Envoy to Earth (26 page)

That he'd done it was impressive,
however.

After that, they managed to get
back to the Capital fairly quickly. The time it took to get from place to place
in the space ship was simply amazing. No place on the planet was all that far
away. Not for him, or he imagined, Sara Debri. You just went straight up, into
the dark sky, found where you wanted and settled in place. The speeds had to be
incredible, but it felt like raising your hand a bit, and the world just
shifting under you. So a trip that once would have taken him months of walking
on foot, with a lot of hunger and waiting for the weather to be good enough to
travel, took place in about twenty minutes. He wasn't even trying to go fast.

Of course there was a real point
there, that was easy to miss, if you lived like he was, thanks to Timon and
Tor. Tiera now too, since she was the one that had made the magical space
vehicle he was using. If you knew the right people, and had the needed connections,
you could go anywhere in the blink of an eye. If you were wealthy enough, you
could hire a slower, but still pretty quick version of the same thing for
yourself, family and friends, using Tim's people moving service.

If you were a regular merchant,
you used a horse. If you were a farmer, you probably had a wagon that was
pulled by oxen. Peasants
walked
, which meant they didn't get to go
anywhere at all, most of the time. Gerent had hardly used his own feet in days.
It was a tremendous difference, but the fact of the matter was that even giving
magic away, there were the rich and powerful, and then everyone else in the
world. People that had to beg for scraps at the feet of those that loomed over
them.

Once that had been nearly
everyone in the world, compared to him. It would have been easy to simply turn
around and do that back to them now, since he had some power himself. He had
the needed magic to impress people, and thanks to the Bakers, he was big,
strong and people imagined him to be important. That was all being a noble
really was. A fantasy of being in control that other people thought was true.
He was good with that, but didn't want to be one of that sort, he decided.

The world, as he knew, was filled
with bullies and people that hated without reason. He didn't have to add to
that, did he? No. It would be better for him to become someone else. A kind
person that protected others. How to do that, he wasn't really certain, other
than trying as best he could. It wasn't enough, but until something came up
that told him what else he could do, that was all he really had, wasn't it?

It was night time when they
landed, but just the early cusp of true dark, with the sky a deep blue at the
edges, instead of pure black with spots. Overhead it was like that, but Tor's
place had so much lighting on the outside that it was easy to find. The glowing
rivers also made it pretty simple to locate the Capital too. The big one was
mainly purple right now, but the smaller loop that surrounded Tim's place,
behind the city, was its normal, and brilliantly shining, silver.

There was beauty to it, but you
could make the things out from very high up, especially at night. The rest of
the land seemed pretty close to dark, if you were far enough away. Most of the
world was, except for a smattering of light over Austra in a very few places,
from space. There, and this place being the only exceptions to that.

He didn't land the craft,
hovering over the city to the South, instead. Then, getting everyone to come
help, they put the remaining items in the one hangar bay, and standing there
with the forty odd people and all their things, he made the whole ship become
much smaller. Removing most of the air by letting it outside, and causing the
ship to be about the same size as... Really, there was no direct comparison,
was there? It was probably about a hundred feet in each direction. Too big to
be a house for all but the wealthy, and too small for most of
them
to
bother with. The point was that he let it settle near Tor's house, making the
lights bright, so that everyone could see it and get out of the way if they
were just lurking in the dark for some reason. It was done carefully, and he
left several feet above the ground just in case. If someone was under there,
they could lie down and survive it. Then crawl out and probably come to yell at
him for nearly killing them.

If they were that stupid though,
nearly being hit by him when he was moving that slow, then they didn't have a
lot to scream about. There were always drunks and fools around though. Life had
taught him that, clearly enough.

The plan was for everyone to stay
indoors at Tor's that night, but of course, he hadn't mentioned that to anyone.
When they walked in Collette and her mother Glaren ran into the room, along
with a boyish looking Austran man, from the direction that probably meant
they'd all been in the conference room. He thought that was what they called
the room with the communication device in it. Really, the house needed to have
one of each kind, didn't it? He decided to make sure that an extra one from
Terry's supply was set up in there at the very least. The boy wouldn't mind and
it could even end up being useful.

