The Switch

Drauch and Stormbreaker

The Switch

Chapter 10

Kragan's family was of course so excited at the prospect of being invited to not only be Yekmenian's but be in nobility as the whole family was eager to move here. You watched on as Kragan's family eagerly signed the written offers from Audrey and Lukher. Thaddius and Astrin as well as Kragan and yourself and his siblings who were of marriagable age and ready to strike out on their own- looked for a good place to build your estates on among the lands.

You looked at what parcels of land had the best access to roads- so that it was easily accessible. Also that it always had a good fresh water supply for plumbing. Where it wouldn't be prone to any storms or damage from the elements but also where the land was fertile to plant gardens and even a vineyard and an orchard and grazing lands for any flocks so that the estate would have a good food supply along with electricity. But the thing was- every piece of land had those things and you were spoiled for choice before you chose based on what the views would be like.

The Yekmenian National Bank- which was the official title of the bank that Queen Audravienne had opened for her citizens. That had been a portion of the Yekmenian Royal Treasury- would give Kragan amazing rates of interest for any money he would deposit. You immediately deposited the rest of your funds that you had on hand. Audrey was more than happy to take actual gold bricks and bars- melt them down - add adani to them to make them adani gold drakars. And then deposited them into the accounts. Which each drakar was a third of the size of a gold bouillon brick from Solowards. So she- in one fell swoop immediately tripled your money for the price of a single gold bouillon in exchange for all the adani mineral to do it.

You talked with Audrey very extensively about your own ideas and visions for what The Contessina Ships, and their ports would all eventually look like and feel like when the guest was on board. And how you could make a universally pleasing layout where the details and the finishes could be customized to suit the buyer. Tests were run to see how thin the materials could be made so that things like marble tiles for floors and walls wouldn't necessarily be all that heavy. But be durable to withstand the forces that would be put onto them when in use. And wouldn't crack depending on how heavy the person walking on them would be. You and Audrey used Thobin as your test subject to make sure that especially ships made for Dorierra- orcs of his size could easily walk through the entire ship. And especially learn the layout quickly and for there to be a safe room to easily get a bride and her party into it, defend the vessel, safely manuver the vessel out of danger and then get back on course. Audrey insisted that they build a mock up of the basic inner layout of the ship in a courtyard to make sure everything would be at the right height and width- just for the Dorierran ships. While the other ships didn't necessarily have to be so accommodating of the larger builds of Dorierran orcs. Before you reached a decision of a set of parameters for each size of ship depending on how big and massive and sprawling the ship could be and how big the guests on board would be.

All of Yekmeni and the surrounding colonies were overjoyed to be working on not just Salgria Shipping Ships but especially The Contessina Ships since mouras naturally had a flare and love for the luxurious when possible and would be doing a fair bit of the finishing work. The rest of your personal wealth was poured into an account that would pay the laborers to build the ships, and would pay the artisans for their beautiful crafts and workmanship and craftmanship to finish the ship. Since the ships would be built in three stages. The first stage- building the "skeleton" of the ship. Then the "fleshing out" stage and finally "finishing" stage.

Audrey insisted that stone timber pines from the West Coast of Nuvaric from where Stormbreaker was- where her friend Benyana was the Clan Chieftess would be the best wood in all of the supersphere to use to flesh out the ships. Because while it took a bit to get used to working with it, it lasted usually at least ten times as long as any other wood. And surely between adani steel in the frame of The Contessina Ships themselves, and the stone timber pine in the hauls and inner frames and walls. The Contessina Ships could always get upgrades and face lifts in finishing materials while also lasting at least a few lifetimes or at least a few generations of owners. And then all the various colors of marble to finish out the interiors of the ships would appeal to a variety of tastes and beautiful and wonderfully intricate but durable carpets to go on the floors whether they be stone or wood- for easy cleaning would be ideal. So that each one both looked and felt like a proper palace when you were on board the ships themselves.