As she greeted the observers as they joined them for breakfast Maelyn informed Abjul and Joseph that she was going to visit all of the new properties she had obtained from Harmon continuing to be late after they had opened up and scanned Daughtry's site that morning and would be sure to be back before lunch. They both agreed with Abjul jokingly adding, "You know if you keep going at this pace and keep spending time scanning, analyzing, and being careful not to damage what you're uncovering you will have more properties than my father by the time you get done clearing all of these sites."
"Well durn!" Maelyn joked in reply as she shook her head, "I'm gonna have to slow down even more so that he only owns his own house by the time I am done!"
"While I would love to see it happen," Abjul warned her while laughing, "I must advise against it. Because each month that he falls short of the amount he needs to continue his luxurious living he will increase the rent of the homes he still owns and also the interest rates of the loans his tenants would need to maintain their homes to make up the difference. So for their sake -not his! -I would caution against delaying longer than necessary."
"Don't worry Abjul!" Maelyn assured him, "At this rate we should be able to complete the work that requires most of the observers in the next couple of weeks and progress on the remaining sites and the analysis of what we have collected faster in all of the areas except the one site that is the biggest site but we are limited to just two archeologists on. The palace is going to take us a couple of months at least to analyze once we get access and will then take at least another three months to clear what is outside to make the palace accessible from ground level. And, once we get to that point, I will be kind to those that still have to pay him their rent and only make him transfer one property a day if he is late."
"You could also help folks with your bank too!" Joseph suggested, "You could offer them a lower interest rate that stays set so they'd have the chance to borrow what they need without it sinking them ever further into those holes Harmon like to watch them bury themselves in."
""Yes!" Abjul emphatically agreed, "That would be a much better choice for them!"
"I'm ALREADY doing that!" Maelyn told them, "The only thing limiting me right now is figuring out who owns that building right across from that other bank! Cause once I am able to get possession of that property I can open the bank and offer more options than I can right now because until I can figure out how to find out who owns that spot, or find a spot I can acquire nearby, we are having to run the bank out of Linfay's house right now."
"The undersecretary keeps track of the owners of each property." Abjul revealed to her, "That is why she has been the one having to prepare the deeds that are being transferred. Because each year those that are able to own property are required to pay taxes to the kingdom on them and it is her job to collect their taxes or put the property up for auction if they are unable to pay their taxes before the next year's taxes are due."
"Let me guess," Maelyn grimaced, "That is how Anton and Harmon are able to take over the properties of the few citizens able to avoid their racquet?"
"Sadly yes." Abjul told her then offered, "But it is also how I have been able to add to the properties I own and give them at least slightly better rent until you showed me a better way."
"And which one of you sets the tax rate?" Maelyn asked bitterly, "because I can just see Anton and Harmon setting the taxes too high for most people to be able to pay!"
"Thankfully that is one of MY duties!" Abjul informed her, "And I have only been setting tax rates to support the amount the government needs to pay for what little we do and to pay everybody. Which may be part of why my Grandfather and dad keep increasing their rent. Because I have been refusing to increase taxes so they can give themselves raises unless they get what we call our Congress to pass raises for EVERYBODY instead of just them and us."
"We need someone able to do that in the American government!" Joseph grumbled, "Because our Congress gives themselves raises ALL THE TIME but only give their own employees and their elderly and veterans minuscule raises once a decade!"
After breakfast Maelyn went over to Daughtry's site and asked, "Have you been hearing a hollow sound like we have at the other sites?"
"Strangely no!" Daughtry excitedly explained, "We're getting a dull thud instead of the solid sound we've been getting from the rest of the basalt!"
"Could it be that obsidian causing the change?" Maelyn wondered, "Cause it's got a different structure and is crystalline itself!"
"Already checked on that and nope!" Daughtry informed her, "The obsidian gives more of a pinging sound than the basalt's thud but this is different from that too! I mean, if we had been digging through anything other than basalt and obsidian I would say it sounds almost like hitting the side of an aquarium, but all the heat that this stuff was giving off would've caused all the water in this small pond to evaporate within those first couple of minutes of the lava flowing into it!"
