Chapter 10

“Are you sure we’re in the right place?” Nasha asked nervously.

Jason merely laughed “Of course!”

They were currently heading through the noble district, after asking for some directions from some old apothecarist selling tinctures in a side street, they stumbled on to the place. Glorious mansions stood side by side, vying for attention. While street carriages rolled by on well paved cobblestones with sigils so opulent, one might have mistaken it for graffiti. But it wasn’t all jeweled harnesses and gold trimming. There was quite a number of poor folk about as well, some walked on the street paths, while others rode about on wagons much like the family’s. It seemed the wealthy couldn’t live off their posturing alone.

“Are you absolutely certain we’re in the right place?” Nasha said, tugging on the reins to stop the mule from running in to a speeding stage coach.

“Don’t worry we’re nearly there.” Jason crooned.

Eventually they got to the heartland of the district. The mansions couldn’t be seen as much as they were further and further hidden behind larger and larger gardens, but the glimpses they did catch were draw dropping, they were the same as the houses before only much, much bigger. And they would have funny protrusions as well, like an abnormally tall bastion, or a giant floating glowing glass ball, thingy. It was impressive as heck.

By now all the children were visibly scared, they knew that being hailed by a guard in a place like this could only mean trouble, after all, what business do commoners have being here without having official, well, business.

But they survived, in fact, it went smoother than expected, there were a few close calls of course, but the guard always seemed to get distracted by something of greater importance in the last minute. Like a stray dog, a burglar, or a fly on the wall, it was as if they were looking for an excuse to not look in their direction.

“Here we are then!” Jason said cheerfully, hopping off their transport. He more like leaped over Peyton but he made it look like it was as easy as pie.

In front of the group was a foreboding looking gate, the bars were long and thin while the tips were capped off with razor sharp spikes. It was several meters tall and the walls on each side even taller. The middle of the gate had a single tear shaped out of the surrounding bars, making it quite easy for a really small thief to get in, were it not for the fact that there were spikes on that as well.

“Oh no, no, no, no, no and no. I don’t know what sort of deal with the devil you have made but I will not be part of this.” Gwandere said, trying to wrestle the reigns away from Nasha in a desperate attempt to ride away.

“Relax, relax. It looks better on the inside I promise.” Jason said, fiddling with the padlock. “This is quite stupid actually, why would you have one key to open both the gate and the house?”

Once opened, the gates swung inward with an ominous creak, showing a little park. A gravel path led off into the distance, its destination hidden by the trees, the trees themselves were fabulous, with oak and ash and fir? Jason laughed to himself, how ironic.

The wagon slowly trundled onto the property, its wheels grinding grooves into the white, pristine rocks. The sun was slowly setting as the church bells rang in the distance.  They’re really quite handy those bells, Jason thought as he walked beside the carriage.

Peyton hopped off too, inspecting the trees, picking up sticks and rocks, attacking invisible enemies along the road. Gwandere and Ilios came down as well, nervous to leave the company of Tilda first, but their unfounded fears were soon dispersed as one of them shouted.

“Look! Daisies!”

The two hurried over, giggling all the way, to a patch of vibrant blue flowers. They were beautiful as the sun illuminated their presence, shooting little beams of light between the thick trunks of the trees. Ilios and Gwandere picked a couple before hurrying back to the cart contentedly, weaving the new resource into a type of ring and putting it on their heads.

The entire family was quite happy, Peyton trying to occasionally climb a tree, Ilios and Gwandere oohing and aahing at the surrounding flora, while Tilda gave suggestions to Nasha on how to handle the steering. They walked for about ten minutes before the trees parted to reveal the Fyr Manor.

“Wow.” Peyton said.

They all stood there, staring, and with good reason, the place was freaking huge! Bigger than any building Jason had seen. The front of it looked like the White house with the dome of the Vatican on top of it. The windows and their curious indentations and embellishments made it look like Buckingham palace, with both sides extending ever outwards. And this thing was built in a T shape? It looked a bit like a clusterfuck made by a painter who thought ‘Eh, fuck it, let’s cut off an ear.’

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But was it beautiful?  Eh, in a way, but it radiated something other than beauty. Power, it oozed out of it like fat from a skewered pig. It was so think in the atmosphere that if one wasn’t born with blue blood they might have choked on it.

A giant fountain splashed in front of the driveway, this was huge as well. With a mermaid holding a amphora over her head, water softly splashed out of it, sliding down around the figure and trickling into the grooves that channeled the water downwards and outwards in a spiral fashion.

Jason grinned before flicking a silver coin into the fountain.

This snapped the family out of their stupor as they watched, wordlessly, as the coin travelled in an arc before hitting the water with a slight ‘plop’ and sinking to the bottom of the fountain.

“Holy Shit!” Gwandere shouted.

Tilda absentmindedly slapped Gwandere on the back of the head, all the while gazing at the house.

