by P. S. Power
More open again.
She responded, her lips soft, and accurate, doing exactly what they were supposed to, from long practice and possibly even exacting training. She was a spy, and what that meant, as far as things like kissing went, he didn't know. At a guess it probably meant his own efforts weren't nearly as skillful that way. He tried however, and a few minutes later, When Tor found them he rolled his eyes and tapped Gerent on the shoulder, so that he could hand over a floating case amulet to him.
"This isn't everything Debbie asked for, but it will give her something to work with while I do up the rest, and collect things for her. There are some other people that need things, but I need time to come up with them. You said I had four days?"
He seemed to be ignoring the fact that Patty had just been doing something very bad with him, by his country way of thinking. It was strange, really, but Gerent didn't let that bother him. If Tim had a problem with it, well that could be bad. Tor though, well, if he wanted to be jealous he could at least wait for Gerent to flirt with his own wife. Otherwise it was probably poor form.
"That should be right. It might be five, but probably won't be less than that. I have to return the helpers and all that, when I'm done. I'll make the trip, regardless though, so, yes, four days."
Tor put his hand out, to shake, and then looked at Patty, his face a bit sad.
"Trice..." Then without explaining anything else, he turned and left. Tor was good looking, but his face had seemed almost ugly in whatever emotion had shown there. It was a thing that Gerent knew, of course, but it was hard to credit it as being on his adopted brother.
Envy.
Not, he didn't think, jealousy, but the plain desire to have something, knowing that he couldn't. Except that, if they were going to be honest, the only thing stopping him from being with Patty was his own feelings and concern for Tim. Which probably made him a better person than Gerent was. Not that it was a thing in doubt. He winced however, and then shook his head.
"I suppose Timon will hate me now?"
His friend shook her head.
"Over a kiss? No. Not even just sex. Or love. He wouldn't even hate Tor, if we, you know, were closer. It's a complicated thing, but not so much so for you. Just keep that in mind, later, when Tim is stealing away with Petra. Honestly, I think that if I hadn't needed help, she'd be marrying him about now. We can't get bogged down in what might have been. That never works out. I was engaged to Tor, but had to leave him, for politics. He married Alyssa, to save her from her father, who was a true monster. Then Tim ends up with me, to save me from Rico Gala, who was a monster of a different sort." She paused and looked around, but no one was near them. No one could hear anything. She leaned in anyway, her lips nearly to his ear. "I think that Timon had Rico killed. I can't explain how, not right now..."
It was an idea, even if he had to pay for the Assassins Guild to do it. Not understanding why he spoke at all, Gerent leaned in and kissed her on the cheek.
"No, he didn't do it, Patty. I can swear to that."
She gave him a baffled look that was probably a little slow on the uptake, but didn't ask him how he knew. She was a noble, and when it came to things like that, there were some questions that you learned not to ask, he didn't doubt.
Chapter six
Gerent decided to do something special for Ali, his sister-in-law, just as soon as he could come up with an idea. One that showed the breadth and depth of how he truly felt for her now. The little magical device she'd given him, in trade for some simple delivery work, was truly a miracle. For two days after he'd gotten the aid from Harmony for everyone, he didn't sleep.
That probably would have been the case no matter how he'd felt, but the device left him relatively clear headed and not feeling bad, or like he couldn't handle things. It was far superior to the dragging and yawning he would have done otherwise.
The situation was different around the world, depending on various factors. A lot of that was in how hard people had been hit in the attacks of the Ancients. Austra had been crippled, in a lot of ways for instance. When he landed, over the ocean so that his giant craft wouldn't scare anyone too much, it was clear that only about half of that entire continent had real buildings left. Gerent had seen it before anything had happened, so knew what it should have been like.
Petra had already gone back to her school, and her mother returned to Warden, for wedding planning duties. That portion of things left him wanting to gasp for air, but he didn't let himself, given how much work there was to be done.
In Austra everything took twice as long as he'd thought it would, because only officials were allowed to use motor vehicles on the roads, and flying was pretty much prohibited. Not just by law, which he might have broken if it had just been stuffiness causing him to slow down, but by their missile system. Some people had Timon shields there, left from a massive drop of them when a giant killer wave had been about to hit them. That meant they could fly, but if they went above about two hundred feet, it meant being shot down. Fatally, as it turned out, shield or not.
His big space craft might have been enough to withstand that kind of thing, but he honestly didn't want to test it, which meant spending half a day asking people to find the Prime Minister for him, as the common people on the street all kept looking at him like he was being a fool. After a while he shook his head, and simply tried to understand it all from their perspective.
"I think I understand. If you went to the Capital, and asked for the King to come out and play with you, it would take a while too." There was a smile to go with the words, as he stood on the largely destroyed docks. They were made of a strange and badly damaged smooth stone. It was pale and gray, with a soft yellow undertone to it. In places metal bars showed through. They had ridges. Why that was, he didn't know. Rather than ask, he got Erid to come over, from his Timon craft, which was just over the water, hovering, and make some food using one of the new units.
