by P. S. Power
“Well, you have a lovely home! We should get together and see about finding you a place on one of the shows in my world. Red Rain… I’m directing it. You know Avery, don’t you?” The woman seemed to be suggesting something that was a bit closer than simply being friends with the girl.
Which wasn’t actually true, even as it was, at the same time. They’d been in battle together, several times now. He would and had, trusted her with his life. Other people’s lives as well. She’d done the same with him, so there was an honest closeness there. Which Krista, not being a fighter, seemed to think meant they were seeing one another.
It wasn’t a horrible idea, but also wasn’t the truth of the matter at the moment.
“I also know her boyfriend, Phillip Hart, the line walker? I’m one of those as well, so we tend to move in similar circles. I’m the one to go to if you need messages passed between worlds, however. Packages and things like that?”
That got a nod, which was toward the room.
“And here I am actually meeting people from strange places. In some of those places, so I guess that I’m the odd one, right? This is… I wish I could bring some of my other friends to see this. Avery is here and Judy Swan, but Darla and Keely, my friend Hally and maybe Rebekah. She… She’s a Vampire. Different looking than Eve is. Um, we were all kind of friends, when I was in school? Zack was there as well. He’s a line walker? Also a demon…”
The woman seemed a bit uncomfortable about that last part.
It took a few seconds for him to work out who was who in things and he didn't have a place for Hally at all, in his head. She kind of had to float off to the side. The rest he managed to place, more or less.
“Darla is as well? The… Technician?”
That got a slow nod and wide eyes from the dark-haired woman.
“Yes…”
“We’ve met then! Interesting. We really do know a lot of people in common. As for doing your show there… Well, I wouldn’t want to press in. I could, possibly, be around for that, if you wish or have need of me? I have lessons scheduled soon with Avery, so you can see what she wants done that way, as far as I’m concerned. That’s her world, so she’s in charge that way.”
It made sense to him, anyway.
The cute woman rolled her eyes, then pretended to sip at her clear golden wine.
“I’m in charge of my show, thank you. I was thinking something in the background. You work nude, right?” That was meant to be teasing. He could tell, thanks to her smile and the look on her face. Another woman moved in behind her and reached out, touching her arm, to signal ownership of Krista.
Then the woman did the same with him. A sense of passion and lust came off of her. It marked her as being an Alede, he thought. A kind of being he’d encountered before.
“You’re going to be on our show? How wonderful! I…” There was hesitation there, and a look at Krista, but the sense of it was about his looks.
Willum shrugged, then removed his disguise for her as well, putting it back on instantly, in case Orange came back into the room.
This woman yelped a bit as well.
“Oh! All right then, we met a few hours ago. The one that looks like my grandson, Kyle. Only better, as Kaitlyn mentioned. That’s hard to do, by the way. I’m Judy Swan. We should talk soon?” There was a look around the room, signaling that she didn't want to interrupt. That, or suspected spies in the place.
Which was probably a real consideration. Even if not intended for them, there were a half dozen people or more that he didn't really know. Some guards he didn’t recognize, who had come with the King. A few people from the IPB that he wasn’t close to. Even among those who he thought were familiar it was possible that he was simply incorrect.
For instance, Marcia Turner walked over to him, but was wearing a dress, and holding a glass of fruit juice in her hand. Her face was made up, if not very well. It wasn’t horrible, but also not done with transcendent skill.
She spoke in English, but it was slightly accented.
“Hey.” The woman looked at the others, then at Will, showing that she needed an introduction.
Judy touched her arm gently. Almost lovingly.
“Gwen Harrison, this is our host, Willum Baker. You met, even if he looks different right now. He changed shape, I think. He’s the line walker who takes messages around?”
The woman nodded, lighting up.
“Right! We need to get you in to my world, if you have time for that kind of thing at all. We, Avery and I, we’re setting up a line walking station there. It probably won’t be a big deal, but she seemed to think that if we put something up, people will want to use it. I can do that whole going to other worlds thing, and take people with me, so…”
She shrugged, a single palm flipping toward the ceiling. The other tilted a bit, but had her glass of juice in it. From the feeling she projected at him, the woman was both interested in him as a person and thought he was pretty attractive. Even with his disguise on. That part was really different, but he didn't take it off for her in the moment.
“I can probably do that? Just add in any packages from there to my route? I’ll need to go to your depot, or whatever you have for that, but tentatively, I think I can do that.” He didn't bother talking rates. After all, if Avery Rome wanted to do it, then it was a project worth working on. Even if he didn’t gain anything by it.
The woman bobbed her head, nodding it so hard that her entire frame moved. It was a bit overdone, but seemed to be part of her nature.
“Cool! We need a few more people I think. Avery mentioned a Phillip? Also her friend Chris? I’ve actually met him, I think. If it’s the same one. I probably need to go around and talk to them all. That’s hard for me. You know, being shy and all that?” She didn’t really seem that way, on the outside.
What came from the interior was really different though. She really did feel that way and expected people to reject her. For being ugly and strange. Which she wasn’t at all.
