Kolb came flying in at nearly full speed and noticed the little situation lining up, beneath him. It was the old man that came walking over first however, looking calm and relaxed about the whole thing.
“I see you got the fire out in the south section outside of the city? Bit extreme, but it’s good to know we have a back up if we start to lose the line. Try not to use that too close to the city again though, eh? I don’t want to leave cracks in the wall. Just got it the way I like, about fifteen years ago.”
Smiling Tor put the little device away, tucking the small copper rectangle away under his first, the hemp cord it was on itching for half a second while it moved.
“Sorry about that. I’m just… Well, it’s been a rough couple of days. My engagement had to be broken off and some harsh words were said. I’m sure that this guy, sorry… don’t know your name,” he pointed at the giant man with one finger, not carrying that it was rude. It was that or the explosive in his other hand. But then, hey, that one was already pointed, wasn’t it?
“Didn’t mean to be insulting when we flew in, but my, er, lack of being tall, was mentioned prominently as well as looking a bit young as that situation blew up, in public. So I over reacted. Then when he tried acting tough with me, well, I’m kind of at my limit, you know?” Tor stared at the man, letting his expression go blank. “If you want to die, I can arrange it easily enough. Right now, if you move on me, you’ll just die. If you call in an army, they die with you. Do you get what I’m saying here? I really don’t care right now one way or the other myself, but I promised my best friend that I wouldn’t kill any innocent people just because I’m ticked off. I’m pretty sure that goes away if I’m attacked though, and right now my personal definition of “attack” is pretty loose I think. So, you know, it’s your choice. I came to help you fight this fire though, not argue like twelve year olds over who has the biggest manhood.” Tor waved his left hand not smiling.
“I’ll cede that one to you if it’s that important, but keep pushing me, and I will end you. If you think I can’t because I look too young or small to be a threat, then go ahead and try something, because it probably means you’re too stupid to live anyway.”
The giant man stormed off, probably to go get some weapons. Tor shrugged. He really just couldn’t care right now at all. He’d explained himself, even if he had been a bit of a prick about it. But these people had to learn that he wasn’t a child and wasn’t going to put up with insults about it anymore.
Kolb landed near him and walked over slowly.
“Say, Tor… What exactly is that thing you used? It’s rather… effective.”
Oh, right. Tor got it out and showed him. “I made it the other night. Just in case I have to fight, you know an army or two… It’s just an explosive. Like the one I gave you only larger in power and size of effected area. It has continuous activation too, but I didn’t think that would be needed right now, so I just tapped it once.”
Huge shoulders slumping a little the bald man glanced at Tor with a slightly wry expression. Then, for the first time Tor could ever remember, the Knight sighed at him.
“So, are you really sure that you want to start a fight with a Count’s heir? It’s clear you could take out his forces, but is that really a good idea? I know that things haven’t been going well for you lately, but I can’t see how that would really help anything. It’s a lot of people to kill just because you don’t feel happy in the moment.”
“What?” Tor let his voice sound shocked. “He’s a Count’s heir? I thought he was the Count! Well, that changes everything. I was being nice because of that you know. After all, Gary said he’s a Countier sixth, so it’s not like they need this one for anything, right? Lots of spares.” Tor waved his hand in the air just a little, moving the tiny device around with it. Then he shook his head and sighed and put all his weapons away. No need for him to make things worse, not really.
He felt like doing it though. Like killing the giant moron would make him feel better. Take some of the pain away. Pain didn’t work that way though. Even Tor could see that.
“I’m just kidding. I’m sure that we can let this go now. It was just tempers flaring due to stress. Since we all know what the situation is, I don’t think we have to continue on with it.”
The old man next to him winked and moved to pat him on the back.
“That’s using your head now. Figured you for a smart one, thinking to bring in all that gear with you. We’d be trying to hold an evacuation route instead of people sleeping cozy in their own beds and complaining about the smoke and frightening noises right now without it. Still, we aren’t out of danger yet. This may be the largest city in County Ross, but we have a lot more to deal with if we’re not going to lose thousands of lives to this thing.”
That, Tor knew, was true, he’d gone up and seen it in the air himself several times. It all looked smaller from up there, but the bright lines of the fire were clear, day or night. Worse, the farther they got from the city, the harder it would be to fight. The pumps wouldn’t reach that far, built short so that they could never get out of control or be able to cross back on themselves.
He could lengthen that of course. Tor had run a river three hundred miles once through the air, he could build something smaller that would go out ten or so, if he could get the time to work, and a place to do it. He didn’t know if he could manage here. It was noisy and he really couldn’t relax, thinking that a giant and angry man might sneak up on him, and say, kick him in the head, as he worked? He couldn’t build the field while wearing a shield either. It was a quandary.
Finally he decided to just do it. If Scotty the giant wanted to kill him, then it wouldn’t work, but otherwise it needed to be done. Tor wished he could sleep first, but that wasn’t happening, he knew. This was too important for him to nap. Without preamble or preparation, Tor plunked down on a bare patch of dirt, took two plates, and started building. No one bothered him that he could tell, even though it took at least a full day before the work was ready. Someone had given him sips of water while he worked, but other than that, nothing.
He didn’t test first, the field needed to be copied too badly for that. It just had to be right, that was all. In two hours he called over Karen, who looked exhausted, and explained the new devices to her. Two hours later he had another ten ready to go.
Then he kept building until everyone that could fly out had one. The number of flying people had grown somehow, but Tor didn’t ask about how. The devices were his job, deploying them he had to leave to someone else. He figured that someone had just grabbed the rigs from his gear and handed them out, probably along with lessons. If so… Then fine. Technically it was illegal for anyone not a member of royalty to have a shield and the flying gear was nearly as closely guarded, but he could give them away. Really to anyone he wanted. The idea was that if Tor felt strongly enough about it to not sell the things for thousands of golds, then it was probably important.
These devices hadn’t been given out by his own hand maybe, but he’d back it, if anyone asked. It was, oddly enough, late in the day when he finally stopped working, his eyes wouldn’t focus right, but he’d encountered that before after long work sessions. He also had a bad headache that made him want to throw up. Not a big deal. Builders got those if they pushed too hard and having just come off of being poisoned, not even being recovered fully, not even by half, he should have expected it. It would go away in a day or two. Most likely. It could last longer. A week. Not more than that. Hopefully.