“Hey, anyone have any male relatives of, or at least near, marrying age that could be passed off as noble enough for Ursala?” Tor asked, his voice slightly abstract and distant as he tried to figure out how many devices he'd need per mile to carry enough water to make the whole thing work. Hundreds at least. Or did he? God. Making that many field copies would take forever. Weeks or more. Maybe they could hire the work done, as long as he got the initial template up? That was generally the hard part, coming up with a field that could be copied and passed to other plates or crystals. That many plates would be dangerous though. What if someone moved one by mistake? An unending flood of water popping out of the line… He needed to find some other way.
No one said anything for a bit, but finally Ursala's mother called out a name.
“Howard Turnbull?” She said, getting a groan from the room after a few moments.
Even the two men that stood hitting at each other stopped then. Rolph stood back and after a few seconds Count Ward did too. Both looked baffled for a second, then realized what must have happened. Well Rolph did. Ward stood there looking confused until Maria gently explained things to him. The girl wasn't rough with the man, but clearly led him more than the Count realized. That probably explained a lot about why the Count had been so cruel towards Ursala.
After all, he already couldn't marry the girl and no one was even suggesting that. No one had even said he should pay her money for the child or anything. The worst he should feel was embarrassed about how he'd misbehaved, but instead he'd reacted as if wronged somehow. If Maria was behind directing him that much…
Looking down Tor noticed that the stone under his feet had been cracked in a circle around him. A small path of lines followed the path he'd walked. Like the line of a river, shooting off into smaller streams moving outward. Like he'd need to do in order to water crops. Well, to get water to the crops. The farmers would have to control the actual watering. He'd helped in the garden at home, they all had, but that wasn't large scale farming at all. That part should be left to the pros he decided.
He stood staring at the floor for a minute, until a man in a Royal Guard uniform came and shook his arm gently, not really touching him, because his shield was still on. “Sir? Are you alright sir?”
“Oh! Sorry, yes, just thinking about something. Where were we? Howard Turnbull? Who's that?” The cracks didn't move or change so he looked up at Marigold and smiled.
Howard Turnbull, it turned out was everyone's idiot relative, a joke of sorts, not an actual person. It meant that one in the family tree that people hid away on isolated country estates. In this case, it could mean a sham marriage to someone that didn't exist. They would, in short, invent a person no one else had ever met for Ursala to marry.
The Queen nodded, obviously seeing something that Tor missed.
“Yes… Then in a couple years, he has a “horrible accident” leaving Ursala a widow, free to remarry without social stigma. It could work. Not ideal, but…”
No one was really happy about it, but everyone agreed it would be better than waiting and letting the child be born out of wedlock. Even Count Ward agreed with the idea, though Maria sat very still and looked angry for some reason. That there was no real father seemed to matter less than what other people thought.
Who was going to play with the child though? Or teach him how to hunt and fish? Or if it was a girl, fend off inappropriate suitors? Tor held his tongue. Maybe they could find someone in time still. There had to be someone that would work, didn't there?
The Royal Guard evaporated as quickly as they appeared, leaving everyone else to hash out the details. Tor didn't want to run off, in case he was needed to stand in front of insane nobles bent on killing each other again, but he really wanted to sleep now. The day had just been too much for him to take easily.
Another two hours passed before they had a plan that everyone agreed with. Ursala would marry a man named Baron Hyrees, since that title stood empty, then in a year he'd “die” and she could turn and marry Rolph as she was supposed to have done. The child would be cared for and yet never in the line of succession. He or she would even get the Baron's title when “Hyrees” died, even though it wasn't landed. Better than Ursala being publicly disgraced, if just barely.
When the Counts and their wives left, Ursala with her parents, Trice ran over to him, hyperventilating slightly. “Tor! Are you alright?”
Everyone else came over as well, looking scared, except for the King who just looked slightly amazed. The giant man shook his head.
“That shield you're wearing, it blocks out the battle aura too, doesn't it? How did you come up with that?” The King looked impressed when Tor told him. And a little embarrassed when he told him why.
“So, I have to try and protect myself from Wensa, just in case. I don't know what I'll have to defend against. I still haven't figured out poisons, so don't tell her that one, alright?”
Tor assured them several times that he was fine, then after taking a deep breath, asked the King if he could see him in two or three days about the drought problem. It would take at least that long to make sure he could do anything useful anyway. The King just bowed a tiny bit and stated that they'd have luncheon in three days, if that would suit.
That… should be fine.
Rolph was at least as tired as he was after his combat rage episode, which he assured him wasn't a common thing. Tor reminded him that he knew it wasn't, obviously, having lived with him for years.
Rolph looked chagrined, “it's just, that guy, Ward, made me so angry. Sure, people have sex and sometimes things like this happen, but for him to act like he was the victim and worse, claim that she was a slut… it was too much. Even if she was a slut, which a half dozen lovers a year doesn't make her at all, you just don't say such things in public like that. I'm kind of surprised her father didn't declare war right there. Really, the only reason he didn't was probably the fight itself. Ursala's honor was defended instantly and then, what you did…”
His friend yawned and led him back to the guest house, so that they could both sleep. It was before midnight, but the morning would come early, Tor knew, somehow it always did. He headed off to bed as soon as he got changed for it, laying the nice clothes out on the table, so that he wouldn't accidentally ruin them. The room, thankfully, was cool. He'd left the servants with all the remaining personal heat exchangers he realized. No big deal, he'd make up more in the morning before he started on the other work that had to get done.
His head hit the pillow and he slept until he heard a soft knock coming from his door. He blinked awake, dim light coming from the curtained window of the large room.
“Coming.” He called out struggling to crawl out of the bed covers. Tor's feet didn't want to work right and he stumbled a little as he walked across the floor. Brushing the sleep from his eyes he opened the door, to find Rolph's sister Karina standing in the hall. She didn't wait to be asked in, ducking past him and closing the door to keep the cool in.
“Good morning! Sorry to bother you so early, but I heard about the temperature control devices that people can wear and wondered if you might have another that I could borrow? I know that I have no right to ask or anything, but I'm going to be out all day and…” She looked hopeful and gave him a cute look that he recognized as wheedling. He had sisters after all, it wasn't like it was lost on him. He held up his hand to stop her, then yawned, covering his mouth with his other hand.
“Sorry,” he spoke quickly before she thought he was being mean to her or something. “All out. I don't even have my own anymore, or you could have that one. Gave them out to the servers last night. It will take me… Oh, at least another couple hours to do up the next batch. I have some plates I can put them on, but I don't have anything to etch them with. If you could find me some sand paper we could get it done quickly enough. Acid would work too, if you can find some strong enough?”
She looked surprised, but not put out.
“I suppose I could find something, two hours? I wanted to leave by noon…”
It turned out that it was only nine, so he assured her they could have something before then, if he hurried. She ran out and he got right to work, sitting on his bed, making the transfers from the template. It seemed easier to do this time for some reason. Maybe he was finally getting used to doing it? Could be the simplicity of the field itself too. Either way it worked for him.
He managed to get his teeth brushed and if not a full bath, a good scrubbing down, before the Princess got back. She had a bottle of acid with her and some natural fiber brushes that would simply dissolve if they tried to put it in the bottle. Her face fell when he mentioned that, but he smiled and assured her that they could use it anyway. Taking the plates out into the garden with a large bucket of water, he put the heavy paper on the metal, making sure it was flat and then carefully poured the stark white paste onto the metal, using the glass of the bottle's lip to
