cheaper to buy the land and then get me to help with construction for instance. Or… at least I may know people, you know? That kind of thing. I'm not going to be here most the time, so the whole thing is on your honor.” Tor jumped up and got her a shield, a good one, but not the best kind, remembering his promise to himself to keep those so that people hunting him didn't have easy access for testing. That had been what Smythe had done, he was sure. Gotten his own shield and then tried different things until he found a gap.
Never again.
“This way you won't be easily jumped or attacked. I should be in and out here for a while though. Just keep my share for me? If you spend it all, expect me to come begging for food at your door if I'm ever broke.” Tor raised his eyebrows playfully and grinned. He meant it though. The whole begging for scraps at her door thing.
The woman looked shocked and repeated everything he said verbatim, sounding a bit doubtful. He smiled and nodded with her though and by the time she finished she was smiling too. Then he warned her about shields and how they only worked if you used them. And really, if she got so drunk that she lost consciousness and left her shield off to drink, those guys would probably get her, and she'd wake up with a sore behind, since they seemed to have been just waiting for her to make a mistake before. Possibly other women as well, but Tor couldn't hand out shields to all the women of Ward. Not with a war on. They were needed elsewhere for now.
She winced.
“Yeah, you'd think I'd learn after the first four times, but I keep right on drinking. I'll cut back though, I promise. Half the drinking was because I wasn't happy with my job, this is way nicer, and I get to help people too. We may need to buy a location though. Any minute now the counts going to wake up and realize that he could be charging us rent!”
That, they decided, could come out of his share. Rent or new land. Why not?
Martya left, her hips dancing a little as if to the saucy beat of the music outside, though Tor didn't hear it until she opened the door to leave.
Collette watched him as he locked the door and sat back down, her eyes never leaving him, attention riveted. She had some design ideas with her that they looked at, which made Tor realize that even the King’s palace or the big house next to them, as grand as they were, could have been improved upon if the design team had included her. Their loss of course. There was enough there for ten houses, but that could work, if the mental controls could be made to do all he wanted… Actually he could just do it with sigils, but he had something else to design. A hand just wouldn't work well if it required sigils to function would it?
They went room to room with her describing as exactly as she could what she meant. Tor listened and tried to absorb it all, making sure he asked questions if he wasn't completely certain about something. It wasn't that hard, but things like textures and color options were important. They did the bathroom last and she pointed out how the tub could move in different ways and how movable screens could be used to make the space more cozy for a couple, or even more if that's what they wanted.
The tub could be made to grow or shrink on command he realized, something else to put in if he could. It was a lot of new information, plus different textures and colors, it could glow too… Interesting enough things.
He heard something behind him, a rustling of fabric, which got him to turn just as Collette finished removing her undergarments.
“Run us a bath, would you?” She asked, her legs spread a bit, so that he'd notice their long beauty and how they led all the way up to the blond hair between.
He did. Tor noticed all of her really. Very much so.
The next day was nice, since he woke up with a lovely woman in his arms and then was able to start right in to work on the project for her as soon as she left. It didn't take as long as he thought, which meant he'd gone deep. In a lot of ways he couldn't remember even doing the work. Tor knew he had though. It was there and held his mental field signature, so no one else did it for him while he wasn't looking. Then, that's pretty much what states that deep meant, right? It was a different part of his being doing the work. To his conscious plan, but it wasn't the Tor everyone knew really. It was the deep him. In many ways the real Tor.
At dinner he ate a decent amount not really noticing the food overly and then collected the Baronetta, as well as a crowd of people that wanted to see what he'd made. Laughing he told them he hoped it wasn't just a huge failure, making them go silent instead of chuckle. Tor covered by clearing people from a space and then turning the new little house on.
It worked wonderfully and Collette wasn't the only one to squeal and clap when the inside was revealed. When Tor asked first Collette and then other people to touch objects and start picking new colors people became ecstatic, clapping and stomping as if it were a show instead of a simple field test. Then he explained how to alter the decor by touching it and imagining what you wanted. What you got was almost always different than what you thought about, because the design had to be in the device, but it did work well enough for each room to be changed to suit a person’s needs.
They added rooms first then several stories to it and finally changed how the outside looked, through different types of stone, brick and wood. The roof was always the same in look, a steeple with tile shingles, but the colors could be changed from the ground. They could do other angles of course, but this way he could see it. Once they had what people thought looked nice, Tor shut the field off.
This was the real test. If it worked right, everything would come back as they were left. It was a hard field to add, almost a kind of intelligence, but just memory. To Tor’s relief it worked perfectly. That would be useful for Trice’s project too. The integration the amulet learned could be saved for later, so if she took it off, it wouldn't have to be relearned all over again each time.
Petra's clothing device was, well not simple, but doable after that. It took two days, being much more in- depth and flexible than a mere house, so that people could basically build their own outfit from scratch, even creating almost any outfit they could imagine. Still when he came to the surface no one seemed upset by his “absence”. Oddly that cheered him up a little. It meant that when he left in a few days no one would worry about it too much. He'd taken enough time “off” for now and had to get the investigation going somehow.
That meant Smythe.
Wheee.
Maybe he should go find Dorgal Sorvee and see if the boy wanted to apprentice with the older man? They could sit around making complicated plans to “get” him or something. Maybe Dorgal could act as his hand or something?
That reminded him that he should probably ask Trice if she wanted to go with him to the Capital too. She hadn't spoken to him in days, but then, if she had something to say, she knew not to be shy, didn't she? It wasn't like her to try and wait to say anything. Not if she cared at all. Maybe she didn't? She didn't seem happier here, the girl didn't seem like she wanted to be anywhere, just sad all the time. If it was just her arm, well, yeah, that wasn't good. Tor knew he needed to work harder on that for her, but there was a lot to learn first. If it was him…
Well, he didn't have to be around if that would make things better for her, did he? Still, they were friends and he'd ask at least. Even if she didn't answer. Because that's what you did for your friends, you were there for them, no matter what.
Even if they were being a pain in the ass.
The morning they were to leave Collette mentioned that she'd like to travel with him, since she had some things to do back in the Capital. She made this pretty plain by showing up with her bags in tow. She had old fashioned flight plates for them, but no follow-alongs. He'd have to make sure he got her some. It made navigating the city much easier. He hadn't made any for a while though. Not since the batch he'd made for the shop keepers in Printer.
Collette cleared her throat a little, and looked nervous about something. Since they'd already had sex and she'd made a point of inviting him for it again, that didn't make a lot of sense. After about ten seconds she looked down and back up, taking a breath.
“Actually Tor… I guess I should just ask… Could… we set up the same type of operation that you have with Martya, only there? In the Capital? I think that ice sales would do as well there as here, maybe better and I could get a little land near the Kings river to use as a water source, but not too far away from the city for the ice to reach daily. I'd like to try anyway. I know that I might seem a bit air-headed at times, but I'm a hard worker, diligent and well educated, if not in business. Running a home or keep takes-”
“OK.” Tor didn't wait, he dug out the proper amulets and went over how to set them up, promising to help if he could. It was a good idea. That he hadn't thought of it probably meant that she was smarter than he was, that
