Maid with Necromancy

Astel- 13

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The last-moment decision to return to the Hazeldown Coodly Manor rather than taking up residence in one of the few acceptable hotels in Hazeldown had turned into Astel's personal nightmare. The moment they'd left, pests had moved in. Gnomes in the garden, hand spiders in the attic, flies in the kitchen, this was all with having lost their best pest removers. Between Ambrosia's birds and Hyacinth, it hadn't been an issue before.

Lady Coodly's oracles and prophets had convinced her Lord Tyler was going to make it to the final rounds of the Ascendant Games, so why melt through coinage at a hotel? Correction, Lord of the Rising Dawn, the old woman had ordered the staff to use his new profession when mentioning the young man. It was best to correct one's thoughts before one's words. One could argue the woman's seers nailed that one, except they'd used a mechanical fortune teller to pick out of the ten options and went with "Signs point to yes" rather than "outlook good"

"Headmistress Astel, the man from the extermination company is here." Fel announced, popping her head into her room.

"About bloody time."

She'd put in the request as quickly as she could once it was clear that all the current staff could do was run around and put out minor infestations and patch small catastrophes before any of the Coodly family or their guests arrived, but it had taken over a week for this man to show up.

The servants' entrance did not mean the messy entrance. Dirt-covered footprints led up to the man who was still pacing about and spreading them on the carpet. Dust radiated off of him as he did so. He took off his hat, which only dumped more dust on the ground. "Oh, hi, miss, I'm James Evans, but everyone calls me Pen. I'm from the Brown extermination company."

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Astel swallowed an outburst at the mess he was bringing in. A couple of the maids had dust, but once they hired Harmony, no one felt the need to develop or choose the skill after that. If she were here, a wave of her hand would solve the man and the mess in the room. Surreal to wish they still had the woman.

"Yes, we put a request in days ago for a company."

"We got the work contract, but it's going to be over a week. With the Games bringing in tourists, every hotel, rental, and hovel has exercised the priority clause on their long-term contracts. White Property Group is also having a sweep of their lots, and no one turns down Manfred. Just spent the morning at one with Luce and the crew wrestling gnomes."

Astel used [Assassin's Resolve] to calm exasperation. "If you can't work here for another week, then why are you here?"

"As a courtesy to tell you of the situation. Because of the high need, the bounties on pests have increased. A lot of seekers are instead buying work contracts from the reformation auction, rather than paying a silver per gnome or five copper per spider."

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At those prices, the front garden alone would blow the yearly budget to get cleared out. Bates had left her with a balanced budget. She wouldn't be the first to blow it. Cursed comforts, criminal contracts were distasteful.

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"I see. Thank you for informing me. I'll let you know by messenger what Coodly Manor decides. "

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The man left, tracking more dirt. The three maids with [Dust] would be spending all day cleaning it. Astel added one more problem to the list and braced herself for hard choices.

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