After a very delicious lunch, the three of us head to the first property agent on the list, but they only handled residential stuff and instead directed us to a Pace Biscay. Pace was already on our list, so we decided to head there next.

"Good afternoon, and welcome to Biscay Property Services. Please do come in. How can I help you today? Would you like some tea?" I was expecting a small office similar to the first agent we visited, but it seems that Pace works out of his home.

It's a tidy little place, and Mr. Biscay guides us into a small sitting room before we can even answer his questions.

"Thank you." I accept the mug with a nod. "My name is Sorrel, and this Amelia and Apricot. We're looking for a place to house our business."

"Oh, I think everyone in the city must know who you are by now Mister Sorrel." The man says with a laugh and sits down across from us. "Now, what kind of space are you looking for? Do you need a storefront, or is it more production based?"

"Production. And, the actual building doesn't really matter since I'll likely just tear it down and replace it." I explain. "But, I would like something large, and preferably in a safe area."

"Mhm. That removes most of the dock area from consideration." The man strokes his hairless chin. "It's not as bad as most people think, but is it safe to assume that you'll be working with something valuable? Yes, best not to risk it then. Hmm, give me just a moment and I'll have a list for you."

Biscay moves over to a desk in the corner and starts pulling out files, mumbling to himself while shuffling through them. Soon, he narrows the choices down to just a handful and returns to us with a smile on his face.

"Thank you for your patience." He pulls the top sheets from each of the four files and sets them on the table before us. Each sheet contains a drawing of the property along with a map and a basic floor plan. "Each of these three is near a guard post or on a heavily patrolled route. But, I think this one might suit your needs best." He pushes one of the four sheets forward.

"Outside the west gate?" Amelia puzzles out the map before I can. "Oh, I know this place. Yeah, that might work. Didn't know that is was for sale though."

The paper shows a large warehouse on the outskirts of several other buildings.

"Yes, I thought you might be familiar with it." Pace smiles. "The owner is building a new warehouse on the other side of the caravanserai. He's looking to expand to try and counter some of your parents' business." Pace adds with a chuckle.

"Hahaha. Greene is going to need more than just a bigger warehouse." Amelia says with a predatory smile. "This is a good choice too; it's not far from the wall and has all the space we should need."

"Won't this Greene try to rip us off? He is a rival of your parents after all" I offer up my only concern.

"Mhm." She nods in agreement. "We'll probably have to pay a little more than we would otherwise, but if he tries to get too greedy we can just walk away, no one else is likely to buy an old warehouse. And, any of the other properties should still be suitable for us. You'll just have to add a second or third floor if needed."

"Yeah, that won't be a problem. But, I think that you're just looking forward to a good haggling session." Her grin widens in response to my accusation. "Alright. Our carriage is outside, would you mind if we swing past the other places first, just so I can get a look?" I ask the real-estate agent?

"Not at all." Biscay agrees right away. "This one is in the opposite direction, but the other two are right on the way to the gate." This is going to be an easy sale for him; Amelia's going to do all the work.

"Let's get going then." I smile and stand up. "I'm guessing, that you'll want to do all the talking when we get there, but are you going to need me to stand around and look tough?"

"Heheh. No, I can probably manage on my own." The look on Amelia's face says that she isn't going to have any trouble at all working out this deal. "I'm guessing that you want to run off and collect some stone before the fire chief tracks you down again?"

"I might as well, who knows how drained I'm going to be after tomorrow." I'm interested to learn more about healing, but I have a feeling that most of the city is going to be lined up.

"That's fine. Just watch your step when you're out there, okay." She chuckles.

"The critters Ed warned me about?" I ask suspiciously.

"Nng, you'll see." The slight shudder that passes through her frame makes me a little worried.

"That bad?" I wrap a vine around her waist.

"Not for the mighty nature mage, but ugh!" Another shiver and a look of disgust passes over her features. "I'm glad we only ever made the trip to and from the Capital via the long way around."

"You're going to make me find out on my own aren't you?" I shake my head with a laugh when she just smiles.

...

We only paused at the other three properties long enough for me to make a three-dimensional model of the neighborhood, a trick that greatly impressed Biscay. I did the same when we got to the warehouse while Amelia found out that Greene was supervising the production of the new warehouse.

