Draith
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Chapter 85 - Unhelpful Assistants
🕑 Added 2025-04-26 14:00:43 +0000 UTCI felt foolish for not simply fixing the door leading into the workshop and the rest of the peak earlier. The whole mountain had security built into it in the first place, and with all the excitement of exploring it, I hadn’t once thought to simply reactivate the door that’d locked us out in the first place. Sure, we were using the sides of the mountain for a super convenient outdoor fridge, but now that we had proper storehouses enchanted. Well, people didn't need to get to the peak.
Not unless they'd been cleared by Calbern.
Which meant breaking the old enchanted doorways down and rebuilding them with new security. Security which I copied from whoever'd taken over the Waygates. I was assuming it’d been Kallum, but it could’ve just as easily been the Vox Knight or the other unknown Shaper.
Once I understood what they’d done, I went a step further adding the bits of secure encoding I'd recalled from Earth into the designs as well. And not just on the workshop door. The library door also got a new fancy lock.
I was tempted to key every Waygate to a separate Spellkey, but the extra work to ensure everyone who needed one had one wasn't worth it. Not yet.
Which meant that I had to use three separate Spellcodes to get to Keeper. And I only made a couple physical Spellkeys for the mountain. Just enough for those I trusted to get into the workshop.
None for the library itself, though. That Spellcode only existed in one place, my grimoire.
With Keeper as secure as I could get it, I finally felt ready to turn back to my domain’s other needs. The most important of which was picking my assistant. Specifically so I could get a proper handle on said needs.
"You know, I didn't exactly picture you as the assistant type," I said, sitting across a table from Xelinda. She was the twentieth applicant I'd interviewed so far today. Unfortunately, while most of the applicants had been both literate and eager, they'd also been a bit too… brown nosey. One of them had gone so far as to refer to me as the most incredibly magnificent being to have ever walked upon the face of Ro’an.
Unhelpful, as far as assistants went.
Xelinda snorted, crossing her arms over her white armor with the tiny etchings in it. Was a little surprised she’d worn it to an interview for an administrative assistant. "You need someone who can get things done, yeah? That's me."
"I thought you might want to join the guard," I said, leaning back and gesturing to where the sentries were stationed just outside the galleon that served as both my office and living space. "You're already training with them."
"Not one for sitting around staring at the sky all day. Rather get things done," Xelinda said with a shrug. "Right now, best way to do that is to work for you."
"Hmm. I think… I'll talk to Calbern about putting you to work on tasks more suited to your talents," I said, rubbing at my chin. "From what he's said, you'd be wasted running around to pass messages or taking notes for me."
"Ser Calbern mentioned me?" Xelinda asked, her eyes going wide as she leaned forward, the white rolls of her armor clinking softly. "What did he say?"
I blinked at the sudden eagerness, then let out a soft chuckle. "That you know your way around that sword. And that you can take a hit. He also mentioned you were hoping to awaken as an ensouled."
Xelinda's expression morphed into a wince at that. "I had hoped to have awoken my core a few months ago. Father awoke his when he was twenty."
"Really? I thought elves grew up slower than humans," I said, though I couldn't actually remember coming across anything like that on Ro'an. Was that just my biases from Earth sifting through?
"Typical Kingdoms’ stereotype. Just cause Terra Vista doesn't allow sapients to drink or vote until we're twenty-five. Has nothing to do with us being elves," Xelinda said, shaking her head. "If I'd been born in the Hundred Kingdoms, I'd have been an adult five years ago."
"Depends on the kingdom," I replied. There wasn't a single age of majority across the Hundred Kingdoms, though the more western ones were closer to eighteen while the eastern were closer to sixteen. Perth had been fascinated when there'd been one kingdom, a place called Delthor, where you weren’t considered an adult no matter what your age if you didn’t pass the required rites.
One of which included wrestling a four foot tall badger-like creature into submission with nothing but a rope.
"What about where you came from? What was the age there? Are you an adult?" Xelinda asked, tapping on the table at the end of each question with the knuckle of her gauntlets, which produced a sort of clacking sound.
"I feel like this has gotten a little off track," I said, looking back towards my notes. "Which is probably a good sign you'd do better working for Calbern."
"Dodging my question, huh?" Xelinda asked, crossing her arms across her armor with a smirk.
"Just trying to get things done. I've got a lot of interviews to get through," I said with a sigh. "But yes, I'm an adult. In Arcadia, the age of majority was sixteen. I'm twenty-one."
"Ha, you're a year younger than me," Xelinda said, even as she shoved against the table and pushed herself to her feet. "Still in charge though."
"So I am. Can you send in the next applicant? And if you spot Calbern, ask him to come see me?"
Xelinda nodded before heading out while I stared down at the questions I'd laid out for each applicant. I hadn't asked her a single one. When the eager young man came in after her, I fought down a sigh.
Unlike Xelinda, he was already regaling me with how amazing I was. Had to wonder if Shapers were known for having a hard time dealing with criticism.
I looked around the office as he droned on, then down at the table and my notes. I didn’t need them for my questions. And the whole sitting at a table thing… it wasn't how I wanted to do my interviews.
Deciding that an hour was enough time wasted sitting in place for the day, I finished the interview with the young man. Then I got up, and asked Tanis, who'd been serving to keep everyone organized, to send them to me down on the pier.
