by P. S. Power
It came down in buckets, the air almost turning a blue-gray as the wet and cold slapped them hard. Not a stinging rain, but not something he'd want to be camping out in either.
Back inside Tor took a clothes drying amulet and had everyone go to what was called the damp room. A drab stone space with a dull black metal drain in the middle of the floor. He crowded them all in and hit the sigil, just holding the device in his hand. In about ten seconds the water splashed from their clothing. Half of it worked into other people, but by moving around carefully they were all dry in six repetitions, which took about a minute. It would have worked better if the space was larger, but this was better than being wet for hours. It wasn't until after they all left the room, the guards, Holly and her servants all amazed, the others less so, that Tor realized he could have sent people in a few at a time and saved a couple of repetitions. Plus it would have looked more effective, each person needing only one cycle to get dry. Well oops.
The wind howled already, but Tor figured that would pass in about an hour, like the storms at home, when they came. Holly grinned at him and winked.
“Hardly. These can last up to ten hours and have winds of over one-eighty. We'll be fine in here, but as soon as it breaks we'll need to get on search and rescue most likely. The alarm didn't sound, but that doesn't mean much I'm afraid, something like this will take a toll no matter the warning level. We're cooking food up ahead of time now and moving everyone into the main dwelling for the night at least. We might as well all get comfortable. Traditionally we sit around and tell stories to ease people’s minds, but I guess we better deal with this little legal situation first… as much as I'd rather avoid it.” Her voice went very sour, making the boy, who was dressed in pretty ragged short pants and a shirt that had once been white or at least light tan but now was closer to gray, cringe away from her as if she was threatening a beating.
Of course a thrashing was the least of his worries.
Tor only spoke once, when asked, since he'd actually witnessed the crime. Mentioning only exactly what he saw. It was enough to have the kid convicted. Normally it wouldn't even be a matter of justice being called into question, everyone agreed. Even Swarley told the Countess, quite politely, as he blushed and looked down that he already knew he was done for.
“It was wrong. I know that. I knew it when I done it, so no use claiming it was a mistake now. I'd call for me head too, fair enough. Still, at least I won't drown out in the storm, which I probably wouldn't have lived through anyway and I won't have to worry about being hungry anymore or wonder if I can convince some sailor that bunging my back hole is just as good as getting a girl whore in town at half the price. Just as well. I'm ready, I guess. Freaking world’s been out to get me for too long, I don't care anymore rightly.” He brushed his over long hair out of the way, a light brown mop that fell past his shoulders in the back.
Normally they could just let him swing the next day or so and call it good.
But if Swarley swung for filching one little device of Tor's, that made his letting Holly off a joke, didn't it? Tor just crossed his arms and stared at her, hard, a blank look on his face, making her look away before speaking. At least she got the idea and didn't try to kill the kid right then. Instead she decided to let him keep the light and repay Tor and the shop keepers with work, which was not to take longer than ten years or less than five. It also couldn't happen in Printer. Basically an exile. Looking directly at the boy she spoke sternly as she explained.
“Theft at this level is a serious crime Mr. Jones. If this happened a month ago, you'd be dead right now. It is only through the grace of Master Tor, who is far kinder than I think you know, that your life is being spared. You'll work at whatever task we see fit, until such time that the value of the light you took, fair market value, is repaid in full. Now we have to decide what to actually do with you that won't seem too much like a reward.”
Tor thought they should just put him in school, but everyone else figured that would be a little too pleasurable and might lead to others following suit on the chance of the same “punishment”. Tor didn't know, a poor boy without resources at Lairdgren was in for a hard time, but apparently it was the appearance of it being unpleasant that they were looking for. Trice smiled wickedly.
“Oohh! I know. Tor owns a whorehouse. Ursala and Madam Clarissa have been talking about adding in some boy whores, so Swarley would fit. The clients are all military, and nice enough, so you won't be abused or anything, probably have to work in the kitchens or building factory part time, because most of the men prefer women. But… well, when I was there we got paid for kitchen work too at least. I don't know if that still stands though. It's your house Tor…”
What? It wasn't his, even though everyone else was nodding at him like he controlled things there. Finally Tor looked at the boy and shrugged.
“No.” He said simply, shaking his head, “We'll teach him to fly and he can run errands for the palace or the military, that or get him a job with Two Bends fast delivery. I'll outfit him and if he runs off, well, that would be insanely stupid. Making him slave for the Troll of Galasia should be enough to keep people happy right? I won't even cut his hand off. I promise.” Tor turned to the boy and smiled winningly. “The last person I had a real problem with lost a hand over it. Don't make me do that again. Please.”
It wasn't much of a threat, but Tor didn't want the kid to think he could just steal and go unpunished either. Then he'd never learn, would he?
Swarley glanced at Trice.
“You ma'am?” Fear dripped from his voice and he shrunk into himself.
A little evil she chuckled, shook her head and then told the absolute truth, though in a way that sounded horrible, even to Tor.
