After finishing an absolutely delicious meal, which took two hours to get, they made their way over to the communications office. Manyur was starting to lag as this seemed to be the most walking he had done in a while, and kept hinting that Aella should fly them again. She refused, not because it wouldn"t be easier, but because it kind of creeped her out how much fun he had with it."Here we are," said Manyur, pausing to catch his breath at the door to a rather small building.
"Are you sure this is the right place?" asked Alfred with a frown. "It seems awfully small for such an important business."
"Well, this is actually just the place where they take the orders. They make the equipment somewhere else, and then it goes to a warehouse until its shipped," explained Manyur. "Why don"t you wait here, while I go inside and see about getting someone to help? It doesn"t look like you would fit very comfortably inside."
"That will be fine," said Aella with a nod.
Manyur stepped inside, leaving the door open and strode up to the counter where a gnome was busy on his communication device.
"Can I help you?" asked the gnome with a sigh, setting his device down and looking up at Manyur.
"Yes, I represent a guest from outside the kingdom that finds our doorways and ceiling heights to be rather restrictive. Would you mind stepping outside to speak with her?" asked Manyur, obviously trying to sound very professional.
"Sure, what"s the name?" asked the gnome, picking up a larger version of the personal communication device and glancing at the door.
"King Aella of the Demon Kingdom," said Manyur, waving his hand at the doorway, as if throwing back a curtain.
Hearing her name, Aella leaned down and looked through the doorway curiously, blinking her completely black eyes to get them to adjust quicker to the darker interior. The gnome gasped in terror, dropping his communication device, and stumbled backwards, tripping over his chair and falling flat on his b.u.t.t. Manyur jumped in surprise and rushed to his side, but the gnome was too busy kicking at the floor to scoot further from the door.
"I"ve died and gone to h.e.l.l!" he shrieked in complete panic. "Momma always said this day would come! It was those girly pictures just like she said! The demons have come to get me!"
"What is he carrying on about?" asked Frederik, leaning down to see what the commotion was.
"I have no idea," said Aella, standing up and shrugging.
"Where"s h.e.l.l?" asked Alfred, scratching his head and looking around. "Is that the name of this area? And what does it have to do with girl pictures?"
"Must be a gnome thing," said Frederik, standing up as well and looking around. "None of the other gnomes have reacted like that, though."
"We have weird people in our kingdom, there must be weird people here too," said Aella, thinking of the baby eaters she had kicked out of the capital.
"I suppose there must be weird people everywhere," agreed Alfred.
"I think you really need to calm down," Manyur said, trying to get the guy to stop muttering and scrambling away from him and the door, but it was no use. Nothing he did seemed to calm the guy at all.
With an annoyed grunt, Manyur looked around and grabbed the oversized communication device that had been dropped, and tried to figure out how it worked.
"It"s got a pa.s.sword, so I can"t access it," he grumbled, setting it down on the desk and picked up the gnome"s personal device.
After several attempts, he was able to get someone on the line.
"h.e.l.lo? Howard? What"s going on?" came a voice on the device.
"Yes, um, I"m sorry, but could you send someone else to the customer service desk at the sales office? Howard seems to have suffered some kind of mental break, and my guest would like information to possibly make a large purchase?" said Manyur, holding the device up before him.
"Manyur? Is that you?" came the voice.
"Yes, Apple? Is that you? How are you doing?" exclaimed Manyur in delight. "I had no idea you were working for the communications department now!"
"Oh, I took the job last fall when we had that issue with the kids. Remember how Ally kept falling down holes? We got her on the right meds and little Timothay finally got the surgery he needed to walk correctly, but then I found out I was pregnant again and we decided to have me switch to a better job."
"Wow, that sounds great. Anyways, do you think you could send someone? I don"t know what to do with this guy. He"s just sitting in the corner behind the filing cabinet rocking back and forth and mumbling to himself," said Manyur.
"That sounds awful! I"ll call the emergency health department to get someone over there to check him out, and a replacement should be there in a few minutes. Howards shift was almost over, so his replacement should be arriving any minute," said the voice.
"Thanks Apple. Tell your husband I would love to come over and see you guys again. The kids were so adorable the last time we got together, running and playing in the cake that fell," said Manyur, chuckling at the memory.
"I"ll be sure to tell him," Apple said, ending the conversation.
Aella looked around curiously, wondering which gnome that was currently walking down the street was the one coming to replace Howard. They were all intent on their communication devices and not really looking as if they were on their way to work. One walking towards her suddenly stopped because his device chimed at him, and he started talking just as Manyur had.
"h.e.l.lo? Apple? What"s wrong?" he said, looking puzzled.
"Maxim? Are you almost to the sales office? Howard seems to have suddenly come down ill and there are customers wanting to make a purchase. I"ve already contacted the emergency crew to come check him out, but Manyur is there and I hate to have him stand around waiting for long."
"Ah, yes," said the gnome, glancing up and spying Aella and the rest of her group. "I see them. I"m just outside."
"Great! Thanks!"
"h.e.l.lo!" Maxim said with a wide grin. "I"ll be right with you, as soon as I clock in."
"Alright," said Aella, wondering what that looked like.
He went over to the desk, nodding to Manyur, and took the oversized communication device before quickly tapping on it several times and then turned to them with his smile again.
"How many I help you?" he asked, ignoring Howard in the back corner who was too preoccupied with hiding from the demons, to come out.
"I"m curious about instating the use of your communication technology in my kingdom," Aella said, relieved to finally be getting somewhere.
"And I a.s.sume you have no understanding of how this works?" he asked, holding up his personal device.
"No," she said, shaking her head. "Until I came here, I didn"t even know they existed."
"We were contacted recently by the elves, also intrigued by our devices, but they weren"t interested in the installation needs that were necessary for utilizing them. Do you have any idea how big of an area you would like for them to work?"
Aella told him exactly how big the city was, and what she had in mind for the devices. She also told him that she was considering being able to use them in the other cities that popped up too, and he nodded, taking all the information down in his oversized device.
"That"s a pretty extensive endeavor you are wanting. It will cost a lot. Are you alright with that?"
"How much is a lot?" she asked, narrowing her eyes. Just because she didn"t understand the devices, didn"t mean she didn"t understand the concept of purchasing things.
The gnome held up the large device to show her the figures, and Aella squinted at the screen.
"I have an itemized list of all of the requirements that would need to be completed before I can come up with the grand total for the installation and dispersal of your new devices. Because of your increased size, from our own, the devices will probably need to be larger than what we currently use. That isn"t necessarily a bad thing, as it will actually allow you to have more installed in your devices but it may cause a delay while the new devices are designed and built."
"What"s the first thing that would need to be done?" asked Aella. "This seems like a big undertaking, with several smaller steps."
"That is correct. We would first need to send a team to the site location in order to plan what all is needed to accomplish what you are wanting exactly. Once we have all of that data in place, we can get material acquired and start the construction process."
"And how soon can you have a team ready?" asked Aella.
"I"m a.s.suming your kingdom isn"t nearby, since I"ve never seen your kind before, so there will be extensive planning needed to ensure the team has the supplies they need while they are gone. That could take several days."
"I can teleport them immediately," she said, with a frown.
"Ah, then that will take that out of the equation," he paused while he checked over his device. "I can have a team ready to leave in an hour. Will that be alright?"