by P. S. Power
The large Count, Ward, a true giant, ran off then. Not scurrying, or walking with rapid decorum. The man sprinted toward the kitchen, moving faster than Willum would have guessed he could. He wasn’t young, looking to be in his forties or so. Chances were he was older than that, even, given the timing of things that Will had heard about in the past.
Alyssa took him by the arm, as if he hadn’t walked in under his own power and tried to lead him to one of the sofas. He smiled at her, then winked.
“I’m thin right now, but not sickly or weak. I feel… fine, actually. It’s strange. Due to the changes made, I guess.”
The woman nodded, and still held his arm as if he were going to fall down. She didn't seem apologetic about it, either.
“Sit. Let’s see… We have food coming. I… What do you need?”
“Um, real clothing? I was given these to wear, but they don’t belong to me. A friend of mine made sure I wasn’t walking around nude. That’s a slightly bigger deal there than it is in the city here. I pretty much lost everything I had with me. Which is a shame, since I had a whole bunch of craft that I’d made. Not all of them, thankfully. My communications device, clothing, shield, healing amulet, the cleaning gear… Really, I need to get off to Harmony and rob the store there. Or… well, the last time I was there things got a bit messy. I might not be welcome there. If only to save the shop and the people from having to clean things up again.” It was an actual point, even if not a real one.
When he went places, if there was a real threat coming at him, then he was responsible for the safety of others. At least if he knew about the possible danger. No one was responsible for the actions of others, but at the same point, once he understood that there was a risk, if he had the power to influence it, then that part of things was on him. Even if he didn't like, enjoy or want the burden.
It was still there.
Another man walked over. This one was young looking, and had on a robe, of all things. A thing that Willum had seen before. It was a bit like what the High Servants wore, being white and gold, though the cut was different. Not that the thing wasn’t magical in nature.
“William Smythe. Military Councilor. We’ve met, I believe? I think I understand your issue there. Would it serve if I went in your place, to get those replacement items for you? I could go to Mars for it, which will, I hope keep the people there safe. So far, in this war, no one has targeted myself. Not yet. It should prevent harm to innocent people.”
Smiling, Will nodded.
“That sounds great, actually. I’m not sure what those others are thinking at all. I mean, some fellow that takes messages around hardly needs to be hunted or killed, does he? If they have that big of an issue, they might… I don’t know, come and talk to me about it? I’ve been focusing on my building, of late. That and helping my friends in their own worlds. It’s not exactly… I don’t know.”
If they thought he was a spy, then, well, they were kind of correct. Then it made sense to kill him. Though, so far, that didn’t seem to have been the point. There had been real enough attacks, but none of them really had the feeling of anything other than testing. Doing that didn’t really make a lot of sense to him though.
So far, the thing that had stopped them had been a simple shield. A thing that any line walker could get, if they wanted to head to the Moon. One of the attacks had taken place in a spot where they could have walked in and be given the same kind of thing for testing. Instead they used a device that simply hadn’t worked at all.
It would have taken a while, perhaps, to get one of the things and then test it to find the weaknesses, but the things had them. One of the issues was that someone could have just turned the field off from the outside. That didn’t even really take magic. Anyone that had the focus to walk into a node would have had the concentration needed to turn off a shield, even from a distance.
At least if they’d learned to do it the way that Willum had. That one was interesting, he realized. Brian Yi traveled to other worlds, but it didn't take even a fraction of the focus that Willum needed to use in order to do the same thing. The feeling from Elsa had been similar. It was hard for her to hold the node portal open, but it just operated in a different way.
It could be that none of the attackers had come up with the idea yet. Which probably meant they were either stupid, which didn't seem likely, or that he needed to be ready for that one on the next attack. The idea actually got him to smile. Mainly due to the idea that he’d already figured out a way around that. It would require making his own shields, but he had a trick that might work to keep him safer. Not completely safe, but it was better than nothing.
He just had to tie two shields together, then build in a trigger, so if one was turned off from the outside, the other would turn on instantly. Overlapping so that there were no gaps. That didn't leave him a way to turn it off, but it would protect him pretty well. There was going to be work needed on the topic.
Something happened then, which was mainly that, of the six people in the room, all of whom were being attentive to him, it wasn’t hard to pick up that all of them knew he was a spy. Each and every one of them. Count and Countess Ward made sense, being in on his training like they were.
Smythe, the young man who felt older than the Count that came back in and handed him a tray heaping with meats and cheeses, with a bit of bread on the side, was right in the thick as well. It practically poured off of him. Alyssa had that as well, but the remaining two were a bit more surprising that way.
Alice Orange had stayed away, not even bothering to come near him. Probably because she didn't recognize him at all. The man next to her he didn't recognize at first, until he got that it was his cousin Clemance with a disguise on.
That got him to nod.
“Right, a disguise amulet as well. I nearly forgot that one. I need to grow some hair.”
That he looked good enough to bother Orange without eyebrows was heartening.
Smyth waved at him, and then left the room. Calling out as he did it.
