Crystal Core Read online

  “Exactly so. Though you should be fine that way. For now, at least. There are a couple beings here you need to keep an eye on. Your wife, Patty, for instance, Tim. There’s a woman who could go off the rails if pushed the wrong way. That jerk Alphonse Cordes, as well. What a tool, am I right?”

  The words got a snort from Timon, rolled eyes from Willum… And the old man kicked in the shin, with a hard-soled shoe. That was Miven’s doing. The fellow didn’t do more about it than grin.

  Tim explained at least, to prevent the next round of violence.

  “This is Prince Alphonse. At least a different version of him. He was simply playing, saying that. Making fun of himself, to put us at ease.”

  Willum could see that as valid enough.

  “Yes. He’s a decent person, so not a real threat, anyway. So far, he hasn’t learned to cross realities or anything, though I suppose he could ask for that to be done, so he really isn’t helpless that way. Not a threat though. Or a jerk, really. I manage to get along with him all right, or have so far.”

  The words got the girl to wince and bow her head. This time she really did turn red.

  “Forgive me… I…” She started to bow, awkwardly, but the man just nodded.

  “No harm done. Anyway, there are real dangers for you all, but that’s life. We can’t solve all your troubles for you, either. Well, we probably could, but you don’t need us to do that for you. Work your current plan, and it will be enough. Not an easy thing to do… Anyway, before I go, I need to do some things here. If I could have a minute with each of you, alone? Then I should go over what Elsa told you all and see if she snuck in any disinformation. Nice girl, but she’ll lie just to test and see if you’re paying attention. Miven here, first?”

  That part at least, wasn’t done in secret, the fellow just stepped to the side and said about three sentences to her. The words didn’t carry at all, but she nodded and then moved back, behind the counter of the shop. Just as several people walked in. To actually use the place as it was intended. Getting magic and looking at it, even if you didn’t want to take it home with you.

  They all chatted merrily about the new color scheme outside, and noticed that the shop had been done as well. That informed them all pretty well about the source of things.

  Willum was surprised when the old man approached him, next. He really would have figured Timon would be the one for that role.

  The thought, clearly being read, got a head shake.

  “Not really. You’ve been taking too much on yourself, for a while now. Part of that is a good thing. The more realities there are, the longer everything will last. Going new places, making lots of changes to things… That’s important. You and your line walking friends have helped to bring trillions of realities into being. Just taking your messages around for people… Incredible idea. It’s pushing growth in this sector of the greater whole to a level we’ve rarely seen. I just wanted to let you know that you aren’t going to be carrying the weight of everything forever. Get this next bit taken care of and your people will be safe. Then you can… Really, you should keep up with the messages, if you can. Your magic isn’t a bad thing either. Especially if you give it away like you have been. That really gets people making some choices, I have to tell you.” Then there was a slightly patronizing pat on the arm, and the man walked away.

  “Oh, hey, what’s your name? In case I have to find you later for something?” Like a kick to the groin, if the man was playing with them. He had tried to murder Willum, after all.

  “Hobbs. Rolph Hobbs. Hopefully there won’t be a boot to my nethers any time soon. Now, I need to go over a lot of data with Timmy there. We can do that in the back here?” It was a polite request, which meant that they really could. Not that Willum was taking off, with the man back there. He seemed polite and all that, but it was hard to think of them as being on the same side.

  He, personally, felt closer to Elsa that way, to be honest. She, at least, hadn’t tried to kill him. Rolph there had. It made a difference as far as trust went. Then, they didn’t have to be close friends to be allies.

  So, standing there, with nothing to do as Miven worked, he moved to the counter and spoke with her.

  “What did he tell you? I basically got that I work too hard and need to relax more.”

  The small woman, who looked young if not too much so for him to be talking to, shook her head.

  “Crazy things. He said that I could be a leader here, and that I need to talk to the Ysidril, like you said. He didn’t say about what. I… Guess about learning something. I don’t know if that’s right.”

