by P. S. Power
Then, a moment later, it turned back on, a voice coming over the thing. Over all of them in the shop, which was loud. From the hallway as well, he didn't doubt. In fact, everyone who had one of the units would probably be getting that kind of thing. He was. In his right hand pocket, where he kept that kind of thing if he had a tunic on, the same voice played. It was familiar, but not the man who had just spoken.
It was instead, his Aunt. Taman. That was a little surprising, to be honest.
“Alert! Alert! There has been an attack in Harmony. Alien technology was used in an attempt to kill an individual. There was no death. Repeat, no one has been killed. We need all personnel to go to duty stations. Report to stations. Thank you.” Then the thing repeated in several languages. Oddly enough, even though it was the last in line, English was included in that.
Elsa blinked at that, but nodded, finally working out exactly what had been said.
As soon as the devices went dark, leaving a moment of blessed silence, Patricia tapped another sigil. This time the one for Tiera. The Queen of the place. It was sensible enough, Will guessed.
The tall woman practically growled.
“What? This is an emergency.”
Patricia didn’t even bother acting annoyed at the reception.
“I have information on it. Willum Baker was attacked by… we think it was a shape changer of some kind. It could be different technology than that. Super speed or time manipulation was used. He’s unharmed, his shield defeating the weapon used, but the attacker escaped, using some kind of line walking ability. This seems to be the second attack on him like this. I… Can you update us on that, Will?”
“Yes.” He covered the old man, and what had happened in Eve Benson’s world. Then he took a slow breath. He was very nearly calm again already. It was useful at times, though being on alert was probably a good idea at the moment. That meant making up for a lack of emotions on the matter by simply using focus. The kind that he’d learned from being in the void and the pain stones.
“I have no clue how she, or he, knew that I’d be coming here. I didn’t broadcast the idea or anything. We just came to make sure Elsa was outfitted. She’s a line walker from a different reality. We met up… Less than a day ago.” He didn't mean it in a suspicious way at all. After all, he’d been with her the whole time since then, or nearly so.
Even Demon Zack thought she was all right.
A being who, on their very first meeting, had made a real point of telling him not to trust him. Or any Greater Demon, as far as that went. The man’s mentor had also made that same point. Which might mean nothing at the moment. It could also mean that Elsa, his new friend, wasn’t that at all.
She’d absorbed his life’s data like one of those beings, after all. Then she’d claimed it had faded, but there was no way to check that out at the moment. The whole thing with the baked goods was suspicious as well. Worse, if someone else were setting her up, she might be exactly what she seemed at the moment. A person who Zack had suggested he marry, since he needed to find someone there in his own world.
Even being a good bit more intelligent than most, there were too many variables to understand without more information at the moment. The trick then would be for him not to let the girl touch him again, until he had a chance to find out a bit more.
The very idea was annoying to him. On a level that almost made him want to just quit and not bother with the stupid plan of being a spy or whatever he really was. Not that it would help if shape shifting killers, or pranksters, given what had actually been happening so far, had it out for him already. That part didn't really make much sense though.
Willum had been to a lot of other worlds, taking many packages around, but the actual usefulness of that had been pretty small so far. He’d located the source of one attack and possibly gotten leads on a few worlds that might, or might not, be in with the enemy. What he’d done was pretty close to being invisible so far and might have even been as useful, if not more, to the other side. After all, in the main, he just took letters, packages and things from place to place. Without actually checking what was being taken around at all.
For all he knew, they’d been using him to pass battle plans and who knew what all else, for weeks. He would have been if it were him on the other side. Then, possibly not, if he were suspect at all.
Going over all of that took him a few seconds, but no more than that. Before anyone could react at all, he was able to shrug, thinking about what needed to be done that day. Also how to set up a trap, possibly.
“I need to get with Lancaster in the IPB world. Alice Orange asked for a recommendation as to who to put in charge of her new ship guards. He’s a bit outside Space Fleet, but should have skills that will cross over for that. It won’t hurt to ask him, anyway. That should at least get me out of the way for a bit, if anyone is actually trying for me in particular and this isn’t just happenstance. Other than just doing something like that, just moving around… I don’t know.”
Patricia looked at him closely for a bit, then nodded.
“That sounds about right for now. It doesn’t make a lot of sense going after you though, does it?”
Tiera, on the communications device, just snorted.
“Doesn’t it? If a shape changer could take his place, if they can travel through the worlds anyway, then they could go almost anywhere. Just pretending to take packages around, without anyone being the wiser.”
That… Actually, made some sense, Will had to admit.
“I guess. Well, hopefully this will blow over? I don’t really need constant attacks, if it’s all the same. I know, I don’t get a choice that way, but…” He was about to make a joke, when several people, all in black armor, came in through the front door.
That got him to smirk. The first time he’d been there that had happened as well. The big difference was that there were more of them this time and they didn’t slam in looking to kill him first thing. Instead the four large people just stopped in place, pointing weapons around the trashed room, with the tallest man turning to look at Patricia directly.
