The rest of what they talked about was interesting, but didn't shake his world nearly as much, he realized when it was all over. That he was designed to help protect the world was less mentally taxing than some of the other things that were said. He was smart? He got that he did all right with building, but actually intelligent in all areas? It seemed unlikely, but Burks assured him that all he had to do was apply himself and his mind wouldn't fail him.
In regards to appearance he had to shake his head and, rude or not he called Burks, his Ancient grandfather, a liar. Right to his face. He expected a beating for it, but that didn't come. Instead he was sat in front of a mirror and they talked about what made a person good looking. It was all there, but he didn't see it. He couldn't. It was just him.
Sighing the old man sat and… got young.
His face melted into a younger one over the course of minutes, until he finally looked about fourteen or so. Then he gestured up at the face.
“Good enough looking? Don't be polite about it, I can take your honest appraisal. I've looked like this for longer than Noram has been around, by nearly a thousand years. Go ahead, really look. Rip me apart, I won't be mad.”
The face was bare and clean shaven, attractive, nearly too pretty really, kind of girlish. It was the kind of face that all the girls at school talked about wanting in a man and gushed over, when they weren't discussing how much they loved all the massive and brutish combat giants. The skin was still pale, like his, but that just made him look better somehow, exotic. Almost everyone had darker skin than this. He didn't, but even his brothers and sisters did. His Mother didn't. Tiera his thirteen year old sister didn't, maybe a little, but those were the only ones he could think of, except his uncle Dan, who was like they were. So an Ancient trait?
The look wasn't like Count Ward, who was about the best looking man Tor had ever seen, but it was darn close in level, if totally different. Maybe even better looking? He spelled all this out to Lairdgren, hoping thousands of years really would give him some perspective.
Tor was calling him a bit feminine after all.
The man didn't say anything at all, just gave a grin that was slightly playful and lopsided, then pulled him back in front of the mirror. Not exactly in front of it, off to the side a little. The Count moved in front keeping Tor out of view.
“Now look, in the mirror, what do you see?”
Tor's reflection looked back at him. Only it wasn't his, it was Lairdgren's.
Oh.
In the reflection the face suddenly looked plain and boring, maybe slightly homely. When Tor looked at Burks, it was the same face only much better looking. Just because it wasn't him?
“We're genetically the same person Tor. We think alike, we look alike, everything. Yes, there are differences in the pattern, the main one being the combat rage, which was a trait of the original Cordes. It must have slipped in from Douglas's genes somehow, or your grandmothers side of the family… No, it has to be from Douglas… I don't have the genes for that at all, no one else in the family does. Other than that we're closer than identical twins would be.”
Oh.
Tor had to not think about it, because it scared him a little. Not that he was actually good looking, that was… nice. It would make things easier, wouldn't it? People liked good looking folk better. It was hard not to.
No it was that he still looked into the mirror and saw… a troll. Not literally, but when it was him, he knew the same face couldn't be more than average at best, even though on someone else it looked… fine. Excellent really. It was a face he could credit someone pretty like Petra actually wanting to spend time with, and not just doing it to be nice. Or even Collette. Or the Queen. The idea shook him more than a little. After all, they only liked him as a friend, right? They were fond of him, which was mainly because they were good people, not having anything to do with him at all…
The Ancient distracted him by growing older in front of his eyes, it was amazing.
“You probably can't do it yet, wait till you're about twenty-five or so, if I remember that correctly, and it will suddenly kick in. You'll just wake up one day and know. It won't be hard for you then. This…” He gestured to himself, now looking like he normally did.
“Is about the limit. I think the doctors that did the initial design were giving an eye towards vanity. Back then being old wasn't a good thing, not in Noram, so they left it out. Some of the others, Black and Red, can look older, and Red was designed to not be half as good looking as the rest of us, part of the program to allow for variety, since no one really knew what would work in the end. She can also shape shift into… well, it's something to see. If you ever get the chance you should ask her about it.” He let his hands go wide and smiled, a thing that touched his eyes and turned into a look that seemed carefully crafted to get attention somehow.
“I don't bother to hide who or what I am any more. Most people don't concern themselves with it, to tell the truth. You'd think it would be a big deal, but most adjust pretty well. Best to be open and just let people know if they ask. With you it should be even easier. You're the great Wizard Tor, so of course you won't age. Dan had problems with it though and I imagine your mother will. Well, we can just tell people that she's your mother. That could work.”
Dan, of course looked different than he did. Good looking, but not the same as Burks. They just weren't as similar for some reason.
“Diversity is wonderful thing isn't it? He has the gene's, but he's just my son. A real, honest, got his mother pregnant, child of mine. Got my hair color too. You're closer to me than that. On the good side I can get you to take my place as Count in a few decades and no one will be the wiser as I go on some adventure or take up farming for a while. Growing things, now there's a good area for you to look into. I know I've always liked it. That's one of the things that never gets old. That's in our pattern too. Our line, mine and Denno Browns, it was originally meant to be a kind of super slave. Tractable without being dull witted. Willing to take on the hardest tasks without being forced into it. That kind of thing. That, isn’t actually genetic. Not for the most part.”
Taking a deep breath the Count shrugged and looked at Tor closely.
“I can go into it later, but a lot of these things are due to something else, something that’s been passed to you, but not Dan, not Laurali either, thank goodness. They’ll get to make up their own rules. Yours are more enforced, I’m afraid.”
It was all almost too much, which Burks seemed to know, so they started talking about other things. Girls and what he had planned for his future.
The Count looked down and took another deep breath, “Ah… Well, um, kids. I know Ricky told you that you may have some problems having children if you married Veronica? Well, it's a little more complicated than that. You can't have them at all until you mature a bit. A few hundred years. About five hundred actually. Then it's hard. Until then… adopt. It's what I did. Still do mainly. On the good side you won't accidentally be dropping kids on women every time you have sex like Marvin Ward is. I'm going to have to have a discussion with him on the topic soon. He's here, right? Maybe I'll do it today or tomorrow. We should talk more too. Probably for a couple of years all told. I don't regret your Two Bends upbringing, but you've missed a lot you’re going to need to know eventually. Still, we have time to get to it. If you have questions, just ask. I won't hide the answers from you.”
“Oh! I have one then.” This came out sounding a little bitter, but that was OK, he meant it that way.
“Who all do you have spying on me?” Tor waited for the man to flinch, wince or even laugh at him, but instead he shrugged. It was his shrug. Gah. It was eerie now that he knew to look for it. How did people not see this instantly? Probably the age thing really.