by P. S. Power
The girl just ate for a little while, until half of the large sandwich was gone.
“Neat. So, what are we doing next?” She looked down at her food, then took a bite.
The feeling from her was that she was obviously going to be the entertainment that night. Only it wasn’t evening yet at all. Plus, she didn't seem to think that doing things with Willum was that big of a hardship, even if she was used to paying for part of her free dinners that way. Normally in different realities, but to her she wasn’t home, just in one of those strange and faraway places. Even if there was the promise of a room there.
“I need to deliver some things I’ve made. Here, in this world. I make magic, in my spare time. Aunt Taman, she’s kind of my mentor… She’s one of the top wizards, so thinks that I need to be as well. It’s important work. Then go and see about collecting up a person for Space Fleet. A specialist from another world, if I can swing it. You can come with me, if you want? Or stay here. Though if you go along, we can practice Standard while we do it.”
He pointed at the sandwich and said the word for it. Taking a bite, the girl swallowed first, then repeated it, getting it right. Then he did everything else around them.
Pointing and saying the words, several times. Finally, as she finished eating, which he was doing at a faster rate, he pointed at things and asked her what they were. In Standard. She seemed to get the idea.
Elsa was far from perfect that way, but after a few repetitions managed most of the words. He kept it up as they moved to put the remains of the meal in the hopper, then turn the plate amulet on and off.
Then he moved to the front, waving for her to follow.
“Come on.” He spoke in the new language, but simply enough that he hoped she could get the idea.
At the door of the black stone tower, he waved at the red box, directly to the right.
“This is the transport hut. It can be a node, for us, but is also able to take us places, if we use the right sigil. First we need Soam. That’s to the far south.”
Then he repeated the whole thing in English, since it was clear that she didn't understand what he was going on about at the moment.
It worked better, if not perfectly.
“How far away is it?”
“Um, I don’t really know? I think we’re going about three or four thousand miles away from here.” It didn’t take long, though he pointed out to her how to use the booth, then shrugged at her. “If worse comes to worse, you can just use it like a node and go anywhere you want. This just lets people who can’t manage that yet travel around. Which is pretty much everyone.”
The ones that could manage it on their own could be counted on two hands. If they were going to add in other realities. There were, in theory, going to be a lot more than that, but the world of people who could all do that kind of thing easily hadn’t come up for Will so far. It was, almost certainly, out there. It kind of had to be, given the basic rule of everything happening in at least one reality. It would mean, then, that there were also worlds where half the people could do that kind of thing and travel between worlds on their own. As well as worlds where it was impossible for the people there to ever learn how to do anything remotely like that.
“Am I dressed for this new place? I.. Um… It’s been an issue a few times. I pretty much just had what I was wearing before. This is different, but I could change?”
He did that himself, into a blue skirt that was tied in place with a single rope.
“Match this? It’s what they wear there. Well, Aunt Taman will be in something a bit more substantial, so you can do that as well, I bet. If you aren’t into going topless in public yet. Here…” He reached out slowly, touching her hand. Then, watching her carefully, to make certain she wasn’t scared, he shifted her into a simple black outfit of loose and light material. It was what Taman wore most of the time at home.
Then, closing them in the box, making the whole world glow red for a bit, he touched the blue sigils on the back wall. First scrolling through the list of name, then pointing to the correct one.
“Soam. Actually, it says, Soam Space Port. If you memorize these last two, it will allow you to go to the ports that way, in case you ever get lost. There are only seven or eight of them I think, so just going through all of them will get you to places where people will be able to speak to you. So will going to Thomson House. We can do that later? Family of mine, but they speak English, so it can’t hurt for you to meet them. This first, though.”
Then he tapped the correct sigil, making the world twist a bit. Most people wouldn’t have gotten that, but Elsa jumped when it happened. There was no noise about it, though she gasped when they moved into the bright and humid day outside the door behind them.
The world there was focus stone in several colors for the main disk, with stone buildings around it. Except to their right, where there was a palace. A real looking one, that seemed important. Light colored and grand, with metallic gold trim.
“So, your entire family lives like this? Or is it everyone. In that case I’m moving here. To your world, I mean. This is… Nice.”
Patting the small bag on his hip, that had a load of amulet tiles inside, making it heavy and larger than was convenient, Willum wrinkled his nose.
“It isn’t everyone. In fact, most people here don’t have anything near this kind of splendor. Not all the time either, even for the ones that can manage it. Aunt Taman only does this when she has important guests. That probably means someone is here. I don’t see any ships, so it’s probably someone who came in like we did.” He meant through the box. He waved in that direction, so that his new friend would get the idea.
Going in, which he managed by just heading to the door and opening the thing, even if the woman with him was clearly nervous about that, he decided to change his own clothing. After all, odds were that the palace being up at all meant important people from one of the other places were there. It would have looked a lot different if it was about someone from Soam being there. Even a priest or local leader would have only been given a pod house to stay in. They were simple people in a way.