There was a story there, he didn’t doubt.
“We… Should make a date to meet up? Now, I need to introduce all of you to some important people from here. Then I’d better go and make sure the meal works out. This is nerve wracking, you know that?” He meant it, but the words came out as if he were bored.
His timing wasn’t too bad however, since he managed to introduce the woman to Prince Alphonse just in time for everyone else to come out from the side room. Nearly everyone. It was clear that Timon wasn’t coming out for food and that about half of the mages were working on something, along with several of the Fleet people. Alice came out however and grabbed a plate of food when everyone else started to form a line behind her.
She ended up sitting right next to him, with a disguised Tor at the large wooden table across from her. Next to him was Alyssa Baker, his wife, with the Prince himself on her other side. His wife and young son were there as well. The tiny Princess Abbie was next to Willum, with the boy being down a place. On her other side.
It was a strange grouping, as far as such things went.
Most of the IPB people were there, around them. For instance, Cindy Mableton was next to Alice, with Brian Yi directly next to her and Karen Young beside him.
It was almost like they had a team setting up there. One table over, Avery Rome was with Eve Benson and about half the people from the IPB.
Over in the nicer section Clemance was with his brother, their parents the Count and Countess and the King and Queen.
Not gently at all, Alice nudged his arm, nearly causing him to lose a fork full of food onto the stone table. He smiled about it, since she was just being companionable in her own way.
“So, Baker… Who are we putting in charge of the new program? For training and all that?” She clearly intended that to be him, but he didn’t actually have time. Thinking for a moment, he shrugged. The person that he’d want for that was in the room, but would need a disguise if he were going to work with Alice that closely. Also, he’d n
eed to learn Standard.
“Lancaster. From the IPB. If we can get him, I mean. We should get Clem to work with him as well. I can bring them over to you after the meal? We might have to negotiate, in order to get him. Clemance is young and will be in school soon, so we have to keep that in mind.”
The woman looked around, but didn't scream no or pound the table at the idea of foreigners being brought in like that.
“Lancaster? We’ll need to meet. Set that up for me?”
A lot of the other people were staring at them, but Will just smiled and nodded.
After all, the man was brilliant, when it came to matters like that. War and such things.
“I’ll see to that.”
Chapter seven
It was a good piece of work to get everyone home the next morning, but, Will hoped, everyone that had come in had managed to have, if not fun, then at least an entertaining time. It was interesting to see who had stayed the night as well.
All of the people from other worlds had, of course, but so had Prince Alphonse, his lovely and charming wife and their little son. Benjamin. Really, that had all been missed by Will, until he’d gone down the stairs in the morning, having spent the hours from three to seven working up a new plan for traveling vehicles that would allow the poor to travel. Not building them, but rather figuring out what kind of things would be useful to them.
Taman had some good ideas about what would actually be needed, it was clear. Not that she was sharing that sort of thing with him. No, it was just evident in her statement of what would be needed. If people traveled into the lands of a given noble, it was very possible that they could simply steal the devices from commoners. To prevent that, all they really needed to do was put them all under an official livery. The King would work for Noram, but in different lands they needed other rules. Oddly enough, in the IPB world all they needed was a tag on the back of the things that indicated they were official.
In Austra the same thing would make it real enough.
Afrak wouldn’t require that, he didn’t think. In his time there, which wasn’t frequent, it was kind of clear that no one stole much of anything at all. Especially those in charge. Tellerand was a mystery to him, but Soam would allow people to have that kind of thing without issue.
The Antarctic… Now that place was a cipher to him. A puzzle that didn’t seem to have a real answer yet.
When he came down from the small room that he’d made for himself, figuring that some of his guests would need food very early on in the day, there was a very tiny Prince sitting in the dining room. They didn't have anyone to get the boy food, though it was clear that he was starving. In a little kid way, not a literal one.
“Hello, Prince Benjamin. Would you like something to eat? I can get that for you, if you wish?” They’d seen each other, several times, but Will had looked different the night before. The Space Fleet people had left, to sleep at the main port, on one of their ships. That meant he hadn’t bothered with a disguise that morning. He still had the orange hair and eyes though.
Rather than being confused, the small boy, who was about four, or possibly five, nodded at him and smiled, rather politely.
“Would that be allowed, Countier Lairdgren? I can use the food units you have here, but I didn’t know if that was allowed? I looked, but none of the servants were up yet. Probably due to how late the party went. I was sent off to bed at eleven, so didn’t see the ending that way.” The words weren’t meant to be rude, or even assume that he had things like servants. It was actually considered correct to act as if that was the case, even if his host was too poor for that kind of thing.
Willum smiled at the kid, but explained.
“I only got this place set up a few days ago, and haven’t gotten any servants yet. In the future though, know that you can use any of the facilities here. Or simply come and stay if I’m away? We need to keep things looking active all the time, so feel free to consider this your second, or, um… fifth? Home.” It was a real enough point. He’d need people to live there all the time as well. Having people in day to day wouldn’t harm anything. “Your parents as well, if you like? Or not, if you don’t want them around. I’ll let you set that part of things up. I can bring some coin to hire people though. I… You know that I go from world to world, right?”