"Little Amelia Rialta. What brings you out my way?" Greene is a large, jovial man, but with shrewd business eyes. "And, do please introduce me to your friends. I'd heard that you'd taken up with some rather interesting company lately."

"Afternoon, Augustus." Amelia nods to her family's rival. "This is Sorrel and Apricot; Mister Biscay is the one bringing us here today. We're actually interested in that old shack of yours..." She's already well into her merchant mode and the light in Greene's eyes shows that he's as interested in a good haggle as she is.

So, while they start hashing it out, I pull Apricot aside. "If you're coming with, you should probably shrink down, I want to get out there and back well before dark."

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"Oh, yes. I wouldn't miss this for the world." The pixie grins. "Not only will I get the chance to watch you work, but I can send images of what's out there back to Amelia for a little revenge." The blonde glances over her shoulder with a quick glare for the pixie.

"Alright, do you want to sit in my pocket?" I ask while removing my shoes, no need to ruin two pairs in one day.

"Nah, I'll just perch on your head." She shrinks down and does just that. "You don't have to worry about the wind blowing me away."

I walk over to Amelia and a slightly stunned Greene to kiss her goodbye. "We're heading out now. Be sure to get us a good deal."

"Oh, don't worry about that." She smirks. Apricot's little show already put Greene off his stride and what I'm about to do is only going to make it worse for him.

"Mmm. Love you, Babe. We'll be back before full dark." One last kiss and I jog the few meters to the main road before breaking into a full-on sprint for the grasslands.

A small cloud of dust gets kicked up behind me as I go from zero to really fucking fast in no time flat. Apricot breaks into laughter, both for the rush of speed and for whatever look she's seeing on Greene's face through Amelia's eyes right now.

The two of us are well down the road by the time I sense the first of what has Amelia so leery about the grasslands. "Well, no fucking wonder she hates spiders." I say as we blow past a trapdoor spider large enough to eat a small child.

"Heheh. They get even bigger further in." Apricot laughs. "There's even rumors about some that are big enough to eat cattle deeper to the south. Amelia says they clear out all the nests near the road at least once a year though. So, we aren't likely to spot any that big."

"Well, not unless we go off-road ourselves." I chuckle and angle us to the south, the tall grasses bending out of my way as I run. "I'm sure their thread is too large to work as clothing for you, but remind me to collect some on the way back, it might be useful."

"Amelia says to tell you that she hates that idea." Apricot says in a way that means we definitely have to do it, and make sure that she gets a nice close-up look at the spider while we're at it.

"Tell her not to worry. I'm just collecting the thread, not the spiders themselves. Hahahahaha." Apricot joins me in cackling.

The wall of the city is barely visible in the distance by the time I come across a large outcropping of stone. Yes, I could have stopped and dug anywhere, but why work harder than I have to. All the grass around me is more than enough to recharge my mana from, but I still grow a large apple tree just for some shade and something to snack on.

The next few hours are rather boring, at least for anyone who can't see magic. Apricot can though, so I put on a nice little show for her while collecting the stone. I also make use of the Draw Matter spell to pull the useful bits from the stone.

I even get to put my hydrogen fire to use in smelting down the aluminum and other trace metals. There wasn't all that much aside from aluminum, but at least I got more than enough of it for any project I might have in the near future.

"Isn't this stuff supposed to be worth its weight in gold?" Apricot asks, probably just to tease Amelia through their link.

"Only because people don't know to combine these spells like this." I counter while adding another aluminum ingot to the step pyramid I'm building.

"You mean the spell you invented, and the ones that would need a skilled electomancer, aeromancer, and pyromancer working together to pull off? Those spells?" She smirks.

"You don't need the pyromancer, that's just me showing off." I smirk right back at her. "Even the air magic could be replaced by feeding the gas through pipes into a furnace." I notice then that we've gained a watcher. "So, what's up with the little green dude, and do you think he knows he's about to step onto a spider?"

"Well, he does now." Apricot chortles when the goblin freezes up. "He's probably just curious about what we're doing here. That, or he's hungry; those apples do look delicious." She plucks one from the tree and takes a big bite.