“I should be back before you finish your meal, Countier Lairdgren. One moment.”
The food was good, if a bit peppery. Sweet as well, which was the glaze on the meat. The cheeses were familiar enough, if all white. Two of them were creamy, though hard enough to eat with his fingers. The next fifteen minutes was all about him pushing food into his face. Rudely, no doubt. No one examined him too carefully. Though Alyssa followed him when he got up and walked into the kitchen. That was to use the sink there to wash up. There was no toweling there, but they did have a section of wall that blew out a powerful blast of warm air for the purpose.
His stomach was full for the time being, even if it wasn’t causing him pain at the moment. As far as he knew, food was treated pretty normally by his body, even after the alterations made. So to regain the forty or fifty pounds that he’d lost, he was going to have to eat a lot more than normal for several months. Maybe half a year.
It was annoying, but he still didn’t have a clever way to have gotten rid of the bomb-man that wouldn’t have had a similar or worse effect. Well, letting Brian Yi sacrifice his life doing it. The man might have even made it out in time, if he’d done it right. They hadn’t had any way of knowing that at the time. Cin had tried to save her friend, which simply made sense.
Not that she’d have wanted him to go and do what he had in Brian’s place. Her goal, almost certainly, had been to let people know what was going on, so they understood why the city was missing later that night.
The woman was his friend, and a person that he admired in a sense. She was also a bit wicked, inside. The idea of sending her friends to die wasn’t in her though. No, she was probably protecting herself from backlash over not having called out that something was going on. That was really the whole story there. Instead, he’d gone in and gotten injured.
It was his job there. The IPB protected America from Infected threats. He’d been wearing their uniform, so had a duty to do exactly that if he coul
d. Which, annoying thinness or not, he’d pulled off pretty nicely.
There was no feeling of pride over that. A bit of sadness over the man he’d killed to make it work. Then, the guy was dead anyway. Even if he were simple and not to blame for what had been done. It was probably better that Willum had done it by driving them through the top of the building they were in, rather than having to do it later, on purpose. The man had to die, but executing him would have been just as wrong as using him to murder others.
People had made small talk around him, but there were no real entertainments in the house yet. Really, he needed a window viewer, to let people watch shows and plays on the wall. That would be cheaper than hiring people to perform all the time. He could get some cards for games, as well as other small entertainments. Even in Pine Creek they did things like that, in the evenings when the work was done for the day.
His tall Aunt, Alyssa, put a hand on his back. It was kindness, not flirting or anything like that.
“I feel like I should be doing more for you. What though? Do you need anything? Gold? Tor asked me to come and look into the issues here. With the attacks on you. Also, a little bird told me that you might be thinking of getting married? Elsa, from another world… That has a nice ring to it. Is she nice?”
Willum tilted his head back and forth a few times.
“Yes? There are some tiny things that might be in the way, but… Honestly, she’d make a fine enough wife. Her Standard is a bit weak so far, but she seems eager enough to learn. She might be one of the enemy, so there’s that, but then, she probably isn’t really. I think I might be jumping at shadows. Seeing attacks at every turn, when it’s really only once a week or so?” He grinned, his mouth feeling tight and a bit funny as he did it. Angry, most likely.
The lady winced, which was fake, then took a breath, feeling at a loss, as far as what to say then. She wasn’t certain that Willum hadn’t been being sarcastic about Elsa.
So Will made himself seem more sincere.
“She really has been kind enough. I mean that part. There is so much that I don’t know, that I’m starting to doubt myself in all ways now. On the good side, people lived today, that might not if I hadn’t been there. That’s something to cling to.” The statement meant that he was feeling that way, that he needed to cling to something in the moment to keep his head above water. Still, it could be worse.
He was, after all, out of the water now. It didn’t mean he wasn’t still going under.
There was a commotion from the front, so he jogged back, expecting Smythe to have returned. That was true, actually. There was also not just one, but two Ysidril with him. Ambassador Neesa, who he counted as a friend and High Leader of Mars, Hess. The latter four armed being had his mouth tightly closed as he saw Will.
He waved, getting one back, but lacked the clothing needed to put on his pine tree emblem at the moment. It was hard to tell, since he’d never seen it happen before, but he thought that the High Leader might just be annoyed with him. Smythe moved to him directly, and started handing things over. Enough magic that a humble person wouldn’t have wanted for anything after receiving it.
Turning his back, he changed right there, in the same room everyone else was in. No one cared, except Countess Ward, who was rather concerned that he was as thin as he was. It was so much that he was a bit ugly for it at the moment. Alice Orange got what was going on after he put on a brown outfit with his sign on it for the Ysidril, then changed his face to his disguise for her. He could do the features without looking in a mirror, having practiced that part of things. Making hair appear was going to take more effort.
She moved over then, smiling.
“There you are, Baker. I was worried that you’d been stolen away and replaced with an imp.”
Hess froze in place, then reached out with two arms, holding him by his. It would have been a great way to attack, using the other two three fingered hands to pull, punch or poke him. Thankfully the Ysidril were totally peaceful. So this, which was a little strange, was outside of what would normally be done.
