novelraw Chapter 339 281 - Earth, Nature, and Lightning
Chapter 339 281 - Earth, Nature, and Lightning
"Mmmrpgh…" Taika folded her ears back.
Someone was loud outside; less noise, more rhythm. The lonely Lunar fox splayed out on her big empty bed. The bedroom was dark. To say she missed her loves hurt on the daily. Granted, it had been only a couple of days, but still.
At least Shouri spoke to her pretty regularly. He tried to avoid times where he thought she was asleep. It wasn't perfect, but she didn't mind waking up to his voice.
Speaking of--Taika? Are you up?--his voice streamed into her head. It was astounding to her that even halfway across the world, his voice appeared in her head as crystal clear like he stood next to her.
"Si." Her lips curled up as her tail began to flick under the covers.
How are you doing?
"Managing. You?"
We met one of Rebecca's old party members yesterday. We're probably gonna take him as a resident in the next month or two.
"Oh?"
Yeah. He's been drifting since their Maestro died a few years back.
That was a dreadful thought--if something ever happened to Shouri, Taika wasn't sure what she'd do. She wouldn't give up Pacifica or Rebecca, that much was certain--she loved them too much to bear being separated. That made the present arrangement all the more painful; she had no one. Only Shouri's voice every so often.
What's going on over there? asked Shouri.
"Oh, I dunno, someone's doing something outside."
Ah, it's probably the construction crews. Ems told me we were CC'd on a bunch of emails between Cheryth and the contractors.
"That lady works too much. Didn't you say she's also doing management stuff with you all?"
Yeah. Dunno when the hell she has time to do anything. They better be paying her mad money.
Taika still wore her big goofy grin being able to talk to talk with her beloved like this. She wanted to hear from Pacifica and Rebecca, but she knew they were probably busy getting ready for the night's hunt. She didn't remember what the timezone conversion, even though Shouri had told her on the first night.
Anyway, keep an eye on them. Considering you and Lee are supposed to be getting your own offices, I want to make sure they're up to snuff for you two.
"I will. I think Holly said she was gonna watch with me, everyone else complained about the weather being bad."
Sounds about right. Either way, let me know if they mess anything up. I can get Cheryth on it.
"I will," Taika repeated.
Love you.
"Love you too."
And then she was left alone once again.
As tempting as it was to go without eating, she knew Shouri, Pacifica, and Rebecca would snip at her if she didn't take care of herself. So for that, the vixen finally rolled out of bed and went through her morning routine. Bathroom, brushing her teeth, making herself food. She made sure she was clean, and presentable.
An hour later, the fox set out to find out what was going on. The sun was just starting to crack over the horizon. Taika's ears flicked as she meandered over to the construction site. No heavy machinery like she had expected. No, there were a whole lot of Resonators around, with a number of Maestros to match their management.
As she walked over to watch, she was joined by Holly running up behind her. "Morning Taika," greeted the zalavan.
"Buongiorno," Taika greeted in return with a small wave.
"So, this is them?" queried the plant.
"Mhm."
All that had been accomplished thus far was the clearing of a patch of grass in a square formation. At the moment the workers loitered about, possibly due to waiting on something. Perfect time to take stock of who was to work the fields for the day. The Resonators were bigger beefier builds, probably crushing attributes. Element wise, the day's squad was primarily in the Earth, with one Fire and a couple of Natures. Based on the slight char around the grass that surrounded the new dirt path, she figured the Fire element must have been used for a controlled burn. Taika closed her eyes and focused on her hearing, so she could eavesdrop on what the workers discussed.
"We got anything in the soil to worry about?"
"No sir. The Earth squad burrowed around, the most they hit were a couple boulders."
Taika opened her eyes. She watched the man the foreman was talking to hand over a tablet. She figured that must have been a diagram of what the aforementioned "Earth squad" found.
"Good. Dig those up and we can get the concrete mixer in. What about the site of the storm shelter?"
"Completely clear."
"Change the order. I want that done today. You don't fuck around with Dallivan tornadoes. We got the vatonium ready?"
"Yes sir, the paneling is ordered and waiting for delivery."
"That'll probably be a Thursday problem."
"Yes sir! I'll see to it!"
Holly tugged Taika's sleeve. The fox opened her eyes again. She found the foreman walking over. Now that she got a better look at him, he was an older man, but one who definitely worked with his men in the trenches. His musculature and gait spoke to someone in excellent shape.
"Mornin' ladies," he greeted. "We'll have the foundation done by today. He turned the tablet to the two Resonator girls. "We can get all of this done in about two weeks. We got all the materials on standby for the most part," the foreman told the two.
