Chap 13

Jason looked at the entourage, they were an odd sort, dressed well enough to handle administrative work, but crude enough to not be afraid of physical labour.

“Gentlemen this is Jason Fyr, my brother.”

Stepping forward, Jason was already reaching his hand out towards the group “A pleasure to meet you all.”

The first to reach his hand was a well-muscled man, sporting brown mutton chops and a pony tail “Yvar, carpenter.” His grip was firm but made no attempt to crush Jason’s hand.

The second was a blond man, not as big but still taller then Jason, his moustache was a thin pencil line, almost whiskery. “Nor, Clothier.”

The other two were Ulfric and Tween, glassblower and a magician.

At last was the Dwarf, he was short (naturally) and fat (surprisingly) and Jason saw a certain measure of distaste directed towards him, but like all respectable businessmen. The Dwarf swallowed his racism and shook Jason’s hand.

“Harald Uzkhaztuz. Owner of Uzka’s Sons, we have been hired Lady Fyr here to furnish and decorate the Fyr Manor, we were part of the original contract when the house was built so we already have designs prepared in anticipation of the Duchess’ needs, with a few minor changes we’ll have everything ready.” The dwarf said

Jason nodded as if he knew this was the plan all along “And what do you have prepared?”

Yvar stepped in, “We were planning to make the furniture styled from the Septic Era There’ll be cupboards, tables and display cases within the foyer and hallways. As for drawing rooms we have couches, coffee tables and an assortment of chairs. Bedrooms will have cots and bunkbeds, guests and the family beds will be four poster beds.”

“Impressive.” Jason bobbed his head along, like the droning of the man was music to his ears. “Anything else?”

Nor stepped up next to Yvar, “Since the furniture is going to be rosewood, we have opted to go with a warm colour scheme, the curtains and carpets will be created with maroon cloth and gold threads coupled with the finest cotton, we’ll have tapestries imported for certain parts of the house as well as supplying the house with an extra amount of cloth in case repairs need to be made.”

Then Ulfric and Tween showed up “We will be in charge of lighting, since this is a noble mansion we thought it would be appropriate to use magical lamps.” Ulfric started “The basic design will be pipes and spheres enchanted with magical lights that can be turned on and off with switches, connecting them will take some time to ensure the magical connections don’t trail across the rooms to spare the more arcane inclined guests from getting headaches.” Then Tween followed up with saying “The shape of the lanterns can be changed and the master may select where he wants the lights.”

Jason whistled. “As expected of master craftsmen. Well, I’ll leave you and Miss Tilda to work out the details. Speaking of which, I hope you gentlemen don’t mind if I have a few words with my sister.”

Jason led Tilda to the side. “What is it?” She asked.

“I’ve opened an account, here’s the key.” Jason handed her a small golden key. “There should be enough funds in there to pay for the services of furnishing. What should I do now?” he asked.

Tilda thought for a second before asking “Have you gained any information about schools for the kids?”

“Yeah, the source was a bit biased but I’ve got three to investigate, the army’s, a magic one and a normal one.”

“Go collect the kids and take a tour with them, see what strikes their fancy.” Tilda nodded

“On it.” Jason said before whisking himself deeper into the house. “Good day gentlemen!” he called back.

Once he was out of sight he created another map of the house and checked where the kids were.

Nasha was apparently right in the foyer. Ilios and Gwandere were somewhere in the East Wing while Peyton…

“The hell.” Jason created another hover board and sped through the corridors.

Peyton sat in the back garden watching the river flow past as he gazed at the city. Sitting under a tree he threw a rock into the river, which skidded three times before plonking and sinking to the bottom.

Jason approached on foot and gazed at the river next to Peyt, both stared out into the great city across on the other side, silently enjoying the scene. Peyton picked up another stone and threw it, this time it skidded four times before dropping to the bottom. Jason created his own stone, perfectly flat and smooth, more like a disk, and threw it with great force. The thing bounced halfway across the river before losing momentum and sliding under the water.

Jason grinned, “I win.”

Peyt scowled at him, “You cheated.”

“So?” Jason asked.

“When you cheat it doesn’t count.” Peyt replied.

“Yes it does.” Jason laughed “If a man cheats someone out of his money, it’s his money.”

“Yes but then the guards arrest him.” Peyt argued back.

“Really? What if they’re bribed with the money the man gained.” Jason replied.

Peyton said nothing.

“Peyt, everything is allowed, law is simply a thing enforced by someone with power.” Jason said “It isn’t omnipotent, nothing is, not money, not power, not the law, not the gods. It can all be defied.”

Peyt looked up “Then-”

Jason held up his finger “But only if you’re prepared to deal with the consequences. It all comes with down whether you can weather the aftermath. I could go into the palace, take the kings crown and decree myself as the new ruler. IF I am prepared to face the consequences, never forget that Peyt. You can do anything if you’re strong enough, wise enough, smart enough or fast enough.”

Peyton stared into the distance. “Anything?”

“Anything” Jason confirmed.

