He didn't want to bother him but he had a lot of other things to do today so he left Martin there to wait for Bor while he moved on to the next thing.

A had a lot to do but everything started with the house. So, he first needed to find Manley and discuss his work so that he could unpack everything and lend rooms to the sisters and Svae.

The girls wanted to go explore the village with Svae but Emp told them all to stay with him. He didn't want them to run around and cause trouble before they even met anyone.

"But then we'll have to follow you all day and listen to you talk to a bunch of people we don't know." Complained Erin.

"You don't know anything about this place and you don't know anyone either. You should follow me to learn something instead of going around wasting your time. You'll have plenty of time later to explore this place once we resume the game."

Thinking about it, now that he was back, he should focus his attention on making the confirmation gift he planned for Mable. He might not have that much time to run after the girls. He'd have to find something else for them to do.

While he was pondering this, the girls agreed to follow him reluctantly and Emp started looking for Manley.

He crossed the path of Jenna the shoemaker and after greeting her, she told him were to find the guy he was looking for.

On his way there and starting with Jenna, he pointed at everyone they pa.s.sed to tell the three girls who they were and greeted them all happily. The others were all happy to welcome him back and most asked if Calla was well too after their trip. He answered them all briefly and since he looked in such a good mood, no one worried about the details of the trip.

A few asked about the girls they had never met and more importantly, about Svaenaha. The residents of the village rarely ever saw cursed-bloods and Svae was very eye-catching with her pale blue skin color. He answered that Svae was working for him and that the other two were some friends from Bêtéclair.

Some of the presentations went a bit awkwardly because many couldn't help but stare at how different from them Svae seemed but it was all only harmless curiosity.

The vaelian herself was a bit surprised by this. For her, all those reactions were odd. She was used to disdain and scorn as first reaction towards her instead of simple curiosity. She vastly preferred the curiosity over the rest but she couldn't help but think it was an abnormal reaction.

Her smile became brighter and brighter as they got closer to their destination and by the time Emp called out to Manley, she was thinking that this place was amazing and that the people living here were just as much.

Manley was working on the roof of someone with the other woodworkers when Emp found him.

"Manley! It's me, Emp, I'm back!"

"Emp, there you are! So Gilbert was right after all! I'm glad to see you're back safely, how's Calla?"

"She's fine, she went to see her family while I'm coming here."

"I suppose you're here for the house. We did good work on it, I'm sure you'll love it. Just let me finish this and I'll go show you around."

"Alright then, I'll wait for you down here."

He found a place to sit down nearby and the girls immediately started asking him questions again.

"Who is he?"

"Is he your boss or a coworker?"

"What are you talking about a house for?"

"Why do you need to speak to him so badly?"

"I thought you had something important to do."

Emp did his best to make them quiet with many gestures of his hands and told them what they were doing here.

"Manley is a friend of mine, him and the guys he works with built a house for me and Calla while we were away in Bêtéclair. I need him to show me around so we can prepare the house and unpack our things. I should have a few spare rooms for you three too if everything went well."

The sisters were really excited by his words. Both of them gripped his arm to shake it.

"You'll really lend us a whole room? I thought we would sleep outside!"

"Or maybe on the floor of the main room!"

Emp made a wry smile, did they often sleep outside?

"You might still have to sleep on the floor though because he hadn't planned for anyone else than Calla and me so I'm not sure we have enough beds."

The two girls didn't seem to be bothered at all by this and Svae was chuckling on the side.

"I promise we'll repay you for this too!" Erin told him in high spirit.

"Sure, try your best to do it. In the meantime, as long as I don't need that room for something else, it won't bother me to have you there. Just try to not burn down my new house alright?"

He believed it should be very hard to set fire to a house with a candle or a rush light lamp but with how unlucky they usually were, Emp would still worry.

After some time, Manley got down from the roof and joined up with them.

"Should we go get Calla for that? She hasn't seen it either after all. We could ask the Champom for the stuff you need to light the first fire."

"Sure, we can go fetch Calla but I already have some wood on me."

"You don't know what the first fire means, do you?" Manley asked with a raised brow.

Emp thought he just meant the first fire he would lit in that house but apparently, it had some other signification. He looked behind him at the other three girls but they all shrugged to tell him they didn't know either.