"That's really fast," Holly said, as she scanned the plans for their new building.
"Resonators make the world work, and we got enough on staff that makes this shit lightning fast. Can't imagine doing this without them. Honestly, some companies do it faster, but they work their people to the bone. I'd rather have well-rested Resonators and do things a bit slower than sloppy work done fast." The foreman let out a hearty laugh.
Taika nodded. Cheryth must have considered that as well when she chose who to hire. There was no way in hell Shouri would have allowed a construction crew on their property who mistreated the Resonators in their employ.
"Anyway, have a good morning, we'll try to keep it quiet," and with that, the foreman wandered back to check on the progress of their work.
"I'll have Lee come out later and check on them," Holly whispered to Taika.
"Thanks." Taika smiled back.
Taika and Holly sat together and watched the workers go about their business. It was slow work. That was until the machinery Taika expected arrived. It was a large vehicle with a rotating drum. Taika listened to the shouts of the foreman and the construction Maestros. Grey goop filled the holes and made a thick bed where the building was to be built. It wasn't just slapped down and left at that, however. The Earth elements moved in and began to mold the wet concrete into the various shapes it needed to be.
However, it looked kinda lumpy in Taika's unprofessional opinion. Holly agreed.
"Huh, I always thought the foundations were supposed to be more, uh, angular," mused the plant aloud.
This shaping of the wet rock continued for a couple hours. Taika and Holly left for lunch, and enjoyed a couple of delicious sandwiches courtesy of Solana. When they returned, the workers had took off for lunch, which left a strange, half-formed mound of rock where their building was supposed to eventually live.
Holly and Taika exchanged a worried glance.
"Uh, they probably know what they're doing," Holly offered.
"The fact that you had to use the word probably is what makes me nervous," Taika said with a frown.
After lunch, only the Earth elements returned. The Nature and Fire elements from before totally absent from their ranks.
The two girls watched the Maestros get into position with their Resonators. A firing squad of brown tuners were readied.
Taika had to know what they were going to do, so she again focused, to listen for what spell they'd call.
"Il Taglio della Pietra, Rubato!"
"Il Taglio della Pietra?" Taika echoed, unfamiliar with that spell.
"Ohhhhhh, I get it!" Holly said tapping her head in realization. She pointed to the group closest to them. "Watch."
The Earth Resonators approached the semi-hardened cement. With their hands aglow, they shaped it with simple swipes. In a matter of minutes, the lumpy sad cement turned into perfectly angular supports for the base of the building.
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"Oh!" Taika exclaimed.
"Yeah, Il Taglio della Pietra lets Earth elements cut minerals and other earthy elements to specification. It's also really cool cause it can be used on stone or ice school spells to change their attribute," explained the plant.
Taika didn't realize how much Holly knew, she was almost as smart as Rebecca.
"Inseguire il Pietra Filosofale, Rubato!" came the next call.
"Huh?" The girls looked back to the build site. For a moment, the entire foundation turned to clear crystal.
"Huh?!" Their yelps only grew. Surely they didn't construct every building with crystal like this? It didn't make sense from a logistical standpoint.
"Everyone in!" the foreman shouted. The entire squad of Resonators and their Maestros hopped inside the foundation they had made and began scouring it, hunched over as if they lost something.
"Wait, I think I understand what they're doing," Holly said after a moment.
Taika certainly didn't, and looked to her partner in crime for the explanation.
"You see, they used Inseguire il Pietra Filosofale, it's a spell that lets you change one mineral to another, filling the same space," Holly took a small breath before she continued. "They use pure crystal like this as a way to find cracks, holes, or imperfections before they change it back to concrete so they know what needs to be fixed--at least I think that's what they're doing."
The Lunar fox nodded. That made a lot of sense. It was something only Resonators could do, she couldn't imagine being able to get this level of scrutiny without Earth magic like this.
Holly's theory was right on the money, as the construction crew vacated the foundation and with another call of Inseguire il Pietra Filosofale, the crystal became concrete. Except the concrete it became was completely dry and solid. Perfectly flat and smooth, ready to be built on.
With that out of the way, the crews moved on to their other project--the storm shelter. This was less visually interesting as they went underground for the construction process.
By the time it was all said and done, the Maestros and their Resonators vacated the property, while in heated discussion about where they would get drinks at.
Holly stood up from where they had seated themselves in the grass. "That was fun," she said.
Taika hopped up and nodded. Hanging out with Holly took her mind off of how lonely she was. It was nice to get to know one of their guild's newest members, too.
"Same time tomorrow?" offered the zalavan.
"Yeah."
The rest of the construction went pretty similarly to the foundation.
