Pain Stones (Coalescence Book 2) Read online

  There was no real weight to the words, but it was clear that Willum was supposed to be getting what was really being said. It was a message, directed to him. One that wasn’t being spoken directly, but that hit him in the head like a rock.

  He’d been knocking around, aimlessly, looking for information. Hoping to stumble into things blindly. It had kind of worked a few times, so it wasn’t truly hopeless as a plan. The thing there was that he could, if he did it right, literally find anyone in all of the realities. Even just something as vague as the person in charge of the enemy. Even a safe place, in the world that being lived in, to gather information from. That he hadn’t considered it before that point probably meant he had blind spots in his thinking. Places that just slipped past him.

  “Fine. Four thousand gold coins. That’s high for what it would cost in Noram, but if you want me to go and actually get the things for you, that has to count as well.”

  The other man looked at him, then closed one eye. The right one, covering the brown eye in his head on that side.

  “A thousand gold? One ounce a piece. That’s two hundred thousand dollars here.”

  “Three thousand, but I’ll have it for you inside eight hours.”

  That got waved away.

  “Whenever you come next is fine. One thousand gold, and a small favor.”

  Willum looked at the man then, hard.

  “I have a friend here. Phil Hart, the human line walker… He’s going back to school here soon, but looks different than he used to. Better, but not the same at all. Can you smooth that over for him? Is that a small favor?” It probably didn't need to be done, really. Just telling people that he’d gone to another world and been changed should work. People knew that magic was real there, after all.

  “Done. A thousand and that. Good.”

  Will reached under his shirt, looked at the ten or so talismans and amulets there on different hemp strings, and took two off. One was handed to Zack, being the clothing magic desired. The second was the same thing, and went to Elsa.

  The move got Zack to laugh. It seemed real. Happy and more than a little bit pleased.

  “I figured that would happen. These are really good… We should go over how they work? I know… Or…” He looked at the girl, who turned her back, but stripped naked, right there. Zack glanced at her but didn’t stare. Willum found himself doing the same, since there was information to be had in the scene.

  There was hair on her legs and lower back. That meant she didn’t shave it off. Given how she’d been living for years, that was correct. The girl also didn’t seem all that shy. That probably meant her people weren’t as prudish as his own were in the back villages. She’d known to turn her back. That spoke of modesty, but not too much of it. Also of trust. Elsa didn’t expect them to rush her from behind and use her against her will, or she wouldn’t have risked the move in the first place.

  When she tapped the amulet, it dressed her in thick canvas clothing. All in brown. Without waiting, she had herself in jeans and a t-shirt almost instantly. Along with running style shoes. That was impressive. It had taken Will nearly ten minutes to get those right the first time he’d tried it.

  It probably indicated that she was dressing up in clothing that was more or less what she’d grown up with. It wasn’t a dress at all, which said a lot about her world. Oddly, it was about right for the place they were in at the moment. A thing which, it occurred to him, she’d know. Even without having seen anything of the world they were in.

  It was data that had been in his mind.

  “Wait, can you speak Standard as well?” That was spoken in his own tongue, which got her to make a puzzled face, then, after a bit, nod.

  “Little speak, I think?” She had an accent, which sounded strange in his language.

  Zack winked.

  “It’s useful. If you practice, it will be a lot easier for you to learn it than not, now. Not magically simple, but if you do the work, you should be up to speed in a month or two on it. Remember, you’re on schedule Tuesday at six. Get here earlier than that.”

  The Greater Demon walked away then, even though nothing in the room seemed to have changed at all. Taking the girl by the hand, Will rolled his eyes.

  “Let’s go. I’ll take you this time. It’s a bit different than what you do, but…” It still worked. On the far side of the void, Elsa blinked, then touched the side of the wall to her right.

  “This is… magic, right? The hut here. I can use it, like a rift?”

  “That’s probably right. This way. I need to get some food going. I don’t know if anyone is here. We can get you a room and all that. There are plenty here.”

  As soon as they rounded the edge of the transport hut, Elsa stopped, freezing in place.

  “Um… You live in a castle?”

  Willum smiled, but shook his head.

  “This is just a tower, with a building on the back. We could make it look like a real castle. It’s magic, so it can be anything. I just made it like this on a whim. It’s different. Most people put up big palaces, but…” Honestly, he couldn’t care about that. It was a place to stay. That was all he really needed. “It’s becoming an embassy, for people from other worlds. If that happens, well, it will probably end up looking different. Bigger and probably a bit more like what everyone else is doing. You know how that goes.”

  Except that he wasn’t certain of that at all. The girl, who wasn’t old seeming at all, being about his own age, almost perfectly, had lived a different life than anyone Willum had ever met. She’d scraped to get by, but had also done it largely on her own. So far she seemed decently nice, but the knife that she’d met him with at the door was still on her. That indicated she was used to the idea that no one was going to back her up in life.

