Over the next few months, it was almost funny how quickly word spread across Essos that there was an entirely new place to go and live, where the heat wasn't oppressive or all consuming. It was called Freedom Harbour and had many signs with the symbol of a hearth with a warming fire hung all over the place, welcoming everyone.

The taxes were barely worth mentioning, the homes were lavish like the richest merchant, and you could work at anything you wanted to try, since there were so many people enjoying themselves and their new lives without restrictions.

Apprenticeships were plentiful and learning your numbers and letters at something called a school was free for everyone, no matter how old you were. You could farm, make things from clothes to weapons, and even run your own market stall without being charged 30% of your gross profits. It was amazing!

The thing that shocked everyone that showed up was that basic housing was free if you wanted to become a citizen. It was also at a premium, because the first ones in the area always picked what they thought were the best spots. That didn't stop people from having a great place to live, though.

Everything had an advantage wherever you lived. Close to the harbour, close to the markets, close to the learning places, and close to your work. People from all over came to check the place out. There was even an adventurous ship from Westeros that had heard the rumors and carefully followed the directions an ex-slave had let slip when they paid them a handful of silver coins.

The captain of the ship from Dorne was amazed when he sailed into a port unlike any he had seen before. Very high castle towers guarded both sides of the entrance and garrisoned troops overlooked the entire harbour without obstruction. He had no doubt that their arrows would fly true from so high up and would reach any ship within their sight.

They easily made port at a dock that was so large, it could hold ten large ships easily and many more smaller sailing and fishing ships. The fee to dock was only a pittance, unlike anywhere else in the world, and the man relaxed when a squad of local troops were assigned to his ship to guard it and to escort his people if they wanted it.

None of the men on his ship had ever felt so safe, then one of the soldiers mentioned the local brothel was open all day and night. Nearly half of his crew disappeared as if by magic and the captain laughed and shook his head. He had some wares left after visiting Braavos that he couldn't offload, and he barely had one crate off of the ship before he was swarmed and the eager people bought everything he had.

The captain had expected to stay for at least a week to rest and to hopefully empty his hold of saleable goods. Now he didn't know what to do with himself or his remaining men, then remembered the brothel being always open and figured it wouldn't hurt to check the place out. The rest of his men soon joined him.

To his surprise, the prettiest woman he had ever seen approached him as soon as he entered the door. He accepted her invitation, of course. He wasn't an idiot. He did offer to pay first, and she laughed.

“Do you want what you think your fee can get you or do you want to have the best time of your life?” She asked him with a sexy smile.

“When you put it that way.” The captain chuckled and tucked his coin pouch back into his pocket. “Lead the way, my dear.”

She took his hand and led him into a room fit for a king. What followed was one of the best sexual experiences he had ever had, or would ever have, until he returned to Freedom Harbour. The pillow talk alone about the local situation was worth its weight in gold. Instead of paying her what he tried to before, he just handed her his coin pouch and kissed her deeply as thanks.

The next day, the ship from Dorne left and would bring word of the newly discovered land back to Westeros. The shocking part of that news was that there were more cities farther inland in what everyone knew was a useless wasteland. Or was previously useless.

If the port was anything to go by, then there was no doubt in the captain's mind that the other cities were just as elaborately built and laid out for ease of use. There was even a whispered rumor of a young boy, on a massive horse, that had ridden into the Dothraki Sea and wiped out every Khal and warrior, freed every slave, and gave all their possessions to the people they had conquered.

*

Atlas had been declared the 'Stallion that Mounted the World' after burning down all of the other Khal's homes and sacrificing their warriors. Blood for blood, they paid for their crimes, and the world's largest khalasar had moved on and was led into a place that none of them had ever seen before.

It was a new place, a city of unimaginable beauty to call their own, and where the Khal of Khals told them he had to ride off to the ends of the world to continue his work. The people cheered at him giving them their lives back, their sense of pride back, and their honor.

The bells in his long black ponytail rang as he rode hard out of the city. No one but Atlas would ever know they were copies of the same bells that the goddess Hestia wore in her hair.

*

One end of the world was known as Old Valyria. The ruins were located on the Valyrian Peninsula, to the south of the continent of Essos and extended far into the Summer Sea. Mind you, there wasn't much left of the peninsula after the Doom of Valyria, a cataclysmic event that destroyed the Valyrian Freehold and flooded a majority of the lowlands and became the Smoking Sea.

The main island was where the ruins were and there were many people, and armies, and ships that have tried to go to the supposedly cursed lands. None ever returned. It made you wonder where the stories came from if no one ever returned. How did the stories come to be if no one ever came back when they went there?

