by P. S. Power
Yay.
Well, at least he knew it was all him this time and wouldn't have to look around for who to blame. That saved time. Still, selfishly enough, he didn't want to die just to make the man feel better.
Was there some way he could fight without using a lot of energy or movement? Where speed and strength wouldn't matter? One that didn't require magic or a weapon? Well, if he could know what the man was going to do and he didn't change his plan when Tor slowly reacted to it, that would work. He'd even practiced that before. Unfortunately that just didn't seem likely at all. Anyone sane would try and adapt using best speed in a fight, wouldn't they?
But…
What if he used his mental abilities anyway? It would be risky as all hell, but he could make himself not feel pain, that was even easy. He did it all the time and it barely affected his field at all, it was just a trick, distracting himself from what was happening. He did it every time he meditated or worked deeply even.
Also, if he focused in the right way, he could view time as if everything moved slowly, like going through water or something. He hadn't done it on purpose before, but it had happened a few times in life, usually when he was about to get beaten anyway. So if he could learn to do it on purpose and trained for it, that could help. Maybe.
Then all he had to do was fight perfectly, without any errors at all.
Against a giant that he had to assume would already be willing to do anything to win, including possibly cheat himself. Tor decided to be careful of poisons and attacks coming in himself. It kind of made sense, what the King had said. Rochester, for some reason Tor didn't really get, feared him. Even now. He could use that.
If the man was afraid enough, he might just pull out. If he didn’t the fear would still help steal his fine motor coordination and cause him to burn up energy faster than he would otherwise. Worth fanning the flames on for certain.
It was a good plan. Not a great one sure, but doable with what he had. Maybe.
In a dream at least.
Tor shook his head, and started working, it was all he had for the moment.
The next day Tor tried to get in touch with Burks at Grenwyn, but no one there knew where he was. He talked to Barbara who was pleased enough to hear from him at least.
“So, what's this I hear about a dual? That sounds bone headed. Fail to bow at the right time or something? Maybe refused to marry the man's son or whatever nobles go on about these days?” She sounded slightly annoyed by the idea. Dour.
Disproving.
Tor snorted and tried to force a chuckle.
“Ah, well, I can't go into the reason why, but I beat him hard enough to leave him crippled for life, except, oops, someone used a healing amulet I made to fix him. So, feel free to laugh. It's all on me.” Tor held a sigh, but felt it keenly.
Not it was his older cousin’s turn to make a derisive noise, “did he at least deserve it?”
“Yeah. He really did. It wasn't personal and no one else could have done it without starting a war. So… In that way this is better. Anyway, are you and the people from Grenwyn all coming down for Postern?” They were relatives and all, some of them at least, so he had to ask them. Even if he hadn't met most of them.
“Certainly, just magic us down there in one of your carriages and there should be twenty of us descending on you.” Her voice held a laugh. “If not a few hundred.”
“Oh, good then, Um, we'll have people around to collect you then. It would be good if you could tell us how many will be coming though, if we need to send a bunch of transports, then that will have to be scheduled.”
“Wait… you're serious?”
Tor blinked for a second, eyes batting at the device in his hand with its multi-colored glowing sigils on stark white glass-like stone. Why wouldn't he be serious?
“Yes… that's why I said it. So, get back to us here? I'm leaving the communications device out so someone around here should be able to pick up, but don't be shocked if it's not me.”
They spoke about what the festivities would entail, which did sound fun. Plus, he assured her, there would be that spectacle involving him and the angry disgruntled Baron on Postern morning. Then he had a large luncheon planned for the afternoon.
“That confident then? Sure you'll have your teeth left and all that?”
Tor smiled, really feeling it. Not because it was sane, just at the stupidity of it all.
“Nope. Not at all. I could very possibly die as… infirm as I am right now. But in that case, people will still need to keep their strength up, so a big meal won't hurt anyway.”
“Oh. As long as you have it planned out then. Well I won't miss it. I could get Hobert to make a coffin for you? The work is always better when it's not a rush job…” Her voice was playful, but a little dark.
“Sure. Let me know the price when you call back, I'll make sure to send some gold along for it.”
That ended the call pretty quickly, since Barb would be needing to go tell her friend about the task and wrangle a good price for him. He called her back after just a few seconds though.
“Um, not be a pain here, but would it be possible for him to make it seven and a half foot long and really sturdy? Strong enough to hold hundreds of pounds at least? I have an idea.”
It may not help, but hey, what the hell? If Rochester feared him at all for real, pushing him there wouldn't hurt anything at this point. The man already planned to kill him after all. The man really couldn’t complain if Tor didn’t just oblige him.
Then Tor practiced again, focusing his mind as hard as he could on being whole and well, alternating with finding the most basic and simple to use unarmed fighting techniques that could possibly work on a large man and viewing things in a slowed down framework. That part was being a problem. He thought he had it, a bit, but it wasn't nearly enough. Not even a tiny bit. He needed to push to make it work.
