more basic though. Heated, but it just made a tunnel that could be bent around as needed and set to any length. It was new, not one of the things he'd been building on the trip, still, he was so bored it had been a relief to have something else to do.
Rolph was spending more and more time with Dorgal, since they used to be friends it seemed, before Dorg had decided to simply hate Tor for some reason, about the time that Maria had been spreading rumors about him. It was probably related, but it just didn't seem important any more. Who cared right? The past was the past.
It wasn't until the night of the attack that Tor realized the two men weren't just chatting in Rolph's room.
The pounding on the door was unexpected, but very clearly a person, no voice came through the door, being a shield even the pounding was basically just a built in signally device, so the guard that sat in the main room opened it and let the two strangers in. One was of normal height, about six foot plus a bit, and wore very warm looking clothes. The other was more lightly dressed and looked like Tor. Enough so that the guard just assumed that he'd been outside. Natural enough idea really, who looked that much like someone you knew pretty well and saw daily?
Tor felt them in his sleep, having been working on the trip to isolate the whole immortal field pattern for a project. It called to him now, familiar and loud, if a noiseless field, a subtle thing at best, could ever be said to have a real presence. Waking with a start he ran to the stairs, stone steps that were neutral under his feet as far as temperature went. As he ran he switched warm and comfortable purple and red sleeping clothes into fighting leathers, something he'd been wearing a lot for practice lately, so he knew the pattern well. Time seemed to crawl as he darted down the stairs, the double of him raising a hand, an empty hand, as he moved.
“Tor, wait, let me explain.” Burks called out loudly.
Digging in his pocket Tor realized that he didn't have his weapon on him. Well, that was brilliant of him, wasn't it? Go to sleep and not stay ready? He had a shield on, including his new “shield”. The one he'd designed just for this. It looked like testing time then. He kept running, hard.
The other man suddenly darted towards him, moving faster than Tor could track at all. The speed dazzled, the man nearly blurring he moved so fast. Way faster than Burks or Denno had ever shown. Faster than the Larval even, about three times faster and those guys were way faster than human.
“Black! Don't…”
It was too late. Tor’s shield countered the force and started pounding the man, obviously an Ancient too. Lights flared and force lances hit invisibly from different directions, tracking perfectly, instantly. The man was fast and strong enough that he still managed to hit Tor’s field twice more before going unconscious. Tor kicked the man out of the way as he moved on Burks. The shield worked based on proximity. If he was attacked by an Ancient, it would keep fighting for him, targeting that individual until they no longer remained conscious at all. It would work even if Tor was dead. If that happened the field wouldn't stop until the one that killed him died to. Burks didn't seem to get that yet and took a step towards Tor with something in his hand. A mistake. If he'd walked over empty handed and didn't attack, nothing would have happened at all. Oops.
The pummeling was faster than Tor could have tracked if it was coming towards him, but the shield Burks wore buffered him from the worst of it, Tor pointed his right hand and slapped one of his new amulets with intent. For a second nothing seemed to happen and Burks just stood, waiting. Tor smiled.
“You lose.” Then ran to the other man and started applying a beating.
Yes, even after all his practice Burks was so much better that it wouldn't have been a contest at all, except that right now, Tor had a shield and Burks didn't. That was what the new field did. It focused intent, making it a thousand times stronger, to turn off any sigil, even one under a shield. It should work on ones he hadn't made even, as long as the triggering mechanism was standard.
As Burks launched his first attack, probably automatically, without even realizing what he was doing, Tor’s new shield pounded him down. The whole thing lasted about four seconds.
“What the…” Veren ran into the room holding a force lance and had a wild look in his eyes.
A minute later everyone else ran out, including Rolph and Dorgal, both naked and erm, enthused? At least Rolph was holding a weapon in his hand, one like Tor's, a white glassy looking device with eight colored sigils. Dorgal held a knife. It gleamed wickedly, and was nearly as long as a short sword, but in the hands of a naked man with an erection it just looked wrong.
Tor didn't have to be a genius to get the idea.
It was almost as big of a shock as two Ancients coming and trying to, well, whatever they were doing. They didn't have weapons out, so killing him might not have been their plan. Coming to visit then? A bit obnoxious if so, coming at night, unannounced and then rushing Tor like that.
A person could take that wrong, couldn’t they?
“Let's tie them up before they come to. I doubt they'll be long about it. Tie them carefully and let's have three guards on each, just in case.” George, the head Royal Guard got who Lairdgren was, having seen his Tor look alike trick before. He gave the orders smoothly though, like it was preplanned. Then, given who he was, it might be.
The other man looked about forty, but was clearly an Ancient, a tall Ancient, but still, his pattern screamed it's similarities to Burks, obvious differences aside. Plus, the speed the man moved at was incredible. Way faster than anything Tor had seen before. If it had been a fair fight, the other man probably would have taken him, and the Royal Guard in a few seconds.
Good thing Tor was learning to cheat better. He pointed at them, politely though, using a closed hand. It was almost funny that he remembered to do that now, but he didn’t smile.
“Right, both Ancients, so let's not take chances, they both have a thousand times more information and experience than any of us and have probably been held like this before, and have plans ready, so stay alert. When in doubt, knock them unconscious. We can heal them if we have too, as long as they don't escape first.” Tor doubted it would be enough, but with that and the shields, it might buy his side some time. Not everyone had the new defensive systems yet. It worked pretty well though.
Tor might even make them to work against regular people, now that he knew they worked at all. He’d feel better knowing that his friends that didn’t fight very well had something like that to back them up, wouldn’t he?
While that was taken care of and both men were stripped of everything and tied tightly enough that Tor’s arms ached in sympathy, Rolph and Dorgal vanished back into the room, coming out a few minutes later dressed in pure black combat leathers. The girls had barricaded themselves in Varley's room, which was smart. Running from sleep into a fight was moronic and would probably mean death. From a safe place in this house, they could have set up a fast carriage and flown out just by making the wall open for them. That had been the plan at least, Varley told them the moment they came out.
It was brilliant of course. Tor decided to steal it for his own escape plan if needed.
The men took about ten minutes to regain consciousness, which meant that Tor's shield had beaten them both a lot harder than he'd intended. Probably enough to do brain damage. He decided not to feel bad about it. After all, very rarely does anyone with good intent hunt you down in the middle of a snow storm and then come for you in the middle of the night. Who did that?
The bad guys did, that's who.
Still, it felt mean to leave them naked and tied up in chairs. Needed, as the larger man he didn't know proved before being even fully regaining his senses, the ropes straining at his wrists. They actually made a creaking sound, then popping noises. Tor sighed and spoke quickly.
“If you break the ropes, we'll kill you. We won't have a choice as fast as you are. I suggest you stop now. Please.” No need to be rude about it, a death threat was bad enough, right?
That the man was tied up with stout rope, by people that had practice in doing such things and was surrounded by weapons didn't seem to intimidate the guy at all. In fact he acted like the Royal Guard wasn't even in the room and addressed Tor directly.
“Oh? The Green baby is going to kill me? I think not. Green doesn't kill easily and you're too young. Come back in a thousand years and maybe I'll believe your threats then.” The accent was thick and clipped but understandable. Tor noticed that this man had emerald green eyes. Pretty.
Tor sighed.
“There seems to be a mistake that all you Ancients keep making about me, you keep acting like I'm Green, but I'm not, I'm Tor. There's more different about me than you'll ever live to see.” Tor punched the man in the jaw,
