The Mask of Omegon (Gwen Farris Book 6) (7 page)

Gwen glared a bit then, though
Tomas managed to not react to the words in the slightest.

“Way to ruin my date, Groundling.
Just keep this in mind when it’s your turn to be needled. Just so you get
what’s going to be happening then.” Not that she knew it would ever happen, but
it made a better threat than storming out would. Besides, she wasn’t entirely
certain that doing that kind of teasing wasn’t just the norm there. Or if it
was
teasing
at all. It could well have been a simple attempt to bring
the subject up.

It was a bit early for that. Tom
seemed like a nice enough guy.
Also
like he could be slightly unbalanced
mentally. Sure that wasn’t a deal breaker for her, but just being Gwen Farris
meant that she couldn’t blame the man if his goal was to get lucky a few times
and then dump her. That might be happening even sooner now that she’d shown
herself to be who she was.

A badly broken, totally tainted,
bit of flotsam cast off from another world.

It sounded pretty sad to her. Also
likely as to what would be happening in the next few minutes. Except that the
others just acted like the conversation were real, then changed it after the
first hint had been dropped. That or her vow of revenge against the Duke.

Which hadn’t been meant in a bad
way, but still might have people worried, she realized. After all, she’d gone
after only a few people there, in the Western Kingdom. Well, in that whole
world.
All
of them were dead now. They might not get that she was
capable of things like just being funny, or sabotaging his next date with fake
wedding announcements. Not the she really would.

No, she was far too kind for that.
Worse, she actually wanted the best for her friend. Which could have been
his
point as well. Still, there was no glaring, or even clever looking away to make
certain she got the point. That was a thing that people did there, from time to
time.

Ethyl changed the topic then. It
was a bit less than perfectly well done, which all the men in the room,
including Robert, seemed to understand.

“I hear that there’s a book with
you in it out, Gwen? One for children? Gwen Farris, Girl Detective, or
something along those lines? I must say, it sounds interesting! I haven’t read
such a thing for oh… Nearly twenty years now.” She was probably being coy,
since it had certainly been closer to thirty for the woman. She didn’t look all
that old or anything, but wasn’t forty any longer either. Not unless she’d had
Katherine at thirteen.

Robert turned a bit red then, which
was in upset, not embarrassment. Duke Morten actually seemed to be a bit deadly
suddenly and Tomas looked away. Just like she’d figured someone would have been
doing at her a few moments before.

Gwen just snorted.

“Ah. Gwen Farris Investigations…”
She smirked a bit and then shook her head. Honestly, she managed to sound like
she was fighting a laugh. “In which she
mainly
investigates her friend
Beth West. I don’t know if I should be happy that Beth’s reputation was spared
or upset that they didn’t point out she was a Westmorland? It’s… Is
smut
a word here?” She’d never heard that one that she recalled.

Oddly, making a face, Ethyl nodded.

“Rather! That’s… Well, I suppose I
shouldn’t have brought that up then. Do we know who put that out? Also, should
we have them killed for it?”

There were several different
responses then. Tomas looked troubled, as if the suggestion was a real one. Robert
looked annoyed, which was probably about the books existing, rather than his
wife finding out about it, she guessed. Groundling nodded, a bit forcefully, as
if that were just an honest idea and a thing to take seriously. Then, the man
would straight up kill a person if he had to. He’d taken off a Baron’s head for
her once. In retaliation for the man having tried to sacrifice her to end the
world. They’d only known about the knife to the heart at the time, however.
Still, he’d killed the guy without blinking. Just because she’d said it needed
to be done.

For her part she shook her head.

“Eh… Probably not? I’ll just find
whoever is doing them and see where that goes? It… Honestly, they’re just
pictures. Not even photographs of me actually doing those things. The likeness
isn’t even that good.”

That got a low growl from Robert.

“That isn’t the point. You don’t
need any more abuse from us. This entire world owes you too much for that kind
of thing. Even if you were
doing
those things, it would be improper to
bring it up. Being innocent of them…” He stopped then, but didn’t seem to be
questioning that part of things. Which was nice of him.

