~ ~ ~
It was early for Eddie, very early for Tiana, but they'd woken before dawn. After dressing they'd stolen a pot of coffee and a pair of mugs from the kitchen, doctoring the whole pot to their liking. Liv cursed them good-naturedly as she set up another pot to brew. Then they headed down to the temple.
They weren't the only ones there either. Griff had it easier since he lived immediately adjacent to the temple, but Eddie was surprised to find Karl and Allie were there as well. It was a lot less surprising to him when after a bit of conversation he discovered that they hadn't been to bed yet.
Erik was there with a pair of guards as well. Erik had simply awoken early, the two guards were those that had been on the early morning shift.
“Because I think it's important for them to meet with the Justiciar first thing,” Erik said. “They, and all my other men, will need to work with the Justiciar closely. So it's best the relationship get started as soon as possible.”
Eddie had just nodded, sipping at his coffee. He was in no condition to even make small talk, he'd barely managed it with Karl. He could talk if he needed to, but he knew that he wasn't at his most coherent first thing in the morning and it was still earlier than he normally woke.
Shortly after dawn he noticed movement in the temple. Three people came walking out, the only ones remaining of the nine he'd seen enter the night before. The lead one was a woman wearing a symbol on a necklace. It reminded Eddie of the justice symbols he'd seen back in the real world, a set of scales, but in this case they were mounted with the blade of a sword as their support.
I suppose the sword could stand for the executioner part of the job and the scales for the other parts. What about these other two though, did I end up with three Justiciars? he wondered.
As the three came farther out of the temple he saw that the other two also wore symbols on necklaces, but they didn't match with the first one.
The woman in front strode up to Eddie, who was still blinking sleep from his eyes.
“Tyr sends his greetings and offers me as Justiciar for the Meadowlands,” she said.
Eddie's jaw dropped a bit.
Please tell me I haven't attracted the attention of another god, he thought. One is more than enough.
As he realized what he'd just thought, and who could listen in to his thoughts, he added an addendum to it.
No offense intended, Freyja.
There was no answer as such, but the back of his mind was filled with a sense of amusement.
“Well, I'm Eddie Hunter, the mayor here. I accept gratefully. We certainly need someone like you around here. I wouldn't feel comfortable being both mayor and judge of the area,” Eddie said, after the few seconds it took for him to force himself more awake and construct the statement in his mind.
“That is well. There is a problem though. You have no code of laws for this area. While law is not justice, it can be used as the basis for it. You will need to construct a code of laws before I can perform my duties properly.”
Eddie stared helplessly around himself, Karl shied back a couple of steps and Allie just smirked at him. When he looked to the other side, Griff shrugged and Tiana held up her hands, palms facing out, while shaking her head.
No help there, he thought, but maybe...
“I'm sorry, I didn't get your own name,” Eddie said.
“My name is Justiciar Bodil, Mayor Eddie.”
“Well, Bodil—“
She cut him off with a chopping motion of her hand.
“Justiciar Bodil, please.”
“Well, just call me Eddie, alright? But, Justiciar Bodil, would the creation of a code of laws be within your purview as a Justiciar?”
Bodil's face smoothed out as she smiled.
“It would indeed Mayor Eddie, do you desire me to draw one up?”
“Yes please, however, I will want to go through it and potentially adjust it before it goes into effect.”
The smile sagged a bit, but she nodded in acquiescence.
“There are things I will require to perform my duties properly. You must supply them to me if I am to support your area.”
“Make a list and I'll take care of it,” Eddie said. “You have a courtroom already, as well as an office across the hall from it. There are writing utensils and paper in the desk at the head of the courtroom. I'll show you where it is.”
“These two will be with me as well, while they were not blessed to become a Justiciar, they are still priests of Tyr and as such will assist me in administering Justice in the area.”
Eddie heard the capital 'J' in justice as she spoke it and wondered if he might have made an error in inviting a Justiciar to the area.
No, I haven't made a mistake, I'm sure of it. Things may be a little less rough and tumble in town, but if the adventurers want to act up they have plenty of places to do that nearby, so it shouldn't be an issue, I hope...
“I'm sure we can find an additional office for them as well. If you'll follow me I'll show you to your courtroom and office,” Eddie said.
For the moment, he planned on putting the other two priests in another one of the rooms near the courthouse. Bodil had frankly told him that none of them would need a great deal of room and that, if he desired, he could simply section off three sleeping quarters, tiny things only large enough for a bed, in the room he'd designated for her and leave the rest of the room as a common area for the three of them. She'd said it would suffice for both quarters and office for the three of them. He'd told her that he'd take care of it, then led her into the courtroom.
The courtroom, much larger than her mixed office and quarters, she declared barely adequate in size. When Eddie led her to the desk at the front of the room, the one he'd intended as the judge's bench, and described its usage as he understood it from the shows he'd watched, her satisfaction grew. Inside the desk were the promised paper and writing utensils. Bodil immediately took them up and began to write.
