Nic nodded to show she understood, though her thoughts had snagged on something Asa had said. “Narlis was of help?”

“I was surprised, too,” Asa answered with a genuine grin that made his cheeks dimple. “The elderly lady has quite a nice punch to her now. The wonders a good home will do.”

Apparently so—and Gabriel had been the one to give it to her. “Asa… I apologize for being cranky earlier.”

His smile softened, affection in it. “You’re allowed, Lady Phel. Trust me to take care of him for you, just as we’re trusting you to take care of House Phel and all of us.”

She did feel better for eating and getting cleaned up. Though she longed for a bath—especially as Alise had also installed water and fire elementals to provide instant hot water—she resolutely used the cleaning and grooming imps instead. The morning was advancing relentlessly, and there was a considerable backlog of problems to deal with, as they’d lost an entire day of work.

Sitting alone at her desk in the library, Nic organized the correspondence in order of priority, trying to summon some enthusiasm for tackling her many tasks. The weather had turned cold again, a greeting rain falling steadily and silently. Even the cheerful fire in the fireplace didn’t seem to be dispersing the chill. Alise was busily installing fire elementals in the residential chambers, making sure everyone had at least one before distributing them through the rest of the manse. The library had only the fire for heating still.

The most pressing problem facing them was food, prosaically enough. With the rapidly increasing population of the manse, their food supply was diminishing at an even greater speed. Not to mention that they had a swamp monster to feed now. She spent a good couple of hours seeking out people to deliver food to the manse on a regular basis, and also sending out word that House Phel would pay for new suppliers.

That reminded her she hadn’t balanced the house accounts for a couple of days. They were also diminishing at an alarming rate. They really needed to get some products to market. If Gabriel didn’t wake, they’d be destitute in a couple of months—but she couldn’t contemplate that. She’d really love to extract her dowry from House Elal, but the odds of that were dismally low.

To exacerbate it all, more wizards and familiars had continued to arrive, and they were out of copies of the NDA. So far the manse had plenty of space, but these people needed to create income for the house or they’d drain the coffers even faster. It was lowering to recall she had been the one to insist that Gabriel needed minions. They should’ve started slower: a few wizards, build up the product lines, then incorporate new people gradually. But then, she’d never imagined their call for applicants would be met with such enthusiasm.

Or that Gabriel would be out of commission.