Chapter 11

The basement was, well, Jason didn’t know how to describe it other than.

“Fucking huge.”

It was a floor, a floor that spanned the entire manor with no walls, no obstacles, not even support beams, just a floor that stretched on for miles, like some sort of grid you’d see when you think about physics. The walls were made out of cobblestone with torches spaced at intervals, as if you were in a dungeon. When Jason and Tilda walked to the intersection, where the foyer was supposed to be above them, they looked down the main wing, and looked, and looked.

“Does it end?” Tilda asked.

“Let’s find out.” Jason replied.

So they set off, walking down the middle of the, now newly christened in Jason’s mind as, ‘the long bit’, corridor. They would occasionally see steps that would lead up to other portions of the house, or mild depressions in the floor made of smooth stone, which could be used for anything, from magic circles to sculpture platforms, Jason even noticed a deep well hidden in shadow that could lead to who knows where.

They walked for a while, a good fifteen minutes before they found the end, and when they did they weren’t disappointed. It was a giant wall of glass which opened up to the river on the other side; it must have had some sort of magic on it because it made water unnaturally bright and clear, and pretty.

Jason and Tilda slowly watched as strange fish floated past serenely, casting shadows on the floor about them, they gazed at the scene for a while before Jason finally said

“Let’s head back”

Turning around they walked back down ‘the long bit’ and went up the first set of stairs they found. It led to a door, which when opened took them up to the first floor, a first floor bigger than anything they’ve seen so far. Wider than the basement and taller than the East Wing, as Jason and Tilda started walking towards the end again, there footsteps rang off the marble and bounced around them on the empty walls, it was as if they were in a cave.

At last they arrived at a set of massive double doors, it loomed ominously as Jason tried to push it open, when they stepped inside, once again, their minds were blown to bits.

If you thought the rest of the house was massive then you thought wrong, standing in, what now Jason thought of as ‘the ballroom’ was like a standing in a giant’s house, it was so big in fact that the other two floors of the house also opened onto balconies within this room, which could be accessed by yet more stairs.

But that wasn’t all, the far side of the wall was like it was ripped straight out of the crystal palace, pane upon pane of nearly transparent glass was stacked on top of each other, letting the viewer see the city in an unparalleled view, it reached up towards a ceiling then curved slightly to provide the a glimpse of the sky for the audience who might stand a bit farther inside.

Out on another balcony beyond the glass door all staring dumbfounded, were Peyton, Gwandere, Ilios and Nasha. Jason and Tilda approached them but none of them turned their heads to the clomping of their shoes, and when the two newcomers walked outside, they two stopped as well.

The sight was beautiful, the city rose up like sea moss, glowing with strange luminescence like some sort of choral at the bottom of a seabed, the water between them was smooth as a pearl, and stars dotted the tranquil scene, like little fishes floating through the thick treacle of space.

“Jason?” Gwandere said,

“Yes?” Jason looked down,

“Thanks.”

The family all gathered around giant fireplace in the ballroom, the fire was actually bigger then the entire family combined so it provided adequate warmth to the otherwise cold room.

Jason levitated all their belongings through the door and the beds were set up in resemblance of a semicircle, with Jason in a hammock above the fireplace.

“Alright let’s discuss the plan of attack for tomorrow.” Tilda begun,

“I wanna decorate my bedroom!” Peyton said enthusiastically,

“You’re going to school.” Jason declared,

Peyton looked at him in horror, as if Jason had unleashed the very devil from the pits of hell.

“Ha Ha! Looks like someone is too dumb to even help out!” Gwandere crowed

“In fact, you’re all going to school” Jason said,

That shut everybody up.

“That’s right! Guess what? I’m now part of your Family, with a capital F, so I’m going to enroll you first thing tomorrow, I’m sure Tilda won’t mind.”

The girls and Peyt, who looked at Jason like a lunatic, looked at their mother to talk some sense into this new, deranged Jason, unfortunately they found no sanity in there.

“My little children!” Tilda sniffed tearfully “They’re finally going to get the education I never had! I’m so happy!”

“But! But why?” Ilios cried,

“Why? Look around! We’re practically nobility now! You didn’t seriously expect you were going to carry on in life with the amount of knowledge in your head right now? We’re gonna make businesses! Build an economic powerhouse! Second only to the Imperial family themselves! You think you can achieve that without maths?”

Everyone stared at Jason before Peyt muttered “Being rich sucks.”

Jason shrugged “You get used to it, now go to bed!”

The next morning started off with Peyton waking up, and that woke everybody up.

“WOHOOO!” Peyt yelled as he ran out the room,

“Shut up Peyt.” Nasha grumbled as she pulled the pillow over her head.

