They'd also been taken from an attack, injured, still frightened and away from their home without notice, uncertain as to the future, and these royals wouldn't even go and give them a slap on the back? Say, “sorry about the mix up there, have some coins to tide you over…” or anything? They didn't even have to act like they meant it for most of these people. God. Gods. He would have added in the universe, but the universe didn't care.
Tor did though.
Tor got another drink of water from a cask of it, and then went to the trunk containing all his gold. Well he had enough to share anyway. No hardship for him. He went to the man who was farthest away in line, young and dirty looking, standing uneasily and scared suddenly, which made no sense, since the guy was his buddy now, right? They'd been through it together, and if his new friend needed anything he'd get it.
Tor popped the top of the case. The man, no older than he was, goggled a bit. Tor took out ten gold coins under the magic lights that had been set around and handed them to the man.
“To cover your expenses while you're here.” He said loudly enough for everyone to hear. The King was… stony again. A bit of a mental chill came from his position, not quite hidden well enough to miss being noticed.
Well, if he wanted to have a problem with Tor giving money away he could go right ahead and fuck himself up the ass with it. As King he was responsible for everything that had happened that day anyway. That’s what King meant. If it made him angry to see poor people getting money, then screw him. Royally. They'd earned it. He went down the whole line and handed an equal sum to Ward, who didn't have any gold on him since they'd left in kind of a hurry and then turned to the line of men and women.
“Right. We all have to give statements and probably shouldn't be running off before we prove we weren't in on the attack. But after that, everyone is invited to stay at my house until things are settled properly. No one will be left at loose ends. Don't worry, if there's no room, I'll make it. I trust that's sufficient?” Tor looked at the King who nodded as if it was his plan all along. Maybe it was? But if this had been an elaborate trick to get him to pay for everything, well, they could have just asked.
Without waiting for anyone else to plan anything Tor turned on his truth device, the same one he'd used the day before, he thought, and explained how it worked to everyone, Smythe and Ward backing him up on how effective they were. Then he began.
“I did not plan the Austran attack, I'm not working with the Larval assassins and, to the best of my knowledge, nothing I've ever done should have invited such an attack, even though it was, for some reason, clearly aimed at me this time, or at least meant to look that way. I'm not an Austran agent, spy, asset or supporter. And… even though disgruntled right now, I'm loyal to the King and kingdom, which does not preclude a shouting match later, Rich.” He glared up at the King, who just nodded as if it were expected.
Then he went over the whole story of the last week, covering everything he could remember, including his dates with Nita, until he got to being taken into custody. There were things in that story he was proud of, and still others he didn't want everyone here to know. How scared he was that everyone was going to die and how he got sick when he saw what had happened with the Larval for instance. He said that out loud, but then turned, took off the activated amulet and handed it to Smythe.
The man may be an over reactive murdering jerk at times, but he got the point and made his own statement clearly and concisely. The glow matching his robes perfectly. Rolph noticed and indicated it with his head and a tiny half smile at Tor who just nodded somberly. At least someone appreciated his work.
Then Smythe questioned the Count and everyone else in turn by rank, with the idea being that someone of high rank was more likely to be responsible for a Major plot and assassination attempt than the lowest person in the line. Since he'd already gone, that part had been taken care of at least. Oddly enough everyone was cleared fairly easily. Some of the men did lie, but it was about stupid stuff, like the fellow that hadn't wanted to admit he was in the restroom doing his business there when the attack started and hid in fear instead of fighting or even running. He looked ashamed but Tor wondered how well he'd have done if the whole thing had started when he was that vulnerable? Probably no better. Freezing seemed reasonable given those conditions, didn't it?
A few others tried to make themselves seem braver than they were, not mentioning how frightened they'd been while it had happened, of course, and that didn't work with the field they wore. Trice and Sara both tried to hedge, but oddly that was only about what Tor looked like after the fight, which was… bad. So gruesome they didn't want to say the words. Smythe got it out of them, nodding when they explained. He'd seen it too, but hadn't gone into the details when it had been his turn. To him that wasn't overly important. Oddly it was more that he simply expected Tor to just do something like he had, and get back up without pause, nearly dead or not. To the girls it was much worse for some reason, so they had to say the words, because otherwise it would look like they lied.
Ursala, and for some reason Maria, kept gasping when they heard everything, like Tor figuring that the assassins would just kill him, and that his fighting had only been meant to buy people time to escape. That he'd lived at all had been dumb luck and trickery on his part, as well as the fact that Trice, Sara, Ward and Smythe had stayed, prepared to die trying to slow the Larvals after they killed Tor so the others would have a chance. That's what saved him, because Trice had run up and started healing him almost instantly after the last Larval went down.
“I wanted to help before…” She said, her right arm hugging her middle. “We all did… but it was a duel. Tor had called them out, and they agreed to terms, so we couldn't intercede without shaming him.” Her voice shook a bit when she said it.
Almost maniacally he had to laugh at that, there was just too much not to.
“Oh!” He gasped, seeing her face fall a bit, looking baffled. “In the future, if it happens again, shame away! I personally don’t feel any real need to play fairly with assassins.” Everyone looked at him, worried at first, then Richard started to chuckle.
“Noted.” Was all he said though.
When everyone was cleared Tor handed the amulet to the King, already turned on and asked if he'd ordered the events of the day, and if so, in what detail. Everyone else looked horribly uneasy, except Richard who simply nodded and started to speak loudly enough for everyone to hear easily. What he said didn't sound anything like what happened. Not at all.
“I ordered you all detained for questioning and holding for those that needed it. The assassins. The houses were to be set up for your collective comfort, since they have restroom facilities and would be a place to lie down if anyone needed to, in a decent level of comfort, out of the heat and dust. We'd intended to have all this done earlier, but people kept arriving and demanding to be updated.”
The glow didn't so much as flicker.
No one else's did either, and everyone got a turn, since the King had already gone, they couldn't properly refuse, could they? No one balked even. Well, so… as bitter as Tor had felt about the whole thing, at least there was that. Even Ward looked satisfied, or at least didn't have blood in his eyes any more. Trice still looked upset, but she didn't cry, which made Tor love her just a little more at that moment. Her crying was a torment. On top of everything he couldn't have taken that right now.
“Great, someone want to let the guards out, since they obviously haven't figured it out yet for themselves?” Looking at the Prince, Tor shrugged. “It's just a missing sigil…”
The Prince tilted his head, hair still dark, or at least looking dark in the dim light, after a bit he licked his lips.
“And… a sigil… is just a place for people to focus their attention, and mark which device is which? Something not really needed at all, it's the intent that does the work?”
Tor nodded, then turned it into a half bow.
So he really had been listening for all those years at school? It made him feel a little better. The guy was an accounting student after all, and Tor had always wondered if he just nodded his head and murmured polite things when Tor had talked about building. Apparently not. Rolph went to the nearest magic house and slapped the wall lightly, turning the whole thing off. The hot and tired men inside sank to the ground slowly, most of them ending up lying naked in the dirt. He'd left them in their skivvies, but they apparently decided that even that bit of material was too warm. Unlike how they'd treated their prisoners, Tor asked for water to be brought them first thing. Water that wasn’t even tainted. After they were all released, it would be their turn to be questioned.
Most of them didn't know any more than Tor suspected they would about their orders. Go and do, mainly, which was reasonable enough. They followed the lead of the Captain and copied what everyone else was doing. Some of the men knew it was a bit harsh, but figured that the prisoners must have been in on the attack, since
