“I see you still haven't learned to protect yourself against poisons yet? You may want to rectify that. Soon.” Then the woman, lean and hard as he remembered her, steal gray hair pulled into a bun that looked uncomfortable to him, walked out without looking back.
Looking down at his mainly clean plate Tor blanched. Right. He'd kind of forgotten how much she hated him. Poison in the food then? Nice of her to warn him, but what could he do for that? He'd try to think of how to avoid it, but there were just too many different poisons to learn them all. He'd be better off trying to build a field that could recognize food, and tell him if anything thing else was there.
Which made sense.
How many different things did he eat on average? A hundred different things a week? If he broke it down into ingredients it was probably four times that. Compared to the ten thousand or more things that could kill him in food, it seemed easy to manage. He could make a limited feedback field; it was just a complicated version of the temperature control field. Those were rare, but easy enough now that he had the basic concept down. It would take a lot of work to build the whole thing right, but…
Yeah, that part would do what he wanted.
What he needed though was some way to signal him that there was something in the food that didn't belong. He knew what he'd want for that, a very bright light, something that couldn't be missed at all. The only problem there was that he didn't know how to make one. They existed, but he'd never gotten to hold one even. They were expensive, and the ones in the palace he'd seen where all placed out of reach high up on walls or the ceiling. That had been a stylistic thing, Tor figured, since they couldn't have possibly known that he'd be coming when the light features were built, years or possibly decades before.
He didn't sleep well that night, and had to skip breakfast the next day, just in case Wensa came after him. Rolph laughed and said that Wensa had just been yanking his chain, but Tor shook his head and refused to go anyway. Better hungry than dead, right?
The morning’s meditation was peaceful enough, easier for him now than before, what with all his copy work, which was mainly meditation anyway. Dorris the instructor nodded at him as he left, still refusing to speak, but seeming content about it at the same time. In his next class he just asked the instructor how to build a light field. It made sense to him, but Instructor Fines blinked at him as if he’d suggested they dine on another student later.
“Tor! This is novel building, not “copy other peoples work” class. But I'll give you a hint this once… Even though I shouldn't have to… Think about the nature of light. Examine it and reproduce the field. It's basically how everything is done in this class, in magical construction as a whole, and light is one of the most basic parts of reality. So, just since you asked… Have a light for me within three weeks, no fair using an already existing field as a template; I know you can do that. Bonus points if you have if for me faster than the deadline.” The man smiled as if he'd done him a favor.
His mind spun in place for the rest of the day. He skipped lunch as well, hunger starting to become slighting annoying. It wasn't so bad in a trance state, so he made a point of dropping as deeply as he could into his own mind and focus on everything going on around him, so he wouldn't walk into walls or something.
He'd have to make the whole thing that night. Somehow. He couldn't take the hunger otherwise, not and keep up with his schedule at all. Damn Wensa anyway. Why was she so bent on hurting him? He hadn't done anything to her had he? Well, OK, he had sort of told Dorgal and his friends she was a Royal Guard and her stomping over with weapons in hand had kind of confirmed it… But she'd started it. What could he do though, but try and survive?
Tor made a point of focusing even more deeply as he walked to the weapons practice area. The sunlight hit his skin, so he tried to capture the sense of it in the air, hoping that would be enough to distract him. It was amorphous, hard to find and gone instantly. How could he duplicate that? Or… well, did he have to really? He focused harder and stopped walking about ten feet from the stone wall of the practice court.
Light… it was already a field! That's why he couldn't find it, trying to sense it like something physical. Oh, it existed physically, but what made it work, that portion of it, Tor could simply get a feeling for like any manufactured field he wanted to copy. It wasn't too difficult to find, it was too easy. He snorted to himself. No wonder Fines had told him to just find it for himself. He felt a little stupid for having asked now. Well, lesson learned then, look for himself before bugging others or thinking something was hard before even trying.
Inside the practice court he sat down on the ground awkwardly just inside the gate, a little to the left of it near the stone wall and picked up a small stone, about the size of a gold coin. Could he capture the feeling well enough? He focused for about forty-five minutes before the rock in his hand finally started to glow, dimly at first, but then brighter, more so than the sunlight, then the sun in the sky itself. Then brighter still.
Suddenly it got too bright, so he threw the stone away, an instinctual and slightly panicked move. It was leaving spots in front of his eyes even with them closed. He could even follow the arc it took through the air, to the point it landed on the ground.
Right at the feet of two giants hitting each other with wooden weapons and wearing full armor it turned out. He wondered abstractly if they'd like some of the heat equalizing amulets. Maybe they'd accept that in exchange for not killing him? That padded practice armor had a point, he knew, since shields were rare, his kind of shield, but it looked incredibly hot right now. Both people had to turn away from the small rock, which had finally started to dim.
“Blind!” One of them cried, not in fear, just indicating that he couldn't see for some reason. The call was echoed by his opponent, Petra if Tor recognized the voice. Next to him saw a shadow, a little blind from the rock he'd made glow himself. It was a big shadow, but not one big enough to be Kolb, he didn't think so at least. When she spoke he got it instantly.
“Wow. That was effective. New battlefield weapon? Meant to leave the enemy blind?” Karen asked this in a soft voice, obviously trying to not call more attention to herself if possible. Probably to keep the other two from beating him to death for having attacked them out of turn.
“No, I was just trying to figure out how to make light. It worked. Um, yay? I have a new project to work on, and it's going to be a little useful to it. Plus I need it for a class, different project. Sorry!” He called out to the two still standing and not moving, still unable to see. Tor climbed to his feet and stood, his left leg hardly supporting his weight at all, since he'd sat on it funny, not even noticing that he was doing it in the working trance. He dusted the tan earth from his darker brown clothing making a soft cloud in the air.
Karen smiled and had him walk with her towards where the practice weapons were kept.
“So… I was thinking that since you can't run and that's what you normally practice doing, right? Since you can't do that, let's work pells and lifting stones for strength, then we'll do an intense sword and knife drill and maybe head out to the range so that we can practice there for a while.”
That would be different at least, since he'd never been out to the range before. Kolb didn't even let him practice with a bow and arrow, claiming that it would probably be wasted anyway, since no one used them any more to fight with and the aiming system for everything else was just so different.
Karen, it turned out, expected him to be some kind of weapons expert it seemed, and came at him like he was one of the combat giants. He barely managed to hold on and had to resist trying to run away at least three times. They fought first with knives, and then swords, standing face to face, without moving their feet at all. Without dodging it was a lot harder not to be killed by the girl than normal. Not the practice kind of killed, the actual dying kind. She didn't hit him in the leg at least. Just everywhere else.