Assistant Aedile Training (Rhyck Thralôm)

[Rhyck Thralôm]

Timestamp: Hour 10 of Carmelyana, Brightening 4 of the Third Cycle of Cryxatum
Summer of Era II of the Celestine Mandate
Era XI Post Fractum in the Age of the Darkening, the Mageocracy of Julos the Mad.
Paradigm: Schism in the Church of the Faith

Rhyck had made a quick stop at the local store and picked up a few sheets of parchment. It all alotted to about 5 crowns. That was outrageous! The Kemite could eat for almost three brightenings with that money! Rhyck had tried to talk some sense into old Ludwig. "Am I supposed to sacrifice meals to pay for these two bits of parchment?" Ludwig just shook his head and said something about people these days. "Am I to eat this? Is this a delicasy? Because this is taking the place of both meals today and tomorrow and I'm not exactly thrilled with chomping on a bunch of chopped up wood." Perhaps Rhyck had gone a little overboard, but it was simply illogical that something so small and that would be used up very quickly would cost so many crowns. Certainly the Kemite could afford it, but it still boggled his mind. He understood why the Aedile had said that parchment was much too expensive to be wasted.

Walking the same path as he had the previous brightening, Rhyck tried to calm himself down by saying Serale to random people on the street. It was delightful to see some of the smiles that crossed their faces just from a friendly greeting. People didn't do enough of that these days. It seemed that the world had gone totally isolationist, and that it was inappropriate to greet someone unless you knew them personally. But that was just silly. Two cycles ago, Rhyck had met a homely girl lost in the city. He had shown her around and given her a bed. Most likely she would not have had anywhere to stay in the town, so Rhyck's random greetings had paid off. It pleased him to be able to make others happy.

As he passed through the doors of the marble complex of the Aedile's office and headed up the first flight of stairs, Rhyck thought he saw something. Out of the window was what seemed to be a tremendous black crow. This crow had a strange symbol imbedded into its breast. A golden marking that scribbled up here, and then straight there and then curve, and zig-zag. All in no order whatsoever. And it always seemed to switch spots, but one distinct pattern remained visible. The crow's talons were large and it's feathers snipped at the ends diagonally. Each feather on its wings seemed to bear a head. Heads that bore importance, though Rhyck did not recognize them. And then the head of the crow itself. Great red eyes and a black snout. The top of its head seemed purely white, so if it had shown you only that part of its head one might think it a dove. But the crow had not the persona of a dove at all. As people walked by, the crow snapped at them. Sometimes tearing away flesh and taking off limbs. A pile soon grew before it, a pile of dead. The dead seemed to willingly accept this fate. They tried to get closer to the crow before it took off their heads.

And then... when Rhyck looked again... it was gone. No crow, no dead bodies, and no sign that what he had seen ever happened. There was no blood of the innocents at the top of the steps, and when the Kemite looked out the window, there was no sign of any crows at all. He leaned up against the marble, rubbing his temples. What in the name of Orod just happened? Rhyck was very shaken by the vision. What did this mean? How could he see these things and then blink and see the environment exactly how it was before, void of what had happened? Did it really happen? Was he just halluncinating?

Rhyck remembered his Aedile's training, and slowly separated the two pieces of parchment. He tried as hard as he could to push back the memory of what had happened to the back of his mind. He folded up one of the pieces of parchment and stuck it in his pocket. He knew exactly what he would be recording once he got home. It was lucky that he had bought two. He probably wouldn't need more than one sheet of parchment to take notes on anyhow. The Kemite took slow steps down the stairs to the office, occasionally glancing behind him to make sure the scene was not still there. And it wasn't. Perhaps Rhyck had just drifted off into a daydream. But it didn't seem likely since he had thought he was wide awake...

Opening the door and entering the Office, Rhyck put his thinking head on. He didn't need this illogical thinking going on in his head right now. He was here to be trained in the ways of the Aedile. Though his face looked a little shaken up by what he had seen, Rhyck gave an awkward smile to Aubrey and advanced to shake his hand. "Good brightening, sir. I am here as you requested to begin my training." Rhyck didn't know what he had just seen, but he knew it didn't matter at the moment. He would go through this training session and go over the vision in his mind afterwards. He needed to keep his priorities straight.