When he spoke, as unlikely as it seemed, the man proved to be Alphonse. The Heir to all of Noram. That explained why he was over a foot and a half taller than anyone else there. It didn’t give a clue to why he was there at all in the first place, however.
“Trice… Are you all right? Sorry it took so long to get here. Tim called me up…” It all seemed a bit disjointed, but there was a nod from the woman.
“We’re all good here. Shaken up a bit, but not hurt really. Though whatever Ba and I were hit with left me with a huge headache. Other than that, we’re fine. Will took care of the attacker.” There was a wave toward him.
Then, as everyone got out of the armor, in a wave of gray smoke, with magical clothing being put on their nude forms, he shook his head. The shortest one there was a woman. One with blonde hair and very green eyes. He didn’t recognize her at all. Timon was familiar enough, thankfully. So was the other person there. After a fashion. Karina Cordes. The Ancient of Mars.
“If by taken care of, we mean that whatever the attack was the shield took care of? Then the attacker ran away into the void too fast for me to follow. The whole thing, from start to finish took… I don’t know, less than two seconds? I tried to follow but even moving full speed I couldn’t. Nearly, I think, but…” There had been speaking, which was probably a buzz to anyone other than him at the time.
Willum didn’t mention it at the moment, since Timon, who was the second tallest person in the room at the moment, moved forward and hugged his wife.
“We need to get this place fixed up then. Do we have a plan in place here yet, Will?” The man turned to look at him suddenly, his head tilting slightly, to show there was a real question involved.
“Just going off to a different world for a bit. Maybe more than that. I need to find a safe place for Elsa here. Um, this is Elsa, she’s from a different reality. She speaks English? Some Standard, but I don�
�t know how much of this she can follow yet.” That part was true, he realized.
He was just starting to fear that she might be able to track it all. That she’d picked up the language perfectly on first contact with him, taking it from his mind.
It was a thing that he stopped himself from even thinking. Doing it so quickly that no one would be able to know that it had ever happened unless they’d been reading his mind at that moment. Even then, they’d need to be both attentive and good in order to work out what had started to form there. If the girl wasn’t what she seemed, she might have gotten it anyway. In that case, well, then it was going to be a problem.
There might be one anyway, since he had been growing slightly fond of the new woman already.
Now that was being ruined, because of potential intrigue. A thing that she might well not be doing at all. Either way, she was, subtly, being ruined for him. The best thing to do there was, he decided, to find her a good place to be. Away from him.
“Elsa should be kept safe. Being close to me might not be the best place right now. Um… She has a job, with one of the Zacks, working at his travel operation. That should be safe enough, if the problem is me. Sorry. I was planning on keeping you at my house here, but…” He’d slipped into English, which a lot of the people there knew, he thought.
Patricia translated anyway, so they all had it down.
The smallest person, the blonde woman, nodded.
“You could live out on the Martian Circle? It’s a space station and not that comfortable all the time, but should be safe that way. You’ve never even been there, have you Countier Lairdgren?”
From the feeling coming off of her, she was immortal. Given her idea as to where to put the woman, that probably meant she could only be one person.
“No, Ancient Debri. That might work. She can go almost anywhere, I think. Though it might work best to have her near a node? Is there one on Mars, do you think? We can use the transport huts though, so… That should work. If you have one of those nearby, you always have node access.”
It was the simple truth, but he didn’t know how Elsa was going to react to the idea. Almost anything she did was probably fair enough, however. It was going to be about the tone of things then, Willum figured. After all, the girl had no reason to move to Mars in particular. Even going to his place was about having something nice, not being with him in particular. By that same token, she might just want to stick with the only person that she knew in the entire world there. Even if she didn’t have any alternative motive at all.
It was frustrating, thinking bad things about his new friend like that. The girl was nice. Friendly and cute enough to get his attention, without it being an obvious trap. In short, Elsa was nearly perfect that way. Everything about her fit with being both a trick and her original story. So far.
Looking at her, he went over the whole idea again, in English, which got her to shrug.
“That works, I guess. Or I can go back home? I do have my own place. It’s not as nice as this one, but as long as I can keep myself fed and get to the new job on time, it will be good, right?”
That was pretty close to true and made more sense in a way. The woman could go anywhere in reality she wanted, more or less. So living at her beach cottage was fine, really.
Nodding, Willum forced a smile.
“Um… You know, if we get you a place like my tower, and a food unit… maybe a few other things?” He didn't want to speak about her smaller place poorly, since she’d built it herself, but the girl wasn’t standing on pride it seemed, she moved in and tried to hug him.
That was a bit dicey, given her powers. Moving back he glanced at the others, and looked strained.
“Um… People?” It wasn’t the rule there in any way. In the country, back in Pine Creek, that was true enough, but not there just outside the Capital. There, in that place, he was the one in the wrong. Alphonse glared at him and looked less than perfectly pleased at the move, but Sara nodded, instantly.
