Duty

by P. S. Power

  When the face came up, the other man smiled up at him.

  “Albert? What’s up?”

  “The sky? The fair Moon above? More to the point, we lost a town here. Nearly so. We have food thanks to Ancient Tiera and King Richard sent in some excellent focus stone builders. They can put in a sewer, flush toilets and a water tower… I just need to get a water pump to make it all work. That doesn’t get them clothing or anything like that, but it’s a start, right? They look to have lost almost everything. The current plan is for myself and the military teams to sell ourselves to raise the coin for it all, but frankly, none of us is going to have a truly easy time that way. I figured that I’d invite you into it, given that? You’d have to fetch a pretty coin that way.” He teared up then, for some reason, his voice going low so that no one could hear what he was saying. “I… This is pretty dire here. They’ll make winter, but we need to do more for them, if we can. I just don’t know how to make it happen.”

  Dare noticed it, his own eyes shining a bit in response.

  “Let me call that in? Someone will have something like that laying around, I’m sure. If not, I can do the work myself. Tiera has never let the High Servants have a Maker, since they’re Earth side and she doesn’t trust them not to ruin the economy there, making gold and gems constantly. We could do the work here though, on Mars and send clothing to them? Blankets and all that, as well. Beds. Even if the people there make frames for them out of focus stone, the mattresses are the hard part. Let me… I’ll have whomever I get to do that call you? One bit.”

  Then the screen went dead.

  Which was fine, since it was time for him to start making more for people to eat. He had to do that constantly enough that the hours flew past, as the day started to turn to night. Instead of stopping for the night when the light went, the military men just came back to get food, then went back to work, using hand lights and working inside of places. It clearly made it harder, but they kept at it for a while, leaving only when they were told to by a messenger that came through the transport hut.

  Most of them grabbed food on the way out. The townspeople turned in about then, getting rooms for themselves and their families in the fine, inn-like structure that he’d put up earlier. Which meant that Albert was left standing there, feeling too awake to sleep. Luckily Enid walked over to him, bowed and held out the healing amulet.

  “Thanks, be unto you for it’s use. This is nothing short of a miracle. So many lost everything, but now we won’t starve in the cold months and will have good stout homes. Fancy an like, even. I don’t even know who to thank, proper like. The King?” She seemed to be looking for more than that from him.

  “Some other people as well. The High Servants sent me along in the first place and Mars sent in their Prince, Dareg, to help as well.” He listed everyone he could think of, including Tiera, Ancient of the Moon.

  Enid simply bowed then, going very low. He matched it, since she was, he thought, actually bowing toward those people, who weren’t there at all, not him in particular. Flushed, they both stood up, after a few moments.

  Her voice was thick, with tears.

  “Thanks be to all of you, then. I’ll see you at first light?”

  He thought for a moment, and stifled a sigh. If he got to sleep as soon as possible and someone pounded on the door for a while in the morning, or came in to get him, that might work. So, he nodded.

  “I’ll be here. See you then.”

  After that, men still standing by the food devices, ready to fight if anyone tried take them, Albert used the healing amulet again, then rushed to bed, falling into it. Exhausted.

  Chapter five

  There was no banging on his front door when he was supposed to get up for the day. It wasn’t a soft beam of light blinding him, either. No, he woke in the dark, a dim glow coming from the open door, with cool air pouring in. The bed was made of magic, so was wonderfully soft and form fitting. It was the same kind he had at home, so, perhaps, Albert could forgive himself for the moment when he woke up and froze.

  Something poking him in the side.

  “Sir? Sir? It’s time for the morning meal, if it pleases you, sir.” The voice was young enough that he didn’t have to worry about what he’d been doing with her. So youthful in fact, that the guards probably should have stopped her from going in like she had. Even if it meant opening the door and yelling at him to attend her themselves.

  Looking over and seeing her blurry outline, he noticed that something was very off about the situation. That being, he understood after a moment, that he was sober. It wasn’t normal or natural at all. He didn’t feel sick from it, of course. The healing amulet had taken care of that for him. He wasn’t addicted to drink after all. Not now. For six wonderful months he’d gotten very close to dying from drinking too much. Now that was gone, leaving only a rather healthy, dangerously skinny husk in its wake.

  A thing that left him feeling annoyed, for a moment. Not at the kid there though. She was just waking him up for work. That was pretty much how his life went, even if she wasn’t Jeff.

  “One moment. I need to arrange the space here. I’ll be right out.” He started to stand as the kid left, not naming her as a girl just in case it was a young man. Being called the wrong thing could be devastating for a child that young, even if it was dark and there was no way for him to know that kind of thing.

  Standing up, he cycled his clothing, which was just into a clean version of the brown that he normally wore, since it was easy to do that kind of thing, He just tapped the clothing amulet that hung around his neck off, then back on. The door was still open a bit, but he didn't really care that much. No one was peeking in his door. He needed to clean his teeth, he realized. That was going to take gear that he didn’t have with him. At home he had things, but there was too much work to be done for that.

  It meant he was going to have to assault people with his bad breath for a while. They’d live.

