“Countess, have you spoken to my mother? I have five brothers, four of whom are unmarried, all Countiers. Some far too young, and there is some competition for them, but it may be something to think about. Sandra is a catch and I know that I'd be honored to call her sister.” He turned to the Count and winked, getting a small smirk from the man back.
“Now, not to be rude, but as to your daughters building career, you couldn't be more wrong. She's good. As it stands at this moment, she could go and make a living anywhere in the kingdom starting with nothing more than a few rocks. That little toy of hers has a full feedback mechanism, that senses both balance and the passage of time. OK, the toy is a little misplaced, since few children could afford such, but the work isn't just a toy. She didn't get named the leader of the Lairdgren group because she's a noble. She earned it.”
Mainly be being the oldest person in a group of volunteers, but hey, that counted right? Tor grinned at her parents.
“My point here is that you need to live a nice long time now Count Morris, and love your job, because we need her. The kingdom needs Sandra now.” His voice wasn't nearly as strong as he'd have liked, but a voice came from behind him then.
“Simple truth. Do you know that she ran out a batch of fifty shields earlier? In two hours, by herself. I tested the fields on them, very high quality work. There are less than six people in the kingdom that can do that.”
Tor turned and tried to smile. Lairdgren again. It was true enough though, and really, other than the guy not being exactly forthcoming with him, there was no real reason to be mad at him. Not yet.
Sandra looked horribly shy suddenly. Burks was pretty good looking, so maybe that was it? He was back to looking older, about thirty. It was a handy trick. Half the problems Tor had were because people didn't take him seriously. It wasn't that bad yet, because well, he was still under twenty, so no one would have anyway. Not for a few years. When that happened though, looking a bit older would be nice. Spending forever locked in what looked like a child's body would be hard to manage. Doable, but a pain.
Lairdgren did a much better job bolstering Sandra than he had though, making her seem like the best thing since cream was discovered, which was kind of what he'd been trying for, but missed. He just stood and nodded with a smile, backing the Ancients play. By the end of ten minutes even the sour and entitled Count Morris had to admit that there may be some value to his little girl becoming one of the better builders in the kingdom.
Tor grinned, “Also and don't take this lightly, think how much you can save on devices, what with the family discount… You could save ten, twenty percent even.”
The funny thing was that the Count and Countess actually seemed pleased by that, as if their own daughter wouldn't just give them what they wanted?
Tor yawned and shook his head a bit.
“Sorry, I need to make the rounds and get to bed. Um, Burks, do you know if Denno is around?”
“Guest house. Are you staying here?”
“Nope, my place. We have room, if you want?” Of course, Tor was also planning to kidnap Denno Brown, so his brother might not want to be seen as helping with that.
He agreed to come though, and they collected a few other people as Tor and Sandra said their goodbyes. Including the Wards, who'd been planning on getting a room at an Inn, not feeling overly welcome at the palace yet, and Ursala, who glared at the Wards, but not Tor. That… Well, they hadn't poisoned her, but they had set her up to get pregnant and just to lash out at Rolph, so it was kind of fair. It had really ruined her chance to be Queen one day, hadn’t it? Well, maybe he could get her into make-up sex with them, so none of them ended up in his bed? Not that he'd be using a bed for a while still. The nap he'd taken laying flat had kind of hurt. It got him up quickly enough but that night he was just going to float again. That was really comfortable.
At the guest house they found Denno easily enough, looking like the servant he pretended to be. Greg. Tor just pointed to him with his left hand and raised his right, like the royal family did, not knowing if it would work at all. He had some Royal Guard friends, so hopefully they'd help out.
“I'm stealing Greg. Get someone to cover his shift please. Actual kingdom business, not just to scrub my floors or anything. Come on, Greg.” Tor didn't wait for the man to make a decision, just walking out. For some unknown reason he followed. It was foolish of him, but then, the guy had to know that. He probably also knew that Tor wouldn't be beating him.
He still didn't have a real plan as to what he was really going to do.
The flight back to his house was short, about three minutes and that long mainly to make sure the Royal Guard saw them all leave. No one spoke on the way back. He landed smoothly in front of the house and tried to be quiet walking in. Really, he didn't know who, if anyone would be there and what they might be up to. As long as it wasn't group sex in the front room, it should be all right. Instead he was greeted by Collette, who ran to him, a graceful shuffle so her dress wouldn't trip her up, soft slippers a whisper on the stone floor. It looked like marble now, but in a different color than he'd last seen it, gray shot with white, polished to gleaming.
She's come from the dining room off to the right, except, from what he could see, it was a sitting room now, with several people in it. Not all of them people he recognized instantly. Several men…
Which would have been jealous making, except one of them was her father and the rest looked like merchants of some kind. At least they had the height for it. After a second he got that one of them was Kris Debri, a friend of his, after a fashion, and his mother Heather sat near him. That was all he could see from where he stood.
“Tor!” He was gently hugged and given a soft, slow kiss on the mouth that didn't get a reaction from his body at all. It was still nice.
“Collette. I brought people with me. Is that all right? I notice we have guests?” It was the best he could do, short hand wise. She stood a little straighter and then bowed to… Everyone. Oh, right, all nobles, except “Greg”.
“Honored. Will you be staying?” She noted that the Wards had luggage. And probably that the rest of them didn't.
“Well, Maria and Marvin are your family, so of course they're staying. Burks and Denno are mine, so that gets us stuck with them for the night, though Brown needs to be back to work as soon as he can walk again…” It was a pointed statement and the man tapped the sigil around his neck, making his disguise vanish. It got a gasp from the doorway to the sitting room, since Bonita had come to look, when she heard his voice.
Denno bowed to her, “Ma'am. Don't be alarmed, I always look like this. Well, not so much lately, but my little brother is to blame for that.”
He said it like that made any sense at all. Nita closed in for more hugging, hitting up Burks first and then him, but circling around to cover Maria and Marvin too.
Tor stood looking into the other room, wondering what the protocols where here. Did he just go in, or should he ignore that people were there, in case it was secret or something? Finally he just leaned in to Collette and asked.
“Oh, well, yes, it's a little secret. Trying to share information about what happened at Lairdgren and find out if anyone knows more, if we can put the puzzle together at all.”
Tor tilted his head and thought for a second.
“OK. Well, if you warn them that a bunch of noble types that might have to report any information they hear back to the King are coming in, we should go say hello, then get out of their hair, so that proper planning and all that can be done. Is that… acceptable? I don't want to be rude, I just don't know what to do in a case like this.”
Collette hugged him again, “I think that will work wonderfully, one moment then?”
After two minutes she waved them all in, setting off a bunch more bowing. Then people started hugging each other, since a lot of them were close friends and relatives.
He got one too, from Kris' wife of all people. She was a bit plain looking but had a kind smile, which she turned on him full force. It was a little warm, considering they'd only met once before and hadn't spoken more than a few words. Nice of her to remember him though. Kris didn't look overly pleased about it, but not upset either. His wife, Meredith caught the look and smiled at him lovingly. Kris was a nice looking fellow and a good catch all around for a widow like her.
“Dear, you asked who arranged all that gold for me?” She sounded happy and sweet about it. Enough so that Tor felt a little bad about not having accepted her marriage proposal once. She'd had the wrong last name then or he would have.