The first obstacle was the string of fourteen active volcanoes all along the entrance to the ruined peninsula. Were they part of the cataclysm? The cause of it? Or were they a result? In any case, they lit the sky red and no one ever wanted to go near enough to see them, either by ship or by land.

Atlas wasn't afraid, even if he wasn't at his full power. He had checked with his clairvoyance power and there were many treasures still within the ruins. The mines under the volcanoes and the ruins seemed to also still be plentiful, even if some were flowing with magma in places and seawater in others.

The sunken area were the first he wanted to check out, even if the water was acidic and would melt the hardiest of clothes and would burn the skin. Volcanic water was not something normal people wanted do deal with. Atlas was not a normal person.

The first thing he did was use transfiguration and earth moving powers to create large 100-foot-wide troughs in the seabed all along where the previous peninsula's outline used to be. He pulled the sides up into the air just enough to raise them out of the water, then he did the same all the way back to the row of volcanoes at the lip of the peninsula.

Atlas stopped working before reaching them, because he realized his mistake. Just using dirt and rocks in the troughs wasn't going to work. He flew all the way back to the far end of the peninsula and spent the next few hours transfiguring the lining of the troughs into solid concrete, which would contain the heat of the lava and keep it liquid as it flowed down the troughs. It took more effort to change them, because the troughs were mostly underwater and he had to do both sides.

He eventually finished most of it and for the first time in a while, felt tired. He decided to continue the next day and stepped from there to his homestead in the Shield Islands. He appeared in his potion room and went to the animal glasshouse to check with the few workers he managed to hire to look after the animals for him.

He paid them and told them to go home, because it was late and they did a good job. They thanked him and boarded his ship, pleased with how easy the job was. The ship and crew left and Jon went into the house. Melis was there in the living room reading one of the magic books he had given to her and her affinity with the fire element had grown significantly in the last few months.

“R'hllor is pleased with your work, Jon.” Melis said without looking up from the thick book.

Jon was too tired to laugh and flopped down on the couch beside her. “He's going to be really happy tomorrow afternoon.”

Melis looked up at his face and smiled. “Yes, he will be.”

Jon laid back and closed his eyes. “Wake me if my stomach grumbles. I haven't eaten since midday.”

Melis rolled her eyes at him. “For someone so powerful, you neglect yourself much more than a normal person does.”

“I'm just... so busy... no time...” Jon barely whispered as he dozed off.

Melis shook her head at him and closed her book, went to the kitchen and prepared a small meal for him, then brought it back to the living room. It wasn't perishable, just like all the food Jon's farming techniques provided for them, and she sat down and opened the book again.

Unlike any other woman near him, Melis wasn't tempted by the lure of his flesh. She wasn't above such things, she just didn't see any point in it, unless you were trying to achieve something. Casual affection was not something she would ever get used to, which was why Dany and Arya being nice to her had flustered her so much.

However, she still had the toy wolf Arya had given to her that first day. It had a prominent place on her bed near her pillow, so she could reach for it and hold it whenever she wanted. She still couldn't explain why that gave her a feeling of reassurance, when before all she needed was her god for that.

Melis opened her book again and kept reading. It really was fascinating to read about how other people handled the element of fire with their magic and how they used it, or in most cases, didn't use it. Her thoughts went to all the work Jon was doing in the world and she knew she had been right to come here to be near him.

His plans were so grand that they were almost impossible to achieve, and then he surprised her and achieved them. Tomorrow would be the culmination of it all, too. Using the volcanoes to fill in all the sunken areas to restore the peninsula, was an insane idea. Of course, he would be draining the Smoking Sea first to loot the place first, then he would bring the land back to prominence once more.

The tale alone would inspire many generations of people with hope, which was something the lord of light was almost giddy over. It was such a novel way to fight the despair that permeated the world and it was already starting to happen as the story about Freedom Harbour finally reached Westeros.

Melis knew that a place like that would draw everyone towards it, if only to look at it for themselves. Most people won't move there, because they didn't want to leave their lives behind to start them anew. However, there were many low and downtrodden people that would flock to the closest ships to sail there. Hope was a powerful thing and Jon's way of inspiring it made it that much stronger.

*

“Have we sent our own ship there to check the place out?” King Robert Baratheon asked his small council after he heard the new and disturbing news of a new nation popping up out of nowhere.

“It's just rumors, your highness. There's no need to panic.” Ser Barristan Selmy reassured him.

Robert barely held back his glare. “Those rumors were enough that a group of smallfolk armed themselves with farming tools and took over a ship that accepted their money to go there and the captain refused them passage.”

