recognize it. This is better though. Why would I be suicidal… crap, where's Holly! Is she alright, and Kolb, Davie… what did I miss?”
Petra reached over the small table and patted his arm.
“Nothing like that, they just went to get your stuff and oversee some of the training being done, because David is going to be in charge of it for a while. A few weeks. Kolb just went to keep Holly company. You understand. They weren't close that way during school, but they’re both adults and alone, so, why not, right? She always liked him. Your things should have come down yesterday, but there was a letter saying some kind of problem had happened. Nothing big probably, but Holly wanted to check for herself. She feels really bad about everything.”
Ah. Well, that made sense then. Still, why had Trice of all people thought he was suicidal? She'd seen him work before and he hadn't taken long at all, not for what he'd done. Really, if it worked, he was planning to be kind of proud of it even. All he needed was a halfway open space to test it in. That and food. He wondered if it would be rude to just ask. It was probably in the book Karen had lent him…
Tor went still.
Holly had lent him the book. Karen had never done anything like that. Why was he thinking about her suddenly? Because they'd been friends and she died? Plus, she'd been friends with Holly, so there was a link.
He let the pain fade after a bit and kept slowly sipping at his warm chocolate. It tasted rich, enough to make hunger go away? Not likely. He'd last eaten real food two days before, nearly two and a half now, at the restaurant. He may not feel hunger while he worked, thank goodness for that, talk about distracting, but he had to make up for it when he could. A few minutes’ later plates of food, large dishes of fried eggs, pancakes and summer sausages came out. Honey was put in front of each of them in a little container and whipped butter melted slowly on top of everything.
Tor ate hungrily, just hoping his manners weren't so terrible that he embarrassed himself.
He didn't let himself eat quickly, but it took an act of will, and he finished everything and didn't even feel overly full. The amount of food was the same as what the others had too. He normally ate about a third of what they did, except Varley, who tended to eat about the same. Today she ate half a plate but didn't comment on what he'd finished. That made sense, she probably knew what he'd been eating better than he did.
Everyone seemed more than a little bored, which Tor could understand.
“Hey, I know, I have something to test and need and open area, why don’t we all go to the beach?” It should serve, space wise.
Petra grinned at him and went to grab her bathing clothes, but Trice couldn't go into the water yet because of the wound on her arm and Varley demurred for some reason, maybe to make Trice feel better about not swimming?
Tor rolled his eyes.
“You don't really think I'm going for the swimming do you?” He said playfully, but they still didn't want to go. Oh well. Hopefully they weren't angry with him or something. They didn't seem like it. Did they have real work to do? That could be. Or maybe they wanted to talk alone? They were cousins so that also might be the case.
When Petra came down she was wearing a body hugging suit of material that looked almost shiny, even though it was black. It wasn't silk, he didn't think. She looked good in it and she carried a towel, handing him one as well. Not that he planned to swim, he told her, earning a shrug.
“Rocks are hard to lie on, and a little jagged at times. This will let you lay out without needing medical attention. Plus you’ll be able to dry off after I throw you in the water. That’s the tradition for people that go to the beach and don’t want to swim.” The very tall girl grinned when she said it at least.
Tor took the towel. If it was a tradition, then he’d have to swim. Apparently if he wanted too or not.
The path was winding and mainly in the shade, but the beach was huge, a vast stone covered thing that ran for miles in either direction and had only a gentle slope to it at the top. It dropped quickly closer to the water, which meant they shouldn't even get wet if they stayed far enough away. Smiling he found a good enough spot, pretty flat and big enough, then asked Petra to come stand by him as he took the little glass disk out of his shirt. The edges weren't sharp at least and it came with holes already drilled or cut into it. She took his left hand, which was a nice gesture, though not needed. He just didn't want to leave her out, this wasn't dangerous at all. Unless he'd done it wrong, then it could kill them both of course. Tor gripped the dark tan hand with a grin.
He tapped the plain blue piece of glass, her hand nearly touching it as well, and waited.
