faster with all of this, I could put in a shift here every day for
a while. Well, five days a week. Out of seven? I want my weekends free."
There was hesitation there, as if he feared the man wouldn't see that as
enough, but Hathe bowed to him, his face gleeful.
"Ahha! Indeed then! I thank
you, and so do those that I serve." The man seemed about to go on at
length, being happy like he was, but Zack had learned a while back how to
handle the man, which was simply to explain what you were about to do. Then
he'd get out of the way and let you do that, work being seen as pretty
important in his world.
"I'm headed home now, to
take some vampires into the void. Troy, you said you were staying for a
while?"
"Yup. I want to see what I
can get done without you hovering over me all the time. Being like a mother
hen. Well, you know how you get." He meant it, but there was also a
bit of goofing around inside him over it. He didn't really mind Zack that much.
It was just that having anyone observing him all the time set his nerves on
edge.
That got the man in charge there
to bow and call something out that wasn't translated. Zack didn't know, but he
expected it was having a lot more goods brought in for Troy to work on. The
real money was earned by taking people places, including to and from Lesser
Shia, which was a major destination. The thing there was that
transporting goods helped more people survive, in the long run.
Rather than explain all of that
to Troy, Zack waved to both of the people he was talking too, and then added in
the translator, who didn't outwardly acknowledge that it had happened, and
stepped into the ambush.
Right into the void, where not
one, but six, very vast and powerful things waited for him. As soon as they
came, Zack was surrounded. One on each side, with no way for him to escape.
Even the gaps between them were too small for him to squeeze through. Rather
than panic, he focused his entire being as tightly as he could.
Everything he had then went into
the concept of reducing time to a single point. The basic idea was to give him
a moment or two to work out what was happening. So far these giant shadows
didn't destroy him, or warp the space around him in a way that would leave him
incapable of ever moving to another location again. If that happened, there probably
wasn't a lot he could do about it. Except to fix the warping and leave. Zack
didn't think they knew he could do that part however.
The issue of the moment, he
understood, was that if he attacked one of the things, beings of a size and
power that he really wouldn't have thought they could exist before he felt them
there, the others could easily end him.
So he tightened down his essence,
pushing himself into being one single thought. Time rippled at first, the
subtle movements around him casting lines and warps into the void itself.
Things that were always there, but that were not normally perceptible to him.
Then, watching and waiting, over the course of thousands of years, he
understood something.
There was no way for him to leave
that spot. Not alive. Not unless these beings wanted to allow him to go free.
It occurred to him that they
hadn't been waiting for nearly as long as he had been, sitting there for no
more than a few moments, as he pushed nearly to destruction. So, finally, after
it was clear that nothing else he could do would work, he tossed an idea off to
them. A strange thing that was tight, and so focused that the things around him
took forever to respond to.
Hello. I can't help but notice
that you're in my way. Is there a reason for that, or is this just a mistake?
He didn't see how it could be,
but after a moment several of them moved out of the way, floating to the side.
Then a booming voice, probably
coming from one of them, though Zack couldn't tell which, came back to him.
NEITHER, GATE. WE MERELY TEST TO
SEE IF YOU ARE READY. THE DAY AND HOUR DRAW NEAR.
Then, before he could even ask
for some clarification, the
a while. Well, five days a week. Out of seven? I want my weekends free."
There was hesitation there, as if he feared the man wouldn't see that as
enough, but Hathe bowed to him, his face gleeful.
"Ahha! Indeed then! I thank
you, and so do those that I serve." The man seemed about to go on at
length, being happy like he was, but Zack had learned a while back how to
handle the man, which was simply to explain what you were about to do. Then
he'd get out of the way and let you do that, work being seen as pretty
important in his world.
"I'm headed home now, to
take some vampires into the void. Troy, you said you were staying for a
while?"
"Yup. I want to see what I
can get done without you hovering over me all the time. Being like a mother
hen. Well, you know how you get." He meant it, but there was also a
bit of goofing around inside him over it. He didn't really mind Zack that much.
It was just that having anyone observing him all the time set his nerves on
edge.
That got the man in charge there
to bow and call something out that wasn't translated. Zack didn't know, but he
expected it was having a lot more goods brought in for Troy to work on. The
real money was earned by taking people places, including to and from Lesser
Shia, which was a major destination. The thing there was that
transporting goods helped more people survive, in the long run.
Rather than explain all of that
to Troy, Zack waved to both of the people he was talking too, and then added in
the translator, who didn't outwardly acknowledge that it had happened, and
stepped into the ambush.
Right into the void, where not
one, but six, very vast and powerful things waited for him. As soon as they
came, Zack was surrounded. One on each side, with no way for him to escape.
Even the gaps between them were too small for him to squeeze through. Rather
than panic, he focused his entire being as tightly as he could.
Everything he had then went into
the concept of reducing time to a single point. The basic idea was to give him
a moment or two to work out what was happening. So far these giant shadows
didn't destroy him, or warp the space around him in a way that would leave him
incapable of ever moving to another location again. If that happened, there probably
wasn't a lot he could do about it. Except to fix the warping and leave. Zack
didn't think they knew he could do that part however.
The issue of the moment, he
understood, was that if he attacked one of the things, beings of a size and
power that he really wouldn't have thought they could exist before he felt them
there, the others could easily end him.
So he tightened down his essence,
pushing himself into being one single thought. Time rippled at first, the
subtle movements around him casting lines and warps into the void itself.
Things that were always there, but that were not normally perceptible to him.
Then, watching and waiting, over the course of thousands of years, he
understood something.
There was no way for him to leave
that spot. Not alive. Not unless these beings wanted to allow him to go free.
It occurred to him that they
hadn't been waiting for nearly as long as he had been, sitting there for no
more than a few moments, as he pushed nearly to destruction. So, finally, after
it was clear that nothing else he could do would work, he tossed an idea off to
them. A strange thing that was tight, and so focused that the things around him
took forever to respond to.
Hello. I can't help but notice
that you're in my way. Is there a reason for that, or is this just a mistake?
He didn't see how it could be,
but after a moment several of them moved out of the way, floating to the side.
Then a booming voice, probably
coming from one of them, though Zack couldn't tell which, came back to him.
NEITHER, GATE. WE MERELY TEST TO
SEE IF YOU ARE READY. THE DAY AND HOUR DRAW NEAR.
Then, before he could even ask
for some clarification, the
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