by P. S. Power
It got a chuckle from the table at any rate, even though he'd heard that before. From Gerent.
He looked around and had to try to hold in a snort.
"Well, that was easy. In that case I could use a bunch of magical palaces, to set up at the different ports, and lights. All of them probably, since at least the Capital port is really dark at night. Then I just need to set everything up. You know the bawdy house and entertainers? Everything else at the same time. Inns and all that." He smiled about it, but no one even cracked a smile.
He really was just trying to be funny about it. The topic changed though, to that of King's week. That was the weeklong celebration of King Richard's birthday.
Alphonse, sitting directly next to him, touched his arm gently. It was flirtatious, and while he wasn't into men, he didn't slap it away either. Everyone knew that nobles would have sex with anything that didn't move too fast. It was just their way. The trick would be in making sure he was faster than the person next to him, that was all. In this case, possibly in a literal fashion. The man was too big to fight with.
"Do you think that you'll be ready to host our return party at your port? If we can, going in on the second day of King's week might work well, I imagine. Father has been anxious about us returning after all. The last rebellion might be over, but his Heir refusing to go home for ten years has made some people wonder if I ever will. We should do something large enough to make a splash. One of your big parties, Tor?"
The tall wizard rubbed at his face, and nodded, looking at the giant red haired man.
"I think we can afford that. Even being gone, and with the troubles there, the coin has been building up. I have some events that we can set up. Other things, too. Dareg, would it be all right... I know that you'll be busy, but would you meet with a few people for us? Connie, she's..." He stopped and made a face, then sighed and looked at Alphonse, who still had his hand on Dare's arm. Then his father kept talking, his voice slightly strained around the edges. "Constance is the Queen, but also your sister. Half-sister, but that counts. You should meet her, and get her to help set things up. You need to know that. About being related. Collette can help organize things. They've done it before, and are good at it."
That name meant nothing to him, but that was fine with him. The news that the Queen of Noram was supposed to be his sister shook him a bit. Gerent had kind of mentioned the idea, but honestly it had slid right by him at the time. Like it was a joke or a lark.
After a moment, he shook his head physically, trying to clear it.
"So, wait." He pointed, with one finger, which was kind of rude, right at Tor. Then moved to each person as he named them. "Father, Step-mother, Aunt," twisting he gestured with his whole hand at the giant Prince, "Nephew? Niece?" That last was for Princess Karina, who waved at him from down that table.
That got Patricia to cover her mouth with a hand and nod at him.
"Oooh. Right. I'm your niece too then, and aunt. On the good side, neither one is biologically close, so we can still date. Tiera can too, come to that. Really, you could marry anyone in your family on the Baker side. It might be a little awkward with Terry or Tenet, but we have magic for that now." She was glib. Enough so that a few people glared at her. Not, he noticed, Queen Tiera.
She just nodded.
"That's not an unreal consideration, Trice. We probably don't have to dump that on him at the first meeting though. Now, Dareg, are you planning to appoint administrators for the ports? We can give you some backing, in coin and goods. Magic and that. It might work best to hire people to run things for you, if you plan to take over all of them. You should also consider schooling. Building is a rewarding career, I hear. I've always liked maths better, but it's something to think about? I had to leave school early, but it wasn't the worst thing in the world for me, at least once it was done. If not that, you might consider a tour with Space Fleet. You won't advance there however. You're too attractive." She spread her hands and went silent, since the food was coming. There was a cart for it, since no one person could have carried it all alone, otherwise.
When his was placed in front of him, she went on.
"We'll back what you want. If you want to just sit back and rest, we can set that up, too. You just strike me as the kind that would bristle at that. It's a family trait, so we all understand it."
Then it was his turn to speak again. Which was hardly fair. After all, how was he supposed to know what to do with his life? Especially if he were going to be given actual options like that? The only saving grace at the moment was that he didn't know if any of it was real.
"I want to set up the ports first. That makes sense, getting people to run them like that. If we can get the ships in daily, that will help. Right now there's hardly any reason for anyone to even go there. Can we..." He looked at Tor and tried not to shy away. The man just looked back, his eyes tight at the edges, like he was waiting to be called names. That, or be yelled at. It wasn't going to happen though. He seemed all right so far. "Is there any way to get a little coin to hire some workers? I can do the work myself, but it sounds like you all want to come back in a few days, if it works out? In that case, it would be easier if-" he was cut off, with a smile and a nod.
"Get with Collette. She's at my place with Dorgal. They... Functionally aren't related to you at all. I'm sure you'll be glad to hear that. After all, it has to seem like everyone in the world is a relative suddenly. She can get you some gold to use for that. Collette Sorvee."
They ate then, as if the world had been settled for the time being. Thankfully no one insisted that he stay with them for days or anything. He had a mission now, after all. It was, he realized, a gift, not just a job. Tim and Patricia had set it up so he could escape, and done it so first thing, in a way that everyone there knew about it.
Tiera even helped him out, by setting up a jump ship to take him back to the port. There was no scheduled trip, but amazingly when the Queen of the world they were on asked for it to happen, it did. That truly wasn't some kind of big mystery or surprise, but it was interesting to see it happen. She'd gotten on her communications device, and asked one person to see if it might be arranged. Ten minutes later there were three ships vying for the honor of taking him to the spaceport.
