Gwenhwyfar takes the hand and sinks into the cozy nest. As a chilly wind blows over the exposed bridge she cuddles up to Jimmy under the blanket. She sighs - but this time it's one of relief. Finally coming to rest.
"It is nice up here, close to you." Jimmy says as he kisser her on the forehead
"It is." Gwenhwyfar replies "It's a pity we can't stop time or at least slow it down." she adds.
"I plan for there to be many more evenings like this though." Jimmy says as he leans over to kiss her
"What do you think - can we build a house on the bridge? One with large windows that allow the sun in. Just built around this pile of pillows and blankets?" Gwenhwyfar asks.
"Well I don't think anyone would mind..." Jimmy says with a chuckle as he imagines their home
"It would need a large window reaching from the ground here in front of us. And then it should be all the way over the ceiling to the ground behind us in an arc. And to that side it shall have a fireplace. And another large window. And a few more rooms on the side to the city. Like a bath and a kitchen and a pantry."
"It sounds like a perfect home." Jimmy says listening enraptured to the pure joy in Gwen's voice
"No." Gwenhwyfar objects. "It's only a house. But you and me in it and maybe some kids running around. That would make it the perfect home." She smiles at the thought of Jimmy having a son on his lap while she carries around another baby.
Abomentolor flies directly to Underbridge and there to the Shadowclock. He flies around the tower to inspect where the building needs repairs. He casts wall of stone on the cracks and holes of the building covering the tower in a new layer of stone. It's surprising how far you get if most of the material is already there and you only need to fill the cracks. It is not enough to fix everything as some of the holes go all the way through the wall. And not at least because his vanity get's the better of him and he creates a 20ft tall relief depicting himself on the side of the tower.
Once he is done and out of appropriate spells to continue he lands and walks into the tavern. "Hey there." he greets everyone.
"Hey there." Isabella replies. "You look good. Want a beer to go with the tales you have to tell?"
"Sure. But tell me first how's life been here?" Abomentolor asks. He takes a seat at the bar.
"Everything is fine. The people love the place as the beer is cheaper and better than most you can get here in underbridge. It's getting full sometimes and we had a bar brawl or two but nothing serious." Isabella recaps the time since Abomentolor left. She puts a stout before Abomentolor and draws herself one too.
"We definitely eating away at the customer base of the Friendly Merchant. But Siov Cassimeel either doesn't care or he doesn't dare to do something about it after your performance there."
"We could get more business by selling the beer to other taverns but you have to decide if you want to go all out on the market. And on what conditions. At the moment we sell everything at little more than cost."
"Sounds nice. I'm going to think about that. But I guess you'd have to move your brewery in a separate building if we're going to expand. Who are you getting your raw materials from?" Abomentolor inquires.
"But I'm definitely expanding the number of floors in this tower. As I can do so at no cost now."
"As for selling the beer to others - that's a great idea. I think we should sell it in bottles labeled with my likeness. Sell it to the snobs at a high price. None of them would dare or care to come here to get it cheap. Maybe I should get one of these abandoned warehouses to become our brewery. As good as your beer is, if you start producing it in large amounts it would be nice to not have it on the floor under my sleeping room. But we're not doing that for the money. We're doing that for the fun of it" With the fun being that everyone gets to know Abomentolor.
Then he continues to give a short recap of what he burned to death through the last days. First only to Isabella but as the guests start listening in he tells it louder and in more detail until it finally is done as a kind of stage play where he re-enacts the fight with the dark rider even shooting fire rays indoors.
It's the first time he considers it might have been an error to give the shard of pride away as it would have given him the ability to show all of it to the audience.
Tauriell comes in second as she can't fly. But she can safely fall so it's not too much time she is behind. She is impressed at how fast Abomentolor can fix the building with his magic. But facepalms herself on seeing him add a monument for himself. She climbs up the wall to her floor to avoid the crowd in the tavern and have some time alone.
"Well that is a thought Jimmy says. Getting them to school from here would be quite a hassle though."
"The orphanage is almost directly below. I guess we could manage a way that leads directly there. We still need a teacher for the orphans, don't we?" Gwenhwyfar's thoughts wander.
"We need a school for the whole of Underbridge." Jimmy responds
"You wanted to construct more buildings anyway. You have some plans already what the next will be?" Gwenhwyfar asks leaning relaxed with her back at Jimmy's chest. She takes his arm and puts it around her waist to keep her warm.
"Perhaps a school, and a clinic would be a good idea as well. I also want to build some apartments with some shops so we can try to get some money moving, stimulate the economy somewhat." he says as he idly strokes Gwen's side where she has draped his arm over her waist
"A clinic?" Gwenhwyfar wonders.
"A place for people to receive medicine. Like a hospital. Some temples work as clinics as well, offering free healing to the ill." Jimmy responds
"That's what I don't get. In Sandpoint we had the temple and Hannah. When you were sick you went to the temple and when you needed some tea helping with constipation or you were pregnant you went to Hannah." Gwenhwyfar explains. "And we already have the temple - so what would we need the clinic for?"
