It was Karen that interceded, but so gently that Tiera nearly missed it all happening.
"That's true, he can't do the dances at all. He's coordinated enough, but from back east. They have their own style out there. It isn't the courtly version either, so that might be a problem."
The trick there was that Mitchell had to make it work, if he wanted it too. Anything could be said, really, but if he made a counter offer that seemed like he wanted her company, it would mean he wasn't just being picky. Snooty bob-hair was decent looking in her own slightly goofy way, and certainly not someone that should be ignored for the reason of appearance. Tiera didn't like her, but Mitch wasn't her.
He rallied then, smiling a bit.
"If... I could get some lessons, then it would be great fun, Felicia. I don't have a lot of time, but as long as you don't mind having your toes stomped all night long..."
She smiled, relived it seemed, rather than happy.
"That would be wonderful. I can show you the right moves, later if you'd like? After the meal, I mean."
It was sweet, watching them and Mitchell started to reply, when the whole world shook, just a little. There was a booming sound from outside, but it had to be huge to be heard at all. Tiera didn't wait, tapping her throat as she ran.
"Shields on! Household staff, be ready to flee. If you have a shield, come with me." She led the charge out, since no one else was even half as fast as she was there. She left the front door open, figuring that they'd be hit as soon as they got outside, so she got her Fast Craft up, meaning they could fly, if missiles came. She'd been in a missile attack before. From the smoke and debris off in the distance, this was bigger. "I'm going up."
That got everyone that had been at the table to get in, with Karen, Havar and Mitch all pushing into the front with her, so they could act as spotters. It wasn't hard at all to find the place however. It was a low rent neighborhood, and not just one, but five houses were down from it, with a fire spreading. Nothing else seemed to be happening however, just that.
In the confusion she saw a child pulling at a woman several houses away. She seemed to be dead, but Tiera set down by them anyway, getting out fast and slapping a healing amulet on the woman without waiting to see if she were breathing or not. It caused her to gasp, and then howl in pain. She had pieces of metal in her flesh and more than a few things on her body, like her right arm, had been pulped, but they were still attached, so there was some hope it would work.
It took a long time, almost fifteen minutes, with Karen leading the firefighting detail, using air choking stilling devices, and a bucket brigade made up largely of school girls. At first. Without being ordered to it, the neighbors came out, and seeing what was going on, pitched in without a lot of hesitation at all. Havar roared orders, but those were mainly to Mitch.
"Guard the rear flank, we don't know if this is an attack yet or not. Civilians, as soon as we get the fire out..." Then he stopped, not knowing what to tell anyone at all. Anything that could do this was going to take their homes too, if it hit them.
Tiera looked at the scared faces, since even the slow people had it figured out, didn't they.
"Once this is out, everyone get to my house. The new palace. It's shielded and should keep you safe. Children first, then their mothers. If you're able bodied and willing to risk it, get with the mean looking giant here and get ready to move."
To her surprise that actually worked and the area emptied of people. Not the ones fighting the blaze, which kept trying to spread on them, but the little ones were all being herded up, and pushed toward her place. She got her communications device out and dialed Clemance.
When he answered she didn't let him speak.
"Some kind of explosive attack. My guess is chemical at this time. We have the local people evacuating to your location. Let them in and protect them. The house should hold if more attacks come. Keep the guards there, in case there are ground troops involved." She didn't give her name, which she realized after she tapped the thing off, but got in touch with the only person she knew that might have experts in the area of chemical explosives around.
"Denno! This is Tiera. A bit of a problem here..." She described the scene, which got him to ask for a picture of it. Their communications devices didn't do that, and she felt a flash of annoyance that made her want to lash out at him for being dense, but instead she thought for a second, and looked up. "Satellites? We could... Darn it. I'll suggest to Tor that he figures out how to do that, send pictures on these things." It would probably end up with people sending nudes of themselves in the shower, but she didn't really care, it was a good idea, but not a helpful one at the moment.
Oddly enough a voice interrupted, a bit rudely, from the other end. The person, a man, asked a lot of questions, and repeated what she said for some reason. After a bit he just spoke.
