"Well, I can see why the basement took you so long." Rozelle comments dryly after following me downstairs when I went to make sure that the light from the fiber-optic lines looked good. "I don't suppose I could get you to spruce up my shop a bit?"

Sinclair isn't with us because he took it on himself to go find a jeweler for the Queen's watch. I suppose he found that somewhat more important than building an elevator.

"I did put a bit of effort into this floor." I reply with a laugh.

I made it so that the fiber-optic lines terminate in large crystal clusters on the ceiling that illuminate the whole space. Aside from the clusters, the ceiling itself is probably the least impressive part of the room, being made up of simple white quartz to help spread the light around.

The walls though are carved and 'painted' with various nature scenes. I didn't use my dyes on the stone, but different concentrations of the minerals present in the rocks and soil I've collected so far.

The different sections are separated by half walls topped with thick quartz panes so you can see from one end to the other with just a glance. And, even these windows have art displayed inside of them. From simple falling leaves in some, to what could be mistaken as a transparent forest in others.

Even the floor, which I kept somewhat subdued, is still filled with hexagonal pixel-art. Each section has a different theme and they all spill out to mix in the hallway.

"So what do you think about the lights?" I ask after giving her a moment to take it all in. "Those glass threads I made are piping sunlight into the crystals from the roof. I'll add some enchanted lights too, of course. But, I just didn't want my people to feel like they were working in a cave."

"They're nice." She deadpans. "Seriously, Sorrel, I doubt anyone short of nobility in the capital have buildings this nice. And, you're using it as a factory."

"That's a pity." I shake my head. "We should always strive to surround ourselves in beauty. And, honestly, I just spent the past two days with the most boring and repetitive tasks ever; I 'needed' to make something nice."

"Well, you certainly managed that." My enchanting master responds with a laugh.

...

"So, I finally got around to inverting the runes to make the sound recorder that Lori wanted." I explain to Rozelle as she follows me around while I decorate the rest of the building. "And, then I got lonely and wanted to talk to Apricot and Amelia yesterday while I was working on the fire hydrants, so I put the speaker and microphone runes together to make a telephone."

"Yes, I understood that." Ro says with a sigh. "I want to know about these roots of yours."

"Those are a bit harder to explain since I was working mostly off of instinct, and basically just willed them to do what I wanted." I reply with a shrug. "But, plants can sort of communicate with each other through a symbiotic fungus. I took that basic idea and made it work with magic." That is a gross understatement, but it gets the idea across.

"So, you made some new plants that can use mana?" She asks trying to understand.

"Not really, they just let the signal flow through their roots." I correct her slight misunderstanding. "The problem was that the signal didn't have enough mana to flow freely, so I had to find a way to increase the ambient mana in the roots. I was able to accomplish that via powdered mana stones and more nature magic trickery."

"Powdered mana stone? Just in the soil?" She gets a pained look on her face.

"Oh, it gets worse." I say with a laugh. "See, I then discovered that plants just leak mana like a sieve. And, those that don't, start changing. -Which is fascinating and I can't wait to dive into that process.- But, anyways, I found a few trees that leak more slowly, but that's obviously not good enough. So, I went for the only material I know of that absorbs mana on its own."

"No?!" She gasps when I materialize a small mana node from storage.

"Now you see why I'd rather work with light or electricity." I nod solemnly. "If I add a small amount of powdered crystal to the soil around the roots, it can reabsorb any lost mana and provide it back to the roots in a never-ending loop. I still need to do a lot of testing and refinement, but I hope that Erick will let me run a few trees from here to the house."

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"I know you can grow mana nodes at will, but... Nnh." The best she can express herself is through a whimper.

"Yes, Apricot reacted much the same." I pat the enchanter on her arm. "Now, let me ask you a question. Did I go overboard with the honeycomb pattern? I really want the ground floor to make an impression, but I don't want to overdo it."

"Uh, wow!" She breathes out after finally taking in the changes that I've wrought while we were talking.

I gave the above-ground parts more of an art deco feel to them, but heavy on the hexagons. The wainscoting on the lower part of that walls features the Hicks' hexagon pattern from the carpet in The Shining. Only this version is just thin gold lines on shiny black stone.

The top part of the walls features that iconic art deco feature of the overlapping fans set on a rich honey-colored wood. Only again, they're hexagonal in shape, as is the floor pattern. I had thought to use the starweave pattern down here, but saved it for the weaving floor and went with repeating orthogonal cubes instead. The housing floor will get a more open basket-weave style just to keep that tri-axial look throughout.

