by P. S. Power
The same went for Connie, who at least pretended to like him really well and would probably sleep with him to prove it. Which was why he couldn't trust her. Not really. Even if she did like him, he wouldn't be able to tell if she was just acting for some reason. Unless he read her field of course.
The idea stunned him for a moment. It felt… off. An invasion of privacy if nothing else. One that would work though.
They flew back in silence, but a companionable sort that reminded Tor of being home in the woods, when there was just one or two other people and you did nothing but hike and camp for a day. There was a peace to flying, the world seemed so small and it felt like you could deal with anything. Best of all was the quiet. The wind rushing past you made noise, but you were too far away to hear anything from the ground. Tor hadn't realized how much he appreciated silence, until he'd learned to fly.
That being the case, feeling so relaxed, Tor half expected to fly back to find a fight had broken out, or someone dead. All they found though was a party and people cleaning up for dinner. They landed close to one another on the front stoop of the house, white stone, marble he thought, just as the sun was dying. There was no one there, even though he normally would have preferred to land in a more open area.
Trice saw them and walked over looking smug and belligerent.
“So, where did you two get off to for three hours? Out counting the sand dunes?” Her voice wasn't slurring from drink, but it didn't sound happy. In fact it sounded a bit like she wanted to pick a fight. Her face looked like that too.
Oh goody.
Tor couldn't tell who with yet. He tilted his head, waiting to see what she'd say next, but Petra couldn't contain herself and burst out happily about their day and his gift.
“It's huge! Some of the rooms are nicer than the King’s palace in the Capital, or at least copies of it, and it goes so fast, for a ship I mean. Would you like to see it? We could go tomorrow. We could stay out for a night even, the bed is huge, I mean we have to share, but it's twenty feet wide and ten feet long. It looks ridiculous, but it's so soft and it forms to you perfectly. Ooh, and the bed? You hit a single sigil and it cleans and remakes itself, so no sleeping in the wet spot.” She grinned and tried to nudge Trice a little on the shoulder. But she dodged it easily and glared at Tor.
“So, trying out this new magic bed with your girlfriend? Was she good? Did she let you be on top so she didn't crush you or what? I see how things are. I lose my arm and suddenly I'm not good enough for you? Or you just never liked me at all, is that it? Not noble enough for you?” Her voice was getting higher pitched and fierce at the same time.
“Scored a Princess, so figured that nothing less than a Counserina will do? Is that it? Found out you were a Countier and now I'm not good enough for you?” She looked ready to cry.
Tor sighed, because he knew this probably didn't have anything to do with him at all, just anger at all she'd lost. Her arm, her comfort zone at school, her reputation and, just possibly, him. If she'd ever really cared about that. She'd said she loved him and meant it though, crazily enough. This didn't seem like it to him. Then Trice never did do anything the normal way. Too easy and predictable probably.
Tor opened his mouth to speak but Petra beat him to it again, and of course, said things that Tor never would have.
“Patricia… I didn't have sex with Tor, not today, because he has a meeting with Collette this evening and doesn't want to dishonor her by coming fresh from another woman’s bed, which is a bit old fashioned, but sweet, don't you think? And she's a Baronetta so you know he isn't getting silly about rank.” The large girl put her arm around Tor protectively, or tried too, her hand hovering over him like normal.
“Besides, we talked about you and you're definitely on his short list. He just doesn't know if you want to or not, so he's been hesitant to ask. Still, Collette has actual work stuff to do with him tonight and I do to, as soon as that's done. Then, if you're really interested, I suggest you get in line fast, because in case you haven't noticed, women aren't exactly in short supply around here, but people giving away free magical devices are. Plus, Tor is very good looking, pale and exotic. If he just yelled out that he was looking to meet ladies, they'd come just for that, don't you think?” Her voice never went mean but Trice glared at her, stamped her right foot hard on the stone once and stormed off.
Not knowing what to do he started to follow her but Petra moved in front of him and tilted her head a little to the right, shaking it.
“No Tor, don’t. She was trying to be bitchy because she's feeling down on herself. If you let that work for her now she'll just keep doing it. If you want to keep her as a friend, you have to stand up for yourself. She isn't allowed to push you around and you don't deserve that kind of thing. If she'd done it in private, maybe you could have comforted her about things, but going after you at a party? Classic manipulative bitch move. Now you're supposed to run to her and make her feel better, but if you do, that proves you're weak, and while she'd like it today, in a month or two you'll have no value to her at all. Women don't really like emotionally soft men. They think they do, but in the end they really want a protector, not a slave.”
That made Tor blink. He'd… never considered anything like that at all.
So, taking her advice, even though he was still worried about his other friend, he went and got something to eat. Mainly fish tonight, but cooked, thank goodness, with a strange starchy vegetable that was covered with sugar burnt to a kind of caramel. Everyone else acted like it was fantastic, but Tor didn't get it at all. Still, people seemed happy and danced a lot. Instead of dancing, Tor decided to just go back to his little house and wait for Collette, who was still busy with some pretty good looking guys.
