Counselor tya-5

by P. S. Power

  That part pissed of Teller to no end. For a second, when Tor held out the truth amulet to him, it seemed like the man might hit him, feeling offended. He did it though, and passed easily, which kind of meant all his own men had to take a turn too. Tellers’ elite forces had some spies… a lot of them really. Nearly half the men worked for someone else on the side, which was pretty bad.

  Tor just took note of whom they worked for, or rather got Kolb to do it for him, since the man had much better hand writing and that meant there was a real reason for the Knight to be standing there next to him. None were working for Austra however. It took all night, and people were scared and grumpy by the end, but the whole town, down to the waitresses in the restaurants and even there little children, were cleared. Mainly by him. His eyes kept closing as he worked.

  He was falling asleep on the job, and couldn't help it. Kolb played it off as him going into a trance. For some reason almost everyone bought it. Apparently his penchant for doing things like that was well known. How they justified the snoring Tor didn't know.

  “OK, I think that's everyone. I need to report in to the King, then get some sleep. Teller, Um, not to tell you your job, but I know I'd sleep much better if there was some kind of guard still. We know that none of our people are going to be doing anything wrong, but… Well, outside attack is still possible.” Tor yawned and held up a hand.

  “Admittedly, not very likely. I think I just caught the poor girl out and she panicked to tell the truth. If not, she would have deployed her weapon more carefully and survived it.”

  Teller didn't comment on his theory, but didn't seem to think much of it as far as Tor could tell. He went back to his dorm room to sleep. He could have stayed at the house, but that would require extra guards to be set. It was a waste of resources. In his room, barely conscious, he contacted the King again. Or tried to. Instead he got a nervous sounding young voice.

  “Um, this is the palace. How may I help you sir or ma'am?” The voice was still young and tentative, but not half as nervous as the last time he'd heard it.

  “Kenner? This is Tor. I have a report for the King, but it isn't urgent. Can you take notes for me here?”

  Kenner had helped him out in the past, but only for a bribe. Tor kind of expected to be shaken down by the kid, but it seemed that his job now, instead of washing the floors, was to answer the communications device like he had and alert the right people. He admitted that taking notes, at least good ones, was beyond him yet, though he was studying for it.

  He could get a Royal Guard for that though.

  “Hey Tor, This is Chet. I've got the gear ready, go on your report.” The voice sounded a little sleepy, but not too bad. It held good enough humor and the man explained that the rest of the people had, wisely, taken to their beds.

  It didn't take long for the initial report, though the list of who was spying for who had to be sent to several people, which meant copying first. Tor decided to grab one for himself. Not that he loved intrigue, but just knowing who was bothering to try and collect information was interesting. Some of them were people he'd actually met for instance, like the Coltress'. That they hadn't found the girl using Ginger's identity was a little odd, but then, the girl had just started, about two months prior. Still, that was very nearly when the girl had been murdered. Close enough to be really suspicious.

  There was something there, but Tor couldn't think of it, too tired for anything but lying down. In the morning, as he forced himself to walk, slowly, down the hall to the bathroom, it hit him. They needed to check to see if anyone was using the other murdered girls identities. Also, they needed to check for men doing the same thing. Dying and then showing up somewhere else. It would be hard, since the Capital killer had a signature, taking the heads and… violating the women first. It meant that one was a man at least. How the guard had figured that floating headless corpses were drowning victims Tor didn’t’ really know, but he highly suspected it had to do with the fact that the first six girls just weren’t that important, so no one really cared.

  Except the King. He’d mentioned it months before hadn’t he? That issue he wanted Tor to work on with Smythe?

  But there could be murders for the purpose in other places. It was a bit of a waste in the main, unless, of course, someone was faking royal connections. That didn't seem likely though. The nobles were a small and tight community. What, three thousand people in all? Four? Out of the sixty or seventy million in Noram… It would be easier to just make up a name and go to a new place.

