After a quick lunch prepared by Niala, they did a second, longer tour of the house, this time looking and noting down damage and breaks that required fixing, as well as any modifications or renovations that Niala wanted to make.

  Although the house had been solidly built, it had remained unoccupied and unattended for close to two decades. The list of repairs became quite extensive. A small favour, nothing seemed critical or to majorly impact the house's overall integrity. Niala would still hire a professional to do a proper inspection, but so far, nothing was cause for panic.

  They took some time to prioritize the list of repairs, made some plans on how to proceed, and went to work.

  David focused first on fixing the cold box, replacing its insulation and mana-cooler with the ones purchased in Bellharbour. Since it wouldn't be powered by the house's mana circuit until they got around to tackling that rather major part of the renovations, he instead set it up to temporarily use mana pellets. They'd have to replace it every few days, but at least now they could keep fresh ingredients.

  Niala, during that time, brewed some seriously powerful cleaning agents before positively sanitizing every surface she could find and starting a pile of rubbish just outside the house as she threw out anything she didn't wish to keep or had any use for.

  As the afternoon started sliding into evening, Niala called out to David to come to the second floor.

  “What is it?” He asked as he cleared the last step and looked at Niala.

  She glanced at him before returning her gaze to the ceiling in one of the corners of the living room, pointing up at it.

  “Do you see anything weird there?” She asked.

  David frowned and moved closer, peering up at the ceiling as well.

  He wasn't quite sure but...

  He took out his plaque, turning it into a light once more, and shone it up at the ceiling, wiggling it around.

  There! Angling the light around made a slight difference in height between a set of ceiling planks become apparent. Three of the planks were just ever so slightly depressed compared to the rest of the ceiling. They both looked at each other, slightly surprised that the house had another mystery to it.

  “How did you even notice that?” He asked.

  She pointed at the flat mop in her hands. “I felt something hitch when I started cleaning the ceiling.”

  “Huh.” He said as he moved closer to the irregularity, peering at it.

  “Can you hand me the mop for a second, please?” He asked. She obliged.

  He butted the mop handle against one edge of the depression and solidly pushed. He felt the slightest of give. Frowning, he went and repeated the motion at the other edge.

  They heard a mechanism unlatching. They shared a glance, Niala visibly excited and urging David to proceed with a nudge of her head.

  He slowly released the pressure, and the three boards swung down as one unit, following the mop down. A pungent dusty grey paste fell down through the widening gap of what turned out to be a collapsible staircase into the attic. The stairs were completely caked with the dusty grey paste, large chunks of it falling down onto the floor as the staircase fully unfolded.

  He looked at Niala. “I guess you have an attic full of smelly, grey dried goop. Congratulations.”

  Her mirth was replaced with indignation as she glared at him a little. She bent down and picked up one of the pieces, inspecting it.

  “This reminds me of guano.” She said, slowly spinning the dry goop in her hand.

  “That's because it is,” David replied softly.

  She looked up to find he had stepped up the staircase, enough to have his head up and into the attic.

  “It's guano? From birds? Are there bird nests up there?” She asked.

  “Bats. Lots of bats.” He replied quietly, moving extremely slowly as he peered around the attic.

  “Bat Guano!? David, we're harvesting all of it! Bat Guano has so many uses in alchemy! What kind of bats? I need to know how potent this is!” She blurted out in rapid sequence.

  “The clearly offended at having a giant poking its head through the floor of their house kind of bats.” David calmly replied as he continued to stare at the probably hundred pairs of beady little eyes currently judging him harshly for his intrusion.

  “Oh.” Niala realized. “Wait! We need to find them somewhere else to live nearby!”

  “... You want bat neighbours?”

  “What? No! I want a ready supply of bat guano! It's super useful, and it's always a hassle to find in large enough quantities. If I can have a bat colony nearby, I can have all the bat guano I need!” She excitedly explained.

  As she did so, David slowly walked back down and used the mop to push the staircase back up until he heard the latch reattach. He handed the mop back to Niala.

  “You want bat poop that badly?”

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  “Bat guano!... poop makes it sound icky.” She said.

  He smirked before rubbing the back of his head. “This isn't really my area of expertise. I guess we could try and find a cave nearby, or build something attic-like for them to relocate to.” He pondered.

  “We'd have to ask a naturalist. I wonder if there's one in town... We'll probably have to go to Bellharbour.” He added.

  Niala thinned her lips as she thought, before scrunching her nose. “I'd rather we dealt with this quickly. Not that I'm afraid of bats or anything, but... we kind of need them to go if we want to inspect and fix the roof.”

  He sighed. “Right. I guess I'll go ask in town.”

  She perked up. “I'll come with you!”

  They continued chatting about the bats as they made their way outside.

  In the end, there didn't seem to be any naturalists or bat experts in Riverwall. They only found someone who offered to get rid of the bats for them. They thanked the person and moved on, seeing as this wasn't what Niala actually wanted.

  Pushing the bat-sized hole in their plans to the morrow, and with night rapidly approaching, Niala went and purchased a few fresh produce and perishable foodstuffs in town before the duo returned to her home to enjoy a relaxing end of day.

