The Grim's Diary

Part II

I was in the Grand Cavern with my Nephew, Thomas. I was again trying to transform Nothing into, well, something new. But I didn't have inspiration at all. I granted Thomas a few crafting tools warning him well that Nothing was quite dangerous and that it consumed everything it touched to Nothing, but he seemed to have far more fun and skill then I at working Nothing. Actually, he wrought a few miniatures dinosaurs and a small roman coliseum and let them fight there, enjoying every battles of his small Nithlings. When one would die, he simply crafted another. I smiled when I looked at him happy. He was something new to my life and I enjoyed it. But there was not only the joy in my existence, and my growing debt all around the House was a part of my duties as well. Perhaps it was my frown or my kicking of the nearest rock into the Lake of Nothing that made my Nephew notice my bad mood, anyway he came near me, leaving his toys behind.

"What is it Uncle Tuesday?" he asked. "You seem to be actually sad."

-"Oh, better not disturb you with that." I replied. As soon I did, a telephone materialized itself near me and rang loudly inside the Grand Cavern, the annoying ringing echoing.

"What is it!" I angrily answered to the one who called me.

-"Sorry Master Tuesday?" it was Noon. "But I have bad news. It appears that a few billing papers disappeared and that they did not have been paid, doing so interests on them accumulated and we now owe 500,000,000 Nobles to the Middle House and the Lower House."

-"What!" I shouted back. "This makes 1,000,000,000 Nobles! How much is it in their currency!"

-"Hum, this actually would be 300,000,000 Gold Roundel for the Lower House and…"

I did not listen to Noon. It confirmed that our services throughout the House were not sufficient for our currency to actually equal the Gold Roundel of the Lower House which had one of the lowest worth in the House. I finally ended this phone call with a "good bye" while Noon was still speaking. The phone disappeared in a rain of yellow sparks. I began to stare emptily at the Nothing Lake, and Thomas soon noticed that.

"What is the problem Uncle? Perhaps I can help…" he said.

"No you can't… we owe money to every domain of the House, a lot of money and I don't know how to pay back those debts and how to have a stable amount of money…"

-"Hang on a second… You say you don't know how to make money?" Thomas answered, and then he looked at the Nothing, then back at me.

-"No I don't know." I said.

-"You can actually make any material goods and you don't know how to make money…"

-"Well…"

-"Well why did you just not make things from Nothing and sell them?"

-"It is because I got no inspiration…"

-"You just need to make copies of existing pieces of arts or things and sell them!"

-"Well, not many persons can afford decorative and ornamentals things…"

-"Start with art, and then you could perhaps get on with something more useful when peoples will be fed up of that."

I thought for a moment and then I smiled brightly… Thomas was definitely what I needed to cheer up my life. For at least five hundred years, I wrought copies of works of art and sold them to the Morrow Days for what I thought would be a fair price. I quickly put an end to the Far Reaches' debts with that, but I soon ran out of Nothing, so I decided with my administration to dig a single shaft into the source of the Lake of Nothing. Then I got more Nothing then I needed personally and I offered employment to those who would want to craft things and sell them all over the House to help the Far Reaches to have a stable banking account. The number of miners and crafters grew a lot so I decided to offer the work of Overseers to the miners who would offer a superior quality of work, as a reward. They were meant to keep order and ensure the work was done correctly. The visor was a special invention of Thomas. You would see the world better with it and orders and instructions would be given through text the Overseer would see in his visor. They had to obey without questions to the orders given by the visor.

At last, the Far Reaches are no longer the poorest domain of the House. The Mine has greatly expended, it is ten time the size it once was and there is ten time more Nothing extracted. All the earth that was being dug away was sent into the Eternal Fields, somewhere well hidden. I got there sometimes with Thomas and we did not want to see that pile of earth. Everyone agreed that I have been very tenacious to make the Far Reaches, that is why, I decided today to be called, Grim Tuesday. Not grim as in sinister, but grim as in someone who doesn't give up. Now that my domain was being richer everyday, I decided to build a few factories where my crafters would keep making the things that were ordered. Dawn didn't seem to like the idea of the factories. She said that we were making enough money to sustain and that more products would be unnecessary. I reminded her that I was the leader here and that if I decided we would sell more, we were going to do that.

Some Morrow Days think my prices are too high. They said that they indeed wanted the exquisite objects I made but that they wouldn't pay that high. How revolting! The exquisite objects I wrought from Nothing have a lot more value then anything anyone might do! However I did agree that they paid with Denizens to work my Pit, as I now called it. It was twenty time the size it had been at the start and it grew bigger everyday. Perhaps it was merely fifteen miles wide. Not that big if you ask me. I was in my office, fixing the billing of the services of the other domains of the House. After all the counting, I checked our banking account papers. We had 234,543,198,480 Nobles, and they now had the highest worth above all others House currency. Now, I had true power, yet it felt incomplete. I needed more, more money. I would expend the Pit and build more factories, and buy more contracts of Denizen from the other parts of the house. I had to make more money, it was essential. My thoughts were cut short as Dawn entered my office. I partly knew why she came but I let her go along, just to see what she had to say.

"Excuse me Master Tuesday?" she asked softly.

-"What is it!" I said brusquely.

-"I wanted to talk to you about something…"

-"Let's get on with it! Time is money and I got none to lose!" I replied.

-"Master its about that I came to talk to you, don't you think we should stop now? We are the richest domain in the House now, yet you seek to get even more money! What happens to you?"

-"Nothing! Nothing happens to me Dawn! I simply now seek to become the most powerful Trustee of all Time!"

-"I can't believe this… Do you really think the gold is actually the greatest power?" she was beginning to sob.

-"It is. It is power! And soon it will be all mine! When the other Morrow Days will owe me so much, I will force them to pay their debts with their domains and Keys, I will be the Architect!" I never thought about that brilliant strategy before but now it was clear to me, with all my money I would buy the House!

-"Please Master…"

-"Master! I shall soon be more then your Master soon! I will be more powerful then Lord Sunday! From now, everyone from the Far Reaches and beyond shall call me Lord Tuesday when they come in my domain!"

-"Master, you already are the richest Morrow Day, you are the richest Denizen! Could you please stop now! There is no need to keep getting richer! Don't you see what you have became!"

-"Let me guess… You believed this fool Monday's Dusk when he says the Trustees have been cursed. But I know who is really cursed. It is you, the Dawn Noon and Dusk. Those of every Day! Monday's Dawn is afflicted by lust, Monday's Noon by vanity, Monday's Dusk by avarice as you are!"

-"No… no…" Now the little fiend was crying, showing me all its weakness!

-"You do not deserve to serve someone like me! Be gone!" and with that I slapped her hard, knocking her away from three meters. She stayed on the ground, and only my kick sent her flying through the door, which I repaired shortly after with my Key. I could hear her cries from the other side as she went away. A few moments later, Thomas entered my office.

"Thomas I'm busy, get out of here." I said.

-"But…"

-"What did you not understand in… GET OUT! YOU ALL SEEM TO WANT ME WASTE MY TIME!" then I suddenly realized I just yelled after my Nephew. He seemed devastated by this. "Oh my what have I done… Excuse me Thomas, excuse me. I am so sorry, really. It was Dawn who put me on the edge, I'm sorry, come over there please." I hugged as he got nearer. I let him cry in my arms for the time it lasted and then I calmly asked to leave me alone.

I would do anything for Thomas, he was something I would not afford to lose.

"I promise you that you will never lack of anything Thomas. I will not fail you, never."