"I think this spot will be plenty large enough," said Aella, looking over the s.p.a.ce Princess Silvermane had taken her to. "How long do you think it will take to build the bar?""We need to discuss the details of what you want," the princess said with a nod, waving for her to follow her over to a flat s.p.a.ce and pulling out a parchment scroll. "This is the rough drawing for the construction crew. I need to know where you want what."
Aella thought carefully about the bars she had seen the few times she had been in Bob"s bar.
"The entrance needs to be here, with tables and a bar over here. Shelves for his wares would be behind the bar, and a door to the kitchens over here," said Aella, pointing to the spots where she remembered seeing everything before.
"Alright, that should be easy enough, anything else?"
"How about a fireplace here, and stairs going up to rooms for guests to sleep in here?" asked Aella, remembering the rooms the heroes had staying in so long ago.
"Hmm, I don"t really think there will be a need for guest rooms, since most dwarves live around here and we don"t have many travelers, but I suppose it can be arranged. There are occasionally needs for dwarves to separate from their wives or husbands for a bit, especially if there was an argument or a forgotten anniversary," said Princess Silvermane, running her hands through her beard thoughtfully.
"I think that"s it, then. How much do you think it will cost and how long will it take?" asked Aella, rubbing her hands together at the thought of getting busy.
"One moment," said the princess, turning to several dwarves she had brought along. As she explained what was needed from him quickly, Aella realized the dwarves might not all speak her language. "He thinks it may take a couple days. None of the requirements are very difficult, and most of the time will be spent in the fine details. The cost should be…"
Aella watched as the dwarven princess did the math in her head, glancing back at the diagram several times.
"How about 10,000 gold pieces?" asked the princess finally, turning to Aella.
Aella made a show of thinking about the amount. She knew that she had that much easy, but how could she get it from her chest back home, without them seeing her teleport?
"I will need to count the coins from my magical bag, but I don"t feel comfortable with anyone watching as I get them. It"s in a secret place, that"s rather difficult to reach," said Aella, wondering if it would work.
Princess Silvermane looked at Aella for a moment, as she thought about her request, her eyes traveling over Aella"s body. There were no bags of any kind visible on her body, and as the dwarf"s cheeks brightened noticeably through her beard, Aella fought not to laugh at the obvious thoughts dancing across her face.
"That can be arranged, do you need help from your… companions?" she asked, faltering over what to call Alfred and Frederik.
Aella thought seriously about the request, fighting not to giggle at the thought of what the dwarven princess might do if she agreed. Why not? She loved the idea of what rumors would be flying through the dwarven kingdom after she left. None of them would be able to forget her visit for a long time.
"I will need both of them, unfortunately. It can be rather tricky holding the bag open and reaching inside at the same time."
The dwarven princess"s eyes grew wide as all sorts of mental images exploded in her mind. Aella bit her tongue to keep a straight face. It hadn"t been this hard in the pits to hide her thoughts, but all the practice she had from the pits helped.
"Of course, right this way," said the princess, swinging around faster than she needed to and almost running as she led them down a short tunnel to a closed off room. "This is one of our bathing rooms. You should have all the privacy you need here."
"Thank you," said Aella with a nod, stepping past the dwarf as she huffed quietly into her beard, her eyes glued to the ground.
The moment the door shut, she turned around with a wide grin to see what Alfred and Frederik thought of her stunt. Alfred was shaking his head, hanging it down so she couldn"t see his face, but she was certain he was immensely amused. Frederik looked bright and cheerful, apparently looking forward to helping her reach her "bag".
Giving him a wink, she teleported back home, to her room, and stepped into the chest that held the miscellaneous items. She needed a bag capable of holding 10,000 gold pieces. Looking through the dwindling a.s.sortment, she finally settled on one that that could hold the gold, but only allowed access to its contents once a day. If she needed more, she would just return and get a different bag.
Jumping back out of the chest, she flipped open the gold chest and quickly filled the bag. When she teleported back to the dwarven bath house, Frederik had his hands on his hips with a sour look on his face.
"Well? Are you going to help me?" she asked, holding up the pouch and then turning it upside down so that the gold started pouring out. "It needs counted and stacked."
"What?" gasped Frederik, watching as the gold coins fell and scattered every which way.
"Like this," sighed Alfred, quickly gathering the coins and stacking them, moving faster than either of them could follow.
Grumbling under his breath, Frederik sat on the floor and started making neat little piles of the gold that was all around him, as Alfred formed piles everywhere else. As soon as they confirmed that there was indeed 10,000 gold coins, Aella opened the door.
Princess Silvermane was trying to explain to some of the dwarves what was going on, but when they saw the gold stacked in neat little piles, they ignored her and rushed into the room.
"Wow!" breathed the princess, following them in shock. "I would love to buy your magic bag!"
Aella grinned and said, "It"s going to cost you 2,500 gold pieces."
The princess nodded, not even hesitating, and motioned for her to gather up the amount as she took the bag Aella held out. Holding it out of her reach, Aella added, "There is a catch, though. You can only access the coins inside of the bag once a day."
Princess Silvermane paused, eyeing the bag for a moment, then nodded. "It"s worth it, if it can hold so much! Magical items have been incredibly difficult to come by for several hundred years. I don"t even know where you came by this!"
Aella nodded carefully, handing her the bag and waving at the coins behind her. The magical bag she had absorbed, grabbed up the 2,500 gold coins from the mountain behind her, and the dwarves gasped.
"How did you do that?" exclaimed the princess, her eyes narrowing in suspicion.
"A magical ability I acquired after fighting a swarm of harpies," smiled Aella, moving out of the way as the dwarves moved to examine the remaining coins.
"Harpies?" asked the princess, her eyebrows rising in surprise. "I"ve never seen any of those in our mountains. Where did you fight an entire swarm of them?"
"In the mountains far to the north of my former kingdom," explained Aella as she watched the dwarves counting the coins.
The princess rubbed her beard, eyeing the dwarves herself, before turning to her and saying, "You have no reason to slight me on the gold. I have faith you have paid fairly. Let"s get started on that bar you were wanting to build so badly for Bob."
"Do you have ill-will towards him as well?" asked Aella, following the princess as she returned to the bar site.
"I don"t hate him, but I also don"t trust those who use magic so freely," said the dwarven princess, glancing at Aella. "You intrigue me. Being king doesn"t seem to bother you at all. How do you manage to trust those you left behind to get things done in your absence? Do you not fear they will need you?"
"The demon I left in charge is very capable, and the advisors I have left, after I moved everyone to the new kingdom location, have proven themselves by this point. It has been a long way coming, to figure out what was expected of me, as I didn"t have the training to be a king as you and your brother have had. I was thrown into a pit and forced to fight other children to the death, in order to survive."
"I had heard of that. Was it every bit as horrible as I was told?"
"I don"t know what you were told, but I can tell you it was far more horrible than you would ever believe," said Aella grimly, turning away from her to look over the build site. This was not something she enjoyed talking about, but knew it would foster more trust between her and the princess if she told her about it.
"I would like to hear about it, if you don"t mind?" asked the princess, a gleam in her eye giving away her interest in the macabre story.