The Crucible Campaign

20: Love Me Gentle

.^^ Ridicule ^^

— Caroline —

The Mystic was entirely useless, of course. I was warned he was insane, but he didn't even speak to me. He glanced at me, as I entered, and then proceeded to literally vanish. I snooped around his shop shamelessly, and found a ridiculous amount of research into completely inane things, such as the purpose of the water-to-fruit ratio of a common Apple, or the number of seeds a pinecone contains.

Annoyed, but kind of guilty for looking through his things, I tidied the place up properly, sorting everything alphabetically and by subject. Once that was done, everything went on the bookshelves, or in the racks, and anything that wasn't a book or scroll or I didn't know what it was, I placed those on the counter.

Sweeping was next, and he had a broom on one of his shelves, so I grabbed it and went to work. I was NOT prepared for it to start bucking and attempting to rip my arms out of their sockets.

"WHAT?!? THE?!? FUCK?!?" I screamed, holding on and gripping it tightly, trying to get my feet back on the ground. It began whacking me on the head with its straw head ineffectually, and then resorted to flying in circles.

I growled, having had enough, and mounted the fucking thing like a bucking colt. I held on for what felt like a few hours, but I knew was probably like five minutes, and then when it finally started to slow down, I gripped it tight, and dug my heels into the ground, hauling on it as hard as I could. It slowed to a stop, and then I dropped to the ground fully, as it turned off.

I smirked. "Ain't no way a fucking broom is gonna toss a cowgirl who breaks wild stallions for a livin', thank you very much!" I then began sweeping again, and when I was done, I set it back in the cabinet it had been in originally. "Now you have a nice day." I nodded firmly, and closed the door.

When I entered the tower, which was just this morning finished on the outside, I found Teagan quickly, and hugged him. "Hello, Lover." I smiled, kissing his cheek.

He smiled and kissed me back on the lips. "Hello, Lover. What do you think?" He gestured at the massive space before him.

"It's... impressive." I nodded.

"And it's only at 1/10th of its full size! Ooh, I can't wait for 200ft ceilings on every floor, and my casino I've always wanted, and your bar you've always wanted, and my gourmet restaurant, and your horses, and my aviary, and our academy!!!" He laughed.

"Wait, 1/10th? I thought it was 1/5th?" I frowned.

"It was, but the mages informed me that the amount of effort between 5 and 10 was negligible, so I chose ten! And I've made more changes to the apartments below ours. With that much room, I've allocated them the sides, making the paddock and Aviary into two massive squares, again." He grinned widely.

"Meaning... several levels for my horses and your Aviary? Having a fully-functioning canopy system might be interesting." I hummed.

He wasn't even listening, rubbing his hands together and looking at the plans. "We can manage about 50per side, with nine levels, plus the level for my Aviary caves, meaning 9x50=450 apartments. If I charge 5 gold per year, they'll pay for themselves rather quickly, once people see the views... plus I'm working with one of the mages, to find beautiful views all over this world, to add to the windows if someone gets tired of the view of the city." He laughed softly.

"You're paying a magical destination photographer?" I asked.

"Yes. It's most definitely worth it." He nodded firmly.