When the two other priests of Tyr entered the courtroom, she asked them to go gather all the belongings of the three of them and move them to the room across the hall. Those two left Eddie and Bodil alone in the courtroom. After a few more minutes listening to the sound of quill on paper, Eddie decided that she wasn't going to be paying any more attention to him for the moment and took the opportunity to leave as well.
She knows where to find me if she needs me, he thought. But I desperately need some more coffee in me if I'm going to be functional today.
Eddie headed back to the inn where he grabbed a large breakfast and an entire pot of coffee all to himself before finally considering himself good to go. Once he was set he headed back towards the crossroads, entering the general store when he got there. The proprietor had his back to the door, arranging the items Eddie had dropped off last night.
“Hey there,” Eddie said.
The man spun around, obviously surprised.
“Mayor Eddie, sir.”
“Please, just Eddie?”
“Sorry Mayor Eddie, I was just trying to figure out how to arrange these good to make it look like we had more items here. There's not very much for it to be the starting stock of a store.”
“Don't worry about it, I've got more goods to come down here. That was just what I could drop off last night. We've got more standard things like rope, torches, lanterns, dried foods, all that stuff. But that's all crated up and stored. I'll get it down here later on today. I think we gave Bjorn a list of a few other things to pick up in Brightport as well, so there'll be more stock still in a few days when he gets back.”
The man's face brightened as Eddie spoke.
“Well, that's much better then.”
“I'll admit a lot of it is previously used, but we didn't set aside anything for the store that wasn't in good condition.”
“Used items are fine, if you know how to sell them.”
“Oh yeah, one other thing. What was your name again? I think Griff told me, but I forgot already.”
“Oh, sorry Mayor Eddie, I'm Finn.”
“Well, good to have you on board Finn. Aside from the other goods I mentioned, is there anything else you might need?”
“Ah, sir? I will need some small coinage for change.”
“Good point. Do you have a strongbox back there?”
Finn nodded and gestured to a point below the counter he stood behind. Eddie went around back and from the pouch icon in his inventory pulled out several large handfuls of copper and half-copper coins, then a smaller handful of silver coins, which he proceeded to place in the strongbox.
“That should get you going. If you start running out and need more small coins for change, just bring some larger coinage up to the inn and ask them to exchange it for you, alright?”
“Yes, sir. I'll do that,” Finn said, staring at the strongbox.
“Oh, one other thing. Most of the stuff at the marketplace is perishable goods. I'd rather leave that stuff to the marketplace and stick to more durable goods here, okay? That way there won't be any sort of competition in prices between here and there. I mean, the occasional perishable item is fine, but don't keep a large stock of perishables, okay?”
“Yes sir, dry goods and durable goods, correct? That's what Griff told me when he contacted me.”
“That's right, I just wanted to make sure he'd told you that. I'll head on out now, you should see the other goods start to come in late this morning or right after lunch.”
The man nodded.
Eddie left the store, a little unnerved by Finn's behavior.
That was just a little bit weird. Like he was trying his hardest not to offend me, like he was worried I'd do something to him if he did. I probably ought to try to get to the bottom of that, but if I ask Finn I'm liable to make it worse. Something else for Griff to do? Or maybe I should get Karl to do it. Well, it isn't important at the moment.
Eddie was on his way up to the castle site. He hadn't actually seen it himself in a little while and he wanted to check on the progress with his own eyes.
The tower reared up in his sight well before he'd made it to the walls. If he had to guess he'd say they'd completed thirty-five feet or more of the forty foot tower.
Good, they're almost finished. I wonder just how much they've slowed down as they've gotten higher. If they were just doing five feet worth at ground level it would take less than a day.
He watched and tried to gauge it. The masons were certainly very slow working at this height, especially when they occasionally had to walk across some of the walls of the tower itself to place the next stone.
I'm not going to try to rush them, Eddie thought as he watched a mason perform a balancing act across the wall of the tower to get the next block where it was going. Definitely not worth it. Even at this speed they'll be done in two or three days.
He watched for another moment before remembering what he'd seen on the blueprint.
Wait, I do know a way to speed them up safely, Eddie thought.
He approached the foreman of the job.
“Hey there, got a minute?” Eddie asked.
“Mayor Eddie, sir, certainly.”
“It looks like your masons are a little worried about where they're building right now.”
“It's a long drop down sir, so I've told them to take their time.”
“Well, how about if I can make it a lot safer for them?”
“That'd be wonderful, sir. How?”
“Well, I'd want you to give your masons some time off. Until after lunch I think. Then I'd need you to send a runner to Griff and tell him I need about five carpenters up here, if he can spare them. We'll put in the flooring that goes in at thirty feet, if I remember the blueprints correctly. Then if they fall into the interior, it'll be less than ten feet. Plus they can stack stone blocks on that floor along the interior edge of the wall and use that to get to the areas they need to place the next blocks for the wall.”
Eddie gestured, pointing to this and that to try to make himself clear. It only took a moment or two for the foreman to understand, then he started nodding.
