Chapter 117: The Big Bad Fallen

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Years passed very quickly for the Ravenclaw family. Something about not aging messed with the sense of time from a person. Suddenly one year of waiting was not that big of a deal anymore and five years sounded like it was yesterday. During this time, Erik had finished his mega-building project for their new home. The result of it was a big three floors house made entirely out of stone blocks joined seamlessly with the use of cement and smart transfiguration. Erik was certain that if a tornado was to hit their new house, not a 'brick' would be out of place. Just like their house in the north of Scotland, this new building had a huge underground area. During its construction, Erik individually carved runes on all the stones, making them perfect to hold enchantments such as the expansion charm for indefinite amounts of time. The result was an area at least five times bigger than the one that they had in the north of Scotland.

Erik named the place 'Raven's Fort' because of its look of impregnability even in the absence of walls. His wives and friends loved the place. Each of his wives had their own bedroom that would work like a hideaway of privacy and the other members of the family had to respect it if they wanted to be given the same respect. Hestia, Erik's and the girls' 'big' sister, had won her own room too. It was nothing fancy since he knew that she didn't like that kind of thing, but it was cozy, which she liked a lot. The biggest room in the house was the master bedroom, of course. After all, there were four of them now to sleep in the same bed. Erik had especially designed the bedroom's bathroom so that it could attend to the necessities of him and all his wives at the same time. It had four sinks and three individually separated toilets that offered its users some privacy. The floor and walls were covered in white ceramic tiles that offered the place a clean and neat look, something that could not be found in the bathrooms of that time. The bathtub was a big one. It had a resizable function that allowed it to expand enough to rest four people comfortably. Needless to say that the women loved the water massage function that Erik had put on it.

The family had promptly moved to it. That would be their 'official' home from now on. The house in the north of Scotland would still be used since it still had a lot of things there that could not be moved, like the orchards and various greenhouses.

Talking about greenhouses, Calypso had come true to Erik's prediction. The goddess had started a small business that dealt with the selling of fresh plant ingredients to the magical world, be they wizards or not. Her business was booming since all the ingredients sold were fresh and of high quality, something that her magic and big green thumb helped a lot with. One of her big buyers was the Pendragon family. The family of knights that supposedly were descendants of King Arthur were always in need of fresh herbs to treat their injured bodies due to training. Her healing salts were a big seller to them too.

Speaking of Calypso, during all this time that she was out of Ogygia, no Greek god whatsoever, except for Hestia, of course, discovered her escape. Hestia told them that she had been basically forgotten since the Greek gods had a very small amount of heroes to toy with now. It was sad, but at the same time, Calypso was happy with that. The goddess wanted distance from them. The more, the better. Hestia was the exception to that, of course.

Years continued to pass quickly. The world had finally entered the great merchant exploration age, with the need for spices coming from Asian countries being a hot commodity in Europe right now. Erik had been a step ahead of them and opened the Raven Merchantile Group. It had a fleet of ten very fast ships that were manned by trustful men that made trips to and back from the Indias in record times. The ships were all built from wood that Erik reclaimed from some of the redwood trees that were already dead on the west coast of future North America. Erik had, of course, sneaked some discreet enchantments into the ships' keels, giving the ship extra protections against the various things that they could find while sailing in the open Sea. The Ravens' Merchantile Group had quickly gained the favor of a lot of monarchies and the populace due to their fair prices and high goodies quality. One thing that helped them was that they were absolutely neutral to all the international conflicts happening at the time, which were numerous, by having ships manned by men of different origins.

Speaking about redwoods, the saplings that Erik brought back were thriving in their new environment. The magic that emanated from the Black Forest was being greedily soaked by the redwood trees, which were growing very fast. Erik predicted that in fifty to a hundred years, the Black Forest would have a part of it that would have to be renamed to Red Forest.

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Lisboa, Portugal

Early 1350s

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Erik was doing some routine work at one of his subsidiaries for the Raven Merchantile Group. He believed that a business only grows when the owner's eyes are on top of it and that was why he was doing one of his routine auditions to the Numbers' Book. It was looking good for his employees. Everything seemed to be in order and the business was swimming in profits. Erik was sure that it had 'nothing' to do with his 'bonus' program that gave a percentage of the profit to the employees in accord with their time working for the company every year. 'It is craziness, some other owners of companies had said to him. But due to this bonus program, the Ravens' Merchantile Group had never had a problem with cargo disappearing from inside his ships. Of course that the enchantments on the ships helped a lot with the protection during transportation, but the same could not be said about the warehouses that stored the goodies. Once they were out of the ships, the goodies were not protected anymore and could 'disappear'. But it had never happened.