  Taking more accella, just one this time, since it was the only useful drug he had with him, he moved outside, into the dark. The sky was barely beginning to light up on the horizon. No one else was there, just the guards and a small girl. She had a dress on, so that was probably right.

  Waving, he moved to the good food device, then dashed back into his little temporary home and got the floating case of magic. That wasn’t going to be leaving his side again, if he could help it. Inside the magic box, that followed him as soon as he had the amulet around his neck, the thing at head level, he dug inside of it, trying to figure out which glowing sigil meant plates, bowls and glasses.

  Then he was able to make up some food for the little kid that was standing there, which was probably the point of getting him up in the first place.

  “Sorry, I didn't get your name?” He handed over a bowl of oatmeal, with a glass of orange juice to go with it. The kid promptly dropped the cup, which didn’t break, but she gasped at the waste of the juice. That caused her to gasp and look afraid, for some reason.

  He just waved at her, smiling a bit, then bowed, around a quarter of the way down, in apology.

  “My fault there. Sorry about that. I’ll get you a new one. Go, sit.”

  As he worked, the small person close by, she spoke again.

  “Sandy, sir. I’m Sandy. I’m four. How old are you? Also, um, what’s your name?”

  The words got chuckles from the guards, though that was probably boredom, not derision. After all, a four-year-old wasn’t going to be able to read the sign. It would be unfair to ask that of her.

  “Albert. I’m twenty-five. I think. I might be older than that. I certainly feel older.”

  There was no nod then as the clear cup of orange colored juice was settled next to the small individual.

  “Thank you, Albert. I’m very hungry.” She showed that, by eating and not talking after that.

  For his part he wasn’t hungry at all, so he waited for about a minute, then shrugged.

  “Have you fellows eaten y
et? That should be fine, as long as you get something now and don’t get too far from the devices here. I don’t know what rules you have for that, though.”

  One of them looked over and then waved to the others.

  “I want at least one of us on our feet at all times. You three go first. Thanks for seeing to us, Albert.”

  He made up more oatmeal, since he knew how to make that. Juice as well. None of the men acted like that wasn’t good enough for them. He took a portion for himself, and ate quickly, since others were walking over as the world got a bit brighter. The people from Smiton all seemed subdued, but took the oats on offer, drank the juice and didn’t ask for anything else. Most of those that spoke to him clearly needed toiletries as well. The bad breath wasn’t only coming from him that day at least. Things he hadn’t even thought of for himself until that morning, were suddenly important to him.

  It was going to have to wait, since there were other things needed first.

  Food for everyone coming in, seeing to that water pump and whatever else he could manage for the people there. Things that seemed almost impossible to arrange for.

  As the accella hit him, he was able to set aside the idea that he needed to do more than he was. When an idea came to him, he either did it right then, such as cleaning up the emptied magical bowls and glasses, tossing them into the hopper of one of the big devices, and turning the amulet off so that the food residue could be reused to make other things. The other thoughts he had were set aside, until he had a way to address them.

  Then people just sat or stood. Not the military men, who knew what to do, just the others, who couldn’t go back to their lives, just yet. Whatever their occupations or daily tasks, they simply couldn’t do it that day. It was hard to make barrels, if all your wood and tools were gone or damaged.

  Which got him to tighten his face for a moment, probably seeming upset. Several of them looked like that might be the case, anyway. He wasn’t, just not knowing what to do either, like the rest of them.

  “Um… So, we need to get the winter food stores going. Can we get some kind of buckets to fill the storage hoppers? Then we can make grains, flour and that sort of thing. I’ll work the smaller unit, making jars of storable foods. Someone get me a list and a helper or six, to keep filling the working material into the devices.”

  Enid stood then, her old voice seeming sturdier that day than the evening before.

  “At once! We can’t expect others to sort our lives for us. Let’s get to that, afore the magics all go away.”

  They scurried then, which pushed Al into doing the same. It was hard work, actually, even if all he did was focus on what he wanted, while Sandy handed things out of the device to adults that took them away. The military men had made the warehouse space for that across town, naturally. Feeling like it was going to be stolen, he set up two of the Tam-cars, making them into open structures that were long and flat, meant to hold thousands of pounds of food per trip. They loaded them first, with part of the men there going to the other end, to off-load, when that was done. They worked fast, managing one or two trips per hour, over all.

  The drivers, men from the town there, didn’t try to take the things at the end of the day. No one tried to get in touch with him, so, after making a third meal for the day, trying to be a bit classier than wrapped sandwiches again, actually serving roast fowl with potatoes and a light gravy, Albert tapped the sigil over a single name.

  Dareg again.

  The other man smiled when he saw who was there.

  “There we go. I had to make the pumps myself, so it took me a while. Sorry about that. I worked out a deal with Tiera, for the people there. She’ll come and make things that you request, holding the device herself, so that it isn’t abused. It isn’t that she doesn’t trust you…”

  He smiled at the giant of a man on the device.

  “Why should she? I nearly had a fight with a man yesterday when he tried to pocket a Tam-car. He threw it down after threatening me, when I pointed out I had a shield and started screaming and carrying on about thieves at the top of my voice.” That still bothered him. Both the actual conflict and the attempted theft.