[Nimh]

If anyone else within the building of the two offices had seen an oddly-constructed crow, no one seemed to pay it any mind. City officials and their staff members meandered the corridors, sour or happy, with nary a care for some odd bird. Some did, however, cast irritated glances in Rhyck's direction as they moved around him. Blocking the stairwell. This early in the morning? How rude! Such a disturbance. Who does he think he is anyway? Those that had to get around him did so without looking very happy about it. After all, he was just a tiny little kemite. Who had let him to begin with?

But perhaps Rhyck wouldn't even notice, given the strange circumstances of his morning. What were grumbly morning persons in comparison to a crow with heads at the tips of his wings?

Aubrey, sitting at his desk and arranging a stack of papers into smaller stacks in front of him, noticed something was up, however, as Rhyck entered his office and held his hand out. Aubrey returned the gesture, firmly gripping Rhyck's hand, but wore no smile as he glanced over his new assistant. Pure dread had surged over the poor half-elf as he sat back in his chair and considered the interview he had conducted the day before. Rhyck hadn't seemed the type to go galavanting about town the evening before a big day at work. He had seemed so reliable... Well, first impressions weren't always right, were they? "Big night last night?" he asked carefully, quirking a white brow. "I hope you didn't drink too much. You look a little peeked, but I certainly can't have you stumbling about because of a headache." He hoped he was wrong, but you always had to be on the watch for these things.

[Rhyck Thralôm]

Rhyck didn't noticed the annoyed people at all. All his thoughts were concentrated on pushing out what he had seen so that he could be ready for his lesson. It was so difficult though... One thing that did help was to attempt to reach Clarity. Rhyck knew he would never fully reach it in this state, he was much to shaken up. But it helped to wash away idle thoughts and worries. His disciplined mind did it almost on instinct, but the body on the crow was still branded in Rhyck's mind when he finally reached the Office of the Aedile.

The moment the Kemite looked at his unhappy face, he knew something was wrong. Well, Rhyck knew there was something wrong to begin with, but the look on the half-elvish face had been nothing but smiles the other day. He started almost into a panic phase. If not for the discipline of his mind, Rhyck surely would have fallen into the shivers. He thinks I've been drinking! What do I tell him?! I can't tell him about the crow, he'll think I'm crazy! Maybe I am crazy... But that isn't for sure yet... Rhyck searched his mind for viable excuses. Each one he conjured up seemed less probable than the next. Curse his logical mind! The silence was starting to get awkward as Aubrey was obviously waiting for a damn good excuse from Rhyck. He decided there was nothing else he could do.

"I.. I saw..." The moment he started the sentence Rhyck knew he was doomed... Doomed. Doomed! Rhyck's mind exploded. He immediately began telling "the story" of last night in his head. This story was certainly plausible. It happened almost everynight somewhere in Vers. This just might work. Rhyck was so happy, his face began to brighten up again, and he almost gave a slight chuckle. "Oh, I'm terribly sorry I look in such a ragged condition sir. You see, last night, I had gone to bed early, and totally forgot about that radical group of dracon hunters. They knocked on my door and I didn't answer... I sleep like a log you see.

"Thus they broke into my house and pulled me about of bed. They thought I was a Moraden in disguise, you see. They would have killed me right there, but someone I knew was among the mob. They said it wasn't certain I was a dracon, so they decided to tie me to a pole until I 'turned back into my wretched form.' So I was forced to stay up all night, enduring the shouts and pokes of these people until sunrise, when they let me go. Apparently they had decided I was too short for a spawn of Jorel. They are supposedly much taller than I." Rhyck said every word with confidence that would be unheard of if that had never happened. The reason he was able to say it with such calmness is that it really had happened to him before. Just not last night.

