Chapter 459 459 Renovations
The tea that the magical construct brought them was shockingly good, and Wolfe could sense Cassie’s sadness that none of it would be salvageable to regrow the plants that it had come from.
But the comfort of the enchanted chairs, which floated in the air so they could be repositioned without scratching the floor, was enough that both of them just sat in companionable silence for an hour before the next construct came by.
This one was a tanned woman with dark hair and eyes that would suggest she was from the Sylvan Coven, but the facial features were a bit off for a Witch. Too angular and solid.
“Good morning, Lord and Lady Noxus. I have been informed that you might be willing to help repair my damaged pantry. I am the Head Maid here. You may call me that or pick a moniker that you prefer, as is the right of a Lord at your Rank.”
The phrasing made Cassie wonder if maybe the Magi enclaves weren’t quite as peaceful or as kind as they had let on. If Rank Five had the right just to rename people at the bottom at will, it suggested that power still ruled the Magi and that those at the bottom were too afraid of those at the top even to speak up if they got their name wrong.
“Head Maid is fine. Are your gardens intact? I could help you with that as well if you need to restock your pantries after they are repaired.” Cassie offered.
“That would be greatly appreciated. The gardens were put in stasis when the house was set to storage mode, and we don’t have a witch to get them started again.” The Head Maid agreed with a happy smile on her weathered face.
The constructs were so lifelike that you could almost forget that they were not human. At least for a moment, until they did something unnatural, like the way that the head maid glided down the hallway without touching the floor.
“I will join you in case there are arrays that require a Magi to complete,” Wolfe informed them, rising to his feet and holding out a hand for Cassie to take.
“Of course, Lord Noxus, we would be honoured to have your assistance.”
The head maid led them down a corridor, and then through a hidden door that led to a servant’s corridor, and finally to the massive kitchen, still perfectly preserved with stainless steel appliances that ran completely off of magic.
Wolfe looked around the room. “This is a lovely kitchen, is it in suitable condition for serving guests? I have found more Magi descendants, and we have some hope that one of them might have come from your family.”
“Oh, that would be lovely. Yes, the kitchen is fully functional. Even the mana gathering arrays are intact, should the lady of the house prefer to do the cooking herself.” The head maid agreed.
Cassie felt like she should take offence to that comment but then realized that Magi women could use inscriptions and arrays but not create them themselves and had no stored mana. So, having a mana-gathering array present would let everything work without distraction, as she had no stored mana to feed the spells with.
They passed through the kitchen and into a small room with three more doors off of it. The rocks from the roof were shattered, as if an earthquake had struck the area, and the floor was covered in rubble, but a few sections remained intact to show how elaborately decorated even the storage room had been.
The spells, or what remained of them, looked to be fairly simple preservation spells, as well as a few to strengthen the walls and a cleaning Array. That one Wolfe would have to do, but the rest looked like Cassie could finish them herself.
“This is the entrance to the pantry. As you can see, it has been heavily damaged, and all of the side rooms have collapsed.” The head maid explained.
“Do the side doors still open? Or will I need to reinforce the room with Earth Magic first?” Cassie asked.
“They should open. The structural Array for the house is mostly intact, and it only faltered during the rearranging of the continent. It is active again now, so there should be no risk of further collapse.”
Wolfe carefully opened the doors to expose the fallen rubble while Cassie used her magic to determine how large the room was supposed to be.
“Oh, this should be quite possible. Give me just a moment, and I will fix the integrity of the rooms.” Cassie announced, then started using Earth Magic to move the fallen pieces back into place and solidify them back into something close to their original form.
Doing it that way, she even managed to recover much of the original frescoes that had been on the ceiling. Rebuilding the wooden racking for the storage room only took a few seconds longer, as Cassie had to guess what it had originally looked like and ended up just making it the same as the racking at home.
“Will that suit the purpose?” She asked politely to the magical construct.
“Yes, that will do wonderfully. With no full-time residents, the storage is a bit of a formality, only for guests, but it will be a relief to have it operational again.”
With that, Cassie started on the preservation spells to keep everything in the room fresh while Wolfe worked on the cleaning array to keep it from collecting dust over the centuries.
“There, we are all set. Now, you mentioned that the gardens were in stasis. If you could show them to me, we can get them started again so you can stock the pantry. I’m not sure what you will do once the pantry is full, though, as there are no Witches here to modify the spell’s growth rate after I am gone.” Cassie mentioned.
The head maid smiled at her.
“That part is quite simple. We will do what we have always done. We will feed the scraps to the animals in the forest.”
Wolfe smiled back at her. “We will be setting up an airstrip for our airplanes outside, so if you need the spell altered, just ask us, and we will have a Witch brought to you to do the work. It’s what any good neighbour would do.”