  His new friend made a face then.

  “That’s the worry, really. We tend to think of magic as common, but the truth is that in some places it’s incredibly valuable. A Tam-car like that is probably worth more than some small towns, in Noram. That’s going to be tempting to people that feel they don’t have enough. I’ll send Tiera through as soon as you’re ready for her. Maybe I can get her to bring the pumps in? That’s probably too lazy, since I have a pod in my front room here.” He stopped then and shrugged. “Tiera does too, so don’t feel bad for her, that way. What time is it there?”

  “About nine in the evening. I can work late though, if I have to. I have drugs for that still. I could really use some soap and a toothbrush. Everyone else here too, not that you heard it from me.” He felt bad then, since the people there had lost everything and he was making light of it.

  “On it, then. I’ll see what I can manage that way.”

  That, it seemed, was moving pretty fast this time. People walked from the transportation hut down the street about ten minutes later. They were tall, with three of the five people being recognizable to him, from having met them before.

  The other two for other reasons.

  Walking in that general direction, Albert stopped about ten feet back and bowed. They were in Noram, after all. Not that he wouldn’t have done it if they’d been on the Moon. He went low, which had two of them matching him, two going lower and one of them barely bobbing in place. That one was Dare, who spoke as he stood.

  “Everyone, this is Albert Benoist. Al, these are Ruel, Tamu, my Aunt Tiera and my wife, Karina.”

  Standing, leaning heavily on the drugs in his system, Albert smiled then. Normally he would have blushed, unless he was drunk enough to prevent it. This time it didn’t happen though. There wasn’t even any stammering.

  “Thank you all for coming. I normally wouldn’t ask, of course, but there’s been a pretty bad fire here. King Richard and his military men have done a lot toward rebuilding already and expect to be finished inside a week. We’re also a good way toward replacing the lost food that will be needed for the winter. At least for Smiton, here. I was begging a magical pump from Dare yesterday, when I mentioned that I greedily wanted some clothing and other things without cost or hardship to myself, so he said he was going to dun you for me?” He looked at Tiera, the former Queen and current Ancient of the Moon. She was directly next to Havar, who seemed to find his banter funny, instead of insulting. He was smiling a bit, anyway and not clenching a fist or going for a weapon.

  The very lovely, extremely tall brunette, who looked no older than her late teens, nodded at him in response.

  “That’s what I heard, too. Still, I had the day free, so figured that coming and not being selfish would be a good enough task to keep me out of trouble. What do you need here?”

  The real answer was a lot of things. Almost everything that could burn or be damaged by fire, as it turned out. He just smacked his lips a bit.

  “Well, if I’m being greedy, then a tooth brush and some cleaning paste? For real though? We need clothing for two hundred people, bedding, cloth to make more if we get the sizes wrong and for curtains. Some glass for windows, since focus stone doesn’t work for that very well. Did you know that the sun actually provides light, part of the day here? It’s amazing.” He grinned, knowing he was just being weird now.

  Tiera winked at him.

  “I vaguely recall that kind of thing, yes. We should be able to do all of that. Enough to at least give people a chance to start their lives over. This kind of thing is always hard. Where are we setting up for that?”

  He waved then.

  “In front of my place? It’s where the guards are.” No one asked about that, until they were closing in on them, then Baron Havar did it, looking down at the military men there. The milita
ry men weren’t tiny by any means. The Baron was just larger.

  His voice was smooth.

  “You suspect threat?” He gestured, very minimally, at the men standing there, seeming slightly tense.

  “No? If it comes though, we’re fighting to protect the magics. I don’t own any of this, after all. It all needs to go back, so that I don’t have to pay for it all. How many years would I be sweeping floors to replace it, do you think?” He spoke toward Dareg, but the pretty woman next to him, who looked like Taman Baker, except taller, marking her as Tam-Unit, Comp’s sister, just tilted her head.

  “If we figure things at a base rate of one week worked for potential use month of the life of the magic, and go off of what is visible here… I’d say you’d need to sweep floors for a hundred and sixty years to pay for it all, given current rates for that sort of thing, on the Moon.”

  Which was daunting to hear about, though he nodded.

  “Hence these good men coming to make certain that doesn’t happen. Thank you all, by the way!” He meant the Army personnel, who nodded back, without leaving their posts. They were really good that way, though replaced three times a day. Otherwise they’d probably go crazy, since it had to be incredibly boring, just standing there and waiting for an idiot to try and rob them.

  A thing that wasn’t going to happen, since there were armed men standing all over the place, ready to kill if that started to happen. That didn't make the job interesting at all, at a bet.

  Tiera set up efficiently, in front of his temporary place, letting Albert move the dirt they were using to fill the Maker. A thing that could, and did, create almost anything a person could think of. Gold, jewels, or as it turned out that day, a small glass pot of toothpaste, some soap and a bone handled brush for tooth cleaning purposes. All of which were handed over to him, first thing, as if it were a joke and he didn't need to go and use them.