The idea was simple enough; just compress the earth in a given area so much that it turned solid. The reverse of an explosive weapon basically, giving an area the instruction to move inward instead of out. But it took a lot of field strength to work a relatively small area down into something hard enough to withstand water. He worked for days and days on it, trying to make the field big enough to be useful.
Rolph came back, but didn’t bother to talk to him, because he was working the whole time, Tor figured. Might as well chat up a wall for all the good it would have done him. As soon as he actually had something worth putting forward for a grade, he went to Fines and showed him how it worked. The instructor was impressed. All of them were.
Tor didn’t care much himself.
Everything just felt like it lacked color. It was like he did things, but they didn’t have meaning at all for some reason he couldn’t explain or even understand. Not that it mattered. All he had was work, right? So he did it and refused to stop.
For once even Kolb wanted to see what he’d done and asked him out to the range with him for a demonstration. Tor didn’t wait to explain, he just started firming up the back berm wall with the new device. It took about an hour and the berm lost about fifty percent of its size from front to back, but nothing they had would scratch it when it was finished. If it wasn’t as hard as stone, it was because it was harder, Tor figured.
“Still, Tor, don’t neglect your own improvement in fighting. As far as I can tell you haven’t even run in months and you’ve been losing weight. Your muscle tone is crap, and let’s face it, you didn’t have that much to begin with. Even if you don’t want to practice fighting any more, you need to exercise for health reasons…”
The tone of voice surprised Tor a lot. He sounded worried.
Sure, Tor had spent a lot of time working, which was low on exercise, at least the way he did it. But it hadn’t been that long since he’d worked out, a little over two weeks. He chuckled and promised the giant bald man that he’d start working with Karen again, at least between work projects.
“If, you know, she’s willing to still work with me. I mean, I don’t want to get her in trouble with the King or anything.”
Kolb asked for an explanation saying he hadn’t heard of anything that would be a problem that way. After Tor told him what had happened the man grunted.
“Oh, that sort of situation? Well, I wish I could tell you it was nothing, but that kind of thing can mean anything from a few paperwork errors to utter disdain and hate. I’ll… see if I can find anything out about it for you. Until we hear something, it probably really is best for you to keep your head down a bit. You’re right to be worried about Karen and your other friends though. No need to get them mixed in something they can’t do anything about. Wars have been started over lesser things.” Kolb put a large hand on Tor’s back and patted it a few times.
“For now try not to worry too much. I’ll look into it; I have a few contacts left in the Capital after all.” The giant smiled and didn’t say anything else on the matter.
Just to be health conscious, and make the weapons instructor happy Tor jogged back to his room instead of flying, it was only about three miles, then hit the bath before going to bed. He’d already rigged all the tubs with heaters, so at least he didn’t have to try and wash in cool water this time. It wasn’t to the point where the water from the roof mounted tanks would go freezing, but when it did, at least the poor kids like him would be able to have a warm soak too, not just the rich ones that could afford the luxury of fire warmed baths in town. More, on the schools tubs you could control the temperature to your liking now. Try that using a fire while you boiled in a big ceramic pot, he thought with a dry chuckle.
He skipped dinner, choosing an extra long soak instead, and went to bed early, sleep suddenly feeling more valuable than eating. He woke a little bit when Rolph came in, but didn’t say anything. What could he say? If his parents didn’t like Tor, his friend would either be forbidden from talking to him at all, or have to try and lie and claim that everything was all right.
If it really was just a small error somewhere along the way though, then why had the same thing essentially happened twice?
It sucked, but Rolph had to pick his parents, even if it meant not liking him anymore. It’s just what you did, sticking with family over strangers.
Not that he’d thought of himself as a stranger. It all would have felt easier if he knew who was mad at him and why. Then he could at least apologize for whatever he’d done, right? Even if they still hated him, he could know that he’d done his bit to make things right.
The next day, after breakfast and classes, he made himself run to the next town over and back twice. It hurt. A lot really. By the time he got back to the room he felt his legs and lower back stiffening up already. Another warm bath helped, but Tor knew that he’d be paying for it the next day. Kolb had been right it seemed. He really needed to keep up with the exercise, at least every few days. Especially running, now that his left ankle had healed up some, because who knew when he’d need to run away screaming in a panic?
Kolb had taught him his “battle cry” on purpose after all.
“Run away.” If only he could.
Instead of sleeping he worked out the moisture removal system for that ladies home, whoever she was, feeling a little bad that it had gotten left so long. At least he’d warned her about that. Still, it felt lazy and slow, like he was cheating her, and leaving an innocent person to suffer.
It was easy enough once he started. There were two plates. One told water vapor in the air to leave a given region in space and collect at the site of the second plate. It would corrode eventually, being damp most of the time, but the field would last for a few years at least, even with that being the case. He’d have to figure out where the woman’s house was and take it to her himself, because he didn’t have the money to mail it any more. No huge thing, he could do it on his next off day and it would get to her faster anyway. Mail would take weeks. Better, he could set it up for her so that she and her people wouldn’t have to struggle to figure it all out. It was new after all, which could make working with it harder.
That basic pattern kept going for a while, about two weeks, broken up only by exercising every few days on his own and not really eating enough. Tor got to classes and worked, but that was about it. He just didn’t have the time when the meal hall was serving food most days and still didn’t have anything coming in from Debri. Torrance kind of wondered if he ever would. After all, if the military was run by the King and the ruler was snubbing him personally for some reason, would they ever see any money for the devices at all? Even if they got paid, would he ever get anything from it? Even Sara had pointed out several times that most merchants would rob you blind if they got a chance and he hadn’t exactly been tough with Debri house about it or anything. Maybe he should pay them a visit and check on things soon?
If he was allowed back in the Capital at all.
Early in the morning of his off days, before it was really even light, he took off for the woman’s house. It turned out, once he read the paper she’d sent for him with instructions as to where she lived, that she was a Countess, or had been until her husband had died, leaving her to live in the dowager property when her oldest son inherited.
Ellen Ward was her name.
Ah. Well.
At first Tor almost backed out. Ward. Those people gave him the creeps. Then he realized that the woman, the Counts mother, had seemed polite and kind at the party, even after the whole Ursala thing. He couldn’t blame her for having a son that wasn’t… bright. The word moronic came to mind, and Tor smiled a bit as he packed things up, but then chided himself. Who was he to even think about such things? Ward hadn’t done anything to him after all. Well, he’d hit him about two hundred times, but that was only because Tor had been getting in his way, right?