When Serafall asked about this method, Erik just said that it was a psychological thing. The peer's pressure of gaining a high bonus toppled over the greed of one individual. And for the business, it was good too since when he compared numbers with the books that he had borrowed temporarily from his competitors, the money that he gave as a bonus yearly was much less than the loss that his competitors were having with 'lost cargo'. The expansion of the company was already happening. Ten more ships were ready to sail and join the mercantile fleet, with one of the ten being built exclusively for the transport of people. Travelers, not slaves.

Slaves. That was an ugly thing that was sadly a reality at this time. People from all around the world were being sold as commodities as a 'cheap' workforce. Erik was happy to say that his company didn't deal with slaves and even employed some of them in their ships that managed to escape, giving them new names and a cover story for the ones that wanted to work. The ones that didn't were offered a deal. Some time working for a passage back home. Some of them took it. The ones that didn't, Erik could do nothing about it.

Erik was finishing his last Number's Book when he heard a knock coming from the door of his temporary office.

"Enter."

Erik said and the door opened. From out of it entered a thin and well-dressed young man. He was Erik's assistant while doing these auditory visits, a 'squib' from Britain's magical community. That was Erik's main source of employees. Squibs had the advantage over normal people in knowing how magic worked. And since most of them just wanted to live their lives in peace, they made marvelous employees. Erik even had one or two captaining ships.

"Lord Erik, there is a man here to see you."

The young man said to Erik, which made Erik frown. His visit to audit the offices was always unscheduled, so Erik was certain that he had no appointments. He immediately concentrated his senses on the office building and saw who was waiting for a meeting with him. Erik's eyes went wide for a fraction of a second. He looked at his assistant and nodded his head.

"Please, guide him here. I will meet him in this office."

Erik said to his assistant while finishing the Numbers' Book. The assistant nodded his head in confirmation and left the office to follow his orders. A minute later, another knock came from the door followed by another 'enter' coming from Erik. The assistant entered the office again, but this time he was being followed by another man. Erik closed the Numbers' Book with a loud 'paf' sound and looked at the 'guest'. He then looked at his assistant and fished a small leather bag from inside a pocket in his suit.

"You can go back for today, George. Have fun and be careful with where you stick your tool."

Erik said and threw the bag to George, the assistant. The young man caught the bag, nodded his head in confirmation back to Erik, and left the office with a smile on his face, closing the door after him. Erik looked at his guest and pointed to the chair opposed to him.

"Please, take a seat."

Erik said and snapped his fingers.

*snap*

A tea set with a pot of coffee instead of tea appeared by the table.

"Coffee?"

Erik offered to the guest who had already taken the seat.

"Yes, please."

The man replied and watched as Erik served the black liquid for both of them in two cups.

"Thank you."

The man said after getting in his hands the cup of coffee. He sniffed the aroma coming from the hot black liquid and 'hummed' in approval.

"Hmmm… Good aroma."

The man said and then took a sip of it. His eyes closed a little in front of the flavor that invaded his mouth.

"And good flavor too."

The man said again. Erik, who was sipping from his cup too, smiled while putting the cup down.

"Thanks. The secret is in the way that you toast the beans before grounding them."

Erik said to the man, who nodded sagely at his answer. Erik didn't know yet, but just that gesture had already gained some 'good will' points with the man.

"So, to what do I owe the presence of the big bad fallen?"

Erik said to the man. Of course, he had recognized the man the instant that he had focused his senses on him. There was no way that Erik would not recognize Azazel's mug anywhere. The lazy-looking Fallen Angel smiled at that.

"Oh? Is that my new title around? I confess that I don't know all the nicknames given to me. I, myself, prefer 'the father's nightmare' one. It has some weight to me."

Azazel replied smugly. Erik rolled his eyes at the comment.

"Yeah, I don't doubt that."

Erik said. Suddenly, the mood changed and both men were all business since the 'pleasantries' had already been traded.

"You sure are a hard human to find, Erik Ravenclaw."

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