“You DO realize what you are asking right?” I said once I picked up my jaw.

“Indeed! A heavy task I have no doubt but one I am positive you can accomplish!” he said brightly.

“Heavy doesn’t even BEGIN to cover the difficulty of what you want. At least if what you want is what I think you want anyways. This isn’t like making a weapon or even a statue like that crystal Sphinx I made you. For those it’s a careful effort that takes up no more room at any particular moment than a few feet, but a whole manor? That’s a whole other level of enchantment.” I say seriously.

“But you can do it yes?” he pressed and I nodded.

“Before I can even answer that I need you to clarify what EXACTLY you mean by an almost alive manor.” I said feeling a headache form.

“Art is change, fluid and always shifting with the perceptions of the masses. I want an entire manor that too can shift with the perception of the masses into something beautiful, a true house of art!” he said eagerly.

I could practically feel the blood in my veins boiling from the heat my brain was putting off trying to visualize such a thing.

“You probably won’t accept a mere illusion in this case huh?” I asked with a throbbing migraine.

“Art must have substance to truly be appreciated!” he said passionately.

“Yeah I suppose I could make something like that but it’ll be wildly expensive, i’m talking billions of valis at least.” I said honestly.

THAT got Ptah to pause as while he was incredibly wealthy even he needed to take such an amount of money seriously.

“Can I ask why?” he asked with a frown.

“There are a few reasons really. The first is materials, things that hold the properties needed to change with the viewers personal definition of beauty and last are ridiculously rare and expensive much less in that amount. The second is the stone I’d need to integrate into that kind of thing to power it. Something that is constantly changing like that would burn through energy incredibly fast so a massive stone would be needed to barely keep the thing running. Stones like that don’t just grow on trees Ptah. The final reason was the sheer difficulty of creating such at thing. The time, focus and effort I would need to put in are so colossal that I could honestly probably create a second Babel easier.” I laid it out bluntly.

“Is it truly so difficult?” he asked in shock.

“Lets ignore the material cost here and focus merely on what exactly you are asking for. A manor that changes to appeal to the one looking at it’s preferences. How many people exist right now? And of those people how many different ideas of beauty are there? The answer is a whole fucking lot. And you want a manor that caters to all of them. This isn’t a matter of just creating seven or eight different options it could swap between but hundreds or even thousands and that’s me low balling it.” I said honestly.

He seemed to finally understand the enormity of what he was asking finally as his eyes widened in horror. I wasn’t lying when I said it would be easier to make a second Babel. At least in that case the biggest expense is the materials as the tower itself is a big hunk of carved stone otherwise. It’s not enchanted or magical in any way at all beyond the individual rooms that might possess enchantments added later.-

“I see I have been unreasonable. It seems I have dreamed a bit too high.” he said apologetically and downcast.

“There is a way.” I said holding up my hand to silence him before continuing “You need to understand however that doing it this way will take much more time.” I said and he nodded eagerly.

“That is entirely acceptable! Please tell me what the plan is.” he said seriously.

“The idea I have is that I create bricks, like pieces of a puzzle that all connect together into a single whole. Each brick would hold the properties you want and the additional property of connecting to the other bricks in contact with it. In theory once you fully construct a manor from these bricks the building would shift in the perception of whoever is looking at it. This route is additionally far cheaper as I only need the effort to shape and enchant the bricks which would not take too much time or effort on an individual basis.” I explained.

He looked thoughtful at this but didn’t reject the idea outright. 

“It’s not exactly what I had in mind but I know that sometimes an artist must make sacrifices to create their art. I will of course pay you for each of these bricks you create. Thank you truly Alex!” he said bowing gratefully before leaving with a skip in his step.

‘Ugh, this curse technique is going to be a pain in the ass to create.’ I thought as he left.

The technique not only had to effectively read minds but it then had to change the brick it was in to a shape, texture and color it determined from the one who it read. This may sound simple but it wasn’t. I’d need to really focus on this one and even then imbue each of these bricks with a level three cursed stone so they only had to individually power themselves rather than spread their power through the entire building. As for eventually putting the damned place together I’d let Ptah himself deal with that as that was a job for an architect not someone like me.

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