He didn’t see any reason to hide that from the child, but he wasn’t old. It could be that he just hadn’t been told about that kind of thing. Except that, from the nodding as they both moved to the kitchen area, he was up on that kind of thing pretty well.
The words matched that.
“Yes. Father mentioned it to me, before we arrived yesterday. So that I’d be ready for the strangers here. I’ve met some of them before, of course. Ambassador Mableton. Avery Rome, as well. That one… I didn’t want to seem like I didn’t know, but is Avery Rome an Ambassador or not?” He winced, as if expecting to be punished or at least ridiculed for the lack of information there.
Standing in front of them, at one of the devices, was Mark Steinberg. From the IPB.
He turned and smiled at them both. It was a very friendly thing. He also spoke in English.
“Hello! Can I set you two up with something? I’ve been working on some ideas… Though, I don’t know how adventurous you might be feeling. You know, food styles from a different world and all that?”
The small Prince tilted his head, a thread of bafflement coming from him.
Then, in English that was only slightly broken the kid responded.
“I would thank you, if that is allowed? Unknown… Things for good eating?”
The man, from a different world or not, bowed. He went low, and was doing it on purpose. That got the Prince to do the same thing, with Willum following along. They were all going low, which was very correct, but a bit absurd.
Still, when they stood up, Mark seemed happy enough.
“Your English is very good. Sorry, I didn’t get your name?” He spoke to the boy directly, but it was Will’s job to introduce them.
“Ah! You didn’t meet last night? Mark Steinberg, this is Prince Benjamin Cordes, Prince of Noram. His father is the Heir to the throne, Prince Alphonse. His mother is the heir apparent to Afrak. So, the continents of North America and Africa.” That got another bow, which was again, very close to correct.
When in doubt, you were always better off doing it. To bow too often was considered ultra-kind and genteel. Perhaps a bit clueless, but even at that no one would ever complain about it.
Gesturing at Mark he continued.
“This man is Mark Steinberg. A famous chef and master of cooking. He’s also a powerful man, holding the ability to stop time. He’s from the Infected Protection Bureau, in a different reality.” It was perhaps, difficult to explain to the boy that he was facing a person who wasn’t a servant, but who was instead a dignitary and possibly dangerous to their entire world, if he were angered.
Not that Master Mark was that kind of person, emotionally, but that he or those from his world, might be a danger that way.
It didn’t matter, since it turned out that Prince Benjamin was very polite, as well as having a loose command of English.
“Well met! I would… Food of your people?”
That got them set up with several large plates of food. Pancakes, Danish, sausage and strips of crispy bacon. There was maple syrup with it, as well as bread to carry strange preserves and whipped butter. It was all good and very strange for the Prince.
Who gushed over how good it was the whole time. Even the few things he didn’t actually care for at all.
When others came down to the table, the boy, who probably didn’t get who everyone was, even if he had been introduced the night before, hopped up and started to take orders into the kitchen, where Mark worked away without complaint. They were mainly IPB people, which meant they spoke English.
Which had Willum helping out in the kitchen as well.
There were a few people at the table when Bridget came in, stumbl
ing enough to seem like she was going to fall down. Prince Ben actually moved to her and offered her a hand, trying to help her get to the table. It was one of the big long stone things they’d used the night before. He’d made them look like wood, but someone had apparently decided they liked something else better the day before. He had to admit, they looked nice.
Blearily, the woman nodded.
“Thanks. I… Could use something to eat? Um… Fast?” She sounded hesitant, but the boy ran off, not even waiting to get an order for her. Then, almost everyone was eating pancakes and eggs, so a moment later the small, nicely dark skinned boy came back, carrying a tray that probably had a plate buried under the mass of foods. He was struggling a bit with the weight, but didn’t drop it. Or ask why the food was an emergency.
What he did do was keep up with everyone else, and made sure the food flowed constantly.
Willum rushed to do the same, since it was his home.
It wasn’t until Prince Alphonse and Princess Abbey came down that the boy explained why he was helping, other than to be kind.
His father smiled at him, seeing that he was helping, but did look at Willum a bit strangely.
“You have a new servant?” That could have been a threat, or showed that he was taking it as an insult, but Ben smiled up at the giant man and then hugged him.
“Countier Lairdgren has opened his home to me. So that I can live here as I wish as my second home? He needs a caretaker for it, so that it will be kept well when he travels. We haven’t put in servants yet, so I’m doing my part.” There was a bit of little kid cuteness to the words, as if he didn’t really expect anyone to see it the same way he was.
From the smile on his father’s face, the heir didn’t think it was true either.
Willum nodded, getting the man to look at him a bit more seriously.
“I didn’t mean that you had to work here constantly, but yes. I can’t be here all the time. We need people in. Even using this as the IPB embassy, and possibly the one for several other worlds, we might not have people in all the time. Someone has to be in charge of things and Benjamin has connections. I mean, he already knows people in the IPB world.”
