Goddess of the Moon (Young Ancients: Tiera) (18 page)

Still,
if she worked on it more than they did, maybe it would do the trick? She
couldn't think of anything else. Not at the moment.

"I'll
do it." She wanted to hedge, but there was a massive war on and they
needed food. A lot of it. So far things were fine, weather wise, but she'd been
assured by several of the Ancients that the next growing season would be hard
in a lot of places. Then it would get worse, for
years
. Yes, Tim's unit
would feed people, but there was some need for more than mere survival, wasn't
there? Just getting by each day, that wasn't enough. Not really.

She
knew that one first hand, didn't she?

Regina
flashed in front of her eyes then, the girl's orange eyes and red hair causing
near physical pain for her now. An ache that lasted even as Kolb patted her arm
gently.

"I
blame Tor. If he hadn't started this whole thing with all his incredible
building, no one would expect this of you now, would they? You can do it
though. Probably better than he could. From the sound of it, building that way
is heavily memory intensive and you have a nearly perfect memory, don't
you?"

She
nodded, since it was true. At least for things she could see, or she supposed,
visualize well enough. It was pretty good for everything else however, which
was why she was being tormented with Regina's death over and over again. It
wasn't good or fair, but she didn't want to forget the woman either. It was a
trade off that way.

For
a brief moment her face had to show something like that, since the man in front
of her patted her again.

"It
isn't that bad. Either you do it, or you don't."

She
swallowed and looked away, locking everything down as well as she could.
"It isn't that. Regina..."

The
man didn't ask what the dead girl had to do with anything, he just hugged her
instead. That got some strange looks, but no one said anything, since it was
pretty clear he wasn't trying to get her into bed. She stood up after a few
seconds and tried to look brave. It was hard, for once.

"I...
Don't think I'm going to last long, Kolb. I miss her so much, all the time. I'm
not stupid. I know that she was probably just a first crush and that if she was
still alive we might not even be dating now. That happens all the time. I've
seen it. But... her being killed, it changed things. Is that-" She was
going to go with moronic, but the man gave her a sad look that spoke of more
pain than she'd ever suspected.

"It's
the hardest part of living as long as we do. The loss. You do learn to cope
with it, eventually. The first fifty or so years is the most trying that way.
It still aches, when you lose a friend. Eventually you learn not to really love
though, so that makes it easier."

She
smiled at the bald man, looking down into his eyes a bit.

"And
on that positive and uplifting note, let's go and get something to eat? I
wonder how much snot will be in my food today?"

That
earned a chuckle at least, and the muscular and lean fellow patted her again,
trying to be comforting. It didn't work, but it was still nice of him.

"None.
I hear that no one does that with Countesses. Something about horrible torture
and death if they do? Plus, the cook will catch them. Tor gave him a truth
amulet for it, did you know that? The poor kids can't get away with anything
now." He really didn't seem displeased by the idea.

Lunch
went well, with no one tipping Remy's tray onto the floor at all,
or
trying to insult the strange looking Maris. It might have been that they were
sitting in the middle of a group of fighters, most of whom were giants and
nobles, but she liked to think that people were smart enough to realize that
the Dean was serious about kicking them out if they got into trouble with their
guests.

Remy
went back to "play" with the afternoon class, which was tempting to
go watch for Tiera, but she knew she had real work to do too. There were two
things really. First she needed to chat with Maris and figure out what she
wanted to do with her life. Then she had that magic to make. As if
that
made sense at all. It wasn't even a weapon. She shook her head and waved to the
all black woman, who was wearing a green outfit now, in Lairdgren colors.
Magical clothing, but it was identical to the browns that she was wearing
herself, other than that.

Tiera
nodded at it and looked down at the woman, who was only about five-seven or so.

She
had to be careful, she realized, since the woman was incredibly easy to lead.
At least Monroe was, and they seemed to be similar, if not the same, except for
gender.

"Maris!"
She moved close to the woman, but on her right side, hoping it wasn't too much.
The lady didn't shy away, but big people loomed, without meaning to. "I
was hoping to talk to you about your plans?"

The
woman stopped and turned to her, smiling a bit. It was, it seemed, a thing she
couldn't help at all. When spoken to, the woman had to smile. It made her seem
friendly, but it was also a problem. How could you tell if she was being
wronged or hurt?

That,
Tiera suddenly understood, had been the original point. The monsters that made
her hadn't wanted that kind of knowledge. Maris was designed to be used, and to
make whoever did it feel like it was the right thing. It was an awful thing to
do to a person, but when she spoke, it got even worse.

"Plans?
I... can't make any. I know that Timon was trying to allow me freedom, but
that's an illusion for me. The best I can hope for is that whatever I'm
assigned to do isn't too painful. That whoever is my master is kind enough to
see to my needs. What do you want me to do?"

She
nearly answered with "whatever you want" but that was the problem
wasn't it? The woman couldn't really
want
anything at all. Except what
she was told to. Tiera tried to think about it all, and work through what was
needed. The woman was dangerous really, since anyone meeting her could order
her around, it seemed. They'd stolen her from the Others with a few simple
invitations, after all. Gray and Cordes could just ask for her to come back and
she
would
. Probably with the same smile on her face that she had now.

So
the first thing they needed to do was get her away from anyone that would use
her for the wrong things.

That
in mind, Tiera made a face that she was pretty certain would have normally been
found on her little brother, Terry. It was like it was catching or something.
That thought got her to smile, since there were worse people in the world than
him, by far.