  Still, it had to be looked into.

  After he shaved, Tor worked his way to the student’s dining room and grabbed a bowl of wheat cereal and an apple. An exhausted looking group of builders sat at a table already, so he walked towards them, on his own feet, but still shuffling like an ancient or desperately ill person, which got Lyn to hop up and push another chair in for him.

  There were more people around, worked in to the group, than he figured there would be and they didn't all look happy. After a few seconds Sandra reported, which told him why that was.

  “Half of us can't do it. The best I managed in a group was twenty. I did get it in an hour and a half, but, um, Guide can't do more than ten in two hours and Farlo there can still only manage one at a time. Sam is on groups of fifty and so is Mark. Lyn… She managed two groups of a hundred. All solid work though. Except the wasted batches…”

  Tor smiled at all of them.

  “Don't worry, it's mainly a focus issue. Um, Farlo?” The girl looked scared, but was tall and clearly royal tall and had short hair, a slightly grown out military cut that had a nice copper sheen to it, that was clearly fake. “What year are you in?”

  “Four, Master Tor Sir. I mean Lord Tor…” She seemed flustered.

  “Just Tor, since your part of the group. OK, today your doing batches of ten. No problem. I can't monitor you, so… Guide, after you do a batch of twenty, I want you to watch Farlo and keep her on task. Don't do the work for her though, Just get her to feel what she needs to do and let her do it.”

  They both looked shocked, but Tor shrugged.

  “Look, everyone has always told you how hard building and copying is, but you have the skills already, the talent, so forget that. We need to outfit all the military here by the end of the day with class seven shields and you only have half that right now. No one else can do this and frankly, I can't spare you to playing around with it for too long. We have half a dozen other projects needed for the kingdom, and need more of everything. Plus, when that's done, I want to see at least a novel build a month from all of you. Or more. Sandra is with me today, but all of you need to stand ready. We may have to move to other locations at any time. Some of you may have to go alone too. So be ready for that. Keep a bag packed.” Tor finished eating, and felt guilty about pushing them like that, but other than the deep and gloomy silence, no one else seemed to mind.

  Yay. Tor grinned at everyone before they left.

  “Oh, also haircuts and a few nice outfit designs. Um, get with Petra Ward for help there if you need it. Combat giant, but the best person I've ever seen on clothing design. Also, you'll be getting some projects from Instructors Fines and Weapons Instructor Kolb. If you don't do them well, I'll get yelled at, so you know, your efforts are appreciated.” Tor winked and grinned at the group that just looked at him, not even groaning at the idea.

  Tor started walking out after putting his bowl through the little window near the back of the room. A scared looking first year boy took it without saying anything. Tor got that at least, it was frightening, the whole situation.

  “Thanks.” It wasn't much by way of reassurance, but the kid bowed back a bit and kept working. It never hurt to be polite after all, right?

  Tor was outside, walking slowly and very carefully down the stone steps to the commons when he noticed that Sandra was following him. He looked over at her and smiled gently, knowing that it had to be a pain walking along like that, being so tall and healthy like she
was. He had to build up though and that meant walking when he could.

  At the bottom he pointed to where “General” Teller had set up and started over. That made the girl seem very uncomfortable, but she didn't hesitate, so it worked well enough for a start. When he got to the man Tor stopped and gestured to the girl, a woman really, who had probably already graduated and just sticking around because she was at loose ends.

  “General Teller? This is Sandra Morris, head of the Lairdgren group. She's going to be delivering the shields for your men today. The first half are ready to go. They'll stop death dust and other nano particulates. You have to turn them on manually for that, so caution the users of that please. It will turn on automatically once they encounter the threat a single time, but not before that most likely, so…” The look on the man’s face and the twitch of his thick mustache told him that he needed to explain the subconscious and deep mind link that turned the shield on in case of emergency.

