Chapter 5

The next few days were busy. The village was unstable, loosing one leader to what they saw as magic, and the other severely injured. At least Frank was mending quickly. Between Leonore and my efforts we had repaired the damage and now it was up to his body to finish up. Healing can take a lot out of a body, and Frank was starving all the time.

So I went hunting. This time as well as my girls, 4 of the men came with me. Again I furnished knives, telling them of the responsibility that came with them. Each time I presented a knife there was a tell-tale flare of bonding. When we reached the "Bison" herd I quickly killed three that were pointed out as suitable for culling. These seemed to be either young males or old females. I suppose it reduces the burden on the rest of the herd.

When we returned with the meat, and completed another celebration feast, I was presented with an ultimatum. I had to either accept the girls and the responsibilities that went with them or send them to the male enclave up river. Resigned to the inevitable I sought Frank's advice on the best way forward. He suggested with a smirk "Take the girls, you're young, you should be able to handle it."

I found I had to gift the elders of the village with something of value, food or an item. I noticed that one of the elders was building a hut, repairing an old one from the look of it. He used a hammer to drive stakes of crudely reclaimed metal between logs for support in lieu of nails. This I could fix as the hammer was huge and stakes massive.

Unfortunately the Tinker had left as I could have done with some help, but I had an idea of something that could be used. If I created a matrix based driver that fit over a hand like a glove, it could be tuned to drive what it came in contact with 1 cm at a time until it was flush with another surface. Sort of a hammer effect using a palm strike from fighting. If I configured it so it wouldn't drive into living animal flesh it couldn't work as a weapon, well not directly anyway. It would be small, easy to handle, powerful to use. A new technology without them realising.

I generated a power-driver from the template and then re-tuned it to how I wanted it limited. Leaving it unsealed I went to the elder with the "hammer" on my hand, picked up a stake and slowly drove the 15 cm spike in with 15 deft taps. The builder was amazed.

"Take this as my gift to you, elder". Again the flare, these people are being bound to matrix's left and right. Either something has happened to me, or these people are really susceptible to matrix binding.

The builder gingerly took the glove, and tried it out with instructions from me. Smiling he thanked me for the wondrous gift. I took him through the rules that it could be lent only and would never work if taken by force. He could will it to a descendant, or arrange for it to be passed to a Tinker to be gifted to another.

Leonore had apparently been watching me all this time. She must be good if I couldn't feel her p'sensing me or watching me. Then I saw the psi-mirror in her hand. Sneaky. A psi-mirror reflects light as a normal mirror, but absorbs the user's intentions of observation. This must be an artefact as it is very high Psionic Technology. I smiled to her and gestured to her hand. She shrugged and watched me directly from then on.

The other elders weren't artisans, more guards and soldier types. These I gifted with a knife and small shield. More flares, more explanations. This is getting tedious. Lastly I went to Frank and asked what he wanted.

"Nothing for myself, only something for the village".

I called the girl over and went to the Healer. "What does the village need for day to day survival?"

"Water, fresh water. Even boiling it doesn't guarantee clean water," said Leonore.