CHAPTER EIGHT: THE BUILDING OF A CENTURY
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"Well, that takes care of one thing." My uncle says smugly as he looks at my three new Gheyos and me. "Why don't you introduce yourse-." Uncle Alcandor gets interrupted as almost all of the Gheyos slink out of the house and go over to eat dinner. I lead my three new Gheyos over to the table so I can make sure that they eat enough.
As we're about to sit at the table, Alan asks, "Do you mind if we take Tânia and Monika over to the beach to talk about schedules?" I nod as I eat another cracker and Alan gestures for the two to join him and Alexei.
As I'm eating my cracker, my new Gheyo Queen introduces himself. "Adrian Kestern, Water & Air Gheyo Queen. Merrow Halfing." He says as he moves his silver hair out of his face. "The three of us mostly patrol the merrow waters along the beaches to ensure no one drowns." He bites me on the upper part of the right shoulder blade on my back.
"Hello again, princess!" Caspian Masse chirps. "I know I got somewhat introduced to you today, but I am a Water Gheyo Prince." He blinks his purple eyes and gives me a cheeky smile. He bites me next to Adrian's mark on my shoulder.
As soon as I am done biting Caspian, the female Merrow comes up and says, "Anemone Villee, Merrow Changling; my other form is Aenon. Water Gheyo Princess." She bites her lip and averts her sky-blue eyes. "I'm hoping that my mark only needs to be done once." She daintily bites next to Adrian's to make a triangle of marks before switching to her other form. "Good," Aenon says brushing my hair out of the way, "I don't need to mark you twice." He comes forward to let me look at his form which is almost identical to mine. His hair has dark blue roots with white tips along with teal-blue skin close to mine; he slowly switches back to give me a chance for a good look.
'Thankfully Aenon matches quite well to my form.' I think to myself. I send a curious feeling through Leonard's mark and am glad to see him smile and nod back. 'Well, at least my Alpha thinks it's a close match. Well, that's one thing off my plate for now.' I notice a lot of yawns happening from the present Pareya, my Companion, and my Carrier. "Let's go to bed." I yawn as I pull Odeta, who seems half asleep already, to the main sleeping tent. "I'm exhausted from today," I say as I pull Odeta into bed next to me.
One by one, sleepy people pile around me. Lucas changes into his white leopard form and stretches out on the pillows. Artak climbs to the other side of me as Monika glares at him but cuddles Artak from behind. Vanessa slips next to Odeta while Tânia grumpily nuzzles into her. Gerhard curls around Nicholae on the other side of Monika while Leonard exhaustedly lies down on the rightmost spot at the edge of the bed next to Tânia. Noel spoons Nicholae being on the left edge of the bed. Faidon sleeps at an angle at the foot of the bed, guarding everyone while forcing Armin to lie on the ground next to the door in his black leopard form.
Before falling asleep, I pop my head up from Lucas' flank to say "Goodnight everyone." and then lie back down. I snuggle into Artak before trying to fall asleep.
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"Alexia, wake up!" A slightly familiar masculine voice says while something shakes my shoulder. I hiss in unhappiness and try to fall back asleep. "Oh no, you don't! We've got a schedule to set up!"
"Oret, no, I wanna sleep more," I whine before getting flipped onto my back. Someone kisses my lips and my eyes flutter open. "Oh, hi Nicolae. Mmm, good morning." I yawn and stretch before sitting up in bed. I quickly look around for who is in bed, but it is only Nicholae, Artak, Iso, and I left.
Artak and Iso are cuddling me on each side while Nicholae is getting dressed for the day. "Now that you are all awake," Nicholae looks at Artak, "or at least mostly awake, I need to run and get these calendars and notebooks to Marian so he can make them connect to each other. Breakfast should get started soon, otherwise, we will get some hungry people." He kisses me on the lips again before leaving the tent.
Artak pokes me in the side and sleepily inquires, "Talking about sleeping, what do you know about how long your resting period is? Did your grandparents ever figure it out for you?" He grabs me and flops me on top of him while expectantly waiting for the answer.
