Table of contents for Themes of Eternity
“I’m telling you Marsley, we’ve got a golden opportunity here!” Perschal was talking at his usual rapid pace, effervescing with excitement at his latest idea. “I’ve just met a guy who came back from ancient times, and he says that he knew what Naralik used to look like, back when it was a city. It turns out that he was one of architects hired to build the castle in the first place!”
Now that did sound interesting. Most of Perschal’s ideas were half-baked, crackpot schemes for economic domination, but every now and then a gem would turn up. It was my job to weed through the piles of rubbish and find the rare ones that were worthwhile.
“He says that he can sell us the blueprints, for a tiny share of the profits,” Perschal continued. “I’ve had a look at them, and they’re fantastic! Ancient architecture was a lot different from modern styles. The locals would get a kick out of it!”
“So what exactly are you suggesting, Perschal?” I said, trying to dampen down his enthusiasm with a chilly tone of voice. Of course, that worked about as well as trying to freeze a fireball.
“It’s brilliant, man! You’re going to love it! I’m thinking of rebuilding the place and marketing it as a tourist attraction! It’s got all the qualities of a great tourist spot – historical and cultural landmark, something new and different, and heck, it could even be nostalgic for the guys from the past, like my architect friend! We charge 100 gold coins a pop, and we’ll be rolling in millions in no time!” Perschal was almost beside himself with anticipation, rubbing his hands together as though he could already see the gold clinking into them.
My mind was suddenly swept away by the allure of Perschal’s vision. Naralik, ancient city of the humans, arising from the ruins of time like a phoenix. Yes, the locals would love it. Even the Irilians might be interested, if we market it to them properly. With difficulty, I forced myself back to cold, hard practicality.
“You’re forgetting two things, Perschal,” I said, holding out two fingers and ticking them off methodically. “One, there are several monsters who view Naralik as their home…”
“Yeah, but we can just hire some mercenaries and go kill them off…” Perschal’s voice trailed off as he realised what he was saying.
“… and two, they are unkillable,” I finished. Perschal hung his head in despondency. I shook my head in disgust as well. It was a brilliant idea, but the curse had changed our normal way of doing business. Mercenaries and roving guardsmen had begun charging higher prices for their services, and now we had to maintain a constant guard on all of our projects, since they could fall prey at any time to the never-ending hordes of undying monsters roaming the continent. That added considerable amounts to the running costs of any project.
“Darn it, and it was such a good idea, too,” Perschal said sadly, nursing his beer mug. I glanced over at him. Perschal was mercurial in nature. One minute he was as high as the sky, and the next minute he would sink down into the lower depths of the ocean. I needed to cheer him up again before he went depressive on me.
I clapped my hand on his shoulder. “Well, don’t worry about it too much,” I said kindly. “It would have worked very well in another age, but we’ve got to adapt to the times, old boy. New situations call for new ways of doing business!”
“Yeah, you’re right…” Perschal started to brighten up.
“And that’s why we love it so much, don’t we?” I cried, thumping the table. “That’s what we do best! Perschal and Marsley, Entrepreneurs Extraordinaire!”
“Yeah, that’s right! Hey Marsley, listen up! I’ve just thought of another idea…”
