My prediction about how much land Olenna would sell to me was spot on. Thankfully, I hadn't displaced a family or any heirs that would inherit the plot that was just over ten acres, two along the shore and five and a half back, which was roughly the size and shape of a football field.

That didn't seem like much normal land; but, on an island? It was a huge space. Unfortunately, it had a small shack near the water and that was all. No dock, no boathouse, and no proper home. That didn't disappoint us, because both Dany and Arya had seen the soldiers build barracks with the things I had stored in the ship's hold. We would have a similar space to live in fairly quickly.

I still thought it was funny that no one questioned why any supplies I provided always lasted longer than they should have. It was almost like they had no idea what limits there were on the things that bags of different sizes, crates, and other containers could hold, so I abused the heck out of that.

The men built the outside of the living area for us, filled it with the crates and food bags from the hold, then dropped off the 'last' of the building supplies on the shore beside it. I brought a crate of silk and exotic sweet fruits back onto the ship and we set sail again to return to Highgarden.

The soldiers were visibly grateful to be back home and they celebrated as the ship came to a stop at the large dock on the Mander. The Harbour Master waved away my offer of coins to pay the fee, because he knew I would be leaving again after meeting with his liege lady. I gave him a silver coin anyway as thanks and he ordered a couple of dock porters carry the two crates for me.

I paid for a large cart and driver, which we loaded up with ourselves and the two crates, and made our way from the docks up the road towards Highgarden castle. It was picturesque and seemed to have a welcoming feeling, even though I hadn't been born there. Dany looked just as at home as I felt and Arya looked forward to telling Olenna's personal guards, Erryk and Arryk, all about her adventures in the Iron Islands.

This time, we went through the servant's entrance and bypassed both the free market and the hedge maze. We didn't have the spare time and the soldiers wanted to get back to their families as soon as they reported back to their commander in the keep.

Surprisingly, Olenna herself was waiting at the entrance to the castle's grounds with the soldier's commander and her guards. Margaery was there as well and she greeted Dany like a sister and Arya like a returning hero, which made the both of them very happy. Arya handed a stuffed wolf to Margaery and the girl laughed, hugged her, and hugged the toy briefly before she tucked it under her arm.

“Tea first.” Olenna said when I opened my mouth to report to her.

“Of course, Lady Olenna.” I said instead. “May I present the payment for borrowing your quite effective squad of soldiers?”

One of the porters put the crate of silks in front of her. I handed him a pry bar and he opened the crate, making Margaery gasp.

“The other crate has examples of the fruits and vegetables I'll start growing in my glasshouses as soon as I build them and prepare the seeds.”

The other crate was put in front of her and it was opened to show them off. Olenna's eyes widened at the exotic fruit and she knew her people were going to be very grateful to have local access to them, especially the wineries in Arbor to add to their rare and expensive wine selection.

“I accept the payment and examples as proof of your intentions to become a contributing member on Tyrell lands.” Olenna said, a bit formally. “Commander, I'll expect a full report of your men's outing by the evening meal.”

The older man nodded and waved for the soldiers to follow him. They left and I paid the two porters a handful of copper coins each and they climbed back into the cart. It left as well and Olenna waved at the two crates. Her guards each took one and she held a hand out to me.

I assumed escort duty and put her hand on my arm as Margaery, Dany, and Arya followed us. I made small talk about the journey on the small ship having to travel so far on the open sea and Olenna nodded along, knowing the trade-off of speed for safety was necessary.

We reached her personal gardens and the serving girl was there waiting for us. Olenna motioned for her to stay where she was and turned to give me a look. I smiled and waved at the previously empty table and she saw the tea set was now there. She nodded and motioned for the server to use it and the surprised girl did so and served us.

I saw her sneak a couple of biscuits into her pockets and didn't call her on it or tried to stop her. She was either going to try them herself or would bring them to the kitchens to see if they could be duplicated. If she was smart, she would ask me if I knew the recipe as soon as she had the chance. If not, I could always slip into the kitchens later to make them and show them how.

Arya stayed with us this time and enjoyed the tea and the biscuits. It was almost funny, because both Erryk and Arryk looked a little anxious. Our uniforms made us look professional, even if we were too young to be members of any kind of military, or it was because Arya had a live blade on her hip.

Olenna let out a satisfied sound after her second cup of delicious tea and leaned back in her chair. “All right, Jon Snow. You have more than earned the lands I have had set aside for you with your actions on my people's behalf.” She said and I nodded. “I am prepared to hear about the things that happened, in your own words.” She gave me a bit of a glare. “Do not leave anything out or I will know.”