"No, I always aligned with my grandmother's cycle which was 32 hours every 14 days. And her last cycle was four days ago, so I don't know when mine would be or for how long." I say as I poke both Artak and Iso. "I'm starting to get hungry, so we better go and make breakfast for everyone before they need to get to work for the day." I get out of bed and grab a dagger that I have had for a courting gift. I nudge Artak to leave the room and after he does so, I step up to Iso and declare, "Here is my first courting gift to you, my Pareya. A knife that I made in class at the school I was going to. I'm glad that my teacher asked me to bring it back to school to show it off." She caresses the jeweled dagger, gets up, and roots through her bags.
Isobella comes back over and gives me a boot dagger in return. "I've had this waiting until I could find a perfect Submissive to bind myself to." She sighs and then bear-hugs me tightly. I kiss her on the lips for a few minutes before kissing her in the location of her mark.
"We should probably get out to the kitchen before we get angry dragels." I laugh as I pull her to the kitchen. We are able to drag Vanessa and Rebecca into the kitchen to join us for cooking breakfast.
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Once breakfast is cooked, Iso rings the bell to signal everyone that breakfast is ready. As everyone eats, I notice a delivery is made to the table. "Leonard, I think the bank and clan tokens came," I say before taking another bite of breakfast. He nods and motions for Marian to inspect it.
"It's from the bank," Marian confirms before shoving it back to Leonard. "I know I should be here for the house plans, but someone from the main palace sent me a message about one of the rune wards being strange." He eats the last of his breakfast before continuing. "I don't really care how the main building is, as long as there is somewhere functional for the Merrow to be close to Alexia."
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I blush lightly purple before responding. "I planned on having a small swimming pool attached to the master bathroom. It should be big enough for four or five people to be in at once. I also plan on having a conservatory built near the back sliding door to have a large natural pond and garden for year-round swimming. You'll need to put in some heating runes though to keep it at about 80 degrees." I get up from the table and start taking plates. "If I may, can I also put a small rooftop deck on top of the fourth floor for an adult-only sunning area and hot tub?" I give Marian my best puppy dog eyes and he melts.
"Yes, my cheeky Submissive, you have my permission to have that built. Spare no expenses, I have plenty of money." Marian says before he starts to head off.
"Before you go, Marian," Leonard says teasingly, "You should probably grab your bank and clan tokens." He grabs the two tokens and hands them to Marian. "Our submissive would be sad if you left without our clan mark." Marian laughs while putting the tokens onto his bracer. "Also, don't forget you need to come back after lunch to do the suppression seals." Marian nods before porting away.
Leonard turns back around to face the table and distributes the rest of the tokens among everyone. "I currently have plenty of money in our circle's main bank account, so don't worry about spending money until it hits $500 a purchase. You can decide to pool your money into the bank account as well or keep it separate in a personal one. If we can manage to snag a Pareya Lerca or two, they will be the ones dealing with the finances from then out." He looks at Faidon before continuing. "I expect Faidon to be in charge of the circle's Gheyo bank account. You'll send all the info to the Lerca before they send it to me." He continues with, "As for our circle's savings account, I have set it up, but I have not put much money into it. If you want, you can use your token at the bank and deposit whatever you wish, or you could have me deposit it for you. Either way works for me. Just know that a Lerca will tell me about any major purchases or deposits in the future."
I smile at Leonard before telling him, "I want to put my entire checking bank account into the circle's main account and my trust fund into the savings account." I giggle to myself before continuing. "The bank account contains five million dollars while the trust account contains seventy-five million dollars. And I will have my grandparents deposit the money into the main bank account." I burst into laughter seeing everyone's faces. "The trust fund was from what my parent's circle gained before they died. The Pareya they were courting was a talented Lerca that could basically spin money from nothing." My face falls before I manage to keep going. "Adam was the reason why I have such a healthy bank account. He died about five months after my parents and that entire time he spent every minute trying to make the most money for me." I start weeping before Artak and Gaspar take me to lie down for some time before the builders arrive.
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After about an hour of napping, Gaspar wakes me up. "Princess, it's time to wake up." He squeezes my shoulders before murmuring "If you wake up now, I'll get you a mug of your favorite hot chocolate that you told me about yesterday."
