P. Power - Knight of the Realm

They didn't have near enough transports to carry everyone, but Tor didn't care. The flight training base was only about a fifty mile walk. They could follow the river that floated behind the compound to it. They deserved to walk. Maybe it would give them time to reflect on what they'd done? Probably not, people were generally too stupid to realize when they'd messed up, but that was up to them. Their failure to learn from experience wasn't his problem.

Staying hidden was the hard part, since it got boring, but the men hovering didn't move much, watching and waiting for him to make a mistake. It ticked him off. They were using his own devices against him. Finally he shrugged. Tor didn't want to murder anyone, but if they left him no choice, what could he do? He pulled the little metal piece that looked like a poison detector from around his neck and got ready to use it, pointing it up at the flyers and stepping out just as the transport flew into sight. It wasn't one of the ones that had been taken, because those were all out front being loaded. It hovered briefly, then set down just inside the gate, near the open portion of the front wall.

When the side opened, Rolph stepped out, his skin too dark and his hair a deep brown still. He looked like a military man, lacking his long red hair and normal light tan skin tone. Kolb, bald head shining stepped out, followed by Godfrey. They all looked around, their gazes slightly panicked. The one shoe wearing captain, a blond man Tor realized having actually missed that part before being distracted, his left leg still covered in dried blood ran over to them screaming something. This time it didn't sound nearly so manly. Kolb held up a single hand, but the man kept screaming anyway.

Rolph saw him and slowly walked over.

“Alright there Tor?” He asked, stopping about ten feet away. “Why do you have your poison detector out… Crap! Tor…”

Rolph knew what it meant as Tor pointed the device at the flying men and shrugged.

“Their shields are too good for anything else I have, and they won't leave. I'm making the military leave. They attacked me… First they wouldn't let me in to my own home, mocked me and threatened me. I could have let that go, but then they physically attacked me when I managed to make my own door to get in. I don't care if it's reasonable or not, they're going. Then they told me I didn't have a right to ask them to leave! Well, I've got the right for them if they really want it…” Taking a deep breath he pointed at one of the flying men and started to activate the device.

“Stop! God, please Tor, stop. No need to kill them… They'll go, see… They'll go!” He waved at them frantically to move off, but they didn't budge. They probably couldn't tell who the Prince was or even what he wanted really. A large man waving at them right now didn't hold a lot of interest for them it seemed.

“Kolb!” Rolph yelled. “Can you get your people to get them to move off, Tor's going to kill them all if they don't!”

The words weren't even all the way out of the Prince’s mouth when nearly twenty people appeared in the air and told the six military flyers to move on. Tor wanted to be angry at them for not having helped him earlier, but then he'd been the one to set up the chain of command and exclude anyone other than the royal family, hadn't he? Great, he'd handed an incredibly dangerous weapon to people that probably were going to use it against him, or at least attack him, for the second time in his life. He kind of deserved to die, didn't he?

Giving weapons like that to his enemies. Too stupid to live. Duh.

Though, come to think of it, Petra and the others had actually helped him out once that day already. When it had looked like a simple fight between him and a few men. They didn't back off until later, when it would have been them against the military without orders if they tried to help. So, no blaming them, not really. Tor sighed.

At least it worked for now. Kolb's people didn't even hurt them, just flew over calmly and explained, waved to Godfrey who nodded grimly, then they flew off, landing out front with the other men. Tor put the massive death weapon away, but pulled out one of the force lances. He wasn't standing around unarmed. Who knew what these monsters were going to try and do next? He waited while everyone else walked over. Godfrey looked half freaked and half pissed off, but Kolb just tilted his head. Tor grabbed the initiative.

“Your men barred me from my own home and then attacked me Godfrey. You all have to get out. Now. You aren’t welcome here anymore. Not if you’re going to do things like that. I don’t know what kind of orders you gave them, but this…” Tor growled softly. Menacingly.

While holding a better than decent force lance on the man. Ready to use it.

In return Godfrey told him that it was a military base and only the King could tell them they had to leave. Tor tilted his head at the man and then shrugged. He looked at Rolph, hoping for support from his old friend, knowing that it wasn't very likely. The Prince nodded slowly at Tor, agreeing with the Major. It was in his brown eyes, his face.

Well. If the Prince of the freaking realm said it wasn't his house any more, then it wasn't. It wasn't fair. It had been his. He'd built it. Well, his little hut. Others had built the rest, but they'd all said it was his place. A real home to call his own.

Crud. Rolph owned the land it was on and they didn't even have a real contract or anything. He'd said it was all right, but if a royal changed their mind, then it kind of became law. After a fashion at least. There was nothing someone like Tor could do about it anyway. Totally unfair. He looked at Rolph, feeling betrayed again. They were supposed to be friends, weren't they?

“Alright then. Just give me all the devices that the kingdom hasn't paid for, and I'll leave. You can freaking have it.” Tor was breathing hard and Rolph looked off into the distance.

“What hasn't been paid for?” The Major looked baffled and sounded confused as if he really didn't know. Kind of an oversight, since he ran a base that basically ran on things he'd built.

Tor just smiled. Really they hadn't paid for anything. Some of the shields and flying rigs, but not even most of those. None of the building gear or transports at all. Or the rivers that provided water. They hadn't signed a contract with him either. They could try to keep it all, he guessed, what was he going to do if they decided to? Take on the entire Noram military? That wouldn't work he knew. Too many of them were too well armed and shielded, at least until he developed a way to remove their devices from them, or destroy the fields at a distance. He could do it. It hadn't occurred to him before, but really, that was within the bounds of what could be managed. The devices were all on physical objects. A thrill of excitement ran through him then. All he had to do was create a field that used feedback to locate a certain kind of field and then destroy the metal, wood or stone it was on. It wouldn't even be that hard. In an instant most of it sprang into his mind.

Rolph didn't touch him, but did wave a hand in front of his face. Tor started and then grinned.

“Sorry, I just figured out how to take out all the magical devices in a given area. Selectively or even just anything magical at all. So yeah, go ahead and steal my home, try and take my work without paying for it, we'll see how that works out for you all…” Tor went into his hut and started packing.

He couldn't take everything with him, lacking space in his luggage, so he started tucking all the amulets into cases and making sure the boxes were flight ready, then he took his clothing, toiletries and such. The follow along floats wouldn't navigate the stairs or the hallway, a winding stone privacy screen with three switchbacks, so Tor had to carry them all on his own. Each trunk weight hundreds of pounds, except the clothing one, so he had to drag them out. It took a long time to get the six trunks he wanted. He had the rivers for Afrak ready to go and their excavating equipment, as well as his chest of gold, and another couple just filled with amulets of nearly twenty different sorts. The rest of them, well there were thousands of things in there still. He didn't want them stolen by the military… They seemed to like stealing his things for some reason. Them and the King.