It was a little dangerous, but in the end, the deadline looming, he forced himself into a deeper and deeper state, trying to get ready, knowing he just wasn't, and wouldn't be for months. Unless he gave himself over to the deepest part of himself. That part was far more powerful than his day to day conscious being. Everyone knew that. But… If Tor did that, he wouldn’t really be in control of himself. Would he?
The day before Postern, early in the morning, everyone started showing up, flowing in by the hundreds, large groups of people suddenly underfoot. It was magical.
Wonderful.
All his people were here. Everyone. His whole family, all his friends from Two Bends, Barbara and Uncle Dan from Grenwyn came in with nearly a hundred people he'd never seen before, some of whom were relatives in truth. Everyone from Lairdgren came too. Even the barber and his family.
“Oh! So good to see you all!” Tor called to them when they wondered into his personal residence, since that was where the Lairdgren school people were staying. He clasped the man’s hand, since he was a far more earthy guy than most and did the same with his missus, since her hand had come out too, if tentatively.
The school kids had already taken over, flowing in and out, going into the city to spend coins if they were wealthy or, for the scholarship kids, just walking around the house, playing with it. Making chairs appear and asking him if he had anything for them to do. They meant work, he knew, not anything fun. Tor smiled.
“Um, Henry?” He called out to the boy wearing a humble looking brown set of clothing. It was what a lot of the poorer kids still wore, even though they had clothing amulets on. It was a matter of pride, apparently. A uniform of sorts.
“Tor! Hey, I, um, heard some bully was going to beat you up. Do you want… I mean, me and some of the others, we could, you know, get him to change his mind.” He looked at his feet when he said it, which probably had to do with the fact that if he and a bunch of school kids, especially common ones, or even merchant kids, did that, they'd all be hung.
“I had something else in mind, could you get the scholarship kids around and, if it can be
done without shaming them, the others having a shortage of coin? Just meet me in the dining room in half an hour?”
The boy didn't ask why, he just nodded, as if it were a military mission. Given the time frame and how hard it would be to find anyone it might just be. Then, he might have supposed that Tor was really planning something, a strike against a certain Baron perhaps? If so he'd be disappointed. One life wasn’t worth many.
That was just math so basic even Tor could do it.
But alive at the end of the next day, they all would be. Maybe not him, but the others. So why shouldn't they have some fun too?
Henry didn't get everyone, but Tor was waiting with a large chest of gold when the twenty-seven kids he did find wondered in. Most wore brown, which he did at the moment too. Tor just winked at them and raised his right hand, getting everyone to go eerily silent. A lot of the faces were new to him, but a few, like Judith and Sam stuck out. Lyn stood at the back of the room, looking down at the floor for some reason. Nervously. She fidgeted, weigh shifting more than anyone else in the room did at all.
“Alright! Get with Henry and get your payments if you want to sign up for the holiday. A gold per day, to go out and find information for me.” He made his voice smooth.
It was just a way to give them coins without people feeling too bad, he hoped. It wouldn't do to let them be shamed after all. The room was already silent but Sam walked up and… bowed.
“Yes sir. Henry and I will see to it, if that's all right?” He spoke clearly, all trace of accent suddenly gone from his voice, as if it had never been there at all.
“Um, very good. Carry on then.” Tor wondered if Sam had an actual plan or if the young man just realized what the real situation was? Fake spying to let the kids feel all right about taking the gold? It was a lot, even for that kind of work, but why not? They'd spend it and that would help the economy, wouldn't it?
Tor nodded to the boys and started out of the room, only to have Lyn touch his arm on the way past.
“Master Tor, sir… A word with you? In private?” She sounded almost scared, tentative and shaky. Tor noticed she looked better though, her face was shaped a little differently now, it still looked like her, but better. Face less pinched and lips a little more red than before.
Of course, with a good disguise device on, she could look like anything, couldn’t she?
He winked and walked, almost at a normal pace, to a little room of to the side. It was actually there just for meetings like this, Collette had told him.
It was all ego, but Tor half expected her to try and kiss him when he turned around, but she didn't. Instead she took his hand and used the other to tap her own chest.
“Look at me.” She said, her voice commanding suddenly.
It wasn't an instant change, but after a minute or so, she shifted, altered and her form grew, almost like a candle melting in reverse, flesh being added, until she look very familiar indeed.
Like a short Burks Lairdgren.
Or, Tor supposed, as good looking as she really seemed, exactly like him.
The girl smiled with his face.
Chapter Nineteen
“Now we just lock you in here and I'll go and fight in your place. It's brilliant, don't you think?” She didn't stop smiling, clearly relived.
It really was.
“This device, can you copy anyone like that? Does it remember the field if you turn it off and back on?” It was clearly a novel build, a good one too…
“Um, no, I haven't figured out how to do that part yet, I mean I can find the field in some of your stuff, but it's really complex and subtle. I have to stay like this until after the fight, but this will work. Even if he kills me… Well, as long as you make a substitution after the fight quickly enough, no one will be the wiser! Just slip in and pretend that you were hurt, but not killed. That will work.”
Tor raised his eyebrows. Then he nodded.
“Except that part where you'd be dead. Not to be a pain here Lyn, but I won't let a friend go and fight my battles for me at the cost of their own life. Better if I die than you after all.” Tor shrugged.