"Sorry, we have no idea what you're talking about." He told Manley.

"That's fine, I'll tell you on the way. In exchange, you've got to tell me who are those three."

Emp listened to the explanation with interest, he always loved to learn new things even though most felt like a waste of time.

This one too seemed made simply to waste his time. The first fire was an old tradition that said that when a new person moved into a house, either because the house was newly built or because they became the new owners of an old house, they needed to purify it before placing a fruit at the door for the first time. The principle behind it was that it was pointless to hang a fruit at the door to stop evil spirits from getting in if there was already one inside.

To make sure this would not happen, they needed to light a big fire in the hearth, fueled with very specific scented wood essence and spread the warmth and scent throughout the house. The bigger the house was, the longer this would take because every room needed to be cleansed thoroughly. There were even special types of lanterns made to house part of the hearth fire to spread it more easily across the new home.

Before this was over, no one was allowed to place any furniture inside the house and even less live in it. This meant that everything would take even longer than Emp expected. He really wanted to be done before the night so that everyone could sleep in a proper bed after this long trip.

At the Champom house, Calla's mother shot him some angry looks because they were gone for longer than she expected and she was blaming him for it. He said he was sorry and that nothing serious happened, they were just held back by a few things but she stayed frustrated. According to Azalea, the real reason she was angry was because Calla didn't seem to be pregnant yet. That wasn't his fault though, he had two hims working at it for a few weeks there.

Anyway, the Champoms that were there decided to help with the first fire and brought the necessary wood and fans with them. They weren't done talking with Calla but they too felt that taking care of the first fire and taking a look at Calla's house should take priority.

With that, their big group of ten made their way to the place where Manley, the other woodworkers and the masons had built the house. Fiona and her daughters had all seen it a few times while it was being built but it would be the first time they stepped inside like everyone else except Manley.

From outside, the house was huge compared to most of the others built in the village. According to Manley, only the house of Bor and the departed Sophus were as big as this one in the village. He had been afraid that they wouldn't be able to finish most of the work before Emp and Calla came back but they ended up being away for longer than expected so it was already completed.

It was made with thick stone foundations and solid walls of wood. The door alone was ma.s.sive and heavy, not to be imposing but to keep any unwanted creature outside with efficacy. It had two floors and large windows with solid wooden panes. Since Emp was very picky with anything related to security, all the window panes of the first floor had been reinforced with bands of steels and could be bolt locked from inside.

It might seem excessive for most but Emp remembered clearly the first day he came into the village when all those blood-spitters tried to sneak into the houses by melting down the doors and windows.

Aside from all that, the outside was made in a pretty common way, with many hooks around the windows and the door to hang lanterns or decorations of all kind and no real path leading to it aside from the crushed gra.s.s were the workers stepped all the time. The house even had the familiar yet thin smell of wood, grease and oil. (1)

Just by the door, Marcy was waiting for them with a bunch of large bowl-like lanterns linked to the handle by a chain. Obviously, she was more knowledgeable for this sort of thing than Emp so she had known the first fire would be happening today and brought her help and more equipment for them.

"Thank you mom for your help." Emp told her.

"Ya think I'm not going to do anything while my son goes through the first fire? It's such a big house too, did ya really need to have them build something so huge?"

Her words were hard but her tone light and her face soft and smiling. She was clearly having fun with this.

"I'm not the only one to blame!" He defended himself along with a snort of laughter.

All of them were to blame for how the house became this big. Calla asked him for some things, Fionna told him to make sure to add in a bunch of rooms for her future grand-kids and Even Marcy told him to have this and that built right away.

"Its so big! Which floor do you live on?" Erin asked with curiosity while all the culprits chuckled.

"What do you mean which floor? The whole thing belongs to Calla and Emp." Manley answered.

For him, however big the place was, it was normal that a single family would live in it. He didn't know that Bêtéclair was all made of tall towers with each floor having its own owner or at least, purpose.

The two sisters were dazed by his answer and stared impressed at the building. They hadn't even thought that he would own a whole floor of it but it turned out that the whole thing was his.

Svae was much less impressed because she knew the full name of Emp. In reverse, she felt that it was much too small for a n.o.ble of such standing.

"Let's go then, if we want it to be over today, we need to get going. Manley, give them the key already."

"Alright."