Gerent had to admit that it was impressive to look at. The thing was huge, to start with. The size of a large house at least. The shape was a rectangle, but it glowed in a soft blue, with a single line of silver all the way around it. There was a gap on either side, but it also had written directions all over the bottom part of it. Including an arrow that said "Material In Here" on one side, and "Food Here" on the other. The controls to make it work were all about four feet from the ground, so that even short people could reach the sigils, which all glowed in a darker blue.
He let Erid do the work, since he looked kind of official in his white outfit. A robe that was largely unadorned, but pristine. It was magic, so that last bit made sense. It could have been more decorated however. Gold metallic trim or something. It was allowed even, but Erid didn't go in for that kind of thing, actually taking the position of High Servant seriously. They used a water pump and the sea to provide the needed material, but explained that anything would work. Dirt, rocks, waste products, or even air.
Gerent looked at the huge thing and grinned at that one.
"Except that it takes a long time to do that. Water's pretty good. The magic will take it apart and put it back together on the other side, as whatever you select from the menu." That was an Austran word. They used that kind of selection screen a lot, so everyone listening understood the idea. You touched a word, and put stuff in one side and got your meal on the other.
Or, in this case, a ton of whatever you asked for, every few minutes.
He started with bread, since people could take it away and eat it out of hand. They clearly had gotten some food, but they all looked thin and needy, after a year of hard living. More than a few even refused to eat. At first he thought that it was because they wanted to save it. Take it home to share with their families, or friends, but one man, who looked to be about thirty and sun toasted to an even and dark color stepped forward, a full large loaf in his hand. He was staring at it the whole time, too.
"I... Don't have anything to pay you with." Then, slowly, he tired to hand it ba
ck to Erid, looking sad.
That could have been a real problem, Gerent knew. In Austra, by tradition, they didn't have the concept of charity. Or if they did it was a very different kind of thing than in Noram. There a man would turn down bread, even as he starved, shame filling him. Here it was turned down because it hadn't been earned. It was a subtle distinction, but one that was real enough. Erid pushed the bread back into his hand, and he took it, but Gerent smiled.
It was a forced thing, but not hard or too fake. There was also honor in not taking things without giving something back.
"It isn't free! Not past these first samples. If you want regular food from the devices, you have to help distribute it to everyone else in your land. Half an hour a day to earn your own fair portion. Not just you here, but everyone. If they can't work, due to illness, age or injury, then it's your job to make certain they get a full share each day anyway. This man..." He pointed at the fellow that had tried to give the bread back, and whispered. "Say, what's your name?"
"Scott Limic." He looked down at the ground for some reason.
"Commander Limic here will set that up. Everyone works though, if they can. Don't make him do all the work, but take his lead and get these devices in place. Commander Limic, can you afford the time to see to this? If not..." Well, then he didn't know what to do. They could leave Erid, but Gerent had sort of promised to get everyone from Harmony back in four days time.
"Yes! I can do that. I... I'm not working right now. Economic downturn. Do I get to draw a salary?"
Gerent blinked, and then shook his head a little.
"Nooo, but you don't have to work at it full time. Plus all the food you can eat. Here, let's go over it all, everyone gather around."
It still took them some time to get the idea of exchanging work directly for goods, but he had boxes of the new food units heading out in the back of large yellow Tam-craft not two hours later. Each one of the cases held about three thousand of the units, which had Limic nodding. He did some calculations on a scrap of paper and smiled, after a bit.
"Yes... Yes! We can set up manufacturing using these nano assemblers of yours and... Can we keep using those vehicles you brought? That will let us move food around, distribute it to shops. I... It's going to be hard, organizing people to do it in exchange for work. Really, it might be more efficient to have some of them do other things. Rebuilding and all that? Is that allowed, or do you want everyone on food?" This was said to Gerent, with Erid standing right next to the man, looking interested rather than annoyed.
A voice from behind them all answered however.
"Spreading that out might work best. We can pay for some of the delivery drivers out of public funds, for now, since this isn't a revenue generating program." The man that stood there was dressed in brown, and looked tired. Gray of hair, and slightly of face too, but not grim. No matter what had become etched on his face over the last year and a half, this man made himself smile. He was thin, like everyone else, if not as much so. A hand came out, to shake, which was a thing that Gerent knew, having been deep enough into the countryside that it was a common greeting. That meant he was able to reach down with only a bit of awkwardness and return the gesture properly. "Prime Minster John Foley. I appreciate your help here, sir. May I enquire as to who we owe for this... Miracle?"
There was a gesture at the device, which was making large amounts of various foods. Fruit at the moment, which was being loaded into boxes, cook pots and even large flat pieces of plastic that took several people to carry away. People did work and spread the word easily enough, about what was required as for payment. In fact, several signs were put up, to explain that part, as more people came from the surrounding area.
Gerent bowed a little and then gestured back at the craft. His bigger one was there over the ocean, about five feet above the water, glistening like a cream colored jewel in the bright sunlight.
