Chapter 12

I was playing with my gold coins when Nora returned. I was using my power to absorb just a fraction, in fact only one metallic bond from each atom, which was enough to place the atom under my control. It also meant that the structure remained solid, and did not dissipate into a pile of individual atoms as it did when I first gained powers, and had no fine control. My powers had grown, and I could now manipulate matter, using my stored energy to control heat and motion. The result was that Nora entered the suite to find the gold coins spinning around my head at such a high speed it looked like a golden halo.

“Better put that away, the bellboy is about to bring my packages up.” she remarked.

I stopped the coins as they moved behind my head, so she couldn’t see what they were, and moved them down the back of the chair, and into a pocket out of view under the table. She came over, smiled and kissed me.

“New power, or a new use of an existing power?”

“New use,” I said as I pulled her into my lap for another kiss. “Did you get everything you needed?”

“Yes, barely. How about you?”

“Introduced to a nice old guy, and a very nice young lady. We might meet them at the opera on Friday. He wants to see your jewelry.”

“And is she interested in your family jewels?” she teased.

“Don’t know, she invited us to possibly go for a boat ride on the Zürichsee next Tuesday.”

There was a knock at the door, but I called, “Come in.” instead of letting Nora up to answer the door.

“Direct from here, dear.” I whispered into her ear, holding her firmly in my lap.

She smiled at me, “Yes, Master.” she whispered back.

From her perch on my lap, she directed all the packages into the second bedroom. I could sense the slight blush from both her, and the youngest bellboy.

“That is an amazing amount of packages.” I told her, as the bellboys maneuvered the three luggage racks out of the room.

“One moment,” I called to the last bellboy. He turned curious, “there are four notes on the table by the door, one for each of you. Thank you for your assistance.” He gave a gracious bow of thanks, and swiped the pink notes from off the small side table, exiting the room rapidly.

“I didn’t see you move them.” Nora commented.

“I kept you distracted with the hands I didn’t need.” I replied, distracting her further. When her giggles became too much I paused. I glanced at her neck, then kissed just below the new necklace there.

Eyes widening, she placed a hand on it, verifying it was real. “How did you do that?”

“I made it while you directed the packages, and slipped it around your neck while you were distracted.”

“Can I go see it?”

“Go ahead.”

She rushed to the mirror in the entryway, where I could watch her examine the fine gold links of the necklace. “How does it remove?”

“Why would I want you to remove it?” I asked.

“It’s so beautiful. It’s like wearing a ribbon.”

“It’s a form of chainmail, the loops are only 1mm wide, so very fine chainmail. It’s 10 loops wide.”

“Did you make the gold?”

“No, I had a few gold coins, but I purified the gold, then alloyed it with the platinum, so it is very strong. You should be careful that it doesn’t get caught on something, because it might choke you before it broke.”

“Is platinum that strong?”

“It’s strong, but the real strength comes from the size and number of rings in the chainmail. The tiny rings distribute the force.”

“But why not pure gold?”

“I didn’t have enough, is the simple answer. I also thought that it would be too yellow against your blonde hair. The alloy makes it a light yellow, like your hair.”

She kissed me in thanks. “Will I still get to wear the blue diamonds to the opera?”

“Of course. I can remove the necklace easily. It would take heavy wire cutters for you to do so.”

“Thank you Master, you are too good to me.”

“Let’s have dinner, then you can show me how much you appreciate me.”

She grinned big at that, “Are you sure you want to wait for dinner?”

We didn’t wait, and we didn’t get room service till nearly midnight.

The next morning during breakfast I made the call about the documentation. I tried talking first but I only spoke English, I had to hand the phone to Nora, and she chattered away in what I’m pretty sure was German. Soon she hung up, and the fax machine in the office part of the suite began spitting out papers. She gathered them together, and brought them to the dining table.

I finished, and began to look thru them, but they were all in German. I handed them back to her, and she began jotting down in English what the instructions were. Once the basics were translated, she handed them back. I reviewed the instructions. Basically I had to provide photos of a specific type and size. The result would be a complete set of ID and documents.

I stepped into my bedroom, and pulled from my suitcase the packet I brought from home. I had my original passport with my picture from 1961, just after they were required to be in color. I also had other photos of myself. My power allowed me to grasp exactly the correct sizes, so I cut the photos to the correct shape. I needed duplicates, so used the unused portion of the photograph, let my power flow thru it, and arranged the molecules and atoms so it was a perfect duplicate.

I used my power to release the passport photo from the old passport. That picture required some modification, I brightened the photograph, made the background go white, and merged a bit of extra photo paper to increase the size of the photo to the correct larger size. In five minutes I was done forging photographs of the soon to be younger me.

Nora and I discussed what my new height and weight should be, as we filled out a form of the particulars. She asked, “Can you change your eye color?”

I looked at her, as my eyes faded from green, to blue, brown, and back again. “Yes.”