The other two mumbled in agreement but Tilda was already out of bed.

“Get up you lazy pansies! We’ve got things to do!”

And with that a new day started.

“Okay everybody we’ve got things to do so I can’t be bothered to make breakfast, here eat these sandwhiches.” Jason said as a basket of the stuff appeared in his hand.

“I also can’t be bothered to find the bathroom.” He said, clicking his fingers, the grime disappearing, the girls gasped as their faces felt like they were splashed with cold water, and their bladder, well, felt emptied.

“Okay, I’m going to the bank and open a bank account, Tilda, we need servants, furniture, food, and find a school to occupy the children. Now, I don’t know where anything is, so what’s the most influential and well known bank in the city?”

“Well, um, The Iona Financial Vault. I believe is where higher classes place their money.”

“Wonderful! I’ll get going immediately. I’ll be home by noon.” Jason said as he out of the ball room.

Jason was whistling a happy tune, quite eager to do things without having to worry about other people. He would make ribbons of light emit from his fingers and draw weird patterns, making the color change regularly. All of a sudden he stopped.

“No way, I can’t believe I’ve never done this.”

With a thought he created a hover board, jumped on it and sped down the corridor, hooting into the distance. Jason sped along doing tricks and grinding down the stairs into the foyer before launching into a backflip and landing gracefully.

Once outside he made a stream of heavily armored carriages, they were all elegantly black, with the horses well-groomed and the drivers all wearing fine coats with polished shoes. Jason ran up to the very first carriage and said,

“Fletcher, we’re going to the head building of the Iona Financial Vault.”

Fletcher silently nodded, before setting off, with Jason levitating into the carriage door, once inside he turned back into the bearded stranger but this time with a less flamboyant appearance, a crimson coat and silk pants, but he kept the walking stick, he thought made him look quiet dashing.

While the carriage rode out through the front gates, Jason made a white cat appear in his lap, and started stroking it, while putting shadows around his face, making him feel like Dr. Claw, or Dr. Evil, all in all, it was a good feeling.

Jason watched broodingly as the people stared at his passing, looking in awe as the sleek black carriages glided almost silently down the street, the horses being the only ones who made light clomping sounds down the streets.

There were even other nobles staring at Jason’s clompy centipede, it seemed they didn’t care that their jaws were hanging open, one was about to fall out of his carriage as he leaned out the window. Yep, it definitely felt good to be the rich evil villain.

The carriages sped along the roads, and no one dared to stop them, Jason was like a king, not having to answer any guard call, there was a moment where the party had to cross a bridge but the guards quickly jumped out of the way, too scared to stop them.

After a while they arrived at a massive building, it was like a roman temple, with pillars of marble and that triangular roof that always had something carved into it, and this was no exception. Fletcher got down from his seat and opened the door to the compartment for him, with Jason’s face still being in shadow, he watched in amusement as the staff of the bank rushed out to greet him, hurriedly stopping ten feet away from Jason’s carriage, straitening their ties and slicking back their hair.

After about three seconds Jason decided to rise and get out of the carriage, almost daintily he walked down the steps and looked around the place, making sure that he looked as imitating as hell.

The man closest to him gulped before nervously starting.

“Good morning my Lord, my name is Lukas, head treasurer of the Iona Vault, how may I be of assistance.”

Jason gazed at the man just long enough for him to think he offended him somehow before answering.

“I’d like open an account.”

The man was surprised but, being a professional, continued the conversation smoothly,

“Of course, right this way sir.”

The man bowed low, his colleagues following suit while Jason walked past them, yep being rich and evil was definitely awesome.

Jason entered the building with an entire consort following him now. If someone where to look at Jason now they would’ve seen something akin to an anthill spurting out of the ground as the bank officials scraped their noses on the floor around him.

The Bank was like a mall, there was a foyer with skylight on the first floor, then all the other floors were on the side, and there was a lot of red, red carpets, red curtains, even the wood looked sort of reddish.

“This way,” Lukas said,

The entourage headed up a discretely hidden set of steps and arrived on the second floor, then the third and fourth and so on until they were just above the last floor. There were very few people here, and the ones that were looked rich, so Jason wasn’t really bothered anymore, well not by even more people anyway.

Jason actually had no idea why everyone was following him, no one really talked to him except Lucas, maybe they were supposed to be meat shields in case of an assassin? Or they just hoped that just by being near him, they’ll be richer? Jason shrugged inwardly, time will tell.

“If you would kindly step this way.” Lukas motioned,

Jason once again found himself in another office, face to face with the most hideous man in the world.