With Daughtry already having been digging a circular staircase as they dug deeper, Maelyn asked as they descended, "How are you two able to get so deep and keep this open all the way up?!" And you two have even been able to go deeper than most of the other teams have too!"
"That is because of a unique talent little miss Allison has!" Daughtry told her laughing, "She used to work with a gemologist at a jewelry maker and learned how to hit this rock in just the right way that it'll crack as far down as she wants it to! Then I just have to come behind her and give it a good whack for it to break! I mean with her working on this it just takes her a tap on all sides in a block shape and I end up carrying like three foot long blocks of basalt out of this hole at least once or twice an hour! I mean the only real work I do other than carrying those blocks out is helping her dig down far enough and wide enough for her to get a good hit on the bottom of the next block!"
"I think she needs to teach joseph how to do that! Cause we're gonna have to be clearing tons of this stuff to get all that basalt out of that cube to free that palace!" Maelyn told him with a giggle then asked in a serious tone as they got down to the bottom of the steps, "And how deep does this obsidian go?! Cause I was expecting less than a foot of it but there's at least THREE foot of it here!"
"And there's another foot we haven't broke through yet too!" Daughtry added, "Cause she had me holler for y'all last night before she started tapping through that last layer!"
"So we're actually more than three feet below ground level?!" Maelyn gasped in surprise then asked Allison as they came up to her, "How big of a hole are you going to open? Cause we don't want to open up the whole are! We wouldn't have a comfortable space to kneel while we're scanning the area you've opened. Also, with us this deep and with this much obsidian, I'm worried that that sound you've been hearing might be some water remaining underneath all of this!"
"I was going to open an area about two foot square ma'am." Allison informed her, "That way we'd be able to more easily get a panoramic scan and maybe even stick our heads in the hole and get a good view instead of having to rely on the drone."
"Well, just remember, if there IS water then we're not gonna be able to use the drone." Maelyn told her, "So the bigger hole would be welcome. But be careful breaking the entire block free before we have something underneath to catch it! We don't wanna contaminate the site underneath if we don't have to!"
"You want me to break a hole gig enough for Mister Daughtry to put his hand under it before I break the rest of it free?"
"Yeah. I think that would be the best way." Maelyn told her before turning to Daughtry and teasingly telling him, "Get ready Hulk. It's fixing to be your turn to show off those muscles."
Laughing and flexing his arms in a characteristic manner he tried to sound like the character and told them, "Me Hulk STRONG!"
giggling Allison then tapped the corner of the area she had scraped an outlining of where she wanted to clear and told them, "There's the crack for both sides of this area. Now I just need to do a smaller tap for the inside part and this arm hole will be loose."
Maelyn then kneeled opposite Allison and stuck a suction cup onto the obsidian they were fixing to loosen and told her, "O. I'm ready but go slow so the sudden weight doesn't pull this suction cup free!"
Allison the tapped the first inside line and told her, "This last one will break it free so if you pull up on it before I tap it should lift right up!"
Maelyn did as advised and as soon as she tapped the block came up so easily she stumbled back a step just as the water that had been trapped underneath came rushing up out of the hole. In a hurry they all grabbed the scanners they had already placed on the steps above the bottom area and started carrying them back up the steps. Worried about how far the water would rise Maelyn directed them to put the scanners and other nearby electronics in the wheelbarrow to be safe in case it continued to flow out of the top of the area they had dug out.
When they were finally able to stop and take a breath Maelyn laughed and told them, "This would explain all that obsidian!"
"yeah." Daughtry laughed, "A continuous flow of water from underneath would cause it to build up like that!"
"we should have thought of that before we started digging over top ofthat pond though!" Allison complained, "Now we're gonna have to dig some type of drain out to the side of all of this basalt to be able to get back to what's in the bottom of that pond!"
"I think we might have a way around that!" Maelyn shared with a smile, "But I'm gonna need Dave to do the sweet talking."