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  Dareg Canton just nodded at that, as if it were a simple truth.

  Chapter two

  Looking at the assembled people in the room, Richard had to wonder at the contrast of the whole thing. That and the similarities. For instance, the building they were all in was a literal palace. One that would have rivaled or even put to shame anything from the Earth that he came from. Billionaires might have lived in the type of splendor he was surrounded with. No one else would have, however.

  On one side of the space stood ten men, women and children, some of them no older than their mid-teens, dressed in what were essentially white nightgowns. Even the men were in the girly apparel. One of those people had glowing skin and eyes. Another looked to be a pink reptile, complete with an elongated snout and gleaming scales. Several of the people moved differently, showing that they had something wrong or different about them, even if it didn’t show outside of their flimsy clothing.

  On the other side of the room, about fifteen feet away, stood eleven Asian looking men and women, some of those not all that elderly either. All in loose robes along with a single Ysidril. He was covered in scales as well, though those were in red and green today.

  By the door, near Richard, was a collection of IPB personnel, none of them dressed in fatigues at the moment, even if that was the normal work uniform. Dareg Canton stood in that area as well, looking a bit concerned, at first. After looking at Erath, the mid-sized Ysidril, then at the newcomers, checking their reactions several times, the man relaxed and smiled.

  “Ah. I’d been told that your people were most accepting of others. I see that is true? It is a wonder.” The word choices were a little awkward but the English used was nearly perfect. Given that it was clearly a second language for the fellow, Richard was impressed with his skill. A bit envious, as well.

  A lot of the men and women from Noram had not only learned his language, but had taken pains to do it very well. On a level that was probably not needed, if he was going to be honest about it. As long as they could be understood, no one would think anything of it. He certainly wouldn’t have.

  Instead he simply felt himself reminded to learn their language, on a level that made him feel slightly poorly about himself. That he hadn’t had a chance to do that sort of thing yet was simply true, if not a great reason to have failed to start working on it. Then, the difference between a reason and an excuse were always small things and a bit of perspective. That was a lesson that Richard had learned more than eighty years before. One that had helped him a few times in life, if only in that it allowed him to understand people and their motives a bit better.

  Nodding, so he wouldn’t have to answer Dareg directly, Richard took a few steps forward, clearing his throat so that the people from back home would know who to pay attention to.

  “Just to get you all caught up, you’re currently on a different Earth. This country is Noram. They have a king here, counts, dukes and so on. They also have bowing. When in doubt, bow. Like this.” He demonstrated the move, which had everyone from the IPB doing it, with Erath and the other mages following along. After a few seconds, the white nightgown wearing people started to get the idea, and tucked their right arms over their middles and bent in half as well.

  “On the good side, it’s more like shaking hands here than it is begging in supplication. The deeper you go, the more polite you’re being, though there are other rules as well. For right now it won’t be too big of a deal. If you see anyone bow, you do it too. All of you have an appointment to have your first modes removed. Possibly some other work done as well, if you don’t mind? The people in the red robes are wizards, doing this for practice, so making it interesting for them is a good thing. Changing your looks, even gaining some new abilities is a good idea for that, if you want to give it a try.”

  Erath nodded, his mouth falling open in a real smile, which meant not a lot, since that was the Ysidril way of showing such things. Then he trundled forward a bit, walking on his hind legs, so that he’d seem a bit more human. The four arms with three fingers on each one, the snout, scales and even the robe he had on all ruined that attempt for him a bit. Still, the short creature tried to put everyone at ease, which was kind of him.

  “Yes, this is the truth. I am Erath, a Ysidril, which means a person from a different set of worlds than the ones humans come from. I am to lead this instructional period today. Do any of you have questions or concerns?” He waited then, folding his bottom two hands into the sleeves of his voluminous red robe.

  One of the people from The Depot, the older looking fellow with the gray hair who’d wisely covered his mouth before, raised his right hand a bit. Like a kid sitting at a school desk. Tentatively, as if he didn't know if the invitation to ask about things was actually for him, in particular.

  Dareg smiled at the man.

  “Yes? You would like to know something?”

  There was a dry seeming swallow from the slightly heavy looking man.

  “We’re… Going to have our first modes removed?”

  That had just been said but unlike the others that had come from his world to have that done, these people were playing catch up. They also weren’t volunteers, strictly speaking. It was probably fair for them not to get things very clearly as of yet.

  Richard grinned at the man. Making it big as if he was really happy to hear the question being asked.

  “Exactly. This is a joint program, between the IPB and the mages and wizards in this world. Normally you would have been on the long waiting list for it, but we jumped the line a bit for you, since you had to be broken out of that prison to get you here. You don’t have to have your first mode removed if you don’t wish. We didn’t actually ask you if that was what you wanted. Still, since you’re here, you should get changes made anyway. That way everyone will have a friend to work on. As it is… I think that we’re a person down.” There were eleven mages. Twelve if they were counting Erath.

  Those words got Cindy to wave at him, the feisty blonde woman moving from the back of group by the doorway. It was just his crew from the night before, along with Lydia and for some reason. As the woman moved, she waved at him, her face cheerful seeming.

