by P. S. Power
“We could spend forever here and be marvelously happy love, but every moment we waste could be the one that costs us everything. Obviously Denno can't save himself. Unless this is just a trap. It wouldn't be like him, but even those like me and Tor are people, and can make mistakes and do things that others simply don't understand. Which brings me to the first thing I wanted to talk to you about Tor…” Burks gently moved him towards the door. It wasn’t all that subtle even.
Laughing Tor quickly hugged Nita again and then kissed her, more warmly than he really should have in front of her prospective husband, but she returned it without pause. If Burks didn't like it, he shouldn't have made “the rules” like he had. The whole messed up system of the nobles was literally the old man's creation after all. Tor kissed Nita again and whispered that he'd see her soon into her ear. Then he got pulled out the door a little forcefully. Burks was chuckling a bit himself, so it wasn't meant to be a true chastisement.
They talked while they flew, taking one of the new carriages that Tor had made, the really fast ones. Tor made it gray to match the color of the clouds above. He didn’t want to scare anyone seeing it, who might think it an Austran craft come to bomb their little town or village.
Burks had started with small talk and watched Tor carefully, trying to remember what it was like to be that young. Most likely realizing how stupid it meant too, Tor thought. Well, that wasn't wrong.
He still did things because his feelings were hurt and reacted like a buffoon when a pretty girl paid attention to him sometimes. That was the hard part too, the “sometimes”. One day a woman would proposition him for sex and he coolly accept. The next day a nervous young lady would ask if he was free to chat and he'd stammer and feel like his face was on fire from blushing.
It was idiotic for him to go instead of Burks. If they could swing a good disguise device they should both go, of course, but him alone? That would be suicide. Still, if that was the plan, he had to try it. If someone called you brother and meant it, then you had to do what you could for them, didn't you?
Really he just wondered how he could bring Burks around to thinking that the idea was the right one? He was wiser, a way better fighter, maybe one of the best in the world, and had that calm under fire that Tor wondered if he'd really ever learn, same being or not. If he were the one held hostage, Burks would be the one to come get him, not some eighteen year old knock-off that could freak out at any moment.
Burks just sighed.
“I think I should go in as you Tor, I-”
“OK.” Tor cut him off, relief rushing through him.
“What?” The old man, Ancient and wise stared at him. “I'm pretty sure we're supposed to argue about this all the way to Grenwyn, then you grudgingly accept my superior skill and ability to handle the unknown and we go from there, we me carefully managing you the whole time. It's why I left two whole weeks to get ready.”
Tor chuckled.
“You're three thousand years old. If you aren't better than me at nearly everything, possibly even things I haven't imagined being real, then… no… really, You're just better. You can go in and I'll work back up, transportation and any building you think you need. I have some stuff ready and some ideas. Besides, I'd rather not have my nuts cut off. I've barely gotten to use them you know. I still haven't tried half the things Ursala, Countess Thorgood, told me about. So… is that Grenwyn down there? I've never been. It looks like Afrak… only greener.”
It did too. If Tor hadn't seen the way they lived, their domes earth houses and plants everywhere, almost turning their very spread out cities into giant gardens, he'd have missed this now. It was impressive, stunning from the air, in that it was nearly invisible. The only thing that gave it away were a few wood smoke plums rising from hills.
The Count nodded.
“There it is indeed, home sweet home. I did mention that gardening could be a satisfying hobby, didn't I? Land over there please.” He pointed to a clearing near a large hill, covered with shrubs and blackberry bushes and surrounded by trees. Evergreens at a distance, but there were fruit and nut trees throughout.
Burks looked at him from the side seat.
“That was a bit quicker than I expected. Obviously this isn't a regular carriage.”
“Yeah, but not even close to what the Austrans have. Quieter, but they can outrun us. I really don't have time to figure out how to do more before we go, I don't think. We'll need to be gone before they know it. If we can, say, get an eight hour head start, it should work.”
