Chapter 91: Knock
Valens swept the cloud of dust with a Gale, filtered it through a Blockage, and was confronted with the pair of laborers staring agape at the recently grown one-story building that clearly lacked an expert's touch.
“Too crude,” he lamented as he gestured at them to halt, since he wasn’t done with the job. Growing a house from the soil wasn’t as much of a grand feat as making it look like a place worth living in. “But I suppose it fits the character of the street.”
He fixed a thin layer of stone across the walls, stretched them out, and cracked them in places so that they wouldn’t look brand new. Inside, he carved an antechamber out of the ground that led to a waiting hall, with two spare rooms further back to serve as his laboratories.
The main room would be just as big as the main hall, since he would use it to attend to the patients. There wasn’t much left for his would-be assistants to work here, but then, so long as Selin got her desk and a chair, the Templars could stand at the sides to serve as the guardians as planned.
Still, the soil lacked the charm wood had in its simplicity. That was why Valens repurposed the planks he piled in the backyard for the floor, giving the place an authentic feeling.
“I didn’t know Mages could do… this,” Selin said when she stepped foot in the new house, staring with wide eyes across the solid walls around her. “I remember most of my friends lived in old apartments with their families, crammed in a single room. But this—”
“As much as I fancy the thought of redesigning certain parts of Belgrave for a better layout, I don’t think I’m a good fit to take such a demanding work,” Valens said, frowning at the sloppy work he’d just managed. As it was, this was nothing in the face of what the Empire’s Earth Magi could accomplish even with simple resources. “And I don’t believe this was what the Captain intended when he sent me here for the groundwork.”
Selin chuckled at the joke while Dain bounded in with the look of a curious giant, feeling the wooden planks underneath his feet, thumping a fist or two to the walls as if he wanted to see whether they could hold true.
They did, so the laborers brought the ingredients inside in muted discipline, but Valens could see the looks they were giving him now and then. Questions, the two men had in their eyes, but this wasn’t the time for answering them.
A little commotion will be good for getting the attention of the Knuckle Alley’s folk. Curiosity is a great tool if you know how to build upon it.
His fingers tingled when one of the laborers hauled off a box of gleaming crystals inside.
“Finally,” Valens said, smiling widely. “Something I can use to clear the dusty air of this house. Selin, would you be kind enough to entertain our friend Dain here? I’ll have to work out a few things in the main room.”