by P. S. Power
It wasn't until about half an hour later that she made enough sound for anyone to notice, when she snapped the pell she'd been working on in half. Her greater size had led to more strength, so that happened now, every few days. When she was fixing that, Remy Two came out, looking a little taller and older now, but still like he could be a new student at the school.
"Ah, warrior training! I thought I recognized the set up. Care to go a few rounds?"
That... Seemed like a poor plan at first, but the killing machine actually started slowly with her, so that they could work out some rules. True, they did end up spending a while slamming each other into the ground with great force, but she managed to sort of hold her own, more or less. Not, she noticed, that anything she did seemed to hurt the being.
It was an impressive thing really. She did more damage to herself, hitting Remy with a fist or kick, than it took from the action. Timon had warned her that the thing was tough though. It was just, on some level, that she'd thought he was joking, or making the whole thing out to be more than it was. That, she was coming to realize, after the third time she healed from what should have been lethal damage, using the ceramic shard that Count Lairdgren had put in her rib cage for that purpose, wasn't truly the case at all.
The interesting part was that they kept going harder and harder, instead of backing off like most people did over time. Testing her limits, she knew. It wasn't until they stood trading thunderous blows, with a crowd gathering around them, that the thing stood back and bowed.
"Excellent, for the first day. Can these others match that?" He looked at the crowd, but most of them actually shook their heads no.
Tiera tilted her head and pointed at Johan, since he was there already and it was early for him.
"He's all right. Keep it this side of lethal and we'll hang a healing amulet on his neck. It will need to be used every few minutes or so." That last bit was for the rather disgruntled looking large boy, who was still shorter than she was, if not by all that much. Six inches? She felt tall for a moment.
Remy went to the table that the magics were stored on and selected the correct device, without even being shown which one it was, which meant that he had a lot more information about things in Noram, or even there in particular, than Tiera had thought. Handing it over, he bowed, then waved everyone else back. The beating Johan took was brutal, but Remy was actually nice about it, making him heal over and over again. Even suggesting he do that while they fought, more than once.
That went on until Kolb got there. He simply stood back and waited, until Remy smiled at him and waved a little, as if they were old friends.
"Kolby! Come play? You meat bags aren't too horrible when you have the new repair units on. You should all get them implanted, like Tiera has though." That got more than a few people to look her way, but their weapons master surprised them all, just taking the amulet from Johan and fighting for the next two hours, without stopping visibly at all. Not even to tap the device around his neck.
It was shocking, more than impressive. Remy stopped playing as much and it was clear, after a few moments, that the being could have won at any time, even though Kolb was a lot better when he wanted to be than any of the rest of them. When Remy called a halt to things, Karen had shown up, and was waved over by the thin looking boy, who had on now tattered clothing. Tiera would need to get a clothing amulet for it.
She was set to sword work, herself, and ended up working with Mags, who was good, but not half as impressive as Remy had been with her earlier.
Then, neither was she.
The interesting part was that when her roommate walked up she looked like... her old self. It was a disguise amulet, but even then she was getting a lot more of those covert looks than she used to from the boys. A few of the girls too. Mags, for instance, was a bit distracted by her, which Tiera capitalized on. They were just indicating blows with taps, using full control. That meant, without using any special speed in particular, she actually managed to look pretty good, for a few minutes.
Finally the woman pulled her attention around and her greater skill won out. It was closer than it had once been that way though, so Tiera tried not to let herself feel too bad about it all. Finally, at about lunch time, Maris walked out, looking meek, but happy. She came over however and bowed, which got Mags to do the same thing. Tiera too.
"Oh, Mags, this is Maris. She's an Ancient, as you might have guessed. Maris, this is Mags Helms. She's a student here, and a friend of mine." That was proper enough, she decided, but it got more bowing.
Finally, almost as if being diffident, the Ancient dipped her head.
"Would it be permitted for me to have something to eat?" There was no condemnation to the words at all, but Tiera blushed, feeling embarrassed.
"Oh! Yes, I'm sorry! At once." She called out to Remy and got him to stop fighting with one of the new instructors, who was the Royal Guard, Kara. She was at loose ends, since Tor had run off like he had, to join the Others. It was her job to watch and protect him. Why Tor had a watcher and she didn't, Tiera had no clue. She blamed the King though. The guy was like that. "Remy, Kara! It's luncheon time!"
Where the food was coming from she didn't know, and grudgingly decided that they'd go to the student dining room. The food was probably safe, and even if gross, spit and snot wasn't going to harm her. She needed to toughen up a little that way, she knew. It was really icky, but she couldn't afford to feed herself all the time. Though, oddly, that cost was in time now, not coin, which she actually had enough of finally.
That got Kolb to release the entire section, and even follow along with them as they headed over, his face a bit stern looking. When they got to the stairs, outside the room itself, he put a hand on her shoulder and pulled her off to the side of the walkway.
"A word, Tiera?"