"How
about this, my younger brother and his watcher are going to the Moon soon, to
build the new colony there? Tim mentioned you being in charge of that, but I
get that you can't really do that. Would you like to... Open a restaurant? It
will be one that uses the new food units, if I can make them, I mean. It should
really come down to you mainly tapping a few sigils and carrying food to
people? That might be too boring for you, but it should be..." She wanted
to say harmless enough, but the woman started to nod.

"I
can do that, if you'd like? How many will it need to serve?"

Like
Tiera knew that? She had to give an answer though, didn't she? "Several
hundred per day. It won't be that many at first, but count on a lot of people
coming after a while. Just in case." She desperately wanted to ask if that
was all right with the woman, but didn't. It had to be something and while she
might be able to do a lot more, being an Ancient, it seemed wrong to push her
too much.

"That
will be in a few weeks though. For now... Would you like to..." Tiera
really didn't know. They had to protect her however. It was her duty, right?
"Would you consider staying with Alyssa Baker? She might like any news of
her husband, Tor? If you know anything?"

That
got a big grin, and a nod.

"Oh,
the nice one? He was
very
kind to everyone, and made those dragons for
us. Those are incredible, aren't they? When it was first suggested, I thought
they'd be like robots, but they seemed alive. He's going to do some in
different colors too. It's really clear that he isn't Cordes, but no one minds,
because he's helping us anyway. I think that everyone but Gray gets that. Even
the Cordes clones all know. It's very obvious. He's being well treated however.
They aren't locking him in a cage, or anything." She paused. "I
thought that you would. Lock me up in a cage? You look very like Lara Gray, you
know. Taller however. I thought that Remy and I would be taken to the little
jail here in town last night, but you gave us that ship to sleep in, and even said
that we could leave if we wanted."

The
words sounded pure and innocent, and a little dumb, but Tiera thought she
understood. Maris wasn't able to thank her directly. Oh, she could say the
words, but they didn't mean anything to her, and she wouldn't have a choice in
that. By repeating what had happened that she liked though, she could inform
her of what that was.

Interesting.

Also,
way too complex for the poor thing to have to live with. It was oppressive to
even be around, much less have to live, each and every single day of her life.

"This
way then, friend Maris!" She didn't bother trying to find her sister in-law,
since Ali was probably off working on something or another, which was about
what she was going to do as soon as possible herself. It wasn't a time to be
lazy after all. She could feel that running through her like a blade. It nearly
hurt as much even, wasting time like she was. It had to be done though, didn't
it?

As
she'd imagined, there was no Ali in her house. There
was
however a cute
and friendly Sheri, who regardless of what she was going to look like soon,
still seemed like herself, thankfully. It was going to be hard to hide everyone
if they all started to look like Tim's fantasy of the perfect woman. That...
She kind of wondered if it wasn't the simple truth, as far as Karen went? Was
she his perfect woman now? He'd always liked blondes and it was pretty certain
that he liked Collette Coltress too. Had he made his ideal into reality? If so,
would Karen ever get anything out of it from him? It was a little troubling,
but the kid wouldn't always be twelve. In a year and a half he'd be totally
legal that way.

She
had to make herself not think about that and just hug her friend. Girlfriend,
if she were going to be fair about it. They weren't in love, but Tiera had
certainly had enough sex with her to count for that. Plus some other things,
like going into battle together. True, Sheri had largely held back, but that
just meant she was smart, didn't it? She wasn't a fighter. Not yet. She would
probably need to learn now, truth be told.

Later
though.

"Hey!
I have our friend Maris here? She needs a place to stay where no one can bother
her for a bit. I was thinking here, since she has a bit of news about
Tor?" It was a good enough reason really. Luckily for her, once the
restaurant idea was mentioned, Sheri got excited and started suggesting menu
options.

Tiera
sighed but winked at the same time. The sandy blonde girl wrinkled her nose
cutely about it.

Then
she let her go, as if reading her mind or something.

"You
need to run off and work don't you? You work too much, you know that?"

"I
do
! Will you square things with Ali? I want to ask myself, but I need to
get to work on a build. An organic one, so I'll be around part of each day.
Hopefully it works." She started to wander off, but was tackled at the
door and hugged for a bit, then kissed. Sheri had to go up on tiptoe for that
now.

"Remember
to eat! Do you want me to bring you dinner? About six?"

It
was an invitation to come over for sex, she knew, but she nodded anyway. It was
important to be there for her friends. Especially the ones that would be around
for a long time.

That
meant, by the time she was back in her room that she had the hundred tiles of
brown Focus Stone ready and a plan in place by three, and worked at holding the
idea of it growing, sort of like a plant. Tor and Timon liked to use trees for
that, which she understood, since they were so big and solid. They were also
slow. She didn't have as much time, so she went with pond weed for her personal
model this time. The little plants that could take over an entire body of water
in a few days. That was because they spread and were small, but she thought it
might work. She let the fields spread, confining them into her work area.

By
the end of the three hours the field felt like it was in all the items and was
pretty strong. All she had to do then was keep that going each day, and not let
them keep breeding like they wanted to do. It wasn't that hard to manage.

There
was a knock at her door, which sounded like it would be right for Sheri, and it
was time for dinner, so she opened the door wide. That meant she was surprised
when she saw her brother, Tor, standing there.

She
blinked and tried to make sense of it. Count Lairdgren could look similar, but
was too short now to pass for her brother, who had pretty much matched her in
how tall he'd grown. So seven feet and change. He was actually about an inch
taller than she was now, she noticed.