"They said that we weren't allowed to build our house where we were, so we are moving." Jimmy explains the situation, and to Gwen he replies, "I don't think 'pet' is the right word for a dragon. They are smart and independent. It would be like keeping a person as a pet. Could you have a dragon as a friend? I don't see why not."
"Aaaah - so you will put two smaller towers to each side of this large tower to show them what you think of them?" Abomentolor chuckles.
"Nothing quite so obvious. They will be plenty annoyed we are building here, but we made sure they can do nothing about it." Jimmy chuckles back
"They'd have a hard time to even get here to complain about it." Abomentolor comments, looking back over the hundreds of feet to the closest point on land. And even from the sea it's a challenge to get up here without magic.
"Dragons exist in different colors, don't they? Which one would match best to our new home?" Gwenhwyfar develops that thought further.
"We should probably avoid blue dragons." Jimmy says
"What colors are left then?" Gwenhwyfar inquires.
"Well... all of them." Jimmy replies, "Tales tell of a blue dragon who betrayed a count. He pretended to be a mercenary general, all the while spreading the influence of Zon-Kuthon through the county."
"Then I want a yellow one!" Gwenhwyfar replies.
"We will see if we meet one at some point." Jimmy replies
Tauriell hides her face in her hands. Owww. That ignorance hurts so bad. she thinks.
"But that's for later. We need more money to finish out castle. Do you think we'll get some when we do our job at that Windsong Abbey?" Gwenhwyfar asks unexpectedly.
"We will almost certainly find things to sell."
"But not now, right?" Tauriell asks.
"I used all my teleportation spell already. So no. How about we get our pillow-castle and have a sleepover in our new home?" Gwenhwyfar suggests.
"That's a good idea." Jimmy says taking her hand
Gwenhwyfar puts aside the lyre. "Who comes along?" she then files out of the window in direction of the irespan to collect the pillows and blankets from the sad shell of their first building that will have to be taken down.
Tauriell stays put. "You go play pillow fetching. I don't want to find out if that spell ends halfway back."
Gwenhwyfar stands inside the walls for a moment, watching over the sea. A tear runs down her cheek. But she hides it in a bunch of pillows she picks up and leaves for the tower. There she drops them on the floor where the lyre training was taking place.
"I'll take another trip over the market. We'll need some food too." And off she is.
"I'll go fetch something from Isabella." Abomentolor tells and also leaves.
He reappears after a short while with a cask of beer bottles and some pretzels. "Now the party can start."
Jimmy struggles to squeeze his wings out of the window before flapping up to fly alongside Gwen.
"What do you want me to prepare as a meal?" Gwenhwyfar asks. "We don't have a hearth yet!" she adds as she realizes there might be a problem.
"That might be an issue indeed. Why don't we go past that restaurant that Lini took us to and get them to prepare something for us to take home? We have had a busy day already, you don't need to do anything more." Jimmy replies "Are you alright though?" he asks, noticing that her face is a bit puffy
"I'm just sad, that out times sitting on the bridge will never be the same again."
"But you're right, let's get a prepared meal." Gwenhwyfar takes Jimmy's arm and walks with him through town to the place he suggested. "How big should that become? Just a little this and that, or a full blown buffet?"
"I think just a bit of this and a bit of that..." Jimmy smiles at her, "And nothing says we can't take our pillows back to the bridge and spend a night under the stars again."
"Yes. But it won't be the same."
Approaching a waitress Gwenhwyfar tells "Please prepare a basket with assorted food s for six people for us to take with us." She hands the woman some coins.
"Whom do we hire as staff for our place? Some of the people from Underbridge? We'll need a lot of people just to move some furniture into our new home."
Tauriell takes a bottle from Abomentolor and sits down on the stage, laying herself sideways on a comfortable pillow. "I have to admit, the view over the town and sea is even better than from the Shadow Clock."
"People from underbridge is probably not a bad idea. Once we have transport organised we could probably hire some of the older children from the orphanage as well." Jimmy repplies
"They could get an education in music! Niamh's urge to teach distributed over more pupils would be a blessing to all." Gwenhwyfar tells.
"I was thinking we could train them to do things they might get jobs in later as well..." Jimmy replies, trying not to put a further damper on Gwen's spirits
"How about training some as court-ladies? And we need maids, cooks, servants, stewards, janitors, gardener, tailor, sommelier,... I don't know, what else would we need?"
"A house master, butlers, guards, accountants, managers..." Jimmy says thinking
"We need your friend who does the accounting for you! He needs to take care of the acquisition of workers and furniture and stuff! And he can train managers and accountants! What was his name?"
"His name was Hoid..." Jimmy pauses for a moment, thinking, "It would help him at the orphanage too. If he can find a few that he trusts, once he has them trained, he can give some of his work to them."
The woman comes back with a basket full of food and takes the coins. "Enjoy your meal." she wishes, before disappearing between the tables again.
"Shall we get back?" Jimmy says taking the basket and Gwen's hand
"Thank you." Gwenhwyfar replies and turning to Jimmy again. "Shall we visit Hoid?"
Pondering how to get Hoid to the tower, she moans. "We really need an easy way to get people back and forth to our new home. This distance over water is like the devil's toothache."
"We can do, but we could also wait to tomorrow for that. I think a pier and ferry might be the easiest. It also creates the most jobs."
"Then we should talk to someone that the work on that pier starts now. And we need one in Underbridge too I guess. Or where would you station our boat that we need then?" Gwenhwyfar asks.
"Their are docks already, but a pier in underbridge might not be a bad idea. We would need to organise guards to ensure that a path to it was kept safe, and to reassure the wealthy that they won't be mugged on their way to a performance.."
"Isn't there already a pier in underbridge too? At that tavern, I think. Maybe we can use that?"
"It would need to be revamped a bit, but I don't see why not."
"Let's go there and check then." Gwenhwyfar tells and starts walking towards Underbridge. "We also need a boat. How much money do we have left? What do boats cost? Maybe I should sell that magic spear, so we can afford one? I'm not good enough at using it anyawy. What do you think?" Gwenhwyfar voices her thoughts.
"I think this is something that we don't need to worry about quite yet. Boats aren't exactly cheap, but we don't need a full sea-going vessel. A barge would probably work, if it was well built."
Gwenhwyfar pulls Jimmy along to the Firendly Merchant. Asking the first one in the tavern who is in charge she is pointed to Siov Cassimel. So she approaches him and pours out a gush of words over him. "Hi, I'm Gwenwhyfar and this is Jimmy. We build a new home on the Irespan pillar out on the sea and would need a place from where we can transport our guests to the pillar, and as there is the sea, we thought we'd use a boat and we'd need a pier for that and we thought as you have a pier, you maybe would us let use that pier for that for a small fee?"
Siov looks at Gwenhwyfar like one would look at some crazy that one wouldn't like to meet in the first place. "No." he answers and turns away.
Gwenhwyfar's jaw drops. She has no words for this behaviour. She looks at Jimmy for help.
"The extra foot traffic would be great for business." Jimmy appeals to the idea of money