home village.
Then he immediately thought better of it.
Screaming “run away” and trying to fly away as fast as possible to hide in the forest might not be taken too well, especially since there was no forest in sight. And really, everyone was supposed to be here, even him, as awkward as it felt at the moment. He nodded his head and murmured. “Greetings sirs.”
No one shot him or even glared, so it must not have been too poorly done. The lead guardsman gave him a courteous nod even making brief eye contact. He hadn't with the others at all though.
“Sirs and ladies, please identify yourselves…” The lead man didn't look at anyone directly then, eyes going to the right, possibly so that it wouldn't seem rude, him looking at the wrong person first or something. There were rules to that kind of thing Tor guessed. At home he would have just looked at the ground himself if presented with obvious royals like the Count and Trice, but doing that here would probably be a poor idea. You tended to fly where you looked.
The Count did all the introductions for them. Appropriate being the highest ranked person in the group.
“I'm Count Toverland Morehouse Thomson. To my right is the Ducherina Patricia Alyson Morgan. Behind her is Sara Debri, daughter of the Debri merchant house. The red haired fellow is Alphonse, but we all call him Rolph at school and when traveling… you understand? The last man… is Tor.”
The men all bowed in the air, low and humble looking, which they had to have practiced, because it required bringing the right hand up just slightly, almost too small an amount to see, at the same time they folded their bodies to give the right impression without sending them flipping head over heels. One of the men almost lost it, or so it looked to Tor. He probably couldn't have managed the move himself either, so he couldn't fault the guy. The lead man spoke again.
“Pri…” He started but the Count and Rolph both shook their heads “no” for some reason, flustering the man for a moment. “Worthies, please be welcome to the Capital city. As the advent of flying is new here, we ask that… all persons please enter the city through the main gate, where transportation may be arranged for you. I trust that will be sufficient?”
The man looked nervous, sweating a little even if it wasn't all that hot up here. Maybe the Count being there shocked him, or… Well, it could be the girls? They were good looking and maybe they didn't have a lot of ladies flying around yet? At school it was slightly skewed towards men flying so far, but about forty percent of the regular flyers were royal girls or female combat giants, which was often the same thing. Or… the trunks? It was new. Maybe they suspected they were for weapons or something? Thinking about it he decided that he'd make them land too. Any tall man could claim to be a Count, but who had flying luggage? Only them.
Suspicious without a doubt.
The guards, whose leader introducing himself as Captain Curtis, guided them to the main gate easily. They obviously had gotten to fly about as much as anyone from the way they handled themselves. Out of this group Tor realized that he was the one that probably had the least time in the air. Well, maybe he'd get a little time while on break to practice? If nothing else he'd already gotten a full day's worth, which was better than nothing. On the ground they had to wait for a carriage or something to come they were told, since strictly speaking, flying had been forbidden in the city.
Curtis the guard looked at them, standing straight and looked from Rolph to Tovey several times. “Accidents sir. The King himself laid the restriction.”
Rolph shrugged and turned to Tor.
“No big thing, we can hire a cab to take us around. Maybe we can signal for one from here?”
They didn't have to, it turned out, since not one but three had already been called up for them by someone that had seen them flying in. One for the people and two for all the trunks. That kind of made sense, because anyone flying in would need transportation, wouldn't they? They could have stacked all the trunks in one, nothing they had was that heavy, but apparently people didn't do that in the Capital. It wasn't seemly. Right, well Tor didn't want to look like a bumpkin either, so he just nodded and hoped the cabs wouldn't cost too much for the hire.
It was hot here, blistering even in the shade, nearly the worse heat he'd ever felt not standing next to an oven. No one else seemed to mind it at all, so Tor didn't mention it, but they all started to soak through their clothing too. So at least they didn't have some inborn immunity to it. After a long time, almost an hour which felt longer, they pulled up a long paved drive to a house that was bigger than any private dwelling he'd ever seen. It was closer in size to some of the larger school dorms.
“This isn't my main residence, which is in my district of course. This is just the third place, for when we have to meet down here for the fall conferences. I must say Tor, flying this distance beats the pants off of driving it. I'm almost certain that many of the peers will want to try it as soon as they hear how much faster and pleasant it is.”
He led them inside to see if he could scare up some refreshments for them all. The servants blushed and scurried. Apparently they hadn't expected Tovey back for over a week at least, possibly a lot longer than that. They didn't have anything special prepared for guests at all, which seemed like some kind of a big deal to the poor guy that had to tell them. The Count looked embarrassed too, but Tor just shrugged.
“Some cool water would be good. No need to stress these people out just because I insisted we all fly. My fault after all, right? All the way around really… How were they supposed to know?” The servant in the room, a man in gray clothes, nicer than anything Tor owned, didn't nod, but he looked grateful that this had been pointed out. Hopefully the Count wouldn't blame these people. It really had been his fault, after all, Tor had invented the devices to begin with. Or, if they wanted they could all blame Kolb, but that still didn't free up Tor for assuming they'd be traveling that way.
The water came without anyone leaving the room to fetch it. It even had ice in it, which in this climate must be hard to come by, and expensive to keep on hand. Tor felt his mind start to drift. Could they use a field that removed heat from a small area, insulated with rock like an oven, in order to create real freezing conditions? Heck, couple it with an oven and you should be able to kill two birds with one stone. He basically had the field already, the temperature plates, all he had to do was figure out how he wanted to manage it all. Maybe he could try it later, if anyone had some boxes or something he could use.
Trice stood in front of him smiling and talking, so he decided to pay attention before she hit him. Tor still had his shield on at least. It was one of the new ones that could breathe underwater and made it a lot harder to choke or suffocate him. That wouldn't stop the girl from trying if she took the idea into her head. He wondered if all female nobles were as violently oriented as she was. His sisters were all meek by comparison and they'd known him all their lives, so you'd think if anyone were going to hit him, it would have been one of them, but Trice apparently didn't think her behavior towards him was odd.
She didn't try to hit Rolph or Tovey like that.
It did fit his rule of not getting into a fight with someone bigger than you are though, maybe it was just that?
“So we should get to our own dwellings. Remember, Debri house tomorrow for luncheon, which is mid- afternoon here, Tor. Rolph will get you there on time. Don't be late.” The girl smiled at him and patted the back of his hand, which she had to take in her own in order to do, slippery as it was from the shield. It felt awkward to him, her touching him like that, not really making contact at all, not unpleasant, just strange. It was a mental thing he knew. The implied contact with a pretty girl being off putting, not the way it felt through the shield which was just like his hand moved on its own a little.
Rolph and he reloaded one of the carriages with their trunks and arranged the other two for the girls without being asked. Just as they finished several house servants boiled out of the Count's dwelling looking mortified.
“Sir! We…” He looked down at the ground, clearly ashamed.
Why Tor couldn't get at all.
Rolph finished for the man. “You… don't need to be out in this heat? Thanks for thinking of us though. It looks like we've got this in hand. Now, back inside, out of the sun.” Rolph smiled and gestured a little with his left hand. The man went as if the gentle suggestion was a command. All of them did, practically running to get back inside. Tor couldn't blame them, this heat was damned oppressive. It made him wonder why they'd put the Capital here in the first place. He didn't ask out loud, not wanting to insult his friends since this was their home, at least for Rolph and Sara. It hadn't been their idea, since the Capital had stood here for hundreds of years at least.
Trice patted his arm and climbed in her carriage to be led away. Sara stopped for a second and stood by, watching them leave with a small grin. Then she got in her own carriage, from the window she shouted out that Tor
