Cut the stones without a cutter? Could he do that?
It was, he knew, technically possible. Tor had even generated a few fields that were strong enough to do things on occasion, on the fly so to speak, unanchored things. They’d fade though and this was a lot of cuts if he had to build a new field for it each time…
Well, that was the assignment, so he’d try at least. Kolb wouldn’t set him the task if it wasn’t part of training, even if it did seem unlikely. The man was hard, but he’d gotten Tor to come up with those shields, and the flying stuff, hadn’t he? So far Kolb was right about what he could do if he really tried, no matter how insane what he asked had sounded. Sighing Tor nodded.
“Alright. I can do it.”
That got a slap on the shoulder before Kolb stalked off.
Someone had already set up a cutting guide, just two boards about an inch thick that normally you’d run a cutter down with it activated, so all the slices would be straight and true. Cool. Now all he had to do was get it in place, and get a few of the giant weapons brutes to grab the stones when they came off, so that they wouldn’t fall each time. That part was the most difficult for him, which Kolb undoubtedly knew. It was probably why he’d been told to do it that way instead of just using floats from his room.
“Um, excuse me please?” Tor looked around as about half the people stared at him.
“Kolb ask me to see to these stones, but I’m not allowed to use a cutter, or move them myself. So if I get these into slabs, can you all help get them into place?”
No one said anything, but Karen walked over grinning and patted him on the back and Petra smiled at him gently. Right, he’d been out for a while and had been spotty before that. Tor was just glad they hadn’t decided that a sound thrashing was in order to help him remember to come. Yet at least. They were probably waiting for him to recover a little more. Well, that was polite of them. Also it gave him time to come up with a way to avoid the punishment.
It took a lot more concentration than he was used to using in order to get the first field up. He could feel it but it was tentative and weak. He went slow and made sure that the cut was as perfect as he could manage. It wasn’t good enough, the cut didn’t show, if it had happened at all and the stone stayed intact.
Alright.
He squared his shoulders, took a deep breath, and made another one, not starting the cut until the field was strong enough this time, so it took a full minute before he could even move and four more before he started the cut. This time the slab came free.
He didn’t want to let the field go, but had to, in order to not accidentally hack anyone’s limbs off as he repositioned the cutting guide and his hand. That, he knew, wouldn’t make anyone happy. For one thing it would make a mess. He let the field go and stepped back while one of the smaller giants reset the cutting guide for him, which was handy. Then he did it again, and again. It took nearly three hours to get all the slabs cut and down on the ground, longer than it should have, because as he got tired near the end his concentration flagged a bit, making a few of the cuts not work right. They lost two slabs that way, breaking off near the bottom, still attached in a narrow strip as the cutting field failed, but they didn’t need them all for the space, so maybe it would be all right.
They were cut stone though. He hadn’t used a cutter, but he may as well have as far as how polished and slick the pieces all looked. They’d need to make them rougher unless being slick was part of the point, to make them harder to stand on when fighting? No one knew, so they just waited for Kolb to come back. Karen got to him first and asked, but that didn’t deter Kolb from walking directly over to Tor first.
“I thought I said not to just build a cutter for it. I have to admit it looks good, but…” Large bald head tilting to the right, Kolb stared at him. Hard and a little angrily.
Karen came to his rescue. Smiling proudly even.
“All direct effect, no cutter involved at all. It was kind of neat really. There must be what, three people in the kingdom that could manage that? He wasn’t even in combat rage or anything. That could be dead handy in a fight, once he practices up with it a bit. So far it was a little slow… But do we rough it up or leave it smooth?”
Rough it up was the answer. Tor was half way through the design of a complicated device that would make small and irregular pits in the surface of the material when one of the guys he didn’t know grabbed a few handfuls of sand and started scuffing it around with his boots. It didn’t make deep marks, but the lines were enough. Chuckling at how simple the solution had been, Tor grabbed a handful of sand and started on his own square.
Not everything needed magic after all.
The practice square looked sharp by the time Tor felt tired enough to leave, dragging just a little from the light work of scuffing his feet like that. It was really kind of pitiful. Worse, he knew for a fact that both Kolb and Karen noticed. They didn’t say anything about it at least. He’d have to start running again soon, he decided.
Or maybe walking? Slowly?
Yeah, that sounded a lot more reasonable.
The next set of visitors he got kind of surprised him, because he wouldn’t have expected them to come and visit him in a million years. They arrived with a full retinue and headed straight to the headmasters offices. Tor learned all this when he was summoned and Rolph had to take him over, because Tor didn’t know where that actually was.
Karina and Varley sat in well padded chairs waiting for him.
“Tor!” Varley jumped up and nearly tackled him with a hug. The move made him stagger more than a little bit because the girl outweighed him now. Not by a lot, but with her growth and his weight loss, they seemed to have traded places. Sigh. Now everyone he knew away from home was bigger than he was. She had her hair up in the back and looked older suddenly, a lot like her mom.
“Varley, Karina. How are you two doing and most importantly, what are you doing here? Come to visit your brother? He’s just outside…”
Karina spoke first, standing far more regally; she walked to Tor and bowed.
“Don’t be silly. We’re here to invite you to the palace. Here,” she held out and envelope to him that he’d missed in his bafflement at seeing not one, but two Princesses in the room upon entering. “This is an invitation for you, and a guest, to the royal dinner party next Tuesday evening. Please come at seven. Father and mother will also be at the main gate personally to make sure that nothing goes wrong.”
She looked cute in the silk and leather flying clothes she wore, the blouse was a rich purple. Varley wore an identical outfit, which made the whole scene even more interesting, though he didn’t mention it. Cute identically dressed Princesses could easily spark a fantasy that would force Rolph to thrash him if he wasn’t careful. If his friend found out about it at least. Tor wasn’t sure if Connie could read minds, and Varley had her moments of insight, but Rolph never seemed to do anything like that at all, so maybe Tor could survive having such thoughts.
Varley chimed in then. “It isn’t a summons, just an invitation. Given everything I wouldn’t blame you if you decided to skip it, but I do know that no one has really figured out what happened, and trust me, no one wants to alienate you at all. I mean no one too. Half the palace staff threatened to quit after the birthday party incident you know and only a solemn promise that this would be handled efficiently and quickly has gotten them to stay.”