Not easily impressed, but not judgmental at the same time.
Inside, as he moved into black clothing to match Elsa, he could hear speaking, off to the left. The room there was open on the front, so as soon as they took ten steps inside the huge palace, they could simply look over and see who was there.
That got him to smile, since he could recognize people, and then murmur to his new friend.
“Remember to bow. We have royalty in the house.” Nobility at any rate.
His tiny, but very good looking and youthful seeming Aunt was able to see them walking up, which had a pleasant expression pasted on her lips. Behind that she didn’t seem upset seeing him with a girl or anything. Questioning, perhaps.
Across from her, with their backs to the door were a giant man and a smaller blonde woman who was still bigger than the rest of them were by several inches.
Willum stopped at the door, with Elsa just behind him.
“Aunt Taman! Count and Countess Ward!” He bowed, using a small flourish and going a bit less than halfway down. The man stood up then, getting a soft gasp from the lady behind him.
Then, Will hadn’t warned her about the raw size of some of the people there. It was a bit of an oversight, now that he thought about it. He decided to cover by ignoring that part of things.
Still, she managed a credible bow along with him. That made it seem like they were together, since in a very functional way, they were. He was responsible for what she did there and if anyone attacked her over it, they were fighting him first. That didn't mean they were dating or anything, but being thought of that way might help to keep her slightly safer.
Maria Ward stood up as her Count bowed, matching what Willum had done. Given that neither of them ruled there, it was both about correct and slightly more polite than was probably needed. He’d started that though, not that it was a problem.
&nb
sp; The giant man rumbled at them, his face looking nearly gleeful to see them.
“Countier Lairdgren! We were hoping to meet up with you. Not to insult our hostess, but it’s why we came, to be truthful. I see you have a friend with you?”
Taman stood up and walked across the room, stopping to bow herself, which had them all doing it again. Then Willum switched to English, which everyone there seemed to be keeping up with. He knew that Taman and Count Ward spoke it, but clearly the Countess didn’t want to be left behind that way and had been doing her own bit to learn the language. That kind of thing marked them both as special. As well as cutting edge and in the loop on what was taking place.
“This is the line walker Elsa. She’s traveling with me for the time being. Elsa, these people are Count Marvin Ward, his wife Countess Maria Ward and my Aunt, Taman Baker. She’s the Ancient of this land… Which basically means the secret leader, more or less. Even if it isn’t as secret as all that.” It was true and also up to him to make sure that Elsa understood who was standing there with them.
It reminded him of what his cousin Clemance had said about Dareg Canton once. That he was basically the secret leader of Mars. That was a bit wrong, but the idea behind it wasn’t, truly. They had a real leader, Hess of the Ysidril, and an Ancient of their own. Karina Cordes. Though that was Karina Canton now, he thought. He’d been to their wedding, but hadn’t really kept up on that kind of thing. How the names changed or didn’t.
The point was, even if Dare wasn’t the ruler there, he could bring into play their entire military force all on his own, if he wanted to. The Wizard Dareg had built them, after all. As well as most of their cities and the transport huts.
In the place they were standing however, Taman ruled. It was important, or could be.
When they all stood up again, his Aunt clasped her pale hands in front of her. She looked about like she could be the little sister of either himself or Elsa. It was interesting, but part of dealing with immortals. A lot of them just looked youthful, no matter how old they were. Will did, and in a very real way, he was the oldest person in the room. Possibly in the entire world. Not that it counted in the same way that living outside the void did. That was a real thing, but also nothing, at the same time. You could learn a lot, but only about nothing. That and how you interacted with it.
“Did you come to introduce us to your new friend? That’s a good idea.” She seemed a bit forced, but understanding at the same time. There was something a tiny bit off, though he really didn’t get it. Not from the vague sense of concern coming from her. Then, she was clearly trying to hide things from him, and failing. Meaning that she was actually worked up about whatever was bothering her. Otherwise he wouldn’t have gotten anything at all.
The Wards both seemed more or less fine, so it probably wasn’t coming from them. If that had been the case, they would have been anxious as well. Even if it were fairly minor.
He made himself grin, trying to be charming.
“Actually, I have that transportation system you asked me to make?” Turning to the others, still in English, he shrugged. “Basically it was for a lesson. Making magical transport that would be acceptable for commoners to use. You get the idea… not easily stolen by the nobles or merchants, while also not being attractive that way? I loaded things onto it, as far as that went. I hope that’s good? I know that it wasn’t what was asked for completely. I think you wanted something simpler, but you also wanted a thing that would work, so I had to change the basic idea a bit.”
Digging into his pouch, where he had a lot of the things, he handed one over to his Aunt, who didn’t even say anything, just walking away. Going outside. Grumpily, or so it seemed. Probably to set the thing up, then scream at him in front of people, so that he’d learn not to be easily hurt by things like that. Rolling his eyes a bit, he patted Elsa on the arm, then waved to the others.
