Wedding Prep

“Stop! Right there!” Shannon shouted. “That's perfect. Set it down.” The goblins gently laid the stone pillar to the ground, coordinating the six of them as if they were telepathic. Which maybe they were. Who knew? They were just goblins. “Now, go get the third one. It needs to be placed exactly between them. Exactly!”

The dark gray one – who Shannon guessed was their leader – nodded and the lot shuffled off down the stairs. Storage was five floors down. Shannon was so happy her cousin had lent her goblins! Humans would have balked at all this work. Plus, she might actually had to pay them.

She surveyed her handiwork so far. The tower room wasn't quite a perfect replica of the Temple of Abanel, but it was quite close. Especially on such short notice. Oh, this wedding would be so beautiful! Candace would be thrilled! It was such a shame what was going on at the actual temple. Wars were so inconvenient. But at least nobody she knew was wrapped up in all that, so she could focus on the planning.

Several of her decorators came up the front steps, towing massive strands of flowers. It didn't look like it would be quite enough to drape like Shannon wanted. It would have to do, though. Much as you might like to, the florists couldn't simply produce more stock on demand. At least not in these country backwaters, where there was only one mage between all of them, and he could barely control the weather!

A clank took her attention to the servant's stairs, where the goblins had nearly toppled over the pillar as they set it down at the landing. Such clumsy things! It was a good thing they followed orders well.

“No time for break now!” Shannon shouted. “That one needs to go right here. Exactly between the other two, but offset one yard. Do you see?” She threw up her hands as the team drifted in one direction. “No, not that way!”