Lhurriel grinned, shifting slightly on the metalsmith's shoulder as he led them around the compound and factory grounds. The area they'd entered was mostly where workers congregated in their free time, and it was also where all the basic blueprint designs and engineering and construction diagrams of the crystals and magicycles were posted along the walls. If Gareth, Alasdair (the crystal mage), Lucian (the engineer), and Tristan (the magicycle designer) were all sitting idle in the factory's main lobby, then that meant work had probably finished early that night, and now only trivialities needed to be finished and completed.<br/><br/>"So I'm guessing you guys must have finished my custom already," Lhurriel chirped from her vantage point, ducking to avoid the top sill of a doorway. Gareth let out a shout of laughter at her eager tone, and Alasdair reached up to tap her lightly on the head.<br/><br/>"You minx. You know Eversleigh always works the fastest on<em>your</em>models," he scolded. "He and I worked clean until dawn yesterday so that it would be ready by this evening. Today, all that we did with it was test it some, and let Tristan put the finishing coats of color on it. We can slip into the workroom to take a look at it at the end of our tour," Alasdair said with a smug smile, fully satisfied with how the magicycle had come out.<br/><br/>Lhurriel hid her grin, but then pointed at the long, unbroken glass window along their left. She began explaining the different rooms they were passing to the two guards, delving into their functions and which part of the magicycle the workers in the room specialized in working on. First, the main metal-working and assembly room, where different alloys were created, shaped, and then constructed into the empty shell of a magicycle. Directly opposite that room was the special assembly team, those in charge of the extra accesories that went onto and into a magicycle, material or magic. Seats, protective varnishing, spells for weather-proofing and spells to guard against magical tampering... the list went on and on, usually customized by the party ordering the magicycle.<br/><br/>Further down the hall was the room housing a huge variety of crystals and crystal-cutting materials, as well as tools to examine and grade different crystals. Only crystal mages and crystal cutters ever entered this room, and this group of individuals was probably among the highest educated of all of Lord Atadel's employees. Not only did they exceed in the tasks directly relating to crystals, but they were also knew to the most minute detail where a crystal had been mined, the composition of the crystal and the rocks it had been extracted from, which conditions would best stretch out the crystal's energy longevity, and other details that would boggle the minds of most ordinary folk. This room also contained a huge shelf of books that ranged from geography to history to crystals and even books dedicated to the art of crystal cutting. The group passed several other rooms and decreased in size as Tristan and Lucian went to handle damage control with the workers under their supervision, and finally Alasdair, Gareth, Lhurriel, Rowhik, and William arrived at one of a dozen custom workshops, where custom orders were built from the metal plating to the last castings of magic and spells.<br/><br/>"Here you are, Ree," Alasdair chuckled, handing her down from Gareth's shoulder. He opened to the door to the workshop containing her magicycle with a flourish, and absorbed her delighted squeal of pleasure as she took in the svelte contours of her new magicycle.<br/><br/><br/><br/>"My lord, Sir Alydarr is waiting for you in the library," a maid informed Corsair just as he finished up with some bank notes. He glanced up, nodded and thanked the girl, then stood up with a yawn. Working on the books had never been a favorite activity of his, but he dealt with the executive side of owning and maintaining a business, considering it a necessary dislike to his passion for magicycles and running his estate.<br/><br/>Striding briskly down several halls, Corsair reached the library and walked in, pulling several maps from his shelves before reaching out to take Kaeden's hand.<br/><br/>"I apologize for making you wait, Sir Alydarr. I hope you found something to occupy yourself while you were waiting," Corsair said, shaking the knight's hand and then indicating that they should both sit. He set everything on the coffee table in front of them and then took a seat in his chair, settling into its firm cushions and sitting forward so he could face Kaeden.<br/><br/>"Before we get down to business, tell me how your trip here was. I hope you didn't come across any bandits or looters? I've had reports from some of the locals about strangers who don't look like they belong here."