"That sounds like someone set off a bomb, or that a large batch of explosive compound detonated. The blast would have been different if it had been a missile or rocket attack. We have a team standing by, to examine the scene, if you want them?" Then he started in on some nonsense about understanding if they didn't, the King being uncomfortable and a few other things she didn't bother to listen to.
"Yes. We'll be there as soon as possible for pick up. Have everyone go to the docks we normally use, please? Put someone in charge that can get around here without starting a war." She didn't know who that might be, but when Brown asked, she could only really think of a handful of people really. "Grab one of the people from The Royal Table for it. Come straight here, or... Yes, do it. Thank you. I'll set that up now."
She called Timon, only to get Trice, who knew for a fact that Mark, her brother, was headed that way as they spoke. He wasn't that close, but when she connected with him he claimed that he'd hurry along, as if he hadn't been already. It was still good to hear anyway.
Then she called the Palace, who were making ready for their own attack about two minutes after she started talking. Havar was in the background, setting a line of men and women that clearly didn't know how to fight for the most part, around the blast area. It was like he was guarding it, but she really doubted that anyone would be attacking the hole in the ground again.
Karen was busy with the fire, so Tiera moved to pitch in on the line for that herself. The buckets got heavy after a while, but it worked, and they had enough water for it. People came from further in the city, to see if they could help too, which was needed, after about two hours. They had to watch the rubble, since it could catch again, but the workers, all covered in soot and ashes, stood ready to do it all a second time if they had to.
"Thank you all for coming so quickly. We don't know what the situation is yet, but we have experts coming to find out. People from Austra that actually know about this kind of thing. Friends of the Brown man, the leader there." People did not seem all that interested in getting outside help for it, but they didn't whine at her either, so she smiled and forced a chuckle. "I know,
Austrans
... But these are the people we need right now and they too, just like you all did, are coming when the need arose. Remember that, in case they need us someday. I like to think we'll be ready to help if it comes."
It wasn't meant as a rousing speech, but a few people started clapping anyway, mainly because there wasn't a lot else to do.
Nothing else happened for a long time, but she knew that they couldn't let their guard down. She recalled something that she hadn't thought of before, which was that the city guard worked for her here. It was all just so new that she'd forgotten.
Ten minutes later they had eyes out all over the city, with word being passed to everyone that had a communications device. That meant people started to get in touch to tell
her
about it. It was kind of them really, since she was the Countess, and if she hadn't been there personally, it would have been useful to know about.
It was hard for a while to get a break in the incoming stream trying to reach her, but she got with Clemance, who sounded like he was about to pull his hair out. There was the sound of a crowd on the other end too. The din that a large amount of people made, just by talking and moving around.
"Countess... We have about a thousand children here and half that in adults. I fear they'll destroy the house from within! What should we do?" There was desperation coming from the little focus stone rectangle in her hand.
"Pretend that each person is a nobleman, and remember that the dwelling itself is magic. If they break something real, I'll replace it. Hopefully there isn't that much of that. Oh... I think the dinner is off. I'll get with the Princess on that now, if I can."
She couldn't. That was mainly due to the fact that the woman herself flew in, piloting a Fast Craft. She landed slowly, near where Tiera was, and hopped out with a weapon in her right hand. It seemed to be an explosive weapon, from the sigil on it.
"Situation report." She didn't bellow it, but covered the crowd and the line of fighters that were being given instruction as to how to handle an attack. It wasn't sophisticated, but nervous or not, no one ran away yet. They would, and probably
should
, if another explosion took place, but this gave them something to do, which seemed to be the point.
Tiera just pointed, her eyebrows going up.
"This. It looks like a chemical explosive, but not a missile. We have a team from Austra coming right now. A special explosives team that will be able to find out what took place. No further attacks, if it was one, so far. The people from this and surrounding areas have been evacuated to my place. It's a shield after all. We have about fifteen hundred there. There was a fire, but Sir Karen and her forces here managed to battle it. We lost an additional building to that. Also, we aren't feeding you a quality dinner tonight." She sounded tired, but the Princess snorted.
