Pain Stones (Coalescence Book 2) Read online

  “I know. We need to use everything we can, anyway. Even if doing that to anyone is cruel. We have to assume that in some reality, someplace, the enemy is doing the same, or more. We can’t hold back, because they won’t. Then, they can’t either, for the very same reason. We’re well trapped in a near perfect balance that way.”

  No one thought that sounded too insane, he noticed. Then again, he had no way of knowing if they were right or wrong in what they were projecting. It was very possible that he was gearing up for a war, with the idea of it being man to man, fists and powers flying, when the fact was that the other side was playing a totally different game.

  That… It was actually possible, even if it was hard for him to really understand.

  Their enemies had, on several, perhaps all, occasions, tried to push some of their people into doing things that they wouldn’t otherwise. If they had people on their side, only with an ideological difference, but the same powers, then it didn’t make sense. It would be worth more to have their own people do things for them directly. That was the kind of thing he needed to be finding out. At the moment, he simply didn’t have a clue as to why the others seemed to need specific people to do something. It was kind of obvious, to him at least, that the goal behind the scenes was to cause an overreaction from specific, very powerful people.

  How that was going to help the other side end all reality didn’t make sense. No matter how hard Tor, say, was pushed, he wouldn’t undo all of reality, for everyone, just to fix things. Or to get revenge. It was literally not going to work. The man would simply die, or let all of his friends and family die or even be tortured forever, before he did something that would end the lives of complete realities.

  Willum was in the same boat, if not really being pushed in that direction. Though, it was still odd that the older attacker from earlier had come at him at all. It almost had to be a mistake.

  As soon as they pulled up and parked the large beast they were riding in, the others stood up, almost before the motion stopped.

  Timon stood straight, not exactly stretching upward, but towering over the rest of them. That part had been interesting to find out originally. The man had been shorter when he was young. Everyone was, but the design had been for him to be about six feet tall to start with. Taller than anyone else in his family, but not huge really. Not in a world with giants running almost everything. Tor had made him bigger, by over a foot and a bit. He was nearly seven and a half feet now, as an adult. More, he was still growing. Tor was shorter than that by a few inches and was finished as far as that kind of thing went.

  As the story was told, Tor had figured out how to make those kinds of changes to himself. It was considered a kind of forbidden thing to do for some reason. At least Taman had suggested such to Willum. Even she didn’t know why that was, however. It had come, originally, from the old Ancients. The idea was that in the deep past, there had been those who had gone that way and ended up…

  That was where the story ended. Those people had done something and it was considered bad, but no one had mentioned to anyone why that was. It seemed like a good skill to have to Will. Possibly dangerous, of course, but no one had ever claimed that life was going to be easy or safe all the time.

  “It looks like I’m up now. Tam, you should get in on this as well. The people here don’t know that you can already do this, but if we have a half dozen who can by the end of the day, at least a little…”

  That got a sigh from the smaller woman.

  “I know. No one will buy that I can’t do it. I might as well help you teach then. People will guess anyway.”

  That was probably true for some of them. Not all, of course. Most people, when you got down to it, just weren’t going to bother thinking about things that deeply. Most people hadn’t gone out of their way to ask Taman about her ability to do that before, for instance. That kind of thing might have been met with a deflection or lie, but the raw fact was that almost no one had even tried.

  The idea that she might be bothered by people coming to her for free improvements might just not be that large of a factor. Will didn’t really understand that.

  In talking to people, even suggesting to them that they get the free upgrade in their abilities and powers, it turned out that the vast majority wouldn’t even do little things. Even being better looking was too much for some. About half of people simply didn’t like that idea. Things that would make them truly superior were even harder to sell to people. Some, about ten percent, were willing to become truly different in order to reach some goal, true. The rest didn’t want that kind of thing, it seemed.

  Even among those that were willing, they didn’t just show up at the door of a wizard all that often, for the free treatments. It was, most likely, that people were more or less comfortable with what they were in life.

  Tim Baker might not have been very close to him, but the tall man was more than willing to take over a side room at Will’s tower. Without asking what was wanted or needed, the man moved inside, waving two large groups of people with him. There were a half dozen men and women in red robes in one. The other had nearly twenty people in black Space Fleet uniforms. At their head was a now familiar looking Ancient.

  Alice.

  The woman recognized him, or at least his disguise, so walked over, directing her people to follow Taman inside.

  “Baker! Anything to report?”

  It was a strange thing to say, really. After all, he didn't work for her directly or anything. Except, of course, he did, after a fashion. At the very least he was working with her, helping to get a new program going for her people.

  “There was an attack, yesterday. On me. I think so anyway. It wasn’t a great one, if it was. Unusual however. A man, who looked older and male anyway, came out of a node in Eve Benson’s world. He tried to hit me with what looked like a cutter, on the back. My shield scattered it, but… Then the man instantly moved back, talking calmly while he did, then entered the node. It was… Like I said, a bit odd. I mean anyone paying attention should know that doing that wouldn’t even annoy me. It lacked the extreme pressure of other attacks that I’ve heard about.” He stopped, the woman looking at him frankly with her rather pretty blue eyes.