The Kemite was almost fully recovered from his shaking experience after that. He was glad he hadn't tried something desperate like using Suggestion on the Aedile. Rhyck knew for a fact they every person in a high political position in Vers also commanded respect by having mastery of one sphere or another of Arcana. Aubrey would have undoubtedly revealed him and been more than a little angry. "So, as I'm sure you can guess, I didn't get much sleep. But I am not bitter against the mob. After all, they were protecting the city against dracons, which is very important indeed. We can't have their type wandering our streets and killing our children, can we?"

Rhyck decided to leave it there. Hopefully his explanation was good enough. If not, then he was screwed, by all accounts. He could probably not ever show his face around here again if Aubrey was still unhappy. But the Kemite was confident in his story. He didn't know if Aubrey could really sympathize, but at least he had pushed the blame over to a mob, people that couldn't even be picked out of a crowd. That was one good thing... It was whether or not Aubrey would accept the story. Rhyck anxiously awaited the half-elf's answer.

[Nimh]

ooc: Sorry - fourth of july weekend is always hectic!

ic:
Aubrey observed Rhyck closely. He was an odd little human, really, and certainly held little of the confidence that Aubrey had been taken with the day before. Was that panic he say? Nervousness? Uncertainty? Aubrey arched a brow as Rhyck started a sentence, stopped, struggled to begin again. Should he be believed? It looked as if he were searching for a response that would satisfy the Aedile. After all, if it was the truth, wouldn't it take a few moments to spit out and explain?

Aubrey templed his fingers, splayed them, then brought them back together again. His expression was even and did not immediately give away his own response to this wild tale that Rhyck had just spun him. A gang? Of dracon hunters? Why hadn't Aubrey heard anything about this? His brow creased and he struggled to make sense of this story. It really wasn't uncommon to have people chasing after dracons, killing them, or at least beating them bloody. Vers wasn't known to be extremely receptive of these...creatures, after all. But... He pursed his lips, rubbed his hand across his brow, then nodded and conceded to his new assistant's story with a sigh "I see. Well, I hope this doesn't become a regular occurrence. I need my assistants well rested for a long day, after all."

Aubrey shifted through his papers, pushing one aside, peering at it, then dragged out another only to push that aside also. It seemed to take a moment before he cleared his throat, nodded, then reached under his desk and pulled out one thick tome, then another, before plopping them on the desk between them. "Well, why don't we get started, shall we?"

He hesitated, looking at the books, then appeared to remember something. "Why don't I show you your desk first? That would make sense, wouldn't it?" This last part was added mostly to himself, quieter, mumbled almost. "Right over here, in the corner," he announced, standing. The desk was average, nothing extraordinary, but not of poor quality either. It stood a few small feet away from Aubrey's desk, accessible to customers with an open space that would doubtfully draw confused people towards it. "That's where you will work, obviously. You can sit, go ahead." He nodded his head towards the seat behind the desk, picking up the books and transferring them to Rhyck's new desk. "All right, then. These books are the logs containing the information about all of the residencies and vacancies of the buildings here in Vers. One book, this dark one here," he rapped his knuckles against the book on top, a leather bound volume with a dark brown sheen to it, "is for the vacancies. This other book contains the information about houses that are already occupied. Each time we have someone that comes in looking to buy a house or a shop, we go to the vacancy book. The listings are written according to how many rooms are in the buildings. See these bookmarks," he ran his hand through the fringe-ladden bookmarks protruding from both books, "Each one marks a specific section. One room, two room, three room, etc... Get the point?" He looked at his student, hoping to find some light in his eyes. "There's plenty of room in each section to record new vacancies or houses that have been recently purchased. We need to keep on top of what is sold and what is available, or we'll end up with one screwed up housing system."

[Rhyck Thralôm]

OoC: No problem at all I've become an AGM so I think that should keep my inherent insanity (as a person, not IC ) from lack of posting in line.