“No, this was something different, a fight with assassins that tried to kill a bunch of people. No, Tor crippled the minister of the military because the man was angry that Tor had beaten up about six hundred soldiers. At once.” She said it in her slightly teasing fashion, but Kolb corrected her anyway, being a stickler for accuracy when it came to fighting.
“Closer to five hundred. Just slightly over, and he actually only engaged slightly over four hundred at any one time. A few wisely stood out of the way I believe. Not that I want to promote cowardice, but given how outmatched they were, they should have all run. It doesn’t serve to stand to battle when you can’t win. At least if it isn’t aiding someone else at the time.” That's all he said. There was no inflection in the tone or smile to soften it. Just a statement of a fact.
Tor winced, just a little. It made him sound like a bully or something. Swarley swallowed and asked if that whorehouse position was still open, getting a laugh from everyone. Except Tor. He didn't laugh at all, worried about what to do with the extra burden of the boy.
Holly stood and bowed to Tor.
“No, you are to serve as Master Builder Tor has said, running messages for the palace or military and doing whatever else you're told, until such time that your efforts match the full value of what was stolen. You may keep the light, which I suggest you sell to the highest bidder, so that your debt will be repaid faster. It is so ruled. Swarley Jones, for the next five years at least, you belong to Master Tor.” Her face went pale. “Tor… try not to be too good to him. At least not here where anyone can see. We need to make an example of him or everyone will be doing it.”
Like they'd made of her? Tor wanted to say it, but he didn't. She got it, her face said so, if not her words, and his rubbing it in wouldn't help at all. So what could he do? Well for the time being… Treat him like a Squire? Keep him running errands non-stop? The boy would probably just run off, but if he didn't… well, in a year or so maybe sooner, they could change his name and put him in Lairdgren far away from the city of Printer. Then Tor had an idea.
“Kolb… Would you see to his training for me? I’ll pay for it. Say a hundred and four gold per year?” It was exactly what the members of the secret army made. Tor didn’t have to hint further, the
large man just nodding after a few seconds.
“That could work. I’ll test him first and set him to running those errands when he’s not training. Then put him with the Two Bends Delivery service, if that plays out. Useful skill, knowing where places are. I might have a couple other kids that would take well to that work, if there are positions available.”
Tor smiled and nodded a bit. That would work and no one would think that Kolb would be “Too nice” would they? Holly went blank, but didn’t say anything about his paying Kolb more than a year of school would cost as an apprentice fee. She didn’t even mention it was more than the light would cost.
When Tor finalized the arrangements with the weapons master, Kyle, the head guard, started crying. Not loud and nothing that everyone saw in the dim light of the room. Tor noticed it, but decided to ignore it, though he wondered if he'd done something wrong. Holly just told him it was up to him. She didn't say anything more. She didn’t seem happy though.
That done, the wind still picking up everyone waited for a while, since it was hours until dinner would normally be served. It was boring, since no one wanted to waste their stories until after the meal, which made sense to him. Did he have any stories to tell?
Not really, he was kind of boring really, Tor knew. All building and work most of the time. As the wind began to howl and the roof shudder and moan a bit under the whistling sound, thunder parting the night after the sudden jolt that preceded it, Tor realized that the feeling of the field was familiar… Like when the Larval assassin had attacked him.
“Hey, does anyone know, is lightning electricity?” This got a laugh from half the people in the room. Swarley didn't laugh at him, but the poor kid was probably wondering how big his member was, and if he liked to use lubricant or not. Since it was a moot point, and the kid would learn that soon on his own, Tor didn't bother with the idea. A year ago he hadn't even known that would be physically possible. The idea left him feeling a little ill. But different places, different customs.
It turned out that almost everyone in the room knew a lot more about electrics than he did, even though they weren't used in Noram as a rule. Unless produced by magic. That got Tor's attention. He knew other places did things differently, but he hadn't heard about rules about it. Trice and Petra went into depth about the basics of electricity even describing how it moved, positive and negative poles… Half of what they said just went over his head for the time being, but closing his eyes he felt the lightning and tracked it, then tried to feel the field behind it. It was hard at first, until he realized it was like light in a way.
Hesitating he spoke slowly, hoping everyone wouldn't laugh this time.
“So… if directed to do so, it can go into the ground and even wants to, sort of?” Opening his eyes he looked around, and found that Petra was nodding at least. She seemed to know the most about the subject for some reason.
Closing his eyes to consider the situation it became clear that it wasn't even something hard to do. Like light, it was a field at the base level, so as long as he gave it clear instructions, it should do what he said. Duh. As lighting crashed in that moment, Tor wondered if banging his head into the table would make him any dumber. No, that probably couldn't happen, being the moron that he already was. It was all so obvious, once someone pointed it out to him. He could direct light, and had, the sigils on the new pieces for instance. Even creating it for a time. So, if he formed a ball in the air that told electricity to go inward instead of casting out or into the ground and filled it with a general field of the stuff…
It took half an hour of deep concentration, which wasn't bad for a brand new field at all. It came into being clearly with a small pop that got everyone’s attention. Tor opened his eyes but kept his focus as pure as possible. Simple enough now. No harder than making a cutter in the air at least. He was deep, but could see by the light of the blue glow in front of him. It wasn't as bright as a light would be, and only about as big around as his own head. Everyone scurried back from it suddenly, even though it only looked like a pale glow.
