“I'll do that, make sure to practice touching myself, before I do anyone else with it.” Her voice held her normal teasing quality.
Oh. Sex jokes. Well, it was still a good point. Keeping his face serious he looked at her skeptically.
“Um, what did you think I meant? You could tear something off with that thing you know…”
The smile came slowly even as he fought it. Then the laughter was louder.
They sat around and traded stories, got told off for trying to talk business by Rolph, who pointed out that Tor taking a break for two weeks was the first time in ten years that the entire Counsel of Counts and the entire royal family agreed on anything. Eric and Mercy relented then, their looks suddenly worried, as if Tor might be ill or something.
When they left Trice wanted to come, so she got a clothing amulet and changed to match, her colored stripes being deep gray for some reason. No one else was dressed like they were, so they looked a bit odd to Tor, but no one in the city seemed to think it a bad thing. In fact people waved when they saw them, sometimes whistling or calling out until they waved back.
Not everyone, but the nobles all did, even stopping their shopping and errands to show their children and talk to them. What they were saying he couldn't tell, but the kids did things like clap and jump up and down. He finally got it when one young, but extremely tall, royal lady with a little boy next to her point and told her son who they were dressed like.
“Look! It's the ancients! That little one there is the Green man, the one that invented magic, remember the story daddy told you?”
The boy clapped and ran at Tor, giving him a big hug around the legs.
“Magic!” The little boy might have been three, but that was hard to tell, he bounced and clapped so happily that Tor gave him a little glow amulet on a hemp string that let him change the color of the air around him. The kid seemed pleased and it got applause from Rolph. The mother just looked at him wide eyed for a moment and then bowed deeply.
“Thank you sir.” She said, her voice humble for some reason. The little boy bowed too.
“Tank you, Gween man.” He said changing the colors on his amulet as the mother went wide eyed. She bowed again several times then. It was a bit awkward, but she gave Tor a hug too.
Karina smiled prettily, happy for the moment and leaned into him, Trice did too on the other side and whispered into his left ear as they moved down the street a little.
“Did you just hand a little kid a piece of magic that would probably market for several hundred golds?”
She wrinkled her nose at him.
“That kid's going to be fifty and telling everyone about the time he met the real Green man on the street!”
That got a laugh from Rolph who moved up next to his cousin and touched her new arm gently. Trice stared down at it and smiled, not getting his point. The Prince shrugged.
“All I can say on the matter Trice is that Tor isn't the Green man. You know that, Count Lairdgren is. What he'll end up being I don't know, but he's all him.”
The Ducherina flexed her new hand and looked at it closely for a second.
“Yeah. I guess I can see that.”
The carriage was ridiculously cramped and the only thing that made it bearable was that Trice and Karina took turns sitting in his lap. Sure, they were both bigger than he was, so he couldn't see anything, but that just meant he kept getting hit in the face with their breasts, since both sat with an arm around him, leaning onto Rolph as they did each time. He wasn't as enthused about it, but they were his relatives. Tor could get that.
Wensa and the male guard who didn't give a name both sat watching out the slits of windows on the other side. They got a whole side to themselves in case something happened and they had to move quickly. That they were better at doing that than he was, Tor didn't doubt. Pretty much everyone was. He was better at hiding though, he bet. He could wedge into little places these giants wouldn't even think to look in. Perfectly equal.
Yep.
When they finally got to Debri house, over half an hour later. Sara's mom's place, which did indeed look like a miniature palace, and kind of funny for it, Tor felt the dread rise again and knew what was coming, so he just hopped out and went to. The last time he'd been there he hadn't just been a jerk, it was worse than that. Way worse. At this rate, he told them, he was going to end up spending his whole vacation on his knees apologizing to people.
He held up his hand and stuck out his tongue as the laughter started.
“I know, even I'm not so dense as to not get the joke there. Sigh. Even innocent comments get warped by you people don't they?”
Heather Debri didn't make him grovel long, at least not alone. He hadn't said more than “I owe an apology for my actions” before she joined him on the floor, head next to his.
“As do I.”
His list, threatening to kill them all and destroy part of the city, then destroy her family’s business, probably bankrupting them, kind of beat her having not paid him yet. Yes, the payment was late, six months or so, but he wasn't hurting for money. They weren't either, they even had the coin she informed him, but it was sitting aside in a secure vault somewhere else in the Capital.
“No big thing.” He had enough gold. Too much probably. If he had it that meant someone else wasn't using it. They needed to make more jobs. He started to ask about the idea, the woman looking suddenly interested. After all, investment in growth led to more income and that meant they could afford to hire more people. Plus it wasn’t her gold, but if they could be a part of the whole effort, Debri House could still turn a profit. Tor suggested the focus stone idea Johanson had.
“Nope!” Rolph clapped his hand over Tor's mouth the instant he started to mention it. The move didn't trigger the shield at all. It was interesting to touch people again after all that time without, giving him a new perspective on things. One of them was that, as huge as the Prince was, he could move both quickly and with near total control. Tor normally felt like someone had tied fish to his feet.
The other thing was that more than anyone, Rolph was worried about him working too hard. Tor didn't work that hard though. No one could really. There were only twenty-four hours in a day and you had to sleep part of the time. Every few weeks at least. It was self-limiting that way.
The cool blond that walked in looked lovely, her skin golden and the cream dress she had on covered only part of one shoulder and barley hit her thighs. Still, she looked a little warm. Reaching out Tor realized she didn't have an equalizer on. Neither did Heather. From their sweat it wasn't cool in the room, so was it a comment on him? Well, he could have been a better friend he knew. Hence the knocking his head against the floor.
Head dropping in shame he swallowed. They'd rather suffer this heat than wear an amulet he'd given them? He felt like he should grovel more but Sara started yelling. Loud. It was a happy sound though.
“Trice! Your arm… how? Oh my god, is it.. does it..” Sara was on Trice like a magnet meeting it's pair. She touched the arm, screamed happily and started kissing it as Trice wiggled the fingers.
“Don't worry, it's magic, not flesh, but it feels real doesn't it? I can't feel with it yet, but Tor says that's coming. He made it for me. I should have known when he said he was making a “shiny hook” it would be something like this, shouldn't I?” Tears came into her eyes again.
Heather Debri froze, staring at the arm for at least a full minute while the girls celebrated. Then, slowly, she walked over to Trice and put her hand out as if to touch it. Trice reached out and took her hand, making the forty odd year old woman gasp. At first Tor feared her hand was being crushed, but that wasn't it at all.