IC: Rhyck bit his lip a little, trying to hide the anxiety that was just boiling over in himself. His trained attempts to reach a state of meditation helped a great deal, but with so much on the line, it was more than he could do to keep himself totally calm. Rhyck knew he was done for when the Aedile gave him an inquisitive look. Curse that spawn of Jorel mind of his! Why did it have to mess everything up?! He felt like pounding his noggin into the cold marble walls at that very moment, just to rid himself of the tension that tore at his very heartstrings. The wait for an answer was unbearable, and Aubrey's idle movements weren't doing anything to help.

Finally, the Aedile gave a rather nonchalant answer, and Rhyck's curse of anxiety was healed. The light in his face immediately returned and he almost forgot about the troubling vision he had underwent only minutes before. It had worked! Rhyck was glad about the success, but he made a mental note never to lie again. He couldn't stand the torture it put him through. From now on, he would just have to control his thoughts, make sure he didn't have such mind-racking daydreams, especially right before work. If his mind wanted to run rampant, it could do that at night when there was nothing to be concerned about. He scolded his good-for-nothing brain and returned his attention to the Aedile. "No, of course not, sir. I'm certain that after making sure I'm not one of those Sons of Jalat, the citizens will more than likely never bother me again."

Rhyck watched in awe as the Aedile hefted two massive tomes from underneath his desk. They were so monstrous it was a wonder Aubrey had managed to fit both under his station at the same time. The Kemite gazed and thought to himself that if he were expected to move these books around all day, it would be a rather good work-out... But then his attention was shifted away from the conspicuous books to his new office. Rhyck followed Aubrey to his desk. It did, after all, make a lot more sense logically to start here and then go onwards to what he would be doing in the job. Rhyck's desk was rather average. The Kemite decided he liked it that way. It was better than having an old rotted out piece of loadwood anyhow. Not to mention it would keep him focused on his work. Average surroundings would no doubt allow his mind to focus on any tasks he was appointed to do.

"Thank you, sir." Rhyck sat himself down in the chair behind his desk and took a look around him. He tried to soak in this new atmosphere and learn where things were located. No doubt he would learn quickly that everything had a certain place and order, which was very much to his liking. The Kemite could not stand things being out of order, which was one reason the job of Assistant Aedile had appealed to him so much. The chair itself was fairly comfortable, but, like the desk, average. Actually, as Rhyck sat himself down, he noticed that the level part of the desk was unusually close to his eyes... Curse his shortness! Obviously the chair had been designed for someone a little greater in stature. It didn't matter much... It would just mean a little boost would be needed in order to write something down. Rhyck didn't know what he would use yet, but he would think of something eventually, he was sure.

Aubrey brought over the two monsters of books and landed them on the desk with a muffled thud. The half-elf then informed Rhyck that they held information about the residencies and vacancies of every building in Vers. It was pretty fantastic to think about... that every person who owned a building was written in this book. They certainly looked big enough... probably big enough to hold all the residencies of Prime! But, all this was irrelevant, Rhyck continued to focus on the information Aubrey spurted out at high velocity. It wasn't hard to understand, though the books being organized by number of rooms was a puzzle to the Kemite. He thought it might be easier to go by square footage or perhaps lot size rather than number of rooms, but that was just his personal opinion.

"Ahh, I see..." Rhyck gave a short indication that he understood how it worked, and beamed at the Aedile. It wasn't that difficult after all. Rhyck knew it would take a lot of practice to be able to find buildings easily, but at least now he had the basics which he could apply and use to become more profficient. "Yes, I heartily agree with you, Aubrey. A system with order is a system with honour." Rhyck thought he could get used to all this logical thinking. It was certainly working out very well, he thought. The Kemite couldn't wait to get started, but knew he had much to learn. But learning about this was almost as fun as Rhyck imagined performing it would be. He rather enjoyed this enlightening about the housing system of Vers. He could tell he was going to enjoy his job.

[Nimh]

The expression on Aubrey's face was one of contentment as his new assistant agreed with him about his orderly system. Yes, yes...order was very nice. Too bad his desk wasn't always so very tidy. Maybe a new assistant would change that... He'd have some more time for things like organizing and finishing up some much put-off paperwork. Maybe. There always seemed to be something that delayed those menial little tasks. Well, one could dream, right?