“What if I run away?” Peyton asked.

Jason smiled, “Then you’ve dealt with the consequences, yes, some might think that’s a cowards way out but who has the right to impose themselves on you? You’ve dealt with it how you could because that is the only way you saw how to deal with it at the time. Of course you then have to think about the consequences that this will cause. Can you live with the shame? The self-doubt? The constant agonizing whether you’ve done the right thing? At this point in life many question themselves, some vow to become stronger, while others kill themselves to escape the self-inflicted torture such questions cause.”

Peyton looked ever onwards, “So it’s okay?”

Jason sighed, “Yes, it is if you can live with yourself later.”

“What if I don’t know?” Peyt asked.

“Then do something and hope for the best, you’d be surprised often that works.”

Peyton nodded, lost in thought.

“Come to the front of the house in about fifteen minutes.” Jason said heading off.

It was actually quite hard to navigate the back gardens, apart from the main path that led to the waterfront, the garden was a maze of trees and shrubbery. You could stumble around for hours without finding the manor. Statues, ponds, benches, one couldn’t walk fifty meters without stumbling on to some sort of garden decoration.

Jason sped back to the mansion on a pink hover board that green Tron trails, it was pretty cool, Jason thought.

He soon reached the house again and found Gwandere and Ilios in one of the rooms on the East Wing, it was a spacious room, located on the second floor, completely empty except for two stools and a giant canvas leaning against the wall.

“What’s this then? Jason said, strolling into the room.

The sisters looked up and smiled.

“We’re painting!” Ilios ginned.

“Painting what?” Jason asked

“Mountain range!” Gwandere said enthusiastically.

The giant canvas was indeed the beginning of a mountain range, with a greyish pink sky taking shape in each corner of the top half of the soon to be landscape art.

“It doesn’t look half bad actually. Have you two done this before?” Jason asked.

“Nope!” Ilios said.

“We used to get charcoal and parchment and do sketches with those, but we could never afford paint.” Gwandere explained.

“So now we went out with Nasha and brought some with the money from the backpack.” Ilios added.

Jason blinked. “Where is that anyway?”

“In the cart” Ilios said.

“And where’s that?” Jason asked, incredulous.

“With Snuffles” Gwandere said.

“Snuffles?” Jason was confused now.

“The mule” Ilios supplied.

“And where’s Snuffles?” Jason asked exasperatedly.

“In the stable” Gwandere answered.

“Stable?” Jason questioned.

Gwandere nodded “Stable”

Jason sighed “Right, in the stable. Anyway, come to the front in ten minutes.”

He then left the two to their own devices.

‘One left’ he thought as he went back to the Foyer. Once he got there he turned transparent and dropped through the floor and looked around the basement, he looked around, confused, only to discover Nasha wasn’t here. He once again took out a map and looked at dot that indicated Nasha, yep, she was apparently right in front of him. Jason frowned for a minute before it clicked. He floated up through the floor, into the foyer, into the second floor, then the third floor, then stopped. How does that work? Jason rushed back down as he looked at the foyer. If the foyer had stairs that led up to the second floor, and he just went through the floor of the second floor, then does that mean he actually went through the third, and in that case, the fourth floor? He rushed back up and went through the third, fourth and fifth floor before he found himself where he wanted to be.

Jason found himself in a massive dome, it was three times as big as the ballroom, small rectangular openings, half windows, half skylights provided sunlight into the place, it was a bit dusty and Jason saw scaffolding along the wall, with leftover ladders and tools. And in front of him was Nasha.

She stared at Jason before saying “You just came out of the floor.” She mumbled

“Yeah. I know, it’s pretty cool.” Jason smiled “What are you doing up here anyway?”

“Reading.” Nasha said still staring at Jason.

“What? Oh yeah.” Jason turned opaque once more and fell to the ground. “I couldn’t be bothered to find out how to get here. How did you find the entrance?”

“I saw the dome when we were outside and figured if I look around I’ll eventually find the stairs that lead up to it, it was really hard actually, the hatch to this place was nearly invisible against the ceiling.”

“Well done then.” But we have to meet up with your siblings cause we’re going.” Jason said

“Going? Going where?” Nasha asked.

“That’s a surprise” Jason smiled before Jason grabbed Nasha’s hand and dragged her through the floor.

She squealed as the floor went through her face before coming out on the other side. But the adventure didn’t stop as they went even further down. They reached the foyer and Jason levitated them a bit before turning them back and dropping them to the ground.

“That was cool!” Nasha exclaimed.

Jason chuckled, “Glad you liked it.”

They headed outside and found the others waiting for them.

“Right!” Jason exclaimed, he clicked his fingers and Fletcher once more appeared. He still looked imposing but the cart itself looked tamer now, bit more open, with less black and more brown and red.

“Hop in kids.” Jason said and the family happily obliged. The inside was still cushiony and the book Jason received was right where he left it. Jason was the last to get in, closing the door behind him, he motioned to Fletcher and the carriage rolled out, into the city.