“Poison on the dish? So that if you touch it and then put your hands to your mouth…” She pantomimed the action, getting a glowing look from the man. He actually clapped his hands.
“Indeed. Exactly right Patricia. I would say your device is a ringing success. I'd like to test it further, if I could borrow it? Or… do you have more than one again?” The man seemed excited for some reason.
“Oh, yeah, ten right now, five on me, so here, take this one.” He handed over the one tested, and the man got the girls to help him open a large wooden case that had glass jars inside, powders and liquids. Were they all poisons? The answer came pretty quickly, when one after the other, they all were all opened, corks popped and stoppers breached, only to make the new device cause the air to glow with what looked like very bright sunlight.
The old man suggested that Tor get something to eat. That sounded like a wonderful idea, since his stomach growled at him a little. Not so loud as to be embarrassing though, thankfully. After testing one of the plates of food in front of him again, just to be sure he hadn’t missed anything, a fish dish with a white cream sauce that came with braised asparagus, he did. That, even more than the testing itself, seemed to get attention. Was the fish not good here? It tasted fine. Better than that, really good in fact. They used slivered almonds in the sauce, Tor thought, which gave it a little texture. Trice looked at him wide eyed and then smiled. She held the device that the old man was testing and Sara put the poisons back in the case carefully, making sure she didn't touch anything else with her hands.
Tor got that; a simple sneeze could spread deadly poison around the room. I occurred to him that playing with poisons in the dining hall might be just a little dangerous, but no one blinked overly at it. Whatever else these people were, they weren't cowards at least.
So, probably insane? Good to know.
Just as they were finishing a man who looked to be a few years older than Tor walked over, obviously someone special, if based only on height. The guy was about six-four or five, so a short royal, for a guy, or one of the merchant class? Hard to tell without just asking. He eyed Tor with a smile, but didn't approach directly, heading to the older man instead.
“Dean Hardgrove?” The words made Tor stop eating. “These devices… Would they be available for purchase or lease soon do you think? My parents have gotten into a bit of a pickle with the Count and Countess Ward and it would be… good if I didn't have to become a Baron in the next few weeks, I think.”
Two things popped out at Tor, first, that the old guy he'd seen several times was the Dean. Thank all gods he'd always been polite to the man. Not that he wouldn't be normally, but some of the situations he'd met him in had been stressful. Tor hadn't always been at his best at those times, had he? For that matter, Tor reflected, the guy had always been exceptionally nice to him, the son of a humble baker from Two Bends. It made Tor rather like him, since as far as he could tell, the man treated him just as well as he did everyone else, and that standard was high.
The second thing was the man announcing that the Count and Countess of Ward were being a problem for his people.
Them again. Not his favorite people personally at the moment.
He reached into his pocket and pulled two of the poison detectors and held them out to the man.
“Here you go. Let me know if you need more of them. No wait…” He pulled another from his pocket and handed it over too. The last he had with him other than his own. “Just in case they come after you too.”
Trice walked over and gave him a hug, which he took to mean it was a good move. She didn't kiss him, but then being around all these poisons, who could blame her? Also, it was the public dining hall of her school, in front of her friends and peers, so that could be the reason too. That she even hugged him here made him feel special. She didn't have to after all. At school she didn't really have to keep the fiction that their marriage plans were real after all. For that matter, since it was a noble arranged marriage thing she didn't even have to with her parents. They'd be all right with the idea of her marrying him as a business deal type thing, right? So was the hug real?
Tor decided to pretend it was, regardless. He got little enough attention from women; this tiny bit was a luxury. Might as well enjoy it while it lasted.
The man in front of him stood straighter. He had a smile on his face, but also looked baffled at the same time.
“Oh! Yes, these would be lovely for my parents, but how much? I can have funds sent if it’s more than I have on hand… This is definitely worth whatever is asked.”
Sara started asking questions of Tor her voice serious and low, Dean Hardgrove listened as well, his head nodding along with what she said. “Tor, how long did these take to make, the original template I mean?”
It was a leading question of course, because she obviously knew the answer. She'd been on Tor watch duty more than once he'd been told and had done some things to care for him that made him blush when he thought of it, so it wasn't anything casual. She knew and just nodded when he said eleven days out loud.
“And you nearly died making them, why did it take so long?” Her voice was curious and everyone had moved in to listen, actually gathering around the table. He tried to keep his explanation short and simple, explaining that it was just a complex subject, so the field took a lot of time to build in order to be comprehensive. That was all really.
After about five minutes of this Sara shrugged and turned to the man.
“About two thousand gold. Each. That price is the one for friends here. I wouldn’t expect it to last once they go into manufacturing.”
The man didn't even blink. No one else did either, not even the Dean. Two thousand gold? That seemed high. High enough that Tor felt uneasy holding on to the one in his pocket for a second, before realizing that the price didn't really apply to him. Or the man in front of him come to that. Not if his family was going up against Ward. That guy… annoyed Tor. The whole getting Ursala pregnant thing still rankled a little when he thought about it, and then his trying to sleep with Varley hot on the heels of that… Sure, the Count wasn't exactly bright, but Maria should have coached him not to go after the Princess just then, shouldn't she? Not that he felt any great love for Maria either, but… Well, he wasn't going to hold what she'd done at fourteen against her forever. Maybe she'd fixed herself already even? People could change, if they tried.
The man started to speak about arranging the funds, catching Sara's attention and a few of the other students, for some reason. Tor shook his head, and took the last bite of the fish dish, making an effort not to scrape the delicious sauce up with the side of the silver fork. Real silver too. Everything here was nicer than what they had at the other school. Probably because that one housed the rabble, fighters, scholarship kids and… The Prince. At least one full Count too.
That made sense though. A lot of royals had their kids over there too. Was that too keep them from getting too full of themselves? Heh. The idea that some of the nobles where that smart impressed him suddenly.
“Oh, those are gifts… For your parents and you. Really, let me know if you need anything else. I won't let my friends be harmed. Not if it’s within my ability to stop.” He couldn't explain why, not in public, because that would have compromised Ursala, and Tor wouldn't do that, which could have made things difficult to explain if a small gasp hadn't gone up around the room. That distracted everyone nicely.
Leaning in to him Trice grinned and spoke so close to his ear that it had to look like she was kissing it. “Oooohh. Now you've done it. Almost everyone wants one of those, and here you are just giving them away!” Her chuckle sounded warm enough, not like she was angry or anything. Was being poisoned really that big of a fear with the rich types?