Crystal Core

by P. S. Power

  Then, very cleanly, she turned the device off.

  Chapter seven

  Vacation or not, it was very clear that one Willum Baker was going to be in charge of the change in Harmony’s power structure. Even to the extent that, hours later, his date with Sherri was mainly turned into a working meal. A thing he’d never even heard of before. It was a Moon custom, he was certain. They did a lot of strange things there.

  All of that had to do with writing things out, on a special pad that his Aunt Tiera had provided for him. For her part… Well, she went back to work, but kept contacting him on the handheld every hour or so. At least until he, and Sherri, released the documents that described the election process to the public.

  That part was simple enough, really. Everyone who lived on the Moon had the right to recommend any person they wanted for one of the nine council positions. If the person who was nominated decided to try for the job, they would be given tests. Mainly to ensure they were intelligent and mentally stable. It was going to mean coming up with that kind of examination, but Sherri figured that others might be better suited for that than Will was.

  Which wasn’t wrong. A bit telling, since the woman wasn’t going on about his lack of focus, which truly wasn’t that bad, or his dour demeanor. After all, he’d been faking his interest and pleasantness pretty hard there. It turned out that the woman with him had been one of the Ancients after all. Which, even though he knew it to be true by definition, being immortal himself, it had never occurred to him that he’d be thought of that way as well.

  Willum had never dated anyone before. Not really. There had been a few meals and he’d had relations with women, and even a few men, but nothing that he would have thought of as a specific date. Given everything, the writing through the whole meal and their shared making up of rules, he still hadn’t. It was a bit sad, he realized. Kind of like him walking around with a flying device and never trying it out. He got to see and do a lot of different things, thanks to his position, but most of them truly were work related. Even as he was supposed to be relaxing.

  Still, as soon as he pressed send on the special pad that he’d been given for the purpose, the documents went out to the people of Harmony directly. After that, it was, mainly going to be up to them to work things out.

  Pulling her own pad, Sherri seemed concerned.

  “I need to get back to the Farming station. I have a meeting in about ten minutes. This was very nice. I hope we can do it again?” The funny thing there was that the woman actually seemed to mean it.

  Willum nodded at her, and grinned, hoping it was charming enough. Knowing it was, really. It was a practiced thing, after all.

  “That would be wonderful. I bet that next time we won’t even have to work through the whole meal. I won’t bet much, though. It seems to be the way my life is going for the time being. Anyway, we should get together regularly, if you have the time for things like that in your schedule?” He had to try, even if it was a bit heavy handed of him, putting it that way. Otherwise he wasn’t going to actually make new friends, he knew.

  The slightly long faced, but pleasant woman, smiled at him. It was brilliant and shining. Her thoughts seemed to be going over the relationships she held, rather than trying to find a reason to reject him. That left him feeling better, even if he didn’t get what her plans were until she spoke.

  “I… I would like that, if you have the time? I’m seeing Queen Tiera as well and I know that she’s your close Aunt. We can keep that separate though, without it being a problem, can’t we?”

  “Being that none of us live on the same world? I think we can make that happen. Good. I’ll be in touch then, in about… I’d claim it was going to be about too soon for it to be fun or comfortable for you, but given my schedule it will probably have to be whenever I get back home. Here, I mean. This reality? I tend to be gone for about a week at a time, unless I’m working on building with Aunt Taman. She’s a bit of a slave driver.” He smiled about that part though. The woman was truly hard, when it came to building. Driven on a level that wasn’t obvious, until she had you under her power.

  Her standards were very high that way, and clearly, if you were going to be her student, you needed to be prepared to meet those as well as she was able to. Or else. What that would be… Well, it was normally a scolding and being made to do things over and over again, until you got it right.

  Then the next task would be made even harder.

  It worked, he had to admit, but it didn’t really instill a love of doing magic at all.

  Sherrilyn covered her mouth with a single hand, a thing that he generally associated with older women. Then, he’d grown up in the woods, so might have a slightly skewed perception of things like that. In fact, he knew that was the case, once he thought about it, calling up the memories of who he’d seen doing that. It was a noble thing, in the main, with some city women doing it as well, as an affectation to power. In Pine Creek, the women that had done it were older… Because they’d been there to spy on his family, at a guess.

  That left him feeling a bit annoyed, but it could have been a kinder thing than that. Being merely about watching them, to make certain they weren’t lacking in anything for instance. After all, Pine Creek had always gotten their share of goods coming in from the kingdom. The Timon food devices were kept near larger villages and in the cities, but a place as small as where he’d grown up could have been missed. It never was though.

  The restaurant they were at was the single finest such place he’d ever been in. Even in other realities, or, he realized, the palace of the king of Noram. That was a fine place, as well, but this was a bit more grand. To a level that was just pushing into overdone. There were hangings on the stone walls, with delicate embroidered patterns in them, but it was all done in shimmering silk. The chairs all had wonderfully soft cushions, with a focus stone base for strength, and the linen on the table was made of cloth that had the look of being both new and very tidy.