  He wasn’t certain at all that he should, in particular. Not past making the connection there, so that he could get another line walker into the group. At the same time he also got that she was calling to him in a way that was hard to ignore. She was almost ideal as far as sexual attraction went, for him. Sure, she’d need to shave some body hair for that, but even if she didn’t wish to, the idea wasn’t that off putting to him. Her story sort of pulled at his heart strings, which could really work out for her. It was only the logical parts of things that pushed him away from her at all.

  He wasn’t supposed to have love or another person to call his own.

  Still, there was a pleasant nod and a sigh from the woman. Pulling at her t-shirt, which wasn’t all that tight, considering what she could have done, she made a face. That was probably due to her stomach growling. His own answered in sympathy.

  “Right! We need food. I can get that going, if you want to do that first? Let’s pick a room for you, and I can show you that really quickly, then we can eat.” Food could also come first, if it was needed.

  “That works. Thanks… I… Don’t really understand what’s going on.” There was a look away then, which seemed a little slow. Almost as if she didn't know what to do. “The things I picked up from you are fading. I can only keep that kind of thing for about an hour or two. It’s good for getting the basics in a new place. You know, are they going to kill me, what rules I have to follow that I might not know first thing. Stuff like that.”

  That would make learning Standard a bit harder for her, Will knew. Not that it was a big deal. Even if she only learned things like a regular person that way, it should only take a few weeks. Maybe a month or two, if they didn't do that kind of thing constantly. Heading up the spiral staircase, he moved to the third level. There was a golden door to the left, which opened into a single room.

  “There are more out back, but this is kind of…” He shrugged, then waved at the space inside. It was decent, he thought. The Prince had stayed there and played with the things himself it seemed, so there was a very large bed, sofas and wall hangings in places. Things that were better than Willum would have gotten the tower to do, if he were honest. He had the skill level needed, but the c
reative level was unexpected.

  In all the place looked good. Rich and as if whoever lived there was royalty.

  Elsa froze for a moment, then looked at everything closely.

  “Okay, this is nice. I… It’s off, isn’t it? I mean, I live in a little place made of dob scales and drift wood. This is a bit of a change.”

  At first, for a moment, he wondered if she didn’t like it, but the feeling coming off of her was about awe, not disdain. That would fade, of course. Things like that always did. There had been a time when even being near the outside of his own tower would have left his skin crawling and a good bit of angst in his heart. That was just from the idea of being too close to powerful people. Now he owned the place himself and it seemed… Lacking, in some ways. Nice enough, but as if he could do better than what he had going on.

  “The room can be made to look almost any way you want? Like the clothing. We can… Really, dresses and skirts are probably a good idea here, if that works for you. It isn’t mandatory all the time, but being a line walker here is kind of a big deal. That alone will make you a high merchant, I think.”

  Walking in, there was a nod, but she turned after a moment, looking directly at him.

  “That means… Nothing to me. High merchant?”

  “Right! That would probably be different. We have social classes here, with layers inside of them. Three of them mainly. Most people are commoners. Farmers, and things like that? People who do the lower work. Then we have the low merchant level. My father fit there. He runs a bakery. People that ship goods, or do large manufacturing, say of magic… They tend to be counted as high merchant. They’re still considered craftsmen, more or less, but the very wealthy and powerful ones. It isn’t a bad thing to be, if you can swing it.”

  The dark haired girl nodded, still looking at him.

  “Okay, so if I take people around through the rifts, that’s a big deal here. A good one though? One that won’t have me burned at a stake? I can do without that part of things, if it’s all the same.”

  “Exactly. It will probably be an unknown thing, at the same time. Most people don’t know that people from other worlds are coming and going like they have been. The King and his family will get it. A bunch of Dukes and Counts… They’re up a level from the merchant class. The highest merchant kind of overlaps with the lowest levels of the nobility.”

  “So… You’re a high merchant? You run messages and stuff like that.” Turning away, she looked at the place, clearly trying to work everything out, rather than admiring things.

  “You’d think, but I’m technically a noble. I guess. I wasn’t raised that way, so working makes sense to me, you know? I found out a while back that I’m a Countier… Which, basically means that if a bunch of people die I’m a count. Countier Four, Lairdgren.” He bowed, which got her to do it back.

  That was a bit awkward on her part.

  “Go lower than that. Halfway down for now, with almost anyone. Part of the time people will think you’re flattering them, but it won’t insult anyone. Then, put your right arm in front of you, like I did?” he did it again, which had her repeating it instantly. “Exactly! Then, the other basic rule is simple. If anyone bows, ever, then you do it too. There are real situational things involved, but no one will complain about you bowing too much. If you have that down, and can learn the language, you’ll blend here really well. When in doubt, bow lower than the other person. That’s always polite. It will be enough to hold you in good stead for a long while here.” That and a shield, but he didn't want to scare her first thing.

  “I can do that. Thanks. Now, I have a room, so I get a reward of food, right? For all my clever bowing and, um, room getting abilities?”

  That made sense to him. Even if it wasn’t a reward, really.

  “Yep. Come to the kitchen with me? Normally I wouldn’t do that with a guest. It wouldn’t be polite, but you need to get up to speed on everything here. Using a food unit isn’t a bad idea. That and going to other places where that kind of thing, food, is free all the time. The Moon and Mars, right now. If you have that down, you pretty much will never starve here, no matter what else is going on.”