Manley got a big iron key from his pocket and extended it towards Emp. He didn't accept it however and shook his hands to signify he wouldn't pick it up.

"Give it to Calla instead, I'm sure she's dying to look inside."

For Emp, it was just a new place, he paid it with his own money but he held no particular feelings towards it. In his head, a house was just a place to sleep safely and eat meals.

For Calla however, this thing was much more than that. She was looking at it with misty eyes from the moment she first saw it from afar. Emp wasn't in her head, he didn't understand why it represented so much for her but he could clearly see that it did and since it was making her this emotional, she should be the one to first open the door.

Manley understood what Emp was saying and dangled the key over the hands she held clutched together until she was ready to receive it. When she finally opened up her hands to receive the key, Manley dropped it in them and everyone looked on with warm smiles while Calla picked up Emp's hand and dragged him to the door. Even the sisters stayed quiet.

She turned the key inside the lock and pushed the door open slowly. Behind the main door was a small vestibule to leave your boots in before getting into the main room. Benches lined the walls here to let people sit down while removing or putting on their boots and the floor was made out of stone easy to wash. On the left there was a cloak room even smaller than the entrance and right in front, a step up towards the main room.

Everyone stepped in behind Calla and followed her into the main room of the house. She was looking around in wonder at all the details of the floor and walls, exploring the house like a marvel or a grand castle.

They all walked into the main room and took a look around. Since the floor hadn't been cleaned once yet, n.o.body bothered to remove their boots as they stepped in. The place was wide and the roof was high. Calla had insisted that she needed a big room to cook in and receive family and friends so Emp had insisted for Manley to do it.

The room took the two floors with it's ceiling following the line of the roof. It combined the dining room the kitchen and the living room into one big s.p.a.ce with the hearth towering over the rest of it all from the center of the back wall. Because Emp knew that Calla's cooking could potentially become complicated, the fireplace was ma.s.sive and wide, with many s.p.a.ces to hang cauldrons and place grills if needed, it even had an oven for bread in case they felt like buying grain at some point. Emp hoped they could use that oven for other things than just bread because it cost a lot to make for something they might never use. He might have gone overboard to try to please Calla.

Around the huge stone chimney, there was a wide section of the floor made of stone instead of wood for security purposes but the rest was all made of smooth wide boards of wood that spread in all direction. The room was very dark at first but the others stepped in and opened all the windows while Calla was running her hand on the wall and taking in the s.p.a.ce of the thing.

The room was so wide that Emp could have a table made that would sit a good twenty people and still have more than enough s.p.a.ce for more people and furniture. This was exactly what Calla wanted, enough s.p.a.ce to entertain her whole family and more.

Emp was pretty sure that he did a good job telling Manley what Calla wished but he still wanted to ask her to make sure. He got just behind her while she was staring at the ceiling and placed a hand on her shoulder. His wife spun around and gave him a big kiss that made his heart bounce wildly. That was proof enough, his question was pointless, he had done good and the workers deserved an even bigger pay.

While he was thinking those silly things and the sisters where gawking at the sheer s.p.a.ce of the room, the others threw all the woods they brought into the fireplace. They added in some special herbs and lined the lanterns around it to take part of the fire into them once it would be lit. According to them, it shouldn't make much smoke at all but it should produce a strong smell that would chase away any evil spirit.

Once everything was ready they called for Emp to light the first fire, it was his task as the owner of the place. Before long, the small flame he made with a flint spread out and started devouring wood and herbs with avarice.

Everyone took out fans made of tin wood sheets or even bark and prepared the lanterns to better spread the first fire around. The sisters said they wanted to help too but Emp didn't let them take one of the lanterns and just allowed them to use the fans. Anyway, he wasn't convinced they were strong enough to carry a large iron bowl filled with wood. Calla's younger sisters too were only given fans.

In no time, the fire was strong enough to be fanned and divided efficiently and the smell spread around to soak the air and the walls. Emp had never smelled anything quite like this before. It was a bit powdery but not bad at all. It was like the smell of a meal cooking with a strong mix of exotic essence like some strange bath waters the n.o.bles used. It made a grey wispy smoke that was more like steam than what a fire should produce but it still stung when he got some into his eyes by accident.

