Proctor Campbell.
Good.
“Campbell, get this girls hands, don't let her touch her pockets. I can't prove it yet, but she may be an Austran agent.” Tor smiled then. “Or she may just be a girl faking her way into a good school using the name of a dead girl. If it's the later we don't want her hurt, but if it's the first…”
“What?” The man balked for a few seconds.
“Just do it! I don't have time to explain! Hands. Keep them out of her pockets.” The whole time Tor had to keep her pinned down, which stopped the second the black clad bald man stepped in the way. Freaking hell.
Whatever the girl had in her pocket, it wasn't a weapon. At least she seemed to be trying to swallow it. Grand. There was an obvious biting down and about ten seconds later as Campbell stood looking shocked the girl’s mouth started to foam, white first, then pink. Some kind of poison? That or Nanos. That last was confirmed a second later when his shield started sparking with small purple lights, then it turned into a storm of them.
Then the man just fell down, face to the stones of the commons.
“Shields on, get your shields on!” Tor yelled. Judith's already was, but one of the girls on the ground the one that wasn't the ring leader, started to shake and foam too. The hurt girl screamed and tried to run, but had enough presence of mind to turn the shield on herself. The nanos didn't trigger it? Not good. They must have slipped under the girls idea of what was a threat. They'd never encountered them before, so their deep minds didn't know to get the shield in place. A gap in it he'd never even though about.
The people standing around to watch caught on, except a few, who hadn't bothered to wear theirs apparently. The rest lived. Those others died and the healing amulet didn't save them. It just made them nearly die over and over again, until, after several healings, they just died anyway, bodies unable to heal fast enough, even with help. Crap.
Tor didn't know what to do. Not at all. For a few seconds he just sat, but then he shook himself a bit. Right. They had to warn… everyone. Plus there could be another attack.
“Shields on! Spread the word. If you don't have a shield, lock yourself in a room and don't come out until you have the all clear. Go! Tell everyone! There's an Austran attack, shields on!” Damn, his voice was too soft. Judith tried to call it out, and she got volume, but her accent was too heavy for most of the people listening to understand at all.
Except Guide. His accent was much, much clearer, luckily he came running up and after one repetition from Tor started yelling.
“Shields on! Go, tell everyone! Austran attack! Shields on!” He didn't stop screaming it either, bless him. Tor just hoped it worked. After nearly a minute, someone else started repeating it. Then dozens of voices rang out. Thank god.
Tor reached into his pouch and hit the sigil for the palace on his communications device, just floating where he was. Really, he just couldn't think of anything else to do.
“Hello? Tor?” Connie's voice was warm and sounded gentle. Kind even. Happy.
“There's been a nano attack on Lairdgren. Three, no four dead here. I'm standing at the point of attack. I believe it was an Austran agent, but I don't have that confirmed yet. She had the accent and she gave her name as one of the dead girls in the murder investigation going on there. Ginger Coltress. We need to get all the… cargo, pulled from here now. Can you get that done?”
A gasp came from the device, “Is it-”
“None of ours so far. Shields stop it. It was like death dust I think, but different. I don't know how far it will spread, but if they hurry…” He just hoped she got who he meant by “they”. He didn't want to spell it out in case there was more than one agent in place.
“Oh, thank goodness. Yes. It will be done immediately. Take care of yourself too.” The device went silent.
“Right, Judith, Guide? With me. We need to get with the school officials, especially Kolb and his people. Jude, got your flying gear?”
She held up her left hand and showed him the winged glowing design on focus stone.
“Sleep with it.”
“Good, get with Kolb and let him know exactly what happened. We may have more spies or whatever the hell she was. We need to make sure that all the new people are interviewed. Can you do that?”
She didn't wait to say yes, just tapping her hand and flying off without hesitation. Guide watched her for a second.
“Fuck.” He said, his accent coming back for a second, making it nearly into a two syllable word.
Indeed.
“Guide, get with the working group. We need shields now. God, I… Focus and do batches of fifty. One per hour. When you can do that, try a hundred, got it? We don’t have time to play around anymore.”
The boy hesitated. It was a lot to ask after all. So far the only person any of them knew about that could do more than ten at a time was Tor and, well, he couldn't just then. That just meant that some of the others needed to step the heck up then, didn't it?
“Alright Sir. We'll do that directly.”
Tor knew they might not get it done at all. That was fine, it was mainly that people needed to be busy and also to know they were protected. Someone making more devices than the next best manufacturing concern in the kingdom could manage in a month in the course of hours would be reassuring. Even if it didn't work, he could pretend it was. After all, he was the new Counselor of things like that. People had to believe him in regards to magic. Even if he was lying.
A few minutes later his communications device started to glow and the palace sigil lit up. He tapped it, hoping it was, at least not bad news. Good was a bit much to ask, he guessed, given everything.
“This is Tor.”
“This is Smythe. The Queen asked me to inform you that we have several hundred military incoming and that the “cargo” has been removed, including yours…. Is that clear to you?” He sounded as if he though Tor might not get it. He did.
“Clear. Um, not to be a pain, but… um… I'm taking control of this situation until you get here. We need the military, but also investigators and really, any time the military gets involved in anything with me in it, some big and stupid fight erupts. I'll back your plan on the ground here for now, until we know it's all secure, but you know, I can't really fight with anyone for the time being. So if you could mention that to whoever is coming?” It was pushy and heavy handed and Tor figured he was about to be told off. Well, as long as they didn't kill him, but if they tried to arrest him for some stupid reason, he was just fighting.
He wouldn't last long with a bunch of abuse.
“They're already in the air… I don't think I can reach them until they land. Can you secure the area?”
“Yes. It will take about half an hour. Faster if possible.”
That was the best they could do, so Smythe just asked him to try. After a few fumbled seconds Tor got it. He didn't know what they should do either. Yay. Grand.
“OK. Well. For now, I'm taking anyone I don't recognize personally into custody. Just in case. It's harsh, but…” Tor didn't want to finish it, and Smythe didn't make him.
“Do it. Try not to use force beyond what's needed.”
“Understood.”
Kolb and Judith flew towards him just as he shut the communications line down to try and do… something. They landed “hot” slowing just about fifty feet from the ground and settling faster than Tor ever did. It made deep popping sounds from the ground as the force of impact buried itself to protect the fragile people inside the shields.
“Kolb. We're locking down the town. All your people are needed. Best students too. Anyone not recognized needs to be brought here. That includes any new students. First years too…” Tor glanced at Judith and shrugged, he had a truth amulet at least and more in his room.
He slipped his over her head and cleared her in about fifteen seconds. Then he took the field back and showed her the sigil, so she could get his out the trunk under his bed, if it was still there. If not they'd have to improvise.