  Niala cooked some sort of spiced omelette with pan-fried vegetables as David cleaned himself with the well's cold water. Shivering in the cool evening air, he mentally re-prioritized fixing the water heater and the piping for at least one of the bathrooms while he walked back to the kitchen area. As he stepped through the door frame, a warm and rich smell assaulted his nostrils, making his stomach rumble expectantly.

  Blinking, he saw Niala softly humming as she served two plates on the table, throwing him a gentle smile when she noticed him standing in the doorway.

  He smiled back without realizing it, and came to sit down at the table, facing her, all troubles momentarily forgotten as they ate and chatted in content peace.

  He slept very well that night.

  David woke up before dawn. The auto-carriage was leaving this morning, and if they didn't catch this one, they would have to wait two more days. He went to wake Niala up, as she had said she wanted to accompany him back to Bellharbour, justifying her trip by saying she wanted to check up on Samuel's recovery.

  David had pointed out that there were plenty of talented healers in Bellharbour who knew much more about health and healing than an alchemist would.

  She had retorted that he should shut up, and she wanted to come.

  It was a surprisingly good argument.

  He knocked on Niala's door and waited.

  He again knocked slightly harder.

  Then he banged on it with the side of his fist.

  Eventually, he simply declared that he was coming in and that anything he saw that he wasn't supposed to was her fault.

  His warning was unnecessary; he found Niala rolled up in her bed sheets like a little butterfly in its cocoon. He sighed and approached, gently shaking her.

  Then he started violently shaking her, repeatedly, until he heard her groan.

  She slowly opened her sleep-crusted eyes.

  “Oh, hi, David.” She sleepily said. “Are you doing a nighttime visit?”

  He stared at her before speaking.

  “At least try to make it hard to tease you.”

  “Hrrrmm? Why?” She lazily yawned, snaking a hand through her cocoon and up to her face, starting to rub her eyes.

  Then her brain turned on. She froze. David couldn't see her very well in the pre-dawn light, but he swore he heard her blush.

  “Get up, we have an auto-carriage to catch. You asked me to wake you up. If you want a nightvisit, just ask for that instead next time. I'll be downstairs.” He informed her matter-of-factly before turning around and heading down to the kitchen area.

  He smiled when he heard a muffled scream coming from above.

  The trip to Bellharbour had been uneventful, and they arrived just before fourth bell.

  They made their way over to Luke's house first. He and Martha were surprised to see David and Niala back so soon, but warmly welcomed them just the same, quickly asking if they wanted to join them for dinner and if they needed a place to stay.

  David cut Niala off as she started to reply that she didn't want to intrude, thanking his brother and wife for their hospitality and taking them up on both their offers.

  Niala went and checked on Samuel, seeing that the boy was looking much better and learned that he had even been able to walk a little by himself earlier in the day. She advised the family to have him keep drinking a lot of water and to stay away from any potions for a few more days, but that she was otherwise very happy with his recovery.

  Niala then recounted the hoops they had had to go through to purchase her house, which led to David telling his part of the tale, Samuel being particularly enthused about the bear fight.

  Niala then made the mistake of showing the Waymans her notebook with the house's floor plan she had sketched.

  Martha instantly switched to home-maker mode and asked for details. She quickly roped Luke into the discussion, which he at first partook in out of respect for his wife, but soon became interested in the business side of the details, asking Niala to elaborate on how she wanted to set up and manage her work areas. The conversation's reins soon slipped out of Niala's hands and into the Waymans' as they started to argue with each other about the best way to address any problems.

  David tried to help and offer his own opinions and advice where he could, but, figuring this was Niala's home and business, it was ultimately her duty to deal with well-to-do but overly invested people.

  He also greatly enjoyed how Niala was doing her best at trying to keep Martha and Luke from progressively getting more and more lively and outright agitated as they started shouting at each other.

  He could have told her that they were always like that and that he'd figured out long ago that they simply loved having shouting matches and that it would probably get even worse, that it always ended up with them testing their bed's sturdiness afterwards.

  He was almost tempted to drop Niala a hint by pointing at how Samuel and his sister Annette were entirely ignoring both of their parents' antics, entirely used to it and unafraid of any lasting consequences.

  He could have, but he didn't.

  To get her to sleep, David did eventually have to tell Niala that yes, Luke and Martha would be fine and that no, they were not going to separate because of her floor plan, neither would they blame her, kick her out and never talk to her again, nor would the kids be left with lasting sequels. That they hadn't acted this way last time because they had been too upset about Samuel's situation.

  He had to reassure her four times about those facts.

  On her fifth insistence, he had her quietly follow him to his brother's bedroom, where he had her eavesdrop on the door, which she did after some pantomimed encouragement, clearly torn between shame and curiosity.

  He walked back to the guest bedroom as soon as she began listening and trying to make sense of what she was hearing.

  Not a minute later, she ran into the room, her face Niala-tomato-red, punched him in the arm and hid under the bed sheets for the rest of the night.

  He just smiled.

  being that color.

  niala." (I.e. It's such a nice scarlet-red shade.)

  nialed right up." (i.e. Blushed a scarlet red shade)