I held in my laugh at that. I wasn't going to question her abilities, as both the Queen of Thorns and a mother and grandmother. So, I told her everything that happened. How the storm did slow us down as we approached the area, how we were a little too late to save Lady Mormont from being claimed, and how I told her to use that against her captor.

Olenna listened intensely and nodded occasionally, agreeing with my actions and my reasons, and how I dealt with all the ships by lighting them on fire and then ambushing the defenders. Her guards looked impressed at how I had succeeded, then really looked proud when they heard about how Arya had defended Lady Mormont and her daughter, Lyra.

Arya didn't look smug as I praised her for it and that only made the guards prouder. She had done her job well, as was expected, and that was no reason to become arrogant or complacent. Diligence was a trait that all guards appreciated when it came to protecting the people they were in charge of.

When I finished with having to flee the harbour when Lady Mormont's daughters arrived, Margaery let out a soft laugh and Olenna smiled slightly before she could stop herself. Neither of them would ever admit that they liked I hadn't stayed there to tie myself to House Mormont, even though she had been elevated to Lord Paramount and had become a member of the privileged few to rule an entire region.

Although, the both of them had perked up when I told them about Maege forcing me to accept half of the things I had found in an abandoned boathouse. Both of their eyes went to the still open cate of silks that the guards had placed next to the table.

I reached into the fruit crate and took out one of them and sliced it, just like Dany had to put onto the porridge, and used the knife to dig out the seeds. Once the fruit was cleaned, I held the saucer out to Olenna first and then to Margaery. Both took a single slice and made a funny face when they tasted it.

“That does not go well with tea.” Olenna said at the sharp taste.

“No, it doesn't.” I said and smiled. “Now take a drink of tea.”

Olenna frowned slightly. “What did I just say?”

My smile changed to a smirk. “Trust me.”

Margaery didn't hesitate and took another sip of tea and gasped. Her eyes were wide and she stared at me. Olenna couldn't fight her curiosity and took a sip as well. She clamped her mouth shut and fought to not gasp like her grandaughter, because the flavour pretty much exploded in her mouth.

“I think that's why the fruit taste is so sharp. It clears the mouth of all other tastes.” I said and ate a slice as well and held the saucer out to Dany and then Arya, whom both ate a piece and then drank their tea.

Dany shivered at the renewed deliciousness and then giggled. “It works every time, too.”

Margaery had to try it again and ate another piece, then refilled her tea cup and tried another sip, only to shiver as well. She then tried a biscuit and dipped it, sighed happily, and sat back and enjoyed another cup of tea, despite feeling a little full. Olenna could resist and did the same thing, then sighed happily as well and enjoyed another cup of tea.

After another round of tea and biscuits, and using up the last of the sliced fruit pieces, Olenna ordered the fruit crate be brought to the kitchens and have the seeds harvested. The silks she would go through with her family and she would decide then what to do with it.

With the reporting and tea out of the way, it was time for me to attend to Willas to give him a walking cast. It had been almost three weeks since I had mostly healed him and he needed to get up and around and get used to walking again.

The Highgarden maester was busy, so I didn't have to worry about him trying to steal the knowledge for himself. I made up some plaster and used more cotton cloth strips to securely wrap the young man's foot, ankle, and calf, to give him a solid base to walk on. I even added the bottom of an old boot to the bottom, so he could walk evenly and not worry about hitting his heel on stones or rocks.

Willas stayed in bed only long enough for the plaster to dry, which I accelerated, and he was up and walking around his room like his leg hadn't been shattered after being crushed by a horse. He hugged his mother first, then Olenna, then Margaery. When he turned to the midwifes to start hugging them as well, they all looked happy, either from the hug or that he was up and around.

I bid them a farewell after that, took Arya's and Dany's hands, and left the family to celebrate the heir being mobile again. In another three weeks, I would remove the cast and Willas would be back to normal.

The only good thing that came out of Willas being hurt was that he had figured out that he was much more popular around Highgarden than everyone else, because he had always been nice and his convalescence had made him treat everyone better, because he knew they really cared about him and not only because he was the heir.

We stopped in the free market to pick up a few things, like meat, lumber, and stone bricks, then we went back to the ship. The small crew greeted us and I loaded the things into the hold before we set sail back to my new home, or what was going to become my new home. It would need some work to get it up to my normal standards and that was okay.

I wasn't in any rush to get my greenhouses up and running and my ship's crew had their own families to get back to. I couldn't demand they stay close or anything, either. My land wasn't big enough to have several other families live there and I would need to arrange for them to take another ship or something back to Highgarden.