  That meant going back down the stairs, but Elsa kept up pretty well. Like a normal person though. She’d been part of a program, whatever that meant, but it didn’t seem to have altered her physically in any obvious way. Not unless her bust line had been enhanced. That was possible, really, given her large hips and trim waist. The less obvious things were probably there. Such as her strength and speed. Those hadn’t been shown yet, but he had a good line on that from her house.

  The plan had seemed to be about giving her the ability to take others to another world. Her form would be happenstance then. Unless they’d been trying to make her into a sex creature at the same time.

  If so, then her people were creepy in more than one way.

  Trying to burn her for being what they’d made her into was right up there with the worst thing he could imagine. On the good side, she’d escaped. How that had happened hadn’t really been part of her story, so far. Asking seemed out of place as well. That kind of thing pretty much had to be hard to deal with. Bringing it up would be rude, in that case.

  The kitchen was a large space, with ample counters, a shiny marble looking floor and several large sinks that water poured into on demand. You just touched a sigil, which he did instantly, to show her how the things worked.

  “It isn’t hard, once you see it. The food unit, well, this is a Tiera made model. She does the best devices that way. Also the Queen of the Moon, in case that comes up? There aren’t a lot of these around, since she’s really busy. I had to go and steal these from her private chambers… Before you get worried, she said I could do it. Like I mentioned, she’s busy. Anyone willing to help her out at all generally can get on her good side.”

  The device, which was a soft pearl blue and pink, with green to show where the dirt went in and the food came out, was across the room from the door. The place had been sitting open the whole time, but apparently no one had figured out that looting the place would have worked pretty well. Probably because no one had come to visit him.

  Which made sense. He was just him and new to the area.

  “The devices are easy enough to use. Of course the sigils are all in different languages. I don’t suppose you can read any of these?” That wasn’t impossible, since English wasn’t that different than Standard as far as things like that went. Enough that you had to learn to read it though, even if you spoke the language.

  She just shook her head.

  “Not even.”

  “Fair enough, really, it’s a different world, after all. If you knew everything about it already, that would be a bit weird. So, we put operating material in the hopper on the right here. You just stick things inside. Anything real will work. Most of the time we use dirt. Rocks, water and even air can do it. Air takes forever though, so no one does that one. Even old food you get out the other side will work. You need things to catch the food on. We have a plate amulet here though. Glasses too. I didn’t get those in, so I have no clue where they came from.” He grinned, but took a single plate from the stack and pointed at its amulet. “When that turns off the plate vanishes. It isn’t real or anything.” Even if it did look like fine china at the moment.

  “This will make a lot of different things, if you use one of these sigils. Just touching it and wanting it to work is enough. If you do the large one in the center, well, that’s why Tiera is a Master Builder. It will let you imagine almost anything you want and make it for you. Your own skill at picturing things and what you know is the big part of it. If you don’t have a lot of imagination, then just tap the other sigils until you get things you like. The rest can go back into the working materials side.”

  Setting things up, he did that, making a nice plate of chicken, potatoes and gravy, along with herb bread and a small salad.

  Then he realized that having plates or not, they were lacking
forks, knives and spoons.

  Holding the plate, he shook his head.

  “Oopse? Here, let me…” He redid the whole thing, getting a wistful and slightly concerned look at first, when the food was put in the working material hopper. It was clear the girl was hungry and a little worried that she’d done something wrong and was having her dinner stolen.

  She smiled when handed a sandwich on a plate however.

  “This is huge. I get to eat this?”

  “Yes. We can make more, whenever you like. Anything we want really. Like I said, we use rocks and dirt. There is no other cost to it, so you can have as much as you like. Cake, pie, ice cream… Chicken, beef… Just keep in mind that we’re eating with our fingers for right now? I need to pick up something for that. Well, I can make it, probably.” If he could do things like Tam-cars, then doing eating utensils shouldn’t be that difficult.

  Making food for himself, which was identical to hers, he was a bit surprised when the girl just moved to the far wall, where a small table and chairs had been put the night before. Then, she was used to living in one room, so the idea of going out into the main section probably just hadn’t occurred to her.

  Eating in the kitchen wasn’t a problem for him or anything.

  The girl closed her eyes when she took a bite of the food.

  “This is really good, for being made of dirt. Then, most food is, isn’t it? Good… and made from dirt, originally?”

  Willum grinned.

  “Yep. It really is. Good. I wasn’t certain that you’d be all right with that part. Which would be a shame, since these things are fun. You really can have anything. Food wise. If you want gold, gems or jewelry you have to use a different device. I don’t have one of those. Not that you’ll need that kind of thing soon. Not working for Demon Zack at his shop. He said it paid enough to be worth doing, but the fact is, even doing a day there per year would leave you rich. The same is true enough in a lot of other worlds as well. So no need for a magical device for that kind of thing.” Not that getting one of those would be impossible. Asking Tiera for one would probably work, even for Elsa.