Figured I could get some repairs done while I continued the interviews.
Splitting my focus did wonders for my mood. Plus, while I was still interviewing overly eager refugees, that eagerness was tempered considerably by the circumstances of the interview.
Turned out most refugees had a harder time blowing smoke up my ass while trees were Blooming rapidly next to them.
After getting halfway through my list, another applicant I hadn't expected showed up. Tamrie, the teenager who'd been babysitting the passel of kids back when I held my impromptu magic show, was making her way along the dock. And with some impressive skill.
By the time she reached me, she hadn't once slipped on the thoroughly soaked surface. The pier might be sturdy, but it was always wet. That might’ve been on account of the fact I might've built it closer to the water than I should've. Hadn't accounted for how much the tides shifted when we first built them. Thirty feet of tidal change seemed like a lot, but I'd never spent time along the ocean back on Earth, so for all I knew, that was normal.
Either way, I'd only barely fit the pier together when I'd first built it. I certainly hadn't accounted for tidal changes. Something I was working on while I repaired the damage from the attack. Easy part was using the trees that stood as posts. They could guide the pier up and down easy enough. The hard part was the side strapped to the cliff. It took a lot of Stone Sculpting to provide proper grooves for the pier to ride along without snagging.
It was at one of the low periods when Tamrie's turn had come up, meaning she at least didn't have to worry about the pier falling out from under her feet. Apparently that had happened a couple times, when the pier that had seemed to be sturdy suddenly dropped.
"Hey there Tamrie," I said as she got close to where I was using Bloom to repair a hole the size of my head.
"Magus Perth," Tamrie said, attempting to give me a curtsy, only for the pier to roll beneath us, ruining the effect somewhat when she had to scramble to stay upright.
"So, figured you'd take a shot at being an assistant, huh?" I said, most of my focus on making sure that the hole would seal over smoothly. "What makes you think you'd be a good fit?"
"I hate kids," Tamrie stated as she grabbed hold of a nearby tree to steady herself.
"That's…" I wasn’t exactly sure what that had to do with being an assistant. But my complete bafflement did earn her my attention.
"I'm good with books and numbers, can scrub your clothes clean and proper, got lots of experience cooking, and I'll keep your bed warm, if that's what you want," Tamrie said, plowing straight through before I could fully process her words. "Won't give you no kids though. Don't want em. Leave that to Felor worshipers like miss Egerta, I say. Paid a mighty price to get the finest inking this side of the eastern Dales done and I don't mean to wipe it clean."
"Tamrie, slow down," I said, holding up a hand. "There's… a lot to process there."
"Apologies, Magus Perth, sir. I just… after you gave me the ruby and all, I thought it best to speak plain. Don't much know about how courting is done among fancy folks such as yourself," Tamrie said, and I finally noticed the blush climbing up her cheeks.
"You don't… I don't really do the whole relationship thing. Never really… felt any of that," I said, rubbing at the bridge of my nose. "Even if I did, I wouldn’t… how old are you, anyway?"
"Just had my nineteenth Summer Tide," Tamrie replied, her gaze locked on mine. "Old enough to get married, if that's what you're after."
"I just said I don't want… nevermind, I'm not sure I can have an assistant who-"
"Please!" Tamrie shouted, interrupting me. She seemed almost as startled by the outburst as I was, her hand smacking into place over her mouth. She recovered quickly enough, standing up straight. "I mean to say, please, I can't… I hate kids. And everyday since I got here, looking after the little ones is all I've been good for. I was trained as a librarian, Magus Perth, not as a… a… a nanny."
I stared at her blankly for several seconds, before I finally said, "You… were trained as a librarian?"
"That's right, Magus Perth," Tamrie said, standing taller her eyes glimmering. "Apprenticed in the low holds, but my master was one of the Key Holders herself, she was. Taught me everything a librarian needs to preserve books proper, come mana or Storm tide."
"What… brought you… here?" I asked, gesturing at the cliff above us. And realized I didn't have a name for my domain. Really didn't want everyone referring to it as 'Perth's Domain' or something equally awful.
"The Bladesingers," Tamrie said, spitting off the side of the pier, her eyes narrowed. "They done to master Temill what they say they're doing to any Shaper they can get their hands on these days. Barely able to send her body to the reef before I had to book passage to avoid being done the same way."
We both stood there for several seconds before I finally nodded. "So, just to be clear, I don't want you warming my bed or anything of the sort. You would have to deal with kids on occasion though. Specifically, Bevel. She's my… apprentice, of a sort."
"Hardly a child, that one," Tamrie said, shaking her head. "She looked after the little fish during the fires." She paused, her eyes flicking up and down as she looked me over. "Won't lie, it's a shame you don't find me pleasing enough to lay next to. Always been curious if it'd be different with a Magus."
Deciding not to address that, I said, "Honestly, it sounds like you've got the kinds of skills I need. And it'd be good to have an assistant willing to speak plainly to me."
"Wait, you saying I got the job?" Tamrie asked, swaying backwards, her hand still clamped on the tree she'd been using for support.
"If you want it, yeah," I said, patting the pier beneath me with my foot, confirming it was solid. Now that I'd gotten my assistant sorted, I could get back to the important stuff.
"Oh, thank Morgath above," Tamrie said, glancing up towards the cliff. Then she looked back towards me. "So… what's it pay?"