"Very good, very good," Aubrey murmured in approval, bobbing his head up and down as he leafed through one of the books. "It's always good to have a system built off of organization. The disorganization comes later, just you wait. You'll be wondering what happened to all the order in your life in about a week or so." The smile that flashed in Rhyck's direction was one of humor, accompanied even by a slight, very proud-of-himself chuckle. He cleared his throat, suddenly self-conscious that maybe he wasn't so funny as he might have thought. "Well, all right. What next..." he trailed off, glancing over the pages scrolled with a variety of different handwriting, all of which could probably tell the tale of how many different assistants and aediles had touched the pair of books. "Oh, right. These..." There was a brief lull in his voice once again as he took a few steps towards his desk, dug around on the surface, and eventually popped up with a small handful of papers on which some lettering had been pre-written. "These sort of go along with the books. Deeds, you see. I assume you know what a deed is? The paperwork that a person needs to fill out each time they acquire a new business or home." He held one of the pages out to Rhyck. The lettering had a few blank pages in the middle of several, awkwardly scripted sentences. "Not every time you'll have pre-written deeds, but sometimes I have so much work to do that it's a hassle to take the time to write a new one up each time it's needed. So, what I'll do, is make use of some of the errand boys around the complex and have them write up a bunch at a time for me. All you then need to do is fill in the address and the owner. They need to sign at the bottom." He pointed at the bottom of the page where a large empty space remained for more writing. "You can keep a copy of one of these for future reference if you run out of pre-written copies, all right?"

He licked his lips and glanced back at his desk. Shifting through the several layers of papers, he finally came up with one copy of several different pieces, also pre-written. "These are a few examples of the different licenses that are required mostly of businesses to fill out if they want to be allowed to sell or operate specific things. Some businesses need to import or export items. Most hire people. Those require licenses. Other licenses include licenses for construction, public events, and marriage licenses, actually. You don't need to worry about licenses for public events or marriages, don't worry." He stopped, letting Rhyck glance things over. "I hope I'm not jumping around too much. Are you still following me?"

[Rhyck Thralôm]

Rhyck gave a small chuckle to Aubrey's joke. It was good to see that they were finally breaking the ice. As the half-elf moved on to the next subject, Rhyck got out his parchment and quickly looked around him for a quill and some ink. He had almost forgotten to write down what he had learned so far. So, in very messy shorthand, Rhyck scrawled on the parchment: "Drk. Brwn. =Vacancies Light=Occupied. Listed by # of Rms."
That seemed to be sufficient for that lesson. Looking at the room he had left on the page, it seemed he had plenty more to learn, so, that being done, he set his full attention on Aubrey.

He took out a handful of deeds. The kemite nodded. "Yes, I recognize them as I have one myself." But Rhyck thought it might be useful to write down the definition as Aubrey told it, just in case: "Paperwrk ppl need to fill out when they get business or home. I write address & owner, they sign." Rhyck doubted he would actually look at these notes in the future. He had a very good memory and had never actually needed to review the notes he took. But, the process of writing it down seemed to stick the piece of information to his mind. He could visualize everything he had written on his notes, even the simple writing mistakes he made. "Alright." said Rhyck when Aubrey talked of saving a copy of prewritten deeds to copy off of in the future.

Then the Aedile jumped to licences. An odd change of subject, but Rhyck wasn't complaining. He was here to learn all he could so that he could perform his job to the best of his abilities. He took note of all the different types of licences on his parchment: "Licences: Selling, operation, import/export, hiring employees, construction, public events, marriage." Aubrey finished a second or two before Rhyck finished writing down his notes, so it was a delayed answer when he said "Oh no, sir. I don't mind at all, I'm following your every word." He gave a wide smile indicating that everything was going alright with him.