  “That’s different. Anything else?”

  “Um… Yes. We have those people from other worlds in here. Some of them have volunteered to go first, to show your people that this is, at least to an extent, safe. Brave people. Marcia Turner, the commander and Director of their unit is going first thing. Her and a little girl that the Queen is sending over. Clarissa Clarie. She’s…” He pointed at a young lady who was, as had been promised, a bit homely. She was a little nervous seeming, but waved back at him when he signaled to her.

  “Clarissa? You need to get with Tim Baker… Um…” The man handled that part, getting her attention with his own waving.

  The young lady bowed. Willum made a point of going lower than she did, even in his own home.

  He was playing that part up a bit, since it wasn’t unsafe at all, but Alice seemed to get that. At least the feeling off of her was about right for understanding that kind of thing.

  Then, since he wasn’t her raw recruit or anything, he looked her in the eye and smiled.

  “Anything to report on your end?”

  Interestingly, the woman nodded. Her honey blonde hair not moving much, since it was tied back in a tail behind her head.

  “There are rumors that more ships are in danger of mutiny. That doesn’t make sense, to be honest. Most of the time when that kind of thing takes place it’s due to outright cruelty or failure to pay the promised amount for too long. Neither of those things has been taking place. That means we have something going on. An outside force trying to create problems. Only… We can’t know where the source of that is coming from.”

  Except that, when you got down to it, they really could.

  “We need Ambassador Mableton on that. Perhaps some of her friends. Her ability to read people is… Insane
ly good, to be honest. Some nobles here tried to kill her over that yesterday.” He shook his head then smiled, as Admiral Orange glared at him a bit. “Yes, I guess I should have mentioned that part. There was also a bit of a dust up with the Royal Guard. They tried to subdue me after I stopped the initial attack. That forced Cindy, the Ambassador, to have to take down the attacker on her own. Let me…”

  He looked around, but couldn’t find her directly. Stopping in place, he closed his eyes, trying to feel where she might be. There were dozens of fields in the area, but that one wasn’t there, directly. After a minute or so of checking things out, he noticed that the woman was back by the city, over two miles away.

  “She should be here later, I think? I…”

  It was interesting, since words, in English, appeared in his head. Floating in front of his eyes then. They weren’t even translucent, seeming like words on a page, except for larger than that.

  They just asked if there was an emergency. He focused, sending the feeling back that she would be needed, but later, when it was time to return for the meal. Then he realized that with Cindy, he didn’t really need to do that kind of thing and was probably screaming at her in his head.

  Rather than complain, the words just informed him that she got it, then vanished.

  “I set up a meeting, for later tonight. She’s off with some of her people looking at the sights right now.” He felt like he was being stupid or wasting time, not having called her in instantly.

  Alice though managed a rather graceful shrug and a small smile that seemed almost seductive. That was focused on him, even if he had a disguise on his face to make himself seem uglier than normal. Not that his new face, or even the old one, really counted as unattractive.

  Kind of the opposite, really.

  “We can’t expect people from other realities to drop everything for us. Even the ones on our own side. It’s enough that she’s even willing to give us a hearing, really. Now, I should go in with my people here, even if only to sit and watch them die. I did mention that part to them. These are the ones who volunteered anyway. I need to do my part and stand by them in this.” She walked away then, which was fine, really.

  The room that the wizards and mages had gone to for their lessons were off to the right-hand side of the tower inside.

  It was still early in the day, being before two, meaning he had about five or six hours to work out how he was going to feed and entertain everyone later that day. That part was actually a lot harder than it sounded like it might be, once he thought about it.

  Running, he managed to collect ten food devices. That part required theft, since he wanted very good ones. Queen Tiera kept a box of those in her private chambers, on the Moon. Deep in the heart of her main city of Harmony. There were no guards there, but, interestingly, there was a rather nicely appointed metallic gold looking box that held a node inside of it. A private transport system.

  In order to work that out, he’d had to find his Aunt, the Queen, and pester her a bit. The woman had given him a slightly sour look at first, then winked and touched his arm. Her orders had been to invade her space and steal the things, making it not real theft at all. Thankfully.

  Those were set up outside, where he figured on holding the party. The night should be warm enough, given they were near the Capital like they were. At least it seemed like that at first. Very strangely, at about five, a thick collection of clouds rolled in, promising rain. That meant running to set things up inside. Before the storm hit.

  It strained his poor brain, trying to come up with decorations inside that would be worthy of a King and Queen, much less several of that type of being. Worse, he couldn’t just copy what the palace had, since that would be boring for Richard and Constance. What he ended up with was… Well, different, if nothing else.

  The inside of his house had been turned into one large room, kind of like what the IPB dining hall looked like inside. To the right, if you looked from the door, was what seemed like a fine restaurant. To the left were rather crude looking wooden benches and tables. The food for all of them would be on long tables along the wall, with the food units hidden about where the kitchens were in that other world. Then he created a moving light show, which floated along the ceiling. That was designed to, hopefully, look like a clear night sky.

