jon visited next, Lady Mormont promised herself to have her second daughter deliver the kiss she teased Jon about when he sang that song for her people.

“They're finally here!” Alysane shouted as she ran into the throne room.

Lady Mormont smiled and stood. “Then we should go and greet our people.”

Alysane took little Lyanna Mormont from her mother's breast and Lady Mormont put her dress back into order, and the two of them strode out of the keep with their heads held high. They walked over to the harbour and saw the many ships of the men and women from Bear Island that had heeded her call.

Just like the people that already lived here, Lady Mormont was sure the new residents would celebrate because the Iron Islands and Bear Island had been renamed to the Mormont Islands, which was an acknowledged realm of the Seven Kingdoms.

Many hugs and greetings were shared with the arriving people and they had a discussion of where where the best places for them to go. It didn't take long for them to spread the ships over the Mormont Islands to the different harbours and the new people marvelled at the odd-looking homes and modern conveniences.

All of their lives would become better and they were extremely happy about it.

*

A representative of the Iron Bank wasn't sure what to make of the land purchase contract he had in front of him. It was a ridiculous one and didn't make sense. Who would want to buy a huge expanse of deserted wasteland that no one owned?

After reading through it again, he noticed the caveat near the end that a land deed needed to be issued for it from the Iron Bank, to make it official. There was also a sentence about developing it, which made the man laugh at it becoming even more ridiculous. Why would they waste their money to build anything near Old Valeria?

A few more chuckles left him as he processed it, charged a hundred golden dragons for issuing the land deed that was pretty much worthless, since no one owned the land around it. As a joke, he added the ten thousand miles around the ruins to the deed and signed it. He put it into his finished pile and put it out of his mind.

He would remember it a few days later and would share the story with his fellow paper pushers over a glass of wine. They would laugh and congratulate him for the joke and earning the bank a hundred gold for nothing, then they all completely forgot about it, because it didn't matter. Their lives went on and nothing that happened there would affect them in the least.

Or so they thought.

The joke was not taken as one by the eight year old boy that submitted the request and paid the stupidly high fee. Certain plans had to change with so much free land added to the deed, which meant there was a lot more work that had to be done before anything else could happen.

The average village or town was about a mile across, which included farms and things. The average city in comparison was about fifteen to twenty miles across. With a spread of land that was ten thousand miles across, Jon Snow had a very daunting task ahead of him, as he did his best to make an entire wasteland into arable and livable land.

His first step? Rework part of the coastline into a perfect harbour. It took a while, because he was not at his full power yet. Once he had that in place, he bought and made construction materials to build houses, buildings, ships, and everything else a more modern harbour needed to be run. He even made a mansion for himself for when his plans advanced.

Once he had the start of his plan in place, he did something he had been putting off for a while. He went to Volantis and bought out all of the slave markets. Why did he do that? He wanted to trace the money to the backers. He found them and robbed the slavers of everything they had, then he sacrificed them, their men, the ships, and the crews to R'hllor.

Jon then went to each of the free cities before word reached them about Volantis and bought out their slave markets as well. There were so many slaves that Jon easily filled nearly every house and apartment in the new harbour city. To say the slaves were shocked to see their new homes was an understatement.

In fact, there were so many people that Jon had to go to one of the Unsullied merchants and bought an army to protect them. He felt dirty just talking to the man as he explained how to control the slave soldiers and what he did to them to make them compliant. Jon took particular pleasure in putting the man and his staff through the same process before burning them and everything they owned as sacrifices.

Jon would eventually go to each of the slaves, even the newly hired soldiers, to learn their story and to find out if they had any family or friends left from where they were taken from, only to find out that most of them had been taken from the streets and had nowhere else to go and had no family left.

So, they made their new home in Freedom Harbour and tried to rebuild their lives and use the things Jon left there. He moved on to the next area to start transfiguring it into a more suitable place to live for the next batch of people that he suspected would be arriving soon.