Aether Tales: The Ashes of Asphodel

Part 1

Amidst the unsettling quiet of the barren landscape, three figures stand underneath an umbrella shielding them from the falling ashes overhead.

Staring longingly at the red sky above, gray ash falls onto the brim of Lord Kresimir's top hat. Behind him a strange figure dressed in servants garb standing over 6ft tall moves to shield him with the umbrella.

"So what do you think?" The third figure speaks up, a short and stocky man wearing a cheap set of formal clothes and a multi-layered monocle over his right eye with a single crack on its glass edge. His voice shaking nervously with every word as he pulls his jacket in closer revealing the metal pin that says "inspector" on his half-frayed lapel.

"The ash falls only happen a few times a year, more so in this location due to how close we are to the Ash cliffs… unless you breathe a ton of it in, you should be fine."

The stocky inspector gestures outwardly towards a humble estate, it's foundation cracked in clearly hazardous places, the wood roof damaged, and some of the windows merely cracked in some places and completely shattered in others.

The land around the mansion estate is barren and dry with no sign of crops or agricultural cultivation of any kind in sight.

"I'll take it.." Lord Kresimir replied, swiping off a few pieces of ash that had landed on the arm of his brand new aristocratic overcoat.

"Wonderful! You'll be truly pleased with this property, the previous tenants certainly were… for a time."

"I'm not worried about that superstitious nonsense, just make the sale inspector."

"Ah yes, of course I will begin writing up the proper documentation in no time, perhaps while I finish you may walk around your new home?" The inspector stammered, half fumbling over his own words as if he couldn't believe this stroke of luck.

'Someone actually wanted to buy this shit hole?' He thought.

"Fine." Kresimir replied coldly as he stepped away from the inspector, moving towards his new 'home' with the abnormally tall servant following closely behind him.

…

Half an hour later, Kresimir sits at the old mahogany table in the house's living room. Reading over the documents the inspector gave him to sign before he could make the official sale.

"Hey, what's this about a second imperial tax? I'm already paying the standard property tax on this wreck." Kresimir asked, looking up from the papers towards the skeevey inspector.

"Ah yes well, despite the 'humbility' of this particular estate, it is still rather close to the imperial capital so there is often an additional tax on the sale of the emperor's land… perhaps it's proximity to the capital is why you wanted to purchase it in the first place? ..Does a townhome draw too much attention to a venerable lord like yourself?"
The inspector rubbed his hands together greedily after adjusting the focus of his cracked monocle.

"That's none of your business." Kres replied before signing the documents anyway, agreeing to the second tax despite its questionable legality.

The inspector grinned. "Fantastic!, then here is the official deed to the estate and of course, it's surrounding cut of land. I wish you happy day's in your new home milord… the negotiated funds will be withdrawn from your personal account within a matter of days."

The inspector quickly departed from the house, quickly slamming the door behind him as if he was a thief running away from his most recent victim.

And perhaps he was…

"Now then… time to get to work." Kres grinned and stood up from his seat at the old table, pressing his palm against its aged wood.

Part 2

Under work.