Telly's Difficult Choice

Hill sat at ease on the terrace. He had summoned instruments that could play by themselves and was listening to a lovely serenade in the fine rain.

The occasional chime of the Floating Castle's wind bells seemed to answer the music.

Hill looked up at the wind chime made of pale blue conch shells beneath the eaves and smiled.

To keep Hill from actually using the Dragon Roar Bell, Aglaia had hurried to make him this wind chime. Telly had even taken human form to help her weave its sturdy cords.

If they ever needed to warn everyone in the territory of something serious, they only had to pull hard on one of the crystal threads hanging from the chime. The shells would resonate and release a long, lilting whale call.

That would carry across the entire territory.

At first, Aglaia had not understood why Telly was so eager to help her make it. Then she had passed his room on the right side of the castle for the first time.

She had only heard a muffled version while flying outside the castle, and even that had given her quite a fright.

The two of them had grown closer through the project, so Hill had given up on the golden Dragon Roar Bell that would have let him tease them both at once.

There would always be a use for it later, especially after the Undead arrived.

"Sir." Liszt appeared, sounding cheerful. "All two hundred Spell-Storing Rings have sold. An Archmage from Neverwinter seems to want the entire stock."

"Did you tell him I can supply a hundred a day?" Hill asked seriously.

He did not want his decision to flood the market to hurt an innocent person.

Then again, the Archmage was the one who had decided to hoard