A couple of days were spent by the Earth elements constructing bricks. They made tons of concrete bricks. There was a whole production line of block makers, who handed off the blocks to another crew who inserted metal rods into them, and finally handed it off to the last crew who placed the blocks. Taika remembered seeing toys like this before. Interlinking blocks that all stacked together. By the end of it all, the walls were up, made up of interlocked concrete blocks. It was big and gray. Near the tail end of the day, the Earth elements ran around and solidified the seams with Earth magic, which turned it into one big fortress of stone and metal.
One of the major elements missing was wood. Taika asked one of the workers why this building was made of concrete and the answer she got was it was more sturdy, but required hiring Maestros that had Resonators with the specialized techniques and training, which bumped up the cost significantly.
"Stick homes" as they were called, were far cheaper, and used simpler labor from Nature elements. Concrete-made structures were built to last, which made Taika and Holly swell with pride at what they were watching happen.
The next day saw many trucks came in, supplying all kinds of materials, such as dry wall for the insides, and huge blocks of red stone; which, like the skeleton of the home, were cut into shape by a crew of Earth elements. They moved like a well-oiled machine, placing thick sheets of a strange material in the walls before the bricks were laid around them.
Holly eventually got curious and asked about the material. Come to find out, it was the vatonium panels that would insulate the home against Scherzando sensing what was inside. It joined a ton of different layers of walling. As soon as the layers of vatonium were secured in place, the brick laying squad got to work.
Unlike the frames the day prior, the crew worked from dawn until dusk, rotating people out around mid-day to make sure everyone took breaks and got food. By the time night fell, the building looked nothing like the gray box that stood only twenty four hours prior. It was missing the windows and doors, sure, but it looked like a completed building.
The following day saw a shift in the elemental census. That day's squad was made up almost entirely of Lightning elements with one or two heavy Water elements. It was harder to watch from a distance, since a majority of the action went on inside the building. Taika and Holly walked around a lot, peeking in through the holes where the windows were supposed to be. They worked hard on the wiring, Lightning spells called constantly. Taika overheard them talking about making sure everything was properly grounded and insulated. She realized upon seeing one of the Resonators run to one of the trucks, that they were also worked on the plumbing. A huge number of pipes left the truck and went into the building. The Earth elements took some of the piping underground with them as well--probably to hook it all up to the main line off of the guild hall.
After the electrical work came the roofing. This day saw the employ of a whole squad of birds. The birds primary function was to help get materials to the roof so they could get that squared away. It was another short day for the construction crew, and they had it all wrapped up by around lunch. Taika and Holly took a small tour once they were all gone. The two girls got giddy and dragged Solana in to show her where everything was going to be.
The smallest group yet came the following day. It was a lot of exterior work--making the outside look pretty. The doors and windows were finally installed, making it look like a totally finished building. It was impressive how much glass they installed. The entire front facade was glass. Something was being installed above the glass paneling, of which Holly and Taika couldn't be sure. A path of stone was laid out going from the guild hall to the new construction. Taika was surprised how fast all of it progressed and wondered if it'd all be done by the time Shouri and the others got back.
Another day of materials followed. This time it was a ton of machines. The Resonators on call skewed larger; ones who could lift heavy objects, and it was plain to see why, some of what needed to be moved was just plain massive. Come to find out, they were installing appliances--things like the heating and cooling systems, water heaters, the works. Taika couldn't help but be nosy and check on them every so often. Nobody yelled at her or even paid her any mind. After reporting this to Holly, the little plant succumbed to her own curiosity and joined the fox in snooping on the construction workers.
Paint day followed. Tons more materials moved in. Tiles, buckets, paintbrushes. Bird Resonators swarmed the building again, this time both inside and out, giving the entire structure several coats of paint over the course of the day. When all was said and done, the building was almost complete.
The only thing on the inside on the last day was some minor furniture. Tables, chairs, and the stuff ordered for both Lee and Taika's offices came in and were installed. Light switches and electrical outlets got their final face plates. Lights were sealed up. By the time evening rolled around, those who remained at PTRS stood in front of a nearly complete building.
"We just have to come back tomorrow and throw a layer of waterproof paint on the outside, other than that, it's all yours," said the foreman.
Taika's eyes sparkled, her tail swished excitedly as she took in the majesty of their new building. It had gone by in a flash. From literally a patch of grass in their field this building spouted almost overnight and it was a beautiful flower.
Hey Taika, Shouri suddenly spoke in her head. We're heading back tomorrow. Should be there Tuesday morning.
"Good, I can't wait for you to see the place. It's beautiful," spoke the vixen. Everyone turned to her, not hearing the voice meant only for her--but that didn't matter. Everything was looking up.