For now, I let them take the ship for a week and I would work on my homestead to make it the best place for Dany and Arya to live. Although, I knew I had to bring Arya back to Winterfell soon, at least for a visit, because I sincerely doubted Arya would ever want to return to her life of stuffy lessons, eating like a starving bird, and constantly being berated for not being more like a lady.

I went into the ship's hold and brought out the large hand cart full of furniture and things we had bought the last time at the free market, before meeting Olenna the first time, and no one questioned how it got there when I rolled it out and onto the shore. I waved to the ship as it left and Arya and Dany climbed up into the cart and sat on their chairs like royalty, making me laugh.

“Let's go home.” I said and they cheered as I pulled the cart up the short path to the structure that was going to become our home.

*

Melisandre held in her frustration as the fast and nimble ship she chartered finally reached the shores of Westeros. A storm had delayed them by a few days and then some pirates had tried to board them. Their charred husks were now at the bottom of the Narrow Sea with their burned ship, which caused the crew of the ship she was on to avoid her.

Her delicate foot stepped onto the dock in King's Landing and she ignored the people around her. Some tried to approach her and she used some of her power to generate an intimidating aura and forced them to back off. For some reason, when she tried to glare at them, it only encouraged them.

She made her way through the throng of people to one of the many stables to buy a horse. Again, she had to expend some of her power to stop the idiot stable hand when he called her a wench that needed a man like him and he tried to grab her. Surprisingly, not one person tried to help him when he burst into flames and he ran around screaming for help.

Another young man approached her with a good horse, already saddled, and he accepted the proper payment for it. He did warn her that she shouldn't run the horse too long or it won't last long. She thanked him with a smile and his face went red, then he helped her up into the saddle. She allowed him to see her thigh under her robes and he nearly fainted, which amused her, and she rode out into the street and through the edge of town.

Melisandre soon reached the Roseroad, the one that headed towards Highgarden, and she kicked the horse into a full run. Unlike what the man had told her, she knew that she wasn't going to need the horse after this and let her lord infuse both herself and the horse with vitality, with the power of life, and the horse ran like the wind.

The normal time for a horse to travel that far was about two weeks and she crossed it in only two days. The horse stumbled and seemed to wither as it came to a stop near the docks at Highgarden. Melisandre slid off of the horse when she was out of sight, patted its neck as she thanked it for its sacrifice, then it lit up in flames and was naught but ash when she left the alleyway.

A young man offered her a ride in his boat when she approached the dock to look for a ship. Melisandre gave him a look and nodded, the man happily brought her to his poorly maintained boat, and they set off from the dock with no one paying them any attention.

A short time later, the man's ashes were scattered on the water and Melisandre steered the boat to where she needed to go. She wasn't a navigator, or knew how to run a boat by herself, so she let the will of the lord of light guide her and she trusted in him to show her the way, as she always had. She had been devoted to him since she was a child, nearly 400 years ago, and she wasn't going to doubt him now.

She would arrive at where she was destined to be, exactly when she was supposed to, and not a moment before. Trying to rush things always went badly, so her patience had been hard earned and well used by the time the rickety boat slid up onto the shore of some island and beached itself, since she had no need or desire to slow it down or to keep it intact.

Melisandre had the feeling she arrived just in time as she stepped off onto the shore. She looked up the short path to the odd-looking home and met the eyes of a boy no more than eight namedays old. However, the look of ages in his eyes far surpassed her own centuries of life and the warmest smile she had ever felt appeared on her own face and it mirrored the one she saw appear on his.

“Melisandre.” Jon Snow said with reverence as he walked down to the shore to stand in front of her. “Welcome to my land and to my home.”

Melisandre felt the urge to thank him for accepting her, because she somehow knew that he knew who she really was. She couldn't stop her arms from sliding around him to hug him close and she leaned down with her lips barely above his own.

“You really are him.” Melisandre whispered with wonder. “The prince that was promised.”

“Azor Ahai. Aemon Targaryen. Jon Snow.” Jon whispered back, letting her know he knew exactly who he was.

“I've waited so very long to meet you.” Melisandre breathed and stared into his eyes.

“I know.” Jon said as his hands dropped to her ass and he kissed her.

Melisandre almost melted into his arms and moaned as she deepened the kiss. She had never felt anything like what she was feeling and she didn't want to let it go, or stop it, or deny how much heat and passion she could feel bubbling up within herself for the first time in forever.

She could feel the strength in his arms, the powerful magic inside of him, and somehow felt his desire to help her. Her own desire for someone to help her, to save her from others, from the world, and from herself, burst forth and she kissed him as if he was the air itself and she would die if she ever let him go.