Ancient Kings (The Young Ancients) (3 page)

Cordes.

The version of him that had been put in Tor's mind as a child at least. He was a good guy it seemed, so far. At least he hadn't used his hundreds of years of experience to overwhelm Tor's twenty year old brain or anything. Since that probably would have taken the thing living inside his mind all of ten seconds to arrange, it had to be a good sign.

Didn't it?

Timon tilted his head, and most of the others stared as if Tor had well and truly lost it, but Burks seemed to simply consider what was said, unsurprised.

"There are some anomalies that such a scenario might explain. Like Tor and Timon having combat rage. Tiera doesn't, but someone has clearly altered her genetic pattern. She's more aggressive than most of the old warrior lines were. Whoever's doing this clearly has some kind of plan in place. It might not be that one, in particular, but there is something."

King Richard looked baffled, but sounded relaxed and confident anyway.

"Is this the Ancient King then? Cordes the first? I don't think that we've had the privilege yet, before this." He bowed slightly, the kind of thing that was used between equals.

Not that they were. It was Noram and right now
Rich
ruled it, even if Cordes had started the whole thing in the first place. Tor felt his body bow back, going deeper than the King had in angle. Considerably so.

 "That's right. Call me Cordes. Not that I won't be gone in a moment. I just felt that I should let Burks here know about the idea I had. I need to let Torrance Purple back out however, or he'll kick my ass, which is as it should be. He's having a bit of a hard time with the news about Constance and her daughters. It isn't his fault, or even that grave a sin. Even by the rules here and now, I don't think. After all, there are allowances made for mistakes, aren't there? It shouldn't even be that large of a social error, since no one could have known about it. Indeed, few would believe it even now, if told. I hope that no one is too put out by the idea. Especially if it turns out that some version of
me
had it done. If that's the case, please know I apologize in advance. This is a bit creepier than I'd like to think of myself as ever being."

There was a bit of chuckle to the voice, but as fast as he had come into play, Cordes left. Tor sagged for a few seconds, the weight of all the new information dragging him down.

"This is horrible. I... How am I supposed to live with this?" There was a bit more of a plaintive note in his voice than he really liked and Tor knew his face had to look awful as well. He'd slept with what were essentially his own
children
. There wasn't even a name for how close Varley was to him, was there? If Connie was his daughter and Burks, or even, himself were essentially the girl's father then she was seventy-five percent his.

Count Lairdgren made eye contact, actually looking slightly worried for once. The hair on his head was short now, about the same as the cut that Tor wanted, when he had a chance to see a barber again. It was a few inches long, but tidy looking.

"It would have been easier if you had a different upbringing Tor. The fact of the matter is that this is just another thing, and you shouldn't carry around guilt or pain over the idea. You didn't know, couldn't get any of them pregnant, and have no responsibility in the matter in any way. Not that we know of yet. If you take up time travel as a hobby, then that might change, but I doubt it. Not that you won't be able to pull it off some day, but it's always a poor plan. The dangers are far too great and effects often horrific." He looked at Timon and Karina and shrugged. "This is someone else changing the game. More to the point it was always different than we thought, now we're simply armed with greater information. You'll live, and even though it's not a good thing, you also didn't do anything wrong. I know that won't help for right now, but it's true. Besides, there might be... I'll need to look into some things."

Tor tried to rally, but it wasn't working very well, so he dropped into a trance state instead, holding his mind still and not thinking about the topic at hand in any way. He was good at things like that, since mastering the mind was a big part of building. It left him feeling blank and his mind glassy, which was hard to explain to anyone else, but made sense to him. After taking a single deep breath he nodded.

"I need to get back then, and avoid this place for a while. I'm sorry everyone. I know that it isn't exactly the brave thing to do, but my being here won't make it better either. I'll see if I can't patch things up with Tiera a bit. I don't know if I can, but it seems like a good idea to try. Will there be a trial soon then? For Sandra? I don't know that... Well, maybe it will help."

Tim glanced at the King and rolled his eyes, which got the giant man to puff his cheeks out a bit.

"I doubt that it will on that front. Please tell her the situation, if she'll listen. I really am trying to do what I can, while not letting the whole kingdom fall apart."

Tor looked at the bile on the floor and tried not to blush, it was a mess, but there weren't any cleaning supplies handy and he really didn't want to spend the extra time there, if he could get free. Timon walked next to him and slapped a hand on his back and then, surprisingly, patted Karina's too. He smiled a bit when Tor gave him a horrified glance.

"What?
We
weren't sleeping together. Some hand holding won't give me nightmares. Besides, my genetics are from mother, even though yours aren't. If that's the case then Karina and I aren't really related anyway. I think that's what Count Lairdgren means to check on. If it's alright I need to leave and Tor probably should as well. Please keep us up to date on the trial? We could use any information that comes up, so that we can act appropriately. Tiera is going to need us, I think and we'll do a better job if things aren't being hidden from us."

It was a little strange, but after the King waved at them to leave, Alphonse followed, his face looking more than a bit unhappy. Tor waited for the dressing down, or the horror filled diatribe that was going to come, but instead, when they all got to the side door and Timon put up his mirrored Fast Carriage, he just climbed in with them.

The craft was big enough for all of them and a lot more, so there was plenty of space inside. Tor sat in the front, next to his brother, still expecting screaming or possibly name calling.

The Prince however...
Laughed
. Not loud or hard, but it wasn't morose either.

"Well... Oops. Not the first time it's happened though. Probably won't be the last. I, um... Kind of slept with Tiera. She's basically my cousin, isn't she? I mean, that happens, even when people
know
, but..."