With the crackle of the flames, everyone spread out to push the smell and smoke around. Manley followed the team of Calla holding a fan and Emp carrying a big lantern in order to explain every part of their hard work on the house.

On the ground floor, at the back of the main room and on the left, there was a large pantry and just beside it, a thick door leading down into a cellar that was to be used as a larder to keep the meat in a colder environment. The two places were more than large enough to satisfy Calla and thanks to those, Emp wouldn't have to carry everything in his bag anymore.

Still left of the main room, wide stairs with a solid railing ran along the wall and led upstairs with an open walkway running over the vestibule and the cloak room. More windows up there provided some light from above and made the central chandelier more accessible. Thinking about it though, now that Svaenaha was here, Emp could just have her take care of that iron chandelier.

On the right side of the house, past the main room, there was a door leading to a workshop very similar to the one Marcy had. She was the one that told Emp to have one built in because she wanted him to practice his work on his own sometimes instead of staring down her back.

It didn't mean that she didn't want him to come work with her though, she was very clear on that point. She had seemed rather frustrated that her son was getting married so soon even though she felt happy for him.

"What's the point of adopting a son if he gets married right away and moves out of the house?" She had grumbled. "Ya better come see me everyday from now on or I'll get angry."

Because of that and also because Emp felt it was pointless to have two in the same village, there was no forge in his workshop. All the crafting process that came afterwards could be done here but not the smelting and forging itself. He would have to go use Marcy's if he wanted to work metals.

At the back of that room, there was a large storeroom he had asked to be made so that he could put down all the monster parts and junk he had collected over the last two years. He didn't mind keeping everything in the bag, it was more practical that way in fact, but he felt that seeing them all lined neatly in their own room would seem better and more organized. Maybe he just wanted to have a storeroom like his mom's with all sort of rare materials on display. There were no windows leading to the storeroom because Emp felt it wouldn't be smart to have one there at all.

Once they were done with downstairs, everyone moved upstairs and looked up and down the long corridor extending from one end of the house to the other. From one end, you could see all the way to the other in a straight line, with the center being open and pa.s.sing above the main room. The place was well lit too because it lined the outer wall and held a total of seven windows. The corridor branched twice from this main line and pierced through the house in the other direction, following the walls of the main room on either side. Those two branches were darker because only a single window s.h.i.+ned some light inside from the very end of it. This was necessary however to let every other room up here have it's own window.

Every bedrooms were up here and presented their doors to the long pa.s.sage. Form the main corridor, only two rooms where accessible, all the others were linked to the branches. There was a master's bedroom on one end of the main hallway and a study at the other end where Emp planned to store all his books and papers. The two rooms were mirroring each other as they shared the same size and shape. For now, like every other room, they were perfectly empty but soon, they would be filled with their things and take on two very different feelings.

Like every room on the second floor, those two could be locked from the inside but the study's door also had a small key-lock to keep children and visitors away from doc.u.ments Emp might want to keep secret. He believed that in time, he would get more and more important doc.u.ments because of his ident.i.ty and having kids or more obviously, the two sisters going through the papers wouldn't be a good thing. It would be a great room to study, work or read in peace.

Aside from these two large rooms, there were a total of six smaller rooms connected to the two branches of the pa.s.sage. All of them were planned to house a bedroom. Emp had thought that he would reserve one for Celtine and Harriett and keep the others as spares for the kids Fiona wanted her daughter to have sooner rather than later but he already felt like they weren't enough.

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With the addition of Svaenaha, the two sisters and possibly one or more Ladies-in-waiting, he felt that he might run out of room faster than he had thought. It was a good thing that he listened to Fionna and had planned six rooms already because if he had listened to himself, he would only have asked for two and he would have been in trouble.

The cleansing progressed smoothly and they had some fun doing it. While the were exploring upstairs, Calla once threw smoke his way for fun using her fan. She took a mischievous air as she did it and Emp feigned to be distressed by the smoke to entertain her. He gave her some fake cough before blowing some smoke back at her while she giggled. She had a lot of fun going around their new house with him and seeing the whole completed thing.

Once they were finally done with the first fire, everyone gathered back at the front door and looked on with a smile at the tangible happiness emanating from Calla. Now, the only thing left to do was to hang a fruit at the door and of course, Emp let Calla do it.