She flipped a single palm, turning
it over in her lap. If she had that right, one palm being flipped was a sign
that you
really
didn’t care. Not even bothering to lift it up showed
even
less
concern than that. In this case it was pretty much her telling
the whole room that she honestly couldn’t be bothered to put any energy into
the effort at all.

Winslow came to the door, standing
there for a moment before speaking. Looking good while he did it, as well.

“Dinner is now being served, if you
please?”

That was the polite way to do it.
If you were just hanging out casually with a few friends. It would have been
even more so if it had just been family. They all more or less sauntered to the
next room, where plates were already on the serving carts. Carlisle, who was
the large, powerful, Native American looking footman, gave a slow nod in her
direction. There was no smile to go along with it for her. That was probably
due to her having a date, rather than anything else.

Not that the man wanted her for
himself or anything. Or, well, she’d never even considered that. He was
handsome and not old or anything. About thirty. The guy had simply never shown
more interest in her than his job required of him. Most men hadn’t, in her
life.

Which was probably why the first
one that had really, where she could act on it, had gotten more attention than
he’d bargained for. Though, it occurred to her that Omegon was a bit better
with the ladies in his books than Tom was in real life. Not that his clever
super hero shtick hadn’t worked on
her
. Still, that he’d gotten past her
without her picking up on who he really was kind of galled her.

Bethany
wouldn’t have made that mistake.

Then, Gwen was pretty sure that all
of the Westmorlands memorized the faces, names and telestator numbers of every
member of the nobility. Meaning that Beth had known who Duke Morten was the
first time they’d met.

Her friend hadn’t ratted the man
out, either. Which just showed the power of their training. It was a horror or
at least had been. Now new methods were being used for things. Not that it was
enough. Rifters still had to blow themselves up to make it happen. It was a
promise that she needed to keep, Gwen knew.

Which was
why
she’d made the
door chime.

Not because a real bell or an old
fashioned knocker wasn’t enough. They both worked pretty well, to be honest. It
was due to the fact that she needed to be able to construct teletransport
spheres. The problem there wasn’t that they were too hard to make even. Really,
it should have been possible to put together a device that would rift,
mechanically, already. In fact, she was nearly certain of it.

The big issue was that the devices
had to have specific controls on them to be worth anything.

A large power pack as well. Really,
she needed to be more clever than just handing over what was essentially nukes
to these people. Things that could be set in one location, then carefully
triggered, with a multi-stage process that would send them to a specific
destination for the explosion.

It was complex, but by making them
that way lives, the ones she cared about, could potentially be saved. Except
that they were at war and having
more
super weapons didn’t sound like
the best plan in the world.

She’d promised though.

The much harder thing to build was
the real issue for her. Shields. Ones that prevented Rifting. They had training
protocols for that now. Including people that could actually do it. The problem
was that they didn’t and probably couldn’t, cover a large enough area. Now, if
she could make devices for that, then most major cities could be totally
covered, all the time.

Gwen wasn’t fixing that one in a
day however. Which was a shame, since it was clear that Europa was planning to
attack soon. There had been fighting going on already. A real war having been
going on for several years. It was a big deal at the palace. There too, no
doubt, even if it hadn’t been mentioned yet.

Almost as if the idea had floated
from her head into the room, Tomas spoke, his voice gentle.

“Yes. I’d heard about you being in
the Special Service, Gwen. Is that where you learned to use combat magics? I
should think about that kind of thing. The military, perhaps? It’s a bit
cowardly to sit back and send boys off to die on one of the fronts, while I
draw pictures and play in caves.”

She hadn’t really been thinking of
it that way, but there was a bit of common sense to the idea. He did some good
things, but there
was
more to do. Even if he was a bit more of an artist
than a fighter. Then, he wasn’t a coward or anything. Not from what she’d seen.

Even if the curse spreading
shopkeeper wasn’t real. After all, the Baron could just have had the man taken
in,
without
any proof at all.

Everyone seemed tense for some
reason, except Gwen, who made a bit of a face. Trying to consider things.

“Really? I got most of those tricks
in other training. If you don’t mind some pain, the Westmorlands will probably
be willing to help with that kind of thing. As for the military… Well, that’s
pretty much a horrible plan, unless you’re going in under an assumed name?
Otherwise the enemy will
have
to try and capture you to use as a
hostage.” No one moved at the table, except for Groundling.