The head of the kingsguard closed his mouth. That had not been their finest moment, because they had assumed the smallfolk were in the wrong and had dealt with them as pirates, only to learn it was the crooked captain that was at fault.

“I've arranged compensation to their families.” Jon Arryn said. What he didn't say was that there were only a handful of them to pay off and the rest of them had been part of the incident and were dead.

Robert frowned at the man, then he sat back in his chair and sighed. “I need to ask if this was the only place this happened.”

All eyes in the room turned to look at Varys, the Master of Whispers. It was his turn to sigh and no one liked the sound of it, because it did not bode well for anyone at the table.

“Nearly half of my little birds in Essos have already left my service and have moved to the so-called Freedom Harbour.” Varys admitted. “The only reason the other half haven't done so, is because they haven't found anyone to travel with yet.”

Stannis Baratheon, the Master of Ships, gave him a pointed look. “What about your little birds in the other kingdoms? In Dorne where the rumors came from? In The Reach? In The Stormlands? In The Riverlands? In The Vale? In The North?” He badgered and Varys winced at each name.

“Well? Out with it!” Robert spat.

Varys couldn't meet the man's eyes. “The downside of a communications network of spies is the same as the upside. When one knows, they all know.”

“Well, fuck.” Robert said and rubbed his face. His spymaster was effectively neutered and there was nothing they could do about it to fix it, because once a spy chose to leave, there was no way to stop them. They wouldn't be a very effective spy if they were so easily caught, would they?

“What should we do?” One of the Masters of Coin asked.

“We take the king's suggestion.” Stannis said. “I'll have my fastest ship prepared.”

“You can't go yourself.” Robert said and his brother nodded.

“I'll be sending Ser Davos Seaworth.” Stannis told them. “With his reputation, he won't stand out if he shows up there out of nowhere.”

Jon Arryn nodded. “We'll need a reason for him to go there.”

“There are still smallfolk near the docks asking for passage.” Varys informed them. “I'm sure some cargo can also be arranged to pay for the ship's operation, too.”

Both Robert and Stannis nodded.

“Get it done and get your man going as soon as possible.” Robert ordered and looked at his spymaster. “I'm tempted to send you along as well.”

Varys paled and shook his head. He did not want to go anywhere near where he had been castrated.

“We could send Tyrion Lannister.” The other Master of Coin said. “The rumors from Dorne said their whorehouse had rooms made for a king. If he went to check it out, he'll be sure to hear a lot more from the women there.”

Robert smiled for the first time that day. “That's a great idea!” He said and patted Jon Arryn's shoulder. “Write something official up for him to take with him. He runs all the brothels here, after all.”

Jon nodded and the sudden meeting ended as suddenly as it started.

*

Atlas finally finished the troughs and blasted huge holes into the sides of the two closest volcanos, then connected the new large lava flows to the start of the troughs. Since the magma was super-heated from being under pressure, it gushed out like a firehose and travelled down the concrete troughs at a speed that would shock anyone that wasn't Atlas, whom had calculated it perfectly.

It took a while for the fast and super-heated lava to flow the many miles of trough that surrounded the peninsula. Thankfully, his calculations had covered that and by the time the lava reached the end of the peninsula and met the other lava flow from the other trough, it had cooled off enough that it started to harden and fill up the trough.

That was going to take a long time to fill all the way back to the volcano, so Atlas stepped from there to the very middle of his acquired lands. It was in the very center of a wasteland and he knew he needed to do something special with it. His wards kept the oppressive heat at bay around the cities; but, the land itself needed a source of water to help counter the base temperature.

That was what he was going to do with the Smoking Sea as soon as it was fully contained by the solidifying troughs full of lava. He would need to cleanse the water and then open a portal at the bottom of the sea to transfer it to his lands. It was free water, so he thought about how he wanted to shape the lake.

A simple round one was boring, as was making it square or a rectangle. That was when he remembered something neat that he had all the things needed to recreate it. All it would take was some time to build and he would have to set up a system of hidden pipes like his self-contained showers to keep the water flowing.

But first, he had an island in the shape of Great Britain to carve out of the dirt and rock. He would have to do it in a much smaller scale, since he didn't want the space across the water to be too far to see the other side. It was going to become a resort and vacation spot with the enchanted island hovering several hundred feet in the air, just like it had back in the Familiar of Zero world.

Atlas would be adding small lakes and large waterfalls that flowed into the sea he was going to make underneath it, with the large island producing a huge moving shadow as the sun travelled across the land. The shade would be a huge selling point, as would the cooling water spray from the waterfalls. He would decide later if anyone would be allowed up onto the island itself.

