The Blending 07 - Deceptions, page 37
Everyone agreed that they ought to get started with building the device, but they also had the other ideas to work on. Just before Kail dove into helping to decide what they ought to start with first, he paused to pinch himself again. Yes, he still seemed to be awake, no matter how unreal the marvelous situation felt. This was what life was meant to be like, and he blessed the day the Astindan enemies had first made him a slave …
Twenty-seven
Kail and the others in the group were so excited that they all decided to go together and ask for the extra help they needed. It wasn’t far to the building they’d been interviewed in so they walked over, still discussing the ideas they’d come up with. Deslin Fodro was in his office, and at first the Astindan was startled to see the whole group descending on him. Once they explained the purpose of their visit, however, Fodro grew almost as excited as they were.
“This is a good deal more than we were expecting,” Fodro said, gazing from one to the other of the group. “Those ideas are actually useful, and I’d personally like to see the one concerning distance-speaking put in use at once. Then I could just speak to the person I want to consult, rather than having to go to her office. Come with me, and we’ll see about getting you the help you need.”
“Some of us have what might be considered a delicate question,” Kail said as Fodro rose from behind his desk and began to lead the way to the hall. “You told me that we would have Astindans working with us, but so far none of your people have joined us. Is that because we’re still considered … outsiders?”
Kail had originally meant to use the word “enemies” rather than “outsiders,” but at the last moment had changed his mind. Fodro paused near the door to the hall, and his faint smile seemed to show that he was aware of Kail’s original intention.
“No, the delay in getting you others to work with the group is because of a shortage in man-and womanpower,” Fodro answered in a way that convinced Kail he spoke the complete truth. “There weren’t that many extra workers in this town to begin with, and putting the field-worker encampment so close used up what few people were available. Now we have to bring others in, just as I was brought in, and getting people moved isn’t easy. First you have to convince them to leave their homes, and that’s hard enough even if the people involved don’t have a family. If they do have others in their lives …”
Fodro shrugged rather than completing his sentence in words, and then he continued on his way. Kail and the others followed, and Kail, at least, needed nothing in the way of more clarification. But the explanation did cause Kail a bit of worry. If unoccupied people were that scarce in the town, where would the Astindans find the help the group needed?
Fodro led the way to another part of the building, stopped in front of a closed door to knock, then gestured the group after him when he was invited to enter. This time there was a woman seated behind the room’s desk, and she looked surprised to see so many people coming in.
“Kestri, there’s a happy problem,” Fodro said to the woman, giving her one of his faint smiles. “Our group of researchers met for the first time this morning, and they’ve already come up with so many new ideas that they need people to help put those ideas into practice. Or to find out that the ideas can’t be put into practice. But after hearing the ideas, I’m hoping they’ll find success rather than failure. By the way, people, this is Kestri Somore.”
The woman nodded distractedly to the group, acknowledging the introduction, and her expression was downright comical.
‘They’ve thought of things already?’ the woman asked, putting her expression into words. “My goodness, that really is impressive. Can you give me an example of what the ideas are like?”
“Well, the one I like best is a way to speak to someone from a distance,” Fodro replied with a smile that had actually widened a bit. “It would involve doing something to the air, I’m told, and if the procedure works it would save us from having to run over to each other’s offices when we had something to say.”
“That could well make us fat and lazy, but I’m willing to risk the danger,” Kestri answered, her brows now high with obvious interest. “So what would be needed for that idea would be Air magic users, probably the stronger the better. I think there may be two or three Highs we can kidnap for you, people who are here resting from their shift at the work camp. Let me arrange the kidnapping first, and then you can all tell me about your other ideas.”
Kestri Somore rose from her desk and hurried through the crowd in front of it, her smile making Kail believe that the woman should have been chuckling instead at the very least. Most of the members of the group were chuckling at the idea of kidnapping High talents, but they also looked suitably impressed. Their suggestions were being taken very seriously, almost as satisfying a reaction as coming up with the ideas in the first place.
Fodro chatted with the group while they waited for Kestri to get back, but the woman returned a good deal sooner than Kail had expected.
“That went a lot more easily than I expected it to,” Kestri said as she made her way back to her desk. “I’ve been assured that the Air magic High talents will lose no time in kidnapping themselves and delivering the victims to your residence, so you’ll want to be there when they arrive. But first I’d like to hear about the rest of your ideas.”
Fodro started to mention the rest of what he’d heard, but the man got bogged down when it came to Ren’s idea of using water to turn wheels. Ren and Kail and the others added clarifying comments, and finally ended up doing all the explaining. Fodro stood and listened along with Kestri, and when the explanations threatened to become discussions on how to accomplish the results they wanted, Kestri held up a hand.
