The others fell into line as if he knew what he was doing, and set the younger students to working at pells and learning basic techniques. No one was as good at teaching as Kolb or even his top instructors, but then they hadn't had the time to learn yet. The younger kids were getting something at least, and if they weren't good, at least everyone was getting exercise out of it. It took even more work to set up the early section, and he had to get Rolph to teach flying for them, that being when he was supposed to train anyway.
Advanced build theory was his favorite class by far, a lot of little things he'd never thought of were introduced that made him want to kick himself for not figuring them out sooner, like letting fields grow to greater strength by mimicking biological processes. No one in the class could do it, not yet, but the theory was actually an old one. Worse, he'd had the idea before on his own, but hadn't pursued it, not even on paper. That class was taught by Instructor Fines, his old novel build teacher. If that class had been about coming up with new ideas on your own, this one was very different, it required a lot of reading and thinking, discussion and conjecture instead.
Still, it gave him an idea to use, so Tor decided to try a build based on the magical carriage device. The idea would have normally taken a week to make strong enough to do what was needed, even if he stressed and pushed himself horribly. This time the work would be slower, but if he did it right the power level of the field should end up being incredible. If he messed up, well, that could happen doing new things. He didn't have a lot of time for mistakes though. Not with his upcoming trip to Austra.
During the third week everything changed suddenly. It came during the time when he was teaching a group of ten students how to fly. They were all brand new to it, this being the first day for the third group. He'd tried a larger bunch the first time, but that hadn't worked too well, because it was too hard to pay attention to what they were all doing. Ten was about his personal limit. Well, twelve worked too, but ten just felt right. Rather interestingly, they’d all dressed in what looked like plain school browns for it. Even a couple of kids he knew to be fairly high nobles.
They all matched.
“Flying this way is easy, safe and fun!” He started with that each time, since making it a little exciting seemed to help some of the more reticent students.
“Remember to wear your shield though! Really, you should wear them all the time for now, and make certain that your friends have one and are wearing it too. Having a shield and not using it, especially while flying, is moronic, and all of you are way too smart for that.”
Inside fifteen minutes they we're all up and flying, it wasn't that hard to do after all. They flew standing upright, which was comfortable and made landing a breeze. For a while they just went up and hovered, about a hundred feet from the ground, then made a safe landing. It wasn't the most interesting part of things, but once you had the landing down the rest was almost just play. That's what he told them at least.
They made the traditional first flight, heading to the nearby town of Lenders, hovering over it for a while practicing turns and then flying back to the weapons square. It was when they came in for a landing that Tor first noticed the change. There were suddenly a lot more people than there should be, and of the new ones, most were clad in leathers. Combat leathers. Tan and black, dusty and worn looking.
And they were watching the students practice like hawks ready to swoop on mice.
He came in carefully, smiling when he realized who it had to be. Kolb and his people. The man himself walked over, scar on the right side of his face from corner of the eye to just about even with the edge of his mouth, fairly large and filled with lean power, bald head shining in the sun.
“Tor! So are you responsible for this mess?” He said, his voice slightly dark.
“I'm afraid so. I know it's not much, but-”
“Ha! Don't worry, you all did fine. Better than fine. We half expected to come in and find the students resting in the shade and eating sweets. The other half was that we'd come in and not find any students at all and have to beat them for skipping. They actually look decent for week three. The older students need more work, but that's not their fault.”
The look he gave Tor was serious then. He dropped his chin a bit, like a person getting ready to fight.
“No, the fault there is yours. You may not be the mightiest warrior in the kingdom, but you can see to it that their doing better than that. You have the skills, and are a Knight of the realm. I expect you to do that for the next week. Use the other instructors, but you're in charge of it. Also, I want to increase the flight training numbers. Dean Hardgrove tells me you've outfitted the whole school with shields and flight gear?” The question had an edge to it, like the weapons instructor wasn’t certain it was a good idea.
Tor nodded anyway, since it was simply the truth. That got a rough sound from Kolb that was a little more pleasant than he’d expected. Somewhat impressed. Possibly.
“Then we need to make sure everyone has proper training fast. Kids will use those things you know, trained or not. They probably already have been.”
Hanging his head slightly Tor realized he should have been doing that all along, taking the better kids he taught and getting them to teach the others. How stupid could he be? It really would speed things up, he simply hadn’t even thought of it. Probably why Kolb was an expert instructor and Tor was just a student. This got him a pat on the back when he mumbled it.
“There you go, learning already. See to it. They're your students, so you should have a decent judge of capabilities already.”
It meant that he had to work twice as hard to get everything done and the work he was supposed to be doing in the evenings slipped badly, going down to two hundred units a day most of the time. He struggled to make up for it on his off days, but if he wanted to spend time with his wife, which was, he realized, a more important duty than schoolwork, something had to give. Slowly over the course of weeks that became sleep. His personal field stayed strong and the more organic build was growing well enough, he thought. It kept getting stronger each day at least. Tor was just exhausted though. Something he was kind of used to, but really, some extra sleep would be nice.
Sure, he could just sleep anyway, but people were counting on him. Really, he decided, he needed to just toughen the heck up. Other people went a long time on short sleep, didn’t they? Why some of the rich kids at the school hardly slept for days on end, so they could drink and party. It was exactly the same thing.
Only without the hangover.
The days dragged on, but at least he had product for the shops that carried his goods, the one in Printer and the other in the Capital. He even made up a large box for Dorgal Sorvee, since they were supposed to be friends now, even though the boy had been a jerk to him while they'd attended school together. Tor still wasn't really sure it wasn't some elaborate trick, but if they were going to be friends, that meant Tor had to look out for him as he could, didn't it?
Being a half hearted friend didn’t make sense at all. That would just waste time and cheat everyone involved out of a chance at really building something worthwhile.
Finally, on the fourth set of off days after Kolb and his people arrived, Tor managed to get to the barber and get his hair cut off. He went short, an elite military cut almost, a fighter’s cut, barely long enough to be brushed or combed, but it left his head feeling light and free when he stood up. The haircut was “free” but the service was one that the school had actually covered in prior years. Henry had arranged for Tor to do it now, which kept the older man in business at least. Tor gave him a gold as a tip and thanked him for freeing him from the prison of hair. The man was happy enough to have helped and pocketed the gold without really realizing it wasn't a copper. It was too much, but Tor also knew that even the rich kids had been tipping less this year, so it would help keep the man and his family afloat.