11

Harry smiled as he circled over his conquered lands. Things were really starting to take shape. Right on the water's edge on a small, rocky island, Harry built his castle using his magic. Pulling stone from deep within the planet, he transformed and molded it into a glistening white structure that was a thousand feet tall. He quickly built other buildings surrounding the castle which would be used for different things. All of them were created out of sharp angles and points. They looked beautiful as well as menacing. Terraforming the rocky island was easy for him. Soon after, greenery sprouted all over as well as freshwater springs. Once he was done, it looked like a picture out of a fantasy novel with all of the waterfalls. He finished it off by using his magic to build a bridge in the same style from the island to the mainland. Harry decided that the rest of the city would be built by his drones now that the castle and walls were constructed.

Creating a hundred thousand new drones was taxing, even for him. Even so, it was a small price to pay for what was being built. In a large semi-oval around the point where the bridge connected with the mainland, a massive wall was built. Like his castle, the wall was made of solid white stone with no seams. A larger wall made in a perfect circle encased the oval wall, and far beyond both of them, another massive circular wall encased them both. It was as if solid rings of stone had erupted from the ground beneath. Of course, Harry knew different. Making them had been tiring for both him and his dragon.

Once again, using his magic to pull stone from deep within the ground, he piled them up in a perfect circle that followed the path of the wall. Whistling loudly while on Daemon's back, the dragon blew fire all over the stones. Almost instantly, they turned molten, and Harry focused his magic while reshaping and coloring the stones. This went on for weeks until finally, he had finished all three walls. At one hundred and fifty feet tall and twenty feet thick, Harry doubted that they would be breached any time soon. When Melisandre felt the walls for herself, she said that she could feel both his and the dragon's magic within. After that, she practically demanded that he create a Red Temple for her in the same fashion. Deciding not to argue with her, he did what she requested. Following her precise directions, he built a grand Temple in the honor of R'hllor, glistening white just like his castle. Once done, he did one last thing. Going from the bridge, straight down to the Main Gate, Harry created the main street of his city using the dragon fire technique. He then created branches of smaller streets going out so that it would be easy getting to any area of the city. He used his magical method instead of just letting the drones use bricks because he wanted the roads smooth so as to lessen the strain of moving goods by wagon or cart. Bumpy roads were a major nuisance for him in this world. It would also increase trade since moving goods would be a lot faster. Instead of making them white, he kept them gray so they wouldn't need to constantly be cleaned. Once that was all done, he let the drones take over.

The first thing they did was add miles of magically strengthened copper pipes underground to be used for sewage and for the transportation of water. Harry used his powers to create a natural spring that was hidden inside of a well-guarded building. This spring would provide fresh water to all who would end up living in the city. His drones would eventually build hundreds of fountains so that everyone would be within walking distance of one. Every house would have an indoor privy so that they wouldn't toss their shit onto the streets. He wanted his city to be as different from King's Landing as possible. Anyone caught dumping their chamber pots onto the street would be severely punished. His castle wouldn't have that problem since he would have normal indoor plumbing from his original world. The sewers would run downhill toward the sea before being funneled into an underground chamber that was filled with runes which would vanish the shit and clean the water before being drained into the ocean.

Flying high over the castle, Harry smiled when he remembered what Melisandre had mentioned. Radiating out from the outer wall were six incredibly long and large piers that created his new port. Having a large seaport was obviously very important for a man that traded as much as Harry did. Each pier would accommodate dozens of fully loaded ships on each side. It was by far the largest port in all of Planetos. A seventh pier protruded from the backside of his island. That one would be used solely by him and those he deemed important enough. He had created the port to look like a King's crown, but Melisandre saw something different.

"It looks like seven swords, My Lord," she told him while holding on tightly to him. When he looked down, he realized that she was right. Further adding to her idea, Harry made the tips of each pier pointed so that they looked even more like swords. Since then, they called his city Seven Swords.

He was beginning to get antsy. Things were finally starting to come together. Harry knew that he needed to calm himself and not rush things. The city wasn't even halfway done yet and still had a ways to go … even with a hundred thousand workers building it nonstop. Putting it out of his mind, for the time being, he directed Daemon to fly toward his land's eastern flank. More than once he had caught sellsword companies that had been hired by Volantis marching up the Orange Shore. They had been dealt with swiftly. Harry hadn't responded directly yet. He had more important things at the moment, but if Volantis continued, he would have to make an example out of them.