Before he could squeak out an
apology for the minor invasion, Glaren stepped forward. She was dressed in a
very nice gown that was pink with soft off-red highlights. It looked delicate
and gave a slightly younger appearance to her face. She wasn't old, it was just
that he was comparing her to Collette, who stood there too, smiling. The mother
wasn't as pretty as the daughter, but it was close enough that he got the idea.
In ten or twenty years, the younger woman was probably going to look a lot like
this. Still gorgeous. Almost mesmerizing.

"Gentles! Welcome." It
was said with warmth, and no sign of panic, though Collette seemed to feel that
it might be warranted for some reason, from the look on her face. "I'm
afraid that we haven't been preparing a meal yet, we normally do that at nine,
here in the city. Would..." Now she looked at Gerent, who nodded back.

"That sounds good. Perhaps a
bit later, so that everyone can clean up first? I want to try out the new Tiera
Food device anyway, if that's all right with you?" He really did, but it
was also clear that he was going to be yelled at if he didn't pull a token from
his sleeve pretty fast. Luckily he
had
one. "I have one for the
house here too, so it might be worth doing, if that won't interrupt your
current plans?"

Collette clapped a few times,
happily, and didn't even pretend they were going to be tossing out a seven
course meal in order to let him play with his new device.

"Wonderful! I know, why
don't we set everyone up on the second and third floors, and then put that up?
The meal will be a bit late, I imagine, so, can everyone hold out until ten?
We'll set up in the main dining room, which is just through that door."
She pointed at the right space, which was just off the main set of stairs going
up. "That will give everyone about two hours to take a bath, or
rest?"

No one seemed to desire arguing
that one, and she moved to lead the way to the rooms. That they had that many,
just sitting empty and waiting seemed nearly like this was all planned and not
him being a moron, bringing home a small army like he had. It was good to have
resources, he decided, even as he watched them all climb the stairs, most of
the people carrying little bags, but about half having floating cases with
them.

The Austran man goggled, and then
turned to Glaren as Gerent walked up to them.

"That, the floating cases,
would be
so
helpful. Do you think father would get me one if I begged
hard enough?" The voice showed that this man wasn't one, and from the
accent was a Noram noble, not Austran.

The clothing gave her away too,
once Gerent really looked at it. It was all brown, and had the look of a
jumpsuit, even being one, after a fashion, but it had a seam at the waist,
where someone had sewn a tunic to some trousers to make it look right. It
almost did, but the Austran ones didn't have seems like that, just a line in
the front, so that you could climb in and fasten it easily. Plus the material
was wrong. This was a heavy material, that looked a bit too rough when he got
to the people.

So not really from that land. The
rest was pretty close however. The hair was eccentric, and the woman had two
piercings through her nose on the right hand side. Her locks were a deep blue
color on the top, and so short on the sides that scalp was visible. It was
decorative at least. Her face was very oval, reminding him a bit of Bonita
Coltress, actually. Now, of course, Nita was the Dowager Lairdgren, even if she
was only about thirty. This woman looked about that age too. It was hard to
tell because when she'd been a man to his mind, the woman had seemed about ten
years younger than that.

When he walked up she stabbed a
hand at him, and tried to fake an accent. Poorly, but it was an interesting
effort.

"Good-day, I'm Misha. Misha
Coltress. Nice to meet you." She grinned at her own act, knowing enough to
get that he wasn't going to be fooled for long at least. The words gave it all
away. Still, he didn't care, and wasn't going to judge, so simply leaned in a
bit and took her soft hand in his. It was tiny, compared to his own, but he
managed a real enough smile.