She grabbed an apple her mother brought and tied it at the end of a string that Emp had hoisted up on the hook above the door. The string was then tied to the side of the door so that the fruit could be easily changed and finally, the house was truly theirs. The Champom, Marcy and Manley clapped for the special event, soon followed by the sisters and Svaenaha.

Now that this was done, they could start the real work. They needed to unpack everything, or to be more precise, Emp had to unpack everything since it was all in his bag.

They didn't need the help of the others for this and Manley's work was done now that he had shown them around. Their friend left them at that saying that now that they were back, his own marriage could finally happen and that they'd soon be told when it would take place. Emp thanked him sincerely for all his work and told him that he couldn't wait for his big day and that he was sorry for having him wait so long.

After he was gone, Calla said she wanted to start preparing the supper and invite her whole family here to celebrate. This meant that Emp had to start unpacking right away and begin with kitchen related things. They convened it would be faster if he got out all the furniture first in the room they were meant for and let the others place it all while he continued to Empty the bag.

He started with the tables and chairs, followed by all the cooking utensils and things Calla might need, then the food itself was removed from the bag into the pantry and the Cellar, along with the few shelves he had in the bag. He really needed to have more of those made, they weren't even enough to cover the pantry alone.

The sisters kept following right on his heels the whole time. They seemed really fidgety as if they wanted to ask something but didn't say a word since they got in the house earlier. It started to bother Emp as he was finis.h.i.+ng to hang the meat he had into the cellar.

"Girls, what is it? You clearly want to ask me something so say it instead of shadowing me."

The two girls acted as if they were innocent but soon, Erin said what she had in mind.

"You said you'd give us a room, you meant one of those upstairs, right? Can we choose our own room?"

"I said I'd lend you one not give and no, you don't get to choose." He said flatly, disappointing them greatly.

"Why? Aren't they all the same? Why can't we choose?" Erin asked again with an upset pout and a frown.

"Because if I let you choose, you'll say you want the big one and that's mine. Also, some of them are already reserved for others. You get the far one at the back on the right side and Svae gets the one next to that."

"Why is it the furthest from yours!"

"Because the close ones are reserved, I told you already. Why? Did you want to be close to me?"

"We wanted to be close to Calla!"

"I know, it was just a joke."

"You know how to make jokes?" Leonni asked with a confused face.

"Apparently not." Emp said with a greatly disappointed air.

He thought that the conversation was over and resumed to empty the bag but the other two didn't stop staring at his back. They were clearly upset, and kept their arms crossed and frowns across their faces.

Emp let out a small sigh and turned back to them again.

"Fine, I'll consider changing the rooms later if you do well and Calla asks me to. Why don't you go unpack your things in the room I lent you instead of wasting your time here?"

"We left them in the wagon." Erin said grumpily, clearly still miffed.

"Then go get them, you know where it is."

They stormed out of the house and Emp continued to place things around. He didn't understand why they were so upset, all the rooms were the same anyway. All he wanted was to keep the closest rooms for family or people he really trusted. On top of that, he would probably have to listen to were the n.o.bles wanted their rooms to be if they ever came here.

He quickly put this out of his mind and went all over the house dropping furniture in each room, beds, drawers, wardrobes, a desk, chairs, bookshelves and so on. He followed with clothes and all the little things to be stored everywhere. While he was doing all that, the girls in the kitchen continued their earlier talk while Calla worked on the meal in good spirit. Svae stayed with them in case they needed her help but didn't speak much because it was clearly a time for family. She ended up following Marcy in joining Emp not long after the sisters left.

Marcy helped place the things in the main room but then went to find Emp to have him tell her all about what happened back in the city and help him place everything correctly.

Much later, Gilbert showed up after he was done guarding the door and was sent back out by his mother to fetch the rest of their family for the meal. The boys and the married twins with their husband and kids too, Calla wanted everyone to be here. They were almost ready to eat and everyone had arrived when Emp noticed that it had been a while since he last saw the sisters. He looked down at the ring but was simply told that they were fine.

They came back hours after they had left, minutes before the meal, just as everyone was sitting down around the table. They were both soaked from head to toe, dripping water everywhere on the floor. They really looked downhearted and even though they had their bags now, they were just as soaked as them. Everyone stared at them curiously, including the many that had never seen them before.

"What happened to you two? Its not raining outside."

