“There it is! Good, when the sigil turns green like that, then next to it, after about ten seconds, a blue one should show up… There.” Walking the four feet towards the end Tor looked at them dramatically.
“Ready?”
Petra nodded with a little smile, curious, but Martya looked amazed and a tiny bit scared. Why that should be he didn't know. After all, she'd spent the night in a magic house. So a magic shed shouldn't be that amazing, right? Just to get her past her fear Tor asked her to hit the sigil, which set several things into motion at once. Martya jumped back, but laughed as she did.
“What is it doing?” She asked, eyes wide.
Tor just pointed.
The wall near the front vanished completely, leaving only a wall of ice about eight foot high. Then it slowly pushed forward until a foot of clearish white stuck out. A light blue light flashed inside the ice, to show where it was being cut, a crisscross of color, and then the wall reappeared, pushing the whole thing forward again about six inches. The wall of ice was cut into even one foot blocks, or close enough, meaning that there were two hundred and twenty-four one-foot square blocks. He wasn't certain, but guessed that it could do this faster than the blocks could be moved unless they had a large team of people working on it.
“So. What do you say Martya? I mean it's something to try, since you won't actually lose your ability to ply your other trade if it doesn't work out, right? We can easily move it someplace else too, though right now I really think we should build an ice castle in the yard. Not one too high, because it will fall apart when it melts…” Who didn't like an ice castle on a hot day?
Sure, he'd never heard of such a thing before and neither had either of them, but the materials were at hand, so why not? Actually, since they weren't hung over anymore, the girls seemed pretty enthused by the idea, and Petra had an plan, a structure fifty foot long and twenty foot wide… After all, if you wanted a spectacle you didn't go small. Plus the ice was free. For them anyway.
Laughing they did just that, taking hours, and forming an almost solid mass of ice nearly as big as the ice producer itself. People came and started helping after a while, kids at first, but adults soon enough, with food and drink vendors an hour or two after that. Martya quickly realized the potential and started selling the blocks for a half silver each, which seemed a little high to Tor, but had people pulling up in horse draw carts to get it by the load within another two hours. It wasn't even noon and people were coming to see the ice castle, which was kept growing faster than it melted, even with all the sales.
The ground got damp, but no one seemed to mind overly.
People laughed and played, kids and even some of the young adults climbing up on it for as long as they could without freezing. Then they'd jump off, sliding down a ramp of melting ice that people built just for the purpose. He’d smoothed it with a cutter so it was very slick. It looked fun, if wet, so Tor jumped up the side of the castle, which was really a solid rectangle on the bottom and took a turn. It worked, but got him more than a little damp. No one cared though.
At noon Trice, Maria and Marvin all came out with Collette and Ellen trailing by a few minutes. Tor kind of expected the Wards to yell at him for ruining their lawn, but that didn't seem to matter as much as the wealth of ice growing there and the fact that it had been put there as a free entertainment. That part, seemed to be the real selling point. That it was a gift to everyone.
They all looked grumpy and tired, except Ellen who looked well rested and even happy enough, seeing all the smiling faces. Someone had gotten a band to come, which Martya cleverly paid instantly, making it worth their while to spend the day. They played happy tunes that matched the mood of the crowed.
Petra ran up to them and started passing a healing device around which made everyone happier inside a minute or two.
When it came around to Ellen she took it, but clearly didn't think much would happen, having been wise with the amount she drank the night before. Standing stiffly at first, her eyes closed, like almost everyone else had, her face relaxed after a bit and she smiled, a real genuine thing that took in her eyes as well as her mouth. She didn't let go of it for a long time, nearly ten minutes, even as people stared. A popping sound came from her lower back, which made her wince and cry out, but then she sighed.
Eyes still shut she nodded slowly at first, getting faster as she went, “OK Tor… I'll let you have my virginity…” She murmured dreamily, making the crowd of watchers laugh. She smiled again and opened her eyes wide. The whites were a pure now, without the slight yellowish tint of age they'd had before, turning the amulet off she handed it back to Petra, then leaned in whispered something to her, which got a chuckle from the people around them, but a nod from her daughter. That made everyone smile, except Trice who looked suddenly angry. She glared at Petra, and then him, for some reason Tor didn't get.
Did Ellen say something about her maybe? That didn't make sense. As far as Tor could tell they hardly knew each other. Well, Trice would tell him or not, or if it got bad enough, he'd ask. Then she wouldn't tell him, because “he knew what he'd done” or something like that probably. It was a favorite line of his mothers with the boys when she was particularly displeased over something that would have been too minor to anyone else to even notice. Luckily Trice didn't remind him that much of his mother at all.
The ice festival, impromptu as it was, needed some games, which the Count and Countess got to come up with, that being the tradition in Ward. Tor offered some of his little devices as prizes for them. He got out some lights, Temperature equalizers, Not-flyers and cutters. For a grand prize he offered one of the houses complete with water pump, one of the purifying kind.
The games were at once familiar, and disturbing to his country bred mind. The contests for the kids were unique, but made sense in a way. Like one were the competitors had to sit on blocks of ice, the one that lasted the longest won a Not-flyer. A basic idea that wasn't so much skill or luck based. Good for the young ones, or at least Tor thought so at first.
It came down to a little boy of about five and a twelve year old girl, both in clear agony, who refused to let the other win. At an hour Tor went into his house and got one of the remaining devices in that set and brought it out, handing it off to the Count. The large man declared them both the winner, in a loud booming voice, and presented then each with a unit with a happy smile and congratulations.
Petra suggested that they earmark both of those kids for military service later, because they'd already proved they were tough enough, hadn't they? Ward nodded, but with a somber sidelong glance at Tor as if wondering what he'd say about the idea.
He just shrugged.
“The girl will need to go to school in a few years regardless. Get with me when it's time and I'll cover her for that. The boy too, when it comes time. I have some connections in that area, or will at least, by then.”
Marvin bowed. Honestly he looked more than a little happy about it. Like it was a gift for him personally or something. Then again, as the Count, any child given an education from his area was a good thing, right?
If anything that made the rest of the competitors work even harder for some reason. There was a fruit eating contest, which was close enough to things Tor recognized really, even if the fruit was unique to him, bananas, followed by people eating raw fish.
If it was up to Tor, each person willing to take a single bite and keep it down would have gotten a prize, because he nearly lost his lunch just watching. The contestants ate with vigor and seemed to enjoy it and the winner of that contest put away pounds of the stuff.
The contests that got to Tor a bit were the later ones, in the afternoon. The ladies dance competition sounded innocent enough. After all, what harm was there in dancing and bouncing around to music? All the women that wanted to compete went out into the green and danced, using their best and showiest moves. It was to last ten songs, with the crowd hooting and clapping at the end of each musical number for each in turn, the one with the most applause winning the round. Win the most rounds and you got the prize. By the fourth a woman just sank to her knees and started mimicking pleasing a man with her mouth. It was funny and pretty provocative, Tor thought, figuring that would end there, or possibly be copied in the next round since that woman, a cute red-head with dark skin, at least as dark as Petra, won that dance.
Instead, in the next round half the women took their tops off and danced that way, to the hoots of the crowd, who were starting to get a little drunk already, as early as it was. Two dances later all of them were completely nude and thrusting in the air and sometimes with each other and in the last round several of them were openly pleasuring themselves while the band played. Tor moved close to Petra and asked, a little timidly, if this kind of thing was normal. She shook her head and glanced at him, looking away from the spectacle for a bit.