  There were hand carved statues of stone, and some few that were clearly made of light itself, in different locations. Most of those showing animals, but a few had people in them. If those were of specific individuals he couldn’t put a name to the faces. Which was for the best.

  Eating with people he knew, just staring at him blankly, would be off putting he didn’t doubt.

  There was a soft chuckle as the woman stood up, a thing he matched.

  “I really had a wonderful time. Yes? I think we should see each other, often, if you have the time. I know I seem busy, rushing off to a meeting, but that only happens about once a month in my world. Helping with the election here and meeting with the facilities manager in the same day is the busiest I’ve been in years.”

  The lady didn’t seem upset with that, which was nice to pick up from her. Otherwise he would have been certain that he’d ruined their date, by opening his fat mouth. Suggesting to Tiera that she not be the Queen any longer… He didn’t even know where that idea had come from. It was correct, or at least everyone had acted as if it was. The woman truly wasn’t allowed to be the ruler there, by the rules of the Ancients. More than that, she kind of seemed to want out of that specific job.

  It probably wasn’t laziness, either. After all, she’d been practicing fighting when he’d found her, even if no one else had shown up to do it with her, while they’d been there. The woman was good at it, too. He might not be a master of anything in particular, but that level of skill was, he had to figure, rare.

  As they walked to the front door, Sherri touched his arm. It was a light thing, that spoke to him of her not being truly certain of their relationship just yet. As if they might not be dating, in the way she intended things to go. Which… He had to read her closely then, which opened up a lot about her world, suddenly. It didn’t hit him hard, since she was, in general, a kind being. One who loved people, but constantly felt as if she wasn’t worthy of their attention.

  To her, it was both clear that they were dating now and tha
t the whole thing might be a ruse. A thing that Willum, the Ancients’ spy to other worlds, might be using as a way to do something else. Say, to pass messages, or perhaps even to investigate her, personally. Which didn’t make sense, but they, as far as she knew, only had one other spy who was one of them. Immortal. That being Patricia Baker.

  Which wasn’t totally true. William Smythe was probably at least as good at things like that as Willum was. The position might not be official, since he was the Military Councilor of Noram, but the man was going to be around for a good long time, unless he were killed. That was pretty much the definition that Sherri Bonner worked off of for who was an Ancient.

  So, hurrying, since she’d told him of her time limit, they moved to the transport hut. There, before she stepped inside, he leaned in to give her a kiss. The woman hadn’t been expecting that at all, but felt warm and happy over the move, if a bit surprised. She did it back well enough to show she meant it and wasn’t just trying to be polite about the whole thing.

  Then he smiled.

  “I’ll be in touch as I can? That sounds horrible… I’ll call you is almost always a brush off, isn’t it?” At least it had been in the IPB world, while watching movies. It seemed to translate though, since the lady gave him a look that said it had happened to her before. “That isn’t what I mean, of course. I’m just going from here to see some friends, and a half day over there is four here.”

  He stopped then, thinking about Cindy. They were dating as well. The odd thing there was that he knew, from the woman’s own mind, that she wasn’t going to have a problem with him having other women in his life. Or men. They’d even talked about that kind of thing before, if only lightly.

  The issue there was, he realized on a very deep level, within him. Still. Even after all his training and changes, Will couldn’t let go of the feeling that doing things like that was somehow wrong. Dirty or a thing to be hidden. It would have been a horror, if they were off in Pine Creek.

  Even at the IPB base though, many people had more than one lover. A few of them were pretty much dating everyone. Well, close enough that it would seem like that from the outside.

  She held his hand and drifted back into the red hut, letting go only at the last moment, then, with a smile, she reached forward and to the left, making a wall appear on the front of the thing. He could feel it working, the inner portion of the device suddenly connecting to another place, leaving the physical cargo inside there, on the far end when they separated again.

  As soon as that happened, the front that had come into being for the box, vanished again. It took two or three seconds, but no longer than that. Stepping inside, he nearly just entered the void, but shook his head. After all, he had visiting to do.

  It wasn’t relaxing so far, but it was actually considered a noble enough thing to do for a holiday. Go around and insist that others entertain you. Normally using their coin to make it happen. That idea got him to smile, as he stepped out of the box and went to the next place that made sense. The magic shop on Harmony. Which was clearly where he needed to be, since it was literally ten feet away from him at the moment.

  The stone door to the place was a nice blue color. Again, the paint job hadn’t been done correctly at all. It had unsightly streaks all over it. Places where the thick paint had run, gravity pulling it downward without concern for how it would look later. Normal gravity didn’t get a choice, but they had the magical kind there, all over the place. Really, they could have turned the unit off for a few hours and it would have stopped a lot of that from happening.

  That or covered the door with a magical seeming, instead.