"I'd imagine not. You have them in your own home?" She bowed, going fairly low about it, which got some of the kids from school to do the same thing
and
a couple of the city folk, clearly not understanding the idea. "Few would have thought of that. I need to get this report back to the palace. The guard will flip if they find out I left without them." She shook her head and sighed. "As if they don't already know. I'm on that part then. Keep a line open if possible." She started to get back in her craft and stopped, hanging out of the door, a full step up. "Oh! Make sure to Truth verify everyone here, and the Austrans. People will flip otherwise and Smythe of Westend will look at us with sad and hurt eyes if we don't collect the needed data."
Tiera wanted to kick herself, and then everyone else for not mentioning it sooner. Not Karina, but certainly the people from the school. She had one on her at least, so could start doing that immediately. They'd need more though, if it were going to help.
She didn't really have a clue as to what to do, so fell back on habit. When it came to magic, she knew a half dozen people to get in touch with now, more than that really, but that many that might actually
do
something for her.
So she called Sam Builder, and asked
him
how to get them.
Oddly enough, even though no one had them at the school, he had an idea who might. Debbie, down in Warden.
What she
didn't
have was a new communications device, or even an old one, though it would have done Tiera no good at the moment if the merchant had. It meant taking a trip and that would mean taking guards. The polite number was four. More than that, she was informed by Karen, was a sign you were aggressive, less than that could mean anything, from being poor, to simply having come for something so pleasant that no one would even think you had an ulterior motive.
Worse, she insisted on the idea, as if Tiera had ever really needed anyone to protect her before. That's what shields were for. She didn't argue, since ignoring her advisors in public would make them all look bad and cause others to distrust her judgment. On the good side, no one insisted she stand there herself waiting for something to happen.
It took time to get people around, since her guards had done what she said and stayed to protect the civilians in the house. It wasn't the location that took that much time however, but rather that Mrs. Holst had grabbed them, stripped them naked in a hallway filled with people and gave them new magical uniforms. They all matched and looked perfect, being all in deep green with only a sky blue arm band on their left arms. Someone had clearly explained that part to the woman then. It looked good, she had to admit.
She changed to a white gown, one without lace, that covered everything on her body, except her face, and gave herself hair, but no makeup. Then they left from the blast site, and headed toward the Wards Estate. It was where the older guard next to her, a man named Lister, told Mark Morgan to meet them with the Austran guests, since it would be more efficient to have a Countess around to make sure they could work unbothered than not. That gave them two hours, plus a bit, to find a way to get what was needed.
Tiera was thinking that she might try begging, since she certainly didn't have the gold on her for that kind of thing. Not on short notice. Banks took weeks to move funds around at times, because of their own protections. A real Countess would have had some coins stashed somewhere, just for such an emergency, but she hadn't had a chance yet for that. So it was going to be something else.
It didn't take long to get to the Wards, and she hovered the large and well appointed craft over their lawn. There seemed to be a bit of a celebration, with lights and music, but everyone, drunk or not, figured out that they needed to get out of the way. That or she'd just crushed a bunch of people. It wasn't like she'd know without looking, which she resisted, since no one was screaming at her yet.
On the good side it did get the Wards out, along with an extra tall friend of theirs, Kedrin, the King's brother. They'd met, so it wasn't a surprise at all, really. The man practically ran to her, stopping only because her people moved to protect her with their bodies. It was cute, but a bit unneeded.
"It's all right. These are friends." She collected hugs then, from Kedrin first then Marvin and Maria, who made a point of grabbing her behind while she did it, it wasn't a playful thing either. She held the gesture and moved closer their cheeks touching, makeup or not.
"You have guards? Treachery?"
Impulsively Tiera kissed her cheek and then cleared her throat primly. She smiled up at them all and people were starting to look, the ones from the party.
"No. I'm Countess Baker now. County Morris is no more." She didn't go through the whole story, which was good, since Countess Ward apparently
loved
that idea, and started talking about all the things they could do together, being so close. Practically neighbors, after all.
