Day 61 - Thursday - New Year’s Day

Greg did as I asked and boxes containing the contents of my father’s office started arriving at our home last night. This morning I’m second-guessing my decision. Now we have a cluttered house as well as a cluttered office. What I really need is PODS.

Today Greg and his men will start moving the building supplies up to the castle. I’m going to Cloudspire Meadow to see how Ria is doing.

Ria proudly shows me the flowers she’s planted and explains what she’s doing to take care of them. She’d like to be able to plant even more flowers. I think it’s a good idea to encourage her to do something that helps the community and agree to allocate funds and materials to expand the meadow.

While admiring the flowers, we hear a strange, buzzing sound. Gazing upward, I can see what looks like one of Troglid's Flying Machines. It's flying very low and headed toward Landsong Village. Pieces of debris are falling from it and one of them hits me and cuts me on the forehead.

Linea appears and says the Mayor is very concerned and wants to talk to me immediately. She wasn’t kidding. The Mayor has made the trip up to the Atriums to tell me what I already know: that something resembling a flying machine has been making weird noises in the sky.

As we all head back to Town Hall, we hear a loud crash. The Mayor thinks the flying machine crashed in Landsong Village. Greg!

What's left of the flying machine is scattered in front of the General Store and Town Hall. Miraculously, nobody was hurt and it missed hitting any buildings. It did take down the Yura Festival pennants and banners. I mumble something about clouds and silver linings under my breath.

Greg is standing by the wreckage glaring at the pilot. He appears to be okay but turns white as a sheet when he sees me. The cut on my forehead bled quite a bit and I’ve used various part of my dress to wipe the blood from my face.

Blessilda fetches some ointments and bandages and assures Greg that I will be fine. Meanwhile the Mayor is chatting with the pilot, who it turns out is his old friend Leodici.

Leodici? That’s the guy that crash landed on Greg’s telescope. No wonder Greg was glaring. The Mayor wants me to help Leodici find the pieces of his inventions which are now scattered all over the kingdom. Greg wants to throw Leodici in the dungeon.

The first thing I have to do is keep Greg and Leodici apart. Greg and I go into the office and I start to formulate a plan. Obviously we’re going to have to help Leodici repair his flying machine so he can return to Gizmotek. When he takes off, we don’t want him to do any more damage, so we’ll need to take down the remaining festival banners.

And to be on the safe side, we should put the castle’s festival lights, statues, and garden décor into storage as well. Greg gives me a suspicious look. We don’t have enough bolgins to get anything fancy, but we could get some silver lamps, two cherub statues and some basic garden décor.

I tell Greg I know he’ll take care of all this for me right away. Moving the supplies from our office to the castle will have to wait. The crash site is too close to the door of Town Hall. Somebody carrying boxes or planks of golden oak might not be able to see the debris and could trip and get hurt.

Meanwhile, I will deal with Leodici. The first thing he wants is help making a stand to hold what’s left of his inventions. For this he will need golden oak and poster glue.. No problem. Just come with me into the office and help yourself.

The Mayor tells me that a lot of citizens witnessed the crash and that maybe they can tell me where to find Leodici’s inventions. A woman tells me she saw some odd key pieces near the waterfalls. A soldier reports that he thought he saw some key pieces at the Landsong Pedestal. Interesting that neither of them thought of taking any of key pieces. If Leodici had crashed in the United States, those things would already be listed for sale on e-Bay.

 The Mayor comes with me to check out those two locations. The odd key pieces are typewriter keys! A typewriter doesn't begin to compare with a computer, but if I had a typewriter, it would make my job so much easier. These keys use the Goblin alphabet but maybe if I ask nicely, Leodici could make a typewriter with a QWERTY keyboard.

Linea informs me that debris was seen to fall in Rosetum Gardens, Mystic Copse and Apricus Plaza. I find one typewriter key in each location. I also collect some other useful items such as nectar dew, blueprints, fairy dust, a goblin worm gear, and more.