  “We have another person coming in already, from the Port School. Hodges. He has a cleft palate. A few other minor things as well. Sara was angling to have that looked into the last time we spoke, which was earlier today for me. I can get in touch with the Bakers and see if he has time to come over now. I’d also like him to get hooked up with a few higher-level abilities. Sara is his pal, so that only makes sense.”

  Oddly enough, it was Erath who bowed toward her, which did, if with a bit of hesitation on a few people’s parts, get the whole room bowing in that direction. Even if a few of the subjects for the day were clearly about to become upset for one reason or another.

  The small Ysidril man placed his lower right arm in front of himself as he bent, going almost in half.

  “I meant to see to that one myself, having noticed it last week. I… Did not know if it was proper to ask about or not, so hesitated.” He seemed a bit sad about not having taken direct action on the matter.

  Cindy simply stood and then winked at the alien.

  “I’ll call that in now. Richard, you should come with me. Everyone else should get with your assigned person for the day and go over what you want done. Think big. Everyone in this group has done this several times before. We need to challenge them.” Then, waving a bit abruptly, she walked out of the room.

  Everyone else from the IPB followed along with them, since Erath seemed to have things well in hand. As soon as they were standing in the front hall of the place, Cindy pulled a small cell phone like thing from her right-hand waist pocket. It was on white stone, and showed images floating above the surface of it. Those were all in a lovely shade of electric blue. Like tacky Christmas lights, if they moved a bit more and were made to look like alien writing.

  After a moment, a woman’s face showed up on the screen. Even look
ing at her from the side it was clear the woman was lovely on a level that few ever truly were.

  “Hala. Dis ist Laurali Baxter.”

  Cindy nodded at the name.

  “Hala. Mi nama ist Cindy Mableton.” The rest of the conversation wasn’t anything that Richard could really follow, moving much too fast for him to translate easily. After about twenty seconds of speaking back and forth, the lovely lady in the picture clapped and seemed thrilled about something, calling out.

  Then the screen went black for a moment, before returning to the blue floating symbols that even when not in use, moved around occasionally.

  Putting the magical device away, Cindy nodded, her face serious.

  “They know where to come and when. Laurie said she’d have Hodges here inside fifteen minutes. They didn’t know how to get the work done on him. Which is a bit silly of her, since three or four of her own kids can do this kind of work and will, for free. Anyway, who are we leaving here to watch over everyone? I can honestly say that power wise all of you are probably going to be useful to the coming mission.”

  Richard could both see that and also understood that the woman was, rather cutely, dumping the decision into his lap. That way he’d be the one putting part of his crew on babysitting duty. Then again, that kind of thing was what being in charge meant. Looking around, he nodded after a few seconds.

  “Cindy, Lydia and I will go in first, then call on the rest of you if you have skills needed for the mission. Brian, we need you stay back here, ready to transport people out at need. You can nap, but do it from inside the work room. Kerry, you and Den need to get some real sleep. Again, stay ready to move, since we don’t know what’s going on here yet, just that someone Tor knows was kidnapped for some reason. We’ll probably be sent back here in ten minutes, laughed at for over-reacting.” He smiled at the words, as Dareg walked up.

  The large fellow shook his head.

  “I don’t know if we can be of aid in this matter but we won’t be insulted for offering help. As you said earlier, Richard, we at least need to make a point of trying. This way, if you will? Everyone is meeting in Harmony for this.” Then he walked away, nearly at a sprint.

  Richard was able to keep up for the most part, and Cindy did it easily. Lydia was the one taking up the rear position, even if she wasn’t in horrible shape. Even at that, the kid didn’t let herself fall too far behind. Luckily, they weren’t running that far, only out to the red box that they’d all come in at. It was only about fifty or sixty feet from where they’d been chatting inside the building.

  Dareg used the thing like a professional, opening the door as they approached, not even touching the device at all. His short black hair didn’t move as he waved his left hand, making the front of the little building vanish instantly. Once inside he turned and used the menu on the back wall, scrolling down by touching a stylized arrow. Then, before Richard could even see the writing clearly, one of the words was tapped.

  Then, spinning in place, the man calmly moved to the front, touching each of them a bit as he did it. That part wasn’t strictly needed, of course. A lot of people from Noram were like that though. They touched people without there being a real need for it. Like they were attempting to get luck from the contact or something. They did it while casually flirting as well. Then, in the main, the ones that did that kind of thing were actually willing to put out, so it wasn’t about teasing or anything like that.

  They were just friendly that way.

  It had taken a while for Richard to pick up that Tor’s wife wasn’t just playing footsie with him as a game or by accident. The woman was actually attempting to get him into bed. A thing that Tor knew about, since it was part of how some relationships worked there. Richard wasn’t going to go in that direction though, unless it became needed. Alyssa was a powerful wizard, but her husband was the one that had a nearly endless amount of mages who needed to practice life changing skills.