"That sounds lovely, but I need to do some things here, I'm afraid. We had an explosion in Bakersville, a huge one, and have Austrans coming to find out what caused it. That's a thing there, an actual full time occupation, I think. They'll be here first, because I wanted to see if I could beg Debbie to sell me some Truth amulets for the investigation. It's the same problem everyone has I'm sure, take over a County and forget to gather some coin from the vaults on the first day for things like this." She tried to keep her voice light, but all the others laughed, causing her to have to fight the indignation from her face. They were amused by her plight?
It wasn't that though, thankfully.
"That isn't
just
a problem for the new. Emergency takes us all unaware, most of the time." Kedrin allowed, moving in to touch her on the shoulder gently. A bit familiarly really. If they were alone, she'd have thought that he wanted her. As it was, she had to go with the idea that he wanted her to
think
that. Or perhaps desired others that might be watching to? She was still the special currier for the King, after all. Maybe he had a message? Or perhaps he just wanted her naked and on her back? Or front?
Well, he wasn't homely, though he was a bit too tall for her. She was almost certain that sex with him would be a thing either done very carefully, or in great pain. For her at least.
Marvin was as big, which was a real point, come to think of it. He always flirted with her, but even his wife was taller than normal now, nearing six five or six. If he was built to the normal noble model, then he had to have a huge penis too. She'd have to ask some time.
Smiling at the thought she looked around.
"Would it be possible to get directions to her place? I know it's horribly rude, but due to the emergency, I have to hurry." She winced a little as if it would be a real problem, which it wasn't, since Marvin both offered to lead them himself, and it was only a few streets away. They had to go to her home however, since she'd closed for the day, already, being in her slow season. Tiera got this from the Count, who knocked for her.
Tiera didn't push to the front, but tried to angle herself so she could be seen. It was a bit dim out, for all that there was a magical light above the door.
It opened slowly, with a creaking sound.
The face that popped out was a lot like one of her sisters, which really did set her at ease when she saw the woman each time.
"Hello?" There was a wary sound, but then she had reason to feel that way, a woman alone in, what for her, was a strange place. "May I help you?"
Count Ward smiled and gestured to the side Tiera was standing on, drawing the eye, it seemed.
"There's an emergency in County Baker and the sitting Countess, Tiera Baker, came to request Truth amulets, if you have some for sale?"
The woman bowed, and it was an interesting thing, since she clearly got that Tiera was herself, title change or not, and hadn't bowed to Marvin at all. Yes, she might have merely forgotten, but it was probably something different than that, wasn't it?
"Thank you Countess, for considering my wares. I have them at my shop, just down the way? We can go there now, or I could run and fetch them for you?" She sounded very, very pleased to be of help which made Tiera feel a little bad.
"I can't pay you today, and I need a lot of them, which-"
The woman interrupted, by bowing low at the waist.
"You made her
apologize
. To
me
. A
merchant
. Not some false thing either, and then you beat her, to protect me from her wrath. I'd give you my store if you needed it."
Tiera grinned.
"Well, she actually apologized on her own, so I think she's really learning. You're welcome on that beating, but really that was just so you didn't do it yourself and accidently kill her. I won't need them for free however, I just need a bit of time to get the gold to you, from the accounts." She was trying to be honest, but it either didn't matter to the woman, or she thought this was Tiera lying to save face for someone else. Given what she'd said, that was probably Debbie herself, if it was what was really happening in the woman's mind.
"I trust you. This way." She didn't yell it, but simply secured her door and walked out without a jacket at all. Then, it wasn't cold, was it? The partiers had heavy clothing, but not that much of it, and some of the dancers had loosened theirs, exertion producing enough to offset the evening chill.
The shop itself was a marvel of glowing lights, and in a few places sounds, that came from a good variety of magical things. There had to be close to fifty different things in stock, just on the shelves, and not all of them from people she recognized. There was a set of things done on simple wooden disks too, with very primitive sigils on them, burned into the wood somehow. They had holes, and when she touched one, and focused hard enough, she could feel the presence of her littlest sister.