"Which means I should get back. I'll need that thing? For the testing?" It was probably a little mean of him, but Dare almost hoped that the thing wouldn't work. Not yet. That way he could control when he saw most of these people. It was sort of overwhelming, having this many individuals right there with him. Because of him.
People left him then, about half of them, including Tiera, Tor, and Timon just ran off. It was a bit shocking, to tell the truth. His new step-mother, who looked far too young for that position, like the rest of them, stayed though, and walked him to the dock. Alone, for some reason.
"Do you want to live here? You could go to school, or work. Even do the spaceport thing? That sounds important. Get Tiera to give you a jump ship, or get one from Timon, and you can go there every day. Tor and I have been living out in the Martian Circle, actually. There are three space stations out there. It isn't nice really, but the work is important. We're making Mars more like Earth. The goal is to allow people to live there, eventually. Not like this, but for real." She waved her hands a little bit, trying to grasp how to say it, but it had actually been in his school lessons.
It was a funny thing, but people eventually living on a different word was considered interesting and important.
"I'd like to go see it, but for now... I have a little house? Taman gave it to me. At the Capital spaceport. Well, on me right now, so that no one can steal it. I was thinking of living there for now? I..." He stopped talking, and just walked for a while. When they were most of the way to the dock he started again. "Look. I really appreciate that you're all trying hard. I am too. I mean, I want Tor to like me. I... My whole life he was there, as this big... Thing, looming over my existence. A lie, I thought, or a sign that my mother was crazy. I mean
, the Wizard Tor is my papa? Do you know how many times I was beaten up for claiming that when I was little?" It was twice, since he was good at learning things, but that was too much, and had impacted him.
The tall, rather shapely, blonde woman, who had a nice heart shaped face, with rosy cheeks, looked at the floor and nodded slowly. Her blue and black outfit was in a very strange style, but had the look of magical clothing. Too nice, and perfect. His own were like that too, so he wasn't going to judge. Besides, having special things like that was good, not something to scorn.
When she spoke, her voice was very quiet. Gentle, and like she was near tears.
"I understand. You were alone. I lived on the streets, when I was young. My father... Well, it wasn't good. Thankfully he died. I... Tor, your father, he saved me. He married me, so that my father the Count couldn't hurt me anymore. This was before he met your mother. I... It was a good thing. Him being with her. If that hadn't happened you wouldn't be here now. I can't replace her. Your mother. I..." She didn't say anymore, not until they got to the door that should lead to the tunnel that took him to the ship. If it was even in yet.
Several people came running up, each carrying a small bag. It was Tiera, Timon and Tor. Well, Tor was actually floating along, since the other two were running so fast that it didn't seem real. Easily three times faster than most would have managed. Maybe more. Honestly, while Dare did all right speed wise, he wasn't sure he could have done that. Then, Tor wasn't either, so it could be that he'd just missed out on that kind of thing by having the wrong father.
He'd live. Regardless, Tor was there first, and not out of breath, which the others were when they padded up a few seconds later.
Holding out a canvas sack, the giant man smiled.
"Lights and houses, like you asked for. Mainly for the Capital port. There are some other things, pumps for water, some earth moving devices and concentrators for making focus stone, so you can build some things that will last. That's going to be important in the long run. Magic is useful, but temporary. We'll want ports three hundred years from now."
Timon looked at his brother, but smiled. It was charming, compared to the rest of them. Alyssa still looked sad, which made him feel bad for her. It was clear she meant well.
His uncle winked at him.
"Jump ships. For Space Fleet. I put one in for you as well, but you'll need lessons. It isn't that hard, but wiping out a city or two while you learn might be a little much to ask people to take." The bag was handed to him.
The biggest thing was that he wasn't out of breath anymore. None of them were. If he'd sprinted that hard, comparatively, he would have been sitting on the floor, wheezing still. That probably had to do with getting regular exercise and being in shape.
Tiera shrugged and handed him a much smaller bag of things.
"Some of my latest food units. For the restaurants? I put in ten of them. You'll want to watch them, or they'll walk away. They even lost one from the King's palace, in Noram. It turned out to be a Countess that did it, which caused no end of trouble. They nearly had a war over it."
He nodded, seeing that one. The things were famous after all. Just one Tiera food unit would probably be worth more than he could imagine. The little bag in his hand had ten of them. Which was fine enough, given that the rest of what he had was probably ten times more valuable. More than that. No one had any of the things that he did now.
Nodding again, he bowed.
"All right. Well, now that I'm rich, I'll just be getting on. I did mention the stealing thing?" Which he had, but he shook his head, negating the whole thing as a joke, which it was. If these people handed stuff like this out because he asked, they might just keep doing it. In that case the best plan was to do his part in things then.
"Oh! That testing device?"
Timon nodded to him, and passed over a white disk, that had a glowing black void in the center of it. How nothing could glow, he didn't know, but it did. Really, it was pretty close to incredible.
