“…Queen Sequoia on the other hand, has also been used as an ingredient in making perfumed oils that restore vitality to the skin as well as varnish that lends an exotic fragrance to furniture. Their non-toxicity is what makes them so popular but nonetheless, getting through the impenetrable bark to tap the sap is a difficult undertaking. Only mature trees provide the extract, younger trees are considered toxic as a defense mechanism of sorts.” -Sylby’s Apothecary Guide for Herbalists and Alchemists.

“Erm, Nora. I know you’re half vampire. But did you really go for an edgy look when choosing the mansion?” Arthur whispered as they looked at the construction in front of them.

The mansion Nora had picked was built like an English country house with two wings that curved around the central building.

The red brick façade looked dreary in the dying embers of the eventide. Structurally, the building was sound, it was just that—the way the ivy clung to the reliefs where the third floor met the shingle roof threw eerie shadows that looked like witches dancing on the walls.

Weeds and other creepers overrun the front lawn to the point of strangling the statue on the fountain—which was dry as a bone and filled to the brim with dead foliage.

The house was big, the dull glass windows were untouched, excepting the lichen that proliferated on the sills.

There was leaf litter on the pavements and the trees near the perimeter fence made of wrought iron pickets and brick walls bowed low with unpruned branches.

And the mage-light garden lamps that lined the driveway—carriage way? They were flickering, no doubt in dire need of maintenance.

Arthur could almost feel a headache coming from the amount of housekeeping that would be needed; perhaps he should have gone househunting with her instead of having a tete a tete with the guild master.

But there was no getting out of that; Nora insisted he get acquainted with the guildmaster as part of a power play.

Aldmoor had no nobles but that didn’t mean that there were no people in power and the guild master was just one way of ingratiating himself with said circles—another headache for future Arthur.

But wasn’t he glad that the ruse was working? Powerful magic and a World given second name that gave him enough clout to pose as a noble; his alias as Arthur Sturmdrache didn’t even ping the sergeant’s lie detection or the truth crystal. Maybe it was the work of the medallion too?

The World was a very scary entity to have on someone’s side. Though, if he thought about it, the only reason why the ruse worked in the first place was that his noble status did not come from the trappings of political power. Rather his magic was good enough to give him implied power—very lucky that if he said so himself.

They made their way into the house through the main portico overlooking the courtyard. It was big enough to park half a dozen carriages if you managed to squeeze them in but Arthur was not looking to throw soirees anytime soon—he had no need for visitors…period.

“So why are you here?” he said through his teeth. The powdering of dust on the front porch floated up with every step however light they made them. It must have been an inch thick to kick up a flurry like snow.

“I am now your guild liaison,” said Nevine, batting away the dust that threatened to obscure his glasses to no avail. “The guild master asked that I accompany you to see if there was any assistance you needed when settling in.”

“We’re fine as we are, thank you,” Nora quipped as she heaved against the double doors made of dark marble oak.

The hinges groaned in protest like the wails of ghosts while the door knocker clanged as the doors gave. Air whooshed into the opening, taking a bit of the dust from the portico with it. Nora shook her head, “I looked over the property, I think between the two of us; we can fix it just fine.”

“Tell me you picked up gardening in the desert,” Arthur deadpanned as he threw thumbs at the garden choke full of weeds. Nora winced. “I thought so,” Arthur huffed.

The trio entered the foyer—one step in and mage lights flickered to life starling all but two of the entrants. Nevine squeaked in surprise at the sudden brightness

“And this Milord. Is why I picked the house.” Nora turned around, as she regarded Arthur with a knowing grin.

“Let me guess, the whole house is rigged bottom to top with enchantments?” Arthur said, eyes wide as his mana sense sang.

Some enchantments hummed quietly like susurrations in a crowd, while others were clamoring for attention like an incessant tea kettle. Learning a bit of sylvani runecraft from Volemhir had been godsend so it seemed.

They were a lot; if Arthur had to guess, the mansion was like a smart home. It would take a couple of days just to unravel the enchantments in the main hallway.

“ Yesss… that’s why I said we didn’t need any help.” She smiled. Then took one, two steps and whispered into Arthur’s ear, “You can fix them can’t you? The enchantments?” With doe eyes and batted eyelashes.

“Ugh, I knew there was a catch when you said you’d gotten a price that low.” Arthur rolled his eyes. “Fine, at least I’ll have an excuse to stay in.”

“There’s a bonus—I’ll show you later.” She peered at their unwelcome guest who was eyeballing some inscriptions by the assemblage of sculptures decorating the foyer. “I know you’ll love it,” her eyes glinted as she gambolled deeper into the house.

