Jareth's Return

Dori(19)

Dori found a familiar hat and say down next to her number one helper. "Good morning, Alexander. Are you ready for today? It's going to be really busy."

He nodded his head and continued to devour his French toast. It was his favorite thing. Though he usually preferred for Dori to make them for him, he knew today would be rushed and he settled for his grandmother's mass-produced version. "Yes, I am, Dora." Shortly after his recovery, Alex started calling her Lady Theodora. Through much prodding and attempting to get her name to be "Dori, just Dori," it was turned into "Lady Dora." The lady in question had given up on changing it to anything else.

"Now, listen here, Al. You need to stay close to me today. If you get too tired or too hot, I want you to come back to the castle and rest for a bit, then come back, but avoid any and all construction sites. No need to get hurt because someone didn't see someone. Understand me, little mister?" At his affirmation, she patted him on the hat and looked at the adults around her. "That goes for every one, alright? We have plenty of hands on deck, there is no need to work yourselves into the ground. Am I understood? Pass the word on to others for me, please."

She served herself a few over-medium eggs, fried potatoes and bacon, and ate quickly. Then she and Alex went to find everyone in their section group. When they found them, they all headed to the outer rim of the village where their first section was located.

As it was planned, they tore down all that was falling apart, and not steady enough to be improved upon. Alex's job was to take that and sort through it; whatever didn't look usable was put into two piles (wood and not) to be recycled, and things that could be used again had their own piles (also wood and not). Dori used her levitation magic to help hold up the heavy things, as well as lay bricks on the fresh mortar. Jonah, his wife Mari, and Torrence were to lay the mortar down as fast as possible without compromising the quality; Henry and Holiday, twin carpenters were to deal with the framework and the roof. The six of them-seven if you count Alex's small assists-were finished with the first house in a record 6 hours.

Now for the real test.

Once her team had left the building, Dori placed her hands on the surface of the new door. Eyes closed, she listened to the purr of the Beast, the Labyrinth itself; it was a large, warm sound, full of contentment. She used a measure of that warmth, that sense of rightness and pushed it out of her palms. With all of her magical might, she imbued it into the wood and stone that made up the dwelling. She heard a few gasps and swears behind her.

Upon opening her eyes, she saw the house was swarmed in tendrils of a pale blue light. They swarmed the entirety of the house, and streamed from her palms as she pulled them from the wood. Before their eyes, the end of the stream emerged and it swirled around the house, reminding Dori - for whatever reason - of a flying Powerpuff Girl, and finally sank into the house. It glowed bright enough for onlookers to need to shield their eyes for a moment before disappearing completely.

After a moment of silence, Dori spoke to break the tension. "Well. I suppose I've figured out the Mending bit." They all hiked to the castle for a light lunch and then on to the next house they went. By the time it was too dark to work, Dori's group had finished two and a half houses that day. The others had finished more or less the same amount.

That night, Mardy, Sally, Jareth and Dori sat in the library. Dori thought it had been far too long since the four of them had spent any time together. They recounted the days events to one another, telling stories, and Jareth told what happened in his war meetings. "They will want to meet with you again, soon. To properly discuss your role in the war, speak about training. They want to gauge the extent of your magic."

"Oh! Speaking of magic, Evelyn, you said you figured out the Mending?" Sally spoke suddenly, startling her sleeping husband.

Dori rolled her eyes at Sally's old nickname. At least she isn't calling my Lady Dora, like almost everyone else. "Yeah, I think I did." Upon relaying the events of her day, everyone seemed contemplative.