  The program was so successful that several other schools were trying to work out how to get their own students in for the training. It would mean doubling or tripling the numbers coming in each day, of course. A thing that was actually hard to do on the Noram side of things, for some reason. Which made no sense, if they still had kids running around with hare lips and clubbed feet. That sort of person would probably risk death without blinking in order to not have that kind of problem any longer.

  When the door opened, and it was red this time, instead of blue, Dareg Canton finished his movement out into the hallway, turned to face them and pointed firmly to the left.

  “We need to go to the bakery. This way.” The man nearly ran again, though this time they had to cover a bit more distance. That meant waiting for Lydia and Richard at the colorful door to the place. The whole hallway, which was about sixty feet across and around thirty feet high, was done in a riot of colors. Everything looked new and shiny as well. It wasn’t paint though. Really, it looked like their whole world was made out of computer graphics.

  Cindy and Dareg stood at the bright yellow door, waiting for them but didn’t let them catch their breath before marching inside. Once there, with two of them breathing a bit more than was going to make them look good, the nice-looking tall man waved at a table filled with people. There were four of them sitting there in white chairs that seemed to be made of metal.

  It was a look that oddly enough fit the place they were in. If it had been in Paris, no one would have thought twice about it. Outside the big picture window, which wasn’t one of those at all, was the scene of a town. People moved in it, walking along. There was snow falling, though only a light covering seemed to have dusted the buildings mainly melting on the paved street, so far.

  At the table sat Tor Baker, along with his brother Timon and two other people. One of those was a muscular man who looked to be about three hundred pounds, though that could be off, since he was a head taller than either Tor or Timon. The last person there was a woman. It would have been nice to say that she was the best looking one there, but some people would have argued that one of the others there had her beat that way. Not that it really mattered. Tor actually looked a lot like the woman, only lacking breasts. That wasn’t because the lady was manly, either.

  Still, people couldn’t help how they were born.

  Dareg bowed, which had all three IPB people doing it at the same time. That had most of the table opening their eyes a bit wider. He didn't know why that was, however. When the fellow spoke it happened again, however.

  “Our friends from the IPB have come to help. We also have access to three others, at need? I fear that I didn’t get all the names. They all volunteered, instantly, on hearing that a friend of yours was in trouble, Father.”

  The words nearly had Richard blinking, though he managed not to. Neither of the girls with him did either, which probably meant that the one boy being the other’s dad was common knowledge and not even a joke or anything like that. It was simply real, not a turn of phrase or a clever Noram based nickname, such as battle units might come up with, calling the twenty-three year old granddad, because he was the oldest person they saw, day to day.

  Tor and the others all stood then, bowing. Going low.

  “Thank you! So far we know very little about the situation. I was informed of this only about two hours ago. Georges is the servant of the old Countess Ward. The Dowager…” He seemed to hesitate then, though Richard couldn’t work out why that would be at all.

  Unless he didn't know if they could help or not. Cindy, ever ready to be in charge, even if not asked, grabbed a chair and sat, her dress being moved out of the way with a bit of force, since it was rather puffy in places. She looked cute in it, but it probably wasn’t the best costume for a rescue mission. Not that they were on that portion of things yet.

  Lydia was in something a bit less like a wedding dress, in a deep blue velvet. She looked adorable, now that he bothered to pay any attention that way. Then, the Korean girl was cute. Way too young for him, being fifte
en still. She’d need to age up at least ten more years for him to even think about doing anything with her. By which time she’d probably be married and have three kids.

  Closing her eyes, Cindy let out a slow exhalation of air, then didn't speak for nearly two minutes. When the heavier, more muscular, man start to speak, Tim held his hand out for silence.

  Finally, the blonde woman spoke, her voice drifty and far away sounding.

  “Ah… Georges was taken by Count Holder, in the north. He’s still alive, though he hasn’t been treated very well so far. The point, I think, is to slap Count Ward and his Countess in the face for a slight. Something about Maria Ward not servicing him on the last visit.” Opening her eyes and looking over at Lydia, she shrugged. “Not that she was rude about it or anything. The man was only there for a single night and she had other business, so simply couldn’t get to him in time. This is totally about the man getting his knickers in a twist over imagined things, given that. He could have sent a note and Maria would have probably flown up to his house just to have sex with him. The lady is pretty nice that way.”

  Timon rolled his eyes, while Tor closed his own.

  “That’s not good then. Is he to be killed as a slap at them?”

  Cindy let her head move from side to side.

  “Yes. At least so far that seems to be the plan. It was why he took this particular servant. The man is old, and doesn’t work for Count Ward personally. At the same time he’s close to being Martha Ward’s favorite person in the whole world. Killing him will have the Dowager placing pressure on her son, while he probably won’t actually want to go to war over it. Which is ridiculous, since people might well kill for things like that, even if they don’t have an army backing them. Me, for instance.” She glanced at the others from the IPB there and shrugged. “Brian Yi and possibly Richard Drake as well, if he’s killed for something this stupid.”

  Tor went wide eyed again, as did the muscular man across from him. It was that bigger fellow who spoke.