by P. S. Power
The woman shook her head, cutely, her somewhat long face managing to seem pleasant about it all, as she changed the topic.
“Allison? I don’t know that one yet. Is she from Harmony?”
Dareg shook his head, waved to Clemance and gestured his new friend back into the pod. Then he got them back, and started out immediately before talking again.
“Which way to the Headmaster?” It was to the right, outside, and didn’t seem that far away, though the girl next to him didn’t move all that fast. It made things a bit frustrating for him.
After a bit, he recalled that he’d changed the subject, so doubled back, covering things, in case Avril needed to actually know that kind of thing.
“Princess Allison is Princess Veronica’s daughter. She’s also a Conserina. Peterson? First, I think. She grew up on Harmony, due to the death plague that would have killed anyone with immortal patterns in them.” The girl nodded in response, but so slowly that he nearly missed it happening.
“Ah! I’ve heard of her then. Is she cute?”
“Incredible looking, actually. Brilliant as well. The real kind, not just the polite things we have to say about her because she’s a noble. She’s twelve, I think. Maybe thirteen. Too young for me, thankfully.”
“Oh? So, pretty, and smart, but lacking in some other way? Is she mean?” Her voice was a near whisper, and sounded genuine, so he didn’t take offense at the implication.
“Not that one. Way too related to me. My father is basically her grandfather and great grandfather. It wasn’t as creepy as it sounds, but Ancient technology was used to set things up that can’t happen normally. It wasn’t anyone involved that did it either. I think it was Doris. She’s one of the older immortals?”
That got a nod, and a sigh.
“I hear that one. I met a boy last year, here at school, and we got a bit intimate. Nothing too heavy, but I found out that he’s actually my uncle. Younger than me, so it threw me off. It happens. Your story sounds better. We’re here. I could go in with you? The Count isn’t scary or anything, but I kind of want to spy and find out what’s in the case.” She glanced back at it and looked hopeful, like it might be entertaining.
“Sure. It isn’t a secret.”
Not the parts he was involved in. The inside of the room was different than he’d figured, and the door simply opened with a turn of the handle. It was nice enough, and made of wood on all the surfaces. It seemed plain, and wasn’t polished, or adorned in any way. In the very front was a woman that seemed a bit older, who lit up when she saw him. Her hair was mainly silver, and in a long braid down her back. Her skin had a slightly leathery look to it, like she wasn’t really old, but had spent a lot of time in the sun at some point. She was dark enough for that, but a lot of people around were the same color naturally. Avril was close, really, though it seemed likely that it wasn’t due to be outside all the time or anything.
Not if she was from the frozen lands.
“Hello! I have some things for Count Lairdgren, if he’s in?”
The woman flirted with him, with her eyes, in a way that told him that she wasn’t beyond having a bit of fun with the students there. It probably worked for her occasionally as well. She wasn’t young, or fresh, but she seemed friendly, willing and while not a grand beauty, at least seemed kind. That could work for a lot of people.
“He’s in. Who may I say is making a delivery?”
Dareg shrugged, and used his name, since it was either enough for the man, or not.
“Dareg Canton. We’ve met.” He grinned then, making sure it was a bit disarming. “Once. I was far from the most important person in the room at the time, so he might not remember me.” That wasn’t the case, he bet. Dareg was a strange name.
For the world he was in, at any rate. Now he had to wonder if where his mother was from it was normal, or even popular. It certainly wasn’t in Noram. Everyone always thought that he was called Derick. On occasion they went all the way over to David, or Daniel, which weren’t even close at all. As a child he’d always wondered if his mother had just made it up, out of whole cloth. Now it sounded like the best hope he had. That his mom was just creative, and that he wasn’t secretly named for the high lord of the Adversaries or something like that.
After a moment the woman nodded, and tucked her head into the door that was behind her, on her right. There was murmuring, and instead of being told to go in, or asked to leave, the man came to the door himself, smiling cheerfully. His eyes lit up, and his snowy hair and beard were shot through with only a bit of gray to round things out. He moved well however, for all the years his face held.
“Dareg! I wasn’t expecting you…” He glanced at the case, and then let his eyes dart around a bit, and felt like he was using some bit of data that wasn’t apparent at the moment. After a moment he nodded, still seeming happy. “You’re making a delivery? I didn’t know that I was due to receive anything. Is it… One of your new transportation devices?”
That meant a lot, since they’d just gotten one there, and no one had really been talking much about them, as far as he knew. Perhaps in Austra, but Noram didn’t have that kind of information network set up. Not yet. Which would be answered by the man either having a lot of spies working for him, which made sense, given the place they were in was the training center for such things, or he had a handheld, and had simply watched what was coming out of Harmony, or even Austra.
He nodded at that anyway.
“One has been set up, in the central square? I’m going out to the space port after this, if Alice Orange wants one. These are different though. A new kind of shield, armor that will work against the Adversaries, and weapons. Also, some new students? I can’t pay you yet, but I can make some gold for you if you need it?”
The man acted like he knew about all of it, and smiled happily.
