How difficult it was to attempt to understand a concept that had excelled his own learning by centuries! Dorians gaze lingering on those stacks of neatly piled gold coins and bars and jewelled chalices and art that littered the room. He had been given to believe, at least at first, that such things might be worthless now. No one paid with gold any more, that had hardly gone unnoticed by the Fae and as such the man had simply come to believe it had fallen out of fashion in a sense and that the paper money he was used to seeing now had somehow become entirely more valuable. To learn that the opposite was true was perhaps quite the revelation and yet still his mind struggled with those financial concepts. It was perhaps, that unwavering trust he held within his lover that had so prompted him to bring the vampire here, along with the notion his lover might surely enjoy seeing such a thing. The vampire seeming entirely astonished, Dorian inclined to admit he so enjoyed to surprise Sebastian on occasion. After all, it was so often he himself whom held that look of wonder and awe. How pleasing it was, to see it returned. Yet, more so, he trusted his companion's judgement beyond those of even his age-old advisor. Benito had been within the palace as long as himself, the aged Fae having no greater understanding of finance then himself and as such it was to Sebastian such questions were offered. After all, his lover understood the world as he did not and more then that- the vampire was successful in his own financial endeavours. He had seen Sebastian within his study sorting those papers and speaking of money and Dorian, in turn, had come to anticipate that his lover held an understanding of just this and too- would surely not misguide him as others might through their own ignorance in turn. Those numbers falling from is Consorts lips a moment later hardly understood and yet pleasing in some sense if only for the notion that the vampire seemed to grasp what existed before him.

The silver of his own gaze shifted from the coin in his fingertips, watching as Sebastian to, moved to grasp a single gold piece, turning it about within his own hands contemplatively. Those softly uttered lyrics seeing Dorian's attention shift readily back to him as he so admitted to not ever having held a gold coin before. His own country so apparently preferring silver and yet why a nation would craft its coinage from a lesser metal Dorian hardly knew, surprise readily tainting his features before he further considered just what Sebastian had said. Silver coins would be, largely, untouchable by the vampire. His lover so incapable of holding his own coinage of the time though to refer to it as a mere 'inconvenience' seemed decidedly tame as Dorians own eyes widened all the more in some state of alarm.

"How on earth did you manage if you could not touch the money of your country? Was it possible for you to wear gloves in any sense? Will silver still bring you distress if there is a layer of cloth between your skin and the metal?"

He had, never before, considered how a vampire might go about avoiding silver in a time when it was so prolific. Cutlery too, for centuries, had been crafted of silver though even Dorian had experienced the woes of that. Before silver it had been iron. Exposure alone to that metal, even without his skin touching it, so often causing his form distress. His thoughts were drawn from this consideration only by Sebastian's words once more, the vampire replacing that coin upon the stack only to speak of this gold standard and how it had, once, been the standard by which all money was upheld. The weight of gold had become cumbersome to carry, even Dorian himself willing to attest to that and so it would seem that gold had become changed into paper, his features frowning in this contemplation and yet how his mind relished to learn these new things! The Fae King taking delight in almost all forms of education, his mind awash with an entire plethora of questions and yet he waited still, for Sebastian to speak his piece. This 'Great Depression' an entirely new event the Monarch was assured required his further attention, his gaze following his lover as the vampires fingers brushed along that gold bar and he continued.

That he need exchange fifty of those bars to be returned with one million of those paper dollars was a concept he understood, at least in the simplest of senses, his head nodding before the man mentioned this concept of banks. He knew of them, to an extent. The Medici Bank had irritated his Father no end and yet banks of the past were not, he suspected, exactly as they were now. His fingers extended forward, taking that black credit card from his lover to see the numbers upon it. Dorian having seen it in use time and time again without ever truly understanding the concept. How money might be transferred without it ever being touched so stirred an almost dubious look to his features. The idea of money being electronic still beyond his reasoning and yet the basic idea of it had settled with an assurance in his mind. His head nodding a moment later as Sebastian asked if he understood.

"I think so, to an extent. How might I go about getting a bank account? I think too that I shall see to employing a modern being to advise me in these things. I should not trust this to my staff, they understand no better than me and they may make errors through ignorance."

Yes, surely it would be better to hire a modern man with all these understandings like Sebastian held to further assist him in this task rather than rely upon those whom, try as they might, lacked any real knowledge of something as important as finance. It was only then, once he had so come to at least some understanding of his own wealth, that he moved towards that mahogany bookcase that had stood untouched for so long. It was with careful selection then, that he moved to take those two notebooks from within, turning to pass them to Sebastian now. The vampire's words were nearly breathless. Dorian too, it would seem, so misunderstanding the value of even this. After all they were, to his mind, merely aged notebooks of no value at all. The scrawling's of men long dead. That museums might desire them had never occurred to him, that surprise so tainting his features once more before a warm simper touched his lips.

"If you should like to give them to a museum then we shall. I like museums. Those you showed me in London were glorious places. Perhaps I might give much of this to such a place. I do not care for half these artworks after all and that marble carving of my Father is so frightful I should be glad to be rid of it. I shall keep those I favor and ask the museum if they might like to display that which I do not take pleasure in. Keep those notebooks for this evening though, you might as well enjoy those pages whilst you can. Come, let us head back upstairs."

If Sebastian so desired that a museum might have them then truly the Monarch saw little reason to argue. He would however, so assure that such notebooks were loaned only and done so within his lover's name so that, if ever the museum desired to no longer display such things, they would be returned to Sebastian alone. Dorian seeing little need to mention as such before moving to lead the way from the treasury and back up that long corridor and spiral stairs to the floor they had come from. It was simple then the lead the vampire down another level and another to the second floor, Dorian pausing to show him that reception room for important affairs, the formal dining room with its shockingly long table capable of seating countless people and with a glittering chandelier above, the walls crafted in those art frescoes throughout. The elaborately carved double doors of the next room were thrown back then to admit the pair into that enormous ballroom so gloriously and richly decorated with no less than eight full-sized chandelier above. Long windows adorned every wall, moonlight spilling in from every one to set that white marble floor aglow, the wall adorned with carvings and frescoes, their footsteps echoing throughout that empty and yet exquisite space. Rather a number of candelabra adoring those walls not covered by windows. Dorian so looking momentarily sheepish at that as he led his lover to the center of that incomparably large room.

"I fear I was a little bored in my youth and early imprisonment- I did a little decorating in the early fifteen hundreds with candles. They are spectacular when lit, those candles, though it takes the servants near an hour to light them all. When the chandelier are lit though they are like the sun itself."

Dorian Aragona