  Only with objects moving in and out of view at a sedate but active pace. The whole thing would, if he did it right, play through about once every half hour or so. The palace, the magical house that was his new tower, wasn’t really designed for that kind of thing. It had a memory, but he was pushing that a lot, given that it was mainly there just to hold what had been done inside and out, last. If the talisman was turned off.

  There were some rough patches with the idea, but, just before everyone was supposed to get there, he had it more or less working. There were also soft sofas in the middle, where people could sit and talk. There was no dancing floor set up, but if people wanted to do that… Well, then they needed to hire musicians. He hadn’t. Not for the evening.

  In all, it was probably going to be insultingly slapped together, really.

  Thankfully he had help with the food portion of things. Avery Rome had pitched in instantly, helping by making suggestions, as Eve Benson worked a food device constantly, preparing dishes as if she was used to the devices. Which, from his understanding, she truly was. His Cousin Clemance also worked, carrying the food that came out to the long table for presentation.

  As others came, the work was joined instantly. Mark and Warren from the cooking programs in the IPB reality seemed slightly insulted that they hadn’t been invited to do the work in the first place. As if getting them away from food for a few hours was a bad thing. It honestly wasn’t, Willum thought. After all, it was all they really got to do most days. Pushing them to see the sights and visit with people from a strange land could only be healthy for them.

  Brian Yi, good to his word, came out. He looked the same, but it was clear that several alterations had been made to his pattern. Those weren’t the same ones that Will had at all, but past that bit, it was hard to tell what was going on there. The man moved a bit faster than before, or so it seemed. That was done by distorting space, instead of moving faster bodily. It kind of made sense, given the nature of his personal powers.

  Then, when they arrived, at about seven, seeing what was happening…

  The King of Noram and his Queen, along with their son, the Heir to the entire kingdom… All pitched in as well. Just carrying items to the long table, but, dressed in party clothing or not, they simply fell in, as if the task wasn’t beneath them. That got Willum to nearly feel faint. True, Tiera had been doing the same thing, but she was family.

  Even better, the royal family didn’t seem put out by being included or doing some small portion of work. All of them seemed to find it strange, truly, but not unwelcome at all. The sense coming off of them was that they weren’t being considered as useless for once.

  They had plenty of help though, so were standing and mingling near the couches after about twenty minutes of effort. A lot of people were there, not knowing what to do. Most of them were from the IPB, but a few were from different places. For instance, there was a woman that was familiar, from the IPB world, who seemed to be a friend of Avery’s. She looked good, but not like she’d been modified in any way. Like an attractive, but real person.

  She stood, holding a glass of wine, not really drinking it. Pretending, or so it seemed, to not be staring at the world around her. Listening, even though most of the conversation was in Standard.

  He moved over to her, smiling.

  “Hello! I’m Will Baker. I didn’t get your name before, I don’t think?” He spoke in English, the woman smiling at him politely. He’d gotten her name, but still needed something to say. It worked, since the lady didn’t seem to require him to be perfect, which was nice to see.

  “Krista Hall. Nice to meet you. Will… Um… You look different? I saw you before and in Cooking: Alt Re
al…”

  He glanced down, then realized that he’d still have his disguise on. As well as orange hair and eyes. Smiling he turned off the main portion of that with a tap. Only for a moment though, so the pale woman could get the idea. She was delightfully white in color. Like Tor Baker was, really. Several of the people from the IPB were like that, actually. Eve Benson was even lighter than that. Vampires, or so he understood, were often that way. It was because blood didn’t actually flow in their veins, being dead like they were.

  The lady yelped a bit, but grinned at him, to show that she’d been surprised, not scared.

  “Right! I know you, from my world? Um… My first real boyfriend, actually. Kyle. I mentioned that before, but it’s so weird.”

  Willum had heard that one, so nodded.

  “Except that I’m not. Of course. That would be my Aunt Patricia, as odd as it sounds. I just look like him. Nice guy though. We’ve met.” As in he’d had sex with the man, locked in a small room. That came back at him again, trying to destabilize his mind a bit. He’d done it with Kaitlyn, as well. She could change shape and look like two different people. Most of the time she was a fine-looking version of Will’s Aunt.

  Krista seemed to get that part of things, anyway.

  “That’s interesting. Everything here is. That I can go to other worlds and meet people that know friends of mine? I… I really have to admit that I’m kind of going into culture shock here. I don’t even really know where I am. I mean, this is Noram, right? Where Cooking: Alt Real was shot for the first season? You were in that… But this tower wasn’t in that.”

  He nodded, working out what she really meant.

  “Yeah. This is new. It only went up last night. My place. I rented the land earlier today, so that’s decently official. I’m not really ready to have a party like this, but things happened, so… Here we are?”

  He actually felt a bit shy about the whole thing, suddenly, but the nice seeming lady, who was in a skirt, which not everyone from the IPB was, smiled up at him.