The other half of him wanted to run away, possibly screaming and maybe, just maybe, defensively wetting himself. Deep inside his personal battle cry rang out. Run away!
Instead, possibly showing how stupid he really was, Tor froze and blinked a little.
He was so not ready to have sex with a woman while another man participated. It was hard enough if someone else was just watching for goodness sake. But how did he say that without seeming rude or mean? Tor took a breath and decided to just start speaking.
“Um, well, that's a very kind offer. Thank you. Could I get with you on that later though? I really just came to check on Ali, then I have to get some work done before dinner. First almost real day back you know.” That, he hoped, would be nice enough. By the noble standards he'd been told that he came across as aloof or even stuck-up a lot, which was bad, but this was also pretty awkward.
Giving him a smile the other man nodded.
“OK. Let's get together in a couple of days for that then? If you're not too busy?”
Smiling, Tor nodded and hoped that he could find a way out of it in time, “I'll try to clear some time.”
With great effort and a little bit of meditative skill, Tor managed to leave the room without running or embarrassing himself overly. Of course now he needed to get some actual work done or else he'd look like a liar. Not that anyone would check, but he’d know. Chuckling to himself he went back to his room and sat on his bed, since it was more comfortable than the floor or his desk chair. The working supplies were no problem now that he'd started doing everything in stone, focus stone, a kind of compressed dirt that looked like glass most of the time, depending on the soil you used. What he needed to do now was pick a project that would test his ability to make copies, but wouldn't force him to damage himself while doing it.
At first, after he'd injured his own field, the information that made him… him, Tor had worried that it would cripple him for decades. But after only a few months his pattern was pretty much back to normal. He should be able to do anything he'd done before. Unfortunately that included a few stupid direct effect things that had done most of the damage to begin with. If he kept repeating that stuff, forcing his will too rapidly on reality, he'd end up falling apart in bloody little gobs of flesh. It was good incentive to not be a moron if ever there was one.
So, what should he do?
He decided on some old tried and true fields. Flying rigs and shields. If he hurried he could have a hundred of each ready by dinner, provided his field was as healthy as it seemed. If not… well, that would suck, but he could always do less if need be. Small batches, or maybe just focus on meditation for a while, trying to strengthen his pattern? That should work in theory, he thought. It would be interesting to try sometime.
The work went quickly, even on such large batches. He used deep level focus, but not the deepest he could manage now. Doing that tended to shift his own pattern too much. This way he could nudge the magical imprint into place a bit more slowly and without influencing himself that deeply in response. The truth was, in a small way at least, to make a magical device, you had to make part of your own pattern become the field you need. It was why he was better at copying fields he knew well, he understood suddenly. Then you used your own information, what caused you to have real form and be unique, as leverage to pry what you were working on into a new shape.
Still, just a little over two hours later he had two small boxes floating next to him in the air with bundles of flying rigs and shields like he'd planned. When he checked his own field he found… that he was fine. It was easy to feel the fields he'd just made within himself still, but they were fading fast and his own was taking precedence again. Good. As long as he allowed full recovery between work sessions he should be all right. Getting up to stretch he jumped as the door latch, a magical lock that he'd made years ago, suddenly flipped open and the door pushed in without hesitation.
Standing in the doorway was a giant filling the whole space, nearly totally. Red hair, still fairly short compared to Tor's own girlishly long locks, lean frame dressed in brown canvas, and standing nearly seven foot two now.
Rolph.
Tor didn't freak out or jump up and tackle the man, since they'd last hung out not two days before. Instead Tor tilted his head and considered the situation.
“You know Rolph, I don't think you're really going to be able to pull of the “Rolph Merchant” disguise much longer. Do merchants ever get to be over six-eight or so?”
Laughing his friend winked.
“Depends on who their dad is, doesn't it? I should be all right for now. Well, except that I'm rooming with the Wizard Tor. With all the freshmen girls beating down our door to get to you, I'll probably never get any sleep. Speaking of never getting any sleep, how’s Ali? I know you two planned on your own house…”
Tor explained his finding her with Ridley and tried to chuckle, though he actually felt a little jealous about the whole thing. Not to mention the invitation thing that happened because he was too stupid to find a cleaver way out of it. Rolph nodded and for once didn't laugh at his lack of noble knowledge.
“Well, you can just both have sex with her, it doesn't have to even be at the same time, and it will still count. You don't have to really do anything with him even. Just mention it to him first, when you're alone sometime. Let him know that you're friends and all, and that you don't mind sharing, but that you aren't into men. He'll understand, Ridley's good that way.” It was said as if the whole thing was perfectly normal.
Gah.
The large man's luggage followed him in, cases that Tor had made himself, but decorated to be very plain, looking like polished wood, but with no real decorations. It was about what any rich Merchant kid would have, except the part where they floated through the air. Even that was explainable, since his roommate made them, and gave them to him for free. It was even the truth, so he could swear it honestly. As he was setting up, Rolph glanced at the two boxes floating by his smaller friend’s bedside.
“What’s that?” A long finger pointed at the boxes, but the expression was a little skeptical. Rolph knew Tor well enough to get that it wasn't a collection of socks for the wash or anything like that.
“Oh, trying my hand at some simple copy work,” Pulling one of the shields out he held it up for inspection. It was dark brown and slick looking, that being the color of focus stone made from dirt in the area, and had a glowing green sigil in the center, an “S” with two lines through it cross ways.
“Flight rigs too. I figure that I can do up a few hundred and that way everyone can learn to fly here. I really want Ali to learn, and Ridley should too, if we’re going to let him be involved in our messes. Plus, everyone should have their own shield, right? I know Burks thinks everything should calm down for a while, but if he's wrong and someone tries to kill one of us I don't want some first year kid dying because I was too lazy or selfish to see to their well being.” Tor let his head come up. He'd done that before, not guarded the people around him like he should and nearly died trying to get everyone else to safety. He'd decided right then and there after the assassins were subdued and he'd finished crying, that no matter what, that wouldn't happen again. Not if it could be helped at all.
That got a low whistle from Rolph.
“Yep, I'm never getting to sleep again. “Oh Master Tor sir, I just love the devices you gave me… can I do anything for you? And I do mean anything.” Yep.” Voice going into a high falsetto the Prince shook his head and wondered if he could get one of those little noise canceling devices Tor made to silence the sex sounds coming from the other bed.