That’s what I got for not wearing boots.
When you’re a husband, you gotta put your wife first, but you’re not the only one trying to put the other first. I’d have to give that some thought.
As soon as I got to the worksite, I always held a morning meeting. But on that day, there was something I wanted to do first.
I’ve always tried to leave home as early as I could to get to work, and I stuck to that even here in fantasyland. Although I wasn’t the first person at the site that day, I had still arrived pretty early. When you manage that, you have a moment to catch up with your coworkers and managers and the like.
We dropped our lunches and carpentry tools off at the construction shed that stood atop the hill where we were planning to build the castle. I spotted a group of laborers—their numbers just kept growing as people trickled in—and saw my chance. I’d never be able to build up a relationship with these people if I didn’t make a little effort to talk to them.
“Hey there,” I said. “I heard bringing in the stones has been slow going.”
“Oh, it has, Sir Slave,” one replied. “The road isn’t paved, and the stones are coming in by the river next to the village—I guess you know that already, ha. It feels like a big detour to bring them down the river, but I’m not gonna say it isn’t efficient!”
“Yeah, the quarry is pretty far from here, after all.”
The workers building the castle were some dwarves from the village, carpenters, and builders. The carpenters, well, were carpenters—as their job title implied, they specialized in fabricating buildings. And think of the builders like construction workers.
Under normal circumstances, we’d have to spare some of the builders to work on our flimsy huts, but at present all our resources were concentrated on building the castle and there weren’t enough people for both projects. We still didn’t have too many stones on site, though, so about half the builders were just doing basic construction work for the surrounding castle settlement.
“The plan was to get three houses built in the next couple days. How’s that going?” I asked. “The ones I saw only had scaffolding up, but none of the framework was done yet.”
“Well, you know how it is. With the number of builders we have right now, we figured we would get all that scaffolding finished first. You know, just get it out of the way.”
“Smart.”
“It’s the obvious thing to do. We’ve been constructing houses in the village and outer settlements for years now. And when we start building your house, you don’t worry about a thing. We’ll pick out the very best materials for you, Sir Slave. You just wait.”
“Hey now, don’t say that too loudly!” I protested. No one was supposed to display any kind of favoritism…not overtly. Some might call that an abuse of power, but it’s just one of the perks of leadership! “Well, I look forward to seeing your work, boss.”
As the dwarven carpenter and I chatted, I made sure to check on the progress of the houses. This carpenter was a supervisor for a portion of the workers and had given them orders to construct the new homes. I figured one of those might be my own future abode, so I couldn’t help but feel a little anxious.
We were looking to have people move into these houses starting next spring, which was just about how much time it would take to actually finish constructing them. So, we were planning to build new housing in the village first.
I know it sounds like duplicating work, but the plan was for me and my family to move out of the hunter shack and into a new house in the village, and then to move again once the settlement by the lake was finished. Our house in the village, then, could be given to new arrivals.
“What’s the progress like on clearing the field for the city square?” I asked. “The way the construction is going so far, even if we clear out the weeds and work the land now, we’re just going to have to do it over and over again, no?”
“Don’t you worry,” he said, “I’m working on that. It’ll be done before you know it.”
“Be careful you don’t work the crews too hard. That could be bad news.”
“If that ever happens, you and me’ll just kill the lot of ’em. Isn’t that right, Sir Slave?” chuckled Nishka, who was passing by.
“Uh, I certainly hope it never comes to that. We don’t have any manpower to spare!”
The enslaved criminals were the ones cutting down the vegetation and digging up stones to create a vacant plot of land for the village square. Nishka the Scalesplitter was directing that group, but her interpersonal skills were as harsh as ever. Sure, she would address me politely enough as “Sir Slave,” but there still wasn’t a shred of respect in her attitude.
Though really, I was grateful to have such a relaxed relationship with someone.
Once I’d chatted with the dwarven supervisor, I noticed that the group of slaves working under Nishka were staring hard in my direction. The look in their eyes even freaked out Cassandra, and she hid behind me.
It was a look of resentment. I could tell. In their minds, I had the same belly piercing as they did, and yet they were still treated as slaves while I was elevated to knighthood. There wasn’t much I could do about how much they hated me. Here they were, the lowest caste in the village, and they thought that I—another slave—was looking down my nose at them. Couldn’t blame ’em, honestly.
I took a rolled-up parchment scroll from the basket that hung from my shoulder and sighed. I just wanted this project to be done. “All right, everyone. I hope we’re all ready to work hard today! Remember, safety first. And when you’re carrying lumber, be sure to check your surroundings carefully. And always communicate with each other!”
Maybe they’d listen, or maybe they wouldn’t care about anything I had to say. Only so much I could do—I pulled off my leather vest and joined the ranks of the workers to start carrying stones.