“Wonderful! Now, Miss Stans is here because?” He glanced at her, and didn’t leap to the standard conclusion. Instead he waited, not presuming anything. That feeling rippled from him. Powerfully.
“She’s setting up a transport pod for her people, up north. We need to get a map location for that, and possibly an introduction, since we’ll need Clemance Thomson to do the delivery on that. It would probably be best to schedule that kind of thing with him for the time being. I… I don’t know if he has a handheld or not. I…” He felt ridiculous as the memory of the battle at Marisa’s came to the front of his mind, and he got to relive the portion of the whole thing where his younger cousin had gotten the whole thing down for the world to examine. “No, he does. That will work. He might be under Countier Clemance Thomson.”
As he spoke, kind of wanting to simply leave, but knowing that he couldn’t just let things go forever, even if the man wasn’t going to question him again, he waited. After all, it wasn’t his place to ask for Avri to leave and she seemed pleasant, if not exactly interesting to him in the moment. Her body was nice, and her face, while not special, perhaps, but as good as most. It was simply that she was boring him already. That seemed petty at first, but he realized that it wasn’t anything in particular about the girl next to him, or even Count Lairdgren, who no doubt had thousands of secrets that Dare would never learn.
No, it was just that they took so very long to do anything. It was all he could do to stand there after a bit and slowly moan the words that he wanted them to understand from him. The conversation had probably been going on for about five minutes, but to him it felt like an hour at the very least, if not a lot more than that. A thing that ached inside of him suddenly. Not because he needed to slow down, just because he badly wanted to hold a decent conversation with someone, without having to use meditative focus and play act that he cared about what they were going on about when he hadn’t for whole minutes.
The only thing stopping him from just leaving was that his desire not to be rude was still stronger than his need for entertainment on the mental level. Even building, which was fairly static and so concentrated as to provide nearly no variety, seem
ed to be fun in comparison. Probably because enough of his mind was engaged in thinking that he didn’t have a chance to become all that bored while working.
So, trying to pretend he actually wasn’t halfway out the door, and starving, but wanting to eat alone for once, so he could just do it and not worry about manners or waiting for others to slowly consume their own portions, he went to his chest. It wasn’t all for there, but most of it was. He had a spare transport pod, from Clemance, and several extra of the girls. That was the important part he decided, getting them out, as Avril shrieked a bit, and then tried to literally paw both of the women, feeling them in ways that would have gotten her hit if she were a man, acting with his daughters like that.
Except that he knew that wasn’t the case.
He was a noble now, like it or not and their rules ran to the perverse that way at times. Which, in theory, was great for him, but lately hadn’t been all that much help. The last women that he’d approached for anything at all like that had been Tiera, and she’d put him off. If gently. Probably due to the combat rage he’d been in, if he were going to be honest about it all. He’d forgotten about that, since it was right before the thing with the media man that he’d killed.
Albright.
Thinking the name got the whole thing to come back to him, which led to a string of fights that had taken place. All of them. Devoid of emotion, thankfully. It went on so long that the Count realized something was going on and spoke to Avri gently.
“I think we have all we need for now, Miss Stans. Would it be all right if I had a word with Prince Dareg, do you think? I don’t know how long it will take.” The old man also wasn’t certain what Dareg wanted to do with her. She was a fine enough student and not one of the ones that came through his office too often. The one time that she had involved a prank that had worked a bit too well.
In short, the older fellow seemed to think the young lady was a fine enough companion for him, if he were looking for such.
Dareg got all of that as he searched the two regular people with him. That meant he also felt the shock that came from the woman next to him, and her sudden worry that she hadn’t treated him properly, if he were a Prince. She was clever enough to figure out that he had to be a Prince of Harmony even, which was impressive. She did have the information to get that, inside of her, since he wasn’t Prince Alphonse and there weren’t that many left after that who could fit the model, but it was possible that she’d missed something, thinking of him and his younger friend as just cute boys. Not all that old either, but nice enough seeming.
So she just left, worrying that her words, or actions, or lack of actions, might have ruined things for her. When she got to the door, she hesitated, but the words closed in her throat, which he was well aware of. It was more of a knowing than anything else, but he could understand what was going on. So he smiled at her.
“You can come visit me on Mars? Wait a week or so though. I’m going to be gone, to Jupiter, starting tomorrow. Or of course, you don’t have to. I’ll understand in that case, but it would be good to see you again.” He sort of even meant it. “Also, regardless, get with Clemance and set up the transport pods you want put in.”
She swallowed and nodded, then snorted ever so softly.
“I don’t exactly have a handheld. Do you know how much those things cost?”
He didn’t. As far as he knew, they were free, for the most part. Instead of telling her how to go to Harmony and loot their magic shop, which wouldn’t bother them in the slightest, he rolled his eyes and smiled.