Not commenting the other man popped the top and stepped out easily. Tor couldn't match the grace of the movement, but did get out without tripping at this time. A woman of about thirty came out the reddish brown door sunk back into the hill and stopped suddenly, staring first at Burks and then Tor. After a moment she tried to speak, but nothing came out.
“Um, hi, I'm Tor. You can tell because I'm shorter. And I think our haircuts are different. If you want I can change my clothes into something else, here…” His voice was happy sounding enough, nearly charming even as he focused and made his student browns turn a deep purple so that he didn't look as much like the other man. Finally the woman glared at Burks and then Tor.
“I see. So this is some kind of game your playing with me? Telling me my cousin the famous builder is coming and then showing up with two of yourself instead? Well I never!” She held the incensed act, with hands on the hips of her brown dress, a gray rag in hand and an equally drab kerchief on her head for about fifteen seconds. Then she grinned, a wide and playful thing that reminded Tor a little of his mother.
“Ah, don't mind me Torrance. I'm Brenda, and actually was warned about all this. I can't say I believed it, but I was given foreknowledge, so any shock I feel is my own failing. You'll be staying here. Notice that wasn't a question? If it's not grand enough for you, then I'll beat you with a wooden stirring spoon until it is.” The tone and words reminded him of someone.
“God Burks!” Head going forward and mouth open in feigned amazement. “You've already cloned my mother? How… Why?”
Holding up his hands defensively he verbally back pedaled.
“Not that my mother isn't a wonderful woman, but still, ones isenough, isn't it?” Tor was trying to be funny, but remembered that they needed to actually have that conversation for real. Lara Gray the leader of Afrak was his mother the same way the Burks was his grandfather and him. Worse, Tor really feared that his younger sister Tiera might be her too.
But for now they all chuckled.
“Even the same sense of humor. Well, Cousin Tor, come in. I guess you can leave your… thing? Right there. Probably kill the vegetation under it but we'll live.” The voice suddenly wasn't pleased.
Then who would be, if their garden was about to be starved of light? At least it floated about a foot from the ground instead of actively crushing it.
Tor didn't respond, just took out the one trunk he'd brought, a small one, mainly with amulets, for gifts if anyone wanted them, and his toothbrush and cleaning supplies. Then he tapped the sigil on the carriage making it vanish and slipped the hemp string over his neck. The sheer number of amulets he wore daily was becoming a nuisance. He could consolidate them into one, if he over got a chance. He'd never heard of it being done, but it should work well enough. Really, it was just copy work.
Actually, he realized, he'd already done it once. The new weapon he'd made that had eight different fields on it, for different situations. Ah, well, proof of concept right there if nothing else. Good.
Brenda had the same black hair he did, but her eyes were a light green, almost like the sea in sunlight. Her face was rounder than his, but it was all high and strong cheekbone and powerful jaw, not fat. She was taller than Tor was, taller than Burks, but not more than an inch or so. Her skin looked to be made of gold, lacking only the shine. Everything about her should have been stunningly beautiful, but somehow it combined into merely pretty, almost handsome. Then… he got compared to a girl
at least once a week, so what did he know? She seemed nice, if a little forceful in character.
Once they got inside, without a word, she vanished.
Tor could feel her, she'd simply gone a little further down a hallway, but what looked at first like a dead end of blue gray was actually slightly bent, enough so that the point where it went at a ninety degree angle wasn't visible from the door. Burks didn't show him to a room, if he even got one here, instead he took him to some steps that went down, below ground. A basement. He'd never been in a place that had one before, not a real house at least. The King’s palace did, but that was a dank little room for keeping secrets. This was big and dry.
If the things in it weren't secret, Tor would have to change the definition of the word, at least when he used it. Most of the objects he didn't even have names for. He could name parts if, like glass windows on boxes of silver, and lenses on other, smaller black boxes, but if asked what they did he'd be lost. Other than the glass and some small bits of metal, he didn’t even know what they were made of. What he could recognize was that this was based on science. The strange and wasteful magic of Austra and possibly other places. Afrak claimed their magic as science too, and they only worked with the alteration of living things. Or at least that's all they'd told him about. It wasn't like he'd asked at the time.