“Please, my friends, please have some pity,” Kestri said with mock distress. “If Deslin and I were the kind of people who were capable of doing this kind of thinking and planning, we would already be part of your group. But we’re not as creative as you obviously are, so all you’re doing is making us feel confused and bewildered. I can see, though, that you’ll need more than just Air magic High talents to help you. If you’ll all go back to doing what you’re obviously so marvelous at, I’ll arrange for more people to assist you. And then Deslin and I can return to our plodding paper snuffling.”
“At least until you work out a way for us to talk without leaving our offices,” Fodro put in with what was, for him, a wide grin. “When that happens, I intend to ignore my paperwork in order to play—ah, practice with, I mean—practice with the new arrangement. Please get it worked out as soon as possible.”
The plaintive plea in Fodro’s voice made the entire group chuckle, and then they offered sincere thanks before taking their leave. Ren’s clear satisfaction told Kail that the Astindans hadn’t simply been saying what the group wanted to hear. Both Astindans had meant what they’d said, and that made the whole situation even better.
Kail and the others lost very little time in getting back to the residence, and that turned out to be a lucky thing. No more than minutes after they got back, one of the house workers came into the meeting room to tell them that they had visitors. There were three callers, the Air magic High talents Kestri had promised to send, and the two women and one man demanded a more detailed explanation of what was wanted as soon as they walked in the room. They’d been given only a part of the story, but even that part had captured their imagination.
Vantin Flain, their own Air magic user, took over for the group, and the discussion quickly passed beyond the point of understanding for everyone else. Sorting air currents, setting vibrations, and creating tiny and limited echo-chamber effects may have meant something to Air magic users, but those with other talents were left lost in confusion.
So Kail and the others abandoned the Air magic people to the arcane part of their talent, and began a discussion about other possible ideas. Kail wondered aloud why bath house water was kept heated by talent, but was never agitated briskly in a way that would invigorate a person’s body.
“Probably because people aren’t laundry,” Dobranin Corb put in morosely, but then his head came up a bit. “You know, come to think of it I might enjoy something like that even more than you. Soaking in warm water usually made me feel a bit better, and so did massages. If it were possible to combine the two …”
That comment sparked another discussion, of course, but Kail found that he had to “throw cold water” on his own idea.
“Agitating bath water is practical if you have servants with a wide variety of talents to do the job,” he said, quieting everyone else’s comments. “For those people who live more simply, which most Astindans seem to do, there would be no way for them to get the agitation unless they had Water or Air magic.”
“Or unless they could use whatever talent they did have to make the water agitate itself,” Ren mused, apparently surprised by whatever thought he’d had. “That device we were talking about to make the wheels move on a carriage without the use of horses … Would it be possible to adapt the device to other ends?”
“Wouldn’t the … device have to be … useable by anyone with any talent?” Effella Tantor asked in her usual painfully shy way. “I have … Earth magic, you know, and I don’t see how … I would use something like that.”
“Now that, I think, is the best comment made by anyone yet,” Ren stated, the excitement in his gaze clear. “Everyone has been taken by our suggestion concerning the possibility of distance-speaking primarily because it won’t be necessary to have Air magic to use whatever the Air magic people arrange. It might be a good idea if we use that concept as a framework for the future, that the best ideas will be the ones that can be used by anyone.”
“We should have realized that sooner,” Kail said, looking around at the others. “Ren and Effella are absolutely right, and the only way our ideas will be good for everyone is if everyone can use them. If we come up with something that only people with a specific talent can use, we’ll have to put the idea on a secondary list for later consideration.”
“To be considered once we’ve put out some things that everyone can use,” Jadro Marth, the Fire magic user, said with a nod of agreement. “That kind of thing will be useful, but less useful than the first kind.”
“I wonder … if there’s a way to use Earth magic … without someone with Earth magic being there,” Effella ventured, her gaze partially distracted. “Like if someone has a headache or can’t sleep … and doesn’t want to bother a healer with something so unimportant …”
And with that comment they were off again, linking the idea to Dobranin’s earlier one about a corner with Spirit magic that would soothe the troubled. Quite a lot of time went by like that, and then they were interrupted by Vantin and the High talent Air magic users.
“We think we’ve got something worked out,” Vantin told the group, her eyes glowing with pleasure. “Would anyone like to help us test what we’ve done?”
It came as no surprise to anyone that everyone in the group volunteered immediately, and that included Effella and Dobranin. For that reason the group was divided in half, and Vantin joined the three people in the second division. The other four were led away by the High talents, and Vantin gestured the others after her to a far corner of the meeting room.
“Please notice the pink ribbon that was put on the wall over here in this corner,” Vantin said, speaking to Effella and Jadro as well as to Kail. “When your turn comes, I’d like you to place yourself in the corner in a way that lets you just reach up and touch the ribbon. Do all of you understand that?”
“The idea isn’t particularly hard to understand,” Kail pointed out mildly with a smile. “But how will we know when our turn comes? And where were the others taken?”