My eyes flutter open at the thought of hot chocolate and I smile as I look at Gaspar. "Thank you, love, but I think I'll take a rain check for another time," I say before I kiss him on the lips. "Mm, are the builders here already?" I ask before stretching and turning over to cuddle Artak for a minute.
"No, Alexia!" Gaspar says before pulling me out of bed and away from Artak peacefully sleeping on the bed. "The builders will be coming any second now." I groan and follow him outside the bedroom. We go and sit in the dining room tent with the rest of my circle.
I look around for my Gheyos but do not see any but Gaspar. "Where are all the Gheyos?" I ask Gaspar. "Are they all patrolling the land?"
Gaspar laughs for a second before answering me. "Not all of them Alexia. Faidon's Gheyo Circle is patrolling the land while Armin's Gheyo Circle is talking with their previous training circles or employers. Adrian's Gheyo Circle is patrolling the sea. And uh, Tânia is speaking to her employer while Monika is chatting with her parents. Armin's group should be back by lunch as should Tânia and Monika. They will flip schedules so there is always a patrol." He thinks for a minute before continuing. "We might need to go out and get some supplies for the builder after lunch, but Leonard can think of a group then."
Gerhard raises a hand before responding to a sent message. "Yes, we're ready for you, feel free to port to the location I sent earlier." He looks at Leonard and Noel before continuing. "That was one of my fathers. The circle should be here in a few minutes so please do not draw weapons."
After about ten minutes, a group ports into the yard. "Ah, hello Gerhard!" says a blond man and runs over to Gerhard to hug him. "Your Mera has missed you at the dinner table, and so have I. Now, introduce us to your circle!" He says looking towards us.
"Well, this is my submissive Alexia, my Alpha Leonard, and my beta Noel. This is my sire, Eike Ekstrom, my Mera Katerina Mayr, and my third, Felix Knol." Gerhard says before looking around. "Most everyone else is out talking to their training circles or parents." He says before motioning the group of dragels to sit down. "Come and sit down, everyone." He waits for everyone there to sit down. "We know about what we want for the house..."
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"Well, we've taken up most of the time we scheduled for this." Eike laughs. "But let me reiterate what you want. The main floor will have the one bedroom and bath it currently has, a large eat-in kitchen with a center island, a large dining room that opens up to a future sunroom/deck, and a large living room with a fireplace. The first floor will mainly be the master bedroom with one normal master bath with a jetted tub plus a large walk-in shower. There will also be another master bath with a pool built for Merrow. It will feel like an outdoor conservatory. It'll also have two nurseries large enough for five young children in each. And a sitting room for Alexia with multiple couches and a desk for someone to work at. The second floor will have six bedrooms with twin-sized beds and have jack and jill bathrooms. There will also be a playroom, but nothing is to be put in it as it'll be expanded and hidden like the nurseries. The third floor will contain three bedrooms with queen-sized beds and their own 3/4 bathrooms along with two bedrooms with king-sized beds and their own full bathroom. Plus a teen lounge that will also be empty for future expansion. The fourth floor will stay empty for now." He pauses here and then grins at me. "And Alexia wants us to build a new fifth-floor deck that's big enough for 6 sun loungers plus a small swimming pool and hot tub." We nod at Eike. "Well, we've got a list of things that will need to be purchased from the building stores. It'll take about four weeks for the main floor to be done and another five for the master bed and bath. But if you get your uncle to come, we can do them both at once and have it done before the hunt." He gives the list to Gerhard. "We won't know what your Gheyo floor will need until Katerina is done figuring out what all needs to be done. That should be known by tomorrow though."
"That's a wrap then huh," Gerhard says while gesturing to his family circle. "Why don't you guys head out to get things ready for the afternoon? We'll eat real fast and then go to the building store and order all this. It should be ready within two days. How about we meet two mornings from now and go from there?" He hugs his sire before they leave.
Leonard stands up and says, "Why don't I go send a message to your grandparents Alexia? Maybe we can get them to Nevarah before the hunt starts?" I run over to him and nod. "Okay, Iso start making lunch. Nicolae...."