Well, if she forgot, Tor could just work on the controls for various kinds of clothing, right? In the end, after about an hour of waiting and working out how to do it, it hit home that even a house could use feedback like that. It could be used to add rooms, doors, hallways to join various areas as well as add multiple levels. It couldn't dig in, so no basement or cellar, but still… He could even let people pick the outer and inner colors. Or add and subtract furniture… It was massively more complex than what he had already, but if he did the work carefully and in a deep enough state, could he have it all in a day? It would take that risky work state again, but mastery didn't come with a promise of safety, did it?
Thinking back to school he couldn't remember anyone ever telling him that.
Hard work, sacrifice, sobriety, and dedication. That had all been mentioned in class, but no talk of safety in particular. Not for the builder. Tor rubbed his head, the long black hair getting in the way. Nope, risk was a part of life. He'd try it. Tor would be careful and plan first, but if he didn't try then he wouldn't know if it was possible.
When Collette did show, about two hours later, she came walking in with Martya, who carried a plain tan wooden box, the flimsy looking kind people sold fruit in. Smiling the dark skinned woman, shorter by a good four inches than the Baronetta moved to the table and took a seat easily, his blond friend did the same with a grin. Well, this was unexpected, wasn't it?
“Time to divvy up sir! Shall I count or…” The look she had was one that spoke of people not trusting her as a rule in business, probably because she was a whore. Well, Tor wasn't like that, he smiled and gestured to her to go ahead.
Tor wondered about that, feeling naughty for a bit. If you couldn't trust someone with gold, why the hell would you put your manhood that close to their teeth? The piles of coins, mainly silver and gold, with a few coppers thrown in, were sorted first by kind. There were twenty gold coins, but turned out to be nearly fifty gold worth of silver and two silver in coppers. Seventy gold wasn't bad for a day’s work.
Then, not making eye contact she started to divide the coins, taking fifteen percent of them for herself, leaving him the rest. Her head hung slightly and she winced when he spoke, even though his voice was gentle and calm.
“That's not the split I had in mind, Martya. Here, let me show you, it's easier than explaining. It's different…” He split the pile three ways, but the first pile held half the coins, the next two were evenly divided. The woman smiled and licked her lips.
“I get twenty five percent? But… Who gets the other bit?” She pointed at the other pile of twenty five percent and glanced at Collette. It seemed meaningful to him.
Heh.
Tor shook his head again.
“No, you get fifty percent of the daily take. I get the first twenty-five percent, and the last is to help out other people in the area, mainly to get on their feet if they need it, or start new businesses. Kids just starting out, or people that have a good idea. Or in case people lose a house or business. Whatever you think sounds like it might work. I may have some new devices, or even old ones, that people can use for that, like a fleet of the new fishing boats or, I don't know what else, some basic tools? Cutters or the like? This money is to help out other people though. If you really need it, just use the money, but get with me first if you can. If you want a palace, it may be cheaper to buy the land and then get me to help with construction for instance. Or… at least I may know people, you know? That kind of thing. I'm not going to be here most the time, so the whole thing is on your honor.” Tor jumped up and got her a shield, a good one, but not the best kind, remembering his promise to himself to keep those so that people hunting him didn't have easy access for testing. That had been what Smythe had done, he was sure. Gotten his own shield and then tried different things until he found a gap.
Never again.
“This way you won't be easily jumped or attacked. I should be in and out here for a while though. Just keep my share for me? If you spend it all, expect me to come begging for food at your door if I'm ever broke.” Tor raised his eyebrows playfully and grinned. He meant it though. The whole begging for scraps at her door thing.
The woman looked shocked and repeated everything he said verbatim, sounding a bit doubtful. He smiled and nodded with her though and by the time she finished she was smiling too. Then he warned her about shields and how they only worked if you used them. And really, if she got so drunk that she lost consciousness and left her shield off to drink, those guys would probably get her, and she'd wake up with a sore behind, since they seemed to have been just waiting for her to make a mistake before. Possibly other women as well, but Tor couldn't hand out shields to all the women of Ward. Not with a war on. They were needed elsewhere for now.
She winced.
“Yeah, you'd think I'd learn after the first four times, but I keep right on drinking. I'll cut back though, I promise. Half the drinking was because I wasn't happy with my job, this is way nicer, and I get to help people too. We may need to buy a location though. Any minute now the counts going to wake up and realize that he could be charging us rent!”
That, they decided, could come out of his share. Rent or new land. Why not?
Martya left, her hips dancing a little as if to the saucy beat of the music outside, though Tor didn't hear it until she opened the door to leave.
Collette watched him as he locked the door and sat back down, her eyes never leaving him, attention riveted. She had some design ideas with her that they looked at, which made Tor realize that even the King’s palace or the big house next to them, as grand as they were, could have been improved upon if the design team had included her. Their loss of course. There was enough there for ten houses, but that could work, if the mental controls could be made to do all he wanted… Actually he could just do it with sigils, but he had something else to design. A hand just wouldn't work well if it required sigils to function would it?
