Everyone knew that. The same with the rest of it though, he'd never even seen a fishing boat before, but realized that if he had an example, maybe he could help. It wouldn't hurt to look into it at least, right? No one knew to ask if he could do it though, so they didn’t.
Holly looked at him sadly when he said that, jaw clenching, as if it were an insult she didn't feel she deserved or something. It was one of those baffling things that didn't make a lot of sense to him. How would his helping her people be an insult to Holly? Was he not supposed to help? Or was it that she thought they owed him already or something, and here he was compounding the debt? That…
Tor didn't know how to explain it to her, but that it was an emergency and besides, there were no debts between friends, right? So of course anything that could be done to help would be. Even if it made her mad at him.
Inside her house she had plans and pictures of boats, a lot of them huge, but she assured him that the fishing craft were smaller, and powered by the wind. Tor realized that he could use a similar rudder set up to what was already used and something like the flight field for a cargo lift that would let people move almost the way they were used to in the water now and control their speed on purpose without rigging and sails. Maybe at least. If he didn't just mess it all up.
Later that day they went to the docks and Tor tried to memorize the way the brown wooden ships looked, their rough size and how they worked to collect fish. That part was important. A nifty craft that went where you wanted would be nice, but unless they could use them the way they were used to, people wouldn't. New things were treated with suspicion in most places.
For good reason. New things could have flaws, or dangers you wouldn't know about, since they were, by definition, new.
The boats he came up with were like the houses, not real at all, but they looked and felt right. Solid and correct to the touch, textured exactly like smooth wood. They didn't have sails, instead they had a single lever that controlled speed next, to the big round driver's wheel boat captains used. They gave the first one to a man named Jaime who, spat when he heard the idea, grumbled and groused about the evils of magic and then took off, and went out when no one else could. Hours earlier. Before they got to the end of the wooden peer to look for the next person to test it, three more walked over and asked to try one too. In all Tor handed out twenty that day. By night fall they had enough fish for everyone and a good bit of shellfish and giant reddish insects too.
Lobsters, the monsters were called. They even had a menacing name.
That led to an unexpected problem that everyone wanted Tor to solve himself, even Holly left it to him, smiling. Not as if it was funny, just like it would be a happy thing all around.
No price or fee had been given to the fishermen who used the boats. Holly suggested half their catch for the use of the craft, which they all agreed to readily. Tor didn't need that much fish personally, not even to give to his friends, but for the time being he could just give the fish away, right? People needed it, and while the free stuff would go first, hopefully that meant everyone would eat.
Another ten fishermen, all of these with intact boats, wanted to rent his as well. They were too good to pass up, weren't they? One of the men chuckled about it a little with Tor when he came to see about getting one.
“Jaime said he had his up to near forty knots! Didn't even stress the haul and that was into the wind. Even if he was lying and no man has ever said they heard Jaime telling tales, if it does half that it's worth the fish. Can't get a better rent than that, can you? Fish don't bite, we don't pay, and none to say against it? Sign me up admiral!” The man had a gray beard and was thin and hard looking in body, but Tor gave him an amulet too.
If they were careful they could take them out without ever getting in the water, he thought, though that part of it was a little trickier than it sounded. It helped to be flying at the time. Tor had learned the hard way. Twice. Well, he knew how to swim at least and it provided amusement for the hardened fishermen when he fell off the docks trying to lean over far enough for the boats to go in.
Five days later, leaving most of the fields behind for Holly to use, Tor had to figure they were gone, if not into some other project of Holly's, then into the pockets of the people using them. That seemed to be the rule, people just taking the things he made without even bothering to ask about it. If it kept up he might have to start thinking they were valuable or something.
It helped for now, with the clean up and rescue operations. A lot of people didn't have other houses than the ones they'd handed out any more either, and the water system they set up was kind of supporting the whole town. It was about all he had to offer really for the time being. The rest had to be up to each person, caring for themselves and their own.
Staying wouldn't help anyone, so Tor loaded his one case, the one he'd gotten from Sara Debri a long time before, and flew off with Petra and Trice, headed to Warden. This time he could just follow Petra, who actually knew the way, which made it fast and… well, not any more direct, just more certain. A thing he would have lacked going alone. It made him feel a bit better about it, because just setting off and flying long distances was always a little spotty until you knew the way.
The city was pretty in the daylight, he decided. White and green were the main colors, with a smattering of rust red and yellow just to keep things interesting. It radiated life. Friendliness.
They were all shielded and armed, the fields were all on stone, which was cheap for him, but high quality, because the fields would last longer. Regardless, these shields would stop light and electricity and using what he'd learned from that, he made it so that it wouldn't just stop death dust and other tiny particles. It created controlled fields of hyper intense heat to cook them before they could make contact. Searing, but on such a tiny scale you almost didn't notice it, except that the shield flared purple to let you see it happening. He'd built that in, to let them know if an attack started. It was kind of pretty, since there were little things in the air part of the time, and on rare occasion one would hit you by chance. He'd nearly freaked the first time, thinking it was the Austrans, but it seemed to be everywhere. Every now and again you'd notice a single little flash or two.
The weapons were reworked too, so that if they started to be blocked by a shield they'd shift to something else, until the weapon got through. That required a built in feedback mechanism, which was the hard part. You could also pick a given weapon type by hitting the glowing sigil for it along the stone rectangle. They were pretty lethal though, so he had to caution against using them carelessly. It was better than nothing, or being stuck, faced with someone wearing a really good shield and holding the wrong weapon in your hand, one that would do nothing. This gave you eight options, two of which would go through even his own shields, well, the old ones at least. He wasn't giving the new ones out this time, since that kept backfiring on him. Well, to Trice and Petra, and maybe a few other people, since if they attacked him, he wouldn't want them hurt by mistake. But no one else. If Smythe attacked him again, the man was going down.
As they flew in to the park in front of the palace, and the Wards estate was that, without a doubt. A beautiful thing in the daylight, white and gold, edging reminding him of a royal’s wedding cake. Easily as large as the King’s dwelling now that he saw it in real light and from slightly above.
Petra waived them down, so they could land near a marble fountain in a paved white stone courtyard. That's what Tor thought it would be called at least. But… a courtyard had to have walls, didn't it? This was surrounded by short, perfectly trimmed grass, palm trees growing in rows along the outer edges and some low bushes that seemed well groomed. They were notable mainly because their broad leaves had stark red shot through them. Pretty but a little freaky looking too.
“We should walk from here, I think. I… don't know what kind of greeting Marvin and Maria will have for me. They may send me away from the city. Maria really hates me…” Petra looked grim, her face set, like she expected to be humiliated by her family in front of her friends.
Tor set up the follow along fields on the luggage and took her hand gently, giving it a squeeze. It was an awkward thing, trying to work with both their shields, but it was the idea that counted. He hoped. Really he didn't know what to do with her now that they'd been together like they had. Was he supposed to keep it secret, act like it didn't matter at all, as if nothing had happened, or treat her as special and wonderful all the time? His inclination was to shower her with gifts and kisses, but no one acted like that. Not royals at least. He was one of them now, so needed to act correctly.
So for someone of her station that meant what? Sleep with her mother? It was a funny thought, but Tor wasn't sure it was an actual joke. The rules were just so incredibly different now.
The walk didn't take long, even at the slow speed they were going, barely a crawl, because Petra didn't want to set off any guards that might be in place. Not because they were dangerous, but just to protect them from Tor. The idea got him to stick his tongue out at her.