Tor spun in place and glared at his friend.

"You...
What
?" There was enough anger in it that Timon looked over at him, even as he took off, the sense of motion almost not a factor inside the craft.

After a few moments, Tim forced a smile, one that even Tor could tell wasn't real.

"He slept with Tiera. Who's an adult and a noble, Tor. Noble rules here. I know it's hard to keep in mind, but we aren't working by home traditions now. Not only was it appropriate at the time, but even now, knowing what we do, there's no reason for them to stop. Genetically speaking... It would be like the Queen is Ma's half sister, right? If that, which I doubt, since mother is basically Lara gray. So Tiera would be Alphonse's half cousin at most? They could still get married, I think, with no one actually caring at all. That's far enough away for that, isn't it?" The last bit was directed at the tall redhead, who, after a few seconds, nodded.

"Yes. Most nobles are actually at
least
that close in bloodline, to tell the truth. Normally the deciding factor is the amount of times the lines cross. That one is decently close in time, but not that bad at all. On the good side that means you and Karina can still get married, most likely, Tim. We'll have to check the charts on it, just to make sure. I'll see to that. It will make her feel better, I'm sure. See Tor, it isn't that big of a deal at all. Definitely nothing to defile the poor floors over." There was no playfulness to him, but Tor kept staring anyway.

It was the news that his friend had slept with his sister. Probably on top of everything else. He was too much a country boy at heart for the noble ways, he feared. Still, he tried to let that part go, choosing to explain the rest quietly.

"That's fine for you and Tiera then, or any of the rest of you, except Varley. But, you see... She's my
daughter
. Your
mother
is my daughter too! How very and specially screwed up is all that? I feel dirty inside. Unclean. Gross." Tor forced a grin. "Not in a good way either. I seriously don't know what to do now. I'd run away and hide, except that I have work to do. Honestly the whole thing is worse than it sounds. I didn't just sleep with them, there... We all have relationships, after a fashion. Real feelings were involved.
Are
still."

For a brief instance Tor wondered if scrubbing all his flesh off would allow him to get to the filth that he felt was stuck to the inside of his very bones. It wouldn't of course. He wanted to growl and shout, maybe even hit somebody, but who would that be? Burks? He knew for a fact that the man was nearly as much a victim in this as he was. Of course
he'd
never slept with any of them, so there was that saving grace for him. It kind of made a difference, didn't it?

The only thing that Tor could think of was holding his mind still and not thinking about things too deeply. That lasted about fifteen minutes, right up until Timon started to settle onto the main street of Two Bends.

The Prince frowned a bit and then nodded, clearly understanding the situation faster than Tor did.

"We have to let your family know, just to save future problems. Good thinking. Well, that's my job, then, isn't it?" He didn't explain why that would be, but got out the instant the craft set down. Timon followed and that meant he had to as well. Since the kid was going to take the thing down and really didn't care if Tor was mad at his mother or not.

"You could have dumped me off at the school first." The road under his feet was new. Compressed earth, which had the rather clean sounding product name of focus stone. Someone had scratched the surface with something, forming grooves across it in places. That would be for traction in the wet or snow, no doubt. It was still a bit slick underfoot, but was leaps and bounds better than uneven stones or the old mud and muck path that it would have been otherwise.

It hadn't been like that the last time he'd been there. Not at all.

Tim gave him a look that seemed to be indicating that Tor was a moody child. After a second he smiled though.

"You have to give her a chance to apologize. Otherwise Todd and I will have to kick your butt and that will just lead to hard feelings. Yes, she was wrong in what she did, but it was, like it or not, just a joke. A prank. It wasn't even pouring a pitcher full of urine over your head or anything. You want Tiera to act like a reasonable person? Maybe you need to step up and do that yourself first."

Tor stopped walking for a few seconds and then, when the others stopped and looked at him, he mock glared at the kid.

"There you go Tim, sounding just like the reasonable mother that I never had. Well, let's go. I'm not groveling though. I know she won't."

Taking down the craft for some reason, Tim watched the whole area closely, as if half expecting an ambush.

"True. Just act normally then. Don't expect anything and you won't be too disappointed. Unless she freaks out on us. Well, we have company, so she probably won't. Let's get to it?"

They walked toward the bakery first, the white washed place looked a lot nicer now than it had as he'd been growing up. Two Bends was a lot bigger though, and almost everyone had more coin there now. That was because his family had hired most of the Two Bends delivery flyers from the local area. They earned a decent wage and that translated to being able to buy more baked goods, which meant that not one, or even two, but four of his family members were busily working away inside when they opened the door.

Normally, at least in the last few times that Tor had come home like this, someone would call out his name and then rush toward him. Most of the time it was several people at once. This time no one moved much at all, just standing there, looking at them all as if they were strangers. It was worse than a statement about him though, since anyone coming to the place would probably be a customer, which meant that they should have been greeted, at least in some fashion. This time no one even came through the door of the kitchen to see who was there at all. The little bell had rung and everything.

There was a new display counter, which was made of fine glass, clear and flat with almost no bubbles in it at all, except in the exact center. It was housing material, but still a pretty fancy thing to have in a little place like Two Bends. Behind it were racks of baked goods, most of them what people would need each day, bread rolls and hard loaves, but about half were a variety of cookies and other sweets. It wasn't a holiday though, so Tor wasn't sure why they'd have that much ready to go.

It wasn't until a cute looking black haired girl came out that anyone noticed them at all, and she barely looked up from her tray at first, since it was a good bit fancier than most of the things they made, being decorated cross rolls. If she spilled them there probably would have been trouble.