"If you'd be so kind and get to the point?" Valdemar pushes the issue.
"One hundred and fifty gold a load, for our trouble, and we put a plaque up at the amphitheater saying that your house sponsored it."
"I'll get the timber." Gwenwhyfar announces and flies off to Ordellia - or more specific - the island with the lumber-mills.
There she tries to deal something out like "Give me all your timber for a fair price now, delivered to the harbor immediately and face my mighty husband - who knows business - when you try to screw me over on that deal."
As that doesn't work as smooth as she would like it - because most of the timber is for other peoples orders and there would be a rather unwelcome delay here - she demands to see the manager and persuades him magically to become her best friend for the next week or so. The foreman who witnesses this and protests she tells "I'll turn you into a toad." Once I know how to do that. which settles the issue.
Thirty minutes later the first carts with timber move in direction of the harbor.
"And if I don't?" Valdemar inquires?
"You won't say no though, will you?" Jimmy smiles back
Valdemar reaches into his pocket, writes an addendum to his contract, that it is passed over to signee together with 150 gold per delivery. After Jimmy signs it, he hands over 15 platinum. "The pleasure is all yours." Valdemar tells and leaves.
Jimmy turns and heads back to the captain. "It has been a pleasure." Jimmy says offering him his hand.
Rope as well as block and tackle are plenty on the ship. Once the timber is loaded and the 900 gold payed, the captain gets the ship underway. Sailing is not really an option for this short distance and the needed precision, and so two boats are put in front of the ship to pull it out of the harbor.
About one long and boring hour later, the ship is in place, anchored against the current about 50 feet away from the pillar.
"This is so ecxiting!" Niamh exclaims giddily with a glance up the pillar. The whole time, she clings tightly to the lyre, never letting go of it, as if it was the most precious thing in the universe.
Gwenhwyfar watches as the ships carpenter builds a loading crane out of some beams. Complete with a winch, block and tackle and lots of rope.
The pillar is the one known as firepelt - named after the depictions of firepelt cougars on it - which is 160 feet high.
As everything is in position, Gwenhwyfar flies up to check out where to place the crane. She finds a spot that is almost even and close enough to the edge. Gliding down with featherfall, she lands on the ship again. "Do I simply put it up there, or needs something else to be done?" she asks.
Those that are wondering how she will carry that thing through the air are surprised to see that Gwenhwyfar and the crane simply disappear together, reappearing immediately on top of the pillar. Falling down again, she collects Jimmy, Niamh and the ship's carpenter and takes them to the top of the pillar too, to get things going.
"So, Niamh says, looking around "You wanted to start with your tower, did I get that right? Where do you want it, and how is it supposed to look like in the end? And should we, maybe, paint lines on the ground to get an idea how big it'll have to be?"
"First we need you to build more cranes to get all the stuff up. Or first even out the place to put the cranes. And then form the pillar into an amphitheater. With large stairs to sit on and a large stage in the middle. And normal stairs between, to get up and down in the ranks. And we'd need an entrance, but I have no clue how to do this, as we have no surroundings to walk into."
"But anyway. On the North side of the pillar, there shall be the palace. With the tower that has our cozy home being the highest part of the building, so the sun is seen from all directions through the large windows." Gwenhwyfar explains. "Did I forget something?" she asks Jimmy.
"We need an area here to accept guests. A large open area with a room. We will need lifts on the side of the tower to bring people up, and almost a foyer to house them before they enter the amphitheater. The entrance to the theater would be onto this foyer. Beyond that the theater needs some area for props, and crew and changing rooms and the like." Jimmy thinks, surveying the are around them.
"A good place to start would be to level the are for the foyer, and the house. We need to lay everything out though..."
"Let's wait for Niamh to level the outer rim, before we start drawing the groundplan on it." Gwenhwyfar suggests.
"But we can do it on paper." she adds and takes out her notebook and draws a sketch on a double page.
Niamh glances down at the sketch and nods. "It might me clever to form the pillar into the amphitheater first, before you build any other cranes here. You know," she makes a wave-like gesture with her hand, "because the ground will be moving. It will be moving, right? Shall we start right now?"