It wasn't that she couldn't think of anything in particular that he might want to say to her, she realized, it was that there was far too much. He had hundreds of things he might ask of her, or complain about, didn't he? She'd brought a super killer to class, just to start with. That could get a girl poor marks, she bet. Or, it might be about the Fast Craft parked in their practice area? They'd kept it smallish, but that wasn't a great place for it, if handy for the night.
She didn't even run out of things that it might be before he spoke.
"I heard something about you planning a new food device with greater range? Orange called to ask me to remind you to work on that."
She froze then, taken off guard.
"I... I'll try? It's a complex idea, and I don't have a lot of time. I guess I should grow it, using an organic model? I'll work on that later today. I have a few weeks, so..." The Fast Craft and the Space Craft had both taken nearly a month to grow that way, with Timon and Tor working on them. She had less time. Her build was probably close to as hard too.
Still, if she worked on it more than they did, maybe it would do the trick? She couldn't think of anything else. Not at the moment.
"I'll do it." She wanted to hedge, but there was a massive war on and they needed food. A lot of it. So far things were fine, weather wise, but she'd been assured by several of the Ancients that the next growing season would be hard in a lot of places. Then it would get worse, for years. Yes, Tim's unit would feed people, but there was some need for more than mere survival, wasn't there? Just getting by each day, that wasn't enough. Not really.
She knew that one first hand, didn't she?
Regina flashed in front of her eyes then, the girl's orange eyes and red hair causing near physical pain for her now. An ache that lasted even as Kolb patted her arm gently.
"I blame Tor. If he hadn't started this whole thing with all his incredible building, no one would expect this of you now, would they? You can do it though. Probably better than he could. From the sound of it, building that way is heavily memory intensive and you have a nearly perfect memory, don't you?"
She nodded, since it was true. At least for things she could see, or sh
e supposed, visualize well enough. It was pretty good for everything else however, which was why she was being tormented with Regina's death over and over again. It wasn't good or fair, but she didn't want to forget the woman either. It was a trade off that way.
For a brief moment her face had to show something like that, since the man in front of her patted her again.
"It isn't that bad. Either you do it, or you don't."
She swallowed and looked away, locking everything down as well as she could. "It isn't that. Regina..."
The man didn't ask what the dead girl had to do with anything, he just hugged her instead. That got some strange looks, but no one said anything, since it was pretty clear he wasn't trying to get her into bed. She stood up after a few seconds and tried to look brave. It was hard, for once.
"I... Don't think I'm going to last long, Kolb. I miss her so much, all the time. I'm not stupid. I know that she was probably just a first crush and that if she was still alive we might not even be dating now. That happens all the time. I've seen it. But... her being killed, it changed things. Is that-" She was going to go with moronic, but the man gave her a sad look that spoke of more pain than she'd ever suspected.
"It's the hardest part of living as long as we do. The loss. You do learn to cope with it, eventually. The first fifty or so years is the most trying that way. It still aches, when you lose a friend. Eventually you learn not to really love though, so that makes it easier."
She smiled at the bald man, looking down into his eyes a bit.
"And on that positive and uplifting note, let's go and get something to eat? I wonder how much snot will be in my food today?"
That earned a chuckle at least, and the muscular and lean fellow patted her again, trying to be comforting. It didn't work, but it was still nice of him.
"None. I hear that no one does that with Countesses. Something about horrible torture and death if they do? Plus, the cook will catch them. Tor gave him a truth amulet for it, did you know that? The poor kids can't get away with anything now." He really didn't seem displeased by the idea.
Lunch went well, with no one tipping Remy's tray onto the floor at all, or trying to insult the strange looking Maris. It might have been that they were sitting in the middle of a group of fighters, most of whom were giants and nobles, but she liked to think that people were smart enough to realize that the Dean was serious about kicking them out if they got into trouble with their guests.
Remy went back to "play" with the afternoon class, which was tempting to go watch for Tiera, but she knew she had real work to do too. There were two things really. First she needed to chat with Maris and figure out what she wanted to do with her life. Then she had that magic to make. As if that made sense at all. It wasn't even a weapon. She shook her head and waved to the all black woman, who was wearing a green outfit now, in Lairdgren colors. Magical clothing, but it was identical to the browns that she was wearing herself, other than that.
Tiera nodded at it and looked down at the woman, who was only about five-seven or so.
She had to be careful, she realized, since the woman was incredibly easy to lead. At least Monroe was, and they seemed to be similar, if not the same, except for gender.
"Maris!" She moved close to the woman, but on her right side, hoping it wasn't too much. The lady didn't shy away, but big people loomed, without meaning to. "I was hoping to talk to you about your plans?"
The woman stopped and turned to her, smiling a bit. It was, it seemed, a thing she couldn't help at all. When spoken to, the woman had to smile. It made her seem friendly, but it was also a problem. How could you tell if she was being wronged or hurt?
That, Tiera suddenly understood, had been the original point. The monsters that made her hadn't wanted that kind of knowledge. Maris was designed to be used, and to make whoever did it feel like it was the right thing. It was an awful thing to do to a person, but when she spoke, it got even worse.