*

By the time the ship Tyrion Lannister was on reached Freedom Harbour just over a month later, because they had to stop in Braavos to let him visit the poshest whorehouses there, the Valyrian Peninsula had been enclosed and the acidic sea had been converted into fresh water and drained away.

There were also rumors about the famous volcanoes not lighting up the sky as much as they used to, which had many people talking about the land around it becoming inhabitable again. No one wanted to go check on it, though. No one ever came back from there if they went and no one was brave enough to chance it.

The half-man some people called Imp to his face, stepped off of the ship with the captain, Ser Davos. Instead of asking around for directions, Tyrion turned to the soldiers that the dock master had provided to them for free.

“Where is the famous brothel I've heard about?” The short man asked.

“I'll show you the way.” The soldier said and led the pair right to the odd-looking building. He ushered them inside and Tyrion was surprised. The women there looked normal. As in, they weren't wearing clothing that showed off their wares. Instead, they looked demure and reserved, and he had to admit that it turned him on quicker than a normal whore would.

There was a soft giggle off to the side of the room and he turned to see a very tall woman with black hair giving him a look that had his blood pumping, both through his heart and through his nether region. He hadn't felt so hard in his life as she strutted over to them.

“Welcome to our humble abode, little lord.” She said and her voice was a husky timbre that made Tyrion shiver.

“M-marry me!” Tyrion blurted.

She laughed a very sexy laugh and held a hand out to him. “We haven't even introduced ourselves yet.”

“I'm yours.” Tyrion said as he took the hand and kissed it. “Will you be mine?”

She gave him an indulgent smile. “Why don't we take this somewhere more private before we discuss anything like that?”

“I'll follow you anywhere.” Tyrion said and surprised himself by actually meaning it.

She laughed and tugged on his hand as she started to walk away. Unlike what Tyrion thought she would do, she walked at a pace that was slow enough for him to not struggle to keep up with her with his much shorter legs.

Ser Davos watched the man walk away and held in his sigh. He turned and walked over to the bar at the side of the room where that woman had stood and he sat in her vacated seat. A drink was placed in front of him and he glanced up at the woman behind the bar.

“It's only juice.” She said and went back to talking to the three women sitting nearby.

Ser Davos glanced around and was both surprised and relieved that none of the many women there had tried to approach him. Did they somehow know he was married or something? He wore no ring and didn't tell them he wasn't available for some fun.

He would never know that his stance and countenance had told the more experienced women that he was to not be approached, not even to talk. They all knew he wasn't there to avail himself of their services and none of them would pressure him to or make him uncomfortable about it.

Two hours later, a very happy Tyrion with a near permanent smile on his face, came out of the room he had entered. He wasn't even a little drunk as he tapped Ser Davos on the leg and the pair left the brothel behind.

“Did she accept?” Ser Davos asked.

Tyrion laughed and shook his head. “After she let me climb her and mount her, she told me about how she ended up here. She wouldn't accept becoming anyone's wife and being shackled in a different way than she had been before.”

Ser Davos nodded. He understood that mentality and agreed with it. He would never return to his smuggling ways, either. He waited until they were far enough away before he asked what he needed to ask. “How was the pillow talk?”

Tyrion's smile didn't fade, even if his tone of voice dropped from happy to normal. “Not only are the rumors true, there have been many more since then.”

Ser Davos didn't prompt him to talk, because he knew he would anyway.

“One of the biggest ones is the new landlocked sea discovered about a thousand miles from here.” Tyrion stated and Ser Davos stumbled and almost fell. “I'm not joking.”

“But... but how...” Ser Davos whispered.

“I have no idea.” Tyrion said. “But, I plan to find out. They are sending a caravan out to the other nearby cities to gather supplies and then they are going to travel there.”

“You can't mean...”

“Yes, I plan to be on that caravan.” Tyrion said. “Two weeks there and two weeks back. It's well within the time we were given to return with information.”

“You can send a raven anywhere.” The soldier said from behind them.

Both Tyrion and Ser Davos jumped slightly from being startled and whirled around to stare at the soldier. Ser Davos had his hand on his sword hilt as a not-so-subtle threat at the man that had followed them from the whorehouse without them knowing about it.

The solder didn't smile, even if he felt like he should. “I am your assigned guard while in the city.”

Ser Davos let the hilt go and nodded. He understood duty well.

“You will not talk about our plans to anyone.” Tyrion said and held up a silver coin.