After their hanger-on had left with a promise of periodic check-ins later in the week, the two new owners of a Victorian-esque mansion on Founder’s Street finally had some respite.

There was still much they hadn’t explored in the house tour but that would have to wait until they started cleaning.

There was no need to trail dust from one room to another when some had working enchantments that kept the place pristine— like the drawing room for instance. The place was nevertheless bare of any furniture so they camped on the floor while staring into the cold fireplace.

“Nora,” he yawned.

“Hmm?”

“How far did you plan?”

“Mmh? Not that far. Just till today,” she lay down on the sheen flooring, hands behind her head.

Arthur did the same as they stared into the small chandelier glowed softly. The pitter patter of small paws caught his interest before a weight settled on his stomach.

“Oh, hey there gal, where have you been?” he tousled the fur atop the grimalkin’s ears.

“Umbra—her name is Umbra.” Nora muttered as she turned her face towards his. She realized they were practically shoulder to shoulder on the floor and blushed, but Arthur’s eyes were already drooping and he didn't seem to notice.

“Seriously…” Nora sighed, as she looped a strand of hair around her finger.

Early next daybreak, the denizens of the house did the equivalent of spring cleaning on the ground floor. Within the first half of the morning, the duo scoured the kitchen area, and all other main rooms on the ground floor including the hallways.

Arthur used his air and water magic to do spray washing and drying; Nora had never seen magic used so flagrantly—no mage would lower themselves to such menial tasks

“What, you thought I’d get down on my knees to mop like some manservant? With all this magic? Could never be me,” he snorted.

Anyone who saw the chimney from the street might have seen the house venting dust—word did get around that there were new residents on Founder’s Street.

While Arthur did the washing and dusting, Nora laundered and dried the curtains—there were actual curtains that had survived being eaten by moths in the house—it was a boon.

Curtains were simply too expensive; even Arthur knew the things cost a kidney. No seriously, as a young man, shopping for household goods was not his forte. Arthur could not place how much a curtain would cost in this world or the previous.

While they rested to have brunch over the sparkling kitchen table, they discussed budgeting. There was the promissory note from the merchant’s guild for the house’s mortgage. The merchant guild ran the banks and held custody of some of the properties on behalf of the merchant families.

Arthur decided there was no need to drag out the loan for long; they’d pay the money within the week. The house cost them 5 Crowns and 25 Gold; Nora had haggled that price down due to the state of the house.

That left them with adequate enough finances to live comfortably for some months. However, Arthur had plans that needed money; case in point an aership of his own; he needed working space and materials, consequently, he let Nora in on the plan.

The youth realized that his sense of what cost what was nonexistent. His knowledge of currency from studying at Aeskyre’s was half a century behind; who knew much had changed?

Before they decided to stock the house with anything, Arthur emptied his [Inventory]. Besides the hover board and camping supplies like his tent and beddings, there was the armor from Aeskyre, which had rarely seen use— he’d been using the sand wurm set and it was kind of growing on him.

While he had nothing against metallic armor, it wasn’t as if he would be seeing combat any time soon, so he kept that away.

The other half of the inventory was the biggest surprise—they had to sort it out in the drawing room.

When Aeskyre had mentioned that half of the things in the magical knapsack were up to him to discover, she really had understated things. Perhaps it was just a dragon’s notion of quantity.

They had to draw the curtains for fear they might draw attention. And that was in spite of the perimeter walls running around the property were some distance away; things were really that valuable.

In no time at all, they'd filled the pantry with an assortment of food and populated the work area with cooking implements.

Since the house had not seen use for a time, the cooking area was still primitive so they installed a four-way magic heating plate on the workspace.

If they added a cooling unit to the ensemble they’d have had a modern kitchen—as modern as this world could get anyway. Arthur was dismayed it would never catch up to a sylvani kitchen; not without renovations it wouldn't.

“Where did you get the heating plate?” Nora asked, switching the runes on and off. “It looks like old magitech.”

“Is it that bad?” Arthur asked, focusing on the word ‘old’.

“Are you serious?” Nora gawped. “This thing is worth a crown at the least.”

“Eh? Really?” Arthur narrowed his eyes questioningly. He still had no context of valuation of magical items. “It’s just a heater plate.”

“Really; don’t you have [Appraisal] or that skill crafter’s use? I know for sure they don’t make them like this anymore. See, you can use the plates like a mini oven if you roll them into a four sided cube.” She demonstrated.