“You’ll find that out in a moment,” Vantin answered, her own smile much wider. “That assumes the arrangement works for someone other than Air magic users, of course. We tried it ourselves, but that doesn’t—”
“Kail, Kail, are you there?” Kail suddenly heard in Ren’s voice. The voice was rather soft, but it was so clear that Kail looked around for where Ren might be hiding.
“Go ahead, Kail, step up to the ribbon,” Jadro urged with amused excitement. “And don’t forget to ask him where he is.”
Kail, feeling a bit foolish, did step up to the ribbon hanging on the wall. He could have reached up to touch that ribbon, but instead pretended to be cool and uninvolved.
“Is that you, Ren?” Kail asked, resisting the urge to speak loudly. “If it is, where are you?”
“I’m in the dining room, old son, and this is unbelievable,” Ren’s voice returned, sounding even closer and clearer. “But it just occurred to me … What if you want to speak to more than one other place and person? And what if you don’t want to speak to anyone but the person in the same room with you? Does this arrangement mean having to give up one’s privacy?”
“I heard that, and I can answer his questions,” Vantin said, now looking smugly delighted. “And I can even answer one he didn’t ask but should have. We’re all close enough to hear someone speaking from another place, but even a foot farther away would change that. The High practitioners and I decided that we would put up differently colored ribbons for different locations, so it would be possible to speak to more than one person—and know which person you were calling out to. If you want privacy for a face-to-face conversation, you’ll just move out of range of the ribbons. The one thing we can’t decide on is whether the various locations should be arranged together or put in separate parts of the room. After all, you might want to speak to someone without everyone else knowing about the conversation.”
“That decision might well be left to the people who are involved,” Kail heard, this time in Belvis Drean’s voice. “What I’d like to know is, will you very fine people be willing to arrange for certain connections for us before you go back to the interviews building? After the rest of us try out this connection, of course.”
Jadro moved forward as Vantin laughed, adding his own plea to Drean’s. Kail moved out of the way so Effella could also get closer to the ribbon and be in line to take her turn, but he listened carefully to whatever the answer to Drean’s question would be.
“Vantin has already asked us that,” a strange male voice came through from the other end of the connection. “Since the arrangement doesn’t take very long to do once you know what you’re about, we’ll be glad to oblige you folk. After all, if not for you we wouldn’t have this lovely idea to put into practice.”
The marvelous answer made more than one pair of the group happy, and once everyone had had a chance to try the new arrangement the four Air magic people went off to start making good on their word. The rest of the group came back from the dining room, and then those who wanted the connection installed were called out in pairs to tell the Highs where they wanted their “ribbons” to be.
When it became Kail’s turn, he cheated just a little. He had one end of the connection placed near the side of his bed that he never slept on, and the other end above the place in Asri’s bedchamber where her baby’s bed stood. Asri might never decide to use that side of Kail’s bed, but if she did then she’d have no worries about the well-being of her son.
Just before the last of the connections was made, the group was told about additional visitors. This time there were two Highs in Spirit magic, which meant that all three of the Highs in Air magic did not return to the administrative building. One of the three stayed to work with the Spirit magic Highs on the next idea, which would put a “balancing” corner into certain rooms. Drean gently took Effella’s arm and coaxed her along with him, and then told the Highs about Effella’s idea concerning a “healing” corner.
After a bit of discussion, it was decided that putting everything into the corner at once might be easiest, but there weren’t any High talents in Earth magic present yet. The lack was frustrating, so everyone involved decided not to wait. If the group’s two Earth magic talents linked up, they might be able to do almost as well as a High talent. It was worth trying, and if it didn’t work they would then sit down and wait for the Highs.
This time the rest of the group decided to go along and watch what was done, so the time really flew. The Air magic High somehow … prepared the air in a corner of the meeting room, the Spirit magic Highs added to the preparation, and then the linked talents of Drean and Effella took their turn. None of those watching understood anything of what was done, but when the effort was over Drean turned to Dobranin Corb.
“All right, Corb, you’re the logical one to be first to test this newest arrangement,” Drean said with a warm smile. “If it works on the rest of us the doing won’t mean much, but if it works on you then we’ve accomplished something.”
“Since I’m the one who wanted this, I will test it first,” Corb said as he stepped forward with his usual sour expression. “I’m not expecting it to be really effective, but I might as well—”
Corb’s words broke off as he stepped into the prepared corner, and for a moment there was no sound in the room except for everyone’s breathing. Then Corb turned around very slowly, and the smile on his face was so wide that it took another moment before Kail noticed that the man’s eyes were closed.
“This is the most marvelous experience I’ve ever had,” Corb said, the words an actual murmur. “Every worry and disturbance in my mind has been calmed, and even a headache I didn’t know I had has been soothed. If I were to lie down now I would fall asleep at once, but I won’t sleep because I don’t really want to. I think I’ve been made into a new man.”
“What I’d like to know is how long the effect lasts,” one of the Spirit magic Highs put in. “Would you step out of the corner now, Dom Corb?”