I return the typewriter keys to Leodici and drop large hints about how I wish I had a typewriter. Leodici tells me he like to start repairing his flying machine. Could I supply him with some golden oak, obsidian and bolgite? I point to the office and tell him to help himself.

I’m starting to feel a bit faint so I decide to go home and rest. When Greg comes home he offers to fix me some dinner and to bring it upstairs on a tray. I tell him I’d like a Moonflower Parfait. I’m going to need the extra energy tomorrow when I search for gears for Leodici’s flying machine.

Day 63 - Saturday

Today Lucky and I are going with Gavin to search Coral Cove and Glitterstone Mines for parts of Leodici’s inventions. I don’t know why Gavin thinks we will find anything in those places, but nobody else has offered me any leads, so that’s where I’ll go.

Gavin’s instincts are wrong. We don’t find anything. But his idea to ask Triffledore if he’s seen anything is not without merit. If somebody found an oddity and wanted to get some cash for it, Triffledore is the man they’d go to.

Sure enough, Triffledore has the last piece of Leodici’s telescope. So that’s two inventions found. Leodici would like to visit Troglid next to see his airship designs. Troglid will need blueprints and I don’t have time to go to Apricus Plaza to get them. I’ll just go to the exchange and trade a fairy crest set for fifteen of them.

Leodici enjoys seeing Troglid's blueprints and models, but feels he needs to view full scale models. He wants to visit Skyfleet Docks and the Black Bull. I'm not sure what docks and pirate ships have to do with flying machines, but I'm willing to do just about anything to get Leodici back to Gizmotek and the broken flying machine off Town Hall's doorstep.

Our visit to the Docks and the Black Bull was successful. I was able to get another gilded frame for my Christmas painting. Leodici feels inspired and thinks he knows what is needed to repair his flying machine.

He wants me to find two Reigning Stars, two Traveler's Compasses, and two Goblin Bevels. And no, he doesn't any of the ones I have on hand, he wants me to find new ones. Didn't I recently go through this sort of idiocy with Leena and the jewelry boxes for Gavin?

So yet another trip to the Black Bull, another trip to Glitterstone Mines and a trip to Rosetum Gardens. I’m really tired. Maybe I was too hasty in dismissing Greg’s idea of using the ballista to send Leodici on his merry way.

It doesn’t take too long to find the Reigning Stars and Traveler's Compasses, but the Goblin Bevels are another story. By the time I return to Town Hall, it’s getting dark. I still have reports to write.

I haven’t seen Greg since this morning and he’s not happy about having to fix dinner again, even if it is a lobster I picked up in Rosetum Gardens. I try to assure Greg that things will be back to normal soon.

With a little bit of luck, Leodici should be gone in a day or two. Then Greg can finish moving the excess stock up to the castle, we can sort through my father’s papers that are currently cluttering up our Great Room, and our lives will be peaceful and serene until the next crisis arises.

Day 65 - Monday

It’s nice being able to enter Town Hall without have to stop over or around Leodici’s flying machine and inventions. With the pathway repaired, it’s as if he was never here. The Mayor is happy I helped his friend and gives me some gifts Leodici left for me. I just hope he remembers to send me a typewriter.

Time to get back to the job of rebuilding the kingdom. Greg is going to inspect the castle and decide what should be repaired next. As much as I hate the festival pathways, I think we really need to make some basic repairs to the roof and windows. He’s also assigned one of his candidates for promotion the task of overseeing the boxing up of the excess supplies and moving them to the storage room in the castle.

I’m tired of waiting for Old Man Seth and Triffledore to decide to upgrade their establishments. I’m just going to tell them that it will be done. Now. It’s especially important that the Wingferry is capable of handling the increased traffic.

While the construction is going on, Lucky and I will search the Treasure Vault. Leena needs fairy glass to create a sphere to hold the magic of Skycrystal Atrium’s third pedestal. And Ria wants to try making more fairy art. If I can find a couple of royal jewelry boxes, I can exchange some jewelry boxes for fairy glass. And I might just find that elusive relic fragment Leena claims is hidden there.

