"I really hate machines!" I whine out a few minutes later after the guards and Tess went off to explore the building. "Maybe I could figure out how to enchant a teleporter instead, that has to be easier than this."

"Hehehehe." Apricot giggles at my frustration while swimming in a sea of plush toys.

"I know that you're worried about Hughes." Amelia starts rubbing my shoulders. "But I saw him tackling the stairs just fine with that new leg you built. I think he'll understand if you can't get it working today."

"Mhm." I grumble. "He might understand, but I wouldn't. I should be able to do this, I'm mostly just reusing stuff that Sinclair already built for me. I'm only having a little trouble making the mechanism reverse direction reliably."

"Well, maybe if you hadn't sent him off to make a gift for the Queen." She says in an exasperated tone.

"The idea just came to me." I reply with a shrug. "Blame Rozelle, she's the one who made me think of it in the first place. And, screw this; I'll just use two motors, one for up, and one for down."

"Hah." Amelia pats me on my frustrated head. "It's a good idea for a gift, by the way. And, you're right about getting a meeting with Her Majesty sooner rather than later. Especially after that clacker you made at lunch."

"Nng. Thanks for reminding me about that." I grumble and sink into the massage she's giving me. "I need to learn to just keep my mouth shut. It shouldn't be too hard but, ugh, I just want to be lazy for a few days. Stay in bed reading all day like a certain blonde I know."

"I'm not sure you know how to be lazy, Sorrel." Apricot interjects with a laugh. "You're always doing something, usually one of us."

"Nnh, not often enough." I grin back at her. "Want to go fool around in the office? We can each take turns pretending to be the innocent worker getting taken advantage of by their boss. I made sure the room was extra sound-proof, and there's even a fold-down bed." Apricot was convinced at 'Want to' so, I'm saying all of this for Amelia's sake.

"Well, I think I need to see you in my office, young man." Amelia leers down at me. "We have to have a serious talk about your future in this company, and your position under me."

...

"There you are." Gen says when he catches me walking towards the elevator afterward; the girls decided to go back to the daycare so Apricot could play with the toys some more. "I was afraid you had left already."

"Sorry, there are just a lot of things that need doing around here." I reply with a satisfied smile and can sense Temmie's amusement. "This must be your family. It's a pleasure to meet you all."

It looks like they brought the whole brood out; Gen looks to be the oldest of five siblings of varying ages, and aside from him, they're all girls too. The oldest looks to be about sixteen, and the youngest around eight. And, given the gap in ages, there's probably at least one more sibling that doesn't live at home anymore.

"It's an honor, Sir." Gen's father bows to me. "I'm called Shea, and this is my wife, Arlene. The girls are Christy, Mira, Robin, and Jolie." He names them in descending order of age.

"..." Arlene goes to speak but just tears up instead.

"Oh, Ma." Gen lets out an exasperated sigh. "I thought you got all of this out of you before we left."

"Go easy on her, Son." His dad pulls her into a hug with a loving smile. "It's not every day that someone's biggest wish comes true. Thank you, Sir, for giving my son his legs back, and for giving us this opportunity." The man bows deeply in my direction, all the girls curtsying a moment later.

"Oh, I'm never going to get used to stuff like this." I breathe low enough that only Apricot can hear me. "Taking care of my employee's health is the least I can do." I say plainly and then change the subject. "Has Gen showed you all to the apartment yet? I was just about to head upstairs to work on the lift anyways."

"You guys have to see this thing." Gen eagerly heads towards the elevator. "Mister Sorrel has made a room that moves up and down the floors so we don't have to take the stairs."

"It's not completed just yet, like much of the building's infrastructure." I add with a laugh. "So, you'll have to wait a day or two before you can use it on your own."

"Is this like the cranes at the dock?" Gen's dad asks after we all pile in and the floor starts moving.

"Same principle." I nod. "But, with a machine powered by a mini-waterwheel to move the ropes. At least there will be once I get it working."

I need to work on a better power supply, at least for the elevator. The turbines are great at ground level, but not so much at the top of an elevator shaft. It's not like I could just run a driveshaft up the entire building. So, I had to run an extra-long pipe up river just to have enough pressure for the elevator mechanism to work.

"Any chance I could see it?" He asks. "I just move the crates around, but I've always been a little interested in how they work."

"Sure." I nod. "But, let's show you the apartment first." I open the elevator doors by hand, another thing I still need to work on, and lead the way. "It's a bit sparse right now because I thought everyone would like to decorate for themselves. But, if there's anything you need, just ask. Oh, and only the plumbing works right now, but I hope to have all the lights enchanted by tonight, tomorrow at the latest."

