“Uh… OK. I'll do my best. Why do we need to go to the Capital? Can't we just talk to them from here?”
Tor sighed and shook his head.
“We just had an Austran attack Sandra. For the first time it was on regular people, not just nobles or clearly targeted towards a single individual. This is huge as far as the commoners go. We have to show that we have a plan in place to prevent it from happening again. More…” He gave her a steely look.
“I can't be that plan this time, and some people might point out that this could have been targeting me. I don't think it really was, but we need to show the kingdom that taking out one person won't cripple us. Today that means showing the royal family. Later it means showing everyone else. Plus, I may need you to help me beat up an Ancient later. He's too good a friend with everyone else at the palace to take them seriously, I think. I could probably do it normally, but right now…” He waved at his body, which got the tall, dark skinned girl to nod. She knew what a mess he really was after all.
“Alright.” She stopped, going still suddenly. “Wait, the Ancients are real?”
Tor nodded.
“Yeah, the one I'm talking about is Dennorian Brown, the Austran Ancient. I don't know where the others have gotten to, but they may or may not be around. Don't let them impress you too much. Not that they aren't impressive, we just don't want them to get swelled heads.” Tor grinned at her, which was a mistake, because she clearly thought he was kidding now.
Oh well.
The conversation with the King didn't happen, but Connie was there and invited them both to dinner, which was late for Tor, but manageable if he got a nap himself. He got Sandra to go and get some sleep by ten in the morning and looked in at everyone else, briefly, realizing that him looking at them working right now did very little indeed. He did find that Lyn had two more sets of shields ready already, and that they worked. Two hundred in less than three hours.
Tor smiled, a wash of pride coming over him as he looked at the small girl in front of him. She opened her eyes and stared blankly for a bit. She had brown eyes and brown hair now, though they used to be blond and murky blue. Tor realized that she'd changed them with one of his disguise devices. Or, well, given who she was, it may be a recreation or even novel work.
Good.
“Oh… Hey, Tor… just finishing the second batch, planned two more, is that all right? I can do more…” Her voice was dreamy and soft, still detached from the deep state.
“Actually, I'd like you to help me check on the others. We should have enough for everyone soon, but I can't do it myself right now. Other than by physically checking their work. It's just field reading, which I know you can do already.”
“I can?” She sounded slightly confused.
Tor chuckled as he explained that it just had to do with sensing fields and that she did it all the time, it was how she knew that the people were disguised the day before after all.
“Oh, that. OK. I can do that. I didn't know it had a name.”
The others were doing well, except for Farlo, who was really struggling to get a batch of ten done. Even without sensing the field Tor understood the problem, speaking softly to Lyn he got her to show the needed correction easily enough though. It meant he had to leave the younger girl sitting there, so she could help. Guide was still working on his own batch of twenty, but Lyn said he seemed to have it, no problem.
Tor floated back to his room and slept for a few hours. It was decadent, sleeping during the day, but his body would need the rest, probably for a long time. At four he went and grabbed Sandra from her room and helped her collect up the rest of the shields that had been made. Farlo had managed an honest, all on her own, batch of ten. Twice. Everyone seemed pleased by that too, at least as happy for her as they were for their own accomplishments. They were a real team. Tor felt a little envious, but let that go. He had a team too, didn't he? His was just made up of a bunch of royals.
As soon as that was done Tor sat Sandra down and handed her a pile of fifty copper plates with shield sigils.
“Here you go. An hour and twenty minutes. Go.” He made no move to give her a shield to copy from either. She'd done it before after all.
He smiled at her confidently.
It took her closer to two hours, but the fields worked. They packed the extra up and took off from the commons, using his personal fast carriage, because Sandra hadn't done a copy of the field for herself yet. It was silly, but she hadn't wanted to do it without paying for it. Tor shook his head.
“Fine… I'll trade you, copy for copy. One novel field from my stuff for each one of yours you give me. Deal?” He didn't put a hand out to shake, but smiled at her.
“Sure. My stuff kind of sucks though… My only novel build so far is just a toy that lights up for kids.” She sounded embarrassed.
It sounded fun though, it required the child to balance a stick on one finger, and when they got it right, the whole thing lit up, glowing blue. The longer they did it, the brighter the whole thing got. It wasn't anything earth shattering maybe, but it had a basic feedback device in it and those were tricky, so it wasn't a lack of skill on her part. Tor nodded when she explained it.
“Right, get with Kolb for your new assignments.”
“The scary bald one?”
“Yep, that's the one. I wish I could tell you he wasn't that scary once you got to know him, but… nope, he's really just that freaky. Just do what he says though. If you can't do it personally, get the others to work on it.”
He was being more than a little pushy with her, possibly abusively so, he felt, but she just acted like it was normal. As if Tor had a right to tell her what to do or something. Still, for now it worked and as long as everyone was reaching the goals he set them, it was fine. He hoped. Thirty odd minutes later they landed, very slowly, on the palace lawn. It was dark out, but the city was ringed with a glowing purple river. It was just regular water that ran around the top wall, with light fields sitting underneath, but with that and the outside lights at the palace, it made it pretty easy to find, even at night.
Of course that would mean that anyone could find it. Including the Austrans. Still, Tor doubted that they'd have problems doing that anyway. The craft they'd sent before didn't even have human drivers, and for all he knew the devices that did the flying didn't have eyes. He'd have to see if he could get the information from Denno, if he was still around.
If it was him, Tor would have run off already, because an attack that killed a bunch of school kids and an official was not going to make him popular at the moment. They couldn't even use a truth device on him. Not for certain.
Thumb screws would have to do then.
Not that Tor really wanted to torture the guy and it was clear that it probably wouldn't work on him anyway. He'd have to think of something else. Nothing came to mind at all though.
When the Carriage got put away both he and Sandra shifted their outfits. Tor into a military style black outfit and Sandra into a very nice like blue dress. Probably more impressive for a dinner party, but this was his “uniform” he decided. As Magics Counselor. Sure, he could have gone with robes, but that would look a little funny. He did switch the fabric to silk and velvet, which made it look a little nicer.
Then they waited. About five minutes later Karina came out, wearing a nice green dress that Tor thought he recognized, from near the first time they met, only it couldn't be, since the girl was nearly a foot taller now. Her hair looked long and red though, which he knew to be fake. She gave him a hug, taking pains to be gentle with him.
“Are you all right?”
“Tired, no matter how much I sleep, but yeah, not too bad. You?” It wasn't a throw away question, they'd all had to flee in a hurry, which could be frightening.
“Of course. We all are.” She looked at the darker girl in front of her and just nodded.
“Sandra. Didn't know you were coming. Good to see you.” The words were a little flat and somber. Like she really didn't like the girl or something.
“Princess.” She bowed formally. Her face was in a fixed and slightly nervous position.
Tor didn't get it, he would have thought the two would be fast friends or at least amiable strangers. It really felt like they didn't like each other at all for some reason. Tor felt a slight headache starting to form, right between