“Are you… Starving? I have food you can eat. We can make certain of that!”
Count Ward formed a large blue circle on his middle, as he moved in and patted Hess on the shoulder.
“He was in a battle earlier, to save thousands of lives. Possibly millions. He took incredible damage and the healing used up his reserves. My understanding is that he’s fine now, other than needing to recover some weight?” It was a question, and the large man truly still felt concerned over the idea.
“Exactly that. Now, I… Is something wrong? I can go and…” Really, what he was supposed to do he didn't know, other than to learn more of the alien language.
There was a strange stillness from the High Leader.
“I had come to lecture you about those you allowed to colonize my world. Those who hold to their strange and illogical thoughts about the universe. Perhaps some other time would be better for that.”
Neesa bounced in place, then shook her head, which was for the other people in the room.
“Is it a bad thing, truly? They hold to a different way, but many of our friends do that. I think that Mars might be a good place for them. Notice, they started learning Standard the first day? That sort has barely learned Fleet in thousands of years. They make great effort to meet with new people now and are not holding to their own spaces, away from everyone.”
Hess waved his lower left hand, which, Willum understood to mean he was rolling his eyes.
“They also spend their time bothering people about their ways and beliefs. We should not place our ways on these others. Especially things built on fiction and untruths.”
Willum wrinkled his nose then.
“Don’t be a bigot, High Leader Hess. They have a religion, but that doesn’t make them evil or anything. Most humans have something like that. At least the ones from here. We should strive to be tolerant and try to understand that kind of person. That’s all.”
The High Leader tilted to the right, both hands slightly out. It was a new move, but seemed to be a show of annoyance with him. Probably over the fact that Will was lecturing him, when the being had come to do that himself.
“Perhaps. I will seek to investigate that. Now, you mentioned harm had come to others? We should go and seek to aid them. Is there need for that?”
Willum shook his head.
“Not needed. The attack, the emergency, has been handled and those who were harmed… Well, they either died already or were me, actually. I’m fine, really, so…”
That got nodding from Neesa, which Hess followed along with.
“Very good then. I should be back to my duty then, for my planet. We should meet and discuss things soon, if allowed, Green and Brown Shrubbery. Will Pine Tree. Several scientists wish to visit here, but have not known how to get in touch with you to put that together. They contact me, but I cannot do the work of one such as you. An Ancient, I think it is called? I asked the one for Mars, Karina, but she suggested that it was either your or Dareg Canton’s duty. With preference for you, since Dareg has studies to see to at this moment?”
That, in an odd way, made some sense. It was kind of tempting to tell the being that he wasn’t really doing that kind of work, but the only successful trip for scientists to Earth had been a thing that he and Count Ward had put together. So it made a lot of sense that they’d be associated with that kind of thing.
“Um… I’ll need a list of names to contact. I can… I guess I can go and see to that in the morning? Right now… Well, I don’t even have a communications device.” Not that his name had been in it before anyway, the idea had been that he’d be unreachable that way, but it kind of defeated the idea of having the thing. William Smythe reached into a blue velvet sack, one that was big enough to hold six large loaves of bread. Pulling out a milky white piece of stone, he started to tap on it, holding the thing awkwardly in one large hand, the bag held in the same hand.
“Willum Baker?
Do you wish to be listed as anything else? Countier Lairdgren, or by some other title?”
He nearly blinked, getting the idea, but shook his head.
“No, that should be fine. I’m sure no one will want to get in touch with me who doesn’t know my name.”
That got Alyssa to cover her mouth, hiding the smile that had come into place there.
“Oh, I think they might. I get five or six connections per week from people asking what I’m wearing at the moment. It’s a game of sorts, I think. Torrance gets that as well.”
Countess Ward coughed.
“I don’t get that kind of thing. Then I’m listed as Countess Maria Ward. One of those things probably explains it. I haven’t always managed being popular, I fear.”
She meant it, and was a bit wry about it, rather than angry.
Still, Hess just nodded at Willum.
“I shall pass that around? So that people know not to look for you as Green and Brown Shrubbery?”
Apparently that wasn’t going to work, since Smythe kept hitting sigils, then passed the device to Neesa, who did her own tapping that way. Finally it was passed over to him. The words… Were almost a paragraph of things about him.
He read it off, feeling silly for a moment.
“Willum Baker, Pine Tree Emblem… Then something in what I think is Fleet? Um…” He didn't know the language well, but it was the human language from the Forten, so he could get a bit of it, if imperfectly. “Will Pine Tree. Green and Brown Shrubbery… The Other Earth Male?”
Ambassador Neesa nodded. Doing that in Noram fashion for them.
“Yes. That way we will all know who to connect to for such things. I do not know if anyone will feel free to do so, but if they have need of you and can find a device, it will allow them to speak to a contact here.” It made sense, when spoken that way.
Apparently others thought so as well, since the device in his hand buzzed just about the time the Ysidril girl stopped speaking.