by P. S. Power
Her words didn't come for a moment, but after a bit she bowed, and turned a bit red.
"I didn't mean to seem like I was saying that. I... I honestly think that your father would be troubled by my being with you... I hope that won't be a wedge between us?" She looked half panicked, and for once he really didn't get it.
It was something to do with being a noble. Their sexual rules were pretty loose and easy. Everyone knew that. It had been spoken of as they played at school, between classes. Giants in general were like that, regardless of station, more often than not. The nobility however had actual rules about things around sex, if the rumors had been true. What those were, no one had ever truly known. A few had guessed, the most likely one being that they all had sex with their servants and so on, but it wasn't stated for certain at any point. How would the kids at his school have known that anyway?
Most of them had no more contact with that sort of person than he had. Less now, he was willing to wager.
Still, he wasn't a moron, so waved her back up and winked.
"I was teasing, and that didn't seem to work very well. As for Tor, well, I don't think you need to worry about that. I wasn't raised by him. After the shock wears off, I'm pretty sure that his interest in me will as well. It's part of why I'm working so hard on the ports. That way I might have a job when things dry up that way. It would be stupid to let some gold from a person I don't even know be the only thing keeping me alive." He was an adult now, and that meant the job of doing that was his. A man too. Really, he was supposed to be able to carry himself and a family.
The lovely woman, who even looked good blushing stood up and gave him a nod.
"Ah? I wasn't sure. About the teasing. It was hard to tell really. It makes sense now, but..."
He got that part, he figured. He was influencing her, even as she did it to him. It clearly wasn't control though, which was good to know. He didn't particularly want to have the world as his slave market. If it had been that powerful, she would have said yes, even if she didn't want to. That she could fight him that way was probably a good sign.
"Yeah. That... You have some kind of noble rules about that kind of thing, right? I... Honestly, I've barely heard of that. I probably broke six unspoken laws just then, didn't I?"
That got a muscular shrug. It was a thing that he wouldn't have noticed about her normally, given how carefully she moved and carried herself. Under her clothing she was clearly a woman, but there was also a lot of power there. Her raw size hid a lot of it, but there was more to it than that. Magic, probably.
She'd been shaped into being what she was by a person that had a very strange idea of what strength made a body look like. Not that it wasn't attractive on her. It just didn't seem real.
She nodded, and looked away, frowning. Then, almost as if she were trying to be conspiratorial, she moved closer to him as they walked again. There were bodies all around, but no one could hear them, he didn't think.
"You did. Someone at your station can't afford to do that kind of thing too often. Even the teasing. That you haven't gotten into twenty kinds of trouble already is amazing. Let me think for a second. What do you really need to know?"
That wasn't asked of him, since he didn't have a clue.
After about two hundred feet, done slowly, since they had to make their way through the crowd, she nodded. The bodies weren't packed tightly, but you had to be careful, if you didn't want to step on someone. There were a lot of kids too. Most were playing, which meant chase, since there were all those handy adults to dodge behind. That meant several of them bashed into people.
Karen was busy thinking, so didn't notice just how many people were losing their wallets, coin purses, and so on as they were hit. He counted three, but wasn't certain about another one. They were also too tall for kids, being both older than they seemed, dressed to look more youthful, and chanting kids game rhymes as they ran about. Strange ones that he'd never heard before. That could just be due to the fact that they were from the Capital, since the accents were right, but something wasn't correct with the whole scene. Other than the theft. Not that he could tell precisely what that was yet.
Touching the white clad lady's arm, he winked.
"Hey, if I hand some people to you, can you subdue them without hurting them?"
She looked at him, then smiled, and nodded. "Here? Just point. I have a magical weapon that will do it. It won't hurt anyone, even if I miss. It just puts them to sleep. Who?" She changed suddenly, her posture going all wrong. She ducked down a bit, and her feet, in soft white boots, spread. Her hair was past shoulder length, and had some curl to it, as she started to scan the place. Like an animal ready to pounce.
"The kids running around. The tall boy there first. The thin one, with the cap and suspenders?" That part was very weird, since no one else was dressed like they were. Very few ever did. All of the kids were like that too. They didn't fit where they were, once he really looked at them. At first he'd thought they were just in festival clothes, if a poor person's version, being dingy and gray, but that wasn't it.
He tapped her arm instantly, to get her to stop.
"Or not. Something isn't right here. We need to get a team of people out here now. I... Don't know. Maybe you should put them to sleep? I guess we need to try that."
Karen didn't hesitate, and while the boy stood still for a moment, and started to look around, he certainly didn't fall to the ground. The Commander looked hard suddenly, and started to move to a different weapon, which got taken out far to smoothly too be random.
"Wait. They're pick-pocketing, not killing people. Let's try something different first." Then, not knowing if it was wise or not, Dare cupped his hands in front of his mouth.
"You there. The kids doing the pick-pocketing! Come this way, and get ready to give back the ill-gotten loot." Then, as several of them looked up at him, shocked, he went on. "We know all about your clockwork machine ways. Why not talk to us, instead of testing us like you are?"