"Yes please." Gwenhwyfar replies.
So it's not so much reshaping the pillar by magic, than 100 magical workers working at superspeed. Like chiseling the cone at the top of the pillar away, creating stones, that you use to heighten the outer rim.
"Alright." Niamh says, sits down and puts the bottom of the lyre on her lap.
Then she starts plucking the strings.
With every tone released by the instrument, more and more stone gets carved out from the middle of the pillar, until there's a big, half circular hole with an even ground. Debris gets carried away by unseen workers, almost quicker than the eye can follow. Then, proceeding from the ground, steps start to form, circular as well, the circle getting bigger and bigger, until it looks like amphitheatres have to.
Close to the rim of the pillar, on the one third that isn't an amphitheatre, cranes start to build, and the ship starts to unload, like magic, startling people on the ship. As Gwenhwyfar suggested, Niamh builds a tower first, making it reach high into the sky to be seen by not only the curious gawkers, but everyone daring to look in the pillar's direction. Big arched windows circle around the tower, making it possible for light to fall in no matter where the wandering sun stands. When the roof starts to form, Niamh gets creative, putting four white, winged lions, one for every direction, on the roof, then pulling the roof up into a slim peak. When the sun finally sets, Niamh takes her red hurting fingers off the strings and turns to Gwen with a grin. "Well? What do you think?"
Gwenhwyfar stands there being agape. As Niamh is finally finished after some hours, she can't get a word out, as her mouth is dry.
"It's nice." She carefully steps on the stairs to check if everything is real. Then she starts running along the circle the stair forms.
"Wohoooo!"
Niamh, already prepared to scoff at only 'nice', instead closes her mouth and gives a satisfied nod at Gwen's behaviour, which manages to express her opinion about Niamh's masterwork so much better than her insufficent words.
"Not as extravagant as I imagined." Jimmy says standing next to Niamh. "Thank you. It is beautiful." He says. You can tell that he is truly grateful as he watches Gwen running around the stairs. "Can I help with your fingers?" He asks looking at the raw skin
"Please." Niamh holds her hands up. "You haven't even seen the inside yet!"
Jimmy takes her hands and inspects her fingers for a few moments, before saying, "There is nothing wrong with your fingers." and there isn't anything wrong with her fingers anymore.
"Let's go have a look inside then..." he says as he moves towards the tower.
"oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooo they hear, as Gwenhwhyfar comes around again, getting closer and passes Jimmy and Niamh for another round.
She stops at the tower door panting.
"I take it you are happy?" Jimmy smiles at her as they approach.
"This is so crazy! That's all ours!" Gwenhwyfar replies turning around herself, arms stretched out wide.
"And this is only a spire of your proposed castle..." Jimmy says with a grin
"So," Niamh begins, immitating a professional tour guide's voice, "the East Tower, the one you see standing before you, is about 110 feet high with ten floors with high ceilings. Since you have to furniture it, I'll advice looking for things that look good in ten feet ceiling rooms." Niamh makes a short break to let it sink in that they have high ceilings, then continues by making her way inside through a rectangular hole in the tower, that has another half circle hole above it. "I planned for you to put a coloured window in there, favourably warm colours, since it'll be the cozy floor." She leads them into a room with a fireplace on the one half of the circular wall that doesn't have any windows. "Since Jimmy requestred a cozy room, here your fireplace. Since we don't have furniture yet, I'd advice to hide your disappointment at the coziness for now." Niamh gives both of them a warning glare, then leads them to a spiral staircase just wide enough to fit two humans next to each other. While going up, Niamh notes, "You might want to get a railing for this. So the next room was supposed to be a kitchen, since I thought it would be a little easier to put it relatively close to the ground, since firewood can be heavy, but then I wasn't sure if you wanted the smell of your cooked food in all the floors above, so I decided I would let you decide if you want the second, or the tenth floor to be your kitchen?"
"This is fantastic. Thank you." Jimmy smiles imagining rugs and soft loungers and books and tables filling the space.