He smiled. Grimly.

“That’s correct. Though… If you can
set up that kind of training, even a light version, it would help, I bet. Then
if you do go off to the front, you might survive, Tom. You should look into it.
Better, get Gwen to do it for you.” He chuckled a little, then shook his head
slowly. “Not that it’s a kindness if
she
does it.”

Robert sighed, gently, but nodded a
bit.

“Too true. I was told, by a man who
was there, about the first time that Gwen found out that Katherine still lived
inside of her. Do you know how she responded to that?”

Gwen hadn’t really figured that the
man would remember that part. She did of course. To her it seemed like it had
happened about a year and a half before, instead of the nearly four and a half
it truly was.

Ethyl looked down at her plate,
tearing up. Tomas just looked concerned.

“No. It never occurred to me that
anything in particular would have happened at that point. I can see how it
might, now that it’s mentioned. What did she say?”

Duke Morten cleared his throat
then.

“It wasn’t what she
said
,
Tomas. It was what she
did
.” He took a sip of wine then and stared at
the younger man. “When she found out that Katherine Vernor was hiding inside of
her head, she ordered the Westmorlands to torture her, while reading her mind,
to flush the girl out. It worked, too.”

Tomas winced, then nodded.

“I see. Well, then, I’d be honored
if you’d put together such a program for me, to aid in my learning, Gwen. If
you have time?”

She nodded.

“For you? Of course I do.”

The trick would be in doing it all
the best way. That was actually harder than it sounded, but not exactly
impossible. In fact, she could get things started the next day, she was willing
to bet.

Tomas allowed himself to suffer
being manhandled, or at least Gwen handled, back to his place. Seeing it, at
least after she stopped huffing like she’d been doing sprints while carrying a
grown man, she nodded. It made some sense as to why they hadn’t had dinner at
his house. She even got the whole thing where they’d gone for a walk in the
park, rather than there.

It was nice. Not Park Street grand,
but even the king barely had that. The Vernors were freaking rich after all. On
a level that meant they had
all
the nice things. Gwen had never been to
any of them, but it wouldn’t shock her to find out that their fifth or six
house was actually a bit nicer than where Baron Harrison lived. The thing with
that was simple though. The place was
still
a mansion.

That meant her boyfriend had kept
her away from his real home. So that fake Gwen Farris, the trampy woods slut
wouldn’t know that he was more than a cute guy with a strange habit of playing
super hero in the forest.
Probably
because he actually liked her. Or at
least the things she was doing with him. Smiling, she glanced around and nodded
in his general direction.

“Not bad. So… You do know that I
don’t care if you’re nobility or not, right? I mean, a little, since I don’t
think of it as a real thing. You’re also a masked good doer, which is at
least
entertaining.” She meant it, though didn’t know if he was going to respond
poorly to that idea or not.

Cutely, the man grinned at her.

“Eh… I suppose I should explain? I
can see this all being a bit mysterious. I’m rather good at that, I hear.” He
locked eyes with her, seeming a bit nervous about the idea.

Gwen let him off the hook, not
needing to get everything all at once.

“Which part? The gold digger
defense strategy of not telling me you had lucre? I
get
that one. Um…
Gold digger. We call women that when they-” She didn’t get through it all.

He took a small breath then,
hissing a bit as he exhaled.

“Right. We have that one, too.
Women that seek to better their lives by marrying the wealthiest man they can
find. It’s happened to me. My girlfriend in college only wanted me for a title
and funds. It took me a while to learn about it. I should have seen it sooner.
She was older than I was by a few years. Attractive enough, but pushy. Also,
she moved from man to man, each wealthier than the last. I knew about it on some
level, but it still hurt when it was disclosed. My father had hired a man to
follow her, which uncovered that she was plotting against me with another
fellow.” There was no pleasure in his words about dodging that bullet.

Gwen shook her head then, a bit of
pressure on the right side of her brain casing. Which she didn’t get, since it
was strange. That was her sign that she was picking up data from the future.
Only there was no signal of what was coming. Nothing at all. Just an idea that
didn’t make a lot of sense to her.

“That reminds me a bit of Regina
Botstein.” Gwen was going to explain that one, since it was just a woman that
she’d run into in a hallucination once.

