Chapter 350: Reasonable Requests
Dominic returned to the house to find Pops flirting with Beth, while Mead sat at one of the counter height chairs, helping roll dough into balls for dinner buns.
"Expect eight Elders of the Duskblade Sect for dinner, on top of the other guests." He informed the cook, who seemed a bit relieved that Dominic hadn’t invited half the sect.
He had already gotten her to serve a hundred litres of soup plus all of her premade bread loaves today, so being able to cut back a bit would be a relief.
Dominic smiled at the cook. "Don’t let my unreasonable demands make you think that I don’t appreciate all that you do for us. Having so much food ready when the guests arrived was wonderful.
The Duskblade Sect has been following a magical guiding spell since they left the western deserts of Axbridge, and a proper sit down meal made their whole week.
They will be staying in the courtyard for some time, while they build a new school and mage tower outside of town.
We needed somewhere to educate the children, and they have the educated people to do the job."
Beth nodded. "That should work out well. If they can get the school built before the rains get too bad, then the children can start their education while work on the farms is slow.
It’s a bit late for the typical Cygnia school schedule, but close enough that they’re not losing a whole year.
Not that most of them would have gone to a fancy formal school to begin with."
Pops laughed at the thought of every farmer sending their kids to school full-time. Most of them hardly taught the kids to read.
Dominic understood his laughter and shrugged. "We haven’t worked out a schedule, but I wanted the kids to at least learn enough that they wouldn’t get left behind in a town that is beginning to focus on magitech factories.
We will need a new generation to keep things running, and a mage tower run school will do that.
As long as they can all read, and they learn enough to take on a trade, it will be enough for me, but the trades we are going to have will require higher than usual standards."
Pops nodded. "That makes sense. Already the ones working at the factory making jars are getting excited about making fireplaces, and about seeing the steam tractors pull in.
It won’t be long before we’ve got them clamouring for raises and more training so they can also work with the Carriage Maker to fix steam vehicles. Then someone will want to make them ourselves, and we will be building more factories."
Beth winked at Pops. "Sounds like your perfect town. Nothing but the ringing of hammers on metal, and a bit of magic in everything."
Pops chuckled and smoothed his beard. "Well, I can’t argue with that. Town is better with a touch of magic to it."
Dominic left the pair to their strange flirting, and ignored Mead’s pleading look for him to stay and help with the dinner buns.
There were already three other maids in the room making the dough balls, they didn’t need any more hands. Mead just wanted a distraction, since there was no room to work at the main table, and she was stuck at the counter next to Pops and Beth.
Prince Fahad joined Dominic in the sitting room as soon as he left the kitchen, and poured them both a drink.
"I hear that the Duskblade Sect are making themselves comfortable in the far fields. My soldiers were startled to see so many mages in one spot, but it looks like they’re not going to cause any trouble." He began.
"Very little, I am certain.
The real arguments will begin when it comes time to work out the curriculum for the school. They’re used to training mercenary battle mages, and we’re going to send them school children with a future in the factories." Dominic agreed.
The Prince nodded. "I can see that becoming an issue. Their sect is one that is familiar to me. I looked them up when the officers informed me of their identity. They are one of many nomadic mage clans, small but strong enough that they never turned to banditry.
Some of their members are on wanted lists for unsavoury mercenary jobs and assassinations, but the sect itself isn’t known to cause troubles."
"They didn’t try to hide their sect’s nature, they were open from the start about what sort of sect they were.
I think that it might work out in our favour. They can do some additional training for our guardsmen. We’re soon to be short on town guards again, with the way that the town is expanding, and I intend to have them help train the next batch.
A week or two with the mages, a month or two with the General, and we should have guardsmen that can deal with anything that comes their way.
Then, we can start adding battle mages to the town guard as well, so that we can send patrols with a mage. If I recall, that is a common practice in all of Axbridge, isn’t it?" Dominic asked.
He had stayed away from the bigger cities, as they spelled trouble for him. But it was common practice in the less populated western regions.
"It is where we have enough of them to make it practical. Mages don’t grow on trees, and the town guard doesn’t pay well enough to keep them around. You may wish to consider the budget before making grand plans to expand the guard." Prince Fahad warned.
"Excellent point. I will run it by Alexis, she’s got a better grasp of the budget than I do."
Fahad took a long swill of the strong liquor, then sighed wistfully. "You know, you’ve got it good, don’t you? If my wife was half as capable as your Alexis, I would have far less white hair.
A decade she’s been training to become Queen already, lessons every day on top of a lifetime of grooming, and still, it’s better that I have staff handle household affairs, or she’d frustrate me to an early grave."
Dominic winked at him. "Then we had best not mention this to Prince George."
Fahad laughed quietly. The Mitfield Prince was far too young to be as bald and white haired as he was. But in his case, it was far more from stress than a troublesome wife.