“Four, Master Tor Sir. I mean Lord Tor…” She seemed flustered.
“Just Tor, since your part of the group. OK, today your doing batches of ten. No problem. I can't monitor you, so… Guide, after you do a batch of twenty, I want you to watch Farlo and keep her on task. Don't do the work for her though, Just get her to feel what she needs to do and let her do it.”
They both looked shocked, but Tor shrugged.
“Look, everyone has always told you how hard building and copying is, but you have the skills already, the talent, so forget that. We need to outfit all the military here by the end of the day with class seven shields and you only have half that right now. No one else can do this and frankly, I can't spare you to playing around with it for too long. We have half a dozen other projects needed for the kingdom, and need more of everything. Plus, when that's done, I want to see at least a novel build a month from all of you. Or more. Sandra is with me today, but all of you need to stand ready. We may have to move to other locations at any time. Some of you may have to go alone too. So be ready for that. Keep a bag packed.” Tor finished eating, and felt guilty about pushing them like that, but other than the deep and gloomy silence, no one else seemed to mind.
Yay. Tor grinned at everyone before they left.
“Oh, also haircuts and a few nice outfit designs. Um, get with Petra Ward for help there if you need it. Combat giant, but the best person I've ever seen on clothing design. Also, you'll be getting some projects from Instructors Fines and Weapons Instructor Kolb. If you don't do them well, I'll get yelled at, so you know, your efforts are appreciated.” Tor winked and grinned at the group that just looked at him, not even groaning at the idea.
Tor started walking out after putting his bowl through the little window near the back of the room. A scared looking first year boy took it without saying anything. Tor got that at least, it was frightening, the whole situation.
“Thanks.” It wasn't much by way of reassurance, but the kid bowed back a bit and kept working. It never hurt to be polite after all, right?
Tor was outside, walking slowly and very carefully down the stone steps to the commons when he noticed that Sandra was following him. He looked over at her and smiled gently, knowing that it had to be a pain walking along like that, being so tall and healthy like she was. He had to build up though and that meant walking when he could.
At the bottom he pointed to where “General” Teller had set up and started over. That made the girl seem very uncomfortable, but she didn't hesitate, so it worked well enough for a start. When he got to the man Tor stopped and gestured to the girl, a woman really, who had probably already graduated and just sticking around because she was at loose ends.
“General Teller? This is Sandra Morris, head of the Lairdgren group. She's going to be delivering the shields for your men today. The first half are ready to go. They'll stop death dust and other nano particulates. You have to turn them on manually for that, so caution the users of that please. It will turn on automatically once they encounter the threat a single time, but not before that most likely, so…” The look on the man’s face and the twitch of his thick mustache told him that he needed to explain the subconscious and deep mind link that turned the shield on in case of emergency.
None of the military's gear did that yet. The guy was impressed and promised to make sure everyone understood. Sandra didn't say much, just running to get the first half of the order. That delivered, they both were at loose ends for a bit.
For about ten seconds.
“Right, now we need to get in touch with the King and then check on the builds for the day. After that, you should get a nap. Really, I can check on the kids, where are they working?”
“Building seven… But… I don't really need to talk with the King, do I?” She sounded nervous, but Tor just shrugged.
“Well, yeah. Him and the Queen both. I don't see why it should be a problem, aren't you all related or something?” It was a teasing stab in the dark, the girl was tall and named Morris, so it made sense but she shook her head.
“Not too closely. I was… Nearly engaged to Prince Alphonse when I was little. Ursala Thorgood got it instead. I'm… supposed to inherit. Um, you know, Counserina first and all that. Dad's not wild about me trying to learn building, he thinks I should just marry and set up house, maybe learn to do accounts. We, don't get along too well.” She didn't seem happy about the admission at all.
“Oh, well, I'm sure that your father’s reputation won't affect yours with the King. He thinks you have a lot of potential. So does Count Lairdgren, who ask for you specifically to be in charge of this.” The King was probably looking forward to her taking over for her stick in the mud da, Tor guessed but didn't mention out loud.
“He knows who I am? I mean the King. We talked once on your communications device… I didn't think… Well, that anyone would really remember me.”
Tor shrugged, “He suggested you, personally, by name, be given this job too. I wasn't kidding when I said you were in charge of the group here. It's all official and everything. You don't get paid for it though, not much, two gold a week.” Tor pulled the figure because it was what the secret army members got paid. Why not, he could spare it, right?
“So don't let it go to your head. Plus, you can only manage twenty copies at once?” Tor shook his head sadly. “You have great potential Sandra, but little kids can do better than that. You even know several of them. You'll have to fix that. Today in fact, if we get time. We need to get to the Capital first though.”
“Uh… OK. I'll do my best. Why do we need to go to the Capital? Can't we just talk to them from here?”
Tor sighed and shook his head.
“We just had an Austran attack Sandra. For the first time it was on regular people, not just nobles or clearly targeted towards a single individual. This is huge as far as the commoners go. We have to show that we have a plan in place to prevent it from happening again. More…” He gave her a steely look.
“I can't be that plan this time, and some people might point out that this could have been targeting me. I don't think it really was, but we need to show the kingdom that taking out one person won't cripple us. Today that means showing the royal family. Later it means showing everyone else. Plus, I may need you to help me beat up an Ancient later. He's too good a friend with everyone else at the palace to take them seriously, I think. I could probably do it normally, but right now…” He waved at his body, which got the tall, dark skinned girl to nod. She knew what a mess he really was after all.
“Alright.” She stopped, going still suddenly. “Wait, the Ancients are real?”
Tor nodded.
“Yeah, the one I'm talking about is Dennorian Brown, the Austran Ancient. I don't know where the others have gotten to, but they may or may not be around. Don't let them impress you too much. Not that they aren't impressive, we just don't want them to get swelled heads.” Tor grinned at her, which was a mistake, because she clearly thought he was kidding now.
Oh well.
The conversation with the King didn't happen, but Connie was there and invited them both to dinner, which was late for Tor, but manageable if he got a nap himself. He got Sandra to go and get some sleep by ten in the morning and looked in at everyone else, briefly, realizing that him looking at them working right now did very little indeed. He did find that Lyn had two more sets of shields ready already, and that they worked. Two hundred in less than three hours.
Tor smiled, a wash of pride coming over him as he looked at the small girl in front of him. She opened her eyes and stared blankly for a bit. She had brown eyes and brown hair now, though they used to be blond and murky blue. Tor realized that she'd changed them with one of his disguise devices. Or, well, given who she was, it may be a recreation or even novel work.