Rhyck began to get even more excited. He always did when learning new things. It was fun to make connections in his mind about things, to have them make logical sense. And when he figured out that something made sense that he couldn't believe before, then he was even more overjoyed. The Kemite wondered why no one had wanted to be the Aedile's Assistant for so long when it seemed a very fun and interesting job. Most probably thought of it as a boring job, but Rhyck found it very intriguing. The Aedile and himself were responsible for the organization of the whole city, basically. If they slacked, the city would be a mess. But if they worked hard, then the city would benefit as a result. It was an indirect but helpful way of doing his part for Vers.

[Nimh]

Aubrey looked approvingly at the young man he had hired. Despite the little incident at the beginning of the morning, Rhyck was turning out to be rather acceptable for the job. He was even listening to Aubrey's suggestion and taking notes! A happy smile crossed the Aedile's face and, for the first time in a while, he found himself actually enjoying all this tedious nonsense. Not that he didn't love his job. He did. He just...hadn't found the spirit and the energy to put into it until now. Here was someone that seemed enthusiastic and eager! Yes, this is exactly what he needed to get his juices flowing again.

"Right. Good," he stated after a moment of contemplative silence. He gestured into the air, dismissing the moment of thought that had overridden the dictation of the various jobs around the office. "Oh, before I move onto something else... I almost forgot one of the most important things. House pricing!" The Aedile sounded almost too excited at this point...but he was really just getting very into things right now.

He picked up one of the books he had deposited on Rhyck's desk earlier and popped it open. "Did I show you this already? I hope I'm not repeating myself..." he murmured as he flipped through a few pages until he found a very clearly written entry. The book he had chosen was the dark brown book. "I know I showed you an entry, but I don't think I really described it." He ran his finger down the length of one page, chose an entry and tapped his finger over it. "THis book is for vacancies, correct? In the vacancy book, what is listed under each entry is the address and section of the town the building is located in. Marked next to the address is usually 'Residence' or 'Commerce', since we have particular zones we don't want businesses cropping up in. Of course, that doesn't stop people from starting businesses in their houses, but they need a license for that... Anyway, just under the address," his finger lowered a line, "Is the number of rooms the building has. Now, we often charge people for how many rooms there are to a given building, but we must also take into consideration the amount of land the building has or also if the building has a larger or smaller amount of space than is the usual."

He paused here, hoping that Rhyck, if he chose to take notes, had been able to keep up with him. If not, now was the time to catch up. He took note of where Rhyck was with his quill and continued, "We'll start with the basics. A one room home around here goes for a 1,000 crowns if one is to be buying the property. A property as small as that comes with a small parcel of land around it, just big enough for a very small garden, I'd say. Anything larger than that and the price goes up some, understand? A one room home with a decent sized yard encircling it would cost 1,500. A home with two rooms to it would cost 2,500. One with a yard would cost 3,000. A three room house would cost 5,000. One with a yard...5,500. Four rooms would be 6,500. With a yard, 7,000. Five rooms would be 8,000 without a yard and 8,500 with a yard. Understand?"

ooc: if the numbers don't seem right to you for Vers, PM me and we'll figure it out I got those figures with my PC (an assistant aedile) where she works in Demios, another town (granted it's a little bigger in population)...so I just based them off of that. But if you think they might not be right for Vers...

[Rhyck Thralôm]

Rhyck was glad that Aubrey was smiling now. He enjoyed it infinately more than the skeptical glare he had recieved at first. Granted, it was his own fault partly. The rest of the fault rested upon his hallucinating mind. But the Kemite had nearly forgotten this, as he too was getting very involved in this Aedile business. It boosted his enthusiasm when he saw Aubrey's spirit. This job was definately not the boring cubical work everyone stereotyped the proffession as. Rather it was a different kind of excitement than most people referred to. Everyone was different, and Rhyck had no problem with that. He just didn't understand how they could see nothing good about the job at all. To the point where it had been several months before an Assistant for the Aedile had been hired. Or perhaps everyone else who applied was simply not good enough. But, to keep his ego from swelling, Rhyck wiped these thoughts from his mind and turned again to Aubrey.