Although we don’t find the relic, Lucky and I do find three jewelry boxes and two mystic gemshorns. So I’ll be able to exchange some bard sets for paintbrushes for Raphael as well as get the fairy glass I need.

After I get the fairy glass and paintbrushes, we go to the Gildenhall Gallery to see Raphael’s new paintings. The first one depicts Old Man Seth piloting the Wingferry. Queen Sophia, her unicorn, Ria, and Quinn - with Mr Vanderkins sitting on Quinn’s head - are also in the painting. The second painting shows Queen Sophia confronting the basilisk.

Next Lucky and I pick up Ria before going to see Leena and the fairy art. The first piece of art we finish assembling depicts Quinn and Ria. I’m not sure what the second one is supposed to be - it looks like a scary tree towering over somebody, a witch perhaps? The third one is Mr Vanderkins, hiding in some tall grass. Lucky snorts.

Leena takes the fairy glass for the sphere but tells me we’ll need to see Triffledore for some artifacts. That will have to wait until after the construction is complete. I tell Leena to me me at Triffledore’s first thing tomorrw morning.

Back at Town Hall, I check through my papers to see what other tasks got put on hold while I was busy helping Leodici. Blessilda had mentioned that there is a special patch of mushrooms in Scared Grove that will dance to an ancient tune. Triffledore knows of an artifact that plays the tune, but we will need to test it on a Fireblossom Passion Flower. Apparently those flowers also like to dance.

Might as well see if Blessilda has the time to go look to Rosetum Gardens to look for the flower. She does, so off to Rosetutm Gardens we go. I find the flower and pick up another lobster. Greg’s lunch tomorrow will be lobster bisque.

Blessilda wants to go see Triffledore now to get the artifact that plays the ancient tune. I explain that his emporium is being expanded and it will have to wait until tomorrow.

I think we’ve started enough new projects for the day, Lucky. Let’s go back to Town Hall and see how much stuff has been moved out. Yeah, and we can drop off all the new stuff we found.

Greg is already at Town Hall writing up reports about the work needing to be done on the castle. A small group of soldiers are also there, still working on packing and moving the excess supplies. They all look up and sigh when I arrive with more. I just smile.

Greg tells them they can finish up tomorrow and they leave. I wish we were done for the day. There’s still reports to be written and when we get home we must take down those Christmas decorations. And figure out where we’re going to store them. Maybe it’s time we expanded our own home.

Day 67 - Wednesday

Greg will be spending the entire day up at the castle supervising the repairs to the roof, windows, and pillars. Having lunch together is totally out of the question.

Lucky and I will be going to the Gnome Village with Fahleed. Fahleed wants to find the Shaman and hear his wisdom. The Shaman didn’t exactly roll out the welcome mat for me when I went there with Gavin, but maybe Fahleed will have better luck.

Nope. The Shaman declares that strangers like us can’t be trusted and slams the door of his hut in our faces. Fahleed wonders how we can earn the Shaman’s trust.

Linea swoops by to tell us that the Shaman recently lost his Gazing Eye artifact. If we find it and return it to the Shaman, he’s sure to trust us. I wonder how Linea knew we wanted to earn the Sharman’s trust.

The trip to the Gnome Village wasn’t a total loss. I found a piece of the Faire Exuberance Relic. I don’t want to take any chances that the tendency to lose things in transit has rubbed off on me, so I’ll return to Faire of Light with the relic fragment before going to Coral Cove to look for the Gazing Eye.

It doesn’t take long to find the artifact. It looks like something Blessilda has pickling in a bottle on her shelves. Then Fahleed and I head back to the Gnome Village. The Shaman is grateful to get his Gazing Eye back and invites us to enter his humble hut. I’m grateful to get rid of the creepy thing. Fahleed is grateful to have become friends with the Shaman.

Today everybody wants to talk to me about the Gnome Village. Triffledore informs me that it’s more mysterious than it looks. There is a hidden tree cave in the area.

