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((The Mon/Wen/Fri Double -- page 2 of 2))
Delilah had not had many nice things to tell him regarding Amelia, either, but the examples she provided had been similarly questionable to Lionel's. Things like Amelia "acting disrespectfully toward her in the presence of guests," "giving shameful gifts to her children without her approval," and "promising her a job only to renege on it later."

That last one, Hector remembered hearing about from Lionel.

He decided to ask Amelia about it directly, and lo and behold, the old woman's version of that incident turned out to be quite different.

"I never promised Delilah any job at all," she'd said. "She just assumed I would give her the position and then became furious when she eventually found out that I had hired someone else for it. Oh, and she did not appreciate it when I explained the concept of nepotism and the corresponding problems with it."

All in all, Hector had felt like he'd heard enough by now. He decided to give the Madame Carthrace the green light with the Bank of Darksteel, and now the whole thing was finally in motion. He'd already met with a few of the new people she wanted to hire, and he'd even given his approval for most of them as well.

Everything was moving a bit fast for his tastes, but he supposed the economic crisis facing Atreya wasn't going to wait for him start feeling comfortable. The sooner they were able to get things set up, the sooner the nation might be able to recover.

In theory, at least.

Funding the Bank was still a problem, of course, and while Roman's ten million troa in help was more than enough to meet the minimum threshold required for legally opening it, Hector and Garovel had decided to ask the Rainlords for their assistance as well.