"I grant you," of the griffons not being aesthetically demanding. "As long as it's sturdy, I suppose its shortcomings as architecture will bother us more than them. Still, I do generally feel that if a job is worth doing, it's worth doing correctly." Which is fine if you're good at everything, as Siegfried obviously is.

He gives the work they've done so far a critical once-over. "I do think it will hold, at least. And from the little I've been able to observe them in Kirkwall, it seems the griffons aren't especially prone to rougher play in the place where they roost, which means the odds of one of them throwing another into the wall are relatively low. With luck, we won't have a rowdier bunch here."