It didn't look like anything had happened at first, but suddenly they weren't on a beach at all anymore. The world rocked a bit, they rose in the air a few inches, and everything changed. They stood inside a modestly sized, but pretty, stone dwelling. It had windows with shutters inside, all done in bright red. A wood table and four chairs, four beds, each big enough for even Count Thomson, though possibly not the King or Count Ward, and two doors at the back and one to the right. He pointed to that one and grinned. Tor removed the pendant and hung in on a hook near the post in the center of the dwelling. It had no other purpose than to hold the amulet, which could be left there until the field failed if a person were so inclined. That would be years probably. Maybe longer. None of the fields he'd made himself had gone off yet, not that he knew of.
All fields failed, of course, they had to over time, but so far so good.
Inside the little interior door there was a kitchen. It had excellent counter space, an oven, cold box and stove. While it looked like a brick oven, and metal grill, the heat was all gathered from the ground below them and, when turned on, would remove some heat from the cold box too. Tor turned everything on, which seemed to work at least. He had to flip his new equalizer off, to tell, which made him chuckle a bit. He always forgot the equalizer at first for some reason.
Taking Petra by the hand he led her first to the restroom, which looked normal, but wasn't, as far as plumbing was concerned. It would work anywhere, water or not, heating the waste and shuffling it deep into the ground directly once it was turned into dried powder. That had been a bit of work, because it had to carry who knew how much waste away seamlessly. It did it by spreading the field for it over time, passing the waste out to an increasing space. Hopefully it would always be enough. The next room had a huge tub and shower both that would have warm water once he got a supply hooked up.
“I could do it from the ocean if I had a desalinating pump ready. I can make one, but this isn't for here really, I can turn it on and off and carry it with me, which is the real point. You know, so that no one can really take my house away easily again. Hard to do if I have spares. Let’s look outside?”
Petra giggled, which was entirely out of place on her frame and took his hand again, as if she wanted too or something. It was really nice of her, he decided, being willing to touch him like that. Maybe she thought she'd be getting one of the houses out of it? Tor grinned. He had spares, so why not? When she got him outside she spun in place, which swung him around too.
The view was worth looking at, as much as looking at any house would be. It was all stone, in look, but, as he explained, it was really just a shield with nearly perfect insulation. It had temperature controls of course, on the far side of the central post. It's own light fields too, if the light from outside wasn't enough, say at night. The windows even looked real. They weren't, nothing about it was. Really, if you thought about it carefully, the whole thing only pretended to be there at all, existing only in potential. It just did a really good job of pretending, that was all. But it was a house and if he had to move, he could pack it with him. On him even. Several of them, just in case. Going back in he sat on one of the beds, which was soft and formed to him perfectly.
“Oohhh,” Petra lounged back, the force field mattress, a white thing on the top that looked like a regular bed otherwise, if one with logs for legs and the wall as a headboard. “This is nice! I could live in a place like this. Maybe have a private bedroom added on? Could it be made bigger, do you think?”
Tor stood with a groan. He was just tired of course.
More? Yes, he could modify it now, no problem. But it was good sized already. Bedrooms he could do, but this was basically just a tent so far. A really nice tent that someone could live in, as long as they didn't have a lot of stuff. It was bigger than his old house by about fifty percent, being nearly seventy five feet deep and fifty wide. Big enough for him anyway. But, unlike Petra he wasn't the child of a Count, raised to luxury and waste.
No… he was the grandchild of one, raised deep in the woods in middle of a forest in a fairly run down bakery and modest sized house with thirteen people in it. It made a difference. Probably half of the real reason why it had happened that way. So that they'd all grow up knowing how to be humble. It worked, so why not?
Petra wanted to go swimming then, new magical house or not, which seemed reasonable. It was a cool enough device, but it really couldn't compare to the ocean out in front of them. The expanse of water was… humbling. Until about a year before he'd never seen anything like it. Oh, the descriptions of it were part of his basic