“I keep forgetting that you’re from such a rural area. We do that differently here. Though I guess we need to be aware of the hardships this kind of thing would place on you. Especially on the heels of an attack.” It was a bit placating and slightly patronizing, but it worked.
Alphonse relaxed a bit, and looked away, clearly feeling still that Willum was spurning a perfectly good woman, right there in front of them. A line walker, as well, not just some girl out of nowhere.
Next to him, taking a deep breath, Tim Baker cleared his throat.
“That’s a real thing, though. Especially if you’re thinking marriage? The rules in Two Bends or Pine Creek are rather hard that way. If you plan to take her home to meet your parents, you’ll need to have a clear record that way.” There was a bit of teasing to the words, the nice looking man smiling at him, waiting.
Willum made himself blush, pushing blood into his face by tightening his middle. Then he pretended he wasn’t doing that at all.
“Um… It was recommended to me? Sorry, I… We just met, Elsa and I. I don’t want to scare her away.” He tried to whisper the words as if she wasn’t standing right there, even though it was clear that she really was. Everyone else seemed to think that was a good enough explanation, though the Prince was still a bit less than perfectly pleased.
He kept his mouth shut on the topic anyway.
Sara, interestingly, pulled a silver chain out from under her shirt. It had loads of magic on it, on individual tiles. Pulling them off, working carefully and shuffling things around deftly, the Ancient passed things over to Elsa. Very casually. As if they were old friends.
“Here you go. A house, food units, a maker… That’s like a food unit, but for anything you need that isn’t food. An extra heating and cooling unit to wear around, for comfort…” She was acting as if it wasn’t enough, but the truth was that very few people on Earth could have given that kind of thing away at that moment. No one would have been able to buy it. It was millions of golds worth of things, at a guess.
Will nodded as the magics were passed over, not knowing how to tell Elsa about what she needed to do, which was bow toward Sara, going low. So he did it, which got the girl to do the very same thing, matching him perfectly. She might not be from there, but he’d mentioned how to bow, in passing. It was enough for everyone and even got Alphonse to relax finally. After all, bowing together meant that they were accepting the gift as a couple.
Sure, that meant he was also agreeing to sleep with, or even date, Sara, but that could be done, if it was needed. Even if Elsa was just some foreign girl that he was dating now, or his friend. The amount of things that had just been passed over was enough to make that kind of thing worth doing, for both of them.
His dark haired friend didn’t stand up until he did, after Sara bowed at them. She was smiling, but Elsa spoke. In English.
“Thank you! This is really nice of you. Everyone here is so great. I… can come back? I don’t really know a lot of people. I mean, I’ve avoided that, since it was… You know, dangerous? Um…”
Prince Alphonse bowed, going about a quarter of the way down. Elsa did it back, perfectly, placing her right arm over her middle and going halfway down. Lower than he had, but not being servile.
“We’d love to have you. This is only about your personal safety, I assure you. Perhaps we could arrange a meal, or a party invitation?” He didn’t suggest anything specific, but looked at Will rather closely, as if he might be attempting to get out of that kind of thing.
It wasn’t true. Not even if the girl was one of the enemy. That would be hard to take but was probably just him being paranoid. There were questions about the woman, but the truth was that people from another reality might very well have that going on, day to day. Things were different in other places.
So he smiled, and did his own bowing.
“That’s a really good idea, Prince Alphonse! We can do that in… Call it three days? Or… No, give me two weeks? I need to get real servants in and pa
ss out invitations. We can hold it at my place, if that’s all right? Not that the palace isn’t grand. I just get beaten slightly less often if I don’t go there.” Not that the attacks had been that bad so far.
The tall red-head winced and actually hunched over a good bit. In shame. It wasn’t about bowing at all.
“Ah… Yes. That. Sorry there. The Royal Guard can be a bit… Zealous. I think that we’d love for it to be there. Are you going to be planning that with Benjamin?” There was a strange expression on his face, which was still and slightly flat.
Willum had to read what Alphonse was thinking, focusing hard to get the basic idea. Ben was a child, if a smart one. Still, the boy had been making real plans for the embassy. It was clear to everyone else that Will might not want a tiny boy to be in charge of things, even having made the offer. It was the kind of thing that people did on occasion to curry favor with nobility. Especially the Heir to the throne of Noram.
The Prince wasn’t even thinking of it as a bad thing, though he worried that Will might be using Ben as a way to punish the adult for his failures, allowing those attacks on several occasions. Giving the boy an honor, then taking it away, to punish his father and the King for allowing what had transpired before. As if Willum Baker actually cared about things like that at all.
The idea got him to nod, however.
“That’s… not bad, actually. He’s a bit young right now, but in ten years, or twenty, someone will need to have control over the embassy project. We move at greater speed than a lot of the other worlds as well, so to them that will be no more than a year or two. Or three, but the point remains, if we want someone consistent to be in place, a younger person is a good place to start.” That or an immortal, but Ben already had the position.
There was a small bow, from the Prince, and a slightly narrowed eye from Tim. The man, who was the Ancient of his own land, that being Austra, smiled after only a moment.