"Plans? I... can't make any. I know that Timon was trying to allow me freedom, but that's an illusion for me. The best I can hope for is that whatever I'm assigned to do isn't too painful. That whoever is my master is kind enough to see to my needs. What do you want me to do?"
She nearly answered with "whatever you want" but that was the problem wasn't it? The woman couldn't really want anything at all. Except what she was told to. Tiera tried to think about it all, and work through what was needed. The woman was dangerous really, since anyone meeting her could order her around, it seemed. They'd stolen her from the Others with a few simple invitations, after all. Gray and Cordes could just ask for her to come back and she would. Probably with the same smile on her face that she had now.
So the first thing they needed to do was get her away from anyone that would use her for the wrong things.
That in mind, Tiera made a face that she was pretty certain would have normally been found on her little brother, Terry. It was like it was catching or something. That thought got her to smile, since there were worse people in the world than him, by far.
"How about this, my younger brother and his watcher are going to the Moon soon, to build the new colony there? Tim mentioned you being in charge of that, but I get that you can't really do that. Would you like to... Open a restaurant? It will be one that uses the new food units, if I can make them, I mean. It should really come down to you mainly tapping a few sigils and carrying food to people? That might be too boring for you, but it should be..." She wanted to say harmless enough, but the woman started to nod.
"I can do that, if you'd like? How many will it need to serve?"
Like Tiera knew that? She had to give an answer though, didn't she? "Several hundred per day. It won't be that many at first, but count on a lot of people coming after a while. Just in case." She desperately wanted to ask if that was all right with the woman, but didn't. It had to be something and while she might be able to do a lot more, being an Ancient, it seemed wrong to push her too much.
"That will be in a few weeks though. For now... Would you like to..." Tiera really didn't know. They had to protect her however. It was her duty, right? "Would you consider staying with Alyssa Baker? She might like any news of her husband, Tor? If you know anything?"
That got a big grin, and a nod.
"Oh, the nice one? He was very kind to everyone, and made those dragons for us. Those are incredible, aren't they? When it was first suggested, I thought they'd be like robots, but they seemed alive. He's going to do some in different colors too. It's really clear that he isn't Cordes, but no one minds, because he's helping us anyway. I think that everyone but Gray gets that. Even the Cordes clones all know. It's very obvious. He's being well treated however. They aren't locking him in a cage, or anything." She paused. "I thought that you would. Lock me up in a cage? You look very like Lara Gray, you know. Taller however. I thought that Remy and I would be taken to the little jail here in town last night, but you gave us that ship to sleep in, and even said that we could leave if we wanted."
The words sounded pure and innocent, and a little dumb, but Tiera thought she understood. Maris wasn't able to thank her directly. Oh, she could say the words, but they didn't mean anything to her, and she wouldn't have a choice in that. By repeating what had happened that she liked though, she could inform her of what that was.
Interesting.
Also, way too complex for the poor thing to have to live with. It was oppressive to even be around, much less have to live, each and every single day of her life.
"This way then, friend Maris!" She didn't bother trying to find her sister in-law, since Ali was probably off working on something or another, which was about what she was going to do as soon as possible herself. It wasn't a time to be lazy after all. She could feel that running through her like a blade. It nearly hurt as much even, wasting time like she was. It had to be done though, didn't it?
As she'd imagined, there was no Ali in her house. There was however a cute and friendly Sheri, who regardless of what she was going to
look like soon, still seemed like herself, thankfully. It was going to be hard to hide everyone if they all started to look like Tim's fantasy of the perfect woman. That... She kind of wondered if it wasn't the simple truth, as far as Karen went? Was she his perfect woman now? He'd always liked blondes and it was pretty certain that he liked Collette Coltress too. Had he made his ideal into reality? If so, would Karen ever get anything out of it from him? It was a little troubling, but the kid wouldn't always be twelve. In a year and a half he'd be totally legal that way.
She had to make herself not think about that and just hug her friend. Girlfriend, if she were going to be fair about it. They weren't in love, but Tiera had certainly had enough sex with her to count for that. Plus some other things, like going into battle together. True, Sheri had largely held back, but that just meant she was smart, didn't it? She wasn't a fighter. Not yet. She would probably need to learn now, truth be told.
Later though.
"Hey! I have our friend Maris here? She needs a place to stay where no one can bother her for a bit. I was thinking here, since she has a bit of news about Tor?" It was a good enough reason really. Luckily for her, once the restaurant idea was mentioned, Sheri got excited and started suggesting menu options.
Tiera sighed but winked at the same time. The sandy blonde girl wrinkled her nose cutely about it.
Then she let her go, as if reading her mind or something.
"You need to run off and work don't you? You work too much, you know that?"
"I do! Will you square things with Ali? I want to ask myself, but I need to get to work on a build. An organic one, so I'll be around part of each day. Hopefully it works." She started to wander off, but was tackled at the door and hugged for a bit, then kissed. Sheri had to go up on tiptoe for that now.
