“Today, the meal is white river soup.”
Katie is serving us our food in a really elegant way. The soup itself is nicely decorated. An onion soup as base with a line of pureed white radish in the middle while being garnished with herbs on each side. It looks like a white river over a grassland. It may be simple but really effective in visuals.
Elane is with me and looks around. You will not see any other person. The Food will all come up with the dumbwaiter. As the kitchen is below the residential part of the Castle you will not be able to see who is cooking.
By the way the teens were elated to show their prowess in making a nice meal for an important person, as they often helped in the kitchen, when someone came to the Orphanage to donate.
While I am not able to be on the food table with the children today, I have made Snow bring an extra dessert for the enthusiastic cooks as a thank you. I hope they will be elated, as frozen and crushed fruits is not really known to the children, I believe.
“So, as we are right now in private, what does Blue Ice want?”
“First of, thank you for your hospitality again, this Soup is brimming with Mana. We just want to know if there are more rare and unique things we might be able to acquire, which could help us in our studies.”
“Right now I do not have anything new. You might have already noticed the eggs and feathers. They can be gotten maybe regularly, but there is no promises as raiding Monster dens is always tricky.”
No need to tell her I grow them. Better for me to keep some secrets.
“That is a matter of course. We were sad to notice the egg was dead and unable to grow. Maybe the next one might be able to hatch?”
No, definitely not. Never and ever. In your dreams. Wait until you are dust. Better luck finding a fish in the desert. Close your eyes and you see your chances.
“Maybe the next time I have more luck. You might know how hard it is to find a single egg. Right now I have two in my possession but… they seem to not have been growing either, so they are duds too.”
“A pity. Might we buy them from you? We have the money and going through the Peddler King is always happening with a surcharge.”
“Then let me sell them to you directly for the thirty large gold, and we have a deal.”
“Yes, deal!”
What? An egg was sold to the Peddler King at 20 large Gold? Might have misremembered. Ah well. Te he!
…
“You have rather many places I shall not go Lord Null. I know our relationship is strained, but is that necessary?”
“Sadly yes. Those are not off limits without reason. The Greenhouse for an example is right now a danger zone. Some plant might have been mutated and people inside never came back. I have to find out if it is recoverable. The Labyrinth is having residents, that do not want to be disturbed, and at last I believe not even in your own domicile would you want people seeing your laboratories, do you?”
“You make a point. Might we get some of the plants, when you have the Greenhouse back under control?”
“Possible, but right now we are close to burning it to the ground, as we do not want an outbreak of something and lose our place of living.”
“...well, I wish you the best of luck. We will keep contact through the Peddler King and hope of more chances to work together. I wish you well.”
And with that the Peddlers and Elane go back. Nice being finally being rid of her. I really do not want to have her always looking around for clues and information. I needed to order the Bast to hide the whole time, and they can get cranky when told to do things… typical cats…
…
“And you did get all you need Belk?”
“Yes, my Lord. Everything we asked of was brought back. While the prices were steep, it was still bearable.”
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“Remember to not be taken advantage of. If they rise the prices too much, I will have to talk with them directly. At worst Snow and I will go and bring you all you need. No way I let them swindle you.”
“Thank you for the offer, but it would be way too precious for us to ask you…”
“Stop with the flowery speech. We are all friends here.”
“I… um… Of course Lord. Thanks for this. We will tell you if they try anything, but do not think you need to bring us our necessities. We can do that ourselves with an amulet of yours.”
“Better. Yeah, you could do that. I am just worried of greedy bastards taking you hostage again.”
“We will manage and be subtle.”
“Fine. How is the market going?”
“Well we found out they even buy magical water. While they take some from outside, it is rather muddy and needs filtering, so they begrudgingly buy the already drawn water for a bit of coin.”
“Well, find all the ways to take their coins for yourselves. You have all the right to be happy.”
With this, there is finally all done. Now to the one who did not leave.
…
In the Sewers, one rather dark clothed, slim man walks around. He might be wondering if he were on that crossing a while ago, and yes, yes he was.
The whole Sewers are a maze in its own. Many corners leading nowhere and suddenly a small gap for only water to go through. Moving with the streams and sometimes not, he finally finds more straight paths, but I would suggest him not to take those. Well, Rott will have his fun with him, so let him.
Walking the way to where the tunnels lead to, he first looks at every corner. While he finds some hidden doors, the doors can only be opened from the other side and only sealed shut from the sewers, so no dice mister spy.
Finally walking the way to the sewage pit, he looks down the place. Filled with rotten refuse and excrement there is something squirming below, but he cannot fathom what it is. It does not matter, he will find out. Rott! He is there, shove him in.
Right away a gust of wind comes from behind him. A black thing shoves him into the deep pit and with a loud scream he falls into the soup. Searching for his attacker he sees him perched on his favorite rusted railing. Rott, one of the birds I got from the Orphanage.
His strange transformation comes from the decomposition Miasma inside of him. Not only that he is looking like the bringer of doom itself. He hates light and so he was happy to become the owner of this pit. Sometimes he plays with Snow, but mostly he keeps the Void maggots in check.
Ah yes, I remember how I got those. The whole Rift chaos is a long while back. It is strange that they do not pupate but make new maggot eggs between themselves. There is some kind of limiter or stop to let them not pupate right now into… whatever they become. As they are not native, their whole Biology is more of a mystery for me.
Oh they start nibbling on our ‘guest’. Shouts and fearful cries come out of him. Pulling his dagger and trying to kill them but they are unfazed. The only thing that can kill them is melting them by decomposition or my disassembly, tough luck.
It might take a while, but with only so much strength and Rott looking over him to not let him escape, he will be nice fertilizer for the fields soon. The end, thanks for visiting!
…
Finally some peace of mind. I start to build behind the residential Area a new project. Stairs! Stairs going up, stairs going down, stairs on the wall, stairs over a bridge. It looks like a chaotic painting with no rhyme or reason. Why do I build such a strange thing?
“Catch me Null! I am over here!”
“I built this thing, I know the outline. Be aware!”
“Yah! There is a hidden door there? No fair!”
“Says the one who swims the wall upwards inside her shadows.”
“It was never forbidden, ha ha!”
Yes, for fun and play. While it is confusing it also has ways to every Floor and access to the crawl spaces between. The doors are mostly inaccessible if you do not know the trick, so it is more for me and Snow right now. There are some respite points, but are unnerving to be on, as they have neither railings nor safety, while being surrounded by a web of stairs.
“It is fun in here! Sad I can not show Anna or the others this.”
“For them this would be too dangerous. I made it for us and for a way for them to escape to the panic Room, if we get attacked. I do not trust Blue Ice.”
“Should we just bite them dead? It would be easier and we would have less problems.”
Snow, that is too simple…
“Sorry Snow, but if we do that we will be looked at as scary people and the Merchants would not come again. Also where would we go next, when we are barred entry into the City in fear of us killing randomly?”
“OK, no biting for now. But if they come I will bite!”
“And you have my permission, if they come with hostility in mind. Rott already had a nice meal, so we have some leeway.”
“Ah! Almost forgot!”
Oh, is there something urgent I forgot? I quickly go through my schedule… Nothing I can remember, what makes her so antsy?
“Snow? What is it? Something urgent?”
“Of course! It is almost time for dinner!”
...glutton…