“After all, this is my mess.”
The image of him looked sour and shook his head.
“No, this is some bully trying to kill you when you're weak, because he's a coward. He's even announced publicly that he won't be accepting any other challenges or let anyone bait him into fighting them instead. Said it was due to “cause” but I think it's just that he knows he wouldn't make it if he didn't hide behind the rules like he is.” The face was his, and a really good likeness of young looking Burks, but the voice was all young girl.
Tor patted his own shoulder, across from him, and turned the field the girl was using off. Lyn snapped back into existence, which was a relief. Looking at her with his image had been freaky.
“It's a good build Lyn, but it shows why you can't take my place. You're good. Better than I was at your age, and I won't risk what you'll become for my own comfort now. Don't worry though. I have this in hand.” Tor winked at her, which got crossed arms and a snort in return.
“Do you now? A child with a feather could take you out, much less some crazy giant with a mad — on for you. I'm even afraid to look at your field pattern right now, because I could accidentally damage it and kill you!”
Tor held out his hand and smiled gently.
“Go ahead, be careful though.”
She touched his arm with a single finger, tilted her head… and smiled.
“Oh! I… That's a lot better than I thought. How did you do that? I accidentally brushed your field about a few weeks ago and I swear I thought it was going to kill you…”
Tor explained the meditation, which made her eyes go wide.
After he finished, she bowed.
“Well, in that case, I was wondering, do you think you could come to dinner with my family tomorrow? I've had an… offer of marriage and I know that my mother would feel better if she didn't have to face a fine go between alone. If you're not too busy? I know it's Postern and a big celebration this year.” She looked shy suddenly, as if he'd say no?
“Would it be alright to have them here do you think? We can set up a separate dining room. I'll check with Collette.”
That got another bow, a solemn thing that faded into a grin after a few seconds.
“Would that be all right? I owe you so much already…” She looked odd for a second but didn't cast her eyes downward this time.
He nodded and smiled back at her.
“More than just alright. May have a few others there too though, I have family in town that you should meet for instance.”
That got a blush in response and a conversation that tapered off into silence after a few minutes. She finally turned to leave then, but turned back at the door.
“Um, Master Tor, sir?” She said softly.
“Just Tor, Lyn. You know that.”
“Um, yeah, would it be a OK, if… Well, if I called you brother?” She didn't look at him at all.
It was an incredibly weird thing to say, but Tor shrugged and nodded. Why not?
“I'd be pleased. Sister Lyn.”
The girl took a deep breath and bowed to him again.
“Good then, my brother…” Her voice sounded older then, darker somehow.
“This Baron Rochester? Don't play with him, don't hold back. Kill him. Someone is trying to assassinate you using him. I can't say who yet, I don’t know, but it's so clear the situation practically screams it.”
Then she turned and left.
Tor followed, but by the time he made it to the door, she was nowhere in sight.
What a strange thing for her to say.
It also made a lot of sense. It did seem a bit sophisticated for the Baron to come up with on his own, didn’t it? The man seemed impulsive, a hot head, like the kind of person that led his life by what he wanted at any given moment, not someone that would plan a trap carefully over weeks, leaving another person with only two ways
out. Tor didn’t know who’d bother setting something like that up though. Had he really angered anyone that much? Ever?
He didn’t think so.
He went and got a snack, then sat in meditation for hours, practicing what he'd do the next day mentally. He didn't practice the dying parts, figuring that would take care of itself. Right? Instead he found what he needed to let go of in himself for everything to work and hoped it would be enough, when the time came. He made himself stretch and walk for a while, saying hi to everyone that he met, waving and smiling the whole time. A lot more people greeted him this time than at previous celebrations for some reason.
OK, it made sense; he’d invited most of them. That would probably do it. Also the Warden people were being a good influence, saying hello to everyone they met, everyone else was starting to follow suit as well. They were really good that way from what he’d seen.
Then, after night fell, Tor went to bed, actually laying in the dark alone for a while. Finally a form came and laid next to him, a soft voice in his ear.
“Don't die husband.” She whispered to him. So softly it was clear that Ali thought he was asleep. “I love you.”
Tor didn't reply, because he didn't want to lie to her. Not about the love part, but promising he wouldn't die may not be something he could back up. Instead he drove himself into a very deep state and tried for extra field strength. Shut off all fear and pain. Let go of his humanity and anything that might slow him down. He held his mind quiet then, waiting. Ready to do whatever it took to live.
He'd need it all.
The next morning he rose and shaved carefully, bathed and dressed in real clothing, a pair of fighting leathers in black, like what Kolb and his people wore. That way he could go “unencumbered” into the fight without being naked. It was slightly chilly for that. He didn't bother to eat anything, seeking the deepest state of mind he could instead. He had notes to hand out, so he wouldn't have to speak. Collette got one and handled the rest.
“See to these please?” He said darkly, with no expression at all. He thought the woman gasped, but couldn't pay attention to that yet. He had something to do first, didn't he? First he had to let go of his outer self. Become the true Tor. The one that waited. The bottom of the universe.