If Karen didn't know about all of that, it did not show on her face, which turned to a small, and tight, smile.
"He has a point. We don't allow theft here, but it isn't against the law to visit. We should chat." She still had her second weapon ready to go, which was pointed at the ground beneath them. Compressed dirt, made into tan stone. It glinted a bit in the sunlight.
The tall boy looked at them both, and finally walked over in front of Dareg. Then he dug into his pants and started pulling out purses, wallets and a few coin. Each was held out for Dare to take, and dropped from a distance into his waiting hand. Only when the last thing came out did he speak.
"We don't mean any harm. We came to see how you'd treat the lowest among you. So far you haven't done too poorly. Not perfectly as a society, but this is the most dangerous of the lands in your world. We weren't going to come at all, we haven't done more than watch for thousands of years, but there are beings coming here. Dangerous ones." The boy shrugged his thin shoulders. Then held his hat to his head. Probably so he could run away.
Dareg didn't know what to say, so nodded. When the others in the little group of five children, or young people, moved toward him Karen got ready to fight. Dare didn't, merely stepping toward them by a single step.
"We should speak then. We could do that now? We have a place, back that way. It belongs to the Ancient of Noram, but he isn't in, and won't mind us using it. He'll be back tomorrow evening? There's a big welcoming ceremony, for him, and the Ancients of the other lands. I don't know who would be best to speak to you, but they're mainly nice people, as far as I've heard."
A girl, who looked about his own age of fourteen, once she held still, touched the boy on the arm to get his attention.
"He speaks the truth, as he knows it." Then her big brown eyes locked with his own. "Do you mean us harm? Or seek to trap us?" Her words were very precise, and held no feeling. It was nearly an icy thing.
Not responding to that, Dareg looked right at her, and told the truth,
wondering if she had some way to determine if he wasn't.
"No to both. It would be good if you'd all stop stealing, or trying to rob people? Please don't hurt anyone, either? Unless they try to hurt you first, then it's legal, more or less. There are gaps in that too, but for now, if you could follow those rules, we can probably deal with the rest. So, dinner at nine tomorrow? Over there?" He pointed, hoping they'd get it.
The two smallest looking people were both males, and again were older looking once they were looked at closely. Rather than answer, they each suddenly moved to stand across from each other, and put their hands out. Their stances mirrored each other, as they stood about five feet apart, a bit of what seemed purple lightening coming from the fingertips of both. Then, saying nothing, the others all ran through the shining black disk that formed.
The tall boy went last, looking ready to fight, but when no one came for the escaping people, he nodded.
"Tomorrow at nine. A representative will be there. I hope this is real. You don't know it yet, but you need us. Not just you here, but all of humanity. The ones here, and the ones on the other worlds. Even the ones around other stars." Then, on that note, he stepped through the disk.
The two youngest boys didn't move, and the disk started to fade, which had them going along with it. He didn't know how it worked, but he hoped they just went home, like the others, and weren't fading out of existence.
The people standing around them applauded, like it was a show. So he bowed to them, like he'd seen a performer do once. Then he raised his hands up to chest height, and called out.
"Is anyone missing a purse or some coin?"
It took a bit to get that all around, and then he had about three hours of calling to do, which seemed to take forever, even though the machine people, if that's what they were, hadn't seemed dangerous yet. A bit too much into stealing, but that was all. Really, could he blame them for that?
After a while the device he was being plagued by stopped the never ending buzzing, and he realized it was getting late. It was dark out already, and cool finally, so about eight or so. That meant he had about enough time to get to his pod house, take a quick shower and get back to Sam Builder's palace, if he hurried.
Commander Derring followed him. Talking on her own hand held device the entire time. When they got to his little house, he had to make a door, which took a lot of mental effort still. That was reassuring, actually. No one was going to come along and casually take his stuff while he was out. It could still be stolen, but it would probably take a wizard or someone near that level to know how to do it. At least he didn't think he really would have guessed at how it might be done on his own. Maybe, eventually he would have, but the fact was, most didn't have enough magic around to even learn to try doing that kind of thing.
"I need to wash up first. Or you can, if you like? I think you can fit. It isn't a large shower, and you do tall pretty well." He smiled at her, not really trying to flirt, but knowing he was anyway. It was so easy with some people. She was one of that sort, and that part was confusing to him. She had the looks for it, but there was a part of her that was a bit off that way. Instead of pushing for more than a few words he waved, going for polite instead.
She dashed in, and was back out less than ten minutes later, in a very nice dress. One that was gold and blue, in bright colors. That part wasn't so great, but the gold was like metal and moved on its own under the surface of the blue. Rising up and sinking down like it was water.