“You know where he lives. You can just go at luncheon, and walk a note to his door. You can go to a lot of places now. Just remember, you still have the same rules as always, and the Headmaster of any school can refuse you the right to use the things. For any student, not just you, personally. If we have to, we can take the things down, or put them inside the office here to be watched constantly, so pass the word on that? The entire system is my private property, so that means the people working with me, the Headmasters and leaders in the various areas have control over them to an extent. You too, of course. If the others abuse the privilege, you can just come here and get the Headmaster to limit them, if needed. I’d rather that never happen, but…”
It was so high handed sounding to his own ears that he was about to try and take it back, when the man behind the desk started to chuckle. The laugh was deeper than seemed real, but the smile didn’t look all that evil behind the white beard. Absently, the man picked up a writing pen and tapped the back of the wooden handle on the blotter.
“Ah! Well, that answers part of the questions I had on that score. There are a few other matters? If that’s all right with you, of course, Prince Dareg?”
He smiled, not actually meaning it, the other man having shielded his mind suddenly. That or he’d simply stopped thinking, which amounted to the same thing. It was well enough done that he wasn’t getting anything in particular from the man for the moment.
Not on that level of things. Kyle Hardgrove had gone mentally quiet, and very still, so that his body language wasn’t going to give away what he was thinking. That didn’t mean that the issue was completely beyond Dare’s ability to figure out however. The girls were still standing there, and the man smiled and gestured politely to the doorway.
“Ladies? You as well? Have Heather set up a room for you. Or… Perhaps not together? Other first year roommates might work for that?”
Samantha nodded, her face seeming happy enough about that kind of change up.
“That sounds wonderful. Nothing against Eva, but we’re together almost constantly. It would be nice to make a few new friends as well.”
Eva just moved toward the door of the room, patting her sister on the shoulder. These two had both come into being dressed in student brown, which matched the girl who was just on the other side of the doorway from them. Avri was a bit taller, being about six-three, but she understood that the two with her were very special. If not princesses, then at least magic. So she waved for them to follow her, and the older girl started to speak to the woman in the front room, who was then, presumably, Heather.
Following them to the door, Dareg smiled at the scene and sighed.
“Kids… They grow up so fast. I don’t know why everyone keeps saying this parenting thing is hard, however. Why, it flew by without me even noticing for the most part.” He was being playful, but as soon as the door clicked shut, he turned, and spoke in a darker tone.
“I’m not attending here. I won’t spy. Not for you, or King Richard, or Queen Tiera. She didn’t ask me too. Not yet. I hope that won’t cause a rift between us? I don’t really want to lose any friends, but I can’t afford to spy on people that will remember it being done in five hundred years. All of you are a risk there.”
The man was both well informed and smarter than average so didn’t even comment on that part of things, simply smiling.
“Ah. I’d rather figured that it would go that way in the end. Well, that’s fine. You’re still welcome here, even without that training, or anyone pushing you toward it, if you like? Printer is also a fine situation for young people, or so I hear. I’ve noticed that your building skills have increased in the last month? Nearly to a level that has to mean you’ve been pushing into unsafe places.”
It was probably true, but he didn’t quite understand the meaning. Unless he meant making what were essentially living beings, and weapons. Before that was brought up, the man nodded, and raised his right hand in slow motion. Not just for him. The speed seemed to indicate that the man was literally slowing his movements down.
Possibly just to be annoying.
“Yes. There are things that no builder should do. Too much work can stress a person’s pattern to the breaking point, for instance. You need to pace yourself, or even one such as you might find yourself stressed beyond the ability of your personal energy system to bounce back. Not quickly at any rate. I seem to recall a certain young wizard named Tor doing that
, several times. You should ask him about it, when you next meet. It might be instructive.” He grinned, not meaning it, and tapped his pen again. “They all forgot that part, didn’t they? They saw you performing actions that only a master could and didn’t realize that you hadn’t had any training even a month before this point. Or is it two now? Regardless, there are several things that we teach all in our program not to do. You need to be instructed in these things before you accidently warp the world around you to the breaking point. Especially since it’s the wizard that breaks, not reality.”
“Ah. All right. I can make copies though? I just need to be careful not to push too hard? Would Sam Builder be a good person to ask about that?” The man was his tutor after all, so that would be the first one to go to on building or magical matters. Except, of course, that he’d done no such thing when he’d started making up new projects for himself.
“Perhaps. If not, he’ll come to me, or perhaps Master Fines, in the Capital. Having power isn’t the only thing that matters, Dareg. Not that you need lectures from me. I’m no one in particular to you, but it is important that you don’t start out on the wrong path. I… Not to rub vinegar in the wounds, but I’ve heard some troubling news about you killing an Austran man, on Harmony? Was he secretly one of the Adversaries?” There was a half wince, as if the man had forgotten that Dareg knew that all the Counts and Countesses were in on that matter.
Since he was too, and demonstrably so, it could have been about something else. For instance, the man could have worried that he’d just pointed out an obvious excuse for his actions, no matter what the case really was. Just claim the man had been working with the enemy. Not that he was one of them, of course. Their bodies tended to vanish, or explode rather spectacularly, when they died.
The last one, that dark skinned woman that had caused him to think of her as being from Afrak, even if that didn’t seem to be the case, had simply ran off into a different reality, or so it seemed. Not that he’d been able to track what she was doing that way.