  That part, the ideas in her head, were very different than he would have suspected. To her, it had to be about home making, or possibly finding a good husband. That or, possibly, religion. That got him to tilt his head, since it hadn’t been what he’d been thinking of at all. To his mind her training would have been about languages, or possibly mathematics. Since that was the kind of thing that he’d be after, if it were him.

  Which it simply wasn’t.

  “Um… Well… Right. Let me…” Pulling his handheld, Willum had to search through the names he needed. After all, they weren’t anyone that he called on all that often, so they hadn’t floated to the top at all. Several of the people he thought of first, Eva and Samantha, the energy daughters of Dareg Canton, weren’t listed at all, that he could tell. There were tens of thousands of names, so it could simply be that he didn’t recognize what they went by. Some people did that on purpose, if they were too popular.

  It cut down on being randomly contacted by strangers, or so he’d heard.

  Feeling dismissed, Miven went back to her actual job, which meant standing behind the counter as another person, a man of about thirty, came in. He waved, to the girl running things.

  “Hey, Mivie! Sorry about being late. I had to stand and stare at the new paint job out there. That’s pretty nice. In here, too? Some kind of magic?”

  As Willum searched the list, seeking the right beings, deciding to just ask High Leader Hess in the end, the other two discussed the new colors and how Miven was the one in charge of that. For all of Harmony.

  Without looking up he muttered. Loudly enough for the others to hear him.

  “The rest of the Moon as well. The cities at least. We’ll need a better amulet system if we want to do all of the outside. Anyway, here, let me…”

  Hess, looking purple and green, with a bit of blue on his nose now, let his mouth drop open. At the same time, Willum made the front of his shirt change, realizing he should have done that first. Not that the Four eyed being could actually see that part yet.

  “Good evening. This is Hess. How may I be of service to you?”

  “Hess! You have a new outfit? I like the blue patch there. This is Will Baker, Pine Tree Emblem.” He slowly moved the device in his hand, to show the sigil, as it rested on the left front of his shirt.

  “Ah! Will Pine Tree. It is good to be hearing from you. You have need of me?”

  “I do, after a fashion. Tim Bakers protégée, Miven, is looking to expand her knowledge base and would like to work with some Ysidril. I was thinking we could ask some of those colonists that came in there a while back? She holds to a similar religion, so that might be a good fit for her.”

  The being in his hand, who was generally kind and helpful, did something that Willum had never seen before. That was closing each of the pink eyes on his face, one at a time, going around twice.

  Will stopped then.

  “What does that mean? The body language…” He didn’t have to explain it, and the being explained instantly.

  “Extreme annoyance. Very, very, muchly great, bothersome… I run out of words. It is not a kind thing.”

  “Oops? Forgive me if I led to discomfort.”

  “Oh, it is not Will Pine Tree that vexes me so. No, you are a good and sensible being, for the most part. The new colonists of my people keep going and speaking to others of their errant beliefs. Suggesting
they consider the concepts they speak of, as if they are even close to reality. I fear, each day, that conflicting words might arise from their actions.”

  The problem, he understood was that, in this one regard, Hess was a bit of a bigot. He didn’t act that way with any humans that Willum had ever seen or heard of. It was just pointed at the members of his own tribe who bothered to have a belief in something like a religion. Worse, as far as Will had ever heard, the Ysidril that thought that way were no worse than the others. Just set aside from society, as if to punish them into changing their beliefs.

  “That sounds like a plan then, doesn’t it? You can dump parts of this on Miven, and have her handle that for you. Good idea, Hess. Glad you thought of it.” The being was probably about twice as intelligent as Willum, so wasn’t going to be fooled by that at all.

  He also didn’t look the Miven horse he was being offered in the mouth.

  “Ah! That would be welcome. I should… I suppose I should make the connections. Miven? I do not know this being yet…”

  That meant making the introductions, and getting the woman to decorate herself, a thing she could wear when the Ysidril were around. She chose, sensibly enough, a rather large black cross, that took up the front of her dress top.