Triffledore is also more mysterious than he looks. He asks me if Apricus Plaza ever seemed strange to me (compared to what?) and says that the plaza has a very long history and who knows what I’ll find there. He apparently knows but he’s not telling.

Lucky and I go to Apricus Plaza to look for something strange or mysterious. We find a strange and/or mysterious symbol. When I return to Faire of Light and show it to Triffledore he tells me some things were not meant to be explained. And that he would call this encounter "fate". I would call my encounter with him today totally weird.

Triffledore tells me to use what I discovered at the Gnome Village and see what I’ll find. What I find is a tree cave. I also find that it is getting late. I need to get back to Landsong Village and then go up to the castle to meet Greg.

When I return to Town Hall, Triffledore is waiting for me. He informs me that there are more mysteries in this world than I can ever discover. I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do with that information.

The work is all complete up at the castle. The windows, roof and pillars may be basic, but they are a big improvement over how things looked yesterday. Gazing down at the rest of the kingdom, Greg tells me how pleased he is with all the changes I’ve made. All the changes we’ve made, I tell him. And I remind Greg what he told me the first day, we can do even better in the future.

Day 69 - Friday

I’m not exactly sure just what I expected married life to be like, but I never dreamed Greg and I would spend entire days apart without any contact. If I had known before hand that he would not be coming home at night, I could have arranged my work day so that we had at least an hour together.

We need to talk. I’ll leave a note on his desk requesting a meeting with the Captain of Queen’s Guard and sign it Berengaria, Queen’s Steward. I hate to pull rank, but we really need to have a discussion on working hours. With no days off, we need to find some sort of balance in our lives and a way to pace ourselves before we burn out.

In the meantime, I’ll go to the Fairy Dragon Nest with Quinn and find some glass shards so that Chumblepot can make some new tiles for the fountain in Dawnshadow Cavern. Lucky doesn’t look at all pleased with the idea of spending so much time with Mr Vanderkins. Tough.

Quinn thinks we need twenty shards. That should keep us busy the entire morning. Dealing with two squabbits that refuse to play nice together, preventing Quinn from trying out the various weapons in the armory, and finding glass shards, I’m very busy indeed.

Chumblepot takes the twenty glass shards and agrees to make the tiles for the fountain. But there’s a catch: he needs me to help out at his shop and finish one of his glasswork orders. Unfortunately for me, the reason it’s unfinished is it needs more glass shards, eight of them.

I’ve had my fill of the Fairy Dragon nest for today, so I’ll exchange a set of portraits for ten glass shards. The glasswork I complete depicts Queen Sophia’s parents on their journey back from the Dreamless Castle after leaving Sophia there.

Chumblepot returns with the tiles he made, and Quinn wants to go immediately to Dawnhope Cavern to repair the fountain. When I returned to Town Hall to pick up the portraits, there had been no sign that Greg had read my note. Might as well go repair that fountain rather than have Quinn nag me about it every time he sees me. Matching the fountain tiles is a bit tricky, but eventually I get the fountain repaired. Quinn thinks Dawnhope Cavern looks less scary now.

Back at Town Hall, there’s still no sign of Greg. I’m beginning to wonder why we bothered getting married if we weren’t going to see each other. In fact, I’m beginning to wonder why he wanted me to return to the kingdom. If I’m going to be lonely, I’d rather be lonely in Beechwood Cove where at least I have television, the internet, and pizza.

I really wanted to discuss with Greg an idea I had about spending at least part of the next two days together doing fun things. I need to find pink moonflowers for Ria, so I thought we could go for a swim at Dawnshadow Lake, maybe have a picnic, and then spend some time looking at Raphael’s paintings or maybe try making fairy art.

Maybe I better just plan on doing those things by myself tomorrow. I’ll need to visit the treasure vault and see if I can find the items needed to complete sets that can be exchanged for paintbrushes and fairy glass. I might even find that elusive relic.

I might, but I don’t. Time to head back to Town Hall, write my reports and see if my husband shows up.