Rather than ask how it was done, he did his own cleaning. Hurrying so that the lady wouldn't be waiting on him longer than was needed, and tried to dress himself in a way that might not embarrass him. It was tempting to try a flashy outfit like Commander Derring had, but that was her idea and everything he could think of would just be a slightly different take of that, more or less. So he put himself in shining black. It was a suit, like the one Gerent had worn when they first met, but done in a smooth material that flowed a little bit more. Under the jacket he made it look like he had a brilliant ruby colored shirt, a thing with depth to it, though that was an illusion. If you looked closely, from the front, it would seem like his body was made of red glass. Only there was nothing there, inside.
His shoes were just shining leather, and with a bit of careful attention he added seams and a few wrinkles to the black. That way it would seem like he was really covered by normal material, except when looked at too closely.
When he walked out, Karen nodded at him.
"Not bad. Part of me worried you'd come out in basic workman brown, and the other thought it would be a glowing green light. Can you darken the color of the red a bit? It will make you seem a bit older."
It worked it seemed, from the look she gave him then.
"We should go, Prince Dareg. You kind of need to be there a bit early." They still walked, since doing anything else was probably not going to work at the moment, except flying. It didn't take that long, since almost everyone was off at the events, it being the first night like it was. That fact stung his mind, given how much he'd done in the last days.
He'd gone from being tossed out on his rear from a chance at a better life, right into one that almost couldn't be real. No matter how many people claimed that it was. Given the whole thing he kind of wondered if he'd been hit on the head as he tumbled when the High Servants had tossed him out the other day. It wasn't the truth, of course. The world was too real for it to be a dream. Those always had a very different quality to them. Dare would have known the difference almost instantly.
When he got to the house, he was met at the door by a very lovely looking Sara, who smiled at him warmly.
"We have a meeting after this, about what happened earlier? Right now, you and I need to go and pretend we know all the people that showed up. I hope you do, since I'm lost on over half of them." She took his hand and squeezed it a bit, then let him go.
So she was trying to be nice, but not make any moves on him. It kind of hit him then what was going on.
"Are you both dating Tor?" That wasn't the only thing that could have made sense, but it was the one that stood out for him.
Karen shrugged.
"Not me. I just don't want him to get mad at me. Sara though, yes. Ali too, so it's kind of a group thing they have going on. It would be best not to hit on her too hard. Either of them." Then she winked at him. "Not because they'd say no either. It just wouldn't be fair to test them that way."
He nodded then and tried to smile about it all. They were attractive women, but there didn't seem to be a real shortage of that kind in the world. Not at the Capital anyway. For the time being it was probably the wiser move to take what was said seriously that way.
"Got it. To answer the question though, I doubt I'll recognize too many people here. Not unless I walked by them on the street, or talked to them over the handheld thing." It was still new enough to him that the communications devices seemed unreal, and like the people he spoke to over them were as well.
Sara led him to a large dining room, and leaned in a bit.
"We hired extra staff on for the week. You're covering it. That will cost you too. About five gold. I provided them with clothing amulets, so they should look good, even if they don't have a clue what they're doing." She didn't seem to be joking about that part in the slightest.
Then they walked into a crowd of people that looked to be at least a hundred strong. The number was growing as he watched. The vast table was covered with a fine white linen. He thought that was what it was called anyway. What showed of the base was all deep and shining wood, except the seats of the chairs which were cushions build into the furnishings. It was a thing that he'd never really noticed before. They'd had that on Harmony, in Marissa's, but it looked more impressive here, lined up like they were, all in shining white. Like spots of snow.
Then people started to just walk up to him, not even bothering to introduce themselves. That was hard to handle, since it was really clear that either he or Sara were supposed
to know them all by name.
Funnily enough, he managed about ten of them, since they were the officers from various space vessels. Smiling he called the faces that he'd talked to out by name, and bowed to them all, shaking hands with the ones from Austra. That meant they still awkwardly missed two people, one of whom Sara had met before, who seemed a bit upset by the oversight, and a very old looking woman, who came up to him while Sara was distracted.
He started to stammer his apology for not recognizing her, but she fixed him with a focused gaze, and then smiled, gently. Her hand came out, and touched the skin on the back of his hand.
"I'm Doris. I suppose, in many ways, I'm your grandmother. We should speak." Then, as if nothing had happened at all, she drifted away. It was almost as if she floated. So much so he actually had to look at her feet to make certain she hadn't.
Chapter eleven
The meal went in fine enough fashion for the first one like it he'd ever been to. On the surface it looked a bit like what had been done at King Richard's table. Only here he was the King and almost no one along the way was following the pattern very well. Sara didn't have any issue with that, standing after he did and taking her large bite of food, or sipping her drink.
She muttered for him, so he'd understand what was happening.
"This dinner is formal, lesser, non-family. We, as the hosts have to show that the food is good, but no one here suspects treachery. Not that the nobles won't be using poison detectors if they have them. Speaking of which..." She waved a small copper piece over his food again, which she'd been doing the whole time before he ate. "Not that you'd die from chemicals or disease unless you had a lot of it. If we didn't do something like this people would wonder about it. You're a Prince after all. Sooner or later someone will want you dead." She smiled at the words, which he knew he was supposed to take the wrong way.
