Chapter 9: Debts

I got up and found the loo.

Upon inspection, I decided that it needed to go. I headed downstairs to the better bathroom and used it instead. I even took a quick bath. I put on my clean set of clothes and spruced them up a little, now I knew how.

I tightened the waist on the pants and lengthened them a little with the excess material. Then I trimmed some of the excesses out of the shirt by tightening the weave and trimming the material. It looked a higher quality of material now and a better cut.

I was going to have to teach these people about better buttons and button holes. If an item had a form of buttons, they used loops. I wasn’t a fan of buttoned up flies on pants, but they were better than drawstrings.

Though, if bloke wanted to drop his daks for a quickie, drawstrings were probably better than zips and buttons. I wondered how long Junior would have to wait for some action. Using magic, I found had its drawbacks. It seemed to make me bloody horny.

I may have to find out what a bloke does to get a mistress in these times. Wally might be able to inform me on that score. I’d never had to pay for relief in the past, but I’d never been this bloody horny either.

I headed down for breakfast and found Walter and Wally in the dining room. “Morning boys,” I said noting a setting at the top of the table that I knew was for me.

“Morning boss, Pammy said since we were higher staff we could eat with you if you didn’t have guests,” Walter explained.

“Tell Pammy I appreciate her thoughtfulness and you two are always welcome at my table no matter who else is here. You are my friends first, staff second, and not my servants,” I told them.

I grinned at the relief on their faces, as they were worried they were overstepping the mark. I noticed the big jug of milk and happily filled a glass and drank it down. I love drinking milk, and this stuff was nicely chilled and tasted fantastic.

Pammy came in and put platters on the table. “Oh, thank you, Pammy. I love bacon and eggs,” I told her as I happily filled my plate.

“I noticed yah were missing a few staples, so I used that money you put in the new big jar marked ‘Housekeeping’, and I went shopping early,” she told me.

I grinned at her, “I knew you were a smart woman Pammy. I wasn’t sure how much you needed, was there enough to cover what you wished to get?” I asked.

She raised her eyebrows at me, “I’s never got that much to spend in a whole year afore,” she said.

I nodded, “Good, I eat a lot, Pammy. Doing magic makes me ravenous, so I’ll top it up regularly for you. Do we have any creditors whom Grayson owes money that would like to have paid off, so you can use their services?”

She grinned, “I’d a feelin that was why you put so much in the jar, so I paid them. Do you want the receipts?”

I nodded, “Yes, we should keep an accounts book for the house, so I have an idea of the outlays.”

“I do’s that,” she said. “I had to show Druid Grayson at the end of each month so he could pay the bills.”

I nodded, “Well in future hopefully you will just have to show me how much, so you have the money in your jar to pay them. I don’t like working on credit. I may even open a bank account for you and put the housekeeping in it if you prefer?”

“Me’s neither. I’s took great delight in paying them bills I can assure you,” she said with satisfaction. “I likes the idea of the account. I reckon in a couple of weeks I can work out about how much I need and so I only need to take it out and possibly a little extra for the jar for quick pick-ups.”

I agreed this was an amicable solution for us both and decided to set the account up today when I went to the bank. We had no sooner finished eating, and Tom came in saying I had callers. He doubled as the butler, when not driving the coach. I noted he needed new clothes like Pammy and Linette.

I said to show them in here as Pammy had just brought me out a large pot of what she said was tea. As my guests came in, she went and got more cups.

I invited them to sit and help themselves if they were still hungry as there was still a bit of food left over. Jim introduced Lord Mathew Erin and Lord Samar Coltar, and the all took a seat.

My boys went to leave, but I shook my heads at them, so they sat back down. Wally shrugged and got a cup of tea and handed the pot on. If the Lords thought it strange, I didn’t care, it was my table.

“We have some bad news for you Lord Storm,” Jim said after he got his cup of tea and while loading a piece of toast with bacon. The other two Lords took his cue and happily helped themselves as well.

“Oh?” I said.

“We found Grayson dead in his cell,” he said. He reached into his pocket and handed me a medallion. “It was on the floor outside the cell. It’s very unusual for a medallion to desert the wearer.”

“Well, if the wearer does bad things, they are supposed to abandon them,” I said.

All five men looked at me in surprise. “And you know this how?” asked Samar.

I told my bling to appear. “Because a Lord Wizard is supposed to know these things,” I said to them, and then told my bling to disappear again. I noted that all five people at the table had to squint when my bling appeared.

I fingered the medallion. It didn’t have a lot of powerful spells on it as if it had been made by a wizard, who didn’t really know how to make them correctly. I waved my hand over the medallion, and it shone brightly and then dimmed.

“Wally, come here, please,” I said.

He came up to me warily. “Repeat after me, ‘I promise that I will learn to serve, and act in the best interests of the one people, to the best of my abilities’.”

He repeated what I said. I stood and placed the medallion over his head. “You are a Druid Builder. You should find your ability to manipulate materials both of nature and earth easier,” I told him.

I hugged him and then shook his hand. I turned to the others, “Just hang five for a minute, guys, I’ll be back.” I then blinked to the cavern, retrieved my old box, and then I blinked back to the dining room.

I grinned at the shocked faces. Wally was still standing where I had left him looking at the medallion stupefied. “Walter, come here, please,” I asked.

