"Have the workers come here to get paid. It will do them good to know that those in power are willing to take the time to pay them in person. I don"t care if you have a servant paying them in the corner, so you can continue with your other duties, but that should cut down on the corruption some."They seemed shocked that she would mention such a thing.
"What"s the problem?" she asked, looking at the advisors.
"They are sewer cleaners, Your Majesty," said Xathtak, as if that answered her problem.
"So? Don"t tell me that you are opposed to a little smell? Is it the trail of slime they would leave behind themselves? Surely there"s a magical way that the palace cleans itself?"
With every question, their faces all seemed to change in more and more humorous ways. Aella didn"t even know they could make faces like these. She was tempted to go on, but they obviously couldn"t stomach it, so, to prevent one of them throwing up, she opted to move on.
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"If you live in the palace, there must be a way, other than bathing in tubs, to clean someone." She looked around, but their faces verified there wasn"t one known. "Alright, so let this be motivation to find people capable of being scribes. The sooner you find someone who knows their letters and numbers well enough to keep track of each coin that is handed out, the sooner we can hire someone to pay the workers and keep them out of the palace."
Judging from the looks they gave each other, Aella was sure they would find someone before the night was up.
"What else do you have to report on, other than the sewer work?"
"I received reports today, that the troops in the north may have spotted a sphinx commanding the griffons that are causing so much trouble, but they haven"t been verified. Sphinxes are very dangerous and clever, far more trouble than the griffons could ever be," said Varnin, dusting imaginary lint off her military uniform, as if none of the other Advisors could top her report.
"Hmm, I may need to head there next. Alright, keep on top of it, and let me know if you hear anything else, when I return tomorrow evening," said Aella, turning to the next Advisor.
"My reports say that the human troops have started fires in fields that haven"t been harvested yet, burning a lot of the food we need to survive the winter. I"m not sure where we"re going to get enough food for the people not to starve," said Jirga sadly.
"Have you started buying the bulk food from around the kingdom to stockpile and spread to the regions hardest hit?" asked Aella.
"No, we haven"t found anyone willing to sell their extra harvests. Most of the people are scared that the coins are fake and want to trade it instead."
"That"s understandable, I guess. The barter system has been in place long enough, change will be hard. Alright, then we need to think bigger."
Aella held her arms behind her and paced as she thought out loud.
"Each demon in the kingdom will want something different, but they will need quant.i.ties that one person won"t be able to handle by themselves. We"ll have to form a train of wagons to do the bartering, and use the coins sparingly, until trust in them grows."
"You mean, form trade caravans?" asked Jirga excitedly.
"Yes, I suppose. The problem will be finding people willing to run the wagons, who can successfully trade and barter to get things moved around the kingdom. They will need to be skilled in the values of everything that is traded and bartered within the kingdom, to ensure the people get the correct prices for their things. I want a premium placed on things people use coins to purchase, to encourage use of coins again."
"We may need more than one trade caravan, to ensure goods get moved around the kingdom in a timely manner," said Destov thoughtfully.
"You"re right. The kingdom is a very large area for only one caravan to travel over," agreed Jirga.
Aella nodded, "See to it. I expect to hear good things tomorrow concerning this."
Ernun turned his head to the side and said, "There have been a large number of bodies popping up all over the city. My guards that are patrolling, keep finding them. They are always perched against a wall, where the guards will find them. I imagine it is probably your Royal a.s.sa.s.sin dealing with them, but I would request some way to verify this, to ensure we don"t have other killers running loose."
"Very well, when I speak to Firion, I will inform him to slice the left cheek, to prove he was the killer."
Ernun nodded stepped back.
"Anything else?" she asked, looking over them all, but no one else stepped forward. "Very well. I shall return tomorrow."
Aella stepped forward, teleporting to her bedroom. The door was locked and Firion was sitting at the dressing table. The young boy he had been a.s.signed was doing a handstand, next to the closet door.
"These a.s.sa.s.sins you have ordered me to oversee are pitiful," Firion said, without looking up from the dagger he was sharpening.
"I"m sure you will fix that," she said, watching as the boy shifted his weight from one hand to the other, without disturbing the thin paper he was perched on.
"I will," he agreed, putting the dagger in a wrist sheath, before pulling another from his boot.
"I need you to slice the left cheek of each body you lay out for the city guards to find."
"Do they need to be dead when I slice the cheek?"
"No."
"Very well."
"Do you have anything else to report to me?" she asked.
"No," he said, putting the knife back in his boot and pulling another from near his elbow. Aella wasn"t sure where it had been hiding, unless he had a slit in his coat she couldn"t see from this angle.
With a nod, she teleported to the hall outside the treasury. It was time to put this king ability back to the test. She needed a place that was secure enough to hold a Fire Hero prisoner. After walking for hours, she ended up in front of the library. The answer to her problem must be inside. With a sigh she teleported inside.
Bridgette had sixteen books open spread out around her, and a cup of something hot that she was sipping on as she was reading a seventeenth book.
"Ah! Aella! Glad you came back! I found out that the heroes gain their powers from a deity that the demons used to follow. The strange thing is that I can"t find any references to this deity in any of these books. I did find a way to steal their powers, but only if you"re a hero already. This book goes into detail about what to do if the heroes decide one hero has become corrupt. It"s hard to understand if you aren"t a hero, but I can try to explain it to you?"
"Yes, please!" said Aella, sitting down to listen, wondering where Bridgette had gotten the drink, but decided it wasn"t important. She felt a little guilty at forgetting to bring Bridgette something to eat. She needed to make sure she didn"t forget again.
"Well, there"s a lot of magical stuff here, you probably won"t understand, but there"s an easier way, but it"s kind of gross." She grimaced, glancing up at Aella, then shrugged. "If you drink the blood of a hero, while being a hero, you acquire their powers. That would keep Robert"s son from becoming the next Fire Hero. I"m not sure Alfred would be able to do this, though, because it says here, the blood will have the properties of the hero, meaning, Robert"s blood would be like drinking pure fire. I don"t think drinking his blood would be a good idea. Maybe Josephine could survive drinking fire, but I"m not sure fire and water would be a good mix. You can share it with Alfred, and see what he thinks?"
"I will. But how much blood? And does he need to die, or could it just be a donation, granted it would be an unwilling donation, but still."
"I think it needs to be as he is dying. It sounds like if he lives, the transfer won"t go through, kind of like how his son wouldn"t acquire his powers if he doesn"t die. As to quant.i.ty, I don"t see where it says how much…wait…more than a cup it says here. The actual amount isn"t really specified, but a cup should be sufficient."
"How can it not specify an actual amount?" asked Aella. "That seems kind of important."
"There is a reference that if the hero acquiring the new powers can survive the affects of drinking the blood, then any amount should be sufficient. That sounds weird, like a, if you survive, then you survived."
"I"ll make sure to tell Alfred, but is that all it says?"
"The rest just talks about the complicated way of transferring powers using magic."
"Alright, by the way, how do you have food?"
"Oh, I found a book that had food magic in it. It"s awesome! The author, Stu, dedicated the book to someone named Stella, and wrote all sorts of cool things in it, though I personally don"t care for blood oranges as much as she must have."
"What are blood oranges?"