  None of the military's gear did that yet. The guy was impressed and promised to make sure everyone understood. Sandra didn't say much, just running to get the first half of the order. That delivered, they both were at loose ends for a bit.

  For about ten seconds.

  “Right, now we need to get in touch with the King and then check on the builds for the day. After that, you should get a nap. Really, I can check on the kids, where are they working?”

  “Building seven… But… I don't really need to talk with the King, do I?” She sounded nervous, but Tor just shrugged.

  “Well, yeah. Him and the Queen both. I don't see why it should be a problem, aren't you all related or something?” It was a teasing stab in the dark, the girl was tall and named Morris, so it made sense but she shook her head.

  “Not too closely. I was… Nearly engaged to Prince Alphonse when I was little. Ursala Thorgood got it instead. I'm… supposed to inherit. Um, you know, Counserina first and all that. Dad's not wild about me trying to learn building, he thinks I should just marry and set up house, maybe learn to do accounts. We, don't get along too well.” She didn't seem happy about the admission at all.

  “Oh, well, I'm sure that your father’s reputation won't affect yours with the King. He thinks you have a lot of potential. So does Count Lairdgren, who ask for you specifically to be in charge of this.” The King was probably looking forward to her taking over for her stick in the mud da, Tor guessed but didn't mention out loud.

  “He knows who I am? I mean the King. We talked once on your communications device… I didn't think… Well, that anyone would really remember me.”

  Tor shrugged, “He suggested you, personally, by name, be given this job too. I wasn't kidding when I said you were in charge of the group here. It's all official and everything. You don't get paid for it though, not much, two gold a week.” Tor pulled the figure because it was what the secret army members got paid. Why not, he could spare it, right?

  “So don't let it go to your head. Plus, you can only manage twenty copies at once?” Tor shook his head sadly. “You have great potential Sandra, but little kids can do better than that. You even know several of them. You'll have to fix that. Today in fact, if we get time. We need to get to the Capital first though.”

  “Uh… OK. I'll do my best. Why do we need to go to the Capital? Can't we just talk to them from here?”

  Tor sighed and shook his head.

  “We just had an Austran attack Sandra. For the first time it was on regular people, not just nobles or clearly targeted towards a single individual. This is huge as far as the commoners go. We have to show that we have a plan in place to prevent it from happening again. More…” He gave her a steely look.

  “I can't be that plan this time, and some people might point out that this could have been targeting me. I don't think it really was, but we need to show the kingdom that taking out one person won't cripple us. Today that means showing the royal family. Later it means showing everyone else. Plus, I may need you to help me beat up an Ancient later. He's too good a friend with everyone else at the palace to take them seriously, I think. I could probably do it normally, but right now…” He waved at his body, which got the tall, dark skinned girl to nod. She knew what a mess he really was after all.

  “Alright.” She stopped, going still suddenly. “Wait, the Ancients are real?”

  Tor nodded.

  “Yeah, the one I'm talking about is Dennorian Brown, the Austran Ancient. I don't know where the others have gotten to, but they may or may not be around. Don't let them impress you too much. Not that they aren't impressive, we just don't want them to get swelled heads.” Tor grinned at her, which was a mistake, because she clearly thought he was kidding now.

  Oh well.

  The conversation with the King didn't happen, but Connie was there and invited them both to dinner, which was late for Tor, but manageable if he got a nap himself. He got Sandra to go and get some sleep by ten in the morning and looked in at everyone else, briefly, realizing that him looking at them working right now did very little indeed. He did find that Lyn had two more sets of shields ready already, and that they worked. Two hundred in less than three hours.

  Tor smiled, a wash of pride coming over him as he looked at the small girl in front of him. She opened her eyes and stared blankly for a bit. She had brown eyes and brown hair now, though they used to be blond and murky blue. Tor realized that she'd changed them with one of his disguise devices. Or, well, given who she was, it may be a recreation or even novel work.

  Good.