He got up and walked towards me. He glanced at the box and then back at me. I gave him a reassuring smile. “Repeat after me, ‘I promise that I will learn to serve, and act in the best interests of the one people, to the best of my abilities’.”

Walter repeated the words a little haltingly, but he got there. I told him to place his hands on the box and say ‘Open’. His hands were shaking, but he put them on the box and said, “Open.”

When the lid moved, he snatched his hands back and looked at the box. “Open it up, Walter,” I told him gently. He opened the lid and looked in.

He gasped. “They are like yours,” he said in wonderment.

“Not entirely. On Davin’s world, this was known as a mages box. Unlike the druid’s medallions here, this box splits the powers up a little more.”

“The diadem is your source of power to help you learn better and retain knowledge. The medallion helps you store more energy and provides you with a limited shield and warns you if you are in danger, by getting warm.”

“The ring helps you to also power your spells and direct them. The wand is really cool. If you tell it to open, it opens into a stave that you can use either as a walking stick or to protect yourself. But be warned, you can’t deliberately try to hurt anyone. If you do, the medallion will pulse hot.”

“If you say ‘wand’, it will appear, and you can get it to lengthen by degrees as well. If you push it to your side and say, ‘disappear’, then it does. But it is still there when you want to use it.”

“But why are you giving this to me?” he said in awe.

I smiled, “I’m not. The box told me it belonged to you, just as the medallion said it wanted to go to Wally. I pumped it up a bit for you Wally, plus if you misbehave it will get hot, okay?”

“Apparently, I know how to make the proper boxes for the other novices and druids, but I would have to test them first, to see if they are worthy of them. I should then know what gems and metals to add, to make the box,” I told the men.

They all looked at each other. Mathew said, “What if you find you can’t make a box for us?”

“Well, I won’t take your medallions, but you don’t get a box and the extra goodies or the additional responsibilities,” I said.

Mathew looked at the others then back at me. He got up, came up to me and bowed his head, “Can you test me, my Lord Wizard Storm to see if I am worthy?”

Before I touched him, I said, “Would you swear to learn to serve, and act in the best interests of the one people, to the best of your abilities?”

Mathew nodded, “Yes, I promise that I will learn to serve, and act in the best interests of the one people, to the best of my abilities.”

I touched Mathew on the forehead. A set of bling came into my mind. I smiled at Mathew, “Way cool mate, you’re a very special type of mage, called a Healer mage.”

He nodded, pleased, “Yes I have always felt that was calling. Thank you, Lord Storm.”

“I probably won’t get time to make it for a few weeks. I have to find if I have the materials to start with, but when it is ready, I’ll be happy to present it to you.”

“At your convenience, my Lord. It just feels good knowing I am capable of serving in this way for our community.”

“Yeah, I understand how you feel. I feel the obligation, but some part of me knows the box wouldn’t have accepted me if it didn’t think I was able to handle the responsibilities,” I said.

Mathew shook my hand, “I have a feeling we will become good friends Storm if I may call you that?”

“Yes, I much prefer Storm. I’m not real up on this Lord stuff. I too feel we will become good friends Mathew,” I told him.

Jim got up, bowed his head and said, “I promise that I will learn to serve, and act in the best interests of the one people, to the best of my abilities.”

I touched him, and a set of bling came to me for him as well. “Thank you, Lore Mage,” I said. He grinned at me happily.

Samar got to his feet, “I’m too old to change son. But if you get a chance, touch my brood at some time and let me know if any of them fit your requirements.”

“Thank you, Samar, I shall probably do that,” I said.

He nodded, “I’m for home. We have a ball for the Twins on Eighth-day. They turn twenty-five years, and I’m hoping some young bucks will finally take them off my hands and not just screw them silly. They are silly enough already. We even have some guests from Trenton coming.”

I thanked him for the invitation. I asked them if they didn’t mind, I’d prefer to keep my status to the few here at present. They all agreed, and Samar and Mathew left.

Jim offered me a lift to the bank, but I said I had to bring my staff to town and set-up bank accounts and get other stuff for them, so he agreed to meet me there in an hour or so.

I rounded up the staff and said we had to go to town. Tom went and got the coach out, and the girls went to get changed. We all met up at the front and Wally got up with Tom, while the rest of us piled in.

I’d noticed a store that made off-the-shelf clothes the day before. I told Tom to take us there and that it was near the bank. Pammy said, “Yes, you do need better clothes.”

I grinned, “I’m not the only one. You’re all getting decked out.”

They looked at me strangely. “We are all getting new clothes,” I qualified. You work for a Lord Wizard. I can’t have my staff looking like ragamuffins.”

I guessed they didn’t know what a ragamuffin was but I think they understood I wasn’t happy with their clothes. None of them disagreed with me. So clothe shopping we went.

I had four large purses of coins in my satchel. Each contained a section of coins, one purse each for the different types of metals. So I thought I had enough to cover us until I got to the bank.

Tom parked the carriage outside the store, and I said he had to come in too. He looked surprised. He got down and whistled up a lad to hold the mules. I looked at the kid. He was probably about seventeen and in that gangly stage, all arms and legs.

He was happily patting the mules, and they seemed to like him. “Hey, do you have a job?”