"If you want the temple to be a clinic that is fine, but we will need to find more people than just your mother who can magically aid people. There are a lot of people here who will get sick and I want to be able to help them..." Jimmy says thinking.
"Some people will avoid the temple though, for their own reasons. Ideally the clinic would be politically and religiously unaligned and offer all medicine, both magical and mundane."
"I don't think I want to help people who don't want my help because it's provided in a temple. It didn't hurt us to get help from a cleric of Abadar. Why would someone refuse help provided for free at our temple?" Gwenhwyfar inquires.
"You get some people who believe in certain gods and refuse to have anything to do with any others... BUt if someone is injured it takes a very stubborn person to refuse healing, no matter where it comes from."
"We could help a bit with that by winning some clerics of other faiths. In Sandpoint we had different shrines in one temple too. I don't think we can pull that off, because the building is to small. But if a cleric of Desna has no issues offering her services in a Sarenrae temple that would be fine with me. Or you could add a few rooms dedicated to the care of the sick to one of the new buildings. There is also no room for that in the temple." Gwenhwyfar muses.
"But if someone wants his services from an evil god that person can be helped too. I'll send them to Abomentolor for that." Gwenhwyfar pouts.
"I am not sure there are all that many people who would request that." Jimmy says with a chuckle at expecting Abomentolor to do any charity.
"What's so funny about that?" Gwenhwyfar asks.
"Do you really expect Abomentolor to do anything for charity?"
"No, I expect him t otake care of these people." Gwenhwyfar replies.
"Do you think that is something that Abomentolor would do though?
I suppose if it would improve his image then he would..." Jimmy says thinking, "We could build some apartments close to the temple and try attract some other clerics there. We could dedicate some rooms of that too looking after the ill so we don't clog up the temple. And then I also want to build some shops and apartments there."
Gwenhwyfar sighs but lets it be. "That would really be nice to attract some good people into this part of town. What do you think who we should get as teacher though?"
"I have no idea. I suppose we would need to find someone." Jimmy says thinking
"I mean I'm not stupid, but I know only so much. I've seen bookish types like Brodert Quinck who could teach on a lot of subjects. Or wizards - they are all the times in books too, aren't they?" Gwenhwyfar thinks aloud.
"We need to decide what we want to teach, do we want to teach book learning or do we want to give people skills, that changes how we will do this as well." Jimmy says thinking
"Tauriell knows a lot. But I'm not sure if it's a good idea to set her on kids." Gwenhwyfar does a bad imitation of Tauriell "I'm old as a tree and you are only weed. You'll be dead before I taught you half of what I know!"
"Niamh might be a good choice." Gwenhwyfar adds. "At least reading and writing and counting. And then what they like I guess."
"Well then we need to find a governess, and we need to make some deals with some of the guilds to see if we can organise apprenticeships with them." Jimmy says, "None of us could do it, as we are not here enough."
"My ear is tingling. Someone's talking badly about me!" Tauriell states as she sits up in her bed.
"Why not one of us. So far we have been here more time than not. Of course we need someone who is always there. But when we're in town Niamh could teach them music. And Tauriell could teach them history. Ancient stories from one who lives to tell!" Gwenhwyfar chuckles. Maybe she had a clown for lunch but she can't stay serious while imagining Tauriell to be a teacher.
"While we are here we could certainly teach them. I could train some of the older ones if they wanted to join the guards or such."
"And I could give classes on delivering babies." Gwenhwyfar states with a broad smile. "But that's nothing you can teach a whole class I guess."
Gwenhwyfar spends the night with Jimmy enjoying their time in the pillow nest under the sheets. As the day dawns again and Gwenhwyfar wakes from the light of the sun she wakes Jimmy with a kiss.
She prepares her spells and once she is done she tells Jimmy "I'm going to collect the others. I'll drop them at Heidmarch Manor and come back to you in a minute."
With another word she is gone and appears in the Desna Temple in the Cinderlands. "Good morning. Are you ready to go?" she asks Niamh and Hector.
"Can we fetch Brutus now or does that have to wait till tomorrow?" Niamh asks standing up.
"We can. Do you want to say goodbye to someone here before we go?" Gwenhwyfar asks.
"Yeah, I wanted to say thanks and goodbye to Tekra’ Kai" the halfling responds and goes off searching for the warrior woman.
Approaching her Tekra' Kai Niamh smiles at her. "I wanted to say goodbye andthank you again for harboring us. Gwenhwyfar came to fetch us."
"Thank you for your help. You're always welcome here. Have a good life!" Tekra' Kai wishes Niamh good bye holding her right hand over her heart.
"Goodbye." Gwenhwyfar says and moves Hector and Niamh with her to the Canary House.
"Where is the dog." she asks as they stand together in the dining area.
Brutus comes out of hiding jumping at Niamh barking and threatening her with his large wet tongue.
Niamh falls under the heavy dog thrown at her and tries to keep up with cleaning the saliva from her face. "Hello to you too!" she says giving Brutus a quick huck before trying to stand again.