Tomas frowned.

“Indeed.
Exactly
her, in
fact. You’ve had a pleasure?”

That told her a lot about things
that hadn’t come up yet. For instance, Tomas had gone to Western University. It
was one of the major
front gate
colleges
.
Basically that meant
Ivy League, there. Western was, as far as she could tell, something like going
to Harvard or Yale. A large place that had a
lot
of students and
faculty.

Plus, one Regina Botstein. She was
said to be clever, even brilliant in her own way. Except that her name also
kept coming up in regards to bad things taking place. This was the third or
fourth time that Gwen knew of.

“You know, we’ve never actually
met. Her name popped up a few years ago in an investigation I was on. For the
kingdom. She’d dumped a man, to move on to a richer one. That had set some
things in motion that
probably
helped set some human sacrifices into
action. A plot to hold all the radiatives in the world still? It would have
shut down magic, more or less. I heard the idea was originally hers?”

The shield against rifting was,
more or less, based on that. In a lot of ways it was close to a direct rip off.

Some other things as well, but that
was
where the idea had come from. In fact, the entire idea for the plot had
been Regina’s, if Carter Palmer, her ex-boyfriend, had been honest about where
he’d stolen the idea from.

Tomas went slightly wide eyed.

“Truly? I think I know of the
episode. That took place before we met, of course. I only left school last
year, but
that
was… about three years ago? It seems odd. She was
charming in her way. Willing to do things. More advanced than I was in worldly
things. I fear that I was kept rather sheltered as a child.” Then he stopped,
dead in his tracks.

Not that they’d been walking. He
was standing next to the sofa that she was on. So Gwen waved for him to sit
down next to her. Close. In fact she pressed the side of her leg against his,
so that he’d get that she wasn’t that concerned about the fact that a man his
age had managed to get some before. Even if it was from a woman that seemed a
bit like a problem in the making.

Erin Debussey junior, no doubt.

She grinned and reached out to
touch her new friend on the arm.

“That’s another thing to look into
then? The first time I saw her… It was in a hallucination. The one where I
learned how to fly, actually. It was an extreme mesmerism thing. Anyway, I’m
not
worried that you had a girlfriend before.”

The words got him to make a face
and shake his head while looking away.

“It isn’t that. A man my age
should
be thinking marriage. I chose poorly that time. It happens. No, it’s… I was
kept away from the world, because I’m
strange
.”

Gwen smiled then, which was
probably the wrong thing to do. Here strange meant that he had some kind of
mental problem. She was just happy that she got the reference.

“How so?” She sounded far too
pleased about it, to be fair.

Her boyfriend, or at least the guy
who had done nifty sex stuff with her, made a face.

“I… You know, the Omegon thing?
That… I’m not just playing at it. Part of me wants to be that. A hero that
helps others. I wasn’t pretending in the caves. I was trying to…
Be
that.” There was real shame in his words.

“Okay.
I
don’t think that’s
a big issue. Even pretending that you weren’t you makes some sense. You do the comic
books too, which is a great cover for that kind of thing. If anyone sees you,
then you just whip the mask out, point at the graphic novels and roll your eyes
at how silly they’re being. Then, when no one thinks it can be real, you can
fight crime and help people.” She took his hand then. Just because she wondered
if he was going to pull away from her in horror.

He simply nodded at her, making a
lot of direct eye contact.

“That
is
what I’ve been
thinking. Still, my father thought that it was a bit too bizarre for a Baron,
or a future one, to be doing. When he passed away, well, then I was rather put
in place, regardless. That was… I think Duke Morten was hinting at that. It’s a
known thing in some circles. More than a few of my peers would love to see me nobly
die, off in a war. I’m considered a bit unstable.” The downcast eyes told of
long held and deep pain over it all.

For play acting and pretending to
be interesting. Not that he wasn’t. Then, Gwen didn’t really care that much
what other people thought. No, to her mind the real question was if the man
knew enough to get by most of the time. There were
levels
of crazy. So
far he seemed fine that way. Which meant he wasn’t insane, just imaginative.
Like an artist. Which he was.

A very eccentric one.

She took several deep breaths then,
getting his attention. He seemed worried.