House pricing. Aubrey seemed to have skipped over that at first, but in any case he was getting to it now. He seemed a bit flustered, though it was probably just from excitement of his job. The Kemite could tell that he hadn't been this excited in a long time. Hopefully with Rhyck there, Aubrey would enjoy what he was doing all of the time. The half-elf picked up the Vacancy book once again and started flipping through pages. Rhyck didn't know why one house would make more difference than another on the other page, but he was probably just giving himself time to talk.

Instead of answering Aubrey inquisition as to whether or not he had repeated himself, Rhyck just nodded, giving 'hmm's here and 'ahh's there. Rhyck's eyes followed Aubrey's fingers and got his quill ready. 'Residence' and 'Commerce' was easy enough to understand. Obviously the people didn't want large businesses next door to where they lived. Home businesses could have a licence to sell, but it was doubtful that they would stay in the house if they got larger. A very effective system. Logistics also had a role in the order of a community. Rhyck scribbled "Houses can be Residential or Commercial, Commercial always together away from Residential. Residential can house home business w/ licence."

The pricing system seemed fair enough. Number of rooms and land where of course two of the major factors of houses. Rhyck thought perhaps square footage might have been a major factor also, but perhaps that was just something for the Aediles to figure out for themselves. The Kemite turned to the parchment again and jotted down [i]"House pricing based on number of rooms and yard size."[/b] Then Aubrey started listing examples. Rhyck thought he might take note of that also. "1 rm = 1,000 crowns (includes small parcel of land big enough for a very small garden.) 1 rm w/ a big yard = 1,500. 2 rm = 2,500. 2 rm w/ yard = 3,000. 3 rm = 5,000. 3 rm w/ yard = 5,500. 4 rm = 6,500. 4 rm w/ yard = 7,000. 5 rm = 8,000. 5 rm w/ yard = 8,500"

There was just one thing Rhyck was confused about. "Sir, does location come into factor here too? Would two houses in the bad-end of town and in the Hygh District identical to each other cost around the same amount of crowns, of would the one in the Hygh District cost more?" Rhyck doubted that they would cost the same. He would definately not pay the same for a house in the bad-end if he could get the same house in the Hygh District. He thought just being in the vicinity of such noble figure who also lived there would jack the price up considerably. So, Rhyck waited patiently for the half-elf's answer.

[Nimh]

ooc: things didn't seem to work out the way I wanted them to...sooo sorry for the long, long wait!

ic:
"Location definitely comes into consideration," Aubrey agreed after a moment of consideration. He had been planning on moving slowly with his new assistant, not wanting to overwhelm him with an obscene amount of "if it's this then it's that" sort of thing. Designating the average prices to certain houses had seemed the right way to go to him. But here he was realizing that his new employee was more than willing to undertake just about every bit of information there was to handle about his job. Well, just about everything, Aubrey ammended and smiled evenly. "Of course, a three-room house in the Hygh District is going to be pricey, especially if the grounds around it are rather large and the building itself is well-kept. Of course, the homes over in the Hygh District will rarely have one or two rooms to them, you understand. What man worth his salt would do that to himself, afterall. He'd be the laughing stock of the district." Aubrey chuckled to himself. Funny, funny, Aubrey. The chuckle faded into a "heh" before he cleared his throat and decided to move on.

"Anyway, Rhyck. Yes, a house in the Hygh District would certainly cost more money...unless it's very run-down, of course. Sometimes even the homes in the nicer areas of town get a little...hm...rusty?" Aubrey pushed his hands through his silver hair and peered down at the thick volumes on Rhyck's desk. "And what we might consider the "bad area" of town would certainly not have many rooms within a house. It's the homes of people with a moderate income that sometimes present a thin distinction between the prices of their properties. That's where it gets fuzzy. But don't worry, Rhyck. The prices for each property are usually listed next to the house listing."

The half-elven Aedile took a small step back, his expression thoughtful. What next, what next... He slid a finger along the line of his jaw, then nodded with an "ah", before stepping forward again. "Shall we talk about commerical buildings next, or were there any other questions you had about residences?"