P. Power - Knight Esquire

Taking a deep breath Tor tried for loud, but it hurt, causing him to groan in pain instead, a low moan that should have gotten attention from the others, he thought. No one came at least.

“Hey, anyone hear me?” He asked as loudly as he could manage. “Anyone? Um, free gold if someone answers? Um, you’re all over-tall. Eating eels is gross? Anyone at all?”

Nothing.

He dropped the field and tried again.

“Um anyone there?” He said, a fraction of as loudly as before, because yelling hurt and even loud talking was a little much for the moment.

Sara and Ursala both ran over, at least one of them knocking something heavy over in their haste, probably a focus stone chair from the sound. Well, the field seemed to work then.

“Tor!” Sara yelled as she swung around the screen. “Are you all right?”

“Yeah, um, sorry, not trying to scare anyone, I’m testing a new field… Um, hey, Ursala, could you go out by the table and start yelling? I mean really loud? And Sara, if you’d come over here, just sit by the bed please? You don’t even have to sit…” Tor didn’t want the cute blond nearest him to think he was trying to take advantage of her. Not because he wouldn’t, Tor decided, just because right now that would hurt too much to really consider.

The Countess started yelling loud, mainly nonsense words, but loud ones. She could really belt out the noise Tor noticed. Smiling up at Sara he activated the little medallion. Silence. Sara’s eyes went wide and then she grinned.

“That is so neat! Can you hear me?” She asked in a normal tone of voice.

Tor winked, a bit of pain shooting through his side under the loose black silk shirt he didn’t remember putting on at all. Someone changed his clothing while he worked? Well, that was potentially embarrassing. He tried to work out a way, a person that would make that feel normal. Nope. Just awkward all the way around. God, he just hoped he hadn’t soiled himself. Tor really didn’t want to ask, since he had to live with these people for at least a bit longer.

“I can hear you, I think what we need to do now is check and see if Ursa can hear us. If not, then it works.”

Once they got her to stop yelling Sara took a turn, standing next to the bed. It worked perfectly according to the Countess. Then she walked in and out of the field.

“This is so interesting! The sound just stops totally on the other side of the field. Nothing else happens, just, no sound. I can see you both fine, no distortion or anything.” After a few seconds she raised a single eyebrow and gave him a sexy look that conveyed something else he couldn’t name at the same time.

“I get it… This is so you can hold secret… meetings without being heard? As long as the price isn’t too high, I bet a lot of royals will want one. Have private discussions that are actually private… Do other things without worrying about being indiscreet. Hmmm. Too bad you’re still in pain or we could test it out. I’ve been known to get a little loud at times.”

Sara laughed, so Tor smiled. Even chuckling hurt too much.

“It should sell, but why did you make it? I mean I can see uses for it, but it’s not exactly a shield or even a room cooler.” Sara looked at him curiously.

“Oh, no, it is a shield. A part of one at least. I’m just trying to build this one piece by piece. Create all the needed parts separately, then merge them into one at the end. I’ll… Let you know when I’m done. It shouldn’t take too long, but…” He smiled at the blonds and then winked again.

“I don’t want to wake up being beaten in the head, so this way I can stay closer to the surface while I heal up. Eat occasionally and sleep like a regular person. Maybe get a shower and some of that sex I hear so much about.”

It was a joke, of course, he really hurt too much for more than a peck on the cheek, but at least the girls both responded as if he’d said the right thing. Maybe he was getting better at this kind of playful banter?

Later that day Tor used a Not-flyer to get to the showers, since it was a personal goal of his to never reek any more than he had to. It turned out to be empty this time of day, just after breakfast, so he didn’t have to wait or feel too awkward about how he looked. It was hard to shower without pulling at the stitches, and he realized quickly that he’d have to forget washing his back. He also had to be really careful with his bar of fatty lye soap. It worked well, but getting it in a wound would be agony and stay that way, probably for days. As he rinsed under the hot water he shut his eyes and let the water hit his back for a while. He may not be able to scrub, but at least the warm water would wash away a little bit of the oil and dirt, he hoped. Tor heard someone else come in and turn on the shower across from him.

He opened his eyes and had to fight slamming them shut again when he saw who it was.

Petra. What he noticed first was how muscular she was. Not like a man, but like a powerfully built woman. She looked hard and had better abs than he did.

Looking down he realized that wasn’t really true. His abs weren’t bad at all, he was just pretty skinny and had some small wounds on his left side. Looking back at the slightly older girl she noticed him and smiled.

“Well, someone tried to kill you… but that’s pretty low… Underhand blow?” She pantomimed the motion, a stab from her own hip moving outward. It would make sense, given their height difference, but he shook his head. She’d heard his description already, but either didn’t understand or just wanted to talk about it.

“No, um, overhand. She was, um, kneeling in front of me at the time…”

Instead of acting shocked the large and powerfully built girl just soaped her arms, chest and then under her arms. The scent of her soap, something soft and floral wafted across the room on the moist air. After she rinsed she turned, soaped up the lower parts of her body and rinsed again.

Then she faced him and sunk to her knees slowly.

“So… Like this?” She made a move that, had she been closer to him, instead of ten feet away, would have lined up nearly perfectly with the wounds.

“About my size then?”

“Little smaller, about two inches I’d guess. But basically just like that. Only, well, closer. Um, obviously.” Tor had to fight not to duck his head in shame, just saying something like that, but made himself hold steady.

She went back to washing and started in on her short hair, which wasn’t in a military woman’s cut at all, but was even shorter, a true fighters cut. She faced away while she washed and Tor struggled to not stare at her behind. Her body was interesting. Muscular and a little blocky looking, compared to say, Sara, but still very worth looking at. He just didn’t want to make her feel uneasy. She may be a royal and used to communal bathing, but that didn’t mean she wanted to be ogled in particular while she did it.

“That sucks. Um, no pun intended there.” The girl grinned at him as the water fell around her shoulders. “Well, I promise that if I’m ever doing that with you, I won’t pull a knife.”

A lot of things ran through his head then, the first being to mock himself and talk about how inadequate he was, but frankly, he realized, she already knew that. As in could look across the room and see for herself. So if he wasn’t good enough she wouldn’t have said it that way. It wasn’t really an offer either, not exactly. Was she testing the waters? Ursala and Sara had kind of hinted at something like that before. Putting out a signal they called it. Or was it just an offhand comment? What was it he was supposed to do then? Ah, right, give one back that was slightly more explicit, but not outrageously so. Because going in too strong could kind of force the other person into a corner. You flirted, but didn’t make people do anything they didn’t want to.