  “There we go, Miven, Black Cross.” Then Hess had her call back on her own handheld. Which she had, one of since she worked in a magic shop that gave the things away.

  After that, the man that had come helped him set up a display, for the new room decorating amulets. That meant showing him how to use the things as well, since that, it turned out, was a major part of the job there. The clerks didn’t sell anything, but they had to be able to give lessons on how everything worked.

  After a while, Trice Baker came in, along with William Smythe. Those two headed straight into the back. Minutes later they were followed by Alice Orange. Seeing Alice got him to instantly activate his disguise amulet, making his face rather homely. Then he changed his eyes and hair to a rather burnt orange color. It was what he used when she was around, since she had a block that didn’t let her trust attractive men. She loved the color however, so that helped her like him a bit.

  That got her to walk directly over to him. There was a tight hug when she stopped.

  “Baker! The useful one at that. I thought we set you adrift to get some rest and relaxation? Or is that over already?”

  “Nope, I get about twenty-seven more days, I think. Maybe twenty-eight. I just came to visit Uncle Tim and Aunt Patricia and some things came up. In the back. If nothing else we might be able to confirm some things, it looks like. About the enemy? Um…”

  Looking around, he noticed that Miven was on the handheld still, with a different Ysidril now, and the other man, Ron, was standing there, just looking at Alice. As if he wanted to ask her out on a date. He was plain enough looking that could work for him, but probably not at the moment.

  “Ron? Would you go and have Smythe and Timon disguise themselves? Something a bit unusual? It will allow Alice to work with them more smoothly. They should both know that, but it can be hard to remember that she prefers her men a bit less… Annoying looking.”

  That got the woman to laugh. It was a loud thing, but real enough.

  “Ya, that’s true enough. Ron… He’s in on this?” She didn’t say more and waited for the man to walk away.

  “No. The shop girl here, Miven, is. Make sure to introduce yourself to her. Right now, she’s going to be working with the new Ysidril colonists on Mars, as well as doing the redecoration of the city here. It doesn’t cross over with a lot of the rest of what you or I do, but you never know what will be useful in the future.”

  That got him pushed a bit.

  “True. Good, then. I’ll see to that. For the others here as well? Is she…” The woman looked at him, then the small girl. “Special to you?”

  There was a grin with the words. As if she knew what led the hearts of young men. Then, she was three thousand years old and if he were going to be honest, she wasn’t totally wrong. He wasn’t planning on dating her, but if Miven had been Ron, he doubted that he would have done as much for her. Which was a chink in his own persona. He needed to be there for everyone, or at least seem like it.

  “Sure. Not in the way you mean though. She’s going places. Ron as well. You should get with him and feel him out for your kind of work. He has connections already, which could be useful. They both work with Patricia and Timon. True as store clerks, but that seems to mean instructors in how to use magic, here. I didn’t really get that before. Funny what you can learn, standing around in one place for a few hours.”

  Ron was walking back out, his face pale enough to nearly match Miven. His hair was an off red, and his freckles showed that it was real. That or he’d had himself changed to look that way. If that was the case, then whoever did the work wasn’t Timon Baker. If it had been, then Willum had to think the man would be one of the better looking people in the world.

  Possibly in several. Instead, he seemed comfortably average that way.

  Making it easy for Alice to work with him at a guess.

  The fellow spoke, his words holding a slight accent. Austran. Willum had heard it before. Hundreds of times, if in a tight time period.

  “They should be ready now, Miss.”

  The man moved behind the counter, having taken over the shift it seemed. Then, almost without waiting, he ran and got a broom and started to sweep the whole place. That didn’t do a lot. Not having anything else to do, Willum worked on straightening things. The truth was, the shop was well taken care of that way already. Still, just standing there, not doing anything wasn’t going to look right. He also wasn’t leaving any of his people alone there, until Rolph Hobbs was well and truly gone.