"Aww, we scared him off." I chuckle as the guy who thought he was being so stealthy scampers away. "I'll leave the tree behind for them, the roots aren't deep enough for it to survive, but maybe they can use the wood after they eat all the fruit."

"You do know that most people consider goblins to be pests, right?" She raises an eyebrow at me.

"Yeah, but I read up a little on them." I allude to when VeeGee gave me the chance to pick my own species. "The tribes most people run into are just their young. Imagine if everyone's perception of your species was based on your teenagers."

"Oh, gods. Normal pixies are bad enough." She breaks down into laughter.

"Exactly." I nod and get back to work with a smile.

Once the sun starts going down, I wrap things up. A few more goblins showed up, but they all kept their distance.

"I just have to check this guy out and then we can head back." I say and walk over to the spider that the goblin almost fed himself to. "Oh, wow. You are beautiful. Terrifying, but beautiful."

The arachnid that vacates its burrow at my command has a glossy exoskeleton with black extremities and a brown cephalothorax and abdomen. I feel a little bad for messing up its hard work, but not enough to keep me from stealing the web.

"Alright, you can go back and fix up your hole now. Maybe you'll get lucky and another goblin will walk right into you." I only stole the web from the back of the tunnel, so the trapdoor still works fine and once it returns to the ground you can't even tell that it's there.

"Amelia says she hates us now." Apricot laughs, she was right up next to the spider examining it from all sides while I held it still with my command spell. "She got a good deal on the warehouse though."

"Let's get back then. I'm sure she's going to torture us when we get home, and I need to get up early for tomorrow." She shrinks back down and lands on my head again. "Later, little green dudes. The tree won't live long, so do what you want with it." With that said, I break into a run back towards the city.

...

"Hey, Baby." I go to pull Amelia into a hug when we get home but she dodges away.

"Don't you 'hey, baby' me." She growls. "I know you could have taken that web without disturbing that... that thing, but no. You just had to bring it out of the ground so Apricot could get a nice good look at it."

"Would it make you feel any better to know that I pulled almost a tonne of aluminum out of those rocks?" Her eyes light up when I bring out an ingot before narrowing again.

"Oh, no. You're not going to be able to bribe your way out of this." She pushes the metal away. "Either of you." Amelia includes Apricot in her glare.

"I'm sorry, Amelia." I hang my head; I didn't think she'd get this mad over it, it's not like we exposed her to one in person. "Is there anything we can do to make up for it?"

"I'm still working on your punishment, but I know exactly what Apricot's will be." Amelia must have let the pixie know through their link because Apricots face drains of blood.

"Noo! Come on, anything but that." Apricot whimpers and whines, but the blonde isn't hearing any of it.

"Yes! I had to face something disgusting, so now you do too." Amelia is really hot when she's angry. "Sorrel, time to make some more licorice. Apricot has to eat eight pieces, one for every leg on that... uggh." They both do a full-body shake, if for different reasons.

"I'm sorry, Sweetie." I pat the poor winged woman on the shoulder before moving to the kitchen.

"And, don't try making it weak for her or anything." Amelia warns when I bring out everything I'll need.

I try to stall as much as I can, but Amelia has already seen me make this snack plenty today and just raises a judgmental eyebrow every time I take longer than I should. Apricot too drags her feet, but eventually holds up a piece in front of her mouth. Then, just as she's about to bite down, Amelia steals it away and kisses her instead.

"Punishment complete, for both of you." She pulls both me and a gratefully sobbing Apricot into a hug. "But, don't mess with me like that again. I fight dirty." Her smug grin says that we got off light this time.

"T-thank you, that stuff is so gross." Apricot sniffs and hugs us both tight. "I'm sorry for teasing you so much."

"Yeah, we... I overdid it. Both yesterday and today. I'm sorry." I hug both of my girls tight, hoping that they can feel some of my emotions like they do each other's.

"I know you didn't mean any harm, but you two do tend to go at overboard at times." Amelia pats us both on the head. "Now why don't you make something that all three of us can eat?" She says and bites into the chew that she took from Apricot.

"New rule: Don't mess with the blonde!" Apricot says with a nervous laugh.

***