Normally they could just let him swing the next day or so and call it good.
But if Swarley swung for filching one little device of Tor's, that made his letting Holly off a joke, didn't it? Tor just crossed his arms and stared at her, hard, a blank look on his face, making her look away before speaking. At least she got the idea and didn't try to kill the kid right then. Instead she decided to let him keep the light and repay Tor and the shop keepers with work, which was not to take longer than ten years or less than five. It also couldn't happen in Printer. Basically an exile. Looking directly at the boy she spoke sternly as she explained.
“Theft at this level is a serious crime Mr. Jones. If this happened a month ago, you'd be dead right now. It is only through the grace of Master Tor, who is far kinder than I think you know, that your life is being spared. You'll work at whatever task we see fit, until such time that the value of the light you took, fair market value, is repaid in full. Now we have to decide what to actually do with you that won't seem too much like a reward.”
Tor thought they should just put him in school, but everyone else figured that would be a little too pleasurable and might lead to others following suit on the chance of the same “punishment”. Tor didn't know, a poor boy without resources at Lairdgren was in for a hard time, but apparently it was the appearance of it being unpleasant that they were looking for. Trice smiled wickedly.
“Oohh! I know. Tor owns a whorehouse. Ursala and Madam Clarissa have been talking about adding in some boy whores, so Swarley would fit. The clients are all military, and nice enough, so you won't be abused or anything, probably have to work in the kitchens or building factory part time, because most of the men prefer women. But… well, when I was there we got paid for kitchen work too at least. I don't know if that still stands though. It's your house Tor…”
What? It wasn't his, even though everyone else was nodding at him like he controlled things there. Finally Tor looked at the boy and shrugged.
“No.” He said simply, shaking his head, “We'll teach him to fly and he can run errands for the palace or the military, that or get him a job with Two Bends fast delivery. I'll outfit him and if he runs off, well, that would be insanely stupid. Making him slave for the Troll of Galasia should be enough to keep people happy right? I won't even cut his hand off. I promise.” Tor turned to the boy and smiled winningly. “The last person I had a real problem with lost a hand over it. Don't make me do that again. Please.”
It wasn't much of a threat, but Tor didn't want the kid to think he could just steal and go unpunished either. Then he'd never learn, would he?
Swarley glanced at Trice.
“You ma'am?” Fear dripped from his voice and he shrunk into himself.
A little evil she chuckled, shook her head and then told the absolute truth, though in a way that sounded horrible, even to Tor.
“No, this was something different, a fight with assassins that tried to kill a bunch of people. No, Tor crippled the minister of the military because the man was angry that Tor had beaten up about six hundred soldiers. At once.” She said it in her slightly teasing fashion, but Kolb corrected her anyway, being a stickler for accuracy when it came to fighting.
“Closer to five hundred. Just slightly over, and he actually only engaged slightly over four hundred at any one time. A few wisely stood out of the way I believe. Not that I want to promote cowardice, but given how outmatched they were, they should have all run. It doesn’t serve to stand to battle when you can’t win. At least if it isn’t aiding someone else at the time.” That's all he said. There was no inflection in the tone or smile to soften it. Just a statement of a fact.
Tor winced, just a little. It made him sound like a bully or something. Swarley swallowed and asked if that whorehouse position was still open, getting a laugh from everyone. Except Tor. He didn't laugh at all, worried about what to do with the extra burden of the boy.
Holly stood and bowed to Tor.
“No, you are to serve as Master Builder Tor has said, running messages for the palace or military and doing whatever else you're told, until such time that your efforts match the full value of what was stolen. You may keep the light, which I suggest you sell to the highest bidder, so that your debt will be repaid faster. It is so ruled. Swarley Jones, for the next five years at least, you belong to Master Tor.” Her face went pale. “Tor… try not to be too good to him. At least not here where anyone can see. We need to make an example of him or everyone will be doing it.”
Like they'd made of her? Tor wanted to say it, but he didn't. She got it, her face said so, if not her words, and his rubbing it in wouldn't help at all. So what could he do? Well for the time being… Treat him like a Squire? Keep him running errands non-stop? The boy would probably just run off, but if he didn't… well, in a year or so maybe sooner, they could change his name and put him in Lairdgren far away from the city of Printer. Then Tor had an idea.
“Kolb… Would you see to his training for me? I’ll pay for it. Say a hundred and four gold per year?” It was exactly what the members of the secret army made. Tor didn’t have to hint further, the large man just nodding after a few seconds.
“That could work. I’ll test him first and set him to running those errands when he’s not training. Then put him with the Two Bends Delivery service, if that plays out. Useful skill, knowing where places are. I might have a couple other kids that would take well to that work, if there are positions available.”
Tor smiled and nodded a bit. That would work and no one would think that Kolb would be “Too nice” would they? Holly went blank, but didn’t say anything about his paying Kolb more than a year of school would cost as an apprentice fee. She didn’t even mention it was more than the light would cost.
When Tor finalized the arrangements with the weapons master, Kyle, the head guard, started crying. Not loud and nothing that everyone saw in the dim light of the room. Tor noticed it, but decided to ignore it, though he wondered if he'd done something wrong. Holly just told him it was up to him. She didn't say anything more. She didn’t seem happy though.
That done, the wind still picking up everyone waited for a while, since it was hours until dinner would normally be served. It was boring, since no one wanted to waste their stories until after the meal, which made sense to him. Did he have any stories to tell?
Not really, he was kind of boring really, Tor knew. All building and work most of the time. As the wind began to howl and the roof shudder and moan a bit under the whistling sound, thunder parting the night after the sudden jolt that preceded it, Tor realized that the feeling of the field was familiar… Like when the Larval assassin had attacked him.
“Hey, does anyone know, is lightning electricity?” This got a laugh from half the people in the room. Swarley didn't laugh at him, but the poor kid was probably wondering how big his member was, and if he liked to use lubricant or not. Since it was a moot point, and the kid would learn that soon on his own, Tor didn't bother with the idea. A year ago he hadn't even known that would be physically possible. The idea left him feeling a little ill. But different places, different customs.
It turned out that almost everyone in the room knew a lot more about electrics than he did, even though they weren't used in Noram as a rule. Unless produced by magic. That got Tor's attention. He knew other places did things differently, but he hadn't heard about rules about it. Trice and Petra went into depth about the basics of electricity even describing how it moved, positive and negative poles… Half of what they said just went over his head for the time being, but closing his eyes he felt the lightning and tracked it, then tried to feel the field behind it. It was hard at first, until he realized it was like light in a way.
Hesitating he spoke slowly, hoping everyone wouldn't laugh this time.
“So… if directed to do so, it can go into the ground and even wants to, sort of?” Opening his eyes he looked around, and found that Petra was nodding at least. She seemed to know the most about the subject for some reason.
Closing his eyes to consider the situation it became clear that it wasn't even something hard to do. Like light, it was a field at the base level, so as long as he gave it clear instructions, it should do what he said. Duh. As lighting crashed in that moment, Tor wondered if banging his head into the table would make him any dumber. No, that probably couldn't happen, being the moron that he already was. It was all so obvious, once someone pointed it out to him. He could direct light, and had, the sigils on the new pieces for instance. Even creating it for a time. So, if he formed a ball in the air that told electricity to go inward instead of casting out or into the ground and filled it with a general field of the stuff…
It took half an hour of deep concentration, which wasn't bad for a brand new field at all. It came into being