  It lacked in trust, but he didn’t really care, in this one case.

  Miven finally got off her handheld and seemed slightly perplexed.

  “Zeph, the lady Ysidril, she wants to know if her people can visit the High Day Leader, from Tellerand. That… I don’t even know who to ask about that. Do you?” She looked at Willum directly.

  Before he could tell her he didn’t know that one off the top of his head, Ron cleared his throat.

  “I know a man that lives there, he might be of use for this… Here, let me see your handheld for a bit?”

  The man used it well enough to show he probably had his own. After a minute of tapping, mainly at arrows, he hit the activation sigil. Shortly after that, a very good-looking man with black hair and brown eyes showed up on the screen. He was about the same age as Ron, at a guess.

  They spoke in standard, so everyone there could understand them.

  “Blessing of the all high be upon you.”

  Ron grinned.

  “Terry! Been a while. Ron, from the old unit?”

  “Ron! What’s up? Do you need help? I can be… Almost anywhere in a few hours. Where are you?”

  “Harmony, but it isn’t that kind of situation. We have some Ysidril that want to get with the High Day Leader there. You work in Tellerand now, right? Can you pack this fellow off to Mars for us? We have a guide for him. One of his people, though she’s from here. Solid woman. Miven Book.”

  The handheld got turned, too fast, though Terry didn’t whine about it. You could get sick having to see that kind of thing too much. The picture was so good that it could throw a person off balance if they were watching the movement too closely.

  Miven bowed, since that seemed to be the habit there in Harmony. Not everyone did it all the time, but in the last two years it had seemed to become a lot more common for some reason. Probably because the original colonists had all come from Noram.

  “That’s me. I don’t know if I’m allowed to work with someone as important as a day leader, much less the High Day Leader. It seems to be my task. Praise the All High.” She bowed her head then, but it wasn’t very meek.

  Terry just echoed her. It was a bit eerie.

  “Praise the All High. Since
I’m free right now, I can be there in… Well, really any time. When do you want to set that meeting up, Miss Book? I have the convocation in three days, but that only takes a few hours. Other than that I should be clear.”

  She blushed then, which was real and not in shame this time. That Terry was doing the convocation was important to her. Meaningful.

  “I can check on that now, High Day Leader. Am I allowed to connect back to you this way?”

  “Sure. This is exciting. I’ve only met a few Ysidril. Ambassador Neesa, three times. What will the topic be, do you think? So that I can prepare.”

  Miven looked relaxed then, for some reason.

  “Oh, the All High. It seems that our beliefs and that of certain Ysidril are rather similar. The names of things are different, but that was what Zeph requested you for. I’m sorry to have disturbed you like this… Did you know that Ron the shop man can just call up the High Day Leader of Tellerand out of the blue and it actually works? That’s shocking, isn’t it?”

  It was a bit. Not to Terry or Ron though, just the rest of them.

  “I can come there to talk about it, if that works for you? We have a transport system node here. Dare Canton put it up. No one ever uses it, since it’s strange magic and might be evil. I’m pushing for it to be seen as a miracle, but that’s going to take time. I can be there in… Call it half an hour?”

  That got a nod, from Ron.

  “That works. I’m on shift for about seven more hours. Miven is off now and Will is here for backup. There seems to be a meeting in the back. I don’t know about what. It wasn’t lost on me that the Admiral of the entire Space Fleet is one of them. That and the Military Counselor of Noram. You might just want to get an ear in the room. If possible.”

  The good-looking man on the communications device gave a slow and careful nod.

  “Understood. Incoming now.” Then it cut out, very sharply. The man had started running, before that. Just, but it was enough to show that he was planning to hurry.

  Ron handed the magical device back to its rightful owner, and grinned.

  “Terry Baker is solid. A good man on a level that few ever really try to be. We fought together, when the wicked old Ancients tried to kill us all. Same unit. The Dragon Killers. I was about ten back then.”