The soldier took the offered coin. “You can get a sturdy steed at the stable in the outskirts of the city.” He said and then pointed. “The raven tower is over there by the owner's mansion.”

“The owner?” Tyrion asked. He hadn't heard anything about an owner.

“Atlas owns all the land as far as the eye can see and then far beyond that.” The soldier said and both Tyrion's and Ser Davos' eyes widened. “He works hard every day to make all of our lives better and we will forever be grateful to him for it.”

Tyrion's eyes narrowed. “He also pays you?”

The soldier couldn't stop his smile this time. “He pays all of us.”

“All of you?” Ser Davos asked and his eyes glanced around. Just that small gesture showed him there were hundreds of people around and half that many soldiers and guards keeping the peace.

“Yes, all of us. Everyone.” The soldier said and motioned towards the tower. “The ravens are sent out every day at midday.”

Tyrion immediately turned and started walking quickly towards the building. He would have to wait until tomorrow if he didn't get that message out right now. It wasn't as bad as King Robert suspected it was. No, it was much worse, both for him as a king and for the Seven Kingdoms as a whole.

A place where everyone was equal and no one was poor? There were no homeless, no beggars, and there was something missing that had been in every other city Tyrion had visited. There was no smell of shit and piss in the very clean streets and that shocked the half-man more than anything else.

The copper coins for the raven to carry the message all the way to Kings Landing was a pittance and Tyrion was tempted to buy one of the birds for his own personal use. He didn't, because he had nowhere to keep the thing and he doubted the pretty woman that served him would join his house to only have one raven to use.

Tyrion and Ser Davos returned to the ship and their guard rejoined his squad at the end of the plank attached to the dock. It was nice to have professional help and it was also disconcerting, because they were professional and there would be no chance to trick them or get up to any kind of mischief without them seeing it and putting a stop to it.

*

The things at the bottom of the Smoking Sea were more ruined than everything else. The loot was little more than eaten away acid stained metal and stone. All that work had been for its own sake, since there was nothing left to save from the ashes of the Valyrian Freehold. Even the things on the land had been ruined from the acidic smoke drifting from the waters.

Still, there were several severely damaged swords, daggers without handles, and various armor pieces. There wasn't a whole set, even after Atlas had gathered them all together, which meant they were either dissolved away to nothing or had been taken and used in something else. He bet on the dissolved option, because even the strongest metals would eventually wear away while under acidic water.

He first tried to use magic to repair a dagger, only for it to fail. Whether it was the damage or a curse of the area, didn't matter. It didn't work. Using a repair skill instead put it back to rights, only it worked on the existing parts and nothing else. It didn't regenerate the handle or any markings on it.

The last thing Atlas tried was his chronomancy power, solely focused on the dagger, and he was exhausted when the time was rewound long enough for the thing to be restored to what it had been before it was ever touched by the Smoking Sea.

He was happy it worked and also disappointed that it would wipe him out if he tried to do it to the armor or the swords, and there was no guarantee it would work if he ran out of energy during the process. That meant he would have to wait until he was older to restore them to their original forms and he stored them in a lead-lined box and put it in his inventory.

After a day of rest, Atlas finished clearing out the old mines of sea water and lava, then he checked to see there were barely any gems, precious metals, and ores left. He looted it and considered the operation nearly a complete bust. He returned to the large row of volcanoes and constructed many more concrete troughs needed for the rest of the plan.

When they were in place and pointed towards the lowest areas that had been flooded, he broke apart the sides of the volcanoes and watched as the lava rushed out to fill the lands back in to where they were supposed to be. Again, it would take a while and he flew around to ensure the lava was reaching where it needed to go and he used transfiguration and earth moving powers to fix and repair everything.

What he was doing also had the benefit of burying the acid damaged lands far below the actual level of the rest of the lands. He just had to decide if he wanted to leave things flat and spread out or if he should make hills, valleys, and maybe a mountain or two to match the surrounding lands. It was a lot more work and took longer; but, it was worth it in the end for such rich soil from the volcanoes.

As a final act, Atlas smoothed out the lands around the volcanoes and then the volcanoes themselves. Taking so much magma and lava from them all at once, had reduced their potency to little more than a trickle that one volcano couldn't sustain as a constant eruption. He diverted that last volcano's trajectory towards the edge of the peninsula, using one final trough to direct the lava into the ocean.

Over the next hundred years or so, the peninsula would slowly expand and grow. The volcano would never erupt again, because the opening worked like a pressure release valve and the lava would never stop flowing.

With that, the reconstruction of the land was finally done. All that was left was to reseed it, add trees, and then let nature take its course. The blight that was the ruins of Old Valyria was no more.