Her voice was smooth however, when
she spoke.

“I’m
Gwen Farris
. The woman
from another world. I don’t know what you’ve heard about that? It might be a
little different than you think. We talked about Katherine? How she’s still in
my head. I get that you didn’t know I was really me though. If you don’t want
to be associated with me, I understand.” It wasn’t what she wanted, but she got
the idea.

Instead of rejection, she was
kissed. Hard. With a bit of friendly groping that would have gotten him beaten
if anyone else was around. Or not, since he was nobility and they could get
away with almost anything. Crime fighting was better than what a lot of people
of his station might have gotten up to.

Which got her to nod.

“Fine. We can keep going out?
You’ll need to change some things though, if we’re doing that.”

There was a slow nod and closed
eyes.

“I understand. Playing at being a
hero is a bit juvenile. I’ll stop. I promise.”

That let her shake her head and
snort at him.

“Nope. Why should you? It’s
goofy
,
but not bad or evil. No, I just think you need to do a
better
job of it.
Like that shop keeper who’s cursing people? There is
no
way you
shouldn’t have reported him immediately once you found him. Tom Moore might not
be able to do that, or Omegon, but
you
can. Leaving that kind of power
on the table in a real situation is… Stupid.” She didn’t let her face move, as
he got what she was saying.

“I see. That’s not wrong, I
suppose. It’s just harder to do that with a mask on. I need to protect my
identity. To guard the family name. That’s why I gave you a false name to start
with.”

Gwen got the idea there at least. So
she nodded.

“Right. That can be worked out. It
isn’t the
only
thing you need to be doing. I’ll get with people for that
training. Not what the Westmorlands use. I have some ideas, but it might take a
few weeks to put together. In the meantime, we should work on your public image.”
She stopped, not really knowing how to get that kind of thing done. “Um… Okay,
how about… Are you really willing to do the military thing? It will probably be
less than fun, but there have to be a lot of jobs that can be done where you
won’t go overseas. That will still seem brave enough. It’s the perception that
really counts on that one.”

She locked eyes with him then,
shrugging.

“You
are
brave. That’s plain
to see. What we can’t do is hand a prisoner of war to the Europans. Ferdinand
would have my hide if we let that happen. Especially after I…” She took a deep
breath and coughed a bit. “Fudge. I
just
worked something out that I
need to be doing. Crud. I’ll get on that… My own little bit of super hero work?”

She didn’t mention what, Tomas
smiling in a slightly baffled manner.

“I lost the thread here, I think?”

There was nodding then.

“Um… I can teletransport. But I can
also
grab people from a distance and bring them
to
me. So
prisoners of war, if I can get a picture, or even a name…”

That got wide eyes.

“You can do that? It’s impossible.
Isn’t it? Flight, action at a distance, teletransport in
all
forms? Also
fighting hand to hand… I heard that one. You’re rather famous for it. How do
you do all of that?”

The answer was easy enough.

“Oh, I’m insane. I mean the real
kind. It doesn’t show a lot, since you all take what I’m doing as being odd
since I’m from a different reality, which
is
part of it. But I live in a
fantasy world, or did most of my life. That left me… Kind of open, as far as
magic goes. Really, you might be able to… I can’t
promise
that of
course.” There were tricks that might help, if they were clever about it all.

She sat up however and nodded.

“How about getting a job on a
merchant air-ship for a few weeks? It’s hard, unpleasant and probably a waste
of time, but we can float that as you being useful in public. The Peregrine has
a personnel shortage. If you’re willing to actually do the work we can use
that…” Possibly. Unless he sucked at it. That could still work, as long as he
wasn’t whiney in public on the topic.

Referencing sucking got her to
think for a moment. About sex. Not that she’d been doing that kind of thing,
but being close to other people was incredible. Now that she’d gotten to try a
bit of it she had to wonder how normal people didn’t just sit around touching
each other all the time. Not her, of course, but a regular person like
Katherine. She was even kind of pretty, or so people had told her.

That meant she was in a place to
get
all
the cuddles.

Instead of begging off, since hard
work was, by definition, hard, Tomas seemed slightly excited.

“That would be… Very different,
wouldn’t it? Do you think I can do it?”