"Queen Tiera, of Harmony. The Lunar base and the people there. Also, the High Servants of Noram." He tossed off a tiny bow to Erid, who bowed back, but didn't smile about his role in things. "I'm Gerent, and this man is Erid. Oh... Wait, I have some things for you, personally. Gifts..." He really did, even though it meant digging through some cases to find the right things. He pulled out ten of the new communication devices, which got the man to smile, when he realized what the basic idea was.
"Handhelds? Ones that don't need to be charged and that can connect to the Moon? Amazing. I should see if I can reach Queen Tiera then, and thank her for all this. It would be good to speak to our new Revered One, as well. Timon Baker? Have you any word of him? Is he safe? Denorian Brown instructed us to guard him, if we could, but he's been tucked away in space. The nano set that killed Brown will remain active for some time, and has a genetic key, so it will kill any of the Revered Ones that come to Earth. It was most... Rending. Losing our Revered One like that. He was old, but also vital. A constant in our lives. Do you think that Timon would speak to me?" There was a wistfulness to the words.
"Probably. We can check. If he isn't busy working. That involves a lot of trance states and other stuff. I don't know what. Chanting and scribbling arcane markings? I've never seen it done, to tell the truth. Tim told me it was actually more boring than that. Um... Let's see..." He pulled his own unit out, making sure he had the right one and connected with Tiera first, since she was the Queen, even if this man obviously had a puppy crush on Tim for some reason. Not that he wasn't good looking enough, but it seemed a little more than the older man just wanting to get him into bed. Hero worship, came to mind.
Then he passed the unit over and let the man speak for a while. He was good at it and said all the right things, meaning that Ger could see to the actual work. Until it got dark. Erid had taken his craft back for more loads of supplies several times, but eventually it was time to go. He bowed, and shook hands with Foley again.
"If you need me, just get in touch. Gerent Lairdgren. Feel free to bother Erid, too. He's a High Servant, so if people are in need, any people, it's his job to try and help them." It was the actual rule there, even if most of that type didn't seem to think so for some reason.
His High Servant friend however, young looking and fresh faced, bowed deeply.
"True. I have one of those units as well. Terrence Baker provided all of these."
Gerent winced, having forgotten to mention that part.
"Yes, he did. Taman Baker built the delivery vehicles for you. Timon did the large food units, and the healing amulets came from Tor. I think that Sam Builder did the multi-amulets... The ones with self heating cook pots and refrigerating ice boxes." There was more than that, but the Prime Minster started crying, for some reason.
"That's... truly a wonder. That they all thought of us, here. You gentlemen as well. We won't forget this. I promise you that."
It took a long time to get free, but they all bowed and shook hands and got the people that were helping back to the main ship, which then got steered toward Afrak.
That wasn't really true however. They tried to make a delivery to Tellerand first, but the people there ran at them, screaming, and throwing rocks. Their beliefs made magic out to be an evil thing, and it was night there still. After about half an hour of searching for a good spot, they set down near a forest on the southern side of the land, and unloaded the gear into a magical house that was made to look plain and unassuming. If people stole it, well, as long as it was used, it would be enough. He has a sneaking suspicion that they wouldn't even find it though. The whole thin looked pretty remote. That would require them coming back, later.
He moved on quickly, finding the main port of Afrak instead. It was untouched looking compared to poor Austra. Not that he could see much of it, except in the glow from his Tim-Craft, which they loaded with things again, since no one had built ports big enough for the space craft yet. They were over the water, so that no one would be killed by accident. There might have been a large field or meadow they could have hovered over, but if so he couldn
't find it in the night.
It took a while for anyone to come and meet them, but thankfully they had Kimi with them, when that happened. She was young, nearly black of skin, like the night, and short enough to pass for a commoner in Noram. She also spoke Afrak, being from there originally, and Standard, meaning she could take charge and communicate for them. Still, she wasn't a bigot, like some of the people there were, thinking that men were only a joke. She took his hand, and led him to the woman that seemed to be in charge. She had bright blue hair and orange eyes, made clear by the glow of his craft. There were no lights other than that. Except for what seemed to be glowing guards that each of the four women carried with them.
Kimi waved to them all, and made the needed introductions.
"I told them that you were Gerent the giant, of the Moon. The lady in the back offers twenty-five silk goats and seventy planted hectors for your hand in marriage. The one next to her prefers Erid the Servant, but has not as much to offer, being willing to only go to fifteen silk-goats, and fifty planted hectors. I think you can both do better. Should I try to drive the price up?"
It was a bit different than Gerent had expected, but nicer than being chased away with rocks. That had kind of reset his expectations for the day.
"I'm already engaged, myself. To, um, Petra Ward? You saw her on the ship? I don't know about Erid, however."
The boy, who was about eighteen or so, smiled and bowed to the woman that had made an offer for him. She looked to be in her late twenties or so. Not old or anything. Strange looking, in a slightly round faced and lean way, but not unattractive.
"I'm willing to entertain offers, if my duties as High Servant will be allowable? I took an oath." He shrugged a bit, looking suddenly shy, but the woman seemed pretty interested anyway, and kept trying to chatter about it with Kimi for a while. The rest of them just started to off load things, waiting to explain it all later. Gerent waved Erid back to the conversation when he started to work.