"You're quite welcome. Next would be the dining room." Since there's not much to see yet, Niamh hurries through and up the stairs to the next room, which has a fireplace as well. "This would be the Palour, which would make the first floor the drawing room. Since the tower is so high, Jimmy got his wish of a fireplace several times. Now, the next two rooms are what I'm truly excited about showing you..." She bounces up the next staircase, awaiting her followers with a giddy grin. With a flourish she states, "This will be the most important, and hopefully well cherished, music room!" Three steps of stairs lead up to a half circular stage where Niamh planned to put instruments.
"Ten floors? That's crazy!" Gwenhwyfar replies. She enters the tower, after Niamh and follows the tour. She disagrees about the purpose of the rooms, as she planned them top down and didn't plan for more than three floors, but she keeps that to herself for now.
Gwenhwyfar is impressed by the large spacious floors and the architecture. But as they enter the music room, she shrugs, looking at Jimmy for help.
"This is exactly what you asked for." Jimmy replies to Gwen's unspoken plea
"A music room? Who is going to play music here? Neither of us has done music ever since we met. Do you have some hidden talents I don't know of?" Gwenhwyfar inquires.
Niamh narrows her eyes at their apparent lack of excitement at the prospect of having a music room. "Let's just go see the next room." She says, definitely less enthusiastic and with a displeased edge to her voice. "Since I believe that the pursue of knowledge is almost as important as music, which, by the way, is one of the things that is represented by all cultures in existence, I decided to grant you the space of a library. Again, with a fireplace. Please, don't burn it down."
As Gwenhwyfar enters the next room with a fireplace and not much more to it, as all the furniture are missing she asks "What besides your imagination makes these rooms into what you tell them to be?"
"What made the tower into what it is besides my imagination and music? So, I guess as soon as you have the materials, we'll just create the furniture the same way we created the tower." Niamh replies and stomps up the next room. "This room will please you I assume, since it makes your hygiene programs possible. May I present, the bathroom. Ah, I would suggest you put in tinted windows." Niamh moves out of their way to reveal stone benches heated by another fireplace.
"I guess we are not in immediate dangger of our next neighbour looking into our windows." Gwenhwyfar replies. She lies down on one of the benches. "Do we have some wood left for firewood? This could be very comfortable here."
"You never know who's familiar will fly by your window." Niamh shudders. "We do have some timber left. You'll only get the stuff I can't use for the West Tower. You'll find it to the right side of the tower. Now, next room." She leads them up again and announces, "Guest room. Next room." The ninth room is formed in an oval, instead of round. "So, I thought this could be my room, then you also wouldn't have to worry about no one being able to use the music room."
"No, no, no. That's not how this works. I get the top three levels of the tower." Gwenhwyfar protests.
"That's not possible." Niamh replies and grins. "I licked it. It's mine."
"Go back down to the bathroom and wash your tongue. And no matter ohw much you lick this floor, you won't get it."
"Even if it means I have to learn to play the lyre myself."
"You want to learn how to play the lyre?" Niamh perks up, not hearing anything else.
"I guess we have a use for the music room now. Let's go down." Gwenhwyfar sighs. "What is seriously lacking is a dungeon though."
"Yay! I'll have you know that the floor above you also has a fireplace and will be your and Jimmy's bedroom. As for the dungeon, I thought we could put it underneath the palace between the two towers. Then it's bigger, you know?" Niamh tells Gwen, following her downstairs.
"We also need a solution for all these stairs." Gwenhwyfar complains.
"How do we go now about the learning of music?"
"Alright. Just sit down on the steps." She guides Gwen to the steps leading up to the stage. Then she places the lyre on Gwen's lap. "You have the notes C D E F G and A. Now, with your left hand's fingertips, you muffle the sound of the second, fourth, and sixth string. Now you have the sounds C E and G left, if I'm not mistaken. If you now strum all strings with your right hand, you have a C major chord."
Gwenhwyfar does as told and strums the strings. "Like that?"
The image of a crooked shack comes to mind as the not so well played chord echoes through the tower.
"Something like that." Niamh visibly cringes, but tries to show and explain it all to Gwenwhyfar patiently and tireless.
Gwenhwyfar continues to try the lyre as Niamh explains.