"This... this is too much." His mom breaks down again. "I thought Gen was exaggerating... we can't accept this, not after what you've already done."

"It's not a gift; I will be charging rent." Amelia and I already talked all of this over and, while the housing is of better quality than what's available, I just didn't feel comfortable charging my employees more than what a similarly sized space would cost in the city. "For the big apartment, this would work out to roughly two-thirds of either of your salaries, which will be only slightly higher than what you're getting paid now."

"That seems fair." Shea speaks up before his wife can deny me again.

"More than." I chuckle when Arlene bites the hand he used to shush her. "But, I want my people to be happy." I know how many times mom worried about making ends meet; I don't want anyone who works for me to ever go through that. "Speaking of, I assume your daughters work with you, yes?. Well, I won't be hiring anyone younger than the eldest. But, there is a daycare and will soon be common areas to keep the others occupied. I will likely start a school too, but that is going to take a while to set up."

"Does this mean that I can get a place of my own if I wanted?" The eldest girl asks hopefully.

"I have no objections, but I believe that is a question for your parents." I try not to laugh when she shrinks down under the glare her mom shoots her. "No one has taken the next-door apartment yet; that would give her the space she needs while still keeping her close to you... I'll just mark it as reserved until you make up your mind, then." I add when the woman turns her glare on me.

"Any chance I could see this lifting mechanism?" Shea can see the fight brewing between his wife and teenage daughter and wisely decides to escape.

"Please." He, gen, and I beat a hasty retreat while the younger girls just roll their eyes and go to explore the apartment. "If they're anything like my mom and little sister, we're going to be glad I put so much effort into soundproofing."

"Mom has been reluctant to let any of us go since after what happened to me." Gen confesses. "It got so bad that my brother just snuck out one night to join a caravan."

"That was not a fun time." His dad sighs and then startles when I open the elevator door to reveal its top rather than the insides. "Oh my. I was not expecting that."

"Which is why the doors are normally sealed unless the carriage is present." That was one of the first things I worked on in regards to the lift. "There are stairs up to the spot the mechanism will live, but I thought you'd enjoy seeing this." I step on top of the car and wait for them to join me. "We'll have to take the ladder for the last few feet, but this is still easier than taking the stairs."

"It really is just a pulley system." Shea marvels as we start moving.

"Yes, and you can't see it right now because it's below us, but the ropes are attached to a counterweight." I trace the path of the cables up and over the drum to where they descend again behind the car. "The weight is just slightly heavier than the car itself so the average trip balances out.

"And, it all moves when you turn this drum?" Gen asks after we step up into the motor room.

"Yep." I send the car down, bringing the counterweight up. "And, it doesn't take much effort either. Honestly, I could probably just add a large wheel to the drum and hire a beastkin or two. But, I have the water turbine already, no reason not to let it do all the hard work while the operator will just need to push or pull some levers. Hopefully from inside the car once I get the remote enchantments working."

"Can I ask why you have so many ropes?" Gen ventures. "Each of these cords looks more than strong enough to hold everything up on its own."

"They are, and then some." I agree. "But, having only a single point of failure is beyond unacceptable when lives might be on the line. I still need to get the emergency brakes working, both up here and on the carriage itself. But, I didn't want to force you and Hughes to walk up all those stairs, so I'm just going to have to keep a careful eye on things with my magic until my machinist finishes up with the other project I accidentally assigned him."

"That's old Sinclair, right?" He asks. "I recognized him from when I used to visit dad at work."

"Didn't he quit to become a clockmaker?" Shea asks.

"Yes, but I heard about him from one of my running partners, and got his help to make these turbines." I bring the two motors out and start hooking everything up. "He doesn't exactly work for me, but I'm leasing him a space on the ground floor in exchange for his technical help. Machines really aren't my thing." I say while connecting mirrored turbines to the drum that moves the elevator.

These turbines have been geared down and have the same activation lever as the rubber mixer. The levers are connected to each other too so that only one motor can be active at a time. I pull that lever and, amazingly, it works as expected.

"And, before you say anything this is all stuff that Sinclair designed." I say to their amused expressions. "I'm just repurposing it. Hmm, I'll need to add a shut-off for when it gets too high. Or, rather, Sinclair will; I couldn't even figure out a simple reverse for the motor, so I just installed two instead, one for each direction."

"Whatever you say, Mister Sorrel." Gen and his father just grin at me.

"Uh-huh." I just shake my head. "Well, it looks like the row between Arlene and Christy has settled down, at least for now. Shall we head back down? Oh, sorry. You're gonna have to go without me, something just came up." I hop on the maintenance ladder and slide all the way down to the ground floor.

***