“Tor! What is that?” Trice asked, trying to keep her voice gentle, even though it sounded a little scared. He smiled.
“Lightning. Contained lightning. I can shield against it now. I figured it out. Thanks to your help everyone.” Closing his eyes he let the energy inside the control field dissipate first, then let the rest of it go. He was, somehow, learning. Get rid of the dangerous stuff first. Right. Now he could add it to his shield and protect against light too. Maybe next time Smythe attacked him he wouldn't be left blind. Everyone sat around staring.
“What? I know I don't have any interesting stories, so I made some lightning. That's cool, right? I mean it’s a real novelty and everything.” He tried to sound humorous about it, but knew that wasn't his real reason for doing it. No, he'd been trying to move past boredom. That was the real point. Probably not a good one, but there it was. Tor knew that people did a lot of things to try and not be bored.
Swarley still looked scared, even more so now than before. Even to the point of looking pale. Then again, maybe he was just hungry? Tor had been on short rations himself, so tried to work the idea of an early meal around. Everyone ignored him on the point, so he let it go, hoping it hadn't been rude.
Still, his stomach was growling and he knew that the larger people ate more than he did when they could, so they had to be hungry too. To keep from being too bored he asked what kind of things they might need for search and rescue the next day. This got a shrug and a list of things he didn't have anything ready for.
Water he could do, sure. He had pumps that cleared water ready to go in his trunk, and could make cisterns out of stone or soil. Food? Why would they even need it? Didn't people already have food? Damage to buildings? Well, he could make digging equipment he supposed, and concentrators, if that would do. Temporary housing for the displaced? That one he was all over.
Petra smiled at him and shrugged.
“Healing too, medicine and first aid. There will be injured. Trees collapse on roofs, that sort of thing, buildings collapse. I once saw a man that was run clear through with a palm tree.” She held up her right hand to stop anyone from speaking. “I know it's not possible, I still saw it. That was gruesome.”
Through dinner, which they ate by lamp light for some reason Tor didn't get, he planned what he needed to do. He needed more working materials, but stone would work. Could he go out and get some safely? Really he didn't think so, not from the sound of the wind out there and the pounding and crashing coming from the beach. Shield or not he could still drown. Maybe he could collect something around the place there… They needed more of nearly everything, as well as something to help people heal… God. He didn't have enough time. Did he? He knew that fields could be built faster if he went deep enough, but if he went too deep it was hard to come back.
The one time he'd tried it he almost hadn't come back at all. But… If he set the time to come back as being triggered by the field being strong enough? It was risky. Still, if he could master that, he'd be on his way to being a real master, not just some guy that people said that about to be polite to.
The wind freaked out then and got really loud, so much that people were yelling to be heard. Not at the top of their lungs maybe, but close enough. Tor had an idea, but needed at least a template piece to do the initial work on. It could be anything, since he doubted he could really check the sigils, the indicator marks he used to remind himself what to do next. Not working as deeply as he intended too. This time he had to form the idea and commit to it fully.
It was a risk all around, but, well, he healed, right? All the time. Could he figure out what that felt like and just accelerate it? Everyone should do it about the same way really, shouldn't they? And this wouldn't be specific, just push a body to do more in the moment, so that the person could survive long term.
Right. If it didn't kill them instantly, that would work.
Well, could he just remind a person as to
what their individual pattern was supposed to be using a limited feedback window? Tor really didn't know for certain. For one thing he was pretty sure he'd just made that term up. The idea was solid though, he just needed some help…
When dinner was over he looked around at the material available. He could work as the baseline for a male, being healthy enough right now, recovered from having been poisoned, and not damaged overly, bad mood aside. That part could be left out anyway for now, mood and all that. It would be a good idea for later though. Trice was injured, and pretty badly he realized when he touched her field from across the room, so was Varley… Tor blushed.
Well, that wasn't exactly sick was it?
Last he heard, being pregnant was normal enough. God, well, that told him a lot didn't it? She wasn't forbidden from having sex, but should have at least not let herself get pregnant. Oh well, he could deal with that later. Or not. Whatever. Emergency situation now, he had to remind himself of that, feeling distracted. It wasn't just a few weeks pregnant either, he didn't think, about three months? Had that been why she hadn't wanted to go swimming? Afraid it would show? That came later though, didn't it? When she was pregnant, his mother never showed till nearly five months or so. Then in Two Bends everyone stayed pretty well clothed all the time, so maybe it was a real issue?
Petra was fine, healthy and strong. Holly was still ill, the poison having taken a huge toll on her system. Tor could relate. Walking over to Petra he asked if she would meet him in his room later.
“In fact, could you sleep with me tonight?” It sounded innocent to his ears when he said it, but almost immediately he blushed. It could be taken the wrong way. She nodded though and smiled.
“I'll meet you there. In about half an hour?”