“So, secret hoard of science? Is there a tiny dragon to guard it as well? If not I can get you one. I made one for the King last year. Birthday present.” Tor asked, not knowing for certain, but guessing it was illegal, or against the treaty of the Ancients, whatever that was. Probably some eight thousand page book written over the course of a century describing everything under the sun in great detail. Then forbidding it. That was basically what rules and laws were, right?
“Yes. Technically not allowed here, but I make a point of keeping up with what the others are doing. Not just science, technology or genetic research, but the spiritual and harmonic systems as well. I even try to get down to the Antarctic now and then for a visit. Now they have some technology that defies description. Magic too. They aren't much for making it, but they come in and buy it every now and then. If you want to make friends, you should send Blue a selection of your work. Something to remember… Denno Brown doesn't believe in magic. It's hardwired into him, much like we can't understand our true intelligence even when it's proved. This lack of belief has colored the whole of Austran culture for thousands of years. Great guy, Denno, but he can't see what's right in front of him at times. Glost Serge is more or less in that mold, but really kinds of hates us. Me personally that is, for thwarting his attempt to kill Laurie most likely.” He pulled out a chair in the middle of a decently sized table made of focus stone and wave for Tor to get comfortable himself.
“It was moronic of course, he brought in a group of Larvals, they must have been about thirteen years old. Tough, but not more than I could handle alone. If he would have waited another ten years we'd all probably have died. The attack came without warning or hint. Well it worked out. Not a happy memory.” That Tor could see.
Killing six little kids? Or seven, because that seemed the Larval way, groups that large being the norm. It had to be done, but… Yeah. It wouldn't be something to chat about if you didn't have to. That meant that Burks thought he needed to let Tor know. Why, he couldn't guess, so he waited without commenting.
“That, acting too soon, it's been a major part of the Serge character for generations. I really think it may be genetic, a part of the familial field pattern. Possibly Rhetistic, if one of the others meddled in the line… Which is a field we need to discuss at some point, because it effects both of us, but later, since it’s a bit hard to understand and we don’t have time now. I'm hoping it doesn't work against us. A sudden attack before we make land and the whole thing is moot. Of course in this case it wouldn't really be acting too soon, but they don't know that.” Burks smiled slightly.
Tor shuddered and looked into his own face, identical, but not him, not even like looking in a mirror, which showed the same image, but was plain and boring looking, to his mind. The whole thing was eerie, but not important at the moment, not really.
Tor shook his head, tying to clear it.
“Lilli is a problem here too. The plan has to be to kill me, or if they figured out that we'd possibly make a switch, to get you. But even if Glost is smart enough to not kill me instantly, I don't know how balanced Daria is. She could simply do it, even against orders. Then again, maybe the whole crazy thing is an act. I don't suppose you have a secret technique to let us know which it really is do you?”
Tor tapped the smooth reddish black table top under his fingers, the focus stone was from around Wildlands Station, by its color, the work was plain, but sturdy, no edging cut in or any of the other things that had been added over time, so it was from the first few months of production there most likely. Nothing in the room moved, except Tor for a moment. Burks had moved within himself, mind silent and eyes closed.
“No secret technique, but we can simply assume that they are stupid, insane, clever and setting a trap at the same time. Just like we have to assume Denno is in on it. I hope not, but if he is, then we best be prepared. The man can't see magic for what it is perhaps, but he's incredibly intelligent. Oh, he comes across as all charm and sweetness, but don't forget that he's literally twice as smart as almost anyone else you've ever dealt with. If he makes a mistake, it probably isn't one, but rather a trick to throw you off.”
“OK.”