“Yes, sir, Mayor Eddie. We can do that. We haven't lost anyone yet on this project and I'd rather not start now. They've already been stacking planks for once we've finished the tower so the materials are on hand too.”
“Good, then let's do that. I'll take a look and see how the carpenters and I can do this in relative safety also. Probably start building at the edge of the ramp, and work out from there.”
The foreman was already calling out to the masons, telling them to take some time off. After the masons had all filed down off the ramps, Eddie climbed up, looking for the sockets in the walls that were going to hold the support beams. There were more supports that would get set coming up from the floor below, but he was sure that the horizontal ones would hold long enough for the masons to finish the walls in safety.
As he examined the project, he heard the foreman send a runner to Griff with Eddie's request. Meanwhile, he got the material haulers to work on bringing up planks for the floor. Even before the requested carpenters arrived, Eddie had started and had a decent sized section completed. With the help of the additional carpenters, they'd built and tested the floor before lunch time.
It wasn't quite as sturdy as he'd hoped so instead of having the masons stack stone blocks to get to the top of the wall, he spent a few minutes designing, then building, some four foot steps that would serve the same function, but with a great deal less weight. By the time he was done it was lunch time and he headed back to the inn, happy to have gotten some work of his own in on the tower.
~ ~ ~
Lunch was a little rushed since he wanted to get more goods down to the general store right after he finished. The crates of goods they'd set aside were in a few different locations so he tracked down one of the haulers from the construction crews and gave him very specific directions. They'd start at the farm, getting a couple of crates out of the barn up there, then down to the smithy for another small crate, finally a stop at the inn where Eddie had a few more crates of the most common items.
The hauler was to pick them all up, then drop them off at the general store, carrying the crates into the store itself. Eddie wasn't sure just how specific he had to be and was erring on the side of caution. He did want Finn to be the one to open them though since the man needed to know what was in the shop if he was going to run it.
In the meanwhile, Eddie was going to go track down Justiciar Bodil and see if she'd completed the list of items she needed to perform her duties. If she had, he'd get started on it right away.
Hopefully it's all things I can get easily though since I want to get back to the tower later on also. I'm hoping that with that floor in, they'll get the walls finished today. Tomorrow for the other floors and then I'm hoping it will qualify as enough of a Stronghold for the Developmental Issues quest, he thought.
Lucky had stayed sleeping on her bed when he and Tiana went out earlier, but she was out back fishing in the pond now. Eddie thought that perhaps he should bring her with him this time. Bodil and the other two new priests had been inhabitants before, and most of the inhabitants were familiar with Lucky, but he wanted the cat's reaction to the new officials in his town.
Not that I doubt Tyr or anything, but Bodil really seems like she's got a stick up her ass. Way too formal and officious in my opinion. I don't know if that's just her, the class, or what, but Lucky is a much better judge of character than I've ever been, so she's going with me.
He headed down to the Town Hall, only to find that the Justiciar was not in her quarters. He was wondering where she might've gotten to when he heard the raised voices from beneath him. Trotting down to the main floor, he heard Griff there by himself, but the voices were louder. He headed down to the basement and there he found the Justiciar.
She was arguing with Erik.
“This man may not be held. There were no laws for him to have violated so he cannot, in good faith, be under arrest when there was no law
to break.”
“Wait,” Eddie said. “I thought you said Justice wasn't the same as Law.”
He tried to pronounce the capitals on the words like she did, but wasn't sure if he'd succeeded.
“That is so, but Law can be used as the basis for Justice.”
“Can be. That means it doesn't have to be. I believe that this man was coerced into his actions, but he still attempted to destroy my property. So Justice would dictate that there be a punishment, no?”
Justiciar Bodil stopped, as though unsure of herself.
Well, that's not good. Hopefully she doesn't have that problem once we have laws in effect, Eddie thought.
Meanwhile Lucky had sauntered across the room. She sniffed at Bodil and chuffed, then continued to her assistants, having the same reaction to each. Eddie watched even more closely as she moved to the occupied cell. Lucky gave a sniff towards its occupant and cocked her head to the side, as though confused.
What's that mean? I know she's chuffs to mock people or when she's indifferent, she snarls at ones she doesn't like. I've never seen her do that before though.
“Justiciar Bodil?” Eddie said.
His words snapped her out of her moment of thought.
“Yes?”
“Could you use your given powers to find out if the man is guilty of attempted arson, and more importantly, why he did it? I have a suspicion why, but I'm hoping that you can ferret that out for sure.”
“Certainly, but why is the man in jail if you've not ascertained his guilt?”
“Oh, we know he's guilty. We caught him in the act. I just think there might be something more to it though, and I was wondering if you could find out if that's the case.”
“Do you consent?” she said, talking to the prisoner.
His eyes wide from the Justiciar staring at him, he managed to nod, even if he didn't say a word.
Bodil grasped her symbol of Justice and stared at the man, her eyes beginning to glow.
“You don't argue the fact that you attempted arson?” she asked.
“No, I did it.”
“Why?”
Defender Light Online Four Page 31