“We might as well all go. After all, what fun is the vicious scolding for my failures if there isn’t at least a small group of people to point and laugh?”
The response was interesting after that. Count Ward just nodded, seeming slightly stiff and like he figured that a real dressing down would be happening. The idea behind it was complex, but it was in several portions inside the fellow. The first was simply that magic was very hard and Taman had just been speaking of how she’d been being mean to him on purpose.
Pushing him, even if it might not be needed.
The second bit, under that, was simply that the whole thing might have been an exercise, to prove a point. To himself and Maria. One about how very powerful Willum actually was. The kind of man, who when told to do something nearly impossible simply did it, then laughed at his supposed failures, not having thought of every tiny thing possible.
It could have been either of those things, even if neither was actually needed, in the giant man’s estimation. Then, he didn't look down on people for being small, like some did. Maria didn’t either.
When they got outside though, his Aunt, looking cute and dressed identically to himself and Elsa, though the Wards were in finer looking things, smiled. She was going for wicked, Willum thought. She managed adorable. Then she activated the device, which had a rather nice, but wooden seeming, wagon appearing out of thin air. It was long, since a family needed to be able to live in it, and didn’t have horses. You could sit up front however, and drive it, using a small floating stone. That looked like black river rock. So it was smooth, but not shining. It was small enough that even his Aunt, who wasn’t large, found it fitting her hand easily enough. Reaching out to touch the side of the thing, the woman looked back at him, then started making changes.
The first was that the entire outside was suddenly metal, or seemed like it, then it floated above the ground, with no wheels at all. It was made longer, then smaller, until only a tiny child could have fit inside it with comfort. Hopping in, the top left open, Taman drove around the Space Port. When she got back, there was a nod.
“So, it makes restrooms as well?” She asked that as a question, but had to know it from the pattern on the small focus stone piece.
“Yes. It can take in water, make beds and different types of chairs. It’s pretty much a magical palace that can move around. Not as large at full size, but big enough for ten people not to bump elbows too badly at need. On the back there’s that gray spot… It… Well here.”
Touching it, the thing first showed the royal flag of Noram, then, after a moment, a stylized Pine Tree Emblem.
“So that it can be marked in each area, so that the guards and highwaymen know that messing with it might not be a good idea. Then… Um… Here…” That part took digging, for the right amulet, but as soon as he had it out, he passed the amulet to Count Ward. It was a different one than the carriage Taman was in, but the idea was the same.
“Um, can you toss that away? Far, if possible.”
The man took the thing, then made a face, and instead of tossing it from there, flew up in the air using his shield and then off into the distance about a mile. Then he threw the thing, into the thick forest in that direction. He was back in a few seconds. The devices that let you fly were really good that way. He hadn’t really ever played with one of them, even though he had the right kind of device on him. Several of them, in fact.
Elsa stared at the man, who was attractive enough, though not so much as Willum was. It took him a second to get that she was shocked by the flying part of things. He didn't mention it, since that might shame her in front of the others.
“Thanks! Now…” Tapping a single sigil, and focusing on the specific craft he wanted, instead of the ones in his bag, turned the thing on. It was invisible to them, being hidden by dense green foliage. The forest moved though, with a small glowing ball about six inches across coming to them fast enough that everyone except for him ducked. A foot from the device he held in his right hand the ball of silver light stopped. Tapping it with the control key got it to shut off. He had to use better than average refle
xes to catch the focus stone bit the craft was on, but he made it.
Taman snorted at him softly.
“Not horrible. Still, no food unit? It isn’t proof against attack particularly either. It doesn’t protect against radiation… In space people would just die in this. You’ll need to fix that. Not for this project, but think about it? We need this kind of thing for both Mars and the Moon. Other worlds as well.”
The Wards both looked away, seeming more than slightly upset by the words. Probably because it was very possible that he might throw a fit over not being praised enough. He was a noble, at least in their eyes. Not old either. Part of that was his only being six feet tall. To both of them that meant he was younger than his actual years. Given everything he probably could be expected to go into a combat rage, if treated that way. He still had that after all. The deep rage that was hard for most to manage in life.
Except that, while he could do that kind of thing, he was also a line walker. A thing that had taken him thousands of years of deep meditation to learn, sitting in nothing at all. Little things like rage didn’t really control him anymore. It hadn’t in longer than any of the others there could probably imagine.
He wasn’t even annoyed, to be honest.
“Heh. You know I was just thinking about that earlier. Not the space craft that you just mentioned, but learning to make food units? Tiera doesn’t get a chance to make them very fast. Not that I have that much free time, but I don’t sleep, and I’m not the Queen of anything. I should probably step up and learn how to do that kind of thing.”
