Clearing The Way

The next morning as all of the observers gathered to share their breakfasts with the teams they were observing Maelyn announced to all of them, "Alright guys! Because of Lazy Butt's daintiness yesterday I will be picking up the deeds to ALL of your properties here in a bit! So, as you may have learned from Jonteel, I do the rent a little differently than Harmon does. So before you head out to your sites today, please stop by and let me know how much your rent, utilities, food, and any loans you have with his bank are and I will be able to let you know what your new rent will be."

After they had all thanked her and she had quieted them all down again she continued, "And as for my fellow archeologists, we are going to have a big day today! We will be able to finally access the palace through it's rooftop gazebo and, what will makes it a big event is that, according to the scans I did yesterday and had Kathy confirm last night when I took a video with me to supper so I could show her and confirm our suspicion, the body that is laying inside the enclosure of this gazebo is none other than Queen Ielania! So we should be able to get a genetic sample today and find out if there are any more of you with enough genetics to be allowed to help us with this huge palace!"

"And maybe they'll have to recognize that I have the same lineage that allows Joseph on the site and they'll finally let me help out!" Angie exclaimed in desperation, "I mean, I know it'll cause issues with them no longer allowing me to go visit grandma so freely, but I want to help!"

"Well, we'll see girl." Maelyn consoled her then addressed them all in conclusion, "Now, let's all finish this food and get started on this big day!"

When she then sat dawn Joseph asked her, "Since we're not going to be allowed to even step near that gazebo until grumpy butt gets here, what do you want to be doing this morning?"

"Well, obviously I'm going to have to run down and get the latest pile of deeds from Bree," Maelyn regretfully informed him then finished by detailing the plan she had, "but after I get back you can use those skills Allison was teaching you and we can finish up a decent access to the gazebo. But first off, while old grumpy butt is still lazing around in his bed, I want you and Allison working on clearing that front gate and then clearing a walkway to the front door. That way we can get access from top and bottom and maybe clear some of these rooms quicker."

"That we can do!" Joseph eagerly agreed. He then excitedly finished his food and hurried out to the cube with Allison to get started on clearing the gate that morning.

"You know you don't have to wait for dad to get here to start examining the gazebo today." Abjul offered, "With the body you found being the Queen along with it being the first access to the palace, I would recommend asking for grandfather to come observe."

"I was going to when I stopped by and got those deeds but I figured he'd be like harmony and not get here till lunchtime." Maelyn confided, "Because so far you're the only one of your family that knows how to show up to stuff on time!"

"Trust me, for this he would be here as soon as he could!" Abjul replied with a slight chuckle, "In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if he was told while getting dressed if he immediately left and came rushing up here in just his underwear and whatever other clothes he might have been in the process of putting on when told! Cause he's been itching for this day ever since he was Third Minister and the lava started to cool!"

"Well, in that case, when you see me exit Bree's office tell Joseph I want him to go ahead and start up top." Maelyn requested, ""And I'll make sure to walk a little faster coming back than I usually do so we can be at least mostly ready when he gets here!"

When she arrived at the undersecretary's office a short while later Bree welcomed her with gratitude, 'Thank you for coming today! It took me until almost midnight to get all of them observer's deeds done! And a couple of them were actually the Prime Minister's properties and so I had to find properties of the Second Minister's with similar values and rents to swap out so that the Prime Minister wouldn't suffer loss because of Second Minister Harmon's actions!"

"Sorry for the extra work Bree!" Maelyn apologized, 'I just wanted to protect the observers from getting intimidated and so worried about Harmon threatening them with a higher rent or interest rate for their loan that they couldn't properly focus on their job!"

"I understand Miss Khadim." Bree forgave her, "To be honest, I punished him a little bit as well because of all of this extra work he has been causing me. The properties I had to swap out with the Prime Minister's properties were valued similar but he was charging higher rent. So I secretly added a little bit of strength to the punch this group transfer will make on his income levels this month."

"Girl!" Maelyn laughed, "If it had been me doing those transfers I would've been hitting him like that from day one!"

"Well, I also partly did it to help the ones that got transferred like how you have been helping the ones you are gaining ownership of. You see, Prime Minister Anton sets his rent at a certain percentage of the home's value and, instead of raising each rent individually when he wants to punish the tenant, he restrains himself from doing as such and just raises the percentage across the board whenever he is in need of more money. So some of the ones that got transferred saw reductions of almost ten thousand scales!"

"That's good!" Maelyn replied then asked, "And speaking of Anton, could you have someone notify him that I need him at the site today because we will be accessing the palace and inspecting the body of Queen Ielania as soon as him or Harmon get there today."

"He is currently meeting with his Secretary of Finance to prepare for Altinyn's budget for next year so that those that are part of Congress can pass a budget of an appropriate size when it comes time for the new budget next month." Bree informed her, "But I will make sure to notify him as soon as his meeting is done!"

Thanking her, Maelyn then grabbed the stack of deeds that had accumulated in the few days since she had last been to collect them and made her way back to the project site as quickly as she could.

Arriving back at the cube and walking down the rough steps to the current bottom of the area they had emptied, Maelyn asked Joseph, "So how are you doing copying Allison's technique?"

"I picked it up fairly well." Joseph shared, "I can't do blocks as big as she can, but I've been able to make decent progress. I've gotten about three feet cleared in the last fifteen minutes up here."

"And What about the gate?" Maelyn curiously asked, "Were y'all able to make any progress on it yet? Or is it going to be a difficult project because of having to clear out enough of the basalt in front of them to open the gates before you can even get started on the outside?"

"We STARTED with all the basalt that needed to be cleared in front of the gate." Joseph shared as he described what they had done, "We got that whole scraped line thing she does done and had started breaking it into blocks when Abjul told me to head up here and get started on this one."

"That's good." Maelyn encouraged as she lifted up one of the blocks joseph had cleared as they tried to open up the area in front of the rooftop gazebo, "I think it might help you later on too. Because now you'll have a place to collect any basalt you're clearing from the gates without having to worry about it skidding or bouncing over to one of the other sites. Or, God forbid, hitting one of the team!"

"I think that's why Allison wanted start with that part." joseph replied, "Cause she said something about if we didn't then the wrong hit on the part overflowing the top of the gate could cause a thirty foot tall slab of basalt to fall forward and go God knows where when it hit the basalt covering the grounds and shattered!"

"Yeah, that would've been a bad day!" Maelyn heartily agreed.