4.5

Jewel luxuriated in her new bath.

It was quite possibly her favorite thing about her new home.

And although she strived to keep from over-indulging and always ensured that the water would see use beyond her own relief, today the village and staff had agreed that hot water from Jewel’s bath would help in laundering and dish washing.

If only there was more good news.

Jaksa was unavailable to see Bethica any time before the wedding. And Jewel, to be honest, was slowly sinking ever deeper into ever more tasks of her household.

Yes, being able to soak the entirety of her coils with room to spare and both wings was definitely warranted.

If only the bath was not the sole part of her home that was actually complete. They had finally reached the point where the items she required to fully furnish her manor could not be sourced from the skill and crafts of her demesne, or even Rochford.

She had made due with what carpentry and crafts were available.

But all of it would need to be replaced.

It was all far too fragile.

The trees which made up so much of Rochford Manor and the Eyries’ furniture grew incredibly slowly. Theor wood was extremely durable, but as such it was resistant enough to cutting that it broke the teeth off most forms of saw that could be forged when not felled with care. Once it was cut down and dried, the difficulties apparently did not end.

It was mostly shaped by application of fire to burn it into shape instead of conventionally carved, as Rochford’s carpenters had discovered in Jewel’s youth.

Which meant much was lost to waste as ashes.

And due to the difficulty, Jewel’s manor had hardly any of it that she did not bring from Rochford with her!

Which amounted to her ridiculous and now somewhat too small chair and her old serving bowl that mostly saw use as a place for presenting snacks; Jewel tended to take a whole pot to herself at meals now.

The rest of her home’s furnishings were distressingly flimsy.

The far more common and workable kinds of lumber were all so delicate that Jewel could hardly say she found any objects made from them comfortable to handle or move. It was fine for quarters, beds, chairs and tables used by guests or her staff. But for anything Jewel was expected to touch reliably? No, far sturdier materials were needed.

And as the trees which bore such strength were rightly known as Axe Breakers, it was at substantial cost in silver, iron tools and labor to source and work anything made of them.

Jewel was loath to spend any more of her family’s coin then was absolutely necessary. It was bad enough how much of the wealth of their land had been paid to the Countess for the years Father had taken absence from his place in the muster of Viznove.

But she would not burden her family or land with even more cost if she could help it.

And it would be a substantial expense to see all the furnishings of her home built from the same timbres in use at Rochford and the Eyrie. Nevermind that the proper means of working the fiendish wood could take years by the estimate of the few men capable of it known to her.

Jewel wished to have her home settled before she was married. But that was looking like that would simply not be the case.

If all had gone as planned they would have had time to cut the few trees available in Rochford or Viznove in general or import it from elsewhere in the realm. There would have been time for it to be properly shaped by the carpenters well before Jewel’s husband arrived with his staff.

But the Manor had been delayed by almost a full year due to accidents, adjustments and general happenstance. Jewel had not foreseen what that meant until now.

Jewel sank under the hot water and tried again to heat the water by way of Dragon Fire.

She was able to keep it from splashing too much if she kept her head right at the bottom in the middle of the flooded stone chamber. It helped ease some of the sting of shame. Mother and Father had simply smiled and nodded when she voiced her troubles to them yesterday.

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Mother told her she was learning a valuable lesson in stewardship.

Father had laughed and said it was good that she realized this with something as inconsequential as having not quite sturdy enough furniture and spoke about how often they had to replace their own over the years due to Jewel’s accidents.

Failing to plan for an unexpectedly poor harvest was much more dire.

But frivolous or not, her failure meant Jewel still had barely any of the permanent furnishings she was supposed to. She emerged from the waters of her bath, as was her habit she made sure every drop of water and most of the oil stayed in the wyrm sized basin that filled half of the high vaulted chamber.

Her home was built.

The stones were a bit disoriented but pleased to be there and many were warming to her presence and growing familiar with her.

Especially in her bathing room.

They had all of them spent their time as part of the bones of the hills and the mountains as long as they could remember until just now (as stones thought years were barely a moment) when they were quarried out of the nearby cliffs, well and cellar.

Jewel was pleased to meet all the friendly stones of her manor and looked forward to them growing to know one another well.

But she still had almost no furnishings she could touch without fearing to leave them in splinters!

Just pillows and carpets for her room.

A feasting table that Jewel could literally shatter if she was not careful, the tables and chairs for her guests and a bunch of other odds and ends she definitely was forgetting and would doubtlessly discover when she needed them.

At least her new bathing room was cut and mortared in proper stone, with a hearth for heating water in great iron pots just over and behind the basin that held her.

Instead of forcing her staff to march buckets from the kitchens to her bathing room they could just tip the pots of water and pour them in to fill her basin. Some work was still needed to fill those pots with water in the first place, but cold water up the shallow stairs was a far safer endeavor than risking scalding with it just done boiling.

Tsugotholan thought they might be able to source a spring or mountain creek into the manor one day from the mountains.

But it had taken long enough to build her home as it was.

And her bath was marvelous even without the luxury of its own spring of water.

It was based on an Old Cantor style Balneum mostly, although due to the sheer scale of Jewel the arrangements resembled the full Thermea in the City Cantor itself and the more populous cities scattered all over the realm and beyond.

Where it differed from those was in the water being held in a tall basin with a wall just shy of Smithson’s chest in height when he stood at the lower level. The depth was shallower than that in the basin itself. The room was set further up and into the hillside her manor was rooted against.

The most important part of the bath, however, was that it fit all of Jewel with room to spare!

And then there were the very clever improvements Jewel had insisted on to ease the labor of her staff.

By clever use of a flood gate the overflow channels that would catch splashes could be joined with an entire emptying of the bath when Jewel was done. The water when released traveled via a channel to another gate right before a fountain spout that had been carved in something resembling Jewel’s own likeness.

If she squinted.

In its blocky features and obvious chisel marks, it really had far more resemblance to the effigies used as Wurm Wards south of Rochford. Adorján’s son and his apprentices had put in a solid effort but they were no old Cantor masters of the stone. The only thing to truly denote that it was Jewel’s lips that the water passed and not any other dragon is there was a bit of a softer line to the stones and they made great effort to get her horns mostly right.

If quite a bit shorter.

Still it eased the parceling of her hot water after use for the kitchen, laundry and anyone in Valasect who wished to make the journey to her manor for use of hot water with lavender oil. Adorján said he already knew several gardens that planned to grow Jewel’s preferred herb as an acceptable obligation to their lady.

The fat for the oil was still being sourced locally, but there was talk that maybe they could make use of Lanolin from the shearing. Although pigs were also being considered simply for the expedience with which raising a herd of them would have.

Jewel was honestly so overwhelmed with everything else she left that to Smithson and headman Adorján to resolve.

She was getting married this year.

Her home was settled for her own needs to only the barest minimum and she was going to have to settle her husband and his staff in with him as well.

Would she disappoint the Countess’ son with her failure to have her house in order?

It was a wife’s duty to see to the household and land in a lord’s absence.

Jewel dipped her head back down into the water to try again to heat the water by wyrmflame alone. If she could just find the knack of it there was so much firewood they could save.

A sudden shock sprayed water all over the stones of her bathroom when Jewel hiccuped.

She had a solution to her furnishing woes!

Her headman’s family were Masons!