I did use square panels for the tall ceiling, though there are a lot of six-sided flowers embossed in them. They're also made out of aluminum; I'm no architect, but I think tin was traditionally used for these types of panels. But, I don't have any tin, so aluminum it is.

"Forget sprucing up my shop." Rozelle laughs. "I'd be surprised if the Baron doesn't ask you to overhaul his manor after seeing this."

"So, it looks alright, then?" I try to see it with a stranger's eyes, but I'm just not sure.

"It's amazing, Sorrel." One of my two favorite voices speaks up from behind us.

"Baby, Sweetie, you're back." I pull my girls into a tight hug. "I missed you. Did you find a good horse? And, you don't think it's too busy? I can remove the fish scale and give the wood a nice burl instead."

"Hehehe." Amelia laughs in response to my rapid-fire questions. "We missed you too. Sort of. And, it's fine. But, did you have to use gold? And, is that aluminum?" She adds after looking at the ceiling panels.

"I didn't have any brass or tin." I explain. "This will be easier for the cleaners anyways, they won't have to polish the gold like they would brass. And, what do you mean 'sort of'?"

"Uh-huh." She shakes her head at me. "And, the horse we got is named Brick because he's about as smart as one."

"But, Flicker loves him." Apricot interjects. "And, finding her a friend was the whole point of getting another horse in the first place."

"That's fine then; I'm sure that between the three of us we can find some way to train him. Now, come on." I tow all three of them to the stairs with a smile. "Aside from the lights, you two have already seen the basement, but I think you'll like the second floor."

The weaving floor is mostly empty space with just a small office for Felicia and some storerooms. The walls of these are covered in art nouveau style reliefs depicting all aspects of clothes making from the harvesting of materials on up. And, there are four large pillars spaced evenly about the floor. Each one is sculpted to look like a tree, with their canopies weaving together to become the ceiling.

"Aww, they aren't naked." Apricot pouts when she sees the sculptures.

"Not those ones, no." I reply with a laugh. "But, I may have hidden a few nudes on each floor. You'll just have to look for them. Here's a hint, the tapestry that they're weaving is probably the easiest one to spot."

"Heheheh." Amelia chuckles. "She's going to be combing every square centimeter of this building until she finds them all."

"You really are a follower of Temmie, aren't you?" Rozelle laughs. "I saw your gift to the Goddess, by the way. The new statue on her altar is beautiful."

"Aww." Apricot coos. "You made her a new statue, why didn't you tell us? Is it hot, I bet it's hot."

"It slipped my mind." I shrug. "I did it yesterday morning while Struhl was still following me around; it was funny seeing her speechless. And, of course, it's hot, it's Temmie. We can swing by and see it later; I wanted to go to Erick's for lunch and talk to him about the trees for the telephone. You're welcome to come too, Ro." I add to my master. "You'll get to watch the funny faces Granville is going to make when I hand him a plate of our leftovers from the other night."

"Hah. I'm not sure about teasing Granville, but yeah, I'll come with." She smiles. "I still need to get my apprentice to do all that math for me, after all."

"I was hoping you'd forget about that." I grumble and lead the way up to the third floor.

The dormitory floor continues the art deco theme, only much more subtle than in the lobby. The walls have two parts again, with the wainscoting being much simpler this time. Just plain white painted wood with large panels, only the panels are elongated hexagons instead of the traditional rectangles. The top half is a simple light wood with a rich natural pattern to it, a pattern that happens to hide quite a few nude figures.

The floor is a basket weave pattern and the ceiling a checkered triangle pattern with each triangle having smaller ones inside of it. I made ten small, fully-featured apartments, but there is also a small bunkhouse meant for anyone who just needs a place to sleep. And, a large central kitchen and break area meant for the whole company to use.

"Oh, I am definitely having you give my place a makeover, Sorrel." Rozelle laughs again.

"It's lovely, Babe." Amelia puts her arm around my waist. "But, I think Apricot is going to go cross-eyed trying to spot everything you hid for her."

"Shut up, I already found three." The pixie snaps back.

"Mhm, you've missed more than that though." I counter and then we all laugh when she glares at me, her eyes glowing with magic. "Come on, let's leave her to her search and go get Cyril and his people so I can see who is staying where and what they'll need." I walk over to the elevator and will the doors open.

"I thought you were still working on that." My enchanting master says dubiously as I beckon her and Amelia inside the lift.

"I'm controlling it directly with magic for now." I explain. "I hope to have it working properly by the end of the day, even without Sinclair's help. It's hardly fair to ask Hughes or Gen to climb three flights of stairs right now."

***