  “Oh… Hey, Tor… just finishing the second batch, planned two more, is that all right? I can do more…” Her voice was dreamy and soft, still detached from the deep state.

  “Actually, I'd like you to help me check on the others. We should have enough for everyone soon, but I can't do it myself right now. Other than by physically checking their work. It's just field reading, which I know you can do already.”

  “I can?” She sounded slightly confused.

  Tor chuckled as he explained that it just had to do with sensing fields and that she did it all the time, it was how she knew that the people were disguised the day before after all.

  “Oh, that. OK. I can do that. I didn't know it had a name.”

  The others were doing well, except for Farlo, who was really struggling to get a batch of ten done. Even without sensing the field Tor understood the problem, speaking softly to Lyn he got her to show the needed correction easily enough though. It meant he had to leave the younger girl sitting there, so she could help. Guide was still working on his own batch of twenty, but Lyn said he seemed to have it, no problem.

  Tor floated back to his room and slept for a few hours. It was decadent, sleeping during the day, but his body would need the rest, probably for a long time. At four he went and grabbed Sandra from her room and helped her collect up the rest of the shields that had been made. Farlo had managed an honest, all on her own, batch of ten. Twice. Everyone seemed pleased by that too, at least as happy for her as they were for their own accomplishments. They were a real team. Tor felt a little envious, but let that go. He had a team too, didn't he? His was just made up of a bunch of royals.

  As soon as that was done Tor sat Sandra down and handed her a pile of fifty copper plates with shield sigils.

  “Here you go. An hour and twenty minutes. Go.” He made no move to give her a shield to copy from either. She'd done it before after all.

  He smiled at her confidently.

  It took her closer to two hours, but the fields worked. They packed the extra up and took off from the commons, using his personal fast carriage, because Sandra hadn't done a copy of the field for herself yet. It was silly, but she hadn't wanted to do it without paying for it. Tor shook his head.

  “Fine… I'll trade you, copy for copy. One novel field from my stuff for each one of yours you give me. Deal?” He didn't put a hand out to shake, but smiled at her.

  “Sure. My stuff kind of sucks though… My only novel build so far is ju
st a toy that lights up for kids.” She sounded embarrassed.

  It sounded fun though, it required the child to balance a stick on one finger, and when they got it right, the whole thing lit up, glowing blue. The longer they did it, the brighter the whole thing got. It wasn't anything earth shattering maybe, but it had a basic feedback device in it and those were tricky, so it wasn't a lack of skill on her part. Tor nodded when she explained it.

  “Right, get with Kolb for your new assignments.”

  “The scary bald one?”

  “Yep, that's the one. I wish I could tell you he wasn't that scary once you got to know him, but… nope, he's really just that freaky. Just do what he says though. If you can't do it personally, get the others to work on it.”

  He was being more than a little pushy with her, possibly abusively so, he felt, but she just acted like it was normal. As if Tor had a right to tell her what to do or something. Still, for now it worked and as long as everyone was reaching the goals he set them, it was fine. He hoped. Thirty odd minutes later they landed, very slowly, on the palace lawn. It was dark out, but the city was ringed with a glowing purple river. It was just regular water that ran around the top wall, with light fields sitting underneath, but with that and the outside lights at the palace, it made it pretty easy to find, even at night.

  Of course that would mean that anyone could find it. Including the Austrans. Still, Tor doubted that they'd have problems doing that anyway. The craft they'd sent before didn't even have human drivers, and for all he knew the devices that did the flying didn't have eyes. He'd have to see if he could get the information from Denno, if he was still around.

  If it was him, Tor would have run off already, because an attack that killed a bunch of school kids and an official was not going to make him popular at the moment. They couldn't even use a truth device on him. Not for certain.

  Thumb screws would have to do then.

  Not that Tor really wanted to torture the guy and it was clear that it probably wouldn't work on him anyway. He'd have to think of something else. Nothing came to mind at all though.