  The process for that was kind of complex, but Willum thought he could set it up. The trick would be that the magic would need to be trained to find the walls to be colored, as well as the doors, cupboards and things like that. That meant tracking the moving parts of the whole thing which was more difficult than just doing the static and unmoving places. Then, one master unit could be used for the whole room. Easy. It wasn’t something that they had in the store there either. If it was, then he doubted all of Harmony would have been done in white stone all over the place like it was.

  There were some great light sculptures there, and even places where things were projected to look like they were inside of the wall, moving and at times talking to you. Even with that, no one could just make their walls turn brown though. Or look like polished stone, either. That should all be doable enough.

  Inside the place, working at one of the displays, was a girl who seemed to be about twelve or so. Possibly thirteen, or even a very young adult. She was small and pale, with black hair. Her face wasn’t lovely, compared to some, but it was a good serviceable kind of thing. Enough so that she probably got regular attention from the boys in her class at school.

  Turning, since the door had made noise, the kid smiled at him and stood up.

  “May I help you find anything today, sir?” The words were in Standard, even though she wore the cross of Tellerand around her neck.

  Having met her before, if not well enough to give her a name, he didn’t bother trying to speak to her in that language. He knew it, but unless she’d been studying hard, she didn’t. What she was, he realized, was several inches taller than at their last meeting. Which, to her point of view had probably been close to two years before. It had been very nearly nine months for him, give or take.

  The distortion bothered him, but he didn’t let that stop him from smiling. They were practically old friends after all.

  “Perhaps? I’m looking for some relatives of mine. Timon Baker and Patricia? I don’t suppose they’ve finally learned to keep you informed about what’s going on yet, have they?”

  The girl went wide eyed, then nodded.

  “Not even the smallest bit. It’s always secret this and shop girls don’t count that… Though Timon is in the back. He mentioned working on a small project which would take him some hours. Four, I think? That… He just started, I don’t know if interrupting him… Is it an emergency?” She seemed actually concerned about that part of things. As if her real job were part guard, as well as organizer of magical implements. The shop gave everything away, so theft really wasn’t a thing there. On all of Harmony, really.

  He snorted then, meaning it.

  “Bah. No, I’m just going around and visiting people for fun. I’m on holiday, so… I could come back, I guess. Or just go and sit someplace, to wait?” He looked at the girl, who smiled when he did it, then, after a few seconds looked away shyly. Thinking he was flirting with her. At least she was hoping that was the case.

  It wasn’t, though that wasn’t due to there being anything wrong with her at all. Clearly, she was going places in life. She already had pretty good contacts as a starting point. From there, knowing Tim and Patricia, she could work her way into as high as a position as most could dream of, with only a bit of work and consistent action.

  “There’s a small sitting room in the back? I could get you something to eat, or drink…” Again, she felt uncertain, but not enough to deny him something like that. It was more of a family space, at a guess. Which she wasn’t a member of to her way of thinking. That didn’t stop her though, since she waved for him to follow her, smiling.

  The room itself had a food unit, but even eating as much as he did, day to day, he’d just had a full meal. There was also a box of blank tiles sitting there. All of it was real, and made of stone. The box carved of real rock, with rough edges in a few places. It was oddly decorative, even if half unfinished. Clearly the work had been done with a cutter. That was pretty telling, since it took a specialized device to core out the center of something solid like that. Otherwise you had to cut the outside off and affix it back together.

  The young lady looked at him, her eyes lingering longer than she figured was truly polite. On his face, but she glanced down at the rest of him, including at his crotch. She didn’t stay on that location though, so he ignored what it probably meant. A lot of people had
been interested in him since he’d been changed. It wasn’t really about him. Just his looks. A surface thing that wasn’t his doing.

  “Can I use some of these tiles, do you think? They’re all blank…”

  “Oh, sure. That’s really just a decoration, I think. We have to keep things somewhere. I guess it looks nice enough.” She didn’t really think so at all, but it was clear that she meant the part about him using the things, if he wanted. Also, that she figured he was going to build something with them. Not magical building, but like a small house, on the top of the table.

  It was the kind of thing that people did to pass the time, after all. That or listen to music on their hand-held. He picked that up from the young lady, intrigued by the idea of idly passing time that way. Just playing and having fun for a while. Like a real person or something.

  Instead, he just sat there and worked on his idea for the wall paint and decorations, as soon as she left. It was a bit trickier than he’d figured, but not a masterwork or anything insane like that. He went deep enough that the work time wouldn’t be all that long. Then, since he was just waiting anyway, he made a point of adding in a few other things to the device. Making it so the field could spread over a larger area as well. That meant it had to be clean and strong.

  When he opened his eyes, probably about three hours later, there was a man standing in front of him. Willum was sitting cross legged on the floor, out of the way, meaning that Timon was towering above him. At a distance thankfully, so it wasn’t all that oppressive.

  Will managed to speak first, sounding a bit too calm.

  “Hello. I’ve come to visit. Making the rounds, I think it’s called?” There was a small pile of tiles on his lap. Each glowing with swirls of colors that changed and warped independently. They were all mainly blue, red and green at the moment, but could do pretty much any color, and would eventually.