298 AC

The old lion, Tywin Lannister, set the letter he had been reading down and leaned back in his chair. The creaking of the wood was especially loud in his quiet office. While he enjoyed peace and quiet, it still irked him that he had been shuffled back to Casterly Rock as if he meant nothing. The fact that the crown owed him millions of gold Dragons should have counted for something, but no, the whoremonger on the throne cared only for his indulgences. Even now, the King's party was making their way to Winterfell, including his sons, daughter, and grandchildren, and he was sitting on his ass here in the Rock. Not that he wanted to make such a horrid journey into the cold north, mind you, but he should have been asked. It was only proper to respect the man that was basically funding the entire kingdom.

'Let the drunkard get fat,' Tywin thought to himself. Every day he was a little closer to eating and drinking himself into an early grave. Plucking a gold coin from his desk, he looked at it. On one side was the whoremonger himself, King Robert. Twin scoffed. Robert didn't even come close to resembling the proud and noble figure on the face of the coin. Flipping it around, he was met with the image of a fierce dragon. Closing his fist around it, he thought back to the message that he had just read.

His wayward grandson, Harold, was causing havoc in Essos. Tywin had eyes and ears from the North, all the way to Yin. If anything important was happening in the world, he wanted to know about it. His grandson taking the Disputed Lands was certainly noteworthy. How much of the report he could believe was another story. There were times when his informants exaggerated in the hopes of earning a bonus. Whether this was one of those times or not, he couldn't say. At least some of it could be believed though. This wasn't the first report that he had received about an upstart warlord marching through the Disputed Lands. He had received many missives about the rulers of nearby Free Cities getting nervous and securing their own lands. Something was definitely going on. He cursed about the fact that it was happening so far away. News was trickling in too slow to properly react. He would just have to wait and see.

The second part was the one he had a hard time believing. Tales of a monstrously large dragon being controlled by the same warlord were beginning to become a pattern in every report that was sent from that part of the world. This just didn't make sense. First of all, he found it hard to believe that a dragon still roamed the world. He would have heard about that by then. Second, he couldn't begin to wonder how Harold would have tamed such a beast. Things just didn't add up. He needed more information.

The Dread Lord of Essos

Varys, also known as the Spider, was likewise reading a report from one of his "little birds" in the safety and privacy of one of the many secret passages that crisscrossed the Red Keep. Using a torch for light, he had to be careful so as to not drip sweat on the paper and smear the ink. Once done, he quickly set the paper alight and dropped it to the floor. Watching it burn until it was little more than ash, he then made his way out of the stifling hot passageway and into the garden where he could cool off in the shade. He had hatched quite a few schemes in those gardens. It was only fitting that he would go there to think.

This was the third report that he had received from Volantis in as many weeks. The Triarchs were preparing for war once again. Already, every available sellsword company had been hired and was roundly defeated by a new army in the area. It was all that was being talked about in the ancient city. Excited chatter by the slaves, nervous mutterings by the freeborn, it didn't matter a person's station in life. All whispered the same name … the Dread Lord.

Why did they call him that? The answer was simple. He was almost always accompanied by winged death … a black dragon of epic proportions. He imagined that the sight alone was quickly followed by bowel-loosening terror.

From what he was able to put together, the Dread Lord was able to gather an army of Unsullied, who he promptly freed. Those who stayed behind fought for him with the fierceness that only an Unsullied could produce. This was why the slaves of Volantis were excited. There was now a Lord that had the power to destroy Volantis but didn't rape, pillage, or keep slaves.

Varys's mind was swimming from all of the new information. He could only begin to come up with a plot that would benefit his plans. The black dragon alone could be a boon to his plans or its destruction. He needed to tread carefully. The biggest shock in all of this was the true identity of the so-called "Dread Lord".

Harold Hill was a young man that he had been keeping an eye on since his birth. Born the bastard son of Jaime Lannister, he watched as Lord Tywin had brought him in and raised him in the Rock. Truth be told, Varys was more than a little surprised that Tywin didn't have done away with the child. The old man would have definitely considered it a stain on the Lannisters' honor. Since their family had taken on the monikers of Kingslayer and Oathbreaker, the Lord of the Rock had been very sensitive to anything further threatening the family's reputation. As it turned out, it was a smart decision to let the boy live. By all accounts, the boy was even-headed, intelligent, and a fierce fighter. His business sense was the stuff of legends. The young bastard already had more gold than most in the Realm. Unfortunately, news about him had dwindled once he left Westeros. Varys was now kicking himself for not watching him closely. How did he get a dragon? How did he get the Unsullied army? As preposterous as it sounded, Varys was a believer. Unlike Tywin's sources, his were highly reliable. Now he just needed to think of a way that this information could be used in his favor.