"The wagon wasn't there anymore and we couldn't find it." Erin explained in a small voice. "We had to look everywhere for it and it was a woman you presented us to earlier that told us where Martin went. Then, when we were coming back, Leo fell from the bridge and I had to jump after her to go pick her up."

So they were both soaked because they fell in the river? Leo had fell in with her bag so it was normal that it was soaked but how did Erin's get wet too? Did she jump down with it? The others had some more questions as well.

"That doesn't make sense, the bridge has a railing about this tall." Ogden said, gesturing to the height of his torso. "How did you two fall?"

"I was walking on top of the railing." Leo admitted with her head hung low.

"Well at least you know what you did wrong." Fiona chuckled along with her twins.

It was good that they were fine but now all their things needed to be dried including the clothes they were wearing and they didn't have any dry spares. They ended up having to lend them some of Calla's clothes even though they were too large for the two sisters and all their things were put by the fireplace. They could have hung the clothes on a drying rack but obviously, Emp didn't have the time to erect one outside yet.

Everyone had to eat the delicious meal that Calla made with the smell of wet clothes drying in the background. They all still had a wonderful time and the two smallest Champom took an immediate liking to the sisters who felt really awkward that only two girls smaller than them considered them to be in their group. They also kept mostly silent because out of the twenty-one people present aside from them, they only really knew Calla, Svae and Emp. They really felt out of place, sat at the table of people they didn't know wearing the clothes of someone else in a village far from their home.

Emp thought they ought to feel downhearted a bit but the moment all the guests were gone for the night, they regained their cheerful att.i.tude.

He proceeded to force everyone to take a bath even though the sisters complained that they had already taken one against their will. He filled the tub himself five times over for the two sisters, than Svae, Calla and finally him.

He sat down in the tub in their bedroom and let out a sigh. Filling the tub five times was a bit much, at least Svae helped him do it.

While he was soaking, he saw Calla come up in her nightgown and lay face down in their new giant bed with her arms and legs stretched out. She had a big smile of joy feeling the softness of it and buried her face into the pillow.

Seeing her like this pleased him a lot but then, he heard a bunch of tapping noise in the corridor.

Tap tap tap tap tap.

The sisters were now running barefoot around the second floor, going after each other or maybe even Svae, he could hear all their voices from the tub. The noise made Emp frown a bit but Calla giggled happily in reverse.

"A house needs to be lively or it's not a home at all." She told him.

*-*-*-*

(1) Animal fat and oils are used to preserve the wood. Its brand new so it smells like it but it won't stay this way.

(AN) There is no bathroom in there because we follow the age old cla.s.sic of an outhouse. it's only logical without plumbing. It wasn't worth talking about in the chapter, no one cares.

(AN2) About Svaenaha swimming speed: Its not really her speed that is slow, it's my (and her) estimations of time that are bad. I said they have the speed of a running (galloping) horse which should be a bit over 80KM/h. Vaelians can go a bit faster and won't get tired from fighting gravity so they should last longer than a sprinting horse too before needing a break. The problem is that I didn't have precise distances between the town and the village so I just cut the travel time in half to make her estimate. If I had taken some actual time thinking about it, the caravan should move at around 6 or 8KM/h, obviously, Svae would get there way way faster than half the time it took them. I was very wrong in my first estimate, I apologize. I edited last chapter to reflect this new estimate and brought it way down at between 2 to 4 days while carrying Emp compared to the close to 3 weeks of the caravan.

In comparison, those of Celtine race and the bird tribe too should be able to fly at around 120KM/h but that's because they're using conventional flight methods and can use air current and gravity as buff to their speed. Vaelians exchanged speed for extreme control, agility and length of flight, they're like giant hummingbirds. Their slower max speed in comparison is what makes them prey for giant flying monster but if they have good reflex, they should be able to dodge in the air easilly. They're treating air as water after all, they have to fight against its resistance to move forward (or any other direction) (unless they cancel the effect of their power to fall really quickly), they can't just glide like a bird does.

In a straight race, the wing tribe should win but if they race somewhere strange like close to the ground in a dense forest, over the streets of Bêtéclair or in the howling hills, the vaelian will win. I know the old man from the bestiary said they're about equal in speed but he didn't have them side by side to race, doesn't have speed measuring tools and watched them from the ground, far from them.