Tiera went wide eyed, once she figured out what it did.
"These are shields? Ones made by my little sister..."
That got a happy nod and a smile.
"Yes, I got them from Tor. He's been acting as her mentor, I think. They're enough to stop a fist or even a club, and on wood, but she's willing to sell for silvers a copy, which means that almost everyone that sees them buys one. Even if they only last a few months, it's a good investment for the lower nobles, the ones that can't afford the higher end things."
"Funny, but she neglected to mention that the other day. Well, as I come begging, I can't ask for more, so, what will you offer me as far as Truth amulets?" The answer was the same as before, but the woman had fifty of them, and Tiera thought she could get by on twenty, if people worked in shifts. They were too useful not to have, but this wasn't for her, and the County wasn't in the straights she'd thought before. She'd hurt them, but she'd figured they were crippled. Instead she'd been more of an annoyance than anything to the Count.
That had been the problem all along. If he could have even made believe that she was a favored pet of someone else, and even
pretend
to apologize in the first place, then this wouldn't have happened at all.
Five minutes later she had a nice basket with all twenty of the pink sigiled pieces in it, and on impulse gave the woman a hug. It wasn't a proper thing, not knowing her well, but she whispered to her anyway.
"You should come visit? After we settle this bit of a mess, I mean."
That got a sad smile from her, and a bow, but no words. Why that was she didn't know. It probably had to do with...
Nothing came to mind. Maybe she just thought that it was too out of her current station, or couldn't afford the time off? Those were normal enough things after all.
Marvin led the way back, walking freely in his city without a guard, or even an idea that there would be a need for one. That or a spine made of steel that forced him to insist on that kind of thing, even if it wasn't the world's greatest idea during a war. After all, the Count next door and his whole family had been murdered, hadn't they? Most of them in their own capital city.
They moved back to the party, and no one asked her to dance, which was good, since this wasn't her region at all. Some of them just looked like bouncing to her, but she'd be willing to bet there was a pattern to it all. It was tempting to count the number of steps on each foot and try to find the rhythm, but she was distracted, by a large hand on her shoulder. There was a rustling from the guards, but it was just Kedrin, and even if he was trying to take over the Kingdom, she didn't think he'd try to hurt her, personally.
"Countess Baker, I was wondering if I could have a brief word with you?
Alone
?" The implication was that he wanted to have sex. It had been in the lessons Karen had been giving her on the topic. It really wasn't that hard, once someone actually mentioned what you were supposed to do, but until that point it was a riddle, for someone like her. She was actually supposed to be a slut? It hurt her head to think of, but sex was fun and she was protected from accidental birth, so as long as it wasn't bad of her to do it, she'd cope.
"I'd love to. Maria, Marvin, would you excuse us for a brief time? My men can stay here, to keep the party safe." They might not like that, but they didn't complain either, not there.
"Oh? Certainly, please. Kedrin, perhaps the second bedroom?" That could have been code, or it might have been the room itself, but it was actually something different all together, not having a bed or chairs and being so tiny that the large man could have touched either wall easily. He tapped one of them, which made no more than a dull thud.
"Layers of silk, a foot deep, with leather on either side. No one can hear us in here. I-" She wasn't getting on her knees, not unless she wanted to lick
his
, but she started working on the front of his pants, hoping that he hadn't been about to ask her to a party of his own. It was hard to tell, because he stopped talking about then. She was right about him however, which would probably be the same with Marvin then. They were too big down there for her. She didn't think she was just being a squeamish school girl about it either. He was vast, and not even fully up to the task yet. She worked her hands and kept doing it until he made a mess on the wall of the closed space, which was starting to get a little stuffy, then, since it had been her doing it all, she refastened his clothing.
"Ah! Excellent. I'd been told not to expect anything like this, from Maria. I was wondering if I could borrow some coin? Not now, but in half a year? I know this is strange, but I've been taking a collection for the rebellion, and frankly it's a bit paltry looking right now. If we still have it then, I could use an extra few thousand gold?" He sounded pleasant and not like he was talking about treason openly. Not that this room would be that, would it?