The Dread Lord of Essos

An explosion of fire and wood launched a hundred feet into the air as Harry's dragon passed over. The last of Volantis's ballista had been destroyed with only a few shots having been fired, and none of them having come close to hitting their target. Daemon was very nimble for a beast of his size. Down below, Harry was viciously hacking limbs and necks while wearing his trademark black armor.

He wasn't fighting some grand army. No, instead he was destroying one of many campgrounds that were being used for staging areas. Volantis was trying to take his land, little by little while setting up forts along the way. Needless to say, they couldn't hold up to a burst of dragon fire. He didn't even bother using the Unsullied for this. It was quicker if he did it himself.

Volantis was becoming brazen. It wasn't a shocking revelation. Men in power often became desperate when they felt that their end was near. The ironic thing was that Harry would have left them alone had they just minded their own business. Instead, they thought that they could just jump in and capitalize on what he had already achieved. It was a fatal mistake on their part.

The reason they were still trying to fight him was that they hadn't seen what was waiting for them. Harry was sure that they had heard reports about his dragon and Unsullied army, but it was one thing to read about it and another to see Daemon's shadow covering up a good portion of the city as he flew overhead. Harry would wager that they wouldn't be so brazen if they knew what was coming for them. Harry avoided doing that for a reason. For one, his city wasn't ready to take on civilians just yet. It was also a smart idea to let them keep sending fighters and spending money on supplies that he could quickly and easily destroy. It would only make his invasion of Volantis all the more simple.

Fiendfyre slipped right between a man's ribs and pierced through his back. A bloody gurgle and a pained expression were the last actions of the camp's Captain. As he dropped to his knees, Harry pulled his sword from the man's belly. The half-dead body dropped facedown onto the bright green grass. Holding up his sword, Harry ignited the blade. Instantly, all the blood, guts, and dirt staining the blade were evaporated by the intense heat. The few living souls that hadn't run yet saw his flaming sword and turned tail. Harry watched as they fled back toward the east, heading for Volantis. He hoped that they made it safely. News of their defeat would only make them more nervous, which in turn would make them even more careless. With every victory, he was chipping away at their sanity and sense of security. Suddenly, the ground shook, and Harry looked behind him. Daemon was combing through the wreckage looking for his favorite treat … charred horse meat. Harry would let him eat his fill before heading back home.

His city was blossoming right before his eyes at an alarming rate. That was the good thing about having one hundred thousand drones that could work nonstop, twenty-four-seven without getting tired or hot, or needing to stop for food or bathroom breaks. After laying all of the sewer and water pipes, they connected them to his hidden Waterhouse where pressure would be added to the water pipes. That would push the water across the city and supply everyone with constant, clean, and freshwater. The sewage pipes were all at a slight downward slope, so they would only need a slow trickle of water to keep everything moving to the treatment plant down by the sea. Harry was having his drones work on erecting the tens of thousand houses that would be littered throughout the land located between the Second and Outer Walls. This area would be where the smallfolk would live. There would be some shops there, and Harry guessed that some of the smallfolk would turn their houses into makeshift shops and brothels that they would also live in. All of that would be fine for the smallfolk. Most of the businesses in the city, however, would be located between the Second Wall and the Inner Wall. This was to be the city's business district.

Shops, blacksmiths, brothels, inns, taverns, and anything else would be found in this area of the city. He planned to keep the fish market out near the piers to avoid stinking up the city and making it smell like Volantis. His main goal was to have the cleanest and most beautiful city in all of Planetos. He was well on his way.

Inside the Inner Wall, that was where the high-end shops and brothels would be. Harry also would have fancy manses built in that area for rich merchants to purchase. The only Temple that he would allow in the city was the Red Temple that he had already built since R'hllor was the only god that hadn't pissed him off yet. The Red Temple was located near the entrance to the island bridge.

It was also brought to his attention that he needed to build a massive seawall beyond the end of the piers to both provide protection from storms and also protect the city from enemy fleets. Harry sighed. So much to do and so little time.