which made Sara's eyes go wide. Before she could say anything the woman, still looking down murmured softly.
“Prince Alphonse. Thank you for coming. Please, be seated, if you will.” The woman spoke softly, but smoothly, a professional voice of a kind that Tor had rarely heard.
Sara's eyes went wild suddenly, but she calmed down after a minute and turned to smile at Tor a little and shrugged. When Rolph sat the woman turned to Tor herself and gave a bow nearly as deep as the one she'd given the Prince.
“Mr. Baker? I can't tell you how happy and proud we are to have you here. It's an honor and a privilege to put a face to the name. Would you like a beverage, gentleman, before we begin? We have cold drinks ready. I'm afraid we haven't been able to put any of the cooling devices in here yet. Believe it or not, we don't have any extra available even now that we're nearing capacity on manufacturing. Sorry to make you both suffer this heat…”
Tor reached into his pocket and pulled out the remaining four equilibrium units and looked down.
“I… didn't know that there would be this many people. Here though, at least a couple people can be comfortable for now. Um, sorry everyone else.”
Rolph explained the devices for him his tone serious and businesslike. Sara grabbed one and looked ready to fight anyone that tried to take it from her. It was cute and looked feisty. The good looking woman in front of him took one and sighed, closing her eyes for a second, then activated the other two and asked them to be passed around the table. It took a while since no one wanted to give them up once they had them.
The older blond looked at him and smiled, then shook her head. She waited for everyone to get a chance to hold the new devices for a while before speaking.
“This is, of course, amazing. We'd love to carry this and do the manufacturing as well, if you're interested? It's… Well, this is more than a little embarrassing, and hard to explain, but we don't actually have all the money we owe you so far from the sales made.” Her hand shot up as if to hold him back, or to stave off anger. “It's just that we've had to rush into some massive military contracts and we don't get paid for those until we deliver product. If we could have another six months, it shouldn't be a problem.” Her voice died off as Rolph stared at her.
His look surprised Tor. It wasn't angry as much as ironic. He asked if Debri house made a habit of trying to withhold payments to people for sales already made. He hadn't heard of any complaints, he told the room, looking around coolly, but it would make him sad to learn that this was the case. The woman sputtered and looked panicked.
“No! We hold to the highest standards, we really just don't have the funds. We were given vast orders by your father and really have no time to get the work done without huge expense. It's one of the largest projects we've ever handled and frankly, I don't think that anyone else in the kingdom could manage it right now at all. Who are you going to get, Sorvee? Lintel? They wouldn't pay out anything if they could help it and simply couldn't handle half of what we're doing on their best day, even if they threw in with Nox and all worked together. We just need a little more time.”
Tor fought a yawn. Not that this was boring, but he really needed to get some sleep as soon as possible. He looked around the table and saw that most of the people were still sweating a lot. Sara didn't, but the cute blond looked down at the table, her small dress hardly covering her at all. He didn't disapprove, different ways and all that, plus it was her body and not over dressing made a lot of sense for this climate.
She seemed ashamed though, which he didn't get. Really, he'd thought she and Trice had just been giving all the devices away to their friends anyway. As long as he had enough money to keep him in materials, he didn't need a lot more. Not while he was at school at least. He'd even managed to send some money home each month for the last few, nearly thirty gold in all. If it turned out that they didn't have the money from sales because they had to make a bunch of stuff for the army, then that would just have to be what happened. Who was he to tell the military they couldn't have the shields they needed? Really, it was kind of an honor that they found what he made good enough to be of use at all. Tor shrugged and fought a yawn, nearly succeeding.
“Alright.” He said quietly.
Everyone kept talking for a few moments, except Sara who looked at him questioningly. She tilted her head. “What's alright?” Her voice was soft, almost shy, which got Rolph's attention quickly enough. But then he kind of liked Sara and had the whole time Tor had known the girl. It made everything she said more important no doubt. Women could do that to you if you weren't careful.
“Alright, if you need time… then take it. If you could help make sure I have the materials I need to work and, I don't know if it's possible, but if a little bit could be sent to my family in Two Bends, that would be good? The rest can wait.” Rolph gave him a hard look for a second, then smiled. It was a slightly sinister smile as if he expected some kind of deeper plan to be involved. If so he'd be disappointed. Tor had nothing past that.
The affect was more powerful than Tor would have thought, that single odd smile from Rolph. It made everyone at the table except Sara scramble for papers which they read over several times. A few of the men looked like they were accused of a crime or something. His blond friend just looked at her mother and shook her head gently.
“It isn't a ploy Heather. Not a trick or even, I don't think, a negotiation.” She said, her voice slightly amused and slightly something else, something deeper. Like awe. “You asked for more time and Tor is just giving it to you as simple as that. Tor, what amount of gold do you think would be good to send to your family?”
The question caught him off guard. He'd figured that the amount would be based on what could be scraped up and probably marked in silver, not gold at all. They wouldn't need too much, business having been good at home and really, he'd been sending money back to help out, more than enough for everyone to live on, even without the bakery's revenue. He shrugged and looked at Sara, slightly shaking his head.
“I… well, I've been getting about ten gold per month back to them, if there's no money that should hold them for a bit, I mean, they have their own lives and all, so no one will starve. Business has been going well even. Past that? Well, it would be good to help them stock up for the winter, maybe some materials could be sent there, if Debri house has anything that could help out? Even just some things to help the village would work. I mean if gold itself isn't available. We can trade too. I just wasn't thinking that way before, but it's the way most business gets done back home. That would be fine and probably work better anyway, depending on what you have to hand. You can't eat gold after all.”
Sara smirked and gave her mother a funny look.
“I don't think he's being unreasonable here mother. I didn't think I had to dress up and try to vamp him in the first place. Not that I mind. This is cooler.” She waved at the tight dress she wore with a casual gesture. “Of course with the new amulet Tor just gave me I could as well be dressed in my winter finest. Or go naked in the winter, I bet.” She laughed and reached over to touch him on the arm. For some reason this made everyone but Rolph chuckle a little.
He stared at Heather Debri instead, his face serious.
“Really, turning your own daughter on him? That's… Noble of you. I'd understand that at court, but really Heather, I expected better than that in the business parlor.”
The older woman looked down and got a look on her face as if her stomach was suddenly upset or she needed to run off to the restroom. But then she recovered her composure and smiled at Rolph.
“It would be a good match. Sara isn't in line to inherit Debri, her older brother Kris is. Hooking her wagon here would assure a good future, and she and Master Tor are already friends, most marriages don't usually start even with that, do they?” The gesture she made drew Tor's attention to a tall blond man, one that looked to be in his mid twenties about four places down. He looked over at the mention of his name, trying to pretend he hadn't been listening the whole time for some reason. “Maybe I should send an emissary to his parents?”
Rolph stiffened and glared at the woman. Tor could see that, he'd feel a little put out himself if the mother of the girl he liked suggested in public that the girl run off and marry Rolph, even as a joke. And really, Rolph was the best catch in the kingdom, so Tor couldn't even complain. If Tor loved a girl, then seeing her married to the future King would be the very best someone like him could do for her. Even before it would have been hard to raise too big a fuss, when his friend had just been tall, good looking and rich, with a great personality compared to his own.
Tor shook his head. “Marry the poor girl to a troll like me? That wouldn't be a good match at all…”
Everyone looked at him for a few moments as if amazed at the truth of what he'd just said. Finally a chuckle came from down the table where Sara's brother sat. The man didn't sound like he was making fun of him, it was gentler than that, almost a polite sound.
“A troll? If we had a real troll that could do what you have, it would still be a good match. But you sir, are