"Nice. I get it, so that when it works, eventually, you can use it as jewelry? Or I can, unless you want it back? I mean, the first bit, with the pretty red lights should be interesting, too."
Instead of making a face, Timon coughed.
"Fair enough. Get with me after you check it out?"
"Yeah. It will be a few hours. Longer maybe." He didn't want to over promise.
The trip back was fast though, only taking about twenty minutes or so. Most of that was landing, on the far end. They didn't even give him a chair for it. That meant he had to sit on the floor in order to put all the sacks of magic into his pack. There was no way he was leaving it anyplace unguarded while he checked to see if the Ancients could come back.
So, that meant it was all getting a trip around the world with him.
That part took a little while to set up, because Dare had to wait for the ship to lift off first. No one else was coming in, so he took off from inside the landing zone, which was probably going to be against the rules after a lot of craft were coming in each day. It would make a mess, like he'd thought about before. Still, it was his rule to break. Which was funny, because he pretty much only followed the laws when he might get caught.
Well, he wasn't a killer or rapist, but most other things were just a game to him.
He didn't have to turn the amulet on, since it just worked all the time, or so he thought. All he had to do was fly around. Just to make sure, he tapped it on, but nothing changed. Then he got to try flying around the world, which he had to do pretty low to the ground. That was where people lived, so it made sense. It took hours to do. Mainly because he kept stopping to look at different things. Natural wonders, and how pretty the ocean was from above.
Dareg could see just traveling around and looking at things for fun. Still, eventually he managed to get all the way around, then did a much faster trip higher up, which took about twenty minutes. Landing at the Capital spaceport, he pulled out his communications device immediately, even before he set his pod house back up.
When Tim came on, Dare smiled.
"If this thing is working, and I didn't turn it off by tapping it, then you're clear here. It didn't do anything at all the whole time. I put some miles in, so I think you're safe almost anyplace now."
"That's great news. Thanks. All right, I guess you can expect us in a few days? Oh, Tor wants you to know that he's sending a package for Collette. It should be there in a few hours. The events for the party? We should probably do something up for Austra, if you don't mind? After that first one however. I need to get with some people here about things. This changes a lot. Are you set up on your end?"
"I guess? I'll work something out. Talk to you later." Then he tapped the thing off, and looked around the the place. There wasn't anyone else there, unless they were hiding in the one little building.
The thing there was that if he put buildings up, it might attract the tax collector. Possibly not however. If he was clever. The first thing he did was go and turn the river off, then moved all the plates out by about three hundred feet. He moved fast, flying the whole time between where he needed to land and work. Then got the darned thing flowing again, before anyone could see it happening.
If he did it right, no one would notice that he'd just increased the size of the port all the way around. After that he dug into the sacks of things he had and found that he had nearly fifty little houses provided by Tor. They had a little red house on the tiles anyway.
When he set the first one up, expecting a tiny cabin, or something a bit like the pod house, he nearly screamed. It wasn't the tiny thing he expected, but a place that was clearly three times that size. Touching the wall, like he had in the red tube on the Moon, he caused the thing to grow. Huge. At first his mind ran toward trying to make a palace complex, but then he shrank the whole thing down, making it two stories high, with a purple roof on it. Then, over time, he forced it to be a crescent shape. Following the bend of the river behind it.
This one,
he decided, would be the main inn. The free one. Next to that was a similar building, that he made to have a gold roof. It was part of his clever plan. If it all looked like it belonged to the King, then people might just forget to tax it. He could have used all the houses, and one of them was made a lot larger, but really he didn't need that many of them. They were huge after all.
The insides took longer to put together, because, he understood fairly quickly, he didn't really have a sense of style or taste for that kind of thing. They all ended up looking a bit like the inside of Marissa's, since that was the nicest place he'd ever been. That meant draped silk wall hangings, and shining stone furnishings. He managed soft cushions and some bright, cheery colors, but that was about it.
The bathhouse took a fifth building, but when he hooked the water up he found that it could heat itself. The whole thing had one big room, lots of wooden looking dividers and huge tubs for each group. Showers too, since that was a thing, he thought.
Sure enough, when he finally came out, there was a little Tam-car coming toward the port, between the rivers. It was all blue, so probably not his aunt Tamerlane. A sense of dread filled him as the thing pulled up, and a tall, attractive woman he didn't know got out. Not because she was good looking either. She was dressed in pink work clothing, which he didn't understand, even though he was back in his loose blue working robes. His boots were a dusty black though, since the metallic sheen had reflected too much sun back at his face while he worked.
The lady smiled at him, and waved.
"Hello! I was told that I had a package coming in here? I'm Collette Sorvee. Tor sent me?"
"Oh! Not the tax collector then. Good. I have no coin. Timon called and said something like that, a ship should be here soon? I was just setting up some buildings. They aren't permanent, but it turns out I'm not very good at it. The first and fourth ones are inns. The big one is supposed to be the good one, and the other is the one for people to stay in for free. They look the same inside though. I need to get the lights up too. Tomorrow probably, since I'm going to lose the daylight soon. The bathhouse seems about right at least. Which... You probably don't care about at all. Sorry." He bowed, realizing he was being a bore. "Dareg Canton. I'm the manager here."