Uncle Richard and Aunt Connie would be coming and it wouldn't do to seem to be promoting their family crest over the royal one, right?
Tor felt his eyes glaze. “Um, how big?”
Eyes twinkling Mercy held out her hands about two or three feet apart, then said, “about ten times that big?” She started chuckling and so did his mom, but Patricia looked at him and started shaking her head. “I… I hope you really want that mom, because I know that look and it means that he has an idea.”
He did.
It was just holding water in a static form. That basically just meant moving the water in to an area of space that stopped movement in all directions. By making the field move in a repeated pattern, could he make the wings flap? He got up to leave, and felt a hand on his arm, looking down he realized that Trice held him in place. Hardly fair.
“Hey, no running off until we set all the orders for what we want!” She smiled, but Tor got it. It wasn't about telling him what to do, but about not leaving her alone with these two women that had suddenly gotten very scary and possibly gone insane. So far they'd been agreeing with each other too, so it wasn't even possible to play one off the other, not yet at least.
The big things, of course, were the date, which Laurie suggested at being a year out, but Mercy didn't really care about overly herself, and the location, which was harder. Tor's mother wanted it to be held, not in Two Bends, but Grenwyn, the Lairdgren capital, since all of her extended family would be there.
Mercy tilted her head, a baffled look on her face for a while before finally speaking. Her voice was pleasant and friendly.
“Well, Tor is… A bit famous now Laur. You heard about his relief effort for county Ford? That, the flying rigs, shields and other things… You know, he saved a city from a death plague? Galasia, sewage got into their water supplies… This is all in the last few months too. He's popular right now, and even if he never does another thing, probably will be for a long time. People will want to come. Plus Connie will want to be there. She and Torrence are a little bit of an item, I hear…”
His mother looked scandalized.
“Torrence Green Baker, you did not sleep with the Queen, of all the irresponsible things to do…” Her tone sounded playful, which shocked the hell out of him, she was always so proper. Country proper. That meant she didn't play around with the topic of sex, or really, even mention that it existed. She must be reverting to her old ways or something. He decided to watch her closely in case she suddenly went into a combat rage over the flower arrangements. She never had before, but now he felt suddenly wary.
Tor let his eyes narrow though.
“Um, no. She didn't even offer. She was just nice, and helped me out when I was injured, that's all, and made sure that country born hick or not, I didn't ever feel too lost or out of place in the Capital. Now I'd thank you all to not malign the Queen in front of me again, she's a good woman and doesn't deserve such.” He made his voice dry and so strict sounding everyone stopped and looked at him for a second, thinking he might be really mad.
Then Trice broke out laughing.
“Uh hmmm. So that thing at the end when she practically ate your face, right in front of everyone, that was just her showing “motherly concern”? She didn't kiss Rolph goodbye that way, me either and here I am her favorite niece and everything.” Her eyelashes batted at him several times. Innocently as if she wasn't trying to needle him.
Sigh. Well it was just part of this scary and uncomfortable new world he found himself in, wasn't it? He'd live.
Possibly.
Not having an answer to her words Tor decided to work on the problem of holding water stable in space. Actually, holding it in place wasn't that hard at all, it was filling it and then draining it later that would be the problem. He needed to find some water to try it out with. The spring house should work well enough, especially if he didn't let the floor get all wet. Dad hated that, he knew, because damp could lead to rot and disease. Plus, it got everything all wet, which looked sloppy.
His mind reeled as it occurred to him that he could drive low level moisture out of an area by collecting it all in a specific zone away from a given space. Two plates could do it again, like a pump, only more general in action. One to tell the water to move, one to give it a location near which to collect. Duh. He could work that up in a day or two. That would cover the woman from the dinner party's house at least. He could even filter the field, so it wouldn't steal water from living things. That was more complex, but it only had to cover plants and animals, which felt similar as far as the information that made them up, well, compared to dead wood or rocks at least. Yeah, he could do it.
Patricia took his hand and squeezed it a little.
“Earth to Tor. Earth to Tor…” Her laughter brought him back to the moment. He shook briefly, a single start of motion and then smiled.
He'd forgotten where he was for a second. Well, their fault for mentioning fields and devices they wanted. What did they think he was going to do, sit and pay attention to what kind of flowers everyone thought smelled best? As a rule he was voting with Trice on everything. After all, while any of them could call things off, it was Patricia that would most likely wake up one day and remember whatever plan she really had and make it end. He sighed a little.
Tor got it now of course, just as he was getting her help to put off Sorvee house, she was using him as a shield against Count Overland. Right. It made sense. Well, he was her friend, so of course he'd help her for as long as she needed.
When he looked around everyone was staring at him. Ah, right, marriage planning.
“Sorry, I was thinking about fields and devices. I think I can do the sculptures in water you want. I mean, I can make forms that will hold the water in the air. I don't know if I can actually do art or anything, so I hope you're all happy with incredibly stylized as far as that goes…”
Patricia laughed again.
“The question was; who do you want as your best man? That and your groomsmen?”
Tor froze. He was familiar with the concept of best man and groomsmen, but he didn't know what he was supposed to say. Rolph, if he would do it of course, for best man, since he was his best friend, only, would he be allowed? Being Prince of the realm and all could stop that fast. He suggested it and it was simply written down, as if it could actually happen. Tovey for groomsman? Then his oldest brother Teral?
It took massive work on his part, but he managed to keep his attention on the conversation for another hour, when everyone figured that they'd decided about what they could for now. That, of course just made sense. The idea of coming up with plans for something over a year away, a thing that wouldn't even happen… suddenly seemed impossible to him. It made him feel a little sad too, since it would be wonderful to be married to Trice. He took Patricia's arm and walked her out anyway, just in case the mad women that their mothers had become decided that there was even more to be done for some reason.
It was a relief to get away from the whole situation, until they walked towards the main street and heard the commotion out front. At first it sounded like a fight, but Tor couldn't believe that. No one in his family, in his entire village, would be arguing or fighting in front of the nobles, would they? If they had an issue, they'd wait or at least take it off into the woods a ways, so no one would hear it. He started to jog along, still holding Patricia's left hand as he did, hoping whatever it was wouldn't be too embarrassing. Maybe someone was just having problems with the flight controls or something? Or it could be a situation having nothing to do with him or his people at all.
It wasn't that. Of course it wouldn't be something simple.
In the middle of the street, with most of his family standing back and watching from a good distance, about fifty feet away, Timon, small fists flying fast, was in the process of beating up Rolph. Trying to at least.
The Prince had obviously either had on before the attack began, or had triggered, his shield, so the boy wasn't hurting him at all. From around his little brother a cascade of blue-white sparks poured off into the air. Tor triggered his own shield and Trice did the same almost instantly, making that effect go away.
“Um…” Tor spoke in a normal sounding voice, at least he tried to. “What's going on?”
Count Thomson stepped forward chuckling a little. “Well, we were all practicing flying for a while, and decided to take a break and get some water. If I have this right Weasel here came across Rolph and Sara… in a rather compromising state and your brother is now defending her honor.” Smiling a little, with his back slightly to