Really Tor felt a little disappointed. Three thousand years and the best this Ancient could come up with amounted to “prepare for the worst”? He could have said that. Before he could mention it though Burks stuck his tongue out playfully.
“Yeah, but the trick isn't in knowing it, everyone that bothers to think for a moment knows it. It's in following through and actually applying what you know. That's the step that takes people a long time to figure out. If there's a great secret to living a long time, some grand wisdom, it's that. Apply what you know and learn to recognize when you're about to make a stupid decision. Do that now and I'll have to admit your smarter than I am, identical or not. It took me nearly a thousand years to really learn that.”
Ah.
Well, if that was the wisdom of the ages, Tor would do his best. Really though, there had to be a little more to it than “don't be stupid”, didn't there? Maybe not. How many lifetimes would it take to really get that down? However long it would take, he kind of needed to survive first for it to count.
In life, being dead kind meant that you lost.
The room went quiet while Tor thought, Burks just sitting patiently and waiting, which seemed odd. Tor wasn't in charge of this and didn't have the skills to be. He gave the other man a nod, hoping it would get him to speak. It was another two minutes before he did.
“We need to familiarize you with what Austra is like on the ground. Hopefully we can park you out in the ocean, under water, to wait for me to get Denno out or fail completely. But just in case you ever do have to go ashore there, it won't hurt to have some basic information. Besides, you really are adapting to the new plan a lot more smoothly than I thought you would, so we might as well spend some quality time, eh? As it is I'm kind of starting to think you really are smarter than I was at your age. Perhaps all the building and meditation helps? I didn't start even really trying that for hundreds of years… Well, let's start, shall we?”
The data started flowing in rapidly, as fast as Tor could learn it, pushing the boundaries a bit really. Finally he had to drop into a meditative state and just absorb what he could. The customs were very different. Little things, like how you addressed a lady, or a man in the street, when not to make eye contact and the use of pieces of paper to buy things in stores. There was no haggling either, you paid what the shop said or got nothing at all.
The science was different than in Afrak, but the basic idea was the same as getting magic in Noram really. You paid for a device that did work, eventual
ly it would wear out and you either got another one or went without. The people there were the least likely of all the groups on the planet to hold to the treaty or promise too. Greed and materialism led there. Burks actually went on about that for a long time, Tor noticed. The idea of science didn't seem to be a problem, it was the greed and desire to have things that did it.
Finally Tor gave him a funny look, “Most people here want stuff too though, don't they?”
That got a snort, one that sounded exactly like Tor’s own.
“Sure, they want things. Devices to help them survive, occasional comforts and good food. Sometimes they even want to show their neighbors how successful they are by collecting objects that are far more wasteful than needed.” He sighed gustily.
“But Tor… The Austrans are all like that. A few aren't perhaps, to be fair, but the average man on the street strives to have the richest life possible and if they don't have at least what a Duke would here, they consider themselves poor. Even the bottom tier of their society has more in many ways than the rich do here. It's fine on the surface, but it takes more than their share of energy and resources from the planet. Denno has tried to reign that impulse in, but in a technological society it’s too easy to let those things slide.”
Nodding, Tor thought about it for a minute, the idea of everyone trying to live like a royal. The drain on the environment would be vast. And nearly invisible to someone inside the system. It kind of made sense, of course an Ancient should know better, right? Denno had vast knowledge and had probably see the signs a thousand times before. Why would he just let it go now?
“Because it gets boring Tor. We're forced to watch over people and protect them, but after a while you start to want to do something else. You seek entertainments or new projects to hold your interest and then the next thing you know, it's fifty years later and some mad man has seized power and threatens to undo everything we all fought so hard for. Glost Serge is far from the first. Really it happens about every forty to sixty years. Some person, normally a man, but women have done it too, pops up and think they should rule everything, that if we all did it his way, things would be better. It never is thought. The best humans have ever managed is not killing their neighbors and remembering to say please. We need to strive for more, but don't really expect it.”