against his own family, not without explaining it to him first at least. And the Dean? Well, the guy knew poisons, but Tor wouldn't fall for that, and his shield wouldn't let them through. Maybe he was a brilliant fighter or something in his own right… Kolb?
Yeah, the man would kill him if ordered too. That just made sense, he was a Knight after all. He had to follow the King’s orders without question. Normally not a problem, Richard not being unreasonable. Why then? What was this all about?
Wensa stepped forward slowly, hands raised above her head, properly raised, not ready to fight.
“It wasn't me. I was with several other instructors at the time of the attack. They've already vouched for me.”
“Right. Like you couldn't just order them to lie for you? I think you'll have to do better than that. I was there after all. I probably have your boot mark on my back from the kick that sent me down the stairs….”
Rolph walked around him slowly and asked him to lift up his shirt. Right, he'd made it so that no one else could do that, to prevent clothing from being used as a weapon against the shield wearer. It was a hard field addition to pull off and as far as he knew, totally unique to his newer work. He lifted it awkwardly, his left arm bruised and tightening up painfully; he pointed the force lance and readied himself to fight just in case. When Tor got his right arm behind him, pulling up the hem for Rolph to take a look, Wensa rushed him.
Of course she did.
Just like he'd suspected she would, trying to finish what she'd done earlier.
He triggered the force lance in his left hand, which blasted the older woman back into the wall, breaking the door frame next to it and after a few seconds, punching her through the wall itself. On the ground outside she stood up, not even affected by the blast it seemed. He hit her again, which took her off the stone walkway and kept pointing the device at her, which drove her into the ground with a sickening thud. She rolled when she hit the ground, stood up and turned to run away. He swept the weapon over her. How was this happening? It took him a second to figure it out. She had a shield on. How had she gotten one? Had she stolen it?
Rolph jumped back. “Crap! Run, get away… Were losing him!” Everyone else standing behind him reeled. Had Wensa managed to attack them somehow? Some kind of poison or a special mind effecting military field? Well, it wasn't getting through the shield he wore, so he jogged to the stairs and walked down them slowly. His leg just wasn't up to running them yet. Especially going down.
Tor kept hitting Wensa with the weapon over the banister and then as he traveled towards her. At least it was an old shield, not one of the new ones that would stop a weapon like this. Or not one that he'd made. He'd assumed it was one of his, but as a Royal Guard, she probably had one on all the time, right? Still, he wouldn't be able to do anything to really stop her, not with a shield like this one on. Unless…
He'd built a field that passed through the shield, two of them in fact and others that could work inside of a shielded space. What if he did something similar now?
The woman tried to get away, rolling again, with agility that would have put an acrobat to shame. Tor kept her off balance the whole time, hitting her without stopping. What should he try first? A smile crossed his face. It was a long shot, but it could work…
He built a small field, one that simply mimicked natural sun light, it wasn't a strong thing, barely enough to flash for a few seconds before it faded, but he built it right in front of her eyes. In the dark courtyard that should blind her for a minute or so. She didn't cry out, so Tor didn't know if it worked or not, but she seemed to have a harder time getting up as he closed with her, at least a little, so maybe it had a bit?
Once close enough Tor held the lance on her and held her pined to the ground with enough force that the woman probably couldn't breathe, shield or not.
“Why do you keep trying to kill me?” He asked his voice sounding strange and gravely, like he'd been screaming, which he knew for a fact he hadn't. “Why?”
No answer came. Of course not. She wasn't afraid of him after all. What could some baker’s son do to her anyway? He might make her uncomfortable in the moment, but that wouldn't get him any answers, she'd just wait and come back for him later.
“Look, tell me why you keep trying to kill me now or…”
It took way too long for real dramatic effect, but much like he had with the blip of light, he created an explosive field not three feet from her head. The sound had to rock her, even if nothing from it touched at all through whatever shield she wore.
“I can build one of those inside a shield space you know. How about the middle of your head? I don't think even a rock head like you would survive that. Now, tell me why.” He smiled and stepped closer to her, until only about ten feet of space sat between them. “Now!”
The voice he heard next was soft and wasn't Wensa's at all.
“Hey… Tor, what's going on?” It was Trice, standing beside him, with about half a dozen people behind her. Rolph and the people from the room. Sara and Count Thomson had come out too. Good, maybe they could help?
“Wensa tried to kill me, then faked up an alibi. We were all talking about it, peacefully even, and she attacked me again. In front of Rolph, Kolb and the Dean, so I have witnesses this time. Kind of confirms it was her originally, doesn't it? Not that it matters. I'm trying to get at why right now. Anyone have any ideas about what to do? How the hell did she get a shield anyway? Did she steal it or, I guess Royal Guards don't steal… Did she make someone give it to her?” His breath came in pants. Mainly because he was stuck now. What could he do? Kill her? He thought he could. He probably could create a small explosion in her head, at least with her pinned down like this. It would take a few minutes, but he could do it. Well, he could build the field. But… he wasn't a killer.
Even holding her down like this was hard. Not hard to do, but it felt… Mean. Wrong. But if he let her up she'd attack him again. Not that it would be right now, but… later, when he couldn't defend himself, in his sleep maybe. Did he have a choice?
His fiancee looked around and shrugged. “Sounds reasonable to me. He's not in a combat rage. I've seen that on him and even if he was, Tor kind of stays reasonable compared to most people, however that works. So, why did Wensa try to kill him? Tor wouldn't lie about something like that. Really, I don't know if he can lie at all, so…” Her voice went into a questioning tone at the end and her hands came up. Right, now what.
“I think I really can kill her through the shield, we can't have someone like her running around trying to murder people, can we? I don't want to kill anyone, but, I don't think she's going to leave me any choice. First she tried to kill me at the shield test and no one believed it, because I wasn't dead, which I guess is fair enough, since she's a Royal Guard and all. Then she threatened to poison me. When I took that off the table, she tries to kick me down some stairs so that it would look like an accident. Which, considering she has orders not to kill me from a Count… Those still hold right?”
Tovey nodded, but he too looked at Rolph. “Not countermanded?”
The Prince nodded in return, if a bit slowly. “Yeah, I checked, nothing like that from the Capital at all. Didn't think there would be.”
When Tor looked up four forms stood around him holding weapons of some kind. It was almost like they'd just appeared in the air, rather than walked up normally, but he knew he was more than a little distracted. Two popped to mind as being instructors at the school, the other two as weapons instructors. The other Royal Guards? Great. The situation hadn't been complicated enough already. Well, it showed that this wasn't just Wensa then, didn't it? The silvery glints in their hands looked deadly, especially being pointed at him.
“Down!” Tor yelled as they opened fire on him. He spun, sweeping his little force lance across where they stood. They, unlike Wensa, hadn't gotten hold of any shields, at least not any good ones. They flew back hard and didn't get up quickly. The lance he had didn't hurt them directly of course, it just made their bodies move after all, but the impact against the ground probably stung. Without hesitation he hit Wensa again as she struggled to get up, probably to attack him again.
“Uh-un. Your friends aren't going to help you out of this.” It took going back and forth several times, but he finally had all the other guards knocked out about half a minute later and didn't lose Wensa either.
“Right so, if there's no order to kill me from the crown, then all of these royals guards have gone rogue? Little hard to believe. I need an explanation on this pretty quick here Rolph… I don't know what to do, but I know I can't leave them alive to attack me later, Royal Guards don't stop. You told me that yourself. So… I mean, I have to defend myself, right?” His voice had taken on a panicked air but no one laughed at him.
Not knowing what else to do, he started building a small, tiny really, explosive field inside Wensa's skull. One