"Gerent Lairdgren. If you're
going to be Austran today, I guess we should go with their rules? So no titles
at first. Are you going to be working with us for that land? We could use
someone that can blend a bit better there. They kept looking at me like I was
going to eat someone yesterday, even as I gave them presents." He had no
clue what the woman had going on in life, but she scowled at him for a bit,
before speaking.

Her voice had gone harsh too, and
she actually moved at him like a man would, her chest out. Like she wanted to
fight him for some reason. His natural inclination was to back away, but he
just kept his face blank and waited to see what happened. He had a good shield
on, and while his two fighting lessons probably wouldn't mean much yet, he felt
a lot less afraid looking down on the potential aggressor than up at them, he
realized.

From above it was a lot easier to
be the voice of reason, he bet.

"What the hell? You're
mocking me? We haven't even met before! What kind of an asshole are you?"
She doubled up a fist, as Glaren looked mildly panicked.

Ger just shrugged.

"The kind that needs someone
to help with Austra. I'm in charge of aid distribution from Harmony, so, are
you in? If so, you might want to back up a bit. It looks bad to hit your new
boss on the first day." It probably sounded insane, but she
did
step
back, her rather plain face seeming baffled, rather than angry suddenly.

"Forgive me. I... You work
for Harmony?"

He nodded, gave a smile and then
a correction.

"Yep. The Envoy, though that
isn't the official title. So, are you too busy to help? I bet I can sweeten the
deal and get you your own pet floating box. Not mine of course, but Boxy is
special. You know, since he's mine." He waved at the strange looking lady
a bit and then winked. "Which is only half a joke. I do have a case that I
named that. On me, actually." He got Boxy's amulet out and turned it on,
to show her that she wasn't being mocked. After it was on the thing floated
forward a bit. Like he was a dog that wanted to see the new people and greet
them. That got a wide eyed look from the woman.

"Oh... I, Baronetta Second,
Michelle Coltress. The black lamb of the family, as you might imagine. Sorry
about becoming aggressive there, but I learned a long time ago that assholes
are best confronted right off, so they know that trying to bully me won't
work."

That sounded like a plan, if you
were five-ten and had a title, he decided. It would have never worked for him
in life. Even armed with magic no one had ever thought of him as a real threat.
Ger couldn't blame her for being what the world had made her however. Weird,
and owning it, if he had the right idea. She just did whatever she wanted, it
seemed, or near enough.

The woman bowed, getting one
back.

Right, he was supposed to go now,
with the titles and all that? Wonderful.

"Prince Gerent Lairdgren, of
Harmony. Countier Six Baker, Countier Twelve Lairdgren. Lunar Envoy to Earth,
in the current aid project. Gerent or Ger to you, since I'm still trying to
enlist people to help out. Get in early, if you can. All the good jobs will go
at the start. It doesn't
pay
anything, but all your needs will be met,
and there's loads of travel. If you want we can make up a title for you too, to
impress your friends and family?" It was a bit glib, but the woman looked
at Glaren, who nodded, and then bowed very, very low.

When she spoke it was in a hushed
voice.

"I... Don't really have
anything else to do. I never married, so... But, do you really want me?
I..." She stood, then went wide eyed again, as if that were a mistake. Her
face was flush from it however, and her mother looked away, as if ashamed of
the whole scene. Gerent thought he understood that. He was, at least in name, a
Prince. In more than that, too, since people were willing to back it. A noble
and titled person with a better stature in society than either of these ladies.
She should have groveled a bit, after getting a bit aggressive with him, as
she'd said, but he didn't
care
about that.

The woman waved at her front,
which seemed a bit flat across the chest, but thick. Breast binding then, like
women did for plays if they were doing the part a man or boy?

"I dress like a man, and
that tends to make people uneasy. It's fine to have a girlfriend, as long as
you're in a dress, but if you dress in a practical fashion, everyone thinks
there's something wrong with you. I just find it comfortable. Plus, I'm a man,
stuck inside this shell that makes me a woman." She went silent suddenly,
waiting to be judged.