Peyton rushed forward and dived into the fountain, spurting and laughing while he sat, the water reaching up his neck.

Ilios laughing, joined him, followed by Gwandere, the three splashed in the fountain, Peyton even climbed up the little mountain the mermaid sat on, sticking his hand through the hole where the water came from.

Smiling Jason asked Nasha “Aren’t you gonna join them?”

Nasha merely shook his head “I’m the one that gets the towels.” She said, smiling wistfully.

“Oh boo.” Jason said before picking her up and throwing her into the fountain.

Nasha let out a surprised yelp before she too was submerged in water. She burst up gasping for air only to have Peyton throw another cupful into her open mouth from atop his little throne, making Nasha gulp, before she said, coughing. “I’m gonna get you for that Peyt!”

The four of them then laughed and played, the setting sun illuminating them and the little mermaid, which was suspiciously smiling down at them with motherly eyes.

Jason and Tilda hung back, looking the children, Tilda was letting silent tears down her check.

“You never cease to amaze me Jason, please, never leave us.”

Jason laughed “Oh really? What about when they want to leave? They’re growing up you know.”

Tilda shook her head “I won’t let them, they’ll stay by me, even if they marry. I’ll think we’ll have enough room.”

Jason laughed again but said nothing.

Slowly the girls and Peyt climbed out of their newfound playground. Surprisingly dry, the water slid of them like jell, Jason frowned, now that he looked closer the water was much clearer than he expected, it was nearly perfectly transparent. With the light hardly refracting through it. Jason looked at the mermaid again, he could have sworn it winked!

Shaking off the thought Jason approached the door, it was massive, like everything else was. If Jason didn’t know any better, he would have thought the previous owner was trying to show off the length of her metaphorical penis.

Grinning at the thought, Jason placed the slim key inside the lock. The twist of the key was the heaviest and most satisfying thing Jason ever heard. Grabbing both handles, which were beautiful works of art by the way, and threw open the door.

Jason was a bit disappointed. The place foyer was indeed grand, however cobwebs stuck to the stairs and dust covered the ground. The place was surprisingly hollow, no furniture, no paintings, no armor stands, no plant pots, Jason shook his head, this simply won’t do, but he didn’t want to just fill it up immediately with a thought. After all, that would take the joy of shopping away from the girls. Speaking of girls, they all rushed past him, even Nasha who was out of her shell temporarily, shouting in joy as they ran up the stairs. But of course they weren’t faster than Peyton. Who rushed passed everyone. Speeding like a bullet.

“It will be much harder to keep track of them now.” Tilda grumbled.

Jason laughed with a wicked glint in his eye “Well, we shall have remedy that now won’t we?”

Then he clicked his fingers and a map appeared next to him floating off the ground. It showed the entire mansion from front view, side view and top down. Well it wasn’t really the entire mansion, it only drew the guiding lines in black ink on the yellow parchment, like the floor plans they studied back at Mr. Bates’ office. Jason made it so it still looked kind of authentic in this place of sword of sorcery. After all, what was ever lasting power without style?

Six different colored dots were placed in the manor, while a key showed which color belonged to whom.

“There you go.” Jason said happily.

Tilda was now grinning as she picked the parchment out of the air and rolling it up like a painting.

With another click of his fingers, Jason levitated everything out of the cart, startling the mule as the objects floated over the poor beast’s head.

The contents of their previous home were so abysmally small that they took up about 1/8 of the foyer.

“And now let’s explore!” Jason said, rubbing his hand together.

Jason went to one of the first doorways on the left, (they were all double handled) and opened it, bowing towards Tilda holding the door for her.

“My Lady”

Tilda smiled before, with exaggerated pompousness, walked towards the door, her nose held high. When she arrived next Jason, she looked around, conspicuously leaned down and whispered “I could get used to this.”

Jason laughed and together they set off into the new room. It was a hallway, a hallway so long that the end could hardly be seen, the left side was window after window while on the right side was door after door after door (One handled this time). Both stretched up quite high as the ceiling was at least four meters above the ground.

“Isn’t there supposed to be a second floor above this?” Tilda asked.

“And third” Jason replied”

They approached the first door and opened it, it was quite spacious. With a fireplace and a stair leading downward at the far end of the room. There was also a window that you could see the main wing from, it was pretty awe inspiring as it stretched even further then the wing they were currently in.

Descending down the steps they arrived in the kitchen, needless to say it was huge, with steel tables, black and white tiles and weird stoves made out of a strange metal. Four giant fireplaces were placed in each corner of the room. Searching among the tables and racks, they found yet another door, it was the pantry, which was, once again, a long corridor that stretched for miles, with wings that led off into other rooms, like the meat locker, and freezer. Jason was sensing a pattern here.

Walking there and back, they found no other door so they returned to the kitchen, where they discovered another door, which led out into the basement proper.