They went room to room with her describing as exactly as she could what she meant. Tor listened and tried to absorb it all, making sure he asked questions if he wasn't completely certain about something. It wasn't that hard, but things like textures and color options were important. They did the bathroom last and she pointed out how the tub could move in different ways and how movable screens could be used to make the space more cozy for a couple, or even more if that's what they wanted.
The tub could be made to grow or shrink on command he realized, something else to put in if he could. It was a lot of new information, plus different textures and colors, it could glow too… Interesting enough things.
He heard something behind him, a rustling of fabric, which got him to turn just as Collette finished removing her undergarments.
“Run us a bath, would you?” She asked, her legs spread a bit, so that he'd notice their long beauty and how they led all the way up to the blond hair between.
He did. Tor noticed all of her really. Very much so.
The next day was nice, since he woke up with a lovely woman in his arms and then was able to start right in to work on the project for her as soon as she left. It didn't take as long as he thought, which meant he'd gone deep. In a lot of ways he couldn't remember even doing the work. Tor knew he had though. It was there and held his mental field signature, so no one else did it for him while he wasn't looking. Then, that's pretty much what states that deep meant, right? It was a different part of his being doing the work. To his conscious plan, but it wasn't the Tor everyone knew really. It was the deep him. In many ways the real Tor.
At dinner he ate a decent amount not really noticing the food overly and then collected the Baronetta, as well as a crowd of people that wanted to see what he'd made. Laughing he told them he hoped it wasn't just a huge failure, making them go silent instead of chuckle. Tor covered by clearing people from a space and then turning the new little house on.
It worked wonderfully and Collette wasn't the only one to squeal and clap when the inside was revealed. When Tor asked first Collette and then other people to touch objects and start picking new colors people became ecstatic, clapping and stomping as if it were a show instead of a simple field test. Then he explained how to alter the decor by touching it and imagining what you wanted. What you got was almost always different than what you thought about, because the design had to be in the device, but it did work well enough for each room to be changed to suit a person’s needs.
They added rooms first then several stories to it and finally changed how the outside looked, through different types of stone, brick and wood. The roof was always the same in look, a steeple with tile shingles, but the colors could be changed from the ground. They could do other angles of course, but this way he could see it. Once they had what people thought looked nice, Tor shut the field off.
This was the real test. If it worked right, everything would come back as they were left. It was a hard field to add, almost a kind of intelligence, but just memory. To Tor’s relief it worked perfectly. That would be useful for Trice’s project too. The integration the amulet learned could be saved for later, so if she took it off, it wouldn't have to be relearned all over again each time.
Petra's clothing device was, well not simple, but doable after that. It took two days, being much more in-depth and flexible than a mere house, so that people could basically build their own outfit from scratch, even creating almost any outfit they could imagine. Still when he came to the surface no one seemed upset by his “absence”. Oddly that cheered him up a little. It meant that when he left in a few days no one would worry about it too much. He'd taken enough time “off” for now and had to get the investigation going somehow.
That meant Smythe.
Wheee.
Maybe he should go find Dorgal Sorvee and see if the boy wanted to apprentice with the older man? They could sit around making complicated plans to “get” him or something. Maybe Dorgal could act as his hand or something?
That reminded him that he should probably ask Trice if she wanted to go with him to the Capital too. She hadn't spoken to him in days, but then, if she had something to say, she knew not to be shy, didn't she? It wasn't like her to try and wait to say anything. Not if she cared at all. Maybe she didn't? She didn't seem happier here
, the girl didn't seem like she wanted to be anywhere, just sad all the time. If it was just her arm, well, yeah, that wasn't good. Tor knew he needed to work harder on that for her, but there was a lot to learn first. If it was him…
Well, he didn't have to be around if that would make things better for her, did he? Still, they were friends and he'd ask at least. Even if she didn't answer. Because that's what you did for your friends, you were there for them, no matter what.
Even if they were being a pain in the ass.
The morning they were to leave Collette mentioned that she'd like to travel with him, since she had some things to do back in the Capital. She made this pretty plain by showing up with her bags in tow. She had old fashioned flight plates for them, but no follow-alongs. He'd have to make sure he got her some. It made navigating the city much easier. He hadn't made any for a while though. Not since the batch he'd made for the shop keepers in Printer.
Collette cleared her throat a little, and looked nervous about something. Since they'd already had sex and she'd made a point of inviting him for it again, that didn't make a lot of sense. After about ten seconds she looked down and back up, taking a breath.
“Actually Tor… I guess I should just ask… Could… we set up the same type of operation that you have with Martya, only there? In the Capital? I think that ice sales would do as well there as here, maybe better and I could get a little land near the Kings river to use as a water source, but not too far away from the city for the ice to reach daily. I'd like to try anyway. I know that I might seem a bit air-headed at times, but I'm a hard worker, diligent and well educated, if not in business. Running a home or keep takes-”
“OK.” Tor didn't wait, he dug out the proper amulets and went over how to set them up, promising to help if he could. It was a good idea. That he hadn't thought of it probably meant that she was smarter than he was, that or he was incredibly preoccupied.
