P. Power - Knight of the Realm

When Tor finalized the arrangements with the weapons master, Kyle, the head guard, started crying. Not loud and nothing that everyone saw in the dim light of the room. Tor noticed it, but decided to ignore it, though he wondered if he'd done something wrong. Holly just told him it was up to him. She didn't say anything more. She didn’t seem happy though.

That done, the wind still picking up everyone waited for a while, since it was hours until dinner would normally be served. It was boring, since no one wanted to waste their stories until after the meal, which made sense to him. Did he have any stories to tell?

Not really, he was kind of boring really, Tor knew. All building and work most of the time. As the wind began to howl and the roof shudder and moan a bit under the whistling sound, thunder parting the night after the sudden jolt that preceded it, Tor realized that the feeling of the field was familiar… Like when the Larval assassin had attacked him.

“Hey, does anyone know, is lightning electricity?” This got a laugh from half the people in the room. Swarley didn't laugh at him, but the poor kid was probably wondering how big his member was, and if he liked to use lubricant or not. Since it was a moot point, and the kid would learn that soon on his own, Tor didn't bother with the idea. A year ago he hadn't even known that would be physically possible. The idea left him feeling a little ill. But different places, different customs.

It turned out that almost everyone in the room knew a lot more about electrics than he did, even though they weren't used in Noram as a rule. Unless produced by magic. That got Tor's attention. He knew other places did things differently, but he hadn't heard about rules about it. Trice and Petra went into depth about the basics of electricity even describing how it moved, positive and negative poles… Half of what they said just went over his head for the time being, but closing his eyes he felt the lightning and tracked it, then tried to feel the field behind it. It was hard at first, until he realized it was like light in a way.

Hesitating he spoke slowly, hoping everyone wouldn't laugh this time.

“So… if directed to do so, it can go into the ground and even wants to, sort of?” Opening his eyes he looked around, and found that Petra was nodding at least. She seemed to know the most about the subject for some reason.

Closing his eyes to consider the situation it became clear that it wasn't even something hard to do. Like light, it was a field at the base level, so as long as he gave it clear instructions, it should do what he said. Duh. As lighting crashed in that moment, Tor wondered if banging his head into the table would make him any dumber. No, that probably couldn't happen, being the moron that he already was. It was all so obvious, once someone pointed it out to him. He could direct light, and had, the sigils on the new pieces for instance. Even creating it for a time. So, if he formed a ball in the air that told electricity to go inward instead of casting out or into the ground and filled it with a general field of the stuff…

It took half an hour of deep concentration, which wasn't bad for a brand new field at all. It came into being clearly with a small pop that got everyone’s attention. Tor opened his eyes but kept his focus as pure as possible. Simple enough now. No harder than making a cutter in the air at least. He was deep, but could see by the light of the blue glow in front of him. It wasn't as bright as a light would be, and only about as big around as his own head. Everyone scurried back from it suddenly, even though it only looked like a pale glow.

“Tor! What is that?” Trice asked, trying to keep her voice gentle, even though it sounded a little scared. He smiled.

“Lightning. Contained lightning. I can shield against it now. I figured it out. Thanks to your help everyone.” Closing his eyes he let the energy inside the control field dissipate first, then let the rest of it go. He was, somehow, learning. Get rid of the dangerous stuff first. Right. Now he could add it to his shield and protect against light too. Maybe next time Smythe attacked him he wouldn't be left blind. Everyone sat around staring.

“What? I know I don't have any interesting stories, so I made some lightning. That's cool, right? I mean it’s a real novelty and everything.” He tried to sound humorous about it, but knew that wasn't his real reason for doing it. No, he'd been trying to move past boredom. That was the real point. Probably not a good one, but there it was. Tor knew that people did a lot of things to try and not be bored.

Swarley still looked scared, even more so now than before. Even to the point of looking pale. Then again, maybe he was just hungry? Tor had been on short rations himself, so tried to work the idea of an early meal around. Everyone ignored him on the point, so he let it go, hoping it hadn't been rude.

Still, his stomach was growling and he knew that the larger people ate more than he did when they could, so they had to be hungry too. To keep from being too bored he asked what kind of things they might need for search and rescue the next day. This got a shrug and a list of things he didn't have anything ready for.

Water he could do, sure. He had pumps that cleared water ready to go in his trunk, and could make cisterns out of stone or soil. Food? Why would they even need it? Didn't people already have food? Damage to buildings? Well, he could make digging equipment he supposed, and concentrators, if that would do. Temporary housing for the displaced? That one he was all over.

Petra smiled at him and shrugged.

“Healing too, medicine and first aid. There will be injured. Trees collapse on roofs, that sort of thing, buildings collapse. I once saw a man that was run clear through with a palm tree.” She held up her right hand to stop anyone from speaking. “I know it's not possible, I still saw it. That was gruesome.”

Through dinner, which they ate by lamp light for some reason Tor didn't get, he planned what he needed to do. He needed more working materials, but stone would work. Could he go out and get some safely? Really he didn't think so, not from the sound of the wind out there and the pounding and crashing coming from the beach. Shield or not he could still drown. Maybe he could collect something around the place there… They needed more of nearly everything, as well as something to help people heal… God. He didn't have enough time. Did he? He knew that fields could be built faster if he went deep enough, but if he went too deep it was hard to come back.

The one time he'd tried it he almost hadn't come back at all. But… If he set the time to come back as being triggered by the field being strong enough? It was risky. Still, if he could master that, he'd be on his way to being a real master, not just some guy that people said that about to be polite to.

The wind freaked out then and got really loud, so much that people were yelling to be heard. Not at the top of their lungs maybe, but close enough. Tor had an idea, but needed at least a template piece to do the initial work on. It could be anything, since he doubted he could really check the sigils, the indicator marks he used to remind himself what to do next. Not working as deeply as he intended too. This time he had to form the idea and commit to it fully.

It was a risk all around, but, well, he healed, right? All the time. Could he figure out what that felt like and just accelerate it? Everyone should do it about the same way really, shouldn't they? And this wouldn't be specific, just push a body to do more in the moment, so that the person could survive long term.

Right. If it didn't kill them instantly, that would work.

Well, could he just remind a person as to what their individual pattern was supposed to be using a limited feedback window? Tor really didn't know for certain. For one thing he was pretty sure he'd just made that term up. The idea was solid though, he just needed some help…