don't know anyone at the others. Not yet. We can take those out of your first batch too Tim. I actually have every confidence that they'll be done very well."
Then they promised to meet the Headmaster in the commons in half an hour, so that he could finish his work day and get ready. On the way out the woman behind the desk smiled at him and batted her eyes a bit, which got Timon to chuckle.
"Everywhere you go. You can see it now though, can't you? How women throw themselves at you like that? Now that the Rhetistics are gone, I mean?"
"More or less. I don't always know what things mean, since I never learned to recognize all the correct signals. It's strange. I feel things and know what they mean, I had emotions before after all, but I don't have them in the same places. For instance half of me really wants to run off to Gala and take back all the water filters, and ruin their sewer system for letting Trice and that guy be abused like that. The other half just wants to avoid even thinking about it. I guess that neither is the correct course of action though, is it?"
Timon gave him a sidelong glance and lifted his chin.
"Not so much. You're smart enough to figure it all out. When in doubt, come and find me. I'll tell you what to do. Just for a bit, until you get a handle on things. What did you do while you were gone? Work all the time?"
That was pretty close to the case, so he kept walking, not wanting to seem incredibly boring or anything. He'd hidden in different places, most of them in the forest, or for a few weeks, under the water of the ocean. The Larval had the ability to get information from space, so he'd had to be very careful while moving around. The hard part had been cutting off contact with anyone though. Especially when they all kept trying to reach out to him like they had.
In the end that had gotten Tim tortured horribly and molested by some Countess that Tor had never even met. He didn't know how to process that either, and kind of thought that even if he'd grown up without an invisible slave collar in his mind, he still might have had some trouble there. It wasn't something that had ever happened before, was it? Worse, he felt bad for having reacted so strongly to Trice being hurt and having barely lifted an eyebrow when he'd heard about Tim.
Part of that was just that he'd lived in a trance state for months by that point and it took a while to come out of that level of being. It made him seem flat like that and emotionless, for a long while after. The rest... Well, he loved Trice, even if she wasn't always the best person for him.
That thought got something else to occur to him suddenly, it was enough to get him to stop walking altogether.
"Trice."
He froze, his mind racing. His little brother watched him for a few seconds and then looked away.
"I don't know either. We'll have to have her blood tested to see if her mother is the Count's child as well. She looks enough like Queen Constance to make it possible. Until we know for certain you might want to hold back there a bit."
Tor nearly threw up again. Was it everyone he knew? No, that couldn't be... But it was too much. He nearly started running, just heading away, but managed to close his eyes and force himself to relax. It was... Not good. A lot of people had worse things happen to them though, hadn't they? Not weirder, maybe, but it wasn't the end of the world. It just seemed like it at the moment. It was as if, in the space of a few moments, almost everyone he'd ever cared about was suddenly gone. Except they weren't.
Maybe it wouldn't be the case though. Maybe he could keep Trice?
This certainly wasn't what he'd struggled to return to.
He rallied though, because that was what you did when things got hard, wasn't it? He stood straight, opened his eyes and started walking again, faking sanity as hard as he could. It wouldn't last forever, but if he could make it seem like he was fine, just for a little bit longer, he could make it
Then they promised to meet the Headmaster in the commons in half an hour, so that he could finish his work day and get ready. On the way out the woman behind the desk smiled at him and batted her eyes a bit, which got Timon to chuckle.
"Everywhere you go. You can see it now though, can't you? How women throw themselves at you like that? Now that the Rhetistics are gone, I mean?"
"More or less. I don't always know what things mean, since I never learned to recognize all the correct signals. It's strange. I feel things and know what they mean, I had emotions before after all, but I don't have them in the same places. For instance half of me really wants to run off to Gala and take back all the water filters, and ruin their sewer system for letting Trice and that guy be abused like that. The other half just wants to avoid even thinking about it. I guess that neither is the correct course of action though, is it?"
Timon gave him a sidelong glance and lifted his chin.
"Not so much. You're smart enough to figure it all out. When in doubt, come and find me. I'll tell you what to do. Just for a bit, until you get a handle on things. What did you do while you were gone? Work all the time?"
That was pretty close to the case, so he kept walking, not wanting to seem incredibly boring or anything. He'd hidden in different places, most of them in the forest, or for a few weeks, under the water of the ocean. The Larval had the ability to get information from space, so he'd had to be very careful while moving around. The hard part had been cutting off contact with anyone though. Especially when they all kept trying to reach out to him like they had.
In the end that had gotten Tim tortured horribly and molested by some Countess that Tor had never even met. He didn't know how to process that either, and kind of thought that even if he'd grown up without an invisible slave collar in his mind, he still might have had some trouble there. It wasn't something that had ever happened before, was it? Worse, he felt bad for having reacted so strongly to Trice being hurt and having barely lifted an eyebrow when he'd heard about Tim.
Part of that was just that he'd lived in a trance state for months by that point and it took a while to come out of that level of being. It made him seem flat like that and emotionless, for a long while after. The rest... Well, he loved Trice, even if she wasn't always the best person for him.
That thought got something else to occur to him suddenly, it was enough to get him to stop walking altogether.
"Trice."
He froze, his mind racing. His little brother watched him for a few seconds and then looked away.
"I don't know either. We'll have to have her blood tested to see if her mother is the Count's child as well. She looks enough like Queen Constance to make it possible. Until we know for certain you might want to hold back there a bit."
Tor nearly threw up again. Was it everyone he knew? No, that couldn't be... But it was too much. He nearly started running, just heading away, but managed to close his eyes and force himself to relax. It was... Not good. A lot of people had worse things happen to them though, hadn't they? Not weirder, maybe, but it wasn't the end of the world. It just seemed like it at the moment. It was as if, in the space of a few moments, almost everyone he'd ever cared about was suddenly gone. Except they weren't.
Maybe it wouldn't be the case though. Maybe he could keep Trice?
This certainly wasn't what he'd struggled to return to.
He rallied though, because that was what you did when things got hard, wasn't it? He stood straight, opened his eyes and started walking again, faking sanity as hard as he could. It wouldn't last forever, but if he could make it seem like he was fine, just for a little bit longer, he could make it
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