‘Ah, I forget I have [ Appraisal] to look up stuff ‚’ he mentally facepalmed.’ Here's to hoping the house enchantments don't have obfuscation wards,’ he grimaced.

“Whatever you cook will go in the middle; though I guess it's missing the front and back covers.”

‘Like a damn omni cooker! Without the coffee-maker!’

“Why…or how do you know so much about artefacts?” Arthur threw up his hands; he was supposed to be the one with the [Appraisal] skill but he lacked the experience to tell the quality of some things he’d encountered. Who knew what secrets the dungeon shard held?

“The Bowl is like one large dungeon, remember? Our clan used to stumble upon things like these in the dunes. Though most of them were mangled by sand wurms. Imagine what people could find beneath the sands.” Her eyes glistened.

“Oooh,” he fisted his palm in realization. “So that’s why.”l

“That being said; this gives us some lee-way with our funds,” she grinned, arms akimbo.

Arthur scratched at his Adam's apple and narrowed his eyes, “When did my money become ours?”

“Since I became our housekeeper; I’m not doing this for free you know…” she wagged her finger at him.

“Still hurts to cheat with that lie detecting skill of yours. Can’t hide anything from you can I?” Arthur said wryly. “Onto other matters, what do you have planned for our itinerary Miss housekeeper?”

“Let’s see,” finger on her chin she looked around the kitchen. “For one, we need furniture, otherwise it’s no different than living in an abandoned house. That means tables, stools, chairs, beds and cabinets and carpets. We also need to see a seamstress about getting us new clothes for appearances and of course, leisure—”

Arthur rolled his eyes, “Anything else?”

“Mmh, a carriage?” Nora grimaced.

“Ah, because I can’t ride to save my life. Damn, what sort of affluent personage would I be if I can’t ride a horse? I know—just buy a horse. I’m sure the lawn is big and sequestered away from roving eyes…you can teach me.”

“That’s a good idea; I don’t like carriages anyway, none of us have the skills for it. It’s not like we can hire someone else to do it on our behalf—”

“Yea, three’s a crowd.” He folded his arms. “Next, I’ll need supplies and reagents for my enchanting work. I think I have some tools I carried over…”

“Oh, before you do that; remember what I was supposed to show you?” she seemed to come to a realization.

“Yea, you didn’t tell me.”

“And whose fault was it you went to sleep?” she said, approaching him. Before Arthur could ask what she was getting up to she grabbed his hands, and shadow ported them, two floors worth of earth below ground.

Arthur staggered as his feet found terra firma. Porting vertically was different from being warped along the same plane.

It felt like your stomach dropped out from beneath you; akin to when you missed a step on a stairway and almost bit your tongue off. As his disorientation abated, Arthur realized they were in total pitch blackness.

“Uh, a warning next time perhaps?”

“Hihi, my bad. It disoriented me the first time I used it like this too.” A giggle echoed in the dark before mage lights the color of incandescent bulbs lit up the room.

“Whoa,” Arthur gawked as the soft yellow light bathed his surroundings. Before him, a room that looked like someone had tried to mesh a garage and a scientist’s research together was revealed . There were clearly two sectioned off areas that met in the middle.

While one side had racks, crystal beakers and an island table with dusty countertops and a barrel of what were clearly spent mana crystals. The other side was geared towards handling work that did not require any form of delicacy whatsoever.

There was a small forge, an anvil, hammers and all sorts of tools a smith would use. Also of note were carpentry tools and a workbench with a half completed project still locked in a bench vice.

“Beautiful isn’t it? Aren’t you glad you left house hunting to me?” she smirked with a satisfied grin.

“Uh…yea. It looks great,” Arthur replied, walking through the cabinets which contained half used materials in their containers.

Most were contaminated with dust and insects’ remains; no good for enchantment work unless he found a way to cleanse them. There were inscriptions on their containers but it was just a series of numbers and letters.

“Looking for this?” Nora entered his vision toting an old leather wrapped sheaf of parchments. It looked like someone had tried to create a binder using leather glued to thin sheets of wood. The joints looked chaffed from use but otherwise seemed to have aged well.

The tanning oils must have let it gain a patina which actually gave the binder some character.

The parchment in the midst of the binders were held in place by cords; spring mechanisms hadn’t been invented then but what about now? Arthur shelved that on the list of things to look into on his mental notebook—[Eidetic Memory].

“Where’d you find it?” Arthur murmured, still caught in a trance of exploring the lab section of the place; an enchanter’s and artificer’s wet dream. “How in the hells did you find this place,” he met her eyes—twinkling eyes. He decided he really liked the girl…in a friendly way; he shook his head.

“There’s a smaller room on the other side of this set up—”

“It’s a lab—”

“Yes, lab, it was under lock and key but I managed to warp into it. I think this journal contains a catalogue of materials and numbers and letters to more books like that…”

“A filing and inventory system,” Arthur whispered as his eyes lit up in comprehension.

He unbuckled the belt-like straps holding the binder closed. Other sheafs of unsecured parchment spilled out but Nora caught them.

There was an appendix of materials, research notes and annotated references pointing to other documents which recorded the results of experiments and other observations.

Whoever organized the thing was simply studious; Arthur was impressed. The appendix contained an inventory list of the materials in the containers as per their serialized numbers.

“Jackpot,” Arthur exclaimed. Nora’s interest was piqued.

“Are you going to keep leaving me in the dust? Seeing as there’s a lot of it in this here lab as you called it.” Her lips puckered cutely visibly, dismayed from being reduced to a bystander.

“Ahem,” Arthur gave a throaty cough as he closed the binder. “Sorry about that milady.”

“Ho, trying to butter me aren’t you?” Nora’s face swiveled to the side so fast her hair whipped around. “I am of the notion to leave you behind and see if you can find your way up,” she said, giving him the side eye.

“Wait wait wait, how far down are we? I meant it when I said I was sorry. Sheesh!”

“Hahaha,” Nora burst into a fit of giggles and she wiped the corner of her eyes. “Oh, relax, I was just messing with you.”

“Right…how deep are we?” Arthur looked around for the exit. Spotting a pair of metallic double doors along the width of the room. Nora followed his gaze.

“About two stories worth of rock and dirt below the ground?” she ducked her head.

“Whoaaa—”

“I knooow?” Nora chimed as she twirled around. Then pointing towards the doors, “beyond those doors used to be an old well. I think the previous owner—I say owner because only a single occupant used to live here.

He didn’t even let his employees live in—There seems to be a contraption he used to ferry himself up and down. It kind of works like those barges we used to cross the vale.”

She bit the corner of her lip. “Anyway, I don’t know how it works but access from the house is buried behind a false wall.”

“And how do you know all these?”

“I mighta, sorta broken into the library archives using [Shadow Port].”

“You did whaaaat?!” gasped Arthur. The latter third of his drawn out exclamation ricocheted off the walls. “Ugh, must have been some enchantment to dampen the sounds. So much work,” he knuckled his temple.

“Relax,” Nora put up her hands. “No one saw me. Besides they seemed to have been gathering dust behind an unused storage so I absconded with the building plans. No one will notice they’re missing; the house was practically abandoned anyway.”

“How’d you know—ugh never mind. I didn’t know you had such proclivities to explore dark places. So long as you did not get caught.”

”Now let’s see what’s beyond those doors, ”he added, grabbing the journal binder. Nora tucked in the sheaves of displaced parchment before he sealed it with the straps. It would help him get the lay of things inside the workshop.

The door’s handles were indentations set into the slab of metal and no visible hinges were revealed. Nora tested the doors, pulling and pushing but they didn’t budge.

“Why don’t you try rolling to the sides?” Arthur suggested as he examined where the doors met the walls.

“Huh?”

“Here,” he gave the binder to Nora, “let me try.”

He grabbed the handles in the middle and tried to pry the doors apart. His muscles flexed and his hands heaved.

With a loud creak, slowly, the sliding doors rolled on creaky metallic wheels, revealing a railed groove inside the threshold. As the doors rattled to a stop, the two stared at the contrivance as the light spilled into the space.

‘Would you look at that? Turns out this world is not so medieval after all.’

The lift had a grate that opened inwards and a pair of levers which were connected to thick braided cables which disappeared above as well as below.

The flooring was made of wooden planks secured using wrought iron braces into which worn nails could be seen. It had ostensibly seen heavy use if only a sole occupant got to use it.

‘Cue the part where we step on and plummet to our deaths,’ Arthur sniggered as he tested it with his foot.

“Just get on already, I’ll port us out if anything happens.” Nora assured as she jumped onto the vehicle. It groaned like a rusty iron gate then stilled. Arthur got on looking around the contraption.

Apart from the lever box, the rest of it was built like a shark cage, showing a view of mildew walls around them. The ceiling, like the floors, was covered ;Arthur wouldn’t have wanted things falling from above.

Arthur eyed the levers skeptically before he gave one a pull. The lift jolted…